Hello again! Sorry I took such a long time. Exams, RK fic chapters, book reading, Samurai 7. I finally have a story in my head that could actually work, and I really hope it does. Thanks for thinking that it's really good. (Seriously, if THIS is good, how are the others?) Now, I'm really scared of what I might do very wrong.
I still welcome your comments and suggestions, since GB is not exactly my field of expertise. I admit that I too only know GB from anime, although I've tried to read up (still not done, though) at the Honky Tonk café, TakadaInmate's site and LJ, and that other place the getbackers LJ community suggested. There's plenty I'm bound not to know or get wrong. For this reason, don't expect a full cast to appear here. Fewer people, fewer mistakes.
On to the story.
……………………………………
"Are you sure about this, Ginji-san?" Kadzuki asked.
"Pretty sure," the chipper blonde young man said. "You saw it yourself, right? Many of the ISP's led to this place." His hands swept up to the large and tall building in front of them, for a multinational corporation.
"Um, Ginji-san, haven't you heard of re-router programs?"
Ginji tilted his head and grinned. "What are those?"
"I thought so," Kadzuki sighed and shook his head. "There are these hacker programs that give out tags and ISP addresses for another computer, at another place, not the one the hacker actually used to do the hacking. That confuses any tracking computers and programs. Sakura and MakubeX use it all the time. Therefore, it is likely that we have been led to this place by many re-route tags."
"But what if they're real?" Ginji asked. "No clues are bad clues, right? Let's take a chance!"
Ginji pushed on the large revolving doors, but Kadzuki held him back.
"But why not the back door?"
"I learned this from Ban-chan," he said. "Sometimes it's better if you enter the front door when they expect you to enter the back door."
"But this is too obvious, Ginji-san!" Then he moved back and bowed slightly. "Sorry for the outburst."
Ginji scratched his head. "Oh, really sorry, Kadzuki-chan. I think you're right. Should we go use the back door now?"
"No, Ginji-san," the string master replied and pushed themselves through the revolving doors. "The cameras already got a glimpse of us. Let's just make the best out of a bad situation, stick together, and find out what we can." He went to the reception desk, and got visitor cards for the both of them.
They began to walk in, and up the stairs. "Ban would probably have accessed the information files already, so let's see what we can find out from the other paper in this place. If your Ban-chan were so important, not everything about him would be shredded paper. Then, I guess we can take a look at how the people mingle about here. That's how your friend would do things, right?"
Ginji nodded. "Hey, Kadzuki-chan?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks a lot. For helping me about Ban-chan and all."
"The friend of the Raitei is, at the least, also my ally," Kadzuki smiled back at him.
They ran up to the second floor, and watched the movement there for a few minutes. Nothing substantial. The third floor. Cafeteria and little stores. They stayed for a while, but nothing seemed out of place. Finally, at the fifth floor, they found desks, cubicles, and offices. But nothing much, even through tapping the phone lines.
"Let's try the security department," Ginji said. "Even if Ban-chan had already been there."
His friend agreed, and went to the elevator with him. He glanced at a floor directory beside it. "Eighth floor. Let's go."
But Kadzuki was right. They were too obvious.
…………………………
Ban knew he was being tracked. There had been several attempts to hack into the Honky Tonk's computer over the last few weeks, and many records of sightings all around Shinjuku. Those were some of the contents of the diskette Paul gave him, the results of their web searching. It also told him that despite his efforts, Ginji was still on the case. Still, the diskette listed many places the sparker and the string master could look into without getting in trouble. He just hoped that was where they went.
He had contacted Hevn. Nothing new about the Jade Dragon. The only way to learn anything more was to learn it from Chan Feilong.
He stayed on past office hours, and slipped back into the information center of the building. Once again, he set the reception of his music player to the big offices on the top floor. He set his player on "record", planning to decipher all the Chinese back at Paul's computer once he had the chance to go there. Once again, he disabled the security camera for the room. With Chinese filling his ears, he sat down to a computer and began.
File search: White Tiger.
It yielded common, useless information about Siberian tigers. He had to try something else.
File search: Yukishiro Enishi.
Out came the picture that Hevn showed them, a proud, young, white-haired man immortalized in sepia print. Something about metalworks, but nothing that Hevn had not already told them. One more try.
File search: Midou Ban.
It let out an incredibly long file, longer than even he expected to get. More frightening, the files of sightings of him were more complete here than the file Paul gave him. It went as far back as the case for Madoka's violin.
Then, at the end, was a link.
He clicked on this and got a comprehensive file on the original White Tiger, written mostly in Chinese. He wired up his music player to the computer, and uploaded a translation program. From as many of the century-old files as could be found and saved, were pages and pages of data on his investments and plans.
He learned that the doppelganger was an ambitious, intelligent young man. He started in the organization as a teenager, from a hard life of fighting for food. He rose in the ranks faster than any before or after him, an achievement more because he was a foreigner among a tough class of Chinese people. He did not hesitate to kill if it needed to be done, and he did not hesitate to step on people if necessary. Yet, he was also reputed to have a way with words, getting people to join his side and getting his way – without their realizing it. A combination of force and good will had made him a respected and feared top ranker in the organization, second only to the ultimate heads, with a name known in all of the China underworld of his time.
Chan was right about that point. He had a lot in common, personality-wise, with this white-haired man from a century ago.
If forced, then yeah, maybe he could play along and be that White Tiger for a while.
One thing struck him as odd, though. There had been no recorded eyewitness account of the Jagan being used by this uncanny lookalike. Neither was anything like the Snake Bite recorded. It was only noted that Yukishiro had been a skilled swordsman in his day, using a combination of Chinese and Japanese sword techniques. Maybe the sword had magic to it? He guessed. But there was nothing to files to confirm that.
So, if this man was his ancestor, how was he an ancestor? Where did he get his special skills?
His thoughts were interrupted by a voice coming clearly through his earphones. He stopped typing.
"Kanzaki Hiroto?"
He did not reply.
"Or rather, Midou Ban?"
He still did not reply. But he clenched a fist.
"How did you like our profiling of you? We made it as complete as we could."
He did not answer. He smirked to himself. The day your files has Maria Noches in it, is when I believe you.
"But as you saw, you are an ideal candidate. You are, most likely, the new White Tiger. And that is quite an honor we bestow on you. We promise to give you the breadth and depth of the organization. You can do anything you like, and we will obey."
He had been told that a few other times by other organizations. What none of them understood was that he wanted to act on his own, on his own terms, never on the terms of others. He drew out a microphone from inside the music player. "I already told you, I'm not interested."
"So why are you here?"
He answered with ice in his voice. "The GetBackers took on the job to retrieve the Jade Dragon. The GetBackers do not stop until the job is done."
"I thought you were not interested in that as well."
"You forced me to be interested."
"Oh, yes, that's right. Because you wanted to protect Amano-han. My friend, you definitely underestimate the power of this organization that we are giving you! Amano-han, is a drop in the water!"
What was the man driving at?
"Look through the window, Midou-han."
He was skeptical, but looked down through the window nearest him. And saw Ginji and Kadzuki walking through a long, deserted hall, several floors below him. He growled. Stupid meddling fools!
"Ah, yes. Amano-han. He could never bear the thought of being away from you for a long time. Such love. You make such a good couple…"
Ban could feel Ginji-like sparks forming from his palms, in supreme irritation. He was not a man much inclined to murder, but he seriously contemplated on killing the man once he got the chance.
But he saw a man move in, with a long-range rifle pointed at the two. And another. And another.
"So, Midou-han? What will it be?"
One locked and loaded. He heard it through the earphones. Through the lens he saw other people with guns maneuver closer to Kadzuki and Ginji. Soon, those guns were also locked and loaded, and aimed at the two below.
"Too many people to use the Jagan on, and you can't use it on me," the voice reminded him. "And no one near enough for the Snake Bite. You're too far away to shout to them. No way to help them, Midou-han. Unless you agree to join us."
Ban gritted his teeth. Cornered. But he was not going without a fight. "Sure, give them a shot. I don't care." He spoke with as much nonchalance as he could muster.
A shot was fired. It grazed Kadzuki's shoulder. It placed the two on heightened alert, backs to each other. The two looked overhead, and fired out sparks and threads between them. Kadzuki's threads began to knot and twirl in all the wrong ways. Another shot came before either could avoid it, and hit Ginji's leg. Ginji began misfiring.
Simple gun shots should not let two Volts leaders make such critical errors.
"WHAT did you do?" Ban demanded, as he looked on with horror. Ban thought he saw his partner mouth a few terrible syllables. They were confirmed, as Ginji began to sweat and spark weakly, and his friend held his neck. "POISONED! You're crazy, Chan!"
"The next one will hit his heart, Midou-han," the other end calmly said. "You're the one who told me to shoot at them."
Ban pulled at his hair.
"There IS an antidote to it. I will let you give it to them. As the White Tiger."
It might be another poison, but Ginji and Kadzuki were fading fast before his eyes. For now he had to believe Chan, or both meddlers would be dead in a few minutes. Besides, if Chan wanted him so badly, he would not do anything to make him attack needlessly.
He had no choice.
"Fine, fine," he growled. "I'm in. I'm in. Keep your promise."
"Do you think I'm a liar, Midou-han?" the voice crackled from the earphones.
"Give me reason to believe otherwise, Chan," he grumbled back.
Both Ginji and Kadzuki were now on the ground, unconscious.
"Your orders, then, Midou-han?"
He was still shaking, holding the microphone. "Give them the antidote. NOW. No tricks, or I WILL get to you. Then, throw them out of town. Do NOT kill them. Code name: White Tiger. Those are my first orders."
Ban saw a man appear from behind a secret door, and inject something into his friends. He heard a steady clap, clap, clap, clap through the speaker, as he saw the blond-haired and long-haired young men dragged away.
"The White Tiger has returned."
……………………………
I would place this story a little before the manga-only material. So, let us say that this is one of your slightly unusual non-Mugenjou cases. Have mercy, even I just found out about Der Kaiser! I still don't know squat about that Amon guy! If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to shinyakabeko. tripod. com like me and get yourself a most necessary update from TakadaInmate. The PREVIOUS GetBackers have already been introduced! And you won't believe who they are!
I knew I was crazy to start this, but now I realize I'm in too deep. Nonetheless, I will finish this story, the best I can. I apologize but I will not make Himiko appear here; I'm afraid of what I might do very wrong with her. I have even junked plans to bring in Dr. Jackal. Similarly, majority of the Mugenjou people won't make an appearance either. I do realize that tackling Mugenjou people with only anime knowledge is asking for trouble. I will always gladly accept suggestions, comments, and manga clarifications.
Atropos Knife -- I owe you a lot. Your suggestions and information were very very helpful. By the way, that bit about Ban's parents (I've read up since then) did help a lot in something that bothered me. Now it's settled, I finally have a story I can be happy with. I'm also glad that you knew about Enishi. Coming from the RK section and writing about Enishi, I DO know a lot about having to be careful and staying true to the manga. That's part of the reason why I didn't update for a long time after chapter 2 – I didn't know if I could do it. But thanks for your support and I hope you keep liking this little piece.
Jordiscy the Wood Elf – Thanks for the show of support. I hope I live up to expectations, but I really accept suggestions.
Anonymous95321 – Sorry about Kadzuki, I'll try to do better. Thanks for liking the plotting, although I think you're giving me too much credit!
Marbles – Kabayan! Of the 3 versions I've heard I still like Ban best in Japanese. It's crazy that I can identify the Ban voice in Animax dubs. You can tell your friends that I am fully convinced there would be no Ban if there were no Enishi. The way Ban's back story was developed parallels some of Enishi's back story as well. Because only hardcore RK nuts know about Enishi, not many people realize that Ban is just a very good clone. Thanks for reading my other stuff, and for liking White and Black!
Unseen watcher – Thanks for reading! It'll take a while before that happens.