Okay, anyone who knows anything at all about anime has probably heard the story already. But since I'm willing to bet that there are people from around here reading this they don't know. So this is for them.

A girl named Miaka Yuki and her friend Yui Hongo are in the library. While Yui is returning her book Miaka is lured into the Reference Documents room by a vision of a bright red peacock(actually a phoenix). There she finds a book called Shi Jin Tenchi Cho, or Universe of the Four Gods. Miaka and Yui are sucked into the book and end up in ancient China. Almost immidiately they are attacked by a group of slave traders and are rescued by a hot guy w/ the chinese character of "oni" or "ogre" on his forehead. Yui is kicked back out of the book and Miaka continues on alone. She goes into the city looking for that guy 'cause she thinks that he took Yui.

Eventually she finds him and after a random act of stupidity her and the guy, Tamahome, end up in the emporers jail. It turns out that according to an ancient prophesy a girl will come from another world to save Konan(the country she arrived in). To do this she must find the seven seishi(or holy warriors, actually constallations of stars in the sky in the west). Tamahome is one of them, they are identified by red glowing characters on their bodies. The emporer, Hotohori, is also a seishi.

While all this is going on Yui is back in the real world reading all of what is happening to Miaka, and whatever happens to Miaka, also happens to Yui. In an effort to find more seishi Miaka ends up under a collapsing gazebo and poor Tama has to kneel over her to keep her from being crushed to death. A watching handmaiden, Nuriko, comes to the rescue and using her super strenght saves the two. Of course Nuriko is a seishi, the mark of "willow" being on her chest, and her seishi power being strength. Of course Miaka starts getting a bad crush on Tamahome and gets extremely jealous when Nuriko begins fawning all over him.

To further complicate the matter Hotohori falls in love with Miaka. You see, he had been alone all his life as a little kid. And he aint no old wrinkly man, he's only 18. He had envisioned being in love w/ Suzaku no Miko("Priestess of Suzaku" the phoenix god). So when Miaka showed up he already planned on proposing. He's just in love w/ the idea, not the person. In my opinion anyway. Nuriko is pisssed off 'cause she's in love w/ the emporer herself. So the only reason she's going after Tamahome is to get even w/ Miaka. Tama really likes Miaka, not Nuriko at all, and he's jealous of Hotohori. This all comes to a boiling point when Nuriko asks Miaka to go fetch the mate to a "lost" earring down by the pond. Miaka is nearly drown and Tama's pissed off at Nuriko.

After Hotohoris proposal to Miaka, the poor girl has lost all the ground she gained w/ being friends w/ Nuriko. Tamahome wont even talk to her hardly. When Tamahome goes out in the city to make some money Nuriko goes with him. Of course Miaka follows and ends up in a back ally and Tamahome gets hurt in a fight. Volume 1 ends with Miaka collapsing from a fever after Tamahome tells her how he feels. And I'm not telling what he says! Lets just say it's a surprise...

The graphics on this page came from Tigers free web gaphics page. There's a link on the main entrance page, and I'll be putting one up in the area for free web graphics in the link section. ~Shay

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