Aiko didn't look away. She couldn't. Through the Zashiki-warashi's wide, innocent eyes, she had a perfect, supernatural view of the rooftop battlefield.
The Bakeneko did not pounce. It dissolved. One moment it was a hissing, arched figure of black fur, and the next it was a pool of shadow that flowed across the rooftop gravel with impossible speed, silent and flat. It flowed directly towards Kaito's back, reforming into solid matter as it rose up behind him, claws like razors extended towards his neck.
The Zashiki-warashi let out a silent shriek of terror in Aiko's mind. Aiko didn't hesitate.
"Kaito, behind you!" she yelled into the comms.
Kaito didn't turn. Trusting her completely, he dropped, tucking into a low spin. The Bakeneko's claws sliced through the empty air where his throat had been a millisecond before. Kaito moved with a liquid grace that was not human, coming up to his feet ten feet away as if he had been carried on the wind. His Kamaitachi blood was singing.
The fight became a deadly dance. The Bakeneko was a creature of misdirection, dissolving into pools of shadow, reappearing, striking, and vanishing again. Kaito was a creature of pure speed, a blur of motion that was always one step ahead, his movements impossibly fast, his dark clothes making him a phantom in the twilight.
To a normal human, it would have been a confusing mess. But Aiko, seeing through the spirit's eyes, could perceive the truth. She could see the faint shimmer in the air where the Bakeneko was about to reappear. She could see the subtle difference in the darkness of its shadow-form versus a real shadow.
"It's splitting!" she reported, as the Bakeneko's shadow divided into three identical cat-shapes, all rushing at Kaito from different directions. "The real one is on your left!"
Kaito moved, intercepting the correct shadow without a flicker of doubt, forcing it to become solid and leap away.
"It's in the shadow of the water tower!" Aiko warned a moment later. "Not hiding in the shadow—it is the shadow!"
Guided by her perfect intelligence, Kaito was no longer just reacting. He was anticipating. He moved to a spot on the rooftop that seemed completely empty and pulled one of the white paper talismans from his pocket.
"Now?" he asked in her ear, his voice a low hum of concentration.
The Bakeneko was planning to materialize right at that spot for a surprise attack. "Now!" Aiko confirmed.
Kaito slapped the ofuda talisman onto the gravel rooftop. It flared with a burst of brilliant, pure white light. Aiko felt a piercing hiss of pain and rage through her connection to the Zashiki-warashi. On the roof, the Bakeneko materialized out of thin air, its shadow physically pinned to the spot where the talisman lay glowing. It was trapped, snarling and spitting, unable to dissolve or move from the spot.
The fight was over.
Kaito walked calmly towards the trapped, furious cat spirit. He pulled out the remaining two talismans. With swift, precise movements, he placed one on the creature's forehead and the other on its chest. The Bakeneko's malevolent green glow faded, and it seemed to shrink, its supernatural power neutralized. It was still a two-tailed cat, but now it was just a scared, angry animal.
He stood over his captive, his chest rising and falling in the cool night air. It was the first time Aiko had ever seen him show even a hint of exertion after a fight. He looked up, not at the drone, but in the general direction of the apartment building, as if he could see her through the walls.
His voice came through her earpiece, low and breathless, and for her alone.
"Did you see that, Aiko?"
It wasn't a boast. It was the shared, triumphant question of a partner.
"Yes," she breathed, a wide, shaky smile spreading across her face. "I saw it."
"Good," he said, and the warmth in his voice was gone, replaced by a grim satisfaction. "Now, it's time to send a message back."