Out of Bounds and Beneath Dreams

Out of Bounds and Beneath Dreams
Part three…

I. Consider it a Vacation
This was all Ianto’s fault, somehow, Hiei thought as he dashed from behind one piece of machinery toward the next. Halfway there Hiei had to bound into the air to avoid the massive wad of gooey paper-stuff that was hurled at him like the worlds biggest spit-wad. He landed gracefully on the floor and the thing that had just tried to eliminate him, a thing that was about the size of a Volkswagen minibus and something between a spider and a slug roared with anger as it scuttled up one of the walls. Okay, so it wasn’t Ianto’s fault, but still Hiei felt a little bitter toward the blond because of the last words he said to him before they parted.

“Consider it a vacation,” Ianto tossed off, “See some of the sights. Take in an air-bath. Two nights, I’ll have enough money to stock the cupboards and pay the servicing costs on the Old Greg. So in the meantime try to enjoy yourself.”

“Feh!” Hiei grunted. Serannian was a giant city carved out of luxuriant pink marble that floated as if weightless in the sky over the Cerenerian Sea. It was a breath taking city, but still a human city, thus Hiei didn’t think it would have anything to offer him. He was fully prepared to find a perch somewhere and just wait out the two days until they could depart.

Ianto sighed, seeing there was nothing he could do to change the mood of the sullen demon, and said, “If something comes up I‘ll be at Cici‘s Seaside Saloon.”

With that the blond was gone and Hiei was left to his own devises. Hiei moved from then docking area and into the city proper. The buildings felt oddly reminiscent of the Waking World. He could see peppering of modern designs mixed in with the classic. Then he recalled that the king of this city was Kuranes, a man formerly of the Waking world. Then Hiei noticed something else, no matter how far he walked he seemed to only go uphill. That was when he heard a funny little giggle.

“Mr. you’re going the wrong way,” It was freckled little girl with dusty brown hair and two front teeth missing. “The tilt is that way.” She pointed back the way he came.

A little boy, who looked like he was her brother, pushed on her shoulder, “That’s rude Annabelle! Maybe he’s going somewhere and can’t wait for the tilt.”

For a moment Hiei considered the option that they was talking gibberish, but then he recalled Ianto saying something about the city’s tilt. Apparently the cities floatation was enabled in the same way that their ship was able to float in the shy, by use of engines that produce a floatation gas. Only Serannian was on a larger scale. The city had several engines underneath it which run in cycles. The switching off of the engines in one area is what causes Serannian to tilt. So, in effect all of Serannian is downhill at some point during the day.

“Actually I wasn’t going anyplace particular,” Hiei addressed the children, “I’m not from around here. You kids wouldn’t know a good place to loiter would you?”

“What’s a loiter?” the girl asked the boy.

“It means someplace you can hang out at any not pay any money,” The boy informed.

“Oh, I know a place like that,” she bounced up and down, “the museum.”

“They got some neat stuff there and if you go now the tilt will be in your favor. If you don‘t want to walk there‘s a public bake rack over there,” the boy pointed across the road.

The bikes the boy indicated where much like the ones Hiei had seen human’s riding in the Waking World, except there were no pedals, gears, or chains. Such things were unnecessary in a place where everything was downhill. In any case, Hiei didn’t trust the things not to fall over with him on it. He’d walk. As for the museum, it wasn’t the worst idea. Museums were quiet, often deserted, and no one minded if you just wondered around for hours doing nothing.

As he walked off the boy called out a warning, “Don’t think about stealing nothing, or the Curator will kill you!”

Hiei scoffed. Like he would be afraid of some old man who babysat dead things for a living. And for that matter, why would he want to steal something from a museum? All there would be there was fossils and dusty old relics. Hiei soon found out that the museum of Serannian was not like the ones he’d seen in the Waking World.

It looked like an ordinary museum, on the outside. It was on the edge of Serannian-- over the edge in fact. It was not properly part of Serannian, but a small independent island that had attached itself to the floating city. The only way in or out of the place was by way of a narrow catwalk. In side it was like Aladdin’s secret treasure trove. Everywhere Hiei looked there was gold, jewels, and riches of all sorts, just lying out in the open for anyone to see or touch. There weren’t any locked cases or security guards protecting the treasures or even so much as a velvet rope!

Hiei marveled on how easy it would be for someone to steal some of the precious artifacts. He could effortlessly slip one of those huge rubies into his pocket and they wouldn’t have to worry about cash anymore. It was an idle thought, born of a misspent youth as a bandit. He had no intention of actually doing it. But still he contemplated the possibility of pinching one of the valuables. His contemplations were cut short however, when gasps erupted from a handful of fellow museum goers. The sound was soon followed by a metallic clamor, clank boom, clank, boom.

Hiei turned to the direction the sound was coming from. Humans scrambled to one side to let the monstrosity through. It was a giant metal man. Four sets of arms spun and rotated as it propelled itself into the room. The bulging, faceted things on top of it, which Hiei assumed served as its eyes, angled in his direction, flashing different colors in no discernable pattern. He heard someone gasp, “It’s the Curator!”

The thing was defiantly looking at him with those flashing bug eyes. Was it just him or did they seem angry? The machine man lurched toward him, clank boom, clank boom. There was something menacing about it. It caused Hiei to unconsciously take a step back. But why him? What did he do to tick this mechanized man off? Suddenly Hiei remembered the careless words the child had called to him, ‘Don’t THINK about stealing nothing, or the Curator will kill you!’ No. It couldn’t have known… but it did.

The Curator marched up to Hiei, thrusting its lighted face into his. The blinking lights narrowed on him as if in an accusation; you thought about it. Before Hiei could think to react, a beam of light, so strong it hit him as a tangible thing, shot out of the Curators eyes. It swept Hiei off his feet and up into the air. Up, he passed through he walls of the museum, not crashing through them, but rather some strange property of the light caused him to phase right through like a ghost. The ray of light shot him up into the sky high above the floating city, arched and let him tumble down slowly to the ground. Hiei landed ungracefully on a soft pile of grass on the other side of Serannian. A cold mental impression breezed through his mind, it said, And don’t come back!

“Feh!” Was all Hiei could say as he spit grass out of his mouth. He could see the sky overhead was darkening a bit and that the sun was starting it’s decent toward the horizon. He’d only been in Serannian for a little under three hours. He huffed, “Another day and twenty one hours of this shit.”

Hiei was lucky in a sense. For one, the Curator didn’t kill him; a thing that Hiei felt the mechanical man was fully capable of doing. And two, the ray that had booted him out, landed him near a traveler’s district. Ianto had given him some money, before he left, for food and room. Hiei didn’t think he would spend it, seeing that his nutritional needs were not as high as a human’s and he was more comfortable sleeping in the outdoors rather than under someone else’s roof. But in light of his recent experiences, Hiei decided that sleeping in a nice quite room for the next two days might not be the worst idea.

Later as he paid a short, sturdy looking woman for a room, she plunked a wooden chip in his hand. It was a token for the air baths across the street, she explained. The inn was running a special that week; rent a room get a free bath. Hiei thought, what the fuck, it’s free, and crossed the street. Hiei was relieved to find that this particular bath house was neither overly lavish, nor under the standards for sanitation. Upon entering he was given a towel and directed to a row of bins in which he could deposit his clothing. After that he was pointed toward a steaming shower room. The attendant bragged that the water was indeed hot. The pipes came from the engine rooms, deep below Serannian, were the water was used to cool the massive engines that kept the sky island afloat.

Regardless of where the water came from Hiei was glad to have it. He nearly moaned as the warm spray tickled over his skin. Hot showers were a thing of luxury during his early days in Makai, but since moving to the human world Hiei had become very accustomed to them. And after the past week of cleaning himself with cold sea water, yes, a hot shower was nice.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” a purring voice came from close at hand.

Hiei glanced, “Damn, nobody told me this place was coed.”

The person speaking to him was a buxom young woman. She was wearing a short robe that hid very little of her long shapely legs, and the belt was only loosely tied so it allowed her voluminous breasts to loll in and out of view when she moved. Hiei couldn’t help but notice the unnaturally bright red color of her nipples. Her amply displayed skin was pale as marble and glistened where the steam clung to her skin. Her hair was black as tar, long and worn in braided ropes-- the same way Ianto wore his hair. It looked better in blond, Hiei obstinately thought.

“Fuck off,” Hiei growled at the women who was at that point skimming his naked body with her eyes. “I’m not buying whatever the hell it is you’re selling.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she responded bemused, “I doubt you could even reach the goods.”

Hiei growled, “If you think--”

“Calm down, I just wanted to talk,” she said, tossing a rope of hair over her shoulders, “Er, but some place more private, this way please. Follow me.” She beckoned him, but he didn’t move.

“And, uh, why would I want to go with you?” Hiei crossed his arms and sneered.

She gave him a smiled that was as sweet and real as aspartame, “You are one of the men who got off the boat with the hideous figurehead, the Old Greg, are you not?”

“You,” Hiei started. She knew who he was, or at least where he had been. “You’ve been following me.”

“With a great deal of effort, too,” she responded, “It took me forever to catch up to you after the Curator tossed you across the island. However, I’d have to say it was worth the walk for how hilarious it was.”

Hiei, after securing his towel around him, followed her to a private steam room. Once the door was shut behind them he whirled on her, “Talk!”

She gracefully made a show of seating herself on a bench. Hiei was not impressed. She began, “First off you should know that I have not been stalking you for more than this day. I was here in Serannian on the most important of business when I happened to see your ship pull into the harbor. I thought that finally luck had come my way. I have to emit I had hoped to see Yusuke or that cute redhead Kurama step off the ship. But I get you, stranger, and that blond.” She spat the word blond as if it were sour milk.

“You knew them?” Hiei asked flatly.

“In a manner of speaking,” she said coyly as she uncrossed and re-crossed her legs. Hiei could have sworn that he smelled something foul and rotting when she did so, but the perfumes in the air prevented him from knowing for sure, “I can’t say we were friends and I doubt you and I will be friends, but the business I have to present you with is hardly personal, in fact the lives of every man, woman, and child on this island might depend on it.

“I can see you’re confused, so let me explain things. You understand how this city works, right, that is how it stays airborne? You know the massive engines below the city that produce the weightless gases… Ah, you are familiar with the concept. But did you know that there is a counter agent to that gas, an anti-floatation essence that negates the floatation essences weightless properties? Many are familiar with its legend, a few years ago that gas wreaked havoc on the Serannian navy and even threatened to sink the island itself. Though few know where the gas actually comes from. It comes from Zura, from a creature called a grave worm.

“Now grave worms are highly adaptable creatures, even in the way they feed. They consume whatever it is that is around them, be it, soil, wood, stone, flesh, anything! They eventually develop enzymes that specialize in breaking down that material. But then they take it one step farther and pass the ability to make the enzyme to its young, who then develop the enzyme even better. Why with generations they can make a substance that could eat through solid lead, if that was what was there to eat! Princess Zura, in her genius, had stolen some of the floatation essence from Serannian and feed it to several generations of grave worms, thus they produced the anti-floatation essence.

“That was all a long time ago, of course, and should be of no consequence today but…”

“But?” Hiei didn’t like where this is going.

“But a few weeks ago somebody broke into Zura and stole one of those grave worms,” she continued, “Since then the thieves have been tracked here to Serannian. Now the grave worm was only the size of a little bird when it was stolen, but another interesting thing about grave worms is that the more abundant the food supply the bigger it can get-- without limitation! This grave worm was raised on floatation essence and it is now in the biggest source of the stuff…. And I don’t think you see the gravity of the situation-- ah gravity is right! The more floatation essence there is, the bigger it gets and the more essence it eats. And for all the essence it eats and equal amount of anti-floatation essence if produced.” She slammed her hand down on the bench. “Serannian will fall.”

“So find the damned thing and squish it before that happens,” Hiei said as if he didn’t care. He turned to leave, but the woman called to him.

“You misunderstand. I wasn’t speaking in foresight,” she corrected, “It has already began. The creature is below the city and has already grown too big for me to handle. If it is not stopped, Serannian will fall into the Cerenerian Sea by midnight tonight.”

“Fuck fuck fuck, why the fuck is this my problem?!” Hiei cursed as he rushed through the darkened city streets.

“My sentiments exactly,” the woman, now completely dressed in black silk shirt and red leather pants, husked beside him. “Here this is the place.”

“Another bath house?” Hiei sneered.

“The air baths are all built on top of vents from the engines, so that they can use the excess floatation essences that rise up. The vents under this one are closest to the creature” she told him, “Now here‘s the plan I will go in and distract the attendant. Then you can slip past. Find a door near the back that says ‘authorized personal only’ you will find a big pipe there, big enough for you to climb through and it will have an access hatch for you to do just that.”

“Right, because there can’t be a set of stairs or a lift that goes down there,” Hiei groused.

“Actually there are, but only authorized personal are allowed got that way,” she cooed as she started off to carry out her part of the plan, “and the bathhouses are not nearly as heavily guarded. Oh! You can use these to ease your descent.”

She tossed to him what looked like a couple of shiny black stones with loops of material attached to them. They stuck together. Hiei pulled them apart and let them come together again. Magnetite. He shook his head thinking of human spy movies where that they’d used magnets to sneak through metal vents. That sort of thing doesn’t really work, because any magnet powerful enough to hold up a man’s weight would be too powerful for him to pull off of the metal he was trying to climb. Not that these small stones were that powerful, not by a long shot. He shook his head again and pocketed the stones, deciding that he’d figure some thing out once he found the purported pipe.

Hiei waited a couple of minutes before he crept into the bath house. Just as promised the dark haired woman had the attendant thoroughly enchanted. He did not have to call on very many of his thieves skills to get past them. He snatched a big robe as he went by and slipped it on over his leathers, just in case he should run into another person as he sought after the right door. He passed rooms of people, naked or just in towels, lying about in the steam. One room that he passed ended in a great fog filled pit, into which led a number of ropes tethered to the wall. At one moment, a pair of the ropes tightened and then out from the fog came a pair of naked young women. They floated weightlessly in the fog until they pulled themselves to the edge. So that’s what they use the floatation essence for, Hiei noted. Silly.

The room he was looking for, the one marked ‘authorized personal only’ was right next to the giant air bath room. The door wasn’t locked, but the hatch on the big pipe was. It was a primitive devise and Hiei was able to simply break it with a good firm jerk on the handle. It swung open and he crawled into the murky pink steaming pipe, bracing the sides so that he would not fall. It immediately stuck him funny how easy it was for him to hold himself in place. He eased his grip to let himself slip down. He didn‘t move. He eased back some more and still didn’t slip down. Eventually he let go of the walls altogether and to his shock he hung there in mid-air. But then he remembered what he had seen in the big room with the ropes and he could have smacked himself for being so slow.

The pipe was filled with floatation essence, thus he was weightless inside it. He wouldn’t have to worry about gravity. He just had to propel himself in some way. He pulled out the stones the woman had given him, wrapped the material around his hands until the stones fit snuggly in his palms. Setting his palms against the wall of the pipe he found that he could crawl along it as easily and controlled as if he were crawling horizontally. In the interest of seeing where he was going, he crawled out of the pipe and repositioned himself so that he’d be descending head first.

The decent in and of itself was not a difficult thing. There were a few slow moving fans that pushed the essence along, but these were weak things he could stop with the hilt of his sword and slip past. There were a few tight corners too. It was times like that Hiei was glad for his diminutive size; a larger man would have had difficulty getting around those corners. He couldn’t have been too sure for how long he had climbed through those pipes, but it seemed like a long time. At some point, Hiei noticed that the air was getting warmer. He was getting closer to the engines.

Hiei found another conveniently placed access hatch. However, the handle was on the outside, so he had to brace his back on the other side of the pipe and kick it open. He propelled himself out the door-- at that moment gravity took effect and Hiei fell ten feet from the ceiling to the floor. Hiei cursed and rolled onto his back. So maybe it wasn’t such a conveniently placed access hatch.

“Did ya hear that?” Hiei heard a started voice come from around a lump of machinery. Hiei moved back into crevice and did his best to become invisible.

“I didn’t hear anything,” a second voice said.

“That’s cuz your lips are always flapping,” the other hissed, “I told you, I heard something.”

“Ah, you’re just being jumpy,” the second put down.

“I’ve reason to be,” The first gasped, “what with the weird floatation failures, when there ain’t nothing wrong with the engines. And not to mention that green slime the boys have been saying they’ve been finding here and about.”

“I’m sure the engineers will find some loose screws somewhere that’ll explain the failures,” the second sighed.

“And the slime?” The first asked doubtfully.

“Probably just old Jim’s hair oil, dripping off his head cuz he uses so much of it,” The second chuckled. The other laughed too and then they walked out of Hiei’s range.

“Green slime, eh?” Hiei muttered to himself. Well, at least that proved that the mysterious young woman’s story had some fact to it.

Now where to look for the creature? He new the grave worm feed off flotation essence, so it would be near an engine. The concept that was less help than it sounded. There were scores of engines scattered out in the sub-Serannian caverns, which were just as vast as the city above. They were a maze of machinery and conducts. And truth be told, Hiei didn’t think he had the time to simply check all the engines to see if the grave worm was near. Hiei’s assumption was proven right just then as loud klaxons sounded in the tunnels and then there came the sound of yelling and men running. Hiei dashed to a place were he could hear them without being seen.

A man in a white coat rushed to meet the group of four or five others, “Another failure. This time in section 47-C!”

“Mechanical failure?” One asked.

“Not that I can tell,” the man said exasperated as they headed off, “everything is working fine, it’s like the essences are just vanishing-- and at a quickening rate it seems. If this keeps up….”

“We don’t have time for an evacuation,” one man said in a worry.

“If I moved now I could probably get my family out before…” another squeaked.

“Coward,” one with a robust voice bellowed, “I for one plan to stay, even until Serannian falls, if it comes to that!”

Section 47-C, Hiei took note and proceeded to follow the panicked men. But when he got to section 47-C, all Hiei found were more panicked men and an engine struggling to replace the lost essence. Now there was something about the picture that was really starting to niggle at Hiei as he broke away to search the surrounding areas. If this thing was so big, why had nobody seen it? Maybe he’d misunderstood the woman when she said it had grown too big for her to handle. He’d known woman to scream and cower from tiny mice. And just because it consumed a lot of floatation essence doesn’t mean it was big. Yusuke could almost eat his own weight in Raman, but he was still as trim as a five hundred dollar suit. This grave worm thing may not be very large at all Hiei realized.

Suddenly the floor shook and listed to one side just a bit. Hiei stumbled and caught himself on a piece of machinery. Then with the sound of strained whirling the ground leaved itself out. Hiei was looking for an unknown creature-- that all he knew was the size of a rat-- and he running out of time. He found a clipboard with a map on it. He took it down off its hook and examined it, trying to work out the most likely places to find the grave worm. He was in little luck. The engines were spaced out in equal intervals, so no place was more likely than the other. Hiei was about to start despairing when a glob of green goo dropped down to land on the clip board in his hand with a grotesque slolck.

Slowly, Hiei’s eyes shifted up wards toward the ceiling. All that stuff about the grave worm being small, starch that. It was a worm alright. Its body started with a snubbed muzzle and ended in a tapered tail. Each side of the thing had four appendages which Hiei wasn’t sure if he’d classify as legs or tentacles. Its overall body mass had to be around the same as a Volkswagen mini-bus, though Hiei was only able to see it for the slimmer of the layer of slime that covered its entire body.

“Bitch didn’t say it was a friggen chameleon,” Hiei breathed as reached for his sword, carefully so as not to make any sudden movements that may alert the creature.

Too late, the moment his hand touched the hilt, the thing sprung at him, opening it’s great maw. Hiei saw uncountable rows of teeth in a mouth that pulsed in waves so as to pull anything that happens to get trapped in there back towards the dark throat. And there were tongues-- eight of them-- the shot out of the back of the throat and reached several feet forward. They were like spine covered tentacles with long hooked teeth at each of their spade shaped ends. One such appendage shot right for Hiei. He managed to draw his blade just in time to deflect it. Hiei intended to cut the damned thing off altogether on the riposte, but a second tentacle whipped out, catching his weapon. The thing wrapped around his sword, unmindful for the cuts it gave it. Then in a fierce flexing of muscle, it snapped Hiei’s sword off at the hilt.

“Shit!” Hiei hissed as he rolled out of the way of a tentacle that no doubt intended to give the same treatment to his body as it had his sword.

Hiei stopped in a crouch, his hand came in contact with a long narrow piece of metal, presumably a piece of scrap pipe. Whatever it was, it became a projectile as Hiei launched it at the creature like a javelin. It soared past the flailing tongues to lodge in the worm’s inky black throat, causing it to choke. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t kill the worm, but it would provide Hiei with the time to put some distance between him and it, and thus find a more effective mode of attack.

Hiei thought he’d be fine so long as he kept out of reach of those tongues-- wrong again. As soon as the grave worm dislodged the pipe from its throat, it started making the most disgusting gagging sound. It regurgitated a mass of gooey web-like material, which in no time the tongues shaped into a big ball and hurled it at Hiei like the worlds biggest spit-wad.

“Oh fuck my life!” Hiei exclaimed as he dashed out of the way. One after another the creature produced globs that were as big as Hiei was, and lobbed them at him. All he could do was try to stay out of the way.

This was all Ianto’s fault, somehow, Hiei thought as he dashed from behind one piece of machinery toward the next. Halfway there Hiei had to bound into the air to avoid the massive wad of gooey paper-stuff that was hurled at him. He landed gracefully on the floor. The grave worm roared with anger as it scuttled up one of the walls. Okay, so it wasn’t Ianto’s fault, but still Hiei felt a little bitter toward the blond because of the last words he said to him before they parted.

“Consider it a vacation, my ass!” Hiei muttered bitterly. He could have done this shit in Makai, except there at least he’d have his power. If he had his true strength, he could have squished this thing without breaking a sweat.

If only he could….The grave worm was retreating up the wall. Hiei stepped out, raising his right hand up toward the creature. He focused his energy with all his might. It didn’t need to be the Dragon of the Darkness flame or any powerful attack, just a mundane fireball, that’s all Hiei would need, he was sure of it. The worm was big and it was all muscle, but then so are slugs. Yes, it was just a giant slug. With just a little heat Hiei was sure he could shrivel it into a puddle of foul corruption. Hiei found his energy burning deep inside. He took hold of it, forced it up, through his body to his raised hand. He could feel it… almost… almost. He pushed… and then… then-- it snapped like an over stretched rubber band. The fiery energy lashed back at him causing him to fly back onto the floor.

“Fuck,” Hiei hissed as the flashes in his vision subsided. His hand was hot, felt like he’d just touched a hot stove, and there was light smoke rolling off his skin. Summoning his power didn’t work, he wasn’t strong enough in dreams. That attempt caused him some damage too, nothing that wouldn’t heal in a day or so, but enough that he knew better than to give it a second try.

The grave worm was scuttling off, no doubt, in search of more flotation essence to consume. Hiei couldn’t let that happen. He had to get its attention again. Easily done, but what would he do after he had its attention? An idea occurred to him. It was risky. It was crazy. But it just might work.

Hiei quickly located the clipboard map that he’d dropped a moment ago and figured up his relative position beneath the city. Then he took off after the grave worm, it wasn’t as difficult to track it down this time, now that he knew what to look for and that he could just follow the trail of slime. On the way he snapped up whatever stray pieces old pipe that he could find.

“Ugly!” He shouted at the creature when he found it crawling up the side of an unsuspecting floatation engine. He hurled a section of pipe at it, hitting it square in back. The grave worm yelped and dropped to the floor, immediately whirling about to lash its deadly tongues at Hiei. Hiei, however, was already off and running. It took off after him, smashing equipment aside as it passed. Hiei ran, dodged and darted under, around, and over machinery, every once and a while pausing to chuck another section of pipe at the beast, just to make sure it wouldn’t lose interest.

As Hiei flew along, the monstrous grave worm hot on his heels, Hiei kept his eye out for signs. He had noticed them earlier when he was following the men in white coats. They were sign markers to help work men from getting lost in the seemingly endless caverns of machinery. 34... 35... There, he spotted it 36-D! He threw one last pipe at the already enraged creature. He dropped the rest and dashed to the access panel that he knew would be there, having seen it on the map. He tore the door open and tumbled inside. Instantly, he felt his body weight negated by the floatation essence inside.

He could hear the crashing outside as the beast drew closer. Hiei kicked the bottom hard, sending himself rushing upward at great speeds. The creature was still after him. It banged and clattered on the pipe as it chased him upward. Hiei saw a section of the pipe rip away beneath him.

“Too slow, you overgrown garden slug!” Hiei shouted abuse at the creature. He couldn’t let the thing lose him.

Hiei had picked a good pipe to use for this exercise. It was nearly straight up, with only two turns with fans to slow him down, but then he made up for it by using the fans to kick start his accent. All the while he shouted at the creature and listened to it damage the pipes in an effort to shut him up. Soon Hiei saw the end of the pipe coming up, he readied himself and when the time came he busted the door off and burst into the back room of a bathhouse.

An attendant dropped an arm full of towels and shouted, “Hey where’d you come from! You can’t be in here!”

In the next moment the grave worm exploded up from beneath the floor. The frightened attendant forgot about Hiei as he fled the premises. He waited around just long enough to fling a box of talcum powder into the things face. Then he dashed off, the grave worm following in his wake. All about naked patrons screamed and ran. They would probably have to close the bath house and rebuild several walls after Hiei and the monster tore through it. They erupted out onto the night streets in an explosion of wood, plaster, and roars. Hiei’s goal was only a stone’s throw away; the catwalk leading to the museum.

Hiei ran full tilt for the catwalk, he shouted, “Curator! I’m back and I’m going to steal all your gold and jewels, bust up your mummies like piñatas, tear up your old ass books into confetti, masturbate in your bathrooms and come on your toilet seats!”

At once came a rapid secession of clank boom, clank, boom, clank boom! The big spidery vestige of the mechanical Curator came scuttling up from beneath the catwalk. His lighted eyes glared pure mechanized hatred at Hiei. The narrowed at him and a deadly red pulse shot form them. At that second the grave worm was right behind Hiei, ready to snag him with its vicious tongues. Hiei jumped up, somersaulting backwards, narrowly clearing the Curators death beam. It hit the grave worm full force, disintegrating it instantly.

Hiei landed lightly on the ground, where the grave worm once stood, facing the Curator, who was standing stock still. Save for the lights of his eyes which where blinking in a wave from center to sides. He seemed, in his mechanical way, almost baffled. Hiei thought, now what? The Curators eyes narrowed and turned blue in an expression that, somehow, Hiei felt was of amusement. Abruptly the Curator rotated and clanked his way back to his museum, but for a second his electronic eyes swiveled back to Hiei. An impression breezed through Hiei’s mind then. It seemed to say, “You better not come on my toilet seats!”

Soon after Hiei extracted himself from the scene of the damage, a familiar buxom burnet rushed up to him. “I heard there was some to do at the bathhouse near the museum. Tell me you destroyed the thing!” She pleaded.

“The Curator helped,” Hiei said smugly.

“Oh good,” she breathed in relief, “it is over then.”

“Not quite,” Hiei said flatly.

“Of course, you did a brave job. I’m sure you want compensation,” she purred, bending down to Hiei’s level. Her full breasts came lolling out of her inadequately buttoned shirt.

Hiei sneered at her, “Not even if it’s free.”

“Fine then,” She huffed and stood upright, “You’re not my type anyway.”

“Of course not. I have a pulse,” Hiei grinned when she startled, “From the moment you opened that pretty little mouth of yours I knew things didn’t quite add up. One, if the grave worms were so obscure, how did you know about them-- and so much about them? Two, if it was such a treat, why approach me and not Serannian authorizes? And why approach me specifically, because I was aboard the Old Greg? Why is that significant?”

She paled impossibly farther as Hiei continued, “The answers: The Old Greg was significant, because you were aware of what sort of being owned that ship. You did mention having met Yusuke and Kurama once. You approached me because you sensed that I was of a similar persuasion as they were, thus I could handle your problem. And you didn’t approach the proper authorizes for the same reason why you know so much about the grave worms. You are Zura.”

“Yes, I am,” she said in manner that was meant to be proud, but her obvious nervousness spoiled it.

“Now, I recall once hearing about how you once tried to use the anti-flotation essence to sink Serannian. So what I don’t get is, why you wanted to save it this time,” Hiei pointed.

“My forces were larger then, but dwindling. Falling the sky island was a stunt to bolster my numbers. But since then my numbers have dwindled even farther, while King Carter and King Kuranes’ forces have gotten mightier. Ah! I couldn’t even handle Hero (of Dreams) and Eldin the bloody Wanderer!” She despaired, “You see, this whole mess was the Eidolon Lathi’s doing. We were once allies, so she knew of the grave worms. She sent one of her worthless termen to steal one and then plant it in Serannian.”

“Why would she do that?” Hiei shot off.

“Because I made an off color comment about the size of her posterior,” Zura sobbed, “It sticks out ten feet behind her! How could I not notice? She arranged to have this whole crisis happen so that Serannian would fall and I’d get the blame. Then Carter and Kuranes armies would have stormed my poor crumbling empire and they’d have me banished into the underworld! Ha! I bet she would even march her bug people into my lands just so they could feast on all my lovely cypress trees. Oh, she’ll get hers,” Zura swore as Hiei turned to leave her, “Her entire kingdom is made of paper. I’m gonna buy all the flares I can carry and on my way home, I’ll throw them over board right over Thalarion! And I‘ll sing burn grub-queen burn! Hahaha!”

“All because you said her butt was big,” Hiei sighed “This is exactly why I wouldn’t care one bit if every female was swept off the face of the earth.”
* * *
II. Only in my Dreams
Hiei slept all though his second day in Serannian. He dreamt, in his dreams within dreams, of monstrous worms, mechanical men, and vengeful women. But soon those trifles gave way to pleasant dreams, dreams of Yusuke and Kurama. He pictured them in their apartment, just as they had been when he left them, with sweet nothing hanging form their lips and sex hanging in the air.

“Welcome home,” Yusuke said to him.

“Home?” Hiei numbly replied. Yes, he lived there, in their apartment. But the term home, as Hiei understood it, referred to more than just a building where you slept and kept your stuff. The true sentiment of the word was always something of a mystery to Hiei. He once thought that home would be the place of his birth. But when he got there all he found was a big icy rock. Then he thought home was the demon world in general, those woods and territories where he spent his childhood. But in the end it was just land and just trees. That’s why he didn’t feel too bad about leaving it behind to move to the human world, so he could be closer to Kurama and Yusuke.

It was an oddly somber train of thought, Hiei considered, taking into account the situation he was in. The scene had changed while Hiei wasn’t playing attention. They were in their bedroom now. Yusuke and Kurama were naked and pressed on either side of his equally naked body. Their hands were questing over the entirety of his flesh, but without urgency, the pure carnal hunger that would led to sex. They were just touching him-- not that Hiei was complaining. It was nice to be touched, held, admired….

“I love you, Hiei,” Yusuke breathed as he dipped his head down to lightly kiss Hiei’s collar.

“We both love you,” Kurama said, before nibbling at his nap, “So much.”

Hiei opened his mouth to respond, but no sound came out. What was he going to say to them? He wasn’t sure. So instead he turned his head to kiss Kurama while he smoothed his hands affectionately down Yusuke’s front.

Hiei woke up. It was nighttime in Serannian. His dream with in dreams was nothing more now than a vague memory and an undeniable tightness in his pants. He got up and out of his rented room, thinking that a walk in the cool night air would help relieve his tensions. Even though the night was cooler than the day, the city still looked warm, with touches burning all along the streets, turning the soft pink stone into warm ambers and oranges. Hiei would have liked to have seen the city at night from a distance. It probably looked a like a grand star burning low in the dark skies over dark seas. It was funny, less than twenty four hours ago, he could have cared less for the place, now… it was nice, for a human city.

Hiei started to walk the streets. He was surprised to see so many people out and about in the evening hours. In most Dream cities he’d been to twilight was the time when people scurried off to their homes and their beds. But then Serannian was like no other city in Dreams. He flowed with the tide of humanity down to an area near the edges of the city, which was apparently a real happening place. There were even more humans on the streets there, coming and going, chatting and shopping, drinking and dancing. Above the clamor Hiei could hear a soulful voice of a piano and a low voice singing with it.

“Marky pour me one last shot cuz I must be on my way. Got to make that same old stop that a soul makes everyday. Tell me, why am I holding on? Tell me, why the lack of flame? Burns you when it’s hot, but the fire-trucks never came…”

It was a mournful song, slow and deep. The closer Hiei got to it the quieter the humans around him got. They were listening to it too. They were being drawn by it, the same as Hiei was.

“I can’t bend the hands of time, so I think myself to sleep. When you never say goodbye, if only in my dreams…. Tell me where you want to go. Tell me what you long to be. How you’re longing for my touch, if only in my dreams. I’ll sing the love songs you want sung, touch the stars you want to reach. I will see the job gets done, if only in my dreams.”

Hiei followed the music onto a deck crowded with humans. The sharp, sweet smell of tagweed cigarettes hung in the air. The only sounds were the clicking of glasses on tables, the soft breath of the wind and the weeping of the piano. By this time, Hiei knew the piano was weeping, because this song was a love song, about a strong love, but unfortunately, a love that only flowed one way. Somehow, it felt personal as if he was the one who was meant to hear it.

“Lord I’d sacrifice my eyes, nothing else I’d rather see. You can have my heart; it’s of little use to me. And if you want my soul, I’ll throw it in for free. It’s all I’m worth that’s left, since my angel got no wings. I’m down and on my knees. It’s of little use to pray, until you give her back. But there’s no deals that’s cut these days. It’s only in my dreams…. Tell me where you want to go. Tell me what you long to be. How you’re longing for my touch, if only in my dreams. I’ll sing the love songs you want sung, touch the stars you want to reach. I will see the job gets done, if only in my dreams.”

Hiei wondered if the person who was singing the song wrote it, or if he was just singing it. In any case, it sounded like he meant it. As if he’d loved somebody at sometime, so much that he would go to the edges of Dreams and back, just to see them happy, even if that person would never love him back. Hiei wondered at that. Were there really people like that? The concept seemed unthinkable, but then again love is said to make people do the unthinkable. A small part of Hiei wondered if he would be capable of that.

“Now I curse the daytime, when I’m alone at nighttime cuz I swore that’s when the sun shines just for you! And I know you anywhere, there ain’t no pain, there ain’t no tears! And if I had my way from the moment… I give… in….”

It would be painful, Hiei decided, like physically tearing out your heart and presenting it to someone and waiting to see if they would smile or turn away in disgust. Which reaction, would determine whether or not he’d survive the experience. And all the while feeling that it would be worth the risk for the chance of a smile, a true, tender, accepting smile from the ones he loved.

“Take me where you want to go. We’ll be who you want to be. All I need was your touch. All I wanted was you and me. I’ll sing the songs you want sung, and you’ll be in my dreams! Until the war is won, it’s only in my dreams!”

The roar of applause snapped Hiei out of his thoughts. The song was over, he didn’t notice it end. People where passing fists full of money to the front of the deck to be deposited in a big glass bowl on top of the piano. The man stood up to take his bows and declare that he was taking a break.

“Ianto?!” Hiei spit.

The blond had his hair pulled back in a high ponytail. He had dispensed of his jacket and wore his shirt partially unbuttoned. Hiei wasn’t sure if it was because of the heat that had gathered from the crowd, or if it was an attempt to look sexier. He spotted Hiei in the crowd and waved to him.

“What are you doing here?” Hiei demanded.

“Playing piano,” Ianto told him like ‘well-duh’, “This is where I said I’d be; Cici’s Seaside Saloon. And I‘ve made plenty of money just like I said. You see that bowl brimming with cash? I’ve already emptied it four times and I’ve only finished my first set.”

Hiei was still a little disorientated, “So, now you’re an adventurer, librarian, and musician?”

Ianto frowned at him in a sagacious manner, “Diverse skills are prudent when traveling Dreams with empty pockets.”

Hiei placed his hand over his face not exactly sure what it was he was feeling the moment, except that it made him want to laugh. He said, “So tell me, o’ prudery one, were have you been sleeping?”

“Cici’s lent me a spare room upstairs. Why?” Ianto tilted his head.

“Take me up there now,” Hiei’s tone left no room for doubt as to what he wanted to do up there, nor did it leave any room for argument.

They were barely inside the door when Hiei grasped Ianto by the shoulder and hip and pressed him to the wall. Ianto sighed into the kiss, the type of sigh that a man lets out when he’s come in from the cold to find a warm fire in the hearth. The analogy wasn’t too far off. The kiss Hiei gave him was a scorcher and Ianto’s body-- was cold! Hiei supposed the blond made an error when he decided not to wear a coat out that night. But no matter, Hiei decided he would have the man burning up in no time. He pulled Ianto off the wall and herded him toward the bed. He was far from resisting Hiei this time, the demon grinned. Tonight just might be the night he got to see what the blond was hiding under those ill fitting cloths.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Ianto pulled back, “I got something for you.”

“Yeah,” Hiei said, fingering the buttons on Ianto’s shirt.

“No,” Ianto half-heartedly batted him away, “It’s over there in the corner. You see it, all rapped up in that cloth.”

Hiei moved over to pick up the aforementioned item and at Ianto’s urging pulled back the canvass cover. Hiei nearly dropped the thing; he was so surprised-- mainly because he didn’t think such a thing existed in Dreams. It was a Katana, a real Katana. It was black, the grip and the sheath both covered in some sort of snake skin. He unsheathed it, felt the subtle glide as it came out with barely any effort. He gave it a couple of test swings, the balance was perfect. And upon inspecting the blade he found two things; one, the forged metal was of a far more superior quality than he had expected to find in Dreams, and two, an insignia printed near the hilt. Only master smiths did that sort of thing and only on works that they felt were worthy to put there name on. So not only was it a real Katana, but a really good Katana.

“Where did you get this?” Hiei asked sheathed the blade, again marveling at the smooth free feeling as the blade fit into its housing.

“There’s a man, late of the Waking World, who now lives and runs a blacksmith shop in Celephais. He sometimes makes arms for King Kuranes, so he comes to Serannian often. I ran into him earlier and it occurred tot me that the sword you were carrying looked like a poor imitation of the type that he specializes in making, so…” Ianto shrugged, “I solicited a piece from him.”

Hiei turned to see the hopeful expression on the blonde’s face, like a cocker spaniel that had just fetched his master’s slippers and was asking ‘I do good?’ Hiei almost laughed, “You wouldn’t believe it, but I just broke that poor imitation of a sword… this is….”

Hiei put the gift back where he found it and paced over to the bed where Ianto was waiting for him. With no proper words coming to him, Hiei merely placed his hand on the blonde’s cheek to guide him to his lips. As he kissed him, Ianto caught his lip between his teeth and worried at it in the most pleasurable way. Hiei pulled back just enough to look at his blush covered face. Damn, he was cute. Hiei could see such need in those Atlanta green eyes, like desire in a coke bottle.

Hiei trailed his kisses down the blonde’s neck, exciting a gasp out of Ianto each time Hiei’s hot lips made contact with his cool skin. Hiei’s hands worked at Ianto’s shirt to expose his delicate collar bone which, in turn, he bathed with his warm lips.

Bang bang bang! Came the knock at the door, “Breaks over, it’s time for your second set!”

“Natives are getting restless,” Ianto said, his voice shaking a bit from passion.

“Let them get restless,” Hiei said flatly as he moved his lips back to Ianto’s neck, but the blond lifted a hand to hold him at bay.

“Not if you plan on eating during our up coming journey,” Ianto told him. Hiei huffed and made to move away. Ianto stopped him and promised, “Three days that journey will take us. In that time, I’ll spend every moment that I can spare with my legs wrapped around you.” Ianto held him there, close, for a just a few more heartbeats as if soaking in his body heat. Then as suddenly as the compulsion came, Ianto let him go and went downstairs to finish his sets.

The next morning they said goodbye to Serannian and set out for an extinct volcano that lay somewhere between Thalarion and Zura, where they would descend into Dream’s underworld to find a bangle and Eldin the Wanderer.

TBC…
A/N: Lemon in the next chapter. I hope my H/K/Y fans out there aren’t too teed off about Hiei’s fraternization with Ianto. Rest assured there is a point to it, though I cannot say more without releasing the dreaded Spoilers. See ya next time.