"I think he's going to come for me again." She said abruptly as I swallowed my saki hard.

"Nonsense. You're safe. One for one. You lived. He lost. He's not coming for you." I replied, forcing some rice between my lips.

The room was still, which, seeing as we were the only ones here, was not surprising in the least. The cracked door and the rice-paper windows let in a small amount of the world's remaining light, but that was enough, since our lights were on. So what if they flickered a little? It was home. The candle carefully set on our thin table followed the lights, flickering and burning itself down, the only thing now in between myself and my... well, she wasn't my girlfriend, per se. But she was the woman that I loved and the woman that loved me. And we lived together. She just didn't like the term, so I didn't use it. Fair enough.

"I'm serious. I feel him. He's all around me, a dark embrace to counteract yours..." She moaned out slightly, sipping at her saki with less energy than I could ever remember seeing her with.

"Hey, cut that out. You know that kind of dark prose creeps me out." I answered slowly, swinging my chopsticks around in my usual nonchalant manner.

She smiled at me slightly, in that quirky way that she did when she was secretly turned on by something. I think it was the chopsticks. "Alright, alright... but you gotta admit, it might sound good put down on paper." She smirked again before lifting her rice bowl and gulpeing it down quickly, following without a pause by glugging down her share of saki, and then some. "But I'm serious. I think he's going to come for me again."

I paused for a second, finishing off my drink and picking up the last few grains of rice. "Look, no one's going to come for you, alright? The last place that he appeared was at that detective's house, and that's nowhere near here. It's only logical..."

"Logic has nothing to do with the Shounen Bat." She cut in. "You can't just... label him as something and file him away, hm?" She poked. She loved poking at the fact that my job was, basically, a filing assistant at a library. The official title was 'Librarian in Training'. I grinned at her.

"Hey, you know that the job's temporary. Soon, some college will be calling to me for help, and..." I started.

She laughed a little. "Calm down, calm down. I know. But let's be serious; no college is going to hire a guy that only a year ago got out of college himself."

I chuckled a bit, but all of that stopped soon. It was dark. We were tired, I guess.

"So, uh... I guess I'll clean this all up tomorrow?" I asked slowly.

"Yeah. Tomorrow." She said, her smile all but gone.

Silence came. Stillness came. It was an awkward ten minutes.

"I still think he's going to come for me again."

I sighed deeply. "Look, if you're that worried, I'll stay up and keep guard or whatever. It's no big deal. I don't even really believe in the guy."

Her eyes sparkled. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

I looked back at her and took a small breath. "I'd die for you. This will be nothing."

She went to bed then, her already scantily-clad body becoming totally stripped, as always, as she folded out the bed from the skin-toned couch, pulling the quilted sheets out from under it. She clambered in, covering herself and waited, her arms behind her head. I sat on the edge, my own shirt never leaving my back. She looked at me oddly.

"What?"

"Just because you're not going to sleep doesn't mean I don't want a goodnight kiss."

I smiled with a little tinge of hopelessness. "Why? It's not like it's a tradition or anything..."

She became very serious. "The Shounen Bat doesn't attack the sleeping. Never has. And you're staying up for me. So technically... if he does come..."

I walked ot the other side of the bed and kissed her gently on the mouth. That didn't last too long. Not because I stopped... because she pulled me in and made that little soft peck a passionate lip-lock. It's not like I was doing anything to stop her.

"Wake up... c'mon. Wake up, huh? Your cereal's gonna get cold." My voice cooed as her eyes batted open. She smiled in that tired way that you could expect from this situation.

"You... you really did stay up all night?" She asked calmly.

"Of course." I stated happily. "I mean, come on... it was only five hours. Not a big deal."

She laughed a little as she got up, her body glistening as she stretched. Sweat.

"Bad dream or good dream?" I asked slowly. She smirked.

"Well... it wasn't great. Kinda neutral with some depressing aspects. He came, and then he left." She was confident in her sound up to this point. "...And you weren't there." Her voice became soft. It was a bad dream.

I shrugged. "We're thinking the same 'he', right? The Shounen Bat?" Never could be too sure.

She nodded silently before grabbing a used white shirt from beside the bed, pulling it over

her head and yanking on some new underwear and obsidian jeans that I had set out for her as well.

Breakfast was a quiet thing. It needn't bee too loud, because we knew that nothing really needed to be said. But maybe I didn't know that. So I spoke.

"What makes you think the Shounen Bat would attack you? From what we know, he only attacks people that are in an emotional corner. Do you... y'know, feel that way?"

She looked at me for a moment before quickly seeing where I was going with this. "It's not you, I swear. You're wonderful. I couldn't ask for a better beloved than you. And I never have."

I coughed a little at the last part, my mind convinced, but my chest not having any of it.

Before I got out the door, she stopped me. "You're not going out in the middle of winter without a jacket." She said firmly. I rolled my eyes, but it felt good to know she cared.

"I'll be fine. When was the last time I got a winter cold?" I prodded. I was a little late.

"Last winter. I'm getting you your jacket." She said. "Wait here."

And so I did. She came back a couple minutes later with a long leather trenchcoat. It took me a second to remember whose it really was.

"I can't take your coat! You need that. We don't have heating in here." I commented slowly.

"You're taking the coat."

I sighed. There was no way to argue with that. She was so set on it.

"Take care of yourself, alright? Don't worry about me. It's not like I'm in any emotional corner here."

I'm not sure why, but one second, I was leaving for the library, and the next I found that I couldn't move, her arms latched so tight around me as if this were to be the final time.

Walking to my office... something more like a filing cabinet with a door, to be honest... I couldn't help but think about the Shounen Bat.

I said I didn't believe in him, but how else could she have gotten all those bludgeon marks? She had been a wreck. The police thought that I was abusive and tried to arrest me, but I'm lucky to have a girl like her; some would have tried to get all of my money, especially in our situation. But she refused to let them take me away from her.

That's always been the way things have gone. Some couples, the guy is the leader. Not ours. All that I did was tell her that I loved her after three years, in which time she had already figured it out, and she had pressed me into her lips with the most fierce gentle embrace possible. If I remember right, I was simply out of the will to try to resist, so I didn't. It's the best decision I've ever made. She agreed, apparently.

And so it's been, forever on, that whenever we do share a moment, she initiates it, but I always somehow end up in control. It's her turn on. Calm and demure in normality, but a tiger after you do just a little to ignite the passion.

Interesting how things like that go. That's the kind of girl I thought I wanted. To be honest, though, now that I've settled in with this, I wouldn't have it any other way. Couldn't if I tried.

I arrived at the library soon after these idiotic, disrupting thoughts poured into my head. I worked. I left. I got home after picking up some food at the market, sliding my only credit card through the reader, and swiping some saki from the liqueur store.

I wouldn't hold a shell in my arms ever again.

"Why would he come for you?" I asked slowly, trying to beat around any assumptions that I might have accidentally made on the way home. Maybe if we got to the root of the fear, then we'd be able to overcome it. Together.

"Well... I don't know. My work isn't going so well, you know... and I'm thinking that maybe... well, your pay isn't so incredible right now..." She mumbled. It was so obvious that this wasn't the problem. I didn't say anything, though. Just sipped my saki. Got a little more off the edge of my seat.

"Well... actually, there's something else." She cut in. There it is, I thought. Now to figure out what's really on her mind. "It's nothing really important. But it's just... you know how I like to be so in control. But it's like Chinese water torture. I got hit with one drop. Now I'm going insane waiting for another one."

I smiled and reached out with an open palm. Hesitantly... an odd speed for her... she took it in her own and held it.

"Listen. You haven't done anything wrong. The only thing you've done to get yourself into a corner is to think... the believe... that you're really in one. But you're not. I can prove it."

I looked down at our touching hands. She followed my eyes and found the mark. I could swear I saw a small tear there.

"I don't know what I'd do without you. You're so forgiving. It's disgusting. In a good way." She said softly, a grin lacing her face like threads of embroidery. She then proceeded to push her empty bowl and cup in front of her.

"Er... I know it's a lot to ask, especially since you did it last night, but..." She started.

I smiled at her in that way that I tended to, and nodded calmly. "No problem. Work's slow anyway. I'll sleep there." I joked.

There was another reason I wanted to do this, too. I was starting to think that maybe it would make me feel better, too. I mean, who knows? Like it or not, he's out there, probably.

I'll sacrifice my rest to keep a soul in her. It's worth it.

"... thank you, Ms. Takanawa. We'll be sure to watch out for the Shounen Bat tonight, won't we, Ayane?"

"We sure will, Nobumura! In the mean time, a special report! The new 'Mellow Maromi' season starts tomorrow, and fans are..."

I clicked off the TV set before making a small gagging noise. My sagging eyes couldn't close if I wanted them too, now. Another attack. This time, it was a woman, no older than myself. Brutal shots of that one. Her face was clenched in her hand. No, I mean, she was actually holding the flap of flesh that once made up her face. The muscles of her lips were twisted in a gruesome but peaceful smile. Sick thing. Really sick. I'm glad I'm stayed up for this.

I was at the door. In my underwear.

My eye pressed to the peephole.

Earlier that day, we had a fight. A small thing... one we'd had before to a smaller degree. She asked at dinner why I wouldn't touch her. I gave her the honest answer; I wasn't ready. She asked why, as people tend to. Not a bad question; she was beautiful, we were young. I had said that I wasn't ready, is all. I wanted to get a steadier job and possibly have her less afraid before we risk that. She suggested a condom, though it was hesitant and forced, making it obvious that she was against them. I already knew that; she had told me once that even though she knew I loved her and believed I loved her, she could never feel that I loved her, but she would wait until I was ready. She thought that condoms were just a way to avoid emotion during the act and claimed that there was no point with it. I had to say, I agreed. But all that besides the point, I had slowly shaken my head. The following was basically silence, and her asking me to go to bed with her tonight. I politely declined. She looked at the television and saw a report on the Shounen Bat, and glanced to me. I shrugged, signaling that this, indeed, was my reasoning.

"It's been a week... more than a week. You haven't slept at all. Eventually, you're going to have to give up." She said with a deep breath.

"No. I won't have you fall apart again." I replied quickly. She rolled her eyes.

"Only one of us is falling apart, here, and it's not me anymore." She glared at me before sighing again and reaching for my hand.

I stared at it. I didn't take my eyes off of it.

"Goo' night. It's late. I need to watch up." With that, I stood and went to the door, eyes latching onto the handle, my hand grasping the iron golf club from our cupboard. Not that we had ever used it; someone had gotten it for me as a business gift. Wonder what they were thinking.

"You mean wash up?" She called from the table expectantly. I could hear the zipper on her jeans go down a little.

"No, I mean watch up. Can't let that fiend get to you. Won't."

She left for the bedroom. I suspect she went to bed.

My eye pressed to the peephole.

The Shounen Bat, He had really hurt her a little while back. She saw him, felt him... I just heard him leave. His skate-marks were plastered into our front-porch cement, which, at that time, had been wet. I'm not sure why he had attacked her... to what I know, I think it had something to do with the fact that she had recently been cheating on me. I know that now, but then, I had no clue. Possibly, she cheated again, and that's why she was afraid that he was going to come for her again. I don't think so, though. That was at least a year ago, and things had changed since then.

We had moved in together, for one. She had changed as a person, I think. She was more... I don't know what it is. I think that even then, if the Shounen Bat had attacked her, she was probably feeling pretty guilty about it. The cheating, that is, Maybe that's why I forgave her at all. It's a sick thought; it takes a temporary coma to forgive someone after they cheat. For me, though, it was really just the Shounen Bat that made me forgive her. It proved that she knew it was wrong and that she loved me, not that other guy. And as long as that's still true, I stay sane.

But in the end, I hate the Shounen Bat. She was in such fear for so long. Half a year, at least, that she couldn't sleep without me literally holding her through the night. Which, I guess, I didn't mind. I'd be doing that anyway. But it was a problem for her. And she changed, really. That was what set me off. The Shounen bat had, for a time, replaced the girl I loved with a shell of a human.

The rumbling of a distant ocean forever burned into our ears.

She didn't waste a second, upon waking up, to eating or anything. Immediately, and without bothering to dress, she flung herself to the door, where I still stood, and held on tight.

"Please... it's been a month... stop this..." Her voice bled with anguish, It sounded how I felt.

She extended her hand upward. I looked at it in confusion. A month ago, I would have taken it in an instant. So why did I pause now?

"Please... I feel safe now, I really do... I want you back..." She continued. There was no hiding her tears. She had really gone.

I took her hand.

Her tears stopped. She looked up at me, her face wet and, somehow, still retaining it;s usual shine through the forced wrinkles.

"One more night of this. Then I'm done."

She smiled and clung again. "Fine. One more night. One. And only because I know that you're doing this for me."

I hated myself. That really was how this had all started, wasn't it? Keeping her safe. But now it was something entirely else. It was keeping her. Period.

As she settled into the sheets, I kissed her gently before walking to the door. This time, she didn't pull me in; she seemed happy enough just to feel loved. In retrospect, I really hadn't been all that great as a beloved lately. But only one more night of this and then I could relax. We could all relax.

But, god, how freaked out I was.

He was coming tonight. I knew it.

Her naked body lay in the crimson sheets, her chest caved in and her head carved out. Tread marks line her gut, and her hands are both broken beyond use. I reach out one last time to hold the limp remains of her in my arms, only to find a final breath on her torn lips. She would smile, but she's paralyzed. I try to hold back tears, because I know that the salt would only hurt her more. I can't do it. I can't speak. I can't move. I can only watch her as she dies.

I shook off the notion quickly. Hy eyes were wet, and that wasn't good. He would come tonight. I looked back at her. Yes, she was fine. In clothing, tonight, that was odd. And still totally intact. I walked over to her and knelt down. Took her hand.

"I love you." I whispered.

Then I turned around and choked.

In all of the times I'd pictured him, he had never been this menacing. He's always been... y'know, a kid. But this wasn't a kid. His skates refracted the moonlight so that they looked ghostly. His dark clothing was illuminated by the reflection of his fabled bat, already covered in someone's blood.

He wasn't moving. He was just standing there, at the door. All in all, I could see now how this kid could do what he did; I knew right off the bat... pardon the pun... that the look in his eye could kill, no help from the skates or the bat.

"N-no!" I cried softly. "No, don't! D-don't do this...!"

He looked at me from under his cap, ushering me forward before turning his gaze to the bed... and the one in it.

"Oh, no... no, no, no... god, no..." I moaned. My eyes flashed around, looking for something... anything. My golf club was in the closet. I didn't own a gun. I wasn't quite strong enough to lift the table and use it.

But I knew one thing; I wasn't running. If I ran, the Shounen Bat would pick a new target. And there was only one more person in the room.

"Hey. Shounen Bat, is it?" I said hoarsely. He turned to look at me, a gleam in his eye. "I don't know why you're here. I don't know who you came for. But you're not attacking her. So you're attacking me." With that, I approached him.

Oh, he was so real. His cold breath on my face. The heat of his sweat. I looked him in the eye... straight in the eye.

"Do it, you bastard. Leave her out of this and just do it."

So he did it.

"...Wake up! Oh, god, please don't be dead, don't leave me alone like this... wake up, dammit!"

Her cries were loud enough to rouse me. I looked around at the world, then up at the only part of it that really mattered anymore.

"I... I'm sorry I... I waited for him, and... and not for you..." I groaned softly. Her face was beautiful, even now. She cracked a small grin before handing me her pocket mirror. I looked into it, though my arm hurt badly and even just holding it there. Surprisingly, there was no impact wound from the attack, but I was badly bloodied. My face was smeared in the stuff. But she was there with me. That was really all that mattered.

"I'm glad you're alright. He's... he's not coming back, you know." I said with a certain caution.

"I know. Just... stay put, alright? Don't move... you'll be alright..." Tears in her eyes. Why?

I angled the mirror at my body.

Oh. That's why. Ribs. Six of them. Protruding through a shattered chest, all spurting blood. A little more investigation to find that both arms were in similar states. Nothing was broken, it seemed, but there were a lot of punctures. At about this time, it became much harder to breath.

Why is it that in the last month, I've only slept twice, and both times it was fainting?

112 stitches. Twelve punctures. Some internal bleeding. Another month of my life consumed my operations and procedures. I hadn't slept in my bed in a month. Neither had she. She had been with me the entire time. Not a second had gone by that she hadn't sat by my bedside.

It was the last day there. I was basically recovered. Only one thing left to do.

She lays next to me, her panting a reminder that I'm no longer clean... and yet, it doesn't matter at all. My ring on her finger forever more.

"I told you you'd like it." She said between breaths.

I shrugged. "At this point, I'd enjoy anything that involves being close to you. And I'll admit it; this might be one of the best ways to do it."

She smiled and nuzzled into my bare chest, quickly after falling asleep. I stayed up a few minutes more, to make sure I wasn't dead, or dreaming. About then, I heard a tap on the door.

Let him knock. I'm going to sleep. Hell, she already has.