Through Suzakuseikun, Miaka learns that an evil power that was once sealed in the tomb, is invading the world. He says the power is known as a "devil".
Meanwhile, Taka is freaking out, not only because his girlfriend is missing, but also he stumbles upon Tetsuya and Yui in the bushes, and Keisuke spying on them. Miaka learns Suzakuseikun needs the power of love to protect her world, the book world, and that Taka will be destroyed if the devil wins. She takes it pretty well, considering. Also, apparently, Japan's phone company can reach inner dimensions, b/c Taka is paging her and her beeper goes off, startling Suzakuseikun who hides in her watch before giving her a scroll that it is "the key to everything."
She returns to Taka (to his relief), her best friend, and brother, although Tetsuya is more concerned with returning to whatever he and Yui were doing ^_^;. But it's late and the girls return to the hotel, Miaka hiding the scroll from Taka. She feels bad she didn't say anything about it. She remembers Tamahome getting hurt to protect her, and does not what the same thing to happen with Taka.
At home in Tokyo, Miaka's mother and her new husband are going away for a weekend, leaving Keisuke to Miaka's homemaking skills, much to his dismay. But Miaka's already planning the most popular thing to do when parents leave town (second only to rave parties) spending the night at her boyfriend's to cook for him.
Strange things begin to happen to our poor little heroine, picture frames explode, and she sees a demon animal appear in the school wall. Being used to strange things, though, she pretty much carries on with her day as usual.
Miaka gets caught in a rain storm on her way to Taka's apartment, so he lets her use his shower, and wear his shirt (which, comically, leaves him topless and her in nothing much else besides an oversized button-down for the rest of this episode, into the next one. One cute thing, Miaka finds that Taka is one of those people who savs every little coin they get, and keeps huge jars of spare change around.
He hugs her, then lightening flashes and they end up on the floor, They start kissing and it reminds Miaka of the time inside the book, the time when her stomach growled and interrupted them. She's puzzled when Taka fails to remember, but has no time to dwell on it, because a huge demon-looking wolf thing is suddenly in the room with them.
Taka: "I don't remember having a pet like that!"
He throws the first thing he can find at the wolf, which happens to be the scroll. In a confusing set of events, Miaka's wristwatch glows and they land in a strange place, and are instantly attacked by a monster, (this is a reoccurring theme) and saved at the last minute by a well-aimed stream of fire, from a certain red-head's iron fan. Seeing Tasuki clues Miaka into the fact that they've returned to the Universe of the Four Gods. (::sing-song voice:: she's baa-aaack.)
Episode 80
When Tasuki (finally) recognizes his two friends, they learn they landed near Tasuki's home. They meet his sister, Aidou, who sweetly makes introductions to them while beating her brother over the head with a fire log. In Tasuki's home they are offered food. Many things are learned in this scene: Two years have gone by in the Universe of the Four Gods. Tasuki hasn't seen Chichiri since almost right after they returned from the mikos' world. Taka hasn't changed that much from his former self (at least concerning money). And they learn, (thanks to an attacking demon in the middle of the dinner table), that attacks are growing much more frequent in the Universe of the Four Gods.
Also, to cover up embarrassment at being yelled at by his mommy for getting ashes all over the table (when he attacked the monster attacking Miaka) Tasuki lets slip about the time Tamahome tried to kill the Suzaku no Miko. While Taka's busy looking tortured and confused, Tasuki takes out a blue stone, which dissolves under Taka's touch, and through a montage of images, Taka remembers a small portion of his life as Tamahome. Then comes the touching scene where he starts beating Tasuki up. It's Miaka who thinks to ask where the stone came from, and she learns they just appeared in Tasuki's and Chichiri's hands when they returned after the final attack on Nakago. But before the conversation could progress any further, Miaka's watch glows with a red light, and she and Taka land back in his apartment, minus the big wolf monster.
Taka gently questions Miaka about that day's events:
"What the hell was that? What was the scroll? What happened at Nara?!"
She tells him she doesn't understand it that much, either, and agrees to promise to let him know before she does anything with the scroll again, or if anything weird happens. Just before they fall asleep, Miaka asked Taka how much he remembers from his life as Tamahome. He replies that he is, technically, himself no matter what.
Miaka starts thinking things over, wondering outloud about the stones and the scroll, but Taka falls asleep, so she askes Suzaku to come out of her watch and talk. She learns that the scroll is actually the original ancient-Chinese version of the "Universe of the Four Gods" and that there are six other stones like the one they saw that day. Each stone contains memories of Taka's life as Tamahome, and if she collects all seven, Taka's heart becomes whole, and their love will destroy the "majin" (devil).
Because Suzaku is in Miaka's watch, they get exactly an hour inside the scroll each time. If they collect the rest of the stones, then, theoretically, all is well. But if they don't collect all the stones, or they are two slow and the devil gets too much power: Taka ceases to exist in any form, the evil disturbances in both worlds grow more powerful, and, basically, Evil would win, Good would lose, do NOT pass Go. Of course, now a good night's sleep is out of the question for the little miko, so she stays up all night, hugging Taka and vowing to protect him and their love and the world.
