Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Fushigi Yuugi: Daydream's Embrace ❯ Episode 0: Prologue ( Prologue )

What if `The Universe of the Four Gods' was translated into English?

What if it was opened by someone who knew the legend?

What if the story was retold?

*

Two teenage girls sat in the center of a living room in a house in the suburbs of Ohio, watching Fushigi Yuugi, guzzling Dr Pepper and whipped cream straight from the cans, and, generally, having a great time. It was a normal spring day, the kind where friends hang out together, doing nothing in particular. It was the kind of day that made school children long for summer vacation to begin. Katherine and Christina, who were in their freshman year, were no different. They wished for the dull droning of teachers to end, and for a summer of lounging about to begin.

Katherine, whose living room they inhabited at the moment, was lazily sprawled out on the blue couch. She was lean built, and just below regular height at 5'2". Her hazel eyes shined happily as she looked at the television screen that emitted the room's only light, her slightly wavy brunette hair, highlighted with gold, falling down to her shoulders.

"A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl's best friend. A kiss may be grand but it won't pay the rental on your humble flat, or help you feed your pussycat," Christina trilled from the big, plaid armchair she was perched upon, voicing her usual tendency to burst into song. There was always a song playing in her head, and she had no guilt getting a tune stuck in someone else's mind as well.

"I don't like that song," Katherine interjected thoughtfully before tilting her head back and dramatically spraying whipped cream into her mouth.

"Why?" asked Christina, turning her gaze across the room to her friend, who, like the rest of the room and the furniture in it, was bathed in the flickering light of the screen.

"The tune is fine, but the lyrics…" Katherine trailed off, trying to think of the best way to voice her thoughts. Her friend continued to stare at her, eyebrows raised in question, as though daring Katherine to finish the sentence. Katherine thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to say what she thought without insulting her friend.

"It's just like saying that girls are materialistic."

"But it also says that men are chauvinistic bastards," Christina pointed out mischievously, her green eyes sparkling out from her face, which was lightly sprinkled with freckles over her nose and cheeks. She leaned back into the chair, where her auburn hair, streaked with red and gold, flowed down her shoulders and back. Christina was slender and willowy, and barely towered above Katherine at an average height of 5'4".

"Is the Priestess of Suzaku really Miaka? Why is she so popular?" a muffled Japanese voice that belonged to Keisuke interjected from across the room, on the television screen. He was sitting in the Important Documents Reference Room of Japan's national library, reading the Universe of the Four Gods.

"It's not very good when your own brother doesn't think very highly of you," Christina commented while pointing towards the screen.

"But this is Miaka we're talking about," Katherine laughed, turning her attention back to the TV after a moment of humor.

On the display, Hotohori suddenly burst through a door. "Be careful, both of you!" he yelled, his sonorous voice slightly fuzzy from the speakers' high volume. "I sense an evil presence!"

Miaka looked around the room in bewilderment, to be answered by a man on the ceiling stating, "I am a messenger from the land of Kutou."

"Dude, that guys a pervert! He was like watching Miaka and Tamahome's peep show!" Christina shouted in reference to the intense hugging Miaka and Tamahome were involved in on the bed. Both Katherine and Christina burst out laughing at the thought.

The Kutou agent continued, "We have already advanced on several villages in Konan. This is common knowledge."

"Then why is he saying it?" Christina questioned sarcastically.

"And why doesn't Tamahome know?" Katherine continued, remembering that Tamahome asked but a few seconds later if what the agent said was true. Christina started to crack up as Tamahome asked the question that Katherine had predicted her would and fell out of the blue chair and onto the beige carpeting in her hysterics. Katherine clutched to the couch desperately, hoping not to end up on the floor like her best friend from laughter.

Miaka then proceeded to question or repeat everything the agent on the ceiling said. "Is she deaf?" Katherine said mockingly. One of her major pet peeves was repetition, and, unfortunately, in Shoujo Anime, repetition happened quite a lot.

"Welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department," Christina continued, causing both of the girls to break into hysterics yet again.

In the next scene, Tamahome was sitting in a chair next to Miaka's sleeping form, which wasn't very peaceful. On the contrary, she snored. Tamahome began to stand up to leave for Kutou. "Eeeeeee…." Miaka warned as she grabbed Tamahome's arm, subconsciously making sure he didn't leave.

"Is she constipated?" Katherine wondered as the two friends laughed even harder.

*

On the screen, Hotohori walked down the hallway of the Konan palace, flanked by advisors that were waiting upon his every whim. He was halted when Miaka stopped in front of him, thrusting the note Tamahome had written to her into the emperor's hands.

"I HATE his Chinese takeout box hat!" Katherine announced, referring to his royal crown, which, in fact, bore a strange resemblance to a takeout box, including the chopstick-looking gold decoration that impaled the `box'.

"There has to be some mistake!" Miaka yelled, "Hotohori, read it right this time!"

"Oh yeah," Katherine said sardonically at Miaka's demand, "The emperor really needs Hooked on Phonics!"

"1-800-ABC-DEFG!" Christina added arbitrarily. When Katherine and Christina spent time together, they usually seemed to end up laughing so hard that it hurt; it was quite dangerous.

Then, the scene changed, and Hotohori was sitting at his desk, wishing Miaka a safe journey to search for the remaining warriors of Suzaku. "No…" he said, "It's nothing, just be careful."

"Awww… poor Hotohori, I LOVE YOU!" Katherine yelled at the screen. She paused the picture and stared at Hotohori in awe of his beauty. After a few moments of watching Katherine's slack expression, Christina grabbed the remote and pressed play, forcing her friend out of her stupor. And a few minutes later, Chichiri appeared on top of Hotohori's desk.

"Chi… Chichiri?" Hotohori asked, surprised that the monk had appeared out of thin air.

"So now he needs speech classes for a stuttering problem too!?" Christina asked, laughing maniacally and finding it all to be hilarious.

"Hey!" Katherine yelled defensively. "I'd be surprised too if a mass of bright blue hair popped up in my face!"

Christina ignored her friend, continuing to watch the show until the screen suddenly panned down to a view of Hotohori's royal shoes. "DUCKY SHOES!" Christina yelled. As an emperor, Katherine and Christina had found Hotohori had a strange wardrobe. The girls, affected by the large amount of sugar they had been inhaling in the past twenty minutes, jumped up and down around the room, chanting, " DUCKY SHOES, DUCKY SHOES!"

*

It was another scene, and Chichiri had cast a spell so that he could take Hotohori's place on the throne while the sei protected Miaka. He had changed into an exact copy of Hotohori, and Katherine was ecstatic. "Yay! Two of them! Let's count the Hotohoris! One, two! One, two! What could be better than two Hotohoris? Unless it's three Hotohoris! Or four Hotohoris! Or a bazillion Hotohoris!"

Christina hit herself over the head with a notebook in a vain attempt to numb the pain of Katherine's crazed fangirl side, which usually emerged at any mention of Hotohori. Sometimes it was just too much for Christina to take, and this was one of those instances.

"I'm much more beautiful than that!" Hotohori criticized.

"I LOVE his narcissism!" Katherine yelled, completely ignoring her friend's state of borderline insanity.

A few minutes later, one of the bandits who had come to attack Miaka and Nuriko in a restaurant yelled "Gimme that money!" as he attempted to decapitate Miaka's head.

"If you want money," Christina pointed out, "You don't slice her head off, you take the bag!" She loved knowing that she was a better bandit than `real' bandits.

Hotohori soon stabbed the bandit, appearing in a flash of steel and blood. "What an entrance!" Katherine gushed, holding her head in her hands and staring at the screen dreamily.

*

Christina had seated herself a mere two inches away from the television, her eyes glued to the screen, her nose almost touching the glass. She screamed with joy as a black boot appeared on the television, and then again when a strong gust of wind swept Miaka away. Christina swooned as she saw Tasuki and his trademark smirk on the screen.

"Ge- Genrou!" Christina said happily along with Kouji.

"It's been a while, Eiken," Christina recited in sync with Tasuki in perfect Japanese that could only be learned with an obsessive amount of watching that very scene, which, in fact, she had. "So after I come back from my trip, I see you've taken over huh? Must be nice for you to have a bride now, considering how damned ugly your face is!"

It was now Katherine's turn to bash her head with the notebook, using her own friend's method, and praying it would work and somehow knock her unconscious. "Genjitsu Shintaro!" Christina shouted, still grinning madly.

To be continued…