Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yuugi, or any characters therein. They all belong to Yu Watase.

A/N: Thank you so much KittyLynne for your kind review! I've enjoyed reading your stories so much, I'm honored you like it! It was in re-reading your stories that I became so inspired, I had to write! Thank you for always being so kind in reviewing and giving encouragement! I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Chapter One: The Book's Hiatus

"Miaka...you have to cheer up, please?"

Miaka Yuuki, Priestess of Suzaku and holder of the Scared Scroll squeezed her eyes shut and made a very immature noise.

Yui sighed.

"Miaka, you're acting like a two year old. Now, either get out of bed or I'll push you out!"

The Priestess peeked out from beneath her downy pillow and sniffled.

"I..I can't. I don't want to get out of bed. I like it here. Its soft and I made a pillow castle."

Yui felt her temples begin to throb. Rubbing her forehead ruefully, she took a deep cleansing sigh and tried to use a calm, indoor voice.

"I know, Mi-chan. And we've all said what a magnificent pillow castle it is..." Yui could have sworn she caught glimpse of a red nose snuffling hopefully from beneath the bundle of covers and pillows. Yui had to admit, the pillow castle was pretty impressive. The thought however that her twenty-three year old friend had stayed up two days creating it, even making a 'mote' with all her blue socks had Yui a little worried.

"Was.. there any mail today?" asked the bundle, a mouth now visible as Miaka peeked out at her friend from beneath her blue comforter.

When Yui said nothing, Miaka felt her eyes well with fresh tears.

"Oh..."

Yui, her heart torn at seeing her friend so upset, walked towards the bed and stepped over the 'mote' as she went. She sat on the edge of the mattress, and lifted the blue coverlets to reveal a red faced, tear soaked Miaka.

"I'm so sorry, Mi-chan."

Miaka tried to smile, but only succeeded in scrunching her face as tears made Yui's face swim before her eyes.

"I-Its okay, Yui-chan. I'm okay..."

Yui patted what she guessed was Miaka's back, although she couldn't quite tell because her friend was still cocooned in her comforter.

"I know you feel like you should have done something more. But Miaka, you've done everything humanly possible to get the book back. It just..." Yui paused, trying to catch Miaka's eye as her friend clutched a well used tissue to her dripping nose. Yui reached out and gently pushed Miaka's bangs from her wet cheek.

"It just wasn't meant to be."

Miaka's whole body seemed to tremble, and Yui immediately felt the weight of guilt pressing down on her conscience. She hated to see her friend so upset, but someone had to be realistic. The Universe of The Four Gods was gone, taken back by its rightful owner and there was nothing any of them could do about it.

"Yui .. you don't understand," Miaka said hoarsely, her voice so unlike the usually vibrant, cheerful woman she had become. Miaka pulled herself up, pushing the covers off and exposing her rumpled t-shirted upper half for the first time in days. She felt the urge to tell Yui everything-- the dreams, the fears she had that Konan was in immanent danger...but something held her back. Desperately, Miaka searched her heart for any sign of the presence that she had grown to cherish over the years. Suzaku...

"Its gone. I can't feel it..." Miaka closed her eyes, her expression fearful. Yui felt a flicker of panic rise herself as she watched her friend. Yui had known that when Miaka had received word that the National Museum of China was demanding the book's immediate return she would be heart broken. Miaka had been furious, challenging the museums rights to the book on the foundation that the museum had lost it, therefore they had no justification to take it from her against her will. The book's 'rightful' owner had even contacted Miaka from China, saying that her case was ridiculous and that he would personally come to Japan himself if she did not relinquish it. The book he said had been his father's discovery and it had been his father's last wish as head curator for the National Museum of China that it be put on display.

'If your father thought this book was so valuable, so priceless a piece of Chinese history, why then did it end up in a Tokyo public library?' Miaka had countered.

But the wealthy business man, who it seemed to all was not very interested in his father's wishes and much more interested in gaining a priceless artifact merely said that if Miaka did not send him the book, he would call the appropriate authorities.

That had been two weeks ago.

Miaka had desperately tried to contact anyone and everyone who might be able to help her argument. She had spent hours on the telephone with the Public Library where the book was first found, but no one seemed to recall it and it wasn't in any computer system they could search. She called the literary department at the University of Tokyo, hoping that they might be able to help keep the book in Japan at least. They had not contacted her back. Lastly, after feverish visits to a lawyer that demanded far for money than information, Miaka had contacted the one person who she'd sworn never to talk to again.

'Hi dad,' Miaka had said over the phone in a calm, controlled tone. Yui had been so proud of her. Miaka's father, who was currently giving lectures on the ancient symbology of Shinto art in New York had spoken to her for a long while-- Yui had left the room to allow them privacy-- but when Miaka had hung up the phone, she had retreated to her room without a word to anyone.

Thus, the construction of the pillow castle had begun.

Yui gazed at her friend with concern, wondering silently whether or not the past few weeks had been so stressful, that Miaka was now hallucinating.

"What can't you feel, Mi-chan? I know we've always felt a connection to the book, after all we've been through, but--"

"No.." Miaka shook her head urgently, her eyes bright with tears.

"No, its not that. Its more..." she drew her knees up to her chest, her eyes gazing beyond where Yui sat in an unfocused way.

"I used to be able to .. to feel it. Just the way someone can feel sunlight, or snow. It was always there. Even after T-Taka and I..." she stumbled over his name, her face filling with grief. "...After Taka and I came back for the last time, and the pages began to fade...I could still feel a presence within me."

Yui leaned closer to her friend, concern now plainly written on her face. She remembered when Taka and Miaka had come home, the very last time they had visited Konan. After that, the pages of the book one by one had begun to fade, and even though Miaka kept checking it religiously to make sure Konan, Suzaku, and the rest of her friends were okay everything seemed to be changing. Besides the fact that the book now seemed to be losing its power, Miaka and Taka had lost something as well. When they broke up, Yui had been there as Miaka grieved. She had not cried for days after she had told Taka she could no longer marry him, and Yui had been worried beyond belief. It was so unlike Miaka to be introverted and hide her feelings. What worried her still to this day was that Miaka had never fully explained her reasons for breaking up with Taka. Of course, she had told Yui that they were just not compatible, that they had grown into two different people and had in turn grown apart. But Yui had felt that there was something more simmering beneath the surface.

"I feel like I've lost them...all of them..." Miaka said softly, her voice so laden with the weight of her sorrow that Yui felt it within her own heart too. She knew Miaka was referring not of the book itself, or its worth-- but of the people she had come to know and love within its pages.

She leaned towards her friend, and enfolded her within her arms.

Ever since they had been five years old, Yui had always depended on Miaka's strength to illuminate the best parts of life. Now she feared that by losing the book, Miaka had given up.

"If only I could reach them...! If only I could--"

Yui felt her friend freeze within her embrace.

"Mi-chan? We'll think of something. Please, you have to get up and eat..."

"Yui!" Miaka exclaimed breathlessly, pulling back from her and locking an amazed, frightened and .. excited gaze on her.

Yui knew that look. Dread filled her as she realized something terrible had just happened.

Miaka had devised a plan.

TBC... !

(I have the next chapter already written, so I'll be posting it soon! Its much longer in length that this one, but right now I'm madly re-editing it. Thanks so much, and have a great weekend!)