Three Day Storm

#4: Mudhead Memories

X X X

Ban's head was spinning in a way he knew he didn't like. He felt, rather than saw, Kazuki and Shido brush past and move in close to the bed, crowding their former leader.

"Mr. Ginji!"

"-Kazu, Shido!"

Ginji - a brown-haired, bed-bound Ginji - didn't seem to mind, smiling awkwardly and insisting that he was alright.

This wasn't real.

The whole thing was above and beyond what Ban had expected. He promptly decided to begin unravelling it by digging at the closest target. The thief glanced sidelong to where Gen stood uneasily, a little out of the way and under the radar. Ban didn't bother to hide a sceptical snort: like hell he was going to let this slide without an explanation.

"What did you do?" he asked, throwing no uncertain amount of threat into his tone. It would be unfair to blame this apparent change in his ex-partner on the Pharmacist, but he was leaning heavily in that direction.

Ginji broke away from the attention of his other friends, holding up both hands to try and dissuade Ban from attacking the man. "It's okay, Ban. Gen is a good friend."

"Shut up, mud head," Ban snapped out, easily falling into the role of berating his partner.

"Mud head?" the brunette repeated, looking wounded.

Ban deflated, just a little. "You know you look different, don't you?" he asked seriously, whilst stooping to pick up his dropped cigarette.

"… Yeah. It's weird, I feel really funny." Ginji was examining his arms as he spoke, as though they contained the solution to his peculiar state-of-being.

"You look really funny," Ban deadpanned, straightening again. He left it at that: despite Ginji's protest, he was still more interested in Gen's story.

Gen seemed to be equally interested in avoiding the topic altogether, moving over to the nightstand. "Here, Ginji. This soup is for you."

The brunette broke into a smile, taking the hot miso with a nod of thanks.

Kazuki settled on the end of the hospital bed, watching his sovereign with a deeply concerned expression. "Are you sure that you're okay?"

"Yeah, Kazu. I'm okay," Ginji was still wearing a smile, although his attitude had taken a turn for the quiet. Ban watched the exchange curiously, noting the change and tallying it up against his gut instinct that there was something horribly wrong. With the sheer size of the storm outside, he had expected to find his friend in a rage; fighting for his life or punishing a member of the Babylon City. Yet here he was bundled up safe in an infirmary drinking soup, whilst the weather raged outside, like it had nothing to do with him at all.

And if that was the case, why did this still feel like the work of the Lightning Emperor?

"Then why are you different?" Shido's deeper voice broke Ban's concentration, bringing him back to the situation at hand.

"I don't… really know," Ginji answered, looking sheepish as he let the (now half-empty) bowl rest in his lap.

"Did someone do something to you?" Ban asked, hands slipping to his pockets as he took a half-step back. The entire time, his eyes didn't leave Ginji's form, instead raking him over and over again in an attempt to find the answer.

What had happened to bring Ginji here?

There was a shake of the head from the had-been-blonde, "I don't… think so. I can't remember what happened after…" he trailed off, unsure whether or not to elaborate on the story despite wishes of his three-strong audience to know the answer.

Kazuki shifted on the end of the bed, his bells tinkling as background noise as he said with a hint of anxiety, "After you met Ren?"

"… Kind of," Ginji nodded, then paused deliberately. The three of them waited - Gen had disappeared back out the front. Ban guessed that the old man had heard this part before. Finally, the brunette smiled in relief. "I was hoping Makubex's cameras would see it."

"We wouldn't be here otherwise," Ban said, from the position he'd now adopted at the top end of the bed. If anyone thought he was doing it to be protective, none were game enough to say so.

"I guess not," Ginji agreed, "She wanted me to go somewhere. I probably shouldn't have, but… she was different."

"How?" Kazuki asked. Ban could still see the concern in him, but couldn't find a reason to scorn the Threadmaster for it. He knew what it was like to have a friend cause a weak spot in you.

He wouldn't have come to Shinjuku if he didn't.

"She didn't feel right," Ginji said, "She didn't have any happiness in her. I don't… I don't think she was herself."

Whilst the three of them absorbed this, Gen made his return. These new questions about Ren appeared to have to garnered his attention.

"Where did you follow her to?" Shido asked, picking the conversation back up.

Ginji hesitated before answering, "We went up to the Beltline."

"What?" Three voices were synchronised in their astonishment.

Ban was not one of them. He had only experienced that place once, but he understood the reaction from those who had spent so much of their life here. It was something you just didn't do, not when Makubex worked so hard to keep the two worlds separate.

"Why would you do that?" Kazuki asked, but Gen cut off the end of his question.

"Ren took you there?"

"Yeah," Ginji nodded. "I don't know why. After I met Ren, everything is distorted... and blurry. I just remember getting to the Beltline."

"You don't remember anything else?"

"Well, I think I was the Lightning Lord, for a little while - I'm sorry, Ban," Ginji added apologetically, "But then I woke up back in Lower Town, here with Gen."

After hearing this, Ban wished dearly that he had a fresh lighter and a whole new packet of cigarettes. This situation was rapidly spinning out of control. He had come to find Ginji, to determine whether or not it was because of him that Shinjuku was covered by storm. He'd had every intention of leaving the Fortress as fast as possible with Ginji in tow.

Teaming up with others, searching for Ren, and now being faced with having to find out what had happened to his ex-partner as well as the reason for his being like this… none of it was in Ban's grand scheme.

Unfortunately, he had too much of a spine to let Infinity Fortress sort herself out.

Kazuki seemed to have withdrawn in on himself, clearly absorbed in processing this news and counterbalancing it against his worry for Ren. Ban was sure that Gen felt the same.

Which left it to him and Monkey-Boy to do the questions.

"How did you get here?" Shido seemed to have realised this already, wasting little time.

"I don't know - I just woke up here. I was really tired, like I'd been fighting a lot." Ban didn't miss the grateful look sent to the Pharmacist, and snorted lightly. Gen had been reliable in the worst of times, he knew that. But until he knew all of the facts, Ban was not going to be trusting anyone, especially those connected with what appeared to be the very source of this trouble: Ren, and Babylon City - if not the Brain Trust itself.

"Hey!" Ginji brightened, turning to look at Kazu, "It's kinda' like those TV shows about being abducted, isn't it? You know, when something really weird happens and afterwards -"

Ban lashed out, clipping his ex-partner around the back of the head. "Shut up, Mudhead," he snapped, ignoring Kazuki's baffled - then bemused - expression. He turned from Ginji in order to put his attention on Gen. "This true?" He had skipped 'old man' on this round, but his tone remained the same.

He was rewarded with a slightly startled look from the Pharmacist, before he got his answer. The answer was slow - Ban could tell that Gen was picking his words with caution.

"The first time that Ginji woke up, it was here," he said. Oddly, he said nothing of how Ginji had gotten to the Pharmacy in the first place.

Ban wasn't given the chance to call him on it. "When were you planning to tell us?" Shido asked, glancing to the little man for the first time since they had begun this conversation-turned-interrogation.

Gen frowned lightly, finally showing the limits of his patience. "Forgive me, but I didn't want to bring in the cavalry until I had help."

"Help from who?" Ban said. He tried to make his tone sound curious, but from the odd look the Beastmaster gave him, it did not seem to work very well at all.

"The man who ruled Limitless Fortress before Ginji did," Gen replied. "He is late but should be here soon, the rain has delayed things a bit."

"Teshimine," Shido said, with a nod of understanding. Ban had heard the name before, and knew the importance it had to Ginji - the rest of history he could care less about. With a glance to his friend - who seemed to be keen on debating aliens with Kazuki - Ban sighed.

If it was good for Ginji, maybe it would be in his best interests to go along with this little detour. There was no faster way to get his friend out of here, after all.

X X X

To be continued.