Chapter Thirty-six- Darkness

~*~

"Sano."

Said Bishonen blinked and turned around in his seat, looking for the source of the voice. "Uh, hello?"

"What is it, Sano no da?" Chichiri asked.

"I thought I heard someone say my name..."

"It's hard to hear anything in this crowd! You must have just been hearing things no da."

"Probably..." Sanosuke stretched his arms over his head and yawned. "Damn, when's Anya coming back anyway? Probably got lost or somethin'..."

"Or that friend of hers is scaring more poor Bishonen and our trainer's trying to save them!" Chichiri mused.

Sano shuddered. "Please don't remind me of Abby. Saying her name may return her."

"Perhaps so, but then our trainer may return with her ne?" Kenshin said quietly. His voice was so soft and low that it was almost impossible to hear over the crowd surrounding the Bishonen, yet Sano managed to catch it.

"And we have Jacky to protect us too, I guess," Sano said, nodding to said trainer.

She sat a few seats away, with her Inuyasha group of Bishies. Her Miroku, Lech, was tied to his chair as he had attempted to "meet" other women one too many times that day. Shippy was perched on Jacky's lap, waving a little banner that said "Win!" on it. Inuyasha sat there, looking grumpy while Jacky played with his ears.

"Sano!"

"Eh?"

"I heard it that time, no da."

"Shut up," Sano muttered absently, looking around.

"Sanosuke, why don't you try using your brain as well as your ears to figure out where I am?"

"Huh?" The Bishonen turned around to see a very familiar Hiei sitting behind him, smirking. "YOU!"

"Da! It's that Hiei that attacked you!" Chichiri said. He grabbed his staff and stood to face the demon.

"How smart of you. Can you figure this out too?" Hiei made a nasty face, blew a raspberry at them, and turned to race into the inside hallways of the stadium.

"Why you little-!" Sano leaped out and over his seat in pursuit.

"Wait up no da!"

Kenshin stood up and followed after Chichiri, unsheathing his sword.

Jacky, meanwhile, merely glanced up at the four Bishonen leaving and mused, "I wonder what's going on. Sano looked kinda mad."

Inuyasha, who had given up on pulling his ears away from her, had fallen asleep for a few minutes. When Jacky spoke, however, he woke. "Sano? Huh?" He glanced around. "Feh." And with that, he went back to sleep.

~*~

The three Bishonen raced after the Hiei down and through several known and unknown hallways, sometimes pausing to peek into any open doors they saw on the way. After a mere few minutes of this, they were hopelessly lost in the maze of the gym-turned-stadium.

That, however, didn't deter Sano from looking for Hiei.

"Where are you, you little smart-ass!?" Sano yelled down the hall.

"Not so loud," Chichiri began to warn.

"Shut up. I don't need your advice, monk! Where are you, Hiei! Come out and fight!"

Said Bishonen popped his head out of a nearby door and gave a little wave and a smirk. "Why don't you all come in here and talk to me?"

"With pleasure you little $%&#..." Sano cracked his knuckles and marched on in.

"Wait!" Chichiri and Kenshin followed suit, as Sano had begun to close the door behind himself.

The three Bishonen paused for a minute, staring at Hiei.

Then,

"...A storage closet?" Sano asked.

"You get what you deserve," Hiei said. He then grabbed hold of Chichiri and Kenshin. "See you later, friend."

"What the-?!"

Before Sanosuke could say anything, his two fellow Bishies and the Hiei were gone.

"Where did you go?! Damn it, Hiei, where are you? Where did you take 'em? I swear to Kami I'll kill you!"

Sano turned to a nearby wall and punched it, breaking clean through the wood and making a bucket topple from its high perch on a shelf onto his head. Growling, he pulled his arm back through, shoved the bucket off and turned to the door, which had closed during the short time he'd been in there.

The door was locked.

"What the hell?"

~*~

Hiei smirked from the other side of the door as he pocketed the janitor's key to the storage room. "Have a nice stay." He looked around, wrapping a familiar blue cloak with a pattern of white bubbles on it around his shoulders. "Now, to find Anya and her last Bishonen... should be nearby..."

With that, he walked off, and Sano was the only person in the entire hallway, his pounding on the door and his shouts of rage muffled by wall insulation and the thick, locked door.

~*~

Bryanna paused and turned to look behind her, frowning slightly at where she'd just walked a moment ago.

Lina, who was walking beside her, paused as well. "What's up?"

"...I just got a serious case of the creeps."

"About what?"

"I don't know. I'm just thinking that maybe I shouldn't have just left everyone like that. I mean, I haven't had anyone come after me since I left that group. What if... What if that ***** Kara just went and captured everyone else and I was lucky and got away?"

"Um... then lucky you?"

"I'd just feel really guilty about it, that's all."

"You could just fly back and check it out," Yami offered. He'd been listening from up ahead, and was now turning to smile at his trainer. "I'm sure you could manage to get Vegeta to take you there. Somehow."

"Yeah, no food for a day. That'll shut him up for anything," Lina said, stretching her arms over her head.

"You too," Yami said.

Bakura, meanwhile, was still stroking his flamethrower and pouting, mumbling about how unfair it was to keep him from using it on all the pretty wilderness about them.

"Me? No, never!" Lina declared. "Food's just... nice. And good. And... well, how about that? I'm feeling hungry! Let's stop for lunch!"

Yami face-faulted.

"I think you're right, Lina," Bryanna said. "Just to feel better about this whole thing... Vegeta, come out!"

In a flash, said Bishonen appeared and crossed his arms. "What do you want, woman?"

"Can you fly me back to Treah City, Vegeta? I need to check something out there."

"And waste my time with you?"

"Oh, please. It'd take an hour at most for you to get me there if you fly at a rate I could handle."

He snorted. "I don't do 20 mph."

She hit him on the head. "Do it or I won't feed you."

He glared at her now. "That's pushing it."

"That's too bad. Take me, Vegeta, and I won't bother you again for a while, okay? I'll even try my best to find a Goku for you to beat up when we leave. Deal?"

"...Add in one of those green Nameks and you have a deal."

"Okay! Yami, Bakura, Lina, time to return to your Bish-balls for now! Let's go!"

~*~

Anya frowned, puzzled. "Where did everybody go?"

The seats she'd saved for herself and her Bishies were now empty. The only evidence that anyone had been there was an empty candy wrapper.

"I wonder where they are?" She sat down on one of the seats, peering around as she set Chichiri's hat in her lap.

"Bathroom?" Thatz suggested.

"Did I take too long getting back Chiri's hat?" she mused. "Did they go off to find me? Considering what's been going on I wouldn't be surprised. But still, they could have left a note here in case I came back or something- wait." She stood up, putting Chiri's hat on her own head. "Jacky!"

Said trainer looked up. "Oh, hi Anya. Got Chiri's hat, I see. Um... where did Abby go?"

"I really don't know. I think she was chasing her new Bishonen around, last time I saw."

"A new Bishonen?"

"A Dee."

"Never heard of him..." Jacky then caught sight of Thatz. "... Oh! You have a Thatz?! He's from Dragon Knights, right? That's so cool, yet so weird. I mean, you don't expect non-captured Bishies to be hanging out around here. Then again, this gym IS on the outskirts of the city..."

Anya glanced around. "Yeah, uh-huh. Um, where'd everybody go?"

"Sano led them outta here a few minutes ago. He looked kinda mad about something."

"Great, then he WAS going after me. I should go look for them, they'll probably be hanging around Demoonica's stand or something."

"Hn," Heero commented.

"So what now? We lookin' for your other Bishies?" Thatz asked, scratching his head. "Man, and I thought we were gonna order some popcorn or somethin' for the matches today..."

"Not yet, Thatz. I promise when we get everybody back here we'll get you some popcorn, okay?"

"Uh, sure, deal. Let's go then!"

Anya turned right around and marched back into the hallways.

"Everybody's moving around so much today," Jacky's Miroku said.

"Yeah, really," Shippy agreed. "Ah well, good exercise for them!" With a ^_^, he continued watching the match.

"True," Jacky said. However, she couldn't help but feel a little worried about what may be going on.

~*~

Tara's Heero watched the Sama-stage (a.k.a. the 17- year- old version) of Chiriko carefully. As he couldn't use his gun in this battle, his hands were ready to prepare any defense the other could have.

Though still short for his age, the Chiriko was very lean and wiry, able to dodge quite a number of attacks; it was obvious the trainer had worked with him on fighting more than intellectual conversation (which Chirikos were known to prefer). Actually, such intense physical training was all that was keeping the Heero from winning the match hands down.

Chiriko's trainer, Yuriko, was jumping up and down and screaming encouragement to her Bishonen. A Yue, looking a tad put out, stood by her side, though his wings weren't in sight.

"Come on, Chiriko, you can win this! You're doing great!"

Tara pulled out a Mic of her own and yelled, "Heero Yuy, if you mess up this battle you will NOT be allowed to touch ice cream for a week!"

Immediately the entire crowd sweat-dropped, and some trainers were noted to face-fault at this statement.

Heero paused in his battling to blink at her. Chiriko seemed to think this let Heero's guard down, and hurtled at him. Without bothering to look, the Gundam Wing Bishonen flipped the other Bishie over his shoulder and sent him flying right into the ground.

"Riko-chan!" Yuriko cried. "Get up, get up!"

Said Riko-chan, however, was busy @_@ing and was unable to get up without merely falling over again.

"We have a winner!" LSS announced. "The match goes to Tara! Great job you two!"

The crowd cheered.

"Now, guess what we have in store for all of our viewers?" LSS paused for a moment, then announced, "That was the last of the first round battles! Round two is coming up, with two on two Bishie battles!"

The stadium roared in approval of this declaration.

~*~

Somewhere, still in the locked closet, Sano was knocking down the door and also roaring, though in pain and anger instead of approval.

~*~

"Anya?"

The trainer blinked and looked behind her. "Uh... can I help you?" she asked uncertainly.

Hiei came out and nodded. "Yes. As you may recall, I'm Kimiko's Hiei." He crossed his arms and leaned against a nearby wall.

"Okay..."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Hn..."

Thatz ^_^ed. "Kimiko eh? Another of your friends? A trainer, I take it? So how rich is she? How much money do WE have, by the way? Can I carry the money for you?"

Hiei gave the thief a look, which momentarily silenced him. "I have something to talk to you about; if you don't mind, it's personal and about Kimiko. I'd rather not have your Bishonen hear it."

"Uh..." Anya blinked.

"Request denied," Heero said coolly.

Hiei raised an eyebrow. "I see. And why would that be... friend?"

Anya frowned. "Heero? What's up?"

"Humans. You do think we all look alike," Heero snorted. "This one is an imposter. His eyes are a different color."

"What?!" Anya turned to look more closely at the Hiei, and realized it was true. Kimiko's Hiei, while otherwise looking like any other Bishie, had unnaturally bright eyes. This Hiei had duller ones, older ones.

"Very good, Yuy. I believe any Wufei friends you've had would be proud of you," Hiei said. Then he disappeared.

"Eh?! What the- What's the big idea?" Anya demanded.

Thatz unsheathed his sword. "Earth..."

"No, you can't summon Earth here!" Anya said to him. "That Dragon would destroy half the building just by appearing!"

With a small pout, her Bishonen obeyed. "Fine..."

Heero moved to stand in front of Anya, eyes alert as he pulled out his gun. Anya's eyes widened as she heard the gun make a clicking noise she hadn't heard before; it was loaded and was ready to use.

/For my protection... I did NOT want to.../ "Wait, you're not only another Hiei, you're the one that attacked Sano that one time!"

"Yes. Well, now it's twice, but you are correct nonetheless."

"Twice?! Where is he?"

"He's hanging out in the local janitor's room. I think he's taken an interest to... cleaning!"

Anya felt someone hit her in the back of her head. As she fell to the ground, she could hear Heero's gun going off once, twice, three times. She could also hear Thatz calling for Earth to appear anyway. Then she felt a pair of arms wrap around her before everything went black.