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Standard disclaimer. The characters belong to their creators, Monsieur Togashi, Walt Disney, Andrews, and anyone who had a legitimate claim on them.

I know the Little Mermaid theme had been played out till it was in tatters, but I hope this is something less-typical than others. Of course, I could very well be wrong. What do you think?

Moondance

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Once upon a time, when fish were fish, dolphins were dolphins, seahorses were little horses that pulled chariots under the sea, there was a merman named Hiei. No, he was not the princess in that stupid fairytale which got everything mixed up. The correct version was that when the mermaid princess threw herself into the water, she turned into highly adaptable bubbles that could change into any form that she wished. Yes, rather like the liquid quicksilver character in that very famous action movie which I never saw. The old witch bungled up her spells again, the now immortal princess thought. With her newly gained powers, she went back to the kingdom, killed the human princess, then changed herself into the shape of that usurping princess, and killed that faithless prince who was by then king. As the king had no child, his brother inherited the throne, who was secretly in love with the mermaid princess, but because of the narrow-mindedness of that author we never saw him appear. When the mermaid princess reverted back into her human form and presented herself to the court, the new king asked for her hand at once, to which she agreed heartily. A year later, she gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Hiei, but because she mated with a male of another specie, the child was born of an entirely opposite element, yeah, you got it, fire! The queen did not mind, and the king did not know, but when Hiei was born, he burnt down half of the palace with his birth-cry ki. Therefore, in order to avert future disasters, Hiei was given to the queen's best friend, Sebastian, who threw him into the sea, back to his grandparents. So here we are back at the beginning of our story, a merman named Hiei.

Unfortunately, when Hiei was thrown into the sea, the current was going the wrong way, so instead of going back to his grandparents, he drifted into a lair of youaki bandits. You cannot trust a lobster to do things right. Because Hiei was a mutant, he did not have the traditional fins but feet instead, yet there was a drop or two mermaid blood in him, so he was able to breathe in water freely. I would say he got the best of two worlds. Born with a strong instinct of survival, this baby of 5 hours was already more powerful than most of the youkais, gnomes, elves, fairies, pixies, merpeople, sirens, unicorns, dragons, chimeras, sphinx, and anything else you can think of. But I digress. Anyway, the most powerful thought on a baby’s mind was hunger, and Hiei was no exception. No, he did not need to be warmed, and who needed a diaper when one was bobbling in the sea? Therefore, when the sudden cluster of ki from under the sea attracted his attention, he dived down to check out what were the yummies, and discovered the bandits.

When Hiei descended into their lair, the bandits were sitting in a circle debating what to eat today. They were heartily sick of sea food, and you would be too if you had sea food every meal in every day for every hundred years of your life. When the tiny Hiei drifted down among them, everyone, including Hiei, had the same thought on his mind: Food!

The apparent leader started drooling. "Boys, this is a Heaven-sent plat du jour(today's special)." Swallowing heavily, he reached out a bulky finger and poked at Hiei's round little bottom. (Yeah, as if you don't want to do that as well!) "Nice and...What!!!"

The leader's finger started smoking. Soon, his body was bathed in a sheath of black Makai flames, and the delicious smell of barbecue chops began to fill the lair. Question time. Q1. How did Hiei know what is Makai fire? Ans. Because he is Hiei. Q2. How did Hiei have so much power when he was only 5 hours old? Ans. Because he is Hiei. Q.E.D.

While Hiei was concentrating on maintaining the juiciness of his chops, the other bandits were busy fainting and screaming at the top of their voices. Then a deep voice cut through the havoc. "Dinner is done."

When others were still frozen in shock, Hiei pointed at a fellow's katana, who gave a yelp and tore off the sword belt so hard that the leather strap snapped. Hiei gave a curt nod, then pointed at the chunk of thigh that he wanted. In a flash, the katana’s owner cut off the indicated piece of meat, and handed it to Hiei respectively. In silence, Hiei munched his first piece of food, youkai flesh. A now-6-hours-old infant could not eat much, so Hiei’s hunger was sated after the initial piece. He looked around. Every youkai, despite their growling stomachs, dared not to disturb the quietness their new leader imposed. Satisfied with their obedience, he stood up. Everyone stood up as well. "Sit. Eat." Issuing two brisk commands, Hiei went out of the cave, and left the youkais to their devices.

[The phone rang. A call-in. I picked up the phone. "Hello?"]

["There's a bug in your story. How could it be a cave when Hiei 'floated' into it?"]

["Because there's a chimney. Next time, figure it out yourself." I hung up. On with the story.]

Outside the cave, Hiei sat on a flat piece of coral, considering his situation. He had a place to live, food source, power, and underlings. Was there anything he missed? Ah, yes, clothing. That's right, little Hiei is still wearing his very first suit! What? The wards? The waves tore them off, of course, do not be silly. Now the coral's prickly surface reminded Hiei's tender bottom of this urgency, so he set off searching for clothing. As everyone knew, it was extremely hard to find clothes under the sea, which was why mermaids only used two 'small' shells, and mermen nothing. However, it was Hiei's lucky day. Not far from the bandits' lair, there was a black forest of broad-leaf sea weeds. Out of a leaf, Hiei created his first cloak.

Since things were going along very well, a passing-by shark decided to have little Hiei as a snack. [Dun-de dun-de dun-de dun-de.(theme from the Jaws)] Jaws wide, the shark was on the verge of swallowing little Hiei when an innocent swordfish passed by. With a wrench, Hiei torn of the fish’s sword, and skewered the shark right in the middle. This is how Hiei got his first katana and his first taste of sashimi.