Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Escaflowne: All you need is Love, Isn't it?
Chapter 43
In Hitomi's bedroom
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"I don't know which one I like more." Yukari said sarcastically, holding up two large books as she sat on her friend's bed. "Women who Ruled: Queens of the Renaissance, or The Queens of Denmark
- from Danebod to Dorothea. Is this supposed to be a woman on the cover of this book? Man those Danish women are scary looking. Eew." She tossed both books on the bed and continued to pull more out of Hitomi's duffle bag. "How wait, this is my favorite, Toilotology 101: The Basics. Hitomi, I can't believe you actually checked this book out."
Her friend continued to flip through the pages of the science book she also got from the library as she leaned against her desk. "You're the one who said I should introduce indoor plumbing to Gaea."
"I was kidding. Can't you tell when someone's being ironic?"
"Obviously not." She looked up from her book. "Besides, joke or not, it still makes sense. Van is looking to expand the size of his capital. A good sewage system will help reduce the risk of disease. Last thing I'd want to go through over there is something like the black plague that wiped out a third of Europe."
"And what's that book for? Planning on some inter-dimensional space travel?" Yukari grinned.
"Well, actually, I guess I already have. How else have I been able to travel to and from Gaea without a ship? How have I been able to leave at one time and return before I even left? How is it… "
"Okay, okay, sorry I asked." She checked her watch. "Well, it's getting late and I promised Amano I'd call him back, soo,"
"Oh, yeah." Hitomi set the book down and stepped forward offering a hand to her friend as she stood up. "Hey, you've been a great friend Yukari. Thanks for last night and thanks for helping me find these books. It really means a lot to me."
"Hey, what are friends for, right?" She smiled. "But remember, you promised. No traveling till after our exams, and the next time you go you come and get me. I want to be there to see you off. Okay?"
"Okay, I promise." Hitomi smiled back as she gave her friend's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Okay then," She headed for the door. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, bright and early."
"Okay, hey, give Amano my best okay?"
"No, I'll give him my best." Yukari winked.
Laughing softly the shorthaired girl replied. "You're so bad."
Her friend just smiled and left.
Hitomi stood watching the door a few moments longer before sighing lightly and grabbing the book she was just reading. Looking at the cover she read, "The Space-Time Continuum: Separating Science Fact from Science Fiction." Sitting at the head of her bed she started flipping through it once again.
After about an hour she set that book aside. "Gosh, that'll give you a major migraine." She reached over and grabbed another book, Queens of the Renaissance. "Hmm, looks more like a history book." She opened it and started reading.
Two hours later, she set that book aside as well. "Yup, history book. Interesting history book but not very practical. Maybe I can send a message to Millerna and ask her to send Celena to Fanelia for a time so she can teach me proper courtly behavior. Yeah, that could work. Of course, I'll have to figure out how to control when I return so I don't request her visit one trip and have her waiting months for my second arrival. Of course, I'm sure she wouldn't mind staying at Fanelia for a time." Visions of Celena and how she always seemed to brighten up whenever Van was around came to mind. Suddenly, her eyes grew large. "What am I thinking? The last thing I need now is another rival for Van's affections. Especially not someone as beautiful and elegant as Celena."
Turning toward the books she had been reading, she picked up the science book once again. "I've got to figure this out." And she began reading again.
Over the next three weeks, Hitomi split her time between preparing for her exams and reading the books she checked out of the library. With Amano spending most of his time preparing for his college entrance exams as well as school exams, Yukari spent long hours with her best friend helping her studying and keeping her focused on school.
The books on the queens of Europe were of little use to her so she returned those and took out other books on proper etiquette and palace protocol. She also got other books on sewer systems realizing that indoor plumbing shouldn't be a privilege reserved only for royalty. And she took out two other books on space-time.
While she didn't pretend to understand everything she read on the subject she did understand enough to know she wasn't getting any closer to an answer. But thanks to Yukari, she didn't have time to dwell on this fact. Her friend made sure she didn't leave each night until Hitomi was practically falling asleep.
But try as she might, her friend couldn't keep her from dreaming. And dream she did. Most were pleasant enough at the start, Van and her picnicking in the forest, Merle prancing about chasing some small forest creature just for fun, Van resting his head on her lap as they stared up at the star filled sky, but almost each dream ended the same way. With Hitomi leaving and Van heartbroken. On those nights she would wake up in the morning with a profound sense of melancholy. On a few nights she dreamt she returned to Gaea again only to find Van a withered weak old man barely holding onto life, but still waiting for her. On those nights, she would wake up with a start, her face covered in tears. Those nights, there was no going back to sleep. Instead, she would go to her desk and read for hours about the space-time continuum, hoping for some answers to her problem.
It was one of these nights, the morning before her first set of exams and Yukari had to wake her from her reading as she had just fallen back to sleep while reading only fifteen minutes earlier. With her eyes all red and sleeping the two girls walked to the train station together.
"You better wake up and focus Hitomi." The redhead said. "Two of these first three exams are the toughest, mathematics and science. You need to do well on both of these if you hope to participate in track over the summer break."
"I'll try." The green-eyed girl replied sleepily.
"Well, you better try really hard. Remember, you can be the first freshman ever to make the girl's varsity track team but only if you participate during practices over summer break."
"Okay, okay. I'll do my best." The green-eyed girl yawned.
"Well… you better. For your sake and Van's sake."
That got Hitomi's attention as she shook off the drowsy feeling and pulled out her math book from her bag. 'For Van, I have to do well. I have to.' She reasoned as she scanned over the book.
On the train ride to school, Yukari drilled Hitomi on subjects they were testing in that day. The redhead couldn't help but smile as she realized that all her time spent studying with her friend did not go to waste.
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AN: Research is a good thing. Especially if you do your research before you use the information you are researching. Unfortunately, if you don't do your research first, then you have to go back and update previously posted chapters. That is my case. I posted chapters referring to the Japanese high school before I researched them. As it turns out I needed to make some minor revisions to chapter 39 and 42. Nothing major, just references to exams and summer break.
Next chapter we see the results of all of Hitomi's studying and see what she determines is the reason for the Space-Time problem. I hope you like my solution.
Again, thank you for all your wonderful comments. I really appreciate all of them. I hope to have this story up on my website soon as well as on escaflowneonline.com. I'll let you when it's up. ^_^
A. Amishi