Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #7: Lady Suzaku and Iron Fist
"While Tokyo-3 proved to be the epicenter of humanity's conflict with the otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels', as well as the growing presence of superpowered individuals, its sibling city Tokyo-2 was not without its own strange phenomenon. Such an example came on the day that two late-year junior high school students, outgoing and optimistic Miaka Yuuki and her more intelligent and mature best friend Yui Hongo, visited the National Library in order to prepare for the entrance exams of the highly competitive high school Jonan Academy. While there, the two girls followed strange visions of a phoenix-like bird and a dragon into a special collections room of the library, where they come upon an ancient, mysterious-looking book called The Universe of the Four Gods; unknown to them, this book was actually a disguised form of the legendary magical tome known as the Book of the Vishanti. On opening the book and beginning to read a passage from it, the magic within the book suddenly caused the two of them to vanish in a flash of light, unseen by anyone within the building. From there, the two girls were transported to two different realms, both hidden in pocket dimensions within the Himalayan mountain range.
Miaka wound up on the doorstep to the magical sanctuary known as Kamar-Taj, a place for those studying to master the mystic arts. Deemed an intruder by the guards, Miaka was brought before the master of the sanctuary, Taiitsukun the Ancient One, to plead her case. Determining that her presence here was brought about by mistake, Taiitsukun offered to train Miaka in the magical arts to help her not only get herself home and find Yui (as without the Book, she herself was unable to do so), but also help defend herself against those who would threaten the sanctity of Kamar-Taj; she also sensed great mystical potential within the girl, in spite of her particular quirks (be they her anime fandom or her appetite). For the seeming months that followed, Miaka proved to be an adept pupil (in contrast to her average level in normal academics) as she studied alongside others such as the vain but responsible Hotohori; the soft-spoken gentle giant of a healer, Mitsukake; and the child prodigy Chiriko. Miaka ended up performing quite a feat of heroism when she discovered another of Taiitsukun's disciples, the sadistic so-called Baron Tomo, attempting to kill the Ancient One and usurp both her power and that of the other students. Though still a novice, Miaka used what she'd learned so far to confront Tomo while sending out a warning to Taiitsukun and the other students. Coming to her aid, the others helped restrain Tomo before Taiitsukun banished him to another plane as punishment. For her bravery and selflessness, Taiitsukun personally took over the rest of Miaka's tutelage, helping the girl become quite a skilled sorceress who could even utilize the legendary artifact known as the Eye of Agamotto; she also gifted Miaka a near-sentient Cloak of Levitation. For the final spell she would teach her, Taiitsukun worked with Miaka to locate the whereabouts of Yui. It wouldn't be long before Miaka learned of Yui's fate...
Yui, as it turned out, had been transported to the gates of the hidden city of K'un-Lun, home to a society of powerful and skilled martial artists that appears on the Earthly plane periodically. Yui was nearly prey for a pack of vicious mountain wolves, only to be saved by archers from the city's guard. Yui was then brought before Yu-Ti, the hooded ruler of K'un-Lun, where he listened as she explained her circumstances and her desire to find Miaka and return home. Yu-Ti informed her that without the Book, both tasks would be difficult, but he offered that as long as she was here, she would learn martial arts as a means of defending herself against threats greater than a pack of wolves; he did so after sensing within her a personality based around conflicts and contrasts, being a girl who, while intelligent, mature, and sensible, had a faith in people that is easily shaken. Therefore, learning K'un-Lun's martial arts would be a way to help her overcome the dueling sides to her personality. Accepting his offer, Yui, in the same amount of time Miaka learned magic, trained alongside others under not only Yu-Ti, but the likes of Lei-Kung the Thunderer. Her fellow pupils included the level-headed cross-dressing melee fighter Nuriko (real name Ryuuen Chou); the bladed fan-wielding, quick and agile former bandit Tasuki; and the wise, yet light-hearted monk Chichiri. Another pupil was the merciless and charismatic Nakago, the adoptive son of Lei-Kung, who bristled at Yui's presence due to her status as an outsider, and would be exiled from K'un-Lun for his failure at the city's greatest challenge. Yui proved to be the most gifted student of Lei-Kung's, to the point where she was offered by Lei-Kung and Yu-Ti the opportunity to obtain the power of K'un-Lun's immortal weapon: the Iron Fist. To do so, she would have to first defeat the ancient dragon Seiryuu the Undying, guardian of the frozen heart that had been torn from his body. Correctly guessing that the heart provided Seiryuu with life-energy funneled into the dragon-shaped scar on his belly, Yui, on challenging the beast, leaped onto said belly and covered the scar, clutching at it and holding on for dear life until Seiryuu collapsed and died; this also imprinted a similar dragon scar above Yui's own chest in the process. With Seiryuu dead, Yui entered his cave, located the altar bearing a brazier holding the frozen heart, and plunged her fists into it, emerging from the cave now with the power (and title) of the Iron Fist.
When she returned to K'un-Lun, greeted with cheers and congratulations from her fellow students and masters, a portal soon opened in the middle of the city, with Miaka and Taiitsukun emerging from it, having succeeded in finding Yui. While catching up, it was revealed that Taiitsukun and Yu-Ti were old friends. After all pleasantries were exchanged, Miaka and Taiitsukun cast a new portal spell, one that enabled her and Yui to return to their own home (though, for Miaka, not without being given a number of texts and tomes from Taiitsukun, to encourage better study habits), while being given means for them to keep in communication with their respective new sets of friends. Both their respective mentors also informed them that, equipped as they are now with their newfound knowledge and skills, they were responsible for defending their plane of existence from all kinds of terrors and threats, be they ancient or from beyond.
When Miaka and Yui did return (the former adopting the alias Lady Suzaku, after the vermillion bird of legend, for her magical alter-ego), they discovered that time flowed differently in the realms they'd been in, as in their world, only several hours had passed. Realizing they still had to study for the entrance exams for Jonan Academy, Miaka and Yui crammed fervently until the day of the exams came; both passed, though in Miaka's case, with flying colors. After starting at Jonan the following year, the two found themselves confronting a number of mystic and martial foes in their hometown, from the religious zealot known as the Silver Dagger and the vengeful Baron Tomo to the sinister Master Khan and the exiled Nakago, who'd become a freelance assassin known as the Steel Serpent.
The girls would first encounter the superwomen of Tokyo-3 a year after the battle against the Angels (and the secret cabal known as SEELE) had finally been won, when Tokyo-3 was invaded by a horde of Mindless Ones, extradimensional monsters that acted as the foot soldiers of the dreaded demon sorcerer Dormammu. Miaka, as Lady Suzaku, and Yui, as Iron Fist, assisted the superwomen (who'd banded together as a team known as the Avengers) in dispatching the Mindless Ones and sending them back to the Dark Dimension; the two became great allies to the team as a result. During an incident where the time-traveling despot known as Kang the Conqueror temporarily trapped the Avengers in a temporal void, Lady Suzaku and Iron Fist were two of a number of superpowered allies of the team brought together via their 'New Avengers' protocols to defeat Kang and bring the team out of the void. Miaka and Yui, along with the others, were then given reserve Avenger status by the team's leaders for their efforts.
The girls' respective boyfriends would also get in on the superhero action as well. Taka Sukuname (Miaka's beau) used a family heirloom, the Amulet of Bastet, to become the latest in a long line of warriors known as the White Tiger. Tetsuya Kajiwara (Yui's beau and a friend of Miaka's older brother Keisuke), blinded since childhood but possessing an uncanny 'radar-sense' and great fighting skill, donned the garb and moniker of the 'man without fear': Daredevil. The four of them would subsequently form an Avengers-adjacent team dealing with more esoteric threats called the Defenders, with one of their toughest battles being against a deadly, mystically-enhanced clan of ninjas called the Hand."
*Author's Note(s)*
For the next round of Superwomen of EVA allies, I plucked a couple of characters from an anime that became a guilty pleasure for me: Fushigi Yuugi. When I began plotting out my Superwomen of EVA Avengers story ("Superwomen of EVA: Earth's Mightiest, United"), I originally envisioned these two appearing in an omake, but then figured the logistics wouldn't pan out. This didn't mean I was giving up on doing something with them, hence this piece.
I gave these two their respective Marvel mantles (Miaka, if you hadn't guessed, being the stand-in for Doctor Strange) as a means of giving them a little more agency compared to their canon selves-especially with the case of Yui, who really got the short end of the stick in Fushigi Yuugi proper, which is why I wanted her to have a role that really let her fight back against her circumstances and kick all kinds of ass (especially Nakago's). (Also, it felt amusing to think of Miaka uttering a riff on one of Stephen Strange's usual catchphrases with "By the Hotohori hosts of Hoggoth!".)
As for a visual representation of all this, for the second time ever I turned to the services of DeviantArt member Zair-dacorus, who did a truly fantastic rendering of what I laid out. For Miaka's outfit, I had them blend her canon 'Priestess of Suzaku' garb with the usual colors and trappings of Doctor Strange; as for Yui's Iron Fist getup, instead of the usual looks (or even the one sported by the current guy holding the mantle), I had them base it on Chun-Li's outfit from the Street Fighter Alpha games, though the banded bracers from Danny Rand's 'white costume' phase were kept. Thanks again, Armando!
