Ginji's heart stopped dead in its tracks. "AAAAAAAAAH!" he screamed like a baby.

"Ginji-kun, get a hold of yourself!" Akabane demanded from somewhere in the darkness. "Screaming like an infant over a little power outage does not suit the thunder emperor." With that, the room brightened as though someone had lit a blue candle. Akabane held a small glowing ball of scalpels between his hands, illuminating the main room.

"Sorry, Akabane-san… it caught me by surprise."

Akabane shook his head in amazement. "You really do keep me from being bored, Ginji-kun." Akabane looked up and smiled. "So it is only the two of us. Alone. In the dark."

Ginji was beginning to sweat heavily. Akabane noticed and continued talking. "The last time we were alone in the dark, it led to some unusual consequences."

"I'm sorry, Akabane-san. I didn't mean to!" he whimpered.

"I did not mind all that much. It kept me from being bored, after all," Akabane smiled brightly, the glow from his scalpels casting his long shadow up against the wall. "I am jealous of you and your Midou-kun, Ginji-kun."

"Huh?" Ginji asked, surprised. Why the sudden change of topic?

"The way your Midou-kun always comes to save you." He hesitated. This topic wasn't the kind of thing he'd normally open up about, but then again, nothing had seemed normal lately. "I am even jealous of the way you two eat sushi together, fighting one another for the last morsel. The way the one who ends up with only the plastic grass will make a tragically sad face, but the other knows that it's not really sadness. I do not think I could ever experience such a feeling."

"You're wrong, Akabane-san!" Ginji said firmly. "Ban-chan and I… we complete one another. We fill up the holes in one another's hearts, like… like the way the meat and vegetables fill up the hole in the sticky rice!" Ginji said, proud of his sushi analogy.

"It must be wonderful to have someone to eat sushi with."

"Akabane-san…" This is my chance, Ginji thought. I can convince Akabane-san to stop killing if I be his friend. "Why don't we eat sushi together sometime?"

Akabane looked up, and less than a second later the glow from his scalpels had gone out. "Akabane-san?" Ginji cried in alarm. "Akabane-san, are you all right? Akabane-san?"

Ginji remained frozen, rooted to his spot. He couldn't see in the dark. The sound of rain tumbling down mean that he couldn't hear Akabane's movements, either. Did I say something wrong? Oh God Oh God Oh God, I said something that made him mad and he's going to kill me and I won't even be able to see him coming…

Another flash of lightning lit up the bar just long enough for Ginji to see that Akabane was no longer standing anywhere near where he'd been when the light from the scalpels had gone out. Ginji strained his ears, but he could hear no movement.

He was terrified. He moved one leg, preparing to run for the door. No- no wait. Breathe, Ginji, breathe, he thought. Something was beginning to dawn on him. Akabane-san is testing me. If I show I am afraid, he'll know my offer wasn't sincere. He'll know I'm still really afraid of him… and he'll kill me.

Ginji lowered his arms. "Akabane-san, you wouldn't stab a man in the dark without giving him a good fight, right? It's not your style. I'm going to stand right here, Akabane-san." He hesitated. "I trust you."

There was no response, although he thought he heard something brush against one of the tables to his right. "Akabane-san, please stop this. We can't eat sushi together if I can't see to get it out of the kitchen." His heart felt like it was going to jump into his chest. His legs felt like a combination of rubber and the desire to burn rubber out of there. He realized running was definitely the wrong option. He'd seen that he couldn't outrun Akabane from their experiences in the Infinite Castle. His only hope was that Akabane would come to his senses and stop being ridiculous.

He felt a presence at his back. "If you had run away, I would have killed you." A smallish hand rested on his shoulder. "Let's eat sushi together sometime, Ginji-kun."

0-

Time passed faster than it should have, and Ginji found himself needing to use the bathroom very, very badly. He looked over at Akabane, who seemed to have drifted off to a happy sleep with her coat wrapped about her body. "Do you want me to get you something from downstairs, Akabane-san?" he asked.

Akabane opened one eye, half-awake. "Perhaps later… some tea…" she yawned. Ginji nodded and left her upstairs, slipping silently downstairs in the dark.

"Gotta potty potty potty, gotta potty," he whispered as he thudded down the stairs in the darkness. After emerging from the bathroom, Ginji yawned and stretched. Boy, was he tired. Without warning, the front door suddenly flew open, and a mysterious black shape loomed in the doorway. Ginji recognized it instantly- it was the blob! "IEEEEEEEEEEE!" Ginji screamed, falling over in terror.

"Ginji?" Ban asked from beneath his rain poncho. "What in hell are you doing?"

Ginji relaxed, temporarily returning to normal. "What took you so long, Ban-chan?" He asked, breathing out with a great sigh of relief.

"The highways were horrible! It took ten minutes to go a kilometer. I could have walked faster," Ban shouted over the roar of the wind. "Let's get inside rather than discussing this out here."

The two stepped inside, Ban removing his soaked poncho and hanging it up on a hook. It was a cheap plastic thing that the tow driver had given him, Ban explained as he brushed the water out of his hair. Then, Ban looked over at Ginji, frowning. He grabbed Ginji by the shoulders, and without so much as a word of warning, threw Ginji out into the pouring rain.

Ginji immediately came running back in, his shorts soaked absolutely through. As they were the only things he was currently wearing, it would make sense that they would be the articles of his clothing to get soaked. "Ban-chan, what was THAT for?" Ginji asked angrily, brushing water out of his ruined hair.

"If I had to get soaked in the rain, you have to get soaked in the rain. Besides, you stunk like sweaty armpits."

"Like you should talk, Ban-chan! You shower in public fountains!"

"Never mind that, you," he snapped. Then, to quickly change the subject, "Where's Jackal?"

"Upstairs, watching the rain. Akabane-san likes to look at the rain."

Ban looked around the darkened Honky Tonk. "I wonder what is taking the power companies so long. They're normally so punctual… Ne, Ginji? If the power stays out much longer, the stuff in Master's fridge is going to start to melt. We should eat some of it before it makes a mess. Out of kindness to him, so he won't have to clean it up."
Ginji grinned through an exhausted yawn. "Of course, Ban-chan. It is only the right thing to do."

To Be Continued-