While at the library, the two 15-year olds stumble across an ancient Chinese manuscript, cryptically titled, "The Universe of the Four Gods." Out of curiosity Yui begins to read it out loud for them both.

"This is the story of a girl who gathered the seven Seishi of Suzaku and gained omnipotent powers. The book itself is an incantation. Whoever finishes reading it will also receive these powers. When the page is turned, the story will become the truth and begin."

Suddenly, the girls are engulfed by a red light and transported into the book. When they come to they find themselves in some desolate spot in the middle of nowhere.
While the two are trying to figure out what just happened and where they are, they are attacked by thugs who peddle in girls and figure that these two foreign beauties will bring in pretty coin.
Fortunately are rescued by a young man who has the character of "Oni" (Ogre) glowing red on his forehead. After he makes short order of disposing of the crooks, he asks the girls for a fee for his services, and when they can't pay, he prepares to leave. While Miaka is rooting around in her pockets for some token to offer the man, Yui rushes after him and is mysteriously returned to the present world, where she picks up the book and is astonished to find that the events she and Miaka just experienced are described in the book.

Miaka remains in the book world, which she comes to recognize as a land resembling ancient China, though according to the people there it is called Konan. Since Miaka doesn't know where Yui has gone, she hunts down her mysterious savior from earlier, and, after he has rescued her from another attack, she asks him to help her find Yui. He introduces himself as So Kichiku, asking her to call him Tamahome, and agrees to help her locate her friend.

While they search, they encounter the emperor of Konan while he is out in a procession. Miaka gets herself into trouble with the emperor's guards and the two are arrested.
At the emperor's palace Miaka meets up with a pretty and mysterious ... person ... named Hotohori, who later is revealed to be the emperor himself. Hotohori explains to Miaka the story of the "Universe of the Four Gods": When the land of Konan is in trouble, a girl from a strange world will appear and become their land's saviour, Suzaku no Miko. She will gather seven star-honored warriors (shichiseishi) whose duty it is to protect her, then summon the animal god Suzaku and be granted the power to make wishes come true. Miaka excitedly accepts the position, and finds that of the seven seishi it is now her duty to gather, Hotohori (who bears the character "Star" on his neck) and Tamahome are two.
Hotohori, as emperor, holds in his possession a sacred scroll with the legend written upon it (Suzaku version). This scroll holds valuable clues specifically meant for Suzaku no Miko to find her seishi.

Now that Miaka has accepted her mission, Miaka, Tamahome, and Hotohori set out to find the remaining 5 seishi. First Hotohori summons the strongest, smartest, etc. men in the kingdom to the palace where Miaka tests their honor by insulting them and Tamahome tests their skills by beating them all up. In the ensuing battle, a structure is toppled to the ground and a very unfortunate Miaka is caught in the rubble. Tamahome manages to make it in time to shield her body, but no one present is able to move the stone fragments to save their lives.

Enter a beautiful court princess with super-human strength who introduces herself as Kourin. Kourin quickly tosses the offending rubble aside, reveals herself as the third shichiseishi, Nuriko, and promptly makes a pass at Tamahome, all in the space of about 5 minutes.
The reason for this is that Nuriko has a huge crush on Hotohori, but her love is unrequited as Hotohori doesn't seem to have a clue as to her feelings. When she sees Miaka as a barrier to winning Hotohori's affections, Nuriko gets jealous and tries to return the favor by monopolizing Tamahome. This brings up feelings that Miaka didn't know she had. After Hotohori confesses his love for Miaka, she instead realizes that she doesn't love Hotohori, but has fallen for Tamahome.
Nuriko comes to realize that Miaka is not out to get Hotohori, so she gives up on trying to dominate Tamahome and, in fact, she begins to try to set him and Miaka up. Tamahome, unfortunately, rebuffs Miaka's confession of love.

Miaka soon falls ill with a fever, and she begins to long for home, concerned about Yui, worrying about her high school entrance exams, etc. Meanwhile, Yui has had the strangest 2 hours, experiencing every detail that happens to Miaka:

• When the stone structure fell on Miaka and her leg was injured, Yui felt the pain and bled as well.
• When Miaka fell into a lake on the palace grounds, Yui found herself drenched with water.
• When Miaka contracted her fever, Yui suffered from the same symptoms.

Looking out for Miaka's happiness, Hotohori takes the gang to Mt. Taikyoku, the abode of Taiitsu-kun, Creator and Lord of their world.
While on this journey, Miaka discovers Nuriko's attempts to get her and Tamahome together. She's thrilled about this and as she shakes Nuriko enthusiastically with gratitude, Nuriko's shirt slips off her shoulders to reveal... that she's not built like a woman should be. Much to Miaka's shock and horror, Nuriko reveals that she is in fact a he, pointing out that he can put his manhood aside for love.

Taiitsu-kun has been watching Miaka with interest ever since she first arrived in this world, and after giving her a gruelling test to prove her worthiness as Suzaku no Miko, decides that Miaka is good, pure of intention, and worthy of assistance. Taiitsu-kun explains to Miaka that it would be possible to go back to her world because of the link that bonded her to Yui. This link was their identical school uniforms. It was because of this link that Yui's experiences were the same as Miaka's. And so, with the seishi rooting her on in the Universe of the Four Gods, and Yui begging for her return in the library, Miaka returns home.

When she arrives back in the library, Yui has disappeared, and the library is closing. Miaka tries to call Yui at home to no avail, and can't figure out where she might be. Upon returning to her house, Miaka tells her brother Keisuke what has happened to her, and then spends the evening at home trying to convince Keisuke and her mother that she's not crazy for believing that she actually was sucked into a book -- her poor sibling and mother think that she's been studying too hard and is going off the deep end. Eventually Miaka realizes that Yui must have taken her place in the book, and travels back to the library (closely followed by her concerned brother), where she then wills herself back into the book right before Keisuke's eyes. Astonished, Keisuke picks up the book and begins to read.

Once she arrives back at the palace in Konan, Miaka discovers that three months have passed in the book world during the evening that she has been gone. Not knowing exactly what happened to Yui or where she is, Miaka appeals to Nuriko and Hotohori to help her find her best friend yet again. Tamahome has left the palace on some mission, and is unable to help (rumor has it that he's depressed over Miaka's departure). Nuriko accompanies Miaka in her search for Yui as well as Tamahome, and they find him guarding a group of civilians for money. Curious as to just why Tamahome is so fixated on acquiring money, Miaka and Nuriko follow Tamahome while he's out early one morning, and find out that he has this kawaii little family in a nearby village that he's supporting. They learn that his mother died when he was twelve, and his father is sickly, so Tamahome does whatever jobs he can in order to raise the money to make ends meet.

Before long, the miko and shichiseishi are attacked by devious assassins, and shortly after, similar assassins threaten Tamahome's family as well as the shichiseishi. Each time, they are helped and rescued by a mysterious magician who warns them that the assassins are from the southern country of Kutou, and that Miaka, as Suzaku no Miko, is the target. Before the second assassin is killed, however, he admits that Kutou country is looking for its own miko, the Seiryuu no Miko.
The magician who saved Miaka and all of the seishi's lives turns out to be the 4th shichiseishi, the wandering monk Chichiri. Chichiri warns Miaka to be careful and to take note that her actions may endanger others in ways she does not expect.

At this time, it occurs to Miaka that Yui might have been recruited to be Kutou's Seiryuu no Miko, and that they would be in warring camps if this happened. Therefore, after hearing Chichiri's warning, Miaka attempts travels solo to Kutou country in an attempt to prevent danger from reaching the others and to locate Yui. However, Tamahome follows her and Chichiri tracks them both. Miaka arrives at Kutou's palace and tells the guards that she is Seiryuu no Miko so that she may gain access indoors. When Tamahome tries to barge his way in he encounters the Shogun of Kutou's army, Nakago.

Miaka and Yui are finally reunited within the palace walls, and Yui reassures Miaka that although she was asked, she did not take up the position of Seiryuu no Miko. Tamahome locates the girls, and then Yui leaves Miaka to go and retrieve the scroll of the Universe of the Four Gods that Miaka brought with her (because it was confiscated by Nakago). While they wait for Yui to return, Tamahome finally admits his love for Miaka and they kiss. At this point Yui returns but she overhears Miaka tell Tamahome that she only returned to this world to see him.
Now, unbeknownst to Miaka, Yui has had a hard time of it these past three months, and, just as Tamahome had saved Miaka, Nakago essentially saved Yui's life. For all three months, day after day, he's been telling Yui that Miaka didn't care about her and wouldn't come to help her. Overhearing this part of Miaka and Tamahome's conversation does not help Yui's confidence in her best friend. It also doesn't help that Yui harbors a crush on Tamahome.... It is with this past in mind that at this point, Yui decides (upon Nakago's encouragement) to take up the position of Seiryuu no Miko, knowing that it will place her directly opposed to Miaka.
Yui lures Miaka to the Seiryuu mosoleum in order to solemnise her decision and reveal her feelings to Miaka. There she is met by Nakago, who becomes her first shichiseishi. When Chichiri and Tamahome try to enter the mosoleum, they realize that it is warded to exclude Suzaku seishi.
Infuriated at the possible danger that Miaka is in, Tamahome charges the doors and, remarkably, succeeds in breaking into the mosoleum. Chaos ensues as Nakago attempts to destroy all of his opponents with his chi. All three visitors from Konan are injured as they try to persuade Yui to leave with them. However, Yui's mind is made up.

Defeated and weary, Chichiri transports himself, Miaka, and Tamahome to Mt. Taikyoko to be healed by Taiitsu-kun. There Taiitsu-kun reveals to the three what has happened to Yui in Miaka's absence: Yui was attacked and raped by thugs upon arriving in Kutou country before being rescued by Nakago. Emotionally traumatized, she attempted to kill herself by slitting her wrist. She clung to the hope that Miaka would return for her for three months. Now she sees Miaka as her betrayer and will get revenge at any cost.
Since Miaka's Universe of the Four Gods scroll was left behind in Kutou, Taiitsu-kun gives her a special mirror in its place, to provide her with the clues she will need for finding the shichiseishi.

When everyone returns to Konan's palace, Tamahome gets a message from Kutou country promising that the assassination attempts directed at Miaka will stop if he goes to Kutou alone (this due to Yui's desire to separate Tamahome from Miaka and have him to herself). So he leaves, promising Miaka that he will return when the remaining seishi have been gathered. Hotohori, Miaka and Nuriko set out once more to search for the remaining seishi, while Chichiri remains at the palace masquerading as Hotohori (since the emperor can't leave his post).

As the travellers near Mt. Leikoku, Miaka's mirror indicates something about a bandit. Before they can puzzle it out, Hotohori, Miaka and Nuriko are kidnapped by bandits and taken to the Mt. Leikoku stronghold. From there Miaka is swept away by a bandit named Genrou, who takes her to meet his friend Koji (a blue haired bandit with the odd habit of answering the door for himself ^_^). Miaka is certain that Tasuki, the 5th shichiseishi, is somewhere nearby, but Genrou informs her that Tasuki is dead.
In despair, Miaka wonders what she will do if one of her seishi is not living, and the two rogue bandits mention a village nearby where a young woman has been, well, raising the dead. Miaka, Hotohori, and Nuriko then take off for the village to locate this woman.

En route to the village, Miaka and her seishi are confronted with dozens of zombies eager to feed on their flesh. They are only saved when Genrou makes an appearance and fries the zombies with his tessen (iron fan). He then apologizes for misleading them and reveals himself as Tasuki, their next seishi.

At this moment Miaka falls ill with a deadly disease, which has no cure. It turns out that this is the disease that the faith healer of the famous village, named Shoka, has been curing. The only downfall is that the patient must die before Shoka can heal the patient.
Unable to allow Miaka to die, or kill her, the three seishi appeal to a local doctor-turned-hermit named Myou Juan for help. At first he refuses to have anything to do with them, but at mention of the lady Shoka, his interest is suddenly piqued. Myou Juan accompanies the seishi to the ailing Miaka and Shoka, and it is soon discovered that Myou Juan is the 6th seishi, Mitsukake (please click here to read the rest of his story, as beautifully explained by Kristi and Priya).

After the 5 assembled seishi and their miko have been travelling wearily for some time, looking for the 7th shichiseishi, they are awakened one night by the sound of hundreds of bats. When they go to investigate, the bats attack them. A Kutou assassin proudly declares that he has control over the bats and will kill them, when suddenly a young boy with a flute appears and begins to play. The notes of his tune rise higher and higher and the bats seem to go insane, crashing into trees and killing themselves. The Kutou assassin also dies from the potency of the boy's tune.
The boy is revealed to be the 7th seishi, Chiriko, and with this joyous news, a plan is hatched to rescue Tamahome from Kutou.

However, in Kutou, Yui overhears Tamahome's plans to leave. In desperation she appeals to Nakago, who has already tried keeping Tamahome in Kutou by force. Nakago gives Yui a pill to put in Tamahome's food, promising that it will make Tamahome hers forever. She gives this pill to Tamahome and it alters his personality, making him hate Suzaku no Miko and her seishi.
When Tasuki, Chichiri and Miaka arrive in Kotou to pick up Tamahome, they are captured by Nakago and his men (who have been tipped off by Tamahome). Evil-Tamahome tries to kill Miaka, and badly injures Tasuki in a fight when Tasuki attempts to protect her. The two seishi and their miko have to return home without Tamahome.
Miaka is horribly depressed by this turn of events, and, hallucinating visions of Tamahome, attempts to seek him in the river. She is pulled under by the current and falls unconscious. Hotohori rescues Miaka from the river... then, letting his emotion get the better of him, he proposes marriage to her. Miaka considers, as she recognizes that Tamahome is lost to her forever.

The next day, Tamahome returns to Konan country on his own, intending to kill Miaka and the others. Hotohori, in a rage at the earlier attempt on Miaka's life, challenges Tamahome to a fight to the death. Hotohori wins when he impales Tamahome on his sword.
Near death, Tamahome's chi is so weak that the effects of the spell controlling him are weakened. Miaka confesses her love for him once again ... and his memories and former personality return ^_^.

Now that all seven seishi have finally been assembled, preparations for the Suzaku summoning ceremony can now begin.