Please forgive me my first and probably only trip into the realm of the Get Backers. I don't know what came over me.
Disclaimer: I wouldn't mind owning Ginji.
Case 65399
Mindou Ban looked up from his coffee in surprise at the man who slipped silently into the booth across from him, meeting his eyes directly from beneath the wide brim of his dark hat, a slight smile pulling up the corners of his mouth.
"What do you want?" Ban asked, trying not quite successfully not to choke on the sip of coffee that he had taken.
"I wish to employ your services." Akabane Kuroudo, AKA. Dr. Jackal, placed one arm on the table and let his chin rest on his hand.
"And what could you possibly want me to get back for you?" Ban asked, finally managing to inject just the right amount of scorn into his voice.
"Well, I was passing a pleasant evening with a most interesting companion, but I think perhaps I startled my date, and he disappeared."
"He?" Ban asked, raising his brows.
"Yes, he. So I wish for you to 'get back' my date."
"Right." Ban agreed skeptically. "Does this date have a name?"
"Of course." Dr. Jackal leaned back in his seat. "Amano Ginji."
"No." Ban moved to stand up.
"No?" Dr. Jackal pulled a cheque out of his pocket and waved it slowly back and forth.
Ban's eyes widened as it flashed before his face. "Whoa, would you look at all those zeros!" He reached out and snatched the cheque out of Dr. Jackal's hand. "Would you like me to gift wrap him for you?"
Dr. Jackal smiled benignly. "I'm sure that won't be necessary." Silkily he got to his feet. "I will expect to see you soon."
Ban watched as the not-entirely-sane transporter left the Honky Tonk, then let his head hit the table with a loud thunk. He could see by ye olde hand writing on the wall that this was going to be a tough case.
Reaching down, he grabbed a handful of fabric and pulled up his chibified partner, plunking him down in the seat that Dr. Jackal had vacated. "So that's why you were hiding under the table!"
Chibi Ginji sniffled and nodded.
"Why were you on a date with him?"
Ginji shook his head adamantly. "I wasn't! I went to a movie. I was enjoying it until I started getting a creepy feeling, so I looked behind me and there he was standing at the back of the theatre! When I looked back again he was a few rows behind me! I decided to ignore him and just watch the movie and suddenly he was sitting right beside me! I closed my eyes real tight and hoped that he would go away, but then he tried to hold my hand!" By this point in the narrative Ginji was wailing. "He wanted me to play with his blades!"
Ban gave Ginji a look that was part sympathetic, part exasperated. "You know, you gotta go back."
"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO…"
Ban held the cheque up in front of Ginji's face. "Ginji, look!"
Ginji looked, suddenly completely serious. "Whoa, would you look at all those zeros!"
Ban nodded in excited agreement. "That's what he's willing to pay to get you back for one night!"
"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO…"
Ban stood up abruptly, shaking his arm vigorously trying to dislodge his suddenly very clingy and re-chibified partner.
"I WON'T GO!" Ginji clarified.
"Yes you will! The Get Backers have a 100 success rate, do you want to be our first failure?"
"But Ban-chaaaaaan, he's scary!"
Ban cuffed Ginji on the head, finally knocking the loud chibi off of his arm. "It won't be that bad."
"Okay, you go." Ginji suggested. "He likes you too!"
For five solid minutes Ginji watched with uncharacteristic sadistic pleasure as Ban tried not to swallow his own tongue at the thought.
"No!" Ban finally managed, sounding rather choked.
"Well, I'm not going either!" Ginji declared, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring at Ban defiantly.
The two partners glared at each other for several minutes.
"You're going!"
"I'm not!"
"You're going!"
"I'm not!"
"You're going!"
(Edited for violence and foul language)
Ginji and Ban, both a little more battered and worse for wear, watched the tiny pieces of paper fluttering softly to the ground. They exchanged identical looks of horror.
"The cheque!" Ban reached out and caught one of the falling scraps on his hand. Then turned enraged eyes upon his partner.
"You!"
Ginji, sensing a threat to his continued existence, jumped to his feet. "Now Ban-chan…"
"Don't 'now Ban-chan' me!" Ban slowly got to his feet as well.
Ginji made a break for it, tearing top speed out of the Honky Tonk, Ban hot on his heels.
"But Ban-chan, it was an accident!" Ginji cried as he tore around a corner, smacked into an unmoving object and bounced back, landing on his backside.
Less than a moment later Ban whipped around the same corner, tripped over Ginji and face-planted the sidewalk.
"Well, I'm quite impressed, that was much quicker than even I expected."
Ginji let out a startled squawk and tried to wriggle out from under Ban, but was thwarted by a hand that reached down and grabbed hold of his collar and lifted the struggling, once again chibified retriever bodily into the air.
"Thank you, Mindou Ban-san, I will return him sometime in the morning." Akabane Kuroudo said as he tucked the wailing Ginji under his arm and touching the brim of his hat turned to leave.
"Wait!" Ban muttered into the sidewalk, struggling to get his wits back as he heard the retreating footsteps. Another heartbeat and Ban had found his way back to his feet, his wits still scattered elsewhere. "Wait!" He called after the rapidly disappearing transporter and his partner, starting to run down the road behind them. "About the cheque…"