Disclaimer: We don't own any recognizable characters, places, or products.
Author's note: Yes, yes, I know. It's trite and cliche and mary-sue-ish, but it's also a great way to relieve stress and practice writing for more important things. I'll try to make it unique and different and blah blah blah. Read and review! Constructive reviews ONLY! Posting a rude and/or nasty review only shows what a moron you truly are. Rude reviews will be ignored, laughed at, and we shall hurl various molding vegetables at them.
Prologue
Just when the country is on the brink of destruction, a girl appears to open the portals to another world and obtain the divine powers of Suzaku...
The rain was coming down in sheets when three girls dashed into the Tokyo National Library. They paused for a minute inside the door, laughing quietly amongst themselves as they wrung out hair and wrinkled clothing.
"I hope Izzi's here," Joy, the tallest of the three, murmured.
"I'm sure she is," Emi, who sported hot pink hair, assured her. "Let's give the girl some credit for once."
"Credit? Come on, it's Izzi we're talking about. She's not exactly well known for remembering to be in the right place at the right time," Joy chuckled as the girls stepped into a large elevator to make their way to the designated meeting floor.
"Emi's right," Koinu offered diplomatically. "As much of a spaz as our Iz usually is, I'm sure she'll remember. She wouldn't make us wander around Japan on our own."
Emi coughed. "I just hope she didn't get so busy with Mayer that she forgot about us."
"She'll be there," Koinu rolled her eyes.
The elevator doors dinged open and the girls tumbled out, scanning the area for their friend.
"There she is," Joy motioned excitedly.
Izzi sat in the far corner of the room, her petite frame folded into a chair, knees clutched to her chest. A book rested on the bony joints, pages trapped between her small fingers.
"Izzle my dizzle!" Emi cried as the girls sailed over to her.
"I told you not to call me that!" Izzi grinned up at them from her book, pale eyes twinkling. "Bonjour, mes amies."
"Bonjour!" Koinu echoed. "So, how're you and Ma-"
"We had a fight a couple days ago," Izzi smiled, cutting her off.
"And yet, you seem so cheerful about it," Joy brushed a wet strand of light brown hair out of her eyes.
"I'm halfway around the world from my home; I don't have any studying to do; I'm not going to let anything get me down."
Koinu nodded. "Good deal. So, is it time to have fun yet?"
"My dear, it is always time to have fun. You are on vacation after all. As well as free from public education for the first time in 13 years." Izzi stood up, and closed her book, sliding it into the messenger bag at her feet. "Let's go."
"Where to?" Joy asked.
"Where do you want to go?" Izzi turned to them, biting her cheek in concentration.
"I don't know. This isn't my country of choice."
"Hmmm..Right. Your country of choice is Germany." Izzi motioned for them to follow her down the stairs.
"Shut up."
"Hey, he was hot. None of us fault you," Izzi shrugged, remembering Joy's German "friend" fondly.
"Well...doesn't Mana have a shop around here?" Koinu asked.
"Yeah, he does," Emi nodded excitedly. "Can we go there, Iz? Do you know where it is?"
"I think I might." the older brunette looked at Joy, "What do you say, tall one? Up for some shopping?"
"Why not? We might as well."
""Yep. And I know this great bookstore we can go to afterwards. It's utterly fabulous."
"Fun," Emi said. "It sounds good. Lead the way, Iz."
"I am," she laughed. "But first, since we're at the National Library, isn't there something you guys want to pick up?"
"What?" Koinu and Emi looked confused.
"A certain book, per se?"
Comprehension dawned on both faces.
"Is it here?" Emi asked, bordering on breathless.
"But surely, it won't really work..." Koinu leaned forward, eyes wide. "If we open it, it will be just like any other book."
Izzi shrugged. "Peut-etre. Most likely. But, I mean, how cool would it be to just have it."
"What the hell are we talking about?" Joy cut in.
"The book," Koinu explained, vaguely.
Emi and Izzi laughed.
"The Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho," Izzi clarified. "It's a pretty cool book, about mythology of ancient China."
"Only you guys would think something like that's cool."
"Yeah, well..." Koinu let it drop. "How do we know Miaka hasn't found it already? It would suck to risk getting in trouble to find it, only to not be able to...you know."
"We'll never know unless we take a chance," Emi muttered.
They were standing in front of the restricted room by now. Izzi shifted impatiently. "Are we gonna do it or not?"
"I am so lost," Joy muttered.
Koinu patted her on the back. "We're here. We might as well do it."
"Do what?"
Izzi smiled slyly and pushed open the door.
"Wait," Emi whispered. "Do you know where it is?"
Izzi shook her head. "I've only been here a few days. It's not like I've really had time to check or anything."
"I'm sure we can find it," Koinu reassured her friend. "We're good like that.'
"Questionable," Joy muttered. Koinu smacked her.
The room was dark and, understandably, empty. The girls stood uncomfortably in the middle of it for a few very long moments.
"...well," Emi said, definitively.
"Yes, well." Izzi echoed her.
"Um, let's find this book and get out of here," Koinu begin scanning the closest shelf.
"Is this legal?" Joy wondered to no one in particular.
"Probably not," Emi grinned. "Do we even know what we're looking for?"
"Yep. Believe it or not, I can actually read the titles," Izzi called across the shelf.
"You mean, you did actually learn something in Japanese? I'm impressed," Koinu teased.
"Hey now! I tried!"
"And by "tried" you mean, of course, that you passed by the skin of your teeth," Emi smirked at her.
Izzi waved a dingy book at her, mock-threateningly.
A few more silent moments passed by, as the girls perused the shelves, struggling to make out the kanji and hiragana that decorated the sides of the books.
Izzi suddenly hissed, "I think I found it," her finger resting on the top of a worn red tome.
"Let's open it!" Emi cheered.
"Wait! Are we really sure we want it?" Koinu threw her hands over Izzi's before she could turn the cover.
"Hell yes!" Emi gave her a look.
"No," Izzi said slowly. "Koinu's right. There's a lot to consider."
Emi turned the look upon Izzi, "What's there to consider? We go to ancient China and meet lots of hot guys."
"Yeah, and possibly be raped or devoured by a beast god in the process. Or killed in battle. Or have a hundred other horrible things happen. I think we should think about it more before we actually do it."
Koinu bit her lip, "But every day we put off opening it, is another that Miaka could find it."
"Then grab it and let's go. Mana's store is waiting," Izzi smiled.
Months passed before the girls thought about the book again. Life returned to normal once they stepped off the plane back in the States, and college life carried them apart. Koinu and Izzi remained near their small Kentucky hometown at a large college, and Emi and Joy drifted out of state in different directions.
At their respective schools, Joy, Koinu, and Emi tried to adjust to their new way of life. Freshman year was posing some interesting and difficult challenges for them. Large classes and unsympathetic professors were strangely new to them.
At Kentucky, Izzi lost herself on studies of anthropology and psychology, wishing she could get to her core classes sooner. The hurdles the others were learning to jump were old at to her, and she just wanted to be more focused on her core classes.
Facebook held them together, though barely, as they each fought their way through lectures and midterms, long, late nights and early mornings. Status updates and notes let them know of each others' comings and goings, when phone calls and letters just couldn't happen.
Izzi and Koinu were lucky. Fate had them living down the hall from each other. Actually early housing applications had them living down the hall from each other, but...same difference. It was this luck that allowed them to plan a gathering for the joint Fall Break the girls would be having. Emi was the first to descend on their old hometown, bringing wildly hilarious tales of her fashion design centered world back with her. Joy soon followed, her eyes flashing with mischievousness as she expressed her love for astronomy and her humorous exploits in Indiana to the other three.
Other friends came and went, but it was just the four that gathered on Friday night before the end of break. They sat in a circle in Izzi's dorm room, paper cups of soda in their hands, a notebook documenting their high school years spread open in front of them. Izzi's roommate Katen Grisam sat on the bed behind them, laughing occasionally at the stories being swapped.
"It's amazing," Izzi sighed. "As much as we did together, there was so much that happened when we were apart."
"So many good times though," Koinu added. "Together and apart."
"It's still that way," Joy murmured. "I love Indiana, but sometimes I really miss being with you guys."
"I can't help but feel that we're all growing apart," Emi looked sad. "We rarely see each other anymore, and it's difficult to find a time to even chat on the phone."
"Does it ever get better?" Koinu almost whispered.
Izzi looked at the beige cement wall. "I don't think so. I love college. I love my friends and professors here. But at the same time...there are so many of my closest friends that I feel like I've grown away from, and can't really get back to. I feel like I've drifted to far to ever really return." She downed what was left of her drink. "But, happy thoughts, guys! It's Fall Break!"
"Let us drink and be merry," Emi grinned at her cup.
"All grief to refrain," Izzi finished the lyrics from her favorite song. "Let's do it."
"I think it's the wrong kind of drinking, Iz," Koinu coughed.
"I think if I come back here drunk one more time, they'll expell me."
Joy raised her eyebrows, "I don't want to know."
"Izzi doesn't like being sober," Emi patted the sophomore's back.
"I do so like being sober! I'm sober now!"
"For once."
I hate you."
"I know."
"So, uh...Izzi?" Koinu prodded the girl with a big toe. "Is that the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho under your bed?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I couldn't leave it at the house."
"The what" Katen looked up from her French homework.
Joy leaned forward, grabbing the book from under the long comforter, "It's a book they stole from a library in Japan. They seem to think it's magical or something."
"We do not!" Koinu protested. "It's just...This really great anime is based around it, and we thought it would be cool to have."
Emi and Izzi exchanged tongue-in-cheek grins and Emi pulled the book from Joy's hands.
"Just when the country is on the brink of destruction, a girl appears to open the portals to another world and obtain the divine powers of Suzaku..." Emi read, opening the cover of the book.
"Don't you dare turn that page," Koinu warned.
"Why not?"
"We agreed we were going to think about it! Remember?"
"It's been five months! I think we've thought about it enough!"
Izzi closed the book. "Em's right. It has been five months. But have we really thought about it?"
"Iz," Emi looked at her, "Miaka did it. If Miaka can do it, I'm sure we can do it."
Koinu giggled, "Not that we don't have a lot of faith in Miaka, but..."
"Yeah."
"It's probably not even going to work." Izzi leaned back, putting her weight on her hands.
"But on the off chance it does, I think we should try," Emi pushed her back. Izzi toppled and Emi grabbed the book and reopened it to the first page. "Who's with me?"
"I am!" Koinu cheered, her mind spontaneously changed, and leaned closer to Emi and the red book.
"Someone's got to look after you guys," Izzi sighed, leaning forward as well.
"I'm just going to step away from you guys, and pretend I don't know you," Joy muttered, meandering over to where Katen was working.
"Well, let's see if it works," Izzi snorted.
Emi smirked, and rereading the first line, turned the page. As soon as the blank second page became visible, a stunning red light that seemed to stream from the seams of the old tome engulfed the girls. When it faded away, they were gone. Joy and Katen stared at each other.
"...the hell?" Joy whispered.