Escaflowne Ep. 15: Lost Paradise

Hitomi and Millerna approach Escaflowne with the others. Inside Van lies dead, and black mist rises from within the Guymelef. Hitomi gets on Escaflowne and grabs a hold of it, passing out herself. Hitomi runs down a long blank horizon, and there, hundreds of ghosts, including the Dragonslayers walk slowly. Hitomi runs through the crowd looking for Van. However, when she finds him her hand passes right through him and he vanishes. Millerna looks for Hitomi’s pulse and finds that there is none. Meanwhile, Hitomi wakes up in Atlantis. She watches as winged people fly by. She sees a large tree nearby which Van is sitting underneath. Hitomi runs up there and finds Van all hunched over clutching his legs. Van looks like he’s been driven insane by what happened. He doesn’t answer Hitomi when she talks to him. Suddenly, the ground starts shaking and all of Atlantis catches aflame. The winged people are killed and the landscape starts collapsing. Hitomi tries to get Van to snap out of it, with no success. Even the ground beneath them starts collapsing. Meanwhile, in the real world Merle shakes Hitomi and slaps her, yelling at her to save Van. Hitomi hears her and a pillar of light appears around them as the ground collapses beneath them. Van and Hitomi fall, but Van snaps out of it and flies them to safety. Hitomi wakes up. Escaflowne returns to its normal color and opens, Van comes out unharmed. Hitomi realizes what Merle did and hugs her. Van looks at the Vione in the sky above. There, Dilandau talks about his fallen comrades and throws a rose over the railing. Suddenly, he sees a vision of a girl crying in a cell. Dilandau falls to his knees and feels sick. Emperor Dornkirk tells Folken to capture the Dragon, and Folken says he already has a plan to do so in motion. Meanwhile, the Crusade and Dryden’s ship are docked between two mountains. Van tries holding his sword still, but is unable to, thinking about the screams of the Dragonslayers he killed. Hitomi watches nearby and worries about him. Allen says not to worry; all swordsmen go through ordeals like that. Allen tells of his own experience years before when he met a man in the forest and threatened his life if he didn’t hand over his money. Allen attacked the man, but he easily knocked Allen’s sword away and he fell to the ground. The man was Balgus, and he told Allen to train himself. Allen says that’s how he met Balgus and was taught by him. Allen worries that he can’t come close to his master. Hitomi says that’s not true; she says a bunch of good things about him and accidentally blurts out that she likes him. Embarrassed, she runs away.

Inside his library, Dryden thinks of Van, Hitomi, Atlantis and other things as he reads a book. Millerna brings Dryden some food, but he acts rude to her. Dryden says he gets everything he wants and asks her a favor. They go see Allen, who gives him his father’s log from his journey. Dryden thinks this can solve the mystery of Atlantis. Dryden tells Allen his father was looking for Atlantis. Allen is upset over his father, but Millerna mistakes his words to be about Dryden and tells him they owe him for the costs he endured to repair Escaflowne. Meanwhile, Hitomi sits by the window upset over what she said earlier. Millerna walks up to her asking her for advice about her “friend.” Her ‘friend’ likes a guy who’s a playboy and has a child. There’s another guy as well that she likes who is handsome, rich and smart. Millerna asks her which one she should go with, and Hitomi says she should avoid the playboy, or go out with both of them. She then suggests dumping them both as an option. Millerna gets upset and almost reveals that it’s herself she’s speaking of. Merle walks up to them and demands of Hitomi to say which one she loves, Van or Allen. The Mole Man walks up to them, and afraid, leaves. Hitomi says she loves Allen and worries for Van. Millerna says that Allen is out of her league and Merle tells her to stay away from Van. Meanwhile, two leopard girls working for Folken, Naria and Eriya, get in their Teirings and attack Dryden’s ship, demanding Escaflowne. Allen is notified of their attack. Van gets in Escaflowne and heads out in Dragon mode. The two Teirings chase after him and cause him to crash on the ship. Naria attacks him but Van pushes her away. Eriya attacks him and Van is shocked to see it’s a woman inside. He pushes her over and holds his sword to her head, hesitating to kill her. Naria arrives seconds later and knocks him over. They stand nearby, ready to attack. Van gets scared, and thinks of what happened earlier when he killed the Dragonslayers. Suddenly, Merle stands in front of Escaflowne, causing the two women to remember them being attacked as children. She says she won’t let them attack Van. The two of them decide to stop their attack and fly away. Van gets out of Escaflowne and thanks Merle. Hitomi watches from nearby. Dryden, reading over Allen’s father’s log finds something and says the answers to the mysteries lay in the Mystic Valley. The ship heads there, and Van tells Hitomi that’s the place where the Draconians come from.