Chapter Eighteen- Battles Continued OR Finding Abby!

~*~

"So you got any ideas where to find that friend of yours?" Sanosuke asked. He had his hands behind his head, looking up at the sky as he and his trainer walked down the sidewalk.

"No clue. I could have sworn she was in there with me and Jacky..." Anya sighed. "Who knows... my only thought is that she can't have gone too far. We were only battling for about ten to fifteen minutes. You can only go a mile at the most at that, right?"

"Unless you're a natural sprinter," Sano agreed. "And none of you girls are fit enough to be that."

"...I'll let that comment slide this time," Anya said.

"What'd I say?"

Anya gave him a look. "Just shut up for a while, mmkay?"

Sano smirked, but complied.

The two continued down the street for a while, without any clues as to where Abby disappeared to. After a few minutes, however, Anya paused in front of a two-story building.

Her first Bishonen stopped as well. "What is it? You find her?" he asked.

"Nah." Anya waved at the building. "Look at this! It's a repair shop for trainer's equipment. I can drop my Bish-Dex off here while we look for Abby."

"Oh yeah. Maybe it didn't register Chichiri 'cause it doesn't like him," Sano remarked.

"I don't get why you're so against 'Chiri, Sano." Anya turned to frown at him. "What did he do, besides make a couple of mistakes anyone could have? I'll bet you weren't perfect when you first evolved either."

"I didn't put my trainer's life in jeopardy, did I?"

"You weren't captured then, were you?" she asked back.

He frowned. "That's not the point." He pointed at her. "You're my trainer, and I'm supposed to make sure you don't get your head pounded into the ground. Now how the hell am I supposed to do that when I'm locked up in one room and you're in another, all because that baka decided to try flying his stupid HAT around and get us lost?!"

Anya blinked. "I didn't realize you were that worried about me."

Sano huffed and crossed his arms, looking away. "Yeah, well, you're the one with the money, and I don't feel like snitchin' my food from anyone."

His trainer gave him a small smile. "Right. Look, Sanosuke. I know you don't like Chichiri. I guess I can understand what you're saying, but like I've said before, he's not a bad guy."

The Bishonen shrugged. "Fine. Whatever. Are you getting your Dex thing checked out or what?"

Anya nodded, and turned to walk into the building.

~*~

A few moments later, she walked back out, sans Bish-Dex. Sanosuke was clutching at her arm with a panicked expression on his face, however. Anya's arms were crossed, and she was rolling her eyes.

"You know, Sanosuke, that machines are generally immobile unless a human controls them? The Dexes aren't going to jump at you and eat you."

"Don't give a damn, those things are just not RIGHT," he muttered into her arm.

"Will you stop that?" she asked, shaking her arm slightly. He didn't budge. "Great. I have an insane friend out there glomping onto poor Bishonen, and I have a Bishonen who's glomping onto poor me."

"Shut up," came Sano's voice.

She tried shaking her arm again, but again found that the Bishonen was clamped onto her. Anya sighed. "Sanosuke, you really need to get over your fear of machines."

"I'll do that when your newest Bishonen gets over his fear of balls."

Anya snickered at that.

"Hentai," he accused.

"What? You made it sound so wrong."

"I did not. You have a dirty mind."

"I do not! Get off my arm already, it's losing circulation."

"I'll do that when we get away from that creepy store."

Anya shook her head at him. "Sanosuke, we're a block away from the scary store."

"...Oh." Sano immediately let go of her arm. "Well, whatever..." He shrugged, trying to act nonchalant.

His trainer, meanwhile, was attempting to get the blood pumping into her arm again. After rotating it a few times, she decided to leave it alone. While still walking, she turned her head to look back at Sano, who had stopped for the moment. He was pretending to look interested about a nearby weapons store. "Sano, are you going to come with me or do you want to go back- OW!"

"ITAI!" answered another voice.

Anya almost fell to the ground from the collision, but Sano caught her and helped her up before she hit the sidewalk. "Whoa... sorry about that," she apologized, looking up at the person she'd run into.

"No problem. I was hurrying, and my mind was on other things," the guy answered with an understanding smile.

The Bishonen trainer got to her feet and studied the man for a moment; he was a couple years older than her. Back in the real world, he probably would have been in college or something. His eyes were a startling emerald green that looked like they could pierce if he was mad, but right now they were mild and amused. His hair was a stark contrast to those eyes; a rich black.

"I wasn't looking, though," she said.

Sanosuke rolled his eyes. "Are you going to keep apologizing to this guy for, oh, another hour or so Anya? Cause if you are I can go look for your friend and you can just wait here for me."

"Oh can it, Sano." Anya said, but with a small smile.

"You're looking for someone?" the man asked.

"Yeah, she's got dyed blue hair. Have you seen her? She's usually glomped onto Bishonen that aren't hers."

The man sweat-dropped. "Sorry, can't say I have. While we're on the subject of finding people, have you perchance seen a redhead around here? She's got a Yami Yugi with her. They were going shopping or something, and we were going to meet for lunch."

"No, sorry I can't help you," Anya said.

"Anya, are we planning on getting back to the gym in the next century or so?" Sanosuke asked impatiently.

Anya nudged him with her elbow.

The man chuckled. "I can see your Bishonen's impatient. Oh, at the gym were you? I heard those give some pretty good competition."

"They do," Anya said. "I won, though," she added happily.

"Oh did you? Congrats. I heard the trainer at the gym right now is tough," the man remarked. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced away for a moment, as though something caught his eye.

"She was, but my Bishonen did it," she said.

"I'm glad for you. Say... should you ever need any really tough challenges, why don't you look me and my friends up?" he suggested. "We're a... group of top trainers, you might say an elite of sorts. If you win a number of gym challenges, you can get in with a battle against one of us."

"Really?"

"Yep. Just check into a local bar or something when you've beaten four or so gym challenges. We're everywhere."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. But wait, what's your elite group called?"

The man laughed. "Oh, it doesn't really have a name, it's just a group that formed a while back. We're all really into the competition of battling, and our Bishonen are too. Though we like to hang out together too- we look for people who are actually close with their Bishonen as well. But if you ever get interested... just ask around for Logan or Bryanna."

"Logan? ...That's your name, I take it?"

He nodded. "And Bryanna's the friend I'm looking for."

"Well, alright. Thanks a lot!" Anya grinned. "It'd be kind of cool to belong to a group of elites... Come on, Sanosuke, let's go find Abby-"

She stopped when she saw Sano leaning against a store window, snoring loudly. Anya sweat-dropped, and hit him on the head.

"ITAI!" Sano fell over.

"Come on, Sanosuke, we're going. Thanks again, Logan!" Anya waved and started to drag her Bishonen away.

Logan watched the two go, then chuckled and shook his head. "Those two..." Then his amused expression faded. "I suppose I have to check in with a couple friends and see if they'll be good enough for what we're looking for." He sighed. "I kind of feel bad about it, she seems nice enough. But if we're going to get the Halflings out of everyone's hair AND get some decent challenges, this is the only way... I better get going..." He turned and went his own way down the street.

~*~

Jacky smiled at Pyra as the other trainer pulled out another Bishonen Ball. "That fire guy was pretty cool," she remarked.

"Thanks. Have you ever played Legend of Dragoon?"

"Can't say I have, but the characters seem nice enough..."

Pyra laughed. "Yeah. Wait till you see Albert, though, he's even cooler. In my opinion, of course... Speaking of which, come on out! ALBERT!"

A flash of light later, Jacky was staring at the newly appeared Bishonen. "Whoa," she murmured.

The Bishonen had long hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and hazel eyes. The very way he stood showed that he was a noble or even royalty. He wore mostly shades of green for clothing, though he had dark leggings and boots. In one hand the Bishonen carried a spear.

He gave Jacky a somewhat nervous smile and turned back towards Pyra. "I'm assuming we're battling?" he asked.

"Yup. You ready?" Pyra asked.

"Of course. I give full consent to fight for my trainer- er, where is your Bishonen, miss?" Albert nodded politely towards Jacky.

"Huh? Oh! Inuyasha?" she looked around. Then she hung her head. "Hang on a moment, please..." She ran off.

Pyra and her Bishonen sweat-dropped when Jacky returned a moment later. She was dragging Inuyasha by the collar on his robe, and there was a huge bump on his head. His left hand was loosely holding onto his sword.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Jacky called. "We're ready now. Aren't we, Inu-chan?"

"Don't call me that," he muttered. He got up and rubbed his head. "Damn, woman. You need to learn restraint," he complained. "I can't fight if I have a concussion, didn't anyone tell you that?"

"Oh, please. I didn't give you a concussion, that was barely a tap," Jacky retorted. "Now do you consent to fight this guy or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, I give consent and all that ****-"

Inuyasha soon had another bump on his head.

"Watch your language in front of Chibis, Inu-chan!" Jacky said, pointing at Chibi Kenshin. He was leaning against a nearby wall with Chichiri, who'd taken his mask off. Both Bishonen looked up at the mention of Chibis, but soon returned to their conversation.

"Jeez, woman," Inuyasha said, glaring. "This is the last time I fight for YOU."

"Like I haven't heard that before. Let's get going, shall we?"

Inuyasha sweat-dropped. "Like I could. I can't use this damn thing properly unless I'm protecting a human, remember?" he asked, shaking his sword at Jacky.

She didn't look very impressed. "You're protecting MY reputation and MY money."

"What reputation?" he murmured. Fortunately, his trainer didn't hear. He sighed and went into battle stance. "Alright, fine. We gonna fight or stand here all day?" he asked Albert.

"LET'S GET IT-" Duo began.

"Oh, shut up," Inuyasha told him, and lunged at Albert.

~*~

"IILLPALLAZO-SAMA! HAAAAAIL, IILLAPALLAZO-SAMAAAA!"

"Ugh... "

Anya perked up when she heard someone screaming those words. "I think we've found Abby, Sano," she said, turning to talk to her Bishonen.

She blinked- Sano was nowhere to be found. "Sanosuke? Where'd you go...?"

Then she -_-ed and looked up at the nearest tree to see that her guess was correct. Sanosuke was perched on one of the higher branches in the tree, trying to meld in with the leaves and such. Considering he was wearing his usual white outfit and red headband, it wasn't working very well.

The trainer sighed, walked over to the tree, and kicked the trunk. It shook. "Get down from there. I'm going to need help getting Abby off of whoever she's latched onto at the moment."

"HELP! HELP! SOME CRAZY GIRL'S STRANGLING MY Bishonen!"

"There's no way you'll get ME to help YOU get that GIRL off of that Bishonen!" Sano declared.

"Oh yeah?" Anya started up the tree.

Sano blinked. "I didn't know you could climb trees," was all he could think of to say.

"Thanks." She grabbed onto his ear before he could do anything and gave it a sharp tug.

"ITAI! DAMMIT, ANYA-"

"Shut up." She tugged on his ear harder. "You come down and help me or you lose your ear."

"YAAH! WILL YOU STOP THAT?!" Sano yelled. His hands latched onto her wrist and he began trying to find how to pull her off without doing damage to his poor ear.

He didn't make any progress.

Anya tugged on his ear again. "Move or I pull you down by your ear."

"You wouldn't dare, Missie- ITAI! FINE! LEAVE MY DAMN EAR ALONE!" Sano demanded.

His trainer grinned and let go of his ear, which he began to rub. She then turned and started on her way back down the tree. Grumbling, Sanosuke followed her.

The two found that some other trainers and their Bishies had surrounded the tree, watching them curiously. Anya sweat-dropped and waved her arms.

"Okay, okay folks, nothing to see here. Sano, come on, let's go find Abby. I hope she's still on that poor Bishonen so we can catch up to her..."

Trainer and Bishonen found that indeed, Abby was still nearby and still locked onto a Bishonen that had very long hair and odd armour. He also had glasses. Anya figured he would normally make a rather regal image.

Of course, considering that Abby was glomping him, this wasn't one of those normal times.

"ABBY!" Anya yelled at her.

"Hi, Anya," Abby said cheerfully. "Look at who I found!"

Anya sweat-dropped. "Yes, very nice. Erm... want to let him go now?"

"Are you kidding?! How often do you get the chance to glomp your FAVORITE BISHIES OF ALL TIME!?"

"Very often in this world," Anya reminded her. "Besides, he's not yours technically. His trainer's over there." She gestured to a girl who was staring at them with teary eyes.

"But-"

"Get off."

"No-"

"Yes."

"NO!"

"YES!"

"NO!"

"NO!" Anya yelled.

"YES!" Abby hollered back.

"You said yes, now get off," Anya said.

Abby was about to yell again, then paused. "I said what?" she asked, in a small voice. "But I don't want to get off..."

Anya hung her head. "Why do I get stuck with such strange, strange people?" she muttered to no one in particular. Then she lifted her head up and grabbed Sano by the arm. "Sano, this is where you come in."

"Huh? What?! NO! AAAH!"

His trainer threw him by that arm at Abby and the Bishonen. Startled by her sudden move, Sano stumbled forward and landed on top of the new trainer.

"OOF! Hey! What's the big- Sano-chan!" Abby's eyes got big. "You came out looking for me? You're so nice!" She paused hugging the other Bishonen for a moment so she could glomp Sanosuke.

Anya took that precious three seconds to grab the Bishonen out from under Abby and shove him towards his trainer. "Quick," she ordered, "or you may never escape from her."

The Bishonen nodded, attempting to regain what dignity he had had. Then he looked back at Abby, paled, and forgot all about dignity and the like- he ran to his trainer and disappeared in his Bish-ball within instants.

Abby, meanwhile, had let go of Sano to return to her Bishonen glomping. Her eyebrow twitched dangerously when she found that she was missing said Bishonen. "What happened to him?! WHERE IS IILPALLAZO-SAMA!" she yelled.

Sanosuke crawled away from her, gasping for breath. "This is...last... damn... time I ever... do you a favor, Missie," he said.

His trainer patted him on the shoulder sympathetically before grabbing Abby by the arm and hauling her to her feet. "Gym. Now."

"WHERE IS-"

"Gym, NOW. Or we'll tie you up in Jacky's room and you won't be able to go on Bishonen glomping sprees any more."

Abby hung her head. "Okay, okay... fine. We'll go back to the stinking gym," she muttered. Then she looked up hopefully. "Can I at least glomp your Sano?"

"..." Anya considered this for a moment.

"HELL NO!" Sanosuke hollered, and ran down the street back towards the gym.

Anya laughed, while Abby sighed. Then the two trainers followed him.

~*~

The battle was taking a surprisingly long time. Though Inuyasha was not really a magical Bishonen, he was holding his own with his sword. Albert was using his powers to the maximum, casting wind spells to lower damage caused by Inuyasha.

Jacky watched anxiously. She would have been calling out encouragement, but her Bishonen hated it when she did it. He said it caught him off guard, and got him off balance. And then he could lose the match. Therefore, she remained silent.

/Come on, Inu-chan, / she thought, bringing up a hand to her heart. /You can do it, I know you can. /

The Duo, who had been put off by Inuyasha's rude comment to shut up earlier, was doing everything he could to annoy his fellow Bishonen. Thus, unlike Jacky, he was screaming his head off at the two fighters. "Come on, Albert!" he yelled. "Honestly, Inu-CHAN, you fight like a GIRL! A HUMAN GIRL! You hear me?! You are SO gonna lose this match! Come on, Albert, kick his butt!"

/That's not good. If Duo keeps doing that, he may end up getting strangled by Inu-chan before I can stop him, / Jacky thought worriedly.

Thankfully, no one else was participating in the cheering. The other trainer, Pyra, was watching with the same anxious expression on her face as Jacky had. Her hands were clasped together in front of her face as she waited, watching her Bishonen.

Then, in a flash, it was over.

Inuyasha had apparently tried to jump up high enough to come down on top of Albert and finish him off. However, Albert had followed his moves and summoned the last of his strength to cast another spell. It was a spell that threw Inuyasha into a nearby wall strongly enough to knock the wind out of him. The sword fell from the Bishonen's numb hand, clattering on the ground.

"Inu-chan!" Jacky yelped. "Alright, alright, stop the match!"

Pyra did a little dance, and Albert sank to the ground in relief. "Yatta! Yatta, Albert!" she declared. "You were awesome!"

The Bishonen smiled at his trainer. "Thanks, Pyra. It was a good workout..." He changed out of his magical armour and collapsed on the ground, sitting cross-legged.

Jacky ran over to her Bishonen and knelt by his side. "Are you all right, Inu-chan?" she asked.

"...Ugh... don't call me that," he muttered.

She grinned- he was fine. "Come on, let's get you up." She took hold of his arm and helped him up. Then she had him lean against her so she could take his weight and help him walk away from the now-dented wall. Inuyasha mumbled to himself, but didn't seem to have any objections to this arrangement.

Chichiri, who seemed to have recovered from his match, got up and came over with Chibi Kenshin in tow. Heero, who had appeared from the other part of the gym sometime during the match, also wandered over.

"I can heal him if you want, no da," Chichiri offered.

"That would be great, Chichiri! Thanks," Jacky replied with a smile.

The Bishonen nodded with a grin and lifted his hand to his face. He frowned slightly in concentration.

Jacky gasped as the cuts and bruises on Inuyasha disappeared. Then she let go of her Bishonen to clap. "That was awesome! Thanks a bunch, Chichiri!"

"Ow..."

She glanced down to see that Inuyasha had fallen face first onto the ground. "Inu-chan?"

"Gomen, but I only healed him," Chichiri explained. "I'm still too drained to actually give someone else what Ki I have, na no da."

"That's alright," Jacky assured him.

Inuyasha twitched.

"Jacky! Pyra!"

The two trainers looked up, and Jacky grinned. "Anya! Sanosuke! You found Abby!" she said with a smile.

"Yeah, latched onto another Bishonen," Anya said, sighing. "What a surprise, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," Jacky joked.

"It wasn't just ANOTHER Bishonen, it was IILPALLAZO-SAMAAAA!" Abby announced.

Everyone present sweat-dropped, except for Chibi Kenshin. He merely blinked at the trainer.

"You're the other trainer that was gonna fight me, right?" Pyra asked her.

Abby turned and gave her a victory sign. "If you're the one we're all challenging, yes!" she replied.

"Great! I think Dart's had a good rest up, so why don't you call out whoever you're going to use?" Pyra suggested. "Let's get this match over with quickly."

"Mmkay!" Abby pulled out her Bish-ball, grinning.

While this was happening, Anya had reached her Bishonen. She smiled at Chichiri. "You look like you've recovered."

He grinned back and nodded. "Yeah, amazing what a small rest does for you after a tough battle na no da," he replied.

"Well, remember that since we won I get to buy a great lunch for us all," Anya announced. "Speaking of which, Jacky, how'd you do?"

Jacky turned towards her with teary eyes. "I loooost..."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Anya said. "Hey, I should still have enough to get us by. And Abby may win too. Ya never know."

"True."

Chichiri tapped Anya on the shoulder, and she turned around. "What sort of restaurant are we going to?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure."

Suddenly, the Bishonen turned SD and latched onto her around the waist. Anya, startled, promptly fell over.

"Ack! Chichiri, what're you-"

"Can we go to the Crescent Inn? Onegai? Onegai, no da?!" he asked, looking up at her imploringly.

"I'm guessing that's a really good restaurant," Jacky said, sweat-dropping.

"I wouldn't know, never heard of it," Anya replied.

"It's got really, really, really great food and I love it and can we go onegai, onegai na no daaaaa?" SD Chichiri begged.

Anya laughed and rested her hand on the Bishonen's head for a moment. "Okay, okay, we can go there if we can find one. But we have to wait until Abby's done with her match, mmkay?"

"WAI! Arigato Anya-dono no da!" SD Chichiri hugged her more tightly for good measure.

Sanosuke, who'd been watching this whole thing, growled and clenched his fists. Then he walked over and pulled the other Bishonen off of their trainer by his cloak.

"AH! Itai, no da!" Chichiri protested, returning to normal.

Sano fell over from the sudden weight he was holding in one hand. "AAH!"

The two ended up in a tangled heap. Then Sanosuke started to beat on Chichiri.

"You baka, don't DO that when someone's holding onto you!"

"AH! Stop that, no da!" Chichiri pulled his staff out of nowhere and began hitting him back.

"OW! Dammit, that hurt!"

"Not any more than you're hurting me! Stop it, na no da!"

"Boys, boys!" Jacky called.

"Come on, guys, can't you be a LITTLE mature?" Anya asked, sighing. She walked over and pulled Chichiri off of Sanosuke. Chichiri returned to SD with a sheepish expression on his face.

Sanosuke sat up rubbing his head and muttering.

The group then heard someone laughing, and turned to see Pyra and Abby were watching them. Pyra was the one laughing.

"Gods, you guys are the funniest ever to watch!" she said, wiping an eye. "If I didn't already have enough mayhem with my Bishonen, I'd ask to join you on your travels!"

"Hey, I don't cause mayhem!" Duo protested. "Tell her, Hee-chan! Did I EVER cause mayhem?"

Heero decided to ignore him.

"Alright, so are you ready?" Pyra asked Abby.

Abby nodded. "Come on out... VALGAAV!"