"Hey, girlie…wake up. C'mon, it's not naptime!"

I groaned, squinting my eyes shut and rolling over onto my stomach. One hand rose into the air, trying to fend off whoever it was that intent on ruining my sleep. Soon, I could feel the owner of the voice poking my side in a manner very reminiscent of my mother, and it was all I could do to not start whining like a 12 year old.

"Go'way… I'm sleeping." I grunted, pushing the offending hand away with an overly dramatic burst of effort, my entire body rolling over to follow the hand's motion.

"Sorry, but you have to get up. No matter where you are, laying in the middle of the road isn't a good ide-TAMAHOME! Don'ttouch that! That motorcycle isn't yours, and you don't even know what it is for goodness sake!" The voice, a girl's voice, sounded exasperated as she berated this 'Tamahome'.

For a split second, all I could think about was this shrill ringing in my ears from the girl's screech… then it hit me. Motorcycle? My baby! I rolled onto my feet so fast I slammed my forehead right into the girl's chin.

"Owwww… sonuva…" I trailed off, still gripping my head in pain. The girl that I hit had rolled back into someone's arms, one hand over her chin, the other gripping the chin strap to my helmet. She must have removed that before I woke up.

"Are you ok 'Lia?" The boy who caught her asked worriedly, one hand hovering over the girl's face as if he wasn't sure what to do with it. She just nodded, shooing him away as she righted herself and rubbed her chin tenderly.

"I'm fine, Tama. I told you to leave her bike alone, didn't I?" She joked, turning to smile at me as the boy named Tamahome spluttered something about how it wasn't his fault she was so accident prone.

"But I'm su~ure I could get a couple of pieces of gold for it at least! It's a really unusual color you know. There are a lot of people that'd pay big for that." Tamahome whined, eyeing my Kawasaki Ninja with a calculating glance.

"Tama, there is nobody in the Bishi World who would pay gold for motorcycle casings. Are you crazy?" Lia exploded, rounding on her friend with a frightening look that made the boy shrink away in fear.

"Fairings." I coughed, rubbing the back of my head as I took in the scene before me.

"scuse me?" Lia asked, confused, as she turned back to me.

"Fairings. They're called fairings on a sport bike…not casings. Sorry. And just one piece on that bike can fetch at least a couple hundred bucks in good condition on ebay. They're expensive little suckers…. But if you so much as think of dismantling my baby, I'll hurt you. A lot." I explained, tacking on the threat as Tamahome inched towards my bike again.

"I'm sorry… my Tamahome doesn't mean any harm. It's just in his nature, ya know? I'm Lailia, by the way, but you can just call me 'Lia." The girl smiled sheepishly through her introduction, one hand shoved into her long brown hair in a nervous gesture, the other held out for me to shake.

I took the proffered hand and shook, looking at her dead on for the first time. She was a fair skinned girl, with long brown hair and bright green eyes. She was a tiny one, maybe 5 foot even, if that, and she looked even smaller when standing next to Tamahome, who towered over her with no problem. Covering her small frame were a blue hoodie and white capris, with a belt slung cockeyed over her hips that was decorated with small silver and black balls.

I felt like night and day standing next to this girl, which struck me as funny, as it was rare that I ever cared. But standing next to her, I stood a good head taller, with tanned skin from being out in the sun all day. My shoulder length blond hair was smashed into a low ponytail, the bangs plastered to my forehead in a cruel form of helmet hair and my blue eyes were almost assuredly bloodshot from work all day. Where she was wearing bright, sunny colors, I was dressed in flat soled racing boots, faded blue jeans, and a black and blue racing jacket.

"Name's Danielle, but I go by Danny." I replied after the pause, and dropped my hand back down to my side, looking around in curiosity.

"Say, how'd you get your bike here anyway…just out of curiosity." Lia asked as I picked up my bike and turned the ignition switch off. I could only shrug in reply, unsure.

"Dunno… I don't even know where here is." I said slowly, dusting off the control panel carefully with my sleeve.

"You know that link you clicked on in the email? The one that took you to the bishi site?" She grinned as she spoke, but her grin turned to a frown when I shook my head.

"I was on my bike when this weirdness happened. I know I got on the internet because my phone freaked out, but I dunno what I clicked on. Hang on a second." I dug my phone out of my pocket, flipped the screen up, and stared at the website still loaded on the browser. The website was too big and graphic intensive to show up properly on the tiny screen, and all that was visible was a block of text reading 'make me a trainer!' that was highlighted in yellow to show that it had been clicked on.

"That's a way cool phone! A sidekick? I didn't know Motorola made them. But it shows you how long I've been here, the sidekick was just being released to the public when I left home." Lia laughed, standing up straight and stretching her neck out to peer at the small phone in my hands.

"They just started. This one is their first model." I said as way of explanation, handing her the phone carefully.

She grinned, playing with the controls as soon as her fingertips came in contact with them. "Well, looks like you clicked the link on accident, but it would have happened eventually anyway, so oh well." She said absentmindedly, having just discovered the Sudoku and PacMan games on the phone.

"So what is this place then? Better yet, where is this place?" I asked, looking around once again. We were sitting on the edge of a paved road, rolling grassy hills extending for miles to the east and south, fluffy white clouds and a bright blue sky framing the prairie-esque scene. To the north, I could just faintly make out the hazy image of a city, and to the west, a forest extended beyond my line of site, becoming a grey-blue smudge at the edge of the horizon.

"This is the bishi-world. It's a place where trainers, like you and me, can capture and co-exist with bishounen and bishoujo from our favorite anime, manga, books and games. Like Tamahome here." She explained, handing me back my phone and draping an arm over Tamahome's neck. Seeing as she had to stand up on her tiptoes and he still hunched over to accommodate her, it was a funny site indeed.

"Wait a second… Suzaku no shichi-tenshi Tamahome." I asked incredulously, doing a double take once Lia's words sank in properly. "Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi?" I squinted, staring at the boy who, admittedly, looked exactly like the anime character. I had assumed that the boy was just dressing up in costume.

Lia nodded, though, her wavy hair flying everywhere, and catching Tamahome in the face. He spit out a mouthful of the stuff as she clung to his arm and smiled brightly.

"Are you kidding me?" I muttered, backing away slowly, my hand coming in contact with the side of my bike as I kept my gaze locked on the pair in front of me. "This is a dream… no way this is real… you're one crazy wacked out nut job, you know that?"

"Tamahome!" Lia shouted, but by the time that they had reacted, I was rocketing away from them, picking up speed as fast as I could.

After about 10 minutes of zooming along at a steady pace, I realized why that girl had seemed so shocked to see a bike in this place. These roads were horrible. Well, okay, not horrible. For walking paths and maybe four wheeled vehicles it'd be okay, but they were bumpy and a bit difficult to navigate. Plus, with all the wide open space and the wind whipping through the area, it was like being sucked into a semi-truck on the highway.

"Crap, I forgot my helmet back there." I groaned, hunkering down behind the windshield for what little protection it offered.

Fairly soon, I came upon the city I had seen earlier, the buildings growing and taking shape, multiplying and spanning out over at least a good two mile radius.

As I coasted up to the gate, applying the brakes to slow even more, a guard stepped away from the gate and moved up to my side.

"Can I see your I.D. ma'am?" He asked, eying my bike as I dug into my jeans.

"Sure thing, Officer. Here you go." I smiled, handing him my license.

"Ma'am, I need to see a dex, not a card." He said apologetically, handing the plastic card back to me and waiting patiently, a knowing smile on his face.

"Huh? Dex?" I echoed, confusion etching itself across my face as I tried to figure out what he was asking.

"Yes ma'am. I take it you're new here?" He asked kindly, one handing coming to rest on the side of my bike.

"Yea, but, a license is a valid form of ID in all states." I argued, license still in hand as if he'd take it back and laugh the whole thing off as a joke.

"I'm very sorry ma'am, but I'm going to have to ask you to get off the bike. You'll need to go up to the orientation center first." He explained, taking my bike and wheeling it behind his post.

"You've got to be kidding, this isn't right! You can't just take my bike!" I was definitely confused, and a bit irate, by now. Was this whole town crazy?

"Rei, can you please escort this young lady to the orientation center?" The guard asked a girl who had been sitting just off to the side, watching the whole exchange in quiet amusement.

"Of course. Follow me please." The girl stood, and it was all I could do not to gawk. She was dressed in a traditional looking Shinto outfit, loose red pants and a white yukata. Her raven black hair fell loose down her back past her backside, but her violet eyes were what really made me jealous. No contacts had ever made my eyes look that realistically purple, they were gorgeous. She almost looked like Hino Rei, from Sailor Moon.

"Well? Come on." She called from ahead of me, waving a hand to motion me forward.

"This is just insane man." I groaned, lurching after her with a sigh.

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A.N.

Whew! Twice the length of the last two chapters! I'm working my way up in length.

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their reviews and favs.

PeaceLoveOcelot – Thanks so much for another review! Sorry you were picturing a stick figure, I hope Danielle's description helps a little. No more little stick figures, they may get sucked into the engine! ^_^ As for catching bishi with her bike, she's gonna learn early on why a sport bike wasn't rated for off road travel. Although she may find a use for it yet… ^_^

Lady Demoonica Darkmoon – would it be too fannish to glomp you right now and squee? Thank you for the review, and the favorite and everything! Like I said to PLO, I hope that the description in this chapter helped clear up Danielle's appearance a little bit. ::glomp::

Ducky – I'm glad that the story makes you happy, although passing out may not be too healthy ^_~. I loved these kind of stories a lot, especially Songwind and LDD's stories. So I couldn't resist trying my hand at writing one myself.

Eternal Star – Thanks so much for the review! Sorry the opening seemed so sad, but it'll all get resolved, I swear!

As always, if anyone wants to create a trainer for this story, please don't hesitate to email me at sontsunami 06 aol .com (minus the spaces)

Ja ne!

Son Tsunami