"Sounds good to me," Belle said with a little smile. "Looks like we're having lunch first, then back to town." She gathered some wood for a fire so they could get the water boiling for the ramen, humming to herself.

Seth was still busy looking around with something akin to amazement in his eyes, still not sure this wasn't a dream.

Once the fire was going, Andy settled herself against Lien. The white dragon looked a bit bored, and Andy didn't blame her. She was seriously considering getting Lien a dragon-sized Rubix Cube or something, just to keep her occupied until Andy felt safe enough to let her go flying again. She didn't trust their distance limit not to shrink again. She didn't even want to let them find a lake to go fishing in, not since the last time.

Lucivar glanced at Seth as the new guy looked around.

"You look like you still have questions, boyo," he said.

"More than I can formulate," Seth said with a little smile. "First off, how is this all possible? Why do we come here from clicking a computer link?"

"Well, I don't know about the link part, but this world is a different plane of existance. See, think of it like this: there are layers of existance, different planes, and certain beings can travel between them. Most of the time this planes are created by different outcomes of major events. For instance, if the South had won the Civil War and successfully ceceeded from the North. That would be a different plane of existance.

"But this place is different. This place started as an idea and grew from writers and books and movies and TV shows and mangas and everything you could think of. In this plane of existance, multiple copies of people exist, because of the overseers fiddling around with things until they made it work." Belle shrugged. "I'm not sure how they managed that either, but there you go. It's very rare for there to be only one of anything."

Seth stared at her for a moment. "Were you studying to be a scientist or something?" he asked after a few moments.

Belle laughed. "Not at all. I just like science, and I watch too much Fringe." She winked at him.

"I understood it all," Andy piped up, "But I watch too much Science Channel. I used to practically live on Sci Fi and Discovery till I came here." She gestured to the two Hieis who were taking care of the fire. "Case and point of there being multiple copies: Belle and I each have a Hiei. And I've run into quite a few people who have a Sesshoumaru, since the Inuyasha series is still really popular."

"But not every bishi has ten dozen copies walking around. Some of them, like Acheron, are more rare," Belle said. "Any god is likely to have only a few running around. I mean, imagine if there were a hundred copies of Ares."

Seth shivered. "Okay, I see your point," he said. "So most bishis there are lots of, but some of them there are only a few."

"Precisely."

"There are some that are also rare for sheer logsitics," Andy added. "There are only so many dragons a territory can sustain, for example." She gestured to Temeraire and Lien. "I mean, the world expands every so often, but even still." At his confused look, she went on, "As more trainers arrive, the world expands so it doesn't get overcrowded. It happens maybe once a year or so, maybe a little less than that."

"Plus every time a new series comes out in which they can make bishis," Belle added. "Everything has its own territory. For example, we're right by Dexter territory. So every time a new anime or book or movie comes out from which you can get bishis, the world expands so there's room for the new territory."

"I see," Seth said, his eyebrows raised. "So where do the bishis live?"

"They have their own cities. You'll likely never see a bishi city; it's forbidden."

"It's forbidden with good reason," Andy added. "It's so trainers can't go and take whichever ones they want, and so the Chibis stay safe. Every bishi has three stages," she added, before he could ask. "Chibi, San, and Sama. All of mine are Sama stage. But you're not allowed to catch Chibis, unless their parents say you can. It's just bad juju all around."

Belle nodded. "No one likes to think of a chibi being caught without permission. People have done it, of course, but it's cruel."

Seth nodded. "So what's the difference between a San and a Sama?"

"San is kinda like being a teenager. Sama is fully grown, can access all their powers if they have any, all of that fun stuff."

"Geeze, man, you're going to be the best-prepared newbie ever," Andy commented. "I remember when I first got here, I didn't even get to finish hyperventilating before they were pushing me back out the door again with my starter set." Lucivar snorted at that, and Andy gave him a playful shove. "Shut up, you."

"I didn't say anything," Lucivar said innocently.

"You were thinking it," Andy replied. "Yes, I spazzed, fangirled, whatever you want to call it, and then proceeded to get myself horribly lost and had to backtrack to town again."

Seth laughed. "At least if I get lost, I get to be lost with good people." He smiled at Belle, then at Andy.

Belle managed a little laugh. "I don't think we'll get lost. The guys have a good sense of direction."

"Which I'm infinitely grateful for," Andy agreed. "I'm practically helpless without my map and GPS, unless I know exactly how to get where I'm going. Which reminds me, once we leave town again I need to find a lake or something. There's nothing within range here, and I still need to let Temmy and Li Li go fishing."

"We'll find something for them undoubtedly," Belle said. "We'll just keep walking until we find something. Or they can always go find a herd of cattle or something." She grinned.

Eclipse snorted and moved closer to her, shooting Seth a distrustful look.

Andy noticed Eclipse moving closer to Belle and frowned slightly. He had the same look on his face that Sess did. Strange. But Seth hadn't done anything to deserve it, had he? They'd only known him for, what, half an hour? Honestly, if she didn't know better, she'd think that they were jealous or something. But Sess didn't care for her like that, she was fairly sure. She glanced over at her Sesshoumaru and found him scowling at Seth. She blinked. She'd need to ponder this for a bit.

"Ah, I get it..." she hears Lucivar murmur. She looked at him.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Not my place to say, squirt," he said cheerfully. "Nothing to worry about, though."

"Alright. Let's eat and get moving so we can be on our way to somewhere." Belle grinned and looked over at Andy. "Is the ramen ready or need we throw more information at him?"

Seth couldn't help but grin at her words, shaking his head a bit.

"I'm pretty sure the ramen's ready," Andy replied. "Three minutes and all that good stuff." Getting up, she went to check on the ramen. "Yeah, it's done," she said. Picking up two cups, she took one over to Sesshoumaru.

"Here," she said, handing it to him. She sat down next to him, holding her own cup. "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you now?" she asked.

"Nothing," Sesshoumaru replied stubbornly.

"I don't believe that," Andy said. "You've been acting strange since before we met Belle, and don't tell me you haven't. We've been travelling together for amost four years, Sess, I think I know your moods by now." When he didn't reply, she sighed. "Come on, you're not jealous or something, are you?"

"What?" Sesshoumaru asked, looking up at her. She could see the surprise on his face and blinked. Why had that startled him?

"Sess, there's no reason for you to be jealous," she said. "Honestly, we've come across newbies before, this time is no different."

"I'm not..." he trailed off, and Andy could see right through the token protest. There wasn't anything she could do about it, though.

"If you say so," she replied.

Belle sat between Eclipse and Seth, chatting a bit with them both as she ate her ramen. Eclipse stubbornly refused to leave her alone with Seth, and Seth didn't want to bother Andy. So Belle was stuck babysitting the two of them until they finished their lunch.

"Alright. Duo, help clean up, please."

Duo saluted her sarcastically, getting up and gathering everything up so they could go.

Andy watched as Lawrence and Lucivar helped clean up from lunch, though she didn't get up from where she sat next to Sesshoumaru. She was too busy thinking about the last few days. If she factored in his apparent jealousy, his behavior suddenly made so much more sense. And Lucivar, damn him, seemed to be in on the whole thing, somehow. He knew what was bugging Sess and refused to tell her. But she was so sure that Sess didn't feel that way for her. They'd been together for almost four years, so if he did, why didn't he say anything. She ignored the little voice in her head saying that for at least three of those years, she was too young.

Shaking her head clear, she stood up and gathered her things.

"We should head back to town," she said. That would give her more time to think.

Belle nodded her agreement, getting up as well. "It won't take us long to get back," she told Seth. "Then you can get your stuff and we'll be on our way."

Seth nodded and walked next to her, glancing back at Andy. "Come join us," he called to her. "So Belle won't have to answer every question."

Andy grinned and did so, noticing that Sess kept pace with her, staying just behind her, but not close enough to trip her. She tried to ignore it. He was just being overprotective, and they both knew it.

"What other questions did you have?" she asked once she was walking with Seth and Belle again.

"Well how do you make money here? Unless this place works on a trading system." He frowned for a moment.

"No, we make money. You can make money by battling other trainers, entering various contests, helping out in shops." Belle shrugged and looked over at Andy. "Am I missing anything?"

"Actually settling down and finding a real job," Andy replied. "Because some people actually do that. It's mostly the older trainers who are tired of wandering like us younger ones do." She grinned. "Elsewise, yeah, battling and contests are the easiest way. There are tournaments and such, for the hardcore trainers to enter, but most of the time, you bump into a trainer on the road, have a quick battle, and the winner walks away richer."

Seth nodded. "That makes sense. So are there any restrictions? Like for the number of bishis you can have, or types or any of that."

"As long as you don't have any chibis without consent, you can have as many bishis as you want of whatever type you want," Belle said. "I know a trainer who collected only demons."

"Really?"

"Yup. She would find out about all the demon bishis in the area she was in and she'd pick and choose which ones she wanted."

"Though a standard belt only holds, what, twenty?" Andy added, glancing at her own belt. "I think that's it. After that, you'll either need another belt, or you 'll need to release a few bishies." She grinned at Belle's comment. "I ran into someone who collected bishies who were voiced by the same voice actor, or played by the same actor in different movies. It was kind of interesting, because if you couldn't see who was talking, you had to guess by HOW they talked."

Seth laughed a little. "Wow that's got to be crazy," he said, shaking his head. "I mean, what if they didn't get along?"

"Oh you see that a lot anyway," Belle said. "A couple of mine bicker all the time. I mean, they don't generally fight amongst themselves. Most trainers don't have real problems with their bishis, maybe the occasional scuffle or two."