Hello, and thank you for reading. This is NOT related to the running long fic (Eyes of the Tiger). It's just that I can't get any ideas for either running fic that I have. So I wrote this. Please remember that I'm in a course that allows me access to books with sometimes scary content. I don't know why I'm still in this course, sometimes (sigh).
----------------------------------
Your biggest dream. You know what it is, right? To reach the top of the tower, that tower that has filled your days and haunted your nights. To uncover its mysteries, to reveal its secrets. You want to go there, don't you?
What if you can? Would you go there?
"Do you know how to get there, really?"
Sure, I do.
"How? Why?"
Because I am you.
----------------------------------
Ban parked the car in front of the Honky Tonk and told his partner to get off. He tossed him a small medicine bottle. "Get one tablet, take it with a glass of water. You think you can manage that?"
The partner was rather pale and droopy-eyed as he smiled weakly and nodded.
"I'll get this to the precinct myself, you go in and rest a bit," he raised a similar bottle and pocketed it. The blonde friend nodded again, but kept staring at him. "Well? Go on, shoo!" Only then did his friend get inside.
Some people in the police department have gotten so used to seeing the notorious (if not the famous) GetBackers, that sometimes even they gave them missions. They asked them to help find missing people or stashed illegal goods. Off the record, and no strings attached, which is perfectly fine with both Hevn and Ban. Of course, the young men were paid for their services, but since these assignments tend to be small jobs, the money quickly disappeared with the Honky Tonk tab and various other groceries.
This was one of the small jobs. They were just asked to get evidence of smuggling from a certain drugstore, then the police would handle the rest. Pretty easy. Ginji made small talk, while Ban looked around at the back of the store, and got a bottle full of white tablets. But when Ban came to the front of the store, he noticed his friend was not looking as bright and chipper as usual. He actually looked sick. So, for good measure, he bought a small bottle of paracetamol tablets. He then drove home to their unofficial headquarters, dropped off his friend, and went by himself to the precinct.
Only, something was wrong.
"Midou-san, you're pulling my leg again," their contact in the precinct tsked.
"No way, those are the real things, I checked!" Ban cocked his glasses and replied.
The man shook his head, and took out a few tablets from the bottle. These he showed to Ban. "Paracetamol, my friend," he said. "High-grade, but legal."
"But, I swear, I had them!" He, too, looked at the tablets and confirmed that they were ordinary fever pills. "I'm telling you. They were top of the line, pure-grade. Very potent."
"So who has them now?"
He was certain that only he and Ginji had seen that bottle. Ban went over all his stops, checking where he might have dropped it. Then he remembered the Honky Tonk. "Oh, NO..."
------------------------
Here we are...
"But, but this isn't Mugen--"
Take a closer look, see? This is just the part you don't see very often, the nicer side, the part that people like you don't get to see, being one of the poorer class, the ones who couldn't get out even if they wanted.
"I think...I see what you mean...yeah, you're right!"
Keep walking straight, that's right, that's right. See the elevator? We're going up. Up the elevator. Now the doors are opening -- go on, get in. Okay? Press the button to the top floor. And we'll be there in a jiffy.
You never thought it would be this easy, right? They just don't want you to see that. They just want to keep you in the dark, always. Just wait a while. We'll be there in a few minutes. At the top. Where you always wanted to go.
"Oh...okay...Just one question: Are the colors really like this? I mean, the colors are all shifting-like, changing from red to blue to yellow, so fast, in front of my eyes, you know? And I can hear almost everybody in my head now...all those nice kids, even the older ones...and...and my heart is beating too fast..."
Oh, that. It will go away, once we get there.
----------------------------------
From the time he left the Honky Tonk to the time he got back, it took almost 2 hours. Many minutes were spent just waiting for the contact to be free, and when they finally got to talk, that happened.
Lysergic acid diethylamide. That was what they were sent to look for. They came in tablets, too. The only reason they were in that bottle was that the pills were yet to be divided into packets.
Common signs of intoxication: hallucination, visual illusions, feeling of detachment, perceptual distortion. Most people did not die from the drug high. They died from doing stupid things while on it. Like jumping off buildings and trying to fly. For the drug to work on a normal human being, based on those thick pharamcology and psychiatry books, it needed 2 hours, at least. 3 to 5 hours later, it would have its full effect.
That was the biggest problem. His friend, was far from normal.
He quite slammed the café door, and sent the bell clanging. "Natsumi, where is he?"
"Ban-san, finally!" she greeted from behind the counter. "He left about an hour ago, he didn't say where! And he looked really spacey!"
"Did you see a pill bottle with him?"
She nodded. "He asked for a glass of water, took out one tablet, and swallowed it. He did it just like you said, he told me."
"I thought so……." He sighed. "Then what?"
"He looked dizzy, so he was quiet for a while. Then he looked around. He said he liked what the boss and I did to the place, it looks nicer and brighter. But, there's nothing new. I just swept the floor."
Ban scanned the café, and she was right. Nothing had changed in the setup. He went to a table where a small plastic bottle was left behind. He opened it, and took out a few tablets inside. They were the ones he was looking for.
"Then, he suddenly stood up, and said he was going for a walk. That's all I know."
Ban reached for the door again. "I'll be back soon. If he returns, keep him here, by any means." He slammed the door behind him.
-------------------------------
"This can't be right. Where's the Archive? When did we pass the Beltline?"
Isn't that great? You'll get to the top without having to run into so many obstacles.
"Yeah……yeah! I'd like that so much! If only I know that I didn't have to go through so much trouble….."
We're at the top level now. Go on, get off the elevator. That's right. Keep walking.
Feel the cold night breeze running through your hair. Feel the sky, the one you felt you couldn't reach. See the world below you, the one you thought you could never control.
"This is an incredible view. I can see the whole city from here. Isn't that the Honky Tonk over there? Cool! But…….what's that tall building there?"
A part of your past………the past you want to forget. A part of the life you want to leave behind.
"No, NO! I can see Mugenjou from here, so this isn't Mugenjou! This isn't real! This isn't the top! I'm somewhere else! Where am I? Where am I? I have to go back, have to go back! I'm going to Lower Town, up to the Beltline, up to the Archive, up to the top where all the answers are. I'm going up there! I'll find a way!"
You don't have to.
"I have to! I have to! Or I won't find out who I am, WHAT I am! This life, outside Mugenjou, this isn't me, not really. I have to find me, I have to find me! I have to go back there, and find me…………But……….where's the elevator? Where's the staircase? Where did they go? I need to get down from here!"
…………………………
Ban returned an hour later, having driven to all the places they usually went to, and not finding him. He had called MakubeX, Shido, Kazuki, Emishi, Himiko. None of them had seen him. He was quite ready to call Dr. Jackal as well.
"I'm installing GPS into his vest, exasperating sparker," he grumbled and sat on a bar stool.
Natsumi had the radio on, just in case, but she had been ignoring the news as she washed the dishes. The radio was reporting something about a possible jumper, murmuring in the background. "We still don't know the identity of the young man," it was saying, "but he is roughly in his late teens or early 20's and looks like a foreigner from this distance, from the yellow hair..."
"RAISE THE VOLUME, NATSUMI!" he ordered. "Where the hell is he!"
The startled young lady twisted the knob, and the radio blared. "We're at the tallest building in the city..."
"I'm gonna kill him!" he gritted his teeth and sped out. He did not wait for the rest.
Natsumi continued listening to the report, very worried. "The young man keeps peering over the ledge, then looks back behind him. He does not seem to hear the police telling him to move back..."
"Ban-san, please, please, make it in time," she prayed.
…………………………
"All those kids, all those people, down there………they're looking up, up at me. Why? Why?"
They're looking at you. They're waiting for you, Raitei. You have to save them. You have to go to them.
"Um……um……..yeah………yeah! Why am I still here? I need to help them! If I'm here, Lower Town will be in trouble again, without me. I have to get down! But……..but………where's the elevator? Where's the staircase? Why is this just one big open space? MakubeX? Are you messing with the VR again? Maybe if I just peer down beyond these railings………"
But it's a sheer drop!
"No……No…….it's just one of MakubeX's tricks again. There's a wall, a door, somewhere……I have to find it…….I have to get out of here. I have to get out. I have to go back to Mugenjou. I will go up to the top, I will, I will! But first I have to get out of here…
"….The voices again! Those kids! They're calling me again. I'm going, I'm going….so stop calling already! And there's a whirring, drilling sound above me now, too. Please stop that, too. Stop, stop! MakubeX! Where is the exit already? Over here? Or over there? Where is it?"
…………………………
He reached the building in 15 minutes, confident that his friend's hesitant personality (that is, when unprovoked) will keep him alive for at least that long. He looked up, and saw the spark of yellow everyone was looking up at, standing at the edge of the tallest skyscraper in the district. He was relieved that his hunch had been right, that the acid had not made him want to fly. He jumped the yellow police tapes, pushed aside any policemen who tried to stop him, and ran to the lobby.
One elevator, he noted, was now kept at the top floor. The other, thankfully, was currently at the main floor. A policeman stopped him as he pressed for the elevator to open.
"I know that idiot on the deck, so let me through!" he shouted. He then got on the elevator, and closed its doors on the policeman.
He cocked his glasses and ruffled his hair, as he looked at himself, reflected in the elevator glass. "Why do I always get people involved with my mistakes?"
He sighed.
It was a fast elevator. Within 2 minutes, its doors opened to the deck.
…………………………
"When I look down, all I see are lots and lots of little lights and little dots of people. When I look up, there are 2 helicopters. When I look to the back of me, there's just a wide open space. And in my head, all those kids are still calling to me! Whirring, whirring helicopters! Voices, all these voices! Don't jump, don't jump, they keep saying. Like I have any plans of jumping. And jumping from where? I won't do anything. But please stop the whirring, and all the voices in my head! I can't get down from this buildling, I can't go to Mugenjou, I can't stop the voices in my head!"
"Ginji!"
"Ban-chan?"
"Listen to me. This is all a dream, understand? A hallucination! What you see is not what is real!"
"Ban-chan? Is that you? Where are you coming from? How did you get here? How did you find the elevator, when I couldn't?"
He was not getting through.
Ban was now only meters away. With his hair swept up and high by the evening breezes, his friend looked more the way he saw him the first time: dangerous, capable – but with sad longing in his wide eyes.
He walked slowly, closer to his friend, standing with blank eyes as he held on to the railings, illuminated by 2 helicopter spotlights above them. "Ginji, come on, it's dangerous out here this late. Let's go back. Natsumi has coffee waiting for us."
"But….but……..what about Mugenjou? Will I ever see the top of the tower? Do I really have to go through all that trouble? Is there no other way?"
Ban held him by the shoulders and gave him a good shake. "GINJI!"
Finally, his blonde friend looked at him. "Oh, hi, Ban-chan." He smiled weakly. He still looked pale, and he still felt very warm.
"You OK? Nothing wrong, nothing broken?"
"I don't think so," his friend replied. He looked wistfully in the direction of the dark tower. "I want to reach the top, Ban-chan. I want to." Then the blankness in his stare returned.
Ban looked at Mugenjou, dark at the distance. There had been days he had gone up to this building as well, just to look at the tower that held secrets to his friend's existence. The feeling of not knowing. He had an idea what it felt like, and how much pain it probably caused his friend.
He patted Ginji's shoulder. "Someday, we'll reach the top. Someday, everything will be settled. We'll find the answers to all your questions. So don't look for it without me. Deal?"
His friend nodded. "Deal."
Then with a little swipe to the neck, Ban knocked him unconscious.
"I'm ending this dream now. Sleep well."
………………………………
The night had become day. The café door opened, and the bell clinked. Ban sauntered in, and sat down at the stool with a yawn. He had just come from the precinct, having surrendered the correct medicine bottle.
Natsumi waved hello and gave a little yawn as well. It was Saturday, and she came to work early, for Ginji's sake.
"Ohayo, Ban-chan," his friend waved from a table, a bowl of chicken soup in front of him. He looked a lot better now, and sniffled now and then into a little box of tissues. "Thank you so much for the medicine and all, it really helped."
He sighed. "No problem." He had not gotten any sleep, checking every 5 minutes on his friend that whole night, wondering if he should let the drug run its course, or if he had to steal some antidote from the hospital, or if he had to take his friend to the hospital – knowing that the doctors would not know how to deal with a human power plant.
His friend finished his soup. "You know, it's the funniest thing. I woke up feeling so tired this morning, but I felt like I was dreaming for such a long time."
"Oh, really?" was all he said.
"Yeah, really," the blonde young man brightened and spoke quickly. "Natsumi had her hair down, and was in a nice dress, full of summer colors. The Honky Tonk looked really pretty, it had stained glass for once. It was really bright and colorful outside, too. Then, I think I walked back to Mugenjou. I found a new way up to the top levels, without having to pass the Beltline, too! But when I got there, I found myself in this completely different building, and I found Mugenjou from there. It was very disappointing, you know, going through all that trouble……..and the street below looked so very far. Then you came and said everything will be alright, or something. And I woke up. Crazy dream, don't you think?"
While the description proceeded, Natsumi kept looking at Ban. Ban raised his index finger in warning, and shook his head.
"Yeah, I bet it was psychedelic," he smiled sadly at Ginji when the story ended.
Fin.
---------------------------------
My life makes me think crazy things sometimes. Thank you for reading this one-shot. It was great to have a story, even a short one, racing in my head after such a long time. See you around, everybody.