Shosuko cracks her knuckles before charging directly at The Batter, arms held out like they're claws. Something awakens in The Batter's eyes. Something predatory.
"「Taijutsu - Special Homerun」" Something's wrong. Shosuko feels it, her very base instincts are telling her to run away as fast as possible. But it's too late, she's already entered The Batter's range. Her bat begins to blaze with a bright blue flame.
It sounds like a gunshot as she swings. What the hell did she activate? All Shosuko feels is a magnum force crashing into her side. There's no time for her brain to even register that she's feeling pain. Her legs begin to lift off the ground. There's a sharp impact as her body crashes against the windows, then again as she skids along the pavement of the open street. It's starting to rain.
"Ho? You survived that?" Already, The Batter begins to walk towards Shosuko.
Goddamnit… That's all that goes through Shosuko's head as she drags herself back onto her feet. Blood trickles out of her mouth. Judging from the pain in her side and how hard it is to breathe, that's probably two or three ribs puncturing her lungs. Not yet… I'm not done yet…!
"「Taijutsu - Vitality」" Shosuko feels her body stitching itself together as the natural healing of months is compressed into a matter of seconds. As soon as her internal wounds are fully healed, she dismisses the Taijutsu, wasting as little blood as possible.
"BATTER!" She cries into the open air. As if on cue, the rain thickens from a light drizzle to a weak downpour. "HERE I COME!"
Shosuko charges The Batter head-on, because that worked so well the first time. As expected, The Batter's reach advantage keeps Shosuko at bay. Every time Shosuko tries to approach, she's immediately cut off by a flurry of swings that she has to either block, parry, or retreat from, giving The Batter as much time as she needs. Taking advantage of Shosuko's exhaustion, The Batter suddenly gets in close and jams the end of her bat into Shosuko's stomach, sending her flying. This time, Shosuko slams against the pole of a streetlight.
"Fine." Shosuko rolls her shoulders. "If I can't beat you with my fists, I'll just have to get creative." She wraps her arms around the streetlight and lifts. It takes a bit of effort but it eventually gives, its concrete base being lifted up along with it.
Wielding the streetlight like it's lighter than a feather, she slams it down directly onto The Batter who raises her bat and parries the streetlight, sparks fly as metal grinds furiously against metal. Eventually, The Batter wins the clash and pushes aside the streetlight before dashing straight at Shosuko. There's not enough time for Shosuko to launch another attack with the streetlight so she brings up her arms to guard herself.
The Batter swings downwards, breaking Shosuko's guard, then swings upwards. Aside from causing Shosuko to fly backwards, the sheer force of the swing knocks the metal plates inside of Shosuko's armored jacket out of alignment, causing them to tear through the fabric.
Shosuko rips her now ruined jacket off as she stands back up. Drops of the blond hair dye Shosuko wears wash off in the rain, revealing her natural blue hair underneath. They trickle down into the puddle below, staining it a faint yellow. Out of the corner of her eye, Shosuko catches a glimpse of her back in the reflection.
Peeking out over the collar of her tank top is the tattooed head of Enma, the judge of hell. And on her right and left tattoo sleeves are the guardians of hell, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, respectively. Burning clouds of hellish fury frame the tattoo in its entirety. Umi Alliance against the Kuze Clan. Prodigy against patron. The Batter against the Judge.
"Come on!" Shosuko punches her own chest as she stumbles towards The Batter in a blind rage. Her head is dizzy from blood loss but she doesn't care. "I didn't hear no bell!"
The Batter obliges. She dodges Shosuko's first drunken lunge before smashing her face down onto her knee. Blood gushes out of Shosuko's nose as she stumbles backwards. Her hand flies up to staunch the bleeding. In that moment Shosuko is defenseless, The Batter seizes her opportunity.
"「Taijutsu - Special Homerun」" Again, there's that sound like a gun being fired as The Batter smashes the side of Shosuko's head with her bat. She does not go flying. Instead, she merely topples over, her head slamming into the ground. There's a crash, then all is quiet.
The Batter wipes the rain out of her eyes. Finally, it's over. She's about to turn away and leave but she hears a low groan come from behind her as Shosuko pulls herself up off the ground. The hell is this girl made of? As it turns out, the answer is sheer determination.
"...Hm." The Batter kicks Shosuko over onto her back and places her foot on her neck. She raises her bat, grasping it with both hands this time, ready to end the fight once and for all. But she hesitates. She has to check. She has to be absolutely sure. She lowers her bat, and uses it to pull down Shosuko's collar, exposing the scar on her chest. It can't be bigger than Shosuko's fingernail, and yet, The Batter stumbles backwards, the entire world seemingly turning upside down.
"HEY!" A series of distant 'BANG's followed by the sound of something whizzing past The Batter's ear snaps her back to reality. Through the pouring rain, she sees distant muzzle flashes and a red coat flowing in the wind. Daisuko unleashes a hail of gunfire as she approaches. "BACK OFF OF MY COUSIN!"
The Batter bats aside several of the bullets that would have hit her. It seems that she's outstayed her welcome. She gives Shosuko one last look before vanishing into the rain. Her footsteps distant splashes, and the gleam of her bat blending into the smattering of streetlights in the distance.
"Jesus Christ, what did she do to you?" Daisuko holsters her guns and kneels next to Shosuko's just-barely-not-a-corpse.
"Where–" Shosuko coughs up blood. Her head's spinning, her skull is throbbing, she feels pain in places she didn't know could feel pain. So all-in-all, she's doing pretty good. "Where the hell were you?"
"I was talking to the manager. Guess what, though?" Daisuko takes out two tiny pony figurines, one purple and one blue. "They gave me two toys."
"You… fucking… idiot…" Filled with the comfort that she almost died for two cheap-ass toys, Shosuko slips into unconsciousness, too much blood lost. Still, in spite of it all, that was probably the easiest part of her day. Every hit, every slug, every broken bone felt natural. This is the world she's used to. It all just feels right.
She gets it now. She was wrong about the yakuza world. It's not that it's dirty, it's just that she wasn't making an effort to make it clean. The world of yakuza is one of hierarchy, with the ones on top shaping the world however they see fit. If she wants a clean, might-makes-right world, where everyone has an equal chance of making it, then it's possible, she just needs to climb the ranks high enough.
After all, that girl, The Batter, hunted her down herself instead of relying on someone else to do her dirty work. And instead of trying to kill her as efficiently as possible, she gave her a proper fight. Shosuko feels herself smiling. She gets the impression that on some level, they must be pretty similar.
———————————————————————————————————————
Consciousness trickles onto Shosuko's face in little droplets. First her eyes, then her jaw which feels like it's still broken, then her nose which is definitely still broken, then the rest of her head. Then from her head, wakefulness spreads throughout the rest of her body. Fighting the urge to slip back into sleep, she opens her eyes.
"You're finally awake." Daisuko's face is an inch away from her own. Thankfully, Shosuko still has enough strength in her anemic body to grab Daisuko by her shirt collar.
"You bastard." Shosuko feels her hand quivering from fatigue. She wills it to stay still but to no avail.
"It all worked out, didn't it?" Daisuko peels Shosuko's fingers from her shirt. "Ah, Christ. You wrinkled my shirt, I'm going to have to iron this now."
"C-c-calm down, Shosuko." Oka's voice comes from Shosuko's feet, somehow. "You're safe now."
"Where… where am I?" Shosuko looks around, in near panic. The place around her is familiar, but she doesn't have enough consciousness to summon the appropriate memory of where she is.
"You're in y-your apartment." Oka walks over next to Daisuko. "D-Daisuko carried you here."