**Hello readers! The story is getting very long, and I hope it doesn't seem like it drags on. I am really enjoying the writing, and I hope it shows. If you like or dislike anything, feel free to let me know.

Enjoy Chapter 57! :)**

Chapter 57: Meanwhile...

Hiro had been working very hard on her training.

She had to learn the difference between brute force, and when her palm striking actually did what she wanted it to.

She could decimate objects anyway, so sometimes it was hard to tell whether the palm strike or her own strength brutalized a tree.

She had also been very sad lately, and had a hard time moving away from her bed in the morning's. Eiji always helped to drag hear out when she needed it.

Today she had been purposely avoiding training.

Things had been stirring in her mind today, and she just wanted to sleep. Knowing she couldn't do that, she at least wanted to skip something. Even if she had to run around avoiding everyone to do it. Movement right?

Eiji had almost found her several times.

Her parents knew she was awake, because she had breakfast with them. Once Eiji started asking them where she was, and that she'd been late for training.

They immediately caught on to her game, and said she's most likely trying to skip.

This only made Eiji amused, and more determined to find her.

She had been brushing up some stealth skills, and had stayed inside of the Warrior's.

She smiled to herself.

"The one place that Eiji won't check."

The Attic.

She heard the him of an elevator going up.

She froze.

She had to find somewhere to hide. Now.

She looked up, and saw a vent.

She gave a mischievous grin.

"That could work."

...

Eiji was with Max, looking for Hiro.

He can't believe he'd never considered the Attic.

He smiled. Hiro couldn't hide from him now.

"She's moved up." Said Max.

Eiji gaped. "Up!? But how!?"

Max shivered.

"But the SPIDERS! NOT TASTEY!"

Eiji froze.

The elevator opened, and he stepped out with Max.

"These spiders wouldn't happen to be small and black, would they?"

Eiji remembered a story Kamachi had told him. When his form had been changed into a hideous monster, and his soot balls had been turned into the most gruesome of spiders. He had locked them away before he had changed, and even he admitted he should have found a way to destroy them.

Max looked up. "There... They harbor their fangs of hatred. Many years they wait, and tainted venom slowly drips..."

Eiji didn't like the sound of that.

"I'm going up there to find her." He said.

"Follow me up if you can."

Max elongated his form into that of a snake's.

They entered the vents, and started looking for Hiro.

...

Hiro moved about the Warrior's through the vents. She stopped over the Altar room, where karo and Shisuta were talking.

"I still have those dreams of him..." Said Shisuta.

"I don't know why, but I think he's getting angry. I haven't taken a soul since Karin, and I don't think he likes that."

Karo looked down nervously.

"Do you think that he'd hurt you?"

Shisuta sighed. "I don't know. I hope Kahn makes up his mind soon on the siege... That might appease Sasageru's appetite."

Karo smirked. "Well, let Sasageru have his appetite."

He leaned in, and began nipping at her ear.

"And I'll have mine..." He said softly.

Hiro moved on before she could witness such an atrocity. She had to hold back a gag...

Karo was such a horny cheese ball!

She moved through, and noticed how dark the vents were getting...

She felt it drop, as she slid down to an outer vent.

She knew it was outside, because she felt the temperature drop. It was still cold, even though it had stopped snowing.

She heard a curious noise at this dead end she was at. She tried to listen in, but couldn't make out the noise.

She kicked in the vent, and felt...

Spiders. They were crawling all over her.

She let out a horrible scream, kicking out the bottom of the vent, and falling into the water.

Lucky for her, none of the spiders had bitten her, and the one's on her died in the water.

The bad news? The water was very cold, and partially frozen.

She saw Eiji and Max knock a hole on top of the vent, and Max was getting the spiders off of Eiji.

She tried desperately to swim to somewhere dry, but her limbs were becoming stiff, and hard to move. Her body temperature was dropping, and she felt herself start to sink.

She tried to cry out for help as Eiji searched the area for her.

She couldn't manage loud noises, and when she tried to scream, she sometimes sank a little further, choking on the frigid water.

Eiji saw her, and shot out his threads, pulling her out of the water.

He picked her up, and ran with Max. There were hundreds of tranchula sized spiders hot on their tracks.

...

Eiji didn't get bit. Well, maybe. He was pretty sure anyway.

Hiro's body temperature was still dangerously low, and she wouldn't last long if she didn't get help soon.

He reached the end of the vent, and climbed onto the ladder. He couldn't move down because the spiders were crawling up in his direction. He moved up the ladder, and held onto Hiro.

The ladder was normally sturdy, but it was very old, and had been let to rust.

His foothold broke, sending him closer to the spiders.

They started crawling up his leg, and he shook them off, reaching up, and regaining a foothold above them. He felt it bend, and saw a very likely unsturdy pipe.

His foothold was going to break, spiders were nearing, and Hiro had stopped shivering, but looked worse.

That pipe would break, but on the other side was a window that might lead to safety.

He jumped off of the ladder, and onto the pipe. It broke half way there, and spiders shot their webs on him.

He used his own threads to cling onto the edge of the window. It was one floor up from the office.

The spiders were crawling from the webs, and Eiji was running out of time.

He pulled both Hiro and himself up to the window's shaky ledge, disconnecting the webs.

The spiders stopped, as if they didn't want to move any further.

Max had also stopped.

"Max! Come on!"

Eiji yelled.

"Give me Hiro! What you do from here is your business!" Max yelled.

Eiji looked at Hiro.

"She needs to be inside NOW. She's freezing to death, and you're knee deep in tainted spiders!" Eiji yelled.

"Give HER TO ME!" Max snarled.

"NO! That's CRAZY!" Eiji yelled angrily.

"I'm taking her inside!"

He busted open the window, and sealed it shut when he got inside.

He had found some blankets in a very off looking room... It looked like a child had lived here once.

It was a completely different office, but he had never seen it.

He had removed Hiro's wet clothes, and wrapped her in these blankets, lighting the fireplace.

He blushed softly.

"I hope she doesn't think that I peeked or anything." He mumbled.

He didn't. He just knew that the wet clothing would keep her cold.

She was still breathing, and he hoped she would warm up soon...

He went into the room to get more blankets. It kind of creeped him out, because half of the lights were broken, and the room looked torn to shreds. Even if it were restored, Eiji would have still been creeped out by it. It looked like an overly decorated insane asylum.

Eiji froze when he heard the growling.

It sounded almost bird like, with a hint of something more beast like, and very dark.

"No tainted should be here..."

Eiji assured himself.

"Mom had destroyed them when she died..."

Then again, what about her eye's in the chamber room...?

They were tainted.

If she's still a demi blood...

Oh no...

Eiji turned around slowly as he felt the breeze of flapping wings behind him.

He saw the most fearsome creature to ever have existed.

He let out a horrified scream, and shot out his threads.