Chapter 5- A Loss/ Let the Lessons Begin It took quite a while for Naomi and Chichiri to find Anya and the others. The trip by hat had ended up with the hat getting stuck in a tree, with a disgruntled monk and an embarrassed new trainer in a pile underneath said tree. It took a few moments to recover the hat, during which Chichiri remarked that he enjoyed walking anyhow, his ears burning in the cool shade. Overall, their search took over two hours of wandering through the woods and the new plains area, attempting to avoid dangerous plants that the monk pointed out to the new girl. By the end of their hike, Naomi had a rather large collection of small cuts and bruises from having been smacked by mischievous tree branches, tripping over rocks, and being pricked by flowers with thorns. Chichiri, of course, had no such injuries, as he knew his way around nature well and, most importantly, knew where he had to go to reach his trainer. Naomi could tell whenever they were nearing Chichiri's trainer- the Bishonen would quicken his pace for a bit, his masked face scrunched up in concentration as he tried to pinpoint Anya's exact location. The first time this happened, Naomi had felt very relieved, having just barely dodged falling into a large group of poison ivy (she'd learned to her dismay that the Bishie world still had such plants). Then she'd realized Chichiri was merely feeling relief from nearing Anya, and kept quiet. They discovered Heero first. The Bishonen was sitting on a large rock with, not his laptop, but a handheld with a small stick in his free hand. He looked quite unhappy about this. "Um, hi. Is Anya nearby?" Naomi asked. Heero looked up at her, still frowning. "Yes. She's fine." "What happened to your lap-topped computer?" Chichiri asked, sounding slightly smug about his knowledge of Heero's favorite pastime. Heero's expression suddenly resembled that of a boy mourning his lost best friend. "Sano dropped it," he said. "What was Sano doing with it, n'da?" "He's tallest. He gets to wade through the water with important stuff. That ass," Heero remarked coolly. "What, you couldn't store it away?" Naomi asked. Heero gave her an indignant look. "Solitaire is timed," he explained. "And I was on my tenth game. Timed. And it doesn't save until you lose after a string of wins." "Solitaire?!" "He loves it," said a voice nearby. Naomi looked up to see Anya running a brush through her damp hair. "Good thing it stopped raining," Anya remarked cheerfully, "or we'd all be getting colds by now." "That stretch of land we traveled was pretty dry, no da," Chichiri observed, settling himself next to Anya on the ground. "Welcome back," Anya said with a grin. "Where's Sano, no da?" "He's burying Heero's laptop." Anya rolled her eyes at Heero, who was poking his handheld far too sharply to be doing it any good. "Heero, put that away before you break that. You can wait until we get to town." Heero did so, wiping his face clear of any expression just as Sano came through the trees from another direction. "It's done," Sano grunted, crossing his arms and glaring at Heero's back. "Personally I'm glad it's gone. That thing had you possessed or somethin'." Naomi frowned, noticing that Sano was wetter than the others. My bet is Heero threw him back into the water when the laptop got fried. Hmm. Kenshin, who she had not noticed until now, sat to one side cross-legged, apparently trying to ignore everything that was going on. However, a small smirk on his face betrayed him. Heero tensed. "You destroyed my laptop. You dropped it in water when it was on, then picked it up and threw it onto a sharp rock before it tumbled back into the water. Do you know how long I've had it?" "No, and I don't really care. Ne, Anya, are we going or not? I have no wish to be anywhere near that mini-river OR Heero's former comp-yew-terr." "All right, all right. Heero, you wanna say your goodbyes?" Heero stood up, gave them all a look of great indignation mixed with sorrow, then turned and headed in the direction Sanosuke had come from. Naomi blinked. "Wow. Are Heeros generally that intense about their computers?" "They're technological maniacs," Anya agreed. "Never capture one, okay?" "Uh, okay." That said, the group readied themselves for another walk until they reached town. . And what a town it was. Naomi couldn't help but stare about. The place seemed to be populated by both guys and girls, adults and children. People wandered around with Bishonen she did and did not recognize by their sides. One trainer and Bishie were arguing as they passed them by. "…can't you ever try something new? Just once?" "Milady, something new is not necessarily something good," the Bishonen responded, resplendent in a suit of armor. "One ought to be cautious, lest thou art harmed by its influence." The trainer rolled her eyes. "Why, oh why did I capture a knight from a David Eddings series?" she muttered. "Mine ears shall ignore that statement, milady," the knight Bishonen stated with dignity. "Whatever." A group of Bishoujo- the female counterparts of Bishonen- were surrounding a young man. Said young man was telling them some sort of a story, and Naomi heard a bit of it as they passed. "…And so this guy comes outta nowhere, sword swinging like crazy, right? And he thinks that he's being righteous and all since his lord told him to do that, even though he knows his lord's doing stuff that's not in his country's best interest. So then…" Methinks he needs a bit more storytelling practice, Naomi thought with a small wince. Suddenly, she found herself walking into Anya's back, and stumbled back before they could fall and hurt themselves. Chichiri steadied her with a firm grip on her shoulder, and she gave him a small smile of thanks. While she was still slightly uneasy when talking to Anya's other Bishies, she was fairly comfortable with the monk after having traveled a bit with him. "Here we are," Anya said, gesturing towards one of the buildings. "Orientation." Naomi looked up obediently, and couldn't help but laugh. "What's so funny?" Anya asked. "It looks so… normal!" Naomi said, shaking her head. "That kinda building doesn't belong here!" "People seem to think normal stuff in the middle of a bizarre place will make you feel better." Anya shrugged, though she did give the ordinary-looking building a strange look. "Well… good luck on your travels, Naomi." The young woman blinked, then frowned. "You're not gonna wait for me?" Anya suddenly looked a bit sheepish and a tad uncomfortable. "Um, well, it's been three days since I last got to walk. I'd like to make it to the next town, at least. I hear they've got Teleporter Services there." At Naomi's blank look she explained, "They can teleport you to different parts of the Bishie World." "Oh." Sano looked from trainer to newbie trainer, and a strange expression crossed his face when he saw Naomi cast her eyes down and mutter that one syllable. Then, he said, "Missie, m'leg's sore. I demand one night in a hotel. Here." "Here?" Anya turned to give him a startled look. "Why didn't you say so? Let's head to a doctor's for you and check it out, okay?" "Che, it's not that bad," Sano muttered, flushing at her concern. "Just needs some rest." Catching on to Sano's idea, Chichiri cut in, "I think we ought to stock up on supplies if we're gonna teleport, n'da." He flashed Naomi a grin. Anya rolled her eyes. "Okay, we'll do that." "I need to buy a laptop," Heero added quietly. "And I need new supplies to keep my sword in shape," Kenshin said, then added quickly, "de gozaru yo." "Fine! Fine, I say!" Anya threw up her hands. "We'll stay the night. Look, Naomi. We'll find a hotel and book a couple of rooms. One sec." She pulled out her Dex, then ran over to one of the other trainers, apparently asking for something. She ended up running back with a piece of paper and a pencil. She scribbled some numbers down, then handed the paper to Naomi. "There, that's my number. Use that on your Dex when you get one, and you'll get me. We'll tell you where we are, so when you're done sightseeing an' all you can hang out with us. Mmkay?" Naomi smiled. "Sure, thanks!" She took the paper and put it away, then couldn't help but smile at Anya's Bishies. To her surprise (and minor embarrassment), Sano winked at her before pretending to limp towards his trainer. Anya sighed. "Honestly, Sano, you ought to watch out for hurting yourself like that." "I can watch after myself fine, Missie." "Don't you say 'fine' to me. We're finding that hotel and getting you some ice. See ya later, Naomi," the older trainer added politely before dragging her Bishie away. Amused, the rest of her group followed. Naomi watched them go, a small smile on her face. Wow. That Sano's not bad, for a Sano. Heh. She turned and looked at the building again, which resembled her father's office. Okay, now what… I guess I should go in… The young woman did so, finding it even stranger that the office building had swinging doors. She'd expected something a tad more… unusual… to be used as a door. The lobby of the building was huge, littered with furniture and old magazines. Picking one up curiously, the young woman discovered they all had something to do with Bishies, including the ones that greatly resembled Seventeen, Gaming Tips Monthly, or even Gardening. A newspaper had an article with an interview with a Trigun Bishonen, Vash, about how his obsession of doughnuts had led him to accidentally destroy an entire city. Another article had a picture of a Harry Potter in his late teens, with the title of Order of the Phoenix: Deep Angst or Just Annoying? A small cough made the young woman jump and turn. She flushed when she saw that a lady was sitting behind a desk there. She walked up. "Um, hi." "New trainer, dear?" the young woman asked. Naomi nodded. "Just head up to floor two and ask for Professor Kamira. She'll help you out." "Okay, uh, thanks." Naomi looked about, then spotted an elevator. As she approached it, the elevator opened, revealing a group of young men being followed (and in some cases, dragged) by their Bishoujo. One young man was being dragged by a Tira, a Sorcerer Hunters Bishoujo. She had used her whip to tie him up, and the young man was trying to escape her. Another young man was pouting, and Naomi had to take another look to realize why- he, unlike the others, had a Bishonen following him. The Bishonen looked quite happy to be where he was, but the young man seemed to think that today wasn't such a good time. Naomi stepped away to let them pass. One or two of them noticed her, and grinned. One waved. The others were a bit too focused on their Bishies to notice, for various reasons. The door of the elevator was beginning to close when a voice cried, "Wait!" Naomi quickly held out an arm to stop the doors as a blur of white and blue came through. Then she removed her arm, and pressed floor two. "Wow, thanks," the blur panted. "I hate waiting for elevators to go back and forth!" "No problem." Naomi found that the blur turned out to be a young woman, perhaps younger than herself; the blue part of the blur was the girl's shirt, and the white her shorts, with a red emblem resembling a dragon on the right part of said shorts. "I'm Sara," the girl said, holding out a hand after a moment. "Naomi," the other replied, accepting the hand. "Are you new, too?" Sara nodded. "Yup. What do you think we're gonna do on floor two?" Naomi paused. "Well, I'd guess we're getting those cell phone thingies. Another trainer said they were called Dexes." "Like in Pokemon?" "I guess." At this, the doors to the elevator opened, and the two young women stepped out to take a look around. Naomi blinked, then said, "Oh my God, this is my high school!" "What?!" Naomi then checked herself, blushing. "No, no, sorry. It just looks like a high school in here!" Indeed it did. The hallway, while not filled with students running to class, did have lockers along the walls. A water fountain sat right outside one of the classes. As far as Naomi could see, the entire floor was one long hallway that imitated a school hallway. The girls made their way down the hallway, peeking through doors to see what they had inside. Some had groups of people- one was another small group of guys, one a group of girls, and some Naomi couldn't really tell. Some of the classrooms were empty and locked. There was a list of names outside each door, and after a few minutes, Sara suggested that they were the names of the students inside each class. Hoping to discover where they were supposed to go, they started investigating each list they came across. They were reading down one list when a voice said, "Hi! You must be my next class!" Sara jumped, and Naomi turned to see someone watching them amusedly. She had very long, black hair that was cut into a point at the very bottom. She wore very casual clothing- jeans and a shirt- under a white lab coat. "I'm Professor Kamira. But call me Kami-chan, okay?" The professor in question ed. "Uh, okay," Naomi said. "What're we gonna do up here?" "Just some basic stuff," Kami-chan replied. "You know, tell you a couple of rules, give you some stuff, let you take a look about at what types of Bishies you may like, and so on." She paused, then added, "I think you're the last two coming in this hour. Well, we can always check, can't we? Let's get going!" The three did not have too far to go; it turned out that Kami-chan's room had been locked, but the lights were on and a few other girls sat in said classroom. The room in question also greatly resembled a room from a high school. The desks were almost uncomfortably small, and crowded together in the middle of the room. A larger desk sat in one corner underneath a television, and the blackboard had scribbles all over, ranging from Bishonen 101 to JACK-KUN WUZ HERE. Pictures of Bishies doing a number of things hung all over the room. "Take a seat," Kami-chan said. Sara and Naomi obeyed, finding it slightly unnerving to find that there were exactly two desks free. Naomi sat next to a girl who was sleeping, and Sara sat in a corner. "All right, I think you're all here now." Kami-chan grinned. "I'm Kami-chan, your Professor. We're here to talk about Bishies and general rules in this world, and whether or not this world is truly right for you. We'll have my Bishies Misty, Starfire, Beastboy, and Izzy talk to you for a bit." Sounds good, Naomi thought as said Bishies came into the room as if on cue. She smiled, recognizing the middle two from Teen Titans, and one each from Pokemon and Digimon. I can't wait to hear how you meet up with future Bishies. This is gonna be so cool! "But before we get started," Kami-chan said suddenly, "we'll be observing a moment of silence…" Oh no, I hate those… why can't we skip that and get to the good stuff? Naomi glanced about and, judging by the other girl's expressions (other than the one who was sleeping), she was not alone in these thoughts. "…for you all to admire and coo at my beautiful hair." WHAT?! Newbies and Bishies alike face-faulted at this statement, spoken in a very calm, knowing voice. Naomi looked up to see if her Professor was serious, and was a bit nervous to see what she was. Oh jeez… it's a female Hotohori… "Dear Trainer, can we not move on to the more pressing matters and have them admire your hair at a later time and space?" Starfire suggested quietly, a small smile on her face. "My hair is a pressing matter!" "Yes, but, dear trainer, you may have more time at the end of the lesson to have them admire you." Kami-chan considered this for a moment. For a very long moment. THUD. Misty dropped her giant mallet to the ground, shaking her head. "She takes too long thinking," she proclaimed, "as usual. Therefore, we shall give you your lesson until Kami-chan recovers. Let it be known that anybody who speaks while I'm speaking shall gain the same fate as my trainer, only ten times worse." Izzy rolled his eyes and went to the television to turn it on. As most teenagers do when in a class, Naomi immediately went into "Class Movie" mode and settled down to stare blankly at the screen for the next few minutes…