Disclaimer: No denying it, I don't own Get Backers…really! I have proof!

Authors Notes: See Bottom.

Dominus Grim

Chapter Seven: The Horrible Clown

"…you say…there's a place for us?"

"Yes, go south. Follow the scent of blood, you'll find your place there."

"But what about you? If this is a place for our kind, why did you leave?"

"Because…my turn was up."

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Another batch of Formers was now ribbons, adorning the turn in the hall like a maniacs New Years celebration. Akabane, this being the twenty first squad cut down, was now panting heavily. Oddly, the amount of blood on Akabane was disproportionate to the amount of blood in the room…or the sweat dripping off his face. Waiting a few moments for more of the opposition and finding none, Akabane took out his 'J' embroidered handkerchief and began wiping the perspiration off his face. Then, realizing what he was doing, changed his action to delicately wiping off the sweat.

"Funny, I would have that memory now of all times." Akabane thought to himself. A minute eventually went by, then two and finally three. "I'm still so…winded." Akabane knew why. Cutting down any number of life forms was nothing for the man who fashioned homicide as a hobby. No, what was exhausting wasn't an external conflict but rather the turmoil going on within him. "Half my strength towards them and half to keep myself…polite," Akabane could not take his thought any further as he pushed himself to continue on. As the devils luck would have it, Formers batch numbers twenty-two and twenty-three then chose that time to swarm.

"Half is not enough." Akabane tore through a good deal of the creatures in front of him, using the now changing physical structure of the hall to his advantage. Cutting monsters to death was made easier by a ceiling that bounded up into the heavens and walls that spread and narrowed with every drop of blood. Finally slashing his enemies away to the point where he had a sphere of non-combat, the Jackal hunched ever so slightly.

"Enough…Bloody Torrent." Akabane muttered in frustration, having to wield one of his special moves against creatures that were spiritually dead to begin with rather than a nice screaming human opponent. With a snap of his right hand, several dozen scalpels jettisoned themselves from the Jackals arms, chest, and general body. Using the little bit of blood on their tips to ricochet off anything but cloth or flesh, the knives bounced and bolted off the walls, rapidly gaining speed until all the monsters that had once, or perhaps never, had the title of human, were reduced to what would become puddles of blood and human fluid.

"I didn't…enjoy that." None of the remains had the letter 'J'. Akabane felt a pulse, a throb. Kneeling a bit, Jackal gingerly took the time to clean off his mostly red black shoes and try to keep his shallow breathing from triggering anything else.

"Miss Himiko, please wait for me. I know you're not dead, a professional would never allow that." Straightening himself, dusting off his still oddly clean clothes and dabbing away the last lingering bits of blood from his face, the Jackal looked no worse for ware, save the light flush across his cheeks. "Simply being here; these people, these walls, they give off a scent, a presence all their own. I feel as though, I'm being pulled towards something."

"Kusano who do you plan to benefit from all this?" Jackal asked to no one, yet knowing he was in some shape or form being watched.

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She had done it, through sheer force of will; Himiko had guided the vapor trail from one of her vials up and away towards her. Splitting her concentration was not easy though.

"What do you want with me? With the Jackal or that book?" Himiko asked, hoping to keep the Laughing Phantom befuddled with questions just long enough. The homicidal maniac in question spun on his heels and looked towards Himiko, letting his eyes narrow and drift here and there.

"With you? I want you to bear my child of course. Mixing blood lines seems like an interesting pass time, and you'll be the first! Can you imagine the child of perfection like me and a witch's blood!" Laughing Phantom yelled like one preaching the virtues of Alchemic gold creation. Himiko lost all of her concentration for a moment and felt her neck go limp at the possible future presented to her.

"As for your other questions…," Phantom went on, characteristically un-phased by the girls' reaction. "I don't want shit with the Jackal, well, not all true; if he starts doing things the 'good way' then I'll want to catch up with…him of course." Himiko was sweating now, praying to any and all Lords on high that Phantom didn't notice. Apparently he didn't. "And lastly, regarding the book…I've read it already so it's for Big Boss…Kusano." The chink of chains giving way, along with the sound of a few more chains giving way, through the Phantom from his rants towards his now guest, as opposed to captive.

"You're truly, save possibly one, the most disgusting man I have ever met!" Laughing Phantom looked caught in mid grin, his mouth open and everything, but soon found his smirk from beneath his derby.

"Oh Himiko…I've been watching you for so long…my feelings are genuine! Missus Himiko Phantom!" suddenly the wedding dress seemed to reappear in Laughing Phantoms hands as he pretended to make out with the area where the head should be. Himiko twitched in disgust, but being one to take advantage of a situation, Lady Poison quickly gathered up her belt of poison vials from the nearby table.

"You bastard, you don't care about anything. Change your last name to hedonist you pig!" Himiko raised one of her vials and kept another in her opposite hand just in case. Laughing Phantom on the other hand, pardoning the pun, had dropped the wedding dress. His left chain, the one not sticking out into the darkness of an adjoining hall, jingled and jangled a bit in his sleeve.

"You don't want to try, believe me." Laughing Phantom said through a rapidly degenerating face. His eyes locked with Himikos', Himiko suppressed the urge to look away and thus hesitate due to the vicious promises the eyes gave, instead she popped the stopper off of one her vials and sniffed. Laughing Phantoms eyes shot open an inch or two as Lady Poison appeared behind him. Not giving her opponent time to breathe, Himiko brought down her other vial.

"You like that, you bastard?" she asked, knowing her Erosion perfume had probably dissolved the madman into vapor. Then, 'knowing' can really just be a gussied up form of 'assumption' as Himiko found her target as a coiled ball of eroding chains, rather than the man she was hoping for.

"Acceleration scent, right? Doesn't do your body too good from what I've heard." Phantom said, his face almost wavering between devil and devilish man. Himiko didn't stop to analyze her opponents obvious speed advantage or even try to increase her speed again. Instead she considered her options.

"I just want to know how exactly…you broke my chains. If you're going to be like this on the honeymoon then I think we're in for a fun marriage." Himiko backed away slowly, keeping her eyes on the Phantom. Despite not answering his question, the vicious clown seemed to get all his answers from simply looking at her. "Ah, some kind of Current Manipulation am I right? Wind control, nah, too complicated for that…probably more like control of probability itself. You spread one of your perfumes, weakening the chains while I was being oh so adorable?" Himiko grimaced, this monster even knew of the techniques she had only recently been perfecting.

"You seem to know a lot about me, can I ask something of you?" Himiko asked, steadying the two vials in her hands. This halted the Laughing Phantom.

"Anything my dear."

"Do you find a woman trying her damndest to kill you, beautiful?" before Phantom could respond, Himiko, the Acceleration Perfume still within her, was in front of him, twirling her body, casting two perfumes at once.

"Shit, my little bitch-chan!" he yelled jumping back, feeling the edges of his sleeves beginning to erode and burn. The two looked each other down, one raising vials, another, a chain. Hearts were beating to clocks as they inched towards conflict…that is until several scalpels flew out from the darkened hall. The blades serrated the chains snaking their way towards Himiko back while simultaneously cutting a slit in Phantoms hat causing him to grin like no other.

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His life hadn't been easy from day one and the fact that his skull was being prodded repeatedly made all the sins, murder and promises of hell almost preferable.

"Ban-Chan, please wake u-Ah!" Gingi Amano yelled as the once prostrate Ban Mido awoke and smacked him across the head.

"Gingi, todays been tough enough, cut the poking shit, ne?" Ban asked, searching for and relived to find his body still intact as well as Gingis'.

"Sorry Ban, it's just weird being alone, especially in this place." The former Lightning Lord said, rubbing his head and staring at the large square of a room that he and his fellow Get Backer were now occupying. Their was some light, and odd yellowish light, that only seemed to poke through the darkness were it felt like, and only then in narrow beams too small to really be of any use. "Where…are we Ban?" Gingi almost stammered, not liking the foreboding and sickening, not to mention all too reminiscent aura this place gave off. The blond turned to the brunette, to whom he trusted for answers.

"I don't know Gingi. Damn, I didn't think a place like this could be real," Ban muttered, half to Gingi, half to himself. Though nowhere near as showy about it as his partner was, Ban too felt the slithering depth of this place. The way the aura given off by the walls just seemed to both hang in the air and creep into the flesh made his flesh crawl. "It's like some kind of nightmare…straight out of the Jagan." He joked darkly, getting up and dusting himself off.

"Yeah, no doubt. Wait, Ban, how the heck did we-"Gingis question was cut short by his own memory. They had arrived at the building, Himikos tracking perfume had led them the first half, and the aura of the location had guided them the rest of the way. "We must've been attacked from behind."

"No shit Gingi, come on, let's get moving."

"Sorry Ban, I guess I'm just not used to being ambushed like you-"the former Lightning Lord was again belted across the skull.

"Now where were we? Let's go Blondie chop chop." Ban began leading the way with a tearing Tare Gingi using his cone arms to massage the two bumps on his head. Ban, though angry, had his memories of the incident too. The return to the Honky Tonk, the tab paid off then already doubled. HEVN taking her fee, squeezing HEVN's breasts. Then that breeze…

"Damn Himiko…what have you gotten into now?" Ban said to himself. Though a now normal Gingi heard and smiled.

"Hey Ban?"
"Yeah?"

"How do you know where we're going, I mean, you know right?" Gingi asked. Ban turned around to a face his best friend, a grave stare etched on his face.

"Gingi, after all the hells we've been through, you have the nerve to ask that?" Gingi felt guilty for doubting Ban and sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry Ban-Chan I should know better to have faith in you." Ban smiled in response.

"Thanks Gingi…by the way I think we're lost." He added the last part nearly muted. Though the sound of a body being electro-shocked could be heard quite clearly.

At around that time, in a chamber that could have been a part of that one or very possibly not, someone cast a smirk of frustration and contempt.

"Hey…you hear that?" Ban asked, the blackened dead skin already flaking off. Gingi perked up as a confused look adorned his face.

"Wait, that sounds kind of familiar…" the whistle that traveled the walls of the chamber was familiar and quite off. As though the whistle was being inverted and made to sound 'backwards', the results were oddly fitting.

"What the hell? Hey, is that you monk-"Ban was stopped short as a stampede of various animals charged from the darkness of the hall. Ban and Gingi were about to say something, but then found themselves saying something else when the saw the animals. Lions without faces, Bears with horridly longer limbs, Albino red eyed gorillas, two headed, even three headed dogs and cats. The Get Backers could only curse with the animals made vicious coming right at them, and having no choice but to run the opposite way, they ran. Deeper into the darkened chamber with only ever thinning beams of yellow light to guide them across the wet cobblestone floor, the two retrievers ran, running into what they could only hope were slightly moist walls.

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"Akabane?" Himiko asked, not knowing or not being able to act on the fact that she was beginning to shiver. The Jackal in question was sashaying out of the dark hall, his arm and hand still extended slightly from the scalpels he just threw. Resting his arm, he looked up from beneath his hat.

"I trust you're relatively unharmed my dearest Lady?" Akabane said, as cordial as ever, not hearing or simply not answering her question. Himiko nodded but found herself trying to calm the irrational thoughts her mind was concocting. Though The Jackal looked the same, save a few hard to reach spots of red and a few various other colors on his suit, Himiko could not shake the sickness from her stomach or her mind. Almost as if for that moment, the dark hellish spirits of the building had met their fallen angel.

"Aka-Chan. Are you with the bride or the groom?" Laughing Phantom asked, his left chain shaking slightly from within his sleeve into the darkness behind him. Bringing his eyes to bear on Akabane, Lady Poison stifled a gasp as Laughing Phantoms irises changed from blue-green to metallic liquid red. Akabane didn't answer, simply smiled his smile and walked until he was about ten paces away from Phantom and five from Himiko.

"Jackal, are you?" Himiko began, subconsciously fearing that Jackals ferocious aura would devour her before anything else.

"Oh, just fine Miss Himiko. Just feeling a bit, stifled, that's all." Akabane being ever courteous lifted his hat to meet the eyes of Himiko. To her shock, Himiko found The Jackals eyes to be shifting between his normal violet orbs to a metallic red liquid similar to a certain psychotic clown. From behind her, came the laughter.

"Heh, heh. Yeah Jacky-Kun, you're so stuffed up, time to let it all out, have some fun, we're pals here right?" Laughing Phantom said, sauntering towards the pair of Transporters, his long black overcoat. Himiko kept her vials at the ready, only to have a hand placed on her shoulder.

"Please Miss Himiko, let me. I'd rather not have you dirtying yourself against such an unworthy piece of human trash." The woman was taken aback, only a bit. Kuroudo Akabane had shown emotion, rage, if only in the slightest amount, and broken his normal polite manner of speech. Himiko let herself be gently guided, or rather gently pushed to the wayside by Akabane. Now, the two men who held life at zero regard were left to regard each other.

"Tell me Jackal, what's it like? What's it feel like to be back among these walls and to be able to sniff this air again?" Phantom asked, standing perfectly still save a slight tug on the chain from his left arm.

"I fail to see the logic behind that question Phantom-Kun. You left as well, am I correct?" Akabane responded. Phantom nodded his head rapidly, like a child admitting to liking candy.

"Yeah I left and it was great. Oh the stuff I did and the people I did it to…but this isn't about me." Phantom stopped himself from enjoying his memories, to this Akabane smiled.

"Actually, it would seem this is about you." Akabane said. Within the span of a blink, he had disappeared. A black dashing image with hints of silver, towards an equally black opponent. Phantom grinned, and brought his loose chain, his right chain out from his sleeve and swung it in two gigantic arcs, creating two showers of sparks where he deflected the attacking Jackal. So wide were the arcs however, that Himiko had to duck and dodge to avoid becoming like the apparently non-structurally necessary walls.

Brought back to his original standing position, Akabane was now on the defensive as the chain swung out at him in several furious spasms. In a return shower of sparks, Akabane managed to deflect the chain in all of its attempts on him, his scalpels vibrating slightly like miniature tuning forks as the result.

"Come on now, I thought you knew me Aka?" Phantom quipped retracting the chain back up into his right sleeve. "You know I only fight the fights I like to fight, the big ol' ones that make hell." Himiko raised an eyebrow.

"What the hell is going on here? He doesn't want to fight…then what was that chain for?"

"I see you haven't changed at all, murder is only second in your heart…" Akabane began.

"To torture, yes." Phantom finished, his eyes now a searing red. Phantom then lightly tugged on his left chain. Though the movement itself was only slight, Himiko and Akabane could feel the movement being transferred along the metal links and down the adjoining hall.

"Another aura, another person?" Himiko asked to Akabanes' back.

"Yes…and no." Akabane replied, understanding Himikos' confusion. Since Laughing Phantom had no discernable aura, a new one present would of course cause some questions. From down the hall came a lumbering sound. The sound of heavy feet plodding along as if weighted, and as the sound approached, the chain began moving more and more.

"Coal-Kun, I trust you had a good nap?" Phantom asked joyously towards the creature that entered. The clown could feel Himikos eyes widen in proportion to Akabanes narrowing slightly.

"Wha-what the…what is…" the Mistress of Poison Vials was at a loss.

"His ability, Miss Himiko, Laughing Phantoms special ability. He has the power to control any life form," the creature in question came into the scarce light, a man of about five foot six, orange and black shirt, torn white shorts, no shoes, hair that was somehow black, with streaks of red and white as well. These were all relatively normal traits, no, what was odd about this creature was his skin going in out of an all body flush, and the visible ripples in the air this flush caused. Similarly and more disturbingly, was the chain coming out of the back of his neck, connected to the innards of a left sleeve. "Laughing Phantom can control any life form, provided he rips off a part of their body and connects one of his…chains to it." Himiko could feel the bile in her stomach rise, though through practice and experience she had long learned to suppress it.

Seeing the equal parts disgust and annoyance in his audience, Laughing Phantom stared laughing, laughing hard. Between laughs he managed to squeeze out:

"You want to know which body part I pulled out?" seeing no desire for the answer to this question, Phantom answered, "He talked too much, the bastard, so I ripped out his dumb shit tongue…neat huh?" Himiko felt her legs threaten to go out, and the fact that Laughing Phantom was laughing almost violently at this and who knows what else made standing up straight a near impossibility. Akabane looked at the creature, the man Phantom called Coal, and then to Phantom. With a sigh, he put the situation into his perspective.

"So like you."

To Be Continued.

Authors Notes: Took a little while, but hey seven pages, not bad huh? Hope you all enjoyed, now on to the reviews!

Atropos' Knife: Hope this chapter in my ever evil deconstruction of Akabane didn't disappoint. Oh and if you like Jackal sweaty, then you might like him more so in the future chapters (I'm freaking myself out, hard to do.) As far as the Beast Ladys connection to that certain Beast Man, give it time. I guarantee the result is going to surprise you. Before I forget I also would like to thank you for the information you gave me on Kurusu Masaki, it was greatly appreciated. (I'll thank you in the next chapter of that story but who know when that'll be?) Thank you for reviewing and thank you for wishing me luck in school. It would be so much easier if I had the Jagan…

Rabid Lola: Heh, I see you noticed Phantoms ahem…unique sense of capture and conversation, the guys special that's for sure. On what you said about Harukai, let's just say that the guys got some serious issues that will be discussed later on. Hangman too…man I can't wait to start dropping all these character bombs! On the tragic subject of my grammar and punctuation, I'll do my best, but right now it's all about the story…and school and work…yeah, that stuff too…eventually.

Kore Yan: I hope I didn't freak you out too much with what Phantom wanted with Himiko. Like I said to Rabid Lola, the guys got some interesting hobbies. And don't worry about being slow, for me it's at least a weekly occurrence, for the duration of the school year anyway.

Well I had fun, did you have fun? It's late now, so I'll see you all when I see you.