NOTE - this has been revised for spelling and grammar. I guess I probably shouldn't be working on this at 1am. ; Thank you Kiki Hayashi for pointing out my mistakes, I hope I caught them all this time around! As for the squares, I don't see any odd breaks in the paragraphs or anything, I'm sorry. I tried deleting all the spaces and re-entering them. If it persists, please let me know!
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Lia was sweating and breathing heavily by the time she and Tamahome reached the gates to the city. A guard stepped out to greet them once they reached the entrance, asking for identification.
In response, Lia pulled out her Dex, flipping it open and instructing it to identify her.
"Trainer 'Lia, age 17. 5 bishounen 2 bishoujo captured…" She flipped the dex shut to keep it from listing her every bishi, and put it away into her backpack when the guard nodded his approval.
"Say, do you know where the owner of that thing is?" Tamahome asked when he noticed the girl's bike by the guard station.
"Huh? Oh, the young lady that thought I was crazy?" He asked, turning to see what they were pointing at.
"That'd be her…" Tamahome muttered, 'Lia nodding her agreement.
"I had my Rei take her up to the orientation center. It's just up the road and to your left." He replied, pointing up the road and motioning them to go on.
The duo smiled, bowing in thanks to the guard before turning to walk up the road into the city.
"Oh! And if you do happen to see her, tell her she can come pick up her bike once she gets her gear!" He shouted to their retreating backs, and received a wave in response.
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1 Hour Earlier, With Danielle
"So you're Rei from Sailor Moon?" I asked the frustrated woman for the fourth time in as many minutes.
"Yes… for the last time, my name is Hino Rei, I am a Sailor Scout from the Crystal Tokyo Territory. Ask me again and you'll regret it… honestly…worse than any Usagi I've ever known…" She all but growled. There was a vein pulsing in her forehead and her fingers were twitching as if they wanted to choke something.
"Ok, sheeze. Can't blame me for being disbelieving…" I grumbled, following her inside a building labeled 'orientation center'.
"Oh, good afternoon Miss Rei. How is your trainer doing these days?" A lady behind the front desk asked kindly upon seeing us.
Rei smiled back, nodding to the lady in acknowledgement. "He's just fine Miss Jackie. And how are you today?"
The woman named Jackie just laughed, shaking her head and wiping tears from her eyes. "Always the polite one, you are. I wish my dear Wufei would take a page out of your book… too bad he doesn't listen to women… I should find a Noin or a Hilde to smack him around a little, what do you think?" This was all said with a perfectly sweet smile, as if the woman wasn't threatening inadvertent bodily harm to her friend.
"I think you should stop threatening me with those two and register the obviously new trainer waiting on you… onna." This was said with an underlying tone of impatience, as if this routine was a daily occurrence. The speaker was a young man with black hair slicked back into a ponytail, and sharp, calculatingly dark eyes that observed the entire exchange with an air of boredom.
"Oh hush, Fei. I'm getting to it." Jackie was still all smiles as she turned to me, "Hello dear, welcome to the orientation center. If I could just get some information to satisfy the system, Professor Kinnian is going to be starting the next orientation in about 10 minutes. She'll explain everything to you, get you geared up, and send you on your way as a bishi trainer!"
In my opinion, this woman was just a little too perky, but I just nodded to show that I understood.
"Ok…name?" She asked, fingers poised over the keyboard.
"Danielle."
"Age?"
"23"
"Any medical problems?"
"No…"
"Ok then," Jackie mumbled, more to herself than to me it seemed, "You've been entered into the system. This is all basically administrative and will only be accessed in case of an emergency. Should you choose to leave the bishi world at any time, any information accrued while you were here will stay in our system, but it will be inaccessible from earth. Should you truly wish to leave, you would be unable to return, so think carefully before you make the decision. Consider it a last resort should all else fail. Ok?" The perky trainer informed me of all this in a way that said she had given the same speech to hundreds of other trainers before me, and she would give the same speech to hundreds after me, but once she finished she brightened almost instantly.
"Ok." I agreed, still not sure I bought this whole 'pokemon-esque other world' bit.
"Great!" There was the tooth aching sweetness that had briefly disappeared, "Rei, you're good to go! Tell Jimmy-kun I said hey! And Danielle, please follow Wufei, he'll show you where to go!" Rei bowed to Jackie, then left with a wave, while Wufei stood reluctantly, walking around the counter to lead Danielle down a hall to our left.
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Jackie waved until all were out of site, and then flopped back In her chair dramatically.
Looking out the windows towards the Rei's retreating figure, and the distant woods, she smiled wistfully. "I really miss being out there. I wonder if I could get a vacation soon, maybe head up to the Gundam Wing area for a while…" She pondered this with a smile, imagining herself out in the world again, just her and her bishounen.
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"Through here, onna. Just have a seat and the professor will explain everything." Wufei instructed me, pointing to an open door at the end of the hall.
"Thank you." I replied, pushing past the stiff bishounen to walk into the classroom.
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"Feh…onnas…" Wufei muttered, waiting until the girl disappeared through the door before turning back to the lobby and his trainer, "Jackie better not have erased my game!" With the thought of his PacMan game in peril, Wufei rushed away.
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I stepped into the classroom, avoiding the gazes of the few other people sitting in desks scattered throughout.
Choosing a seat towards the middle of the room, I sat quietly, waiting for this Professor K to show up.
"Hey." I turned in my seat at the sound, coming to face a boy that looked just a little older than me, who was leaning forward eagerly.
"Yes?" I asked impatiently, not in the mood to be social at the moment.
"Is this for real? Or are we, like, on Punk'd or something?" He was grinning as he spoke, looking around as if hoping to find the hidden cameras.
"I don't know, I'm new too." I said after a long pause in which he continued to just sit and stare.
"Oh… well… do you think that we're gonna be done anytime soon? I'm hungry." His demeanor didn't change in the slightest, despite the fact that I was trying to ignore him, he only barreled right into the next question.
After a few more questions along the same line of though, to which I continuously answered 'I don't know, I'm new too.', the professor walked in and everyone faced forward and stopped talking.
"Good afternoon class. My name is Professor Kinnian, although I'm usually referred to as Professor K… but call me Special K and you'll find yourself on the wrong end of my Sesshoumaru's temper." Just as with Jackie, this was all delivered in such a cheerful tone, it took us all a minute to realize that it was a very deadly threat.
"Ok, now that I've got that out of the way, welcome to the Bishi world. If you remember, you received an email to a website that offered to make you a trainer. Through that link, you were brought here. While here, you will not be remembered on earth, but if you go back, it'll be like you never left. Think of it like you put a bookmark in one book and moved on to another. Ok? Now, does anyone want to go home. Mind you, it's a one way trip." The professor cautioned, scanning the room for any signs of movement. After a brief hesitation, she moved on, clapping her hands together. "No? Ok then! First, I'll give you a couple rules to live by. If you learn nothing else, you better learn these rules!"
I found myself nodding along with the rest of the class, everyone silent as we took in the information. Looking around, I noticed a few people even had pens and paper out, taking notes.
"First of all. Bishounen and Bishoujo don't age like you and I… well, they do, but they also evolve. There are three main levels and two known sub-levels of Bishi evolution. The main three are Chibi, San and Sama. Chibi is the first level, that of a child. San is the mid level, and Sama is highest in the known records. The two sublevels are Tan, where a bishi doesn't fully evolve from a Chibi to a San, and Chama is the level between San and Sama. The first rule is this. You can capture any level bishi, except chibis. To capture a chibi is like kidnapping a child." While she spoke, she unclipped a ball from her belt and tossed it into the air.
In a burst of red light, a full grown, very bored looking Sesshoumaru stood before us, eyeing his trainer expectantly.
"Just think of it this way. To take a chibi, you'd not only have to deal with the law, but also very pissed off parents. So, is a scared and confused Sesshoumaru pup worth facing down a pissed off this?" As she spoke, she pointed at her bishounen, and those who knew about the InuYasha anime shuddered, myself included. The thought of an angry Sesshoumaru bearing down on me, claws glowing a poisonous green, made me shiver, avoiding the demon's cold gaze as he surveyed us all. After a moment, he burst out laughing, tears in his eyes.
"Ahahaha, K-chan, that's priceless! Did you see their faces?" He managed to get out between laughs, pointing at us with a shaky hand. We all backed away carefully, uncomfortable with being near a Sesshoumaru that looked like he was ready to pass out laughing.
"Hehe… well, just so you know, now that he's traumatized you, no two bishis are the same. Just because they look like the characters from the series doesn't mean they'll act the same. For example, my Sesshoumaru here never had an InuYasha brother, or an Inutaisho father, so he never had to fight for the tetsusaiga, or lose his arm. So he isn't cold and evil. There are plenty out there who are, but there are just as many that aren't." Professor K explained, patting Sesshoumaru on the back and smiling in a reassuring manner at us.
One girl to my left raised her hand once the professor finished.
"Yes?" The woman pointed at her and waited patiently.
"Ano… you said that he didn't have an Inu-papa… but how's that possible… Inutaisho is Sesshoumaru's dad, right?" The girl asked, poking her fingers together in a Hinata fashion and keeping her eyes glued to the desk as she spoke.
"Guh… you're asking me genetics questions? This is gonna take a while…" The professor laughed, turning to the chalk board.
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Half an hour later, Professor K wrapped up her lecture, eyeing the clock as she set up a machine in the corner.
"Ok, so we've got all the basics covered… if everyone would line up, we can get your bishi balls and dexes set up, and you can get out of here." Professor K finally said, as everyone stood to line up.
"What I'm going to do is take a small blood sample and run it through the computer system over here. The blood sample is what will link you to your bishounen and bishoujo. So, who's first?" It was probably not the best question for her to ask while waving around a syringe with a very sharp looking needle.
After a moments silence where nobody spoke and more than a few people tried to edge away, one girl was pushed to the front. As if the ice was broken, the rest of the class went along smoothly, blood being drawn and bishi balls being handed out as they were created.
"Ok, those are your first set of bishi-balls. After this, if you need more, you can come back to any orientation center and have more created for a small fee. The first time you open up your dex, you'll be walked through how to set it up. Now, unless anyone has any questions, we're going to move down the hall, were there are a group of bishounen and bishoujo waiting, ones that came here of their own free will to be captured so they could have a say in who their trainer was. If you decide not to capture one here, you will have 2 weeks to capture your first bishi in the wild, or you'll automatically be sent home. Any questions?" When nobody said anything, the professor headed to the door, motioning for all of us to follow.
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Stepping into the second, larger room, we were greeted with the sight of an anime convention come to life. In the corner were a group of bishoujo from Excel Saga, Naruto and Gundam Wing chatting, while bishounen from anime I recognized, and others I didn't, were hanging out in small groups throughout the room.
The other new trainers split up, wandering around the room and chatting with the bishi. Or jumping them, squealing about how cool it was to finally meet their favorite characters. It was a 50 50 split on reactions. Myself, I just stood in the corner, observing for the first 10 or so minutes.
"Yo." I whirled around, coming face to face with a smiling Kakashi from Naruto.
"Yo." I replied, raising a hand in greeting.
"And you are?" He asked, leaning against the wall next to me.
"Danielle. Nice to meet you." On the outside I was calm and collected, but my inner fangirl had beat the sarcastic disbelieving part of me into a whimpering mass of tears as it squealed at the sight of a Kakashi talking to me.
"Wanna be my trainer and get outta here?" This was accompanied with that crescent eyed smile that was so completely Kakashi.
I blinked, completely floored at the suddenness of the question. "Um… that was…quick?" I said uncertainly, pretty sure that he was joking.
"Eh," He shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "You didn't scream or jump me, and you seem pretty sane to me, so unless you've got something you're hiding, I'm good."
"Are you sure?" My hand rested on a bishi ball on the new belt sitting on my hips.
"Yup." He was grinning again, even with that mask on you could tell that it was a cheesy grin, but it was completely Kakashi.
"If you're sure." I said, the ball resting in my palm as I stalled, not sure of how to proceed. He just shook his head, poking the ball with his finger, and in a flash of light, he disappeared, the ball shaking slightly, but then falling still.
"Awesome!" I punched the air, unable to resist. My first bishounen, a Hatake Kakashi.
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Once I figured out the mechanism for the bishi ball, I released Kakashi, who reappeared in a flash of red as the dex in my pocket beeped at me.
"Maybe you should set that thing up?" Kakashi offered, poking at the lump in my pocket where the dex was.
"Yea, I suppose… that's not an offer to get it out for me.." I warned him as his hand started to wander. After he moved away, I pulled the mini computer out, and opened the screen. It flashed to life, the screen a blank white.
"Name?" I was thrown off guard as it prompted me for my name.
"…Danielle?" I said hesitantly, unsure if it was voice activated or if I had to press a button to start recording information.
"Age?"
"23."
"One new bishounen captured. Hatake Kakashi, San stage. Nickname?" As it said this, the screen flashed again, this time to a picture of Kakashi. I looked over at the bishounen, who shook his head violently, crossing his arms in an x to show that he didn't want a nickname.
"No nickname." I said, and closed the dex again when it beeped it's confirmation.
"Great! Now let's go eat, I'm hungry!" He grinned, grabbing my arm and leading me out of the room before I could argue.
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Stepping out into the sunlit streets again, I shielded my eyes with one hand until they adjusted, the other still in Kakashi's grip.
"Danny?" I heard off to my right, and turned to see the two people I ditched a few hours ago running up the road to greet me.
"Oh.. hey Lia. Sorry about the whole 'you're crazy and I'm running for it' thing."
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Bishi Dex
Tamahome – a main character from Fushigi Yuugi, he is one of seven celestial warriors who guard the Suzaku Priestess Miaka. He is a skilled fighter in hand to hand combat, but has no proficiency with magic or modern weapons.
Rei – Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon, she can transform into a magical warrior with the ability to bend fire to her will and use it for attacks.
Wufei – Pilot of Shenron/Shenlong in the Gundam Wing series, he has a bit of an attitude when it comes to women on the battlefield or anywhere else that isn't a traditionally woman's place. He's the youngest of the pilots, at only 15 in the show, but is one of the most serious.
Noin and Hilde – two females from the same Gundam Wing series.
Sesshoumaru – InuYasha's older half brother, he is a dog demon who wants nothing more than to take his brother's sword and be rid of the half brother for good.
InuYasha – a half demon with the same father as Sesshoumaru, he's less refined and more hot headed than Sesshoumaru.
InuTaishou/Inu Papa – As far as I know, InuYasha and Sesshoumaru's dad doesn't have a name, so he is most often referred to by fans as InuTaisho or Inu Papa. He's only been seen a couple of times, but we know that he ruled the western lands before he was killed by a man who loved InuYasha's mother.
Kakashi – a perverted Jounin ninja from Naruto, Kakashi wears a mask so nobody knows what his face looks like, and is always seen with his hands in his pockets or reading Icha Icha Paradise, a perverted book written by one of Naruto's other teachers.
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A.N.
Thank you so much for all the reviews so far. I'm sorry this took longer to post than the last few chapters, but this was one of the harder parts to write, because it was all dialogue for the most part. I actually have two or three more pages written out of things Professor K explains that I never put in, but I think I'm happy with this ^_^. 8 pages total, the chapters are starting to get longer! Wee!
As always, if you want to have a trainer appear in the story, feel free to email me at sontsunami06 aol. com without the spaces. Give me the trainer's name, age, appearance, personality, how long they've been in the bishi world, what bishi they have, what stage the bishi is, and how the bishis interact with you and each other.
Thanks!
Ja ne,
Tsunami