Amoro Revidi

Title: Loose Ends [Part Twenty-Five]
Series: Vision of Escaflowne
Rating: PG-13
A/N: Ok, so I lied. This chapter is only 6 pages too. Otherwise, I don't think I lied. I'm trying to get all of these (in this book) done and posted before I have to go. In this chapter, I used honorifics to the best of my ability to give the chapter a feeling different from Gaea, we'll see if it worked. Enjoy!

***

    Amano pulls the car over to the curb outside of the school and glances at it up and down distrustfully. The voice on the phone had startled both he and Yukari into action, but the urgency in him to speak with their old track coach, one of the few people Hitomi kept in touch with since moving to Yokohama from Kamakura had sincerely diminished.

    “Yuka, are you sure that you…” Amano begins, but before he can finish his sentence, she’s out of the car and heading inside. Amano sighs. “And all of the sudden this preoccupation with Kanzaki-san, after a few years of not speaking of her at all. Yuka, when will you stop beating yourself up over what happened?” Amano turns off the car and climbs out, following his fiancé into the old high school building where the three of them had their education together. He stares straight ahead and tries not to think of what happened between himself and the two former best friends.

*

    He had been on the verge of kissing Hitomi when Yukari entered the nurse’s office, with a cheery greeting that was quickly cut short, “Hito-mi. ”

    The broken look in her eyes as she took in the positioning of the two of them made his heart catch in his throat, and something caught in his heart as well to see the downtrodden look on the team manager’s face. He was more accustomed to seeing Yukari smiling brightly and flirting mildly with him, and hadn’t a clue how the look of her with such a broken expression would affect him.

    The next day when Hitomi made her blushingly formal request, he smiled, feeling that his leaving might do them all some good. He was surprised to find that though he was flattered by Hitomi’s affection, even returned it in some ways, he slightly wished it was Yukari making the request that he give her a first kiss.

    When Hitomi had disappeared… he was startled, frightened. It seemed, to him, that she had been willing to go with the strange young man on what looked like the giant dragon, and after she disappeared in a flash to the sky, his next thought after confusion was of Yukari’s reaction.

    Turning, he saw that same broken look in her eyes, and went to her. “Uchida-chan?” he asked quietly, and he saw that her blank face was beginning to tear up. He put one hand on the small of her back and quietly lead her back inside.

    When Yukari came out of her shock, she was blushing furiously at the tenderness that Amano was showing her, and he found that he liked the faint glow of her skin when she smiled and blushed self-consciously.

    In the weeks that passed while Hitomi was missing, things changed slightly between himself and Yukari. She was obviously broken up over her missing best friend, but there was something he couldn’t put his finger on, until he figured it out. Hitomi wasn’t the only person with a crush on him. Yukari genuinely cared for him as well.

*

    When Hitomi came back, it was as though nothing had changed, except Amano felt the noticeable lack of affection in the younger woman whenever he saw her. She seemed much older than when she had left to wherever she had gone, and something in her eyes, when at times she would stare off into the distance after a race or when he passed her in the hallways, told him all he needed to know.

    The closeness between Hitomi and Yukari seemed to disappear just as easily as Hitomi had, Yukari constantly afraid that Hitomi had grown distant because of the relationship she shared with Amano. Amano knew better, since Hitomi’s attitude, with the exception of her lack of affection, was still friendly and formal with him. But Yukari couldn’t get it out of her head.

    Unfortunately, Amano had to pick up the pieces when she and Hitomi had fights over what was wrong, and what had changed. Yukari continued to agitate Hitomi long after anyone else would have dropped the point, saying that she was worried about Hitomi.

***

    Seated in a comfortable chair on the battlements of the castle in Zari, Kira reads the letters from her sister with a smile on her face. The sun shines overhead and a slight breeze blows through the forest around the castle.

Kira -

It was wonderful to hear you were so fortunate to find a husband on your trip to Asturia, her older sister writes, I’m glad you’re out from under father’s thumb at last. I only hope Mariah doesn’t catch the same problems you did when I left to Zaibach.

    Kira glances over slightly at the other letter, from her younger sister Mariah, and sighs, I hope so too, Sierra.

I wish you all happiness in the world, and only wish I could’ve attended the ceremony in person. Since I couldn’t, and Goya felt horrible that it was unsafe to travel to it, we’re sending along our wedding present and it will arrive sometime after the letter, with an escort.

    “Wedding present?” Kira puzzles aloud.

    Jasper, who has stopped in the doorway of the stairs, smiles as he approaches his new wife and asks, “Who are the letters from?”

    “My sisters,” she replies, looking up with a smile as he leans down and kisses her in greeting. “Sierra is sending a wedding present of some sort.”

    “You expected less?”

    “No… but Zaibach isn’t fully back on its feet since the last war…”

    “Given the current mood, they either never will, or they will very quickly. There’s talk of war in the air. Borders are closing up all over. I hope your sister’s wedding present arrives safely.”

    “I wonder what it is she could’ve sent as a present…”

    Jasper smiles and kisses her forehead tenderly, “Patience, darling.”

    Kira smiles and sets the letter down, lifting the second one from Mariah.

***

    “Hitomi, won’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

    “I told you, ’Kari-chan, nothing.”

    “You’re lying, Hitomi,” Yukari responded, her eyes narrowing as she prepared for another attack of Hitomi’s supposed defenses. “You don’t talk to anyone anymore… you’ve stopped reading tarot cards. I’m surprised that you haven’t quit the track team!”

    “Why would I quit the track team?” for the first time, agitation enters Hitomi’s voice. “I love to run.”

    “You only joined it because of Amano-sempai, now that you’ve lost him, I’m sure you’ve lost interest.”

    “Stop telling me how I feel, Yukari.”

    “Well if I don’t say it, who will? Certainly you won’t. You never say anything anymore.” Yukari took a step forward, folding her arms on her chest. “It eats you up that the two of us are together, doesn’t it?”

    “I think,” Hitomi said in a quiet voice, never having wanted to hurt Yukari, but unable to see another way for her friend to desist and just be happy, “that you’re more upset that I’m not upset than you are happy to have Amano.”

    The words, spoken in a still, placid voice that lacked emotions clearly, if Yukari had been listening carefully, cut Yukari right to the core. She let a hand fly and slapped Hitomi, tears brimming in her eyes. Hitomi did not reply more than to turn and look at her best friend, now former, and sigh slightly.

    The two of them parted ways without another word, and Amano had to console the crying, broken young woman he had fallen for carefully. Shortly after that incident, Hitomi’s family moved to Yokohama, taking Hitomi out of the picture. She didn’t stop running track meets, however, much to Yukari’s chagrin.

***

    Fariah starts to get an uneasy feeling, and wishes she had someone to ask about it, but realizes, that, as the only resident Kathis in probably three hundred miles, she is on her own. And as such, she sucks up her courage and tells herself to stay on guard. Chid, she notices, seems quite preoccupied as well.

    “Chid,” she asks as the two of them move into the breakfast room.

    “Yes?” he responds. She sighs inwardly, slightly angry that he still refuses to use her name most of the time. She figures it is probably because he has so many people around him that trying to remember everyone’s name would get quite tedious and would be utterly impossible.

    “I don’t know a thing about politics… but you’re upset about something.”

    Chid stiffens and turns to throw a glare at Fariah. “What do you care?”

    “It’s my duty to look after you,” Fariah responds evenly.

    “You’re not my mother!” Chid snaps, sitting down and ignoring Fariah as he starts his breakfast.

    “Well you’re no walk in the park either, Chid.”

    Chid blinks and pauses, his fork halfway to his mouth.

    “Yeah, you heard me. Enjoy your breakfast, Duke.” Fariah turns on her heel and retreats to the doorway of the room, where she has a better vantage point to look over the area from.

    “Watch your tongue,” Chid calls after her.

    “Grow up and I won’t have to,” she responds, standing at attention there.

    “How dare you, I am the Duke of Freid,” Chid starts to protest. He turns in his chair to see Fariah standing at attention and looking alertly around, but ignoring him. He turns back and folds his arms on his chest.

    Chid may be a good Duke to his people, but he’s still a boy, Fariah reasons with herself, trying to understand her attitude towards her charge. Only so much of the pampering is good for anyone, and they won’t tell him the truth about things that don’t require his judgment. Being meek around him isn’t going to do him any good, or make him like me or become my friend. It’s not important, I’ve got a job to do.

    Chid glares at her, but goes back to eating when she doesn’t respond.

***

    Amano finds, as he mounts the steps to the track, that he can still remember Hitomi’s last words to him on her last day at Kamakura-Kita High School, the day of his graduation.

    “It was an honor to know you and to run on your team, Sempai.”

    She had stopped calling him ‘Amano-sempai’ and resorted to simply calling him ‘captain’ like the other members of the team.

    “It’ll be your team next year, Kanzaki-san.” He could recall his own words as well, and her humble smile.

    “Perhaps it would have been, if I were staying in Kamkura.”

    “What does that mean, Kanzaki-san?”

    “My family is moving to Yokohama during the break… I’ll be finishing off school there instead of here.” She had looked as though she were about to say more, but Yukari rounded a corner and called out to him. “I’d better be going, Sempai. I don’t want Uchida-san to think ill of you, or worse of me.” And with that, she turned and left. He saw her again briefly during the commencement and in his peripheral vision at a few of the graduation parties, but understood her sentiments and good intentions.

    Hitomi had no wish to disrupt the happiness she could see as clearly as a vision for her best friend and former crush. It was just as those girls getting quickly onto their train had said, It seems like they are destined to be together! Hitomi might not believe in destiny, but she knew quite a bit about happiness, and felt like she was encroaching on Yukari’s, so when her father announced he’d been offered a job in Yokohama, she had made no objections to moving and starting a new school.

*

    “I see the two of you made it safely,” the hoarse croak of Inoue-sensei, the track instructor, reaches Amano’s ears as he catches up with Yukari in the hallway.

    “Sensei,” he replies, bowing formally as though he were still Inoue-sensei’s student. The graying man smiles proudly as Yukari follows suit.

    “I was glad to hear of your engagement, Uchida-san, Amano-san. Congratulations.” Amano bows again, and catches the faint blush on Yukari’s cheeks as she bows as well.

    “Is there some reason specifically you called us, Sensei?” Yukari asks, “You said on the phone that there was something relating to… Hitomi.”

    “Nothing too pressing. I didn’t expect the two of you to come down so quickly. I just have a few letters that were forwarded here from Hitomi’s college. It appears that without any other relatives I was listed as a tertiary reference for her. I was hoping that you could take them to her house, since I recall the three of you once being close.”

    “Certainly, Sensei,” Yukari says quickly, pride in her voice as she continues, “I’m looking after her house while she’s away. It would be no trouble for me to drop them off.”

    Amano frowns slightly, looking out the window.

    “Sensei… could I… take a look at the track once more?” Yukari asks, suddenly feeling sentimental at being back at her old high school.

    “Certainly, Uchida-san. I trust you remember the way?”

    “Of course, Sensei.”

    As soon as Yukari has left the room, Inoue turns to Amano. “You think she’ll open them?” he asks quietly.

    “Perhaps,” Amano replies, watching his fiancé as she descends the stairs into the track arena and glances around in a sentimental manner, spreading her arms, the letters clasped in one hand, and spinning in a few lazy circles.

    “Something I thought you should know,” Inoue says quietly as he steps up to watch Yukari alongside Amano. “I don’t very much think that Kanzaki-san will be returning, from wherever she’s gone.”

    Amano blinks and turns to look at Inoue-sensei. “What do you mean?”

    “I remember the last time, when she went missing, and I very much doubt this time will be different, only…” there is a twinkle in the aging track coach’s eye as he speaks the next words, “I don’t think she’ll come back this time.”

*

    The drive back to their shared apartment is a quiet one, Amano turning Inoue-sensei’s explanation of his reasoning over in his mind. Yukari sits primly, the letters settled in a neat stack on her lap, hands adjusting them ever so slightly.

***

    The palace in Egadia was not decked out for a celebration, in fact the spring cleaning had begun only days before, upon the queen and princesses’ return from Daedalus. But still, it is an impressive structure, riding alongside Van, Hitomi can hardly keep her smile to herself as she thinks quietly, Is there any castle in Gaea I won’t have seen by the end of this trip?

    Van glances over at her, slightly nervous, but as he sees her smile, he relaxes. He had started to explain what Inah would be plotting, but it hadn’t been possible with the amount of time they’d been given. Making it to the castle before dinner time required that they be properly attired for dinner before mounting their horses. The six of them enter the palace through the front gates and are greeted by a small fanfare and a red carpet leading inside on the marble flagstones of the courtyard.

    The six of them dismount and are lead through the dimly lit castle up to the royal dining room, where the light of the setting sun emblazons Queen Inah and her four daughters. Van silently gags, glancing covertly at Hitomi, whose hand is tucked resolutely in his arm as he leads her into the room at the head of the small party of nobles.

    “I’m so glad you decided to take me up on my invitation, King Van,” Inah says, bowing slightly to him and his party. As she stands, she glances sharply at Hitomi, “Who, pray tell, might this lovely woman be?”

    “Queen Inah Zardi, Lady Hitomi Kanzaki.”

    Hitomi curtsies deeply.

    “She’s visiting Gaea as a guest of Fanelia, and a close personal friend,” Van continues, smiling fondly at her. Hitomi smiles beautifully back at him and the Queen, who looks peeved at her presence in general, and begins to introduce her four daughters.

    “I do not recall if you have ever met my daughters, Saphira, Jaezel, Rubi, and Quivel,” as each girl’s name is called she steps forward to bow before the king, smiling prettily and looking as radiant as possible in the sunset lighting.

    Hitomi sighs to herself, well aware of how staged the entire meeting is, and unimpressed by the princesses. “I hope you’ll be staying with us for a while, King Van?” Saphira says when prompted by her mother to speak.

    “Actually, we’ll be heading out of Egzardia in the morning, I did not want to travel during the late evening, given recent events,” Van replies easily as they all move to take their seats at the dinner table.

    “Tomorrow?” Inah exclaims, sitting very slowly rather than at a regular pace. “That’s so … soon.”

    “I’m afraid that’s why I didn’t announce my presence in your country, Queen Inah, it’s rude to become a guest and leave so quickly.”

***

    Amano sits at his desk, staring preoccupied at the drawings spread out there, whil Yukari goes into the kitchen and starts to make dinner. “Would you like tempura shrimp tonight, Amano?”

    “That’ll be fine, Yuka,” he replies, adjusting a few of the measurements on his notepad to the side of the drawing, unable to get Inoue-sensei’s comment out of his head. Do you think she’ll open them?

*

    Yukari turns and heads into the kitchen, the letters tucked safely under her shirt. Once there, she starts the tempura batter and rips open the first letter.

Hitomi- it is from her paternal grandmother, Yukari reads as she looks at the envelope again to make sure. I was most saddened to hear that your other grandmother passed away. I hope you’ll write back more often now, and even consider visiting me once in a while. Yukari skims the rest of the letter and then carefully folds it back up and puts it in the envelope.

    She reads the next, a postcard, briefly, it is from the same grandmother.

Hitomi I am most displeased that you haven’t written to me yet. Has something happened?

    Yukari sighs, wondering why no one had bothered to inform Kanzaki-sobo about the accident that took her son and his family from the world, but doesn’t comment.

    “Yuka?” Amano calls, “How’s dinner coming?”

    Quickly shoving the letters and cards away, Yukari checks on the tempura and calls back, “Almost ready, Amano.”