Future Talk

Chapter 36:

"Aqueous Transmission"

Genkai gave me quite the look when I stumbled up the last of the temple's steps. "You could see that for miles," she grumbled, handing me a jacket as I shivered up to her side. "I figured you for the more subtle type."

Hiei stepped out of the darkness at my back, and then he spoke the first words he'd said since we began our walk home. "She'll get subtlety with experience," he said. "Big things are simpler for novices to grasp."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I pulled the coat on. It smelled of mothballs and had seen better days, but at that moment it felt like a warm spring day. "Gee, thanks," I said, chafing my arms with my hands for warmth, and he shrugged.

"Get inside; it's cold, but get used to it because it's even colder where Ryu's hiding," Genkai said as a gust of wind threatened to knock me off my feet.

"You're kidding, right?" I said through clenched teeth, and we went indoors. The air in the temple was blessedly still and stuffy, and I was able to stop shivering as I limped toward my room.

"You're not hungry?" Genkai called after me.

I turned, wanting to answer her, but I ended up just barely missing a collision with Hiei. He was standing right behind me, having followed on silent feet. With a scowl I leaned around him and looked at Genkai, who was smirking with unreadable emotion reflected in her deep brown eyes.

"Nope," I said. "Just tired. See you at breakfast?"

She just chuckled, looking away with a curl of her wrinkled mouth. "Only if the two of you don't stay up so late you miss that meal entirely," she said, and she vanished into the kitchen before I could recover my dropped jaw. When I pulled back, face red and stuttering because I had no idea what she meant but I didn't like it just the same, I found that Hiei seemed amused. Red eyes seemed to glow like an animal's in the gloom.

"What are you staring at?" I snipped, not liking the flash of white teeth that made my breathing hitch, and I wheeled around walked away from him. I could feel his bodyheat against my back, trailing after me like a fire's ghost, and when I threw open the door to my room he hovered on the threshold.

I turned back to find him with his hands braced on both sides of the doorframe, barring my way out again. "Good ni-ight," I said, and I shut the door in his face. His expression—one of smug satisfaction, but not one I understood in context—didn't waver as the door blocked him from sight, and when I cracked the door open about a minute later he was still wearing that infuriating look.

"What," I asked in a low voice, "do you want?"

He didn't reply for a minute, eyes that glittered with amusement searching my face up and down for several seconds. I felt like backing away, but I knew he'd only take it as a sign of weakness so I uncertainly stood my ground.

"Nothing," he said at last, and his arms dropped to his sides as his hands slid into his pockets. "Night." His eyes lingered on mine for a second longer than they needed to before he turned away.

"Uh… night," I said, watching him walk into the darkness. Then a thought struck me, and just as he vanished completely I called: "Hiei?"

His response was immediate: "What?"

"Are you… still there?"

I heard his feet hit the wooden floor before he reappeared a few feet away, but to me it still seemed like a phantom had appeared. I made a startled sound—an 'eep!', or something—and jumped, hand flying to my mouth.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm still here," he said, sounding bored. The bandana concealing his Jagan was black tonight, I noticed. In fact, everything he wore—from his high-waisted pants to his ripped up shirt, bandana, and boots—was black. The only colors on his body were his crimson eyes and the white streaks in his hair. "What do you want?"

"Um," I said, not quite knowing how to express my sudden lightbulb-moment.

His lips pursed, expression lazy and incredulous. "Spit it out."

I did. "I want… to try something."

Hiei froze, eyes flying from half-lidded to totally open in an instant. Tense shoulders cut the darkness like knives.

My brow knit. "Um… are you OK?"

He didn't answer. A step carried him my way, and before I knew it he was standing just outside my door again. Despite the fact that he only had three inches on me, he seemed to tower over my diminutive height.

"What," he said in a voice I could barely hear, "did you want to try?"

I swallowed as I looked up into his face, words lost in my mouth. He didn't blink when I stuttered: "Can, can I—"

"Dani," he said, tone low and dangerous, and when he seemed to pull even closer—

I blurted: "Can I go play the piano?"

I sat on the bench and Hiei stood near the door, arms crossed and feet together. I looked at him over my shoulder after I lifted my instrument's lid, and I smiled.

"I've been wanting to try this since I sang the tree-song," I said, pushing my loose pigtails over my shoulders so they wouldn't get in the way of my hands, and Hiei closed his eyes.

"Then try it," he said, chin falling onto his chest, and had it not been for the wire-tight set of his body I would have thought he was asleep. But I could see the dimples from where his fingers dug into his taut biceps, so I knew he was listening to everything I did. "Though I don't see why you need me for this."

My fingers touched the keys but did not press them. Their cracked enamel felt rough against my skin. "Oh, I need you all right," I said. I heard him shift behind me. "I need you to just listen, and when I ask I need you to tell me what you hear. Can you do that?"

He said: "Yes."

And so I played.

I started it simply, just getting a feel for a song I knew I could work with. Quiet chords, uncomplicated progression, basic stuff… I sang the lyrics without jazzing them up at all, letting raw emotion speak louder than flair or pomp.

"You oughtta know," I sang. "Tonight is the night to let it show…"

The stupid radio mix of Jay Sean's "Down" is downright hate able—it turns a song about acceptance and uncompromising love into an unrecognizable mishmash of pop beats and little consequence. But there's a lesser know version, the Candlelight Remix, that strips away the unnecessary glitter and bares the song's true soul. Just a piano and a pleading voice, with some light strings to add substance but not enough to overpower the song's resonance. No abrasive drums, no backup vocals, no pomp, just… love.

That's the one I sang.

I slipped into theta during my second rotation of the song, drawing the emotional resonance of the piece over myself like a loving shroud. I let it bathe me in light, let each emotion of the song express itself in the strains of a single instrument. Love became a trembling viola, light violet and airy… surrender a mournful violin of glittering copper… hope an insistent cello that glowed warmly with golden light…

The music—which had risen and surged in theta like the sea—pushed me away when it rose to unbearable heights, and I opened my eyes and ears once I left that melodious womb.

The world around me thrummed and sang, alive with the instruments that weren't there. My hands were still playing at the piano, still guiding the music that I had created like a shepherd herding sheep, but there was more to it, and when my eyes adjusted I realized that there was something flowing through the air around me. Lights I could hardly see but hardly look away from surged in rhythm with the music, creating a tapestry of emotion made visible that pulsed and pinged with every note and fluctuation.

It was a strange feeling. I could feel the light centered in my head, echoing what was in the world around me. It was like I was a paper lantern lit from within by a bright candle, and everything inside myself was projected outward via that creative light.

"There is music here," Hiei said when I paused mid-lyric for breath. "And light. You made that?"

I looked at him over my shoulder in excitement, singing the final verse with a surge of new energy: "Baby, don't worry, you are my only, you won't be lonely, even if the sky is falling… down." I sang the rest of the lyrics to the ceiling, smiling without control.

But then the song ended.

I sat there for a long time, fingers just touching the keys, watching the way the light played in the air around me. Even when I wasn't playing the music stilled echoed, filling the room to the brim with unheard strings and peals. My voice and the piano were the only things missing, but with a breath I closed my eyes and just sang.

And the piano picked up in the chorus of unseen instruments.

Then, I stopped singing.

But the music didn't compensate.

My concentration faltered when I realized that I couldn't mentally recreate my own voice, and so did the instrumental parts. The lights rushed back into my head, suffusing me in thunderous theta, and my connection to the outside world dwindled. It took everything I had to push the music down and find myself again, and with a gasp I managed to metabolize the melody and resurface into the physical world.

Hiei had come to stand beside me while I was out, and when I whipped my head up and saw him standing in the sliver of space between the piano bench and the piano, I froze. He had a hand stretched out like he was about to take me by the shoulder, but when our eyes met he wheeled around and walked a few feet away, standing with his hands in his pockets and his back to me.

"What," I said breathlessly, "happened?"

His head turned until I saw his face in profile. For some reason, the angle made his nose seem more snubbed than usual, all childlike and sweet despite the intensity of his eyes. "You played and you sang," he said, "and when you went into theta, more instruments joined in. So did lights. I assume that was your doing."

"I guess," I said.

"Then you stopped playing, but your mind picked it up," he continued. "You stopped singing, and your mind didn't. Why?"

I frowned, bracing my hands on the bench so I could lean back a little. I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "I know instruments really well," I said slowly, "so I know how they'd sound in basically any situation. But no one can really know their own voice."

Hiei's eyes flicked my way over his shoulder. "Why do you say that?" he murmured.

I shrugged. "Ever heard a recording of yourself speaking?"

"No."

"It won't sound like you think it will." I poked myself in the temple with my forefinger. "Your head creates acoustics around your eardrum, and your voice resonates in your bones and brain case when it vibrates in your throat. It gets distorted along the way, so what you hear is totally different from what others hear." I laughed, hand dropping back down so I could lean on it some more. My feet kicked by the piano's pedals. "You could do my true voice better than I could if you wanted. I bet I could mimic your voice perfectly."

He turned around. "You know my voice?" he said.

I smiled a small half-smile. "Sure. Better than mine."

I didn't know what I expected his reaction to be, but what he said was not it. "I know yours," he said, taking a step closer. "It's not perfect. That makes it memorable."

My cheeks got hot as I sat up straighter and looked at the piano's keys. "Well. Thanks, I guess."

Neither of us moved.

"It's late," Hiei said at last, tone brusque. "Get to bed. Genkai has plans for you in the morning."

I looked at him; he looked at me.

"Thanks," I said. "For helping me tonight. I mean it."

He smirked, eyes closing, and he moved to the door. One hand went up to the frame, and his eyes glared at me over one mostly-bare shoulder.

"Nonsense," he said, and he started to leave, footsteps ringing quietly away...

Something made me stop him again. "Hiei, wait."

His steps ceased, but he did not return. I assumed he was listening, though, when I said: "The other night, when you and I traded memories. Do you remember that?"

He did not reply.

I took a deep breath. "Something in mine made you angry," I said. "Can I ask what that something was?"

Silence greeted me for a long time, and I had just about decided he had left when I heard his voice cut through the gloom.

"Nonsense," he repeated, and was gone.

Genkai greeted me in the kitchen the next morning with a huge roll of wax paper and a permanent marker. "Draw me America," she said, spreading the paper out across the table. She shoved the marker into my hands. "And everything else you can think of, for that matter."

"What, no breakfast?" I mumbled.

"Everyone else ate already," she snapped. "The boys are training. You're going to teach them about America when they're done. Get busy."

"Me? Teach?" I asked in disbelief, and Genkai walked around me. I thought she was going to leave, but instead she put her hands into the small of my back and shoved me at the table. Then she continued to push me toward a chair, and with a kick she yanked a chair out from under the table by the leg. A single tug on my wrist sent my crashing into the chair butt-first, teeth clicking together with a snap.

She went to the refrigerator and pulled it open; the next thing I knew, a Tupperware box had skidded across the paper and stopped in front of me, and it was followed by two chopsticks that narrowly missed the hands I had spread on the tabletop. Genkai had thrown them like knives, making them stick out of the paper like daggers that quivered from the force of her throw.

I glared at her, hands tucked safely in my lap. "Wow. You sure are keeping my reflexes sharp."

She walked to the door and glared at me from it. Then she pointed at the Tupperware.

"Eat that and work. I'll be back in an hour. I want to know every last detail you can tell us about America—don't disappoint me."

Then she slammed the door and turned a key.

I gaped at the door for a moment, then stood up. "Genkai!" I called, but when no answer came I sat back down and viciously ripped the lid off of the cold omelet rice Genkai had offered me. I tore into it like it was the last thing to eat on earth, and as I did I stared at the paper before me in frustration.

Just where the hell was I supposed to start, anyway?

Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and Botan all sat across from me at the kitchen table, staring at the paper I had covered with mini-maps, lists, and charts. I held it up against my body with one hand and used a chopstick as an impromptu pointer with the other, breathing deep so I could gather up my thoughts.

Those thoughts were shattered, however, when I noticed who wasn't there.

"Um, where's Jin?" I asked, and the lot of them exchanged looks before Kurama answered me.

"He had to return to the Demon World early this morning," he said. "He has duties to attend to. A new apprentice, I understand."

"Oh." What, no goodbye? I thought, but dwelling on it wouldn't change anything so I just started my lecture. "Let's go over the geography first. Is that good place to start?"

Yusuke raised his hand, and that earned him and incredulous look from Kuwabara. But Yusuke just elbowed him in the ribs and kept his hand held high, so I said: "Yes, Yusuke?"

He pointed. "Is that supposed to be a map?"

"Um… yes?"

He laughed. "You can't draw worth shit!"

I promptly chucked my marker at him. He dodged, but Botan whacked him on the back of the head for me, so in the end I felt like I had had my revenge, after all.

"There Americas are made up of two continents," I went on. "North, and South."

I pointed at the rough sketch with my stick, then dragged it down the length of Central America.

"And this is the bridge between the two—Central America."

"Now, South America is made up of a bunch of different countries. Most of them speak Spanish or Portuguese. Central America is also a bunch of countries that speak Spanish or Portuguese."

Kurama, ever knowledgeable, raised an eyebrow. "But those languages have been dead for centuries," he said. "Only people studying the classics learn them."

I gaped at him, then said: "But Spanish came from Spain! Isn't Spain still around?"

"Well sure," said Kuwabara. "It's just that Japanese is spoken there. Japanese and Chinese are spoken pretty much everywhere these days."

"The Asian economies boomed and took over," Botan added. "It's been that way for hundreds of years. Most romance languages faded into obscurity around the turn of the last millennia."

"Oh." I paused. "Well, then. Things really have changed since I woke up."

Botan raised her hand, face drawn and sheepish. When I nodded at her, she said: "Do you speak Spanish?"

"Um… no."

"Oh." She paused. "Well, neither do I. Boys?"

"No, I'm afraid," said Kurama.

I waved my hands at them. "Doesn't matter. I'm thinking this is all taking place in North America, anyway," I said. "Genkai mentioned that Ryu was in a cold place, and South America was pretty much tropical. Moving on?"

They nodded in agreement.

"Good!" I smacked the North America portion of my messy map with the chopstick. "North America is made up of the United States and Canada. The US speaks English, which I totally know, and Canada speaks a combination of English and French. Now, I know a few words of French, but I don't know if anyone even speaks it anymore—"

"It, like Spanish, is not modernly used," said Kurama. "Although I don't know if the same will prove true in Demon World."

"Well, English used to be the most widely spoken language when I was… um, alive," I said. "So if there are still people in Demon-World-America, they'd probably know English. I think we're OK on that point." I looked back at my map. "The technology in my world or time or whatever was pretty much up to date with what you have now. Like, cars and cellphones and stuff. I don't know much about what my arms industry or computer industry was like, though, so I can't compare it." I gestured at my sheet. "I wrote down a bunch of medical stuff, too, because I was in the hospital a lot and I know a lot on that note. Also, stuff on music and everything. But if ten thousand years have passed, I doubt much of that will be there anymore." I clapped my hands together. "OK. Any questions?"

"How big is the continent?" Kurama asked, and I paused.

"Um," I said. I stared down at my map. "Well, to drive from home to college was… shoot, was it twelve hundred miles or twelve thousands miles?" The absurdity of that statement struck me. I sighed, berating myself for my own stupidity. "Definitely twelve hundred."

"Is that English you're speaking?" Botan asked, and I realized that I had indeed lapsed into it.

"Oh, yeah," I said with a nervous laugh. "It sure was. I was just talking myself through everything." I pointed at the map, at the southeastern portion of the US in a rough approximation of the state of Alabama. "Now, that's where I went to college," I said, tracing a line up to the blobs that represented the great lakes, "and that's where I grew up. The distance between the two is twelve hundred mi… er, about two thousand kilometers?"

Yusuke's eyes went buggy. "That's a huge island!" he said, staring at North America in shock. "And here I was thinking it was just another Japan."

"Nope," I said. "Far from it. It was a huge superpower back in its day because it had so much room to produce crops and stuff."

"It makes sense that it was destroyed, then," said Botan. "We would have heard about it otherwise. What a place. But to have such advanced technology so lnog ago…"

I shrugged. "Some people think time is cyclical, so I suppose it's possible." I tapped the chopstick into the palm of my other hand. "Any questions?"

A chorus of 'no's.

"Good. Then I guess this class is dismissed." I sagged back into my chair. "That was stressful."

Everyone stood up to leave, chairs dragging over linoleum in a chorus of screams. Hiei, who had been standing by the door during the whole things, just walked out.

"I don't recommend you teach for a living," said Yusuke, walking over to the fridge so he could raid it.

"Oh, shut it," I griped, and I heaved out of my chair. Botan and Kurama were bent over my list and map and talking in low voices; I gave them a nod as I walked out, the sounds of Yusuke and Kuwabara fighting over the last slice of cake echoing behind me.

I was going to go back to my room and practice my illusion building, maybe fool around with my ukulele if the mood struck me, but that was not to be. As soon as I put my hands on the doorknob to my room, it opened on its own.

"We need to talk," Genkai said, glaring up at me as I jumped back with a squeal. "Outside. Now."

I recovered my wits quickly enough. "Just let me get my ukulele, and—"

"Now," she said, and she stalked off. With a roll of my eyes I darted into my room, put on my tennis shoes, and limped after her; luckily she had walked rather slowly, and I managed to catch up with her on the porch.

"Where are we going?" I asked as she took a right on the porch and started following it down the length of the temple.

"Quit worrying about the walk," she snapped.

I raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you all but pushed me off a cliff the last time we took one of these walks."

"We're just going into the meditation garden," she said, tossing her hair when she smirked, and she slid open a door before ducking into it. I tread after her through dark hallways and into a large room with a floor of tatami mats. On the other side of it was a traditional sliding paper door, and when she opened it I couldn't help but gasp.

Before us lay a square garden that was obviously the temple's heart. Surrounded on all sides by red-painted porch that cupped more paper doors, the little garden boasted three huge boulders set in a diagonal line across the central square, riotous bunches of flowers that bloomed out of small circles of rich earth, and a sandy floor that had been raked into identical swirling furrows of uniform width and depth. In one corner was a pool with a water wheel turning in its center, and a stream flowed out of that pool and encircled the entire garden. There was even a miniature red bridge, Shinto style and graceful, arching over the dark water like a path to heaven.

Genkai crossed that bridge with a look that urged me to follow. I did so with wonder, glancing down at the miniature river in delight. It was lined with deep blue tile and had lily pads spackled across its surface; I caught a flash of orange and white as a massive Koi fish swam beneath them, scales undulating in the sunlight streaming down from overhead.

"Dani?" Genkai said, and I flinched. I had been standing motionless on the small bridge, staring at the water with my mouth open. Genkai had somehow managed to jump atop one of the three large boulders, the one farthest from me. She stood firm with her hands on her hips, jaw set. "Get on the middle rock. Now."

I stepped onto the sanded ground gingerly, watching with regret the way my shoes disturbed the lines and whorls. The middle rock only came up to my hips, but it still strained my arms to clamber up.

Once I was settled, Genkai jumped off of her rock and onto the porch; then she vanished into one of the nearby paper doors, and when she returned a second later she had a small rake in her right hand. Muttering to herself, she stepped onto the sand and began to draw the lines anew, and when she circled the rock on which I sat I realized she was actually singing in a voice so low I could hardly hear it. The words were unintelligible, but the low, humming thrum of the tune was calming and serene enough to make me fold my legs and breathe deep, hands on my knees as I felt the way the sun tickled my skin and the way the steady splash of the water wheel made my mind drift away…

"Dani," Genkai was saying from somewhere behind me. "Theta. Go."

I didn't need any more instruction. The garden more than invited meditation—it demanded it. I felt myself fall and float, lost on the current of my own self, until Genkai's voice whispered across my brain.

The Koi, she said.

The image of the Koi came to life in a burst of color and light, rushing notes of deep blue and pale orange music. Its fins waved, bright and clear and true, fanning about my face with light brushes of sensation and music, and its black eyes stared into my soul like a pair of oblivion pools. Its scales drew me in the most, made me think of cool dark places and the water embrace of water's life…

Draw it in, Genkai said.

So I did. I breathed in the Koi's music like it was air, feeling it seep into my skin then burst from my every pore. Then it started to bubble up inside me, bubble up and out, and I felt myself start to change—

No! said Genkai. Do not let it control you! Compromise!

I pulled the Koi back in, grabbing it with unseen hands and coaxing it back into my soul with gentle touches and the lightest of cooing whispers. As soon as I did, I felt a balance click into place, and…

Concentrate on its fins, and its scales.

I did.

Then I opened my eyes.

Genkai was not in front of me, but that hardly mattered as I looked around with newborn eyes. My skin felt slick when it rubbed against itself, and when the sheer oddity of the sensation washed over me, I looked down.

My arms were scaly.

I lifted my hand up in front of my face, flexing fingers that were suddenly webbed with translucent flesh and wrists that glittered with jewel-like scales of black and white and orange. Something by my elbow rippled; I looked to find a fin sprouting from that place, a black one mottled with gold that cut through the air as I moved. I knew without checking that my feet had undergone a similar transformation, and when I twisted I could feel something start pushing beneath the fabric of my shirt…

"You're growing a dorsal fin," Genkai said. I spun on the rock to find her on the porch behind me, smirking in satisfaction. "More features should show themselves soon, though I think the elbow wings were more your imagination that they were pure Koi." She chuckled, looking down at her feet. "What you are experiencing now is a fusion of your imagination, your impression of Koi, and all your preconceptions of what someone half-fish would seem like. And in case you were wondering, I planted the image of the Koi in your mind. You fleshed it out and merged with it, but for a minute there it looked like you were trying to go all-the-way with the fish. I'm not sure how that would have worked, so I stopped you and guided you into merging with the fish's essence instead." She regarded me through cool eyes.

I started to ask her a question, but nothing happened when I tried pushing air out of my throat. I realized, then, that my previous easy breathing had become more than a little labored.

"Oh, fish can't talk, and neither can you now," Genkai said offhandedly. " An essence-shift like this gives you best features of the chosen creature, but also some of the disadvantages." She paused. "I don't think you're meant to impersonate people, Dani. It's dangerous when you do—too dangerous. I think you're more suited to shifts like this instead, or partial ones. Do not attempt when you attempted with Botan again."

I gasped once, then pointed at my throat. My fingers crept up to touch the sides of my throat, and what I found there gave me chills all across my silky, scaly skin.

Gills.

"Now that you're better at visualization," she went on, not seeing my plight for what it was, "you need only visualize a species of a creature you desire and absorb its essence. Don't go for individuals or full changes. Not only is your mind not strong enough, but neither is your body. You're not meant for more than augmenting your true body with additions. A complete change into another form stands in anathema with your soul's rigidity…"

Her voice dropped off into nothing even though her lips were still moving. I could feel her words vibrate against my ears, but I couldn't hear them, and I found my answer when I raised my hands to the sides of my head.

My ears were gone.

Panicked, I scrambled off the rock and hit the sand with a thud. My feet screamed in pain when I tried walking on them, so I crawled, gasping, to the deep pond in the garden's corner. Genkai shouted at me as I rolled in with a splash, but then the water and lilies closed over my head in a wave of muffled cold and I could hear the vibrations of her speech no more.

My new instincts—fishy ones—took over. I began swallowed water at breakneck speeds, feeling it send oxygen to my brain as the filtered liquid passed smoothly through my gills. I lay on my back in the pond, which was barely long enough to accommodate my body, and as I stared up at the green and gold light filtering through the lily pad canopy above my head, a Koi fish as long as my arm swam over my face.

I batted it away with a scowl and an under-water sigh, and then I kicked off my shoes and socks. They floated up to the surface as I flexed my toes (the left ones were still stunted, of course, but now they were webbed with matter like aquatic cobweb) and stretched. I longed to swim free in a bigger pond.

Suddenly overcome with curiosity, I slipped my hands beneath my shirt and ran them up and down my ribs. Several small holes hidden amid my scales shivered at my touch, and I remembered something I had learned while watching Shark Week.

"Sharks do not have ears like we do," the announcer with the soothing voice had said. "They possess lateral lines instead, small pores that house vibration-sensing organs that detect prey, predators, and other sharks."

That must be these pores, I thought, touching them. Gross!

A shadow cut through the green-gold light, then, and I squinted as the lily pads were parted. Genkai's concerned face swam above the water; she was speaking to me, but I couldn't hear and spread my hands in a "Hey, don't blame me," gesture. I saw her sigh, shake her head, and then the lilies surged over me again.

I sat there for only a few minutes when the lilies parted again, but this time there were four hands that pulled them aside. I flipped over beneath the water so I was on my stomach, and I inched over to the mossy side and ran my hands straight up the vertical surface until they broke through the water's crest. I felt around until I gripped the tile side of the pond, and then I took a deep gulp of water before lifting my torso out of the cool green liquid.

I found myself staring at Hiei's shoes. My eyes traveled up his black-clad leg until the encountered his hips, and then I grinned sheepishly when I met his red eyes.

Hi, I said without saying anything, and he scowled, lips moving as he tried to speak to me.

I shook my head, feeling myself get near the point where I needed another swallow of water, and I reached up to pull my hair—which was still there, oddly—over my shoulder to expose one side of my neck and jawline.

I looked up at him; for some reason, he appeared to have stopped breathing, jaw tight and muscle twitching in the column of his caramel throat. I smiled, teeth feeling a lot sharper than usual, and I pointed at the place where my ear was supposed to be.

Red eyes snapped open wide, trailing over my gills and un-ears with sharp crimson darts. When I saw him understand, I pushed back into the water and breathed deep. Then I resurfaced. The sun felt like it was cooking my delicate skin and my eyes burned in the light, but even though I was willing to endure the pain Hiei still knelt down at the water's edge, put his hand on the top of my head, smiled lik a shark, and shoved me back down as hard as he could. He pushed me so hard, in fact, that the water enclosed his arm all the way up to the elbow.

That jerk! I thought as my face slammed into the water and dragged down the side of the pool (I ate more than one mouthful of green slime in the process). A stream of angry bubbles poured out of my mouth, and with a twist I pulled my hair out of his grasp and laid myself along the pond's floor. Grimacing in anger, I kicked my feet at the water's surface, hoping to at least splash Hiei a little. That big, fat jerk!

I wouldn't speak that way about your rescuer if I were you, Hiei's voice said as a purple itch wormed its way into my brain.

Oh great, and he's humble too, I thought sarcastically. My knight in shining shark-mail has arrived at last. Just hurry up and fix me!

For once, Hiei actually tried his hand at humor (even if it was at my expense). But scales suit you, he said. Are you sure you want that?

Um, I can't talk! I thought. I can't sing! The Little Mermaid I most certainly am NOT!

He was silent for a minute, gone but for the faint itch running its soft fingers around the inside of my skull. Then he said: Focus on yourself.

I closed my eyes under the water, concentrating on an image of myself, but I was agitated and it didn't last long. Fish kept coming up to investigate my foreign expanse now that I was lying still, and their soft bodies kept brushing me in ways my lateral lines could not ignore. What was worse was that I could hardly imagine myself accurately at all.

Um, Hiei? I tentatively thought.

His reply: Yes?

Remember last night, when I said I couldn't imagine my own voice?

He did not respond, but I could feel his stern frustration simmering just out of reach.

Same holds true for my face. Can't imagine it.

And then, as quickly as a summer shower, I could see myself: too much hair, huge eyes, a snub nose, a bony body, and my smile that was fast to emerge and just as fast to fade… my voice was there too, bright and clear and nondescript and simple. The image drowned me in itself, and with a silent cry I threw myself at it, merging with it until that clicking harmony snapped into firm place.

When I opened my eyes, I tried to breathe as a normal human would, but all that happened was a lungful of water. I surged upward, coughing as my head broke the surface and fish scattered like leaves in a wind. Lilly pads tangled with my limbs and hair as I stood and lurched to the pond's side, collapsing on the tile with heaves of labored breath.

A shadow loomed over me, blocking out the sun.

"Welcome back, Dani," said Genkai, voice rasping in my sensitive ears.

I cracked open my eyes. She and Hiei were looking at me like I was a fish out of… well, you know.

"That," I said hoarsely, "was awesome."

200, 000 WORDS FOR THE WIN! THANKS FOR STICKING WITH ME THIS LONG, GUYS! Or is this too long to ask for? Oh NO!

Lot's of filler, but since there were five days until they went to America, I felt like it would be bad of me to just have one chapter of stuff to encompass that whole time. However, there WON'T be five chapters of filler, one for each day, because they leave for America… NEXT WEEK. Well, they get on the road, anyway. Next week's chapter will be about getting ready, then leaving, and possibly a little travel. ^^

Also, Jin has an apprentice in Demon World. I started a fic about it; just haven't posted it, and won't until FT is further along. Still, it's something to look forward to for all you Jin fans. ^^Also, I'm sorry for his abrupt exit from this fic, but there's just not really a place for him as far as plot goes. He was just… extra. You'll see what I mean soon. However, he's going to show up a little nearer to the end. Yay?

Jay Sean's "Down" DOES have a candle light remix that is AWESOME! I don't usually like Top 40 hits ("Down" annoyed me, truthfully), but the remix was sweet and pure and a million times better than the radio dance version. And "Aqueous Transmission" is by Incubus; it's one of my favorite songs EVER! I just wish I could have worked the lyrics in. =[

It's also my birthday. So this is my birthday gift to... you guys? XD As of the 13th, I am 20 years old. I can now say "Damn teenagers!" without being a hypocrite! =D I still feel like an old lady, though. WAH!

The super-generous Kaijin-san drew a picture of my OCs from "Fakes & Fiends" as chibis! I'm plugging the drawing in this story since I haven't updated F&F since the drawing was posted, but it's GORGEOUS and I encourage you all to check out the gloriousness that is good art. Link's on my profile. ^^THANKS, KAIJIN-SAN!

Also, since for SOME reason Kuwabara's banana suit got a lot of laughs, I drew a picture of it. A link to my deviantART is available on my profile. ^^ As a bonus, there's also a pic of Yusuke in a grape costume. GO NUTS.

As always, THANK YOU SO MUCH, reviewers! I've had several wonderful conversations with a few of you since last week; thanks for being so cool. ^^Kai-Chan94, American Senpai, Pirazz, Reclun, HeeHeeHee01, DoilyRox, 9ShadowCat9, MusicFiend666, Out-Of-Control-Authoress, dude where's my spirit gun, Titch-ola, Foxgirl Ray, WorldsAngel, White Rose Fox, Double A Battery, ichixichigo, Rokkugoh, chocolateluvr13, Wings of Silver Rain, Kaiya's Watergarden, archangel fighter, AkaMizu-chan, Masuyo Shun, Katt Jeane, Koryu Elric, LadyoftheGags, colbub, NAO-chan33, Fierce, 0nfateswings, rain chant, ShadowFireFox13, and j.d.y.!

NOTES:

EDIT: Got some wonderful art from Wings of Silver Rain/ThatPokemonFreak today! =D It's of Dani and some of her defining things (Koi, tree, music, among others), and I love it very much. ^^ Link is on my profile! Shower her with love!