Hello, hello! It's me again, here with another Zacharie/Batter story, although this one has more friendship connotations than romantic ones. It also goes into some headcanons of mine, so if you don't want to read anything like that, don't.

That aside, please enjoy! As usual, OFF does not belong to me, but instead to Mortis Ghost. Feel free to leave constructive criticism!

There was a definitely perturbing noise coming from the bowels of the shopping mall, and Zacharie did not want to explore them any further than he had to. The specters, for all he cared, could do what they wished in there, so long as they did not come up to the front and scare away his customers. He carried all of his wares (purposefully lightweight to be easy on his weak back and shoulders) with him. Everything that was stashed away was clutter, odds and ends, stuff that he never even needed in the first place. Advertisements were still tacked up everywhere, but Zacharie was content with leaving them there. All in all it was a suitable place for him and the library was not too far off. He enjoyed reading what little he could from the actual books, seeing as how the shelves were mostly fake.

Everything was dandy until the Batter heard the clanging sounds. It was a routine stop for him, the shopping mall, and one day, just as he came in, there was a loud crash. The merchant grimaced underneath his mask as he watched his customer's body language slowly shift, a nearly invisible air of morbid curiosity drifting into the shopping mall. Zacharie was good at reading the atmosphere for the most part, and he particularly hated this one.

"Zacharie, what's that noise?" The Batter's tone was stern and firm as usual.

"Beats me," the merchant replied. "There have been sounds like that for a little while now, but whatever is making them hasn't disturbed anyone, so I've left it be."

"Are you stupid?" Zacharie snorted faintly in response to the rhetorical question. "It could be a specter. What happens when it becomes stronger? It terrorizes everyone. It needs to be purified immediately."

With the heroic air about him and the stance that he stood in, bat over one shoulder, Zacharie could have sworn the Batter was nothing more than a man who wished to make things clean for his peers. Indeed he had for some time, but as the impending battle with Japhet grew ever closer, he was beginning to doubt his initial assumption. Shaking his thoughts from his head, Zacharie gave his traditional chuckle, waving one hand.

"It's not harming anyone now, is it? Let it be the thing that bumps in the night. Let it be the monster that lurks under beds and is banished with childhood." The merchant shrugged.

"Not all monsters are banished with childhood." the Batter pointed out bluntly.

"You have a point." There was a reluctant tone to Zacharie's voice. "The author is still once in a while spooked by her own shadow. Her aside, go chase it down if you will. But I refuse to come along."

A pregnant pause surfaced between the two men and a sense of dread bubbled up in the wiry merchant. He was fairly certain he had just dotted his is and crossed his ts on his last well and testament. Sure enough, the Batter spoke again with a decidedly uncharacteristic, thoughtful tone of voice.

"Have you ever even seen a specter? Maybe I should bring you along and show you what you think just goes 'bump in the night.'" The Batter's air quotes were bountiful and condescending. "I'm more than equipped to protect you and it'd do you some good to learn what your wares do on the job."

Zacharie politely shook his head and laughed, though he was nervous underneath both his figurative and literal mask. "I've got a good idea of what my wares do. And whether or not I have seen a specter doesn't matter, seeing as how both you and I have a firm idea of what they do. Does it really matter to elaborate on that belief? I think not – "

"I think so." the Batter interjected. And with that, Zacharie's fate was sealed. He blew out a sigh, rolled his shoulders, and popped his neck. There was a thoroughly justified anxiety in his gut.

The initial venture into the depths of the mall was not too terrifying or abnormal, Zacharie decided. All the banging and crashing around seemed to only intensify, however, as they entered, the Batter at the ready. Meanwhile, the merchant dragged his feet, feeling reminiscent of harsher reviewers stating that the game itself lacked in good, legitimate gameplay. It was the first time that the Batter scolded him for lollygagging that the young, unfit man got his fair share of fear and then some.

"Zacharie, I know you're not that slow. Hurry up." He obeyed, although somewhat reluctantly, beginning to pick up his pace just as a suspiciously familiar aura struck their surroundings. The Batter seemed all sorts of ready for anything, but Zacharie, with his hands tucked in his pockets, pausing to observe everything as he went nonchalantly, was for once caught off-guard whenever the first specter appeared.

It was a ghastly-looking thing, at least to the merchant, twisted and huddled as it began its assault on the Batter and his Add-Ons. The spherical beings seemed to pop literally from the purifier's body, and Zacharie could only watch in unabashed amusement as the foe was dispatched quickly and efficiently. Effortless slices of the bat and special techniques (Competences, he reminded himself) riddled the battle as both Batter and Add-Ons fought equally to the bitter end of their shared enemy. The melee was a truly interesting sight to behold for Zacharie, and he clapped as the specter finally disappeared from their presence. A sickeningly solid sound still echoed in his ears from the first strike.

"What a wonderful job, Batter. Took you no longer than the puppeteer wasted on writing out that paragraph." The Batter seemed to simply absorb the praise and continued walking. Zacharie knew it was nothing for him to defeat the specters.

As they continued trudging still further into the unusually noisy shopping center, they encountered still more specters, which were gone as soon as they came. It was battle after battle, sign after sign, turn after turn; it was growing tedious, boring the taller of the two men. The place never seemed to end. One thing held his interest though, and that was the way the Add-Ons seemed to be attached to the Batter himself. He consistently rolled his shoulders after nearly every battle. It was as if his back was hurting, or he was tense. While both were plausible answers, the merchant doubted that was the honest reason; several fights into the journey, and his curiosity finally piqued enough for him to ask. Zacharie held his tongue for some time, waiting for yet another match to dwindle to a close before he opened his mouth.

"Where do the Add-Ons go?" he questioned as the spherical objects sank into nothingness once more. His observations were not in vain evidently, as the Batter answered him promptly.

"They don't go anywhere. They're attached to me."

After another roll of his shoulders, the purifier placed his bat in Zacharie's hands and managed to relinquish his beloved cap as well. He pulled both his under shirt and his jersey over his head, ruffling short, ash blonde hair that had been hidden beneath his hat, both pairs of eyes now completely visible. A peculiar series of pure white circles were seemingly emblazoned into a tight, well-built back. They were the same size and diameter of the Add-Ons. Yet, it almost unnerved the taller of the two to gaze upon the sight. Faint red ringed the images, as if each entry and exit burned. It certainly explained the constant, terse motions after every fight.

"It hurts each battle," the Batter remarked suddenly, jerking Zacharie out of his reverie, "but with a Luck or Fortune ticket the aches go away. No big deal. Just a price to pay for the purification of the world. Even I need assistance."

A pause ensued, temporary quiet reigning the atmosphere. It was not unwelcome. After a moment or two, the Batter adjusted himself, tugging his clothes back into place and taking his belongings from the disturbingly silent merchant. It was not like him to be without some sort of cheeky remark.

Their march through the shopping mall resumed, as did the ever-present battles, yet Zacharie remained quiet as a church mouse through every ordeal. No offer was made to replenish a stock of healing items or to sell a better, more suitable bat, as would be customary. An all-too familiar pain, pulsing dully and burning faintly, had begun to work its way through his body, starting in between his shoulder blades. A new routine had been established.

However, as they rounded what seemed like the umpteenth turn, a bout of specters struck from the dark shadows that had long been haunting them. Zacharie was knocked aside, a yelp of genuine surprise leaving him as he hit the floor of the mall. His slender body slid far too easily against the smooth tile, and he hit an adjoining wall with a grunt. The Batter leaped into action as usual, and the bleary young man struggled to push himself up into a respectable position. The ache in his back was tenfold now.

As Zacharie adjusted his jostled mask, the vicious leader of the specter gang struck out at the Batter forcefully. He took the hit without so much as recoiling, instead upping the ante on his own counter-attack. An outsider of the group noticed the merchant getting to his feet and instantaneously took action, sideswiping him with a strength Zacharie never knew existed from something that wasn't legitimately solid. He went down once more, buckling underneath the hit as if he were nothing more than an insect. Yet he got himself up once more just as the specter took another swing. The Batter was distracted and could not come to his rescue.

Seemingly unarmed as he was, the wiry man met the floor once more, a sickening thud reverberating throughout the sounds of the purifier clashing with the rest of the specters. A white-hot pulse was present in his back, dull pains beginning to usurp his stability as he, determined to stand his ground, struggled onto his feet once more. Unseen, a mischievous smirk worked its way onto his features. Partially opening his arms, Zacharie beckoned towards his assailant, who was gearing up for another attack.

"Come get me, big boy." There was an evident taunt in his voice. Being the dumb creature it was, the specter took it personally. Prepared for the oncoming hit, the item vendor conjured something just as the ectoplasm was about to come in contact with his face for a particularly rough punch. Zacharie's palm rested flat against a sleek, silver sword, his dominant hand gripping the hilt, the double-bladed edge glinting in the faint light. The specter pressed harder against Zacharie's defenses, but he would not give, and instead transformed it into a battle of sheer will. As one put forth pressure, the other reciprocated with equal force. If it were possible for the damned to sweat, Zacharie's enemy would have been just as slick-skinned as he was, sweat droplets following the curve of gravity and his jaw.

A small, almost inaudible, splash registered in the vendor's ears. He took the minute opening and thrust his entire body weight against the specter, throwing it completely off-guard and disorienting it. With a decisive motion, the sword-wielding Zacharie brought his weapon down upon the disabled specter. It shrieked in pain, and dissolved around the metal, evidently not being strong enough to withstand the brunt of his attack. Quickly as it appeared, the sword was tucked away in his inventory as his sneaker scuffed the drop of sweat against the tile. The Batter, amidst Zacharie's own battle, had finished his own fight and cleared out the rest of the gang; as his faithful merchant turned to face him, the frog-masked individual noted with amusement that the Batter looked, even just slightly, impressed.

"I never knew you had it in you." the blond man commented blandly.

"It's something I keep tucked away for emergencies," Zacharie replied, "and concept art." He chuckled, and as the sound faded, he took in the silence. "We solved the problem. Shouldn't we get going now?"

With that, he turned to stride off towards the exit that they had finally reached. Presumably, it would lead them out to the Outer Area. However, Zacharie did not make it far, as the Batter had followed him and gripped his shoulder with a firm hand before turning him around.

"Nice job. Purification complete."

As the Batter continued on to exit the shopping mall, Zacharie watched as he rolled his shoulders once more, attempting to shrug off the pain of the Add-Ons rejoining him. And as the merchant himself walked close behind him, he imitated the motion.

The three triangles burned into his own back were really giving him trouble. It had, after all, been so long since he let them free.

Perhaps, one day, he would show the Batter. But for now, they would remain his secret.

END.