The next day saw the GetBacker team clunking past the gate to the Akabane light manufacturing factory. The old patch-worked Beetle, still sporting various dents from their last mission where it had been used as an improvised ram, chucked to a stop in the deserted parking lot and settled with a puff of black smoke.
"We're here, Hevn-san," Ginji declared unnecessarily.
"About time," Hevn grumbled, her long frame squashed inside the narrow back seat of the VW Beetle. "This thing should've gone to the junkyard five years ago."
"Free ride, Hevn. Be grateful," Ban snarled half-heartedly. His head was pounding in sync with his heartbeat, and it was distracting him from full snark mode with Hevn. His own fault for drinking so much sake last night, but heaven knows when they could afford to do so again. Sure there was a lot of the one million yen left, but considering their absolutely atrocious track record when it came to money, it was a lot safer to spend when they could.
He just wished the sunlight would stop pricking the back of his eyeballs like so many needles. And he wished that god-awful racket would stop.
"HEVN!" He yelled and immediately regretted it.
"I can't help it," Hevn snarled back. "The. Door. Won't. Open." A thump punctuated each word. One final kick from her heels and the door gave out with an agonized metallic groan. It sank slightly to the floor with an obvious tilt. "There," Hevn declared triumphantly, and crawled out of the cramped space.
Ginji peered at the door and winced. "Ban-chan, I think one of the hinges is torn." Ban just groaned and popped open his own door.
The factory was located at the far skirt of the city, seated on one of the lightly wooded hills. It was out of the way enough that it was surrounded with trees on three sides, accessible through a winding road climbing up from the main highway. Currently the area was deserted with the Beetle being the only car in the entire employee parking lot. It was almost two on a Sunday afternoon, so that made sense. But there was something more, an air of abandonment that gave the feeling that this was a little bit more than that.
"Waa-y quiet," Ginji said softly, unconsciously dropping his voice. The stillness around the factory was broken only by the murmurs of wind among the tree leaves. The trees were tall and old, casting shadows on the sun-drenched lot.
"Oh yes, haven't I told you?" Hevn finished tugging her blue sun-dress in place. As usual, the fabric was just a tad too snug across the bosom. Hevn was a generously-endowed young woman. "This factory is going down. It was involved in a lawsuit, some sort of industrial dispute, and the owner finally just gave in and close up shop."
"And the owner is…?" Ban prodded.
"Takeru Fuyutsuki of course. Oh, and his wife is a co-owner."
"Hmph." Ban massaged his temples absently, casting his gaze around the deserted parking lot. "Where's the basketball court?"
"At the back, follow me."
They circled past the factory building to the opposite site. A concrete basketball court stood in lonely isolation, fraying hoop ropes attesting to long disuse. Police tapes ran along the perimeter of the court, blocking access.
As soon as Ban laid his eyes on the court, he had his first indication that this case may not be as simple as it seemed.
There was an area of dark discoloration on the middle of the concrete ground, shaped like a starburst. In the center of the starburst was a clean area about five meters in diameter. Radiating from that circle of clean area was what looked like soot marks, as if charcoal had been rubbed against the floor. It was similar to the effect of a camp fire with the logs cleaned out, minus the ashes. Except that this would have to be one huge camp fire. The edges of the starburst were all the way to the edges of the court.
"Woah, what is that thing, Hevn-san?"
Ban heard Ginji's voice behind him, and Hevn's calculated reply. "You tell me."
He squatted beside the edge of the soot marks and ran a light finger over the oily black surface. A sniff seemed to indicate nothing out of the ordinary, but he would run it through a lab just to be sure. "What does the police say about this?"
He felt rather than saw Hevn's shrug. "Vandalism, fire, some kind of explosives maybe. Except that neither Mrs Fuyutsuki nor the taxi driver heard any loud booms and that there is no damage to the ground. And by the time they reached the scene, within an hour or so after that light they saw, there was no one here. Just this big black mark."
Ban looked at his soot-blackened fingers with distaste and absently fished out a worn napkin from his pocket. He wiped his fingers on it, balled it up, and threw it with damning accuracy at Hevn's cleavage. The mediator barely had time to snatch it before it bounce off her chest. Her glare could have lit up a bonfire all by itself.
"Can you get one of your contacts to analyse that?"
"No need. I have the police forensic report and it's just soot. No kinky ingredients added."
Ban gave her a look. "I don't even want to know how you got your hands on a forensic report for an open case."
Hevn smirked. "I have my sources." Then her eyes widened and she shrieked, "Ginji! You're not supposed to get in there!"
"Huh?" The blond boy had somehow gotten all the way into the middle of the circle. "Why not?"
Hevn opened her mouth, paused, then snapped it shut. "Never mind," she sighed. "I don't really want to explain the concept of evidence tampering to you."
Ginji nodded, but his thought seemed to be focused elsewhere. "Ban-chan," he called absently, eyes unfocused. "Do you feel something… strange?"
"Strange like what?" Ban watched Ginji closely. His partner may at times seem a bit flaky, but he had a strong sense perception that seemed wired to things no normal person had.
"Uh… like, when there's a storm coming, and you can feel your hair standing up?"
Hevn frowned as she sniffed the air delicately. "You mean ozone?"
Ginji scratched his mess of stiff blonde hair, shaking his head minutely. "Something like that, but not quite it either. I know what a thunderstorm feels like, believe me, but this isn't it."
Ban peered at Ginji. "Do you feel anything else? Anything negative?"
"Hmm?" Ginji blinked and turned to him. "Nope. Am I supposed to?"
Well, whatever power had gone into the magic circle - and if it was not a magic circle he would eat the foam stuffing from his Beetle - seemed to have gone. It should be safe enough for him to step in.
Ban put one feet gingerly, and encouraged when nothing zapped him, he continued with more confidence towards the clear spot where Ginji was standing.
Which, of course, was when the residual energy from the circle chose to zap him like a bug.
The effect was not as a painful as sticking one's fingers into an electrical socket, and thankfully not as lethal. But it was several times worse than picking up a VCR with faulty casing.
Ban fell on his butt with a yelled curse. Ginji was on his side in a flash, strong hands supporting his back, all wide eyes and voice gone shrill with anxiety. "Ban! Are you all right?" Hevn was right behind him, hovering with a worried look.
"Ban?"
"I'm ok." Ban grimaced, feeling a bit singed around the edges. Just to be sure, he raised a hand and inspected the fingers. No damage. He pulled one leg in to inspect the sole of one shoe, and sure enough, the sides of the rubber sole was slightly melted. A smell of burned rubber wafted in the air. "God dammit, that was nasty."
Hevn relaxed at that. "If you can be pissy, you're going to be fine." She looked down at the white circle in front of her in trepidation. "But in any case, what in the world was that? And how come Ginji didn't get knocked down as well? And I was here when the police came to lay the tapes, and none of the guys get zapped as well."
Ginji frowned. "Hevn's right. Ban-chan. I didn't feel a thing when I crossed the ground. Well, except for that thing I mentioned earlier."
"That's because none of you work magic, and you are as sensitive to it as a doorknob." Ban got to his knees with a wince. The only good thing about the nasty surprise was that his headache seemed to have disappeared. Probably washed away by adrenaline. "I should have known better, but the power should've been gone by this time. This doesn't make sense."
"What doesn't?" Hevn queried, inching backward just to be on the safe side.
"This." Ban waved a hand towards the white circle. "No wizard worth his salt will waste so much power. Power is precious, and you hoard it, use what you need. Not throw it away like so much icing on a cake. They, however they are, have been using so much of it that it wasn't completely spent one week after and enough remains to repel another sensitive."
"So you're sure that it's more than one person?"
Ban snorted. "Hevn, it's got to be a group. No one person is this strong. Well, no one I know of anyway. Not living ones." His grandmother, the Witch Queen, could match this feat, but the old harridan would have eaten alive anyone who was as careless and wasteful with power as this. Maybe literally.
"Ban-chan, you sure know a lot about these things," Ginji piped up, as unguarded and sincere as he always was, but Ban cringed internally at the candid remark. Ginji still knew next to nothing about his past, and he intended to keep it that way for as long as possible. It was a measure of the other boy's trust that it did not come between their friendship. Ginji trusted him to tell his story when he could, and believed enough in him that he would keep on defending Ban even when grim evidences reared their heads up. Like Himiko and the specter of her dead brother. Like the Miroku clan.
At times like this, he felt almost unworthy of that trust. He could not prevent pieces of his past from coming after him, but one thing he could do was make damn sure none of them could harm his partner and best friend. He did not think that he could live with himself if that happened.
Ban cautiously put his fingertips near where he was standing when he got hit with the equivalent of a magical punch. He felt the residual power stirred and crackled, seeking to ground itself on him, but now that he was aware of it his shields were firmly in place. The tendrils of power washed over his shields and slide off, still stirring uneasily but with nothing to latch on it subsided . But that small bit of contact had confirmed Ban's suspicions.
"There is something here, under the soot." Ban lightly scratched the ground with a nail tip, careful to keep contact to a minimum. As the black layer was uncovered, another color began to emerge. It was almost indistinguishable from the soot, but the uneven concrete surface was full of tiny pores which had gotten clogged with the substance. The different color was more obvious where the substance had filled the pores.
Ban brought up the finger caked with the residue and sniffed it. Whatever remaining smell was too faint to be identifiable, overwhelmed by the smell of soot. So he licked it delicately. Again, the taste was contaminated, but it was still immediately distinguishable. It made him smile grimly.
He looked up to see Ginji and Ban watching him. Ginji's face was solemn. He could read Ban better than anyone else and knew that smile meant trouble. "What is it, Ban-chan?"
Ban wiped his hand on his pants and turned to Hevn. "You might want to get another sample near where I touched. I bet that this time a lab test would give a more interesting result."
"What did you find?"
Ban moved away from the circle, sighing with relief as the prickling sensation leave him as soon as he stepped on to clean pavement. He cocked his head at partner. "Ginji, could you look around the surrounding woods?"
"Sure," Ginji replied readily. "Um, what for?"
Ban looked askance at the circle. "I've told you that this is too much power right? The only way the people who did this could do it without killing themselves would be to use external power source."
"You're talking about a sacrifice," Helen continued grimly.
"Or several. The police weren't looking from this angle, so they might miss something. I'm going to Takeru Fuyutsuki's office, see if I can find anything." He turned and started towards the back door of the factory.
"Ban-chan," Ginji called to his back. "What should I be looking for?"
Ban sighed, feeling suddenly unaccountably weary. "Bodies, Ginji. Look for bodies."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Author's Note:
All Ban's POV until now, Ginji's turn next. Whee, another chapter within the next week. Still feel that it is full of logic holes and possible sandtraps, but that's what I get for writing on the fly. Btw, anybody knows a good GB mailing list?
"We're here, Hevn-san," Ginji declared unnecessarily.
"About time," Hevn grumbled, her long frame squashed inside the narrow back seat of the VW Beetle. "This thing should've gone to the junkyard five years ago."
"Free ride, Hevn. Be grateful," Ban snarled half-heartedly. His head was pounding in sync with his heartbeat, and it was distracting him from full snark mode with Hevn. His own fault for drinking so much sake last night, but heaven knows when they could afford to do so again. Sure there was a lot of the one million yen left, but considering their absolutely atrocious track record when it came to money, it was a lot safer to spend when they could.
He just wished the sunlight would stop pricking the back of his eyeballs like so many needles. And he wished that god-awful racket would stop.
"HEVN!" He yelled and immediately regretted it.
"I can't help it," Hevn snarled back. "The. Door. Won't. Open." A thump punctuated each word. One final kick from her heels and the door gave out with an agonized metallic groan. It sank slightly to the floor with an obvious tilt. "There," Hevn declared triumphantly, and crawled out of the cramped space.
Ginji peered at the door and winced. "Ban-chan, I think one of the hinges is torn." Ban just groaned and popped open his own door.
The factory was located at the far skirt of the city, seated on one of the lightly wooded hills. It was out of the way enough that it was surrounded with trees on three sides, accessible through a winding road climbing up from the main highway. Currently the area was deserted with the Beetle being the only car in the entire employee parking lot. It was almost two on a Sunday afternoon, so that made sense. But there was something more, an air of abandonment that gave the feeling that this was a little bit more than that.
"Waa-y quiet," Ginji said softly, unconsciously dropping his voice. The stillness around the factory was broken only by the murmurs of wind among the tree leaves. The trees were tall and old, casting shadows on the sun-drenched lot.
"Oh yes, haven't I told you?" Hevn finished tugging her blue sun-dress in place. As usual, the fabric was just a tad too snug across the bosom. Hevn was a generously-endowed young woman. "This factory is going down. It was involved in a lawsuit, some sort of industrial dispute, and the owner finally just gave in and close up shop."
"And the owner is…?" Ban prodded.
"Takeru Fuyutsuki of course. Oh, and his wife is a co-owner."
"Hmph." Ban massaged his temples absently, casting his gaze around the deserted parking lot. "Where's the basketball court?"
"At the back, follow me."
They circled past the factory building to the opposite site. A concrete basketball court stood in lonely isolation, fraying hoop ropes attesting to long disuse. Police tapes ran along the perimeter of the court, blocking access.
As soon as Ban laid his eyes on the court, he had his first indication that this case may not be as simple as it seemed.
There was an area of dark discoloration on the middle of the concrete ground, shaped like a starburst. In the center of the starburst was a clean area about five meters in diameter. Radiating from that circle of clean area was what looked like soot marks, as if charcoal had been rubbed against the floor. It was similar to the effect of a camp fire with the logs cleaned out, minus the ashes. Except that this would have to be one huge camp fire. The edges of the starburst were all the way to the edges of the court.
"Woah, what is that thing, Hevn-san?"
Ban heard Ginji's voice behind him, and Hevn's calculated reply. "You tell me."
He squatted beside the edge of the soot marks and ran a light finger over the oily black surface. A sniff seemed to indicate nothing out of the ordinary, but he would run it through a lab just to be sure. "What does the police say about this?"
He felt rather than saw Hevn's shrug. "Vandalism, fire, some kind of explosives maybe. Except that neither Mrs Fuyutsuki nor the taxi driver heard any loud booms and that there is no damage to the ground. And by the time they reached the scene, within an hour or so after that light they saw, there was no one here. Just this big black mark."
Ban looked at his soot-blackened fingers with distaste and absently fished out a worn napkin from his pocket. He wiped his fingers on it, balled it up, and threw it with damning accuracy at Hevn's cleavage. The mediator barely had time to snatch it before it bounce off her chest. Her glare could have lit up a bonfire all by itself.
"Can you get one of your contacts to analyse that?"
"No need. I have the police forensic report and it's just soot. No kinky ingredients added."
Ban gave her a look. "I don't even want to know how you got your hands on a forensic report for an open case."
Hevn smirked. "I have my sources." Then her eyes widened and she shrieked, "Ginji! You're not supposed to get in there!"
"Huh?" The blond boy had somehow gotten all the way into the middle of the circle. "Why not?"
Hevn opened her mouth, paused, then snapped it shut. "Never mind," she sighed. "I don't really want to explain the concept of evidence tampering to you."
Ginji nodded, but his thought seemed to be focused elsewhere. "Ban-chan," he called absently, eyes unfocused. "Do you feel something… strange?"
"Strange like what?" Ban watched Ginji closely. His partner may at times seem a bit flaky, but he had a strong sense perception that seemed wired to things no normal person had.
"Uh… like, when there's a storm coming, and you can feel your hair standing up?"
Hevn frowned as she sniffed the air delicately. "You mean ozone?"
Ginji scratched his mess of stiff blonde hair, shaking his head minutely. "Something like that, but not quite it either. I know what a thunderstorm feels like, believe me, but this isn't it."
Ban peered at Ginji. "Do you feel anything else? Anything negative?"
"Hmm?" Ginji blinked and turned to him. "Nope. Am I supposed to?"
Well, whatever power had gone into the magic circle - and if it was not a magic circle he would eat the foam stuffing from his Beetle - seemed to have gone. It should be safe enough for him to step in.
Ban put one feet gingerly, and encouraged when nothing zapped him, he continued with more confidence towards the clear spot where Ginji was standing.
Which, of course, was when the residual energy from the circle chose to zap him like a bug.
The effect was not as a painful as sticking one's fingers into an electrical socket, and thankfully not as lethal. But it was several times worse than picking up a VCR with faulty casing.
Ban fell on his butt with a yelled curse. Ginji was on his side in a flash, strong hands supporting his back, all wide eyes and voice gone shrill with anxiety. "Ban! Are you all right?" Hevn was right behind him, hovering with a worried look.
"Ban?"
"I'm ok." Ban grimaced, feeling a bit singed around the edges. Just to be sure, he raised a hand and inspected the fingers. No damage. He pulled one leg in to inspect the sole of one shoe, and sure enough, the sides of the rubber sole was slightly melted. A smell of burned rubber wafted in the air. "God dammit, that was nasty."
Hevn relaxed at that. "If you can be pissy, you're going to be fine." She looked down at the white circle in front of her in trepidation. "But in any case, what in the world was that? And how come Ginji didn't get knocked down as well? And I was here when the police came to lay the tapes, and none of the guys get zapped as well."
Ginji frowned. "Hevn's right. Ban-chan. I didn't feel a thing when I crossed the ground. Well, except for that thing I mentioned earlier."
"That's because none of you work magic, and you are as sensitive to it as a doorknob." Ban got to his knees with a wince. The only good thing about the nasty surprise was that his headache seemed to have disappeared. Probably washed away by adrenaline. "I should have known better, but the power should've been gone by this time. This doesn't make sense."
"What doesn't?" Hevn queried, inching backward just to be on the safe side.
"This." Ban waved a hand towards the white circle. "No wizard worth his salt will waste so much power. Power is precious, and you hoard it, use what you need. Not throw it away like so much icing on a cake. They, however they are, have been using so much of it that it wasn't completely spent one week after and enough remains to repel another sensitive."
"So you're sure that it's more than one person?"
Ban snorted. "Hevn, it's got to be a group. No one person is this strong. Well, no one I know of anyway. Not living ones." His grandmother, the Witch Queen, could match this feat, but the old harridan would have eaten alive anyone who was as careless and wasteful with power as this. Maybe literally.
"Ban-chan, you sure know a lot about these things," Ginji piped up, as unguarded and sincere as he always was, but Ban cringed internally at the candid remark. Ginji still knew next to nothing about his past, and he intended to keep it that way for as long as possible. It was a measure of the other boy's trust that it did not come between their friendship. Ginji trusted him to tell his story when he could, and believed enough in him that he would keep on defending Ban even when grim evidences reared their heads up. Like Himiko and the specter of her dead brother. Like the Miroku clan.
At times like this, he felt almost unworthy of that trust. He could not prevent pieces of his past from coming after him, but one thing he could do was make damn sure none of them could harm his partner and best friend. He did not think that he could live with himself if that happened.
Ban cautiously put his fingertips near where he was standing when he got hit with the equivalent of a magical punch. He felt the residual power stirred and crackled, seeking to ground itself on him, but now that he was aware of it his shields were firmly in place. The tendrils of power washed over his shields and slide off, still stirring uneasily but with nothing to latch on it subsided . But that small bit of contact had confirmed Ban's suspicions.
"There is something here, under the soot." Ban lightly scratched the ground with a nail tip, careful to keep contact to a minimum. As the black layer was uncovered, another color began to emerge. It was almost indistinguishable from the soot, but the uneven concrete surface was full of tiny pores which had gotten clogged with the substance. The different color was more obvious where the substance had filled the pores.
Ban brought up the finger caked with the residue and sniffed it. Whatever remaining smell was too faint to be identifiable, overwhelmed by the smell of soot. So he licked it delicately. Again, the taste was contaminated, but it was still immediately distinguishable. It made him smile grimly.
He looked up to see Ginji and Ban watching him. Ginji's face was solemn. He could read Ban better than anyone else and knew that smile meant trouble. "What is it, Ban-chan?"
Ban wiped his hand on his pants and turned to Hevn. "You might want to get another sample near where I touched. I bet that this time a lab test would give a more interesting result."
"What did you find?"
Ban moved away from the circle, sighing with relief as the prickling sensation leave him as soon as he stepped on to clean pavement. He cocked his head at partner. "Ginji, could you look around the surrounding woods?"
"Sure," Ginji replied readily. "Um, what for?"
Ban looked askance at the circle. "I've told you that this is too much power right? The only way the people who did this could do it without killing themselves would be to use external power source."
"You're talking about a sacrifice," Helen continued grimly.
"Or several. The police weren't looking from this angle, so they might miss something. I'm going to Takeru Fuyutsuki's office, see if I can find anything." He turned and started towards the back door of the factory.
"Ban-chan," Ginji called to his back. "What should I be looking for?"
Ban sighed, feeling suddenly unaccountably weary. "Bodies, Ginji. Look for bodies."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Author's Note:
All Ban's POV until now, Ginji's turn next. Whee, another chapter within the next week. Still feel that it is full of logic holes and possible sandtraps, but that's what I get for writing on the fly. Btw, anybody knows a good GB mailing list?