e--to = ummm

Re: 'How much do you want' and why Hiei is not being a bad boy.
MJ: The salesgirl is using 'kids' talk' to speak to Hiei. You talk to kids the way they talk themselves, basically. So to a kid you say 'how many hoshii?' (hoshii = do you want). Kids are allowed to use hoshii all the time, where for adults the word is nearly taboo. With an adult customer she'd say 'how many ii?' (ii = are good). This is the indirect and polite way of asking a very dangerous question in Japan, where implying that you actually want something puts other people into difficulties. Thus you never use 'hoshii' about something you want yourself, and if you're talking about someone else's wants you use the form 'seems to hoshii' to keep it distanced.

If the salesgirl had said 'How many ii?' Hiei-chan might have understood it as meaning 'how many are good from Kurama's POV?' But because she says 'hoshii' she seems to be asking his personal feelings in the matter, and he answers accordingly.