Chapter Thirty-seven- Indifference and Anger

~*~

Chichiri shivered as he looked around himself, wondering how on earth he could have gotten to where he was now. Only an hour ago, he'd been at the tournament, chasing after that Hiei who'd tried to capture Sanosuke before.

Now, he was apparently in the middle of a blizzard.

He wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing to cause friction and warmth.

"Damn, but he was smart enough to take my cloak with him, no da," he muttered. He touched his prayer beads, pausing for a moment to measure his ki. "Looks like my earlier spell's starting to wear off. I can't necessarily fly or anything like that, but I should keep myself as warm as possible."

So, much like he had a while ago, he released a small amount of his ki to warm himself as he continued searching for a way out- not to mention, a way to find Anya before he got into deeper trouble than he already was.

~*~

Kenshin blinked, looking around himself. Light filtered in through the leaves of the large trees surrounding the San-staged Bishonen, and it took him a few minutes to realize where he was as opposed to where he should be.

"Annie-dono... she's nowhere nearby." A sudden, urgent mental tug to his left confirmed that notion. "That Bishonen must have magically made us split up, that he must have," he said to the trees. "But why does this place..."

His eyes widened when they found an old knife, rusting in the ground. He looked around again, then closed his eyes for a moment. An almost eager expression came over his features.

"I'm... home."

~*~

"HAAAAA!"

Finally, the door was destroyed, and Sano barged out. His knuckles were bleeding and sore, his face twisted into anger as he looked both ways down the hallway.

"Anya? Where is she?!"

She was gone, he could tell that much by a sudden painful pull that was building up in his chest. His legs yearned to race down one way of the hallway. Snarling, he allowed them to take him, though he doubted he would run into his trainer any time soon. By the feel of that pull, she was over the 3-mile limit by at least ten times.

"Damn it!" He turned down another corridor, still following the pulling sensation; after all, why not humor it for the moment? It may slow the madness while he was looking for her...

The Bishonen nearly went flying as he turned a corner and slammed into two other bodies. He heard two people cry out as he slid on the floor ten feet before stopping.

"Itai..." he and the other two moaned.

Sanosuke jumped up. "Why don't you look where you're- Heero?" He stopped mid-snarl to blink as the other two stood up. "What're you doing? Who's that with you? Know anything about where Anya is?"

Heero took his time in standing up, then walked a ways away from Sano to pick up his gun which, Sano noticed, clicked warningly as Heero did so.

"Loaded...? You ran into that Hiei too."

"Hn." Heero nodded. "This is Thatz, Anya's newest Bishonen."

"Thatz? When'd he show up?"

Said Bishonen stood up and gave a little wave. "Hi, I'm Thatz. The humans say I'm from a 'manga' called 'Dragon Knights'. Anyway, I carry around the Dragon Earth in my sword here. So you're one of Anya's Bishies too? Care to tell me what's going on?"

"The Hiei we ran into was after me last time," Sano said. "Why would he go after Anya this time?"

The three paused. Thatz blinked, as that didn't answer his question, while Heero's eyes narrowed at Sanosuke. Sano slowly nodded.

"I thought so. He took Anya so he could persuade her to give up all of us."

"We have little time. Only two days to find her, and we will not do so on foot," Heero said. He turned away and started to walk down the hallway.

"Wait, where are you going-?"

"Yeah, where IS that guy going? You people psychic or something? What the heck did that guy want with our trainer? What's he want with you? He couldn't want-" Thatz paused, pursing his lips. "Not.. Halflings?"

"Yes," Sano said shortly. He started after Heero. "I don't know where the hell you're going but I hope you have a clue as to what you're doing," Sano said.

Heero turned. There was an odd gleam in his eye that made Sano pause. "Know what I'm doing? Sagara, I have absolutely no clue."

"Great. Just great. Then where are you going?"

"To report our loss to LSS-sama. As one of the two Masters in this world, she should be able to help us."

"She sure as hell better. If Anya gets hurt or anything of the like, I swear to Kami-sama I'll-"

"What? We can do nothing now but try to go to her."

"..." Sanosuke let his shoulders slump. "Damn it, I know that... let's go find this LSS-sama. Hopefully she'll be out doing that announcing thing."

"Let us hope."

~*~

"...Vegeta?"

"What is it NOW, woman?"

Bryanna hit him on the head. "Don't call me a 'woman'. I want to ask you a question."

"So ask it."

"Okay. How long have we been flying around?"

"The HELL should I know? Do I look like I have a watch on me?!"

"We've been flying for three hours, and I still see no Treah City. It should have taken an hour at least."

"Yes, so?"

"So my real question is WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?!"

"..." Vegeta thought about that for a few minutes. "Apparently, we're not at Treah City yet."

"I could SO hurt you right now."

"Then you wouldn't have a ride to your precious city, would you?"

"Great. Just great. My Vegeta's the strongest one out there but he's navigationally impaired," she mumbled.

"I am NOT!"

"Then why are we lost?"

"We're not lost!"

"Oh yeah, then where are we?"

The Saiyan prince Bishonen paused, then smirked. "Well, that's a simple one woman. You're right behind me and I'm right in front of you."**

((These last few lines have been brought to you by Due South; Mounty on the Bounty. I do not own these lines, but I love them dearly. Thank you.))

"Damn it, Vegeta! Land somewhere so I can get a map. It SHOULDN'T be that hard for you to find something."

"Has it occurred to you, my 'dear' trainer, that perhaps the world has recently expanded?"

"Again?" She moaned. "Great timing for a new forest or desert to show up so I can't find my way back! This SUCKS! Well... I guess all we can do is try to find a city and land there. You CAN find at least ONE city, can't you?"

Vegeta growled. "Watch your tongue when speaking to the Prince of Saiyans, you little brat, or it will be me who shall be harming you."

"Oh, I'm so scared. Someone help me. Now let's get going!"

"Hmph." With that, Vegeta started searching for a city to land in.

~*~

LSS looked at the policeman with one eyebrow raised. "You're kidding. So they already reported to you what's going on?"

"Yeah, at least a week or so ago. I've been looking for this Kara for a while."

"And you haven't found her WHY?"

"Because it's so damn hard to track! I mean, sure, we're checking out every place that you don't get Dex signals, but there are tons of places like that! And we can't depend on looking in places that have electricity or the like, either, because we may invade a Bishonen city by accident. It's not as easy as it looks, you know!"

She sighed. "Still... At least you found the mountain range."

"Some guys in that part of the world are combing those mountains as we speak. So far they've checked three or four, and haven't found anything yet. We'll find them, don't worry!"

"I hope so. Well, thanks anyway officer. And give those girls my regards- the ones that told you about this stuff, I mean."

"Assuming I see them again. They're sulking because I've been keeping them so much they missed the registration of the tournament."

"Ah. Well, bye." With that, LSS walked back out to make her way down the streets and alleys back to said tournament.

~*~