Chapter Seven
The next day was wrought with anticipation. Even the morning's entertainment of Abarai and Sado's first meeting with Maria did little to soothe their anxiety and impatience.
They were sitting around the dining table enjoying tea and idle conversation after their afternoon meal when the back door burst open. Every fighter jumped to their feet as a blonde whirlwind swept into the room from the kitchen.
Urahara stopped everyone from attacking as he took in the appearance of the tense, panting new arrival. The blonde was a young man dressed casually in khaki shorts, white t-shirt, and a green vest, toting a backpack. His almost frantic brown eyes scanned the room disregarding the presence of everyone save Maria. Once he spied her he asked urgently, "Where is he?"
Maria approached the youth, after putting away her stone, and hugged him saying, "He's still sleeping. Come, I'll take you to him."
"Ban never sleeps this much, are you sure he's okay?" Was his plaintive reply.
"Yes, he's fine. I've kept him asleep," she stated drawing him towards Tessai's room.
Urahara gestured for the others to resume their seats as not to crowd the boy and silently followed the pair.
Upon entering the room he found, who he assumed was, Ginji kneeling by Ban's side grasping his hand with tears in his eyes. Studying the boy Urahara found him to have the normal reiatsu signature of an average human.
"What happened to him, Maria?" he asked.
"He used the jagan a fourth time," she answered.
That must be the name of the power that Ban used too often, but what did it do?
"What?! Oh, Ban, how could you?"
"From what I was able to see, after he split up with you he fought off some protection service agents. While fighting a group with guns, one was able to catch Ban in his crosshairs. Ban had no choice," she informed him sadly.
Protection service? What were they and why would Ban be fighting them? More questions to ask.
"Ban always said that doing that would kill him,' Ginji half asked.
"It nearly did. Ban was able to stop it but it left him like this."
"How can we bring him back?" he turned a hopeful expression to her.
"She said she'd explain that once you got here," Urahara said, speaking for the first time.
The boy stood and bowed low to him, "I deeply thank you for looking after him."
"Think nothing of it, young man. Now let's learn how we can fix him," he couldn't help but try to comfort the boy. His trusting, expressive brown eyes brought out Urahara's fatherly instinct.
"And while I'm explaining things, Ginji, you can rest and get something to eat," Maria practically commanded, "Since I'm sure you did neither on your way here."
"But--," Ginji tried to argue.
"He's not going anywhere. Once I've explained everything you can come back here and be with him."
"Alright," he grudgingly agreed.
Urahara led the way back to the others. When Tessai returned with a meal for Ginji he made introductions.
"Ginji, my name is Urahara Kisuke, they are my housemates, Tsukabishi Tessai, Hanakari Jinta, and Tsumugiya Ururu. And a couple of friends, Sado Yasutora and Abarai Renji. Everyone this is Ginji, Rei's, or rather, Ban's friend.'
"Rei?" Ginji murmured between bites.
"They named him, Shugorei, during his stay," Maria told him.
Ginji's eyes widened slightly, "Oh, he's going to be so mad."
"What's so wrong with calling him that?" Jinta asked indignantly.
"Nothing wrong, really. Ban just…Ban doesn't…Well, he tries to pretend that he doesn't care for anyone, that he only looks out for himself," Ginji sighed and shook his head, "Unfortunately, many of my friends buy into it," he then grinned, "But by giving him that name you completely contradicted that image."
"Why would he do something like that?" Abarai asked.
Ginji swallowed a mouthful of food then answered, "That's just the way Ban is."
Knowing what little Maria had told him, Urahara assumed, he did so as a protective measure and as a way to cope with past experiences.
"Now that the young man has arrived, how do you plan on restoring Ban's mind?" Tessai questioned.
"Are any of you familiar with the theory of anamnesis?" At the unanimous negative she explained. "Theory states that the soul retains all knowledge. When reincarnated, the shock of birth causes this knowledge to be forgotten. That one doesn't really learn but recalls what was already known.(10)"
"You believe removing his soul would work?" Urahara asked, "I hadn't thought of that." Truthfully he had briefly toyed with the idea but discarded it not wanting to risk the boy being affected by whatever caused him to have his fits whenever an enemy attacked.
"Good thing you hadn't!" she exclaimed, "Once his soul leaves his body the restraints he placed on the killing power that started this mess would be released."
"I thought you said he stopped it?" Ururu asked.
"I should have said delayed," she apologized, "And just removing his soul would not have given him back his memories. For that I'm going to have to invoke the power of Janus, the Roman god of gates, doors, beginnings, and endings. His domains include change, transition, and time.(11) Through Janus Ban will regain his past."
"But what about the power that's going to kill Ban?" Ginji, it appeared, would not be swayed from her earlier remark.
"I will offer it to Janus as sacrifice and payment for his help," she soothed.
"Will it be enough?" Ginji worried.
"That, and the fact that he will be helping one of Asclepius' favored ones, most definitely."
Favored one? Asclepius? Wasn't he a Greek god?
The witching world was even more confusing that the human one, he was coming to realize.
"When can you start?" Abarai broke in.
"First I need to find a large open area to make the circle. Some place away from prying eyes and where Ban's power won't destroy everything if it gets away from me. Once I find a suitable place it will take me a few hours to cleanse and bless the area and to prepare the ritual."
"I may be able to help you there," Urahara offered, "I just so happen to have a place that, I believe, will be ideal."
"Wonderful. I'll inspect it once Ginji settles down to rest."
Maria deemed the training grounds perfect after looking it over and shooed Urahara away as she started to rummage through the backpack Ginji handed her before retiring to Tessai's room.
Leaving her to her own devices he decided to check up on their newest guest. Slowly opening the bedroom door he found the boy sitting against the wall by Ban's futon, wide awake and staring at this friend.
"Didn't Maria tell you to sleep?" he asked gently.
"Not tired."
"He won't disappear if you close your eyes, you know."
"I know. It's just, whenever I've ever needed help Ban was always there. And the one time he needed mine, I failed him," Ginji said clenching his fists in his lap.
"You're here now. You brought Maria what she needs to help him. You're sitting here worrying yourself sick. You haven't failed him. He'd tell you the same thing," Urahara consoled him.
A small smile graced his lips, "Yeah, you're right. He'd tell me that and then reinforce it with his fist."
"Really? I never took him for the violent type."
"Only when I'm being stupid," Ginji chuckled.
"Is that so?" Urahara shared in his amusement.
"Yeah, Ban's the best," he declared.
"What is a protection service and why was he fighting them?"
"Basically what it sounds like. They are hired to protect and item, at any costs. He was stopping them from getting in the way of the delivery of a package we'd recovered for our client." Ginji answered.
"You're couriers?" A tame line of work considering Ban's talents and skills.
"No. We're retrievers with a near one hundred percent success rate," he grinned.
That sounded more in keeping with what the boy could do.
"So, how did you two meet?" Urahara asked interested to learn about his young friend.
Ginji lost his smile and stated frankly, "Ban saved me from myself. He helped me realize that no matter how much power I gained, no matter how hard I tried to keep everyone safe, no matter how many people I killed, it would never be enough. There would always be more power, another victim, another predator. I was stuck in an endless loop with no escape. Until Ban. He told me I could stop. Simple as that, just stop. It wasn't easy, but I did it. I stopped and walked away from that life. Ban's been by my side ever since."
"Courage, strength, and resolve. It takes a lot to reshape one's life," Urahara spoke from experience.
"Yes, Ban helped me find them. He didn't have to, he could have killed me instead. That's why I'll stop at nothing to help him, to bring him back to himself."
x-X-x
They stood outside the circle that was scribed into the stone floor. Four black candles were placed at the circle's edge and a white one was in the center near Ban who lay atop a futon. Beside the futon was a large silver bowl. The only other person inside the circle was Maria. She was dressed in outlandish garb. A headdress made of multihued earth toned fabric and bells adorned her head. Mere strips of cloth in the same shades as the headdress barely covered her bosom and fabric flowed over her arms from it's straps over her shoulders to her wrists. Her midriff was criss-crossed with alternating colored fabric strips which led to a long skirt that seemed to be made up of hundreds and hundreds of overlapping folds that billowed when she walked. She turned to them and instructed, "I'm going to start the ritual now. No matter what happens no one must try to enter the circle. This is very complicated and I do not want any distractions."
She began the ritual by walking around the circle clockwise chanting under her breath in a foreign language. She lit each of the black candles placed at the cardinal points as she went. Although Urahara had no idea how she did it, he saw no evidence of a lighter nor did feel any power being used. Each flame rose as a different color, green yellow, red, and blue. As she finished walking the circle, Urahara felt the power she had been building whip around the circle and snap back to Maria. She then made her way to the center where she lit the lone white candle placed above Ban's head. It's flame flared white. She knelt next to the boy's left side and drew from the silver bowl at her hip a length of thin black rope. She dunked it three times back into the bowl before placing the wet length in an intricate design on the sleeping boy's chest, still chanting in an almost sing-song manner.
Reaching back into the bowl she placed both dripping hands over the white flame. Steam started to rise from her hands. The vapor did not dissipate, but solidified into the form of a young man. Well, he looked young until one saw his eyes. The knowledge, wisdom, and eons within them told another story. Oddly, the color of those eyes was indeterminate, they shifted and changed constantly. His tawny hair fell just passed his ears and was held at bay by a wreath of golden leaves. He was muscular and lean and draped in white cloth that rustled in a breeze that only he could feel.
The lack of reiatsu that came from him was almost anticlimactic, Urahara thought before realizing that if he really was a god, his power would surely crush them all. He was grateful for his discretion.
The god stood, hovered rather, patiently as the witch chanted another incantation, pulling another cord from the bowl. Another pattern was formed out of it over Ban's crown and forehead. She looked up to meet Janus' gaze, at his nod she swept her hand over the boy's chest and passed his head, pulling his soul from his body. The still sleeping soul floated next to Janus over the white candle. Urahara noticed immediately that the boy didn't have a normal chain of fate. In fact it wasn't a chain at all, more of a multithreaded rope. Each thread glowed with a different color, too many to define.
No sooner had the soul left it's host that a large black mist swirled from Ban, obscuring everything in sight, filling and clearly defining the sphere of protection Maria had erected. The malignant force of the black reiatsu nearly sent Urahara to his knees. He noticed the children hugging each other as their legs gave way. Tessai, Abarai, and Sado tensed and swayed as they felt what could only be defined as absolute evil. Ginji curiously seemed unaffected by the dark power. Almost immediately the power vanished, Urahara presumed, absorbed by the god.
Maria took Ban's soulless body's left arm and placed it over the bowl's rim. From somewhere out of the volumes of fabric that made up her skirt she pulled a black cloth wrapped parcel. Unfolding the material she drew forth a gleaming scarlet handled dagger. Setting the cloth aside she placed the blade at the boy's wrist then paused to chant again.
"What the hell is she doing?" Abarai hissed and took a step towards the edge of the circle with Sado close behind him.
They both stopped when Ginji blocked their advance, "She said no distractions," his voice had taken on a soft deadly lilt, something they were not expecting, it, as much as him standing in their way, stopped them.
"But she's going to cut him!" Abarai stated in disbelief.
"Yes, she is."
"And you're okay with that?"
"Ban's blood in very powerful. It once brought back a friend's soul that had died.(12) I trust Maria, if she believes his blood is needed, then it's needed. Don't interfere."
The air around Ginji almost seemed to crackle. The fine hairs on the back of Urahara's neck and arms stood to attention. What was going on? Was it Ginji causing this? And if so, how, there was no reiatsu coming from him.
When the two nodded their compliance the energy dropped and their attention focused back on the trio in the circle.
Maria was holding Ban's bleeding arm. As the blood fell into the bowl a slight glow emanated from within it. After a few more drops she held the wound closed and set his arm back on his stomach. She stirred the contents of the bowl with the blade. Putting it to the side she raised the silver dish towards the god. He placed one hand in the offered basin and the other on the sleeping soul's head. After a moment he removed both hands and winked out of existence, leaving behind a faint afterimage that slowly faded. Once his presence had completely gone Maria tipped the bowl and spilled it's contents over the still form before her.
The wave of reiatsu that followed the first touch of the bloody, shimmering liquid to Ban's body sent everyone but him, Tessai, and Ginji to the floor. Urahara found that he had to force himself to breath through the thick, heavy, earthy power. He also realized that he couldn't move due to it's weight. He could compensate for that, it wasn't any worse than when Yamamoto had once lost his temper. What knocked him for a loop was the rise of a new reiatsu that encompassed the circle, entwining with Ban's. Urahara got the distinct impression of scales before the combined reiatsu started to eat away at his consciousness.
"Ginji," he heard Maria's strained call, "Your help, please."
Through dimming vision he saw Ginji, still unhampered by the immense power, step up to the circle and place his hands on the once more visible barrier. Urahara watched as lightning arced between the boy's hands and around the circumference of the barrier. As the lightning branched and streaked across the entirety of the circle the reiatsu's pressure diminished to a more bearable level.
How did he do that? What was he? Surely he wasn't a witch too, there was no power signature to depict a spell being cast. And Maria didn't say anything about him being one. Or was he, Maria did light those candles somehow without using any.
"Ginji, can you hold that while I try to calm them?" Maria's tired voice floated from the scale enclosed space.
"Yes," he said simply, his concentration solely on his task.
Almost thirty minutes later the reticulating scales dispersed, the lightning soon followed. The boy sunk slowly to his knees looking into the circle. Following his gaze Urahara noticed Maria standing from her position by Ban's side. Raising her right hand over the now soulless and godless white candle the flame rose to her palm. She rotated in a counter-clockwise motion calling each flame as she went to join the others in her hand, blue, red, yellow, and green. Cupping the now single multihued flame she threw the fire ball at her feet. The ball burst when it hit the floor and was absorbed into the rock.
Maria muttered a final passage. It seemed more ceremonial than an actual part of the ritual but they all kept quiet until she finished and wiped a weary hand over her pale face.
"Maria," Ginji's voice held so much hope in that one word.
"His mind is no longer in pieces, the ritual was successful. When he wakes he will remember," she knelt again and started to gather her supplies.
Ginji slowly crawled his way to her side without even bothering the get up and walk, "He's going to be alright?"
"Yes."
He said, "Good," and promptly passed out.
x-X-x
Leaving the two sleeping boys below, the rest of the household adjourned in the dining room. When Urahara helped Maria arrange both boys on the futon he noticed that Ban was as dry as could be and not a blood stain was to be found, also the wound on his wrist had healed without a trace. He could only shake his head at the strange ways of the witch.
Maria was just returning from the bathroom, where she had changed back into her gypsy attire, as Tessai came from the kitchen with tea and sake.
"You look dead on your feet, my dear," Urahara told her as she took her seat and gratefully accepted a cup of sake from him.
"Ban's power alone is nearly impossible to contain but with the unexpected appearance of Asclepius," she shook her head, "If he hadn't recognized Ginji I'm not sure what would have happened."
"Why did he come? You obviously didn't call for him," Tessai commented.
"He felt Ban's pain and came to protect him."
"Pain? You mean the cut on his arm?" Ururu asked concernedly.
"Not physical pain, honey, emotional pain. Ban's nineteen years of life, all the joy, sorrow, and tedium were given back to him all at once. He relived his whole life in a matter of seconds. It's not an easy thing."
"How was Ginji able to summon lightning? Is he a witch, too?" Urahara puzzled.
"No, he's human. It's a natural ability. One, I've been told, he first exhibited at adolescence. It was this ability that earned him the name Lightning Lord." She frowned into her sake.
"What is it?" Sado asked at her expression.
"Hmmm? Oh, just realizing how much Ginji thinks he owes Ban, that's all."
"Care to explain that cryptic little comment?" Abarai groused grumpily.
"Lightning Lord isn't so much a name as it's another personality. Ginji was slowly disappearing with each reemergence of the Lightning Lord. Ban put a stop to that, he offered Ginji a choice he had never considered before, gave him the option of a different life. Ginji took it and has been by Ban's side ever since," she yawned then grinned, "Ginji has been good for him. He's taught Ban how to smile again."
Maria's yawn prompted Urahara's next words, "Whatever other questions can wait for tomorrow. We all need to sleep. Ururu, if you would escort Maria to your room, please, and make her comfortable."
It was going to be another long night, Urahara admitted, waiting for the boy to awaken.
10. - Socrates developed his theory of anamnesis. He suggests that the soul is immortal, and repeatedly incarnated; knowledge is actually in the soul from eternity , but each time the soul is incarnated its knowledge is forgotten in the shock of birth. What one perceives to be learning, then, is actually the recovery of what one has forgotten. This wikipedia site: .org/wiki/Anamnesis
11. - Roman mythology, Janus was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. He was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. He was also known as the figure representing time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other. The wikipedia site: .org/wiki/Janus
12. - At the end of the Divine Design Arc, volumes 14-18, Ban, along with the help of Maria and Lucifer, brought Toshiki back to life after Lucifer crushed his heart on the higher plane.
