FY was first a manga, then an anime, aimed at young teenage girls, and is authored by Yuu Watase (she's also done Ayashi no Ceres).

I have to admit that I didn't care very much for the main couple in FY (because I'm about 15 years too old to find such things appealing), but the side characters were more than enough to get me very interested in this show.

I haven't summarized the whole series, partially because I think that there are things that one should see unspoilt, but mostly because I wrote this summary to get a friend of mine to watch the show, and I wasn't going to spoil her further than half of season 1. So, half of season one is a detailed summary, the 2nd half is a vague summary.

I will one day get around and write summaries of season 2 and the OAVs - I just have no clue when.

But first of all, you get an info-dump, because I don't feel like adding that stuff as it is discovered.

There's an ancient Chinese system that divides up the stars in heaven into 4 houses, or spheres, and each of these has 7 constellations. Each of these spheres is ruled over by an animal god: Suzaku, the red phoenix, in the south, Seiryuu, the blue dragon, in the east, Genbu, the black turtle, in the north, and Byakko, the white tiger, in the west.

FY takes this and runs with it: in this version of ancient china, the land is divided into 4 parts, each one of them corresponding to one of the spheres (and also lying in that direction, landwise). In the south is Konan, the country Miaka shows up in, in the east is Kutou, which has a very agressive emperor and wants to conquer Konan, in the north is Hokkan, which isn't really an empire but more groups of tribes of horsemen (it's Mongolian-influenced) and has lots of snow, and in the west is Sailo, which seems to be the hot country.

Each of these contries pray to their respective animal god. Each also has a prophecy, that one day a girl from another world will show up, gather her 7 seishi (like protectors) - they each correspond to one of the constellations in their spheres - and then summon the animal god and get 3 wishes granted, which will be used to save the country. The girl will be the <insert animal god name> no miko. The seishi can be identified by the fact that they have a kanji character (their constellation) somewhere on their body, and during fighting, this character will blaze in the color of their god. Oh, and they can use their ki during fighting, too.

To invoke the animal god, you need: the miko, the seven seishi, and the roll that contains the writing of the prophecy. And then you do a ritual, and whoom, instant animal god.

The situation in the land when Miaka arrives is as follows: the Byakko and Genbu no mikos have shown up already, a rather long time ago. These countries seem to be at peace, or at least uninvolved. Konan and Kutou, however, are both searching for their miko, because Kutou is basically doing it's best to start a war so it can invade Konan. Everyone is assuming that the country who finds their miko (and the miko then their seishi) first is going to win. Konan is basically a peaceful country, but they're not willing to roll over for Kutou.

BTW, in fanfic, sometimes you see 'seishi', sometimes you see 'shichiseishi'. The 'shichi' part means 'seven', so both terms refer to the same thing. All seishi have a real name and a seishi name (ie, the name of their constellation - seishi literally means 'constellation'). They're all usually referred to by their seishi names, but some of their real names show up in fanfiction occasionally, so these I'm telling you. Because - well, the ones that don't show up in fanfic, I don't know myself. <g>

Miko translates as 'shrine maiden', but in FY, the meaning leans more towards 'priestress'.

Ok, anyone still reading? Onwards to the plot summary...

We're in Japan, and we're introduced to Yuuki Miaka and Hongo Yui. They're best friends since kindergarten and everything. Miaka is 14 (so's Yui), has brown hair usually worn in 2 buns on the side of her head, and is - genki. Happy, a bit clueless on occasion, very - uh, childlike in some things, not the best of students, and she *LOVES* food. She eats like a vacuum.

Yui on the other hand is very intelligent, and rather more mature. She's also got blonde hair, but yes, she's still a Japanese girl. It's anime... They're both studying for the entrance exam for a very prestigious high school - Miaka doesn't really want to go, but her mother wants her to go. It's very tough, and Miaka spends every evening in cram school (that's not unusual for Japanese youth), and all her weekends studying. Miaka would much rather prefer to go to another, easier highschool where all her friends will be going, but - well, mother.

One day she and Yui are at the local library when Miaka sees a red bird flying up some stairs, and then a red light coming from the 'Closed Document Reference Room'. Strangely, the normally locked door is open, and she and Yui go in. A book falls to the floor, and when they open it, they see that most pages are blank. It's an ancient Chinese novel. Yui begins to read: "Thus, the girl of the legend opened the door of another world". After Miaka sees that an illustration in the book looks just like the bird she saw (yes, a phoenix), Yui continues reading: "This is the story about a girl who got the seven seishi of Suzaku. She obtained omnipotent powers, and made her wishes come true. The story, itself, in an incantation. Those who finish reading it shall receive the power. As soon as the page is turned, the story will become the truth and begin."

The book emits a red light, and suddenly, both girls wake up in a strange and foreign place.

The girls get attacked by a gang of bandits who traffic in girls. However, a young man comes to their rescue, fighting really really well. He's also got a glowing red character (meaning 'ogre') on his forehead. He's rather nice-looking (well, Miaka and Yui think so, anyway <g>), and - promptly asks them to pay him for rescuing them. They're shocked, they have no money (that he recognizes), he's upset, and walks away.

He's spoken by Midorikawa, btw, for those of you who follow seiyuu.

Miaka runs after him, and behind her, Yui suddenly disappears in a red light. Miaka is left alone in the other world, while Yui ends up back in the library, with the book lying open on the floor. Yui looks at the book, and finds that what just happened to her and Miaka is in the book. Yui keeps reading the book, and thus keeps reading about what happens to Miaka.

Miaka meanwhile is trying to find Tamahome again (he disappeared quickly), and ended up in a big city. She thinks he kidnapped Yui, btw. She ends up being nearly hurt by a bunch of guys, but Tamahome shows up in time and saves her. He doesn't really want to have anything to do with her (because she has no money), but Miaka's... persistant.

Then the imperial procession comes by, and Miaka has the bright idea of jumping into the Emperor's palaquin, and asking him if he could maybe be nice and give her a gem so she can pay Tamahome, because, after all, as an emperor, he must have more than enough gems, anyway.

The emperor's guards are a bit upset by this, and want to behead Miaka for being disrespectful to the emperor, but as they are about to kill her, the red light shows up again - Miaka is nearly dragged back into the library (she does see Yui sitting in the library), but then she's dragged back to the other world. The Emperor puts a halt to the killing, and orders his men to take Miaka and Tamahome to the palace, where they're thrown into a cell for now.

Tamahome agrees to help Miaka to get home (her crying on his shoulder seems to have been the turning point), and as payment takes a kiss (on her forehead, but anyway).

oh - Tamahome is, IIRC, 17.

The Emperor meanwhile wonders if maybe the weird girl could be Suzaku no miko.

Miaka and Tamahome get out of the cells (by blowing a bubblegum blubble at the guard, who thinks she's a monster and freaks out), and are now running through the palace, trying to find a way out. Miaka gets sidetracked by smells from the kitchen, and gets seperated from Tamahome. She meets a strange woman? - well, it's a longhaired, extremely beautiful person in a loose garment - by the name of Hotohori (tho "it's not the name that I'm usually called") who points out where the gate to outside is, but wants to talk to her first, and during that talk discovers that Miaka is from another world, and also that Miaka can't leave the palace yet, she needs to get Tamahome out, too.

Tamahome meanwhile is chased by guards, and they end up running by Miaka and Hotohori. When the guards grab Miaka, Tamahome starts beating up guards, and Hotohori sees the glowing 'ogre' symbol on Tamahome's forehead.

Hotohori throws away the loose garment and turns out to be the Emperor (real name is Saihitei), who orders the guards to let Miaka and Tamahome go. Miaka is a bit surprised that this beautiful person is actually *male*, and does a manual examination of Hotohori's (flat) breast (much to Tamahome's shock, Miaka just refuses to be properly respectful to Hotohori).

(Hotohori's seiyuu is Koyaso Takehito. <melt>)

Hotohori tells her about the Suzaku no miko, and Miaka eventually agrees to become Suzaku no miko, because basically the only way for her to get home is to get the power of Suzaku and use one of the wishes. Besides, with the wishes she could easily pass the entrance exam, and eat all her favorite food all day, and be the most popular girl, and and and.

Hotohori's a seishi, too, and his symbol is 'star', which is located on the side of his neck. He is 18 (tho I read a page somewhere that calculated all the seishi birthdays and the FY timeline and that came to the conclusion that he was 18 when he first meets Miaka but turns 19 shortly afterwards). He's been emperor since he was 14 - he actually has an older brother, but his mother was his father's favorite, so she ended up putting him on the throne and first using him as a puppet. His mother has since then died, too, and he has come to be a very good emperor, but he's terribly lonely, because he's always surrounded by royal vassals and noone else. He's a bird in a golden cage.

Miaka's job now is to find the rest of the seishi. She also seems to be developing feelings for Tamahome...

When a building falls down on both Miaka and Tamahome and buries them, and everyone - especially Hotohori - is frantic to get them out, but it's not looking good. However, one of the members of the imperial harem marches up, pushes the men aside, and starts throwing off huge chunks of building, digging out both M&T.

It's another seishi - Nuriko (who was known in the harem as Lady Kourin). Symbol: Willow, located on the collarbone. Nuriko's got long lavender hair and purple eyes and is very beautiful (well, duh, as a member of the royal harem...)

(btw, Hotohori has never been to the harem. For some reason, he's not interested, even tho his advisors and ministers are trying to talk him into choosing an Empress... Hotohori says that governing the country and helping the people is more important than looking for an Empress, and besides, he's more beautiful than all the ladies in the harem, anyway)

Miaka's extremely happy to have found Nuriko, but Nuriko brushes her off and marches off to declare that she only dug them out because of that *very* nice young man here, and promptly kisses Tamahome. Miaka's not very happy about that... (and Tamahome is just confused).

Miaka tries to become Nuriko's friend, but Nuriko's a bitch to her (and keeps dragging off "Tama-chan" - much against his will - to be alone with him, never mind that he needs to be chained up so he doesn't run away...) They finally have a showdown, and we learn that Nuriko is in love with Hotohori, but Hotohori and everyone else only has eyes for Miaka. Nuriko was going after Tamahome as revenge. Miaka tells Nuriko that she's not interested in Hotohori, and will try to make him see Nuriko.

Sadly enough, when she does, Hotohori tells Miaka that he's in love with *her*, and pretty much has been since he was a lonely little toddler and first heard the story of Suzaku no miko, the girl from another world, who surely would love him, too. That's the reason he's not interested in any other women. Nuriko and Tamahome have their ears pressed to the wall and overhear all of that. Hotohori finds both of them, and is rather pissed. He also asks Miaka to be his Empress in front of them (and tells her that he'll fight for her to make her love him).

Miaka is shellshocked. Nuriko is pissed. Tamahome is suddenly not very interested in Miaka...

Tamahome and Nuriko go to town, and Miaka follows them. Tama and Miaka get attacked by bad guys (again), after beating them up, Miaka blurts out that she loves Tamahome. He tells her he's sorry, but he doesn't feel the same. Miaka faints. She gets sick (fever, etc), and the doctors say that it's stress and being so far away from her home and family (she's got an older brother and a mother). They decide that they'll have to send her back to her world for her to get better.

Hotohori decides that they will travel to Mt Taikyoku to see Taiitsu-kun, the one who governs the world, and ask her if there's a way to send Miaka back. Miaka in return will promise to come back when she's feeling better.

Hotohori, Tamahome and Nuriko set off with Miaka on horses (much to the horror of the Emperor's ministers <g>).

Nuriko's mission for the journey is to get Tamahome to apologize to Miaka and to tell her how he *really* feels about her (he's simply jealous of the Emperor's attention) - that way, the Emperor will finally notice Nuriko... To that end, Nuriko tells Miaka about a healing spring where she can go soak before they camp down for the evening. Of course, Nuriko then sends Tamahome off after Miaka, so that Tamahome ends up in the spring with a naked Miaka. <g>

They actually manage to talk, and Tamahome tells Miaka that no woman had ever told him she loved him before, and he had no clue what to do, and for 17 years, the only important thing to him has been money, and he still feels that way, but he'll take her to Taiitsu-kun so that she can go home and get well. After that, he walks off, and Nuriko falls out of a tree (guess who's been evesdropping <g>)

Miaka however is happy that she and Tamahome talked, and happily glomps Nuriko - and discoveres something rather surprising...

Yes, Nuriko is actually a crossdressing male (gold star for everyone who noticed that I've so far been managing not to use a personal pronoun for Nuriko), and is perfectly willing to put away his manhood for the sake of love, ie, Hotohori. Miaka promises to say nothing (well, after she gets over her shock <g>). Nuriko says that he has a female mind, just in a male body (and yes, he's using female language).

However, as they continue to travel, Taiitsu-kun, who's waitching them via a mirror, decides to test them, which means that an "evil mirror version" of Miaka shows up, who basically tells Tamahome to fuck off, snuggles up to Hotohori, and, when Nuriko growls at her for this, tells Nuriko to forget about Hotohori, because he'd never fall for a man. Tamahome and Hotohori sweatdrop, Nuriko breaks down in tears. (Hotohori: "I can't believe it. There's another beautiful man besides me...")

They eventually manage to defeat the evil Miaka Clone (and Hotohori and Tamahome seem to start to get along better). Miaka nearly dies in the process, but - well, she doesn't (tho I don't think that bloodtransfusions via osmosis with no regard to bloodtype actually work in RL... <g>)

Taiitsu-kun appears to them (freaking them out badly, since Taiitsu-kun appears as a rather ugly looking old woman...),and takes them to her court, where little Nyan-Nyan show up, who offer to heal Miaka, Tamahome and Hotohori. NyanNyan also offer to heal Nuriko ("I'm okay, I didn't get injured" - "I'll heal your perversion" - *bam*).

They end up doing a ritual to send Miaka home (which works because Yui, who's still reading the book in the library, is somehow connected with Miaka because they wear the same schooluniforms), and poof, she's home again, in the library, the book on the floor, but no Yui. It seems only 2 or 3 hours have passed.

Miaka goes home and tells her older brother, Keisuke, what happened to her. He thinks she's either mad, or at least that the book is extremely evil and dangerous. He forbids her to go near it again. Miaka meanwhile has figured out that Yui must have gone into the world of the book, so she packs a huge backpack and sneaks out, breaks into the library at night, and opens the book. Keisuke, who has been following her, has to watch helplessly as she disappears into the book, and now he spends his time sitting in the library, reading about what's happening to his little sister.

Meanwhile, in Konan, 3 months have passed, and the situation with Kutou is getting hairy, soldiers are amassing at the borders, when Miaka drops in again (right on top of Hotohori's head...). Hotohori gives her a big hug, Nuriko and Miaka are extremely happy to meet each other again. Now they have to go off to find Tamahome, who left court awhile ago (her disappearance made him so depressed he was contantly walking into walls and trying to eat the dishes instead of the food).

Nuriko (now in boy's clothing, because "it's difficult to protect [Miaka] as a female") and Miaka go off to find Tamahome, so that they together can go find the rest of the seishi - once Miaka has Suzaku's power, Suzaku can find Yui for her. Hotohori would love to go with them, but he's Emperor, he has duties...

They find Tamahome pretty quicky (and he and Miaka hug the stuffing out of each other) - he's been working as a body guard to make money. They quickly get attacked by Kutou assassins (who want to kill Miaka).

Next morning, Miaka sees Tamahome riding off somewhere before dusk - she and Nuriko end up following him. He is off to visit his family - a sick father and 4 younger siblings who're very poor and for whom he's earning all that money. The children are very happy to meet Miaka (asking if she's Tamahome's wife <g>).

While Miaka is out to get fresh water, she's again attacked by an assassin, but gets saved by a very weird guy with blue hair, a smiling face, gravity-defying bangs and a high voice. He also has a distinctive way of speaking, he ends nearly all his sentences with 'no da' or 'na no da', which doesn't mean anything by itsef. It is just a formal way of speaking that's extremely out of date (and I think was only used by gods, or something).

His name is Chichiri, he's a wandering monk, and he's another seishi. He's about 24, and has the symbol 'well' (the thing you get water out of, not the adverb) on his knee. His real name is Li Houjun. The weird smiling face and the high voice come from a magical mask he wears - underneath, he has a scar over his left eye, which is missing. It's not ugly-looking, but there's a lot of emotional baggage attached to it, but we only learn that much later. The blue cloth-thingie he wears is a kesa. He can use both that and his kasa (strawhat) to disappear into (and travel to other places). He also carries a staff, and he's been trained by Taiitsu-kun.

(Chichiri's seiyuu is Seki Tomokasu)

Meanwhile, assassins have been attacking Tamahome's family. Chichiri fights them off. They do, however, learn that Kutou is very busy trying to find their own miko (for which they need a girl from antoher world, and isn't it a coincidence that Yui is missing?), so that they'll have the advantage over Konan.

Miaka decides that she should run off to Kutou on her own to find Yui, leaving the seishi behind so that she'd not get them into danger again. <rolls eyes>

Tamahome goes after her, and tells her how stupid that is, and she tells him she's only doing it because she's afraid for him, and oh, they're so in love with each other, and oh, we'll be together forever and never part <cue schmaltzy background music>, and they hug and hug... And immediately afterwards, Miaka runs off again. <I'd roll my eyes again, but with FY, that would put them into danger of rolling right out of my eyesockets...>

Tamahome goes after her, again, and sends Nuriko back to tell Hotohori.

Miaka arrives in Kutou and gets picked up by the the shogun of Kutou-kaku and taken to court, where she indeed finds Yui. However, the shogun, Nakago, figures out that Miaka is Suzaku no Miko

Nakago has long blond hair, blue eyes, and is very good-looking, but he's a bastard <melts>. He's from the Hin race, of which he's the last member (the rest were hunted down and killed by Kutou). He's also a powerful mage, and a seiryuu no seishi (he's got the character 'heart' in the middle of his forehead. Or is it 'mind? Damn, I used to know that kanji...)

Yui is extremely happy to see Miaka - she's been in Kutou for nearly all the time that Miaka has been gone, but had been keeping her hopes up that Miaka would come after her and save her. We also briefly get to meet the Emperor of Kutou, who is not a nice person at all.

Meanwhile, Tamahome shows up, looking for Miaka. He also has a run-in with Nakago (and Nakago beats him). Chichiri helps him to escape from Nakago (Nakago remarks: "Suzaku no seishi are so cute..."). Tamahome ends up finding both Yui and Miaka, but while trying to escape, they get split up.

Yui ends up seeing Miaka and Tamahome smooching, and overhears Miaka telling Tamahome how much she's missed him while she was gone. Sadly, Yui herself had fallen in love with Tamahome, and now decides to stay in Kutou and become the Seiryuu no miko, and to fight Miaka (basically, Nakago has been spending these months fucking with Yui's mind, telling her that Miaka abandoned her, and now she's snapped). She swears that she will take Tamahome away from Miaka.

Tamahome and Miaka only manage to escape because Chichiri comes and gets them - they escape via the kasa (Tamahome tries to get Yui to come with them, but she refuses).

Keisuke, who's still reading, is starting to seriously freak out (he's so cute! <g>)

They end up at Taiitsukun's place (and when Tamahome and Miaka wake up after being healed, they find themselves naked in the same bed. Both freak. <g>), where they are shown by Taiitsukun that after Yui was transported to this world (dropped in the middle of Kutou), she was attacked and raped by a gang of bandits. She also at least once tried to kill herself afterwards. It was Nakago who got her away from the men and then nursed her back to health. He's always very nice and polite to Yui...

Miaka feels horribly guilty, but Taiitsukun talks to her, and mostly convinces her that it wasn't her fault, and that she's important and that all of Konan is relying on her and that it's important she try her best to summon Suzaku (because that way she'll also be able to help Yui).

Miaka, Tamahome and Chichiri go back to Konan, where Hotohori is very happy to see Miaka (and he and Tamahome spend some time glaring at each other). Nuriko meanwhile glomps onto Miaka, and Miaka glomps back ("Nuriko, you're still being GAY!!!" "Miaka, you're still being STUPID!!!").

Miaka is now mostly ignoring Tamahome. He goes and confronts her about it, and she tells him that she is now the Suzaku no miko, he is a seishi, and they need to keep a distance. Tamahome refuses to let her go. In the middle of *that* fight, Hotohori comes in, and is very pissed that Tamahome is in Miaka's room (going so far as to point his sword at him). Tamahome tells him that he loves Miaka and that he's not going to hand her over to anybody. The two guys stare each other down. Then Hotohori tells Tamahome that he has guts to challenge the Emperor, and that he can't kill him because he's one of the seven seishi. Then he tells Miaka that he loves her, too, and leaves.

Tamahome tells Miaka that he knows now what the 'ogre' character on his forehead means - it means protecting Miaka and living for her. They spend some time hugging and telling each other how much they love each other (however, Keisuke doesn't look overly happy with it all when he reads *that*).

Hotohori stands in the dark on a balcony, staring out into the night...

Kutou sends a messenger, saying that they have invaded several villages at the border, but they're willing to let them go again (and refrain from invading more villages) if Tamahome gives himself up to Kutou (because, meanwhile, Nakago has promised Yui that he'll give her Tamahome as a present). Hotohori and the others tell Tamahome to not do it. Tamahome promises Miaka not to go away.

Nevertheless, in the middle of the night, Tamahome runs off and gives himself to up to soldiers who'll take him to Kutou. He left a message to Miaka that she should go and find the missing 3 seishi, then he'd come back. Miaka, Nuriko and Chichiri go off, leaving Hotohori behind, who's staring after them longingly.

ok, from here onwards, the summary is going to be a lot less detailed.

Chichiri went back to Hotohori and told him that he would go off with Miaka and Nuriko to find the rest of the seishi. Chichiri uses a spell to transform himself to look *exactly* like Hotohori (Hotohori: "I'm *still* more beautiful").

They find the next seishi, Tasuki, at a bandit base in the mountains. Tasuki's real name is Genrou, he's got red hair, amber eyes, fangs, a violent temper... He's 17, and was to be the next bandit leader after his boss died. His best friend is Kouji, who's now leading the bandits while Tasuki is gone off with Miaka. Oh, and Tasuki also doesn't like women. In the "I hate girls" sense (because he had an overbearing mother and 4 older, overbearing sisters who used to torment him before he ran away from home and joined the bandits), not in the sexual sense - or at least, that's what's mentioned in canon, which hasn't stopped a lot of fanwriters from expanding that meaning towards sexual matters.

Tasuki also owns a tessen (a metal fan) from which he can throw fire (by yelling an incantation: "Rekka Shinen", often alternatively transcribed as "Lekka Shinen") Oh, and Tasuki also has quite a potty mouth...

The whole mountain bandits eps are wonderfully funny, btw, including even more cases of mistaken gender that usual. <g>

They set off to find the next seishi, and discover him in a village that's plagued by a demon, who is in the form of said next seishi's dead lover. After some fighting and other stuff (including Miaka nearly dying), the seishi joins them. His name is Mitsukake, he's about 22, and he's a healer (meaning that once a day, he can use his seishi powers to heal someone). In his job, he's a doctor - well, makes sense. He's always a bit melancholy (because he ended up having to kill the demon-that-looked-like-his-dead-love), and otherwise has no great impact on the plot. He does, however, come with a cat, Tama (often called Tama-neko to avoid confusion with Tamahome), which is cute and stays with them, and sometimes *is* helpful to the plot.

After that, they jouney around for quite awhile looking for the last seishi. During that time, they move through Tamahome's village again, and Mitsukake heals Tamahome's father. The children are extremely fond of Miaka, especially the youngest girl, Yuiren (who's 5). They're sweet little kids... Hotohori is shocked in what poor and dirty condition Tamahome's family lives in, and swears to himself that he'll have to make better politics to help such families. He also falls in love with Yuiren, because she tells him that he's amazingly beautiful.

After they journey onwards, Miaka begins to hear flute music, and one night, she runs out to find the source and is attacked by bats and is saved by a young man (via his flute, that he uses to shape his ki and attack or defend things), who then tells her that he's Chiriko, the last seishi. He's 15, and - quiet, I guess. Everyone's happy, they head home.

Once home, the last 3 seishi are in for quite a shock, because they realize that that guy they've been riding all over the country with actually is the emperor.

Tamahome meanwhile has been a welltreated prisoner of Kutou, where Yui has told him she's in love with him. He's a bit confused about this, and women in general, especially such agressive ones who come from another world. He doesn't return Yui's feelings at all.

Chichiri sets it up so that Miaka can see and talk to Tamahome from the palace via a wallscreen that turns into a - well, it's like a vidphone <g> (prompting her to wash and ponder over just what clothes to wear - and prompting Tasuki, who sees her running off happily to talk to Tamahome to comment: "but, but... I thought Miaka and the Emperor... ooohhh, could it be... a Love Triangle???", which prompts Nuriko to punch Tasuki halfway through a wall. Again. <g>), and they make plans to meet that night in the gardens in the palace of Kutou to get him out.

Sadly enough, Yui overhears that, and tells Nakago, who gives Tamahome a drug that makes him forget all his memories, and basically turns him evil (and makes him love Yui).

I'm rather fond of EvilTamahome - he certainly looks sexier than the normal version.

So, when Miaka, Chichiri and Tasuki show up to get Tamahome, he betrays them and then has a huge fight with Tasuki, trying to kill him. He also wounds Miaka, and says some rather nasty things to her. They are forced to leave without him.

Back home, Miaka is horribly depressed, so much so that she even tries to kill herself by drowning. Hotohori, however, saves her (leaving Nuriko to wonder if maybe he should try drowning himself, to be then rescued by Hotohori... and Tasuki tells him that he'd just end up drowned. *blam*, there goes Tasuki, being beaten into the wall again).

Nakago sends EvilTamahome to Konan with orders to kill Miaka. Hotohori intercepts him, and they have a huge swordfight. Hotohori ends up nearly killing Tamahome, and as Tamahome lies on the floor, bleeding to death, Miaka runs up and cradles him in her arms, and suddenly the character on his forehead comes back, and he gets all his memories back (but forgets what he did as EvilTamahome), and so Mitsukake heals him, and now they're all together. Tho Tasuki very much does not like Tamahome, because he hurt him quite a bit. Tamahome doesn't remember, but he dislikes Tasuki back. They bicker a lot...

They start preparing the ceremony to summon Suzaku, but since we all know that there are 2 seasons and not one, we all know that it can't work... because the boy who said he was Chiriko isn't really Chiriko, he's actually a Seiryuu no seishi, named Amiboshi, who has a twin named Suboshi who's still in Kutou, and the two of them can communicate because if one of them carves kanji into his skin, they show up on the skin of the other twin, too (ouch!).

So when they try the ceremony, they fail, but before Amiboshi can do them bodily harm, the real Chiriko shows up and saves them. He's a 13year old superintelligent boy.

He's also boring, and doesn't have much on an impact on the plot (at least in the anime version), so let's forget about him.

When they chase after Amiboshi, he falls off a bridge, but Miaka managed so grab him, and as he hangs there he tells her that he's sorry, he had to betray them but actually he had grown to like them because they're so much nicer than the other side, and he doesn't want his side to win anymore, so he lets go of Miaka's hand and lets himself drown.

Taiitsukun shows up, yells at them for being stupid, then tells them that there is a way to still summon Suzaku, but they first need to go to Hokkan to get the Shinzaho of Genbu (it's a magical artifact that got left behind after the Genbu no Miko summoned Genbu and then returned back to her world). However, since the Seiryuu no seishi are now missing one of their seishi, they'll be after the Shinzaho, too. Then Taiitsukun sends everyone out, because she has something to tell to only Miaka.

After they all try to come to terms with this and start preparing for travelling to Hokkan (via ship, much to Tasuki's horror - he's a hammer (non-swimmer), and hates water...), Tamahome tells Miaka (after much stammering and such) that he wants to marry her. Miaka stares at him and asks him where the fuck he got the idea from that she's even interested in him. Tamahome is stunned (and depressed).

Miaka, who's not much happier, pours her heart out to Chichiri, telling him that Taiitsukun has forbidden her from persuing her love with Tamahome anymore, so she's now without both the people she loves most (Tama and Yui).

Chichiri tells her how he came to his scar: He has a best friend and a fiancee, and they were all great friends. But then, his best friend stole his fiancee, and he got so mad that he ended up killing his best friend, and only after that he realized how much his best friend had meant to him. He also got the scar during that, which is why he keeps it.

He then tells Miaka that Yui liked her a lot, much more than Miaka can imagine - in fact, Yui likes her so much that she's started hating her. And that is why she should help Yui. Miaka doesn't quite understand that, but thanks him anyway.

That night, to cheer up, Miaka goes to the Stargazing Festival together with Nuriko and Tasuki. Miaka ends up losing the other two and running into Tamahome, and he weasels the reason for Miaka's behavious out of her. Taiitsukun said that Miaka must be a virgin to call Suzaku, so she can't touch any male with love, especially not a seishi - there must be a line between the miko and the seishi that can't be crossed. Tamahome is rather tortured, but he says he understands, and will wait until they have called Suzaku, and then he'll make her the happiest bride in the world.

While they finish preparing for the journey (tho they'll have to leave Hotohori behind - he's the emperor, he can't just hop off to different countries, as much as he'd like to), Hotohori offers Tamahome that he can bring his family into the palace while he's gone, so that he'll know that they're safe and have food, etc.

So Tamahome, Nuriko and Miaka set off to fetch them. But... they've all been killed. Brutally. And recently enough for Yuiren to die in Tamahome's arms. <sniffle>

The murderer is still around, too - it's Suboshi, who thinks that the Suzaku seishi brutally murdered his twin brother, so he took revenge on Tamahome's family. Suboshi and Tamahome fights, but another Seiryuu seishi shows up and rescues Suboshi.

Tamahome buries his family, then, during the next night, he somehow puts himself back together again so that he can go with them. He tells Miaka that so far he had been living for his family, but in the end he couldn't protect them. So on his father's grave, he swore to dedicate his life to protecting Miaka from now on. The event also means that Miaka is now determined to win and summon Suzaku, because what the Seiryuu did is unforgivable, and she will *not* let them win, even if it means fighting Yui.

Before they leave, Hotohori gives Miaka his royal sword, because he won't be able to be there to protect her. Miaka, in turn, gives Hotohori the teddybear that she's had since she was 5 (leading Keisuke, who read about it, to roll his eyes and wonder if she realizes that she just gave an old stuffed animal to an *Emperor*...).

(in the manga, we get to see that Hotohori actually takes that teddy to bed with him <g>)

So they set off. Nakago reports this fact to Yui, who until now had been thinking that Miaka would not continue to persue summoning Suzaku (because doing so will mean that she's going to fight Yui directly, and Yui didn't believe she would. Yui also knows nothing about how Tamahome's family got killed). She's shocked, then angry, and now orders Nakago and the rest of the Seiryuu seishi to start looking for the Shinzaho, too - she will *not* let Miaka win.

And that ends season 1 (eps 1 - 27).