Cheese

"Are you sure you don't want to detransform?" Kasai whispers to The Batter, her voice barely audible above the sound of the train arriving onto the platform. There's only a handful of people taking this line, but they're all giving the pair a wide berth. "Seems like people are looking at you funny."

The Batter lowers her baseball helmet's visor over her face as the train doors open. "I'm not wearing anything underneath."

"..." Those words feel like an uppercut to Kasai's jaw. She almost forgets to step on board the train. "What happened to wearing normal clothes?!"

"These basically are normal clothes."

"..."

"Loads of people wear their sports jerseys in their day-to-day life." The Batter sits down with her legs crossed while Kasai opts to keep standing.

"Name one person."

"...Hana."

"Who?"

"Hana from…" The Batter's eyes wander around. "Third grade."

"That was that. This is this."

"It's just more convenient this way, alright? Jeez..."

Kasai sighs.

"..."

"...Can you at least take off that helmet?"

The Batter sighs, exasperated. "It's for protection."

"It looks shady."

"So?"

"...so take it off."

"Who cares?"

"I care."

"Again, who cares?"

"I care."

"Again, who cares?"

This continues for the whole three hours it takes to get from Ozawa to Minaminagi. They both seriously doubt that Tami's just going to let them waltz through the spirit realm gate in Ozawa, so they both opted to go for the next nearest spirit realm gate in Minaminagi.

"Straighten your posture! Fix your collar! Fix your helmet! You look like a slob! Nag nag nag nag nag nag!" At this point The Batter's resorted to childishly covering her ears. "Are you even listening?"

"ALRIGHT! I GET IT!" The Batter stands rigidly at attention, downturns her collar, takes off her helmet and throws it into the distance. "Happy?!"

"Yes." Kasai flinches slightly from The Batter's sudden outburst. "As a matter of fact, I am."

"God, you remind me of my squad leader."

Kasai chooses to withhold the fact that she was, in fact, her own squad's leader in the yokai war.

"Maybe I gave you the wrong first impression." Based on her icy glare, the Batter is, absolutely, definitively, without a shadow of a doubt, not a happy camper. "The only reason I'm cooperating with you yakuza scum is because I feel sorry for you, not because I like or respect you or even out of necessity."

Kasai feels her face heat up. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean?" The Batter's voice sounds like hell frozen over. "This whole operation is your fault, remember? Don't think for one second that I don't know about Yuuji. You took away the one person my sister loved."

"You're–..." Kasai grits her teeth. The part that angers her isn't what she's saying, it's that she's right.

"Even if Shosuko forgave you, I haven't."

"..."

"Don't get in my way ever again, or I'll put you down myself." The Batter points her bat at Kasai as she walks away and disappears into the shadows of Minaminagi city.

"Taxi!" The Batter stumbles out of the beef bowl restaurant and hails a passing cab. Maybe she had a little too much beer but it's fine. She figures it's going to be a little while before she gets back to this realm so she might as well enjoy what time she has left here. The… non-spirit realm, she guesses.

"Where to?" The taxi driver's gruff voice greets the Batter as she slides into the back seat.

"Uh…" The Batter sniffs the air, tracing the scent of a great seal. If she finds the seal, she finds the thing that had to be sealed, namely, the gate to the spirit realm. She points vaguely north. "That way…?"

"That way?"

"I don't pay you to stare. Now drive."

"Alright, alright." The taxi driver nods his head and starts driving. It'd be faster if The Batter stepped out of the car and ran around searching for the seal herself but she's dead tired from putting up with Kasai all day so the cab it is.

There aren't many cars in Minaminagi, but even that tiny flow is stymied into a complete drought as the taxi enters the outskirts of the city. The urban scenery is replaced by dense bamboo along with the shadows they bring. This far away from the city lights, the stars start to come out to play.

"Stop here." The taxi crawls to a halt a few steps away from a narrow, stone path.

"It's kinda dark out. Do you want me to wait for you?"

"No, there's no need."

"Alright then. See you arou–" The Batter clamps her hand over his mouth.

"Turn off the lights."

"What?"

"Just do it."

"Okay, okay." The driver quickly turns off his headlights. It's suddenly dead quiet. A bead of sweat. The Batter points at the sky through the windshield. There's a finger-shaped darkness where the stars don't shine. There's something in the sky.

"What… is that?"

"I don't know."

Two yellow dots sprout in the darkness. At first, The Batter thinks they're just stars. But then they get bigger. And then she realizes they're eyes. It's looking at them.

"Drive." The Batter's breath freezes in her throat.

The taxi driver doesn't move.

"I said drive."

The blackness starts growing– devouring the night sky.

"DRIVE!"

The driver fumbles with the controls. The headlights come on just in time to shed light on the thing. It has a face. It has a mouth. It has teeth. It opens wide. And then bites.

The windshield, part of the car's hood, and the driver's head are all enveloped in this thing's mouth. It closes shut. Amidst the sound of metal being warped and glass shattered, there's a brutal crunching sound as bone is crushed. Blood floods out from the driver's neck. The Batter isn't sure if she doesn't dare breathe or if she can't breathe. The thing continues its meal, feasting on the corpse, mulching it into a gory mush.

The Batter licks her lips as silently as she can, careful to avoid alerting this thing while it's still engrossed in its meal. Her bat. She needs her bat. Her fingernails accidentally clink against its metal handle. The thing freezes. The Batter freezes. Time itself freezes. A yellow orb swivels in its socket to greet her.

"「T-Taijutsu! - Special Homerun!」"

The Batter brings her bat up and smashes it into the thing's face. Its body is soft. It's like she hit just a pillow. A very unfazed, hungry pillow. In the dim light of the moon, it almost looks like it's smiling at her. No, it definitely is smiling at her. It begins to hover closer.

"Ah–" She tries to summon the will to even scream but her own body denies her that liberty. The thing lunges at her, mouth wide open. Out of pure instinct, she reaches out and grabs the thing by its teeth. Its sharp, sharp teeth. Every single muscle in her body trembles under the sheer weight this thing is exerting on her. Her palms start to bleed from gripping its fangs.

Little by little, her arms are forced backwards. Inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter. She feels it trying to clamp its mouth down on her neck. It's relentless in its hunger. The Batter's hands are right next to her neck now. She feels the thing's hot breath on her face. She sees the beginnings of its gullet. She sees the scraps of flesh and bone it tore off of the driver. She sees her life flash before her eyes. A visual mess of faces, endless battles, birthdays spent alone, and the sound of blazing gunfire. But all that ends here.

Or at least, it would have.

"「Iaijutsu - Absolute Cut!」"