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now, because I still felt sore from the monsters and what Heiseg had done to me. Samojirou just watched. I was shaking at the end of the kata drill,and I wondered again if being here was better than Boylston Street.
    Okita was tall with long hair pulled back loosely, wearing a dark green kimono and hakama . Most of the men who were here were big and scary, like most of the Trouble Consultants at the Trust. Also, some of them looked strange to me, like the maids. It might have been because they lived in the Dreamlands and were demons like Samojirou.
    I didn’t know; I’d thought that Heiseg was insane when he wrote about this place. But I was here, and it was so different from Boylston Street.
    I was still scared, but Samojirou was being weirdly nice to me. But I also knew this place was a lot more formal. Murphy never expected me to bow to him. In fact, I knew there were a lot of times that he would have been happy if I had just faded away. He didn’t like me. But here 29

    DREAMLANDS
    there was bowing and manners I hadn’t used for years and rules I didn’t understand.
    “The boy has some talent,” Okita said. “But no stamina.”
    “I know,” Samojirou said silkily. “And now I think that a soak will do him some good.”
    I wanted one. I felt icky. I had stopped hurting for a while and now I was again. Or I was hurting in a different way because of all the exercise. I used to run up and down the corridor outside my room and the stairs for exercise, but I was very willing to admit that I didn’t get a lot.
    “Follow me,” Samojirou instructed.
    I bowed to Okita and obeyed. I felt like a puppy trailing after a boy or an accessory for the man. What besides that did he want from me?
    I washed up and settled into the tub with a sigh. I wasn’t surprised to see Samojirou join me. He acted like a man who enjoyed the nice things in life. Right now, for me, the onsen was very nice. I knew that soaking in a hot tub of water was something I could become very addicted to. Samojirou hadn’t done more than watch me, which was somewhat scary, but even naked, he didn’t seem interested in more than this. Thankfully the tub was big enough that we weren’t touching each other.
    “I think that you should train with Okita-san,” Samojirou said.
    “Along with some lessons to rectify your shocking lack of formal etiquette. More lessons to train you to be an amusing companion for me, including calligraphy, the tea ceremony, ikebana . I am certain you lack knowledge in those areas.”
    I nodded and tried not to feel like a bug. I didn’t know any of those things.
    Samojirou smiled. “I have been told that the men of today are shockingly ill-educated, grubbing after money like a merchant. Or like you, fascinated with one thing and neglecting others.” FELICITAS IVEY
    30
    I didn’t say anything. Samojirou frowned, and I felt my stomach turn over. What had I done to make him angry with me?
    “It is allowed for you to answer me,” he chided gently. “You would be a very boring companion if you did not talk to me.”
    “I will take any lessons that you choose to give me,” I said quietly. “And… and I did kind of just deal with computers in high school. Math too, but I studied the sciences more than anything else.” What did he want from me? I was his fuck toy, just like the TCs and the techs called me. He didn’t have to be nice to me. Or was he being nice now so he could be bad to me later? I didn’t know what to do, and I hated that. As bad as it was back in Boylston Street, I knew what to expect, what to do. I knew who to avoid and who wouldn’t bother me. Here I didn’t know the rules. I wasn’t too good with people to begin with; how could I understand someone who wasn’t human?
    “I think that you will enjoy them,” he said. “I fear, however, that modern science is not something that works in the Dreamlands. Now get out of the tub, dry yourself off, and stretch out on my bed.”
    “But….” Tan’yu