Epilogue:

"Master, please…so hungry…"

"Just one pizza! We'll pay our tab after the next job!"

"I said no."

"Half a pizza?"

"No."

"Master…I'm dying…"

"Go die outside. The bar's just been wiped."

"How cruel."

The door of the Honky Tonk opened, setting off the bell that hung above it. Paul looked up from his newspaper just long enough to see who it was, then resumed his reading. "Coffee?" Paul asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, please," said Akabane with unnerving politeness, sitting down on the stool right next to Ginji. "It's nice to see you again, Ginji-kun. Though you and Midou-kun look decidedly underfed."

Ginji whipped around so quickly he fell from his seat, but was almost immediately up again waving tare arms in the air. "A-Akabane-san!" Ban, for his part, glared at the transporter and hmmphed loudly.

"You're a fine one to talk, Jackal. Look how thin you are! And with that stupid trench coat you wear it's amazing the wind doesn't blow you away like a kite!"

"Hmm, at least you still seem to be in high sprits, Midou-kun."

Paul slid a cup across the counter. Akabane sipped his drink and smiled at them. The smile, of course, was taken as anything other than reassuring.

"Wh-Why are you here, Akabane-san?" At the end of the sentence Ginji had somehow managed to choke on his own tongue. Ban whacked him on the head as he spluttered, then drop-kicked him for good measure.

"Let's go, Ginji! This place is too crowded with misers and murderers."

Ginji nodded vigorously, only to stop when Akabane laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Won't you like something before you go, Ginji-kun?"

Ban gave him with a fierce look. "We don't accept charity from you!" he hissed. Ginji wanted to agree, but he honestly couldn't hear himself think above the loud rumbling in his stomach. After a fairly long internal struggle, in which Ginji weighed free food against Akabanephobia to see which would win out, he gulped, shifted his weight to his other foot a little sheepishly.

"Um…I guess…a…a pizza would be nice…"

"Oy!"

"Forget your pride, Midou-kun. I am actually offering you something." Akabane rested one arm on the bar and studied him through the slit in his hat. "It is not charity. Perhaps I merely want to…extend to you a gift, for proving to be very interesting. You do not want to insult me by declining, do you?"

"Tch."

Paul raised his brows a fraction. "You sure you'll buy them a pizza?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then."

There was a long uncomfortable silence while Paul heated the pizza and the three sat waiting. Akabane didn't seem to mind the silence to stretch so long; Ban trembled with impotent rage, so Ginji decided it was left to him to make conversation. A butter knife seemed enough to cut the tension, and Ginji didn't want a fight, not before he could eat…

…and this was Akabane-san after all, who did very nasty things when he got bored…

"Um, Akabane-san?"

"Yes, Ginji-kun?"

"Are you on a job?"

"No."

"Are you…meeting a client?"

"No."

"Then…why are you here?" Seeing Akabane look at him, Ginji quickly continued: "Not that I'm saying you can't go in the Honky Tonk… Master makes really, really good coffee, and the pizza is delicious…it's just…you don't seem the type of person to… like stuff like that… that much…"

"Stop making a fool of yourself, Ginji! I'm sure you don't wanna know why Akabane's here. Probably planning something psychotic…"

"Midou-kun, always the barbed comments," Akabane observed. "I am here to have a cup of coffee. And see Ginji-kun, perhaps."

Ban turned away and frowned down at his fists while Ginji nearly dropped from his seat again. Akabane set his cup on its saucer and leaned closer to the frightened retriever, his face serious. But just as suddenly the look disappeared and he was his usual sunny and mad self again.

"I considered what you said earlier, Ginji-kun."

"Eh?"

"And perhaps I could make you a promise: I will not kill everyone who interferes with my work. Possibly only a few. Do not misunderstand: I will wait to have my fight with you; it is simply too troublesome to seek my fun elsewhere." Akabane tilted his head. "Is that good enough?"

Ginji gawped. "But, why?"

"Because…perhaps it will be more thrilling that way."

"Uh-huh." Ginji wasn't sure how to take this. He was still thinking when Akabane finished his drink and stood up, leaving a bill on the counter. Akabane had already started to make towards the door when Ginji caught the edge of his coat and looked up at him with shining liquid brown eyes.

"Anou, Akabane-san, will you pinky-swear it?"

Akabane blinked at him in surprise he wasn't able to conceal. Then he smiled.

"All right, Ginji-kun."

--

"Pizza's done!" Paul called.

"Yay!" Tare-Ginji bobbed up and down cheerfully, stealing a slice before Ban could reach out for one. "Itadakimasu!" (inu: It translates to something like "I will partake," but that sounds horribly stilted, so I retained the Japanese.)

"Hey, don't eat it all!" The two started shoveling food in their mouths faster than a hummingbird could ever have hoped to flap its wings.

"What's wrong with that guy?" Ban muttered, watching Akabane disappear in the traffic of late afternoon Shinjuku.

Ginji nodded mock-sagely. "I can't believe Akabane-san would treat us to some food."

"You must be rubbing off on him. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was getting rather mellow."

"I dunno, Ban-chan. I think… I think Akabane-san's being Akabane-san, and not just Jackal."

--

Red neon lights stretching back to layers and layers of darkness. Old buildings crowded together, misery loving company. Broken streetlights. Darkened doors. Endless narrow alleyways. A place for shady business deals, thefts, the keeping (or burying) of secrets.

Akabane walked leisurely through all this, hardly noticeable—a black figure cut out from equal blackness.

There was a high-pitched whine. Akabane flipped his phone open before it could ring a second time, listened to the fuzzy voice at the other end. It was a mediator he didn't usually work with calling about a medical transportation. A job with Mr. No-Brake.

"—and we've been told the old man had already contacted the agent, HEVN, so there might be retrievers concerned. Surely nothing you can't take care of, Doctor Jackal."

This was interesting. He could feel the burning excitement like electricity play a trill up his spine. His lips parted in a ghastly smile. "Hevn-san?" Akabane repeated vaguely, his voice still level.

"I accept the contract."

Fin.

scary inu (who really isn't scary): Didn't quite end the way I had originally intended. He and Kagami were supposed to elope :D Just kidding. It doesn't matter now.

I didn't want to finish it with a boringly peaceful 'and Akabane took up dentistry instead and they all lived happily ever after.' That's because I doubt Akabane-san would find contentment by being a nice person. Just doesn't go with him.

Yeah, and someone told me pinky swearing was different for Japanese people. Considered more intimate, or something, I'm not sure. Well, it seemed a Ginji-ish thing to do, so that's that.

Anyway, I hope you liked it.