AN: Thank to Kaze-chan and A-chan for putting up with all my questions and giving me all the help you gave me.

Chapter 1:

"Chiaki? Chiaki?"

Chiaki's eyes drifted to the entrance of her small bedroom.

Her mother opened the door a moment later. "Telephone," she announced and held the device out to her.

The girl shook her head. "I can't."

"But it's your grandfather," Rioko persisted.

Again she shook her head, waving a piece of paper in the air towards her, sitting up on her bed. "I'm about to go to the library. I have to finish this report on Ancient China within the next few days. Please tell him I said 'hi', though. "

Her mother sighed, stepping out of the room, and closing the door behind her. Chiaki's eyes flickered back to the stack paper set before her. With a sigh, she stored it between the pages of her textbook and, setting it aside, stood, pulled her coat on over her uniform, and left the house. It was a cold, dismal day in Tokyo, making her wish that her school uniform included some type of slacks. It then struck her that she could have changed before she left the house. With a shrug, she continued anyway.

The slush lining the streets was a dirty gray like the sky, the buildings, and everything else in the city that icy evening. Chiaki buried her face into the collar of her jacket and quickened her pace- the library wasn't going to be open forever. After crossing a street here, rounding a corner there, she reached the steps of the supposedly majestic building, and took them up, two at a time. Two girls, junior-high age she guessed, ran from the building, almost crushing Chiaki on their descent and she caught a few words of their rapidly frantic conversation as they went. "…Priestess… gods…. you and me... and Tamahome was so… you still angry with me?" She shook her head, entering the building. "Kids," she sighed, with a shake of her head. Of course, she envied them inwardly. Friends must have been nice to have.

The building was comfortably warm, and so she shed her jacket, draping it over her arm as she walked to the librarian's desk. Looking over the rim of his glasses, the librarian asked, "Can I help you?"

"Yes… Where are your books on Ancient China?"

"Ancient China? Down the hall, it's the first door on the right."

Thanking him, she turned and headed towards the dimly lit hallway. She wandered down it quickly, but after reaching the door on the right, she hesitated before heading to the room the librarian directed her towards. Her eyes were drawn to the hall across from her, and she stared at it, as if mesmerized, for several minutes. Suddenly, blinking rapidly, she shook her head to clear it, realizing she must have looked ridiculous gawking at the hallway as if she had never seen one before.

She reached for the doorknob of the room she intended to enter, when a sharp jolt bursting into her fingertips made her withdraw her hand hastily. Examining the knob, she determined that the shock was just from built-up static, and reached to open it again. She cried out in surprise when she was shocked again, more harshly this time. Rubbing her tingling fingers, she found her gaze drawn to the second hall once more. Something about that dark corridor made her shiver. Chiaki's eyes darted from the door to the hall and back again. She felt as if something were inviting her- pulling her, actually- to it. And that made her wary of approaching. She turned her back on the second hall and reached for the door again, but it seemed to shrink away from her outstretched hand. Her eyebrows knit together.

"How strange," she murmured. It was as if someone- or something- wanted her to take that other path. She tried for the door again, taking a step towards it this time. But the same thing happened-the door shrank back. With an aggravated sigh, she turned to the hall and yelled, "Fine! Have your way!"

A man leaving one of the rooms paused when she spoke, staring at her with an arched eyebrow. Chiaki blushed, heading towards the hallway. Her pace was quick and confident for the first handful of steps but she slowed with uncertainty halfway down, and by the time she reached the next room, she had stopped fully. There was a door at the end of the dark hall, barely lit by a solitary vending machine humming against the wall. Other than that, the hallway was basically empty. There weren't even additional doors, which surprised her. She didn't see anything that would interest her, leaving her to wonder why the pull for her to reach the place had been so intense.

She was about to turn around and go back to her studies when she thought heard a faint warbling screech that reminded her of the sound a bird made, but not quite, and she was fairly unsure that it wasn't her imagination. Chewing her lip in uncertainty, she looked at the closed door- it beckoned her the same way the hall had- and then glanced back down the corridor. There wasn't that insistent pull that there had been to get her to travel down it anymore. The transfer made her uneasy.

"Okay," she whispered, slightly anxious, staring at the door again. "What is going on? What do you want from me?" She didn't expect an answer, and didn't get one. After standing there for several uneventful minutes, she threw her hands in the air with a sigh of exasperation. "This is ridiculous… I'm standing here, talking to a door, wasting my time when I have a paper to write." She turned to leave. A red, shimmering burst of light shot passed her head with the birdlike screech that she had heard earlier. With a cry of surprise, she whirled, immediately falling into a defensive stance and ready to make the transition to offense, if need be, with her eyes darting back and forth in search of what shot at her. But there was nothing to be found.

Chiaki looked at the door. Without even realizing it, she walked towards it. Tacked onto the wood was a sign, warning that the room was for staff only. Fighting the urge to look back, she opened the door. She expected a spectacular result, but as far as she could see, there was nothing but dusty books sitting on dusty shelves in a dark and dusty room. She frowned, stepping further into the room, and closed the door behind her. A flash of red caught her eye and when she turned, she saw shimmering feathers burst from the bookshelf, and dim as they fluttered to the ground. She drew back for a moment, staring in awe and slight horror at the spot of the strange phenomenon, when it occurred to her that maybe the feathers, however weird their appearance may have been, were pointing her in the direction of an explanation of why she was there. Approaching the bookshelf that the feathers piled in front of, she fell to her knees, and plucked a feather from the small mound and twirled it between her fingertips. It was ruby-colored, and extremely soft, a beautiful, but clearly unnatural item. She heard the cry again, and startled, she dropped the feather. Looking at the shelves, she set her coat aside and gently touched the area she suspected the unusual feathers had come from, tilting her head to the side to read the titles of the books.

'The Universe of the Four Gods?' Curious, she pulled the book from the shelf. The written piece of work was old and worn, but oddly enough, not as dusty as the other books in the room. As if it had just been used. 'The Four Gods… isn't that in Chinese history?' she wondered. With a smile, she opened it. Maybe it was exactly the book she needed to finish her report. Gingerly, she turned to the first page, and began reading the faded Chinese print. Delight took hold as she realized that it was, in fact, a book on Chinese history-a myth, in fact. "… four beast-gods. Seiryuu, Genbu, Byakko, and Suzaku…" she murmured to herself. "Each god had a priestess and seven celestial warriors…" She looked up, thoughtful. "A warrior huh? A warrior of Suzaku…" 'That would be an adventure.'

Suddenly, the book burst into a shimmering, vivid, rose-colored light. Chiaki cried out in alarm, shielding her face from the brightness. The cry quickly faded and became a scream as the soft light snaked around her like arms, engulfed her completely, and pulled her into the pages of the book. The next thing she knew, she was floating through a strange, sort of dream-like atmosphere. When she attempted movement, it was sluggish. 'This is a dream,' she tried to assure herself. 'This is a very strange dream.' And quite immediately, she found herself tumbling head over heels through night air, to end up being caught, rather painfully, in a tree. She stayed there only seconds before the branch she tangled in gave way beneath her weight and took her crashing to the ground. Chiaki groaned, rolling off of the branch as its twigs stabbed into her back, and fought to catch the breath that had been cleanly knocked out of her. After she was certain she was still alive, could breath once more, and had no readily noticeable broken bones, she lifted her head and examined her surroundings. It was dark out, and the entire forest, if that was, in fact, where she ended up, was bathed in pale silvery light. It took her a moment to realize that the clear, crisp light was moonlight. And it was warm out, a sort of balmy type of weather that was quite different from the icy winter of home.

"Where am I?" she wondered aloud, pushing herself into a sitting position. She winced a little from the bruising she had come in contact with since falling into and from the tree. "And how did I get here?" She stood, and immediately collapsed again as a sprained ankle made itself known. She rubbed the throbbing limb, grimacing.

A snapping twig sounded behind her, followed by crunching footsteps. Chiaki rose to her knees, balling up her fists in case she had to defend herself, and looked back. A blond young man stepped into view.

"Priestess of Suzaku!" he hissed. "I should have known it was you!"