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Unexpected Partings: The mecha tournament continues. Escaflowne destroys each attacking mecha in turn. Hitomi attends a banquet with the princesses, the King, Allen etc. There is some flirting between Millerna and Allen. Hitomi is asked what country she comes from but Millerna skilfully changes the subject. Hitomi tries the wine, for the first time, it seems, and sensing the warmth between Allen and Millerna, gets rather drunk. Later, a drunken Hitomi is tucked into bed by Allen. Van is standing alone on the battlements. Allen comes up, and the two have a fencing contest which Van seems to be taking rather too seriously. The duel ends when Van loses his sword. Millerna comes up to the roof and makes eyes at Allan. Hitomi, ascending, is passed by a sullen Van. "Weird guy!" she says to herself. Hitomi reaches the roof and sees Millerna and Allen in each other's arms. She ducks behind a pillar, but not before Millerna has seen her. Millerna and Allen declare their love to each other. Upset, Hitomi runs to her room and throws herself on the bed. Merle, in her usual annoying way, keeps asking what is the matter. Hitomi kicks her away and tells her to shut up. Sulking, Merle climbs out onto the roof. Just then three lizard creatures climb into the room and thrust a struggling Hitomi into a sack. Merle watches as they take Hitomi away, and wonders if she should tell Van. The creatures load Hitomi into a minature submarine and make their way down the canal. Van in Escaflowne, holding Merle, who evidently passed on the chance to be rid of her rival, gives chase down the canal. The guymelef soon catches the sub and opens the lid. Hitomi seems a little surprised to discover that her rescuer is Van, not Allen. Dilandau has spotted the guymelef and descends to fight Van, who dodges Dilandau's attacks while serious collateral damage to the surrounding buildings occurs. Escaflowne leaps upwards, transforming into flying dragon mode, while Dilandau finds himself faced with another guymelef, the Scherezade, piloted by Allen. The Day The Angel Flew: Hitomi has a weird dream in which she is falling and is caught by a Van who is flying on angels' wings. Van, Hitomi and Merle are having a picnic in the woods. Merle, at her most annoying, is rifling through Hitomi's bag and pulling out various objects, and trying them with her teeth. Allen meanwhile has been imprisoned. Millerna complains to her father, the King, to no effect. Millerna goes to Allen's prison cell, defying the guard, who tells her she can't come through. She pretends to fall, and while the guard is distracted by a show of royal leg, he is knocked on the head. Millerna takes Allen by coach to the landing field, where his airship is tethered. Her older sister, Eries, is waiting at the landing field and tries to dissuade Millerna from her course of action which is, evidently, to flee with Allen. Allen puts Millerna back in the coach, telling her to return, kisses her, and then makes his escape on the Crusade. Van, Hitomi and Merle find an opencast mine or quarry where men are labouring to dig out the remains of dragons. The purpose of the diggings is to collect the purple energistes which are also used to energise the guymelef robot suits. Van, in Escaflowne, mounts an attack on the mine site, as it is obviously being operated to the benefit of the Zaibach empire. Hitomi and Merle watch from above. A lizard runs in front of them and its tail falls off as they try to catch it. Immediately afterwards Hitomi and Merle are caught by the mine guards. In the next scene Van, who has evidently been induced to surrender, is tied up and being beaten while Hitomi and a nasty type with a snake for a pet look on. Not getting much out of Van, the nasty threatens him through Hitomi, and sets his pet to slither up Hitomi's legs... In the next shot its head is waving near Hitomi's face. Van gets free grabs a sword and turns the tables on their attackers. The snake-man falls over a steep drop. As they escape on foot, a pile of energistes blows up and causes the quarry slopes to become unstable. Hitomi falls down from a ledge as the ground breaks into chunks, and she falls into a deep chasm. Van, sprouting wings, just as in Hitomi's earlier dream, swoops down and rescues her. Her fallen pager goes off; we see that it's her friend Amano trying to contact her in Japan! |
