GetBackers Fan Fiction ❯ The Shop Of Dreams ❯ The Shop Of Dreams ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: westkitsune
JxK A shop in Muugenjou that sells everything and anything from deadly weapons to lives of people. One fateful night Juubei passes by. Will destiny bring them together, or will another man tear them apart?

Anime/Manga: GetBackers Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Angst / Shounen | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 11.26.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.7K | Visits: 1.2K | Status: Work In Progress

Disclaimers: I do not own any Get Backers character.
- Just something out of the ordinary, sort of experimentation. I think I made them OOC, though. And oh, I'm kind of used to spelling Juubei's name like this, but I believe it's supposed to be just Jubei, hehe, you get the point. Anyway, this one is a rough draft, I'm still in the planning stages and I would just like to know how people would react to the sketch, I'll improve it soon enough. In the meantime, please review! -
- Kunai - a weapon used by ninjas (sort of like from `Naruto') -
The Shop of Dreams
Flashback: 11 years ago.
Why are you crying?
“There,” A boy with deep, gleaming azure eyes fastened the last knot of the string upon the long brown hair of another “That should keep your hair away” He smiled, “You look more beautiful if you don't cry.”
“Thank you,” The beautiful brown eyes of the other boy was downcast.
“Let's go!” A deep, hoarse voice called out to them, and the boy with pronounced brown eyes stood up, “Thank you, but I have to go now. I don't want you to get included, in any of this.” he smiled faintly, and broke off with a run.
“Wait, I never got your name!”
But the boy did never got the answer.
/All I wanted back then, was to protect him, but I couldn't/
“That will be all that we need,” Makubex handed over a piece of paper and an envelope to the sightless brunette who was under his service. “The store has all those things listed there, I believe. Just order it from them, the money is in the envelope. Emishi doesn't seem keen to come with you, so you'll have to do that by yourself.” he then resumed to his work, his fingers gently dancing across the keyboard of his computer.
Well-built and tall, with dark brown hair that falls in a frame over his well-carved face and eyes taken away ever since an accident 3 years back, Kakei Juubei had been at the silver-haired leader of Volts' service at Infinity City since time immemorial. He pocketed the paper without a word, it was never his personality (`or job requirement', he thought) to ask questions, but the new `mission' Makubex wants him to do seemed something that he just had to doubt.
“I've heard a lot about this shop. It's situated in the heart of this Muugenjou, near the entrance to The Beltline, right? They say it sells everything ranging from basic needs, deadly weapons to lives of people. You want me to buy weapons at a place like that?”
Makubex paused, the green light on the screen blinking and waiting for his next command. He glanced at Juubei, frowning at him. Not because he's annoyed, but because he seemed to be pondering how to answer the question. “I suppose the reason is weapons that are being sold here in Muugenjou are smuggles from the outside, weapons made by hand. That shop, however, sells weapons that contains something that becomes one with the soul of it's maker or owner, like your needles and Emishi's whip. Those weapons must be used for the good of the people here, or else some may abuse it. I believe it will be useful for Volts.”
“Hmm, you do have a point,” Juubei answered. “I'll go, then. Just tell that to my sister and the others.”
“Sure,” Then Makubex smiled apologetically at him. “Sorry that I had to force you to do this. But who knows, you might find the thing or woman of your dreams there.”
“What do you mean?!”
“Nothing, good luck.”
/Woman of my dreams? That's crazy./
Sure, what does Kakei Juubei look for in a woman? One who's strong but seemingly delicate, knows how to cook or look after a man. She must also be good at massaging, like himself. Oh yeah, it'll be also really nice if she was filthy rich. But is it possible that there is such woman in this world that he would honestly love?
Suddenly something drifted through his mind, and he flustered with embarrassment. Honestly, the only person he was ever interested in was a boy he had met 11 years ago, but didn't got his name. Juubei shook his head, now is not the time to think of such things.
“How may I help you?”
The door of the shop opened and closed. Juubei stood, straightening his white-violet top, feeling every movement, every smell, every sound of the place he just entered.
“Makubex sent me here to acquire certain weapons.” Juubei took out the paper from his pocket and spread it open upon the desk. The clerk takes it, reading the list out loud.
“Needles, whip, kunai, knives, scalpels, poisons,” He tapped the desk with his finger, the hard sound coming from the grandfather clock by the far end of the room and the soft tinkling of the wind chimes by the breeze adding as a light background to the place. “that can be arranged.”
As the clerk proceeds to search for the weapons, Juubei wanders around the shop. It's pretty big and pretty much cramped. His fingers wandered around delicate ornaments, candles, dolls, wooden structures, even certain electronics. Had he not arrived in such an early time he was sure the place would be full of people.
/On the other hand, many of the things there was much too unaffordable for the majority here in Muugenjou./
“Ah, sir,”
“It's Juubei.”
“Yes, sir Juubei, the weapons you asked for is ready. Will you take it or have it delivered?”
“I'll take it” Juubei replied. He places the envelope upon the desk, and takes the box, carrying it by the rope placed around it and starts to proceed outside, when the clerk suddenly called out to him,
“Ah, before you go, sir, may I interest you in some of the new arrivals?”
Juubei paused, and craned his head towards the clerk who was watching him with an eager expression.
“New arrivals?”
“Yes, they arrived just last night.”
“They?”
“That's right, sir, and by far they're the most exquisite of the lot, and the most expensive. They're the best slaves or companion money can buy.”
“I believe you mean the lives you actually sell here? No thanks.”
“Ah but sir, you might change your mind and regret, please consider.”
“Isn't it enough shame for them already that their bodies and souls are being sold by money? I don't want to see such pitiful things. Besides, I'm not a lustful person.”
“They are abandoned, while some are sold to us, sir, and the very least is that they could have some worth in this world. Some become maids, servants, drivers, the like, it's not always about lust.”
“What the damn do you mean by those things?!” Juubei exclaimed in retaliation, bearing down at the man. “Fine, I'll end one of the pains of those you sell. I'll give that person a life away from this hell of a place. I could use someone to help me in my training anyway.”
He banged the box on the desk, and the clerk, quite surprised but unshaken, leads Juubei to the back door of the shop. On the way Juubei thinks how much money he has and how the damn did he get in such a situation, but there's no turning back now. He sighed, thinking he'll just buy the cheapest woman in there, or a man with a strong character, somebody he can really train with. As the door opened, there was a deep hush that reverberated through the room.
The loud clinking of metal against metal told Juubei that the people there were chained, awaiting the fortunate time when they are sold.
/Humans sold like animals, what kind of place is this?! Brothels are rampant now, but this?! Against their very own wills, serving the person who bought them for the rest of their lives! Is life already really that trivial?/
Juubei tries to hide the mingled confusion and compassion he had for this people, even if he cannot see them, the sorrow was evident in the air.
The moment the handsome brunette entered the room, all the women there had been in a commotion, while the men watched him idly, wondering who it was this guy would came there for, it was hard to determine if just by basing it from his rugged looks.
The woman were all straining to fix themselves up, it was very, very rare that a man like him would pass by that room, mainly rich, burly men stuffed with treasures. The new customer seemed to be somebody anybody would go out with. Each wished to be chosen among the lot. As he stepped into the light some of them gasped in surprise, the man who just entered was blind.
Upon a corner, a man with alluring long chestnut coloured hair tied with a cloth that flows down gracefully over his slender body and falls over his lush dark brown eyes that seem to radiate a tranquil glow silently watched Juubei. He has quite pale yet soft ivory skin draped in shabby clothes. He had been there just yesterday, and instantly many men and women living in Muugenjou who passed by seemed to have lust for him, his beauty, had he not been in a very, very high price. The clerk knew that once a rich man comes around, sometime later that day, that he was the one first to be taken. But still, honestly thinking, the moment Juubei entered the room he had never seen anyone such like him, like a God, and he wished, more than anything, that Juubei would notice him.
Juubei slowly drifted around the room, gently touching the cheeks of the women, and the shoulders of men. You see, he can picture the image of a person just be mere touch, he reaches not only physically, but to the soul. It was something he learned to do after loosing his sight. He based his choosing from the warmth of their body against his hand, the aura he feels from them and the feel of their skin.
The people there, after all, were forbidden to speak. Their heads were bowed down, and only looks at the customer once he tipped their head up.
As Juubei slowly reached the brown-haired, his heart seemed to leap with a sudden excitement. And as his fingers gently travelled across the smooth cheek, he paused and kneeled down beside him.
“May I ask your name?”
Once the features of the blind customer was drawn to light, the brown-haired blushed, feeling a little embarrassed and shy, several of the women there were flirting, Juubei was truly handsome, and their lascivious attempt to seduce him was very off-putting. “Fuchoin Kazuki, sir.”
“Kazuki,” Juubei thought deeply. “Beautiful name.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“How did you get here?”
“It's a very long story, sir.”
“Please, call me Juubei.”
“Yes, sir Juubei.”
“I'd prefer only Juubei, but close enough.” A smile appeared upon Juubei's lips. He feels something in Kazuki that he hadn't felt in anybody else he touched. There was something so familiar about him, as if they had met before, liked he had found the person he was looking for all along.
/That's impossible/ He thought, /But that clerk was right, I would have regretted not witnessing such beauty, inside and out./
Unbeknownst to Juubei, Kazuki was thinking the same thing. He, who could see him, is feeling jittery at the sight of a man he only had ever seen in dreams.
The clerk leaned over to where Juubei was kneeling, “Ah yes, very good choice, sir Juubei, very good choice indeed. But I'm afraid, that Kazuki is our flower. He's among those sold at a really very high price.”
“How much do you mean?”
As the clerk replied, Juubei's heart seemed to shatter. He wasn't kidding when he said it was a very high price. So expensive that he felt he could buy the whole of Lower Town with it. All the money he earned ever since before, even since birth only amounted to almost half of that.
But Juubei was never the type who gives up. He promises his return to Kazuki, and to the clerk, as soon as he had enough money so that he may take away Kazuki from such a place.
He suddenly remembered the wind chimes he heard earlier, and had an idea. He whispered something to the clerk, who smiled in understanding and goes off back inside the shop. Juubei then resumed to kneeling in front of the so-called `flower'.
His hand was once again upon Kazuki's cheek, unaware of the glares and disappointed looks of the women around him. Gently brushing away a stray strand of Kazuki's hair, Juubei leaned closer, so close that their noses were touching.
“I guess,” Juubei whispered, getting even more closer, wondering if Kazuki would pull back. “this is what they call love at first sight.” When Kazuki didn't and just blushed deep scarlet, Juubei's heart seemed contented.
“I'm not worthy, sir-” Kazuki started, but Juubei caught him off-guard with a kiss on the cheek. Everyone in the room was so damn surprised, many gasped, and many said `ohhs' and `ahhs', seemingly fond of the beautiful pairing. They looked like a God claiming his most precious angel, his most prized possession. And as Juubei pulled back, a little reluctantly, Kazuki blushed, if it was possible, more redder.
The door opened and closed once more, and a soft chiming of bells was heard. The clerk then handed the two bells to Juubei, and when he got Juubei's payment, went away again to get some change, unaware of the events going inside.
“I hope you won't mind,” Juubei asked. Kazuki smiled and shook his head against Juubei's hand, obediently sitting still as Juubei gently fastened the bells against the cloth wrapped around his hair.
“It will call out to me to where you are once I return.” Juubei informed him, “I'll take you away from this wretched place. I promise to return as soon as I can, so please wait for me.”
Kazuki smiled “I'll be waiting, sir” and then he bowed, “Thank you for your gift, Juubei.” Juubei, who smiled at how Kazuki called his name, reluctantly stood up and made his way outside. Passing by to get the change he whispered to the clerk, “Please reserve Kazuki for me.”
“Will be done, sir Juubei.”
Juubei takes the box resting by the desk and leaves the shop, this time with real regret. He arrived at Makubex's place a few minutes after, and as soon as he entered and handed the box over Makubex watched him with great interest.
Kakei Juubei is smiling.
SMILING!
Of all the years he had known Juubei, it seemed to him that he was the MOST angst person there was in the world.
“Why the sudden change of atmosphere?”
“I just found the most beautiful person in the world.”
“Beautiful? And what may that person's name be?”
“Kazuki,” he murmured.
He was about to ask what that Kazuki person was like when Emishi and Toshiki bounded towards the room. “Back already?” Emishi asked Juubei, tearing the lid off of the box and admiring the weapons there. “Just because you dimwit didn't went with him. So, what are you talking about?” Toshiki asked the two questioningly.
“This guy's in love,” Makubex informed him, happy that the trip was a memorable one for Juubei, who seemed to be flustered. “With a person he found at that shop that sells EVERYTHING.”
“That SHOP?!” Emishi exclaimed, and he went on about the women and weapons he wanted to buy there but didn't have the money and blah, blah, blah.
/Oh God, this ranting will last forever/ Juubei sighed. He faced out the window, feeling the wind upon his face, reminiscing that shop which holds his angel, the chiming of bells still fresh upon his ear. He was eager to start working to earn enough money for Kazuki, and, he thought, as a smile played again in his lips,
/I'll make him happy, and protect him./
That was the start of the two hearts who longed and yearned for each other.
TBC!
- I seriously can't believe I made Juubei blind here, I mean, I love that ep19 being the reason of his blindness, but, well, it can't be helped. Anyway, when I finish this I have something else in mind for my next GB fics, my next prospect is Ban x Ginji (you probably noticed they're not here). I've been thinking of making a Ginji x Makubex (from ep25) but I think more of my friends like Ban x Ginji so watch out for that, hopefully I can improve myself. Hey, Juubei, er, Jubei stands 5”9'! Tall! And oh, don't forget to review! Till next time!
- Preview: Will Juubei be able to earn enough money to buy Kazuki or will somebody take Kazuki away before he did? Makubex, Emishi, Sakura, Shido and Toshiki do their best to aid our needlethrower in his quest for the only love he ever wanted.
- westkitsune -