~*~

Anya looked up as the doctor came out, and stood. "How's he doing now?"

"He's going to be perfectly fine, dear," the woman said. She smiled. "He's already complaining, so you know he'll be on his feet soon in no time."

"What about rejuvenation tanks, why aren't you using them?" Jacky suggested.

The doctor shook her head. "It's not that serious. I did make him down a few healing potions, and you'll be getting a few more as a precaution. He's to drink them twice every day for three days, mind you, and he mustn't battle."

"But the tournament!"

"The tournament's in a week. Don't worry, you'll be able to go in there." The doctor smiled. "Just make sure you be careful with him fighting. Now then, the healing potions I mentioned are in a cabinet in his room there. He's being given a cream to rub in on that leg too-"

"OW! DAMN IT, WOMAN, STOP THAT!"

"Sir, I'm just trying to-"

"THE HELL YOU ARE!"

Anya sighed and rested her forehead in the palm of one hand for a moment. "Yeah, I'd say he's fine," she said. "Can I go in there?"

"I- I suppose, but you may want to be careful; he seems to be throwing a temper tantrum," the doctor said. She glanced over her shoulder nervously.

A loud crashing noise was heard in the room, causing everyone present to sweat-drop.

"Yeah, I'll be careful..."

"I'll protect you from flying objects," Kenshin offered.

"Actually, Kenshin, I think it'd be better if you found some clothes," Anya said, glancing back at him.

The San staged Bishonen glanced down at himself; he was wrapped up in Chichiri's cloak. He blushed slightly. "You're right again, Annie-dono, that you are..."

She smiled and turned back to the doctor, who was rather unabashedly staring at her less-than-clothed Bishonen. "Um, could he borrow clothes from this Center?"

"Oh, sure thing! Sure! I could lead him there," the doctor said.

"Okay... I'll be out in a minute." With that, Anya walked into the room.

She had to duck as a plastic vase with false flowers hit the wall above her. Then she blinked and yelped as the nurse nearly fell on top of her.

The nurse in question stood up and gave her a glare. "Is this your Bishonen? YOU can take care of him from now on then! I wish you good luck!" With that, she humphed and walked out of the room.

Anya sweat-dropped. Then she turned to the bed.

"Sano, honestly. She's just trying to help, you know," she said, smiling a bit.

The Bishonen opened an eye when she started to talk, then turned his head to her. "No, she's trying to murder me."

"Well, hopefully you won't think that of me," she said. "The nurse said I'm to take care of you now."

"Yeah, sure the NURSE said it."

"What are you implying?"

"Well, fangirls rarely give up an opportunity to see their Bishonen na-"

She blushed. "If you weren't injured I'd hit you right now!"

He chuckled. "Well, nah, I don't think you'd do it on purpose. Unless I pissed you off somehow, of course, that'd be understandable."

Now Anya smiled and went to his injured leg. "Is it any better?"

"It's somewhat better. When that damn woman's not rubbing salt water in it!"

"Actually, it's a healing cream," Anya said, holding up the bottle for him to see.

"...I swear she switched bottles on me!"

"Right." She put down the bottle. "Well, the only thing left here is to wrap up your leg here."

"You any good at that?"

"We'll have to see, won't we?"

About fifteen minutes later, Anya had somehow managed to tangle herself up with Sano in the wrap. The two looked more or less like mummies.

"Well, this is certainly not what's supposed to happen," she said, blinking in confusion.

"No, I'd say not."

"Any chance of getting out of this without calling for help?"

"Um... you didn't tie any knots yet, didja?"

Anya looked away. "Oops..."

Sanosuke sighed. "Then I would say not, unless ya had scissors with ya. And considering our predicament, I'd say it'd be better if you gave any sharp objects you have to me."

"Very funny." Anya shifted slightly. "Am I on your leg? I can't tell..."

"Nah. The leg's fine."

"Okay... Sano?"

"Yeah?"

"I really don't wanna call for help right now."

"S'okay. We'll try again."

"Thanks."

There was a long silence as Anya tried to stay off of Sano's injured leg (she had ended up tied down on top of him, more or less). Sano, meanwhile, closed his eyes and was apparently muttering something to himself.

Finally, Sanosuke said, "So Kenshin evolved."

"Yup."

"How's he looking?"

"Pretty good, considering he's naked."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Well, usually you don't wander around naked."

"I used to."

Anya gave him a weird look.

"Just kidding, Missie. Just kidding."

"..."

"So are we gonna try and get outta this mess today or next week?" Sano asked.

"I'd rather try today."

"Yeah, me too."

The two started working on freeing themselves from the tangled wrap. After a while, Anya managed to get out of it and climbed off of the bed onto the ground beside it. She breathed a sigh of relief, and turned her head back towards Sanosuke. She stared, then started to laugh; the Bishonen now looked like a wet owl in a mummy costume.

Sano glared at her. "I fail to see what's so funny."

"You are," she said. Then she started unwinding some of the wrap from one arm.

The Bishonen watched her for a moment. Then, finally, he said, "Who's yer favorite?"

"What?"

"Who's yer favorite?"

Anya looked up. "My favorite what?"

"Bishonen."

She frowned. "Why does that matter?"

"Just tell me."

She paused for a long moment, and looked away.

"It's Chichiri, ain't it? Him being the magic user and you sticking up for him all the time an' all..."

"It's not that. Actually, I've never really considered it. To be honest, I had a favorite back home- that is, Kenshin- but now, I'm not so sure."

"Oh?" Sanosuke did his best to make that sound noncommittal.

"Yeah. I mean, after meeting you all for the first time, well... I always daydreamed about meeting you guys, but..." She blushed and sat on the edge of the bed, staring down at her hands. "When it happened for real... I realized I had never really thought of you all as real, living people before. Now I do. And you know, it's hard to say who your favorite PERSON is."

Sanosuke blinked. "So you don't have a favorite?"

"I wouldn't say I have a favorite, per say. More like, I have a Bishonen who I feel more comfortable talking to, cause he's been around since the beginning. And he's a pain in the ass, but that's cool, you know?"

Sano raised an eyebrow, remaining nonchalant despite a now-familiar smugness threatening to rise within him. "A pain in the ass, is he? You wouldn't possibly mean a certain Sanosuke, would you?"

She looked up to give him a mock-glare. "I possibly WOULD mean a certain annoying rooster head, thank you."

He grinned. "And what would a certain Anya say to that certain annoying Sanosuke who doesn't want her to ever leave?"

Now Anya blinked. "What?"

He sat up, groaning slightly at small twinges of pain. Then he said, "Tell me this, Missie. Do you want to go back to whatever world you fangirls come from?"

That too took her by surprise. "Well, uh, I never thought of it, really... I mean, it's been completely out of my mind since that experimenter, I mean Kara, has come into the picture. Then again she was ALWAYS in the picture, wasn't she? I mean..." She stopped and sighed at the confused look on his face. "I'm babbling, aren't I?"

"Yup."

"I'll shut up now."

"You do that."

She gave him a glare. "Just because you're injured doesn't mean I can't hurt you LATER."

"Please. I thought you LIKED the fact I was annoying."

"I didn't say I liked that part about you. I tolerate that."

"Then what DO you like, Missie? Blue-haired monks?"

"How can you always turn the conversation to Chichiri? You know what, I'm not the one who thinks he's my favorite, you are."

"WHAT?!" Sanosuke gave her a death-glare. "How could you say that sort of thing? That's SICK."

"Well, you're the one always trying to make Chichiri my favorite."

"I'm not trying to make him your anything," Sanosuke said.

"Then what are you trying to do?"

"..." Sano hesitated. "That's not the point. Do you want to go back to your world or not?"

Anya stopped. Then she said, "I don't know."

"..."

"..."

"...Well, I don't want you to go anyway."

Anya looked up quickly.

He smirked. "At least, not until I kick ass at the tournament and we get that ***** Kara into jail, or even better, outta here."

"Oh."

"...So are you going to get me out of this tangled mess or not?"

"You look better when you're covered up."

"Missie, you are asking for a WORLD of hurt." He smirked and ripped off the rest of the wrap from both arms and part of his torso.

Anya smirked back, edging slightly away from him on the bed. "Come and try me!" Then, "EEK! Sano, cut that out! EAAAAAAH!"

~*~

Outside, the group of collected trainers and their Bishies looked up in alarm at the sudden hysterical screams and crashing noises coming from the room. Then eyebrows rose when another's voice joined the first in the screams, as well as more sounds of things crashing around.

"Is she okay?" Jacky asked Chichiri. "Should we check on them?"

The blue-haired Bishonen glanced up. He smiled. "Nah, they're perfectly fine. Just fooling around a bit, no da." Then he glanced down the hallway. "I'm more concerned about Kenshin. He seems very nervous about something right now."

"Oh?"

~*~

"Ne, Kenshin, you feel warm in that cloak?" the doctor asked.

"Ano, no I'm fine. Are we getting to the clothes yet?"

"Almost. So how much do you work out? You really shouldn't be so modest about all that..."

Kenshin blushed and looked away. "Uh, I just evolved."

"Ooh, still young. I'm only twenty myself, you know..."

"Okay... are we there yet?!"

"Hehe.."

~*~

Chichiri sweat-dropped. "Yeah, he's fine too. Just nervous no da," he said. "And don't bother Sano or Anya-dono. She's probably just trying to calm him down or something."

~*~

"If you don't- YEEK! - stop that I'm gonna- AIIIYE!"

"Oh yeah, Missie? Haha, just try and stop me- HEY, THAT'S A LOW BLOW! GAAAH!"

~*~

The group collectively sweat-dropped. Jacky buried her face in a magazine. "I don't wanna know what's going on in there."

~*~ Six Days Later ~*~

"Aah, and off we go to the matches!" Anya announced, holding her Dex up triumphantly. "Two wins! That guy was SUCH an easy one!"

"I'll say," Abby said. "But then, EVERYTHING is easy for my Vallie-poo." Her eyes proceeded to become starry with admiration.

Valgaav, who was still out of his Bish-ball, sweat-dropped at his trainer's behavior. "Well, at least I AM unbeatable," he said thoughtfully. Then he glared. "But I would STILL like being called Valgaav-sama or something along those lines."

Abby's eyes became teary. "You don't love me any more, Val-kun?"

"Ano, I never LOVED you to begin with..."

Abby proceeded to wail. Valgaav clamped his hands over his ears and retreated to his Bish-ball. Sano started to hand out earplugs to Kenshin, Anya, and Heero. Then he grinned at Chichiri and used the last for himself. Chichiri sweat-dropped, disappeared into his hat and let the hat hang down Anya's back.

Jacky, feeling sorry for her Bishonen, let them all into their Bish-balls too. Well, except for Inuyasha; the half-demon pretended not to notice the wails of "YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANY MORE!", though soon he was covering his ears as well.

"Damn it, shut her UP!" he growled.

Kenshin was the only one who really didn't seem to notice the wails, either with earplugs or without. He continued to either gaze into space with a distant expression on his face, or stare at the ground in front of him as he walked along.

Tasuki proceeded to grab Chichiri's hat and began to yank on it, which started to choke Anya. "Oi! Chiri! Lemme in!"

"Agh... Ugh... Windpipe. Not. Working." Anya @_@ed.

Sano, noticing this, neatly punched Tasuki into unconsciousness. The redheaded bandit fell over, and thankfully let go of the hat.

"Thanks." /Now, we gotta get to that gym and find out if Cammi's still there.../

Anya, lost in thought, didn't realize everyone else had stopped until she felt Chichiri retrieve his hat from her. She turned around to see that everyone was staring at something in front of her. Even Abby had quieted. "Guys, what's up?" she asked, pulling out her earplugs.

Jacky merely pointed.

The other trainer turned, and gaped with the rest of them.

What was once a gym was now a huge stadium, covering almost twice as much space as it had before (and it had already been a huge place). The roof had opened up in order for bleachers to rise up. Flags blew in the air above each corner of the gym-made-stadium, welcoming everyone who came.

"Wow," Anya managed. "That is SO awesome."

"Someday I'm gonna learn how they DO that," Kimiko remarked.

"Yeah, someday when we're busy finding a lil' place to be alone, we'll find the mechanism," Tasuki murmured.

Kimiko blushed a bright red and hit him on the head. "Will you shut up?"

"Now, there was no reason to blush," Kurama stated calmly with a small smile. "After all, I'm sure my fellow Bishonen only meant a small area to train in private. Though... when you're alone, you CAN do a number of different kinds of, erm, training, couldn't you?"

Now the trainer was red all over.

"Pay up, Tasuki."

Grumbling, Tasuki tossed the other redhead a coin.

"I wish you'd stop that," Kimiko mumbled.

"Aw, you know you love it," Tasuki said.

Hiei followed along behind with a rueful smile on his face, shaking his head.

"Well, uh, shall we go in?" Anya asked.

"Yeah, the tournament starts in a half hour. We'll need that time to find Cammi for you and Abby," Jacky said.

Paul sighed. "So much for ME fighting..."

Caramon, who was out of his Bish-ball, sighed and agreed with his trainer. He was looking at his sword wistfully.

Abby suddenly latched onto Paul's arm. "Hey! I could have your Bishie Caramon fight for ME! Only temporarily of course, hehehe..."

The rest of the group sweat-dropped. "Let's keep moving," Anya suggested.

"Right."

~*~ Meanwhile ~*~

"Any luck yet, officer?" Jessica asked, entering the police station.

"Hopefully," Miya-chan said quietly. "It HAS been a week, after all..."

The officer either didn't hear that or didn't care that she had said it. "Actually, yes. There's good news and bad news about this trainer you guys mentioned."

"Oh?" Miya-chan said.

"Yeah. The good news is we know what mountain range she's on."

"All right!"

"The bad news is I can't do anything about it."

"What?! Why not?"

"Because I'm a local authority. Everything around here's local, except for LSS-sama and Tokio-sama, and they ain't here right now."

"Well, can't you contact them by the mountain range?"

"Actually..." He grinned. "That's the plan. I'm gonna let them know to start keeping an eye out over there."

Both girls smiled. "YES!"

"Until then, you two and your friends let me know what's going on out there, got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

~*~

"Okay, so now you've got Kenshin, Sano AND Chichiri registered, right Anya?"

Said trainer nodded, smiling at her three Bishonen. Sano smirked back, Chichiri smiled, and Kenshin gazed into space. "Yup."

"And Abby here has her Valgaav and is borrowing a Caramon?"

Caramon, who looked nervous about the idea, shook his head at the same time Abby latched onto him and grinned.

"All right, you're both good to go," Cammi said, turning off her laptop.

"Ah, thanks a bunch, Cammi."

"No problem! Now, they're matching up trainers in about five minutes, so you won't want to be late. Your friends should be there already, of course."

"Where do we go?" Abby asked.

"Just down this hallway, take a right, and then into the girl's locker room."

"Okay... why is there a locker room?"

"Oh, it's generally just a meeting place, and only used for bathrooms. It's for looks, not for any actual function."

Sano raised an eyebrow, while Chichiri said, "Erm, we should probably wait outside it just in case no da..."

"Don't worry, everyone else will be in there with their Bishies. Now go on!" Cammi commanded.

"All right. Thanks again, Cammi!" Anya called as they hurried.

"You're welcome!"

Then Anya turned to Abby. "How DID you get Paul to let you borrow his Caramon?"

Abby grinned evilly. "Raistlin-sama and I got it worked out between us."

Anya blinked, then said, "Okay, you know what? I changed my mind, I don't wanna know."

"Then in that case, let's get moving!"

"Right!"

~*~ A few minutes later ~*~

"WELCOME to Treah City's annual tournament!"

Everyone in the bleachers cheered at this statement.

"I'm your host, Lady Silver Senshi, and I'll be the announcer for this tournament!" Said trainer winked and gave a peace sign. "Aren't you all lucky?"

A few of the male trainers cheered at this. Paul merely blinked.

"Now, we got the trainers all paired up for their matches and ready to go. Remember, magical Bishonen against magical Bishonen, fighters against fighters, and so on. The match will end if the Bishie in question is knocked out or seriously injured. Deaths will NOT be allowed. The battles are only one-on-one. Other than that, everyone, kick butt, show off your hot Bishies, and have fun!"

Another trainer appeared and grabbed the microphone from LSS. "And don't forget that the gym is also hosting hot dog stands, and T-shirt stands! Buy a T-shirt today!"

LSS and everyone watching sweat-dropped. LSS grabbed the mic back. "Um, thanks for that input... Anyway, let's meet our first two battlers. First up- uh..." She sweat-dropped. "Um, Professor, will you get off of the field?!"

All eyes turned to the other side of the battlefield, where a male trainer in a lab coat was kneeling on the ground. With his back facing almost everyone, it was hard to see who it was. Beside him stood a Washu Bishoujo, with what seemed to be a laptop under one arm. It was hard to tell, though; the laptop in question seemed to be transparent.

After a few minutes, the trainer seemed to realize someone was talking to him. He turned to see LSS and waved. "Hey, there! I've almost got this analyzed! I'm sure to find that Megumi now!"

Sanosuke and Kenshin, who were both listening at the doors of the locker room, sweat-dropped. "Please," Sano muttered. "A Megumi, wander out here in a human's town? Trainers!"

Fortunately- or was it unfortunately? - the trainer didn't hear either of them. "Washu and I are on the brink of discovery!" he announced gleefully. "Soon, very soon, I'll show the world a Megumi Bishoujo!"

LSS -_-ed. "Very nice, Professor. Well, uh, I guess it's all right for you to be out here as long as you... erm, stay where you are... ANYWAY, first up is PIXIE!"

A few trainers in the bleachers cheered and whistled as a young woman made her way out from one of the nearby doors leading into the battlefield. She blinked at the sudden sunlight, then grinned and waved at everyone. A number of people waved back.

LSS smiled at her and offered her the mic. A cameraman, who was nearby, turned the camera on the two trainers. "So, how's it feel to be fighting in a tournament? You been in one before?"

"Oh yeah, and my Bishies ALWAYS pull through for me."

"Cool. Who do you have, by the way?"

"Ooh, I have Vegeta, Sesshomaru-"

"FLUFFY!" Abby hollered.

"Um, yeah," Pixie said, startled. "And I have a Milliardo Peacecraft, a.k.a. Zechs."

"Did you know that Zechs is the German word for six?" someone in the bleachers called.

Pixie and LSS sweat-dropped. "Okay, that's nice," LSS called back. "Anything you want to say, Pixie?"

"Uh... RELENA MUST DIE!"

That raised a huge cheer from most female trainers in the crowd, and some of the males. A couple males were noticed pouting at that, however.

"Sure..." LSS scratched the back of her head. "Why don't you be a dear and... Go over there with the Professor for now..."

Pixie gave another wave to the crowd before making her way towards the other end of the battlefield. The Professor stood there, still examining the ground in question.

"And Pixie's opponent is... Rhia! Come on out!"

There were a few more cheers as another female trainer came out into the light. She looked up at the crowd, then at the camera with a slightly confused expression, as though to ask 'who, me?' Then she smiled and made her way over to LSS.

"So who do you have fighting for you?"

"I've got a Quatre, Shippou, and a Yami Yugi!" she said, absently playing with a lock of her light hair.

"Wow, cool. You got anything you want to say to the crowd, or maybe to the camera over there?"

"Well, actually, there IS something I've always wanted to say if I ever got on camera," she said.

"So what is it? Just say it!" LSS urged.

"Okay..." Rhia grinned and waved at the camera. "HI, MOM!"

Everyone in the stadium, save for Rhia, face-faulted.

Groaning, LSS was the first to stand. "Okay, well, uh, it looks like we have our first match ready to go! Shall we begin?!"

"YEAH!"

"I didn't hear you all. SHALL WE BEGIN?!"

"YES, DAMN IT!"

"All right then! Let the first match begin!"