ayashi no ceres
"Ayashi no Ceres" was the series Watase-sensei started after Fushigi Yuugi. She actually first envisioned "Ceres" at 18 as well, a short time before first conceiving Fushigi Yuugi. It was a more occult story back then, but she changed it around to be a different kind of "horror." It was published in Shojo Comic as well, in 1997. It was then made into an anime series in 2000 by Studio Pierrot, the same company that made FY into an animated series five years earlier.
"Ceres" follows a teenage girl named Aya Mikage, much different from Watase-sensei's previous heroines. On the day of Aya and her twin brother Aki's sixteenth birthday, her family viciously attacks her. Barely escaping being murdered by her grandfather, Aya meets an attractive man known as Toya. She's then rescued by another pretty boy named Yuhi Aogiri. Yuhi's sister-in-law, Suzumi, explains a story to Aya; an old folktale about an angel bathing in a lake. A man discovered this beautiful tennyo (celestial maiden) bathing and took her hagoromo (feathered cloak) from a nearby tree branch. The angel inquired to the man, asking where her hagoromo was and lied, saying he didn't know. The angel gave into her fate and married the man, giving birth to his children. Aya becomes angry, saying she knows the story and doesn't get the point of the retelling. Suzumi elucidates, telling Aya that not only is she the blood descendant of that tennyo, but she's also the direct reincarnation. The tennyo, named Ceres, will stop at nothing to kill the family and the reincarnation of the man who raped and imprisoned her; Aya's beloved twin brother, Aki.

Characters