Chapter 6- A First Naomi filed out of the class room after the other girls, eyes wide and feeling much, much more alert than she had been at the beginning of the Orientation Presentation. Her mind seemed to be filled to the brim- and then some! - with information and laws and what sorts of Bishies she would like to have in her company. Of course, a lot of the presentation had been things Anya had told her about; not leaving one's Bishies a far distance away, for example. Or useful ways of traveling, or places to begin a career if one wished to get a steady job in the Bishie world. Naomi had no real interest in settling down with a job, of all things- that was expected back home, but one didn't need a job here! All one had to do was have a Bishie willing to battle another, and the victor would receive credits they could use to pay for things. But she'd learned something else that was interesting, too- the reason that one entered the Bishie world via Internet. "The Bishie world is a complex setup, even more so than your old world if you would believe it! Simply put, it's partially digital, giving you the OPTION of battling, it's partially fantasy- well, how else would Bishies exist? - and partially reality. That's your part of the world." And now, with her mind bursting with all of this good fortune, she and her fellow classmates were off to meet with the best and last part of the presentation- -their Bish-balls, Dexes, and a real-life, dream come true Bishie. Naomi could not properly identify the emotions she was feeling at that moment. She felt slightly dizzy, and wanted to talk but didn't really want anyone talking to her. Her stomach suddenly seemed filled with butterflies, and for some reason she couldn't bring herself to stop patting at her hair. Kami-chan, her professor, noticed this. Kindly, she said, "It's okay. I know it's intimidating meeting a Bishie with such flat hair, but you'll be fine! I've seen girls with much, much worse hair. Imagine having your hair frizzed up like you were on lightning! One girl was actually struck by lightning before she came in," she added thoughtfully. "But anyway, what was I saying?" Naomi said, "You were thinking about comforting that girl," she said, pointing at random. "Oh yes, thank you." And Kami-chan wandered off, her Bishies following in her stead. And Naomi was once again left alone to try to calm herself down. Thankfully, she wasn't the only one. One girl was putting on so much makeup she began to resemble a clown, albeit a worried one. Another pulled at her shirt. Sara was mumbling to herself about acting like an idiot in front of a Bishie, adding the syllable "Ku" rapidly at the end of each sentence. Finally, the group reached the fifth floor of the executive-type building, and entered the hallway there hesitantly. This particular hallway resembled a rich hotel, and when Naomi glanced in one of the rooms they passed she could see they all had higher ceilings and chandeliers. Apparently this was to be their meeting place. They reached the room they were to enter a few moments later. The door was closed and the window was covered, causing more of them to look about nervously. Kami-chan walked up before them and regarded the group calmly. "You have two major rules in here. One, don't glomp the Bishies unless you and they have already claimed each other. Two, no starting food fights or you get an immediate trip back to your old home. Understood?" Naomi was one of the few to nod, while the rest stared at the door. "All right. Head on in, everyone!" With that, Kami-chan opened the door with a flourish. Naomi looked about to see who would be the first to enter and look about. Finding no one ahead of her, she turned to see that everyone else had huddled behind her, watching her expectantly. Okay, that's not fair! Naomi mentally protested. But when all they did was watch her, she had no choice but to sigh and walk into the room. What looked to be about a hundred handsome young men and fifty beautiful young women turned to see who had entered. Naomi blushed deeply at this, recognizing Bishies instantly. There was Link from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, dressed in his green tunic and white tights, holding an ocarina loosely in one hand. And there, there was Rand from that book series by Robert Jordan, dressed in a pair of black leggings and a shirt with a dragon on it. In one corner, a Duo was animatedly talking to a Yuffie from Final Fantasy 7. A Megumi was comparing her laugh to that of a Naga- they had a whole corner to themselves, and the Bishies nearest them had their fingers rammed into their ears. She was given a light push from behind, and jumped away from the door in embarrassment, knowing she'd been staring. The young woman glanced about again for a place to begin wandering, and decided that one of the long tables with food on it would be a good start. If they had ginger ale, maybe she could calm down a bit more. She was on her way when she heard someone yell, "GIRLS! BABE!" Again, she jumped as a brown and black blur raced at her, and ducked as the blur leaped at her- it went crashing into the table, sending food and drink flying. Other Bishies sighed and moved away. The blur rubbed his head, and then grinned. "Babe! Go on a date with me!" Carrot. Dear God, this is THE Carrot from Sorcerer Hunters! Naomi stared as he jumped from the table as though he'd never been injured, watching her expectantly. "Um," she managed. This seemed good enough for him, since usually he was sent away with a smack and a scream of "Pervert!" "I'm Carrot Glace, the Messenger of Love!" he declared. "Come with me and I shall grant you a gateway to heaven!" Suddenly, he was smacked upside the head. Naomi blinked, realizing that a Chocolate Bishoujo from the same series had appeared. "Darling, I thought we agreed on this!" she scolded, dragging him away. "We both agree on the trainer…." Unable to think of anything better to do, Naomi reached for a bottle of ginger ale and poured herself a drink. For a couple of minutes, she watched the other girls try their luck. One was being harassed by a Sain Bishonen from Fire Emblem 7, Rekka no Ken. He was apparently spouting bad poetry. The girl, far too polite to walk away, looked embarrassed. A Kent Bishonen from the same game ordered Sain away before politely speaking with the girl. Fire Emblem, wow… I wonder what other kinds of game characters there are here!! she thought. She felt a tug on her sleeve, and turned to see a Raenef Demon-Lord Bishonen smiling brightly at her. "Hi! I'm Raenef the... the… the fifth, I think. Eclipse would know, anyways," he said cheerfully. "What's yours?" "I'm Naomi, um, the first." She mentally kicked herself at how stupid that had sounded. "Really? I wish I was a first," he said, giving her an envious look. Then he brightened again. "Wanna play?" "Play what?" she asked. "I dunno. Oh yeah…" he sighed. "Eclipse always says I should be serious. Ahem." He cleared his throat, then boomed, "How dare you ask such an inane question, vermin?!" She stared at him while he looked hopefully at her. "How was that?" he asked. "Very frightening," she assured him, not having the heart to tell him how cute he was. "Really? I can't wait to try on Eclipse!" Naomi glanced away for a moment to think, and then returned her gaze to his. "Are you all captured, or something?" He laughed. "Don't be silly- I mean, do not be foolish, human! We're all here because we wanna be with someone. We volunteered to join with a trainer. After all, this way we get a chance to pick, too." "Huh. That's a cool idea." The two talked for a couple more minutes as Naomi slowly became more comfortable with talking to a person who technically wasn't supposed to exist. She watched as one girl- Naomi recalled her name was Semi-chan- plied a Duo and a Vash Bishonen with doughnuts and soda. Apparently the girl was talking about something very complicated, because Naomi didn't understand half of the words she overheard in the conversation. The two Bishies looked confused as well, but were happy enough with their newfound supplies of sugar. One of the older girls in their group- Haili, Naomi remembered- was speaking to a Cye Bishonen from the anime Ronin Warriors. Naomi remembered this girl's name because Kami-chan had repeatedly noted that this girl's hair rivaled her own, and had looked at Haili suspiciously for the entire class for some reason. "Am I boring you?" Naomi snapped her eyes back to Raenef. "No, it's just so hard to take all of this in," she said honestly. Raenef nodded as another Bishonen came up towards them. "It must be weird. I can't imagine leaving my world for another." "In the manga you kinda did. You went from thief to demon," Naomi pointed out. "Thief to demon?" the new Bishonen asked quietly, looking disapproving of such a thought. After a moment, Naomi said, "You're Tanis Half-Elven from the Dragonlance Series, aren't you?" He nodded. "And you are?" Naomi introduced herself again. Raenef slipped away to speak to one of the other young women as the two went into conversation. Naomi spoke to quite a few Bishies before an hour had passed. After Tanis, she'd met a roaring drunk Tasuki, and had sworn to never capture one no matter how much she loved him in the anime. She met with Link, and a Legolas and Aragorn afterwards. However, despite her temptation to ask Legolas to join her, there was something in the way he and Aragorn had continued to just stare at each other during the conversation. Naomi had nothing against yaoi pairings, but decided she, as a fan girl, was hardly ready to deal with such a thing so early on. She'd politely moved on and left them to their staring. She met some Bishoujo, too, though mostly they were from books she'd read. One was Rhapsody, and another a 13 year old version of Talia from a Mercedes Lackey series. Of course, Firesong from the same series sauntered over and teased her for a bit until a Silverfox dragged him off. Then she met a Relena, who (to her utter surprise) was a very quiet and sweet-sounding girl. This was a novelty to Naomi, who'd never particularly liked said character in the series of Gundam Wing. After a while, she looked around to see how the others were faring, and felt a bit nervous again. Sara had latched herself onto a Yami Yugi from the anime Yu-Gi-Oh, who oddly enough looked perfectly content with his situation. Haili and Cye had wandered over to Kami-chan, the professor, and were speaking quietly with her. I must be the only girl without a Bishie yet. She flushed uncomfortably at some of the more negative thoughts that came with that realization, and downed another cup of ginger ale. "Eeee! Erky, stop hiding in the corner like that! Come out and talk to the people!" "Leave me alone." "You're my escort! A proper lady doesn't go around without her escort, even in public, Erky!" "Stop calling me that." Naomi blinked in surprise, searching about for the pair who was speaking. Amazing! Another pair of Bishies from Fire Emblem- Rekka no Ken! A thoughtful expression passed over her face as she considered an interesting possibility. Oh, I would love to talk to them…Maybe even… "But it's so cute! It rhymes with herky-jerky too, Erky!" "Serra, I'm warning you…" Naomi spotted them, and sensed imminent danger- the one "Serra" had been speaking to was holding a dark book in his hands. He'd pushed his long, dark violet hair back from his face, and his dark eyes were squinted. "Erky, don't you dare cast a spell on me, I'll tell Kami-chan…" "Um, excuse me," Naomi interrupted. Immediately, the two turned to her. Serra, who was a young cleric with bright pink hair, squealed again. "Ohmygosh! It's a trainer, Erky! Hiii! I'm Serra, a cleric of Ostia!" "I'm Naomi." The young woman searched for words, then said simply, "I really enjoy the series about you all. I was wondering if I could speak with you for a while." Serra opened her mouth to reply when Erk, surprisingly, interrupted. "Please, yes! Let's go, um, over there!" With that, he grabbed Naomi by the arm and steered her away from the pink-haired girl, saying, "We'll talk later, Serra!" Bewildered at the turn of events, Naomi let herself be pulled away. The two reached the food table, where Erk stopped and gave her a look of gratitude. "That... woman... drives me insane," he said. She smiled. "I noticed." Hesitantly, the mage smiled back. Now that he wasn't angry anymore, his eyes had returned to looking as though he were brooding over something. "So. Um… are you promoted yet?" she asked politely. "Not yet, but Lord Pent, my mentor, says I am close," he replied. "Neat. What's your favorite spell?" "Out of…?" "Fire and Thunder. Those are the only spells I know you eventually cast," she confessed. "Thunder, it's stronger." The two spoke for a while, and Naomi realized that when Erk was not around Serra, he was positively sane, unlike the others she'd spoken to that night. His tone was calm and measured, his replies thought out before spoken. His only real issue was that he greatly enjoyed comparing himself to his mentor, Lord Pent, and grossly understating his own abilities. Naomi hadn't realized how much time had passed before she was tapped on the shoulder. She turned to see Professor Kami-chan, who was smiling. "Have you picked yet?" she asked. "We're all almost ready to go." The young woman blinked, then swallowed and turned to look at Erk. "Look, um, Erk… would you mind coming with me? I won't call you by that nickname, I promise... and I have no intention of capturing a Serra unless you know her or something-" "It's a done deal," he said, glancing over his shoulder. "If I may be blunt, I would prefer to be trapped in a room with fifty fan girls before returning to being an escort of Cleric Serra." She blinked, wondering at how easy this had been. "Uh, thanks." She turned to Kami-chan. "I guess we're all set, then." "Good. We're off to get your basic equipment, then. Ne, do you need any assistance on camping? We've got a quick, two day course on the fourth floor for newbies…" "I can assist her there," Erk offered. "Okay then! Great! Let's go!" Erk politely nodded, then offered his arm to Naomi. Blushing slightly, she took it. The Anima Mage then led her towards the door, after the other trainers. Oh, what a day… The group of new trainers- as well as their Bishies- found themselves on yet another floor with yet another new scene. This time, it appeared as though the group were walking through either a science lab or a hospital. Peering into the rooms made the issue even more clouded, as there were some rooms where people and Bishies were apparently being checked on, more where scientists were measuring liquid into various bottles, and yet more rooms where the occupants were doing things that kept them from noticing someone that was peeking in on them. Finally, they reached a room where the Professor herded them all in. The room was not very colorful to look at. The walls were white, with no decorations on them. A computer stood in the center of the room, with a number of what looked to be small black and silver cell phones connected to it. A needle rested on a nearby table next to a very bizarre-looking machine. One of the girls had chosen a Goku from the anime DBZ, and she was having a hard time calming the Bishonen down once he saw the needle. He was frantically trying to race out of the room. Thankfully, he slowed down due to the door being closed. "Now then," Kami-chan said as they all turned to her. "This is the newbie's room. Here you shall find the essentials for your beginning days as a trainer. First, I require a blood sample from each of you." The Goku fainted. Kami-chan gave him a disgusted look. "Not from the Bishies, from the trainers," she said, rolling her eyes. "What for?" Sara asked. "It's very simple, actually. We use your blood to help you link to your Bish-balls, where your Bishies will reside. Thus, your Bishies will be linked to you. You'll automatically know who is and who isn't yours." "Oh." Naomi went behind the other girl and pushed her forward. "You first," she told Sara. "I'm a bit tired of beginning the line." Sara glared at her, but when the rest of the group formed up behind Naomi, she had no choice but to step forward as Kami-chan pulled out the needle and beckoned to her. The needle looked very large, but thankfully Kami-chan only took a tiny draw of blood from each person. Of course, said needle wasn't used for everyone- Kami-chan pulled out a new one each time the next trainer stepped up. After the needle was "filled", she would deposit it into the strange looking machine. Then, she'd ask them to step into a connected room, which none of them had noticed beforehand. When Naomi entered with Erk in tow, a man wearing a stained lab coat welcomed them. "Right then, Naomi and… Erk, right?" "Yeah." "Good, right over here then." The man made his way over to what looked to be a duplicate of the machine in the last room, and pulled out a belt, a set of Bish-balls, and one of the cell phones. "Here we are. Put that on and see how it fits." Feeling a bit ridiculous, Naomi took the belt- it was large, mostly black with a silver lining- and put it on. "Good. Next, let's program your Dex." They took a few minutes to do so. The man asked her to repeat a certain number to the Dex once it was on, then vocally added in her name. It was surprising to see quite a bit of information about herself pop up on the small screen, which she found she could enlarge by pulling gently at the edges of the cell phone until it was about the size of a GBA. "Good, good. Now then, here are a handful of Bish-balls. You'll have to order more if you have a need to capture more Bishies. Though normally people these days don't capture many more than ten to fifteen of them." Naomi took the balls and looked at them carefully. They were all tiny, resembling small silver bells as she fastened all but one to her belt. Then she looked up at the man in the lab coat. He was smiling. "All right. Now open that one in your hand by touching that small circle in the center." She obeyed, and jumped when the thing popped, and reappeared in her hand as large as a softball. "Now, just tap this onto your Bishonen's head." Naomi blinked, and looked at Erk. Said Anima Mage was looking at the Bish-ball with a small frown, but nodded when she raised an eyebrow at him. With that, she lightly tapped him on the forehead with the ball. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, Erk's expression ranged from doubt to disbelief as he seemed to dissolve into a red, glowing blur which was sucked into the ball. Naomi gave a cry of surprise and dropped the Bish-ball, staring at it as it started to shake. "Now, don't do that!" the professor exclaimed. "You might break it, durable or not!" She ignored him, watching as the ball slowly stopped shaking, and finally grew still. She then picked up a stick out of nowhere to poke at the Bish-ball. "Oh, stop that," the professor said, rolling his eyes. "Just pick it up; it's not going to hurt you." She blushed, and obeyed. "Now, if you want him to join you, just say his name." Unbidden, memories of listening to the band Destiny's Child appeared in her mind. Naomi shook her head, and then said, "Erk, Anima Mage." Again, there was that strange red glow that outlined the shape of the Bishonen before he actually appeared. Once he did, Naomi noted that Erk was slightly bent forward, index finger extended as though he was preparing to poke at something. He blinked when he realized where he was, and then lowered his hand, blushing slightly. "I didn't know there were rooms in there," he explained. "There are?" Naomi asked, peering at the Bish-ball curiously. "It's so small…" "Of course there are," the professor said. "It used to just be like a storage closet, but nowadays we add technologies to help the Bishies be more comfortable." "That's comforting," Erk muttered. Naomi, unable to find anything to say, busied herself with shrinking the Bish-ball and placing it on the belt. Oddly, she had the feeling that if she'd taken all of the Bish-balls off of the belt, and then mixed them together, she would still know which one belonged to Erk. "Well, that's that. Off you go now," the professor said airily. "I must prepare for the next kid. Shoo." They shooed. It was a strange sensation that filled Naomi as she and her new Bishonen walked down the street. She had a feeling that she absolutely had to be next to her Bishie, and therefore made sure she was walking next to him at all times. Erk seemed to be sharing the same sensation, for he didn't object when they accidentally bumped shoulders once in a while. What's wrong with me? I feel so anxious… She then saw the inn that Anya had directed her to with relief. "There, that's where we're going," she said to Erk. He nodded and quickened his pace. She followed him. "Who are we meeting here again?" "Anya. She's the trainer that I ran into when I first got here." "Hmm." They entered the inn and found to their surprise that Anya had reserved a room for Naomi for the next three days. The man at the desk politely pretended to ignore Naomi's open-mouthed gape of surprise. "But she- I thought she wanted to head out tomorrow!" she said. "She is, miss," the young man replied. "Her room's reservation is cancelled after tomorrow at noon." Naomi sighed. "Oh well. I was hoping to stay with someone experienced for a while, but I'll live. Thanks." The two found the rooms with little difficulty, since Naomi found Heero chasing Sano around the hallway. Heero had a portable hair dryer in his hand, with it on, and an evil gleam in his eye. Sano had his hands over his hair protectively, howling in protest each time he got a blast from the hair dryer in question. "Turn that damn thing off!" Sano yelled. "Oh no, I don't think so," Heero replied. "MISSIE! MAKE HIM STOP!" Naomi and Erk sweat-dropped as Anya came out of one of the doors. Chichiri peeked behind them, as well as Kenshin. Kenshin took one look, flushed, and declared, "I don't know them!" before hiding in the room once more. "Honestly, Heero, will you get over it? It was only a laptop…" Anya muttered, sighing. Heero ignored her- at least, he did until she snatched the hair dryer out of his hand while he ran by with it. He continued to run about after Sano for a minute, then stopped and looked at his hand as though he'd never seen it before. Then he gave his trainer a look that clearly showed his injured dignity before quietly walking back into the room. He didn't once glance back at Sano. Sano, meanwhile, was swearing, eyes still wide as he stared at the hair dryer. Anya turned it off, sighed again, and shook her head. "I can't believe him," she said. "I've never seen a Heero go bonkers… except for that hippie version of a Heero I saw once…" Erk and Naomi shared baffled expressions. In an undertone, Erk said, "Are you sure you know these people?" "Actually, I'm not sure anymore," she whispered back. Anya rolled her eyes. "I can hear you two, you know. So who did you end up with, Naomi?" Naomi jumped and blushed. "Uh, this is Erk. He's from a strategy RPG called Fire Emblem." "Huh. Never heard of it. Nice to meetcha, Erk." Erk muttered something incomprehensible under his breath, but that apparently seemed to satisfy Anya. Still absently wielding the hair dryer, Anya said cheerfully, "Well, why don't we head on in and hang out for a while? We can get some soda and- oh hell, I forgot to get ice. Hang on." "No, no, I'll go," Erk interrupted quickly. "I'll go with you," Sano suggested. However, he was being shoved back into the room by Anya. "And you said your leg was sore. Some sore leg! Get in there!" "Ow, damn it, Missie- OW!" "I'll go with you," Naomi said to Erk, but she too was interrupted when Anya finished shoving Sano inside and proceeded to drag her in. "Oh, come on. He'll live without you for five minutes. It's down at the end of the hall, okay, Erk?" The Anima Mage nodded, then with a reluctant look at his trainer, hurried off. Suddenly, something started to hurt. A lot. Naomi winced as pain lanced through her forehead, and rubbed at it with one hand as she sat down on one of the beds in the room. Sano was sprawled out on the other one. Kenshin was looking out the window, and Heero was nowhere to be seen. "Let's see… they don't really have brand names here, so it's not like there's Coke here. We'll have to make do with Bishie substitutes, but that's okay, they're usually better than the stuff back home," Anya said, rooting through a cooler that had appeared out of nowhere. "Okay…." Naomi shuddered as a bigger wave of pain washed over her. When she opened her eyes, she found that they were very watery, and that the light was too bright. She closed them again. "Hey, are you okay?" Anya asked, turning with an armful of sodas. "Head hurts…" Anya swore and dropped the sodas onto a nearby table. "Oh crap, I completely forgot! Kenshin, go find Erk! He's probably in the same condition!" The redhead- who now greatly resembled a big pink, white and red blob- raced through the door. That was the last thing Naomi saw before she completely blacked out.