Hello. Sorry for the delay. Believe me, the delay is even worse for the RK fics. On with the story. Dialogue-intensive, again. Oh, man.
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There was no time to lose. They had to get back the statue tonight. The Kitano house should not be torched.
After giving Hayashida instructions to keep watch that evening, Ginji and Natsumi got back into the little car. His hands on the wheel, he knit his forehead, and tried hard to think. He took out his own clam phone and handed it to her. "Please call Shido and Kadzuki, tell them to meet us at the Honky Tonk in 20 minutes, if it's possible. Then call Himiko-san, and ask if she could be available in an hour with a van." He started the car.
She made the calls as he drove. Kadzuki would be ready. Shido would be a bit late; he was waiting for Madoka to finish final rehearsals on a recital. Himiko was free and just needed instructions – but she did ask why it was Natsumi doing the calling. Where was the usual contact?
"Ban-san…..um, Ban-san is not with us on this case," Natsumi told her. She said that he was currently unavailable, and she and Ginji did not know much else.
"Stop evading me, Natsumi," the Transporter answered over the phone. "I've heard about the bank heists and the White Tiger, too."
"That's all we know as well, sorry, Himiko-san," Natsumi replied. "So, will you help us?"
"It's a job, like any other," was all she said, and ended the call.
Ginji parked the little car in front of the Honky Tonk, and looked straight ahead as he took out the key. "Natsumi-chan……can I really do this? Myself? Without Ban-chan?"
She smiled. "Sure, you can. You've retrieved stuff hundreds of times. Besides, what will Ban-san say if we break your 100 success rate?"
"Ban-chan will be furious," he smiled sadly. He got out, and opened the passenger door for her. "Let's do this."
The manager of the Honky Tonk insisted on Ginji and Natsumi having a quick dinner before starting on any mission. On the house, for once. By the time they were through, Kadzuki had arrived, and a panting Shido soon after.
"Let's see…we'll need a way in, a way out, and a way to store the statue without being seen….."Ginji thought aloud on a bar stool.
"And we need a disguise, of course," Kadzuki added, beside him.
"Um, I do have to ask," Natsumi piped in. "Where are we going?"
Ginji scratched his head again. "Oh, yeah, right……"
"You already have the address, Natsumi," Paul answered from behind the newspaper.
"Huh?"
"You remember that address the annoying guy keeps giving you?"
"The one who always calls………about the pizza delivery?"
Paul nodded. Then he cocked his glasses with two fingers, much like Ban would.
Natsumi gasped and placed both hands over her mouth. "And I was so cruel….."
"At least he talked to you," Ginji sighed.
"He knew you couldn't be tricked, and you couldn't play along," Paul explained.
"And –I—can be tricked?" Natsumi pouted.
"And I couldn't play along," Ginji sighed again.
"I didn't mean it that way, Natsumi," Paul placed a hand on her shoulder, then on Ginji. "But Ginji knows him too well, and knows all the disguises. Give us the address."
Natsumi sulked and recited the address to the hotel suite, sadly imitating the caller's irritated tones, threats, and taunts.
Kadzuki thanked the young lady. "Well, that settles where we're going. Now for the rest of the plans. The disguise?"
"Hmmm…….what do we dress up as?" Ginji began to scratch his head. So did the rest of the people around him.
"But, what if we don't need to dress up?" Natsumi mused, as she looked at the other three. "I mean, I'm already dressed up nicely, and so are you guys."
"I don't get it yet," Kadzuki told her.
She gave a happy grin. "We'll be ourselves, act casual, enter the hotel like nothing."
"But the organization already knows what we look like," Kadzuki reminded.
"Hmmmm…….well, then. Shido-san and I enter the front door like ordinary tourists with a very big suitcase, you and Ginji-san can sneak your way in through the service entrance, then be our porters." She grinned widely at Shido. "I'm sure she'll understand. It's just for a few hours, and I'll explain things to her."
Shido just chuckled at her concern.
Ginji still scratched his head, but Kadzuki rubbed his chin and smiled at Natsumi. "Not bad at all, Natsumi-chan. It just might work."
The young lady blushed and went to the kitchen. She allowed the men to plan out the rest, as she got cups of freshly brewed coffee for them. Kadzuki borrowed Paul's trusty laptop and managed to get a blueprint of the hotel in a few minutes. Being the most familiar to this kind of operation, Ginji pointed out the shortest and best route to the top floor. Shido eventually discussed with Natsumi how they would enter the hotel lobby without being conspicuous.
The plan was all arranged by the time the Transporter arrived with her van. The group collectively rose to leave.
"Oh, Natsumi, by the way," Paul reached into the counter, and took out a small black box. He gave it to her. "Bring this along. The stuff inside is padded, but fragile, so be careful."
"What's inside, boss?"
"Two vials and a device to use them with. You'll know when to use it, there's a small manual on how to use it correctly. Take care of it and use it well, alright?"
She nodded.
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Chan Feilong did not control how he spent his evenings. As long as someone in the organization knew where he was going at any given time, the nights were his. So even if his driver were to squeal about his going to the Kitano residence, Chan could not complain. It was investigation.
The limo stopped at a middle-class residential area, a combination of old and new houses. The house was somewhat large but not opulent. Something to be expected of an old lady who had a good life. It was quite dark already. The street lights were lit, giving patches of shadows and brightness. He stayed in the darkness, and pressed on the doorbell.
He did not have to wait long before the gate opened. "Is this where Kitano Kaoru lives?" he asked the young man who answered.
The young man took a good look at him. His jaw dropped, and his knees knocked. "We…….we don't have it, I swear it, please believe me, have mercy on my grandmother……"
Ban smiled slightly, and took out a cigarette. "I dunno what you've been told, but I just want to ask some questions. Even if the old lady won't answer me, I guarantee the house will stay standing, got it?"
"But……..but……..aren't you the White……"
"Midou Ban. Pleased to meet you." He moved the young man aside, and entered the gate. He walked straight through the stony path, and directly to the house.
He wandered around the traditional-style house, filled with large and old wood planks and gorgeous lacquered cabinets. With the flustered young man tailing behind him, he opened all the rooms and looked in all the cabinets. Nothing substantial. No secret entrances and hidden compartments. No WAY was this an old underworld boss' hideout.
But he did find a room full of old junk and antiques. And in a prominent place on a shelf, a picture of his doppelganger. He found copies of the newspaper clips he had already seen either on microfilm or scanned onto the database. He saw pictures of other people he did not recognize, and probably did not matter. Finally, he opened a large crate. Inside it was wadded with cotton then lined with rich silk. The impression left on the empty crate was shaped much like that of the green statue in his room.
Thus, he confirmed that the owner of the house truly owned the Jade Dragon. And that the doppelganger was connected with the owner.
As he approached the front porch, an old woman hobbled up. She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw him, standing before her. "Enishi-sama. It has been a long time. You have returned for the statue?"
"Kitano Kaoru?" Ban asked.
She rubbed her eyes, and looked at him one more time. She bravely bowed to the younger man, but he could tell that his presence was startling to her.
"My name is Midou Ban. I'm not a ghost, if that's what you're thinking, obaa-san," he took a cigarette and the lighter.
"Obaa-san! Be careful!" the young man ran and pleaded behind him. Ban gave him a glaring sideglance, which sufficiently froze his pleas.
"The resemblance is uncanny," was all the grandmother said. "It's true, what they said."
"Yukishiro Enishi? I guess." He began, "Did he have magic powers of any kind? Spell-casting, unnatural strength?"
"My grandfather did not think so, and Enishi-sama did not admit to any," she answered.
"Does he have witch blood?"
"No, sir," she kneeled before him on the porch. "Samurai ancestry."
"Have there been reports of him creating nightmares on other people, just by looking at them?"
Clearly the old woman did not understand what he asked. "So………where……..why………how………" he faltered, the lighter wobbling as he tried to align it with the cigarette. Mrs. Kitano gestured to the porch, and Ban sat down beside her. He raised the lighter to his eyes, and looked intently at the initials. "What do you know that I don't, Yamato?" he muttered.
As he sparked the lighter again, the old woman faced him. "This possible relationship to Enishi-sama worries you. Why?"
He puffed out a long stream of smoke, then spoke. "What I know about myself, other people have told me. I barely saw my mother, I've never seen my father. I grew up with people who aren't my relatives. But they all tell me that the power I have was either inherited or given to me by one of my parents. They all fear me because of it. So maybe I just want to know, how did my parents get it? Through him, this Enishi-sama person? Am I related to that guy? Did he have the curse, too? Did I get the curse from the White Tiger?" He could not believe he said all that to a granny he had just met.
"But that is not what you really want to know, Midou-san," she said gently. "Am I right?"
He harrumphed, and looked up at the dark sky, filled with stars.
"I just want to know………who am I?"
Yeah, that was what he really wanted to know. The B in the GB. A piece of the puzzle. A wizard with untapped potential. But was that all he was?
Mrs. Kitano patted the arm closest to her. "You do not need me to tell you who you are, Midou-san. You do not need anyone to tell you."
"Easy for you to say……" he murmured.
She smiled. "The past, yours and those of others, do not dictate your present. Use what you know and what you have from the past, but never let it hold you down."
"You got that from the White Tiger?" he asked.
"No, my dear. From the Red Dragon. My grandfather."
"Say what?" He mentally hit his head. The Red Dragon was not a dragon, like the White Tiger was not a real tiger.
The old woman chuckled. "Your blonde friend. He will tell you the story someday."
He stood up, and crushed the cigarette with his foot. "Not the best way to get a story." He sighed. "By the way, how did you know?"
"He never talked about you like an enemy. More like a friend he wants to apologize to."
Ban shook his head. "That guy doesn't have to apologize for anything." He gave a short bow, and turned his back.
He stopped where the young man stood, still shaking somewhat, a few feet away. "Not a word to Amano Ginji, understood?" The young man nervously nodded.
He got himself out the gate and back into the limousine. He told the driver to go back to the hotel.
It was the saddest thing. He already was living the way he wanted to live, not letting the past hold him down, keeping it at the far back of his head. Now he found himself worrying about it endlessly, wondering if he had been deceiving himself after all, if the past really held his future.
Wondering if finding himself was better than losing his friend. The only person who seemed to understand him, really.
It was only when the car had almost reached the hotel that he remembered. He forgot to ask about the Jade Dragon.
He will not let that lapse of judgment faze him. He would go up to the hotel, and not worry about it. He would explain that the old woman would not talk. That was all. There were other ways, other times, to get that information. Of course he knew it had to be soon. As he opened the door to his fancy suite, he had decided. He would just go to bed. Not think about Yukishiro. Not think about himself. Not think about Ginji.
Wait. Something was very different with the suite.
He fired up all the light switches. He eventually noticed the gaping space above the small marble table, at the center of the main room. He made a quick survey by walking a tight circle.
The Jade Dragon was gone.
There was no trace of who might have stolen the statue from his room. Everything was as he had left it. The robbers were very good, well organized. But he did not know of any other group that knew the statue in his suite was the Jade Dragon. None……except……
He called security to ask if anyone had gone to the floor of his suite. This was confirmed. He went down to their office and asked them to rewind the security video of the last few hours.
A young couple and their two porters had been seen walking the hallway of the floor, carrying a large suitcase in and out with a trolley. The faces of the two porters were hidden under caps. But Ban could recognize the girl's bright eyes and long ponytail anywhere. And of course, he knew what the annoying animal trainer looked like, even in different clothes.
"And you let them through!" he shouted.
"We thought they were just tourists, who got off the wrong floor."
Ban did not even have to ask where the suspects got a key. The newer, card-key hotel doors were actually more vulnerable to Ginji's capabilities.
"Always ruining my plans…" he sighed and took out lighter and cigarette again. "Always."
Now he had to work around it. As always.
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"Lapse of judgment". Hay, grabe. New national catch-phrase. I hate politics. Ignore this if you don't understand. I apologize about Kadzuki being mistaken yet again for a girl. 8 )
Do you guys here have any suggestions on how a late 19th-century Japanese guy should give a knock-your-socks off marriage proposal? That's what's delaying Jiro Came to Town right now: I'm totally blocked on how to write a good proposal. It would've been easier to think for Soujirou, but it's Yahiko doing the proposing. Thanks for any help.
This is the first time in my fanfic writing that I can feel the incredible pressure to do well in a fic. Especially, since it comes from good writers, or people who seem to expect a lot. It makes me panic, and I'm getting dreadfully worried about planning what should happen next without having a deus ex machina. Ayayaya. These two guys. I never thought they'd give me so much of a headache.
JML – Hey, long time no see! I do know that Natsumi takes a lot from Kaoru, Ginji is something like Kenshin, and Shido has a lot from Sano. And of course, Ban is an Enishi clone. Actually much of the Mugenjou arc is similar to the Kyoto arc's pacing. Thanks much for reading this and for the compliment.
Tenshi-sama – As per request. Thank you so much liking the story that much! I can't believe it!
Junyortrakr – I hope this chapter answers your question. Thanks for still reading.
Sailor-stardestroyer13 – Sorry if you got confused. I'll try to make things clearer in the next chapters.
Atropos' Knife – Thanks for the compliments. Let the fangirls throw the bricks, it doesn't matter to me. Thanks for reminding me about the value of the statue. Yeah, I should be thinking about that, really….. Daemonchan – Thanks for waiting. Do read and/or watch RK! You'll find that plenty of the anime and manga made after 1998 have inspirations taken from it. GetBackers is actually a mix of RK-inspired characters and plot development, Weiss Kreuz-inspired characters, and some original ideas. As often mentioned in this story, Ban is closely taken from Enishi both in looks and character.