Retrievers, Transporters and Ducks! Oh My! (Edit #1)

By: Alicorna

Chapter Rating: G

Betas: Riyuji and Rabid Lola

"Ban-chan, what are we going to do this time?" asked Ginji tentatively. He was not looking forward to seeing Akabane again. The thought was sending shivers down his spine... or maybe it was just the fact that Ban had the windows of the 360 open to the frigid weather so that he could smoke.

Grunting, Ban replied noncommittally. "Every time that we've planned to stop Mr. No-Brake, he's just driven right through... so I guess we'll just wait for the truck to pass by and wing it."

Ginji sweat-dropped. "Are you sure we shouldn't get anything ready Ban-chan? I mean, we are dealing with Himiko-chan, right?"

"And?"

"Well... we don't want to hurt her, do we?"

"Ginji, if we aren't gonna be serious about the job because we're afraid that Himiko can't take care of herself, it's pretty disrespectful to her."

"True..."

Pondering that thought, Ginji sank down into his seat, and the duo drove on in silence.

"Are you sure that you wanna be driving this fast onii-chan?"

"Why not?"

"Well, won't the other people be mad at us?"

"I assure you, the authorities don't use this road."

"You're absolutely, positively sure onii-chan?"

"If I weren't sure, mydear little sister, why would I say it?"

"Alright onii-chan!... But-"

"Yes?"

"Won't it be hard to stop if we're going so fast?"

"The whole point is that we're not going to stop until we reach our destination."

"But..."

"What do you have to say?"

"What if we see a bunch of duckies crossing the road?"

Kagami Kyoji rarely left the area around Mugenjyou, but today was a special case. After all, it was not often that he was able to watch Raitei fight. No, it was not often indeed.

Chuckling, he leapt with superhuman speed and precision towards the place where Mugenjyou's Thunder Emperor was practically destined to emerge.

"Onii-chan..."

"Why do you call me onii-chan anyway? We aren't blood related in any way."

"But onii-chan rescued me from the streets, and onii-chan fed me and clothed me, and onii-chan kept me safe and warm and onii-chan hugged me when I was scared. That's what an onii-chan does, so you're my onii-chan!"

"... but I lost you."

"It wasn't onii-chan's fault that the other people took me awa-"

"I highly doubt that."

"I wasn't finished onii-chan! Anyway, you found me again, so what does it matter?"

"It matters to me very much whether you are happy or not."

"See? Only an onii-chan would worry for his little sister like that!"

"You're not going to give up are you?"

"Why would I do that?"

"..."

Ginji was apprehensive, to say the least, about meeting Akabane Kuroudo again. It wasn't really the fact that the man pulled his weapons out from his body, or that he killed so many people, or that he enjoyed fighting so much, or even that the man took such perverse pleasure in killing things.

Ginji could accept those things, or at least, if he couldn't, he could understand them.

The plain truth of it was that Akabane Kuroudo's complete and total lack of a survival instinct was really creepy.

In Mugenjyou, the Infinite Fortress, there had been fighters with odd weapon styles, murderers who enjoyed killing, and those with even stranger quirks.

But never, NEVER had there been such a one as Akabane-san, with his casual acceptance, his every movement and attack a plea for death, and a call for it.

In a way, it was as if the man celebrated death. He wore an air of generosity when he inscribed his bloody 'J' onto those he killed.

Sometimes, it made him wonder…

"Ban-chan..."

"What?"

"When you came to Mugenjou... you weren't just looking for a good fight-"

"Of course I was, stupid. Why else would I, the invincible Midou Ban-sama, ever visit such a dingy, grubby, dirty place?"

"-you were looking for a way to die weren't you?"

Rubbing his eyes, Ban turned away from the road for a moment, and stared at Ginji, blue eyes icy. Ginji, however, recognised the ice in those eyes. It was the fragile ice that formed on top of puddles, a thin layer that begged to be broken open to let out what was beneath.

Gathering his resolve, Ginji stared right back.

"You were searching all that time, but you don't need to die anymore. Everything's better now because Himiko-chan forgave you."

Then Ginji smiled, letting sun shine through his serious pose.

"And you're a GetBacker now. I can't just let you leave. The 'S' in GetBackers means that we'll never be alone, and now that you have a chance to really live, I won't let you miss it."

Ban nodded absently, concentrating on the road, then asked suspiciously, "What do you mean by 'really live' Ginji?"

"Himiko-chan forgave you, and you like her and she likes you back, and you're the only one that doesn't notice!" Said Ginji, with innocent certainty.

As Ban sputtered, and turned bright red, Ginji babbled on happily.

"And one day, you'll both realise it, and you'll get married and live together, and have lots of ki-"

Whatever else Ginji was going to say was lost forever to the world, as Ban, blushing furiously, stopped the car, opened the door, and kicked Ginji out.

"Shut up baka. You can walk. You'll make it there eventually."

Piteously, Ginji cried "BAN-CHAN!", as he sprinted after the car.

"You know I love you, right onii-chan?"

"You do?"

"Stupid onii-chan! Of course I do!"

"If you say so..."

"You're very stubborn you know, onii-chan."

"Some say that it's one of my best qualities."

"But other times it's very annoying."

"I see..."

"You could at least say that you love me back, onii-chan."

"I thought you already knew that."

"Girls like to hear it out loud sometimes."

"Really? I never knew that."

"Onii-chan."

"You know that I love you Amayako(1)."

"I love you too Kuro-ni."

"The mush is starting to make me nauseous."

"Mr. No-Brake, you of all people should not be getting car sick."

"And Jackal, you of all people should not be bringing such a liability into a job just because she is dear to you."

They stared at each other for a while, then chuckling, Akabane Kuroudo tipped his hat over his eyes.

"You will see how much of a liability she is when the retrievers attack, as we know they will."

"If you say so, Jackal.", their driver replied.

And if you'd stop sending reports of our movements to the mediators, we wouldn't have to deal with retrievers in the first place...

Sighing, Mr. No-Brake turned his eyes back to the road. This was going to be a very long night.

(1) Amayako- Amaya means "night rain", ko meas "child of". Thus, child of the night rain. I'll get to that later.

AN: Alright, enter the Mary Sue. X3 That wasn't so bad, was it? I'll probably face a lot of criticism, but I really don't think that she's so bad. Or at least, she could be a lot worse. I was sort of inspired to write her up from a fan-fic that I read while perusing I'll get you the title if you want it, although it's a bit psychotic, even though it's only a one-shot XP

And I mean psychotic as in horror-slasher fic

Whew! That's done! I love Ginji, he's so cute when he babbles.

I'm so glad that this thing is flowing... although I'm apprehensive as to how I'm going to write the fight scene that's coming up

It'll be the first time that I've ever done something like this... so bear with me if it's horrible, and correct me when I'm wrong.

Thanks to all!

And now, here's some of Natsumi's choco-chip cookies for my wonderful reviewers X3.

Rabid Lola: g I changed the chapter, so the nose bleeding's gone, but Hevn's boobs are so fun to write… it's almost as if they have minds of their own…. plot bunnies start attacking oh my, I'm not sure that I should have gone that way... And yes, the ducks will be explained soon

Riyuji.Raicho: I'll definitely make those edits when I get them (There will probably be many edits of these chapters) and whatever a subuke is... I'm not sure I want to know… 0.o

EEJBan: Well, I've already seen the whole of the GetBackers season, as my best friend bought all the DVDs in Hong Kong, then dragged me over for a sleep over to watch it XD My original passion for GetBackers, though, came from reading the first and second volume of the manga. Read them, they're just as good, if not better, than the anime. BTW, in the anime, Hevn is a prude in comparison to her manga counterpart, the reason why Hevn jiggles her cleavage around so much in the fic. I don't agree with the whole Ban/Hevn thing, as stated in y authors notes. so don't expect to see it in my fics (The fic "My Boyfriend" got me hooked on Akabane/Hevn, but that won't be shown here either).

Please review, it makes me happy, feeds my muse and helps me write new chapters