Konichiwa! Sorry it took me so long to update… I was busy!

Thanks for the reviews and since I'm so thankful for these reviews, I'd like to give out a few awards…

The awards for most supportive and appreciative reviewers go to…

lonestar 88, water melon wolfie, Bahaghari and Rabid Lola!

The awards for most critical and helpful reviewers go to…

Youkai Ryuu and donna8157

Finally, the title of best reviewer goes to…

None of you! Why? 'Cause all of you are wonderful reviewers!

And now, let's get on with the story, shall we?

Enjoy!

From last chapter:

Please find a way to free me, minna. Please do it quickly.

After a few minutes of walking in the rain, they soon arrived at Gen's house in Mugenjou.

"Here we are." said Kazuki, knocking on the door.

Gen's granddaughter, Ren, opened the door.

"Kazuki-kun!" she said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"If you don't mind kid, we'd like to talk inside where it's nice and dry." Ban interrupted rather rudely.

Ren nodded then opened the door to let them all in. She waited until the last person, Akabane, had gone inside afterwards she closed the door.

By then, Gen had heard them come in and so he turned on the light and faced them.

"What do you need?" he asked politely.

"We need you to help us." Hevn began to explain but Ban, who was in a rather bad mood for his clothes and hair were soaking wet, interrupted.

"Long story short, we need you to take out a few of these blasted probes in our bloodstreams so that we can go and get Natsumi back. " he said impatiently.

Hevn glared at him but remained silent.

"I see," murmured Gen, stroking his chin gently, "I'll see what I can do."

There was silence as Gen began to think of a possible way to help them.

"So, which one of you wants to go first?" he asked.

The group exchanged glances until finally Ban sighed and stepped forward.

"I might as well get it out already. I hate waiting." He said, walking towards the pharmacist.

Gen nodded and began to explain the procedure to him.

"I hope this works, for their sake." He thought.

"Alright, here's what I'm going to do. First, I need to know exactly where the probe is so I'm going to put another one inside your body to locate it, understand? "

"How will we know where the probe is?" asked Himiko.

"When it finds the probe, it will light up, brightly enough to be seen on the outside." He answered.

"Next, when we locate it, we're going to have to take it out. Since it will be relatively small, we can just draw a bit of blood out and the probe will go with it."

"How about the probe that you will inject? How are you going to take that out?" asked Himiko.

"Once it finds the probe, it will simply attach itself to the probe so that it will also go out when I draw your blood." He replied.

"Let's get this over with." Ban said firmly, extending his arm.

It only took a few minutes to take the probe out of Ban's bloodstream.

"Who's next?" Gen asked.

When they saw that nothing bad had happened to Ban, Himiko went next followed by Shido, Kazuki and Jubei.

Ginji was the last but when they turned to look at him, he was in his chibi-form.

"I don't want to do it!" he whined. "I DON'T LIKE INJECTIONS!"

Ban sighed and looked at Ginji.

"Ginji, do you care about Natsumi?"

"Yes."

"Do you want her to get her back?"

"Un"

"Do you want 5 million yen?"

Ginji's eyes glazed over at this and he nodded excitedly.

"Well if you want these things, you are going to have to take that injection."

"Does it hurt?"

"Not one bit." replied Ban, knowing that if he told Ginji that it did hurt a little, he wouldn't do it.

Ginji sniffled and said, "Okay, I'll do it."

"Good." said Ban.

Gen did the same procedure as he did with the others to Ginji in his chibi-form.

"So did it hurt?" asked Ban.

"Only a little bit." replied his partner. "But you still lied to me you know, telling me it wouldn't hurt."

"Well, I had to." shot back Ban with a small smile. "If I didn't, I'd still be arguing with you now."

"Yeah well, that's the snake bastard. Ever the miserable and conniving liar." Shido said smirking at Ban, who in turn glared back.

"Let's just get going." said Kazuki calmly, trying to prevent a fight between Ban and Shido.

Kazuki then turned to Gen and Ren. "Thank you very much for helping us."

"Anytime." replied Ren while Gen simply nodded.

"You guys ready to go?" asked Shido.

"Wait," said Ban suddenly, "We're letting this homicidal psychopath come with us?" he asked, pointing to Akabane in disbelief.

"Is there a problem with that?" Doctor Jackal asked pleasantly.

"Oh just let him come Ban," Himiko argued, "He might be able to help us."

Ban sighed and said, "Alright, fine. But if he causes us any trouble, it's your fault."

Himiko nodded.

"Can we go now?" asked Hevn impatiently.

They nodded and with that, they left the pharmacist's home, now absolutely probe-free.

Meanwhile, things were happening in Babylon City, specifically in the Forbidden Section, where Natsumi was being held…

(Babylon City)

Natsumi stared desolately and helplessly out the window.

"What am I gonna do now?" she thought hopelessly.

Suddenly, she could hear footsteps approaching the door.

Natsumi stiffened. "Who could that be?" she wondered

The metal door swung open, revealing a lanky man in a business suit, standing and looking at Natsumi with a smile on his face.

"Welcome back, Natsumi." He said smoothly with a smirk on his face.

Natsumi nodded, relaxing slightly.

"It's good to have you back. As I recall, you weren't able to fulfill your mission to kill the Four Kings, now did you? And if my sources are true, you even befriended them."

She nodded, having nothing else to say.

"Now what I want to know is, why did you leave? You had a good life and name here and yet you left it behind like it was nothing to you, nothing important."

Her fist tightened at this. "I left because I didn't want to do your dirty work anymore. I didn't want to be a mere puppet."

"And what kind of dirty work do you mean?" he asked curiously in a silky voice.

"Murdering. Cheating. Stealing. Kidnapping. Gambling. Those kinds of things."

"I see." He murmured.

"I want you to let me go. I don't want anything to do with you or your filthy organization. Do it, or else I'll kill you." Natsumi demanded.

Finally the man looked at her, a shadow covering his face but letting a dangerous smile be seen.

"I'll make a deal with you. You and I will have a battle. If I win, you're free to go. However, if I win, you are going to stay here and that's final. Deal?" he said, extending his right hand.

Natsumi, who had never thought that this boss of hers could actually fight, decided that she had a good chance of winning and so she also extended her right hand and said,

"Deal."

"Good. The battle will be held two days from now. I'll let you practice in the training hall with Ryuki later." He smiled mysteriously as he opened the door.

"Good luck, Natsumi. May the best fighter win." He said as he stepped through the door.

"But Natsumi, what happens if you don't win? What happens if you underestimated him?" her conscience asked worriedly.

Natsumi's stomach tightened into a knot. She hadn't thought of that.

"I'll worry about it when it comes." She decided finally.

Turning to the window, she once again began her vigil of staring out into the rainy sky.

"I hope Ginji and the others come soon. I don't know what's going to happen now." She thought worriedly.

Okay, I'm done!

I'm sorry if the probe part isn't very good because I'm not really sure how to do it…

If you guys have any suggestions on how you want the story to turn out, feel free to suggest. Lord knows I need the help.

Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you guys reviewed my story as usual… please and thank you!