なみだで今手をのばす／さむい夜もNamida de ima te o nobasu/ Samui yoru mo

Now I reach out to you in tears/ Even in the cold night

Hitomi Kanzaki slid out of bed and walked over to her bedroom window, her shoulder-length mahogany hair framing her soft countenance. A gentle smile formed on her face as she looked out into the starry black heavens above. Almost three years had passed since she stopped telling fortunes; three years since she had left Fanelia in a beacon of light. For three years now she would search for Gaia in the sky every night, wondering how Van was doing.

Sometimes, in the depths of her dreams, she thought she heard Van's voice telling her how the reconstruction of Fanelia was going and how he missed her. Yet always, when she tried to respond, a black void separated them. She refused to lay out her tarot cards in front of her for some hint of the future for fear that she might manipulate fate somehow. Now, in the cold March night after her high school graduation, she almost wished the cards would tell her where to go or what to do. Amano-senpai was still in college in America and he and Yukari would soon be together when Yukari started studies at the same university. Hitomi, not yet knowing her calling, chose to attend the local university along with her other high school friends. Parting with Yukari would be sad, but she was already familiar with the pain of separation, and it didn't sadden her as much as it did Yukari.

Hitomi sighed and shuffled back to bed. As she closed her eyes, she thought of Gaia and a young man with black hair and warm brown eyes.

"Hitomi?"

'Is someone calling me?' Hitomi thought to herself as she swam in the darkness of sleep.

"Hitomi? Can you hear me?"

Suddenly, the blackness began to part, and a face appeared out of the misty shroud. "Van?" Hitomi breathed softly.

"Hitomi! It's me! It's Van!" Van's voice came through clearly as the dark fog around them parted and they stood face-to-face in the middle of a black void.

"Van!" Hitomi took a step forward, her leg poised ready to run to him, but something pushed her back. "It's really you," she murmured. The King of Fanelia also struggled against the invisible barrier between them, his brow furrowed with irritation. 'He's really changed,' Hitomi thought as she watched him. His skin had acquired a golden tone from hours under the sun and he had grown taller and more muscled from swordpractice, yet his build was still slim and held the same casual grace. Her pendant hung around his neck, winking at her with its pink light. 'He looks a lot more mature than me,' Hitomi commented to herself. Van lifted his gaze back to her and she looked down quickly, a slight blush creeping across her cheeks. "S-So, how are you?"

Van laughed a deep chuckle that warmed her cheeks again. "I have been trying to reach you for the past three years, and you ask me how I am?"

Hitomi looked up in a pout of indignation. "What am I supposed to ask you?" she retorted.

Van chuckled again. "You're the same as ever. But I'm fine, and you?"

Hitomi smiled, realizing that he'd become much more light-hearted. "Fine," she replied with a small nod.

"I've just wanted to see you so badly," Van said quickly. "I've been trying with your pendant, but I hadn't been getting any response. But tonight, I felt I especially had to see you, and I thought of you in my mind, just like how you taught me to look for attacking Guymelefs. I wanted to tell you how Fanelia is growing again; I wish you could see it for yourself."

"I wish I could, too," Hitomi replied sadly. "How are Allen, Princess Millerna, and Merle?"

"Allen and Millerna got married last summer. Their wedding was really wonderful; you would have been jealous. Merle is, well, Merle. She misses you, too, Hitomi."

Hitomi cast her gaze down again as Van's last sentence died on a melancholy note. "Actually, Van, I--"

"Hitomi, I want you to return to Gaia," Van said strongly. Hitomi looked up to search his face and found tenacious resolution. "Fanelia just won't be complete without you-- without you by my side. I need you... by my side."

"Van, I--"

"I know, you have your own world, your own family, but I just don't feel complete without you. Because... I love you. Now more than ever before, because with you gone for so long, I have realized how important you are to me. So will you please consider returning to Gaia? Now that I have been able to reach you, I'm sure with more strength, maybe with the dragu-energist, I'll be able to bring you back!"

"Will you ever let me finish my sentence?" she returned quickly, then laughed as he pursed his mouth like a reprimanded child. "Van, I do want to return to Gaia. We'll find a way, I'm sure. After all, we have also have our own energists within us." She gently lifted a hand to point to her heart. "I know I have to give up all I have here, but I'll keep them in my heart forever. I have been running toward my destiny all this time; but I've never realized exactly what I've been running towards. Even if I regret it later, I'll still be with you."

Hitomi lifted her hand from her heart to reach out to Van, a small glimmer of tears in her eyes. Van extended his hand out to her and together they pushed across the invisible barrier. Hitomi strained with effort to reach his outstretched hand, but just as their fingertips were about to touch, a slight force pushed them apart, and Van's figure started to fade.

"No!" Hitomi cried out as Van looked back at her with a helpless expression, the black shroud starting to cloud his features.

"I'll find you somehow, tomorrow night, I promise!" he called out as he faded away, and Hitomi fell back into darkness.

ねえ聞こえる？ 二人の未来生まれ変る落がNee kikoeru? Futari no mirai umare kawaru oto ga

Say can you hear it? It's the sound of our future being reborn

Hitomi walked along the street with Yukari, barely hearing her best friend's words as she frowned pensively.

"Hitomi? Are you listening to me at all?" Yukari stopped in front of Hitomi and looked straight into Hitomi's eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you. But not here. Can we go to the park and sit down?" Hitomi said quietly.

Yukari, sensing Hitomi's somber mood, nodded. "Sure. Let's go."

As they walked, Hitomi thought about the question Yukari had posed to her three years before. "What would you rather have: a marriage to a man you love, but who loves you no longer; or a man who loves you very much, and you love too, but you are separated and can't be together?" Yukari had asked her a few days after her relationship with Amano-senpai had become official and a month after Hitomi had fallen unconscious on the school track, waking up with the memory of a strange world.

Hitomi had smiled sadly. " I'd rather have a relationship where we both loved each other deeply, but couldn't be together. At least we'd know that we have the other's love to cherish."

Yukari had knit her eyebrows with a small frown. "I don't want either," she had remarked shortly. "Amano-senpai just left for America yesterday, but I want to be with him again today. I think as long as we still like each other, we will be together again eventually. Do you think that's too selfish?"

"No, it could happen," Hitomi had replied with a smile of encouragement. "Does this mean you're going to college in America?"

"Probably."

Now Hitomi asked herself if she could have her own choice as well. She wondered if she was being too selfish by leaving all her friends and family for her own happiness.

"What is it?" Yukari asked as they sat down on a wooden bench.

"Remember that story I wrote last year, about that other world?"

Yukari laughed and replied, "Of course, how could I forget? You won the prefectural writing contest with it! Wasn't it based on the dream you had when you fell unconscious that day at the track?"

"That wasn't a dream," Hitomi said softly.

"Of course it was, Hitomi," Yukari protested with another laugh. "Do you really think I'd believe that you were actually the heroine of that story?"

"Yukari, please, believe me. Remember the pendant my grandmother had given to me? Have you seen it since then?" Yukari shook her head. "That's because I gave it to Van." Yukari started to make another comment, but Hitomi continued. "Remember how you and Amano-senpai seemed to feel even closer after that, even though you hadn't actually been together? It's because the first time I was gone, you two spent a lot of time together, worrying about me."

"Hitomi, maybe you should --"

"Yukari, think about it. Didn't some of the story seem like 'deja vu' to you?"

"Well, yes, but--"

"You and Amano-senpai were there both times I was taken to Gaia."

"Why don't we remember any of this?" Yukari interjected.

"Well, I returned to the same moment in time both times; for you it never really happened. But the hint of it is still in your subconscience, so you can still sense the deja vu. Remember when you asked me what I would prefer, a husband who no longer loved me, or a man who loved me but was distant from me? Now I'm picking what you have chosen: to accept neither. I know that Van loves me and that I love him. It is our destiny to be together, and we can't deny that any longer."

Yukari's smile had faded and her face was solemn. "Hitomi, what does this mean?" she asked incredulously. "You can't really mean that you actually fell in love with a king of a country in another world!?"

"I know, you must think I'm crazy. But maybe you can somehow meet him when he comes for me tonight."

"You're leaving tonight!" Yukari exclaimed. "But-- But what about college? What about your mother? Won't she be lonely?"

"I already talked to my mother about it this morning. She understands, she always has. She even kept the memory of the first time I was gone; I guess that talent runs in the family. She knew this would happen, especially since my grandmother gave me the pendant. I will try to visit her, even if it is only in her dreams, so she will never be completely isolated from me."

"And your father and little brother?"

Hitomi smiled sadly and shook her head. "My mother and I decided that they wouldn't understand. She'll tell them everything once I leave."

"Is this guy really worth it?" Yukari asked with a small frown, sitting back against the bench.

Hitomi smiled and looked down at her hands intertwined in her lap. "I think so," she answered slowly, then added, "or, well, I know so. We are meant to be together."

Yukari sighed and tilted her head from side to side to get a crick out of her neck. "Fine, do whatever you want. But don't leave me completely in the dark, either!"

Hitomi leaned over and hugged her best friend. "Yukari, I'll never forget you. And whatever you do, please be happy with Amano-senpai."

" I will, Hitomi. And I'll be there tonight when you go. I want to see this guy you're giving up everything for," she said lightly, hugging her tighter.

"Thank you, Yukari."

はてない旅ははじまる／もうとまらないむねのこどう／君をさらって行くから Hatenai tabi wa hajimaru/ mou tomaranai mune no kodou/ kimi o saratteyuku kara

And endless journey is beginning/ I just can't stop the beating of my heart/ Because I'm going to carrry you away

Hitomi, Yukari, and Mrs. Kanzaki stood on the lighted track looking up at the dark night sky. Hitomi carried no bags, wanting to start completely anew with her life on Gaia. Van had called to her an hour before, saying he was preparing and would arrive at the same spot he had come to in his previous visits.

"Hitomi, are you cold?" Mrs. Kanzaki asked with concern filling her sot voice.

"It's okay, mom, I'm fine," Hitomi replied, tugging at her sweatshirt.

"Hitomi...." Yukari murmured, her eyes filled with sorrow and brimming with tears.

"Remember, Yukari, no tears!" Hitomi chastised gently. As she smiled fondly at her best friend, a white light shone down from the heavens and a winged figure dove downward, then gently glided to the ground at Hitomi's side.

"Hitomi!" Van pulled her into a tight embrace as feathers from his white wings flitted to the ground around them. Hitomi snuggled against the warmth of his bare chest, assured by the beat of his heart that he was real and not an illusion.

Hitomi pulled away slightly to look up into his face. "Can I introduce you and say my good-byes?"

"Of course," Van replied with a warm smile, releasing her from his embrace.

"My mother," Hitomi said with a gesture and a warm smile.

Van sketched a courtly bow and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of her. And I don't always fly around with wings on my back."

Mrs. Kanzaki smiled. "Thank you very much in advance for the happiness you will give my daughter," she said gracefully, bowing.

Hitomi ran over and gave her mother a great hug then wiped a small tear from her eye. With a smile she backed away and stepped toward Yukari. "My best friend, Yukari."

Van smiled and bowed. Yukari smiled back and commented to Hitomi, "I approve highly, Hitomi, even though I don't understand how you and your mom can understand a word he's saying." She turned back to Van and said with a sad note "Take care of her for me, please."

Hitomi turned back to Van and told him what her friend had said. "I will," Van replied, giving Yukari a reassuring nod. Hitomi gave her friend a fierce hug then walked back to Van, who scooped her up into his arms. As his wings unfolded and started to beat, Hitomi unraveled one arm from his neck to wave a good-bye to her best friend, her mother, and her world.

"Good-bye....." she called softly as they lifted off the ground. As they flew upward into the white light, Hitomi nestled her head against Van, and one small tear rolled down her cheek, falling to the ground below. The white light drew them higher and higher as they flew onward to that mysterious world, Gaia, and the destiny that awaited them.