A/N: Lalala.. another chapter, yay! I like this story, it's fun to write on. A lot better than Empty Pages, it seriously kinda sucked. And, two reviews, yay. One more than I was expecting! Since one was from my cousin. XD To chennaigirl: Thank you for reviewing! And, yeah.. it is a little confusing, I agree. All of my stuff is confusing. Heh.

But anyway! Everyone who is reading this, enjoy! This includes my cousin who I didn't include in the asking to enjoy last chapter. Lawl. So, yeah.. enjoy if possible. Sorry about the confusing quality.

Disclaimer: I don't own FY, or anything that anyone else owns. Like in the last chapter, the books Hikari was looking at.. I only own copies, not the rights to them.

"Suddenly, everything is up to me

The pages turn, flashing full of memories

I can see all too clear

The time has come to face my fear.."

Second line from the song 'Advanced Wind', from Wild ARMs 3


Chapter Three: Pages Turning (since Advanced Wind just sounds silly)

Yuuki Kiyori was incredibly bored. She was wandering around the library, looking for something for her father, Keisuke Yuuki. It was completely against her will, because she didn't much like the library. Sure, it had romance novels, which she loved, but she would rather watch romance than read it. She wasn't much of one for reading, really. With an annoyed sigh, she scanned the shelves, and grumbled in annoyance to herself when she didn't see the book her father requested. She only knew the title, though, because she hadn't paid attention to what he was saying. Until her mother told her to get up and go do as her father asked. So there she was, looking for a book that she had no idea what was about or even if it was actually a magazine rather than a book.

"Crap, 'tou-san, why couldn't you have repeated yourself before I left?" she whined to herself, pulling a book out from the shelf, and glancing at the title. Nope, not the one she was looking for. Not even a candidate. With a deep sigh, she slipped it back onto the shelf, and glanced around. Maybe someone she knew was there? Maybe she could ditch the place with a friend and tell her father that they didn't have it that day. That could work. Unfortunately, she didn't see anyone she knew.

Except.. she squinted a bit, and peered towards a nearby sitting area, to see a familiar looking child. "Emori?" she mumbled, tilting her head a bit in confusion. Why would Emori be there by himself? Especially in the non-fiction section? Taking a few steps closer to the sitting area, she soon realized that it was, indeed, Emori, and he was holding a rather old looking book, with another old looking book sitting on the table in front of him. Glancing around the area, she didn't see Mitsuaki, Trisha, Risami, Uiko, or Josie - or their parents. Who was the kid there with, then? He was only seven, of course he couldn't be there alone.

But, what if there had been an emergency and the person he was with had to leave without him? That would be bad. It really didn't look like he was with anyone. Biting her lip, the concerned older-sister side of her won over, and she walked over to him, bending over the seat next to him, looking at him. "Hey, Emori. Are you here all alone?" she asked, her eyebrows knitted together into a worried frown above her eyes.

The little boy jumped a bit, and jerked his head up, so he could look at her. She watched him blink, then look back down at the book, petting one of the pages, and then look back up at her, confusion on his cute face. "I was with Risa, Hikari-san, Airi-san, and Juria-san and they were looking at these books, talking about universes and things like that.. I wasn't really payin' attention, 'cause it was boring, but then Risa opened this book, and a big green light came out! Hikari-san, Airi-san, and Juria-san tried to grab Risa, but then it was like the light pulled them in! Whoosh! Then they were gone!" he exclaimed, looking back down at the book he was holding, petting the pages again.

What was he talking about? Must have been watching too much TV. She petted his head, before glancing around, and noticing that not one seemed to be paying attention to them. Even if she did believe the boy's story, that would have disproved it. If that had really happened, wouldn't someone have noticed? She would think so. "Wow, Emori. That's quite a story. So that means you're by yourself, now?" she asked, just deciding to go along with it.

He looked up to her again, and nodded his head. "Yeah, that's what I said. They're in this book, now." he told her simply, glancing back down at the book, and flipping back to the front page. Kiyori smiled a bit, and reached down, grabbing the book from him and closing it. "Hey!"

"C'mon, Emori. Let's get you home, alright? I'm sure your parents are concerned. We'll try to get Risami-san, Hikari-chan, Airi-san, and Juria-san out later." she reassured him as he started to protest, and then watched as he reluctantly nodded his agreement, and then stood up. "Good boy. I think I'll take the book home with me, okay?" He looked up to her, and pouted, but eventually nodded. With a smile, she guided him towards the door, glad that she'd found some way to get out of the chore of finding her father's book.


"Hey. You."

Hikari heard a voice talking to her, and she clenched her eyes more tightly shut, waving a hand absently. She was tired, she wanted to sleep.. let her sleep...

"Wake up. Where'd you come from?"

The voice continued to persist, and she mumbled, rolling over onto her side, her hand over her head. Didn't they understand, she needed her sleep, school completely sapped her of her energy..

"HEY!"

And that time the voice was accompanied by a shove. "AH!" Hikari exclaimed, rolling over away from the offender, and rolled onto her knee, her other leg stretched out with her foot on the floor, and a hand held out threateningly. She blinked a few times, trying to wake herself up enough to figure out what was going on, and finally, she saw the owner of the voice. It wasn't her mother, after all. In fact, it was a young woman about her own age, with moderately long dark brown hair, and bright blue eyes. The girl was wearing.. odd clothes. Rather old. And Chinese-looking. Blinking, the Sukunami girl let her gaze wander about her surroundings, not really taking the other girl as too much of a threat.

She was in what appeared to be.. an alleyway? That in itself was strange, she didn't remember going into an alleyway. She remembered.. the library. And looking for library books. Twilight and another New Moon, to be precise. Then how did she..? Suddenly, she remembered Airi showing up and talking crazy stuff about a universe and her parents and stuff. Then being pulled along to a table, and then.. a book flashing it's story through her head. It took place in Ancient China. Her eyes widened as she remembered the last thing that happened - she and Juria had been arguing with Airi about whether or not to open the book, when suddenly Risami opened the book and she was lit up in a green like… Genbu no Miko? Seemed like it. Then she, Juria, and Airi all tried to grab Risa before she got pulled in, and..

"Ho-ly crap!" she exclaimed, snapping her gaze back to the girl in front of her, and looking her over, her eyes slightly narrowed. If she was a Priestess, it was likely she was the Suzaku no Miko. Which meant that, if her story when like her mother's, she would be meeting Tamahome first. And the girl sure didn't look like any Tamahome that Hikari would have ever pictured. Which meant that her story must not be like her mother's. This girl probably wasn't even a warrior! Though, she was taller than herself, and seemed just about as strong.. "Who are you?"

"Excuse me?" the other girl asked, raising an eyebrow indignantly, and crossed her arms on her knee. She was kneeling, obviously having been so next to where Hikari had been laying. "I think the better question is who are you? Or what. What is a good question, too." she said, glancing towards the sky, and then back down to the teal haired girl, who frowned in confusion. What? "Falling out of the sky like that.. and I don't mean you fell off a roof. You fell straight down."

Oh. Well, that was a good question. Looking directly up at the sky, she saw that there was really no way for anyone to be on the roofs of the places next to her, anyway. Far too tall, would have to be able to jump really high to get up there. Since there didn't seem to be any way to climb up there, that is. "Ah.. I'm Sukunami Hikari." she said, looking back down at the girl in front of her, who was still kneeling, her crossed arms still resting on one of her knees. "And I'm human. Really. That's it. Well.. possibly the new Suzaku no Miko. It depends."

The girl's eyebrows shot up at that, and soon, she was right in front of Hikari, an eye slightly narrowed. "Suzaku no Miko..? If you're from 'another world', how could you possibly know about the Priestess?" she inquired, and Hikari blinked, backing up slightly, falling onto her bottom.

"Uh, well.. that would be because I'm the daughter of Yuuki Miaka and Sukunami Taka.. or, well... probably better known as Tamahome here," she stated, scooting back a little ways from the girl. The girl seemed to just sit there for a moment, staring at her, before she backed up slightly, blinking slowly.

"Really," she stated, disbelief obvious in her voice.

"Really!" Hikari insisted, nodding her head, and glancing around nervously. This was definitely not what she would have expected, if she'd actually thought about going into the book after learning about it. She would have expected something more hospitable, like her mother's welcome. Tamahome saving her heroically.. okay, so, things were a little bit worse than that. So maybe her welcome was a little better than slave traders, but couldn't the girl at least be a little more trusting?

"Give me some proof, then," the girl requested, holding out a hand, palm up. Hikari blinked, and looked at her palm, then back up at her. She wanted evidence of her being from another world, or evidence of her being Miaka and Tamahome's daughter? She didn't really have any physical evidence of the latter, but she did of the first. Grabbing her purse, she looked at it, trying to decide what she would show the other girl. There were several things that made it plain that she wasn't from 'around there'. May as well go with the most obvious. With a slight nod to herself, she pulled out her cell phone, and held it in front of the other girl. The other girl just stared a moment, slowly raising a hand. Once her hand got high enough to touch the phone, she jerked it back, and gave Hikari a suspicious look.

"It's alright, it's just my cell phone. It… well, see," she reached forward, and flipped it open, showing the inside to the brunette, who had reeled back, not seeming to trust the thing in her hand one little bit. "Oh come on, it won't hurt you. See the numbers? You dial in a sequence of these numbers – see, you press the buttons, like this – and then press the green button. Then it calls the phone with that number, and you talk to the person who owns that phone. It's a.. communication device. But I don't think it gets any service here.." she muttered the last part to herself, turning the phone around, and typing in Juria's number, then holding the phone to her ear. After a moment, a message spoke up, telling her that she was out of range, and she could have laughed. Yeah, I'd say I'm out of range. Ancient China..

"Alright, I'll be the judge of whether you're from another world or not. That could just be a.. a magic box, or something. Let me see it," Hikari heard the other girl speak up again, and glanced up to her, to see her reaching for the phone in her hand. Blinking, she looked to her phone, before nodding, and handing it over to the other girl. She grabbed the phone gently, before holding it in front of her face, and flipping it open. "Whoa, it.." she trailed off, staring at the glowing screen, with a picture of Taka and Hikari as the background. "Whoa! That's you. And…"

"The original Tamahome, my father Taka," Hikari stated proudly, crossing her arms over her chest, and smirking at the girl sitting in front of her. Now, once she had the girl convinced, she could have her lead her to the palace, and she could somehow introduce herself to the emperor – Boushin? Or had it been too long for that? – and then set off on her journey to find her friends and the Suzaku Seishi! If she was in Konan, that is. What if she was in Kutou? Or Sairou, or Hokkan?

As she was losing herself in these thoughts, she didn't notice as the girl slowly rose to her feet, padding just as quietly over to a bag that she had left up against one of the walls. But she did notice when she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps moving rather hurriedly away from the alleyway. Hikari blinked, and looked at the empty ground in front of her. There wasn't any brunette, nor was there any cell phone. It only took Hikari a moment before realizing that the girl had run off with her cell phone, and she was immediately on her feet, running towards the opening of the alley.

"Hey! HEY!" she shouted as she ran out of the alley, glancing to the right, and then to the left, trying to spot the back of a woman with long brown hair and dressed in slightly more masculine – for that time – women's clothes. She didn't see her, but she did spot a woman who looked a little perturbed, as if she'd been run into by some rude teenager. "Oh! Ma'am! Excuse me, but have you seen a girl about my age, with long dark brown hair run past?"

"Did I see her? How could I not have seen her, she ran past, with no regard for those minding their own business," the woman huffed, brushing off her skirt, and glaring over her shoulder, before looking back to Hikari, giving her a slightly apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I must seem a grouch, but I really am not. She went that way, if you're trying to find her." The woman motioned behind herself, and then bent down, grabbing a basket from the ground, beginning to pick different vegetables and fruits up and put them in the basket.

"It's okay, I understand," Hikari said, quickly bending down and scooping all the fruits and vegetables she could into the basket, before smiling at the woman once more. "Thank you very much, I hope I see you again." She said, leaping to her feet, and running off after the thief.

As she ran, she dodged past people, apologizing occasionally if she happened to bump into any, and stopping sometimes as well, to ask if anyone had seen the pretty brunette run past. Some said they had, and pointing down the way she was heading, and others were not at all helpful. So, she just continued to run down the street, wondering if the girl had superhuman speed or some sort – it sure was difficult to catch up with her. But of course, Hikari reminded herself, I've never been here. She's probably lived here her entire life. It was definitely a disadvantage for the teal haired teen.

It was right about when she was going to ask a rather irritated looking old peddler, whose wares seemed to have been knocked to the ground, if it was the brunette who'd knocked the things down, when she spotted a familiar head of long brown hair. "Ha! I've got you now!" she muttered to herself, and started towards the other girl. As she did so, however, the girl suddenly hopped up on a large crate, then turned around, opening up Hikari's phone, and then holding it out for the crowd to see. Hikari skidded to a stop, and stared, slack-jaw at the girl. This was triggering something in her memory, from when the book send the past story into her head. Her father had done a similar thing with the gum that her mother had given him, by trying to sell it. "Oh, no.. oh wow. Are you…? No way! She can't be… that would be just too hilarious."

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen! May I please have your attention for just a moment? I would like to see if any of you would be interested in a strange, communication device from another world!" the girl shouted into the crowd, moving the phone slowly to one side, then the other, for everyone around to see it. Hikari was finding it incredibly difficult not to start laughing. "It glows, so you could use it to see in the dark! I'm not too sure what all else it does, but that's the fun of it, it is a mystery for the buyer to solve!"

"'Ey, you can sell it if you want, but don't be all too surprised if you get an angry customer coming and banging on your door at night demanding a refund because it stopped glowing. You see, that needs charged pretty regularly, so it will work, and if it's not charged, it dies. This world doesn't have the means to charge it, sorry to tell you," Hikari shouted up to the girl, moving to the front of the crowd with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. As soon as she came into sight of the other girl, a look of annoyance crossed the other girl's face, before she glanced around the crowd, which was beginning to stop paying her any attention.

"Hey! Don't believe this girl, how would she know anything about it, anyway?" the girl said, with a slight grin, once again holding up the phone for the crowd to see. All she got in response was a few shouts of 'how do you know it's from another world?' 'if it's from another world, it had to come from somewhere, and she's wearing strange clothes, so..' and other things along the same lines.

Hikari couldn't help smirking even more at the girl who now looked very perturbed, as she glanced back down at the teal haired teen. And she couldn't help it, she had to annoy the brunette further, so she blew a raspberry at her. The brunette's eyes narrowed, then she closed the phone, and jumped off the crate, landing in front of Hikari, who couldn't help stumbling back a bit, startled. "Fine, you win. You can have your.. whatever-you-called-it back."

"Arigatou," she said, taking the phone as it was passed back to her, trying to think of how she would ask her next question. Whether or not the girl was the new Tamahome. Of course, it was very possible that she wasn't, after all, she hadn't fought anyone off or anything, she'd just stolen her phone to sell it. There was bound to be other people trying to make money in the Universe. So she decided she'd just try to figure that out later. "So, do you believe me now?"

"Yeah, I guess. You are dressed strangely and that thing is not like anything I've ever seen before," the girl said with a slight shrug, not really seeming to be very disturbed by the fact that it was a girl from another world. Which kind of disturbed Hikari, since, she knew that if there was someone from a more advanced world in her world, she'd be rather, 'what the heck?!' And disbelieving, despite the technology.

"Alright, uh.. cool. So… I'm Sukunami Hikari, though I already told you that. Since you know who I am, would you, maybe, I dunno, give me the courtesy of telling me your name?" Hikari asked, shrugging a bit as she slipped her phone back into her purse, glancing up at the other girl through her bangs. The other girl crossed her arms, and leaned back against the crate, half sitting on it and half just leaning.

"Fine. I'm Mai Tan Liu. Though, just call me Tanliu. Do I call you Hikari, or what?" the girl, Tanliu, introduced herself, shrugging a bit at her last question.

"Oh, uh.. yeah. Hikari, or whatever you want," Hikari affirmed with a slight smile, not really sure what they were supposed to do next. When the memories from the old book flashed through her mind, she saw that after that, Tamahome had left her mother, and then her Mom had searched to find him, eventually finding him, etc. But she didn't really want to bother with that, partly because she didn't really think that Tanliu was Tamahome. Sure, she seemed rather money-hungry, but that wasn't a specific trait for Tamahomes. Or was it? She had no idea, it wasn't as if she'd been studying this. "So, um.." she started, pressing the tips of her fingers together in front of her, as she glanced about the area.

Tanliu raised an eyebrow, then also glanced around, then back to Hikari. The teal haired girl had to wonder what she was thinking as she sighed, rolled her eyes, and pushed away from the crate. "So, um? I would think a girl from another world would be a little more articulate, but whatever. First, we have to figure out if you really are the Suzaku no Miko. I'm still not completely convinced you're from another world, but I'll buy it for now. Okay, so.. the Suzaku no Miko shows up in time of peril." The brunette trailed off, taking a few steps to the right, a finger on her lower lip, seeming to be thinking. Hikari blinked, watching her. "Well, we've got that covered."

"Your country is having problems?" she inquired, and Tanliu looked to her, blinking once, before snorting a bit, and grabbing the Sukunami girl's arm. "Huh, what are you-" she started, but was cut off as the brunette started to drag her off somewhere. "Hey! Where are you taking me? Hey! Heeey!"

"Having problems is a little bit of an understatement, Hikari," Tanliu stated, continuing to drag Hikari off somewhere. They passed by many different people, some who gave them confused looks, disgusted looks, though Hikari didn't really pay too much attention to them, except to apologize to any that they might bump into. "See all these people? They're rather well off. So am I."

"Well off? They look.." the teal haired girl trailed off, frowning slightly. She didn't think that they looked 'well off', or at least what she thought of when she thought of well off.

"They're healthy. They're buying things. Do things look pretty normal to you?" They came to a stop, and 'Kari nearly ran into Tanliu, who was pointing towards a stall nearby. She blinked a bit, and peered around the brunette, noticing a woman seeming to be bargaining with the owner of the stall. The owner seemed rather forlorn, as he said something to the woman, who seemed to sag a bit, and look to a child standing beside her, their hand holding on to her skirt. She smiled rather sadly to the child, before looking back to the stall owner, saying something else to him, and he just held up a single meat bun. The woman eagerly nodded her head, and took the bun, before handing the man the amount he asked for, and hurrying off to another stall.

Hikari frowned in confusion, and concern. What was the problem with giving her the meat bun? And why didn't he give the woman more? She obviously needed more, that child was at a growing age. She looked up to Tanliu, who was staring sadly after the woman and child, and the touched her shoulder. "Why wouldn't he give her more..?"

Solemnly, the brunette turned to look down at the teal haired teen, and sighed a bit. "Because, as I said, our country is in trouble. Somehow, the crops keep dying, the animals, everything. There's no clue as to what it could possibly be. So we have a major shortage on food, and there's nothing we can really do about it." She stated, glancing back to the stall where the man was now sorting the few bits of food he had left. Hikari also looked in that direction, her frown fully concern now. It was hard to look at, now that she knew. "You better be the Suzaku no Miko, or I don't know what we're going to do."


"I'm home!" Kiyori called out as she got to her home, glad to have returned Emori to his house. Evidently, he had been with Risami and the others, but they must have abandoned him. But, being the caring person she was, she made up an excuse about how they wanted to go to a PG-13 movie and so, when they saw her, they asked her if she would mind taking him home, and she accepted since she was heading home anyway. Mr. and Mrs. Ienari, thankfully, accepted the story just fine, thinking that it sounded like the girls.

As she trudged in, she slipped off her shoes, and then glanced up, wondering where her parents were. They might've been towards the back of the apartment. It would make sense, since if they'd heard her, they would have replied with a 'welcome home', or a 'hey, Kiyori, did you get my book/magazine?' She still didn't know what it was. Maybe it was even a book on tape. Who knew besides her Dad? She shrugged slightly, swinging her bag from her back, and onto the coffee table. It was a lot heavier than it had been when she left, seeing as how she now had two rather thick books in her bag.

"Alright.." she muttered to herself, glancing down the hall towards the bedrooms and the other rooms her family could possibly be in, then glancing at the bathroom door, then towards the kitchen, and then back down to the bag on the table. "May as well see what the books are.." She moved around, and flopped onto the couch, tucking her legs up underneath herself. Leaning forward, she pulled it open, and then reached in grabbing the second book that Emori pointed out just before they left the library. Evidently, the other four had all grabbed this one first, then dropped it and 'acted funny'. Looking over the cover, she raised an eyebrow, running her hand over the cover. "It's so old.. and, what is this writing? How could they even read this?"

"Kiyoooori! What's that?" She suddenly heard a high-pitched, annoying voice piped up, and she sighed in aggravation, placing her arms over the book, looking up and glaring at her nine-year-old sister, Orika, who was standing just across the coffee table, with a bright, curious smile on her face, holding a stuff bear almost as big as she was.

"It's a book. I can't even read it, so naturally you can't, so go back to doing whatever you were doing before. Okay?" she told her sister, giving the little girl a rather tight smile. The brown haired girl just blinked at her, before moving around the table, and trying to peer at the book in Kiyori's arms. "Hey!" she exclaimed, as Orika trying to pry her arms away from the book. "Stop it!"

After a bit, Kiyori finally managed to get the book out of her little sister's reach; the little girl reached for it frantically. "Kiyoriiii! Stop it, I just wanna look!" Orika whined, before sniffling slightly, and pulling away from her older sister, tears welling up in her eyes. Kiyori rolled her eyes, and started to apologize, but before she could, the younger girl had turned and run off towards the back rooms. "'Tou-saaaan, Kiyori is being meeean!"

Kiyori started into the usual 'I am not, don't believe her' exclamation, when her father, Yuuki Keisuke, walked out of their study, looking rather aggravated. He must have been working on something. She wasn't completely sure what he would be doing, but it probably had to do with his hobby. Whatever it was, she honestly had no idea what he did in his spare time. But, back to how he looked. He looked like they'd either interrupted something important, or she had 'been mean' to Orika one time too many. "Kiyori-chan, what were you doing to your sister?"

As I thought, she thought in annoyance. Their Dad had taken the younger sister's side, as usual, and didn't bother to hear her explanation. Well, she could always try to explain anyway. Frowning, she pulled the book back down to her eye-level, and showed it to her father. "I was trying to figure out how to read this old book, and she just came up and tried to take it from me! I told her it wasn't interesting, I mean, I can't even read it, but she just wanted to.. 'tou-san?"

Keisuke was looking at the book in Kiyori's hands in horror. It was the most fearful look that she could recall ever seeing on her Dad's face. It looked as if either she or Orika was in mortal danger, and there was nothing he could do about it. She was about to ask him what the matter was, when he rushed forward, and grabbed it from her, turning his back towards her. "Hey! 'Tou-san? What the heck?" she exclaimed, getting to her feet, and then peering around her Dad, trying to look at the book in his hands. "Have you read it?"

He just continued to look down at the book in his hands, before flipping it open, and then flipping all the way to the back of the book. Why was he reading the end first? Maybe he did that, Kiyori didn't know how her Dad read books. When he read the end, he seemed to let out a slight sigh of relief, and then turned to her, handing the book over. "Sorry, Kiyori. Yes, I've read it before.. I just was, uh… I didn't really like it, though I couldn't remember the end." That was one of the lamest excuses Kiyori had ever heard, but she decided to let it pass, and nodded slightly, grabbing the book back from her Dad, before looking back to her bag.

"Have you read the sequel?" she inquired, looking back up to her Dad with a curious head-tilt. He blinked slowly, before turning to look at her, his eyes slightly wide.

"S.. sequel?" he asked, and she nodded, setting the book she was holding down next to her bag, reaching into the bag and searching through it for the first book Emori had handed her. Finally, her hand found the book, and pulled it out, before handing it to Keisuke, whose eyes had grown to an abnormally large size. "Ma.. Mayo! Get in here!" he called, looking over the cover of the book, grabbing the front cover, and then letting go of it, almost as if it was forbidden for him to open it.

"What is it?" Kiyori's mother, Mayo, asked as she walked out of their bedroom, where she was doing who-knows-what, whatever mothers do when they're alone in bedrooms. The red haired woman brushed a loose lock of hair behind her ear, as she walked up next to Keisuke, glancing at the book in his hands. Her eyebrows shot up, and then right back down into a frown. "Is that.."

"Yeah. It refers to you-know-what," he stated, motioning to the word Universe – the title was written in Japanese, so Kiyori could understand it – and then looking up to Mayo, who looked rather horrified. What was with her parents and these books? She frowned at both of them in confusion, before deciding to let them talk about that book, and so she grabbed the other book. Once it was in her hands, she moved around the coffee table, and sat down at the couch, opening it up.

As soon as it was open, millions of things flashed through her mind, and soon she knew the whole story, and the book was on the floor in front of her. She had seen visions of her aunt Miaka and sort-of-aunt Yui get sent into a book, and then her father following along, Miaka saving the entire book world, then her mother, longing after her uncle Taka and despising her own life, went into the book to fix her own life, though only making things worse. It was after that that the story ended, and it had her in a state of confusion. Emori had been telling the truth, if the images in her head were true. It hadn't been the delusions of a child who watched too much television. Her eyes slowly trailed up to the book in her father's hands, and then up to the faces of her parents, which were facing her with identical looks, their eyes slightly wide. "'Kaa-san.. 'tou-san… Hikari-chan, Juria-chan, Airi-chan, and Risami-chan are in that book."

Keisuke and Mayo both stared at their older daughter in horror for a moment, before looking down at the book in his hands, and then up to each other. "I thought it was over.." Mayo whispered, almost as if speaking it aloud would make it too real. Her husband just nodded slightly, before flipping it open, starting to read it aloud, after what was already familiar.


Risami was cold. Very, very cold. Colder than she could remember ever having been in her entire life, and she had to wonder if she was dreaming. Because, it was Summer, why would she be so cold? Unless she had a fever and was having chills, but that's not what it felt like. Actually, it rather felt like she was laying in a snow drift or something. Maybe if she remembered the last thing she'd been doing she would know why she was so cold.. she had been in the library, if she remembered right. Library, library..

It was then that she remembered the two books she and Airi had found, which lead to her remembering the memories that flashed from the book into her mind, and that led to her remembering the second book. Which she had opened, from curiosity. When I opened the book, there had been a big green light! Oh, man, is that really what happened? Did I actually get sucked into the book..? she thought to herself, her mind reeling. Why would she be in snow? That was right, there was that cold country. It was also the country of Genbu, the green tortoise. Does that mean I'm the new Genbu no Miko? She thought, her eyes snapping open at the thought.

The first thing she saw was tree branches, and bright sunlight behind them. She narrowed her eyes slightly, and held up a hand in front of her eyes, to shield them from the bright light. "Sure is sunny for Hokkan.." she muttered, slowly raising into a sitting position, placing her other hand down on the ground. She was in snow, she could tell by the cold, wetness underneath her hand. "But just as cold as it I.. uh… the other book remembers it," she continued, glancing down at the snow beside her, and then up at the trees around her. They were surrounding her. A forest? It seemed to be, since she couldn't really see past the trees.

It was amazing to her. This just simply fascinating, and she felt a slight smile tug at her lips, as she pushed herself up onto her knees, then her feet. Sure, it was rather nerve wracking, but she figured she was probably a little bit in shock, from getting sent into a book and having been lying in a pile of snow. She was probably going to freak out later. Unless this was all a dream, in which case, she was going to enjoy it while she could.

"Alright, so.." she started, glancing around the area, before settling her gaze on the most clear patch of trees. "I'll go that way." She decided, and started in that direction, her arms wrapped around herself, trying to keep herself from shivering too badly. It was better to go somewhere, than to just sit around and wait for one of her seishi – if she was, indeed, the Genbu no Miko – to find her. She'd be dead meat if she did that. Though, since she couldn't really feel any part of her body anymore, she figured she was probably dead meat anyway, but she may as well try.