Thanks for waiting. Med student life ain't fair to nice people like me. 8 ) AK, it's your fault. I've liked Ginji with Natsumi from just watching the anime. But you made me consider including it here. Bad, bad. 8 )
Sorry for another dialogue-intensive chapter. I actually had to remove some conversations, egad.
………………………………………
He woke up with a terrible hangover.
The orchestration of the 2 bank heists was actually simple enough, just larger-scale versions of the GetBackers' attack on protected buildings. But it gave him a taste of the power he had been given suddenly; an unquestionable power over people and events. It was thrilling, to a degree, having people answer to him. Yet he also felt the angry fire of that power. He could exact vengeance on almost anything or anyone with that hold on resources and manpower.
As he planned out the heists, he felt the blood boiling in him. All those times that adults threw him out as a street rat, all the times people did not take him seriously. All the times that corrupt people in high places made lives terrible for ordinary people. The time had come to unleash his revenge on them all, slowly but surely.
But sometime in the midst of the congratulations and the celebrations for 2 incredibly successful operations, he remembered. This was not like him. Not at all. To forget the fact, he sauntered over to the hotel bar and tried to numb his thoughts with alcohol. Thus, the hangover. He had been in control enough to know that he rode the elevator and walked into his suite on his own. He barely made it to the sofa.
"Maria-san, what in the world am I doing here?" he muttered, before he fell asleep.
He had not called or communicated with the café in any way for at least a week. He did not want to talk to him, or any of the people in his life, just then. He did not know what was happening. He was not sure if his cursed eyes were playing tricks on him. But every time he looked in a mirror, he did not see himself. He saw the man in the sepia print.
He felt it. All the vengeance he had pent up, surfacing, manifesting. Anger against parents, caretakers, friends, enemies, himself, and the curse. It influenced his thoughts and his movements. There was ferocity in them that even he did not know he had.
The electric dragon. He had defused it in him, that fierceness and that vengeance that threatened to eat him alive. Maybe it was true that lone tiger Midou Ban stopped the Thunder Emperor from being consumed by himself. But it was also true that, in his quiet way, Amano Ginji had done the same for him.
He absentmindedly took up the phone, and dialed the Honky Tonk's number.
"Honky Tonk, how may I help you?"
Natsumi. How long had it been since he last heard her? Was she getting along with Ginji? Was she……
"Hello? Who is this please?"
He heard plates being washed. Ginji was on duty.
"I'm putting the phone down…….."
He coughed, and lowered his voice. "I'd like to order the house specialty pizza?"
"You again!" the young lady exclaimed at the other end. "You don't ever give up, do you? We don't deliver! You have to come over to buy it!"
He was annoyed at too many things, and the girl received some of it. "So why don't you take it to me, then? I can pay you, you know!"
"And just what do you mean by that?"
"What's the matter with you, woman? Can't a guy call a shop and not be harassed? Useless, pathetic witch!" All the words came out, before he could stop the words, before he remembered again that it was nice familiar Natsumi he was talking to.
Natsumi had had enough. She started to shout. "Stop bothering us already, okay? You're stupid to keep insisting on something we can't give you! And you have the nerve to shout at me like that? You're even worse than Ban-san!"
The last sentence took him aback.
"I'm warning you, my boss has ways of tracking you down----" then the voice faded.
He heard some words exchanged between Natsumi and Paul. Then he heard Paul's voice. "Stop irritating my assistant. What do you want?"
Ban reverted to his usual voice, but kept up the farce. "The house specialty pizza, large, please."
"She already told you, we don't deliver," Paul kept his end of the line.
"What about that guy I always hear in the background when I call? The other assistant, the cleaning boy, whoever he is----"
"Just a regular customer who hangs around here," then Paul emphasized, "and doesn't pay his tab!"
So Ginji was still perfectly alright, for now.
"Is there anything I should tell him?" Paul asked gently.
He bit his lip. He felt the receiver trembling in his hand. "Nothing. My mistake," he said. "Tell the girl I'm sorry," and he quickly hung up.
He walked out to the balcony, and lit up a cigarette. "Really sorry about that, Natsumi-chan." He puffed out a long stream of smoke.
A short set of knocks, then a well-dressed young man entered his room, meeting him in the balcony with a bow. "Midou-san," he began – the regular guards now knew better than to call him by the alias – "here is the information you requested." The guard handed him a folder with papers inside.
"Thanks," he said, and took them. "Anything else?"
"That's all, Midou-san." The guard raised himself from the long bow.
"Fine," he smirked. "You can go."
As Ban opened the folder and took out the papers, the young man made a final bow and exited.
It was finally in his hands. The name of the person who sold the statue in his suite. Kitano Kaoru, former surname Himura. It also gave her current address and particulars. She lived alone in a traditional-style house. She looked the typical granny. Someone you would not expect to own such a fancy statue.
But a good lead had to be followed, impossible as it may seem. He wanted to know what made this statue different from the other replicas. He wanted to confirm his suspicion, that this was the real thing. Besides, the old lady might even be able to give the answers he was looking for. Answers to questions such as: why in the world did he look so much like Yukishiro Enishi? How was he connected to him?
It was still on his mind during the next board meeting, later that day.
Members of the board were singing his praises. The police, like the other organizations, were stumped by the heists. They knew the mastermind was called White Tiger, but nothing more. And the branch was now several million yen richer, with no way of tracking the money. It was a masterful use of manpower, planning, and skill. The new leader had also tweaked the security systems of the headquarters here and there, making entry by police and others more difficult. He was a wonderful, powerful addition to the branch.
All this passed over Ban's bowed head, as he kept thinking.
They talked next about smuggling operations that needed to be done. Ban nonchalantly told them of possible target areas that the police did not frequent. Easy stuff, stuff he had learned both as part of Yamato's team and while with Ginji. The target areas were planned in, taken almost without question. The operation would not be directly linked to any of them, much less the White Tiger.
But Ban backed off when assassination plots and plans were discussed. They were not his thing. He was a retriever, not a murderer.
Three hours of much planning, and the eldest member stood up. "Much work was done today. We will now adjourn. I will see you all tomorrow."
Middle-aged men shuffled out of the boardroom, as Chan cornered Ban at the window. "Good work, Midou-han. I was right to ask you to join us."
Ban clenched a fist and glared darts at the wiry man with the smirk.
"You can go back to the hotel now," Chan said. "We meet tomorrow."
"I'll be out tomorrow," Ban said. "Investigation."
"Sorry, but you'll be needed tomorrow at the meeting."
"This thing I have to do can't wait either," he countered. He raised a piece of paper. "This woman might have information on the real White Tiger." He tossed it over to Chan.
"Make someone else do it, then," Chan spoke quickly, and motioned the man behind him to come near. "Send Lee to this address. Tell the woman they have one day to reply. Tell her they're orders from the White Tiger."
"What are the orders, sir?" the messenger asked.
"The house will be burned down, unless they comply to a full search and interrogation."
"WHAT the hell!" Ban was unable to control his shock.
"I told you, Midou-han, use the organization to its full capability," the wiry man smiled slightly at him, and shooed the messenger away. "Sorry, but I can't let you out of my sight for too long."
He hissed at the man. "I'm just here for the Jade Dragon, Chan Feilong. Once it's found, I'm gone."
Chan tsked. "Such a pity, then. And you are such a help to our branch, too." He drew closer. "When the time comes, Midou-han, we WILL allow to you leave the organization. However, you do understand, we have to stop you from telling our secrets."
Ban hmphed.
"At the least sign of betrayal, we will show the heavy hand that keeps this organization intact. Understood?"
"Perfectly."
Ban quickly went to one of the stairwells, and began to pace, like the caged tiger he was.
…………………………………….
Ban always looked for paper trails and clues first, but Ginji preferred to know more about the client. This was the principle he used now, in the absence of more rational advice. He asked Natsumi to go with him to Hayashida Kenji's house.
He was the one who drove themselves there. He was a serviceable driver, as long as it was on low speeds and with clear directions. But Natsumi did not give directions to her friend's house directly. She gave him the directions to his grandmother's house, where she expected him to be on most afternoons.
Her hunch was right. The young man peered at the gate of a wooden house with a wide front yard. He was happy to see them, but wondered why they visited.
"Maybe we could learn a little more about the Jade Dragon first, from your point of view," Ginji beamed at the client.
"Oh, of course, of course!" Hayashida opened the gate wider and let them in.
The first hour was spent in small talk over tea and cakes, as the client and Natsumi talked about old times as neighbors and playmates. Natsumi also properly introduced Ginji to her old friend, and was glad to see them get along quite well. Hayashida chatted about kendo and college life abroad, as Ginji listened with much interest. Ginji in turn described life in Mugenjou in general terms, explaining how it was different from the rest of Shinjuku.
The guests were then brought to a room at the back of the house. Quite large, roughly the size of a garage, it held many mementos of previously won kendo matches and other academic achievements over the years. It also housed memorabilia that looked at least a century old. There were several old portraits and daguerreotypes in the room. One was a copy of the white-haired young man in a Chinese suit. There was one portrait of the young man posing stiffly beside what looked like the Jade Dragon. In several frames were newspaper articles on the mysterious Jade Dragon.
Hayashida opened a drawer, and showed them his photographs of the inscriptions he described, as well as other pictures of the green statue. As he had mentioned, one photographed message was in Chinese and the other in Japanese.
"So you know what the words mean?" Ginji asked.
"More or less," the client said. He pointed to the daguerreotype of the white-haired man in a Chinese suit. "That is Yukishiro Enishi, the White Tiger, as you probably know." He then pointed to a daguerreotype of a man in a low messy ponytail, a seated young woman with long hair in a bow, and a boy at her lap. He pointed more specifically at the man in the picture. "This is Himura Kenshin, the Red Dragon."
Ginji scratched his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't get it."
Hayashida ruffled his hair, dark reddish-brown. "It's not too obvious with me anymore, but you should've seen my mom's hair, and my grandmother's, too." He pointed again. "He's my ancestor, my grandmother's grandfather, and according to Grandmother, his hair was very red. A foreigner for a father, it is speculated. That stuff about a dragon? It's a reference to his sword style," the client explained. "Movements of the nine-headed dragon, and such like. The succession technique is described as a dragon's claws keeping its hold on the enemy."
The client then sat down on the floor, and motioned for the two to follow suit. "Yukishiro-san had a big grudge against Himura-san back then. Himura-san got married to Yukishiro's sister first. But during an attack on his life, Himura-san killed her by mistake ……."
Natsumi gasped, and looked well at the cheerful man in the picture.
The client continued, "……however, Yukishiro-san understood that Himura-san killed her in earnest. For years Yukishiro-san held that grudge and went to China, then he returned and tried to cause hell on earth for Himura-san. He wanted the death of the red dragon. His eyes, the eyes of the tiger, were focused on, were drawn to, the heart of the dragon, his brother-in-law. Do you get it, even slightly?"
Ginji nodded.
"So you see, it's not a clue to anything. It was a reminder of an oath of vengeance," Hayashida shrugged.
"Your Enishi-sama……..he was the one who told your grandmother all this?" Natsumi asked.
Her friend replied. "Much of it, her father told her when she got a bit older. But Grandmother remembers this dark night when she was rather young and her grandfather was away. Enishi-sama came in a black car with a few men. He talked with her parents and grandmother," and he pointed to the pretty young woman in the picture. "Then this heavy wooden box was brought in and brought to the storage room.
"She followed the men and Enishi-sama to the storage room. She remembered him saying, 'Don't hold grudges, alright? Don't be like me. Keep the statue here for as long as you can. Who knows? It might be worth something someday.'
"Grandmother says she saw him last when she was 10 years old, having a long conversation with his grandfather while having tea. They were very serious, but they separated amiably. Her family received reports of his death a little after the end of World War I. True to his orders, she kept the statue in the family, going through much expense to transport it quietly when we moved to Shinjuku. That's pretty much the end of the story."
"That's such a sad story," Ginji commented with a sniff. Natsumi, beside him, agreed.
Hayashida stood up, and clenched a fist. "I want that statue to stay with our family. I don't want a grudge to pass on to someone else. I want the White Tiger to have his peace. I want the pain of the Red Dragon to end."
"That may be so, dearest grandson, but other people don't think the same way."
Hayashida's grandmother stood at the door of the storage room, wearing a simple blue kimono, her white hair streaked with red-brown strands. The two guests stood up and bowed respectfully. She bowed in return, then hobbled quickly to her grandson. "A search has been ordered," she said. "If we don't comply, they burn the house."
"But, obaa-san!" he protested. "Who ordered it?"
She said with a ghostlike face, "The White Tiger of the Chinese triads."
"That can't be!"
Ginji looked at Natsumi, and frowned. "Yes, it can. The White Tiger knows something, and tracked you down."
"But, but…" and the client pointed to the picture on the shelf.
"There's a new one," Ginji said and sighed.
The blonde young man asked Natsumi if she had any wallet or cellular phone photos of the GetBackers. She nodded and fished out her clam phone. She found a picture of Ban eating a pizza, and showed it to the client. "Does he look familiar to you?" she asked.
Hayashida said no, but looked at it even more, then showed it to his grandmother.
"Impossible….." was all she said. "Enishi-sama………."
"It might be possible," Hayashida said to his grandmother. "He disappeared for such a long time, you said. Our family did not know where he went, what he did."
Natsumi rubbed her chin. "Could it be that he got the looks from your Enishi-sama, but got the Jagan from future generations?"
Ginji raised a hand, and stopped further painful speculation. "That's not so important, right now, Natsumi-chan," He said with authority. "First, we have to stop the triad from burning down this house. We have to show them that the Jade Dragon isn't here."
"How?"
Ginji grinned. "I don't know yet. But I'm hoping you'll come with me."
……………………………………
Again, much of this rigmarole is derived from, but is not canon, RK material. This is derived from the Jinchuu arc material, semi-animated in the OAVs. (For the RK nuts, I won't be following SeisouHen's story.) The Kyoto arc (the one with Shishio) has better characters and fights. The Jinchuu arc (with Enishi) has better plot organization and drama. The Jinchuu arc is the one that completes the portrait of Kenshin's persona and personality – and if you still don't admire Kenshin after it, something is definitely wrong with you.
The RK fanfic community is one tough group. If you want to be respected, you have to be true to manga, character, Japanese history, all at once, and still deliver a great story. I guess I learned a lot from the quality of some of the better fics to be found there. In the RK section of you can say I've seen the Beltline but couldn't go past it. I'm not good enough yet to be generally recommended by the best of them, but at least I'm read and I get into favorites lists. I'm pretty happy with that.
Daemonchan – Thanks much for the compliments, but Atropos' Knife can testify that I still commit mistakes with details of this story. I found out that the car was a Ladybug from reading one of her stories, and I went, "Oh…….no……..oh, no……." If it's any consolation, I finish what I start. Unfortunately for you, I'm from one of the countries where summer is over and the school year is already running, so you might have to wait for a long time for some updates. Thank you for waiting.
Atropos' Knife – Hehe. Yup, I like Heihachi. If you saw what we Samurai 7 fans saw, you would, too. Basically it's like why people gravitate to Nuriko of FY, for example. I know I liked Mitsukake a little more after…….. Well, you can see I'm a sucker for that kind of plot device. Sometimes anime plots ain't fair to nice people. As for Shido-kun, I'm really sorry for the mistakes. For the life of me I couldn't remember at that time all about the sea urchin name-calling. Thanks for the corrections. It's spare and straight to the point because I didn't know what else to do. It IS in dollars, I checked my first chapter. My hellos to rabid lola!
Junyortrakr – Um, sir, his name is Amano Ginji, with an I. Thanks for the compliment.