Chapter Six- The First Battle

~*~

"Annie-dono, can we stop for a while? I'm getting thirsty, that I am."

Anya slowed down and sighed. "Kenshin, it's Anya. You don't have to call me a miss, just Anya, OK? And for another thing... sure, why not. I'm thirsty too. Sano, you want something to drink?"

Sano raised an eyebrow. "You still have food in there? What did you do, steal all of it?"

Anya smiled. "New trainers get anything and everything they want and or need on their first day in the Bishonen world. I got all this on the first day and stuffed it all into these refrigerator capsules and storage things. So of course I still got food and drink. You want water, Kenshin, or soda...?"

"I'd like some more of that... soda, Annie-dono," the Chibi replied with a little ^_^.

Again, Anya sighed. She still couldn't break Kenshin of either calling her miss or calling her Annie. Oh well, at least she got him hooked on soda. Though she wasn't exactly sure sometimes if a sugar-happy Kenshin was the best thing to have to deal with in the middle of the night... she'd spent half of last night trying to get him to sleep. Sano had threatened to punch both their lights out if they didn't shut up, but that had only encouraged the Chibi addition to their party. Finally, the sugar high had worn off and he'd just keeled over.

The three stopped and Anya slipped off her backpack to take a look through her storage capsules. "Let's see, sodas... did you say you wanted something, Sano?"

"Just water. That soda stuff is weird," Sano replied.

Anya rolled her eyes. "Ever the traditionalist, aren't you?" she asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You hate trains, huge boats, and soda. I mean, c'mon, if it can't hurt a Chibi Kenshin, how can it hurt you?" Anya pointed out with a grin.

"...Shut up. They ARE possessed with ghosts," Sano muttered.

Anya shrugged. "Suit yourself." She pulled out her capsule of sodas and got one for herself and one for her Chibi, then got a bottled water for Sano. She tossed that to the Bishonen, who caught it and took a big gulp before stretching a little. She handed the soda to Kenshin a little more calmly. His eyes lit up in delight as he took a sip from it.

"I still cannot believe how good this tastes," the Chibi exclaimed. "Why didn't my parents have anything like this?"

Sano snorted. "Because we are living in the beginning of the Meiji Era, and she is from... whatever year she's from."

Anya blinked. "It must be kind of confusing to say something like that. I mean, this world is so weird."

Sano shrugged. "You get used to it."

"True," she agreed, and took a gulp of her drink. "Ahh..."

"Hey, who's out there?" called a girl's voice. "I hear people talking! And I know you aren't a Bishonen!"

Anya raised an eyebrow. "I'm human, alright, what about you?" she called back.

"I'm human- ow!- damn bushes... Can I see you?"

Anya rolled her eyes. "If you have sight, sure. Come on in, we're taking a break."

There was a pause, then a curious, "We?"

Then Anya heard a few crashing noises, and a young woman blundered through a nearby bush to where the three were standing around. The young woman was obviously human, her hair short, black, and her eyes a wide, startled blue. Anya wondered if she always had that look on her face or if this was a special occasion. But also, she wore the trainer's belt around her waist.

The girl stopped and stared. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?!"

Anya shrugged. "What do you think you're seeing?" she asked.

"A Chibi! You captured a Chibi?"

"You could say that. These are my Bishonen. The Chibi is Kenshin. That's Sano," she added, pointing at the grown Bishonen.

"Hi!" the young girl said cheerfully. "I'm Lisa! You new here?"

Anya nodded. "How do you now?" she asked.

"Just guessing. Older people here have like ten Bishies. Or do you have more?" Lisa glanced at Anya's belt.

"Nah, these are my first and only two. How about you?"

Lisa's startled-looking eyes filled with stars. "Oh, I just caught my favorite Bishonen the other day! He is so cute! You heard of the game Arc the Lad?"

Anya nodded enthusiastically.

"I caught Arc!" Lisa announced. "The only thing is he tends to be moody sometimes. I'm looking for a.. um, what was the purple-haired girl's name? Oh yeah, Kukuru, I think. Anyway, I'm looking for her since they had implied romance in the game, so..." She shrugged. "Anyway, I also caught Tidus! What's the luck in that?"

"Tidus...? Oh yeah, that guy in FF10!" Anya said. "I know who you're talking about! Blonde, spontaneous, right?"

"Yeah. Isn't he just so cool?"

Sano snorted. "I hate to interrupt this girl talk and all," he said with sarcasm.

Anya turned. "Well excuse me for wanting to talk to someone!" she said. "What do you want, Sano?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I wanna know where the hell you caught those two Bishonen," he said to Lisa.

Lisa shrugged. "A couple weeks ago," she said uncertainly. "I caught Tidus near a city maybe ten days ago, um... Tsurt City, I believe."

Sano relaxed. "Good. And Arc?"

"Three days ago. Why do you want to know, anyway?" Lisa asked. "I mean, why should it matter?"

Sano turned away. "I don't have to answer that."

"Hey, be nice!" Anya said to him and hit him lightly on the shoulder- it was hard to reach his head. "It probably has to do with what he and Kenshin were talking about the other day," she said thoughtfully, half to herself and half to the girl. "But still, you could be a little nicer than that!" she scolded Sano.

Lisa laughed. "That's OK. He doesn't have to answer it, he's right. I was just a little curious. Say," she said suddenly, an odd gleam in her eye. "You wouldn't happen to want to battle, would you?"

"Huh?" Anya asked.

"You know, battle our Bishies?" Lisa suggested. "That would be so cool! We'd have to do one on one, though, so we wouldn't hurt your Chibi," she added, giving Kenshin a look of pure adoration.

Chibi Kenshin looked mildly confused. "A battle, that is? Why do you want to battle? Is something wrong?" he asked.

"No, no," Lisa said. "It's just a thing trainers do so their Bishonen get strong."

"Oh. Can I fight then?" Kenshin asked.

Anya sighed. "No, Kenshin. You still have to train with Sanosuke until you're a little bit stronger. Your parents would kill me if they heard I let you battle anyone who was a San or Sama."

Lisa looked puzzled. "Wouldn't they kill you anyway if you stole a Chibi?"

"I didn't steal him, he followed me," Anya retorted. "And sure, I'd love to try a battle. What do you say, Sanosuke? You've been trying to pick a fight with me the past day!"

"I have not," Sano answered sullenly.

"Have too," she answered. "So what do you say?"

The Bishonen considered it. "Well... I am a little bored just wandering around..."

"Come on," she wheedled.

"Fine, fine, I consent to fight." Sano turned to Lisa. "Who'm I battling?" he asked, cracking his knuckles in anticipation.

Anya grinned. He had that odd gleam in his eyes that she remembered from the anime, the look that gave away the fact that he couldn't wait to get started fighting. /I guess I have to face the fact that he really is Sano,/ she thought, shaking her head slightly.

Lisa considered it, then pulled out a Bishonen Ball. "I choose... TIDUS-SAN!"

There was a flash of light, and a confused looking Bishonen stood where there had been empty space before. Then he was glomped thoroughly by his trainer.

"Hee. Isn't he so cool?" Lisa asked, grinning.

Tidus looked like he was having a problem breathing.

"Yeah, yeah. Um, I think he's suffocating," Anya pointed out delicately.

"..." Lisa glanced up at her Bishonen's face, then reluctantly let him go. "Sorry, Tidus-san," she said. "You should really remind me not to cut off your oxygen right before a battle."

Sano rolled his eyes. Kenshin peered at this new Bishonen eyes wide in curiosity.

"Well, shall we?" Sano asked, cracking his knuckles.

Tidus regained his breath and seemed to realize what was going on. "A battle, trainer-san?" he asked Lisa.

"Well, if we want to get into that gym, we have to get you as strong as possible, don't we?" Lisa asked, smiling.

He sighed. "I so asked for it when I signed up for gym fighting," he complained to Sano in a mutter. He glanced at his trainer to make sure she hadn't heard, then unsheathed a wicked looking sword. "Alright. Just one versus one? Shouldn't be too tough."

"Ha," Sano said.

"Alright, Lisa? You have to tell me what the rules are. I haven't battled before," Anya said, eyeing the Bishonen. "It's not that violent, is it?"

"It used to be, a long time ago, when Bishonen were first discovered. But now it's just a sport sort of thing. No one gets killed in trainer battles," Lisa answered. "One Bishonen just has to knock out the other one. Don't worry, Tidus' sword is magically blunted for Bishonen battles unless he has to protect himself or me from an attacker."

Anya breathed a low sigh of relief. "Wow. Does Tidus cast the spell?"

"Actually, no. It's something the master of Bishonen came up with. She combined the spells of her Bishonen into one big protective spell that's cast automatically. That's partially why the fight to the death things ended long ago," Lisa replied.

"OK, so just knock each other out?"

"Yep!"

"Alright. Kick butt, Sano."

Sano shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, missie."

Kenshin was watching this all with wide-eyed interest. When Anya glanced over to make sure he would be out of the way and that he hadn't wandered off, she found that he had somehow climbed up into a low branch of a nearby tree. /Smart move, really,/ she reasoned, and smiled.

"Ready!" Lisa called.

The two Bishonen tensed.

"Begin!" Lisa waved her arms around.

Sano yelled as he threw a strong punch at Tidus' face first thing. Tidus yelped, "Not my face!" and dodged. Sano smirked and followed up with a punch from the other hand that got Tidus' arm.

Tidus tightened his grip on his sword and swung it. Anya yelped involuntarily as the sword came dangerously close to Sano's face, but relaxed again as her Bishonen dodged it with ease. Sano took a moment to raise an eyebrow at his trainer before continuing. Anya blushed and clapped a hand over her mouth.

Tidus backed away a little to get some room in, then ran a couple steps to jump up and swing his sword down on Sano's head. He missed, bringing it down on Sano's shoulder instead.

Sano grunted and shook that arm, at the same time bringing a punch at Tidus' face. He connected and Tidus skidded backwards at least a foot before stopping and attacking again.

"OK, buddy, you asked for it!" Tidus declared.

"Whatever," Sano said.

Lisa was hopping up and down eagerly, waiting for the winning hit. Anya was still watching a little uneasily. She was still unable to believe that this 'sport' wasn't so dangerous. She'd still been surprised when Tidus' sword didn't slice right through Sano's arm.

Tidus leaped again, but this time he was angry and his aim was even worse. Sano easily dodged and kicked him in the gut. Tidus doubled over, gasping for air for a moment. Sano took the opportunity to knock the other Bishonen's feet out from under him. Then he put a foot on Tidus' back, and did a peace sign.

Kenshin laughed and clapped his hands delightedly. "Sano's gonna teach me," he told Anya.

"Right," she muttered doubtfully.

"Aw, man, come on Tidus, get up!" Lisa said.

Tidus glared. "I'm trying!" Then he remembered he still had his sword. He swung it.

"Oof!" Sano fell over, rubbing his shin and glaring at Tidus, who'd regained his feet and was readying another blow at Sano's head. "Alright, kid, party's over," he said. He jumped up and did a hard kick to Tidus' head. Tidus dropped his sword and yelped with the pain, and was once again on the ground.

This time, Sano followed him and continued punching him in the gut. Tidus groaned and shook his head, trying to shove the Bishonen off, but he couldn't.

Finally, Lisa said, "Alright, alright! I give! Stop it!"

Sano immediately stopped, smirked again, and jumped off of Tidus, who looked like he'd been in a school fight. A nice black eye was already forming. "Ow," he muttered before standing as well.

"Well, not bad, you picked a cool Bishonen," Lisa said, glancing at Anya. "Tidus is my strongest Bishonen so far. How've you trained him? How'd you catch him?"

Anya flushed a little. "Well, I haven't really trained him at all. As for catching him, well, we kinda caught each other by surprise..."

"Wow! You're so lucky!" Lisa declared. She ran over and helped her Bishonen stand, then pulled off her backpack and proceeded to look through it for something. Anya watched for a moment. Lisa pulled out a little bottle and handed it to Tidus, commanding, "Drink it."

Tidus grimaced but drank it all in one gulp. Then, gasping, he handed the bottle back.

Anya yelped. The black eye was gone! In fact, Tidus looked like he'd never been in a fight!

"Well, even if Tidus lost, he's learned how to deal with a Sanosuke," Lisa pointed out cheerfully. "So we didn't really lose that badly. Say, are you going to sign him up for gym training?"

"For what?" Anya asked.

"The gym training. There's battling, what we just did, and then there's the professional gym training. The gym training's great, if you're good enough, you can go all the way to the top with your Bishonen."

"Oh. Well, I didn't really know that yet," Anya admitted. "Is it hard?"

"Oh yeah. There are gyms all over the place, though. They're split into training rooms and battling rooms, so you can level up a little before actually fighting anyone, but... I don't know. Tidus seems to think that he actually gets better experience out here." Lisa shrugged. "Ready to go, Tidus-san?"

"Yeah," Tidus said, sighing.

"Return!"

Tidus disappeared in a flash of light.

"Say, where are you headed?" Lisa asked.

"Whatever the next town is," Anya answered, shrugging.

"It's a couple days to the west," Lisa said, pointing.

"Is that where you came from?"

"Nah, I came from the north. Lots of cool Bishonen up there. Hey, you know what? Maybe we can both go to the next town and train together and stuff! I haven't traveled with another human for so long!"

Anya nodded. "Sure, why not?"

"Great!"

Anya glanced around, and spotted Kenshin still fooling around on the tree branch. She walked over and looked up. "Kenshin, we're going," she said.

The Chibi ^_^ed. "OK, Annie-dono," he said, and jumped down. Startled, she caught him by instinct.

"Do me a favor and don't do that without telling me from now on, OK? You surprised me," she told him. He smiled sheepishly. "Alright, let's get going then. I'd like to eat some restaurant food and sleep in a bed for a while."

Lisa nodded. "Me too!"

"Then let's get going! Let's stop talking about it," Sano muttered. "Women." He stalked off in one direction.

Anya sighed, shook her head, smiled, and followed. Lisa followed behind.