„I didn't know we would get a horse" Yaten said.

"Did you read anything about Middle Planet before coming here?" Marc asked with astonishment. He was surprised how little his three friends from Kimoku had learned before coming here. Taiki responded:

"Our coming here was an unexpected decision. It's because this new demon occurred and since our experience with Galaxia we'd rather be safe then sorry. We heard that many monarchs were coming here to resolve the problem of the new threat. One day princess said that someone should travel to Middle Planet to seek the answer in the Sacred Cloister. The next day it was already decided that we were the ones who should go. There was no time for us to prepare. I regret though, I am like you Marc. If it wasn't an emergency I would take at least one year of preparations before coming here. It's a once in a life time journey." Taiki was displeased. He regretted that he had to arrive here so suddenly. He would like to take his time to read and learn about Middle Planet.

"I understand" Marc said. "I am here sooner then I've expected as well. I had only three years to prepare. I was supposed to come here in two years. Yet the new threat forced me to come ealier." They nodded. "About the horses… as you can see the monarchs are privileged here. We get to ride horses, but they aren't regular horses. They are also creatures. They are smart and trained to protect us if demon would attack. They are also trained to carry people so you don't have to learn how to ride them. It's a horse responsibility to keep us on its back."

"Do they speak?" Seiya asked. "Hi do you speak?" he asked his horse. Horse seemed to be smililng but didn't respond.

"No they don't." Marc responded instead with a smile. But they are smart and understand a lot. They are almost like lowers but on the inferior step of evolution."

"But we the monarchs are on the highest level of evolution, right?" Yaten asked and Seiya looked at him annoyed. Marc laughed.

"I don't know about that but that's what we monarchs think. The plants and the animals are the first step of evolution of the soul, then there are regular humans a very important level, then the level of power creatures starts (those are the creatures like these horses); then we have the lower's level, they are very powerful and they do live long, yet we don't know what happens with their souls after they die; and there is the level of monarchs, long living entities whose spirits are connected to the planets and stars. Our spirits stay in our systems after the body dies and we can reincarnate again or we can stay as ghost to supports our progeny. And there are also the demons, and they can be on every step of evolution just as we are. There can be also planets ruled by the demons. They incarnate like us monarchs do." Seiya thought about that.

"I am monarch yet I don't remember my previous incarnations. Nor Taiki and Yaten do."

"Maybe it's your first one."

"Did I exist before?"

"No one knows that. Only the monarch's souls can remember their previous incarnations as monarchs, but then all of us were born once for the first time."

"I see. It doesn't matter though. What matters is what is going on at the moment," Seiya said. "I like this horse by the way, it's comfortable. Yet I'd rather by walking like lowers."

"Me too" Marc said "It's easier to talk with them that way. But it's done on purpose; we are to stay as separate groups during the journey. We will ride horses, have a separate sleeping place and eat separate meals as long as it's possible (until the situation will not be very dangerous)." Seiya seemed disappointed.

"Why is it like that?"

"Because we are monarchs and they are lowers, we are a step higher in evolution and they are here to serve us and protect us."

"I don't understand such thinking."

"It's because generally we are more powerful so we are more important. We have the power of our planet in us. Lowers fight only with the power of their soul. This planet is an exception. Here lowers are more powerful then us, because we can't use the power of our planet. To fight here we would have to learn how to use the might of our souls, and it's not easy. That's why we are defenseless on Middle Planet. Yet we are the protectors of the Galaxy and our families had kept it free from demons for generations, so our life is more important. When we come here, we are protected by monarch during our pilgrimages."

"How do you fight with the power of the soul?" Seiya asked.

"I have a book about that with me. It fascinates me too. I even started to practice, although I don't think I would ever need it. Before I would learn I am going to be back on my home planet. Fighting with the soul requires a certain concentration and many hours of mediation. The power of the planet is given to us monarchs , but to fight with the soul you have to learn how to take the might of the soul outside. I heard it takes a long time to learn."

"Can I borrow this book?"

"Why would you read about it Seiya?" Yaten asked

"I don't like to be defenseless. I am a Fighter after all."

"But you need a lot of time to learn how to fight on this planet, more then we are going to be here."

"How would I know that if I don't try?"

"Marc is telling you that."

"Maybe I have a strong motivation?" Yaten sighed; his friend could be so stubborn.

"Marc tell me, if I was to fight here could I stay in my male form?" Seiya asked.

"Oh, I forgot that you are incarnated as Sailor Soldiers" Marc laughed.

"What's so funny about that?" Yaten asked. "We are powerful you know?"

"Yeah, but it does seem creepy to have a human form in a different gender then the warrior form."

"There is nothing creepy about it." Taiki said. "Don't ever say that again or we won't speak to you again." Marc apologized but he just couldn't drop the subject.

"So in you system you are woman?"

"Only sometimes. One day when our powers will reach maximum we will stay in our female form. For now on we are not powerful enough and can't be Sailor Soldiers all the time. And we can't turn to our female form on the Middle Planet. We are just deprived from the powers of our planets/stars as all monarchs are."

"So do you feel like a women or men?" Taiki sighed. All of them hated those questions.

"We are men when we are men and we are women when we are women. Our present form is men but in the future we will be women."

"But if you were to have children one day…"

"We can have them either way. There are more women then men in our system so there are plans that we should get married as man before we will be turned to our female forms. We should give the progeny (the future generation of protectors) to our system as men. There is no hurry though we are still young."

"I see, that is comfortable in some way. But what if your wives would not like your female form" Marc laughed.

"The duties in our system are more important then our likes or dislikes. All of us monarchs of Kakou system are devoted to our princess and we are to make sure that her future child has protectors around her." Yaten said.

"I've hear about those female planet system. But since I always saw you as a men I forgot that Kimoku was one of them. I'm happy that in my system things are just more traditional." Marc said.

"We are happy that way!" Taiki said. "I have a sister, who will marry Yaten, Yaten has a sister who will marry Seiya, and Seiya has a sister who will marry me. It's all planed, but we are not in the hurry. We are just starting our lives as warriors."

"So your sisters, do they call you brothers or sisters?" Marc laughed. Taiki and Yaten got angry and just went ahead without responding.

"Don't laugh of it Marc." Seiya said. "It's not easy for us. You always knew us as man and we will stay that way for a long time. Despite the gender, inside we are always the same people nothing changes in us. So let's just don't talk about it."

"I apologize."

"Go and apologize to these two. I will forgive you if you give me the book about fighting on Middle Planet" Seiya said and smiled. Marc took the small backpack from his back and took out few books. He passed one to Seiya.

"Here you go my friend. Good luck." He said and rode forward to speak with Yaten and Taiki.

They were walking for more then half of the day. Seiya was trying to find Usagi, but the group of pilgrims was too big and he couldn't see her. He focused on the book. It was about the fighting on Middle Planet. Yaten, Taiki and Marc were riding and talking next to him.

The familiar voice awoken him. He looked up. Usagi and the group of her friends caught up with him. She was riding on her centaur friend. She was leaning her back against the centaur's torso with her legs crossed. She was reading a book aloud and Cer was listening. Erst and Alicia were riding the female centaur while joking around. Seiya put the book aside and tried to listen to Usagi's conversation. She was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't notice him.

"You are good Cer. You memorized almost the whole book. Recite the next verse."

"Thou must trust in me and thou shall not know the fear. For life starts and life ends but thou were with me before the time begun and thou shall be with me after the time will end. And all the just souls will be with me. And thou shall cry for the evil spirits because they will be separated from thou. So hurt no one and make the only purpose of your live love for all the living and all the dead ."

"That's so beautiful Cer. I was young when I realized that only love for all can save us. Yet it's hard to maintain that view in my present situation."

"God will help you Usi. Did you learn the verse I told you to learn?" She made funny face.

"I had no time…"

"Usi you should have the whole book memorized before we reach the Cloister." She looked at the book. It had more then thousend of pages.

"I know, I know!" Then she remembered something. "I did learn a verse though. It's so beautiful but sad... yet it stirs me like no other."

"Ok. Tell me it."

"Verse 1113: And God said to him: "For some of you my children I created to be the wind. Yet you cry and demure your destiny. But know this, wind must blow because it's in its nature, and wind must go around the world not once, not ten times, not hundred times but tens of hundreds of times. You can't say "this land is beautiful and fertile I want to stay here were the beauty lies" because the wind has to go through the fine lands and the lands of doom without discriminating. You can't say to a tree "I love you and I want to dance in your branches for eternity" because the branch of the loving tree can not stop the wind. Such love would destroy the lover and tear him up with the roots and the tree is not the wind and it needs to be attached to the soil. Remember then, wind can't love in that way. Wind must love all and is for all. The wind that fights to stop its flow brings the destruction and death. The wind that blows in the direction it's supposed to brings the rain of life and the sun of salvation. So you won't complain and you will blow. You will not stop nor beg for the repose. But I, your God, promise that the day will come and you will hear "you found your home, you can rest". Until that moment you must be the wind." She paused for a moment. "Cer, do you think that Shingo and I will ever find the repose?"

"Of course, God gave the promise. I understand why you think this verse is about you, yet you shouldn't take it to yourself that much."

"It just seems so true, my life changed unexpectedly so many times. Just like the direction of the breeze."

"Don't be sad, let's read another verse." She smiled and opened the book when Seiya decided to take his chance and spoke to her. He thought for a moment that he felt like a wind as well.

'If you are wind, I am one as well.' He thought. Yet now was the time for acting and not for thinking.

"Oi Odango, I see that you were missing me. It took you half of the day to find me. What are you reading?" She looked at him. She just noticed that she was ridging next to him and her face expressed unpleasant surprise. His horse was taller then Cer so she looked up.

"Go, just leave us alone." She said a little bit too loud. Cer and her friends stared to watch her with amusement. Something interesting was going on.

"No, you'd miss me too much." Seiya said.

"You don't have to worry about me, I'll get over it".

"It seems that I just can't stop to worry about you no matter how hard I try." She looked at him angrily.

"Then you are wasting your precious monarchial energy. And everyone knows that monarch's energy is the most valuable one in the universe. As a faithful lower I should make sure you preserve your energy. I won't speak another word to you for your own good. "

"We will see, I know how to make you angry Odango" he said smilingly.

"We will see about that."

"You said another word"

"Shut up"

"And another one"

She didn't reply.

"Come one Odango, I know you have a lot to tell me, you always liked cool guys like me."

She didn't reply just looked at him ironicly.

"You don't have anything to say to your ex-boyfriend?" he said.

"We were never dating as far as I remember!" she yelled at him. He laughed.

"Another word"

She sighed with exasperation. She put fingers in her ears and started to hum a song quietly. When Seiya tried to speak she just sang lauder.

Her friends started to laugh quietly. Marc, Taiki and Yaten were also watching the turn of events. Erst came closer. He and the rest of her friends were watching Seiya with interest. They remembered that this black-haired monarch had been talking with their Usi before (but they didn't have time to ask about it, everyone was focusing on training and fun in Welcomnes).

"Hey monarch from what system are you from?" Erst asked finally after five minutes of silence.

"Erst, don't talk to him!" Usagi yelled at her friend.

"Is your planet large?" Cer asked Seiya.

"Cer, don't!" She spoke to the centaur. Seiya noticed that he got the interest from the friends she was always with and he replied:

"I come from a very interesting planet and I could tell you a lot about it."

"That is fascinating" said Alicia blushing.

"STOP IT. DON'T TALK WITH HIM" Usagi's friend looked at her with surprise.

"Why not? Is he from Earth?" asked Cer with concern in his voice. All her friends looked at Seiya with murder in their eyes.

"Well, no… but…"

All of them looked at Seiya with liking again.

"If he is not from Earth then what is the problem?" Erst asked innocently.

"It's a long story but I would appreciate…"

"Don't exaggerate Usi, we don't get to talk to monarchs often and we would like to hear about other planets. We can't just avoid every monarch because you don't like them. If he is not the one who hurt you I don't see the reason for not talking with him. He wants to talk to us and seems to be nice. You never told us about Earth and we want to hear about life on other planets."

"But I told you how dangerous monarchs can be for us lowers. They only want to use us for their own purposes."

"Oh come one, how could they use us? They will leave after the pilgrimage and for now we have to protect them anyway. We just want to talk with them to learn something about the other worlds."

Seiya who heard that said innocently in interplanetary language.

"I would love to tell you about my planet and learn something about Middle Planet. WE could learn so much from each other during this journey." Usagi boiled. She tried to kill him with her sight. "He wants to talk with me not with you." Seiya sent an innocent look to her friends.

"People of this planet are so fascinating. I would love to get to know you better." Seiya said. Usagi looked at her friends and sighed:

"You know that talking about Earth is painful but I will tell you everything you want to know, just don't talk to him"

"To late Usi, you can tell us about Earth later on, now we want to hear his story" said Erst.

"You traitor!" Usagi said to Erst and raised her fist, but no one was listening to her.

"My planet is a small planet…" Seiya started looking at Usagi with a devious smile. Her friends gathered around him. She jumped off Cer and went behind them. She didn't want to listen to him. She was walking behind watching Seiya and her friends with anger. He said something funny and they started to laugh. They seemed to come to like him after only few moments. Taiki and Marc joined the conversation. After only an hour the whole group was walking, talking, joking and laughing.

"Unbelievable…" she said to herself.