Dream with Our Eyes Open

Chikei is a cheery young slimeball in ancient China who gets buy by petty theft, low-level con games, and, when all else fails, by stealing offerings of food left to propitiate demons. One day he captures a creepily cute little flying critter, thereby attracting the attention of its master/companion, a strange boy named Qwan. Qwan looks fairly normal except for his fair hair and the odd marks on his forehead, but as Chikei soon discovers, this is no ordinary lad. Qwan doesn't eat regular food, because his sustenance is demons. Watching Qwan slurp up a demon is quite a sight. First he politely thanks the gods for the meal, and then he just inhales, like a kid with a long strand of spaghetti. The demons just sort of unravel and run together, like chalk drawings in the rain, and Qwan sucks them up. A second later, there's no demon to be seen. Later on, we discover that Qwan can also use the energy he derives this way to heal himself from grave wounds.

Chikei quickly decides that there's money to be made in traveling with Qwan, and they hit the road. Chikei intends to search out places reputed to haunted by demons and take payment in exchange for having Qwan remove them. However, they quickly run into a strange little girl and her oddly threatening father, who seem to be running the same sort of business. From there, Qwan and Chikei soon find themselves enmeshed in national and celestial politics, and end up traveling between worlds and through time on a quest to find out who Qwan really is.

This whimsical series is beautifully drawn, in a style strangely reminiscent of some of the great Victorian/Edwardian children's books (E. Nesbit's fantasies come to mind). But it's also rather aggravating. Story lines and characters are dropped without warning, and two-thirds of the way through volume 4, we're suddenly reading about legendary Chinese politicians ... what's happening to Qwan, Shimizu-sensei? But it's so intriguing that I'll be grabbing volume 5 as soon as it becomes available.