Yui Hongo

Yui Hongo
Full Name	Yui Hongo
Birthdate	October 26 (Scorpio)
Age	15 (I); 18 (II)
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Blonde
Eye Color	Blue
Height	162 cm
Known Relatives	Unnamed Mother; Kajiwara Tetsuya (Lover)
Allegiance
	Seiryuu; Kutou; Celestial Warriors of Seiryuu; Genbu;
Additional Information
Beast God	Seiryuu; Genbu
Title	Priestess of Seiryu; Priestess of Genbu (OAV)
Rank	Priestess
Occupation	Priestess of Seiryu; Priestess of Genbu; Middle School Student (Former); High School Student (Former)
Real World
Manga	Chapter 1
Anime	Episode 1
Created by	Yuu Watase
Voiced by	Yumi Touma (Anime); Yamazaki Wakana (CD Book);
Other Information
	Fushigi Yuugi

SPOILER WARNING!!

This article contains SPOILERS.
Continue reading at your own risk.

"You will never understand what I went through!"

—Yui to Miaka

Yui Hongo (本郷唯 Hongō Yui^?) is the best friend of Miaka Yūki and the Priestess of Seiryuu. She is considered to be the smartest student in her school and is content with what her future holds: a spot in a competitive high school. Unfortunately, her plans are halted when she is summoned into the Universe of the Four Gods.

Appearance

Yui has blonde, cropped hair with bangs, pale skin and light-blue eyes. In the manga, it is revealed that she once had longer hair but cut it in order to avoid unwanted attention. Her hairstyle changes to a grown-out bob in later chapters/episodes.

Her fashion-sense is more practical when she is out of her school uniform, which is a standard brown blazer and skirt with a white dress shirt and blue ribbon.

Personality

Yui's personality painfully revolves around contrasts and conflict. Though at first glance she seems prim, intelligent, mature, smart, and sensible, her faith in people is so easily shaken. She trusts Miaka very much, to the point that she even doubted Nakago's lies; but nevertheless as time passed by she was able to believe it. It shows that she is the kind of person who can be fooled with persistent pressing. Yui seems to be ruthless and cold at sometimes but when she finds trustworthy people she begins to act kindly and later opens up. At the true gist of her heart, she is a very kind, compassionate and caring person and she uses her authorities as a priestess well-fit. She has her faults: the priestess of Seiryuu easily breaks down and resorts to tears and she may tend to overreact and be angry when her emotions get the best of her. To her enemies and to those who betrayed her, she is ruthlessly cynical. Being aware of her capabilities and acting normal makes her seem admirable, particularly with Suboshi.

By the time the later manga/OVAs run, Yui has matured considerably and has developed a rapport of her own with Tetsuya, Keisuke's friend. When she refers to her experiences in the book world, she refers to her silliness and jealousy, and her loyalty to Miaka is absolute by this point. Although enemies such as Shigyou Renhou try to manipulate her occasional jealousy of Miaka's relationship with Taka, she still remains loyal to her friend this time around. However, her preoccupation with the real world over the book world is still overriding - she is always cross when Miaka goes into the book world or spends too long focusing on what's going on in there.

Story

Season 2: Seiryuu

Yui Hongo (本郷唯, Hongō Yui) is the Priestess of Seiryū (Seiryū no Miko). An intelligent and mature girl, she is a tenth-grade student and Miaka Yūki's best friend. A passionate person at heart, she tends to see the world in black and white terms and is easily infuriated with perceived betrayal. Yui is confident and bold in everything she does but longs for someone to take care of her.

Yui is initially transported to "The Universe of the Four Gods" with Miaka, but almost immediately returns to the real world and becomes the one who reads the book in order for events in the world to progress. However, she becomes trapped in the book while trying to help Miaka return to the real world.

Afterward, bandits capture Yui and knock her unconscious. When she regains consciousness, she believes she has been raped and, distraught, attempts to kill herself. Nakago rescues her and convinces her that Miaka is responsible for Yui's misfortunes, leaving Yui unaware that he had saved her before she had been raped. He manipulates Yui into becoming the Priestess of Seiryuu, convincing her that it will allow Yui to take revenge on Miaka. She eagerly agrees, swearing to fight Miaka and to take away her lover, Tamahome, whom Yui has become attracted to.

After succeeding in summoning Seiryū, Yui uses her first wish to seal away Suzaku's powers, preventing the god from being summoned and the Celestial Warriors from using their powers. Her second wish is to take Miaka and herself back to their world, hoping to separate Miaka and Tamahome, but Tamahome also arrives in their world with them. When Yui finally realizes that Nakago has been manipulating her for his own ambition and revenge, she is too late to stop him from doing any more harm, especially as she cannot help but witness hopelessly and helplessly in horror and shock, upon the death and destruction of her own world right before her eyes, friends, and family alike, including her best friend Miaka and her love interest Tamahome. Hence, consequently, in her deep regret and remorse, she makes her own ultimate self-sacrifice and redemption with her third and final wish, in order to repeal the seal on Suzaku, letting Seiryū devour herself, and begging Miaka to protect their dear world at all costs. Hence, after summoning Suzaku, Miaka uses her first wish to rescue Yui, and her second wish to seal Seiryū away, which finally allows Tamahome to defeat and kill Nakago once and for all. Afterward, both Yui and Miaka make amends and renew their friendship with each other once again.

After the events of the "Universe of the Four Gods", Yui enters a long-term relationship with Tetsuya Kajiwara, a friend of Keisuke Yūki, who fell in love with her while following her journey when reading the book.

When Tenkou is revived after being sealed away by the Four Gods for centuries and threatens to cast great calamity and chaos upon both worlds of Miaka and Tamahome, Yui decides to help them out, as her way of redemption, repentance, and determination to make sure that everyone is really happy and free. She even puts herself in the line of fire sometimes in order to do so. In the end, she finally relieves and redeems herself of all her past pain and sorrow, as she sees that all is well in the end.

Abilities

Color Glow: Each Priestess can give off a colored glow based on the beast God. It represents herself as chosen Priestesses.
Summoning the Gods: The priestesses are given the gift of being able to summon one of the beast gods (Suzaku, Seiryuu, Genbu, Byakko). Once the summoning ceremony is complete, she is able to grant three wishes.
Protection Barrier: Yui is protected by the protective barrier of Seiryuu and nothing can touch her when the power is active. In the first OVA, it is also shown that she became a Priestess of Genbu for a short while, as she is also protected by the barrier of the Beast God.