Yui passed the test Taiitsukun laid out for her, and she and her Seishi arrived at Mt. Taikyoku. There, Yui’s fever and injuries were healed, but for the sake of her family and Miaka, she chose to return to her own world.
However, she promised that she would return.

Episode Seven:

Author's Notes:
In Japanese, "Onii-chan" means "Big Brother,"
"Onee-chan" means "Big Sister,"
and "Imouto-chan" means "Little Sister."

"‘Taiitsukun then called the Suzaku no Miko and her Seishi to the main... to open the... to the Suzaku no Miko’s world,’" Miaka read, not even bothering with the difficult words. The faster I get this read, the quicker I’ll get Yui back...

*

"Take care of yourself and hurry back, Yui," Nuriko said, giving her a quick hug. She winked and softly added "Don't worry, I'll keep Tamahome in line for you."

"Just don't hurt him too much," Yui whispered back. "I'll come back as soon as I can."

Tamahome ruffled her hair. "Try not to assault any Emperors while you're gone. I won't be there to rescue you this time."

"I don't think that'll be a problem," she laughed.

"In my own case, however, it would be worth it to see you again," Hotohori said. "I'll be waiting for you. Come back soon."

Yui smiled. That was sweet of him, but there was no telling how long she might be gone... "Just don't wait forever," she said.

"Are you prepared, Suzaku no Miko?" Taiitsukun asked, seeming slightly annoyed. Of course, she always seemed slightly annoyed, so there was really no telling.

"I am," Yui said, stepping to the center of the circle on the floor as her three Seishi stood around her.

"Very well," Taiitsukun said. "As I said, this journey will be difficult because you have developed connections to this world. At this point, your will alone is not enough to take you back. You need a tangible object to connect the two worlds, an object that exists in both of them."

"That's simple, ‘The Universe of the Four Gods,'" Yui said. "I think we left it back in Konan, though..."

"It wouldn't work anyway," Taiitsukun said, as if Yui had been stupid even to think it. "The book is the doorway between worlds. You need something to get you not only to the doorway, but through it, or you might be lost between the worlds forever."

"But, how can something exist in two worlds at once?" Yui mused.

"Of course it can't. What you're looking for is two copies of something," Taiitsukun said impatiently.

Yui thought. It would only be logical for the thing to be something she had brought from her world... She looked down at her knees, trying to think of the things she had brought, and noticed the brown pleated skirt brushing across her legs. "Our uniforms!" she realized. "Me and Miaka's uniforms!"

*

"So, that's what's connecting me and Yui," Miaka realized. That's why I've been feeling everything that happens to her. If I'd known that, I'd have changed back into my gym clothes. It's not like I'll be any good to Yui if I faint.

*

"Very good, Suzaku no Miko," Taiitsukun said. "Feel your connection with your friend. It will be the beacon that guides you back. Now, the three of you, send your chi energy to Yui. Yui, accept their strength and visualize your world from deep within your soul."

Yui closed her eyes and concentrated, feeling the fabric of her uniform against her skin and knowing that Miaka was feeling the same thing. A moment later, she could feel her Seishi's energy gently touching her, soaking into her. Thoughts of my own world... I have to see Miaka again, and keep her from being hurt. Mom, Dad, my Onii-chan and Imouto-chan... How can I ever get them to understand this? I have to find some way, so I can come back...

"Fool!" Taiitsukun shouted, snapping Yui back to where she was. "If you let your mind wander, you may become lost in the void between the worlds forever!"

"I'm sorry!" Yui said.

"Don't apologize to me. It's yourself you're risking."

Yui took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. I can't fail. Too many people are depending on me... She began to think of the happiest moments in her world that she remembered. Playing with Miaka as a little girl, being carried on her father's shoulders, standing between him and her brother to look in the window of the hospital nursery when her sister was born, riding on the back of her brother's motorcycle last year... She giggled slightly at the thought of Miaka whining "My turn next" as they pulled up. Miaka pulling her around a carnival on all the rides, stopping for candy after every one...

Yui had to laugh at the irony. She felt a red light from beneath her, exploding upward with her laughter, throwing her upward into space. It's like before, when I saw Suzaku. I'm going home, she realized, opening her eyes and seeing the sparkling red space around her. Still laughing, she raised her head towards a portal of light. The way back to my world, she thought, feeling herself buoying up toward it.

Yui noticed something strange, and her upward motion slowed as she grew serious, scrutinizing it. From the faraway portal, there was a sparkle of blue light, swiftly growing, then suddenly shooting past her like a blue comet. It sent her tumbling through space, like a butterfly caught in the wake of a speeding car. No! I can't get lost now! Desperately, by force of will, she righted herself toward the portal, struggling toward the cold tiled floor of the library as if she were underwater, struggling to get her face into the air... The sensation of the tilework suddenly exploded through her as if she had been slammed into it with stunning force, although there was no physical pain.

Yui lay on the floor, shuddering for a moment as the sensation of her Seishi's chi energy subsided inside her, suddenly feeling intensely lonely as their presence faded away. Slowly, she opened her eyes. "Miaka?" she questioned. Only silence answered her. Slowly, she picked herself up and looked around. "Miaka?" The only thing she saw was the book, ‘The Universe of the Four Gods,' laying on the floor.

Does someone have to be reading the book for things to happen in it? Yui wondered. Maybe Miaka had gone home already.

Carefully, Yui picked the book up. Amazing to think that her friends, an entire world, the man she loved, were all contained in an object she could hold in her hands. Putting it that way, it seemed unimaginable. She would have to find a place to put the book where she wouldn't lose it when she came to go back. It wasn't as if she could ask the staff for help in here. She went to the end of the last aisle, pulled out the last few books on the shelf even with the floor, and slipped The Universe of the Four Gods' behind them. Then, she went back for her bag. Miaka's was laying there, too. Just like her to forget a thing like that, Yui thought. I'll have to get it back to her. Shouldering both bags, she slipped out of the room.

*

Yui heard the apartment door open and close. "Hey, rugrat, you here? Bout time you got home."

"Onii-chan!" she exclaimed, emerging from her room after changing into her everyday clothes for the evening. When she'd left, it had been his last day on break. "Shouldn't you be back at college now?"

"That eager to get rid of me?"

"Well, no, but your classes..."

"They don't start ‘til tomorrow. I'm leaving in the morning. Sheesh, you really are eager to get rid of me, aren't you?"

"No, no," she insisted. "I just got confused on what day it was." It's the same day that I left? I suppose it wouldn't take long to read all of that written in a book... I guess that does solve the problem of how to explain why I was gone so long. She walked into the living room, then froze with a gasp. She hadn't been paying attention when she'd come in and gone straight to her room, but the glass-topped coffee table was smashed, just as it had been in the Universe of the Four Gods when she threw it against Taiitsukun's mirror... "What happened to the coffee table!?"

"You just now noticed? Little slow on the uptake tonight, aren't you?" her brother said, gesturing to the broom over his shoulder. "I don't know what happened to it. I just went out for a while, and when I got back, it was broken. I was out to the utility room for stuff to clean it up when you came in."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault," he said, then his eyes narrowed. "Is it?"

"I don't see how it could be," she said, with a nervous laugh. "I just now got home, remember?"

"You're just making all kinds of trouble tonight. Mom had to go pick up Azami-chan from her violin lessons. She was almost crying on the phone because her Onee-chan didn't come."

"I... I guess I forgot," Yui said. This was almost as awkward as she'd expected, after all.

Her brother glowered at her for a moment, then adjusted his glasses with a distinctly artificial gesture. "I sink I see ze problem," he said, faking the classic Sigmund Freud' voice. "Ze fact is, your kindness in taking care of your sister is really a reaction formation against your true feelings of resentment toward ze child because she stole from you ze distinction of being ze baby of ze house, so now you feel zat you have to knock yourself out studying so you can be a famous doctor--like my brilliant self--" there Yui couldn't help but start laughing. "--All so zat you can prove to your family vhat zey already know perfectly vell, zat you are as special as your siblings are."

Yui appreciated the serious sentiment behind his words, but all she could do was laugh for several moments. Leave it to her brother to break the tension.

"Zat and zose screeching violin noises every night," he added just as she was slowing down, a parting shot to sustain the laughing fit. "Messed up your Oedipus Complex she did."

"Electra," Yui managed, calming down by sheer force of will. "Girls have an Electra Complex."

"You think you're so cool just because I sold you my Psych 1 book."

"Sorry."

"You apologize too much, ya know that?" he teased, ruffling her hair. "Doesn't it get heavy, carrying the whole world on your shoulders that way?"

And he's just thinking about this world! she thought with a wry smile. "It certainly does. Speaking of which, Miaka left her bag somewhere. I have to call her and let her know where it is."

"Okay. I swear, you two. Opposites must attract."

"Don't remind me." Yui sat by the phone and dialed Miaka's number, then counted the rings. One... Two... Three...

"Hello?"

"Ah, hello, Ms. Yuuki. Is Miaka home? She left her bag."

"No, I haven't seen her this evening. I assumed she'd gone somewhere with you. Do you know where she is?"

Yui's face fell. Miaka's bag had just been sitting there in the library, and even she wasn't careless enough to leave an ancient book laying on the floor. If the events of the book passed so much more quickly in print, it couldn't have been long since Yui had nearly died and had spoken with her. There was no reason for her to stop reading so suddenly right there. And that blue light, something passing her, back toward the Universe of the Four Gods...

"Yui-chan?" Ms. Yuuki prompted.

"I think I may have some idea," Yui said slowly.

"Oh, good. If you see her, could you have her hurry home, or at least ask her to call? I swear, that girl sometimes."

"If I see her, I'll let her know you're worried," Yui said. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

"Not there, huh?" her brother asked as she hung up.

"No," Yui said. Where else could Miaka have gone? She's been in the book before. If I'm gone, there has to be someone to summon Suzaku... "I have to go back to the library," she announced, standing.

"Um, Imouto-chan, the library's closed, remember?"

"Oh." She sank back to a seat. "I guess I didn't think..."

"Guess not," her brother agreed.

"Onii-chan!" Yui scolded, then paused. Tamahome had once said that exact thing... At that time she had felt so close to him... Suddenly she started laughing again. Now that she thought about it that way, it was the same feeling, like a little sister looking up to an older brother, wanting attention... "I'll look forward to being your little sister again," she had told him. That was what it was. That was what it had been with him all along... Thinking about it, she even remembered all the times when she was a little girl, and her brother would bully or insult her in front of his friends, when he wasn't comfortable showing affection. All of Tamahome's disparaging comments suddenly seemed just like that...

"Uh, sis?" her brother started, raising an eyebrow at her spontaneous and persistent laughing fit. "Just how hard have you been studying for your entrance exams? You know what happened to Miaka's brother Keisuke, don't you? He totally flipped out and spent all his time reading por--"

"Yes, everyone's heard about Keisuke!" Yui cut him off. "It isn't that at all. You just... reminded me of someone."

"Oh, so you have another older brother hidden somewhere, eh?" he asked. He suddenly clutched his heart and took on a "soap opera damsel-in-distress" voice. "I feel so... used!"

Yui laughed for a moment, then waited for them both to calm down. She knew she would have to make her family understand sometime, that she would have to tell them about the Universe of the Four Gods. There was no sense in putting it off, especially knowing she had to go back as soon as possible. Maybe then he would understand why she had to go to the library and find Miaka... "Onii-chan. I've never lied to you, have I? I mean, not since that time when I was seven and... you know."

"I dunno, you tell me," he answered. He winked, then looked at the expression on her face and sat down beside her. "What's wrong, Yui?"

"Hiromasa," she said, "I'm going to tell you about something that happened to me today, and I don't want to hear ‘you're studying too hard,' and I know you'll think I'm crazy, but every word of it is true, I swear."

"Oh... kay. Go ahead."

Where to start? Yui thought. The beginning, of course, but trying to remember everything that had happened came out so jumbled... She'd have to be careful to keep herself to the chronology... "After school, I had to return a book at the national library..." she started, then told him the entire story, of the glowing red bird leading her into the world of the book, of meeting and being protected by Tamahome and Nuriko, travelling to Taiitsukun's mountain, falling in love with Hotohori, and finally coming home.

Hiromasa sat silently as she told her story. And for several moments afterward.

"Onii-chan? I'm not making this up, I promise!" Yui said. "And yes, I have been saying no to drugs."

Hiromasa had opened his mouth, but shut it again when she said that. "OK, let me get this straight. You were pulled into a book." She nodded, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "And you became this ‘Suzaku no Miko' person?"

"That's right. Did I describe what that meant well enough?"

"I... uh... think so. And then you fell in love with the two main characters."

"Well, two of the three. It sounds odd to call them ‘characters'..."

"Uh, yeah. And then you met this old woman and these little... things." Yui nodded again. "And then you were sent home, and you think Miaka's taken your place?"

"That's what I think. I can't imagine where else she would have gone."

Hiromasa thought for several moments. "Yui, I believe you when you say you're not lying, but... But this isn't an anime. This sort of thing just doesn't happen in real life."

"Yesterday, I'd have said the same thing. Unless it happens to you, how do you really know?"

"Now you're just being a smart aleck. Yui, you're like me. You don't just accept this sort of thing without proof."

Yui rubbed her chin. She should have thought of this and brought something back with her... All she could think of that she had were a few scribbles in a memo pad, things she could have written as easily sitting in the library... "Onii-chan, you know me. You know I wouldn't just invent something like this and keep you going this long."

"Yeah, you're not that good of a liar," Hiromasa had to agree. He steepled his hands for a moment, then turned to face her. "OK, just for the sake of argument, let's say this really did happen to you. You have to stay away from that book."

"Absolutely not!" Yui said. "I have friends there. I have someone I love who's waiting for me! I promised them I wouldn't abandon them!"

"They're just characters in a book! They don't really exist!"

"You wouldn't say that if you'd seen what I have. Hiro, I've read a lot of storybooks before. Certainly, I got ‘pulled into that world' a little bit, like anyone does, but never... I've never been able to see someone, down to the color of their eyes and the fall of their hair, heard their voice, felt their touch... This was real!" She tried to picture her Seishi and found with horror that she couldn't remember every detail. The lack certainly wasn't enough for her to believe they weren't real--it was just like any person one had been away from awhile. She would recognize them in an instant if she saw them, could picture them in her mind, but it hurt that she was already unable to say just how long Nuriko's hair really was, how fine or how broad Tamahome's hands were, just where the dark and the golden browns were in Hotohori's eyes...

"OK, OK, I'll take your word for it," her brother conceded. "But at the same time, you know the kind of power you're talking about with this Suzaku thing always comes with a high price, some sort of sacrifice."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, if it is real, that book could be dangerous. You have to leave it alone."

Yui sat silent for some time. She couldn't claim that the book was harmless. She had already been through too much there; assaulted by street thugs three separate times, nearly crushed under a fallen pavilion, fallen seriously ill, forced to nearly kill herself to save her Seishi... But leaving it alone... She couldn't do that. "Onii-chan, if I had... say... taken a trip to another city, to a bad part of town, say, and met someone there who I became friends with, and who cared about me and needed me--"

"Oh no, I know where you're taking this. It's not the same, Yui. Either this didn't happen, or it's some sort of... man, I hate to say it, but some sort of magic. And in that case, you have NO way to know what you're getting into, and if you can get out of it."

"And suppose it's worth the risk to me to go back?"

"Now you're just being stubborn!"

"You aren't leaving me any choice!"

"Tough." Hiromasa stood up. "Fine, you leave me no choice but to pull rank. I'm your big brother and you have to do what I say, and I say you are NOT messing with that book any more."

Yui sighed hotly, propping her elbow on the arm of the couch and resting her chin on her hand. Then, a thought came to her, and she suppressed a wry smile. "I'll be waiting for you." Hotohori said. "Come back soon." "Fine, then," she said. "I'll let rank decide it." And I think an emperor definitely outranks a big brother.

Hiromasa raised an eyebrow, then sighed and hugged her. "I know it sounds mean of me, but I'm just worried about you, all right?"

"I know you just want what's best for me," even if you are wrong. She hugged him back.

"Why don't you go squeeze in some studying? Mom and Azami-chan'll be getting in late, so I'll put together something for dinner. And I promise to try to make it at least semi-edible."

"Not ramen again," Yui groaned, heading back to her room and pausing at the door.

"Hey, don't scoff at the universal cuisine of college students!" her brother said, mock-scoldingly. The tone however, fell short of his usual witticism. She must have worried him terribly...

"Fine, fine." Closing the door behind her, Yui sat down at her desk. There would be no point in studying; no matter what her brother said, she had to go back to the library, for Miaka as well as her Seishi. Going back would be the best thing to help Miaka, and Hiromasa knew the story, even if he didn't believe it. That was probably as close to her goal of letting her family know where she was as she could get. She pulled the memo pad out of her pocket and opened it. For a moment, she looked at the names of her Seishi. Even mismatched as they were, it seemed a wonderful group, even with only three of them. Imagine what all seven must be like... I want to be there to see that. She flipped through it to a blank page. If she was going back, she might as well take some useful things with her, so she started brainstorming a list.

A flashlight would be good... Maybe some extra batteries... How was she going to get out of the house, anyway? After that story, Hiromasa would be sure to suspect something... Some bandages... May as well take the entire medicine cabinet... And she had to get back as soon as possible, but what if the library was locked? I ought to take some food, in case I land in the wilderness again...

She rested her head on her hands. It all seemed so confusing... Maybe it would be easier just to listen to her brother.

"When I'm with you, I don't feel lonely." What must Hotohori's life have been like? Even Nuriko, who had seen him almost every day, had scarcely known him until Yui came and found them both as Seishi. To think of him waiting for her, day after day, always disappointed... She couldn't abandon him, or Nuriko, or Tamahome, and certainly not Miaka.

She'd have to wait until late at night, and leave quietly. Surely she could do it. And when she thought of it, the room where the book was should have been locked to begin with and wasn't. Surely she'd find a way. She had to try. She'd have to be subtle about gathering the things she was going to take. She looked around her room for the things there that she wanted.

*

Slowly, Hiromasa realized that the phone was ringing, and that he really should wake up and answer it. He groaned and groped for the reciever, burying his face in his pillow. Who could be calling at this hour? "Yeah, Hongou residence, what?" he asked.

"Hey, Hiromasa, that you? It's Keisuke."

“Yuuki Keisuke?”

“Yeah. Sorry, I know it’s late, but my sister’s still not home, and we’re getting really worried about her. Do you or Yui have any idea where she is?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t.” Yui says she does, but... “I don’t think Yui knows either, but I can ask her. Just a sec.”

He crawled out of bed and dragged himself down the hall. “Hey, Yui,” he said, knocking on her door. “I know it’s late, but can you get up for a minute? Miaka’s brother’s on the phone.” He paused for a moment; there was no sound inside. “Come on, Yui. I’m sure not gonna tell him that his sister’s in a book. It’s your screwy idea.” Still nothing. Surely the ‘screwy idea’ part would have irked her, at least. “Hongou Yui,” he started, throwing the door open.

The room stood empty, and the bed was still made, but certain things were missing, Yui’s uniform, some of her books and photos, the Mokona doll he’d given her... “Oh, geez, she didn’t...” He darted out of the room, looking around the apartment. When he got to the bathroom, he found the medicine cabinet almost completely empty. “What on earth would she be doing with... Oh, CRAP!”

Throwing on the first shoes he could grab, he dashed out of the apartment and down to the parking garage.

“Hello?” Keisuke asked through the abandoned reciever. “Hiromasa...!?” What on earth is going on!?

*

Someone, or something, has got to be behind this, Yui thought as she pushed open the door to the Confidential Documents Reference Room. It was too unlikely that both the main door to the library and this room would be unlocked at this time of night. Suddenly, there was a thud, and a book fell to the floor. She walked up and looked; it was ‘The Universe of the Four Gods.’ Impossible! I put it back on a different shelf, behind some other books and level with the floor!

She bent over and picked it up, heaving the straps of her bags more securely onto her shoulders before opening it.

“Yui!” Heavy footsteps sounded on the steps outside, and Hiromasa appeared in the doorway. “Yui, what do you think you’re doing?!”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wish I could have made you understand, but I have to go back now!” She looked down at the book, and was shocked to see an ink drawing of herself, standing among the bookshelves with ‘The Universe of the Four Gods’ in her hands. “‘The Suzaku no Miko, to help her friend and keep her word to her Seishi, returned through the book to Konan.’”

“Imouto-chan, this is ridiculous! Do you realize this is a fel... on...”

A brilliant red light burst from the floor at Yui’s feet, flooding the room until she was indistinguishable in the brightness. Then, the light died away as suddenly as it had appeared, and only the book fell to the floor.

Hiromasa blinked for several long moments, then started chuckling. “OK, Yui, this was a good one. I bet you and Miaka really had to work to set this practical joke up. You can come out now.” Only the silence answered him. “Yui? Miaka?”

He bent over and picked up the book. “‘The Suzaku no Miko’s older brother took up the book and began to read...’”

THUD! He hit the floor hard. “This is not even happening. ‘Ignoring his doubts, the older brother began to read.’ Ah, man. Yui, are you gonna owe me BIG for this one, girl.”

*

Hotohori sighed wearily. “Kutou’s troops are still massing on our borders?”

“Yes, sire,” said one of the advisors seated around the conference table. “Our military could probably hold them off if they invaded, but Kutou’s forces are numerically superior.”

“Even if the odds are not against us, there would be heavy casualties. I wish there were another solution,” he said.

“Your majesty, I know what you’re thinking, but we can’t afford to wait for the Suzaku no Miko to return and--”

There was a small, momentary sparkle, then a brilliant red light exploded from a point in the air, just above Hotohori’s head. The ministers and guards shaded their eyes from the glare, just before there was a loud THUD and the sound of smaller objects scattering across the floor, and Hotohori and another silhouetted figure fell to the ground.

“Your majesty!”

“Yui!” Nuriko realized, rushing forward and helping the girl up.

“Oh, what did I land on?” Yui asked, rubbing her back. It felt like she’d hit a solid box...

“Yui!” Hotohori exclaimed. Yui barely had time to notice that he’d been knocked to the floor and the jeweled box over his hair was slightly askew before he leapt to his feet and took her in his arms.

“Now, you were saying?” Nuriko said to the advisor who had been speaking.

Hotohori squeezed her tightly but gently. “Yui, I’m so glad you’ve returned!”

“I’m glad to be back,” she said, hugging him. “Nuriko, I’m glad to see you again, too.”

“I think I can wait for my hug. I can see you’re busy.” Nuriko joked,winking slightly.

Yui laughed as Hotohori let go of her and she quickly squeezed Nuriko. It didn’t take them long to get back from Taiitsukun’s... Wait. Time moves differently here... “By the way, how long have I been gone?”

“Three months,” Hotohori said, “although it seemed like an eternity.”

“Three months!?!?” Yui exclaimed. “Time moves differently in my world... To me, it just seemed like a few hours...” Miaka’s been here for three months? What could have happened to her in that time!? “Hotohori, Nuriko, have you by any chance seen a girl my age, with long brown hair and a suit like mine?”

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t,” Hotohori said.

“I would have heard if someone else dressed like you had been in the city,” Nuriko agreed.

Yui sighed. “It’s my best friend Miaka. When I went back to our world, I think she was pulled into the book in my place... I have to find her.”

“Yui,” Hotohori said, “I would like to help you find your friend, but there is something else I need you to do as quickly as possible. As the Emperor of Konan, I have to request it.”

Yui didn’t think she had ever seen his eyes so serious. “Of course. What is it?”

“Konan is being threatened by Kutou, the empire to the east. They have wanted Konan for some time, and now their troops are massing on our borders. Yui, as quickly as possible, you must gather the other Sei of Suzaku, and summon the god to protect Konan.”

Yui gasped. She could see, things were going to be much more serious this time. Well, the legend did say, ‘when the empire is in danger’... “I... I’ll do my best.”

“I guess we’re going to need to fetch Ogre-boy, then,” Nuriko remarked. “And it was so quiet without him, too.”

“Tamahome? Where is he?” Yui asked.

“He left about a week ago. Said he’d come to the city to earn money and hadn’t done much, so he’d better get to it. Or at least that was his story.”

“Yui, why don’t you and Nuriko follow Tamahome, and when you meet him, the three of you can search for the other Seishi,” Hotohori suggested. “I wish that I could help you, but my duties prohibit it.”

“I know,” Yui said. “I’ll try to get back as quickly as I can. If Nuriko agrees to the idea, of course.”

Nuriko blinked for a moment. “Of course I agree. I live for that sort of thing.”

Hotohori smiled sadly. “You should leave as soon as possible, although it will be difficult to see you go so quickly, seeing you again after so long...”

“Um, Yui, I don’t want to interrupt,” Nuriko suddenly said, picking up a soup can with a slight air of puzzlement, “but what is this thing?”

“Oh, it’s soup. I brought some food in case I ended up in the middle of nowhere, like the first time I came here.” She looked down at where her totebag’s contents were spilled across the floor. “These are all things I brought from my world.”

“Incredible,” Nuriko whispered, looking around at the scattering of objects. She shook the can slightly, then examined it. “There’s no lid. How do you get things in and out of it?”

Yui chuckled slightly. “They put it in at the factory. As for ‘out’, the can opener is around here somewhere...”

“Your world is certainly full of strange and wonderful things,” Hotohori said, looking about at the items scattered at his feet. He paused, then took a few steps, being careful not to put his foot down on any of her belongings, bent over, and picked up her Mokona doll from where it had fallen, handling it carefully. “Are these the sorts of animals that live in your world?”

“Oh, no, that’s a doll,” Yui said. “It’s just a made-up thing from a story. My brother got it for me for my birthday one year.” He handed the toy over to her, and she held it for a moment. “Actually,” she said, “maybe you should keep it. As something of mine to have while I’m gone, you know.”

“That would be wonderful,” he said, taking it back from her and kissing her cheek. “Now, I should probably let you get ready for your journey. As soon as you are ready to leave, I will bring ‘The Universe of the Four Gods’ to you. I’m sure Taiitsukun won’t mind; I know you’ll take good care of it.”

Yui yawned. “I hate to foist the preparations off on the rest of you, but I have to get some sleep before we leave. Come to think of it, I haven’t gotten any real, normal sleep since the night before we met Taiitsukun.”

“By all means,” Hotohori said. “I’ve had the servants keep your quarters in good order. If I may escort you,” he took her hand. Yui nodded sleepily. “See to the preparations for Yui’s journey,” he told his entourage. “Follow Nuriko’s instructions in this matter as if they were my own.”

Yui noticed Nuriko grinning as Hotohori escorted her out of the hall and to her own room. “I hope you weren’t too lonely without me,” Yui said. “I’m sorry to have been gone so long...”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Nuriko and I have been getting along well. Tamahome seems to keep his distance, however.”

“That’s a shame.” Tamahome and Hotohori were the two people of this world she cared about most. She wished they could have become friends.

Just about that time, Hotohori tucked the stuffed Mokona under his arm, and it uttered a sharp, synthesized “Pu!” Hotohori dropped the doll with a startled step back, and immediately several guards trained weapons on the hapless plush.

“Oh, here,” Yui said, sleepy enough to be irritated by the toy. “Of course Hiro had to get the talking one...” She opened a small zipper on the Mokona’s back, and after searching inside it for a moment, ripped out a small black plastic box, flipped a switch on it and stuffed it in her pocket. “It won’t do that anymore.” She closed the zipper and handed the doll back to Hotohori, who accepted it speechlessly.

*

Hiromasa read over the paragraph a second time, then sighed heavily. In a way, this entire experience was becoming too surreal to take seriously “I can’t believe my sister just gave the Emperor a Mokona doll!”

To Be Continued...

*

PREVIEW

Yui and Nuriko travel to find Tamahome, but in his home village, Yui finds that the threat from the Empire of Kutou is even closer at hand than she had supposed. In her moment of need, Yui discovers an ally unlike any she had imagined.

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