We find out that the boy everyone thought was Suzaku seishi Chiriko, is in fact a Seiryuu seishi, Amiboshi, sent by Nakago to infiltrate the Suzaku seishi, disrupt their summoning ceremony, and kill them all (especially that cheerful little miko of theirs). Amiboshi has an identical twin brother, also a Seiryuu seishi (that would be Suboshi), and he keeps the Seiryuu side up to speed as to the goings on in Konan country via the twins' special physical and spiritual link.

At the ceremony to summon Suzaku, Amiboshi whips out his flute and begins to play, focusing his chi into the notes and creating a head-splitting tune (literally -- like, glass is breaking and all that). As he plays, though, another tune begins as well, breaking the pattern of his notes. He flees, and the Suzaku seishi take the chase. But he slips on the riverbank and falls into the river, and that's the end of that. Suboshi feels that his brother's chi is no longer with him, and everyone assumes the worst.

Finally we get to meet the *real* Chiriko, whose masterful playing of the leaf whistle disrupted Amiboshi's tune and saved all of the seishi's lives. Meanwhile, the Suzaku summoning ceremony has already failed. Taiitsu-kun appears to tell Miaka and the others that there is another way to call Suzaku. They have to obtain the shinzaho, an item left behind by a previous visitor to their world, Genbu no Miko. The shinzaho is located in Hokkan country, to the north. Yui and her seishi will also be trying to get this item so it's once again a race against time to retrieve it.

In addition to this information, Taiitsu-kun gives each of the seishi (minus Tamahome) a "power-up", a powerful item that will increase their particular ability: to Hotohori, a powerful Deity's sword; to Nuriko, iron bracelets; to Chichiri, a beaded necklace; to Tasuki, a diamond tassen; to Mitsukake, a jar of healing powder; and to Chiriko, a scroll.
Oh, and one more thing. Taiitsu-kun tells Miaka that she must not touch any male with love, since the miko must remain a virgin until the god is called (understandably a big bummer for Miaka and Tamahome -_-).

Back in the real world, Keisuke runs into his buddy Tetsuya. After Keisuke relates the goings-on of the book to his friend, Tetsuya agrees to help Keisuke get to the bottom of this book and why it's so ... "engaging"...

Nuriko, Miaka and Tamahome set off for Tamahome's village to pick up his family so that they can stay at Hotohori's palace where it is safer. But they arrive too late. Suboshi, presumably out of revenge for his brother's death (which he believes is the fault of the Suzaku seishi), has viciously killed Tamahome's entire family.
Tamahome's increased power then becomes apparant; he becomes the "revenging ogre," almost uncontrollable and unstoppable in his rage. Nuriko tries to restrain him, but he still would have killed Suboshi, were it not for a Seiryuu seishi making her grand appearance, Soi. Soi rescues Suboshi from Tamahome and takes off.

Miaka is spurred on by the act of violence against innocent and helpless victims and she makes a decision to go head to head with Yui for the shinzaho, if that's what it will take. Yui, not knowing the full story, hears that Miaka has made this decision, and returns the vow in kind.

The Suzaku trio now return to Hotohori's palace, and the gang sets off for Hokkan (minus Hotohori, who must remain behind and do his emperor-ly duties). In the real world, Keisuke finds one of Miaka's hairs in the book, and realizes that he can communicate with her through the hair. He and Tetsuya, through their probing, have found that the miko of the legend is supposed to be consumed by her respective god after the summoning ceremony, and he tries to warn Miaka of this. However, Miaka ignores these warnings, out of loyalty to her seishi. Further, she gets Tasuki to burn a couple of her hairs, to destroy this, her only link to her brother and to the real world.

Soon after they set sail, the Suzaku people encounter a tremendous lightning storm, provided courtesy of Soi. The ship is badly damaged, and Tamahome, Nuriko and Miaka are swept overboard. The three fallen seishi find their way to a fisherman's cave where they dry off and recover from the incident. Here Nuriko reveals some very interesting tidbits; first, that he's decided to quit being gay and crossdressing; and second, his reasoning for doing so in the first place.
At the age of ten, Nuriko lost the most precious thing to him in the world: his nine-year old sister Kourin. In despair (and very poor handling of grief), Nuriko decided that Kourin would never die as long as he were there to live her life out for her. So he took her name, wore her clothes, and basically developed a female mentality in order to "become" Kourin. This explains his behaviour in the past. But having finally been able to come to terms with Kourin's death, Nuriko is ready to move on and become his own person.

Upon finally arriving in Hokkan, Miaka and the seishi decide to split up to increase their chances of finding the shinzaho. Each group takes a flare with them with which to signal the others. When Nuriko offers to accompany Miaka and Tamahome, his offer is refused for fear of two pretty ladies attracting too many of the wrong kind of attention. This irks Nuriko, and he hacks his butt-length braid completely off so as to better resemble a male.
The group consisting of Nuriko, Tamahome, and Miaka are the first to find the shinzaho's whereabouts. While Tamahome is off getting the information however, Nakago sets another Seiryuu seishi, Ashitare, after Miaka. Nuriko injures him and scares him away by lighting their flare in his face.

Tamahome stumbles upon Yui while he is off alone, and again tries to get her to give up and come with him. She seems to realize that this cannot end well for either side but feels that she's in too far and cannot stop now. To get Tamahome off her case, she tries to hurt him, cruelly informing him that he's only a character in a book. Tamahome is confused by this but doesn't have the opportunity to ask her what that means.

Later that night, Nuriko confides to Tamahome that he has fallen in love with Miaka in a totally heterosexual way, having given up the gay cross-dressing life for good. However, being the totally considerate sweetheart that he is, he promises not to interfere with Miaka and Tamahome's love. As long as Miaka's happy, he'll be happy for her.

The next day, Nuriko volunteers to go and get the shinzaho, located at the top of Mount Black, while Miaka and Tamahome locate and inform the others. But once there, Nuriko encounters Ashitare once again. Having been beaten by Nakago for failing to kill Miaka once, and ticked off at Nuriko for hurting him, Ashitare does some serious damage to Nuriko, causing fatal wounds. Before he goes down, though, Nuriko manages to take out Ashitare as well. The other Suzaku seishi and Miaka are forced to say goodbye to Nuriko and they bury him a the top of Mount Black.