A Ranma ½ Get Backers crossover fanfiction
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ and Get Backers, although I dream about it every other day, especially a certain someone who wants nothing more but to find out his own limitations in battle, ah, sweet bloody sword.
A Life Renewed
By Insane Blight
Retrieval Agent Rivalries
"This is wonderful Auntie! Thank you!" Ranko squealed in delight, though the smile on her face was a little forced if you look at it long enough.
Nodoka beamed at the young red-head girl as she placed her present around the girl's neck, a beautiful, golden pendant. "You're welcome, Ranko-chan. Oh, I wish I'd have been you're mother. I really enjoy spending my time with you Ranko-chan, it's like we're practically mother and daughter!"
Ranko shuddered at the statement, her face contorted into one of disgust, then one of guilt. Nodoka noticed this and quickly became concerned for the red-haired girl.
"What's wrong Ranko-chan? Don't you want me to treat you that way?"
The cursed girl shook her head. "It's not that Auntie. I… I just miss my mother. I wish I could meet her face to face one day and just talk to her about everything. If by some chance that wish comes true, I'm scared at what she would think of me. Is she going to like me for what I am or is she going to reject me? I don't really know what she is like. It's kinda hard to remember someone you haven't been with ever since you were a child."
"You don't remember your own mother?" she asked incredulously.
Ranko nodded meekly. "I never really knew my mother. My pops kept me away from her all these years. I don't even know what she looked like until I saw a photo of her recently…" she stopped when she noticed tears falling down her face. 'Crying…? I'm… crying? I can't cry… I'm a man! A man doesn't cry…'
Nodoka's heart went out to the young girl beside her. She quickly grabbed the girl in a comforting hug, making the red-head girl cry even harder as she hugged her back with all her might. The Saotome matriarch rocked the girl back and forth, humming a soothing tune as she did so. "I told you this before Ranko-chan, but I miss my son just as you miss your mother."
The red-haired girl looked up and saw Nodoka's sad and tearful eyes. "I miss my little baby so much. I'm starting to regret giving him to my husband for that training trip. If I didn't know better, I think that they're trying to hide from me. I don't understand… did something happen to them? Or… is Ranma not manly?"
Ranko cringed while she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Um… Auntie…? What if he doesn't live up to your description of m-manliness? Are you r-really going through with that seppuku contract?"
Nodoka's face softened. "I… I don't even know if I can really do that to my own child but if honor demands it… Oh… I just wish that I could talk to him just once. I truly miss his innocent and heartwarming smile…" she said wistfully.
The red-head girl hesitated but decided to get this stupid charade over with. 'I only hope that you're as kind to the real me just as you were to Ranko.' "A-Auntie…? I have s-something t-to say… I… I…"
=====
'Next stop… Shinjuku, please be sure to check your possessions before going out of the train. Thank you for your time.'
Ranma snapped wide-awake upon hearing the announcement. 'I'm finally back, who would have thought that the thief turned out to be a little kid. Well, at least I got that old lady's stuff back.' he thought with a smirk, it wasn't pretty, meaning he destroyed half of the area but at least he accomplished his work.
"Ha! I guess I showed her… stupid Hevn, a week without a client." he mumbled to himself. 'Man, I'm hungry. I hope Paul doesn't mind me barging in this early.'
He was about to go up the stairs when he accidentally bumped into someone, causing both of them to fall to the ground hard. Ranma rubbed his bottom as he looked at the person in front of him. Said person has long, brown hair with a pair of bells attached to the right side. The person was wearing a white crop top, light grey pants and black leather shoes.
The one thing that got Ranma's attention the most was the person's look. At first he thought that the person was a woman but the pigtailed boy had a couple of experiences in this so he checked again and yup, it's a man alright. He raised an eyebrow at the woman… err… man that was currently dusting himself off. He can't put his finger into it but there is something about this guy that made him weary for some reason. He quickly dismissed the feeling he had, no need to be suspicious of someone you just bumped into.
"Sorry about that. Are you alright?" Ranma asked in concern.
The man smiled, standing up. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for asking."
Ranma sighed in relief. "That's good. Well, I better be going now… sorry again."
The brown-haired man became thoughtful as he watched the pigtailed boy ran up the stairs and out of the train station. 'Strange… why does he remind me of Ginji-san all of a sudden?'
=====
Speaking of which…
"Oi! Ginji! Get up and help me distribute these!" Ban shouted angrily at his sulking partner.
The blonde was currently leaning at the side of their car, feeling a little dried up. "What the use Ban-chan? We've been advertising for almost a week now and we still don't have a client other than Natsumi-chan."
Ban smacked Ginji on the head. "That's why we're going to do this again and again until a client comes! Hevn is no good! She practically swindled us on the mission she recently hired us to do! When it was all over, that big boob lady got more money than the two of us combined so we have to do the jobs by ourselves!"
"But the people here are not paying attention to us!" Ginji griped.
"That's why we have to continue doing this! Now come on and help me with these flyers!" Ban yelled, grabbing his partner by the shirt.
Ginji ignored Ban's order, his eyes widening at the scene happening to their side. Ban was about to smack the blonde on the head one more time but decided to take a look at what Ginji was staring at. His jaws dropped when he saw their car being towed away and with them having little to no money…
"Ban-chan…?"
"Yeah?"
"We're homeless Ban-chan!"
====
"Oh! A customer! Welcome!"
Ranma smiled at the dark-haired teenage girl that greeted him. He turned to the side and gave a slight wave to the orange-haired man that was currently reading today's newspaper. "Hey! I hope you don't mind me coming this early, master."
Paul looked up from his paper and just chuckled at him. "No, I don't mind at all. You're the only retrieval agent willing to pay for his food in the first place so you're more than welcome than those two idiots. Say, where have you been anyway? Hevn was looking for you the other day, saying something about a new job she just received." he chuckled again, remembering Hevn's angry face when she couldn't reach the pigtailed boy.
"Eheh, she was the one that said that she won't give me a job for a week, so I went out and looked for a client myself. Anyway, the money the client gave me is more than enough to last me a month so I'll lay off Hevn's track record missions for now." he explained.
"Um, are you a friend of the master?" The dark-haired girl asked.
Ranma looked at her. "Huh? Yeah, my name's Ranma miss…?"
The dark-haired girl smiled. "My name is Natsumi Mizuki. It's a pleasure to meet you Ranma-san." she said happily, bowing at the man infront of her.
"I didn't know Paul had an assistant…" he wondered aloud.
"I was just hired a couple of days ago. Um… are you a retrieval agent like Ban-san and Gin-chan?" Natsumi asked. Rather eager to meet another one if that was the case.
Ranma shrugged. "Sorta… I do all kinds of jobs. The retrieval bit is just a part of it. There are still a lot of other jobs out there." he explained.
Natsumi leaned forward, curiosity evident in her eyes. "You mean other kinds of jobs? What are they?"
"Hmm… well, a retrieval agent or a re-taker as you know by now, works for a client to retrieve any kind of object or possession. This job is pretty much what Midou Ban and Amano Ginji do in Shinjuku.
There is also a transporter job in which the transporter works for a fee to move an object from one location to another. They also have to make sure that the object safely reaches its destination, meaning if the object gets stolen, they would have to do everything in their power to get it back in order to continue with the delivery process. The most common transporters that I know of are Magurama and Akabane.
Another one is a sweeper job, which basically is a contingency plan for the client in case something goes wrong. There are other jobs like infiltration, undercover and reconnaissance just to name a few."
Natsumi was in awe. "Wow… I never knew that."
Ranma took a sip of the coffee Paul prepared for him during his conversation with Natsumi. Their talk was interrupted by the sound of the door opening followed by a gaijin woman assisting a sobbing little girl into the café.
=====
"So, you want to hire the Get Backers to recover your little girl's stolen doll?" Ranma asked nicely.
The mother nodded her head. "It's very important to her, it was the last present her father gave to her before him and me… um… split up." she finished embarrassingly.
Ranma placed both hands at the back of his head as he leaned back on his chair. "Why would someone steal a doll? Couldn't they just get one from a toy store? What's so special about this one anyway?"
"Well, the doll alone is worth around five hundred thousand yen. It was custom made in England but the most eye-catching feature is the dress the doll was wearing. The jewels attached around it are not fake or plastic, they're the real thing. You see, my ex-husband owned a diamond mine a couple of months back and he really wanted to make his present for our baby the very best." The mother explained, looking at her daughter, who was currently being comforted by both Paul and Natsumi.
The pigtailed boy whistled. "That's some doll alright but why don't you report this to the police instead? I'm sure they'll find the thief in a matter of days…"
"I can't wait that long. My daughter, Elaine… I can't stand seeing her like that. She really loves her father but now that he went overseas, that doll is the only thing that connects her to him. Please! You have to help us! Please return the smile on my daughter's face!" she pleaded.
Ranma sighed. "Although I'm not a Get Backer, I am still partially a retrieval agent. Fine, I'll take the job, don't worry about anything ma'am."
"Oh, thank you! I'll pay you any amount you want, just get back my daughter's doll."
Surprisingly, the pigtailed boy just nodded to that kind of offer. He walked towards the crying little girl, smiled and knelt in front of her as he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Elaine, is it? Please don't cry, I promise that I'll recover your doll back in no time so rest easy." he said in a very caring tone that had Paul raising an eyebrow at the scene before him.
The little girl looked at his reassuring smile through those teary eyes. She nodded to him and thanked him in advance, saying that she'll wait for him with her doll right there at the café.
=====
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon in Shinjuku Park. Ranma was not enjoying it though, so far he hasn't found a single trace of that doll or any signs of the thief from the description Elaine gave him. 'Kuso! Why did I make that promise anyway? I guess I'm just too soft for my own good.'
He was about to call it a day when he spotted a very familiar blonde and a certain man in shades running at high speeds across the street while carrying a fairly large doll that matches the description his client gave him. "Why those no good… Oh no! It's my job and whoever hired you two can rot for all I care!" he screamed as he chased after the Get Backers.
"Yatta! We can get the car back with the fee for this mission!" Ginji exclaimed happily.
"Yeah! We can also have a decent meal too!" Ban added in.
"Oh no, you don't!!!"
Both men stopped when they saw the pigtailed boy blocking their way. Ban and Ginji looked at each other, and then decided to charge right through Ranma, thinking that he was probably just another one of that thief's accomplice.
Ranma frowned. He swung his arm and a vacuum blade quickly made its way to the two men. Ban and Ginji jumped to the side to avoid the deadly projectile all the while preparing to fight as well. The spiky-haired man caught Ranma's attention long enough for Ginji to deliver an electric shock with just enough force behind it to stun the pigtailed boy for a little while. The Get Backers hurriedly ran away from the stunned Ranma not long after.
"Wait!" Ranma yelled out. He was about to go after them again when the one with the glasses surprisingly turned around and looked him in the eye…
=====
"I said wait… wha? Where am I?" he wondered out loud. 'Where am I? Why am I in a place like this?!' He found himself inside a large room that is full of antique paintings, ornaments and dolls. "I know I'm used to weird things happening around me but this is too much…" he muttered to himself.
The ornaments suddenly started floating in the air and they quickly homed in on the pigtailed boy. Ranma dodged the vases and figurines with practiced ease but was caught by surprise when somebody or something grabbed him from behind. He turned around and saw a giant doll clamping its arms around him.
"Mouko Takabisha!"
The ki blast quickly took care of that but his eyes widened when the remains of that doll morphed into little versions of it. The small critters clung to his clothes and began biting and gnawing at him which made the pigtailed boy tense for a very good reason.
"Get away from me you monsters! Mouko Takabisha Double!"
He fired another set of ki blasts but the miniature dolls keep getting back up, multiplying in numbers as they did so. The cycle continued over and over until Ranma found himself buried under a huge pile of dolls.
"Get away!!!"
After a blinding flash of light, Ranma found himself standing all alone at the middle of Shinjuku Park. He blinked a couple of times and he rubbed his eyes to make sure that those doll things were really gone. He then noticed a note on the ground with the words 'Just one minute! Bye!' written on it. It took a few more seconds before he was finally able to put two and two together, his eye contact with the one called Midou Ban just prior to the appearance of those doll illusions. He slapped his forehead for his carelessness, especially in the middle of a mission.
"Just one minute…? Oh, so that's the power of his Jagan… feh! So that's how they want to play it huh?"
=====
'You two may know your way around the streets of Shinjuku but I know the way around the rooftops.' Ranma thought with a smirk. 'Where are you? Aha! Gotcha!'
The two retrieval agents were sprinting down the street and then they went inside a narrow alleyway, probably to catch their breath. Ranma watched from above as both Ban and Ginji leaned on a wall, seemingly dead tired. He chuckled when he thought of something that'll get them back for that illusion trick they pulled earlier.
"I think we've ran far enough." Ban said in between gasps.
"I guess you're right, he can't possibly keep up with us now… huh?" Ginji blinked at the hand tapping his shoulder, it was not Ban's and it certainly wasn't his so he came up with his own conclusion. "A Ghost!" he shrieked, jumping back a little.
A ki wave struck Ban before he could even react to Ginji's outburst; he was promptly slammed into a wall for his troubles. Ginji was getting freaked now. He was practically shaking like a leaf that is until he heard the sound of a joyous laughter echoing around the area.
"Hey guys, thanks for keeping an eye on this for me!" Ranma grinned, snatching the doll from Ginji's shaky hands as he appeared beside him. "Sorry, but I have to keep a promise I made to someone. See ya later, Dakkanya-san!"
"Wait! Come back here you thief!" Ban yelled, not minding his injuries at all.
=====
"Ban-chan, what do we do now?" Ginji asked.
"I don't know, maybe we could ask Paul for some money. I know it's a long shot but what other options are there? That thief is good, how did he do that trick anyway? I even thought for a minute that he was using a Jagan but that's not possible, I'm the only one that could use it." Ban ranted.
Both men sighed, opening the door to the Honky Tonk Café. They froze when they saw the thief from earlier handing the doll to a little girl, whose mother happened to be the one that hired them to retrieve the doll. 'He's a retrieval agent?!' was the only thing that was going through their minds.
"Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha?!"
Ranma smiled at the two. "Yo!" he greeted.
Ban got out of his stupor and immediately grabbed the pigtailed boy by the shirt. "Yo?! Is that all you have to say?!" he screamed. He turned to the mother and scowled. "What's the meaning of this? I thought you only hired us to retrieve the doll, you didn't say anything about hiring another one!"
"Please understand… I just couldn't afford any chances. I hired this nice man here first before I came to the two of you. I wanted to get the doll back as soon as possible." she explained, ignoring the scowl on Ban's face.
Ban was about to say more but Ginji tapped him lightly on the shoulders and showed him the happy smile Elaine has, causing Ban to grumble about electric eels being too kind nowadays. Ranma had a distant look when he saw that smile. It reminded him of his time with his mother, even if the time he spent with her was in the form of 'Ranko'.
"Niichan?"
"Huh?"
"Thank you for giving me my doll back!"
"Ah… yeah…"
Ranma chose to leave the place a few minutes later, pain evident in his eyes. He totally ignored both mother and daughter calling him back to receive his payment and especially the number of curses Ban was shouting at him. Ginji on the other hand, looked at the pigtailed boy's retreating figure with a sad face. 'He hated seeing a happy family?'
=====
I told you this before Ranma-kun, you should tell her already. You'll regret it later on.
The pigtailed boy removed his shirt, exposing his still wounded chest. He stood infront of a mirror inside his house and placed a hand on his stomach, absentmindedly rubbing the deep scar on it, and his eyes took a semi-lifeless state before he shook himself out of it.
Mo… Mrs. Saotome? Can I come in, please…? I need to s-see you… just one more time… please!
He slowly went upstairs, his face darkening with each step. He opened the door to his bedroom and immediately went over to the desk, his eyes staring at the broken pendant that was simply laying there.
Mom…? Wake up! Mom…? No!
He shakily reached for the pendant. His vision was getting blurry the closer he gets to it. He grabs it and quickly sat down on the bed, his hands carefully sliding through the small inscription that was engraved on it.
What did you do?! Murderer!
The blue-eyed boy hung his head, not minding that a few tears were starting to fall down his face and onto the golden pendant. "Mom…"
=====
Next day…
"Ah! That's disgusting!"
"Mommy, what are those men doing there?"
"Don't come near them!"
Ban and Ginji were slumped against a wall, looking like yesterday's garbage. Their eyes were baggy, their hairs were a mess, drool was falling down their mouths and flies were beginning to surround them. Ban wanted to take Ranma's fee instead but the Elaine refused his pleas and groveling. In the end, the two of them got nothing out of their job plus they used up the last of their own money so they can't even buy a decent meal no matter how much they want to.
"Ba… Ban-chan… I'm hungry…" Ginji managed to squeak out.
"You and me both… who was that guy anyway? Trying to butt in on our business…"
Their whining was put to a stop when a couple of rice balls suddenly appeared right in front of their eyes along with a smiling old man, who was also infront of them. "Here, eat this. It's not much but it should help." The old man kindly offered to the two depressed youths.
Ban and Ginji looked at each other, an idiotic grin forming on their faces. They then began to devour the food in a matter of seconds. "We're saved!"
=====
AN: Sorry for the wait, I really just couldn't write anything these past few weeks. Well, another one done. I hope I can get the next one out faster, Ja!
Next Gone Neko?! Uh Oh…
