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The first incident of the Warrior of Light's strange behavior was during one of G'raha's sparring sessions with Alisaie. The more experienced Scion had taken it upon herself to put G'raha through a grueling training regimen, given how much weaker he had become upon his soul returning to the Source. Without his connection to the Crystal Tower, G'rahas attempts at spellcasting emptied his mana reserves far too quickly to be practical in battle. To that end, he had been brushing up on the current working theories of mana regeneration employed by the Black Mages of the Source, but putting theory into practice was extremely difficult with an angry Elezen repeatedly stabbing a rapier towards his face. As he stumbled backwards on one of the stone courtyards in Revenant's Toll, G'raha couldn't help but let out an exclamation of surprise, and potentially a little fear, while Alisaie's sword cut through the air an inch from his head.
"Come on, G'raha," Alisaie jeered. "Footwork! Footwork!" From the sneer on her face and in her voice, it was plain that Alisaie was enjoying this far more than G'raha was. G'raha jumped back, channeling his energy into his staff to try and cast a Blizzard spell, but Alisaie closed the gap in an instant, cutting his concentration and the front of his tunic in one swipe.
"If you mangle his clothes again, Tataru will be very cross with you," Alphinaud called out. The other Leveilleur was sitting on the sidelines, sipping a cup of tea and watching with mild interest.
Alisaie clicked her tongue. "Oh, shut up, Alphinaud! We're training!"
Hoping to take the initiative during Alisaie's brief moment of distraction, G'raha began casting another spell, calling forth a shard of ice beneath Alisaie's feet. Alisaie jumped back before the spell had even finished, flipping in the air while beginning a cast of her own. She sent a blast of wind G'raha's way, and he raised his staff to defend, shielding himself with a wall of energy. By the time he'd dispelled the attack, Alisaie was already dashing back in, re-entering melee range with blinding speed. G'raha saw the attack coming, but knew he wouldn't be quick enough to evade. Instead, he winced and raised his staff to try and deflect Alisaie's blade, standing still for a prolonged instant before realizing the attack had never come.
He opened his eyes to see the Warrior of Light standing in front of him, an easy grin on her face. Her enormous broadsword was raised defensively, and had blocked Alisaie's strike before it could reach him. With a quick shove, she tossed Alisaie backwards, following up with an enormous overhead swing. Alisaie barely managed to sidestep, but the Dark Knight's weapon still smashed into the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dirt and sending rubble flying.
"Wha - hey! Hitomi, this is hardly fair!" Alisaie protested. With a wave of her hand, she summoned two pairs of ethereal swords, sending them flying into the air towards Hitomi. The Dark Knight simply raised her arm, a sphere of runes appearing around her in an instant, solidifying into glimmering panels. The swords bounced off of Hitomi's shield as she ran in, jumping at Alisaie with a wide swing.
"What's wrong?" Hitomi called out cheerfully. "I thought we were training!" G'raha could only stand back and watch as the two sparred. Alisaie's quick movements, which he had been so hard-pressed to track in combat, looked practically sluggish compared to Hitomi's elegant fighting style. Alisaie was extremely talented, of course, but at her best, the Warrior of Light had no peers, not in the Source, not in the First, not on any shard. It bewildered the mind and the eye to watch her move so gracefully, so easily, especially with that enormous two-handed blade. The Auri's lithe frame seemed ill-suited to wield such a weapon, but she handled it like it was an extension of her being, slashing and twirling and back-stepping with nary a bead of sweat across her brow.
It didn't take long for the bout to end: Alisaie winced, stumbling back onto the ground as Hitomi unceremoniously whacked her across the front with the blunt side of her blade, swinging it like it was a bat in a ball game. Alisaie skidded backwards a fair distance, but when Hitomi came over to offer a hand, Alisaie brushed it aside, pulling herself back up to her feet. "That wasn't very fair," she snipped. "You caught me off-guard."
"Off-guard?" Hitomi asked, tilting her head curiously. "Why were you off-guard in the middle of a bout?"
"I, well - it wasn't a bout with you! I was training with G'raha!"
Hitomi stabbed her sword into the ground in front of her, leaning on it and cupping her chin in her hand. "Hmmmm," she mused. "So you weren't paying attention to your surroundings?" His lips were raised into a teasing grin.
Alisaie scoffed, red from both exertion and embarrassment. She pulled out her rapier again and entered into her stance. "I want a rematch."
"Sister, I'm certain it will end the same way it has every other time you've sparred with Hitomi," Alphinaud commented, not looking up from his tea.
Alisaie froze, processed the comment, then promptly put away her weapon. "Pardon me for a moment," she said, turning around to walk very quickly towards Alphinaud.
Hitomi giggled brightly, pulling her sword out of the ground to sling it across her back once more. She turned to face Graha, walking towards him with a warm look on her face. "Are you alright, G'raha?"
G'raha sighed, putting away his staff. "I'm quite fine," he said, "I just wish I could be a little more maneuverable in combat."
Hitomi giggled. "You're reading up on Black Mage techniques, right? Those guys don't move at all. They just stand there and let the people around them deal with it." She shook her head. "Anyway, sorry for interrupting your training, but I was watching and I couldn't help but... oh!" She looked down at the rip slashed open in G'raha's tunic, frowning. "Give me one moment..."
G'raha could only watch as she reached into her bag, fishing out a glamour prism and quickly changing into the outfit she used for handiwork. She pulled out a needle and some string, going down to one knee in front of G'raha so she was eye-level with the tear.
"O-Oh, you don't have to..."
"Hush," Hitomi said, already working on repairing the outfit. "Doing this now means less stress for Tataru later."
"I-if you insist."
Hitomi worked quickly, her hands knitting together the two ends of the tear as fluidly and gracefully as she'd wielded her weapon moments prior. As he watched, G'raha couldn't help but wonder how the woman in front of him was not only the realm's foremost hero, but also its foremost craftswoman, and also his friend, somewhere between all of her other accolades.
"There," she said, standing up and tugging at G'raha's tunic to make sure her patchwork was secure. "All finished."
"Thank you, my friend," G'raha said, smiling. "I was not looking forward to another lecture from Tataru."
"Don't mention it," she replied. "Alisaie's been pretty rough with you during these sessions... maybe I should have a talk with her about it."
"Oh, that won't be necessary." G'raha held up his hands, shaking his head. "If anything, I'm appreciative of it. The more I'm pushed, the sooner I will be able to regain some semblance of my prior strength."
Hitomi crossed her arms, frowning. "Pushing yourself is fine and good, but..." She paused, then turned around. Both Hitomi and G'raha paused their conversation to watch Alisaie throw Alphinaud a great distance. As though nothing had happened, Hitomi turned back around and finished her sentence. "Pushing yourself is fine and good, but doing it to your detriment helps no one." She smiled ruefully. "Though, I'm sure you already know that."
G'raha returned the smile. "It is a lesson with which I am painfully familiar. Worry not for me, Hitomi. I will be fine."
"If you're sure," she said, nodding. "With that being said..." Hitomi clapped her hands together, then reached out and grabbed G'raha's arm. "Take a break with me! Old Lyngsath at the Bismarck's got a couple new dishes he wants my opinion on, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I brought one of my esteemed colleagues to try them as well." Without waiting for an answer, she began walking him over to the Aetheryte, practically dragging him along.
"W-Wait, I don't think Alisaie was done..." G'raha let his sentence trail off as he looked back, watching as Alisaie chased her brother around Revenant's Toll with seemingly murderous intent. He sighed, realizing that he wouldn't get back to training any time soon. "V-Very well..."
That incident, in and of itself, was not particularly odd -- Hitomi was his friend, after all, and it wasn't unlike her to bring him along for something spontaneous. It wasn't the trip to the Bismarck that had G'raha concerned, however, it was the pattern that seemed to follow. Despite the fact that she was the Warrior of Light, and there were any number of things she could be called upon to aid with across the realm, G'raha found that she was never more than stone's throw away from him at any given time, constantly inserting herself into situations for his sake.
She was there every morning, already wide-awake by the time he had just gotten out of bed. She always ate with him, frequently with meals that she had prepared herself. Her cooking was delicious, befitting her status as a renowned culinarian, but G'raha couldn't help but feel guilty that she was devoting so much time to him. She always stated it was just 'paying him back for those sandwiches,' but he was fairly certain she had gifted him the equivalent of several dozen of those little sandwich baskets already.
When he was sitting in the library, or at a table outdoors, doing research, she always found time to sit with him. It was helpful, really, having someone to bounce questions off of and double-check meanings. He certainly enjoyed her company as well, but he was beginning to worry he was taking up all of Hitomi's time. When she sat with him, she was usually working on some crafting project, or doing some light reading.
"Surely, you must have something on your schedule?" G'raha had asked one day, when his curiosity got the better of him.
"Nothing more important than this," Hitomi had replied, not looking up from her text.
Her constant presence really only became uncanny when G'raha was walking down the stairs one day after a particularly vicious training session with Alisaie. He stumbled on one step, then another, and he found himself tumbling down into the comfortable arms of the Warrior of Light. He paused, having expected to hit the hard ground, and looked up into his friend's smiling face.
"Someone needs to watch his step, old man," Hitomi teased.
G'raha huffed. "Very clever." As Hitomi helped him to his feet, G'raha said, "Thank you, Hitomi."
"Oh, don't worry about it. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, but..." He looked around at the empty hallway. "... Where were you? I didn't even see you before you caught me."
Hitomi blinked, her eyes quickly glancing away. "Uh... I mean... You know. I was just around, and I saw you falling, so..."
"... Truly?" G'raha gestured around them at all the empty space. "Where did you come from, exactly?"
Hitomi shifted her weight between her feet, trying for all the world to look nonchalant. "Oh, you know, I, uh... teleported."
G'raha looked down at her. She was, in fact, wearing her Ninja glamour. He nodded slowly. "I... I see."
"You know, just uh... keeping my ninjutsus sharp." She made a little hand sign, winking and grinning. "Gotta stay in practice and all that."
G'raha shook his head. "It is incredible how you manage to keep track of all these different martial disciplines."
"Oh, it's not that tough. Just a lot of practice..."
That conversation drifted to other subjects, and the two had spent the next few hours together comfortably. Truthfully, G'raha loved having his friend's attention so often. While he couldn't help but feel greedy, like he was hoarding the Warrior of Light all to himself, her presence was an indescribable comfort as he got used to his new-old life on the Source.
Still, the amount of time she was spending around him was uncanny. He only realized this when she was briefly called out on Adventurer's Guild business, and G'raha quickly found that her complete absence was now a novelty to him. He began to consider why that was, and what the reasons could be that Hitomi was seemingly orbiting him. He couldn't think of any reason beyond the romantic, and when it came to that... G'raha's cheeks flushed red just thinking about it. There was certainly no way she was interested in him in that manner, so what else could there be? Was he doing something wrong? Unable to find a suitable answer himself, G'raha made the decision to approach someone else for advice; he had to ask someone who was close to Hitomi, someone well-versed in interpersonal matters, someone easy to understand...
"Urianger," G'raha called out, approaching the other Scion's table. Urianger had his cards laid out on the table before him, and was engaging in some sort of divining ritual... or a matching game. G'raha truly could not tell.
"Full glad am I to see you, my friend," Urianger said. "How dost thee fare?"
G'raha pulled out a chair and sat silently across from Urianger. At this, Urianger pulled his hands away from the cards, looking at G'raha curiously. G'raha sat and mulled over his words before asking, "Let me ask you something. Since we returned to the Source, have I been pulling my weight as a member of the Scions? I feel painfully as though I have been lagging behind the others in regards to my recovery..."
Urianger creased his eyebrows. Without looking, he gathered up his cards on the table, reforming them into a singular deck. As he spoke, he shuffled continuously, the sounds of the cards punctuating his words. "It is clear to me that the question thou asks will not provide the answer thou seekest," he said. "Pray, friend, wouldst thou entrust me with the true nature of thine inquiry?"
G'raha felt his shoulders deflate, his ears drooping as Urianger immediately saw through his guarded questions. He went silent again, the only sound coming from either of them the continued shuffling of Urianger's cards.
"I fear," G'raha began, "that Hitomi has been coddling me, as of late, though I do not understand why." He looked up at Urianger. "I haven't noticed in her engaging in this behavior with any of the others -- only me. While I appreciate her concern, I wish to stand amongst the rest of the Scions on my own two feet... and yet, I cannot help but worry that there is some amount of veracity in her treating me as though I am still made of crystal."
"There is none," Urianger replied. G'raha blinked. That was the shortest sentence he'd ever heard Urianger say.
"Pardon?"
"There is no veracity in the worries thou hast proclaimed to me," Urianger explained. "Through thine own ingenuity, thou returned thine own soul, along with the rest of our party's, to the Source. All of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn are in great debt to thee, my friend, and none among our number doubt thy ability."
"Though, it was my own fault that you all left the Source in the first place," Graha said quietly.
"It is a journey that I wholeheartedly believe none among us regret making," Urianger retorted. "But in regards to thine queries towards the actions of our mutual friend... Despite her immense strength, the heart of our Warrior is yet a fickle one. Though her deeds and words have painted the pages of history countless times, her breast breathes just as ours, and her heart affected just the same." Urianger placed his deck of cards on the table, looking Graha in the eyes. "In truth, I cannot provide the answers thou seekest with any certainty. I believe thou wouldst be better suited speaking to the object of thine concerns herself, rather than I."
G'raha sighed, running a hand over his face. "I suppose you're right. I should just ask her outright. I just - "
The linkshells in both men's ears beeped at once, and both raised their hands in unison to pick up the call. The voice that answered was Alisaie's, frantic and short of breath. "Demons!" she said. "Getting dangerously close to Saint Coinach's Find! We would really appreciate some support!"
Another voice crackled over the linkshell, this time Alphinaud's. "I believe they're called Hapalits, actually!"
"Really not the time, Alphinaud!"
Without a single word, G'raha and Urianger both stood and ran towards the exit of Revenant's Toll, joining the fray.
G'raha took a deep breath. Though the situation had appeared dire at first, his and Urianger's arrival had helped the Leveilleur twins make short work of the Hapalits. Most of them had fled by this point, though a few stragglers remained. Closing his eyes, G'raha channeled his energy into his staff, then unleashed a torrent of flame onto one of the nearby Hapalits, reducing it to cinders. He couldn't help but grin, feeling his progression in the form of his still-healthy reserves of energy. It wasn't what he'd had before, for certain, but he would still be able to --
"G'raha! Look out!"
Eyes wide, G'raha whirled around to see another of the Hapalits behind him, one arm raised and ready to slam down upon his form. He jumped back, watching the Hapalit's fist smash into the ground where he'd been standing a moment prior. He blasted the Hapalit with another fire spell, but his casting was hurried: the fire spell blackened patches of the Hapalit's skin, but that did little else than enrage it. It slammed its foot into the ground, causing G'raha to stumble. He briefly lost his balance and tried to steady himself, but quickly looked up to see the Hapalit raising its fist again. G'raha gasped, taking a step back and readying himself to cast another spell, but he wasn't as fast as he used to be, and it took only a millisecond of casting to realize he wouldn't finish in time to stop the incoming blow. He winced, closing his eyes and waiting for the impact.
A second passed, then another, and G'raha found himself still standing. He opened his eyes, looking up to see the Hapalit falling over, skewered with a full volley of arrows. He immediately turned to look at the direction the arrows had come from to see Hitomi charging into the battlefield, a bow in her hands and a look of deadly concentration marking her brow. She reached into her pocket, and at once, her maneuverable outfit of light cloth and leather shifted into chainmail and heavy plating, the bow in her grip transforming into a spear. Hitomi leaped countless yalms into the air, landing on another Hapalit and stabbing her weapon between its eyes. Loud cheers roared out from both the adventurers in the battlefield and the inhabitants of Saint Coinach's Find as everyone watched the Warrior of Light jumped into the fray.
It took a scarce few moments of Hitomi butchering their remaining ranks for the remaining Hapalits to realize the battle was not in their favor. All of them turned and fled, a few of the stray adventurers, as well as Alisaie, giving chase. G'raha leaned on his staff, letting out a sigh of relief at the victory -- a relief that was short lived as he caught sight of Hitomi running towards him, fury in her eyes.
"Hitomi," he said, but he was unable to get out any more words as the Warrior of Light stood in front of him, seething.
"What are you doing out here?" Hitomi asked, still breathless. Her spear still dripped with warm blood, patches of it splattered onto her ebony armor. "The adventurers at Mor Dhona had it covered! Why did you come out? You aren't fully recovered!" With each question, she took another step forward and G'raha took another, smaller step back, until their faces were barely an inch from each other, and G'raha could see more than just the anger in Hitomi's eyes -- he could see the deep-seated fear nestled somewhere within her, egging her on. "What were you thinking? You know you can't -- "
"Hitomi," Graha interjected, "I'm alright."
"But what if you weren't?" Hitomi snapped. "But what if... I just..." She stopped and blinked. She took a step back from G'raha, taking a deep breath. Hitomi spun her spear and stabbed it into the ground, running her other hand over her face. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment of contemplation. "I didn't mean to snap."
"It's okay," G'raha said. "I'm okay, Hitomi."
She took a deep breath, pulling her weapon out of the ground and holstering it on her back. "I just... I worry about you. Guild business ended early, so I went back to see you, but when you weren't there and I heard you were here, I just... I got scared."
"... Why?"
Hitomi paused. "... Huh?"
"Why me?" G'raha asked. His voice was as gentle as ever, but his face, and his eyes, were stern. "The other scions were here as well, but you did not come after them with fire in your eyes. Why worry for just me?"
"That's..." Hitomi hesitated, looking away. "I..."
"And not just here," G'raha continued, closing the void in the conversation. "I have noticed what's been happening, Hitomi. You seem to always be with me: you eat with me, you study with me -- there was the time you caught me from a fall when I hadn't even been aware you were there..." G'raha shook his head. "I... have I not proven myself? Do you not think me capable without my connection to the tower?" He asked, sounding uncertain.
"N-No!" Hitomi said, shaking her head. "Of course that's not it!"
"Then why?" G'raha insisted. "Why do you insist on coddling me, my friend? Why do you fear for my life so?"
Hitomi looked away silently. G'raha pursed his lips, standing and waiting for her response. The world seemed to slow around them as Hitomi took a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked down at the ground off to the side, not daring to look into G'raha's eyes.
"I watched you die, G'raha."
At once, he understood. He stepped forward, a pang of guilt in his heart, and when he spoke, the apology was clear in his voice and in his face. "Forgive me, my friend, for being so insensitive. I should have realized -- "
"No," Hitomi said, shaking her head. "I should have said something. I shouldn't have made you uncomfortable in that way."
"I wasn't uncomfortable," G'raha insisted, "I appreciate your company, of course. I just didn't want you going out of your way for my sake."
"I wasn't going out of my way, I enjoy your company, too, I just -- "
"Then need we change anything?"
Hitomi looked up at G'raha, stunned. "... H-huh?"
G'raha smiled at her. "If being by my side helps to alleviate your anxieties, then I am more than happy to oblige you. Of course, perhaps not to the all-encompassing extent you reached before, but... I'm not going anywhere, my friend. I have no intentions of passing away any time soon. You can come and visit me any time."
The two met eyes, and beneath Hitomi's fears and anxieties, he saw years upon years of conflict and bloodshed, countless lives lost even before his 'demise' on the First, friends and even loves laying among the ranks of the dead. The pain rippled and echoed into a a haunting elegy, but as the tips of her mouth curled upwards and the tension in her brow released, G'raha saw so much more in the Warrior's eyes than hurt -- she was more than that. She always had been.
"Thank you, G'raha," Hitomi whispered.