Chapter Text
His whole body was on fire.
Every muscle ached with each step, his hands shook as he held a wheelbarrow tight in his grasp. It was heavy, as if filled with lead when in reality it was only a pile of dirt and rocks. He sighed, looking back at his starting point. There, behind him, was a towering mountain of displaced earth and broken trees. The first time Eijun saw it, he nearly cried. Nature's scary. It took only one earthquake to cause such a massive landslide and destroy half a wasabi farm, just the thought of it would keep him up at night.
Eijun stood there a moment more before he felt something hit his back. Picking it up off the ground he rolled it across his palm. It was a grape.
"Get back to work! Kento isn't paying you to zone out!"
Eijun whirled around with a glare, facing Kento-san and Gramps who were lounging a short distance away. Plates of food and tea surrounded them as they watched him labor back and forth in the early morning. He felt the dirt and sweat sticking to his body even more now.
"That was one hundred percent unnecessary old man!" He yelled, throwing the grape back.
“It was very necessary.” Kento-san said, his grandfather nodding along in smug agreement.
Pouting, Eijun turned his back on the stupid, senile old men and gripped the wheelbarrow hard. A sharp pain shot through his hands, making him let go at once.
Shaking them, Eijun took off his gloves and flexed. His hands were inflamed, a bright red radiating across his palms. He had only been at this job for a week and blisters had already formed, popped, and formed again. With a deep breath he put the gloves back on and continued his trek, the motion igniting his body even more.
He miscalculated. This job was much harsher than he expected.
For the past week and maybe even the next one, he could not touch a baseball. Not until his hands healed and calloused. Eijun wouldn’t risk it. His hands were his lifeline and he wouldn’t take the chance of dulling his pitching or worse, getting an injury. If he hurt himself and couldn’t even tryout once he made it into Seido, there would be no point to all of his past and future efforts, especially with Seido’s luck.
That thought almost made him dump the wheelbarrow. Shishou, Tanba-senpai, Furuya, and Miyuki all had injuries in the past. While some couldn’t have been avoided, the others were pure overwork and inadequate conditioning, and even that happened surrounded by teammates with a staff that looked after them.
But Eijun didn’t have that. He was alone.
Sure, Wakana was helping with the academic side of his struggles, but getting himself back into shape was just him. If he didn’t pace himself or rest when he needed to, there would be no one left to pick up the pieces. It would only be him trying to glue himself back together.
He let out a bitter laugh. It wasn’t like him to get caught up in what ifs. He would only do what he could now, and he wouldn’t stop. He would work hard when he needed to, and rest as he needed to as well. In fact, that weekend plan that he was struggling to make had one day filled in now.
He would rest.
Though the majority of him didn’t like it, if he wanted that number one on his back he had to see the bigger picture. He was a pitcher, he would do his job.
With that thought Eijun emptied the wheelbarrow and turned back around facing the mountain.
He would get through this, one step at a time.
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All the energy Eijun had that morning dissipated throughout the school day, leaving only a wisp of himself left as soon as he returned to his room. Once inside he sat down at his desk and looked at the science workbook resting on top. He slumped, letting his head hit the surface with a loud thud. He banged it a few times before shoving a blanket into his mouth and letting out a smothered scream. A few minutes afterwards he sat upright and opened the book.
There, he felt much better. It was time to get to work.
Eijun studied until his timer went off, signaling it was time to move onto the next phase of his plan, bat swings. Or if he was to be more specific, a kind of ‘shadow swing’ instead. Just like he hasn’t been pitching due to his hands, batting was also out of the question. It took a long phone call with Wakana, the feeling of being an idiot, and a short Youtube search to find what he was looking for.
Eijun grabbed his bat and stood in the middle of his room. Taking his bat he placed it behind his back and held it in place with his elbows, just resting at his hips. Then he took a step, focusing on the shifting of his weight and swung. It was still an awkward motion for him. He was more used to his slash swing, but that was hard to do without using his hands. Still in the end, any kind of training was better than no training, so he would do what he could.
He continued to swing until his timer beeped again, and he was back at his desk for the next subject. Evening turned into night as he continued the rotation until his timer sounded out for the last time. Half-dead Eijun stood and headed off towards the bathroom. The water was still warm in the tub which made him smile. After a quick wash and treatment of his hands, Eijun lowered his mentally and physically exhausted body into the tub with a sigh of relief.
He took his smartphone and propped it up on the edge of the tub against the wall, clicking play on one of the videos he saved earlier. It was a relatively old MLB game, but it was on Youtube and was free, so it would serve it’s purpose. Wakana told him it was easier to learn English by watching and reading things he liked so he figured this was the perfect choice.
He relaxed further into the tub, letting his cheek rest on the side as his hands hung off the edge and watched the game. It was only the bottom of the second inning when he let out a gasp, nearly inhaling a bunch of tub water. After coughing it out he grabbed his phone and rewound it a few seconds before pausing. He blinked a few times, even taking a moment to rub his eyes.
Was that who he thought it was?
Was that Shishou’s Dad?