Disclaimer: Man, do I have to keep repeating this? I don't own Get Backers, though I very much want to. Tee hee… :D
Enjoy!
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"Akabane residence. Kurodo at your service."
"Why didn't I see you at school a while ago?"
"Ah… Ban. So glad to hear from you… again."
"Cut the chit-chat and spill."
"Of course. Decided to take a day off, that's all. I'm so bored these days. Missed me?"
Ban snorted. "As if. You have anyone free for me?"
"Oh? Kira's not working for you?"
"Nah." Ban unconsciously rubbed his formerly burning cheek. "So, do you?"
"Yeah. Me."
"Har, har. Not."
"Kidding. Can't say I have."
"Forget it. Just got dumped by Kazuki again anyway. I'm wallowing in my pool of misery."
"Puh-lease. Your head's too big to allow self-pity to take over."
"How flattering," Ban said sarcastically. "You coming this Friday night?"
"Sure. Your place?"
"Actually, I was thinking perhaps we could try something different for a change."
"How different are you proposing?"
"How does ghost-hunting sound?"
"Interesting. Why the sudden change?"
"No reason. So, you up for it?"
"I'm guessing you're interested in the famous Kudo Mansion, huh?"
"Maybe. Wanna check it out, see if the rumors are true."
"Rumors are true, according to a classmate of mine. He and his buddy had been there once and have claimed to have seen the ghost."
"Really? Who's he?"
"Kagami Kyoji. Know him?"
"Who doesn't? Pretty boy, sight of him makes me sick."
"No competition?"
"Partly, yes. A guy would kill for that dreamy face. Anyway, his offhand smirk creeps me out."
"Yeah? Ladies would start a catfight for his attention."
"What happened to my dazzling face?"
"Mmm… probably sick of it."
"Ah… he's your type?"
"Nah, far from it. Do the others know about your plan?"
"Not yet. You gonna be present tomorrow?"
"I'll think about it. Oh. Gotta let you go now."
"Whatever. Night."
"Sweet dreams."
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"What! You serious?" Emishi automatically leaned forward, his chin resting on Shido's shoulder.
"Keep it down, you dimwit. You want the entire class to hear us?" Shido cautiously peered over his shoulder and asked, "Why do you want to do this, Ban?"
"Dunno, just sheer curiosity."
"Curiosity killed the cat." Fingers danced professionally on the keyboard as Makubex momentarily looked up from the screen.
"Look, I only asked you to search for data, not to philosophize me. You done?"
"Almost."
"Now, who's up for this Friday's exploration to the paranormal?"
"Do you need to ask? I'm definitely in," Emishi cheerfully declared.
Shido, Makubex, and Akabane merely nodded. When Ginji didn't utter a word, they questioningly turned to him, who was now warily looking at them.
"What?" Ginji bit his nails as he toyed with his pen.
Ban mildly shook Ginji, asked, "You scared?"
"No! Of course not! Why would I be afraid of a gho—" Emishi interrupted him by slapping a hand over his mouth.
Ban noticed Ginji's pale face and impassively said, "If you're really scared, we're not forcing you to come with."
When Emishi released him, Ginji languidly shook his head. "No, I'm going, but ah… just don't leave me behind."
He couldn't help it. Besides slimy bugs, one of his greatest fears included dark places, especially when it held floating, dead people. As soon as Ban told them his plan, he didn't say anything. He was frigging scared of the spooky mansion and its so-called spectral resident. That was why he always detested the idea of walking past the Kudo mansion. But what can he do when his courageous pals preferred the shortcut? Nothing.
Akabane laughed and said, "No wonder everybody who knows you has easily grown attached to you. You never fail to amuse us, Ginji. Specially me."
Ginji lightly smiled at Akabane. "Ah… thanks. I guess."
"He's right, you know," Ban said. "Though I sure can't wait to see your face once we get there."
Ginji groaned, said, "There you go again. Scaring the pants off me. Why do you always enjoy picking on me?"
"Simple. Gullibility."
"Got it." The boys suddenly hovered behind Makubex and glanced at the laptop's luminous screen.
"The mansion was owned by the Kudo family. Says here, the parents died 10 years ago, leaving two children behind," Makubex declaimed the parents' basic info, from their names to their rather unexpected line of work. He then added, "No will has been stated and no living relative was entitled to care for them. And… strangely, that's about it."
"That's it? What about the two kids? Anything on them? Name? Date of birth? Something?" Ban asked.
"Let me check." Makubex immediately got back to work as the rest of the gang waited, pondered on this baffling matter.
"What's so strange? Isn't that enough?" Emishi, out of the blue, asked.
"No, it's definitely not." Akabane tipped his hat lower and continued, "That's already the government's file. It's very vague, incomplete about the Kudo children. They should have the complete data on the kids as well. But this resulted to nothing. It's as if they've never existed from the beginning."
"Ah-hah! Here it is. There's a hospital record on a Kudo. If I could just hack into this file, we might have a lead on them. Just give me a few minutes," Makubex said as he focused on the fast-paced delivery of data being disgorged by his portable contraption.
"This is getting weirder by the second. Come to think of it, I only asked Makubex to find any news about the ghost's past, while it was still alive. And now, wow. This is starting to get real complex," Ban said as he stared at the blinking screen.
"But Makubex has already found the hospital record on a Kudo. What could be weirder than that?" Ginji, along with Shido and Emishi, turned to Ban.
Akabane answered the question for him. "I believe that the hospital record isn't shown in the previous file, obviously, which should have been, especially when it's connected to the car accident that killed the parents."
"Right. Something's wrong here." The boys were too concentrated on the "Kudo Investigation" that they were unaware of Kazuki approaching them.
"Hi, guys."
They jumped at Kazuki's uninvited presence. Clutching his chest, Ban hastily asked, glared at her, "What are you doing here?"
Pleased by the shock she just caused, Kazuki's head tilted to the side. "You boys are my friends and I was just going to inquire about this Friday night's proposition." She raised a brow. "What are you hiding from me?"
Ban sighed and turned to Ginji. "She's your cousin, fill her in."
Ginji nodded, walked toward her. As he told her everything, Makubex quietly informed the guys that he finally cracked the hospital's security codes and found the file.
"Kudo Himiko. Six years old when brought into the ER of Shinjuku General Hospital, taken in at approximately 11:39 p.m. Cause of immediate attention was fractured leg: the nerves were severely damaged, causing dislocated leg, and few stitches were sewn on her arms and back. After a year and a half's recovery, she was released on October 7, 1998."
"Who paid?"
"Kudo Yamato, her brother."
"Anything on him?"
Click. Click. "None at the moment. But found a picture of the sister. Here."
Everybody huddled around the desk and waited till the picture was clearly developed. Lying on a hospital bed was a sleeping girl with tousled mass of green hair, her ashen profile faced them, bandages masked her wounds, and tangled straps suspended a cast that enclosed her leg. Beside this was another photo. It displayed a glowing young girl with lustrous green hair that enticed her pretty feature, purple eyes shone with amusement, her clear, dusky complexion seemed so alluring to stroke, and her lips sketched an everlasting smile.
For a picture that was shot ten years ago, Ban felt like he was standing on a ledge, deciding on whether to fall into the continuous pit of fondness and lust, or simply walk away, keeping his unruffled exterior. He chose equanimity. If he chose otherwise, he could be crushing on a dead girl. But then, he remembered the feeling he felt when he always passed the mansion. Could it be?
Shaking his head, he asked Makubex, "Her bro?"
"Nothing."
"But they should have something on him since he paid the bills."
"I've checked. Nada. Poof. Gone. It's a miracle that I found this, or rather, this hasn't been erased, yet."
"Erased?" Kazuki asked.
"Of course," Ban mumbled. "The accident was the root of the Kudo anonymity. It only presented the data about the parents and the accident itself. But none was mentioned about the kids' existence, which undoubtedly should have been because the parents had been working for the government. Someone is trying to erase the children's past; otherwise the government would have detected the intrusion."
"How do you know that the government hasn't been paying close attention to the hacker?" Ginji queried.
"Because I would have known. My computer can sense if I've been discovered or if someone else was caught. I created the program," Makubex affirmed.
"This is starting to scare me. Could it be… that the government killed them? Then erased their kids' past?" Ginji asked.
"We can't say it's true. Mmm… Akabane, you did say that Kagami was once a classmate of Kudo Himiko in elementary, right?"
"That's right."
"Extend your bond. If possible, flirt with him, I don't care. Make him talk. I want answers on this girl and her apparently non-existent brother. Got it?"
"Demanding. Want me to bring him to your place and do it the way they did on T.V.?"
"You know that I hate him. Guy gives me the gooseflesh. Chat with him and tell us what you've learned, okay?"
"On it." Akabane hurriedly left the buzzing classroom.
When every known fact about the Kudos was stuck in her head, Kazuki asked, "Why so interested, Ban?"
"Call it a hunch."
"A hunch? How so?"
"What's up with you and questions nowadays?" Ban shrugged. "Well, to answer your never-ending query, it's because I suppose that we're not just dealing with a ghost here. Could be the two siblings are still alive, I'm not certain. Maybe they're still living in the mansion until this very day, I don't know. I only want to find out what really happened to them, their puzzling disappearance, their past, whatever. We're practically playing detective here, babe. And it's entertaining."
"That's impossible. No one has been spotted leaving or entering the place. There's not even any sign of movement or light signaling a presence over there."
Ban rubbed his chin, then quickly turned to Makubex. "Can you hack into the Power Plant's file this time?"
"Easy. Why?"
"Look for anyone under the name Kudo or if bills were recently paid from the manor."
"No problem."
"You're confusing me, Ban."
"I've always been a confusing guy, babe." Ban flashed a wide grin at Kazuki, making her shiver.
"Not to mention insufferable," she muttered. She glanced at the room's clock and sighed. "Gotta go, boys. Lunch break's almost up." As she strolled to the classroom's front door, Ban went to the other door, swung it open, and leaned on the doorway.
"So… I'm on it, huh?" Arching his brow and hiding a smirk, he crossed his arms.
Akabane fought not to smile and said, "Class starts in seven minutes, won't have enough time to flirt with him. You know that it needs a lot of time and research."
"Uh-huh." Ban grinned and said, "Well, now that you've most probably eavesdropped on my brief chat with the guys, scat before your teach blows off steam from his ears again."
"Catch you later."
Ban slid the door shut and sauntered to Makubex's station. "Got it yet?"
"Yup."
"Well?"
"Unbelievably, electricity and water bills were all paid in advance. And what's more surprising is that the total balance costs more than a million Yen. Someone is really consuming a lot in that place."
"Interesting." Ban rubbed his chin thoughtfully when Ginji interrupted him.
"Ban?"
"What?"
"This isn't just a ghost we're dealing with, huh?"
"No. Why?"
"It's just that… suddenly, it seems creepier than a mere ghost."
Ban slowly turned to Ginji. "You know what? You're right. It does sound creepier."
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You like? No? Review XD
Again, lemme remind you guys that this an AU fic, so don't be too surprised about the sharp turn of traits my characters are heading to.