Disclaimer: Koneko and Koinu do NOT own Fushigi Yugi and are making no profit whatsoever from this piece of mumbo jumbo. Copyrights and such belong to Yu Watase and all those other people who had a hand in making the series what it is today. WE LOVE YOU, YU WATASE!!!!!!!!!!!
We do however own Tsubasa, Vincent, and Rei-lin.
A/N: This story is supposed to begin some time after Miaka and Yui finally closed the book. In reality about 100 years have passed. In the book's reality, only about 10 years. The way we look at it, the book slowed it's time to prevent the deterioration of the story. Kind of like going into hibernation I guess you could say. And more about the second cycle, we like to think that it began with Yui summoning Genbu in the first OAV.
Next chapter will have information about family ties and such. Please review and let us know what you think! Maybe even let us know which seishi you want to see introduced first out of Chiriko, Mitsukake, Chichiri, and Nuriko? We look forward to those reviews!
-Koneko and Koinu (The Cat and The Dog)
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Prologue…..
Within the Universe of the Four Gods there exists a one hundred year cycle. In every cycle four ordinary people are given a chance to make their dreams come true using the power of the god they are called to summon. Genbu, Byakko, Seiryu, and Suzaku- this order has existed before time itself came to be. Takiko Okuda, Suzuno Ohsugi, Yui Hongo and Miaka Yuki completed their cycle.
And so it begins again…
Three of the four gods have granted their power to their chosen.
Only one remains.
It begins….
Red…light. Blinding in fact.
Red…surrounded by flames.
Red…the beautiful phoenix positioned before him.
Red…mesmerizing. Entrancing. He wasn't able to tear his eyes away.
A single sentence spoken before reality reclaimed him….
…FIND ME…
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Vincent sat up in his bed with a start, rubbing the side of his head sleepily amazed to find a thin sheen of sweat across his face and neck.
/God, not another one. I'm never going to sleep good if they don't stop./
He muttered obscene words as he glanced over at the alarm clock on his desk.
/And its not even 7:00 yet!!/
Vincent flopped back down on his stomach indignantly, burying his head into his pillow, groaning unhappily. He may never get back to sleep now. Oh well, may as well get up. His best friend and cousin, Tsubasa, would probably be waiting at the train station for him around 8:30, so why not get a head start?
Vincent pulled himself out of bed and stumbled around the room getting dressed. After finishing that, he stumbled out the door of his grandparents home and down the street only to realize he forgot one of his textbooks on the dresser. Grumbling angrily, he turned and stalked back to the house to reclaim the wayward book.
Finally reaching the train station in time to see Tsubasa nearly fall down the stairs as usual, Vincent called out to his friend who looked up grinning sheepishly.
"Ohayo Vin-kun! You're here awful early."
"Ohayo Basa-chan. Looks like you could use a hand there." Vincent smirked and held out his hand to the silver haired youth.
Tsubasa gripped his hand and was yanked up by the stronger boy. Vincent tossed a few locks of dark red hair from his face and laughed.
"What's so funny?" Tsubasa demanded.
"I swear Basa. You seemed to have gained some weight in the last week or so."
The younger boy make an indignant squeak and punched Vincent in the shoulder.
After doing so, he dashed onto the train. "I think you've gained some too!!! IN YOUR HEAD!!!"
Vincent followed him, his green eyes sparkling with mirth. Today seemed to be going pretty normal so far.
/Except for that damn dream. I can't get it out of my mind./
He stared thoughtfully out the window at the passing buildings practically in his own world until Tsubasa poked him in the arm.
"Oy, Vin-kun, are you okay? You keep staring off into space with this dreamy look in your eyes…"
Vincent laughed softly. "Don't worry Basa. I just had some problems sleeping last night. I should be okay."
Tsubasa went back to poking at his handheld. "If you say so.."
Vincent grinned and swiped away the gaming device from the other boys hands. "Well, I do say so, and this is a school stop so you need to put this away silly."
"Oh my god! No! Don't do that! I was just about to….beat…that part.." Tsubasa trailed off as defeat music began to emanate from the speakers.
Vincent cringed. "Sorry Basa. But you know the school rules. No form of entertainment whatsoever… or its demerits for you!"
Tsubasa slouched down, crossed his arms, and pouted. Obviously, he was making himself as visibly annoyed as he could at the older boy.
Vincent tucked the handheld into his bag and continued staring out the window until they finally reached the school drop off point.
And the day seemed to pass fairly normally until about one in the afternoon, when Vincent and Tsubasa walked into their history class. For the last week or so, they had been studying mythology and legends, and had reached the arc of Chinese legends. And their teacher had even promised a surprise today. A translated version of an ancient manuscript that reportedly had so much mystery and superstitions about it that it had literally been erased from modern history books.
As they sat down, Vincent's eyes were drawn to the desk. There was something funny about that book. Maybe all those weird tales that their teacher had told them about had some shred of truth in them. All legends had to start somewhere after all.
The instructor entered the room and the entire class rose to greet her. After that they were seated and the role was called by the class leader.
Once everything was ready for class to begin, the teacher explained that the book would be passed around so everyone could read and mark the fact that only three pages of the book were used. A girl spoke up in the second row that if the book was the basis of a religion, why is it so short.
Another student piped up before the teacher had a chance to say anything. "Because the story was never finished!"
The teacher smiled. "That's correct! The story was supposed to begin anew every time there was a new priestess. According to what has been found out about it, the book is said to write its own ending depending on the actions of its priestess." She then handed the book to a girl in the first row, who looked at the pages inquisitively, then passed it to the next person.
"So do we have any volunteers to read the text?"
As the book was slid onto Vincent's desk, he raised his hand with out even knowing why and told her that he would read.
He stared at the manuscript he held in his hands. "Wait. You all said 'priestess', right? Then.. why does it say 'young man'?"
The teachers eyes lit with unmistakable joy. "It seems the book may have taken a liking to you! Read it!"
Vincent cleared his throat and looked around the room with uncertainty. "Okay.. Here goes.."
"Herein contains the tale of a young man and his quest to gather the seven constellations of Suzaku together.
And if you, the esteemed reader, should read to the story's end, the spell contained within this book shall bestow upon you the powers of the hero and grant your wish.
For indeed the moment the first page is turned, the story will become reality."
Vincent chuckled. "Well, magic's not real so.." He slowly turned the first page of the Universe of the Four Gods.
The red light he had so often seen in his dreams engulfed the classroom, swallowing him up into a seemingly unending brilliant red void. A single note of a phoenix's call was all that was heard as he vanished from his reality.
The students stared in shock. The teacher couldn't hide her smile. Tsubasa leapt from his seat and ran to Vincent's desk, picking up the book and flipping it open.
The teacher's smile grew bigger. "Well Tsubasa, looks like you just volunteered to be our reader!"
Tsubasa looked up at her, horror-stricken. He finally managed to stammer out "Y…You're excited about this!?"
"Yes, I have to say that I am!" She chirped back.
"My best friend just got sucked into some god-forsaken book and who knows if we'll ever see him again and you all think it's fun and games!!" Tsubasa snapped.
The teacher coolly replied "He's a Sukunami. Every single book on the subject has been written by either someone with the last name of "Yuki" or "Sukunami". I think this was a little more than a mad scientist project Tsubasa. I truly believe this was destiny."
Tsubasa growled under his breath "You're a teacher. You're not supposed to believe in destiny." He looked down at the book that he held in his hands, watching as the text wrote itself out across the pages. He didn't like this book. It felt.. alive. Something just wasn't right about it.
"Well are you going to read, or not?" the teacher asked him.
He growled something else before sitting down in the chair and clearing his throat. Flipping back to the page that Vincent left off on, he began to read:
"The young man slowly began to wake up after his hard landing left him unconscious……."
Vincent sat up, head in his hands, groaning. "Gahhhh… what the hell did I hit?!"
He drew back a hand only to find blood on his fingers. Not a big enough gash to incapacitate him, but it still stung like all holy hell.
/This is all that damn teachers fault./ He looked around at his surroundings. /I just HAD to hit the only damn rock in this stupid desert. Wow, sure is desolate. Might be hard to find civilization out here./
He stood up, brushing sand off of his uniform, and looked to the sky. "DAMN BOOK!" he yelled to no one in particular. He sighed as his voice echoed and died away. Might as well start walking. Hopefully he would make it to somewhere before the sun set. Hopefully.
He had barely taken ten steps when the sound of horse hooves caught his attention. He turned to the noise and saw a hooded figure passing him on a chestnut brown horse. Obviously he was a traveler. Maybe they could help him find the nearest city? Never hurt to ask.
"Oy! Mister!"
The horse stopped and the hooded figure turned to look at him.
"Yeah, you! Help a guy out here? You can start by telling me WHERE THE HELL I AM."
What seemed like a young boy answered him.
"You don't know where you are?"
Vincent snorted. "Well duh. I wouldn't be asking if I did!"
"Do you have amnesia?" The rider trotted his horse over to him.
Vincent looked up and squinted trying to see beneath the hood. The angle of the sun made it difficult to locate any features, so he gave that up. God this heat was unbearable, especially while wearing his black school uniform. He undid the top button of the collar and pulled at it, trying to get some air to circulate. Sweat was already falling in small rivulets down the side of his face and neck.
"I know the head wound looks kind of funny, but I do know who I am. At least a ride to the next town then or wherever your going?"
The rider gaped at Vincent. /How could he have gotten all the way out here and not remember any of it? That's a lot of desert to cross on foot./
The rider chuckled softly. "I suppose I could give you a ride to the next town. There's a sandstorm on its way that should be here in a few hours and I would hate to leave you out here. They're nasty this time of year."
A hand reached up to grasp the top of the hood and pulled it down to reveal a young girl, about his age with dark blue hair and sparkling amethyst eyes. Any other features were hidden under the light brown cloak she wore about her shoulders to keep the sand off.
/Holy crap. I got that gender wrong./ A slight flush crept to his face when he realized his mistake. He cleared his dry throat. "Well, my name's Vincent. And yours?"
"Heh, that's a weird name! Mine's Rei-lin." Her smile was bright and cheerful. "As for where you are, You're currently in the Konan empire."
Vincent stared. "I'm in a what?"
"Konan. You know, the southern most of the four kingdoms?"
Her incredulous stare was beginning to bother him.
/Four kingdoms… Oh man.. That means I really am in that damn book "The Universe of the Four Gods"./
He looked up as she extended a hand to him. "I don't mind taking you to the next town. I hope you don't mind riding pillion!"
Vincent smirked. "Anything's better than this wasteland!" He gripped her hand and was hoisted onto the back of the horse, who shifted slightly to accommodate the extra weight.
When he was seated properly she flicked the reins and they began to traverse the leagues to the next town.
After riding in awkward silence for about ten minutes, she finally broke the tension between them.
"You know," she began, "Konan wasn't always like this."
Vincent clung to her back tightly, afraid of falling off. "What changed?"
"Well, there has been a serious drought these last few summers. The deserts grown to twice it's original size and most of the lakes and streams have dried to trickles or disappeared completely. I remember when I was little, there used to be plains of nothing but green grass as far as the eye could see. Now all we have is sand. The grass died out long ago as well as trees and other vegetation. It's been rough with no crops or water."
She noticed the weight against her back had increasing slightly while she talked. The idiot had fallen asleep during her speech! The nerve! She mumbled something under her breath and held tighter to the reins. This was going to be a loooong ride.
Hour after hour seemed to pass until she finally gave up trying to count.
Rei-lin frowned up at the sky as it began to grow darker. The sandstorm was faster than she had previously thought. She might not even make it to the next town before it hit.
She prayed to Suzaku for the best and urged the horse into a full gallop.
Mere moments later, the sandstorm was upon them in full blast, the roaring wind whipping her cloak around and sand stinging sharply where her skin was exposed to the desert air.
The horse stopped, neighed shrilly, and begin to dance in place in panic as its flesh was scraped by harsh, stinging desert sand. Rei-lin closed her eyes in an effort to protect them, more than certain that she probably wouldn't make it out alive. Then, to her shock, although the roaring winds were still loud in her ears the sand had stopped tearing at her skin. She was even able to bring her horse under control again, although its ears were now flat against its head. It was not happy one bit. And she couldn't blame it.
Upon looking up, she discovered that she was encased in a red shield, just big enough for the small party to be shielded from the desert storm.
Rei-lin glanced back at her passenger, who was still asleep, yet was glowing a faint reddish color.
/Still asleep after this near-death experience? He's got some balls. It has to be him generating this shield. I wonder who he is really.. I mean, he couldn't be IT. Could he?/
The sandstorm raged around them for a few more hours, then died down until the desert was calm and placid once more. Then, as if nothing had ever happened, Vincent woke and the shield around them dissipated with a faint 'whoosh'. Yawning sleepily and rubbing at his eyes, he inquired,
"Why did we stop?"
Rei-lin stared.
"Do you have no idea what you did??" She said, her eyes wide with surprise.
"I did something?" Vincent replied, just as baffled as she was, his head tilted to one side.
"Yes.. you.. I mean.. Well, just a short while ago the sandstorm caught up with us and we were engulfed in it. Then, out of nowhere, this reddish aura covered us and it was coming from you because you were glowing too!"
"Wait. I was glowing?"
"Yes, Vincent. You were glowing."
"No wait! Seriously! GLOWING?"
"Yes, dammit!" She fought the urge to cuff him.
"I don't glow. I have no mystical magical freaky powers. I. Don't. Glow."
"Well, if you don't have any powers, then what did you do?"
"I did nothing!"
"Then what the hell are you anyway??"
Vincent whispered softly, "I'm really not so sure myself.."
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