Yumi was dreaming again. This time she found herself in the library. She watched her dream-self studying out of a book on ancient China. Megumi was on the other side of the table, studying languages. Nothing changed for several minutes, except that one of them would turn a page once in a while or scribble a note in her notebook. After a while, Megumi checked her watch, and got up.

"I'm going to call my mom. I need to tell her we'll be a little late." Yumi nodded without looking up from the text she was studying. The minutes passed by. Yumi looked up from her book, and Megumi was still gone. Worried, Yumi got up, and in her haste, she knocked a book out of the pile she had collected to study from. Remembering her promise to the librarian, Yumi carefully picked up the book, recognizing it as one she had taken from the restricted section. She was lucky have been allowed in there. But, when the librarian heard she was attending Jonan High, she gave Yumi and Megumi access to the restricted section. Apparently, the name of her school swung a lot of weight. Yumi looked at the title.

"The Universe of the Four Gods." Yumi read. She couldn't remember picking the book out from the shelves. For some reason, she wanted to open the book. She carefully lifted the front cover. There was a whole lot of strange stuff in here about gods and warriors and wishes. Strange, yet somehow vaguely intriguing. Suddenly, Yumi was falling, and she woke with a start.

She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, thinking about the dream, but the more she tried to think about it, the less she could remember. But she did remember Megumi. For some reason, Megumi's leaving the library was sticking out in her mind. Yumi wondered what the dream meant, but she never was good at interpreting dreams. Megumi was better at that than Yumi. Yumi rolled over, wincing in pain. She could still feel the man's blood soaking her, as if it was still on her. Her whole body hurt, and she wondered whether her face was bruised from the number of times she had been struck. Searching through her pocket, Yumi found her compact. She opened it, thanking the fates that the mirror was still in one piece.

In the dim light, Yumi studied her face. She looked basically the same as when she was in her own world, but now her eyes seemed narrower, less innocent. That was no surprise, when she thought about it. She was glad to see that there were no bruises on her face, and snapped the compact shut and put it back into her pocket. The noise the compact made when she shut it reminded Yumi of how much Megumi's mother had hated her vanity. Just because Yumi had better luck with the boys than her friend, Megumi's mother considered her a slut.

Thinking of her home made Yumi feel empty and lonely inside. Promising herself that she would not cry, Yumi resolved to try to find the "Seven Stars" so that she could go back to her world and her best friend. She couldn't stay here any longer. She knew Genro would try to protect her, but she didn't want him to kill anyone else for her. She was relieved when she saw that Genro was not in the room. Gathering up her sparse possessions, Yumi made her way to the door. Yumi pushed the door open and slipped out of the room. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw a shadowy figure sitting against the wall next to the door. She studied the figure and could somehow tell that it was Genro. He had been guarding her door when he fell asleep there. Yumi was touched, and felt a little guilty at leaving him without a note. But, when she thought about it, she didn't even know if he could read. Putting that out of her mind, Yumi took the back way out of the compound and carefully made her way to the main road in the dark. Yumi picked up a heavy stick that could serve as both a walking stick and a weapon, and set off along the road.

She hadn't been walking for more than a few minutes when she stumbled on something in the road. For some reason, she was compelled to find out what it was she had tripped over. In the dim starlight, Yumi could see the outline of a straw hat. Without even thinking about it, Yumi picked it up and placed it on her head and continued walking as though she had never stopped in the first place. The cool night air refreshed Yumi, and her heart felt lighter than it had all day. For some reason she couldn't explain, Yumi felt safe. She walked along the road, wondering where she would find her celestial warriors and what they were like. She had slept nearly all day, so she wasn't tired at all. She just inhaled the crisp night air as she followed wherever the road was leading.

It had only seemed that she was walking for a few minutes, but in fact, Yumi had wandered the road all night, and now the sun was rising, lighting up one of the most beautiful scenes Yumi had ever seen.

Spread out in front of her was a lovely city with bright banners and shining temples, and on a rise at the center of the city, a magnificent palace stood. Yumi couldn't wait to explore the city. Everything was neatly planned and arranged. Suddenly, Yumi felt heavy, and her head hurt. Maybe she was getting a headache. That was strange, for Yumi hardly ever got headaches. Her head felt heavy and mushy. Reaching the outskirts of the city, she rested against the side of a house for a moment. The heaviness disappeared, and Yumi continued. As the sun rose, the streets grew steadily more crowded. Again, Yumi felt out of place. Everyone here wore robes and tunics that Yumi had only ever seen in history books. As she passed, people would sometimes stare at her and whisper to their neighbors. Pulling her straw hat down to cover her face, Yumi looked around. Yumi was admiring the strange hairstyles of a group of young women who were chatting together a few feet away when she saw a glimmer to her left, and she tried to look directly at it. Yumi's jaw dropped. For an instant, she saw a girl that was dressed like her, but the image disappeared before Yumi could notice more than the school uniform. That's not good. I'm starting to have hallucinations brought on by hunger and guilt.

A loud rumble distracted Yumi. She looked around to see what it was, and she heard it again. Yumi smiled wryly, realizing the source of the noise. It was her stomach. She hadn't eaten all that much in the two days she had been here, and constantly seemed to be hungry. Making her way into the inner city, Yumi searched out a place to get food. As she came nearer to the palace, the streets became more crowded, and she could see vendors setting up stands, getting ready to sell their wares. Ignoring the looks she was receiving from the locals, Yumi picked out a stand and headed straight for it before she remembered that she had no money to buy anything. The bread smelled so good! Yumi stood there, just smelling the bread for a moment when the vendor noticed her hanging around. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Do you have any money?" Yumi shook her head, still staring at the food. The vendor looked at Yumi in a way that made her shiver. Then he said something that made Yumi hurry in the other direction.

"There are other ways you can pay..." Yumi didn't stay long enough to hear the rest of what he was saying. As soon as she had seen the way the man was looking at her, she had hurried off in the other direction. Why was it that every man here seems to have the same thing on his mind? Yumi wandered the streets, all the time coming nearer and nearer to the palace.

"Hey, you! Come back here! Thief!"

Yumi was almost bowled over as a kid ran by, clutching a loaf of honey bread, by the smell of it. Two seconds later a man appeared, running after the kid. Yumi looked the way the two had come from, and sure enough there was an unattended stand in the alley. Careful not to let anyone see her, Yumi ran to the display and snatched a small loaf of bread and ran off down another street. Down here, the streets were cleaner and emptier. Yumi reasoned that she must have run into the rich district of the city. Finding herself a shady corner, Yumi took off her hat and sat down.

She tore a piece off of the bread and inhaled the sweet scent of it. She was wrong, it wasn't honey. She didn't know what it was, but right then, she didn't care; she just started eating it.

"Oh my, what have we here?" Yumi heard a voice say from somewhere above her. Yumi looked up to see a beautiful woman standing near her, looking at her sympathetically. Yumi tried to ignore her, but she kept talking.

"I never knew there were such wretched souls in my country that people have to steal bread to survive... You poor wretched thing!" Yumi looked angrily up at the woman.

"Watch it, there! You may be rich, but that doesn't mean I'm poor. You know nothing about me!" Yumi looked back at her food, but suddenly lost her appetite. The stranger hadn't finished, though.

"I do know something about you." The richly dressed woman leaned forward slightly and said more quietly, "Do you want to know what it is?" Confused, Yumi nodded, standing up. Maybe she would get more information on the priestess deal. The woman leaned even closer.

"You are poor." Yumi couldn't take it, and without any warning, she slapped the woman full in the face. The woman looked so shocked that Yumi wondered if she even felt the blow. The total lack of any other reaction made Yumi even angrier.

"Get off my back! I didn't choose to be poor, nor did I even choose to be in this stupid place! But I don't get a say, do I?" While Yumi was yelling, another woman had come up. She was even prettier than the one Yumi had just hit. Seeing the red mark on her companion's face, the new woman hitched up her skirts and hurried over to Yumi and slapped her angrily. Yumi reeled under the strength of the woman's strike.

"How dare you hit His Highness! He can have you executed for less than what you did!" Him? Yumi was a little surprised, but the full impact didn't hit her until after she gave the new girl a good, sound wallop on her cheek. Yumi was pulling back for another swing when the woman caught her arm, and Yumi couldn't move. The woman was strong! So Yumi used her other hand, creating a red mark on the girl's other cheek. Yumi dodged the next blow, trying to back up, but her arm was still caught.

"Your highness, what should I do with this commoner?" The girl said over her shoulder. Yumi finally realized. The first "woman" was "his highness." Yumi laughed.

"That can't be a man! That lady over there has got to be a woman!" She chanted. The girl tightened her hold on Yumi's arm, causing Yumi to wince in pain.

"Your Highness?" He didn't answer. Yumi looked over at him, and saw him staring at Yumi's hat. Yumi looked back where she had set her hat down, and jumped. There was a strange man there, and he was wearing her hat! Yumi managed to escape the woman's grip and ran up the guy with her hat, trying to get it back from him.

"Hey! That's my hat! Give it back to me!" Yumi jumped, but the man dodged nimbly. Yumi got a good look at him, and suddenly forgot about the hat. He had blue hair! And that wasn't even the worst part! His hair was cut into a tall Mohawk in the front, and the rest of his hair was very short, minus a long tail hanging in the back. His face looked like the caricature of a fox. It had to be a mask! He was wearing a monk's garb, and carried a long staff.

"Hey!" He said, "This is MY hat, no da. I was only letting you borrow it, no da!" Yumi tried once again to get the hat, but she was too small and slow to get it back. So Yumi decided to stare at him until he felt guilty for stealing her hat and gave it back like a gentleman. But the woman, the real one, hadn't forgiven Yumi. She caught hold of the back of Yumi's uniform and spun her around to face the man Yumi originally thought was a woman.

"Apologize right now!" She yelled at Yumi. Yumi grabbed hold of the neck of the woman's kimono, getting ready to tell her off, when the woman suddenly jumped backward so quickly that Yumi didn't even have time to release the woman's clothes, and the result was that her kimono fell open in the front. Yumi quickly looked away, so as to not embarrass the woman, but she didn't look away quickly enough.

Yumi did a double take, looking back at the woman, or should she say, man. Yumi felt as though her jaw would hit the floor. His chest was completely flat! They had both been men! Before the cross-dresser managed to cover himself and run away, Yumi saw a glowing red symbol on his chest. It read "yanagi," or willow.

The fox-faced man behind her suddenly said spoke.

"That was the mark of one of the Stars of Suzaku, no da." Yumi turned around to face the blue-haired weirdo, eager to hear more.

"Really? Is that one of my celestial warriors? Which one was that? How can I find the rest of them?" Yumi wanted to run after her first celestial warrior, but she also wanted to hear what else this man might have to say.

"Slow down no da! That was Nuriko, a celestial warrior of Suzaku. And you are the priestess of Suzaku, judging from your foreign clothes. But also, you have already managed to gather four celestial warriors, so you must be the Priestess."

Four? What in the world? I've only met one! Yumi thought, and she was about to tell the stranger so when she heard the other man behind her exclaim in fear.

"There's a ghost! What's going on here?" Yumi looked around for the "ghost," remembering that Koji had also claimed to see a ghost. Yumi's jaw dropped.