Chapter Ten- Determined Training

~*~

Chibi Kenshin was feeling tired again. He'd managed to walk alongside his friend and trainer, Annie, and his friend Sano, and the quiet Heero for the past mile or so. However, the familiar feeling of sleepiness was returning with a vengeance.

He shook his head to himself, staring at the ground in front of him. /No. I should keep walking. Annie-dono shouldn't have to carry me so often, that she should not. No one carries her./

The Chibi glanced up at his trainer, who was at least a good two feet taller than him, if not taller; he was bad at measuring lengths. The point was that everyone else was so big compared to him.

/I never thought about it before, but I'm the smallest one here, that I am,/ he reasoned. /I know that is to be expected, as I'm the only Chibi, that I am. However, I do not want to be a burden./

His small hand strayed to the wooden sword that Annie had bought him a few days ago at the last town, and an idea began to form in his mind. Kenshin imagined himself as evolving, growing. Then he'd be the one protecting the others, not them protecting him from people who wanted to steal Chibis.

/I'd be like my father, that I would,/ he decided. /I just need to train. I haven't had a chance to at all yet, that I have not. Perhaps tonight when we stop I can begin my training.../

Chibi Kenshin suddenly stopped when he realized the others had already done so, and looked back questioningly at his trainer. "What is it, Annie-dono?" he asked.

Annie smiled at him. "I'm feeling a little tired. My feet hurt. I say we stop now and head on tomorrow. We've been making incredible time so far, considering that I'm no athlete."

Sano snorted. "Please, Missie. You gotta have some minor talent if you can punch like you do."

"Is that an actual compliment, Sanosuke? I'm shocked."

"It's a fact, not a compliment. Don't push your luck."

Annie waved a hand in dismissal. "Right. Well, let's set up camp, shall we?"

What good luck! Kenshin found himself ^_^ing broadly. This was the perfect opportunity; once camp was set up, he could train with his wooden sword for a while! Maybe if he tried hard enough, he could evolve before they reached the next town.

Annie plopped down on a bedroll she pulled out from one of those magical-seeming capsules and sighed in relief. "I'll help in a second, guys. I just need to rest my poor feet."

Sano shook his head. "Women," he muttered.

Heero merely raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hey, Heero, could you start a fire, please?" Annie asked.

"Mission accepted." The odd Bishonen started to gather wood from some nearby trees to make a fire.

/So serious all the time,/ Kenshin thought. /Should I be like that to evolve? I hope not. That'd be boring, that it would./

True to her word, Annie stood after a moment, though she heaved a pathetic sigh at Sano before helping him set out more bedrolls around the fire. "It's a good thing I got ten bedroll capsules," she said to no one in particular.

"I dunno, I think it was a mistake," Sano said. "I don't like him."

"Why?" Annie asked.

"Does it matter?"

Annie rolled her eyes. "Sano, get over it. It's cause you think he's stuck up, don't you?"

"I didn't say that..."

"Well, if that's the case, he's been trained not to open up to anyone. He may in time, but for now he's just a distant lone wolf. He'll come to us when he wants to."

At that point, Heero returned with a pile of wood. He set it out and almost instantly made a fire of it. "Mission accomplished," he said. Was it just Kenshin, or did he sound a little satisfied by it?

"Thanks, Heero. Let's relax for a while."

/Now's my chance, that it is./ "Annie-dono?"

"It's Anya, Kenshin. What is it?" Annie glanced at him.

"Can I train with my sword, that is?"

Annie blinked. "Oh jeez, I completely forgot about that. I'm sorry, Kenshin. Course you can. You know how to train yourself?"

Kenshin nodded. "I've watched my mother train others, that I have."

"Good. There's a little clearing just beyond these trees, I think." Annie sat up to peer around a few nearby trees, and nodded. "Yep. Why don't you go and knock yourself out? I'm sorry I forgot about training you, Kenshin."

The Chibi waved his arms around. "No need to apologize, Annie-dono. We have been intent on travelling, that we have. Thank you." Eagerly, he hurried into the next clearing.

~*~

"This is... harder than I... thought, that it is..." the Chibi panted fifteen minutes later.

He'd ignored the idea of a warm up entirely and gone to sword swinging, figuring that it would make him stronger, faster. However, now he was very sore. Dropping his wooden sword, he rubbed one aching arm, then the other.

"Does it always hurt like this?" he wondered.

After a few minutes, he grimaced and picked up his sword again. Carefully, he swung it again. The ache grew. He winced.

"I have more respect for sword training than I ever had before, that I do," he said to his surroundings. "But now what? I need to keep training or I'll still be a burden, that I will. But..." Then he hung his head. "I forgot to warm up, that I did. Perhaps I should do that now."

~*~

"He must be pretty intent on his training," Sano commented as he bit into a roll.

"Why do you say that?" Anya asked.

"He's been at it for a half hour. Duh, Missie."

"Don't 'duh' me, Sano. Speaking of which, don't you want to train at all?"

"The only thing I'd get accomplished out here is knock down a few innocent trees and kill off a few animals."

"Well, can't you do push-ups or curl-ups or something like that? That'd help, wouldn't it?"

Sano gave her a blank look. "The hell're those, Missie?"

Anya raised an eyebrow. "You've never heard of push-ups."

"No."

Heero snorted.

"What was that, kid?" Sano growled.

Heero glanced at him before swallowing his own food. "What was what?"

"Sano," Anya said warningly. "Heero, he's from the 1870's. Leave him alone."

Heero shrugged. "I didn't do anything. I fully intend to leave him alone." He returned to his food.

"You little," Sano began, then shook his head. "Kids," he muttered.

"Anyway, Sano, push-ups are for your upper body. You basically go on your hands and the tips of your toes and lower yourself to the ground with your arms, then push back up." Anya shrugged. "They have us do that at school in our sad excuses for PE classes."

They were silent for a while, then Sano stood up. "I'm gonna check on Kenshin," he said, and disappeared through the trees.

~*~

"What's up, Kenshin?"

The Chibi stopped, panting again, and looked up to see Sano watching him. "Hello, Uncle San," he said. "I'm just training, that I am."

"I can see that. What exactly are you doing?"

"Just swinging it."

"Have you tried to hit anything with it?"

Chibi Kenshin blinked. "But if I do that it'll hurt the sword, Uncle San!"

Sanosuke shrugged. "To tell you the truth, I used to knock trees over for training," he said.

The Chibi's eyes widened. "Truly?"

"Yeah. Not the best training though," Sano said quickly. "Here, let's do actual fighting training. You come at me and I'll try to block you. I won't attack, just block. Got it?"

Kenshin nodded. His normally wide eyes were focused on Sano now, and his grip tightened on his small wooden sword. It was obvious he was already tired, but was still willing to try to attack Sano.

Sano grinned and crouched slightly, feet apart. "Let's see what you got, kid."

The Chibi lunged at Sano, trying for a direct thrust. Sano simply knocked it aside. With a start, he realized he'd been too hard with that simple swat; the sword had flown out of the Chibi's hands onto the ground a few feet away. Kenshin rubbed his wrists staring up at Sano with an incredulous look on his face.

"Er, maybe we should tone it down a little for starters," Sano said, scratching the back of his head.

Kenshin blinked at him, then ran over to pick up his sword.

~*~

Anya sat up as Sano came into camp an hour later with an exhausted Kenshin sleeping on his back. "Is he alright?" she asked.

"Hmph. He's fine. Just worked a lot tonight." Sano shrugged the Chibi off his back onto Anya's bedroll. The Chibi, recognizing where he was somehow, immediately latched onto Anya's arm.

Anya gave Sano a look. "Thanks," she said.

"Don't mention it." He went over to rest against a nearby tree.

"What about your sleeping mat?" she asked.

"My what?"

She pointed to the mat that was still unoccupied. "They're for sleeping on, you know. Genius."

Sano shrugged. "Sure, why not." He walked over and lay down on it. "Happy?"

"I'm with three of my favorite anime characters and you ask me that? Again I wonder about you, Sanosuke."

"I was being sarcastic."

Anya smiled. "I know. But I mean it. You guys were some of my favorites to watch back home. Of course, you'd end up doing dumb things once in a while, but that added to your personalities..." she trailed off. Then she shook her head. "Sorry. Does it bother you if I talk about you being in a show?"

Sano sat up and turned his head in her direction. "Not really. It's just something a Bish gets used to after a while. Even our own folks mention it. It's the only explanation as to how more of our kind appear out of nowhere one day and claim a new territory; plus, once new people arrive, this place gets bigger."

"Bigger?"

"The planet- world, whatever- actually expands a few miles to take in the new Bishonen or Bishoujo so we wouldn't be overpopulated."

"Wow." Anya blinked. "So much for road maps."

"Nah, maps are basically the same." Sano waved an arm.

"And how do you know that? You don't exactly know how to read a map yourself, Mister I-Got-Lost-Trying-To-Get-To-Freaking-Kyoto."

Sanosuke shot her a glare, then lay down again.

Kenshin somehow wormed his way under her arm in his sleep and was now latched around her middle as opposed to her arm. Anya sighed, somewhat exasperated, but peered down at the Chibi with a small smile. Then she let her eyes close, and her mind drift to sleep...

~*~

The experimenter didn't like the new investor. This investor wasn't at all like her; this new one didn't particularly care for experiments on sentient beings. Neither did this investor really like her, for that matter. The young but rich redhead only stayed long enough each time to give her some more money before leaving quickly. The investor obviously didn't like the experimenter's ways of testing out her inventions.

No, she definitely didn't like this new investor.

But that didn't really matter. As long as she and Logan continued to give her money for research and experimenting, the experimenter couldn't really say she cared what anyone thought of her. Except for her Bishonen, perhaps, but they always supported her, even through times like these.

Not that they knew what she was doing...

She turned towards her laptop and frowned slightly, resting her fingertips lightly on the keyboard for a moment. The last experiment hadn't worked so well. Perhaps it was a matter of want? Hmm. The experimenter glanced up as one of her Bishonen walked in.

Hiei leaned against the door. "Hey, you ever comin' out of this cave? I ain't got nothing against the place, mind you, but it's time to eat."

She smiled slightly and closed her laptop. "Right, I'm coming." She stood and paused for a moment as she watched her Bishonen walked away.

Then a thought struck her.

Perhaps the experiments weren't going so well because there was no emotional connection between the species. Perhaps if she manipulated a few relationships, the experiments would get on better than they have before...

Her smile grew, as she followed her Bishonen out of the room.

Now it was just a matter of testing the theory. But first, she had to find a good specimen or two to test the theory on...