Author's note: So sorry that this is such a short chapter. This is what happens when you work on multiple projects all at once. I do hope though, that you enjoy it, and I will have more as soon as I get more written! Thank you for the reviews folks! Reviews are always appreciated!

Ormandria

Paul sat in the back booth, typing away furiously on his laptop. He knew he had seen that yellow rose symbol somewhere before, though it was a long time ago. One thing he was sure of though, was that there was a lot more going on with this particular retrieval job, then meets the eye.

It had been several hours since everyone had left the Honky Tonk. Ban and Ginji to retrieve the girl's sanity, Hevn to do whatever it was that Hevn did while not scoping out jobs, and the mysterious woman who had come to hire the Get Backers to begin with. Natsumi was keeping herself busy with cleaning dishes behind the counter and humming a small tune.

Paul pulled his glasses down momentarily, to rub his eyes. There was just too much out on the web concerning yellow roses, and none of it had anything to do with what he was looking for. He knew he was missing something, but he just wasn't quite sure what it was.

"Natsumi," he called.

"Hai, Master?"

"What do you know about yellow roses?"

"Yellow roses?" She paused for a moment, deep in thought. "I know that they mean friendship. You send them to people you like, but aren't in love with, to let them know that you're thinking about them and wish them well."

"Wish them well?" Paul asked, looking up. "You mean, like if their sick?"

"Sick, or in need of good thoughts or protecting," she returned happily.

"Ah! That's it!" Paul looked back at his computer and began typing once again. "Thank you Natsumi."

"You're welcome."

The bell above the door jingled as the door opened, and Natsumi looked up to see Himiko walk through.

"Welcome, Himiko-san," she bowed.

"Hello, Natsumi," Himiko replied. "Where are Ban and Ginji?"

"Out on a job, I'm afraid. Did you need to talk to them?"

"No, not really. I just had some free time on my hands and thought I would stop by for some coffee."

Himiko sat down at the bar. "I was just surprised they weren't here. Usually they're trying to con Paul out of dinner about this time."

"Speaking of dinner," Paul interjected without so much as looking up. "Can I hire you to take some out to them?"

"What?" the courier looked at him, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Like a common delivery girl? No offense Natsumi."

"None taken," the young girl commented cheerfully.

"Actually, I was thinking you might be able to deliver something else along with it," Paul said as he turned the computer slightly so that Himiko, who had stood up to walk towards him, could see what it was he was looking at.

It had been almost five hours since Ban and Ginji had started stacking out the great, sprawling mansion before them and there was still no activity happening within the walls. Not that Ginji was counting. Granted, they hadn't come straight to the mansion from the Honky Tonk, so there was no way of knowing if anything had happened prior to their arrival. All Ginji knew was that Ban was insistent that they not go down to the house, until they had a plan solidified.

They were getting paid a lot of money for this job, and part of that job was to remain as innocuous as possible. As such, their first stop had been Mugenjou, to see Makubex. Ban had decided that to do this job properly they would need some professional gear and where better to borrow it, then the person that owed them his life, as it were. They had lucked out. Makubex was able to give them some surveillance equipment that he didn't currently need, thanks to the fact that middle and lower towns were now no longer linked to the God of Babylon.

It had made Ginji happy to see his friends a bit more relaxed and happy. So much so, that he had almost forgotten how hungry he was. As if he needed any other reminders, his stomach chose that very moment to growl, informing him that it had indeed been too long since their last meal.

"Four hours and still nothing," Ginji whined. "Can we take a break and eat now?"

"Can't you, just once, stop thinking about your stomach?" Ban said in exasperation. "If we don't get this job done, we won't be eating for a while."

Ginji didn't hear him though. His eyes were focused on the bright light headed straight for them. He quickly started tapping Ban on the shoulder.

"Uh, Ban?"

Ban shrugged off Ginji's hand and ignored him.

"Ban? Ban-chan?" Ginji repeated more urgently, once again tapping furiously on his friends shoulder.

"Ginji! Stop it already, will you?" Ban turned to Ginji, pushing his friends hand away again in anger and stopped cold to watch the vehicle approach. He groaned as he realized who it was.

"Can you please turn that thing off before the whole world knows we're here?" he demanded before Himiko had even come to a complete stop.

"Sorry," she shrugged indifferently, turning off the engine and pulling her helmet off.

"Ah! Himiko-san! It's you!" Ginji cried as he leapt forward to embrace the courier. Just as he reached her though, she quickly pushed a large package into his arms instead. Himiko had learned her lesson long ago about letting Ginji get too near her.

When he had been in the hospital, after a particularly stupid accident in her opinion, she had made the mistake of trying to assist him while everyone else was busy with various business of their own in and around the hospital. Much to her dismay, Hevn and Natsumi happened to peek in and made their own assumptions about the pair. It had taken Himiko nearly a full month after to convince the two women that she and Ginji were not in fact a couple. Even now, they still liked to occasionally pick on her about it, which only tended to irritate her more.

Ginji looked at the pro-offered package and immediately began drooling.

"Food? Ban-chan, it's food!" he asked. "Oh Himiko-san! Thank you!"

"Don't thank me," Himiko stated as she pushed him away again. "Paul sent it over for you. Thought you might be getting hungry."

"Why?" Ban asked, suddenly suspicious. "I thought he wasn't going to give us anymore food until our tab was paid."

"Apparently someone likes you, because according to Paul, your tab has been paid," Himiko shrugged lightly, tossing a second identical package to Ban.

Ban opened the package and sniffed at it a bit to ensure that it was, in fact, food. The smell was just the trigger his stomach needed to pick up growling where his best friend's had left off.

"Alright," he conceded. "I'll bite. Who paid?"

"Don't you know?" Himiko mused, enjoying herself. "The woman who hired you for this job."

"What?" Ban and Ginji both sputtered in unison as the latter nearly choked on his food.

"She paid your tab, and left the rest of your payment for this job with Paul," she grinned wickedly.

"And let me guess," Ban commented, his voice tinged with skepticism. "You and Paul, out of the graciousness of your hearts, just suddenly decided that Ginji and I needed dinner, so you both took it upon yourselves to supply us with it, forthwith?"

"Actually no," Himiko replied. "I'm here because I'm a courier first and foremost and because Paul hired me in that regard. Paul, on the other hand, put the dinner in as a side to the real delivery."

She pulled a small envelope from the back pocket of her pants and handed it to Ban. Wiping his hands off, he took the envelope and opened it.

Ginji stopped eating long enough to watch Ban as he skimmed the three pages of content that he had pulled out. He was waiting for his friend to show some sign of life. He knew that the less Ban said about something, the more important it was, and Ban was sitting in dead silence, rereading the same three pages over and over again. Without so much as a word, he thrust the pages at Ginji, catching the younger retrieval specialist off guard.

Ginji read them over himself and took a deep breath.

"Wait a minute," he said in a serious voice. "I don't understand. According to this we were hired by a Protector?"

"Not just any Protector," Ban conceded. "But The Protector. The Guardian."

"Which means that the girl who hired us," Ginji started.

"Most likely no relation to the girl she sent us to help," Ban finished for him.

Ginji pushed his food aside and peered down at the house in the distance, where Ban was also looking.

"So what do we do now?" Ginji asked.

"We do exactly what we were paid to do and retrieve this girl's sanity. You heard Himiko, we've already been paid in full. Even if we wanted out of the job now, we couldn't back out."

Himiko looked back and forth between the pair, feeling slightly confused. She had no idea who this Guardian was, but apparently these two did. What made matters more confusing is that she definitely had not expected such cool reactions from them. It was more like Ban to get mad about something this. He had essentially been lied to by the woman who had hired him, but instead of getting angry, he seemed more concerned then anything. And Ginji was now totally ignoring the food she had brought, as if he had lost his appetite. It was very uncharacteristic of the duo. Himiko shook her head and cleared her throat to remind Ban that she was still standing there.

Ban glanced up. "Oh, Himiko, sorry, I forgot you were there."

"So it would seem," she returned. Silence ensued.

"So, um, why are you still here?" Ban finally asked.

Sighing, Himiko held out her hand. "Because you owe me for the delivery."

"What?" Ban cried in surprise. Himiko mused at the amount of emotion he put in that one shock, when moments earlier he had been so calm and collected. The irony was not lost on her as she grinned broadly.

"Didn't I tell you? Paul mentioned that you were getting paid a very nice sum of money for this job, on top of your tab being paid, and that therefore, you would be supplying my courier fee. It is only fitting since the information, and food, I delivered was to assist you on this job."

Ban rested his head in his right hand as he took a long drag off his cigarette. "Well, unless you brought the payment with you, you'll just have to wait until the job is over."

"That's fine," Himiko said, sitting down on the ground with the Get Backers.

"What are you doing?" Ban's voice was strained with irritation.

"I'm doing exactly what you said. I'm waiting for my payment. Until I see money, I'm not letting you out of my sight," she continued to smile mercilessly.