Notes: In this fic, I'm assuming Ban is not fluent in Chinese. If I'm mistaken and it turns out that he DOES know how to speak in Chinese, let's just assume he knows Mandarin, and the Burning Dragons speak Cantonese hehehe...
"Hey, Mido", Iarra said, as she turned her head to Ban.
Ban looked at her and found her staring at him. "What?"
Not taking her eyes off him, she said, "Bright blue."
"Huh?"
"They're really bright blue. I've always been curious ever since I've heard about them, but I never thought that they'd be this blue."
Ban frowned in confusion. "I have no idea what you're babbling about."
"Your eyes", she said. Then she smiled. "It's the first time I've seen them in broad daylight." Before Ban could react, she quickly turned her head back to the scene before her. "Anyway, check this out."
Ban raised an eyebrow, then crawled next to her. "Check what out?"
"See that building over there?"
He turned his gaze to the five-storey building ahead of them. "Yeah. What about it?"
"Look at the second window from the top right."
Ban did as he was told, and caught his breath in his throat as he saw blond spikes by the window. Those blond spikes are definitely Ginji's.
Just then, Ginji hid his head down the window. After a few seconds, Ban and Iarra could see him slowly raising his head and peering down at the Dragons below. Then his head disappeared again, only to reappear a few moments later.
"What the hell is he doing?", Ban asked, more to himself than to Iarra.
Iarra shrugged. "He's probably looking for you", she replied. Then she chuckled. "Or he's probably just lost", she joked.
"Probably both", Ban muttered.
She looked at Ban, not quite sure if he was serious or not. She raised an eyebrow when she saw that he was serious. She turned her head back to Ginji and remarked, "Lost or not, your partner must be one hell of a lucky guy."
Ban turned to her. "What do you mean?"
"The room that he's in... It used to be Havoc's office."
Ban waited for her to continue. When she didn't, he frowned and asked, "And that's lucky because...?"
Iarra smiled. "It's bulletproof. Plus it has an entrance to secret passageways inside the building."
Ban stared at her, processing this bit of information that Iarra gave. "What's the best way to go from here to that room?"
She thought for a moment, then answered, "Underground."
He snorted. "Okay. What's the second best way to go from here to that room?"
She snickered. "Well, we could go around the Dragons, and hope they don't detect us."
"'We'? 'Us'?", he repeated, then he shook his head. "Dagger Babe, you can stay here or go to your smuggler friends. I don't really care. But I'M gonna go there ALONE. Without you. Solo. By myself. Do you understand?"
She glared at him. "And when you get there, what are you planning to do? Huh? Get out of here? How? Do you even know the way out?"
He glared back. "Why are you helping us to get out, anyway? I find it hard to believe that it's out of the goodness of your heart."
"Well, it's not", she retorted. "Like I told you before, I have orders to keep you alive."
"Well, I don't plan on dying today, so you can just scram and tell your boss that you've done your duty."
"You're far from being safe, Mido. As much as I would like to get you off my back, I can't. I'm just as unhappy about that as you are."
Ban glared at her one more time before turning his head back to Ginji. There's no use in wasting time arguing with her. He had to get to Ginji as soon as possible. He would just have to somehow lose her later.
He got out his cellphone from his pocket, and quickly opened the flip.
Iarra snorted. "Good luck finding a signal out here."
Ban looked at the display on his phone, and scowled. "Man, I didn't know we're THAT far off from civilization." He looked at Iarra. "But then again, I should've realized that since the people here aren't exactly what you call civilized."
She glared at him, then looked quickly around. "Well, I could say the same thing about my present company."
She spotted a plant with large leaves a few feet away. She crawled to the plant, picked one of the leaves, and crawled back. She then pulled one of her daggers from her boot, then extended its handle as well as the leaf to Ban.
"Here", she said. "Write him a note."
"What?", he asked, confused.
"Write him a note", she repeated.
"I heard you the first time", Ban said, scowling. "What do you mean by 'Write him a note'?"
She sighed exasperatedly. "Use the dagger to etch on this leaf whatever you want to say to him."
Ban stared at her doubtfully.
"Don't you want to send a message to your partner?", she asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Yeah", he replied. "But I don't see how..."
"Mido", she said firmly, interrupting him. "Just write your damn message."
Glowering at her, he took the dagger and the leaf. He thought for a moment of what he wanted to say, that started writing. When he was done, he looked up from the leaf and handed the dagger back to Iarra. "Now what?"
"Give me that", she replied, taking the leaf from him and folding it into a small rectangle-like shape. She stuck it to the tip of her dagger, and pulled it down the blade until it reached the hilt.
Then she turned her head back to the window where Ginji's head could be seen. She scanned the ground below her, and mentally calculated the distance between her current location and the window. She looked back at the window, and focused. With her brows furrowed in concentration, she hurled the dagger. It flew upwards, its trajectory sending it way over the Dragons' heads, and straight into the window. The speed of the dagger's flight made it undetectable to the Dragons.
Iarra turned to Ban, grinning smugly. "Text messaging, Dark Fleet style", she said, then winked, to which Ban rolled his eyes. She looked up and noticed a group of dark clouds in the distance. It looked like it was going to rain. She turned to the right and started crawling. "Let's go."
Ginji lowered his head from the window, and sat on the floor. He wondered what those Chinese fighters were up to now. For the past few minutes, he had been trying to see where they were coming from. He figured that since they came from outside, the direction where they came from would most likely be the way out.
He started to raise his head again up the window, when something went flying through the window over his head. The object landed a few feet away. He sweatdropped when he noticed that the object that missed his head by only a few inches was a dagger.
Its tip stuck to the floor, and Ginji noticed something on its blade. He crept closer and saw that it was a folded leaf. He pulled the dagger out of the floor and slid the leaf out of the blade. He unfolded it and saw a short note scrawled inside.
Stay where you are.
I'm gonna come and get you.
- Ban
His eyes widened. "Ban-chan?" He then turned chibi, held a fan in one of his hands and the note in the other, and broke into a dance. "Yey! Ban-chan's gonna come and get me! Ban-chan's gonna come and get meeee!"
Ban emerged from the bush that he was hiding in, and ran swiftly to hide behind a tree. Iarra was behind the tree ahead of him. They had been darting from behind the trees and bushes surrounding the Dragons in an effort to keep themselves from being detected while making their way to the building where Ginji was. So far, they had been successful.
They were nearing the back entrance of the building when Iarra heard Ban grunt behind her. She turned to him and gasped as she saw him being pinned face down to the ground by a Dragon twice his size. Iarra saw him reach back. With a great display of brute strength, he yanked down his attacker's arm, pulling the Dragon down on the ground. He formed a fist with his right hand, and as soon as the Dragon's face landed next to him, hit him hard on the nose with it.
Ban disentangled himself from the fallen Dragon, and stood up, adjusting his glasses as he turned to see Iarra watching him.
"Where the hell did he come from?", she demanded, worry evident on her face. She hoped the rest of the Dragons didn't hear that small scuffle.
Instead of answering, Ban's eyes widened. "Look out!"
"Umph!", Iarra exclaimed as a man suddenly dropped down from the branches above her and landed on her. She then found herself in the same position Ban had been a few moments ago, face down and pinned to the ground. She struggled to reach into her left boot, pulled out a dagger, and plunged it into the man's left arm.
"Aaaahh!", the man screamed.
Glaring down at her, he pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her head. He felt a rush of wind brush against him as he pulled the trigger, and was surprised when his arm moved to the right, missing her completely. He frowned, confused at what caused his arm to move. He then gasped as he noticed Ban standing next to him, peering down at him over his glasses, with his hands in his pockets. The Dragon frowned some more, wondering how Ban managed to suddenly appear next to him within a span of a second.
"Guns are for cowards", Ban said. He suddenly grabbed the gun from the Dragon's hand and hit him on the head with its butt, sending the Dragon to the ground on top of Iarra.
Ban rolled the Dragon off of her, then said to her, "Did that answer your question?"
Iarra looked up at him, then at the scene behind him, and widened her eyes. "Oh, shoot. They must've heard us."
Down below, Dragons were looking up at their direction. Thankfully, the shadows from the trees hid them from view. Iarra stood up quickly, grabbed Ban's arm and started running, pulling Ban with her.
"Oww!", Ban protested as he felt her fingernails dig into his arm. "I can run on my own, you know!"
She let go as they reached one of the side doors of the building. She opened the door and entered, with Ban following after her. A group of Dragons soon arrived at the spot in the woods where they previously were, and saw the two sleeping Dragons on the ground.
Iarra ran into the corridors, quickly turned right into a flight of stairs, and started climbing up, with Ban right at her heels. When she got to the last step to the fourth floor, she heard the sound of footsteps on the fourth floor hallway and stopped. Unfortunately, Ban was too close behind her to properly adjust to her sudden change in movement. He bumped into her, sending both of them crashing down to the floor.
"Mido! What the hell..?!", Iarra yelled from under him.
"Why do you always, ALWAYS, have the habit of suddenly hitting on the brakes??!", he yelled back.
"Just shut up and get off of me!!!"
Iarra and Ban then noticed five Dragons staring at them, and sweatdropped.
"Oh, great", Iarra muttered.
One Dragon quickly recovered from his surprise and pointed a rifle at them. "Stop right there!", he said in Chinese.
"Thank goodness you're here", Iarra said, also in Chinese. "We were looking all over for you."
"What the hell are you telling them?", Ban hissed at her.
"Just trust me and follow my lead", Iarra whispered back in Japanese. "Now can you please get off me now?"
Ban slowly stood up. Iarra stood up after him.
"Looking for us? Why?", the man demanded in Chinese.
"I have a message for you", Iarra replied in Chinese.
"A message?", another man asked. "From who? And why didn't he just use the communicators?"
"This isn't a standard message", Iarra said.
"What do you mean?", the first man asked, lowering his rifle. "What is the message?"
"Well", she said, slowly lifting her knee. Then with a burst of speed, she pulled out two of her daggers and yelled, "Go back to hell where you belong!!!"
With her knee still up, she suddenly hurled the daggers at two of the men. Ban took that as a cue and lunged at the other men, hitting two of them on the head. He then grabbed the last man's face and threw him to the wall.
The daggers flew back to Iarra's hands. She placed them back into her boots, then finally lowered her foot back down on the ground. She surveyed the men on the floor, then grinned as she said, "Well, that wasn't so hard."
"I'd love to stay and gloat, but can we go now?", Ban said.
She walked towards the first man. She took the communicator from his belt and placed it into one of the pockets of her jumpsuit, then replied, "Yeah, sure."
She then went back to the flight of stairs and continued climbing. Ban followed her, then quickened his pace. He overtook Iarra, and continued climbing, almost running up the stairs.
"Hey, wait up!", Iarra said as she tried to catch up with him.
Ban reached the fifth floor and turned left to the corridor. He ran, ignoring Iarra's voice behind him.
"Oi, Mido!", Iarra called out to him. "Do you even know where we're supposed to go?"
Oh yeah. He knew exactly where Ginji was.
Ginji sat at one of the corners of room and hugged his knees. Ban-chan was taking a pretty long time.
After he read the note, he had looked out the window at the woods outside, trying to figure out where his partner could have been when he threw the note. But as he scanned the hills, the trees and the shrubs in the area, he decided that it was futile. There were a million places where Ban could be coming from. The only thing to do now was wait.
Just then, the door to the room suddenly opened. Ginji tensed up, sparks of electricity starting to run around his fingertips.
Ban barged into the room, followed by Iarra, who closed the door behind her.
Ban raised an eyebrow. "This... was Havoc's office?", he asked as he surveyed the empty room.
"Ban-chan!", Ginji suddenly called out. He ran to Ban and lifted him up as he twirled around. "Ban-chan! Ban-chan! Ban-chan! I'm so glad to see youuu!"
"I'm so glad to see you, too, Ginji. Now put me down!", Ban said.
Ginji complied, then turned to chibi form. "Ban-chaaaaan!" He jumped up, rode on Ban's shoulders, and started waving his arms and legs in a cheer-like dance. "I'm soooo happy you're okay. I was soooo worried!!"
"Worried? Baka! Why in the world should you be worried? Have you forgotten that I'm the Invincible Mido Ban-sama?"
Iarra stared at the two retrieval agents before her. Those two... are very... unusual, she thought. First, she was amazed when Ban stopped at the door to Havoc's old office and went right in, like he really knew where he was going. And now... Well... Now the Raitei was dancing on his shoulders.
"No, but..." Ginji was saying. He noticed the many, many cuts and bruises on Ban's face and arms, and said, "Just look at you, Ban-chan! You look terrible!"
"Gee, thanks. Maybe you should compliment my stylist right there", Ban said pointing at Iarra.
"Iarra-chaaaaan!", Ginji exclaimed, which made Iarra jump in surprise. He climbed down from Ban's shoulders and hopped over to her. "I was worried about you, too!" He leaped up and Iarra caught him under his arms.
She stared at the doll-like version of the guy formerly known as Raitei in her hands, her mouth wide open.
Ginji noticed Iarra's torn sleeve, the several holes in her jumpsuit, her dissheveled hair, and various scratches on her arms, then fired questions at her one after the other. "You look just as bad as Ban-chan. Are you alright? What happened to you when we got out of the Karekawa mansion? You suddenly disappeared. Did Dark Fleet get you, too? How did you escape? And how did you end up with Ban-chan?"
"Wait a minute", Iarra interrupted him. "You were worried about me because you think Dark Fleet got me??!"
Ginji nodded. "Uh-huh."
"Awww, that's so sweet", Iarra said, an amused smile on her lips. "Stupid. But sweet."
"Eh?", Ginji said, confused.
Ban burst out laughing. "You really are an idiot."
Iarra started to laugh as well. Ginji looked from Ban to Iarra and back to Ban. "Ne, Ban-chan? What's going on?"
"Baka! She's the one who threw the daggers at us and got us into this hell in the first place", Ban answered him.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"She's from Dark Fleet, you idiot!"
"What?!", he turned his head back to Iarra.
"I'm afraid that's true", she said.
"Aaah!!", Ginji yelled, jumping down from her hands and running back to hide behind Ban's leg.
Iarra glared at him. "Will you please stop yelling and be quiet? Do you want the people outside to hear us??"
"Ban-chan", Ginji whimpered. "She's scary."
Ban stooped down, picked Ginji up by the hair, and held Ginji in front of his face. "Scary? Naahh. She's more annoying than scary."
Iarra just rolled her eyes and started walking across the room. She picked up the dagger that she used to send the note, then continued towards the window. "Seriously, Amano, how do you stand your partner?"
She kneeled down in front of the window, then raised her head to peer at the Dragons below. She lowered her head, then pulled the communicator from her belt.
Ginji stared at her, not sure whether to answer her question or not. He turned back to his normal form, and asked, Ban-chan, if she's from Dark Fleet, why is she with us?"
"Good question", Ban said, turning to Iarra. "Care to answer that one?"
Iarra sighed. "Here we go again", she said exasperatedly. "I told you. I have orders to keep you alive." She turned the communicator on, adjusted the tuner, listening for the right channel. "So until I'm sure that you two are safe, you're both stuck with me, whether you like it or not."
Ginji looked at Iarra, then at Ban, smiling. "She's not so bad, Ban-chan."
Ban stared at his partner incredulously. "Are you serious? You're not actually buying what she's saying, are you?"
Ginji looked back at Iarra. "I think she's telling the truth."
Iarra looked up to meet Ginji's gaze, and smiled. "Thank you." Then she glared at Ban. "I think your partner has more sense than you."
"Tch", Ban snorted. "He's just more forgiving than I am." He turned to his partner. "C'mon, Ginji. Let's go."
"I would strongly advise you two not to leave just yet", Iarra said, listening closely to the communicator in her hand, where faint Chinese-sounding garbles could be heard from.
"And why is that?", Ban asked.
"The Dragons have surrounded this building", she answered. "If you would just wait and let me find out more about their whereabouts and what they're up to, your chances of getting out of here alive will significantly increase."
"Wait? You're asking me to wait?!", Ban asked, then snorted. "I don't think so. Let's go, Ginji."
"Ban-chan, maybe we should listen to her", Ginji said.
"What?! Whose side are you on, anyway?"
Ginji smiled sheepishly. "Well, she's the one who knows the most about what's going on. We can just stay here for a few minutes. Here..." He took out an apple from his vest pocket. "Want an apple?"
"No, I don't want an apple", Ban answered exasperatedly.
"How about a banana?", Ginji asked, taking out a banana from another one of his pockets.
"Ginji", Ban said, gritting his teeth. "I don't want to eat. I just want to get out of here."
"Aren't you hungry?"
Ban glared. "That's not the point!"
"Shit!", Iarra suddenly uttered.
Ban and Ginji turned to look at her. She was listening intently to the communicator, her brows furrowed in worry.
"What's going on?", Ban demanded.
Iarra didn't reply as she was concentrating hard on the device in her hand. Ginji handed Ban the banana, and Ban grudgingly took it. He WAS pretty hungry. He hadn't eaten since the night before.
Ginji then walked over to Iarra and knelt in front of her. "Here", he said, handing Iarra the apple.
Iarra looked up at him with a start. Her eyes fell on the apple. "Uhh... Thanks, Amano", she said as she accepted it, surprised at the thoughtful gesture.
Ginji sat down in front of her. "Call me Ginji."
She looked up again. "Okay", she said, then smiled. "Ginji."
Ginji watched as she took a bite then continued to listen to the communicator. "I have another banana, if you want."
Iarra looked back at the blond retriever, and smiled again. "Thanks, Ginji, but this apple's fine." Then she noticed the three parallel scratches on Ginji's cheek. She reached out and held his chin, turning itso she couldexamine the scratches. "Where'd you get these?"
He answered, "I had an encounter with this Chinese girl."
She dropped her hand from his chin and said, "That was Lily."
Ginji looked at her, puzzled.
She smiled. "She's got killer nails." She took one of the beads from her hair stood on her knees. "Look up", she ordered him.
Ginji obeyed. Iarra squeezed a few drops of liquid from her bead to the scratches. "This'll keepthem from being infected", she explained.When she was done, she placed the bead back into her hair.
"Thanks, Iarra-chan", Ginji said.
"No problem", she answered. She then sat back down and continued listening to the communicator. She sighed. "It's worse than I thought."
"What is?", Ginji asked.
"They're installing bombs all over the place", she answered, weariness evident in her voice. "They're gonna blow everything up."
Ban raised his eyebrows as he threw the banana peel on the floor. "Doesn't that mean that we should go now?"
Iarra held her index finger up. "Wait", she said, continuing to listen.
Ban walked over to Ginji and Iarra. He could hear the sounds from the communicator in her hand. It sounded like somebody, or somebodys, giving orders. He wasn't fluent in Chinese. But he could understand bits and pieces. Listening closely, he could make out the Chinese words for '2 hours', 'dead', 'destroy', 'prisoners'. Wait a minute.
"Prisoners?", he asked in Japanese.
Iarra looked at him, her face grim. "Yeah, they captured some of the Fleet agents. They're being held in the next building."
She then turned the communicator off, sighed, then rested her head on her knees, thinking hard on what her next course of action should be.
"Oi!", Ban said. "This is not the time to sleep."
Slowly, she looked up at Ban, then at Ginji. She knew now what she should do. "Look, they're setting up bombs to be triggered at about 2 hours from now."
"All the more reason to start moving right now", Ban interrupted.
She held her hand up, the serious look in her eyes silencing him. She took a deep breath, then said, "The Mikazuki Munechika is in one of the rooms in this very building."
Ban and Ginji's eyes widened.
"And I would hate for it to be destroyed as well", she continued.
Notes: This chapter is the beginning of the end. To answer Effy and Rabid Lola's question, there are still some things that will happen, so I'm estimating that this fic will still have about three or four more chapters.
limelie: Yep, they're back :-)
EffyDurach: I don't mind long reviews :-) Interesting theory you have there. But of course I'm not gonna tell you if you're right hehe:P I'm gonna take your advice into consideration. I might make a prequel to tell Iarra's background, and since she hasn't met the Get Backers yet, I can't really post that story under the GB category, so thanks for telling me where I could post it :-)
rabid lola: Don't worry about Ban's wrist. I just wanted to annoy him. The worst that could happen is that he would get a nasty scar hehe :-)
AmethystRainGrl123: Is this fast enough? :-)