"Thank you, Leela. I think we should get out of your folks' hair." Hiei stands from the sofa. He bows to her parents, "Thank you for having me in your house."
"Glad to have met you, Mr. Hiei," Morris holds out his hand.
"Remember what country you're in. This is America," whispers Leela.
"Oh right. I've been living in Japan for so long. Turonga-sama," Hiei grasps Morris' hand with his own, "Your culture shakes hands."
"I was the same way when I met Genkai that first day," smiles Leela, "I forgot what country I was in. Bowing is the Japanese custom for greeting people."
"Your other greeting was coming close to blowing someone's head off with your gun."
"That's because my indicator had mistaken Kuwabara for an intruder. He scared me."
"I've known the idiot for too long and he does that to me. If wasn't for the fact he loves and protects my sister, I would have done away with him a long time ago."
"No you wouldn't. You're all talk in the killing-your-friends department."
"Well, I guess we'll see you two later," shrugs Munda.
"You'll see more of us, can I assure you of that. We'll take care of that evil dragon and his undead friend." Leela hugs her mother, "After we destroy them, we'll come back here. I want to take you to the twenty-first century and let you see the outside world."
"Will the people there accept us?" asks Morris.
"If most Tokyo residents can put up with my odd looks, then yes. You might even meet people your age."
"You two look enough like demons, and there are pockets of decent-natured demons living and working in the Human World," explains Hiei, "My best friend, Kurama lives in the Human World and works as a doctor at a local hospital. He looks like a normal man, but is really a fox demon. He can even transform into his former appearance, a creature with fox ears and four tails. His twin brother Ashanti works in the Human World too, and has a girlfriend there. He's in demon form all the time. O'Falla works to protect the border and she frequents Tokyo. She's got the ears, antlers, tail, and feet of a deer."
"If those weird looking folks can live and work in the human society, then so can you," reassures Leela.
"Will you be able to kill this dragon?" wonders Munda.
"Lady Turonga, we've got enough power and backup power from our friends."
"Mom, these new friends of mine, including Hiei…"
"And you, don't forget."
"Right well, we've got enough telekinetic energy to light an entire neighborhood for several months straight. Some individuals can even keep an entire small city lit with their energy."
Leela slowly backs out of her parents' house with Hiei escorting her. "Are you too tired, dear?" Leela asks.
"I think I'm refreshed actually. Seeing Mother tonight was totally unexpected. I love these impulses of yours."
"You want to walk or fly?"
"What do you mean, dear?" asks Munda. Leela leaps swiftly into the air and lands just above the surface of the flowing channel of neon-green sewer water.
"How are you doing that?" asks Morris.
"That's what she means by flying. She's learned to do that since her spirit-energy channeling. Anything her feet touch, even the skin of that water, become like a flat-structured surface to her. Leela-san isn't even standing on the water; she's just on the skin itself."
"How thin can the surface be?" asks Morris.
"She's able to hold herself in mid-air and use the air itself like something to land on. I do that somewhat, but we've got a friend who's mastered the art of flight and standing in air."
"Jin, you mean," Leela replies.
"That's the one. I can't even figure the guy out. He speaks with this fake Irish accent, despite the fact he's never been to Ireland. He's a hundred percent Japanese."
"Shall we fly now?" chimes Leela, "Or are you planning to spend the night in the sewers?" Leela jets off across the flow of the channel.
"I'll make you pay for that, Missy," Hiei smirks, zipping towards her.
"Whatever you do, don't actually touch this water, or you'll be changed," warns Leela.
"How so?"
"Well, for one thing, Zapp Branaggan would beat you in the Mr. Universe Pageant."
"Ah hell no. I'm not going to be upstaged by Mr. Self-important."
"Then don't go swimming in this water." Leela replies, as she waves to Raoul, who stands on the sidewalk beside the channel.
"Congrats, Raoul," shouts Leela, "The title of Daddy really suits you."
"Yeah…uh…Leela," Raoul responds, as he stares at Leela skiing on the channel. He waves at Leela with his third arm. "Hi…uh…mister…"
"That's the new boyfriend I told Vyolet about."
"Oh yeah, she mentioned you were dating a new guy. She said you said he was a keeper."
"My name is Hiei, sir. I know what you're going through, I've got a baby son at home."
"Really. Got any fatherly advice then?"
"I'm raising the kid, but I'm no expert with kids. Leela's a better one than I am."
"I'm learning too. I don't know everything. I'm picking up tips from Keiko and Shizuru. Those two are experienced moms."
"Who are they, Leela?"
"Wives of two of my friends," explains Hiei, "Shizuru is married to my long-time best friend, Kurama, and Keiko is Yusuke's wife. All four are here as well. Botan is here, merely on Leela's request."
"Botan's my best friend," confirms Leela, "I met her the evening after I met him. You must have heard by now from Vyolet I flew a time machine to the early 21st century to Tokyo, Japan. That's how I met these people. Hiei was the first person I met that day. We've been together ever since."
"Vyolet told me that's how you 21st century folks got here. You don't look like the types who were cryogenically frozen. And I know no human or mutant lives for a thousand years. Time machine would be the most probable reason why you're here. You're welcome to stay here in the sewers, fellow mutant."
"I'm not a mutant. I'm a demon. I'm a fire demon."
"There are no mutants in Hiei's era. Demons are the proper term. Demons have the unique ability to outlive humans and they have powers no normal mortal possesses. I too have acquired such powers, despite being mortal."
"What pisses Yusuke off the most is you acquired it faster than he did. It took you very little time to master your spirit-energy skills. You fly freely without much use of energy anymore. But I don't think the bonehead realizes you were a martial arts master before you came to Tokyo."
"He does, and he's still jealous."
"And it doesn't help matters that you like the old woman and her training method. Leela tells him that just to rile him up on purpose."
"How else do I get him mad enough to take me seriously?"
Leela sighs and looks at Raoul, who she sees studying her feet. "How are you doing that? You're just standing on the water like that. I know the channel isn't that shallow."
"It comes from my training with Genkai, combined with the ability to fly. Both are new techniques she showed me." "So, dear, are you ready to split? It's been a long day. You look like you've had it."
"I'm all right. Where are we in relation to the surface?"
"I know how disorienting the sewers are, but this channel pours out just before you get to the Ruins."
"It's 9:00," informs Raoul.
"He's right," confirms Leela, checking her wristband.
"Guess we can head to the Ruins. I would like to see what New York used to look like."
Leela waves back at Raoul and dashes off down the channel. "Last one to Old New York is rotten oyster juice," Leela challenges Hiei.
"Since when is it a race to get there?"
"Since I just said it, slow poke!"
"That's it, Missy. You're ass is mine."
"You've got to catch it first." She zips across the channel like a rocket. Leela reaches a set of three tunnels and slows herself to a stop.
"Why did you stop?" asks Hiei. He sees the three tunnel openings.
"To get to Old Central Park, you take the far left tunnel. That's also our way home."
"What about the other two?"
"The center one leads to old Brooklyn and the right one is old Bronx. The Bronx is where Mom's cabin is on the surface."
Leela jets off through the left tunnel, followed close behind by her lover. Suddenly Leela spots something giant and brown blocking their path. Without hesitating, she launches a Spirit Bomb towards it, destroying the giant creature.
"What was that?"
"Giant mutant rat. They're all over the sewers. If you see one, don't hesitate to kill it. They certainly won't hesitate to kill you and eat you for dinner."
"Are they as endangered as the Porko guys?"
"Hardly. There are billions of these monster rats. They are the least likely animals to go extinct any time soon."
"How come they don't come to the surface?"
"They like it down here. Also despite their size, rats have the tiniest of brains." Leela leaps over the charred remains of the rat and speeds up her pace. She observes the channel suddenly rushing at a faster pace than usual. "Dear, we've arrived at the exit of this tunnel. The channel is pouring out of the tunnel. Be careful you don't get pulled down with the current. The water at this juncture is a death hazard."
Leela dashes cautiously across the tunnel's walls and leaps out into a massive open area. She lands on the rubble of a torn street. She looks around and tries to search for her mate. She hears a trickling sound behind her. "So did you get wet just now? Sounds like you brought a piece of the current here."
"All that rushing water made me have to 'pour out.'"
"You and Fry," sighs Leela, as she gazes her eye at a deteriorated building, "Doesn't matter if you use the open street for a bathroom. Nobody's down here to catch you doing that. You're free to do whatever you want in Old New York. This old city is ours to do whatever we want."
"What did you have in mind?" Hiei turns and watches Leela peel off her tank top. She unzips her bra and shows her breasts to him.
"I was thinking about walking these old streets topless. I've never done that. Since we're the only ones down here in Old New York, we can do whatever."
"Can I…feel them?"
"We're right by the old park entrance." Leela races through the park and glides into the basin of a dry empty fountain. She pillows her shirt and bra and lies with it in the fountain.
Hiei finds her with her eye closed. "Lie here next to me and close your eyes," she beckons. "Don't fall asleep, just lie here." He complies and lies in the fountain with her.
Immediately he finds the fountain filled with water and life return to the old park. He sees the bright blue sky, as though they were transported back in the twenty-first century again.
'Do you see all this? Life as it was in this old park. Old New York is back to life again.'
'Weren't we in the underground world just now? Are you trying to say you can connect to ghosts of the past just like that?'
'That's how I was able to reach your mother tonight. I actually stepped in the pathway between the world of the living and that of the dead. I'll bet I could use this ability with that new job.'
'I know you are able to read people's thoughts and talk to the dead. I didn't know how far you could go. Does Koenma know you can do that?'
'I was hoping to tell him about it. I didn't know either. This is the first night I've been able to do this. Maybe those enhancers Kurama gave me have more power than what he was giving them credit for. They are Spirit World plants. Perhaps they've made my clairvoyance that much more possible.'
'Excuse me, folks,' utters a firm low voice, 'There's no sleeping in this fountain.'
Leela turns to see the ghost of a police officer standing beside the fountain. She looks at him with a tear tickling down her cheek. 'Sorry, sir.'
'Leela, what's the matter?' He turns to see the ghost.
'This park was this man's beat. He must have been killed here.'
'Ma'am, you're correct. I died here in this park. I was chasing this perp when a buddy of his came out of nowhere and shot me in the head.'
'I can still see the wound from where the bullet went in.'
'Are you two also dead?'
'No, just a pair of telepaths.'
'If you're here from the living world, then never mind what I said about getting out.' With that, the officer walks through the fountain and disappears.
'So is this what you brought me here to see? A park with ghosts attached to them?'
'Fry refuses to come here because it's haunted. But they aren't evil. You and I both know most ghosts tied to a place remain there for eternity. Heaven is too foreign and Hell too scary and not for them. This place is their Heaven. It's scary when you don't know the real purpose the dead wish for, but once you know it's so sad to think about.'
Leela sits up and glances around the park. 'When I look into the abyss like this, I feel as though all I want to do is pour my heart out. But then I realize there would be no reason to do that. What can I do for a world that has already died? All us New New Yorkians did was pave over this place and build a new city on top of it. It's like the founders wanted to make it seem like this place never happened.'
Leela wakes up in the real world and finds herself back underground. "What were they thinking? Burying the past like this, then pretending like it never existed in the first place. What about the lives here? They've been dead all this time, and yet we're told to forget about them." Leela buries her face in her folded arms. "Why would we do this? Are we that evil?" "In a thousand years more, what we know will be buried as well. Are we too that meaningless?"
"Leela, we aren't meaningless. You've told that to me everyday. Nobody, dead or alive, is considered meaningless."
Hiei sits back up and hold her. "The vibe I'm getting from these ghosts is they never felt like that. They remain here by choice. This place is, like you said, Heaven to them. Whether they died here or if they spent most of their lives here, it was all by choice. Perhaps the founders of the new city wanted to preserve the past, so they could admire it for what it was. It's as though the tombstones for this city are the buildings above it."
"So sorry we forgot about you ghosts. Wish we could make up for abandoning you like we did. We such foolish mortals." Leela clings to Hiei's shirt with her fists. She sobs as hard as she can.
She feels a cool breeze brush by and feels someone's hand on her back. 'Hey, ma'am,' whispers the policeman's voice, 'it's okay. This man you're with is right. We haven't been forgotten. The founder's intentions were to preserve the city for us. This park is where I was killed, in fact this fountain was the very spot where I died, but I couldn't have picked a better place to die. This was my paradise. It was that way when I was alive and even after I've been dead for so long. I know there are other ghosts here who feel the same as I do. See those two old ladies over there on that bench.' Leela turns her head and catches sight of the spirits of the grannies, 'They come here all the time to sit and gossip about their lives, even though they themselves have died long ago.'
Leela hears a dog bark and sees a golden retriever's ghost running after a Frisbee. She watches him catch the disk and race back to a young boy, who was bracing himself against a lamppost on the curb behind the fountain. 'Good boy,' shouts the young man.
She turns to see an old drunkard stagger towards the fountain. She watches him start to unzip his pants. 'Hey you!' shouts the officer.
"You mean us?" asks Hiei.
'I don't mean you two living folks. Drunkard Joe, what did I say?'
'Whass da problim of'sar?' Joe drops his pants and stands in front of the fountain.
"Leela, we'd best leave. I'm not interested in being peed on by a ghost."
"It's not real, you know."
'Joe, unless you want to spend the night in jail again, go somewhere else. Public fountains aren't toilets.'
'But…ta of'sar, wans I sart I doan sop.' Leela quickly grabs her bra and shirt and slips them on quickly. She holds both hands out to Hiei and hoist him out of the fountain.
"Just in time. Stupid drunkard and his ecto-plasma piss. We didn't have time for foreplay," sighs Leela.
"We can still do that. This is still our world."
"Yeah and have some ghost watching us have sex. That's about as creepy as if you were a child and you caught your parents doing it."
Leela sighs and the two living pair walks along the old parkway. Further from the fountain, Leela catches sight of two old men playing checkers on a stone table. 'Ha, king me, Henry,' shouts one of the men.
'I'll get you for that, Frank. Oh, I see we have two young folks watching us. You can play against me, young lady.'
'Henry, you know what your missus said about you flirting with young ladies.'
'What would she know? She's dead, Frank,' Henry protests.
'Hey news flash, you old coot, so are you!'
"We're not dead, you know," replies Leela.
'I figured that much, dear,' replies Frank.
'That's a shame too,' sighs Henry.
'It's a shame that they are alive and we aren't?' argues Frank, 'You've got that backwards, dumbass.'
'By the way, young folks, how can you see us? Most living folks can't.'
'I'm more curious how these two aren't scared of ghosts like us. Most fleshies flee from dead folks.'
"Old jijiis, it's just you guys are hardly scary," replies Hiei, "Leela and I are used to seeing ghosts. There are demons far worse than you."
"Blunt as usual. Both of us are telepaths and have clairvoyance," explains Leela, "We're used to dealing with monsters on a daily basis. Hiei himself is a demon, but as benevolent as any human. He's got a few friends like that too." "We can tell by the aura you're giving off that you park folks don't mean any harm by residing here. This is your place, your heaven."
"That's what I said and that cop back there confirmed it."
'Officer Paully is right about that,' replies Frank, 'When I passed on and St. Peter asked me where I wanted to stay, I asked him if I could stay here in New York in Central Park.'
'Same goes for me,' agrees Henry, 'I died in a stupid old folks home, but I told Peter that's not where I wanted to remain. This old park is home to us spirits.'
"You do realize you're underground," Hiei points out.
'Young man, to you we are,' explains Frank, 'That's because you're the ones down here. But in our eyes, we see the park and the city exactly how it was. Above you is a bright blue sky, the way New York has always been.'
"He's right about that," sighs Leela, "Close your eyes and you can see place for what it was." In her mind she envisions a park ripe with bright green foliage and feels the cool crisp breeze from a warm summer sky blow past her. She sees the two men sitting in the very same spot, playing their game, both looking alive as ever. 'Are you seeing this, Hiei? The spirits of this city and especially the ones here are alive, even though their physical beings are absent.'
'I see it. There's some spirit energy still left in this old park. It's only slight, but I sense the spiritual candle is still flickering, refusing to be snuffed out.'
Leela opens her eye and stares back across the buried ruins again. "When I used to come through here with Fry, I saw nothing but a barren place. Like an old ghost town without anyone haunting it. But now…"
"It's because Koenma opened that channel for you…"
"Because you insisted I have it done. If I never met you, if I remained here in the 31st century until my death, I wouldn't have known this spirit existed this long."
"But now you can. You're able see into the abyss. You're a medium who can talk to the dead like they were standing for real in front of you."
"I want to tell Koenma about this. I want to let him know about this ability. Wish there was a way to email him or something."
"You can tell this to Botan when we get back to the apartment. Where is that anyways?"
"We're not far at all." Leela directs him to an enclose set of pipes and duct work leading to the same outflow of the sewer pipe the two had emerged from. Leela leaps into the air and flies towards a door leading to a sub-basement. "Now I've got to find which exit is ours."
"How can you tell from down here?"
"We could just find a manhole cover. There's one right in front of our apartment building." Leela shines a light from her wristband. "Aw, there it is." Leela produces a spirit bomb and uses the light to display a long metal ladder hanging from the street above them. She springs up and grasps hold of the ladder rungs tightly with her hands. She hoists herself up the ladder first, and then offers her hand to her mate.
"Thanks, but I think the sewer fumes have gotten to you," he smirks at her, "Did you forget who you're dating?"
"If you were leading me, we'd be in the Bronx now." Leela climbs the ladder all the way to the manhole cover. She pulls against the wheel, trying to twist it. "It won't budge." Leela releases spirit energy to her hands. "This thing is…proving to be…this is weird. The service guys don't have problems popping these things open. They have to come down here everyday."
"Can I try?" Leela swings to the opposite side of the ladder and allows Hiei to try his luck.
"Don't destroy it, dear."
"I'm…oh Leela you were turning it the wrong way."
"Damn. I'm usually good at solving this problem. I thought all of a sudden I lost muscle mass or I didn't have the right type."
"It could be I held a sword for 700 years and know how to turn things."
"Yeah. Seven hundred years of bragging rights. That's what makes you a hothead."
"Oh very funny, Missy."
Leela ignores him and pushes the cover open. She sees the street void of any traffic. She pulls herself onto the street surface, and then offers her hand again to help her mate. "Don't think I've forgotten who or what you are. I'll help you anyways. It's like how you did for me when I was new to Tokyo and Mukuro City."
As she helps him up, she suddenly feels a jolt from the street and sees a car speeding their way. Immediately she zips out of the way to the curb in front of the apartment building. She sees the car mixed with human and robotic thugs. Followed close behind the first hover car, four other cars, all painted black with streaks of red dashed across the hood and door panels. The first car screeches to a halt and pins her to the apartment's front entrance with its headlights.
"Hiei, we've got trouble. I believe this gang wants to talk to me." She sees the other four cars slide into position, forming a semi-circle barrier in front of the building.
"Hey boss, you think she'd be perfect?" snivels a grumbling voice.
"I would say so," replies the boss.
Instantly, Hiei dashes in front of Leela. "Where did he come from?"
"Who cares? Shanty, grab the girl. Bald, you and your men, kill the pest."
"You idiots have no idea who you're dealing with. You are not taking my woman, I'll send you to hell before you get the chance."
'Hiei, there's something about this that bothers me. Where's Yusuke?'
'He's on his way here with Keiko. That robot play has ended now.'
Leela closes her eye and tries to locate the couple. She spots them in her mind inside a space tube. 'Yusuke, can you hear my thoughts?'
'Yes. You're coming in clear.'
'Tell Keiko to tell the tube to take her to the police station.'
'Why what's going on?'
'You'll find out when you get to the apartments. Ask her to pick up visitor chips, then ask her to stay there.'
Leela opens her eye and once again sees the gang still advancing towards them.
"Come on, pal. We won't even carry out our threat about killing you."
"He's right, if you just hand over the girl like a good boy…"
"Unacceptable bargain!" sneers Hiei, "You'll have to get through me first. Murdering assholes like you is one of my favorite hobbies."
"He's just all talk," comments a robot, "He's just putting on an act. Look at him, shaking like a shared human child." In a sudden flash, Hiei was back on the sidewalk in front of Leela with the robot's severed arm.
"I wasn't shaking out of fear, morons. I was prepping myself for killing your robot friend."
"Ha ha, you stupid human. You didn't kill me…me…mmmmmmmm…"
"Argil 7-1, your transmission fluid is leaking and your circuitry is fritzing," thunders a low voice, "You broke him, motherfucker. That was your last mistake."
A bulging baldheaded man charges towards Hiei with a huge spiked fist.
"Keep him busy, Bull. His woman is ours now," orders the leader.
"Is that so? Hiei, I can take these guys too." Leela charges her body with spirit energy and rushes in broadside towards a small pocket of five muscle men. She leaps into the air and dashes towards the center with a 360-revolving kick. She blasts energy from her fists, pounding one thug in the stomach.
'Kurama! We need your help down here.'
'I'm on my way. We just put Ariaco down for sleep.' "Shizuru, lock this room and keep the kid safe. Leela and Hiei need my help."
'Help is on its way. I just talked to Kurama.'
'More help the merrier. He's great at these parties.' Hiei turns his concentration on a group of five men and three robots. He slices through the robots and plunges his fists into the humans.
Leela suddenly jolts and freezes amidst her battle. 'There's more of these guys elsewhere. They're next stopover is Cookieville Orphanarium. The rest of the gang is heading there.'
'Second car to our left has hostages. My third eye is sensing female victims bound and gagged in the backseat and trunk. So far there are ten girls.'
'I'll head over to Cookieville, with…' 'Kurama, could you follow me to Cookieville instead? We can get there quickly by flight.'
'I'll stay here and deal with these guys. Don't worry about me, Leela, I'm used to multiple combatants.'
'Don't kill them. The police can't arrest dead guys.'
'Relax, I'll just hurt them enough to make them wish I had killed them.'
Leela dashes into the air, followed close behind by Kurama. She looks back at the ground and sees Yusuke exit the tube and approach the circle of villains. 'Good, he's not missing out on the brawl.'
"I feel sorry for them," smirks Kurama.
"Which them?"
"This gang of course. They have no idea what they're in for, especially with an expert street fighter like Yusuke fighting them."
"That's why I asked him to come. He looked like he didn't get enough in the war."
Leela zips through the air, leaping across the treetops and across building roofs. She reaches New Brooklyn and sees the orphanarium from the air. She lands on the rooftop and waits for Kurama to catch up. 'It's Fiery, again.'
Leela spots the woman on the rooftop. "What are you doing here, Fiery?"
"These guys led me here. They plan to take the building and hold these children hostage."
"The gang decided to pay Hiei and I a visit. He's back at the apartments with Yusuke. They've got hostages with them too, all female." Leela spots Kurama coming closer and land on the rooftop.
"What's the plan? Hi, Fiery. Nice seeing you here."
"I say we storm the place and open fire."
"Fiery, if it was just the gang in the building, I'd say sure. However Mr. Vogel and the children are here and their lives come first."
Leela taps out an email to Mr. Vogel. "What's the meaning of waking me like this?" he protests.
"Never mind that. Grab the kids and head to the sub-basement now. Make up some excuse, like it's an invading-alien-attack drill."
"Anything else, Leela?"
"Wait until I give you the all clear signal, then call the police."
Fiery looks over at Kurama and sees him tearing strips of paper. "What's he doing?"
"Shikigami," explains Leela, "They are paper puppets with spirit attachment."
"I'm sending them in place of the children. These punks will think the kids are still asleep in their beds. When the puppets attach themselves to the hair fibers of the children, they will take the exact form and appearance of each child. I've also sent on to that guy's sleeping quarters."
"So there will be a paper puppet of Mr. Vogel. Clever plan, Kurama. Good, I'm sensing the real inhabitants are safe in the sub-basement." Leela shows a thumb to Fiery. Fiery swings herself to a nearby window and melts the bars with her fire-breath. She dashes inside, followed close behind by Leela and Kurama. Once inside, all three scatter into darkness, using the shadows as cover. Kurama finds a dead branch and creates a knife with it.
"They're here," he whispers, "First floor. I can make myself invisible. You girls, please be careful."
"I know," replies Leela, "I fought these guys myself. They are tough brutes. Fiery, are you familiar with this gang? If not, I've read their minds, so I can fill you in."
"What are they about? This is the first time I've seen this gang."
"They've got a mixer of Earthican humans and kill-bots mixed together. I know their objective is to capture the most innocent and vulnerable of victims. Their gang confronted me specifically. Their leader ordered his men to kill Hiei and snatch me. They've already got girls they've snatched. They plan to use Cookieville as their hideout and easy access to the orphans. Most of these guys are harden criminals. Their ringleader has a criminal history as long as Robot Santa's Naughty List."
"What sort of things have they done?" asks Fiery.
"Rape, pedophilia, child molestation, first-degree murder, attempted murder, forced prostitution for their women victims…that's all I got from Rocko's mind. Bennie Rocko is the main boss."
"You got all of that, Leela?" asks Fiery, "But how do you do that."
"She's a telepath. My best friend, the guy Leela's dating, is the same way."
"Not just that. I'm also getting testimonials from their dead victims. Something very disturbing with this gang is their victims don't last long. In fact the night this one girl was taken, she's telling me she was killed by this strong-muscular guy, who goes by the name Dawg Breath. He looks very much like Arbu, Kurama, but with a human face."
"Who's Arbu?"
"Dog-demon buddy of mine from my time…hush…someone's coming."
Kurama camouflages himself behind a door, as he peeks through a broken hole. Leela sneaks into the upper nursery with Fiery and both girls blend themselves into the shadows. Suddenly, Leela spots a wiry black robot stomp its way into the nursery. She watches it sneak towards a crib and grab one of the shikigami babies.
'He's taken the bait, Kurama. I'm moving in.'
Leela dashes quietly through the room and grabs the robot's arms from behind it. "What is this? What are you…?" Leela presses a button on the back of its head and retrieves its brain. She takes the cartridge and reprograms the disk with her wristband.
"What are you doing?" asks Kurama.
"I'm making him our friend. Now we'll have a robotic ally." Leela returns the rewritten disk to the robot's head.
"What just happened? It's you boss. My boss is Turonga Leela," it replies, "My name is Roto569. But you can just call me Roto."
"Was that his real name?" asks Fiery.
"No, but I renamed him. Drop the baby Roto and come with us."
"Yes, boss," obeys Roto. It returns the puppet to the crib and follows its new human comrades.
Leela, Fiery, and Kurama slink through the room, ducking in and out of shadows. Leela sneaks towards the door leading to a hallway. She sees two shadowy figures standing on opposite sides of the door. Fiery motions for Leela and Kurama to cover their own nose and mouth. Then Fiery reaches into her pocket and slips a sleeping grenade under the door. Instantly the grenade explodes, releasing the gas on the men. Fiery motions to wait until the guards are completely subdued.
Leela checks the hall again to see no other men or robots roaming, and then turns the knob slowly. Suddenly she pauses and motions her two friends to hide again.
"Roto, quiet yourself and power down," Leela whispers. The robot complies with her and shuts itself off.
"Hey dumbass, wake up!" booms a low angry voice.
"Dude, they're out cold. And that stupid robot we sent up here…can't Maxim handle a simple snatch and grab?"
"You think someone's up here. A cop…maybe?"
"You idiot, why would there be a cop here? We severed the link between here and the cops, during the chaos of that pig war. All we have here are brats. Get in there and snatch a baby."
The door slams open and a slender brown-haired man marches boldly into the room. He walks over to a crib and snatches a different baby than Roto had grabbed earlier. "Frizzy, ya gonna grab one too. That was easy."
"Yeah, good thing we silenced the owner here. Now we can have as many rugrats as possible. Rocko's going to be pleased about this."
"Ya think he's gonna make us his right-hand men?"
"Dawg owns that title and you know it."
Frizzy starts to walk to the door with the baby in his arms, when he finds his feet stuck to the floor. "What the fuck's this?"
"Frizzy, did you step in something? Did that brat ralph up his baby-food shit on your shoes?"
"No, Reggie, there's a vine of…ouch. Something's snaking itself on the floor." Frizzy is flipped backward and his whole body becomes entangled in a thorny vine. Simultaneously, his buddy suffers the same fate. Fiery tosses another gas grenade in the room, and then hustles Leela, Roto, and Kurama out of the room, closing the door quickly behind them.
"Nice work with the rope-thing," whispers Fiery.
"That was my doing. I simply created restraints from the wood grain in the floorboards," Kurama whispers back.
"Fiery, the man's great with plants," replies Leela.
"We leave babies. Where to next?" asks Roto.
"Show us where the other gang members are," instructs Leela.
"As you wish." Roto opens his chest plate and shows a black-and-white image of Mr. Vogel's office.
"Looks like Rocko's made that his home base. Show me Mr. Vogel's sleeping quarters."
The robot complies and flicks to the streaming video of his room. Leela sees two lean men and a robot firing rounds at Mr. Vogel's body. "Oh my. Why would they do this?" whispers Leela.
"Is he…he's dead?" replies Fiery in a shaky voice. "We're too late…" She covers her mouth.
"That's not him though," reassures Kurama, "That's only a puppet. They killed a paper puppet with the likeness of Vogel-sama."
"I know that was a fake, but…still…if we hadn't got here in time…" Leela starts shaking and collapses to the floor, "Mr. Vogel would have…no…who would want to end his life like that? These men have no reason, no motive. They live only to make others suffer. They have no heart, or soul. It's like…" Tears stream from Leela's eye. She jerks her head and stares into Kurama's eyes. "…They are no better than the man-eater demons we've been fighting back home."
He grabs Leela and holds her in his arms. Kurama says nothing at first, letting her cry her eye out. "You're right, this is just like at home. It's like the evil from our era found its way here. These men here were borne with the festering evil in their hearts."
"Do you think it's because the dragon was released on Kasuku's chosen date? Is my era suffering from that?"
"Hard to say. It may have, or it was lingering here for quite sometime. Maybe because of this war, these guys might have picked this opportunity to pick off victims, especially with such a bountiful selection." "Leela, maybe tonight is proving something to you. Perhaps this is the tool to test your abilities that you've been longing for. These are the sort of skills required for being a spirit detective or lieutenant. Being quick and following your instincts are traits Koenma likes in his employees, especially ones he plans to hire."
"That's what Hiei told me back in the sewers and Old New York. Tonight, I went to the edge of the abyss and asked for Hina. She came and took over my mom's body."
"You did that? Hiei hasn't had contact with his mother for most of his life. He saw her a few years ago in some poor woman's body, but…wow. You're able to go that far for his sake, to reach his mother. What else?"
"She entered my mom's body and used it to hug him."
"You did that for both of them. Telepathy is one thing, but doing something like that…"
"Was it wrong for me to do that?"
"No, there's nothing sinful or illegal about it," sighs Kurama, "It's just a rare trait. Not even I can do something like that, and I've been around for a millennium."
"Did that plant you gave me have something to do with it? It's a Spirit World plant."
"It might be, but I doubt it. Talking to the dead or coming into their world while you're alive, is such a rarity itself. You must have a trait like that in your family history. Something like that is inherited. Only about two percent of the Earth's population has abilities like what you have."
"I know my dad doesn't have that, but Mom…she was able to become a vessel for Hina's spirit. But she's not aware of that ability. I didn't know I could even do that…tonight was my first attempt."
"You're halfway correct on that. You're ability to control dreams is one aspect of that. Most humans aren't able to do that. Your subconscious…"
"Shh…" interrupts Fiery, "I hear someone coming." All three back themselves behind a dark shadow beside a wall opposite a lavatory.
Suddenly, a door between the stairs and the hallway is slammed open and a bald overweight man barrels his way into the lavatory, with his hands clamped over his mouth. Leela plugs her ears to the sound of the man spewing his guts into a toilet. Two other men follow him in.
"Ha ha, look at you. Big guy can't even hold his own liquor."
"Dude, you did that to him. He's got that weakness for deviled eggs."
"Yeah but I didn't make him drink after that. Stupid ass."
"Well whatever. We're up here anyways. I gotta whiz."
"Man, there are only kiddy pissers though."
"What'd you expect from a poor kiddy house. I gotta put my juice somewhere."
'Kurama, you think we should get 'em?' suggests Leela.
'Yeah, I'll handle Mr. Vomit. You ladies can each get the two at the urinals.'
Leela motions to Fiery for the two Kurama mentioned. Stealthfully, they each approach their victim from behind. "Shake it off good," Leela whispers into her victim's ear. Before he is able to turn to face her, she grabs the man from behind and yanks him backward to the floor. She holds his neck in her muscular arms until he succumbs to the pressure and causes him to pass out.
The second guy looks back at his buddy lying on his back with his penis exposed. He immediately catches sight of Leela. "You bitch! What did you…?" Suddenly he feels a jolt in his back and collapses head first into the urinal.
"We're not killing them?" whispers Fiery.
"That's not our job. Let the state do that. These guys are looking at life sentences and death penalties when they get arrested. For the robots, it'll be the robot asylum and magnetism-style execution."
"How long will their sentences be?" asks Kurama, as he chokes the obese man into submission. "I know your country takes its time between the sentencing part and the actual execution of the sentence. At least that's what I read from my newspaper."
"In your era, it could take ten years for a prisoner to get his due, but here the time is swift, like a week or two. The robots can be rebooted, but if their crimes are worse than their operating manuals allow, then they get magnetized."
All three humans dash out of the lavatory to the robot in the hall.
"I stood guard, boss, like you wanted. Nobody came," reports Roto.
"Good work," whispers Leela, "Let's move out to the next floor down. These guys are spread throughout the building." Fiery places another smoke grenade in the lavatory and shuts the door quickly.
"How many of those things do you have?" asks Leela.
"About three dozen. I make these specifically for a no-kill mission like this."
Kurama camouflages himself and inches his way down the stairway first. 'Leela, we've got three, no five guys walking the hallway. Looks like two of them are snorting snow.'
He catches a guy sitting at the bottom of the stairs with his hand down his pants. "Hey Toad Man, when're those biotches getting here? My dong's craving action."
"They're coming here. Just be patient."
"I can't. I want to fuck something now."
"Then grab a kid, moron. Here." Kurama watches the man leave the hallway and return with a little shikigami girl.
'They've captured a child to rape.'
'What does the kid look like?' asks Leela.
'It's a small girl with three ears.'
'That's Sally. So these guys have no shame. They'll molest children just to satisfy their own natural call.'
Fiery tries to sneak down the steps but can't help making a squeak on the stairs. The man on the stairs hears the noise and turns around. "Who's there? Show yourself."
Kurama reappears, transformed into Frizzy. "It's only me, idiot. The others are upstairs now with the rugrats."
"Where's Toby? I saw him race through here with a mouthful. Skeeter and Link are up there with him."
"Last I saw, Toby was ralphin' and I saw the other two puttin' their juice in kiddy pissers. I even joined them with my own juice."
'Great acting, Kurama,' Leela comments.
'Thanks. By the way, there are five in the hallway, eight more in the sleeping quarters, three in the boys' restroom, two in the girls', and at least fifteen robots scattered everywhere.'
'Are they all just loitering?'
'They must be waiting for those women, which are back at the apartments still. Leela, can you see what's going on there?'
Leela closes her eye and reaches Hiei's thoughts. 'How are things on your end?'
'You're missing the fun back here. These guys are nothing. Yusuke's enjoying his time. It's like a nostalgic trip for him.'
'How are the hostages?'
'Safe inside the building. Shizuru came down with Botan and rescued the girls they captured. The girls are safe in all three apartments.'
'Thank you, darling,' Leela sighs in relief.
Suddenly Leela hears a loud commotion from the front entrance. The whole floor of men becomes jolted to the boisterous noise. "Roto," Leela whispers, "please show me the camera view from the entrance."
Roto complies and displays a rolling image of a team of Porko-09 residents storming into the building. "What's this?"
"They followed me here," confesses Fiery, "After you and that guy of yours left for the sewers, I stopped off at a bar for more adult stuff. At least ten of these pig-guys were in there with me. Five of the pigs said they overheard a group of these punks while in the men's room. The pig boys reported this to their boss and I overheard the plans to take over this building. That's why I'm here now."
'So I guess this is payback for what we did for them,' Kurama thinks.
'Couldn't have asked for better help. I'll take what I can get,' smiles Leela, "They could be subtle though."
"These guys are like that," sighs Fiery, "Not the race, I mean. These boys in particular love to make their presence known."
"Leela's boyfriend's like that too," smiles Kurama, while still in character, "He's been like that for as long as I've known him."
"Hey I heard a woman's voice," announces a low angry voice.
"They've arrived you think?"
The man on the stairs turns around, only to have Leela's boot swiftly kick him in the face. Kurama quickly flashes a smokescreen, creating an instant fog for the entire floor. He sends Leela the signal to follow him through the smokes' confusion, to the staircase at the end of the hall. Fiery tosses more gas grenades throughout the floor to anesthetize the men. Leela releases a telekinetic charge with the smokescreen to disable all robots, with the exception of Roto.
"How many floors are in this place?" asks Kurama.
"Four floors minus the sub-basement. Mr. Vogel's office is right on the first floor. That's where Rocko is. I want to fight him personally."
"Rocko has moved. He's now on the second floor," reports Roto.
"The pigs must have scared him. There's another office above the first floor, as well as play area and a nurse's station. The kitchen, school, and dining areas are on the first, along with Mr. Vogel's main office," informs Leela.
Leela motions to the other two keep a low profile. "We've got the guy cornered and out numbered. Roto's picking up at least ten individuals plus Rocko and Dawg. I want to tackle Rocko."
"I'll take out Dawg," Fiery offers.
"I'll handle the ten underlings," whispers Kurama, "This time I don't want to make them pass out. I want a real fight."
"Yes, especially with the balance of power tipping in our favor. How long do the effects of those smoke bombs last?"
"It could last between six to twelve hours," informs Fiery.
"That'll buy us plenty of time. So by the time those guys upstairs wake up, they'll see jail cells instead of the inside of an orphanage. Serves them right."
"I'll go first and keep the underlings busy, while you girls handle the brutes in the upstairs office. I know Leela can handle Mr. Rocko; she fights lower B and C class demons on a daily basis. Fiery, will you be able to handle Mr. Dawg?"
"I'm excellent with hand-to-hand. I've handled guys bigger than myself," assures Fiery.
Kurama winks at the girls then saunters down the staircase, walking calmly through the hallway like he had always done. "Who are you, buddy? You're not one of us," grumbles a large muscular black man with a bushy beard, a baldhead, and a robotic eye on the right side of his face.
"I was going ask you that," Kurama replies with a yawn, "I've been trying to sleep upstairs but you guys are making it rough."
"Zeek," replies another black guy with the same appearance as the first, but with rainbow hair, "who's he? If he ain't in our group, plug him."
Kurama disappears from the two men's sights and reappears in front of the door leading to the playroom. "If you plan to shoot me, go ahead."
"With pleasure, Mac…hey my gun!" shrieks Zeek.
"Yeah mine's gone too. Gaa…motherfucker swiped them."
"You can have them back…" Kurama tosses the proton guns into the air and slices them to pieces with his whip, "Just good luck piecing them back together."
"Bastard! After him, Fletcher." Both men charge after Kurama, only to be stashed by the rosewhip. One by one, the men collapse to the floor, bleeding and in sheer pain.
"Be thankful I spared you. Your injuries are serious, but not life threatening."
"Bastard…ow," replies Fletcher in a weakened, shaky voice.
'Hall's cleared, Leela-san.'
'Thanks.' "Fiery, we're good to go."
Fiery and Leela walk quickly through the hallway, stepping cautiously over the bodies of the injured men. "Can't believe he took both these guys out?"
"You should see him kill demons stronger than these two. Sometimes he's forced to fight multiple guys at once. But that's his specialty, Fiery." Both girls peek through the door's slight opening.
Kurama walks into the room and sits casually on a giant beach ball. Immediately three guys approach him. "Hey, think we missed someone," replies a lean muscular man, with a spiky, neon-green beard, wearing torn black jeans, and a black shirt with the words 'Anti-Christ' written in screen-printed blood.
"Look at him, just sitting there," snickers a guy resembling Yusuke, but with a robotic arm on his left side and rainbow-tinted spikes in his black hair.
"I thought I heard some scumbag in the hallway. Did you come in with those pigs downstairs?" asks the third man, resembling Fry, except with a shaved head and snake tattoos all over his shirtless body.
"I have no Earthy idea what you're all talking out," Kurama replies, while picking at something in his ear with his pinky finger, "I've been here all night. The way I see it, you're the ones who are new here. I've been upstairs all night with a kid who upchucked in his bed. Then another kid ran in the room with wet pajamas, crying. So I've been busy all night with those two."
"So you work here. No matter. We killed the owner. Nothing personal. We just don't like witnesses." All three men point guns in Kurama's face.
"Oh damn it! Why doesn't he do something?" asks Fiery, "Why are you just sitting there, dumbass? Move. Fight back. I'll go in there."
"Wait, Fiery. Don't you sense what's going on? At first glance, Kurama seems to be backed into a corner. If you were to look at him versus those three brutes, then you're judgment that he's outnumbered would be right. However, Kurama is fighting these guys. Notice how relaxed he is, even with proton guns in his face. All three of these thugs are the ones all tense and anxious."
"So what does that mean? Is he psyching them out? But won't that get him further killed?"
"He bragged to us earlier about being alive for a thousand years. Kurama is an extremely bright individual. He's really a fox demon in a human body, so you're seeing what he's capable of. My guess is he's fought like this before, and not only came out on top, but he injured the enemy in the process. Psychological warfare is his favorite type of battle."
"I've read something on Japanese fox legends," recalls Fiery, "They are said to be conartists, great actors, thieves, and tricksters. They have the ability to make themselves invisible, and then transform their appearance into someone else. Usually they prefer women, which they can transform themselves into. They can even make duplicates of themselves to fool their pursuers."
"He's also got the smokescreen effect both to escape and to confuse his enemy," replies Leela.
Just then, the thug with robotic arm fires and hits the green-bearded man in the foot. "What the hell man? Baxter, you traitor."
"I c…couldn't h…help it. Some…Hey asshole! What the hell did you do to me?"
"What'd you mean?" sighs Kurama, "You're the one shot him. Don't blame me for shooting your friend."
"I'll kill you," threatens Baxter. He aims his gun again and fires it, this time shooting the bald guy in his right arm.
"Oh crap! The boss is on the move," whispers Leela.
"You see him?" asks Fiery.
"No, but, he and Dawg are heading for the sub-basement. We need to cut them off before they get there."
"Are they moving now?"
"I just read Rocko's mind. I think he knows something's wrong with his men upstairs. He's calling them but is getting no response."
"So why not up there instead?"
"Possibly because he believes our friends from Porko got there first," suggests Leela. "Fiery, how fast can you move?"
"I'm a lightning sprinter, so…"
"Good, follow me then." Leela disappears in a flash, leaving only a visual trail down the last flight of stairs. Fiery follows her with similar speed until both girls reach a small closet-looking door on the kitchen wall.
"Fiery, can you stand guard while I go inside? Those two aren't here yet." Fiery nods and Leela slips past the door.
She zips down an elevator shaft, leading to the sub-basement itself. "Hey, it's me, Mr. Vogel. Is everyone all right?"
"It's you Leela. So good to see you," Mr. Vogel replies, hugging her, "How are things going upstairs?"
"Almost done. We've secured all floors. One of my friends is battling these bad guys, as we speak."
"Mr. Vogel, I'm tired," whines Sally.
"Yeah and I have ta potty," gripes Albert, holding himself. "Me too," gripes another young voice.
"Just be patient, guys. We've got two more to beat. Shouldn't be too long."
"But I gotta pee now!" shouts Albert.
"Then go over to the open service door and go on the ground," Mr. Vogel suggests. Albert nods his head and scurries to service door, at the far end of the room, "Jessica, you follow him and sit on the ground."
"Mr. Vogel. My friend Kurama, the one who's fighting them now, he made a paper puppet of you. He had it stand in for you, but…those thugs…those soulless men…" Leela starts weeping and collapses in his arms. "Their first objective was to get rid of you. If we didn't show up…if we got here any… They killed you, Mr. Vogel."
"Leela, I had no idea. I…I don't know… Why would they do that?"
"To remove you as a witness, so they could have free access to these kids. These disgusting animals, they wanted to molest them, force them to…to…" Leela sobs as hard as she can.
"So that was their true objective. Real motive was to have sex with the kids without anyone from the outside knowing it."
"They were bringing women here as well. Their plan was to make this into a whorehouse. Then once they were done with this place, they would kill everyone, leaving no witnesses willing or able to testify against them later."
"Thanks for being here to stop them. We'll repay you and your friends first thing tomorrow."