Disclaimer: Fushigi Yuugi belongs to Yuu Watase, not to me. ^_^ The other, non-FY characters are ours, though, as are the particular personalities of the reincarnated seishi, and the story ideas in general. ^_~ But yeah, FY does not belong to us.
Notes: Ari: I mainly write the story itself, but all of us (Yume, Mirai, and Ari) contribute ideas and such to it. It's a group effort, no da!
Modern Miko
In times of great need, when peril and conflict revisits the accelerated time of the Universe of the Four Gods, new avatars are chosen, drawn by a cause outside of their own existence. The Celestial Gods reassemble—the same essence, but somehow altered to fit in the new situation that awakens them.
Suzaku. Seiryuu. Byakko. Genbu. They cross time and dimension to wrap another set of young girls in their eternal story. To find the ones that can save them.
And in an entirely different time and place, where the sun beats down and phantom pools of water shimmer on the horizon, a strange invention fulfills a not so foreign need.
"AC!" shouted Yume, letting the blast of cold air blow back her red-brown hair. She turned the dial still further.
"I think that's enough," her friend laughed from the back-seat. She flipped one of her blond braids over her shoulder and tried to duck out of the buffeting air.
"Ari, you'll be missing this once we step out into the heat." Yume shook her head as the van pulled into the parking lot. All too soon, they were parked and shuffled into the shopping center, the humidity heavy in the air.
Ari glanced not-too-subtlely at a used bookstore at the end of the row of shops, but Yume was quick to notice and just as quick to form a petition.
"Ari and I want to go over... there." Yume gestured toward the store vaguely, but her mother nodded with little hesitation.
"I'm going to the craft store, you two be careful. Are you sure you don't want to go with m—"
"No! Um, no thanks," Yume said with a smile. "Is Trav going with you?" she teased, nudging her cousin, who glared at her.
"No way," he mumbled. They separated, and the three teens entered the store.
The door swung open stiffly, a bell ringing as they passed through. Almost lost in the narrow shelves of books crammed into the store was a desk where a stuffy-looking old man sat, eyeing them as they passed. Ari met eyes with him briefly but warily, taking in all the dusty books that overwhelmed the shop.
Running her finger across the spines that stretched as far as the eye could see, she became lost in the sheer amount of ancient literature.
"Have you ever seen so many old books?" she breathed.
When no one answered, she forced herself to look away from the cracked and faded covers.
"Yume?"
Ari spun around, but no one else stood in her row. Great…
She half-ran down the row of shelves until she reached the end, and then peered around the corner. Still no Yume. The next row, she still had no luck, although she did find Travis, crouching beside a yellowing stack of comics and gaming magazines.
"Trav?" She stood behind him and tapped him on his shoulder. He subconsciously brushed her away, scanning the pages that seemed like they might fall apart in his hands.
"No, no Yume. Can't leave yet. Come back later."
"I'm Ari. Have you seen Yume? I was sure she had been right behind me." Ari fingered a braid thoughtfully, still glancing up and down the row for any sign of her friend. When Trav only shrugged, she knew she wouldn't be getting anything more out of him and stalked off to find Yume herself.
**********
Ari almost didn't find the door at the very back of the bookstore. It was easy enough to miss—the same color as the walls, hidden behind stacks of books piled haphazardly to the ceiling. A few of the books slid from their piles; a few towers leaned dangerously. It was the last place to look. Pressing in closer to the door, she pretended to ignore the pale green light it seemed to be giving off.
"It probably just leads outside. Or, it's probably locked, I'm sure." Even so, she hesitated as she reached for the doorknob. When it seemed to be stuck, she thought for a moment that her guess that it was locked had been correct. Then it finally gave, and the door creaked open on rusty hinges. The 'imaginary' green-tinged light swirled around her, but when she blinked she found Yume grinning up at her, books scattered all around.
"Did you see…?" The words stuck in Ari's throat. I don't need her to think I've gone crazy. She took in the books that surrounded Yume, bending down to pick one up.
"They're Japanese," Yume said, also flipping through one. "And Chinese, too, I think."
Ari nodded. She and Yume knew a little of the languages, after taking some classes together the year before. This find certainly was interesting.
The small backroom was dimly lit by a lamp hanging from the low ceiling. It had no windows, and only the one door. A few shelves lined the walls, but most of the books had been dumped into seemingly random boxes, of which a few had been poured on the floor by Yume.
"Mostly histories… some poetry," Yume said as she skimmed through a few more of the slender volumes. Ari peered into some of the boxes, and then turned her attention to a shelf on the far wall. Leaning over and placing her hands on her knees, she scanned the names, not sure exactly what she was looking for. She brushed a finger across a section of books on the third row from the top of the shelf.
Green tigers…what? That makes no sense, why did I think of that? She turned to call Yume over, and jostled the shelf. A red book with a white spine fluttered to the ground, face down. It was slightly charred around the edges. Ari folded her legs under her and bent to pick it up, but by that time Yume had gotten there and snatched it off the ground.
Flipping the book over to read the characters—ancient Chinese, though the book itself had been translated into Japanese at one time—Yume frowned thoughtfully.
"Why would someone try to destroy this?" she wondered aloud. "But at the same time… it doesn't look damaged." Yume looked up at Ari, then back down at the book. She then grinned.
"Now I've got to know what's in this book," she laughed, beginning to turn the page. Ari's hand caught her wrist, and she let the pages fall. "What now?"
"Call me superstitious, but what if this book is… black magic? Or something like that." Ari shifted uncomfortably.
"Pfft, it just looks like some book on the history of ancient China to me. See? 'The…Universe of the Four... er… Gods?' Harmless." Yume rolled her eyes and began to read. After one last exasperated sign, Ari scooted over so she could see it too.
"The book itself, is a…" Yume said out loud, brows furrowed. Ari leaned closer to the book.
"Spell. Yume, it says spell. Do I need to say I told you s—"
The world lurched. Countless memories not her own flashed through her mind, none of them clear, but all of them as real-seeming as the room she was in. A thousand lifetimes later, in that split second of the physical world, Ari shivered and looked back at the slender red volume spread between her and her friend.
"I… I think we should put this back, Yume." Her voice sounded odd to herself, for a reason she couldn't explain. "Yume?" Ari's friend seemed hypnotized by the book, scanning the strange characters eagerly. When she finally looked up, her eyes shone with excitement.
"See here, Ari? If one reads through the book, supposedly they get a wish… anything in their wildest dreams! And then they—"
"Stop right there. You can't possibly believe this stuff." Ari met Yume's gaze sternly.
"Let me have a little fun," Yume laughed. "I… guess I don't really think it's true. It's really weird though… for a minute, I wanted it to be." Ari raised an eyebrow. "It's just a book… a story! Lots of stories have wishes in them, and they don't expect you to believe them. It's like, um… and ancient Chinese fairy tale!"
"I guess so," Ari finally said.
"Okay, good. Now where was I…" Yume scanned the first page. "Right. 'The one who reads the book… will get a wish, just like the girl in the story.' "
The girl in the… story? A green mist seemed about to swallow her. Phoenix…? The room was suddenly very cold, and began to spin. Below her. Thoughts skittered across her mind but didn't seem to make sense, so she did her best to ignore them. All there was, was a floating sensation, a scream she thought idly that she should recognize, and everywhere, enveloping all her senses, the pale green light. And then darkness.