InuYasha Fan Fiction / Blue Seed Fan Fiction / El Hazard Fan Fiction / Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction / Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction / Fruits Basket Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ A Long Way From Home ❯ Chapter One: Theories and Delusions ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I don’t understand why we have to do this. If I OWNED all these series would I be writing fan fiction? I think not. SO. I’m only going to say this once; I do not own 3 X 3 Eyes, Blue Seed, El Hazard, Escaflowne, Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yuugi, Inu Yasha, Marmalade Boy, Master of Mosquiton, Nurse Nanako, Oh My Goddess, Ranma ½, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, Urusei Yatsura, Wedding Peach, Yuu Yuu Hakusho or any other series I fancy using. Not a one. Got it? Good. On with the Fic!




Chapter One: Delusions and Theories
Hitomi



The persistent wailing of the alarm clock was making Hitomi’s ears hurt. A fumbling hand groped out of the blankets, felt along the bedside table and hit at the buttons on the top of the wailing machine, cutting its chirp off mid-squeal. The hand returned to the safe, warm confines beneath the blankets, and assisted its partner in rubbing sleep ridden eyes.

Bah. She’d rather have slept in. None the less Hitomi threw back the blankets and rose to her feet. She stretched and wriggled her toes, and then had to wade across the sea of debris left by her roommate on the way to the bathroom. They liked for people to keep their rooms tidy, but Momiji couldn’t seem to do it. Hitomi didn’t mind much because she honestly liked Momiji. The happy girl had welcomed her and been a kind and compassionate friend her first months. Miss Fujimia wasn’t precisely the brightest girl Hitomi had ever met, but she exuded such enthusiasm it was hard not to like her. For that reason Hitomi could over look the piled magazines, clothes and stuffed animals that habitually decorated the carpet

She stopped to pick up her toothbrush from her dresser. Before heading out she stuffed her feet in slippers to protect against the cold tile floors out in the hall. They made a whispery scuffa-scuffa sound on the pasty white tile as she walked. Few people were awake at the Sohma Clinic since it was early. (Momiji always slept through the alarm. The girl could have snoozed on had a train careened past the foot of her bed) It gave Hitomi time, space and quiet to think.

In the bathroom she discovered that someone (probably Akane) had done serious damage to one of the stall doors. It was listing, practically torn from its hinges. Hitomi used the restroom in the far stall, and then headed to the sink. Blearily, she noted the state of her reflection, and tried combing her fingers through her messy hair. After achieving a marginal improvement (it no longer looked as if a small mammal had been nesting in the pale brown locks), she went about brushing her teeth.

She contemplated the crooked door through one of the mirrors and let her mind sort of bleed. She had classes that day, plus a private session with one of the psychologists. Tomorrow was group therapy. There was going to be a new arrival, too. The place was a-buzz with gossip about it...well, as ‘a-buzz’ as seven residents could get.

Back in her room she found Momiji awake and peering out the window from her bed.
“Akane broke a door in the bathroom.” Hitomi said as she dropped her toothbrush on her dresser.
“She’s getting worse.” Momiji confirmed her voice sleep rough and muffled by the bedclothes.

It was true. Akane Tendo’s property damage was increasing in frequency. Sure, a table or a chair every few months from the uncontrollable fits of rage the Tendo girl suffered was expected. Now there were nearly weekly fits. Almost certainly the staff was displeased, but wordlessly replaced everything (though whether Soun Tendo received a bill was a mystery indeed).

Hitomi Kanzaki had been fortunate to be accepted to Sohma Clinic, as her parents had patiently and repeatedly told her the weeks preceding her arrival. “It’s the perfect place for you, Hitomi; it’s not a hospital, nothing like that.” Mrs. Kanzaki stroked her daughter’s soft, short hair. Hitomi could feel the concern her mother had for her radiating through her very fingertips. As much as Hitomi was glad to be home, glad to have her Mother there to be concerned about her, the nature of the worry was misplaced. She hadn’t expected to return to a home where they had noticed that she’d been gone for six months on an alien world- She’d expected a return to the exact place she left. And she did. Essentially.

Until small problems popped up. When a search of her room failed to produce her Tarot cards, she’d asked her Mother if she could ascertain their location. Mrs. Kanzaki had responded in surprise. When had Hitomi ever owned Tarot Cards? Worse still, Mrs. Kanzaki had no memory of a pink stoned pendant ever having been a family possession.

Had that projection of Van not been an illusion from the King- but a delusion? He was wearing her pendant- a pendant that never existed, according to her Mother. Was it a dream? Or a Vision? Had she imagined the whole trip to Gaea? Hitomis instincts had screamed no, and they still did. How could someone hallucinate things they had never known, things beyond their range of experience? The answer she’d heard was that the human brain was an amazing organ- she’d absorbed all these facts elsewhere.

To submit to that notion was to admit that Hitomi had fallen in love with a figment of her imagination. A figment that she had pitted against Allen (Her subconscious version of Amano, claimed Hatori) and ultimately chosen. Again, Hatori’s theory was that Hitomi had noticed the feelings of her friend Yukari for the star runner and wanted to create an alternative to just being dumped. What was better than dumping HIM for a sexy, world-saving handsome King? While, from a weird perspective, this theory might have, admittedly some validity, Hitomi was still markedly against it. If it all was her personal delusion, why wasn’t it a happier one?! Where had all the war and bloodshed come from?

Before Hatori there had been the nice, if totally out of her league, Dr. Hayashi, who decided to compensate for her inability to properly diagnose with medication. Unfortunately being prescribed pills for hormonal and chemical imbalances that Hitomi didn’t have to begin with only made her feel wonky. It also exacerbated the problem.

This was where the Sohma clinic came in.

It was a new facility in the boonies, or as the brochure said, ‘a place for quiet introspection and healing away from the rigors of city life’. It wasn’t a hospital, an asylum, or even an institution. It really refused to put itself under any term besides a clinic. In part because whatever ailment the assortment of teenagers were suffering from was unknown, but also because there wasn’t any specific treatment being issued regularly. Sohma Clinic had been built with the vast money of the Sohma Family and was run by Hatori Sohma. He was a nice man. A little distant, perhaps. His love was psychology. It was a good thing too, because two years ago one of his relations went crackers. The story was fairly well known since its center figure was used (unwillingly) as an example of the sort of ailment Sohma Clinic was hell bent on finding a reason and cure for.

Kyo Sohma just woke up one morning, temper flaring about someone moving him from Shigure Sohmas house back to the Sohma compound while he slept. He then attacked his best friend and distant cousin Yuki Sohma, and began demanding the location of one ‘Tohru Honda’. The Sohma family was intensely confused by the situation which escalated when Kyo began insisting that when he was embraced by a female he changed into a cat. Besides these strange delusions Kyo seemed to function perfectly, albeit angrier than before. There was no discernable source of his sudden breakdown. No orthodox treatment could produce a reason. Indeed, he’d only resented them all for what he saw as a gross prank.

With study Hatori Sohma discovered that his relation was not alone in this ailment. Sixteen year old Usagi Tsukino seemed to go into hysterical fits one morning when she discovered she couldn’t ‘change’. Her friends all reported strange tales that the girl thought she was a super hero who had lived a previous life in a Kingdom on the moon, along with all her close friends and her boyfriend. Inexplicable. The blond girl had been hospitalized for a short period, and then removed by her parents. Cases continued popping up. What was the source of this strange trend? Why were teenagers awakening one morning and simply going mad without any cause? Each person seemed to suffer from a different delusion. How? And Why?

Sohma clinic was bound and determined to find out.

It was different from a mental ward in a lot of ways. Mostly because the inmates weren’t crazy in the classical sense. They weren’t suicidal. Besides for bouts of intense frustration most of them were normal, and went about normal-ish lives. There were classes held, free time and a certain amount of freedom to indulge in hobbies. The building was pleasant. It didn’t have that unsavory hospital smell that made your soul feel as if it had been recently sterilized. The rooms, the bathrooms...they were nice. It felt more like a hotel than a clinic. Not much in the way of medical supplies.

But no matter how nice Sohma clinic looked, no matter what its intentions were...there was a down side.

Patients didn’t come crazy...but they sure did leave that way.








When Hitomi had arrived there had only been five patients in residence. She was frightened and nervous. She didn’t belong here…she wasn’t crazy… A light really had come! Van...Van..Van was real! Gaea was real! It wasn’t all a delusion-She couldn’t prove it, but it was true! Of course examining those claims only made her realize how very crazy she sounded to outside ears.

“This is Hitomi Kanzaki, everyone.” Nurse Nanako said soothingly, her warm hands on Hitomi’s shoulders. “I know we’ll all make her feel welcome. Arriving here can be uncomfortable, as you all remember. Why don’t you sit down and everyone will introduce themselves?”

Hitomi remembered the order of those sitting in that circle in the uncomfortable plastic chairs; Akane Tendo, Keiichi Morisato, Katsuhiko Jinnai, Momiji Fujimia and Kyo Sohma. They’d gone around and said their names- and that was the last of the specifics Hitomi could really remember. There had been curious looks-they all wanted to know her story (Which came out in three hours worth of detail the following week). She did remember that Kyo and Akane had been at each others throats while Keiichi and Momiji tried to sooth them-and Jinnai would burst into crazed laughter. It was a weird, weird start.

By the time Christmas had rolled around they were joined by Kagome Higurashi, who gave the girls a majority. Poor Kagome. She’d had the misfortune of walking in during what she later began to call a ’chaos’ day. Kyo and Akane had come to blows, screaming obscenities at one and other while duking it out. Jinnai was raving loudly at Keiichi, once again under the impression that poor Keiichi was someone named ‘Makoto’ and bursting into sporadic psychotic laughter. Momiji ran from group to group trying to calm everyone’s nerves, and failing, eventually bursting into tears while Hitomi shouted at them all to knock it off and act like adults.

Now Kagome fit in well, getting along with most of the girls. She was better at calming Akane down than any of the nurses, an ability that was getting more and more useful. Hitomi liked the girl immensely.


“Do you think they’ll send her away?” Momiji asked fearfully.

Hitomi could only shrug as she rooted through her drawers in search of her running shorts. She was going to go jogging before breakfast. “Maybe. If she can’t stop wrecking stuff. I don’t know what they’ll do with her. Her poor Dad can’t have her living at home like that. Have you seen him? He‘d be a nervous wreck in a week.”

“Poor Akane...” Momiji still peered out the window, looking at the tree outside. Akane’s story was one of the stranger ones. A Martial artist fiancé who turned into a girl when splashed with cold water who brought with him an army of rivals, chaos and fiancés. The cold reality was that there never had been an engagement between a Tendo or Saotome family-nor was there a place called Jusenkyo. Soun Tendo lived with his three daughters in an apartment in Nermia, but the family never had owned a Dojo. They had no idea where Akane’s sudden martial arts skills came from.

“We’re all in the same boat.” Hitomi said. “But Akane...she needs more help than the rest of us-Except Jinnai.”

“Jinnai needs to be committed” Momiji giggled.

Both girls exchanged a smile Jinnai’s eccentricities were a favorite topic. They, as Hitomi sat and began pulling her socks on them chimed another favorite inmate-ism.

“We all do!”

Quiet lapsed as Hitomi donned her shorts, and then reached for her white T-shirt. Momiji continued looking out the window, a wistful look on her face. This was a schedule both girls were accustomed to. Hitomi would go run and Momiji would lay in bed for another half an hour before forcing herself up to dress.

“Is he out there today?” Hitomi asked as she tied her shoes, startling Momiji out of dreamy reverie and into a deep pink blush.

“No...But I keep hoping some morning I’ll look out there...and there he’ll be. My Kusanagi. Did I tell you- he used to sit in the tree by my class to watch me. Its weird thinking how much time he spent spying on a teenager, like some big creepy pervert.”

Hitomi just smiled- she was well aware of her room-mates affection for a green-haired cat-eyed half monster that’d spent the better part of a year protecting her after trying to slaughter her.

“I’ll see you after breakfast.”



Meal times at Sohma clinic were held in a dining room. A buffet table was set up at one end, where residents were expected to pick up plates and take what they wanted. There was only one long table. It sat sixteen, which allowed people to cluster up or sit apart if they so chose.

When Hitomi arrived she found Keiichi eating sedately. He was a sweet kid- A great mechanic totally convinced he was engaged to and living with a goddess and two of her sisters. He was older than the average patient, in college whereas the rest of them were still in High school.

“Good Morning Hitomi.”

“Morning Keiichi.”

“Been running?”

“Yes. Sorry if I stink, but I’m starving!”

He laughed “You don’t stink- There are sticky buns this morning.”

“Oo…I wonder what blow they are softening us for?” Hitomi asked as she helped herself to a gooey cinnamon treat as well as scrambled eggs and a glass of milk. She licked her fingers as she carried her plate to the table and sat across from Keiichi.

“They could just be taking a shot at being nice. Maybe.” he said as he popped a bite into his mouth.

“Who? The Sohmas? Fat chance.” Kyo said as he strode in and stabbed a sausage with a fork. He nibbled peckishly, choosing to stand beside the table rather than sit.

While Hitomi liked Keiichi’s personality a great deal more than she did the abrasive Kyo, she did have to admit that the orange haired boy was handsome. He had a lean physique, and a bad-boy look about him to go with the unusual hair color. Hitomi wasn’t really into bad-boys...but Kyo certainly had caught Kagome’s eye, he regularly turned Momiji into goo and the ferocity of his and Akane’s charged shouting matches sometimes left them panting and pink cheeked. Although Kyo did have red-brown eyes that reminded her fleetingly of Vans-Only his were a great deal gentler than the fire of Kyo.

Kyo had the sleek arrogance of the animal he claimed to turn into. He also liked stretching out in the sunshine and napping shamelessly. Now he stood with cool confidence, eating.

“Yuki says they want to run blood tests.”

“Ah so we all get to donate, huh?” Hitomi said around a mouthful of egg.

“If by donate you mean ‘give or else’ sure.” Kyo forked up another sausage-and visibly bristled when Akane Tendo made her way into the dining room and began serving herself.

“I don’t know where we’d be without all your inside information, Kyo.” Keiichi said in an attempt to lessen the suddenly tense environment.

“Yeah...Well that damn rat is good for something at least.” Kyo continued to eat...but kept one eye on the short-haired time bomb.

At least, Hitomi reflected, living at the Sohma Clinic was never boring. If the residents weren’t trying to kill each other then they were all wondering if they were collectively crazy as the Doctors and Nurses disproved the physical manifestations of their ‘delusions’.

Akane sat beside Hitomi and the two engaged in idle conversation as the other residents trailed in except for Jinnai who preferred eating away from the common peasants. Momiji was last, bidding everyone a cheerful hello and good morning. Her sunny disposition seemed to dissipate the lingering storm cloud the others had tried to mask with constant conversation. News of the blood test circulated fast.

“I hate needles.” Kagome said as she picked the raisins out of her sticky bun and piled them on the rim of her plate. “”All the youkai I’ve faced and I still can’t stand needles.”

Kyo made a snorting sound to show how silly he thought that was “Just don’t look.”

“I don’t like them very much either. I’m glad Skuld only likes to mess around with mechanics. If she was into biology I’d have to worry! ” Keiichi offered to sooth over Kagome who was giving Kyo a look that a certain hanyou would have known meant an ‘osuwari’ was on the horizon.

“I don’t understand why they want our blood.” Akane was jabbing violently at the side of her bun with her fork. It bled icing.

Strangely it was the ditzy Momiji who answered. “ Mrs. Matsudara was always testing samples. There was so much to learn by Kushinada blood alone. Probably they’re looking for anything that makes us different-especially Kyo and me because our bodies are different-or...were different...Maybe even Kagome, Jinnai and you, Hitomi. You all traveled to a different world- the energies it took to do that could have left a signature on a cellular lev...el…” They were all staring at her. Momiji covered up her embarrassment with a laugh “Or...something like that, you know!”

“It was a very good guess, Momiji.” Came the satin voice of Hatori Sohma from the doorway. Six heads swiveled to look at him. “And correct in some ways.”

Hatori Sohma made all of them feel uneasy. It wasn’t that he was a cruel or deceptive Doctor, for he was really quite gentle. His person was swathed in mystery and he never spoke more than he felt entirely necessary. Silence was his weapon, and he brandished it well. More than once he’d gotten more than his patient wished to revealed by just sitting in silence with them.

What worried most of them was that this mild mannered man held their futures in his hands. He was polite and vague and didn’t draw the collective hatred from his patients which may have made it easier for them lock up tight.

“At the noon break between your classes we will be withdrawing samples.” He looked at his patients who were regarding him with everything from skepticism to veiled interest. “And I’ll be sure to have Nanako take yours, Kagome. She has a very steady hand.”

“O-Oh..Thank you, Dr.” She smiled “I’d like that.”

“Make sure you have a good tuck in at lunch. You’ll be craving iron, so we’ll be serving a protein rich menu.” He gave them a smile, a nod, and was gone with the same silent grace as he had entered. There were quiet for a few moments after Hatori’s departure, fiddling with their food.

“We have to get out of here.” Keiichi whispered finally.

“It’s not as if there is anything we can do!” Kyo said, clearly irritated. By now they’d managed to cluster together in the center of the table, voices low so as not to be over heard.

“We’re right back to the sole theory we have.” Hitomi sighed.

“Yeah, but how do you prove inter-dimensional travel?!” snarled the cat.

“That’s the point you, dolt! You can’t!” Akane growled back and pitched her fork at him, which Kyo caught. He would have thrown it back if Keiichi hadn’t plucked it from his hands like a patient father removing a dangerous weapon from the hands of a two year old.

Their current operating theory was that somehow, someone had moved them from their original dimensions and placed them in a dimension where the magical attributes they had known previously no longer existed. In some cases this changed their background significantly, and in other did almost nothing. However...where had the people from this dimension gone? Why would someone replace them to begin with? All the transitions had taken place at night, making it impossible to know if the trademarks of dimensional travel, such as big glowing lights, had occurred with the switch.

It was a leaky theory at best, but what choice did they have, except to hold onto it as tightly as they could?

“We can’t prove the im-provable” Keiichi said as he set down the fork.

“We also can’t sit around!” Kyo, robbed of his fork, thumped his fist on the table. The dishes rattled

“What choice do you have, idiot? Do you have some swell escape plan?” Akane shot back.

“Bust out of here and start searching! Someone has to know what happened to us!”

“Oh, Brilliant! Six Psycho kids on the loose, Like THAT won’t make front page news!”

“YOU think up a plan then!”

“I COULD-A better one too, you lousy moron!”

“I am not Moron, Bitch!”

“Asshole!”

“Shrew!”

“Give it a rest guys.” Kagome had her chin on the table, watching Kyo and Akane shout at each other, nearly nose to nose leant over the table.

“I don’t think I’d want to escape with you-You’d both get us caught in five minutes!” Hitomi sighed. Suddenly the doughy warm center of her cinnamon bun wasn’t as tempting as it had been. Darn those two for spoiling her mood! She could almost see the little endorphins fleeing.

Keiichi stood and picked up his plate. “Where would we go, anyway? This world has different rules then our old one. There isn’t going to be some wise old sage waiting to hand out advice to us.”

“Damn inconvenient that is.” Muttered Hitomi.




Giving up what felt like a few pints of blood wasn’t all that traumatic. Nurse Nanako did have, as promised, a steady hand and she had them all done in quick succession. It made lunch all the more appetizing, and afterwards an extreme case of laziness. They all stared disinterestedly at the blackboard during afternoon lessons.

Hitomi’s session with Hatori was uneventful for the most part. They’d gone over every fact about the beams of light so many times she’d left the office feeling dizzy. What had it felt like the first time? When did they come? Why did they come? What physical sensations accompanied the landing and arriving? On and on they went. Hitomi dredged up year old memories and tried to stretch them to their greatest extent. It was difficult to capture words to describe the wonder of the experience. The beam would slice down from the sky with a hum of energy, brilliant and blinding, striking the ground and whoever was within its circle. Then came the pull. It felt as if her entire body became weightless, buoyant and a sleek hand of divine power plunged into the core of her being and began to lift her. There was no sucking feeling of a vacuum being filled. It was gentler, as if she were balloon bobbing happily upwards.

Oddly enough Kagome described a similar sensation, only oriented downwards as she was pulled through time instead of space in the old well. A well that didn’t exist in a shrine that had never been. Sigh.

In her room Hitomi found all three of the girls lazing on Momiji’s bed. Akane was sitting at the head, leafing through one of the discarded magazines. She looked almost harmless in her frilly yellow pajamas, hair wet with the remnants of a shower. Contrary to her gentle appearance, she could be a handful. Kagome sat beside her and was reading a text book- a Text book on Feudal Japan. Figured. She was in pale blue flannel pajamas, her feet encased in powder blue socks. Momiji was lying on her back at the foot of the bed, long brown hair puddling over the end. She sat up when Hitomi entered though.

“So...?”

“Just an interrogation on the beams.” the runner said as she rooted through her drawers for her own sleep wear. “He asked me if beams of light from space had the ability to make people weightless. I hate it when he asks questions like that. I always say ‘No, but’ and he cuts me off.”

“Even so, it’s hard to prove you wrong. There wasn’t stuff in this world that tied your story in place to begin with- besides your pendant and the cards.” Kagome thumped her book in anger. “Everything is exactly the same in these books as my old ones. That doesn’t change the fact I’ve been running around with youkai and youkai hunters for almost a year! How can this world and that one have the same history and not the same present truth?” In frustration she dropped the volume with a heavy thud and picked up one of Momiji’s magazines instead.

“It is a nice break though-Oh! Look! Miki Koishikawa is marrying Yuu Matsura! She’s my favorite Idol singer!” Akane held up the ‘zine so they could all see the glossy photo of the smiling celebrities. Miki’s newest CD with the ultra popular song ‘Marmalade Boy’ had gone platinum, and Yuu Matsura, the actor, was caught up in a lucrative TV deal.

“I think he is real cute.” Hitomi admitted with a smile. It was nice to escape theories and crazy talk once in a while.

“Oo! Hitomi! Cheating on King Van! Tsk Tsk!” Kagome teased, waggling a finger.

“Looking isn’t cheating! Besides-You’re one to talk, Hanyou lover!” Hitomi called back. Some crazy talk wasn’t that bad- and...Well...they needed to blow off a little girly steam by gossiping and teasing about the best subject in the book: who liked who.

“What!?”

“And worse I saw you making eyes at Kyo the other day.” Hitomi wiggled her eyebrows “Maybe we could arrange a little date in the Recreation room? Cats and Dogs, Kagome?”

“EW! Kyo? No! AKANE is the one who is hot for Kyo!”

That startled Akane from her magazine “What? No! You perverts! I’m engaged!”

“Ahhh so you admit you and Ranma WERE going to get married?” Momiji elbowed Akane’s foot from her slumped over position.

“No!-Our fathers arranged the whole thing!” Akane stuck her nose back into the magazine and tried pointedly to ignore them. It didn’t work. Women could sense topics which their friends were trying to keep secret. All in the angle of the shoulders and the awkward discomfort exuded. It certainly could not be left alone, simply had to be exploited. Hitomi flopped on her bed and rolled on her stomach to watch the three on the other bed as Kagome swiped the magazine Akane was using as a shield and handed it to Momiji (Who promptly tossed it on the floor.)

“Hey! I was reading that!” The martial artist protested.

Kagome rubbed her hands together like an evil genius chuckling over recently hatched insidious machinations. “Not any more!”

“So...since you were engaged...did you ever...you know....?” Momiji scooted close, just waiting for a juicy story.

“What? NO! No! Never! With that Pervert?! PLEASE.” was the growled response.

“What a shame...seems he was naked enough...” Hitomi mused, making Akane turn a dark shade of pink. “Like...when you met...or when he trashed the bath houses...or...well…any time…” She grinned at the girls discomfort.

“Yeah! You’re lucky! I’ve never been lucky enough to see Kusanagi naked, let alone get him in the sack!....Although I did see him in a Speedo that one time...” Momiji grinned a silly grin.

“Yes, but we know you want to throw Kusanagi down and ravish him-I want to know about Akane’s sex drive-or even if she has one at all.” Kagome smiled again” Spill, Tendo!”

“I do not!” Momiji protested, and received looks that alerted her that her female companions knew very well how the Kushinada felt about a certain plant man. They heard it expressed regularly. “Well...maybe a little...”

“Excuse me-I do have a sex drive- and ravished? Who says ravished? You sound like a cheap romance Manga, Higurashi!”

“So prove me wrong TENDO...Didn’t you ever consider it…just once..?”

Hitomi couldn’t resist adding in a voice trembling with laugher “…what it would be like to ride the wild stallion?” This made them all burst into uncontrolled giggles, thrilled by the image and the pun on Ranma‘s name. They’d never actually seen this Ranma Saotome, but hearing his exploits and the grudging physical descriptions Akane would give them it provided a more than adequate mental picture.

“Come on, Akane, fess up!” Kagome ribbed again when the fit was over and Hitomi was wiping tears from her eyes.

Kagome was met by a grudging silence, until at last Akane spoke.“...Well...maybe … a few times...Well…We were going to be married! There’s nothing wrong with...wondering about a husband... He is a pervert, but sometimes he could be nice. When other women weren’t following him around and he wasn’t flirting with them…” Akane’s voice held tones of wistfulness, and also of annoyance. Her feelings when it came to her fiancé were muddled.

“Didn’t you ever just...want him for him?” Momiji asked after a few moments quiet.

“Want him for him..?” The Tendo girl tilted her head to one side.

“Yeah. Just...want him. Not because he was going to be your husband- but because he was...well being nice or sexy? With all the girls you say were after him he must have been attractive some way. Didn’t you ever want him for who he was and not what? Like Hitomi…” Momiji’s blue-green eyes turned to the suddenly spotlighted inter-dimensional traveler. “Did you every just want Van for Van? When it wouldn’t have mattered if he was a King or a Hobo?”

Hitomi had to admit, even at fifteen Van was very good looking. Yet he could be so wounded, and he wanted to badly to protect her. Allen was without a doubt more blatantly sexy- how could he not be? He was a Gaean James Bond. Van though…Van could be so tender, could make a girl feel so prized. Plus those wings…“Well...Yes-”

“And you, Kagome...?”

“Uh...well...I suppose...”

Momiji gave a nod, pleased with having made her point. Perhaps she did have some degree of wisdom. Her mostly inhuman crush had doubted his nature more than once.

Momiji pushed again. “Just for him, Akane?”

Eyes back on Akane who looked as if she was sitting on a pin. Her brown eyes were cast down. A long pause precipitated the slow words as they were pulled unwillingly from their owner. The more she talked however, the easier it became.

“....There.... was this.... one time...I didn’t know what it was then. I would never have known if Nabiki hadn’t pointed it out. I think she saw the whole thing. She at least connected the name with the feeling. I mean-I really liked Dr. Tofu...but...not like that really...it was just a girlish thing I had-and the guys at school? Please...Anyway...Ranma had been working out in the Dojo for a few hours that day on his own. Our Dads were always slacking off on his training.” Akane seemed to loose herself in the memory, eyes becoming unfocussed. “It was in the summer, and it was horribly hot all that month. We ended up going out on Kuno’s boat, getting stranded on an island and being kidnapped as brides for this all male castle the next week...But he came out and into the main room... He was wearing his pants and an undershirt- a towel around his neck too. He was all sweaty, his muscles standing out, his hair all messy. His undershirt was stuck to his back I could even smell him. I guess he might have stunk…but it was exciting too. Weirdly exciting. The smell of sweat and…I don’t know what else. I do remember looking up at him and everything just…stopped...”

All were leaning forward, hungry to catch the next words.

“He looked so good. I think I was staring at him because he said something. His mouth moved but I didn’t hear it. I felt all this energy inside me, buzzing around like angry bees, and I wished he’d taken his shirt off so I could see all of him...Later I realized I was...I was...he made me...”

“Horny?” Kagome prompted.

A deeper blush and a minute nod answered that.

“And then what happened? After you stared at him?” Momiji was still caught within the throes of the tale, a girl consumed by a story of passion.

“I…I think I hit him with the table.”

“You HIT him?” Hitomi gasped.

“With the table?” Momiji added.

“I can’t really remember” Akane admitted “It’s all sort of fuzzy. What I was feeling was strong I didn’t think about anything besides what he looked like...hey…why are you all looking at me like that? How is it different from Kagome ‘sitting’ Inu Yasha?” She said in her own defense.

This time there was an uncomfortable silence as the two black haired girls considered the repercussions of smacking their love interests into oblivion. The brunettes had nothing to worry about, since they’d only slapped their assorted beaus-one when he was trying to kill her and the other when he was being a complete and total dick.

Hitomi picked at her quilt while Kagome seemed to mull that over. All their conversations seemed to turn in the direction of their ‘delusions’. Mostly because whatever the delusions were they had become such an organic part of their lives. Except me. She thought with a pang of mourning. Mine was just a vacation. They were lucky that they didn’t have to choose.

She was endlessly conflicted when it came to Gaea. For the most part there was a peace inside her. Some strange maturity found on a battlefield in another world gave her insight to the situation that even she couldn’t always fathom. She and Van could not stay together. They had both had had a job, and it was finished- and they had to go back to their own, separate destinies. Gaea was not her home. Though she might love Van, Allen, Millernia, even Merle, it wasn’t her home. She belonged on earth with her Mother and Father, in high school. Her job had been finished. A life on that war-torn planet was not what was in store for Hitomi Kanzaki. Van would always be her first love. Her first childhood love, but Hitomi knew she could love and live with someone else and never forget the Fanelian King.

On the other hand, she didn’t want to. The communications she shared with him before waking up in a strange world weren’t enough. She wanted, selfishly, to have him by her side. To see what would happen if they had been allowed to continue their relationship. To see Van grow older, and more mature. Even the world of Gaea, and Fanelia. For those reasons she couldn’t stop the shards of resentment that pricked her when she heard her friends speaking-sometimes with annoyance when they talked about the adventure that invaded their lives. They didn’t have to make that choice. Soon after she would feel heartily ashamed if herself for even considering such spiteful notions. Whatever world she had stumbled into, a world where her pendant had never existed, where every shred of tangible evidence could be stripped away...the lessons she learned in Gaea could not be taken. Varie’s sweet words of warning about the wishes of the heart were not something that any power could relieve her of.

Kagome startled Hitomi out of her thoughts “Sometimes...although sometimes he really deserved it! Ranma could be a jerk, but Inu Yasha could be...well bad! He had Youkai in him, after all!”

“You know, Akane...you’re the only one who has an all human guy.” Momiji pointed out. By now she had slithered down to sit on the floor. From one of the piles of stuff she’d produced a bottle of nail polish and was painting her toenails a purple color.

“Yeah, but he changes sexes.” Akane responded glumly.

“I kinda think that would be cool.” Hitomi admitted. “If it didn’t cause him as much grief as it does.”

“Ew! Hitomi!”

Eye roll “I didn’t mean it like that!”

“I get it.” Kagome “Women can get better deals on stuff than men sometimes. There are some things they can do that guys just can’t.”

“Maybe.” Was all Akane would allow. And then “If only he wasn’t such a pervert!”

“You think everyone is a pervert, Akane.” When Akane bristled at Kagome’s statement Hitomi rushed to her defense.

“You DO use the word an awful lot.”

Akane opened her mouth as if to say something, and then shut it and squirmed uncomfortably.
“I just...Well...boys are such perverts! After all, that Plant-guy was always looking at Momiji’s underwear!”

Momiji blushed and switched feet. “It’s kinda embarrassing…but...it...it sorta means…he’s interested in you...right? I mean...if he didn’t care at all, he wouldn’t look...right?...right?”

“There are more…couth ways of going about it.” Kagome pointed out.

“Call me old fashioned, but I prefer flowers and dating gentlemen to skirt-peeping and picture-taking stalkers.” Hitomi agreed.

“Old fashioned is right. Van would have had to court you. I’m almost jealous. Maybe we all have guys who aren’t normal but you could have been a Queen, Hitomi!” Momiji smiled.

“Queen Hitomi…” Mused Kagome.

The girl talk carried on until Nurse Nanako popped her head in and insisted they turn the lights out and get some sleep. New patient tomorrow and all. Goodnights were bid as Kagome and Akane headed off to the room they shared to bed. Hitomi only had to wash her face and brush her teeth, and then she and Momiji were alone in the dark.