Author's Note: Just a quick note to say Thank You for the wonderful reviews guys! Please keep them coming! It is nice to know that people are enjoying the story;-)
Ormandria
Yusagi thrust herself up from her bed, her nightgown bathed in sweat. She had heard it again. Panicked, she looked around the room, waiting for what she knew was coming. It didn't take long before a soft, pale blue light began to form at the end of her bed.
"No, no, no," she began to whimper desperately, clasping her hands over her ears in a vain attempt to silence the moans that echoed within. She began to rock rapidly back and forth, her pleas getting louder with each passing moment.
"Yusagi…," the voice said. "Your fault, Yusagi…. Your fault…."
The blue coalesced into a more solid form of a large, rotund man with an menacing glare on his face.
"You did this to me…. It's all your fault," repeated the specter. Tears streamed down the young woman's face as her fear continued to build. The ghost walked into the bed, straight toward her, his voice growing louder and meaner. Bloodied flesh hung from the bones of what appeared to be her father's corpse. A stale stench of rot hung in the air as he leaned down into her face. The terror in Yusagi finally reached its crescendo as she screamed aloud in utter horror.
Shido and Kazuki both bolted upright from their positions on the dual couches. Without a second thought and in a unison manner that belayed their years of working together, they ran straight down the hall to Yusagi's room, throwing open the door and turning on the lights.
There she sat, curled in a fetal ball, rocking rapidly on her heels. Her paler was whiter then anything the two protectors had ever seen. She had passed screaming and gone into hyper-ventilating, her body shuddering from the terror she still felt coursing through her veins.
"Miss Yusagi!" Kazuki cried as he reached over to hold her in the hopes of calming the young woman down. Instead of calming though, she began flailing in his arms uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, Shido ran to the window of the room, pushing back the curtains in the hope that he might find the window open and tampered with. He wasn't so lucky. The window remained closed and locked from the inside, and after a quick search of the room, during which time Ryano and two men flew into the room as well.
Kazuki had finally managed to get Yusagi calmed down enough so that she breathed more normally, though she was still overcome with body-shaking sobs.
Ryano ran over to her charge and began to consol her.
"What happened?" asked the younger of the two men that had barged in with her. He had short, brown hair and striking blue eyes and looked to be in his early twenties. The older man appeared to be in his mid to late fifties with a receding hairline and a thin mustache. Though his hair appeared to have once been dark brown, it was now speckled with grey, as was his mustache.
"Isn't it obvious?" cried Ryano. "She had another spell!"
"I'm not so sure about that," replied Shido, thoughtfully. He looked back at Kazuki, who nodded in agreement.
"Who are you?" the beast master looked at the two men who still stood in the door in their robes and slippers.
"So sorry sir!" bowed the elder of the two. "My name is Meroko Takei, and this is my son, Kouda."
Kouda bowed as well, though Shido noticed that he never took his worried eyes off of Yusagi.
"If I may ask," Takei queried, standing back up. "What did you mean that you weren't sure?"
"Simple," Shido began. He was interrupted however by a sudden loud peeking on the bedroom window. Shido quickly walked over and opened the window, letting a large black crow hop in and land on his extended hand.
After a brief moment of what appeared to the others as his simply staring at the bird, who cawed at him several times, Shido turned to his friend and partner.
"Kazuki," he said with a slight smile on his face. "We have company."
"Someone we know?" asked Kazuki, recognizing the look on Shido's face.
"Yes," came the reply.
Kazuki looked from Shido back to the girl in his arms and then back at Shido. "Do you think you can handle it then?" he asked.
"Of course," nodded Shido. "You stay here and watch the girl, and I'll go see what they want." With that he climbed out of the window, giving no concern to the fact that he was on the second story of the expansive house, and began to head toward the distant hill.
"Damn it!" exclaimed Ban as he watched the lights turn on in the darkened house. "Something's going on."
"What?" yelled Ginji in excitement. He tried to wrestle the binoculars away from Ban but only succeeded in getting hit on the head with them. "Ow!"
"Will you two stop it?" asked Himiko, utterly annoyed with the pair. She had sat here and watched the two of them for the past three hours and all they seemed to do was either fight or, in Ginji's case, whine. How they ever put up with each other was wonder. What was more, was how they ever managed to get anything done. Of course, she had to admit that once they stopped fighting with each other and started fighting other people, they did become a formidable team.
If they didn't then there was no way that they would ever have been her, No Breaks and Akabane so long ago.
"If you don't like the way we operate, you can always go home," Ban growled at her.
"What, and miss all this excitement? Never. Besides, as I said earlier, I'll leave when I get my money."
"You're money is back at the Honky Tonk!" Ban snapped. "Why don't you go there and get it from Paul?"
"Because Paul won't hand it over to anyone but you." Himiko leaned in toward Ban. "What's going on Ban? You're acting even surlier then you usually do. What about that message I gave you upset you so much?"
"It's none of your concern," he replied.
Himiko looked over at Ginji, who pointedly avoided her gaze.
"All right," nodded Himiko. "If that's how you want to play it, we'll play it that way. But just so you know, you've just given me another reason to stay, because I won't leave until I know exactly what's going on."
Ban lowered his binoculars and sighed. Getting up he walked away from the hill and lit another cigarette.
"Fine," he waved his hand in disregard. "Do what you want. I don't care."
Ginji looked anxiously between his two friends. Himiko could tell he wanted to say something but was worried about it. For several minutes the courier and the two Get Backers said nothing to each other. The only sound was the distant cawing of a crow.
"Ban," the blonde Get Backer finally broke the silence in a quiet, thoughtful voice.
"Ginji?"
"Can I have the binoculars now?" he asked in a loud, pleading voice.
Ban looked over at Ginji in shock at the sudden turn of events, while Himiko just sighed. This was, after all, Ginji. He always found a way to break the tension in situations like this. It was his childlike exuberance that helped him get away with it.
"Sure," Ban tossed the binoculars at his friend with a slight life.
"Thanks!" Ginji caught them in mid air and turned to use them, only to find himself suddenly staring directly into another well-known face as it headed up the hill.
Himiko noticed it too, but before either could call Ban's attention to the approaching person, it flew into the air with lightening speed and landed full-force on the ground next to them.
Ban swirled, his hands in position, ready for a fight.
Shido stood up and looked at the group.
"Shido!" Ginji cried, throwing his arms around his friend in a huge hug. It took Shido off-guard, but he quickly regained his composure and pushed Ginji off. Then he focused back on Ban.
"What are you doing here Snake Bastard?" he asked.
"We're here on a job, Monkey Tamer. What about you?"
"A job? Are you now taking on jobs to torture young girls? You should be ashamed of yourself."
"Torture?" Ginji looked at Shido. "You're wrong Shido. We're not here to torure anyone. We're here to …."
"Don't bother trying to explain anything to the Monkey Tamer, Ginji. He's too thick-headed to be able to make since of any of it anyway."
"Why you," Shido crouched down, ready top leap at Ban, who lowered himself into an equally offensive position.
"Stop!" Ginji cried, putting himself in between the two. He turned to Shido, his face serious. "Shido, we're here because we were hired to retrieve something for a young woman who lives in that mansion. Now please, tell us why you're here."
Shido stood up and nodded. "Very well. Kazuki and I were hired to protect the mistress of the house. A young woman named Miss Yusagi."
"Miss Yusagi?" Ginji asked, surprised. "Ban, that's the same girl we're here to help!"
"I heard," replied Ban.
"Well, this is getting interesting isn't it?" asked Himiko.
"Are you here with them?" Shido queried.
"Yes and no. I'm here until they give me the money they owe me and they tell me what exactly the hell is going on."
"I see. So you're going to be here awhile then." Ginji and Ban both looked utterly dejected as they watched the exchange.
"Pretty much," Himiko nodded knowingly.
Shido turned his attention back to Ban and Ginji.
"What are you suppose to retrieve, if I might ask?"
Ginji looked at Ban, waiting for acceptance, before he answered. "We were hired to retrieve her sanity. Someone believes that someone else is trying to drive her insane. That someone wants us to prove it."
Himiko couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ginji had made sure he didn't tell his old friend anymore then he needed to, and for the young blonde man, that was almost completely out of character. It meant that whatever was going on was more serious then she initially thought.
"Who hired you?" Ginji asked in return.
"The girl's governess. She also believes that someone is trying to drive her insane and wants us to protect her from that someone."
"Well then," said Ban in his bargaining voice. "It seems to me that technically our jobs don't overlap to the point of interference. We were both hired by separate people, for different jobs that ultimately have the same goal in mind."
"To save Miss Yusagi from whoever is after her," Shido finished.
"Seems there's only one thing to do then," Ban continued.
"Put aside our differences until after we've both completed our jobs," responded Shido.
Ban nodded and the two held out their hands to shake. Ginji and Himiko could tell that while they said they were putting aside their differences, it was not completely. The handshake lasted a good two minutes with both of them tightening their grips continually until the veins in their necks popped out. When they finally let go, both men turned their backs to each other to silently swear and rub their injured hands, without letting the other know that they had been hurt.
When that was down, the ever expanding group made their way down the hill toward the mansion. It was time for Ginji and Ban to meet the girl they were suppose to prove was indeed sane.
Aiyana watched from a distance as the group made their way to the house. It wasn't exactly what she had been hoping for, but it solved two problems at once. One was that it brought the two groups together, so that they were all there to protect the girl, instead of at each other's throats fighting. Second, it got the Get Backers into the mansion. The sudden appearance of Lady Poison was even better. Aiyana had heard of the courier and knew that she, with her seven poisons, would be a great boon to the group protecting Jando Yusagi.
She was feeling a great deal of relief. She was positive for a moment there, when the others had been hired, that everything was going to fall apart, but it was going rather well. With the job in the hands of these people, she was positive that there was nothing to worry about. Still, she needed to keep an eye on things. After all, there were other factors to consider that had not been taken into account. The main one being that she and Sakuwai had absolutely no idea which of the many factions that Gieko had been involved with were the ones trying to get to Yusagi.
All that Aiyana could do right now though, was to sit back and watch. That and continue to pray to Buddha that these men and this woman would be able to save that young woman ….