((Whoo! I'm back! Lol ^^))

Yusuke and Kuwabara grinned and charged into a room. "Dibs!" "DIBS!" they both yelled at the same time, then cracked up as large sweatdrops rolled down Hiei and Retsu's cheeks. Regaining his seriousness, Hiei let out a "Hn" in response to Abel's denial, and Retsu shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"What Hiei means is, those burns on your back? No human would be healing from those, even a tiny bit, this soon after the fact... Only demons heal so quickly, or half-demons," she commented, looking thoughtful.

~He doesn't smell like a demon or a half-demon, and I certainly can't sense any youki from him, though...~ Hiei pointed out telepathically, and Retsu responded with the mental equivalent of a nod and a shrug.

~Does seem odd, doesn't it...?~

"Well I'm sorry then," Abel responded, and his voice was uncharacteristically sharp in comparison to how he'd been speaking in general. "I'm neither demon nor half demon. And if I were you, I'd keep any mention of demons to yourself, and learn how to speak fluent English, if not the language of the Outer."

"The Outer?" Kurama pressed.

"The human-occupied areas of this world, stretching from Italy to approximately Hungary. It's the language of the Vatican, which is obviously Italian."

Kurama thought about that. To think that religion had so thoroughly taken over the world, after a supposed Armageddon...

"Well, I'll be sure to brush everyone up on English if I must, but I cannot guarantee that Kuwabara and Yusuke will be very open to the idea of learning a new language.

Hiei raised an eyebrow before turning and walking into one of the two rooms left. Before the door closed behind him, his voice could be heard. "I don't need any work on my English... Neither does Retsu. Focus on the idiots..."

Retsu shook her head, then looked thoughtful. "Human-occupied? Why did you specify 'human'?" she asked, forcing herself to sound polite.

I mean, what else is there, besides humans, half-demons, and demons? she thought. Well, in the living world, at least...

Abel blinked, wondering why it hadn't been Kurama, the obvious thinker of the group, who had asked that. No, it had been Miss Retsu.

"I specify human because in this world...there are Vampires. That Ifrit you saw was a Vampire wiht fire abilities. But we can discuss this more tomorrow...aren't you all tired?"

Retsu's icy purple eyes widened fractionally, and she thought, Vampires... Huh. I'm the closest thing to a vampire most of us have ever encountered...

"Interesting..." She blinked, then bowed slightly to Abel. "Thank you very much, Father," she murmured before turning to Kurama. "I'll see you in the morning?"

Kuwabara and Yusuke, meanwhile, had both already crashed on the two beds in their room, passed out. Kuwabara was snoring.

"You're welcome. Please, help yourself to the wardrobe, and have a good night. If any of you need anything, I'm going to be in the room furthest down this corridor on the right."

With a grin and a nod to each remaining person, Abel gave them his goodnight and then turned to head for his own room.

Kurama nodded to Retsu.

"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow. Hopefully we can figure this mess out relatively soon. And hopefully Koenma is putting forth some effort to help us as well."

Retsu chuckled as she headed for her door. "More like getting his ogres to put forth some effort. Sometimes I feel sorry for George and the others..." She pulled the door open and vanished within the room. "Good night, then, Kurama. Sleep well."

With that, the door softly clicked shut behind her.

"Good night, Retsu."

Kurama headed into the room with Hiei, hands leisurely sliding into his pockets. Tonight would most likely be sleepless...his mind was occupied with all of this, and rightly so. He had no problem accepting their situation. Stranger things had happened, and it was hard to surprise him, or at least visibly so.

That didn't mean it didn't weigh on his mind though.

For now, he was going to check out the wardrobe and see what he could wear. Carthage was a desert city from what little he had seen, but...did that mean Middle-Eastern style?

Well, it is the Middle-East.

Hiei might not even need to change. His clothes was well-suited to the climate, and looked as if it breathed well in heat, and resembled a custom desert attire. If anything, his two-toned, gravity defying hair would be the strangest.

Hiei was sitting in the window, as was his habit. "So. How well do you think you'll sleep tonight, fox?" he asked, glancing briefly over at the redhead. "The two idiots are already out like lights, and I doubt Retsu or I will sleep any different than usual..."

Retsu walked over to the wardrobe and pulled the door open. Reaching inside, she pulled out a draping, flowing outfit, much like desert nomads in Ningenkai would wear, along with a face veil. She shook her head and lay the outfit on one of the beds before hopping up to sit in the window like Hiei was, in the other room.

"Sleep certainly wont' come easy, of that I'm sure," Kurama replied, heading for the large armoire on one side of the room and pulling it open. Within, he found exactly what he expected. Without bothering to search for clothes in his size, he sighed, closing the doors.

"This is all very troublesome," he said simply.

Hiei snorted quietly. "No kidding... I hate to sound like I'm whining, but I really want to go home..." he muttered, slouching down in the window and getting comfortable.

In the other room, Amethyst chirped and wiggled until she could slip around Retsu's shoulder and plop down into her lap. "Hey, Amethyst..." the ice demon whispered. "What do you think of this place, huh?" The tiny dragon snorted, sounding unnervingly like Hiei, and wrinkled her snout. Retsu laughed. "Quite right, beautiful. I feel the same way so far..." she assured Amethyst.

Kurama smiled lightly.

"Trust me, Hiei. You're not the only one. And on top of that, I've got school and my family to worry about. So I can't idle around here very long."

The red-haired once-thief headed to one of the lush canopy beds and sat on it, undoing his outer jacket.

"So do you plan to sleep by the window, or what?" he taunted Hiei lighty.

***

Abel had done a fair job of hiding his pain, but the burns were actually very serious. He'd been underplaying a lot of his agony. When he was in his room however, he all but collapsed on the bed, belly-first.

"You realize the Duchess was accosted by yet another Vampire before you arrived, correct?"

The priest stiffened out of surprise, but relaxed quickly.

"No, I didn't, Tres. She seemed unshaken."

But of course Caterina would be, she was known as the Woman of Steel.

"So I'm guessing she wants you to tell me what's gone on?"

"Positive. Permission to debrief, my lord?"

"Go ahead, Tres. I'm not going anywhere."

"Hai. I haven't slept in a bed in years, Kurama. This is more comfortable for me," the fire koorime muttered, allowing his crimson eyes to slip shut.

Retsu closed her icy purple eyes, cuddling Amethyst close to her as they drifted off to sleep...

"Sleep well then, my friend."

Once divesting himself of his jacket, Kurama tossed it aside, removing his shoes and socks next. He then fell back onto the bed, arms behind his head as he glanced up into the canopy pensively.

(Skip then? If so, feel free to post in the next day.)

The morning sunlight streamed brightly through the windows, gently touching the two figures sleeping on the windowsills. Hiei's crimson eyes glittered in the light as he opened them slightly, but then he clamped them shut once more, swearing under his breath. Sighing, he hopped down from the windowsill and stretched, yawning.

Retsu also kept her eyes closed against the bright light, sliding out of the window and setting a sleepy Amethyst on the ledge.

Yusuke and Kuwabara both slept on...

Kurama had changed into some Carthaginian wear by the time Hiei and Retsu began to wake. He'd woken up early, although he'd gotten to sleep late.

And he had to admit that for clothes he really didn't want to wear, the desert attire wasn't all that bad. It was pretty roomy, actually. Kind of like Youko's clothes, plus a turban and a face veil, which of course he didn't see fit to wear unless there was a sandstorm or something.

Hiei looked over at Kurama and chuckled a little. "Looks more like what Youko wears than what you'd wear..." he commented. "I almost expect to see long silver hair, ears, and a fox tail, not that bright red mane." He took a closer look at Kurama's new flowing outfit, and made a face.

"...I don't have to wear something like that, do I?"

Retsu stretched and walked over to the bed where she had left the desert-style outfit last night, and shrugged. "Might as well get dressed, right?" she muttered, and quickly changed, wrapping the turben around her unusually-colored hair. As a final touch, she put on the face veil, effectively covering her nose and mouth and giving her a rather mysterious appearance.

Amethyst chirped and fluttered over to Retsu, landing on her right shoulder and rubbing affectionately against her cheek. Retsu chuckled and exited the room to wait for the others.

"Unfortunately, Hiei...yes. I think you can get away with just a wrap over what you normally wear," Kurama remarked. "But not black. In the sun, black is a fool color to wear, it holds heat."

He allowed a smirk to cross his features.

"As for my 'mane,' as you call it, I'd like to see you fit your hair in one of these," he jabbed, pointing to his turban. "At least it is comfortable, if not something I would usually wear."

He wondered at whether he would feel comfortable in this clothes as Youko. To be sure, it wouldn't fit him properly, Youko was a fair bit taller than his human host body.

"So then, shall we see if the others are awake? We should be ready when Father Abel shows up."

The sooner we're ready, the sooner we can get some explanations.

Hiei rolled his eyes and peeled off his black cloak and white scarf to reveal his usual attire of slightly baggy black pants, gathered above the ankle, and a ragged black tank top that revealed the bandages wrapped tightly around his right arm. Dropping the cloak and scarf on the other bed, he went over to the wardrobe and pulled out one of the pale-colored billowy cloaks. After holding it up for a moment, judging the length, he sighed quietly and pulled it on, feeling a bit stupid. "You know what, you're on," he responded to Kurama's comment about his hair. "Im pretty sure I'll have to hide my hair anyway, since it isn't exactly normal for a human..."

He pulled out and extra cloth and started wrapping it around his head and hair, muttering, "Though, with my luck, I'll just end up looking like a conehead, or something..."

Once he finished, he turned to Kurama and let a slight grin quirk his lips. "Well, how do I look? ...Retsu is already up and dressed, by the way. The idiots..." A sweatdrop rolled down the side of his face. "...Are still out cold..."

"It's not a total loss," Kurama commented. "The turban weighed down your hair, so it's not as...tall."

Which actually meant that Hiei was a few inches shorter. But this was one fox who wouldn't be caught dead phrasing it that way.

Upon hearing Hiei's report, he chuckled.

"Ah, we're going to have to wake them up then...I'm not sure I want to be caught unprepared here."

Hiei chuckled slightly as he headed over towards the door. "How about we just have Retsu dump some ice on them? That should work..." he commented, and opened the door. Stepping outside, he saw Retsu waiting for them, and raised an eyebrow slightly. "Nice veil..." Retsu chuckled. "Nice turban," she teased with a grin.

"Honestly, Hiei. We can have a bit more tact than that, can't we?" Kurama questioned, smiling despite himself. "Let's just give them a bit of a push in the right direction. Ice seems a bit much."

Hiei sighed. "But it would be funny..." he commented, and Retsu tried to suppress her laughter. She snorted. "How about we try Kurama's idea first, then if it doesn't work, you can watch me dump ice on their heads?" she asked Hiei.

Hiei sighed once more. "Fine..."