GetBackers Fan Fiction ❯ Serpentine: The Eyes of a Serpent ❯ The Job ( Chapter 1 )

AoS: Lots of new fics for you all! ^_^! This is my first GetBackers fic; I've seen all of the anime and read the first 3 volumes of the manga (I'm working on getting the other 27 … ^^'') I hope it doesn't clash with the story in the manga; it's pretty much anime based … Anyways; it's set post-anime, and I'm hoping that the manga doesn't go too much more into Ban's backstory than the anime did … or else I'm screwed … … v.v;;

 

 

 

 

The Eyes of a Serpent …

 

 

 

Chapter 1: The Job

 

 

 

Ban's indigo eyes blinked slowly, groggily; why was he suddenly waking up? … … Stretching slightly, his neck cracked, muscles aching because he slept in the Lady Bug like always with Ginji; no matter how often he stayed the night in that congested space, he had decided he will probably always wake up with a crick in his neck. Groaning slightly, he pushed the small circular sunglasses that he was almost always seen wearing up the bridge of his nose before the noise turned to a sigh and he slouched back into the seat. It was early in the morning, easily professed by the gray, slightly light atmosphere; it almost looked as if it were raining, but since Ban couldn't hear the drops, he assumed that it was not currently; however, it must have earlier, because there was water speckling the windows of the Lady Bug. If anything, it was just a relatively thick fog that was coating the city at the moment. But … why exactly am I awake …? Normally, Ginji was the first one to wake up - Ban didn't normally get up by himself until late morning, if left to his own devices. Though normally that didn't happen. It was then he looked out the window of the Lady Bug. And blinked.

Standing there, one finger raised to tap on the window, was a slightly shadowed figure, overtly female in appearance; she had very long black hair that was pulled back from her face neatly, and she wore a long sleeved sweater with a thin jacket over top of that. She also wore a slightly short black skirt, as well as a pair of tall boots, a purse looped over her shoulder. She looked almost … lost … … … Reaching down, Ban moved the crank on the door to open the window slowly, asking,

“Can I help you?” She drew back slightly, biting her lip and moving her fist to rest in front of her mouth, as if she was suddenly sorry that she'd knocked on the window, but after a few moments she said,

“I … um … I was just wondering … since you were out here, and that diner is closed … … if maybe you knew where I could find the … um … recovery service …?” Before she reached into her purse, pulling out a folded sheet of paper and opening it, handing it to Band as she said, “I … um, I got this flyer yesterday, and I need something back … It says they're located here …”

“Wow … so the fliers finally brought a job in …” he murmured to himself, raising an eyebrow as he recognized his own handwriting scrawled across the plain computer paper that was in his grasp. It was one of the many fliers he (more so than Ginji) created in hopes of bringing in a job without the help of Hevn or Paul.

“Wait, so you're the Get Backers?” she asked, her eyes, gray as the fog around her, widening slightly in surprise before she smiled, a little more sure of herself when she heard this. By now, Ginji was just starting to stir - Ban knew the blonde was at least an hour from waking, because he always became restless around then, but the minimal amount of noise he and this girl were making wouldn't disturb the Raitei. It would take a lot more effort to wake the other.

“Aa. But, we're not cheap …” Ban said, noticing a red head flipping the “CLOSE” sign so that it read “WELCOME” in the window of the Honky Tonk. “If you'll step into the coffee shop, my partner and I will be in to hear you out - if you can pay our price, that is.” She looked up from behind the Lady Bug at the coffee shop, blinking with a mildly surprised expression as she noticed the welcome sign.

“O … Okay then …” she said with a small smile before moving towards the shop. Sighing, Ban turned to Ginji - waking the blonde was normally a pretty dangerous business, which was why Ban was glad he normally slept later than Ginji. At least he didn't have the potential to recklessly kill someone who woke him … …

“Oi, Ginji … mesamare …” he murmured, turning to shake the other awake and seemingly deciding against it as he slouched back in his chair, the window of the car still open from when he was talking to the girl. The brunette drew a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, lighting one of the cancerous slims after perching it between his lips and breathing in deeply, exhaling out the window after a few moments before he said,

“OI! Giiiinjiiiiii! Okite ka?!” his tone seemed annoyed, but his careless posture, an elbow resting on the open window and touching his forehead lightly, the cigarette hanging with abandon from his lips, would have told you differently.

“Mmmnnnnnmmm …. Baaaaaaannnn-chaaaaannnnn ….. Mada go fu~n ….” Ginji whined slightly, no where near coherency, moving slightly and groaning. Ban looked at him out of the corner of his eye before shaking his head and saying,

“You know, if we had five times the bad luck we do now, we'd probably starve to death … or die in some other obscure way …” [1] Ginji blinked one eye at his partner in sleepy confusion before grunting out a small `hm?' Shaking his head again, the brunette exhaled after another long drag on the cigarette, a stream of gray smoke escaping out of the Lady Bug and blending in with the fog that shrouded the city. A minute or two later Ban had finished his smoke, the cigarette butt leaving the vehicle with a sharp flick of his finger.

“Come on; we might have a job.”

 

 

A few moments later, Ban and Ginji walked into the Honky Tonk; Paul nodded to them as he turned to the woman that had woken Ban, handing her the tea cup in his hands that looked like it contained oolong [2]. Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Ban moved towards the booths at the other end of the shop, hands in his pockets as he sat down.

“Ohayo, Masta!” Ginji said happily as Ban nodded at Paul; the Raitei waved with a smile as he added, “I'd like a slice of pizza please!” Paul turned to Ginji, raising an eyebrow at him, though his eyes were still hidden behind his sunglasses, so you couldn't really see his expression as he said,

“Oh? And when are you going to pay your tab? Last time I checked, you were up to 63,769,136Â¥ [3].” The blonde blanched slightly (over) dramatically and collapsed onto the counter of the bar. The brunette girl, who was sitting at the bar, jumped slightly in surprise from the loud bad Ginji made before looking at him, blinking slightly wide-eyed as she heard his stomach rumble loudly. Ginji groaned rather boisterously in pain, but stopped as he heard a voice say softly,

“I'll pay for a slice of pizza.” The blonde's eyes got starry; a pretty girl buying pizza for him - could his life get any better?! Paul shook his head at Ginji, but nodded at the woman, going off to make the Raitei's order.

“Arigato-Gozaimashita!” he said happily; had he a tail, it would most certainly have been wagging. She smiled at him, nodding before a voice interrupted before she had a chance to speak.

“We'll hear you out now, if you want to get right to telling us about the job, Ojou-san.” They both turned to look at Ban, who had spoken, and the girl nodded at him, leaving a handful of yen on the counter, evidently to pay for her oolong and Ginji's pizza, before she got up and walked over to the booth that Mido Ban was sitting in.

“Demo … Baaaaannn-chaaaaaannn …” the blonde whined slightly, sighing as he pulled himself up from the chair he had been sitting in, practically dragging himself towards the booth. This was obviously before he realized that the girl who'd bought him breakfast was also their potential client, because when he sat down, he looked mildly confused to see the girl across from him, making a little bit of a befuddled sound as she started to speak.

“I guess … I should tell you my name, first. I am Kaasu. Tsukino Kaasu, and I'm twenty six.” She looked more than slightly nervous, fingers twisting at the edge of her skirt under the table, eyes cast down and refusing to meet theirs. “Um … My family has always specialized in herbal remedies; it is a trade that was handed down through the generations, from mother to daughter.” The story was slow in its coming, as she bit her lip, and Ban mentally sighed, thinking to tell her to hurry up, but then deciding against it; not because it was particularly rude, but because Ginji would probably shock him for it …

“Recently, my grandmother has contracted a fatal illness. Well, at least, it's supposed to be fatal. But, there is a secret remedy that my family is quite famous for, called “Enitnepres Gnas”; the recipe has been handed down through the ages, kept completely secret until the daughter of the mother is ready to make it. My mother was the last one to make a vial, and it is the most potent healing power that I believe has ever been created. I had been administering it to my grandmother to help cure her, and … everything was going as well as can be expected. Until yesterday.” Ban's eyes darkened, but he said nothing, and Ginji just sat and listened intently, an actual look of mild interest crossing his features.

“I went to my room to retrieve the Enitnepres from its hiding spot, and when I got there, the safe was open, and the vial was gone. Now, because I can't give her the medicine, my grandmother's condition, which was once improving, is now depleting. She only has … perhaps five days, perhaps a week at best …” Kaasu's voice wavered slightly; she was very shaken up by the development, it was easy to tell.

“Demo … why can't you just have your mother make some more …?” Ginji asked, mildly confused by her words when she was done; Ban was actually a little surprised the Raitei had suggested that - he had been thinking the same thing himself.

“She is no longer in this world.” The brunette girl's voice was a mere whisper at this, and she paused before she explained, “my mother was hit by a car some years ago, when I was three.”

“Then why can't you make some more yourself?” Ban asked, lounging backwards; Ginji looked like he was about to yell at his partner for being insensitive, but Kaasu cut him off.

“Even if I had the recipe to make more, it would take at least two months for it to be ready; by then it would be much too late,” her fingers gripped at the edge of her skirt a little more tightly, “and, my mother had the recipe hidden before she died, intending to give it to me when she believed I was ready and could make Enitnepres. But, because of the accident … She couldn't pass it on to me; I have no idea what is in it, and my grandmother is much to weak now to tell me …” There was a heavy feeling in the air, and the silence that suddenly spread from that last word was almost suffocating; it stayed quiet for a very long time before Ban finally said,

“I'm sorry, but we can't accept this job.” Immediately, Kaasu's gaze snapped upwards, her gray/blue eyes slightly watery with tears from the story she had told them, but before she could protest, Ginji hissed,

“Ban-chan!” But, it seemed that the brunette wasn't even going to give his partner a chance to try and persuade him, because he immediately stopped the electric eel in his tracks with,

“There is no way that she can possibly pay the fee for this job; it would cost much too much--.” He was cut off with the sound of a `bang', which where her small hands hitting the table; Kaasu's arms were tense, slim fingers gripping at the smooth tabletop. When Ban had stopped speaking, she almost immediately started,

“I will pay off your tab here.” Ban … Blinked. Ginji … .. just kind of stared at her for a moment; there was no way that they had heard her right. She had heard herself how high their tab was only minutes before, and here she was, offering to pay that sum as if it were nothing. However, it seemed that she took their stunned silence as rejection of the offer, because she quickly added,

“It's really none of my business, but you were sleeping in your car out front, right? I'm a landlord for a small apartment complex; if you need a place to stay, I will give you a free room for as long as you need it!” Ginji immediately started to shake his head and wave his arms, about to say that that was much too much, and that they didn't need that just to take on a job. But, she didn't give him a chance; she had already broken into slightly hysterical tears, the drops falling to the table top sporadically because her shoulders were shaking so hard as she continued,

“Please; I'll even buy your groceries for you! I'll cook meals for you every night, I'll keep your apartment clean. If it's more money you want, I can do that too! Just please --- please … My grandmother is all I have left in this world; nothing else. She is all I have really ever known; whenever I try to think of my mother's face, it is my grandmother that I see first. I can't bare to loose her; not when it's because of my own failure to keep her medicine safe - not when there was something that I can do to help.” The astonished look on Ban's face was suddenly wiped blank; he had looked rather surprised at her sudden burst of unexpected emotion, but he composed himself a second later as Ginji moved to sit next to her and rub her back lightly, trying to console her trembling form. Ban shook his head lightly before he smirked, winking at the girl and saying,

“Alright; The Get Backers have taken on this case - we'll discuss the payment later. We'll get back your grandmother's medicine without fail.”

 

TBC …

 

AoS: And I will probably have the next chapter up within the next two weeks or so, after I finish the next chapters for the other two fics (Only in Dreams and Original Sin) that I just put up yesterday ^.~ Until then, R'n'R please!! Makes me feel like someone's looking forward to the next chapter (which gives me incentive to write it!)

 

 

Footnotes:

 

1 - Alright; Ginji said, “Mada go fun” which translates to “Five more minutes” However, he kind of whined the `u' in “fun”, which made it sound like “Fuun”, which means “bad luck”. Ban was just teasing him, implying that he had asked for five times the bad luck instead of five more minutes… ^^'' little attempt at some humor … … v.v;; I failed miserably .. I know …

 

2 - oolong is black tea ^^;; It's a bit more bitter and sharp that green tea; a lot of people don't tend to like it too much (myself included xD)

 

3 - 63,769,136 yen is about $538,962.49

 

 

Japanese Dictionary:

 

Mesamare: Wake up

Okite ka?: Are you listening?

Mada go fun: Five more minutes

Ohayo - Good Morning

Arigato-Gozaimashita: EXTREME thanks xD

Ojou-san: Miss or a polite way to address a young lady

Demo … : But …