by Kira
He smiles more, Makubex thought, watching in bemusement as the man once called the emperor of Mugenjou looked curiously at one of the numerous computer monitors scattered around them. The system was delicate. One misplaced spark from the notoriously clumsy Amano Ginji, and it would be hours of work for Makubex and Sakura to bring everything back online. But he was not worried. Ginji was only watching, smiling slightly at the image there; cameras were scattered all across Mugenjou to watch the people and alert them when there was danger, and the camera was fixated on a group of children, kicking around a beat up, mud caked soccer ball.
In what some had called the golden era of the Volts, others the period of terror when Raitei reigned over Lower Town, Makubex remembered being one of those children. The Volts had been a group he had looked up to in awe, like all the others who had at one time been persecuted by those monsters from the Beltline. He remembered watching them from a distance, Raitei followed by his two kings, Fuchouin Kazuki of the Strings and the Beastmaster, and wanting to be near them.
Some spat that they were dangerous, obsessed with their own agenda, and reigning over all of them with a tight, iron fist. But for Makubex, it never seemed that way. He always saw their leader with a gentle, soft expression on his face. It was not a smile. He did not smile much, but sometimes, when he would play with the younger children or guide a small child home by the hand, there was an inkling of a smile. It was faint, barely tugging at the corner of his lips, and there was no light in his eyes. Makubex thought maybe he was sad.
But not anymore, he amended, his eyes passing over Ginji curiously. And a small part of him felt something tightening hard around his stomach as jealousy welled up. Ginji had never been unhappy with them. But he never smiled in the way he did now that he had left them.
Kazuki was the one that told him Ginji was gone. He remembered that day. Hours spent searching for Raitei came up in vain when Kazuki found him and said softly that Ginji had gone. Without a word to anyone, he left Mugenjou, and no one had to question the reason.
Ginji changed when Midou came to Mugenjou. At one time, Kazuki reflected that Ginji had become obsessed. Suddenly he had found a challenge, and in that time he and the intruder spent trading blows, neither one gaining and neither one relenting, no one could reach Ginji. There was a distant, empty look in his eyes that worried Makubex, but nothing he could do. Ginji was not going to give up until he finished what he and Midou had begun.
Makubex thought their battle was still unresolved. And someday, maybe, it would be renewed again. He could only hope it never happened. Midou had brought life into Ginji none of the Four Kings had been able to, and though he hated knowing that it was Midou and not him, not Kazuki or Shido, Makubex did not want to see anything destroy that smile.
He had not understood until fate brought the Get Backers into Mugenjou. He couldn't understand. Why had Ginji abandoned them? Lower Town sunk into shambles without its Thunder Emperor to keep the pieces from falling. The monsters from the Beltline came more often, there was a feeling of civil unrest in every street and building, and though he tried, Makubex could not rule them in the same way Ginji had.
He chose to rule them in fear.
There was fear when Ginji reigned in Lower Town. Rumors of the name Raitei and the people that had crumpled before him were whispered throughout Mugenjou. But it had not all been done in fear. The Volts accomplished good as well, for the people deserving of and needing protection, and even those who should have been eliminated were shown mercy. Ginji brought a sense of life to Lower Town even when there was none in him.
Makubex could not do the same. Those that crossed his path and those that defied him were eliminated. He never accomplished a sense of unity or society within Mugenjou in the way Raitei and his Four Kings did, but he ruled them.
He had resented Ginji. Resented him for abandoning the Volts, for leaving Lower Town to its doom, letting everything he had strived for shatter down around them. And he resented Ginji for leaving him.
It was hero worship. He had watched the Volts so long from afar, wanting so much to be with them, and then when he was, when they accepted him and his skills became an asset Raitei could use, he had not felt no greater feeling. Sometimes it was all he could do to keep from tripping over his own tongue when, typing rapidly away at his computer and inventing software and programs piece by piece, Ginji would approach to ask what he was doing. Ginji took a genuine interest him, and though Makubex could see in his eyes even as Makubex explained to him he did not understand, it was enough that he listened.
Makubex had never known a real sense of family. Gen was there, but he had always felt that though he called the man grandfather, there was no relationship between them. With the Volts, it was a family, and he had finally felt he belonged.
But all that was gone when Ginji left them, and after him, Kazuki and Shido followed. Makubex had never felt so lost as when he was left alone and Mugenjou became his.
It made him jaded. There were things he done in his time of rule he was ashamed of, but saw as a necessary means of action to maintain control over Lower Town. There were others he regretted, and some that kept him awake late in the night, sometimes more often than the nights he lay awake questioning his own mortality. But there was no greater shame or regret than knowing he had betrayed Ginji, his trust in him, and had caused him pain.
But he's forgiven me, Makubex thought, and maybe that was the strangest thing of all.
"Ginji-san..."
Ginji glanced up at him, tearing his gaze away from the computer monitor. His visits to Mugenjou were infrequent, spread out sporadically through a month at a time, but he always came. Makubex was glad for the visits.
After a moment, Makubex murmured softly, "Are you... happy? Out there, I mean."
The question caught Ginji off guard, and he was not quick to respond. Makubex glanced away. It did not seem like the most appropriate question to be asking... it was not fair of him to ask that of Ginji when he knew the answer would be. He was not asking 'are you happy.' He was asking 'are you happier?'
Ginji was quiet, reflecting on the question, and then answered cheerfully, "Yep, I'm happy. I like being a Get Backer."
Makubex was able to hold in the sad, empty smile that wanted to spread across his face, but only barely.
"I was happy in Mugenjou, too," Ginji continued abruptly, and Makubex looked up at him. "I had fun with you and Kazu-chan and Shido and everybody."
"But you left," Makubex said suddenly, and in his own ears, it sounded like an accusation. But Ginji smiled in that soft, gentle way of his, a smile that forgave everyone.
"'cause," Ginji replied simply, "it wasn't good for me to be here." He paused briefly and added, "It probably wasn't good for anyone else either."
Midou had said it was not them Ginji abandoned. But it was his concern for them that made him leave. He thought that if he stayed, Raitei would consume him, and he would destroy everything. Lower Town, all of Mugenjou, and most importantly... his friends.
We were so selfish.
Or maybe... just me...
"Makubex." He turned toward Ginji at the sound of his name. Ginji smiled at him.
"I couldn't have left Mugenjou in better hands, you know."
Makubex snorted softly. That was not true. There were no better hands for Mugenjou than those of its Thunder Emperor. He knew now that his rule over Lower Town had changed and people were no longer controlled with fear and threats, the people had come to trust him more and accept his guidance. But he still heard the hushed, whispered voices in the streets longing for the time of Raitei and the Four Kings. He could never be what Ginji had been for them.
A hand dropped suddenly to the top of his head, and Makubex looked up, surprised to see Ginji standing before him. The former terror of Lower Town was smiling, and the hand on his head ruffled up his hair gently.
"It's hard, isn't it?"
Makubex did not answer. He didn't think Ginji needed him to.
"I didn't do it alone," Ginji reminded him quietly. "I had you and Kazu-chan and Shido. You're not alone either."
Sometimes, it was hard not to feel alone. Jubei and Sakura were real, but he was...
"Yo, Ginji!"
The enormous door swung open with little effort and Midou Ban entered, the same cocky, arrogant Makubex remembered so well and Shido cursed in place, a cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth. But that self-assured grin was the one that always made Ginji smile.
"Ready to go home?" Ban asked, and Makubex remembered, the reminder a sharp pang in his side, that Mugenjou was no longer home for Ginji. It was the outside world that Makubex could never touch.
"Yep!" Ginji answered, and he turned briefly from his partner to look down at Makubex. The hand in his hair lowered. "You'll be okay, ne, Makubex?"
Makubex nodded, and in spite of the bittersweet, empty feeling he felt, he lifted his head and smiled up at Ginji. "Yes."
"I'll come back and visit soon!" Ginji called over his shoulder, already running to where Ban was waiting for him. Makubex watched him go with an almost sad smile.
Ginji reached Ban and his partner raised a hand, swiping a fist gently across his cheek. "Owww, Ban-chan!" Ginji whined automatically, and Ban grinned, rolling his eyes. Makubex suddenly felt the smile on his face tugging at his mouth. Ginji had never smiled in that way when he was with the Volts... and Makubex doubted Midou Ban had ever smiled that way either before he met Ginji.
"See you, kid." Ban strolled away, hands thrust into his pockets. Ginji looked over his shoulder, and grinning cheerfully, waved to him.
"Bye, Makubex! We'll come back soon!"
Makubex lifted a hand and waved after them.
He was not the one that could make Ginji smile, but for him, it was enough that Ginji could even smile at all.