Escaflowne Ep. 24: Fateful Decision

Hitomi awakens with Amano looking over her and accidentally calls him Allen. Hitomi sits up, wondering if this is a dream, or if she has really returned to Earth. Elsewhere, Hitomi’s friends talk in an office with Yukari, who says she’ll wait up for her. Hearing that Amano and Hitomi are alone, Yukari sits sadly. Hitomi tells Amano about Gaea, but he thinks it was all a dream. He notices her pendant and she talks about it, just as she did with him before. Hitomi knows what will happen next and thinks about what Amano is going to do. Amano pauses and gets close to Hitomi, and Yukari comes in and looks shocked. Hitomi and Yukari walk home, and Hitomi realizes she knows exactly what Yukari will say. Hitomi looks sad, so Yukari is about to ask her if she already knows about Amano, then stops. They head under the bridge and Yukari tells Hitomi Amano is leaving, and Hitomi realizes Yukari cares deeply for Amano. Hitomi walks home and heads to the subway. While on it, she notices a white feather on the seat, which vanishes when she touches it. In Asturia, Allen, Van, Millerna, Dryden and Folken talk about Hitomi’s disappearance. Folken says it wasn’t Zaibach who caused her appearance since even Dornkirk can’t create a pillar of light. Van says Hitomi returned to the Mystic Moon. He says this is good for them since Zaibach can’t use her to change fate. They are informed by that Zaibach’s forces have arrived at the border and wait there. In Zaibach, the sorcerers tell Dornkirk that Hitomi has disappeared, and Dornkirk gets upset, saying his dream won’t come true. Meanwhile, another pillar of light deposits a girl in the forest near Palas. She abandons the Guymelef she was in and heads to civilization. Back on Earth, Hitomi sits on her bed and looks at a picture of her with Amano and Yukari. She realizes Yukari’s been in love with him for a long time and she wasn’t as serious about it as Yukari was. The wind blows the Tower tarot card to the floor.

In Asturia, Allen thinks of his father and is sad since he was unable to protect Hitomi. However, he still feels calm and is happy she returned home. He thinks if he was seeing his sister in her. Suddenly, the door opens, and girl from the forest, Allen’s long lost sister, Celena, stands there. On Earth, Hitomi looks at the tarot card and sees Escaflowne. She goes to her tarot card deck and draws the Ace of Serpents card. She says she doesn’t want to go back to that moment. Hitomi has a vision of Van and sheds a tear. Meanwhile, Van sits on the roof of a house and talks to Merle about Hitomi, who also misses her. Merle tell Van he hasn’t realized his own feelings about her. Allen, Eries and Celena stand at Allen’s mother’s grave. Celena stares at a butterfly while Allen tells Eries his sister has lost her memory. Allen asks her to take care of Celena while he’s in battle. Celena crushes the butterfly with her hands then suddenly screams, changing into Dilandau. Dilandau is in confusion about where he is and screams out for Jajuka. Jajuka arrives in his Oreides, which was hiding behind its stealth cloak, and they fly away. Later, Allen talks to Folken, who says he knows nothing of Dilandau’s past, but the sorcerers of Zaibach might be behind him. He says they did experiments on kidnapped children to change their fate. Hitomi sits in class, learning about Isaac Newton. She sees another feather appear on her book and then vanish. In Zaibach, the sorcerers tell Dornkirk they will raise the gravity between Van and Hitomi to summon her back to Gaea. Hitomi stares at her pendant in school and Yukari comes in telling her to see Amano before he leaves. Hitomi apologizes to Yukari for not noticing before and leaves. Van heads out in Escaflowne. The Fate Alteration Engine is activated. Van thinks about Hitomi as he flies upward toward the Mystic Moon. Hitomi stands on the track, ready to run like before. As she runs, Escaflowne flies with speed. Suddenly, the sky glows and Escaflowne appears. The Fate Alteration Engine goes out of control, electrocuting the sorcerers. Escaflowne approaches the ground, and Hitomi jumps into Van’s arms as the pillar of light transports them away. Amano runs up to it and the pendant slips out of his hands. Van and Hitomi arrive in a wasteland in Gaea, where some fighting has taken place. Hitomi thinks of how she has returned to Gaea, a place of war.