Chapter Nine- Agreements

~*~

The redhead figure sighed and turned to stare out the window, her gray eyes reflecting boredom and a little wistfulness. She stood, apparently alone, in her own hotel room. It was almost dawn, and the false light made the figure seem all the more gloomy.

"What's the point if there's no challenge anymore?" she questioned the false dawn. "It was fun at first, but this is pointless. The battles are nothing but nuisances. I haven't lost for the longest time. And I don't want any more Bishonen or Bishoujo."

"Why not battle me, then?" asked a male voice from behind her.

The redhead turned to smile slightly at the male behind her. "Please. If I challenged all of your Bishonen AND your Bishoujo with my bare hands I'd still win."

"I highly doubt that."

"I don't." She returned her gaze to the mirror. "Your Bishoujo are too perky for me, anyway."

"With you sitting up here all by yourself like this, I can't say I doubt that." The male glanced around, and took a few more steps into the room. "Don't you like your Bishonen's company?"

"It's a good time to be depressed, you know. Then you can spend the entire day getting cheered up by your Bishonen. Besides." The redhead drew herself up, chin held haughtily in the air. "I have every right to be this way."

The male laughed a little. "Well, why don't I make things interesting for you, then?"

"I highly doubt that," she said, mimicking his earlier words.

"What if I told you that an acquaintance of mine was making a new technology this world has never seen?"

"Then I would laugh at you."

"No, honestly," he protested. "This is an actual success that she's had. I was surprised myself until I found it could work."

"What?" she found herself compelled to ask.

The male leaned a little closer to the redhead. "A way to capture the Halflings AND keep them from going mad."

The redhead perked up instantly. "People would appreciate us for getting them out of everyone's hair, if they were all considered Bishonen," she said thoughtfully.

"Yes, appreciate enough to make us public heroes."

The redhead smirked and turned to face the black-haired male with flashing emerald green eyes. It was an interesting contrast between the two; her bright hair and dark eyes, his bright eyes and dark hair. They were nearly opposites. It was amazing how well they worked together.

"Why don't we go see this friend of yours? If we could capture Halflings as well as full-bloods, then the challenge would return," she said.

"Yes, why don't we?" he agreed.

~*~

Anya hummed as she made her way down the path, carrying her Chibi Kenshin in her arms (he was fast asleep) and walking next to her other Bishonen, Sanosuke. He seemed deep in thought. She amused herself for a while in wondering what he was thinking about, but turned her attention to the road ahead when she began to run out of ideas.

They were on the road now to a town called Eutriv City, said to have a gym. The lady at their hotel had mentioned that a particularly good trainer was going to show up to challenge people in the next two weeks.

Besides, the city was in the heart of Gundam Wing Bishonen territory.

And that wasn't really a bad thing.

Sanosuke stretched his arms over his head, staring at the road ahead. Then, "How much farther?"

Anya reached over with a hand to hit him on the shoulder. "That's the tenth time you've said that," she told him.

"Why do you bother keeping score? So how much farther?"

"Eleven times."

"Will you shut up and tell me already?"

Anya shook her head. "We've got at least twenty miles to cover."

"Daaaamn."

"Don't swear in front of Kenshin."

"I say what I want."

"Not if you want food."

"...You know I hate you, right?"

"Yes, you've never failed to tell me at least once a day," she said, rolling her eyes. "What else is new?"

Kenshin suddenly yawned, then stretched. He glanced around with his sleepy eyes, and then looked up at Anya. "How much farther are we, Annie-dono?" he asked.

Sano started laughing as Anya fell over, then stood up, all the while careful not to hurt her Chibi Bishonen. "Don't you start, UNCLE SAN," she said to him. Sanosuke shrugged. "We've got about twenty miles, Kenshin. Do you want to sleep more?"

"I'll walk a while, that I will," the Chibi replied. Anya let him down, and he stretched again. "Aah, I feel very awake now, that I do!"

"Great," Anya said. "Let's keep going."

For a while, their walk was very quiet and peaceful. Anya admired the scenery around her, and how there were no technology sounds beyond it all. No cars, no lights, just the technology in the cities themselves. And they didn't really have many cars, either...

"A Chibi!" whispered a voice.

"What?" Anya looked around. "Who said that?"

Sano immediately picked up Kenshin with one arm and readied his other for punching in case he had to defend himself.

Anya's eyes fell on a Heero Yuy a moment later, and her eyes widened. "I LOVE Heero!" she whispered cheerfully. She grabbed a Ball out of her pocket.

The Heero's eyes were narrowed and focused on Chibi Kenshin for the moment. He was pulling his gun out, so she didn't have much time to capture him. Swiftly, she threw the ball at him.

He seemed to realize his mistake. Heero lifted his gun as though to block the Ball, but it wasn't enough; a moment later, he was gone and the Ball was on the ground, shaking slightly.

Anya watched for a few moments, unconsciously clenching and unclenching her hands. Sano was setting Chibi Kenshin back down onto the ground, shaking his head and muttering something about blind Heeros and what the world was coming to. Anya ignored him.

Finally, the ball stopped shaking.

The young woman wandered over and picked up the ball. She glanced around, then looked back down at it. "Wow, I got a third Bishonen!" she said.

Her Dex, which was in her pocket, beeped at her. Sighing, she pulled it out.

"Bishonen number three captured. Name, Heero Yuy. Stage, San. Nickname?"

Anya thought about it for a moment. She grinned at the thought of calling him Hee-chan, but dismissed it. Trainer or no trainer, Heero probably wouldn't appreciate her acting like Duo or Relena. Besides, Hee-chan sounded kind of stupid. "No nickname," she told the Dex.

Sano snorted. "What, am I the only Bishonen who has to put up with a nickname?"

She turned to face him with wide eyes. "Why, of course Fluffy!"

Chibi Kenshin, who had been listening the entire time, frowned. "Annie-dono, how is he fluffy?" he asked.

"It's a joke, Kenshin," she explained to him. Then, "Well, I guess I better let him out. Come out, Heero."

A moment later, Heero stood before Anya. He looked vaguely confused and was staring at his gun like he'd never seen it before.

"Hi, Heero," she began politely. "I'm Anya."

Heero looked up at her, and his vague expression disappeared. It was replaced by a look of anger. "You have a Chibi," he said.

"You know, Missie, I think he's right," Sano said in mock surprise.

"Shut up, Sano. Yes, I've got a Chibi. But he was captured completely by consent," Anya explained to Heero. He looked like he remembered how to use his gun again.

"How can I tell you're not making that up?" he asked.

Anya sighed. "You were trained to not believe anyone after all. Alright, let's see..." She glanced at Sano. "Would you believe Sano?"

"He's your Bishonen. They've been known to lie for their trainers." Heero's voice was flat.

"Watch it, pal, you're her Bishonen too," Sano said to him.

Heero gave him a glare in reply.

"What else, then...? How about Kenshin?" Anya asked.

"My dad said he wanted me to be caught by Annie-dono 'cause he'd rather it be her than a trainer he didn't know," the Chibi cut in.

Heero shook his head. "You could have scared him."

"What WOULD you believe?" Anya asked him.

The Bishonen brushed some of his longer bangs from his face. "Your electronic device. The Dex."

"Dex?" she asked, surprised. "How can that tell anything?"

Heero raised an eyebrow at her.

"Alright, alright. Fine, jeez." She mumbled as she pulled her Dex out. "Now what?"

Heero took it from her.

"Hey!"

"What were the circumstances of the Bishonen Kenshin's capture?" Heero asked the Dex.

The Dex didn't reply.

Anya had to smirk. "It's voice activated," she told him. "Sano tried that earlier."

Heero gave it back. "Then you ask it."

"Alright, I will. What were the circumstances of the Bishonen Chibi Kenshin's capture?" Anya asked.

The Dex beeped. "Capture by consent of parent, Himura Kenshin, stage Sama, date..."

"OK, OK, that's wonderful. Thank you." Anya turned back towards Heero. "Now what? You think I got this rigged up to answer that all the time, too?"

Heero gave her a very faint smile. "If you don't even know how to use it, how could you know how to make it answer certain questions?" he said. "I have no choice but to believe you."

"Good. I like being believed. Anyway, this is Sano and Kenshin, as you've noticed. They're my only other Bishonen. We're headed to Eutriv City next to find a decent gym to train in."

"Whatever."

Anya smiled to herself. "OK, now that that's all taken care of, can we get going again?"

Heero nodded. Anya noticed he looked like he wanted to ask her something, but wasn't sure of what her answer may be.

/Maybe I'll address that later,/ she decided. /I just caught him. He may just want to know stuff like where I came from last and things like that. We can talk tonight. Rather, I can talk and he can glare at the lot of us./

With that thought in mind, she continued down the road, now followed by three Bishonen as opposed to two.

~*~

"What did you think?"

The redhead shook her head as she ascended the stairs to her room. "I don't like this associate of yours, Logan."

"I didn't ask whether you liked her or not. I meant what you thought about her idea."

"It's very interesting."

"That's all? Interesting?"

The redhead turned to glare down the stairs at the male trainer who was following her. "Yes. If you want me to be more interested, you should tell her to get rid of her sick fantasies and just research. I don't like people who enjoy pain."

"She explained all that to you. It's essential for the research."

"That's a load of bull, and you can tell her I said so. I am not going to partake in her torturing Bishonen. I can't see how that has anything to do with capturing Halflings."

"She's not torturing them. She's getting them to cooperate."

"Well. Maybe she should try having her own Bishonen mate with humans and then give up their children voluntarily so that people can catch them."

"See, you just answered your own demand," the male insisted. "She can't very well force her own Bishonen to do that, it would be too cruel."

The redhead shook her head. "Anything involving Bishonen research can be cruel, Logan. You heard what happened to tons of Bishonen before humans got the Balls right?"

Slowly, the other figure nodded.

She sighed. "I wonder when research officially goes too far," she murmured to herself.

A door opened further up the stairs, and a Bishonen walked out to greet the trainers. It was a tall, thin one with wild blonde hair and odd, violet eyes. A golden pyramid with an eye on it hung around his neck.

The Yami looked on his redhead trainer with concern. "Are you alright? You look horrible," he commented.

"I'm fine, Yami," she assured him. "Where are the others?"

"Around. Someone announced earlier he was going to try and cook, but..." Yami shrugged. "I already ordered some pizza."

"If it's Vegeta, then I hope you ordered some for me, too."

He nodded with a small smile.

"You're a god, Yami."

The male figure, who'd been tapping his foot, began to speak again. "Sometimes sacrifices have to be made," he insisted. "Besides, it's for the benefit of both societies if we invest in her and help her out."

"..." The redhead turned to look down at him. "I will think on it, I'll give you that much. But I still don't like the way she's doing this. Would you like her to steal your Bishoujo for her experiments?"

"...No," he admitted. "But that's also part of the contract. If we invest, she won't go near our Bishonen and Bishoujo."

"What's this?" Yami asked with a frown.

"Just another business thing, Yami," the redhead told him. "Don't worry." She glanced down the stairs. "I will think on it. That's all I can promise."

With that, she walked up into her room with her Yami Bishonen, who was still asking her what was going on.

The other trainer shook his head. "She's still too... humane, isn't that the term?" he asked himself. "But she's got to understand that these Halflings are no more than a nuisance. They're hardly human OR Bishie. Capture them, send them away..." He wandered off to his own room, muttering.