Japanese:
Kiyoshi: Quiet
Moushiwake arimasen: I'm sorry. Very formal. Only used with your superiors.
Bakayarou (Often 'Bakkyarou' when yelled): Bastard/Idiot
Gomen: I'm sorry. Casual
Tare Ginji: The chibi form of Ginji
Chapter 2: Unbridled Fury
Ginji returns to the apartment and notices the door had been left open. He had been feeling an
uncomfortable tingling in the back of his neck ever since Ban left Mugenjou that evening, so he
had left Makubex asleep in the care of Sakura and had come running home. As he cautiously
enters the apartment, closing the door silently, he hears grunts in the living room, then a voice.
"Struggle all you want. The more you fight, the greater the conquest… the sweeter my revenge."
Shido's voice. Only, it sounded off somehow.
Suddenly a feeling comes over Ginji that startles him. For a single moment, he'd felt Ban's voice
calling his name. Calling for help.
Ginji races into the living room and surveys the scene, horrified.
"What's going on here!" Ginji demands angrily, glaring at Shido.
Shido turns and gasps, "R-R-Raitei-sama!"
"Ginji..." Ban pants, almost inaudibly.
Trying to compose himself for Ginji, Ban jokes weakly, words garbled through the gag.
"A little late there… aren't you?"
The flicker in his eyes betrays his bravado.
"You wouldn't start the party without me, would ya, Ban-chan?" Ginji jabs back with a grin,
hoping to comfort him.
Ginji then turns his attention to the intruder and glares at him. Need to get him away from
Ban-chan, Ginji thinks.
"I don't want to fight you, Shido." Ginji states sternly "Leave now, before we both do
something we might regret."
"Moushiwake arimasen, Raitei Amano Ginji-sama… but I cannot." Shido replies flatly.
Need a plan… A plan, A plan, A plan… What would Ban-chan do at a time like this?
Come on, Ginji… Think! APlanAPlanAPlanAPlan… Sigh… Ban-chan was always
better at this than me.
Suddenly, an idea forms in Ginji's mind.
Shido addressed me as 'Raitei' twice just now. Odd. Hmm, I wonder… It just might work…
But only one shot at this. Need to focus.
Closing his eyes, Ginji focuses his mind on a single image: Ban eyes. Ban's beautiful blue eyes:
sometimes as cold and chilling as midnight, sometimes as warm and crisp as the summer sky,
sometimes as deep and soothing as the ocean. Ginji allows that image to take hold in the back
of his mind, to anchor him for what he was about to do.
Ginji takes a deep breath.
"Then you leave me no choice. Gomen, Shido-kun."
Ginji's eyes narrow and his entire body slowly begins to glow. Sizzling sparks illuminate the room.
Ban, feeling the hairs on his neck rise and sensing what is happening, tries to call out
"GINJI, NO! STOP!" but the sound is muffled by the gag.
"Shut the HELL up, Bakkyarou!" Shido barks, bringing his fist down on Ban's head as hard as he can.
The force of the blow knocks Ban to the ground. His head hits the floor with a sickening thud.
"Gin…ji…" Ban whispers, as his eyes close.
Horrorstruck, Ginji stares at his unconscious partner, lying bound, bruised and naked on the ground.
A crimson glint oozing from the side of Ban's mouth catches Ginji's eye and awakens a rage he has
never felt outside of Mugenjou.
Release me, Ginji. You need me. Let me destroy your enemies. Only I can give you peace…
the peace that comes with oblivion.
Ginji can feel the voice of Raitei coaxing him, seducing him. Curling up both fists, clamping his eyes shut,
and biting down on his lower lip, Ginji tries to remain focused on his anchor.
Ban-chan.
Suddenly, the image of Ban-chan, unconscious and bloody, flashes in Ginji's thoughts. Ginji's narrow
eyes snap open, revealing cold orbs, the color of lightning. The intense energy that courses though his
body bathes the room in a brilliant blaze.
Though alarmed by the sudden burst of light, Shido focuses on the task at hand and points his cupped
palm at Ban as the air around him begins to pulsate. The vibrations emanating from Shido resonate
throughout the room, raising a symphony of rattling pots and pans, clinking glasses and furniture
drumming against the hard wood floor.
"Die, Midou Ban!" snarls Shido. "Like the treacherous snake you are!"
"GET. THE FUCK. AWAY FROM HIM." Raitei roars fiercely.
In a blinding flash, Shido is knocked back against the wall by a plasma ball. The force of the impact
causes him to discharge his blast involuntarily. Raitei quickly steps between Shido and Ban and steels
himself to absorb Shido's blast. The blast knocks Raitei back a few steps, but he simply shakes it off
and maintains his battle stance; grinding his teeth in fury, digging his heels into the ground, clenching his
fists in determination, lightning coiling tightly around his body like a cornered cobra.
Veins on fire with adrenaline, Raitei is barely winded and, within the blink of an eye, charges headlong
at Shido. Dazed and struggling to maintain his balance, Shido reactively raises his arms to cover his face
from the dazzling aura encircling Raitei, as the Lightning Lord prepares for a second attack. With
lightning speed, Raitei lunges forward, grabs Shido by the neck and lifts him off the ground.
"You're NOT Shido." Raitei states flatly, his hands glowing. "Tell me who you are… or else."
Shido's eyes widen as Raitei raises his free hand, electricity crackling and hissing threateningly.
"I was one of your own, before that vermin snake poisoned you to us."
A flash of recognition reaches Raitei's eyes. That voice. Slowly, the face of the man before him transforms.
Shido's features dissolve, replaced by the features of a former VOLTS member: Wave Master Shiga Kiyoshi.
"Explain yourself, Kiyoshi." Raitei commands impatiently, staring his captive down with menacing eyes. "NOW."
Suddenly growing frightened in Raitei's grip, Kiyoshi replies, pleadingly. "This bastard took you from us,
Raitei-sama. Without you, our defenses crumbled. So many losses. We wanted... NEEDED... revenge.
Midou Ban deserves to suffer and die for what he did to us!"
Pulling his captive's face close to his own, Raitei releases just enough electricity to cause Kiyoshi's throat to constrict.
"You've gone too far." He growls threateningly as Raitei's bloodlust pulses in his mind.
Let the rage envelop you, protect you! Let me kill him! Go ahead! Give in to me… and let me kill him!
You want me to kill him… Need me to kill him.
Still holding Kiyoshi off the ground, Raitei strides over to the balcony and holds Kiyoshi over the ledge.
"P-P-Please, Raitei-sama… Please… please spare me." Kiyoshi begs, his whole body convulsing as much
from terror as from lack of air.
Raitei tightens his grip and, rage seething from his eyes and every pore on his body, glares intensely at the terrified Kiyoshi.
"If you EVER touch Midou-san again…" Raitei curls his hand into a fist as the sparks snap and hiss even more
loudly and dangerously than before.
Kiyoshi, now completely paralyzed by fear, only whimpers.
"Because you were once one of my own, I will allow you to live. But remember this…" Raitei loosens his grip slightly
then releases a single sustained searing jolt of electricity, enough to be extremely painful, but not enough to kill.
The intense pain rips a bone-chilling scream from Kiyoshi's lips.
"NEVER question my decisions again."
Unceremoniously, Raitei releases his grip and allows his former VOLTS ally to drop to the sidewalk below. Only two
stories up, after all. A painful lesson, but not a deadly one.
Raitei goes back into the apartment and stands by the window a moment longer, listening to the sounds of footsteps
scurrying back towards Mugenjou. With a deep sigh, Ginji turns, presses his back against the wall and carefully
releases all the energy he'd been keeping contained. He slowly slides down the wall to the floor, and with a pop,
turns into Tare Ginji.
"That was kinda scaaaary," Tare Ginji whimpers quietly to himself with a deep sigh. "Hopefully Kiyoshi was convinced
enough by his fight with 'Raitei' that he won't try anything like that again."
Popping back to full-sized form, Ginji thinks about the image of Ban's eyes that kept him anchored, even as Raitei's
seductive voice tried to ensnare him into losing control during battle. The thought of Raitei's voice, lapping at his psyche
like a lecherous tongue, sends a shudder throughout Ginji's body.
Another few seconds and I might have lost it. Every time I use that much energy, it gets harder and harder to
resist the draw of the cold rain. Harder and harder to remember who I am. Harder and harder to come back
to Amano Ginji.
Even pretending to be Raitei is playing with fire; but the happy temptation of Ban's azure orbs have always held a greater
draw than anything Raitei could ever offer.
Ah, Ban-chan. Once again, it was you who saved me.
Having expended all his energy to maintain a Raitei-level charge, Ginji eyes drift closed and he passes out on the living room floor.