They had been walking for hours looking at glass case after glass case of wholly uninteresting objects.  And there seemed to be no end to the boredom.  They hadn’t even stopped for lunch and this made a grouchy Ban even grouchier. 

  “Oy, Old Witch,” he called to the woman a few steps in front of him.  She continued staring lovingly at an intricately engraved silver knife making no move to indicate she had not heard him at all.  Ban cursed angrily,

  “Dammit!  Are we ever gonna get to eat?  Oy, are you listening to me?”  The woman blinked and looked down at the young boy staring moodily at her.

  “But Baaaan…look how pretty it is.”  She pointed to the knife and sighed.  “I used to have one just like it a long time ago.”  Her eyes glazed over and Ban knew that meant she was reminiscing and if he didn’t do something quickly she would stay like that for ages.  So he went up to the woman and prodded her arm.

  “Maria.”  No response.  “MARIA!”  The sound of his voice echoed through the almost deserted gallery.  Ignoring the irritated looks from the museum guard, he leaned closer and shouted again.  “OY, WITCH!”  With that the vacant look on Maria’s face disappeared and she again looked down at her young charge.

  “Who are you calling a witch, you little brat,” she replied loftily.  After taking one final, longing look at the knife she continued up the gallery, not bothering to look at any other objects.  Which Ban thought was strange.  He ran to catch up with her.

  “Are we leaving?” he asked hopefully.

  “Not yet,” she answered.  “There’s one more thing we need to see.”

  “Why the sudden hurry?”  Ban had a sneaky suspicion Maria was up to something.  She looked at the boy and smiled innocently.   

  “Hmm…I’m hungry all of sudden.”

  “That’s not it…” Ban started to argue, but a strange feeling of power and familiarity stopped him.  He looked around the gallery they had come to.  Old books.  He walked over to the nearest case and peered down through the glass.  A huge leather-bound, beautifully calligraphed volume sat open before him.  He began reading the page.  It was in Latin.  Ban hated Latin.     

  “Do you feel something, Ban?” Maria asked.  The sound of her voice made Ban jump.  He couldn’t think when he’d become so engrossed in the book that he’d forgotten Maria was there.  Now she was standing a little way behind him, looking at him curiously.   He stared back at her for a moment, wondering if the witch felt it too.  If she did, she wasn’t letting on.  He shook his head, trying to dispel the feeling from him mind.

  “Ban?” Maria spoke again, joining him by the book case.  She looked down at the book Ban had been staring at and frowned.

  “Not this one,” she stated.  Ban shrugged.

  “I thought it looked interesting.”  His eyes drifted from Maria to the rest of the case.  It continued for some way up the hall, lined with old books and yellowing bits of paper.  Looking towards the end of the case now, he felt that same strange draw as before.  He let his feet take him.  He had learnt at a very young age that it was wise to follow his instincts.  They had many times been all that had kept him alive.  So now he allowed himself to be drawn to the end of a case, to a small book hand-written in Old German.  The volume was in a very bad condition.  The pages looked blackened and singed and there were rips and tears along the edges which suggested someone had tried to rip it apart.  Glancing over the stained leaf, Ban could make out most of the words.  The book was apparently a diary.  Ban could just discern a date at the top of the page.

The 27^th day of September 1557

The entry below it seemed to be talking about a tribunal of some kind, though it was written in archaic German and Ban neither could nor wanted to understand it fully.  Even so, he felt as though he had seen this book somewhere before, and the more he stared at it the more convinced he became that he’d seen these very words before too.  Ban wondered if he’d studied this book with his Grandmother, but he couldn’t remember having ever studied a diary before.  Still…

  “It’s his then,” Maria murmured under her breath.  She was standing right behind him, looking over his shoulder. 

  “Whose?” Ban asked, dragging his eyes away from the book to look at the witch’s face.  Maria laughed quietly.

  “You should know better than me, Ban.”  She looked from the book to him then sighed.  “Come on, let’s go eat.”  Ban blinked in surprise.  It was unusual for Maria to not explain things to him.  He was about to demand an explanation when she took off again up the gallery towards the exit.  When he finally got to ask about the diary later that day, Maria merely replied that his Grandmother had wanted to know if it was authentic then changed the subject, clearly indicating the matter was not for discussion.

  That night Ban had strange nightmares about people he’d never met and places he’d never been.

                       ******

  “Welcome!  Welcome!  Come and have a seat over here!” Ban ushered the two prospective clients enthusiastically towards one of the Honkey Tonk’s booths.  Ginji stood beside him smiling broadly, marveling at Ban’s ability to completely change his attitude in the blink of an eye when food, women or money were concerned.  Especially where money was concerned. 

  The clients looked like ordinary salary men, with their black suits, tidy hair and unreasonably shiny shoes.  The taller of the two bowed slightly to Hevn.

“These are the retrievers you spoke of, Hevn-san?” he asked, looking suspiciously at the Get Backers. 

“Yes, Yamanaka-san.  They are two of the best in the business.”  She smiled warmly and indicated towards the booth, “Now please, if you and your colleague would be seated we can discuss your situation.” 

Ginji thought neither of the men looked very pleased to be there.  To Ginji it also seemed that the taller man was staring at Ban a little bit too much.  Ginji was sure Ban had noticed it too because he pushed his glasses high onto his nose and went to sit down without any further greetings.  The tall man nodded at his partner and they obligingly seated themselves on the opposite side of the booth to Ban.  Ginji and Hevn squeezed in next to him.

  “Now what is it we can help you with?” Ban asked, to Ginji’s mind a little too politely.   

  “This matter is very delicate, you understand,” the taller man began, suspiciously eyeing the café and its patrons. 

  “Of course,” Hevn reassured him, “We are all professionals here,” she indicated towards Kazuki and Shido in the far booth, “And we all understand the importance of discretion.”

  “Very well, then.”  The client whom Hevn had called Yamanaka-san agreed then nodded to his shorter colleague who brought his bag up to the table and drew from it a photo and a thin pile of papers.  He pushed them all over to Hevn as the Yamanaka explained;

  “My name is Yamanaka Tetsuo and this is my associate, Sudou Takuya.  We work for a museum in Yanazawa which houses a small collection of rare books.  Recently, our institution acquired some unique volumes from one of the large museums here in Tokyo.  However, upon receiving our acquisitions from that museum a certain book was found to be missing.”  Hevn held up the photograph.  It showed an old blackened book with indiscernible letters embossed in roman script on the cover.

  “This one?” she asked.  Yamanaka nodded.

  “Of course, we contacted the museum and they assured us the book had been shipped.  The paperwork suggests that the book did indeed leave along with the others.  So it seems that somewhere between Tokyo and Yanazawa the book was taken.”  Ban took the photo from Hevn and examined it carefully. 

  “From what museum did you acquire it?” he asked without taking his eyes off the photograph.  Yamanaka squirmed slightly and replied;

  “We would rather not disclose that as this sale was somewhat…irregular.  Unless of course it is necessary to the investigation in which case…”

  “It is necessary,” Ban cut in sharply.  The taller client paused in stunned silence for a moment before taking a business card from his jacket and handing it over to Ban.

  “Here…this is the man with whom we did business…”  Ban put the photo down and took the business card.  “This is completely confidential I hope…” Yamanaka added worriedly. 

  “Of course, Yamanaka-san,” Hevn offered when Ban made no reply.  Ginji noticed his partner’s eyes narrowed as he read the card.  Ginji was also getting the distinct impression Ban knew something about all this that he did not.  Although, Ginji thought, it always seemed to be that way. 

  “And you nor the museum know nothing of how the book was taken?” Ban asked, pulling the rest of the papers which had been placed on the table earlier towards him.

  “No.  It is a mystery,” Yamanaka replied shortly.  Ban flipped through the papers.

  “They are copies of pages from the book,” the shorter client offered, “We thought they would be useful in ensuring you retrieve the correct volume.”

  “Many old diaries like this go missing then do they?” Ban asked sarcastically.  Yamanaka looked at Ban curiously. 　　 

  “You can read it?”  Ban merely shrugged.

  “Do you have any idea who might have taken it?” Hevn cut in, attempting to change the subject.  She did not like the way Ban was acting towards the clients and was determined to not let his attitude ruin their chances of getting what she had been promised would be a very profitable job.  Though in truth, she found his unusual rudeness towards the clients unsettling. 

  “Well this diary is unique so any serious antique book collector would want it, but I do not believe such people would stoop to theft,” Yamanaka answered.

  “How is it unique?” Ginji asked in genuine curiosity.

  “Such personal diaries from this era are almost unheard of, and this particular one appears to have belonged to a man believing himself to be a witch,” the shorter client replied.

  “A witch?” Ginji repeated.  His eyes shifted to Ban, curious to see his reaction, but his friend was giving nothing away.

  “But why would that be a motivation to steal it, Sudou-san?” Hevn asked

  “It has to do with the contents of the book,” Sudou explained, “It is said to contain…information about certain powers and rites.  And there are those who believe in such things.”

  “And you do not?” Ban cut in, his tone almost inquisitory.  The shorter client smiled and leaned back as though astonished by the absurdity of the question.

  “Of course not!  How ridiculous!” 

  “Right.”  Ban smirked grimly, “You believe that someone took the book for the purpose of witchcraft then.” 

  “Yes,” Yamanaka answered before the shorter mad had a chance, “The museum informed us that there were several attempts over the years to steal the book, which led to it being taken off display and ultimately their desire to sell it.”

  “And would you have any inclination as to who the thief might be?” Ban inquired.

  “Midou-san,” Yamanaka placed his hands on the table for emphasis, “We are book collectors, not occultists.  We have no dealings with such people.  That is why we are hiring you.  This is your line of work, is it not?”  Ban raised an eyebrow at the man’s insinuation but chose to ignore it.

  “It is,” he replied simply, “We will take the job.”