********* (I love you) Chapter IX: Names- A FFXI Love StoryFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is Chapter IX of my love story ************ (I love you)[/i] titled "Names", and the conclusion of Part One of this saga.

I hope you all enjoy it.

(Chapter I)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=11148161352496864&num=0
(Aki II)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1115076868790365180&num=7
(Chapter III)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1115183358960358628
(Aki IV)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1115608634938805350
(Chapter V)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1115851026175436111
(Aki VI)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=111630303543160197&num=0
(Chapter VII)
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1116855117169209265
(Aki VIII)
http://allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1117209269729189016

This part is dedicated to anyone with a name. A name defines who you are in heart, mind, and soul...and binds you to it.

See you all in Part two^^

I don’t own anything relating to FFXI, so SE please don’t sue.
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Chapter IX: Names
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Faintly, slowly, I opened my eyes.

"He’s coming around Doctor." I heard this voice from what seemed like to be a far off place, as my eyes saw streaks of color run through them, much like when someone spills a bucket of paint down the side of a building and the splash of colors runs all the way down.

I blinked a couple of times, and gradually the blurs become faces of two elvaans standing over me. One was dressed in a white lab coat, and the other was wearing a green top. Immediately, I reached for where I knew my sword would be sheathed, but instead I found nothing.

A sense of panic started to overwhelm me. Where was I? What happened?

Where is...

"The girl I came here with. Where is she??!!" The desperation cracked my voice, making the sounds only come out half-way intelligible. I tried to fumble my way up and off of the bed, but my hands were too clumsy and fat-feeling to let me.

The two elvaans both gave me a strange look for a moment.

"Don’t move, the reason you feel the way you do is because of the anesthetic we had to give you. That was quite a nasty fight you got into there soldier."

The white lab coat said that.

"The girl, where is she?" This time, I could see that the two elvaans actually understood me.

"The girl?...oh, the girl! She is in the bed next to you. She’s slowly recovering...we think she might make it. She had drained almost all of her mana out of her sometime earlier, and as a result her spirit was almost dead."

A look of evident confusion must have overcome my face, as the taller of the two elvaans held up a hand, stilling any questions that might be bubbling up inside of me for the moment.

"You must not be too familiar with the ways of magic casting. You see...when a mage casts a spell, he or she has to draw upon their own lifeforce to cast the spell. This lifeforce is what we in the medical community have termed to be called ‘mana’. The more mana you expend casting spells, the closer and closer your lifeforce comes to being extinguished. It has been proven that mana replaces itself slowly overtime, but no one is quite sure how or why."
He paused.

"However...if you cast too much magic at once, and if your lifeforce is drained dry...your spirit dies. And if your spirit dies...the body dies. For after all…the body cannot live without the spirit." He cracked something of a faint smile.

"However for this lovely lady friend of yours, she did expend quite a great deal of mana but just enough was behind that some medicines known to help encourage the recovery of mana were administered to her when your two bodies were found."

My head began to swim with all the information that I was being told.

"We were found?...by who?...when?..." I mumbled out.

"Some expedition in glacier that was heading further into the Northernlands. They radioed in for help on your link pearl and stayed long enough to make sure that the call for help was received before leaving you. This was about two weeks ago."

"And the girl…where is she?..."

"We were going to move her in just a moment in fact. Please excuse us Commander Dimitri." The elvaans started to move away from me to what must have been her bed on the other side of the curtain that I just realized was there next to me.

"No."

I somehow force myself upwards, and knock down the curtain dividing the beds as I crawled out of bed, and then stand up fully. It fell to the ground with a large clatter, as I look at the two doctors with quiet madness in my eyes. I placed a hand on the girl’s bedside where she seemed like she was still passed out and steadied myself before speaking again

"No one touches her. Are we clear?"

The fire in my eyes must have convinced them to agree with me, for the time being at least for they both pulled back instantly, and then left the room.

I felt my breath start to grow longer and longer as I then ran my fingers through her hair gently, feeling her long black hair flow like silk between my rough fingertips.

Her eyes started to stir, and gradually she fully opened them. Her green eyes sparkled against her pale skin, and she smiled widely up at me. The fingers on her left hand started to draw their way up to where my hand was clamped on her bedside and eventually rested on top of it.

"Ohiyo..." She whispered to me.

"Hello to you too." I said with a weak smile on my face. My free hand caressed her cheek lightly in circles as I started to talk to her, even though I knew she wouldn’t understand.

"That was quite a fight you were in…but what were you doing down there?"

She just got a look of confusion on her face, and then raised an eyebrow. I could tell that she was still very tired and weak, but she wasn’t going to show it in front of me.

She then rose up her right hand, and gently poked me in the chest with her index finger.

"Commander Dimitri."

She then giggled gently, the air seeming to be sucked out of her soul in fits and bursts.

******************** Watashiwa…Hitomi rate me down. Dozo Yoloshiku."

She then pointed at herself.

"Hitomi."

With that, I nodded my head and smiled.

"Hitomi...a very pretty name."

It was then that the doctors came back in the room, this time flanked by two members of what I recognized to be part of the Ducal Guard.

One of them gave me a crisp salute, and stepped forward at attention as I tore my eyes away from the girl towards these intruders.

"Sir! Your presence is required now at the Archduke’s private chambers."

I blinked my eyes a couple of times quickly.

"But why soldier?..."

He paused for a moment, to find the right words for what he was about to say next.

"The beastmen have attacked sir…and you are being court martialed for disobeying direct orders from the state."

-fin Chapter IX: Names

-fin ********* (I Love you): Part I- Connection (Enishi)