Chapter Text

One leg came up during her windup. Her left arm moving down in a whip like motion, hidden behind her head. Her wrist holding onto the ball and releasing it with her fingers at the last second possible making it seem like the ball wasn’t even there. However, her golden eyes sure of its destination. It was like clockwork, a pitching form suggested to her by one of her most precious people so long ago. Except this time, the pitch didn’t reach the catcher’s mitt.

She had let that person down despite their help. That had stung worst than the fact she had lost the game. She had lost every hope she had until that moment. Seeing her old friend was a pipe dream now, and playing with him was even more so.

Those six years of dreams and goals plummeted into the pit of her stomach like a lead weight.

All she wanted… was to go to nationals. Her whole life she was told it wasn’t possible by everyone, except for her friends and family, and she just wanted to prove them wrong and keep the promise she made so many years ago. And even the dream to be with everyone for just one more game was ruined by one pitch. Her promise to her friend, obliterated.

The bottom of the ninth of the game of her last year in middle school was over in a matter of seconds. The likelihood of a high school wanting her for baseball? Zip.

Who would want a pitcher that couldn’t make a strike in the bottom of the ninth? Hell, who would want a female pitcher?

The players gathered in their normal lines before the umpires to give a gracious hand to the winning team, but the only thing that could make its way into her mind was: It should have been us that won.

She clenched her fist over her chest to try to keep from crying.

“I’m sorry everyone. I couldn’t take you to nationals.”

She could hear her teammates understanding her frustration and wanting to support her despite her faults, it almost made her feel better… Except the other team decided that a giggle fit would be a nice addition. And of course they had to say the one thing that always got on her nerves:

“As if we would ever lose to a baseball team with girls on it!”

Let’s just say Eiko Sawamura wasn’t one to take things lying down. So she reeled her hand back and let it rip.

⚾

Eiko rubbed her right wrist the whole bus ride back to school from the field. She was happy she got to teach those jerks a lesson, but now her hand hurt and she knew her gramps was going to give her a lecture at home. As if on instinct, one of her friends sat down next to her to hear her woes.

“Ugggggh. Why couldn’t they just keep their mouths shut, Wakana? It was a close game! We were tied until the ninth and if I had just pitched a little better, we would have had extra innings. If they were so great against a team of a couple of girls - then how was it so close… AM I RIGHT?”

Eiko gritted her teeth.

“Absolute wannabe jerkfaces that don’t know the first thing about real baseball. If Kazuya were her-”

She cut off herself when she remembered she wouldn’t be able to go to Kazuya’s school now - wherever it was in Tokyo because he hadn’t texted her in a year… The jerk. Then the likelihood of Seidou, her top pick school because of a catcher by the name of Chris, of all places picking her up after that display and wanting her on the starting lineup with her friend (if he went to the school she picked) was unlikely at best.

She pouted to the outside and glared at anyone or anything that happened to meet her gaze.

Wakana pat her head reassuringly, and ran her hands through Eiko’s long silky brown hair. When Eiko’s reaction wasn’t good enough, she smothered her with a hug too, earning an adorable huff from her friend causing her to giggle in delight.

“Oh c’mon Ei-chan. You never know, sometimes the most unlikely things happen and we could always try for Koshien in high school!”

Eiko’s grin brightened up the whole bus, “Yeah! You’re right!”

She snuggled into her friend, comforted by the small truth that if anything, she always had Nagano and Akagi in her heart. Even if one of them was about to be destroyed in a matter of months.

Eiko huffed at the amount of work on her desk. She wasn’t a slacker, but entrance exams, benchmark tests, finals, and midterms were never her strong suit.

In fact, let’s just say tests weren’t her strong suit. Mostly because she hated them.

She always went into them full of confidence, and always came out of them feeling more insecure than ever. Testing anxiety was the worst...

Despite her faults she retained extremely above average grades compared to the rest of her class. However, needless to say, she was not looking forward to the test to transfer into the conglomerate school most of the students from Akagi Junior High were entering.

She sighed and rested her face on her hand and stared out her bedroom window at the beautiful trees. A baseball magazine about Seidou High School lay on her desk untouched to avoid something she couldn’t have.

She had hoped someone would have contacted her by now. Miyuki, Seidou, anyone .

She clenched her jaw at the dejection of her own thoughts and got up to go on a run, swing a bat, pitch, do something to take her mind off of her failed goals and promises she and and her friend had made so long ago…

“Hey! Hey! Mi-kun, when I grow up, I’m going to pitch for a pro team and you have to catch!”

“As if Bakamura.” He stuck his tongue out. “You’d have to actually make it into a school with me to be my partner, and I’m going back to Tokyo in a week. Country hick.” Despite the bark in his words, there was no bite - even she could tell he would miss her.

“You’re just sad because I’ll be better than you in baseball in less than a day!!!”

She smirked with her hands on her hips.

“You already taught me all your tricks!! I bet my batting is better than yours, and my pitch is going to get faster when I grow up. So, HA!” He nonchalantly waved her off.

“You’ll still be short and annoying.”

She blanched and growled at him before bringing her fist down on his head, “Ouch! Why are you such a tomboy?!?!?!” She laughed a bit and thought about hugging him as a goodbye, but that wasn’t their thing...

“I promise to pitch to you every game I can in high school, if you promise to become the best catcher. Then after that, you have to catch for me for the rest of your life. OK?”

He huffed at the girl that was only a year younger than he was, fixed his glasses, and slung his arm over her shoulder, smirking lightly.

“Deal, but you have to become the captain or ace of the team before you graduate, pitch the way I taught you, never shake my sign, and you have to get into whatever high school and college I get into without me helping you or telling you where I’m going.”

Eiko glared at him for all the additions to her simple promise, then held out her hand to shake on it.

He grabbed her outstretched hand and jerked her towards him and hugged her instead, “I’ll miss you Ei-chan. Come find me in six years in Tokyo. I’ll be waiting to catch the new and improved Sawamura pitch.”

He let go and ran away blushing slightly.

Eiko ruffled her own hair, thinking about how she could possibly find one catcher in all of Tokyo.

She was pulled from her thoughts suddenly when her gramps came in and grabbed her by the ear because apparently she had a guest.

An unknown woman sat across from her with sleek brown hair and glasses. She quietly slid a card toward Eiko and confidently pushed her glasses up to show the resolve present in her eyes.

Ah. A recruiter I bet…

“Hello, I am Rei Takashima, the assistant director of the Seidou High School Baseball Team. We would love to have you on our team.”

Eiko fidgeted and seemed to jump up and down on her cushion on the tatami mats “Ex-Excuse me… Did you say Seidou High School?!?!” She reached over the table to grab what appeared to be her angel’s hand. “Yes! Yes! I would love to…”

She took a second to breathe and take in her options, if Kazuya wasn’t at Seidou she couldn’t accept this offer right away. She needed to play her cards carefully.

“I would love to check the facilities at Seidou High School! I hear they’re very high tech and have an amazing baseball team that has been to nationals many times! I would be honored to just have a look around!”

Eiko’s mother raised her hand rather formally to catch our attention, “Ummmmm, not meaning to be rude or demean my daughter… but how did you discover her and should we be worried about her playing baseball with such a prestigious school?”

The woman’s eyes glinted.

“I was present at the game she played the other day and saw a great talent and spark in her.” Eiko’s grandfather shook his head, “but there was an incident after the game.”

Rei smiled evilly thinking back on the beating Eiko had given to the other team and the umpires, “Yes, the use of her wrists in her slaps truly represented her flexibility and ability as a pitcher. We would love to see her on the mound of our school one day. I will come to pick up Eiko to pay us a visit within a week.”

Eiko began to shake with excitement from head to toe, but even she felt something was off.

“Why me?”

Rei smiled with confidence, “That final ball you pitched.”

Eiko gasped in surprise. Her wild pitch? The pitch that she couldn’t even connect to the mitt?

Rei continued, “Bottom of the ninth, two outs and bases loaded. A single hit will cost you the game. That pitch wasn’t like any pitch you had made before. You raised your right leg without a doubt in yourself. Your form, balanced on one leg, was truly beautiful and exquisite. Your natural ability to prevent a bad outcome showed as you stood in danger, and your pride as a pitcher, shone as you threw it with every last ounce of heart and soul.”

The woman pushed her glasses up a bit and smuggly grinned, “Though, I have no idea how you have such a pitch when you don’t have an instructor or I bet even rivals who drive you to improve in junior high.”

Eiko glared, Oy oy oy, did she just diss my junior high team? That’s a low blow.

Eiko got up, “Don’t worry, I’ll come check out your school. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. Though keep the slams against my team to a minimum - wouldn’t you?” She lightheartedly tossed the lady out, “See you in a couple of days~~~~.”

⚾

Eiko happily skipped around Seidou High School’s Baseball Team Facility. Indoor field, gyms, special equipment, bullpens, fielding coaches, and dorms to boot!

If anyone saw the girl they would think she had stars in her eyes even though there was so much tension around her from the guys that were playing baseball. Anyone in their right mind could feel every person screaming out with their plays that they wanted to be the best, wanted to be the ace, wanted to be the catcher, and any other dream they had.

“Hey! Hey! Rei, this place is pretty amazing, but where would I live if I came here???”

Rei’s eye’s grinned at her carefree nature. This girl has determination for sure.

Rei let her lips turn up in a slightly perverse smile, “Well, we would place you with a second year when you come in, but if there were any problems we could move you to your own room. Though I doubt it will ever come to that.”

Eiko laughed, That’s probably true. I don’t like making too much trouble all the time.

Right when she was about to look around again, she heard some fat overconfident high horsed ass of a batter yelling at a pitcher who was clearly working hard to move up the ranks.

“Oi, Kawakami! You pitch like a girl! How about you pitch with some feeling?!?! You’re already tired? This is why you can’t make the team!”

Eiko looked at the pitcher who was giving his all and trying to send vibes that said Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize.

The pitcher gave out labored breaths, “I’m sorry.”

She facepalmed.

Eiko listened in on the others around her “Azuma’s at it again?” This has happened more than once? I think I should teach this pig a lesson.

She was about to go up and start slapping him like she did in her last game, but Rei broke her thoughts, “You should take a look at his batting. Kiyokuni Azuma is a monster with 42 home runs in total for his high school career. He’ll be drafted this year by multiple universities and professional leagues.”

Because Rei was rambling, Eiko slipped off before she noticed to stand by the pitcher the piggie was bullying, “Wow~ You’re gonna play pro ball with a body like that? No way! Look at how much your belly moves just by swinging a bat! You look like an old man to me! Sure you should be playing high school baseball? It might wear you out too much!” Eiko crossed her arms and smirked, “Also, if you’d like, I can show you how a girl pitches and I bet my acceptance to this place that you won’t be able to get a run off me. Id~~~iot!!”

Azuma came up to give her a piece of his mind, but her eyes threw him off as his huge belly hit her chest.

She poked his fat repeatedly with an upturned lip and a snarling face to boot, “Even if everyone else is okay with that attitude of yours. I’m not. I won’t sit here and watch you bully someone. Didn’t your mommy, daddy, friends, teammates, or even this school teach you that you can’t play baseball by yourself?”

She grabbed his T-shirt, “BASEBALL IS A TEAM SPORT.   I D I O T .” She huffed, and let go dramatically before asking Rei if she had a uniform and mitt she could change into.

“Even though I would love to just slap your ass into the ground, I decide things through baseball.”

She picked up a hardball, and twirled it in her hand menacingly before steadying a chilling gaze towards Azuma.

“Sound like a good idea to you???”

A lazy player with glasses and a cap on did the same movement as Eiko with a hardball, “Yare, Yare, looks like old habits die hard. Eh, Ei-chan? Hey Rei~ Can I catch her pitch? This seems like it will be interesting!”

It took everything in Eiko to not cry when she saw who it was, but she somehow managed to keep her cool on the outside even if she was smiling and freaking out internally, Mi-Miyuki. You’re actually here I’m so happy to see you!

If Eiko and Miyuki had been normal friends, she would have gone up to hug him like he did her six years ago, but both of them always preferred the friendship of which one of them could screw with the other harder.

Eiko masked her face well in a neutral expression, “Ah~ Who’s he, Rei?”

Miyuki gazed at her and smiled lightly then took her hand before Rei could speak, “Kazuya Miyuki, catcher at your service~” He knelt down and kissed her hand lightly. Eiko blushed.

Well he got more forward in his tactics after I left. Jerk-face Bakazuya.

Azuma seemed to get more ticked off by their antics than by anything else, “Miyuki!!! You’re a first year! Don’t get cocky! Also, stop flirting with that girl! It’s humiliating to see you acting like that as a first string player! Who do you think you are?!?!?”

Miyuki laughed a bit, still holding onto Eiko’s hand, “Ah~ Excuse me, but you’ve been on a kinda high horse lately. So I think it would be good to play with us kids to go back to the basics.”

Miyuki casually played with the ball in his hand again, while Azuma was seething with rage. Miyuki leaned over to Rei and said he would take Eiko to go find the bathrooms to change in real quick before their little match started.

⚾

Eiko was still trying not to blush too hard from when Miyuki had pressed his lips to her knuckles. Bakazuya...

Miyuki barred Eiko against the wall outside the restrooms with his arms, pouting lightly, “Don’t you recognize me Ei~chan. It’s only been six years~~~.”

She rolled her eyes as she easily got away from his arm prison and stuck her tongue out, “I’m sorry? Do I know you? I remember having this really close friend that I got to know really well over two years in Nagano named Kazuya Miyuki, but he stopped calling and emailing me about four years ago for no reason.”

She crossed her arms and went up and grabbed his chin moving his face back and forth, “You wouldn’t happen to have a doppelganger would ya?”

She giggled, until Kazuya’s face dropped and he grabbed her arms a little tightly, “Ow.”

He was shaking.

“I’m sorry Eiko, there were reasons I can’t explain right now, but eventually I’ll tell you everything. I promise or I’ll swallow a bunch of needles.”

Eiko swallowed a lump in her throat before slapping him lightly on the back, “Hey calm down, no need to get dark. I understand! I was just poking fun a little bit. I’ve missed you a lot you dork, and you better keep your first promise!!!!”

She laughed and he pulled her into a hug, “Only if you meet all your conditions first~ Bakamura.”

He put his hands around her face lightly and brought his lips to her forehead.

He smiled, holding up a peace sign, “Get changed so we can go kick his ass.”

Chapter Text

Eiko lightheartedly skipped out of the restroom all the way to the mound with a huge grin on her face. There was one thing missing from her attire, and she knew exactly who to get it from. She slammed into a familiar body with purpose, “Mi-yu-ki~kun~~ Do you have a cap I can use?”

He facepalmed and shook his head as he dragged her all the way to the dugout where he kept his spares.

“What kind of pitcher doesn’t have their own cap?”

Eiko bit back, “SERIOUSLY!? What kind of catcher doesn’t have an extra baseball cap for their sweet best friend?” He laughed as he shoved it into her face, his hand managing to encompass most of her face.

“You’re so easy to rile up still. You haven’t changed a bit.” He grinned cheekily.

She pouted as she tied her hair up and fed it through the hole in the cap. “And you still have such a nasty personality!”

“Thank you~!” He tried not to laugh too hard. Another thing that had not changed was Eiko still knew how to make him laugh until his stomach hurt and he needed to focus on a strategy to take down the oversized gorilla.

“Okay, so what’s your pitching rep? Is there anything we can use? Does your ball still move?”

Time to get down to business .

“My pitching rep has VASTLY improved, thank you very much! AND it still moves like crazy at the plate depending on how I grip it. Do you remember the three grips you showed me for change ups when we were 10?”

Kazuya nodded, for the most part she focused on the two seamer and four seamer.

“Well, just use those for now! They’re a little rough to be honest, but I think that’s because transitioning back and forth between rubber and hardballs is tough.”

Kazuya hummed to himself, “So just pitch wherever I tell ya, kay?”

“WHY THE HELL DID YOU ASK IF YOU WEREN’T GONNA USE THEM?”

Kazuya chuckled into his glove, “But~ Ei-chan~ it’s not like we have time to work out the signs now… Plus if your pitch still moves so much, it will probably be perfect against this brute.” Eiko rolled her eyes and scowled, she hated when he did this crap. It’s like he’s always looking for more information that he stores away for later to torture some poor sap. Which will probably be me .

She trudged behind him heading back towards the field

“What if we jus-” Miyuki cut her off by hitting her lightly on the head with his glove. “Listen, trust your catcher a little bit here. A battery is like making a work of art, remember? You have to trust me to bring the best out of you. That’s my job.”

Eiko shook her head and headed to the mound. “Mind if I warm up before you start your sadistic streak?”

His grin was like clockwork, “Only if you join me for a different kind of sadistic streak later~!”

“AS IF!” Eiko reflexively threw the baseball a little close to his face, “When did you become such a pervert Bakazuya.”

If Miyuki wasn’t so great at catching, he might have been down for the count for a couple of hours. Good thing she only likes to aim for two places when she’s upset with me. My glasses and the base so it can have a chance of hitting me in the balls. He blanched at the memories of how many times a baseball had almost ruined his prospects for kids because of the tomboy he just couldn’t seem to stay away from.

“Ah~~~ and you call me the sadistic one?”

That earned him another pointed baseball that sunk a little bit low.

He glowered and grumbled under his breath, “Tomboy, country hick, dumb girl.”

⚾

Azuma chose that opportune time to come to the plate, “Your pitching is a joke! There’s no way a girl like you could pitch anything worthwhile. It’s average, at best. So watch while I send it flying out of the park!”

Miyuki condescendingly smirked at his upperclassman, “She’s still in junior high. Maybe go a little bit easy on her?” He smiled as Azuma got into his stance, “Not like she’ll need it though~~.”

Azuma glared at the catcher and swung his bat a couple of times nonchalantly, “In your dreams!!! I will always swing with everything I have! Even if it’s against a battery of a girl and a cocky little underclassman like you!”

Miyuki rubbed the back of his neck with his hand that didn’t have his catcher’s mitt on, and winked playfully, “That’s about the only thing I really like about you, Azuma.” He laughed.

Azuma gritted his teeth, “Shut up!”

While Miyuki was keeping the gorilla pig busy, he noticed that Eiko was relaxing herself.

In. Out. In. Out.

Common breathing exercises that make sense for a pitcher facing an opponent that had a practically perfect high school record. Miyuki frowned and chuckled evilly internally at ways to help and decided that the best way was to force her into a corner by having Azuma hit.

Sorry Ei-chan, but if you want to pitch your best. Sometimes the best medicine is embarrassment.

Miyuki moved towards the inside and gave Eiko the look that meant: This is the pitch I want.

Eiko raised her eyebrow in a quizzical manner. There? Really Mi-chan? I’m not stupid, I’ve wanted to come to Seidou for forever, this guy loves inside pitches and even last year was making it into magazines with his record. I’m not the Bakamura that doesn’t try to read up on my enemies anymore. Bakazuya.

She grinned and purposefully tried to send a makeshift forkball towards the area between his legs. Keeping her arm hidden, which alone surprised Miyuki and Azuma.

Azuma missed it by a longshot.

The ball had a lot of movement on it and was also rather fast. Miyuki almost didn’t have time to catch it, and there was Eiko, making the face that meant she did it all on purpose. His eyes glinted as he threw the ball back to her with a lot of force.

This brat~~~.

Eiko caught the ball and rubbed her wrist a little bit, and glared at him.

Jackass.

Rei chuckled in the dugout and thought of how interesting it would be when they became the lead battery. Even now she could tell they would eventually lead the team to Koshien, and she couldn’t wait.

Azuma shrilled at the pitcher, “What kind of stupid pitch was that? If you’re so afraid to pitch, just say so!!!”

Eiko wiped at her mouth a little bit trying not to yell back at the stupid batter.

Miyuki rolled his eyes at the batter in her stead. Could you seriously not tell that she aimed there on purpose because she can tell where you like to pitch? More so, she changed the direction at the last second. Not like you could tell so easily though, right Azuma? Your IQ must drop every year you play baseball. Eventually there won’t be any cells in there.

“Time out~~!” Miyuki held up his hand and went over to the mound, much to Azuma’s delight.

“If you needed a plan, you should’ve made one before we started!”

⚾

Miyuki sighed as he ran over to the mound.

A monkey wouldn’t need a plan to take down Azuma in a one to one out bat. I just want to see what my idiotic friend is thinking aiming for the jewels. Plus, I need to make sure she’s okay. She’s been rubbing her right wrist a bit.

He talked through his mitt menacingly, “You. Broke. Our. Promise. Ba-ka-mu-ra~.”

She growled back through her own mitt with a slight wince as pain radiated from her hand, “That promise didn’t specify not giving you the pitch you wanted, it only said I couldn’t shake your signs. Which I didn’t. Who’s the idiot now Bakazuya?”

His glowered while she continued, “Plus, I know you were trying to get me hit there. So don’t even start!”

Miyuki couldn’t hold it in anymore, he grinned slightly at the idiot pitcher he had grown so close to six years ago. “You’d rather throw a ball than have him hit it? You’re absolutely right~~! I wouldn’t want a pitcher that thought otherwise. Also, you were right on the mark~ you see… That was Azuma’s favorite location. He would have hit you for sure!”

Eiko looked about ready to plummet him so Miyuki pat her left arm to avoid any physical hits, “You looked a little nervous, so I thought you’d finally get over it if you got obliterated once!” He grinned at his best friend, “I won’t do it again. So from now on, let’s slay that monster together.”

Eiko’s eye twitched, “Together for the first time in years, and you still can’t seem to stop messing with me. One day it will get us both in trouble! Hurry up and get back on plate, you idiot.”

Miyuki put his arm over her head in a joking manner to use it as a table while secretly looking at her wrist. Hmmmmm. Looks a little bruised, but it can wait until after our little match to see if it’s a sprain or not. She has awhile before practices start for her anyway. So it’ll have time to heal~. If she doesn’t do something stupid on my watch.

She growled under his arm and pushed him aggressively towards home plate, “STOP USING ME AS A TABLE! AND GO CATCH MY PITCHES!!!”

Miyuki held up his hand in a fake salute and smiled with a slight push of his baseball glasses, “Rodger, but you should learn to accept the good will of others. Just leave it all to me. I know Azuma’s batting habits better than anyone else.”

Eiko gritted her teeth, “Yeah I know! So act like it!!! Or else I’ll play baseball by myself, and then you’d be a lonely tanuki by yourself again!”

Miyuki shuddered, “Wo~ah. That was a cold one Ei-chan. Anyway, just trust me and let’s get crackin’... partner.”

Sawamura blushed a bright red, and her mouth gaped open a bit. She decided to fix her hair so she could collect herself, and move some of her bangs back beneath the cap. Partner… Does he finally accept me as a pitcher? She smiled.

She waited to wind up until Miyuki reached the plate and gave her a sign. Fastball. Center.

Mi-kun… After this I have so many questions.

She threw all of her emotions, all of her questions, into her ball.

Why didn’t you contact me? Do you know how many times I considered quitting or giving up and how much just an email could have helped? Do you know how worried I was? That I started having panic attacks after second year of junior high because I had nightmares every night wondering if I would ever find you and finally reach your mitt at the base with my fastballs again? That I called your dad and he basically told me to never contact you again?

That I finally learnt why you came to Nagano in the first place and it broke me to pieces to figure it out from someone else and fill in the pieces?

Miyuki, do you remember our promise? Do you know what I’ve been through to get here? The training I’ve done to be the best female pitcher possible in our year?

She clenched her left hand into a fist after the ball left her hand.

⚾

Miyuki’s eyes widened as the ball entered into his mitt. It almost felt like it was on fire with how much spin Eiko had put into it and Miyuki couldn’t help but revel in the pitcher before him. The person his best friend had become to get as far as Seidou despite the discrimination he knew she probably faced on and off the field, was something he never thought he would see from the girl he had known six years ago.

You’re really strong… You know that Ei-chan? I really missed you.

He grinned. “That’s a strike… right?”

Azuma flinched.

“Nice pitch~ Batter couldn’t even move!” Azuma messed with his bat a bit and ground out his anger with his voice: “Are you stupid? I was just making sure a girl could even pitch a strike!”

Miyuki threw the ball back to Eiko, and got back into his normal crouch over the plate.

He set himself off a little from where he was before, making it seem like he was asking for the same pitch. He smirked. This is the control I love, the game I get to play and watch as batters struggle to figure out what I’m thinking. This pitch will only be hit as a foul at best Ei-chan. Give me another good one.

He could see Eiko smiling from the mound and knew she probably knew what he had done.

Perceptive kid. Why did I ever leave that rustic place anyway? You were the only thing that ever interested me other than baseball and it was only two years before I was pulled away from you and taken back to this hell… Though I guess some parts of it have been interesting.

He watched as the ball finally fell by the foul line and continued to use the same tactic against Azuma. He couldn’t help but pity the upperclassman.

If only you hadn’t underestimated us. Then we might’ve actually had some fun. Right, senpai?

Azuma kept swinging at everything that came his way.

Miyuki had to keep from laughing like usual. It was just too much fun. Catching was interesting, and when the most interesting person was throwing to him, well who was he to deny having a good time.

Azuma’s sweat fell to the ground while he gave out labored breaths, “Your control sucks!!!”

Miyuki’s eyes stared on almost savagely as though Azuma were prey, Go ahead and lose your cool. It makes it sooo much more fun. He smirked.

He narrowed his eyes at Eiko, trying to give some sort of sign that he wanted either the four seamer or the two seamer, hoping she would understand. Though he sighed internally. At least I know where those will go. Make my job a little easier compared to trying to catch a ball when I have no idea where it’s going. But… I guess that’s what my job is right?

He held up his mitt.

Eiko got stars in her eyes. He could feel her begging for him to let her pitch it, and so he signaled for a four seamer with four fingers. Just knowing she would get it.

Give me your best pitch. I’ll catch it with everything I have… Ei-chan.

Eiko wound up, every ounce of her believing in Miyuki, and pitched the best pitch she could. Azuma started his swing, “I’ll hit it out of this park you stupid girl!!!!!!”

Both Miyuki and Eiko smirked at the sound of the ball passing over the base and into the catcher’s mitt.

Strike. Batter out.

⚾

Eiko rubbed her right wrist again, grinning like the sun on the mound. I missed this feeling. This surge of confidence, knowing I did the best I could and wanting to come back up here and do it all over again.

She slowly removed her hair band and the baseball cap to air out her head a bit.

Miyuki came over and tapped his glove against the top of her head with his confident sideways smirk, “Nice pitching~.” He looked into her eyes and saw what she wanted. Of course she only wanted one thing when she gave him those eyes… Puppy dog eyes = twirling hug or piggy back ride..

He groaned, but decided to play along since she had done the same while she was pitching. “Which one and how many spins?”

Eiko put her hands on her hips and thought back to how many they could do as kids…

Times that by 5, so…

“Twirlers, 15 spins.”

He clicked his tongue at her and grabbed her by the waist before spinning her around. If anything it was a good stretch from crouching down after so many pitches. He counted down in his head.

15. 14. 13.

Eiko started to squeal in delight as her legs moved around in a circle at fast speeds. She was always a sucker for these, it was like three rewards in one. A hug, being as close as possible to Miyuki, and the odd feeling of flying.

12. 11. 10.

Miyuki started to finally take in how his friend had changed physically up close. Her hair is so long now and it smells like I remember. Like a strong wind just blew over a field of sunflowers on a summer day… She’s a little taller too, barely short enough for me to do the table lean. He blushed trying not to think about the other things that had changed that his hands and chest had accidentally slid and molded to.

9. 8. 7.

Eiko was oblivious to any weird teenage boy thoughts on the underside of the hug as she was twirled, but one thing she did notice was that Miyuki’s pretty boy face hadn’t changed… and might have turned into a handsome one at that. Keep those thoughts out of your head, dummy. He can hear stupid. She put a straight face mask on to hide her thoughts from the all-seeing Miyuki.

6. 5. 4.

His ears turned a red hue. Yeah… Her boobs have definitely gotten bigger. Which makes sense. We were like 10 the last time we saw each other. I wonder if she still has that mole on her as- DID SHE JUST BLOW  MY EAR. He groaned then glared at her, wondering if he should drop her as revenge. Does she have any idea what she does to me?

3. 2. 1.

Eiko huffed knowing what Miyuki was thinking about. He always was a huge pervert, and considering they’re both teenagers now… Well~ Let’s just say she understood. She grinned as she licked his ear a little without him noticing from his sweat and blew on it lightly. Watching him shake like this is worth whatever stupid revenge plot he could have. Then when she heard him groan, better yet, it might have been a moan, her whole body lit up in a fire.

0.

I made him make that noise. I did. She grinned over the loud noise of the wind on the last spin, “HEY KAZU WAS THAT A MOA-naaaaaowwww!”

He dropped her flat on the ground then picked her up like a potato sack with one arm. “Even though I should leave you here, you cheeky brat, I noticed you rubbing your wrist. So I guess I could grace you with my presence and take you to the infirmary.”

Eiko knows that was Miyuki for: I noticed you were hurt, and I’m worried… but you almost embarrassed me Ei-chan so now I get to embarrass you. Enjoy the ride~~~.

Eiko bat her arms and fists lightly on his back, but still with enough force to feel it tomorrow.

“KAZUYA, YOU PUT ME DOWN YOU DAMN TANUKI BASTARD!!!!!”

Chapter Text

Eiko pouted begrudgingly over Miyuki’s shoulder. Using her elbows as a stand to hold her face.

She would have kept yelling and pounding her best friend if her lungs hadn’t started to hurt after five minutes straight of screaming profanity at her catcher and the physical excursion from earlier. It’s not like the whole team hadn’t seen her situation already, but there were some things even she wanted to keep hidden for the sake of her future at Seidou. Plus her right wrist was acting up, and trying to hit anyone on their back seemed like a bad idea. She decided there was only one way left to get off the tanuki’s shoulder.

She slowly dangled her arms down to get in position and slowly maneuvered herself so that her hands were right by Miyuki’s sides. He was always ticklish in his nonexistent love handles!!!

Right as her fingers grazed his sides, she found herself being roughly manhandled over to Miyuki’s other shoulder, knocking the wind out of her.

The thought of the triumphant smirk on his face ticked her off to no end and didn’t help the pain coming from her ribs.

“Don’t. Even. Think. About. It. Squirt . Or you will become best friends with the dirt again. Plus, you know what makes me tick, and I know what bothers you too. Don’t think for a second that I won’t convince whoever you room with to constantly play horror movies and games while you’re trying to sleep!”

A cold sweat dropped onto the back of her neck.

“W-Wa-WAIT A MINUTE! As if I’m still scared of horror films, games, and haunted houses Bakazuya! What do you take me for?”

She laughed nervously. Please don’t catch on. Please. Please. PLEASE!!!

Miyuki’s whole demeanor seemed to change as he twisted her around again. He lowered her legs a bit and seemed to catch the back of her tan thighs in midair so he was giving her a piggyback ride. “Ah~ So then you wouldn’t mind if I told a ghost story right now. Would you Ei-chan~~? It all started on a cold stormy night, when a young girl that must be around your age found herself in an awful situation as she stepped on A SNAKE, SNAKE!!!!!”

Eiko jumped a little just from the sound of Miyuki yelling, which was unusual for him, and hit him hard on the head with her fist. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Miyuki turned his head back towards her with a sheepish grin and started to laugh at her teasingly, “So you are still scared of this kind of stuff! Should’ve known that idiots have two constants in their life: they never catch colds and they never change.”

“You still have such a nasty personality,” she pointed out.

“Thank you~!”

“IT WASN’T A COMPLIMENT!!!!!” She hit him on the head again with her left fist.

⚾

Eventually the two players reached the infirmary. Miyuki slowly slid the door open, only to find that the whole room was empty. Stupid teachers and nurses. I know it’s summer, but what if someone were hurt more seriously than this??? Miyuki carried his irritated friend over to a bed and plopped her down.

Eiko squeaked a little bit when her right wrist hit the bed a little hard. She didn’t know why it was hurting a little, other than her usual beatings she had been giving out late, but it was awkward for her. I really don’t get injured often…

She felt a hand reach out to examine her wrist, she was about to pull back and tell the catcher to give it a rest and not to worry, but then she saw the concern in his eye.

She gulped lightly, “Don’t worry Miyuki, I can still pitch…”

He didn’t offer her a response, other than a raised eyebrow as he poked her a little hard over her either sprained or bruised wrist.

“OUCH!!! What was that for Kazuya Miyuki?!?!?” Kazuya slammed his hand down next to Eiko on the right side and leaned meancily over her before flicking her lightly on the forehead with his left hand. “That. Is for being an idiot. You can’t pitch without a glove on. Let alone catch any flies or even the tosses I make to return the ball to you. You need both of your hands to be a pitcher here Bakamura. Also, I thought we got past saying my whole name when we were little. Do I need to remind you of that lesson?!”

No thanks , she thought to herself, you basically forced me to learn two new types of pitches in a day to make it up for you then proceeded to throw me into a bullpen and batting cage for three hours to prove how sorry I was...

It was the worst individual practice of my life. She shuddered.

He poked her repeatedly in the same spot he had flicked her, to let out some of his irritation at his best friend, trying to make her understand her situation as much as possible. “You will do what I recommend, or face the consequences when I find out: you do not want that to happen. Do I make myself clear?”

Sawamura pouted, but resigned her head. “Fine, but I still get to run or I’ll go crazy. Plus it’s not like I can’t throw with just my left hand. I just won’t catch anything.”

He brought a hand up to his face and ran it over his hair in frustration. “You can only run. No pitching with only your left, because you can’t weight train your right. That means you’ll be unbalanced and an awful pitcher. So don’t even think about it.”

He stood up fully, from his leaning position and started rummaging through a medicine cabinet.

“Take Tylenol if the pain gets bad, and I’m going to grab you an ice pack to bring down some of the swelling.” He threw some of the tylenol at her, which she caught with her left hand. “Also, I should go grab Rei so she can get a later train to take you back. You should ice it for at least thirty minutes. So that means you’ll miss the 5 PM train back to Nagano.”

Miyuki went over to the door, and stepped outside, but before he could make it too far down the hall he could have sworn he heard Ei-chan’s voice say “Thank you, Kazuya.”

He stopped in his tracks and slid down the wall blushing. Y ou know I suck with expressing my true feelings Ei-chan, but I’ve blushed more than I can count the whole day… What are you doing to me, I’m supposed to be a cold-hearted jerk: remember?

He slowly got up, warily, and continued down the hall to find Rei, acting like he didn’t hear anything at all.

Because that’s what he had always done for the sake of baseball and Eiko.

⚾

Sweat rolled down the side of Eiko’s forehead as she tried to calm her breathing when she knew Miyuki was far enough away. So far, she felt like she had hidden it pretty well. It wasn’t like it was a big secret or anything…

Just a small fib that she could never tell anyone at Seidou or she could kiss the baseball team goodbye.

Asthma .

Such a fickle thing, it can come at the weirdest of moments with no warning, and it was incurable at best - unless an inhaler counts. If there were a condition to match her personality. This would be the closest match.

She reminisced, trying to think back to when her condition started to get so bad that she had an attack after almost every physical activity she did, somehow in the last game she was able to pitch through no problem.

I think my first attack was right after Kazuya left… or not long after. Some time after I found out the real reason why Kazuya was in Nagano in the first place and how he was eventually taken back. His parents had a messy divorce, and so he lived with his mom until she contracted a disease that eventually killed her. Kazuya was then forced to leave Nagano to live with his father back in Tokyo.

She felt her heart squeeze a little, thinking of the pain Kazuya must have been in when he left. It was getting difficult to breathe. My parents and I thought that they were panic attacks for the longest time, but one day when I couldn’t breathe or respond to anyone around me, it was clear it was probably a combination of both.

She found herself balled up on the ground when she reflexively tried to sigh, but it came out as a whooping cough. She dizzily went to the cabinet and was happy to see that there was an emergency inhaler for any kid that was unlucky to be showing her symptoms. She grabbed it, and took two puffs. Hoping that her throat could relax enough so that Rei and Kazuya wouldn’t catch on when her friend came back with the director.

They’re too observant for their own good.

She rested the ice pack on her wrist and started to fall asleep on the bed by the window.

I need to be on this team. No one can know. No one can ever know...Because I need to be here for my catcher and that means I need to be able to stay on this team.

I can’t lose him again. She felt a tear slide down her face as darkness finally claimed her vision.

⚾

Miyuki was able to grab Rei pretty quickly since the lady was curious to see how her scouted pitcher was doing.

After the performance Eiko performed, it wasn’t like it was that big of a surprise. Seidou needed her, and Rei wanted to make sure that they definitely got Eiko - more so than they got the other middle schooler they had been scouting.

The Golden Sun, it’s not easy to make a name of yourself in the country.

Rei smirked to herself when she remembered the match against Azuma. That wasn’t just luck either, that was pure strategy, a perfect combo and battery for Miyuki Kazuya.

It didn’t take her more than an hour to get all of Eiko’s things together, find another train to Nagano some time after 6, and contact Eiko’s family to let them know they should expect their daughter later in the evening.

Miyuki could almost hear Rei sigh and ran a hand over the back of his head chuckling nervously at Rei’s misfortune.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t leave my partner injured like that when I noticed. That’s the one thing I can never let slide. She can’t pitch if she’s hurt. You wouldn’t want her not able to participate in practices when she first gets here or something! Don’t worry, you can thank me later Rei-chan~!”

If looks could kill, Miyuki would be dead by now. He could feel sweat drop from his brow.

“Just go grab her so I can make sure she doesn’t leave any later than 6:30. It’s an hour and a half trip, and I’d like to be able to make it back home to sleep in my own bed Miyuki-kun.”

Miyuki ran away as fast as possible to do what Rei asked before she killed both him and Ei-chan.

⚾

Miyuki slammed open the door to the infirmary with a quick slide. Causing both it and the door next to it to rattle. The sun was just setting, and blinded him as he went into the room because the light managed to just bend into his eyes. He squinted and groped around with his hands in front of him trying to find the curtain’s rough material around the bed.

“Bakamura, we have to go.” Miyuki groaned until his eyes finally adjusted enough. He slipped into his normal holier than thou voice, “You shouldn’t ice your hand any longer or your wrist may get hurt more anyway. Also, Rei wants you to leave as soon as possible~.”

He pulled open the curtain so he could grab Eiko, to find her sleeping peacefully.

He lightly poked her right cheek and saw her squirm from his touch, making him laugh. “Wakey wakey, Sleeping Idiot.” He snickered as he kept poking her cheek, until eventually she tossed and turned so much she fell off the bed.

Eiko silently screamed in surprise, but it came out as a wheeze and gasp. She clutched onto the bed and coughed a bit while she got up. Miyuki looked at her in concern, but Eiko waved him off.

“I’m fine, I was just getting over a cold when I came here. I think I heard you say something about getting ready to leave? Is Rei waiting at the entrance?” Miyuki nodded and grabbed her left hand deciding to leave the ice pack he had gotten her on the bed. He could put it back later.

“Yeah, but don’t worry. I’ll take you there so you don’t get lost Bakamura.”

He walked out into the hallway, towing his friend at a high pace with the utmost care, making Eiko smiled fondly. He was making sure her right wrist didn’t hit anything, and radiating an aura of protection for his friend as though the world was out to get the both of them. Though, from his grip, she could tell it was more that he was worried she would disappear at any minute if he let go.

I’m sorry I left you for so long Kazuya. I’ll make sure it never happens again. You have to catch for me for life - right?

She increased her pace a bit, so that she was standing by Kazuya instead of behind him and held onto his arm to slow him down a bit. Gazing into his brown eyes to get one message through to him with her striking golden eyes.

I’m here.

He brushed some of her hair from her face with the back of his hand, placing it behind her ear. He slowly dropped his arms lazily on her shoulders and wrapped her in an encompassing hug, trying to take in everything he could until she came back. The smell of her hair, the way she’s just the right height to place his forehead on her shoulder, the warmth that radiates off of her and seems to infect everyone. He rose up again and finally started to walk slower arm linked with hers to enjoy however many more minutes he had with his pitcher until she came back.

Soon, we’ll never have to say goodbye.

⚾

As soon as they got to the gate, Rei was frantically ushering Eiko into the car. Apparently there wasn’t a second to waste because the last train from Nagano left for Tokyo at 10:30PM and they needed to get to the station in fifteen minutes to catch the 7PM train.

Eiko, let her arm slide out of Miyuki’s and waved goodbye with a sad smile “OSU. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks Miyuki. See ya!”

Miyuki put on a taunting smile, “As if I would miss you. Bakamura. Take care of yourself and make sure to get that wrist healed up before you get back, or I’ll convince Rei and Kataoka to put you on leave during your first week of practice.”

Eiko pointed her nose to the sky and acted overly dignified when she got into the car, causing Miyuki to laugh at her antics.

“See you, partner.”

Right when Miyuki was about to leave and turn around, he heard tapping on the glass and turned to see Eiko mouthing something at him,

Ka-zu-ya. I. Will. Miss. You.

He gave her a reassuring smile and held two fingers up to signify weeks till her arrival and turned his head to the side, indicating he was asking if he should expect her in that time frame.

She nodded enthusiastically.

In the meantime, Rei had already roared the car to life, making some of the smokey air get in Miyuki’s eyes. After a couple of moments the car finally left, but he noticed Eiko waving goodbye with tears in her eyes.

It’s only a couple of weeks. We’ve waited six years. I think we can handle a couple of weeks.

He was tossed out of his thoughts by the sudden pressure of something hanging over his shoulder. He grunted, only one person other than Eiko willingly threw themselves at him “Kuramochi~ Would you mind getting your hands off me? I’m afraid you’re not my type.”

This seemed to irritate the person next to him as he started to give him a noogie. “DAMN RIGHT I’M NOT. And who do you think you are?!?!?!?! Messin’ around with that girl all day. You never told anyone you had a girlfriend! YOU HAVE SUCH A CRAPPY PERSONALITY. HOW???”

Miyuki threw his head back in agitation, “Are you so dumb, you didn’t notice she was the one pitching today against Azuma? She’s going to be one of our new pitchers~.”

Miyuki got a slight glint in his eye as he forced a glare down at Kuramochi and in a dark voice said, “Also, she’s my best friend so imply that I or she ever mess around again and I’ll show you how crappy my personality can be when I’m actually angry~~~~.” He cracked his knuckles.

Kuramochi shrugged and gave a shrill laugh, “You’re so dense, you can’t see you have it bad!!!! Hehehe.”

Kuramochi rolled his eyes as he slammed his hand on Miyuki’s back, “Also, are you trying to impersonate Ryou? You know it won’t work on me! He’s practically my equivalent of a battery, Bakazuya!”

“Tch. Shut up already Bakamochi.”

Miyuki forced his hands into his pockets as he walked back to his room. Trust me, I know I have it bad, but no one can ever know. Not even you, and definitely not Ei-chan. Idiot.

⚾

For Eijun, everything after that day went by in a blur. She had basically told Rei that she would take the offer to Seidou High as soon as they got to the train station. Of course, there was mountains of paperwork that she and her family had to fill out. The only problem was the medical sheet.

She called an emergency meeting to find her parents and grandfather in the room in a matter of moments.

She gulped nervously, while she looked at the people that had raised her her whole life. “I want to leave the fact I have asthma off of my medical sheets.”

She heard their mouths open, ready to protest and make her put it on the form of medical conditions, but she held up a hand and steeled her gaze on them, “I need to play on this team, and if they knew - there’s no doubt in my mind they would drop me at a moments notice. I would rather have that happen further down the road than right now.”

She clutched the sides of the pillow she was kneeling on and got into a douza position, “Please. I know that this Eiko is just a stupid child. I know I could lose so many things, but Kazuya’s there. I need to go.” She started crying into the tatami, hoping her family would understand.

She felt a hand caress her hair, then another ruffle her hair, and finally the last do what felt like chopping her head in half.

Every last one of her family members looked at her, “We know. Do what you have to, idiot child.”

She smiled and finished the last of the papers for the medical section. Placing them in the done pile and breathing a sigh of relief. Three more days.

⚾

A couple of days later, Rei picked her up. All her things had already been sent to her new dorm room, and the only thing left to do was to actually go to Tokyo.

She looked out at Nagano, as they drove by. I’m going to miss the views out here. I don’t think you can see the stars from Tokyo. It’s too bright there. I’ll miss the quiet, the greenery, my team. The feel of worn bats and gloves that can’t be replaced, and the struggle of weeding a field by hand as a student.

She smiled to give it the goodbye it deserved when the car stopped, and stepped onto the train platform where she saw her friends, her old team, lined up. The slipped a hat into her hands and wished her luck.

Then, Nobu started crying and began to talk about why he cared about her and she became an emotional trainwreck:

“I’m sorry. I didn’t have strong shoulders, and I couldn’t catch your pitches, I knew I was holding you back, but you never held it against us Ei-chan. Whenever we made errors - you cheered us on from the mound. You know, I think all of us. Just wanted to play more baseball with you, Ei-chan.”

Before the doors could close, Eiko grabbed his hand. “DON’T WORRY. I’ll go to nationals. For all of us. I ask that you come watch me when I make it there. To Koshien. I love you all.”

She released his hand solemnly and moved further into the train, to see her friends still wishing her luck and all of them crying. She slammed her hands on the train wall, “You know Rei-chan. I think I will always care more about a team then myself. Is that okay? Will that get us to Koshien? What’s the point of going to Koshien if the team doesn’t like me? Do you think they will?”

Rei put a hand on her shoulder, “I think they will Eiko. I really think they will. Who could ever deny the spirit that you carry in your heart?”

Eiko took a calming deep breath and fixed her resolve.

I will become the ace, and lead this team to the nationals if it’s the last thing I do. Not just for me, or Kazuya, but for my family, my teammates that I’ve left behind, and the teammates I have yet to meet.

Chapter Text

Miyuki sighed dejectedly while he went about his normal routine: Morning Run? Check. Breakfast? Check. Catching? Check. Batting Practice? Check. Annoying Kuramochi. Check. Lunch? Check. Analyze Teams? Check. Catch some more? Check. Batting Swings? Check. Afternoon Run? Check. Dinner? Check.

It was so meticulous.

Give me something to break up the status quo!!! Anything, whoever you are up there, please. I need something interesting. He ruffled his hair a little, and stared down at his phone.

He noticed the date and smiled, sliding his phone back into his back pocket. Any day now right? We said two weeks. And it’s been about a week and a half. Should I try to meet her at the station? Or just wait until I know where her room is and meet her there?

He started passing by rooms as he headed over to Kuramochi’s to grab his magazine, when he noticed that some rooms already had labels bearing the name of future first years that would be living there next to the upperclassmen names.

He stopped in front of Kuromochi’s door in shock.

E. Sawamura. He laughed.

The irony.

Did they shorten her name so that Kuramochi and Masuko couldn’t tell she was a girl? This will either work in Rei-chan’s favor and Kuramochi will get over his fear of girls, or it will work against her and Ei-chan will be moving out within a day.

He shook his head at his thoughts and opened the door.

Kuramochi and Eiko will figure it out eventually, but until then. I get to see you squirm.

His face contorted into a sly grin as he greeted his best friend that was unaware of what was going to happen the next day after their practice game.

⚾

Eiko arrived as early as she could on Sunday, a day before she was supposed to start. Hoping to get settled in two days before practices started for the first years. She swiftly avoided all of the laundry drying outside multiple doors, also being careful not to trip over weight equipment that must have been taken from the indoor gym, meticulously searching for her room.

She squinted at all of the door signs, that had the first and last names of all of her future teammates, until she eventually found her name. Despite the consistency in all the other names, her name had been abbreviated to E.Sawamura . She turned her head to the side, wondering why it was such a big deal to hide her full name. It’s not like they wouldn’t figure out she was a girl eventually, so what was the point?

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. I’ll save that question for later. Now it’s time to get some of my stuff set up!

She knocked on the door, waiting for an answer, before deciding to open it with a key Rei-chan had handed her earlier when they first arrived. She noticed no one was in the room, and scratched her cheek a bit wondering which bed was hers and also where the upperclassmen had put her things.

They must have a practice game today? Maybe I will go see them play after I find my things, so I can cheer Kazuya on and also scout my future roommates.

She took in her surroundings. There was a small closet in the corner that looked as though it might have her stuff in it, and it also seemed like the bottom bed bunk was unoccupied on one side. She opened the closet to find some of her overstuffed cardboard boxes, and slowly unpacked the things she deemed important. She placed her precious manga under her bed, and started taking out supplies to decorate the wall next to her bed. She grabbed a neat stack of photos that were in a small package to protect them from damage.

On the top was her favorite picture, obvious by the curled edges and faded corners.

It showed two kids grinning happily, one of them slinging an arm over the other - a bat in hand - and a baseball cap on sideways to make him appear cooler (stupider) than he actually was. She shook her head.

He always thought he was so cool.

She drummed her fingers on the wood frame of her bunk, thinking of where to put the picture.

If I put it on the wall, everyone will see it, and I’m not sure what Kazuya would think about that. If I put it under my pillow it might get more damaged, and my family only has a crappy scan of this photo since it was already so old and worn by the time we got our own printer. What to do...

She snapped her fingers, while grinning and grabbing some tape. She taped the back of the picture, to the bottom of the bunk above her.

Perfect! Now it will be the first thing I see every morning I wake up, and the only way people will see it is if they sleep in my bed!

She hummed as she went back to the menial task of unpacking, checking the time to make sure she could make it to the practice game the upperclassmen were having. When she finally finished putting her clothes away and putting up some decorations, she figured she could at least make the last couple of innings and quickly messaged Rei to figure out where the practice game was.

- Down the street.

Turns out, it was a home practice game. Eiko smiled, quickly throwing some shoes on, and bolting out the door to the field hoping to make more than a couple of innings.

⚾

By the time Eiko had gotten there, the game was about half way through, except there was no way it would be going on for much longer.

It may as well have been the end.

Normally games were called by the fifth inning if a team had a large lead. The score was 12-1, in the fourth inning, in Seidou’s favor. Eiko almost felt sorry for the opposing team. Even if it was a practice match, it must have still stung to be losing by over ten runs.

It seemed like it was going to be Seidou’s last at bat and the first batter was up. She saw some reserve players yelling the guys name - Kuramochi. “Ah~ So this is my roommate. Cool Cool. Well, I better support him I guess. Not like he needs it...”

She cheered loudly for him to hit the ball, and to her amusement, he managed to hit it in a perfect location. The ball flew right behind the third baseman running even with the foul line to make it fair.

Slowly, she saw her new teammates one by one, and she couldn’t help but cheer them on. She couldn’t wait to play with them and it felt like her breath was physically removed from her body  when she saw her roommate steal two bases in less than three minutes. The bases eventually filled up with more batters, and Kuramochi and some pink haired guy scored runs after a well-placed fly ball to the outfield that the defense couldn’t catch.

Kuramochi was at home plate in less than a minute, whereas the pink-haired dude just nonchalantly ran to home - knowing he could go as slow as he pleased.

What is his running speed? My roommate's a monster in his own right. In fact all of them are - scary~. That pink-haired guy seems like someone with a nasty personality. I think I’ll keep away from that pink devil for awhile.

The offense was so extraordinary, that eventually the order made it to Miyuki, who was batting 7th. The other players had gotten one more run after Kuramochi and the devil scored, and the bases were loaded with two outs.

Eiko watched the way Miyuki’s arms and shoulders flexed as he tried to relax his form. He must be waiting for a low pitch, so he can pop it far. The first pitch went by, but it was obviously a ball.

She shook her head at the pitcher’s attempt to trick her friend. Poor guy. I’m sorry, but Kazuya would never fall for that kind of play. You need to do better than that to trick his eyes. She noticed Miyuki do a couple of practice swings, and took in his position and grip.

Miyuki had the bat handle balanced perfectly in the fingers of his bottom hand, the angle of the handle perpendicular to the ground to generate more power. The index finger of his left hand bent around the baseball bat, but sat separately from his other three fingers to wrap around the handle. All of his knuckles were situated in line pointing up the barrel.

His form was always so perfect. It’s not fair. I have to readjust myself every time because my knuckles tend to misalign, and even then I’m not a power hitter… Though that was with mostly wooden bats. Maybe I can swing them out there with a metal one!

Despite her earlier beliefs, the pitcher did manage to trick Miyuki with a high and outside pitch. Resulting in a strike. The next pitch, curved at a weird angle and Miyuki fouled it.

He’s cornered .

Rather than focusing on that, Eiko decided she should probably cheer for her friend and started yelling as loud as she could. Miyuki’s eye’s finally met hers. He must have heard my voice . She smiled and waved, then cupped her hands around her mouth to make a mischief megaphone, “HIT A HOMER, KAZUYA!!!!”

⚾

Miyuki couldn’t believe his ears. Eiko had just yelled his first name. No honorifics, no weird last name nicknames - which she had been using since they were younger like ‘Mi-kun’. Just his name. His ears started to turn bright red, as he adjusted his stance a little.

Well, I can’t screw up now, can I Ei-chan? Your wish is my command~.

He smirked, hoping that the ball he wanted would finally come.

Low, inside, and just fast enough to send it to the fence. If it’s not this one, then I need to at least foul.

The pitcher threw his ball, and everything seemed like it was in slow motion. Kazuya grinned and kept his grip as loose as possible. Just what I wanted . He hit it and dropped his bat, making a fist with his hand and putting it up while running around the diamond.

He caught Eiko’s eye and mouthed, “Anything for you, Eiko.”

When she read his lips, Eiko hid her face in her hands and flicked him off with her eyes - doing the best to get her distaste through to him. He laughed and finished the laps of his walkoff homerun. Bringing the score up to 17-1. The game was called without Seidou even going back on defense after a short discussion between the other team and the umpire.

The other team had lost their spirit after his homerun, and anyone could tell that playing another inning would just pour salt in the wound. However, Miyuki could feel himself getting irritated with the other team the more he processed the end game call.

If they weren’t here to give it their all, then why even come?

⚾

Eiko ran down to wait by the exit of the field to greet the team. She had already memorized most of their positions, and could tell which players were probably the closest based on who started talking with whom after the game ended. Her first order of business was to speak with the coach, just to let him know she had arrived early.

However, before she could, she couldn’t help but let her eyes draw her to a small group split from the rest of the team.

She noticed the spit-fire roommate she had distinguished earlier, jokingly talking with Miyuki, along with the pink haired guy, and a couple of other unknown people. They were all giving him fistbumps and slapping him lightly on the back.

Eiko’s cheeks turned pink from envy, I guess this is what happens when you score a homerun. I wish I could do that.

Miyuki hadn’t noticed her standing by the entrance because he was blocked by other people surrounding him. She couldn’t help but feel miffed. She puffed her cheeks out until she saw the man with glasses she knew to be the coach, walking at the very back of the crowd. The hairs on her neck bristled from the aura he possessed.

It was like pure strength in every step he took, every movement he made, every slight uptake of his glasses.

This is not a man to be trifled with.

She gulped and before she knew it, her old ways were revealing themselves out of habit. She bowed before yelling, “EXCUSE ME BOSS, I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT I, SAWAMURA EIKO, AM REPORTING FOR DUTY. I WILL TAKE US TO NATIONALS. THAT IS ALL. THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME!!!”

Everyone stared at her with widened eyes, making her turn red, but no one could tell since she was still bowing.

Please tell me that did not just come out of my mouth?

Before the coach, or anyone for that matter could comment, a familiar laugh broke through the silence, “Eiko, I hope you never change~~~.” She felt the light pressure of elbows on her back, forcing her to stay in a bowed position, and making her eye twitch lightly. “Would you kindly get off? Sen~pa~i?”

Her irritating friend’s elbows started to dig into the small of her back probably by cupping his face in his hands over her back. “Nah~ I don’t think I will. Also what’s with the formal speak again?” She could almost feel his stupid and wide grin.

“After all~. I already heard you call me something really nice earlier~~~. You wouldn’t mind repeating it, yeah?” Eiko felt sweat slipping down her forehead, Too many embarrassing things have happened today in the last hour. Don’t you dare Bakazuya.

She tried to block him out, but his nauseating voice always found a way to break down any walls she had. “Here let me help jog your memory…”

He tried to imitate her with a high pitched voice, “‘Hit a homer, Kazuya~~~!! KYAAAA~~~~.’ Right?”

Eiko promptly bolted forward from her bowed position, causing Miyuki to trip and fall face first into the concrete. “AS IF I WOULD SAY IT LIKE THAT BAKAZUYA. SHUT. UP.” Looking down at Miyuki, she didn’t feel the need to hit him, since the sidewalk had done the job for her.

Miyuki had a bloody nose.

Her friend was holding onto the bottom of his nose trying to stop the bleeding. Luckily, his glasses didn’t seem to break, so the blood was only stemming from the inside of his nose - not his evil and precious face. She could feel the tension rise in the air from her friend as he slowly raised from the ground reaching out with one of his hands to grab her.

She gulped, Kazuya can be so scary sometimes.. .

Miyuki slid his hand down to her back and pulled her close, one hand still around his nose, “Make me.” Eiko felt chilled to the bone, and pushed him away lightly, “Make you what Miyuki?”

He held onto her, and snaked down to her left ear playfully blowing on it before coarsely forcing her to listen to his voice, “There are only so many ways to shut a person up~. In fact, I think there’s only two ways for me.”

She started to feel sweat slide down her face from how close Kazuya was.

“You have to kiss me or kill me.”

He kissed her on her right cheek with a light brush of his chapped lips as he pulled back, “But I guess this will do for now.”

Her eyes widened, as she sweated bullets. It felt like every part of her body couldn’t move even if she begged them to, “Your reactions are priceless enough to leave me speechless.” He grinned with a light laugh, and let go of his nose. The bleeding had died down.

Eiko couldn’t get any words out to retort, eventually she was able to move her arm and furiously rubbed the spot where Kazuya had kissed her cheek until it turned red. Unfortunately, that just made her aggressor laugh more at the swollen and raw state of her cheek until all that could come out of his mouth were forced chuckles as he clutched his stomach.

The picture perfect scene was cut into by the gruff cough of a person behind her. It was the tall and menacing coach indicating Eiko and Kazuya to follow him, and oddly enough he was holding a rather dazed Kuramochi who couldn’t stop muttering something.

She was so embarrassed that she didn’t even notice she had grabbed Kazuya’s hand to pull him along with her after the coach out of reflex.

The warmth in her hand felt like home.

Chapter Text

After Kuramochi started treading behind the coach too slowly, the coach had resorted to carrying the soulless boy over his shoulder to some area distant from the rest of the team. Eiko and Kazuya were led to the the other side of the building surrounding the field by their oddly silent coach.

Eventually, they reached a little alcove out of sight.

Kuramochi was plopped into a corner by the coach, and Eiko could finally hear what he was muttering hysterically the whole time.

“ E. Sawamura is a girl. I’m rooming with a girl. I’m rooming with a girl. I’m rooming with a girl.”

The coach coughed to break over the boy’s meltdown and brought a pressuring stare onto every last one of his present team members. “As you all now know, though Kuramochi seems to be the only oblivious one of this group. Eiko will be rooming with the opposite gender during her time here.”

He glared at them.

“I need you all to understand that there will be no biases or favoritism towards her due to her situation - since it was her decision to live with the team in the end. I want either one of you to be in her presence at all times for the first few weeks and eventually if it becomes too much to bear or some type of emergency occurs, I would like it if Eiko were to room with you Miyuki.”

It seemed as if all of Miyuki had suddenly become a red hot tomato. His skin was more red than the time he spent all day under the sun in Nagano. Even his glasses caught a pink tint. He quickly let go of Eiko’s hand to exasperatingly point a finger at himself multiple times...

“M-M-Me???? Are you sure that’s a good idea coach?”

The coach shrugged, “Based off Kuramochi’s reaction, I would say it’s a good back-up plan for the time being.”

The coach turned to Kuramochi, who had started sulking on the ground in the corner, with a chilling air, “Of course, I have faith that young Kuramochi here will be able to handle it all. It’s just a matter of him becoming accustomed to the situation at hand.” Kuramochi felt two tears form in his eyes that dried instantly, I know I can do this somehow.

While everyone else had serious faces, Eiko had stars in her eyes aimed at her coach, “WOAH BOSS!!! You’re really amazing! I’m sure Kuramochi-san over here and myself will get along just fine!”

To prove her point, Eiko went over to the boy and bent down to give him a rough slap on the shoulder making the other blanche more.

She laughed nervously, “J U S T fine! I’m sure of it!!!”

Miyuki went over himself to flick her on the side of the head, “Are you saying you don’t want to room with me~~~~???? Gosh, I didn’t know you were sooooo cruel to your senpais Ei~chan~.”

She grinned up at him. “No. Only you. Bakazuya.”

Miyuki shook his head and extended a hand to the two people closest to him on the team to help them up.

Somehow, the coach knew everything would be okay one way or the other and left the group to their devices.

⚾

All three of the now teammates walked back to the dorms together after what felt like hours of getting to know each other. Though in reality, it was more like Miyuki making sure the two got to know each other since he know them both rather well.

Not like it’s that hard. Eiko was and always will be a natural at making friends with anything. Probably even a brick wall considering she’s friends with me.

He shook his head and was brought out of his analysis of his closest friend by a melodic laugh.

Eiko had her arms swung around Kuramochi and they were both laughing up a storm over some new video games and shounen manga. He heard some famous titles being brought up, but his ears made a slight movement when his favorite sports manga Haikyuu was brought up along with his guilty pleasure of Food Wars.

Somehow, based off a gasp that passed her lips, Eiko noticed his reaction to Food Wars.

Great, make my best friend think I’m into animated food porn. Someone call the doctors now. She’s going to kill me.

Instead, while he was secretly fearing for his life, Eiko had managed to dash in front of him and stared at him with the biggest stars in her already golden eyes. “Miyuki-kun~ Do you like Food Wars too? Who’s your favorite character? What’s your favorite recipe? Who do you ship? What’s your favorite scene???” Eiko had gotten close to him with every question until she was basically clutching his arms.

Miyuki clicked his tongue at her. Geez she can be so annoying sometimes. Especially when it comes to manga, baseball, food, and... You know, forget it, she’s always annoying, but she’s my annoyance.

He sighed, “Yeah I do. I like Isshiki. I like all the recipes equally because food is food. I don’t ship anyone because I’m not a weird otaku like you, I’m selective. My favorite scene is whenever Souma manages to get one up on Erina. Also, I may as well mention I like Tsukiyama from Haikyuu. Have I satisfied all of you questions?”

Eiko nodded enthusiastically and smiled widely. “You used to make fun of me for liking anime and manga so much, but I’m happy you found joy in it too even if one of them is the closest to porn you can get without it actually being hentai.”

Miyuki eye smiled and slowly snaked an arm over her shoulder crushing her lightly against him and making her let out a nervous squeal as his mouth seemed to apparate next to her ear so Kuramochi couldn’t hear them.

A cold sweat formed on her neck.

“This is why I don’t tell you everything Eiko. Perhaps you should realize that you like that questionable manga as well before making such comments.”

He pulled back and made a comment laughing lightheartedly.

“Isn’t that right Bakamura???” She gulped and nodded, not even hearing what he had said before - she really wished she had.

⚾

Miyuki looked pointedly at Kuramochi as he said goodbye when they made it back to the dorm.

He best follow through with the plan. I gave him such a big hint today about how to break in my favorite freshman while she was freaking out over my threat about Food Wars. Eiko will always be scared of anything horror related.

Kuramochi gave him a quick thumbs up behind his back as he told Eiko where to go grab dinner. Miyuki guessed it was probably because the boy was going to follow through with the normal second year prank. Horror mask and flashlight. Nothing gets better than that.

Hours later, Miyuki was pleased to hear the high pitched scream of his best friend.

Score

Kazuya - 4           Eiko - 3

⚾

Kuramochi was almost coughing up a lung from how much he was laughing from Eiko being on the ground in exasperation from being scared at the door right after dinner. He helped her up and tried not to fidget too much because he was still freaking out himself about rooming with a girl.

“Great success! Don’t hate me for this, I was in your position last year and Miyuki said this would still work on you! I’m glad it did! We all needed to get our nerves out right?”

He opened the door some more to show the second ‘ghost’ Eiko had the displeasure of seeing. “This brute here is Masuko. He’s a grade above me. So think of him as your senior senior. He’s not talking right now because he banned himself after he made a mistake today. I’m sure you can figure out what it was.”

She tilted her head lightly in thought. She had appeared late to the game after all so she really only caught the last inning. The score had ended with the other team only getting one point.

“Ah. The one run the other team managed to score?”

Eiko had never seen a person break down as quickly as Masuko did. He seemed as if he was half tempted to tear Kuramochi apart for helping her figure it out and the other half seemed to want to cry manly tears for his lost pride.

Eiko patted him lightly on the shoulder and gave him a small smile. “Everyone makes mistakes. Rather than punishing yourself by not talking how about we go to a batting cage and have you catch some balls with your hands and a golf glove on? I’ve heard it helps outfielders and catchers get more practice in than playing catch with a mitt alone.”

She huffed at the tall senior. “Plus as your junior, I would like to get to know you more! Especially since we’ll be living together. Osu!”

Kuramochi and Masuko blinked at her before they burst out laughing.

Kuramochi incredulously pointed at her with tears in his eyes, “For a second I thought you were going to give him that good old feminine touch that I’m told all girls have, but instead you basically told him to make his hands bleed! Man, I really want to know where Rei and Miyuki managed to pick you up from!”

Eiko sweatdropped, “Nagano.”

Her straightforward response only made the two seniors laugh more until eventually they were laughing far after normal lights out time and morning practice was supposed to be early because of the incoming freshmen.

It felt like they only got four hours of sleep that night.

⚾

Well, in Eiko’s case she had only gotten three. Eiko had set her alarms early on habit, and was about to go for her morning jog when she remembered she didn’t have to because she had morning practice. She decided to snuggle into her bed a little bit more and after fourty or so more minutes of sleep she knew she had to get out of bed or she never would.

She groggily put on the uniform Seidou High School had custom made for her to fit her form and trudged around the building to see if she could find Miyuki’s room so they could go to practice together

Eventually she came to a door with only his name tag on it and banged on it with little reservation.

She heard a bang shortly followed by groans and heard the door unlock and open with a crack to see a very worn out Miyuki who also happened to be sending a very special glare her way.

“Get dressed. I’m not going to put up with you being late just because you haven’t gotten out of your weird insomniac ways. I had a gut feeling you would be like this. So look what I brought!” She held out a coffee from Tulley’s to him.

“I got your favorite. Unsweetened latte. Hurry up before we’re late.”

The coffee worked the other out of his daze long enough to nod and let her in. He sluggishly got ready at a snail’s pace drinking his latte in between articles of clothing getting changed. Unfortunately for Eiko, the only clock was in Miyuki’s direction and she didn’t want to see her best friend getting changed in front of her. According to the clock only Miyuki could see, they were already running 5 minutes late and Miyuki didn’t really even care about practice anyway.

Coffee brings out the worst in him; his face twisted into a grin.

“Eiko~ I need help picking out some clothes. Help me Eiko. I can’t do this alone.”

Eiko rubbed her forehead as a headache started to form, “Miyuki, you literally can only change your glasses. Everything else was dished out by the baseball supply closet. How hard could it possibly be to pick out one pair of some darn gla-”

She was cut off mid sentence by the sudden onslaught of glasses being shown to her. There must have been hundreds.

“Should I go with red, or black, or brown, or striped?” Eiko tried not to punch her best friend in the face. “I don’t know. Pick one Miyuki! I will never forgive you if you make me late because of glasses.”

Miyuki slowly slid his favorite brown ones that he wore for practices on and leaned down towards his friend to the point where there noses were practically touching. He gave her a stern glance with some mirth. “You know, I really would prefer if you would call me Kazuya. We’ve known each other for six years. It’s just as many syllables as my family name too. Rolls right off the tongue - doesn’t it?”

Eiko lost all train of thought as her face started to heat up.

Miyuki slowly pushed forward even more, ignoring anything that could have been physically possible. She could feel his break sweep across her face, “However, more importantly…”

His head leaned to the side, allowing him to get closer without their noses bopping together. A mere ten centimeters between their mouths…

“Don’t these look sexy on me?” He stood up and did a silly pose holding his right hand in a check mark below his chin, one eye winking, and his eyebrows wiggling back and forth.

Eiko slowly got up from the ground, with her face looking like she had run a marathon and pulled his cheek as hard as she could. Without a word, and only Miyuki’s struggling cries as a witness, Eiko, with Miyuki in toe, left for practice.

⚾

Eiko was seething with rage as she ran around the field with Miyuki. “I am never trusting anything you ever do again. I thought you would have matured over the past four years, but apparently not. How could you do what you did to your childhood friend, you demonic jackass!?” A couple of tears slid down her face.

Miyuki laughed at her and continued to easily run behind her. “Because you’re so easy to tease and I missed messing with you. The guys aren’t as fun! Plus you got me back in your own way.”

Eiko glared at him and continued to run without much of a sweat thinking on how their morning possibly could have gone so wrong. In the end she knew that what he was saying was: I really missed you, and no one here is as fun as you are. Would you hurry up and call me Kazuya already especially after what you did to me today?

She really is one of the only ones that could read him. Evident by their entrance to morning practice.

⚾

Eiko knew, as she dragged Miyuki along, that the little tanuki had probably caused them to be late by his version of a strip tease that she both wanted and didn’t want to relive. She sighed when she noticed that the new freshmen had already lined up and tried to think of what to do to save the situation she was in.

Based on that coach’s personality, if I’m late on the first day he will never remember my name. She mumbled half baked thoughts to get up there when Miyuki grabbed her shoulder.

“Eiko, I have an idea, but it will only work once. Do you remember our games of ninja?”

Eiko nodded, she had fond memories of them even. Sometimes they would come up with random names for jutsus that were baseball related like ‘SUPER ULTRA CURVE SWING’ .

“Okay, so if one of us causes a distraction, than the other can slide into practice. I think that should be you. So I can cause the distraction, you just get where you need to be. I can get you a thirty second window.”

sHE nodded and started to run, but within five seconds she knew based off Miyuki’s facial expression that he had something else other than the plan in mind. She dashed behind a bush.

She took in a huge gulp of air, “LOOK KAZUYA MIYUKI IS LATE BECAUSE HE WANTED TO TRY ON ALL HIS GLASSES AND HE HAS MORE OF THEM THAN GIRLS HAVE SHOES.”

Miyuki, who was about to do what Eiko had just done face planted onto the ground laughing and clutching his stomach.

Everyone looked at both of them and in an act of genius Eiko ran to the coach and automatically went into a dogeza position. “ALSO, PLEASE FORGIVE THIS EIKO. I WAS UP BRIGHT AND EARLY BUT SOMEONE DECIDED TO BE SLUGGISH AND TAKE OVER 45 MINUTES TO GET READY. DESPITE WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE, IT ONLY TOOK ME 5 MINUTES AND I’M A GIRL. PLEASE FORGIVE ME AND MY DUMB FRIEND.”

Kuramochi was trying so hard not to laugh along with his teammates while Rei had to hold herself back from chopping the girl across the head. Miyuki eventually recovered and wiped some tears from his eyes while their coach gave the order for them to run the rest of morning practice.

What a bummer, but at least we run together. Plus, it’s funny seeing her act like her old self when the coach is involved. It was so worth it being late.

⚾

Miyuki and Eiko stepped into the cafeteria to grab some food after running a good ten miles the whole morning practice. Luckily, Eiko had snuck her inhaler into her bra that morning so during one of her “water breaks” while running, she was able to keep her asthma under control - so she didn’t feel completely awful.

Eiko went through the line and grabbed a bowl of rice with some fried pork and miso. She grumbled to herself because the lunch ladies had stacked her rice and she already had to have three bowls of it. She already wasn’t that big of a fan of just plain rice and it wasn’t salty enough.

Miyuki noticed his friends predicament and handed her his miso. “I’ll eat half of your first bowl if you eat my miso. You know I don’t really likely celery and they put too much in mine.”

Eiko smiled and took him up on his offer slyly passing the items of interest.

By the end of the meal she was stuffed and she got up almost immediately to do some stretches because her body was cooling down too quickly. Miyuki wasn’t too far behind and he helped her stretch motioning for her to get on the ground so they could pull one another’s arms to stretch their legs pushed against each other.

Eiko groaned lightly. Oddly enough, it was her arm that hurt to get stretched out since she hadn’t pitched per Miyuki’s orders. She got up to stretch it out more and eventually Miyuki placed a hand on the back of her shoulder as he bent her arm in odd angles switching to the other side and maneuvering it just the same.

Man she’s flexible. It’s ridiculous how much raw potential she has.

He blushed a bit and patted her on the back. “I’m going to go bat. They should be calling for freshmen soon. Good luck Bakamura.”

Eiko grinned and gave a thumbs up. Just like Miyuki had predicted, they had called for the tenth graders moments later.

“Time to start my journey to becoming the ace.”

She put on her spikes and walked to the field where she would put her skills to the test.

⚾

When Eiko got to the field, Coach Kataoka was waiting for her. His eyes piercing her, testing her determination. “So. You want to be the ace?” Eiko simply nodded. Words wouldn’t do her well here.

“Then prove it with your actions!” As he said this he threw his arm over her head. For any other person, they probably would’ve been scared this large yakuza boss like man was going to hit them. However, it was clear to her he was testing her and he had a ball in his hand, since the coach used to be a pro, she had an idea of what he was doing. So she didn’t fear him. The ball blasted into the fence on the other side of the field, leaving all of the new students flabbergasted.

“You already apologized for this morning. You have character, but you can’t only use words as an ace. Prove you deserve even the thought of it.”

He glanced at her, “I’m sure you know it’s 90 meters to that fence. If you can throw a ball that far then I will consider making you ace and give you sole practice with myself and Miyuki whenever you please.” Eiko’s eyes lit up with more fire than before. “However, if you can’t even throw it that far, I will make Miyuki catch every pitcher’s ball except for yours. I may even force you to give up on becoming a pitcher.”

Miyuki heard the exchange and glared at the coach. He didn’t like people trying to dictate what he could and couldn’t do. Though in this case, even he could not go against the coach’s order. He sighed while everyone on the field trying to be a pitcher announced it was impossible. Especially since Eiko didn’t even seem to know her normal pitching distance unlike some of the others.

You can do it Ei-chan. Just one nice pitch and you’re already halfway done with our promise.

He heard her voice reach out to him, and a light laugh, “Miyuki. Call it for me? Which ball should I use this time, partner?”

He hummed at her audacity in front of the coach. “Four seamer. Use your flexibility. Look at the top of the fence when you aim or it won’t make it.” Eiko stuck out her hand to the coach to grab the ball and shook it. “If I win. I really want those solo practices whenever I want Coach Shades.”

Miyuki is my catcher.

She breathed in and gave herself a running start, releasing the ball as high as it could go towards her dream.

Chapter Text

Eiko could hear a soft ping of metal ring through the field. The sound of metal touching a ball had never been more fulfilling for Eiko. Typically, the sound meant her pitch had been hit. This time, it meant victory, and it never tasted so sweet. She let out a shout and turned to the coach with the widest grin possible. Solo practices with Miyuki and coach were guaranteed to help her pitches and other skills advance, and she was also one step closer to the promise she and Miyuki had made.

I want to be the best pitcher, but I also want to become the best outfielder and infielder, the best batter, maybe even the best analyzer. Though there’s one thing I never want to be: catcher. That position is only for Kazuya.

As soon as his name crossed her mind, Eiko turned to her friend with a victory peace sign.

“Be prepared for midnight practices senpai~!”

Miyuki stalked over to her with his head bent down and a huge smirk… and then he kicked her in the shin. Making her bowl over.

“ A S S H O L E ! !   W H Y ? ! ? ! ”

He gave her the look that meant she had screwed up somehow in some shape way or form. The one where his eyes almost seemed a shade darker behind his glasses with a slight glint of anger and possibly murder in them. “Did I say anything about doing what coach suggested, or whether I was okay with it?”

Eiko clutched her shin and rolled around in the dirt, “NO! But I figured you would be happy that the promise was being followed through. Plus, I’m not the one that suggested the test. Also you called the ball for me. I figured that was your ‘Yes this is okay’ sign!”

Miyuki turned his glare to the coach who sent one back just as strong. If looks could kill, both of them would be dead. Eventually Miyuki sighed and dragged Eiko along the ground to the bullpen.

If anything I’m happy about this, but coach can’t know that and same with the rest of the team - especially Ei-chan.

⚾

Eiko huffed and puffed the whole time Miyuki was dragging her, thinking to herself, If he wasn’t okay with it. Why did he help me? Why is he such a bastard tanuki?!?!? I thought he would be happy. I’m not going to get content. I still need to work hard. This was only the first step to becoming ace.

Miyuki stopped in the pen and pulled her cheek. “Stop acting like the wolf when you’re actually a pig. We have work to do now thanks to you and you don’t have time to act like a child. Plus, if you want to be the ace you need to act like one. No playing around, no slacking, I’ll be sure to catch you on all of it and point out your flaws. Captain or ace, I’m sure you remember the promise we made.”

He smiled sweetly at her, “I hope you’ll enjoy practices with me, because that one time where I made you learn two new pitches and practice batting the whole day will feel like child’s play.”

She shook lightly, but swallowed the lump in her throat as she picked up her glove.

“Bring it on Bakayuki Tanuki.”

He glared at the nicknames and made a mental note to have her catch balls barehanded to practice fielding and hand and eye coordination that night.

⚾

Rei walked into Coach Kataoka’s office after evening practice with a smirk on her face. “So are you going to follow through with what you said on the field?”

The coach sighed with a dark scowl on his face as he rubbed the area between his eyebrows, “A promise is a promise. I’ll be there whenever she asks me for extra solo practice. That girl really is something Rei. You’re a good judge of character. She borders the line of confident and humble like any ace or captain should. I see a lot of promise in her.”

Rei beamed at the compliment. “Of course, wait until you see her pitching repertoire too. Her character is an added bonus.”

He blinked a couple of times, but honestly wasn’t that shocked. “You don’t say… Speaking of that girl. We need to up her caloric intake. She’s probably not getting enough, but it’s only been a day. So we should look at it in about a week to see what her BMI is.” He mumbled things as he wrote down a plan for the girl.

Rei was just about to leave when Kataoka stopped her in her tracks. “Also, Rei, I want you to keep a lookout on the team dynamic with her. She’s the first girl to ever be allowed in the Seidou Baseball team and I don’t want any discrimination to befall her. More so since I just let her get solo practices with some of our most requested individuals.”

Rei nodded and retreated from the dimly lit room.

⚾

Eiko trudged her way back to her room close to what must have been 11PM. She remembered that Miyuki’s training could be bad, but she didn’t remember it being as bad as it was that day. His sadistic streak really has increased .

She coughed lightly with some wheezing and went into her room to quickly grab her bathing supplies so she could take a bath and grab her inhaler. That was until she almost fell over when her lungs started to constrict. She tried to calm her breathing.

If I could just grab my inhaler.

She started to feel anxious and panic as she stuffed her hand down her shirt only to find that her inhaler was in bad shape. Some of the medication was leaking out. Some balls must have hit it while I was catching tonight. I didn’t even notice.

Eventually her wheezing took a severe turn and woke up Kuramochi who quickly jumped up in his bed with a bat in his hand. Unaware of anything around him because of the darkness. “W-W-what’s going on? Who’s there?”

If Eiko could have croaked she would’ve. She fumbled with her inhaler hoping it would work somehow and luckily it seemed some medicine was still left. It didn’t take away all of her symptoms, but at least she could talk to Kuramochi somewhat.

“S-s-s-stubbed my toe trying to find my bath stuff.” She sounded like an 80 year old smoker.

Kuramochi put down his bat and squinted in the dark. “Are you okay Eiko?”

“Yeah. Bakazuya put me through the wringer. Lungs hurt a bit.”

She could almost sense the boy frowning in concern, but he seemed to wave off whatever was going on. “What a bastard. Try to get some sleep.”

She sighed. “Hopefully after a bath.”

Eiko didn’t sleep well that night despite her nice warm bath and somewhat helpful broken inhaler. So she went on a run instead, because why not.

⚾

Eiko had continued running into the early morning after her bath and multiple attempts at sleep. Fortunately, she had managed to catch a couple of hours of shut eye under a large tree by the field, but it definitely wasn’t enough. She had bags for days under her eyes.

She sighed and took out some concealer sliding it beneath her eyes in a familiar fashion. This wasn’t the first time her anxiety and panic levels had been too high to sleep after an asthma attack.

When her eyes looked decent from the reflection in the mirror, she started to run until the sun rise was finally above her. It was her favorite things about mornings. The rays would hit her hair just right to make her feel like someone was enveloping her in a hug meant only for her face. She smiled lightly and then started to focus on breathing again.

Eventually she noticed Rei and Kataoka observing her, but shrugged it off. It’s not like they knew she was here all night. Plus she always woke up early either way. She continued running hoping to get in 10 miles before practice started.

After Rei and Kataoka left - she started on her second mission. Since the attack almost led to her discover last night, she decided she needed to try and hide inhalers throughout the school, dorm, cafeteria, bathroom, and field just in case of an emergency. She had already labeled each one with her name and had enough to spread to all the areas and also keep extras on hand just in case.

This was all thanks to her family’s and her forethinking. If no one could know, that meant she needed extras just in case she made a couple of mistakes. Her family couldn’t just bring her an inhaler from Nagano. She’d be dead by the time they got to Tokyo.

She quickly went about hiding them in places that were easy for her to get to if she were having an attack.

She hid one behind her favorite tree, one by a water fountain behind a rock, one behind the blinds of a window in the cafeteria, one under her pillow, and finally one placed in a plastic bag which was then placed in the water tank of a toilet in the public bathroom. She also placed some extras in her sports bags for games.

When she felt like she had hidden enough of her inhalers. She headed back to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast before practice started.

⚾

Eiko decided to grab her breakfast before breakfast, which was unusual for most of the baseball team. Typically, everyone got breakfast together during their break between morning practice. Therefore, she wasn’t shocked to see that both her roommates and Miyuki hadn’t been there yet. It was not hard to imagine why even if they were the type to grab breakfast, which they weren’t, they had all had long nights. Masuko must have been doing batting swings all night long until he couldn’t move anymore as a punishment to himself since he wasn’t in the room before she left for her run. Kuramochi had that odd wakeup call thanks to her asthma attack and Miyuki had been helping her, though torturing is a better word, until 10PM.

There was only one cook present, and since Eiko was having a hankering for something other than three bland bowls of rice with eggs, bacon she decided to take action.

Do it for the good of your stomach, Eiko.

“Excuse me ma’am. I was wondering if in return for doing some of the work in the kitchen and helping you prepare - if you wouldn’t mind me making my own breakfast?” The cafeteria lady blinked a few times and seemed to contemplate it before giving the girl a thumbs up.

Eiko helped crack eggs, sift sugar, butter bread, and cut up fruit. In between the tasks, Eiko decided to whip up some omurice for herself with three helpings of fried rice on the side and an orange to get her Vitamin C in. She expertly placed the omlet over one of the portions of fried rice and slowly cut it open to warmly encompass the rice before making a simmered tomato and garlic sauce with basil to pour on top. She also placed some arugula on the side to get some greens in and waved goodbye to the cook so she could finally eat.

Eiko happily took in every bite to the point that she almost forgot how tired she was.

Good food always does this. I’m lucky I got here early. I really don’t like sweet egg rolls, and neither does Miyuki… He’s not really a fan of sweets. Now if only there were a way to get back at him for making me catch balls barehanded last night.

She grinned evilly and asked the lunch lady if she could use some sugar. After getting the okay, Eiko went over to Miyuki’s usual table and slipped all of the salt out of its shaker and replaced it with sugar.

Eiko chuckled and headed back to the field for some more running since she wanted to build up the amount of stamina her body had before having an attack - if that was even possible.

⚾

Eventually other players littered the field, during the last lap around the field. Having Eiko clock in 12 miles before practice even started. She noted that Miyuki and Kuramochi still weren’t at practice yet, but Masuko had appeared about halfway through her last lap. She sighed and decided not to worry about the two dolts and made her way over to the batting cages with a pitching machine set at 60kmh. She slapped a fist into her right hand, which had a golf glove one it. She easily caught the first twenty pitches, before her hand started to hurt from the practice the other night.

She got up and grabbed a glove - changing the setting on the machine to 80km/h and grounders. She placed a trampoline underneath to make the ball bounce in odd directions. After catching forty or so of them; she finally grabbed a bat. She changed the setting to 100km/h and fastball and took her stance.

Her knuckles were lined up, her stance loose and her eyes determined and on the outside it seemed like she had everything set up properly. She managed to get a couple of hits in, but eventually her accuracy started to fall after ten or so. She clenched her teeth and tensed up in aggravation. She kept swinging and missing and even tried changing to bunts to get back in the grove only to be frustrated that she didn’t get a clean hit again after the first ten.

Why does this always happen? I guess I should be happy I can at least hit ten, but I don’t understand why my accuracy always falls afterward. Is it my stance? My knuckles? The balls swing by though, it doesn’t seem like any of those things.

She casually started hitting the balls around her into the air and catching them to entertain herself.

“Is that even fun? I can throw the ball to you or we could play catch...”

Eiko whipped around blushing in embarrassment to see a boy much taller than herself leaning against the entrance to the batting cages. His black hair laying across his forehead and his grey eyes filled with boredom.

Eiko shrugged in an attempt to throw him off and threw a ball to him that he eloquently dropped.

He picked it up and threw it back. They went back and forth for awhile without really starting a conversation. It was just them, two gloves, and a ball. Eiko didn’t really try to keep with her seam balls, and even though she could make the ball straight, her body was not cooperating after so little rest.

The boy was moving his glove everywhere to catch her throws. “Sorry if this puts a damper on your fun, but fix your throw. It’s disgusting.”

Eiko chuckled with her fist clenched as she caught his newest throw. “Hang on, let me change my aim or grip. Sometimes that helps.” She smiled in an unnatural way as she changed her grip. She threw her two seamer as hard as she could, making the ball bounce up and hit the boy right in the stomach.

Miyuki isn’t the only sadistic one in my friend group. I guess he really did rub off on me as a kid.

He glared, but she glared back even harder. Her eyes challenging him to do something about her last throw. “Is that an invitation for me to throw harder too?”

He wound up and Eiko watched as the ball came at her at the speed of at least 125km/h. She sidestepped and managed to catch it wincing. She slid the ball into her left hand and took off her glove to find that her right wrist really wasn’t liking the extra attention she had been giving it.

The boy started to shake with wide eyes, a hint of interest behind them now. “What is your name?”

She huffed and rubbed her wrist. “Seriously. You ask that now hotshot? I’m Eiko Sawamura, and don’t you forget it. I’m going to be the ace.”

Eiko stepped around the boy after concluding she should ice her wrist before classes started and or Miyuki showed up and freaked out. Plus her body was already at its limit and she didn’t want to push it too much before afternoon practice.

⚾

Eiko carried an ice pack with her into her first class of the year and tried not to fall asleep as the teacher explained the importance of linear algebra. It only got harder when the class switched to Japanese History. Try hearing the same history about the shogunate for 13 years over and over again. It was basically designated nap time, but it was rude to fall asleep in class so she stayed awake for the teacher’s sake.

Eventually, lunch break rolled around and Eiko finally felt like she could close her eyes and get some sleep. I don’t even want food. I just want to stop feeling tired.

Her eyes started to feel heavy when she heard the door slam open. She didn’t even grace the noise with a movement. Probably some idiotic boy thinking that it’s fun to slam open doors… which it is, but this is my break. I refuse to stare at idiots.

She heard mummers around her talking about Miyuki for some reason, but that’s bizarre because he would never show up in a first year classroom.

She kept her eyes closed. Until someone had the guts to blow on her ear.

Her body naturally reacted and she fell out of her seat. Her eyes shot open, and the room felt like the temperature had gone up 100 degrees. She scrambled on the ground, clutching her ear and trying to comprehend what had just happened. She couldn’t even register the other students laughing.

All she saw was Miyuki, standing above her, looking like he wanted to murder her in cold blood just to avoid having to put up with her ever again.

She decided it would be better for her health to not complain or make a noise about what had happened for once. He gave a pointed look to her wrist and the ice pack and raised an eyebrow. Of course, Eiko knew he was questioning if she was injured and Eiko shook her head smiling a bit. He sighed in relief. “Okay then. Cafeteria in ten. You need to eat. I heard you ran a lot today and also did drills that I never thought you would do without me.”

She rubbed the back of her neck with her dominant hand and grinned. “Yeah, but you know me. I want to be the ace, that means I have to work harder than anyone else or it will never happen. You know?”

Miyuki helped her up with a hand and heard her wince when he grabbed her right hand to pull her up. “Wrist again huh? At least you were smart enough to ice it. Guess you worked it too hard while I wasn’t there to watch you. No afternoon or night practice for you today. You can come watch the game after classes if you want to, but that’s it. That or resting. You stupid girl.”

She pouted and dusted her new uniform off, paying special attention to her skirt that got dirt on it from the ground. “I’m a big girl Kazuya, I can make my own decisions thank you very much, and I didn’t ask for you to make them for me.”

Everyone around the duo blanched.

At this point everyone was staring, especially the baseball team members. She heard constant mumbles of: “Miyuki never goes out of his way like this.” or “Did she just call him by his given name?” or “Does she want to die?”

Miyuki put on his telltale smirk and leaned down to look her in the eyes. “Finally calling me by my name again tomboy? That’s a change. I thought you didn’t do as you’re told.”

Eiko smirked back, “Oh I don’t, but someone did tell me it was the same amount of syllables as your family name, so there was no reason to use restraint.”

Miyuki closed the distance between them, placing his hands on her desk so that their bodies were practically touching. “That is true, I wouldn’t want to restrain you from calling or screaming out my name, Eiko . It would be a shame. I like hearing your voice after six years.” He pulled back and headed to the door, casually waving his hand in a lazy goodbye. “Cafeteria. Don’t be late. You owe me for the stomach ache I know you caused this morning from the eggs, tomboy. You’re the only one with balls to tamper with the salt shaker at my usual table.”

The class didn’t even know how to react to the situation anymore. Some of them were basically dead at this point. Trying to understand the relationship between the two teammates and childhood friends. She stomped to the door and slammed it before Miyuki could add anything else from the hallway.

She was seething.

“Tanuki Bastard.”

Chapter Text

Needless to say, Eiko didn’t go to lunch in the cafeteria. After Miyuki had left, a couple of other freshmen had made it a point to point out that they would never see a girl as a part of the baseball team. So instead, she went straight to the nurse because she needed to return the ice pack and also try to, hopefully, get some sleep. The nurse, as per usual it seemed, wasn’t in the infirmary. Making sure no one else was in the beds, she took a preemptive puff of the nurse’s hidden emergency inhaler and started to fall asleep in the bed…

Or at least she tried until Miyuki barged into the room holding some lunch food. “Squirt, you’re going to eat if you know what’s good for you.”

Her response was a groan which only made the boy grunt some as he sat down on her bed over and over to make it shake. It only took four times before Eiko wanted to throttle him more than usual.

“I’m not hungry tanuki.”

His eyes glinted, “I don’t care. You have to eat. Apparently, you were up before everyone and running all morning. Then you got to the cafeteria so early that you had time to exchange my salt for sugar. Not to mention Kuramochi said you weren’t in the room when he woke up to use the restroom at three in the morning.”

She sweatdropped and waved her hand back and forth. “Technicalities. I ate an early breakfast, and I had left the room to go to the restroom myself. Stop being weir-.”

Before she could finish her sentence, her mouth was invaded by some well-made curry bread.

She glared at her brash friend making harsh comments that got blocked by the food in her mouth. As she chewed and swallowed, Miyuki caught a couple of words that mostly were strings of ‘tanuki’ and ‘bastard’. All of which made him laugh before he took a bite of his own yakisoba bread.

They ate in silence until Miyuki started to get concerned. “Do you want to talk about it Ei-chan?”

Eiko shook her head and kept eating before she started to evade every question from him about it with forced laughter. Saying Miyuki was worried would be an understatement, but he had no right to force a person to talk… Especially since he still hadn’t told her why he basically ghosted her for four years.

He decided to let it go for now, and watched as Eiko slowly started to nod off.

Miyuki chuckled to himself and placed Eiko’s head on his shoulder, pushing his body backwards until they were laying in the bed together with her head now on his chest. He cradled her lightly, being careful not to wake her when he noticed how bad the bags under her eyes were.

After a couple of minutes, his eyes started to feel heavy too.

Darkness claimed them both.

⚾

When Miyuki woke up, Eiko was still sleeping soundly against him. She really did look like a cute baby animal when she slept. He stared at her breathing for a bit and wiped some hair out of her face, but he was pulled out of his musings when he looked at the clock.

2:30 PM. Damn, I have to leave for the game. If I’m late again, I’ll be dead where I stand as soon as coach sees me.

He carefully slid out of the bed. Looking around for a piece of pen and paper to write a note for when Eiko woke up. He quickly scrawled out some things and even added a cute little chibi version of himself with a thumbs up in the bottom corner.

He placed it on the pillow next to her head and silently left the room.

⚾

Eiko woke up with a sluggish start and rubbed at her eyes to see that the sun was getting rather low. It’s still from sunset, but it’s definitely late afternoon. She looked at the clock to check the time, 3:30PM. She groggily yawned and almost went to take a thirty minute nap when she felt something crinkle beside her. She lazily grabbed the perpetrator to see that her friend had left her a note.

Oy. Sleeping Idiot,

You clearly didn’t sleep much last night, if at all… If you keep acting like an idiot, I won’t catch your pitches. Get sleep. We have a game today against some traveling circus that beat us last year, but I don’t want to see your ugly face there. It might make me lose. Make sure to grab dinner and go straight to bed so I can actually see you improve tomorrow, Bakamura.

~Kazuya

Eiko tried not to laugh at the butchered chibi he had drawn and focused instead on the actual letter which made her heart warm up slightly. It’s good to know that he cares so much, no matter how much he tries to hide it. Though I wonder why he only acts cute near sheds and in nurse’s offices… What a pervert. She rolled her eyes as she tentatively got out of the springy white bed and stretched her legs, wincing at the effort it took. Her limbs were not amused with her after her running excursions that day, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.

She walked over to the window to find that most of the facilities for the baseball team seemed empty.

Guess it was an away game, and that means practice time for me since Bakazuya, and anyone else, isn’t here to stop me. Plus I just woke up from sleeping, why would I sleep more. What a dummy. She sauntered out of the infirmary and the long halls to reach the one place that she belonged.

⚾

Eiko had been in the batting cages since she got out of the infirmary because her wrist still hurt a bit, and she didn’t have a catcher to catch her pitches. In her eyes, doing swings was the least stressful thing on her wrist compared to attempting to catch the pitches or playing catch with the tall boy from before. She spent hours just swinging the bat and hitting balls occasionally until she felt like she could at least hit a couple of breaking balls using the form etched into her memory from the last game she saw Miyuki play.

The sun had started to go down, painting the sky with red, purple and orange hues, by the time the first string team had returned from their match against Ichidai Third High School. Eiko quickly put things away and slipped to dinner to find that it was an egg tempura bowl for dinner with extra bowls of rice and a side of miso.

Overall, everyone in the cafeteria seemed to be ignoring her. Especially the first years. She was bored without any of her first string friends around, and it was hard to ignore the glares of the other freshmen that had made it back before the players chosen for the match that day.

Wonder what their problem is. She continued eating.

Halfway through her meal, she felt the presence of something over her head. Her eye twitched on instinct and her voice raised out of habit, “I hope you managed to win today, because I’m sending you to the afterlife either way for that note!”

He sat down next to her, feeling the stares burrow into the back of his skull. He ignored them, he was used to the way people treated him, but he felt like for once the stares and glares were not pointed his way. However, Miyuki was more concerned about the purple spots beneath Eiko’s gold eyes than trying to micro analyze what was happening in the cafeteria.

“I hit a homerun off an inside slider today. Got us a good start on the scoreboard.”

She hummed at the new information, “Pretty impressive for a tanuki, I guess. Maybe you’re like Cinderella and your wishes really will come true until the clock strikes 12. Hurry make a wish and see if it will come true!!!” Eiko elbowed him lightly with mirth in her eyes, only to notice that Miyuki wasn’t kidding around.

“I wish you didn’t break the few conditions I ask you to follow as your catcher…” Miyuki sent a knowing glance Eiko’s way. It wasn’t hard to notice the remnants of sweat on her face.

She pouted and drew circles in the table with reckless abandon.

“It was just a lil’ batting practice. I couldn’t sleep anymore, Kazuya.” She stopped her circles to give Miyuki the puppy dog eyes. She had already struck a chord by calling him by his given name, but she needed more ammo and she knew it. However, this had just made Miyuki notice how bad the discoloration under her eyes really was.

She used makeup , he thought to himself.

Miyuki eye smiled, making Eiko shiver lightly. Plan puppy eyes is a bust, abort mission? No wait! Analyze for other available options. I could escape through something… Like the window that he’s blocking, or the door that’s too far away from me to reach first with my short ass legs.

She smiled back and felt what must have been lightning piercing her skin as Miyuki cracked his knuckles. It’s like he knows I want to run. Maybe I really can escape through that door. It’s worth a shot.

Before she could even get up and back away slowly like a prey from a predator, he cut in with a sickly sweet voice, “If you needed help sleeping, you could’ve asked. I’m sure a light punch will hold you over for longer than the three hours you got today. You know, lack of sleep can cause cells to die. You don’t want your cells to die… Do you Bakamura?”

The girl gulped and waved her hands in a surrendering manner, “Of course not.”

“Then it’s settled. You will sleep, or I will force you to sleep.” He pushed his glasses up with a glint when he noticed how scared the girl looked, “I also have some melatonin to help if plans A-Z don’t work first.”

Votes were in after six years, Kazuya Miyuki was a demonic angel, and no one could convince Eiko otherwise.

⚾

Despite Miyuki’s earlier words, it seemed as though the first sleep remedy was some nice uncaffeinated warm tea with a hint of milk to practically lure her like a fish out of water into the  land of sweet slumber. Overall, she had really only slept for 4 hours. The heat, radiating from the cup, coupled with how physically tired she was, causing her eyes to feel very heavy over a short period of time.

They were still in the cafeteria, and for some reason everything was tense. She tried to understand what could be causing the weird silence, but she was just too tired to care enough to do so.

Eventually she could tell she was nodding off, and motioned that she was going to try to go to bed to Miyuki.

Eiko got up and maneuvered to her room with countless stumbles and a couple of narrowly avoided falls. She was so tired, she didn’t notice that Miyuki had followed after her to make sure she made it back alright.

He opened the door to her room for her since he knew Kuramochi was still eating, and waited for her to mechanically get into her bed. At this point, the concealer wasn’t concealing much and Miyuki could finally tell how little sleep the girl had gotten paired with the strain on her body from intense training when it needed her to rest.

Miyuki placed a blanket on her, because she had not even taken the effort to slide under the covers. It did not take long for sleep to claim her with the sweet whispers of good night from her friend lulling her to sleep.

Good night, Sleeping Beauty.

⚾

When Miyuki headed back to the cafeteria to finish the food he didn’t get to because he had seen his friend carefully back to her room. Now it’s cold… but at least I know she made it back alright. I hope this doesn’t happen again any time soon. He ate silently, paying attention to any gossip at other tables. He was already hearing mummers about how some freshman announced that he would not let anyone hit tomorrow, and if he managed that he wanted independent lessons with, of course, Kazuya Miyuki or some other person that had managed to catch his ball that day.

He rubbed above his eyebrows with his hand in a frustrated manner.

No one ever seemed to leave him alone. Everyone always wanted to pitch to him. He just wanted to play catcher with someone interesting, and people kept getting in the way. Miyuki fixed his purple hat into a nicer side position, before continuing to eat.

Maybe one day, I can finally just have the best player I know pitch to me for life .

Miyuki kept his eyes closed, while he listened, and found himself hearing parts of a conversation at a table behind him. “ Ha! That person is such a joke! They didn’t even come to the game today. How stupid can they be???” He heard more voices join into the fray.

“ Seriously. It’s as though they’re looking down on us. They aren’t any better! Just because they’ve got the coach’s attention and a couple of upperclassmen have taken notice of them.”

Miyuki almost felt bad for the person they were talking about, especially since it reminded him of his own past.

“Yeah, that Eiko Sawamura really is no good. Just because she can throw a ball over a fence, she probably thinks she’s better than us because now the coach and Miyuki-senpai pay attention to her. As if anyone would actually acknowledge her.” Miyuki was about to shoot out of his seat to teach the younger students a lesson with his fists, but held himself back.

We play baseball, so it should be settled with baseball , Miyuki chastised himself and slowly relaxed again in his seat. Trying to finish his meal with a semblance of peace, but then they

had to go and finish their horrible sentence on the only person he had ever given a damn about except for his mother and every other day, Kuramochi:

“She’ll never be one of us.”

Miyuki lost every ounce of composure.

⚾

He had only hit the freshmen with short blond hair that said the last sentence, but it hadn’t made him feel any better. The fight wasn’t long or fulfilling, nor did it let him avenge what they said about his closest friend. If anything, it probably only made it worst. He still had an awful taste in his mouth because there wasn’t much he could do.

Luckily, they had brought up his name, so he could always use that as an excuse for why he jumped before thinking for once in his life… but the coach wouldn’t fall for that.

He stepped into the office silently, and sat on one of the couches. He started without missing a beat, “They’re ostracizing her coach. It’s brutal , and it’s only the second day. I didn’t mean to jump before thinking, but I couldn’t listen to their garbage mouths anymore.” He glanced to the seat behind the desk to find the coach facing the other way. It almost made it easier to speak to him.

The coach’s voice rang through the room, “Would you consider it bullying?”

Miyuki nodded without hesitation. A hint of sadness behind his eyes.

“Hazing. Bullying. Ostracizing. There are so many ways to define it. They’re speaking horribly of her without getting to know her, but everyone else that has gotten to is amazed by her tenacity, will, and liveliness.” He glanced back at the chair and sighed. “Though, that is limited to you and the first string that met her at that first game and when she defeated our number one batter before he graduated. The underclassmen don’t know her as well yet.”

Miyuki leaned back in thought. It was nearing 10PM and it was getting hard to think effectively.

Then everything hit him like a ton of bricks.

Her situation was exactly like his when he was in elementary and middle school, and he had proven to the bullies using his skills until eventually they had to acknowledge his place on the team.

“Coach, what if… for the third year and first year annual match… we allow some of the second year first string to play with the first years? Let them see that the first string isn’t against helping anyone and everyone.”

The coach turned slightly in hidden mirth, “Let them see she isn’t getting favoritism.”

Miyuki nodded and moved to get up, since it was almost lights out for the dorm.

“Even if it only buys us a little more time before an explosion occurs in the freshmen class, it will solidify her relationship with enough people to lead this team next year.” The coach smiled lightly, and considered the ways to put the plan the boy had come up with into action.

Before the boy left the room he turned back slightly, “Also coach… I wish I could say I regret punching that bastards face in a little, but I really don’t.” He waved nonchalantly, “Night~.”

The door closed with a light clank, leaving the coach to chuckle at the bizarre nature of the boy’s mood.

They will make the greatest battery in Japan someday.

The coach made his way out of his office to retreat to his room for the night as well. Imaging the expression the boy Miyuki had punched had when the catcher let loose all his rage on him at once.

⚾

Eiko woke with a stretch, feeling a little sore, but better than she did yesterday. It was still early morning, and that meant the boys in the room were still sleeping. She carefully moved across the floor to make her way to the bathroom as though she were a ninja. The mirror revealed that she only looked a quarter dead, instead of mostly dead like the day before. The area under her eyes was only slightly discolored, and it seemed like some complexion had made its way back to her face.

She gently prodded an area on her face that wasn’t as tan as the rest. Nothing a little morning run won’t fix. She smiled while she got ready to head out about an hour before practice to get a little running in.

She meticulously checked the weather on her phone, and saw that it was already a scorching 85 degrees outside. She opted to wear a white sports bra and tank top with some blue shorts that reached midway through her thighs and tied her long chestnut hair back with a black hair tie.

Eiko quickly made her way over towards the fields to find that although it was indeed very hot, there was a nice breeze that fluttered across the grass, the trees, and her face. She took it in and found herself in supreme bliss.

Eiko may as well have been skipping with how happy she looked running. Even though it was adding muscle strain, it was nice to be out in the early morning sun. It was a lovely give and take that she wouldn’t replace for the world. She climbed every mountain, cloud, and other imaginary obstacles that blocked her way. Anyone that would walk in on that run would have to be entranced, which is what happened to Miyuki when he decided to show up early for once in his life to make sure none of the freshmen would mess with Eiko.

“Ah! Eiko! You’re here too? Perfect! There’s something I have to tell you…”

Miyuki held up his hand in a lazy greeting and a huge smile. He was already dressed for practice in the school’s typical blue and white uniform.

“The upperclassmen and the freshmen are having a scrimmage today. Make sure to be ready. Kay?” Miyuki counted down his fingers for the E-bom to go off and plugged his ears in record time.

“WHAT? WHY HAVEN’T I HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT THAT!?! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME????” Eiko was struggling to find enough air to put behind her rant. So she focused on her breathing. While looking at the ground. “D-d-does that mean I have to face you?”

I have never had to face Kazuya in a match, and I hope I never have to, too. She cautiously brought her golden eyes to the other’s face.

She noticed the boy tapping his finger against his cheek in thought and eventually face her with the largest grin she had ever seen on his face. “Hm. No clue! Typically second years don’t play, but I hope I get to play against you. I want to see how good you’ve gotten since I’ve only seen your growth as your friend and from a catcher’s perspective. I want to see if you actually have grown as much as I think you have.”

He looked at her chest that for a moment. “Though there are some places that have evidently seen a lot of growth without me having to do that. However, I guess I wouldn’t mind inspecting some time.” Miyuki held up a victory sign with his fingers before running with a head start from the girl.

It took Eiko a couple of minutes to get the hint, before E-bomb #2 went off when she saw red.

“I’ll show you where you won’t grow after I’m through with you. YOU. ASSHOLE . BASTARD. TANUKI !!!”

Chapter Text

Thanks to Eiko managing to catch up at the last second before he could get away, Miyuki was sporting a nice red handprint on his cheek and a light bump on top of his head. It wasn’t anything new though, so he just yawned and shrugged through the minimal amount of pain. In the end, it was worth it to him to see her squirm.

The scrimmage between the first years and third years to see who was spectacular out of the new meat was happening at 10AM which meant the two had time to grab breakfast and make it back to the field well before the match started. They stepped into the cafeteria to find a commotion and everyone surrounding a boy Eiko remembered from the day before - the tall and dark haired one that had a punchy pitch.

“Hey, it’s you! How’s that crazy pitch doing?” The boy didn’t even grace her with an answer and ignored her causing Miyuki to burst out laughing. She could tell he already liked the other kid just because he didn’t respond.

“Okay. Don’t say anything you asshole.” Eiko stuck her nose up and faced the other way.

Something sounded over Miyuki’s laughter, and everyone stood at attention once more while an announcement was made over the school intercom.

“The teams for the third year and first year scrimmage have been changed. Second years will also participate, as will first string if they so volunteer. Repeat, everyone will participate except for first string, unless they choose to do so. Everyone that must be there, appear on the field within the next hour or face the consequences. See you then.”

The intercom shut off leaving everyone in silence until the dark haired boy in the center of the crowd broke it.

“No one will hit my pitch. It will be lucky if someone can even catch it.” The dark haired boy left out the cafeteria doors before anyone else could comment or scrutinize his behaviour. The third years just stood where they were with the most malicious grins on their faces.

Eiko gulped and pulled at her tank top lightly before thinking to herself: The atmosphere is so tense. I hope they don’t murder us today for that, but I don’t want them to take it easy either.

She looked at the third years with a glint in her eye, announcing a more confident persona than before. “I’m with that kid. I won’t let anyone hit me, but I wish all of you the best of luck. I hope that this helps me learn more about you all and what you can do.”

Eiko moved to leave, ignoring insults about how she’s just a girl and won’t manage to get anyone out and how she can only throw far from every member except for the first string players, when Miyuki grabbed her shoulder. He pointedly looked at the blonde bastard with a swollen nose from the night before, who was making the most comments about Eiko, and grinned, pointing at his own nose.

“We don’t want to end up in another altercation, kouhai. So I would keep your opinions to yourself until after you’ve played with Ei-chan. Sound good?”

The boy nodded and covered his nose just in case.

Eiko and Miyuki turned and left the building so Eiko could change and then they could go to the field.

⚾

As soon as Eiko was outside she broke down and started hitting the soft ground with her hand,  laughing. “What did you do to him? Punch him in the face? Oh my gosh he was shaking in his shoes. I’ve never seen someone so scared!” She had to clutch her stomach from laughing too hard.

Miyuki scowled lightly, “I may have tapped his nose a little too hard. Nothing special.”

His answer just made the girl laugh louder, until she eventually stopped and stood up. “Hey Kazuya?”

He looked her way with a questioning glance. Trying to take in everything she was and not linger on his given name leaving her lips: her lustrous personality, the way she smiled and laughed and could get serious in a moment, her golden eyes. Everything about her that he had come to know.

She smiled at him as though she were the sun. “Thank you.”

Eiko started to fiddle with her clothes a bit, “You probably got in trouble for punching him, but I bet he was saying things like today. So, thank you.” Right when he was about to reply, she cut him off. “BUT, I don’t need protecting. I’m going to face these types of things my whole life because I want to play baseball. I just have to prove them all wrong - a girl can do amazing things when it comes to baseball. Getting in fights won’t help, but I’m still thankful you stood up for me. So how about I start calling you Kazuya like you asked, Kazuya? As thanks!”

He had to stop himself from blushing and avoided her gaze, “Yeah, that’s fine, and I’ll still call you Ei-chan, Eiko, Sleeping Idiot or Bakamura. If that’s fine.”

Eiko giggled a bit, “Just so long as I can still call you Bakazuya, Bastard Tanuki, and Mi-kun.”

Kazuya’s face became stone cold, “Everything but Mi-kun. It’s my family name. At least make it Ka-kun, Zu-kun, or Ya-kun now.” Her nose wrinkled, “Those all sound weird, and Bakamura is based off my family name! I guess I can just not call you it...”

He smiled lightly thinking he had won, “... if you don’t bother me too much.”

Kazuya sighed in defeat knowing that there would never be a day where he wouldn’t bother the girl, “Guess I’ll just have to accept my fate. Go get changed Bakamura.”

She ran back to her room to get changed as fast as possible.

⚾

Miyuki had headed to the field before Eiko since it took her longer to change. She was still out of breath and wheezing from the run she made from the dorms to the diamonds to make it in time.

She stood at attention in front of the coach when she found the sunglassed man. “I hope I’m not late Boss!”

Everyone sweatdropped at the mafia term, seeing their coach maneuver his thumb to the dugout of the first years. Eiko translated it as meaning he didn’t want her to sweat it and just hurry up and join her team. So she smiled and ran for it. Over the course of the first week and a half, she had learnt not to question her coach.

She couldn’t wait until she finally started having one on one sessions with the intimidating man.

As soon as she entered the covered benches, she took in the loud mummers of the press and alumni around her. Sunday seemed to be the busiest day when it came to crowds because they knew that Seidou only participated in scrimmages and practice before long tournaments. All of her fellow freshmen looked nervous and downright terrified, some didn’t even bother to sit because they were fidgeting too much. Others looked like they hadn’t even slept.

It is nerve wracking to be facing the upperclassmen after half a month here, but that’s life. I just need to make sure I don’t embarrass myself today. I hope I get to pitch first! Eiko felt herself shaking from a different feeling than her teammates - excitement.

She happily stretched out her limbs right in the dugout. It seemed like the upperclassmen were going first, and when she looked at the dugout a little confused.

Overall, there were only a couple of second years mixed in, and also even though Miyuki had left first, he was nowhere to be found in the other dugout. Eiko shrugged it off though to get her emotions back in a happier and undistracted place.

Eiko mewled, “It’s been so long since I’ve been on the mound!”

She was startled by the sound of a ball hitting a mitt because while she was having a happy festival, the game had started.

Eiko felt the tension rise after the last pitch. It seemed like the boy who ruled the mound had a nasty curve that twisted away from the batters face at the last second. Plus he threw it with his right hand, meaning that it really felt like the batter could get hit. Her slicers had the same effect as his curveball.

She whistled lightly to herself and tried to understand the batting order and positions people had. Based on what she was hearing, everyone would have a certain amount of innings they would be allowed to play.

Apparently they fought with rock papers scissors to see who would go first and the coach was picking who to switch out after every three innings or so.

She dejectedly sat down and watched the game carry on at what felt like a snail’s pace at time. Eiko used her time wisely though, and watched the batters as best as she could. The third years and a couple of the second years were massacring the first years. In the first inning alone, they had a five run lead, which made it rather difficult for Eiko to take anything from. The pitcher just couldn’t throw a ball that challenged them enough for her to notice any weaknesses or strengths. They were practically slamming every ball.

Eiko rolled her shoulders and decided that she should probably warm up her arm in case the other guys started going and leaving early.

It’s a blow to the gut to have your pitches hit like that, and if it’s the same for every pitcher - they’re bound to lose sight of what to do and become depressed at the thought of going onto the mound. As she walked over, she watched the first years come back to finally change gear looking absolutely devastated.

The only thing she could do was wait her turn and then uplift the team with her play.

Eiko was so deep in thought of what to say to the sullen freshmen when she ran right into the makeshift bullpen fence, which left a nice subtle red criss cross mark across her forehead.

She rubbed at it tentatively when she noticed a certain glassed class fool hanging around on the wrong side of the field. He was perched perfectly against the stupid fence she had just run into and happily taking in the sky for a bit with chuckles at what she could only assume were the marks on her face as she glowered down at him.

Eiko couldn’t help but blush in slight embarrassment. “Shut up! Shouldn’t you be in the other dugout, you stupid tanuki? You’re on the wrong side.”

Miyuki smirked and brought up his finger in a know it all way, “Ah~ that’s only what you think.” He smiled at the girl and slid his signature white cap a little to the side before fixing his glasses slightly.

“If you had actually been paying attention, the coach said that the first string was allowed, but not for what team.” He sighed and stretched his arms above his head to get the motivation to move from his spot. “It’s too stuffy everywhere, so I made my way over here and I’m still deciding if I even want to play. If you think about it, it’s stressful for everyone.”

He steeled his gaze over at the opposite dugout, motioning for Eiko to look at them with his chin. “The third years are trying to prove themselves before the string gets selected for the Kanto tournaments coming up,” Miyuki pointed his thumb behind him, “and the first years are trying to prove themselves. Then the current first string is trying to stay in their positions.” He placed a stick in the dirt and started to draw a diagram so his little idiot could keep up.

“Here this might help your brain to follow.” He carefully moved the stick across the ground.

On opposite sides he had written freshmen and upperclassmen with coaches, first string, and other dreams in between. He pointed at first string, “This is what everyone here strives for, they want this to be the best it can be. So the coaches look for talent, the first years try to prove themselves in this scrimmage along with the upperclassmen that have never had the chance to be on the first string.” Miyuki drew a line from the coaches to all of the encompassing words. “Their goal is to find out who can lead the team to victory the best, so this scrimmage is that opening test. The thing that could make or break a player’s chance to get on the team.”

Eiko was slowly moving towards the boy to slap him on his head, but Miyuki caught on and she found herself tripping over a stick, her hair falling over her head and covering everything. The sadistic bastard started laughing at her as she got a face full of dirt.

“I really wish I were playing against you today so I could make you regret this.”

He chortled, “You’re a hundred years too early to face me. Come back in the afterlife, and maybe you’ll be ready to face my batting skills. That is if the Grudge even belongs in the place I’m going.” Eiko clutched the dirt around her since she couldn’t see with her hair in her eyes, and was going to try to throw it on the imbecile when he clapped his hands together in a cutesy manner making her drop her weapon of choice.

“Let’s get you warmed up dear~~~!”

Eiko didn’t even know why she bothered speaking to the asshole at this point, but then she remembered when she threw it nice and hard into his glove while he wasn’t paying attention moments later during their warm up.

Whoa there, that almost hit my face Bakamura.

He would’ve said something if it weren’t for her smile. So Miyuki just shook his head and held the ball out of spite for longer than usual in his gold glove.

⚾

When their warm up was about done, a batter gave a yell and ran all the way to third base off a long outfield drive. The third basemen dropped the ball, costing him a relatively easy out. Eiko ran up next to Miyuki to get a better look at the person that dropped it. They both had to stop from grinning when they realized it was the blonde from earlier.

Karma’s a bitch. Ain’t it?

Eiko turned to her friend. “You know, I haven’t been on the actual mound in awhile. I can’t wait to get out there.”

Miyuki looked at her and then at the score and then back at her. “Eiko, your team is down ten runs. Why would you even want to go out there?” He could see her blinking at him like he was crazy, before she clenched her fist as if to see how the movement of her hand was doing.

“Because that’s what ace’s do. They boost moral and they make the impossible possible again.”

At that point, Miyuki knew that he would always be sucked in by the girl.

Well said, Eiko.

She moved away from him with her fists pumped to go talk to the horribly gloomy first years.

⚾

Saying they were gloomy was actually an understatement, Eiko surmised. One had his head covered in a towel, another was bowled over with his arms on his thighs, and the blonde asshole had taken to sprawling his whole arm length over the back of bench he was sitting on while he sweat uncontrollably. It didn’t take a genius to realize every last one of them had lost their spirits and wills over the strenuous three innings. Even the ones that hadn’t been playing had batted breath.

She encouragingly stepped in, “What’s wrong, guys? What’s with the gloomy faces?”

Everyone in the dugout turned to look at Eiko, who had finally swept her hair into a ponytail after it had gotten in her face earlier.

“We only just finished the third inning! We still have six more to turn this whole thing around, so let’s not lose our spirit!!!” She started laughing to make more mirth, while the others just sweatdropped in dread at the thought that she could even think of reversing the score when they were just concerned about how many more runs they could give up.

Mummers started to float around, the typical ones anyway…

How could a girl understand. What is she thinking? She’s just a girl. She doesn’t know what it’s like.

The blonde guy always had to open his mouth to say the usual worst one though. “ You’ll never understand unless you play them. Stop talking big you loud mouthed girl. You probably don’t even know what the speed of batted balls, real runners or slides are like since you grew up in the sticks and your body isn’t the same as ours.”

Everyone went silent as if waiting for a response from her, she held her head high to encourage them rather than bring them down like they were trying to do to her.

The strong and steely voice that seemed to bounce off the walls of the dugout permeated into the freshmen’s souls. “You can’t go onto a battlefield thinking you’ll be defeated, or else you’ll never play like you usually do and you will definitely lose that way. Rather, why don’t you try to test your skills against the upperclassmen.”

She smiled at them before gesturing to herself. “That’s what I’m going to do anyway. I can’t tell if I’m weak unless I face someone stronger, and you can’t get stronger unless you are first weak.”

They were all stunned into silence again from her words and slowly seemed to rise from their struggling messes, until the blondie went and brought it all down again. “Shut up. You’re just a girl. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why don’t you just go back home to Nagano or whatever. I’m sure they miss having idiotic country girls over there.”

Miyuki slid into the dugout stealthily since he couldn’t hear as well from the bullpen area and Eiko had been clumsy enough to leave her glove.

Eiko’s golden eyes seemed like a predator’s. “Be weak then. If you aren’t even willing to struggle, you don’t deserve to ever be on first string.”

The boy got up to slam her against the wall. “Yeah? And what would you know?”

She matched his gaze. “I know that my roommate messed up once and was kicked off first string for that little mistake that cost them one run in their last match. He swings his bat until two in the morning to make up for it and become better at something he’s already good at.” She pushed him away lightly, “I know that I’ve had to claw my way to get here and that all it would take is one screw up and I could be gone.” Eiko stepped away from the boy to meet Miyuki’s gaze so that he wouldn’t get involved this time. “Finally, I know that if you continue down this path, you will never become first string and you will live a life looking at others that do better than you with jealousy rather than rivalry.”

The coach called for the freshmen to switch and Eiko walked out. She didn’t even care if she could pitch or not, she had to let off some steam. The coach could see it and wasn’t going to give her the mound easily as he pointed to the right outfield.

Despite the fact that she didn’t mind if she couldn’t pitch with the way her mind was muddled, she had still been expecting to walk towards the mound based on her body’s position. Miyuki placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her the glove she had left before pushing her to the outfield on the right side.

That’s all the encouragement she needed as she headed to the spot that had to be filled.

Chapter Text

Eiko immediately started paying attention when the new makeshift team started their defense as the upperclassmen headed to the plate. Although Eiko knew she wasn’t the best when it came to outfielding, she wasn’t the worst. She had practiced it a lot when she realized that pitchers had to catch pop flies, and it was part of her dream to expand and perfect as much as possible when it came to baseball.

Oddly enough, the first swing went her way and she easily caught it before finding the first baseman and throwing it his way. The only problem was that since she was making a fast play, she wasn’t paying attention to her grip and the ball managed to curve low and hit the baseman in the groin. It was almost amusing to find that the baseman was the blonde boy.

She could see everyone go from shocked to amused at the poor boy’s predicament.

Though that was immediately lost at the serious nature of the fact that the blondie had dropped the ball - allowing the batter to run all the way to third.

The boy had fallen immediately to the ground with an ashen face, and was trembling in pain. It only took him a few moments to get up, but the damage was already done. The audience and the players were clearly stuck between laughter, disappointment, and pity.

Overall, Eiko could only really hear and appreciate Miyuki laughing and clutching his stomach to the point that tears were falling down his face.

At least I don’t have to worry about that stupid baseman considering me weak anymore. Eiko smirked.

Immediately after the play, the coach called for someone else to take the place of the pitcher who had fallen into a mental breakdown from seeing a runner on third after his first pitch. He couldn’t take it and Eiko couldn’t blame him. The worst pain for a pitcher is to be hit.

The one who walked up on the mound was the very same tall and dark haired boy that Eiko had started seeing around.

She smiled when she saw him wind back and prayed for the first year catcher.

I hope he doesn’t break your face.

Eiko wasn’t shocked to find that the ball had bounced off the catcher’s mitt and caused the coach’s mask to fly off because the catcher couldn’t even catch a cusp of the pitch. The shaded man had moved out of the way at just the right second. Coach Kataoka looked at him with a wild grin. “Congratulations Furuya, you can practice with the first-string starting tomorrow.”

He pointed to Eiko in the outfield, “Pitcher and inning change.” She started walking back when the third years made a fuss about how they wanted to hit his pitch and not to just change the inning back to defense for them, but the coach had cut them down since he knew none of the first years would be able to catch it Furuya’s pitch.

Furuya quickly walked over to Eiko with purpose and held up her hand before doing something unbecoming of him. He yelled back to home, “She can catch it. I know she can!”

The coach contemplated for a minute just because the sheer image of it seemed amusing, but shook his head. He didn’t want Eiko to catch since he knew he wanted to see her skills on the mound. He could already tell that the two would be amazing rivals, one of them likely to be ace or captain, and Coach Kataoka already had a perfect catcher for the next two years. He then  considered getting Miyuki into the mix, but the catcher had made it clear that he would only participate unless he absolutely had to, and he would likely only do so for Eiko.

The man sighed and motioned that Furuya could head back to the bench, making the boy give off an aggressive aura. It was clear that he only wanted to pitch, and for some reason he took out his frustration by glaring at the girl beside him who only glared right back in retaliation.

Definitely rivals indeed. The coach smirked and the game continued.

⚾

It was Eiko’s turn to bat first in the sixth inning, and she was fired up. “Four more innings! We can do this! We’re not going down without a fight!” She manically swung her bat with a huge grin on her face. Letting out cackles occasionally to boost the freshmen’s spirits.

She happily pointed at herself, “Don’t worry guys. I’ll lead the way.” She turned to her team with a smile and winked over at Miyuki, who had moved back to the bullpen area, “We’ll start by taking a run back. Kay?” Eiko ran without reservation to the home plate, both not wanting to hear the freshmen get more depressed and also not wanting Coach Kataoka to call the game.

Eiko immediately noticed that the upperclassmen pitchers had been changed while she was getting ready, and she also realized that it was the same pitcher she had helped weeks before when he was getting attacked by the overgrown gorilla.

She glared at him because she needed to hit the next ball perfectly, it didn’t matter who was on the mound, and her mind flashed to something Kazuya had said in the past to her:

You’re batting lefty, so you’re already closer to first base. Hit it and run.

That’s right. She didn’t need a home run. She just needed a solid hit so she could get to base.

She saw the ball coming out and low and debated on whether to swing or not. Eiko took the chance, not one to really turn away from a challenge, and swung. Only to miss it by a few centimeters.

She held up her hand to do a few practice swings, trying to get used to how low the ball was pitched, and slowly got back into her stance.

The next ball was very similar in speed, but slightly higher and inside causing her to miss the ball completely. Her face twisted up in her fierce concentration. She didn’t like getting tricked by pitching habits, but she didn’t have any intel on the person in front of her. Eiko gave a frustrated sigh and tried to imagine where the next pitch would go.

Her gut was telling her that it would be a mixture of the two. Inside and low.

It was times like this that made her wish she could ask Miyuki through signs for confirmation along with conversing the batting lineup and likely pitches before her turn in the batting order.

She took another deep breath and went into her stance, waiting for the ball to make its way to her.

The boy in front of her swung his arm down, one eye barely visible because of his hat, and in an instance the ball was going where she was expecting it. Her least favorite location. Inside and low, one of the hardest pitches to hit for a lefty. It was like the world slowed down, and she saw what would happen.

If she didn’t lower enough, she would miss the ball completely. She tried to bend her knees to compensate.

Eiko’s golden eyes took in the fact that the game would be over for her before it even really started because even though she touched the ball a bit, it was still on course to the mitt. “Damn it!”

That’s when a ray of hope made its way onto the field, when she didn’t hear the ball enter the mitt.

⚾

It took her a bit for her body to move in response to the lack of ball hitting leather.

In her daze, she heard a shout from the dugout, “The catcher dropped the ball!!!!”

Eiko didn’t have time to be shocked, she had the advantage and she took hold of it - quickly running to first base as fast as she could, making her trip on her way and get a face full of dirt and plate. She heaved over the plate with a smile. She knew she was safe before the umpire even called it.

Of course there were mummers going around that a girl was the only one to go on base, but she was too tired and happy to care.

Then like a parasite invading her ears, she just had to hear the tanuki rub in the fact that it was just an uncaught third strike and luck was not a skill from the sidelines. Her immediate response of ‘asshole’ in sign language, or an upside down OK sign, and sticking out her tongue at the boy caused everyone gazing at them to sweatdrop.

Eiko slowly got up and changed her upside down OK sign to a normal one so Miyuki would know she was actually alright because of the fall she had made for the plate. She was sure she looked like a right mess with her helmet off her head and her long hair matted to the front of her face.

Despite it all, that wouldn’t keep her from grinning.

⚾

Miyuki smiled from the sidelines with a rather dark aura emanating from him.

Overall he was happy that his friend was safe, but she had taken a heavy fall that could have hurt her arm. Part of him was half tempted to haul over to her with Cold Spray and cover her body with it or wrap her in bubble wrap with her clumsiness record, but he held back the urge since he knew she would kick his ass for attempting either one of those things.

Instead he just stuck to smiling and trying not to murder or maim the next person that walked his way. However, that left him to his own thoughts about the rest of the game.

Since someone decided to play hero, my wonderful senpais and fellow second-years are going to go all out on these underclassmen and Eiko will be the one with a target on her back.

He saw the upperclassmen conglomerate on the mound and just shook his head in pity.

Eiko will be fine, but her other teammates are so down in the dumps that it won’t mean anything if she can’t make it home. They have to advance her, or this game will plummet the souls of those first years.

Miyuki heard someone walking his way with blonde hair, and automatically stuck his leg out to trip the first year, still smiling so creepily that the boy didn’t even bother to yell at Miyuki and just slowly returned to the freshmen dugout.

And then there are bastards like this that are still mistreating or mocking her, and they would do anything to ruin any opportunity she has to prove herself. Hopefully, they’ll realize that in the end, the team matters and Seidou will put their all into every game to win it… or they’ll go through hell and lose for the rest of their lives AND I will make sure they never get on first string.

He fixed his glasses, and went back to focusing on the game, only to see Eiko failing to steal the second base and a commotion in the freshmen dugout.

⚾

Two batters out later and Eiko started to sweat a little bit. It was clear that if the underclassmen didn’t score, the coach was going to call the game early. Although she knew that she had proven herself enough for first string practice, that didn’t mean she wanted to let down her teammates.

What I wouldn’t give for Miyuki to be a hitter right now… Seriously… No one else has gotten on base.

She gritted her teeth lightly before thinking, I’m trying to steal a base, but there are no openings.

She looked over to the upperclassmen dugout to see Kuramochi talking with a few of the players. Plus it looks like my fantastic roommate is going to be joining the fray on the other side if the game continues.

Eiko pouted to the side and tried not to get upset about facing her new friend.

That’s when she heard the dugout getting rowdy behind her, apparently Furuya didn’t want to play anything anymore since he had “nothing left to do”. Every part of her was set ablaze in anger.

How dare he give up on this team!? He could still bat, or field, or boost moral, or help people warm up or anything really. Instead he wants to just go train by himself in the middle of a game? A game is never over until the last ball is thrown, and I am still on base!

Eiko fiddled with her hair, I mean I get that the coach only wants results, and he has already proven to be good enough for first string, but it still pisses me off.

She was worried about the lowered moral of the boy leaving, so she addressed her teammates. “Don’t give up! The game’s only just begun! If I can make it back home, then we will have plenty of chances to prove ourselves. Let’s make it to first string everyone! Together!”

Eiko felt the cold jeer from some of her teammates, but was happy to hear Miyuki trying to stop Furuya from leaving.

It seems he still feels the same way I do about baseball.

She paid attention as they spoke and saw Furuya glancing down at the catcher he so admired, “Will you come catch for me now? This game is already over. A single person can’t lead a team to victory. Baseball isn’t that simple.”

Miyuki simply chuckled.

“Then what is an Ace to a team? You can’t play baseball by yourself first-year.”

Still the same then... Miyuki, thank you.

⚾

Eiko finally put her helmet back on when a fellow trooper announced that he was going to be hitting as a pinch hitter, and Eiko couldn’t be happier. That pink haired boy was going to be her new best friend other than Miyuki.

She could tell.

The feeling only became clearer when the boy made a fake sign towards her while blushing. She knew a fake out to distract a pitcher, falling victim to them occasionally herself. Eiko made a short one back and got ready for anything the other threw at her, hoping for a chance to get to the next base or third.

The blushed with a serious face and held up a finger, with his left arm before taking to the plate after his sign.

He wants to get a run. Let’s do this together then!

Eiko smiled at the boy and nodded before getting in position for whatever type of ball he could possibly hit. She was hoping for either a bunt, or a hit to outfield, but she didn’t want all the pressure to be on her, so she was prepared to steal too.

She saw him hold the bat way up high and she slowly started to laugh. This guy is really interesting huh? She glanced at Miyuki and pointed at the boy a bit with an awed smile.

All she got back was an eye roll and a sign that screamed: “PAY ATTENTION!”

Eiko had realized that the reason her new friend had such an extreme grip was to get a certain pitch. So as soon as she saw the pitcher wind up, she began to run for her life.

The pitcher and catcher weren’t sure of how to handle the weird grip, and went with the safe bet of an outside pitch. However, at the last second, the boy lowered his hands into a normal grip and swung the bat - hitting the ball along the foul line into the outfield.

Since Eiko had been running the whole time, she had already passed third and was running straight to the plate before anyone could do anything.

She slid onto home when she saw the catcher trying to get the ball back and maneuvered her body just right so that even if he caught it in time, he still wouldn’t be able to get her with his glove.

“Safe!”

Eiko heard the outroar of the crowd and dugout, even the blonde jerk was cheering. Even her new soon to be friend had made it to second, in a perfect position to make a second run if the right person batted next.

She bent her knees before jumping up with a large smile and a boisterous laugh, “I made it! We’ve got a run! Like I said the game’s only just begun!”

Miyuki looked on at his childhood best friend with more pride than she could probably imagine him having for her; it wasn’t every day that someone had the pleasure of acting like an ace before becoming one.

You cleared the first tests, haven’t you Eiko?

Chapter Text

Eiko happily dusted off her uniform as she made her way back to the dugout, receiving slaps on the back and fist bumps along the way. She knew that since she had scored, there was no way the game would be stopping early, despite the large gap in score.

Though to her dismay, her new pink haired friend couldn’t make it back home since no one else could get a piece of the ball after them.

She plopped down on the bench and waited to watch the show when the third year catcher got up to talk with the coach after the last out was called for her team.

“Can we keep playing coach? Are you really stopping the game after this inning? We can’t let it end right after the first-years scored. The whole point of this game is to show them who means more business.”

The coach kept a stern look on his face as he raised his hand into the sky. “Both teams line up!”

Eiko, and most of the student body, looked on in shock that the man was attempting to call the game. Though Eiko concealed it by lying down on the bench and hiding her face.

“C-Coach!” The catcher from before pleaded.

The man wasn’t going to back down an inch, “Wrap it up, now. Even if we keep playing the gap will only get wider. However, if everyone on the first-year team wants to continue, it’s a different story.”

Coach Kataoka smiled lightly, “Well? What is it going to be first-years?”

None of the first-years spoke up, many even decided to look at the ground, and that when Eiko knew she had to say something from her spot on her bench.

“Don’t ya’ll like baseball?” No one around her answered her, making her just scoff to the side. “Then there must be something wrong with you if you’re on this team.”

The first-years started to go into an uproar over her words some shouting that she would never understand, but they fell on deaf ears. She knew how important teams and batteries were in baseball. It was the most basic concept of the game that made it fun. She needed everyone to want to play, or there was no point. The coach would call the game.

“If ya’ll let it end here, then you must hate baseball. Even when things get tough, you have to push through and keep pushing until you get a result you like! This might be our last or only chance to prove ourselves!”

Eiko stood up and pointed her finger at her teammates, “Can you say you played all out today? Can you swear on your hearts?”

“Stop acting so big when you just got on base by luck!!!” The blonde boy from before aggravatingly yelled at her. “Just because you made some good plays, doesn’t mean the faults of this team don’t lay on your shoulders as well!”

Miyuki had come over in the commotion and was using every ounce of his control to not punch the boy again, but he didn’t really have to worry about it when he saw Eiko’s expression. He knew she had it handled.

She walked up to the boy and twisted both of her hands into his shirt to get him down to her level. “Yeah, they do! They lay on everyone else’s too!” She jerked him down further.

“We’re all frustrated,” she glared at him, “So if you think you’re better at everything, prove it. Make this game last longer and prove it to me.” Eiko let go of his shirt, causing him to fall to the ground. “Because I don’t care if everyone hates me for a mistake or if I fail and fail and fail. All I care about is throwing from the mound, and I want to do that with you and the rest of this team!!! GOT IT?!?!?”

Eiko breathed hard after her rant and tried not to cough. She didn’t need an asthma attack on top of everything else, so after holding out a hand to help the boy up, she made her way to the bench and sat down until she had her breathing under control.

After the first-years made their pleas to Coach Kataoka, the play was continued and she heard the words she had been waiting for all day from her little nook.

“Kid, starting this inning, you’re pitching… also, you can pick your catcher out of anyone here.”

⚾

Eiko excitedly got up and looked at Miyuki as though she were a puppy screaming I want Kazuya as my catcher.

At least that’s what she looked like before she placed a finger on her cheek and drummed her face with a pout.

“Wait… Is Chris here?”

Everyone looked at her as though she were crazy. After all the Miyuki Kazuya had been watching her game the whole time and supporting her from the side.

Miyuki just looked straight up angry with his eyebrows scrunched together so much that they almost looked like a unibrow.

Coach Kataoka’s eyebrows shot up in surprise that the girl even knew who Chris was. Let along wanted him to catch for her. However, the coach was very familiar with the boy’s schedule and promptly shook his head, “I’m afraid Chris isn’t here today. Maybe you can catch him some time and ask him to practice with you.”

Eiko nodded and then pointed at a random boy on the team.

“Then I pick this guy.”

Immediately after that remark, she felt someone clutching her shirt and moving her back and forth.

“Hey Ei-chan~ Do you only have dead brain cells in there? You’ve been wanting me to catch for you this whole time~ and now that you have the chance you want someone else to instead? What’s with that~ huh Bakamura?”

Eiko smiled through the whiplash Miyuki was causing and simply said, “But Bakazuya, it’s not you’ve taken the time to learn my new pitches or come up with signs for them~”

“Are you underestimating my catching ability?”

“Are you underestimating my pitches?”

The stared each other down until Miyuki set her down, “Cheeky brat. Do what you want, but don’t come crying to me if that catcher gives up on you.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and motioned for the guy that she picked to come over with a simple twist of her finger.

“Okay dude, we need a game plan.”

She smiled wickedly.

⚾

Eiko stood on the mound happily, thinking of what she was going to do first. She had worked out a couple of the signs with the catcher and let him know that her ball was going to move like crazy depending on the grip she used. She only gave him four of them to use for the match:

1: Normal four seamer

2: Sinking two seamer

3: Normal two seamer

4: Outercourse four seamer

Any more than four, and it would take too long to flush out the details. She wanted to do that with Miyuki, not some random and nameless player that she likely would never play with again. Plus there were some of her pitches that still had kinks she needed to work out.

When she first started playing baseball with Miyuki, she didn’t know how to properly grip the ball, so it would move at the plate sometimes and other times it wouldn’t.

For awhile it drove the two of them insane until they realized that it all came down to her grip. So she focused on the two main grips in the magazines Miyuki gave her. The two seamer and the four seamer in retrospect were very similar until she threw both of them over and over again

The two seamer looks like it could hit a right handed batter and executed correctly moves suddenly at the plate causing it to be hard to hit and to catch.

The four seamer allows her to hold the ball with her fingers until the last possible second. Depending on her windup, it looks like the fastball accelerates right when it goes over the plate. The outercourse just causes a slight variation that is enough to not get hit.

Then there’s just her idiosyncratic pitches in general, with the pitching form she and Miyuki had worked on for so long as kids, it was impossible to tell where the pitches would eventually go. It was her biggest strength and weakness against batters. Something they could try to abuse or something they might lose to.

It all came down to 4 seconds. That’s all that determined whether a pitch was hit or not.

She wound up when the first batter appeared and started her mental clock.

4 seconds.

⚾

Miyuki glared from the distance, but tried to exude his normal I don’t care aura mixed with a pinch of salt as he stood next to Furuya, who had decided to stick around in the end.

It’s not like we haven’t waited for years to be a battery or anything you freaking brat. Miyuki pushed up his glasses with a slight pout and sigh. Maybe there’s a reason for this. He looked back at the game.

“Despite her methods and wording, she lit a fire in everyone’s hearts. She really is like a mini-Ace right now.”

He was cut off from speaking with Furuya again when a voice cut through. “AS IF SHE DOES YOU IDIOT? WHAT’S WITH THIS TURNOUT AGAINST THE FIRST YEARS HUH ?!?!?! ONE RUN ALREADY?! YOU SHOULD BE UP BY 200 RUNS!!!”

Miyuki had to try hard not to rub the back of his neck in agitation. So the rest of the first string decided to show up. Hello to you too Jun. He glowered at the voice before finding that the captain - Tetsuya - and Ryou had joined the party.

“SWITCH WITH ME I’LL PLAY!!!”

Tetsuya held Jun back with and arm before tugging him off, “You just lifted. Stop acting like an idiot. Plus that’s the kid that struck Azuma out, you should pay attention.”

“What??? That was her? ”

Even as they yelled, Miyuki was too busy paying attention to the game. He watched from the side as Eiko began her play. With a slight smile, she wound up and blocked her pitch with her body and arm, before releasing the ball towards the batter.

1.

The batter tried to assess the ball to see how he should hit it. Making sure his feet were planted and his knuckles were in a row.

2.

The ball twisted and turned in an odd pattern, but it was still clearly going down the middle. The batter waited for any other changes, hoping he had it right as he swung his arms back.

3.

The ball followed the same path, and so the batter planted his feet prepared to hit it into the outfield as far as he could with a turn of his hips.

4.

He hit it and prayed that it would go where he wanted it to, only for it to end up in the glove of the left fielder mere seconds later.

“Nice going left field!!!” Eiko struck a happy pose

The batter moved off to give the next some advice. “It’s just a stupid fastball right down the middle. I got faked for a second there. Just swing.”

Miyuki stifled a laugh. Not quite, it moved just a few centimeters at the end. Any further down and it would have been a homer, up and it would have been a pop fly. Her balls move so slightly that you don’t even consider why they’re going into the fielder’s gloves.

“Gotta hand that one down to the left-fielder who was defending a little back.”

“It’s just a matter of time until she starts taking a beating. Her fastballs are ones that the third-years are familiar with.”

Miyuki smiled, Point in case. No one knows except for a few people. If they don’t figure out what Eiko’s pitch actually is, they’re going to get hammered by the defense.

Kuramochi stepped up to the plate.

Good luck you two.

Chapter Text

Kuramochi stared Eiko down. Just because they were roommates didn’t mean he planned on going easy on her. Much less because she was a girl. If he didn’t give it his all, some part of him knew that everyone, including himself, would be disappointed. He glared at her to get his point across.

Give me your best pitch Eiko.

Kuramochi gritted his teeth as a fastball went towards him, he swung for it to pop up behind the catcher, missing the top part of the ball, but coming down too fast for the catcher to grab it for the out. The next one sunk, and once again, Kuramochi hit it. Everyone’s breath hitched as the white ball flew even with the right foul line in a perfect position in the outfield - an area not covered by a baseman or outfielder. He went ahead and ran before the ball was officially called.

“ FOUL.”

Eiko’s eyes became steely. The hit was too close for comfort, but now Kuramochi was cornered.

She wound up, blocking her arm’s angle, as it came down like a whip in the midst of bated breath.

⚾

Kuramochi swung at air.

One of the stars of the first string team, couldn’t hit the ball as it flew by him.

Eiko breathed a sigh of relief as her hardest challenge in the game, so far, came to a close.

Afterall, every hitter afterwards was almost like gear work thanks to her new pink haired friend on second base.

After Kuramochi, one of the hitters had managed a low ball towards second. It seemed second-nature to the baseman as he twisted his body to swiftly send the ball to first base. The sheer twisting motion of his body amazed Eiko to no end, that she couldn’t stop gushing about it for at least five minutes straight while she patted the other on the back on their way to the after the inning.

Miyuki meanwhile glanced over at his fellow first stringers that hadn’t joined in the game yet when the captain spoke up, “A moving fastball that curves right at the plate, huh? That’s gonna be tough….”

The catcher smirked, Of course Tetsu would figure it out.

“You know her pitch is only going to get wilder from here. I think she can even do things like increase the speed or change the way it curves if she really put her mind to it, but she doesn’t want to mess up the first year catcher.”

The third years of the group especially looked disgruntled as they looked to the first year bench.

Eiko stood at the center of a circle, “All right everyone! No runs!!!! LET’S KEEP THIS UP!!!”

Jun clenched his teeth, “This is why I hate first years. They have no clue what it’s like.”

Miyuki sharp tongue, which always served him well, came out quicker than a dry skippy. “You’re an idiot. Eiko has been through plenty, don’t you think it’s you who doesn’t have a clue what it’s like?”

Aggressors always lead to aggression, so Miyuki wasn’t surprised to feel hands wrap up in the material of his shirt or a face centimeters from his face while he nonchalantly looked to the side. “WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU PUNK?” His face twisted in disgust when Jun-germs ended up all over his face and glasses.

He wiped them off with a sour and dark look.

“Eiko was on a junior high team with complete novices, they couldn’t even catch fly balls. Yet, she never gave up on one game and played to the best of her abilities - leading her team without a moment's hesitation. Despite her abilities, teams still looked down on her and some even borderline harassed her… and do you want to know the worst part?!?! She didn’t tell me this, Rei did.”

Miyuki moved his face to glare at the one above his with an upturned lipped snarl, “Tell me how she doesn’t know what it’s like to lose or to be looked down on, and try to convince me that she doesn’t have the qualities of a true ace!”

Still in Jun’s face, Miyuki growled out, “She’s clawed her way here just like everyone else.”

After a glaring contest, Jun let Miyuki go with a gruff as he walked towards the fence kicking some stray rocks on his way, and letting out a couple other curse words on his way.

Miyuki turned his attention back to the game when the first-years were on defence again and had to really try hard not to laugh, smirk , giggle, clutch his stomach, or do any of his other displays of mirth.

Masuko was up to bat.

Looks like roommate #2 is up, Eiko. Try not to screw up. He’s batted three hits and six runs in this game and he likely has a good idea on how your fastball works.

⚾

Eiko was on her way to the mound when she caught sight of the next batter, Asuka-senpai . She briskly made sure her wild hair was still in its ponytail and secured through her precious signed cap. She was happy that her going away present was one of her favorite articles of clothing - a baseball cap. She figured they must have thought of it since one of her philosophies was that she was pitching well if her baseball cap fell off during her pitch.

His voice broke through, “Sawamura-chan, I’m determined to be back on first-string. Give me the best pitches you have.” Eiko smiled, “Of course!” It was almost ironic hearing Kuramochi laugh from the bench about a roommate battle when they had already done that themselves earlier, but she let him have his laugh at their expense.

Her eyes glossed over in focus, I’ve only really been pitching down the center for the most part, but I can’t give Asuka-senpai something so lackluster. He asked for the best and this is the newest pitch grip I’m working on.

She placed her pointer finger and middle finger apart on the ball, almost like she were throwing a forkball, and wound up like normal before releasing the ball while yelling, “HEAD TO HEAD THERE’S NO OTHER WAY.”

It looked like one of her fastballs, but right when it got to Masuko - it dipped dramatically and fell into the catcher’s mitt. The next ball had the same result, but as she wound up the third time, her vision started to go a bit fuzzy.

Miyuki couldn’t take his eyes off of her or her pitch. She really has improved that Bakamura.

Eiko was doing her best not to show her pain on her face. The adrenaline must have hidden it… I haven’t used my inhaler today… Eiko quickly steeled herself and threw the best fastball she could manage under the circumstances.

Masuko hit it over the fence easily, and since it moved a lot at the plate - he assumed it was Eiko’s best pitch.

Eiko stood on the mound with a large smile, shocking everyone except Miyuki. Despite the homerun that her roommate got off of her. Because even though it was hard to breath, all she wanted to do was pitch more and more.

She took a shaky breath, and managed a horsy, “Let’s do that again!!! HEAD TO HEAD”

The catcher made an ‘x’ with their arms, “We’re not doing that again!”

⚾

As soon as the inning was over, so was the game, and it left Eiko frantically looking for one of her inhalers in her bag before lineup. She managed to grab it just in time and finally felt her lungs ease up from their crushing and irritating fest.

The final score was 1-12. However, Eiko had only given up the one run to her roommate, and part of her was proud.

Thanks to the game, her senpai and roommate was back on the roster, but another part of her was extremely irritated because there was a nagging feeling that due to her condition on the last pitch, she didn’t give him the best fastball she could have at any other given time. She sighed in defeat and took it with a grain of salt yelling at herself to do better next time.

CURSE MY LUNGS!!! I’LL DEFEAT YOU ONE DAY ASTHMA!!!!

She skipped happily into her room after the game before anyone else could get back, since the first string had a meeting, and started eating a huge tub of ice cream while watching a wrestling match.

For some reason, watching two people fight mano a mano made everything in her life feel like nothing in comparison. Especially whenever they got handled in the ribs. She heard some footsteps coming up to the door with a high pitched laugh to follow along with a familiar chuckle, “I bet she’s crying in the room about not being ace!”

Miyuki stepped into the room with Kuramochi only for both of them to end up drop kicked. “WHO’S CRYING OVER NOT BEING THE ACE YOU TURD?”

Within seconds, Eiko found herself on her back being tickled to death. Tear started to form in her eyes while she gasped for breath, “OK! I GIVE! I GIVE!”

Miyuki immediately put his hands in the air with a sneaky smile, “Still ticklish, Bakamura?”

She quickly fixed her hair a bit and walked over to grab her ice cream so she could keep eating it before it melted, “Get that shit-eating grin off of your face you pretty boy catcher. It doesn’t suit you!” She pouted with a spoon in her mouth in between gobbling down the cold dessert.

He just shrugged and sauntered over to the game system underneath the television. He inserted a DVD into it without speaking a word. Eiko crawled over, “oooooooHHHHHH What are we watching?!”

“An awesome movie about history!” Kuramochi pitched in before Miyuki could.

Eiko got stars in her eyes, “Wow!!! I love history!! Mind if I watch with ya’ll?”

They both shrugged, and Eiko missed their mischievous looks before they started the movie.

⚾

Miyuki glanced at Eiko as she made the perfect impersonation of a clothed ghost. Shivering and barely looking at the screen a mere few moments into the movie from under her blanket, which is what he considered the perfect retribution for his close friend drop kicking him earlier.

“S-S-S-So this is r-r-r-real?” Eiko choked out in between stutters.

Kuramochi eye smiled with a laugh, “I might have lied a little bit, but this is based off a true story.”

Eiko wrapped herself tighter and seemed on the verge of tears - clearly knowing it was possibly true, and therefore the people lived, did not reassure her or make her feel any less scared of the noises the ‘demons’ were making.

She felt an arm wrap around her and pull her close to a warm source, “You don’t have to actually watch, Bakamura.”

Miyuki wrinkled his nose when he felt a slight wetness form along his chest when he was finally graced by her voice, albeit through tears, “It doesna make tha sound go athway.” His mood was slowly darkening at her extreme reactions and sounds. “Eiko~?” He felt her jump. “Either stop crying and use that tiny brain you have, or I will tape your eyes open and then tape you to a chair and play horror movies all night long~~~. You have two fingers. Use them.”

Eiko grabbed his shirt and flung him back and forth, “THAT’S NO WAY TO COMFORT SOMEONE YOU ASS!!!”

She quickly got up, with a pointed glare of malice, and stomped to some supplies she had brought from home. She rummaged through a couple of glass items, and yelled triumphantly when she found what she was looking for - salt. And not some dumb store brand… No, it was real salt that was typically only found in Nagano’s Shioyokan Sweets, carefully placed in a small plastic bag.

“I’D LIKE TO SEE THE DEMONS GET ME NOW!” She flung the tiny precipitated particles at the door and windows, and even flung some at the TV since the guys had paused the movie when she threw her tantrum; leaving it right when the ghost was visible.

Miyuki had tears in his eyes from trying not to laugh, and Kuramochi had already broken out into his cackle.

Eiko turned towards her spectacled friend, “Now what to do about this one… BEGONE FOUL BEING!!!!” She dumped the rest of the salt she had over Miyuki’s head with a sickly sweet smile. Some of it spread across the floor, but most of it landed in his hair - making a tiny mountain

“Demon crisis avoided.” She swiped her hands together to get any salt leftover on her hands onto Miyuki.

Then with a triumphant grin, grabbed the remote to the gaming system.

“Now let’s finish the film!”

She was tickled to death before she could even hit the button by a certain demon boy.

Chapter Text

Eiko’s eyes twitched as she stared at her upperclassmen on the field. Everyone was so energetic since some big name guys were watching them to determine if they wanted to continue funding the baseball team or not…

Talk about annoying…

Especially when she was biting the dust thanks to a certain horror movie and evil best friend and roommate combo. Though, even then she wasn’t the least energetic person on the field; that title will always go to the third years that have lost their last chance to be on first string.

She gave a passing glance to the little circus happening. Her roommate and his little demon friend were doing some gymnastic stunts across the bases while the others did some batting and fielding practice with Miyuki catching and calling signs to multiple players.

Needless to say the men were impressed. Well, until the coach gave them the eye.

She knew the look too well and she had only known the man for a few days.

Eiko closed her eyes to focus on her other senses, as she had some pretty decent hearing when she wasn’t distracted by shiny things. Through the wind and the sound of Tanba’s pitches she was able to deduce the funders mentioning something to piss off the Boss Man about pitchers and aces since they were staring into the pen with their eyes on Tanba.

Their freaking funeral. They should really consider not saying anything else before the Boss murders them or somethin’.

Eiko sighed and swept her hair back into a loose ponytail, pushing her bangs up into her cap so she could run without anything in her face. She took a deep breath and screamed as she sprinted with a tire attached to her torso.

Although one might think it’s stupid for someone to be screaming and running when that person has asthma, it’s a GREAT way to build up lung capacity and space between attacks. Plus she had so many secret inhalers it was doubtful someone would catch her using one if things got hairy.

Though, that didn’t stop the cold sweat on the back of her neck from Miyuki squinting at her from home base.

Weirdo. She squinted back when she passed by.

Which just resulted in him flicking her off subtly so the funders couldn’t see. Resulting in an even more subtle kick to his side as she passed by the second time.

After a few hours of running around and catching her breath occasionally the Boss Man called everyone in for a meeting. Though some of the other first years still ran around including her new pink haired friend.

He stood in front of the baseball team with his arms behind his back, every player lined up at attention. “Everyone, we have two months before the tournament… practicing without any goal is a waste of time.” The coach settled his eyes on the first string members, “The first step in climbing a mountain and a hill are physically the same, but mentally different.”

His voice echoed passionately, that even if the team were standing hundreds of feet away from him they would be able to hear his words.

“Which one are we climbing?!? The hill or the mountain? Objectives breathe life into every day slumps! Be ambitious and never neglect your training.”

Eiko smiles at the philosophy of it and as soon as the meeting broke, stretched to run some more.

I haven’t been told if I’m first string or not, so I need to work off the assumption I’m not despite the likelihood I am. That means I need to work hard for the doubleheader second string games.

She enthusiastically ran around with a smile on her face yelling out chants when she got even a little tired.

⚾

After a few hours she and Furuya were called to the Bench on the first string field A.

They were greeted by a certain Tanuki, Rei, and a tall dark hero that made Eiko’s eyes sparkle and she immediately started bowing and raving at the same time. “CHRIS! OH MY GOODNESS. I HAVE WANTED TO MEET YOU FOR SO LONG AFTER YOUR INTERVIEW. ARE YOU DOING WELL? WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? OH MY GOODNESS. OH MY GOOD-“

Miyuki quickly put a hand over her mouth. “Would you calm down Bakamura? Seriously. Freaking fan girl, doesn’t even know how to shut up.”

She quickly got out of his grip and tried to rein herself in, but just ended up a red-faced stuttering mess. “S-S-S-Sorry. I was just really conflicted when I thought I-I-I might not be able to see this tanuki catcher of mine again and actually was shooting for S-S-Seidou just because of a game I saw you play once and I felt like I could learn a lot from you.”

Kazuya reeled back at that information on the inside. So wait, Eiko and I both decided to come here because of Chris???

Rei quickly scanned her sheet, “Well, it looks like you and Furuya will be forming batteries and starting the pitcher training menu with Chris and Miyuki respectively. The coach thinks you both might be pitching in next week’s Kanto tournament -  so Sawamura you might need to go over your signs and pickoffs with Miyuki on your own time, which shouldn’t be difficult since you have individual practices with him during evening hours.”

Kazuya got his composure back and gave Rei a grin, “Yeah, Furuya has power, but his control is trash. He’ll need to throw a hundred pitches every day to build endurance and skill to match Eiko’s.”

Even though Furuya seemed cool as he said, “I will do what Miyuki tells me to do,” everyone could tell that he was bent out of shape by being told he was under Eiko in skill.

… Furuya did respect both Miyuki and Eiko since they could catch his pitches.

Miyuki burst out laughing at Eiko’s expression when Furuya was being so humble - she was clearly jealous. “Heheheh, this guy!” He went over to the pitcher and slunk and arm around him. “This is gonna be great!”

Rei rolled her eyes and fixed her glasses, “Eiko, you will be working with Chris since Kataoka said that you were interested in him catching your pitches. He’s going to help to solidify some of your principles and help you in any area you feel you need assistance with.”

Chris, who had stayed relatively silent the whole time except for a grunt or rustle here or there, stuck out his hand to shake. Eiko carefully stuck hers out as well and took his hand in hers, “Pleasure to work with you.”

“I’m Chris Yu Takigawa. You’re... different .”

Rei and Miyuki tried not to look too shocked, but Chris had rarely spoken since the game months ago. He just kind of did his own thing, and his low baritone was a loss that shook them until they heard again.

Miyuki dipped his head lightly. You know Ei-chan. I think you two will be good for each other. I will catch for you soon, but I think he needs you right now. You really are the Sun and Chris has a little too much overcast that you can clear up.

⚾

Chris was currently stretching Eiko out on the sidelines while everyone else continued doing field practice, which Furuya sucked at might she add… Luckily Tanba is nice from what she could tell and gave the poor sap some advice on how to field as a pitcher. It all came down to experience, and she knew that given time - her rival pitcher would be a force of nature (not like he wasn’t one already).

“You are flexible.” She huffed when Chris did a particularly hard twist of her arm to the point where it felt like they should be pretzels. “I’ve been told, but I don’t think I’m that flexib-OW”

Chris winced very lowly apologetically as he made notes. “You’re likely just tense and sore from morning practice. What I really want to know is why you ignored your catcher and went for head-to-head battles during the scrimmage. Are pitchers just targets to you?”

Eiko felt a chill go down her spine that was followed by a shiver, “Well in truth, my natural pitch goes anywhere depending on how I grip the ball. I didn’t have enough time to work out the multiple different numbers of pitches that I have created to the pitcher. Plus, even though it’s wrong of me to think this way, I only wanted to tell Miyuki about them since in a way - he helped me create them. Also, I had everyone’s wishes on my back, and at the time given the circumstance; I felt a head-to-head battle would be better since most of the players were questioning my abilities given my gender.”

Chris went to the plate in the bullpen, “Throw what you normally would without these grips of yours and lets go from there.”

She threw a straight pitch into his mitt.

He cocked his head to the side, “I don’t think that’s a pitch you were talking about before. That’s a decent fastball though.”

Eiko grinned and sent the next one, which brushed his shoulder. Another that brushed the other shoulder. Two that curved into his knee padding, and one back to the mitt. They all changed course at the plate.

Chris slowly got up and went by Eiko giving her a light head pat and left to go work on something important…

At least he didn’t come back.

⚾

Eiko stared at a list written in a scroll that a manager had delivered to her:

10 Hill Sprint, 10 Scissor Jumps (x3), 10 Push Press (x2), 10 MB Sit Up Throw (x2), 10 Ballistic Lunge (x2), 15 Dumbbell Push and Low (x2), 10 MB Overhand (x3), 15 Lunge and Twist (x2).

Eiko shrugged her shoulders and did each listed item at a slow pace since she was still pretty beat up from the workout of the day. If I can’t do this much, I don’t deserve the ace number. Plus I needed to probably work my core and inner muscles. Preventing injuries are important. She continued to work into sundown, listening to the pitches that Furuya threw as she finished up her lunges outside with one of the school medicine balls thrown to the side.

“Hey, let’s call it a day here, Furuya. If you throw too much, you won’t make it through the summer.”

Furuya’s reply got lost, but Miyuki’s voice was clear to Eiko since she was on the other side of his wall, “Just ten more then.”

After she heard her favorite sound in the whole world 10 more times she stepped in and sent a glance at Miyuki. “Oy, Bakazuya, can we talk for a bit?” Miyuki took off his helmet and glasses. “What’s going on Bakamura?”

She went over and grabbed her scroll, showing it to her best friend and watching as he scanned the exercises before his eyes slitted slightly. “Why are you showing me this?”

“Is there a reason Chris is scared of me getting injured?”

Miyuki scratched the back of his neck, “Everyone’s scared of getting injured Eiko. I’m sure he’s just trying to make sure those muscles are built up just in case of an incident. They’re the best chance of you coming out of an emergency with chances to play again.”

She rolled her eyes, “I know that, idiot tanuki, I just wanted to make sure he was okay. Also the first match is coming up - so I needed to speak with you anyway about my pitch rep.”

He closed his eyes, “Another time, Eiko, Furuya is probably going to pitch this one after Tanba.”

Eiko tried to process his body language, the way Miyuki was tense and rubbing at his eyes as though he had a headache or was tired. She couldn’t help but feel worse for ware herself about the situation. They both wanted to be a battery together, but that would have to wait.

He continued to take his gear off, “Hmmmmmm… I wonder which one of us is more jealous… You or me.”

She chuckled, “Definitely you. I have 3 years to pitch. You have 2 to catch. Even if I never pitch again, however painful that will be, I’ve still come further than anyone else and will keep pushing myself to go even further than that.”

Kazuya clutched onto one of her hands. “Just be careful. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself when everyone is just starting to accept you after that scrimmage.”

He shook his head as he took her back to her room, her laughter sounded like the bells of an angel.

⚾

Eiko didn’t want to seem bitter about not pitching at the first game, but her body seemed to have other ideas. After working herself into the ground and putting Chris’s regimen on top of it then adding in the panic attack she had less than a week ago - her body had had enough and decided to give it back to her in ten fold by form of a head cold.

Luckily it wasn’t that big of a deal. A little cough here, a little sneeze here, and a slight fever there. She was just happy she didn’t have to deal with coddling from anyone since they were busy with the game.

She exited the room to go on a run to hopefully clear up the mucus along with a puff of her inhaler.

It ended with her heaving over a water fountain and trying to cool down since her fever decided to spike on her run. She slowly went back to her room, and crawled into her bed. Her big plan included a date with her pillow and getting up in time to see where Chris trained and get his number so they could work around his schedule since he always left practice early and never seemed to work out on the field.

All the thoughts in her head made her groan. I don’t need a headache on top of everything else. Go to sleep body.

She was happy when her body fell slack and she was in the clouds.

⚾

Eiko awoke with a jolt, and a multitude of shivering. She didn’t even bother glancing at the time as she headed downstairs and to the field to see if anyone was back. To her chagrin, no one was there. Then she heard rustling to her right to see Chris wandering off somewhere. She chased after him only to see him get in a car and drive off.

Thank goodness we’re in Tokyo. She hailed a taxi in front of her and asked the driver to follow the car, which lead her to the… National Training Center?

Eiko quietly followed her catcher through the building. Coughing and shivering along the way. In retrospect - she should have just waited in her room for Kuramochi or Kazuya to come back, but she’s been worried about Chris too and if she didn’t do this now. She didn’t know when she would!

Eiko steeled herself as she stared from the hall into the room Chris had entered to find that he had already changed into workout clothes.

Is that a bandage on his arm and sports tape? She glanced on in shock trying to figure everything out. The weird looks from the older members, the sudden disappearances halfway through practices, the total personality change from what she expected, the desire for her inner and core muscles to be stronger, the fact he wasn’t playing in the strings anymore.

Hot tears started to fill around her eyes, and her suspicions were confirmed by the trainer: “Your subscapularis and pronator teres muscles were completely torn Chris, take it slow.”

She reeled back from the door and staggered down the hall, the shivering mess she was and tears falling down her face and onto the floor in heavy globs along with her sweat. It’s not fair. It’s not fair! IT’S NOT FAIR .

Eiko clenched her fist in a final wave of anger as everything went sideways.

⚾

Everything was a blur. Flashes of white, and faces, she couldn’t pick out what was real and what was fake when she started to choke on something lodged in her throat. As she coughed it was removed.

“Sorry hon. Figured I would take it out while you were having a coughing fit. It was only there to make you breathe. You ended up with a bad case of pneumonia sweetheart. Do you remember? It’s been a good amount of hours since you passed out”

Eiko squinted, trying to fix her jumbled thoughts and eventually nodded her head at the person probably in scrubs across from her.

She rasped out, “Thought it was a cold. Who found me?”

The nurse swooned, “Oh this sweet boy! Is he your boyfriend? You should date him if you’re not!” She wiggled her eyebrows at Eiko.

“It was honestly absolutely heart wrenching the way he was trembling as he clutched you to him with tears all down his face. Some taller and dark haired boy was with him too and of course someone brash decided to join them as well later on with some quiet pink haired kid!” The nurse turned to Eiko with a glint, “Of course that’s just what the EMTs said. Maybe you should ask the boys yourself. They just left to grab something to eat when I forced them out.”

Everything became much clearer, and the nurse, who Eiko now saw had cute curly brown hair and blue scrubs, singsonged a goodbye as she walked over the threshold.

After a few moments of quiet, she heard heavy footsteps approach the door and some distant yelling about who could go in first - she had half a mind to lock the door than put up with her mother hens, but she knew that would just make the whole situation worst.

She blearily stared at her arm that had an IV attached to it. Luckily it was the right arm and up towards her elbow rather than her hands; no harm no foul to her game then.

The door slammed open and Kuramochi loitered in. “Oy. Little kouhai. Has anyone ever told you that your skull is as thick as the Wall of China and that you’re supposed to actually let people know when you’re sick so they can take care of you AND that your best friend is a little shit A N D  just because he’s my best friend too, doesn’t make it any better that I have had to solely put up with him over the last 8 hours with the company of a stoic pole and an angry pink devil?”

Eiko hung her head guiltily, “Sorry Kuramochi-senpai… I thought it was just a cold. I must have made it worse somehow. I didn’t want to worry you guys while you were at the first game and got concerned that if I told Rei or the Coach they would let you know mid-game.”

“Also…” her eyes started to feel heavy, “I don’t feel so…” her head hit the pillow and the last thing that she heard was the medical equipment blare.

Chapter Text

The noise hugged Kazuya uncomfortably in the mess hall of the hospital. The chatter not really reaching him, and seeming like a blur of sound that he couldn’t focus on.

If you were to ask him to describe how he was feeling in one word… it would be impossible . Everything in him felt like he had gone through Dante’s Inferno and back again only to end up on another horrible plane of existence. One instance you realize your childhood best friend/crush/may-as-well-be-my-significant-other is missing, the next you find her collapsed and barely breathing when your upperclassman calls you more frantic than you had ever heard him sound before.

Even so, the one-sided conversation just played over and over again in his head.

‘ Miyuki. There’s an emergency. Come to the National Training Center. I called an ambulance. It’s Eiko.’

If the team had not been getting back from the game, Kazuya would not have made it there. Hell , Kazuya stared up at the ceiling contemplating his day, Chris might not have had a reason to leave and see her in that hallway if he hadn't wanted to meet up with the team when they got back . 

He chuckled bitterly and carded a hand across his face and back into his hair in frustration when he remembered in excruciating detail the way her fingertips had gone cold as though she had entered a blizzard in the confines of a building.

I have never felt so useless.

CLANG

A tray of food appeared in front of his eyes along with the image of Chris.

He couldn’t even really find it in himself to acknowledge either the food or his senpai. Everything really seemed more dull at the moment.

‘…’

“Eat Miyuki.”

‘…’

Two pairs of eyes stared at the other waiting for one to give. Narrow eyes shot to the side while the other pair glowered behind lenses.

‘…’

“She would want you to eat.”

Smash! 

He slammed his fist onto the table knocking over the food, “ Never tell me what she would want. Because all I want is for us to not even need to be here. I’m an idiot. I should have checked on her when she didn’t come to the game. I’m one of her senpais. I’m her best friend. I’m supposed to take care of her.”

“And I’m her catcher and senpai, Miyuki…” Chris interjected.

For some reason, that just made the younger catcher see more red. Call it what it is - jealousy, frustration, guilt… He got up slowly and edged away from the table like it had stung him:

“I’m just not hungry...”

⚾

Kazuya slowly drifted back to Eiko’s room, wanting some form of comfort. Even if she wasn’t awake yet. He fumbled for his phone to text everyone updates on her condition when the text tone started blaring Kuramochi’s favorite music. 

He reeled back from the noise, but even more so at the message. 

This is Haruichi. Kuramochi can’t text right now. They sent out a Code Blue. One of the medications put more strain on Eiko’s lungs than predicted.

He stopped mid-stride and tried to breathe in an attempt to not throw his phone across the hall or hit the wall to his side. Everything just felt so frustrated and muffled. Like the walls were closing in on him and ready to engulf him in their cold white bleak tile. He couldn’t go through this again . 

Kazuya sank to the floor and clutched his phone to his chest, like the lifeline it was, and waited for any more updates only to feel a lone tear run down his face. Once that first tear broke free, the rest followed in an unbroken stream. He bent forward where he sat on the floor, pressing his palms against anything to find purchase, he began to cry with the force of a person vomiting on all fours. 

It’s just too much .

Despite himself, Kazuya couldn’t help but remember the way his mother last looked before she had passed.

One day she was smiling in the hospital while he visited her, the next she was covered in a white sheet and family members were determining if his dad was up to the task to take care of him. His family had transitioned their whole lives over to Nagano for his mother’s happiness. The clean air and sun suited her when she could stand to be outside. Unfortunately, her frail body couldn’t take it every day. Then it turned into whether she could even sit up enough to greet people as they came through the door… After her death, there was no reason to stay and his dad became so depressed that he had almost proved his other family right: No job, no drive, and no life. 

Certainly not a person to take care of a child.

The life saving letter came for his dad not too long after that. A dream job back in Tokyo - the city of dreams for some.

Of course that meant the city of nightmares for Kazuya, as he was torn ruthlessly from the tiny house off the hills of one of Nagano’s many many many mountains. It felt as though his heart was ripped out of his chest. Even though Tokyo was cool, it wasn’t home. In fact, one could say if you are not surrounded by people you love and people who love you, nowhere is home. And so that’s what Tokyo had become ‘nowhere’.

After he had joined a baseball team - nowhere.

Even after he had proven all the upperclassmen wrong and as a ‘runt’ managed to start hitting home runs and becoming the best catcher - still nowhere.

Even after getting into Seidou with Chris and meeting some friends - Tokyo had still felt eerily empty as though it would never become haven.

No… Tokyo hadn’t become home until Eiko stepped into it.

So here he was, years later, crouched on the floor crying his eyes out because everything was just too damn similar. And nothing had changed, it was out of his hands. He could only ever hope for the best and believe in the strength and foundation of his home.

⚾

Haruichi slammed Kuramochi’s phone shut and slowly put it into his pocket. His upperclassmen couldn’t use it anyway. The way his hands were shaking, he was surprised he managed to text a word either. 

They had only known Ei-chan for a little while and she had already changed their lives. Just from being one of their roommates, and a driving force in one scrimmage. It was only luck that Haruichi had discovered what was happening due to a frantic Kuramochi telling his brother, who happened to be with him at the time (and totally bullying him).

Unfortunately when Haruichi got to the hospital with Kuramochi, Eiko was still passed out. He didn’t want to crowd the room, so he left to grab snacks only to return to see Kuramochi was  being forced out with an empty look on his face and a porcelain complexion that showed he could crack at any time.

From what he had gathered from the nurse’s and doctor’s shouts and mutterings - Eiko had her breathing tube removed, but no one was monitoring her after Kuramochi entered the room. Supposedly she went into respiratory arrest due to an increase in pleural effusion that she couldn’t feel due to the medications they had her on and apparently since the breathing tube helped her increase her oxygen levels - they thought it was just a mild case of pneumonia.

While the chest X-ray was being looked at, they had her on medication to keep swelling down. It didn’t seem to do the job.

Haruichi slid down the wall to sit next to his brother’s pale best friend. “It’s going to be okay. Pleural effusion is typical with pneumonia. I’m sure they were prepared for it…”

Kuramochi glanced off to the side when he heard noises coming from Eiko’s room.

“Get me a Thoracentesis kit with a 14 gauge needle and ultrasound stat so I have eyes on this! We only barely have her breathing. Keep the mask on her and ramp it up as high as it will go. Her oxygen levels are too low for my liking and we need her in a sit up position for this.”

The nurses bolted out of the room to grab their respective items with a haste that would rival Hermes himself. One of them had recalled that an ultrasound had been conveniently used earlier in a nearby room and the kit was always readily available at the nurses station. They were back within 5 minutes. The two high schoolers could see as the doctor quickly found the fluid buildup and saw him stick the needle, with a tube attached to it, in through Eiko’s back from the hallway. Everything was moving so fast, but after a few minutes, the environment just kind of stilled into a picturesque moment of silence as fluid started to gush into the containers and test tubes that came with the kit.

Almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Especially when Eiko’s BP and oxygen levels were slowly going back up somewhat

“We’re out of the woods, but that doesn’t mean we can stop being cautious. Get me another chest X-ray and analysts on this fluid. We need to keep her on the oxygen for now and have her monitored just in case the fluid builds back up again.”

The two boys peeked in to see Eiko surrounded by what felt like thousands of machines. The wiring was everywhere, and the monitors were beeping to a different ear-grating pitch depending on each movement of her chest. Kuramochi would be lying if he said he didn’t feel the buildup of water in his eyes at the sight of the movement of his roommate’s breathing. The slow inhale and exhale that everyone takes advantage of and takes for granted.

Whether Kuramochi spoke into the room, as though Eiko would answer him. “I’m going to go grab Miyuki.”

Haruichi could have sworn he saw her smile as he left with their senpai.

⚾

Kazuya didn’t even notice when two figures walked down the hall. The tears had stopped falling eons ago, but he still couldn’t find the strength or fortitude in any limb to get up off the welcoming hard ground.

“Miyuki! What are you looking so serious for?”

Kazuya looked up to see Kuramochi.

For some reason, seeing his face managed to elicit some weight falling off his chest; despite the other’s red rimmed eyes.

“I was trying to determine which was more comfortable. A baseball plate, this floor, a cafeteria table, or one of those crummy hospital chairs.” He carefully curled into himself, “So far this floor has won by a landslide… We should throw it a party.”

He felt as two bodies slowly slid down next to him and bumped his shoulder, creating warmth that melted through all the other emotions that were on the surface. 

“Huh. It is kind of nice down here. Think we could invite some girls and have some real fun?”

The smile on Kuramochi’s lips made laughter naturally burst from Kazuya. “Like I would! Eiko would murder me in my sleep and probably start to hit me for being a pervert!” He coughed before  shrilly elevating the pitch of his voice, “‘Bakazuya, you perverted tanuki. What were you thinking?!?! The hospital floor is not a respectable place to hang out with a girl. Ask them on a proper date! What kind of man are you?!?! H O N O R!!’”

Despite her condition, all three of them couldn’t help but burst with mirth. It certainly sounded like something Eiko would do.

The mood turned chill like the floor after the laughter sombered. Almost as though a reaper had creeped in with an icy hand. “How is she?” Kazuya asked, even if he didn’t really want to know. He knew it would be bad news.

Kuramochi and Haruichi glanced off in opposite directions, not sure how to approach that specific subject; somehow Kuramochi gained the courage to speak first after a sharp gulp of air, “She’ll be fine.” Somehow it got easier for him to speak after holding gazes with the ceiling for a bit. “The dumbass thought it was a cold. Honestly, she should’ve known better. Afterall…”

“Idiots can’t catch colds.” Kazuya finished off for his friend with a small smirk. 

“I think I’ll remind her of that fact when she wakes up next time… I bet she apologized for being so inconsiderate and getting sick didn’t she?” All three of them started chuckling.

 “Gods she is so extra. What am I going to do with her?” Kazuya started clutching his stomach in laughter before eventually feeling weights fall off his shoulders. If Eiko would be okay, so would he. It’s the only way that he would be able to function.

“Do you think she’s awake agai-” Kuramochi kicked Kazuya to make his point sharp and painful. “Why don’t you go and check? Stop sulking. She’s waiting even if she is asleep. In fact, why don’t ya just go ahead and kiss her so I don’t have to deal with you “

Kazuya quietly rose as though he was on a mission and waved goodbye nonchalantly to his friends as he left.

Kuramochi spun to look at Haruichi with a large grin.

 “ They’ll be fine.”

Chapter Text

Kazuya melded with the shadows on the walls as he made his way down the hall to Eiko’s room. It was around 11PM in the hospital, and everyone was being asked by the staff to leave (Kuramochi and Haruichi were already caught). He was used to sneaking around doctors and nurses though, and easily found himself at Eiko’s door.

Honestly, I’ll probably just say good night and head out.

He couldn’t help but let out a sigh when he got to the daunting door. Parts of the hospital were old, and that meant about a hundred different things, but most importantly - everything squeaked. 

He carefully opened the sliding door to avoid making the large screeching sound that accompanied moving it too quickly, the annoying noise of hundreds of nails moving down a chalkboard slowly creaked from the door. The invasive sound always managed to send a shiver up his spine, so he opted against closing the damn thing despite the risk of getting caught after visitor hours.

“Oiiiiiiiii sleeping idiot, are you awake?” Kazuya stage whispered into the room hopeful she might actually be awake, but when he finally made it over to her bed he found her eyes were closed. He knew he didn’t have a lot of time so he slowly slipped a hand into hers and left a soft kiss on her brow.

“I’ll be back in the morning, Eiko. Good night, don’t let the really creepy imaginary ghosts bite.”

She’s more scared of those than she is of bugs or snakes. He shook his head and wandered aimlessly to keep his mind off of what happened to Eiko. 

Afterall, she’s probably more fine than I am right now.

⚾

Because of missing curfew at the dorms and practice the morning after the incident - Miyuki had been told to simply rest in his room and not leave, even to see Eiko, over the next day. Except of course to get food.

Screw that .

Afterall, he didn’t have to worry about anyone reporting him since they were out practicing anyway. So he just went ahead and walked over to the hospital since he needed the exercise.

Kazuya did not even have to get close to Eiko’s room to hear the little troublemaker from the entrance of the hospital. Her room was, afterall, about two floors above the main lobby. He couldn’t decide whether to be happy or simply hysterical; so he bolted for the nearest restroom and went for a mixture of the two emotions as he clutched his stomach and laughed and cried at the same time - thank goodness she’s alive, but why did this happen?

He sauntered out of the bathroom and followed the way to her room that he had memorized in the short span of time. Her laughter, albeit with a slight cough, rang through the halls like a bell and he found himself actually running towards the door with a smile on his face.

“Eiko, you know, you’re supposed to be resting, not making your lungs worse by coughing.”

His childhood best friend just looked at him with the brightest twinkle in her eyes, “It’s not my fault that the nurses are so funny! They’re a real riot. Tell him Boss!”

Miyuki had few fears in life, and Coach Kataoka was definitely one them, I wonder if I walk out if he’ll think I was a figment of his or Eiko’s imagination.

Before he could backtrack very far, he felt the neck of his shirt being tugged, when he looked up - all he saw was the red and murderous face of Rei. Oh boy! Fear number two. Is it too late for me to die and be reborn as a helpless and flirty butterfly?

The two adult’s eyebrows twitched in tandem.

Definitely too late….

⚾

Miyuki was dressed down with a long rant from Rei. Multiple things were thrown about, but the main points were:

“It’s important to take care of yourself. Why are you here? YOU were TOLD to stay put . What were you thinking ? Is this the example that you’re setting for your underclassmen?”

All of which Coach Kataoka nodded through in agreement and added his stern disdain of, “You disobeyed my directions.”

Of course, that just made Miyuki pout and give Eiko eye signals to help him out; which she expertly ignored for about 10 minutes until she broke the anger fest with a fit of coughing. Everyone immediately tried to grab something to help. Rei reached for the call button while Miyuki poured a glass of water, and Coach Kataoka slowly shed his stern face to give her a small smile of comfort.      

After the fit had calmed down thanks to a slew of nurses, Kataoka,  being the parent figure he was, lightly patted her head.

“Now I believe it’s time to discuss what we came here for…. Eiko, despite what has happened. I wanted to inform you that you are still slated for the first-string.” 

The coach crossed his arms in thought of how to proceed. “Also, Chris is not going to be back in the first string, it was his decision. He wanted me to pass it along. He will still help you by catching for you during the training camp along with Miyuki.”

Both of the students simply stared at the man wondering how to even respond.

Eiko decided that there were no words for it and just clenched her fists.

“Chris will still be around Sawamura, but I want a strong defensive and offensive line up for our tournaments. Miyuki is an important person on the team, and I need pitchers more than I need catchers to back up Tanba and Kawakami. Only two won’t cut it…. So I’m slating Furuya too.”

Rei pushed her glasses up, taking in the somber mood and deciding to lighten it as much as possible, “Everyone has also asked for us to give you this, Sawamura.”

A decorative envelope made its way into the young girl’s hands. “They were all really worried and wanted to make sure you knew they were there for you.”

Inside was a card with every last signature of the team and a large group photo, probably taken that morning since she couldn’t find Kazuya in the photo.

Of course when Miyuki noticed that, he couldn’t help but chuckle a bit with a shake of his head. They planned for me to come, these rascal adults. Otherwise they would have told me to come take the dang photo with everyone.  

Deserve more credit than we give them.

Eiko clutched it with the biggest smile on her face, and not even Miyuki could deny that the dress down was worth seeing the expression on his friend’s face.

⚾

After answering Sawamura’s questions regarding the situation she was in - Kataoka and Rei left, leaving Miyuki behind who promised to be back by sun down.

The silence was deafening in the room for a little bit of time, as Miyuki sat close to the bed staring out the window until Eiko grabbed his hand and clutched it. “I’m still here Miyuki.” He squeezed her hand back with a little force. “I know.”

He finally turned to her and swept her up in a hug. “I was so worried though, idiot. I took turns with Chris to do CPR when I finally got to you and I was so scared that you weren’t going to make it out of this jam this time.”

She rubbed and patted his back reassuringly. “I’m okay thanks to you, but I feel like you deserve an explanation.”

Miyuki pulled back to flick her right in the forehead, “You bet your ass you do. No healthy 15 year old girl passes out and stops breathing because of a ‘really bad cold.’ I’m going to have to think of something good to tell Kuramochi to get him to believe that this wasn’t something else thanks to you!”

Eiko rubbed the front of her head with a slight frown. “Sorry. Oh, and by the way, you’re going to want to keep your glasses on for this one…”

He raised an eyebrow, asking her to continue with her explanation before he got more annoyed. 

“So. I lied to basically everyone… I-I-Including you.” She glanced off to the side only to have Miyuki forcibly turn her head towards him. “Explain now Bakamura.”

“It was actually just a cold, but I’ve been pushing myself too much, and it triggered my asthma… which is what I lied about. I had my parents leave it off my record for the school. I didn’t think Seidou would want a girl, let alone a girl with asthma. Figured one would be hard enough to deal with”

Miyuki clenched his eyes shut in frustration and rubbed his temples. “So let me get this straight, Ei-chan. You lied because you thought our school wouldn’t want you because of the fact that you’re a girl. So you hid a medical condition - that typically won’t kill you so long as you have an inhaler - all because you were afraid of what the school would do.” He slammed his hand down beside her. “Am I right?”

She stiffly nodded. Miyuki retreated into his seat, “You’re an idiot, you know? There’s no way after seeing you that I would let Rei get away with not admitting you to Seidou. I would have gone through hell and back again to get you in. Instead you lied, and really it’s funny that you think that Rei and Coach Kataoka don’t know what really happened.”

Eiko’s eyes widened, “What do you mean?”

“I mean that they probably already know considering they would have been briefed as your ‘head of household’ since you live in a dorm and your family is all the way in Nagano.”

She felt tears start to form in the corners of her eyes, “And they still put me on the first string? Despite everything I did and the fact I lied?” Miyuki sighed, “Of course they did. It’s because it’s clear that your intentions were your desire to come to Seidou. Why wouldn’t they keep you? Plus, you’ll make a dang good ace some day.”

He leaned over to tap her nose lightly, “That is if this lowly Sawamura learns to let people know when she isn’t doing well. More specifically if she lets her catcher know when she isn’t doing well so they don’t end up with grey hairs before they’re even 17.”

“Oh and also you owe me three bowls of rice and tamagoyaki salted, three days in a row for breakfast, for how much you scared me.”

Eiko’s face broke into a huge grin, “OSU! You got it!”

⚾

After a few days, Eiko was out of the hospital and on her way back to her room on the evening of May 15th. According to the doctors, her lungs would be in rough shape for a while, but the best way to build them back up again would be doing what she always did: baseball.

She happily forced the door open with a wide smile, but a bright light made her recoil and close her eyes, “What the….”

“WELCOME HOME EIKO!!!!”

Some of the first string was inside holding streamers, and a cake, while some of the overflow were standing out in the hall from where she had entered. Even Rei and Coach Kataoka were there.

Despite the fact that many of them might not even know her well, it felt like everyone was there to wish her well and before she knew it - she had tears forming in the corners of her eyes. None of them even realized what day it was, they barely knew her, and yet they still cared so much.

She quickly wiped the tears away with the back of her wrist and put on her signature smile, “OSSSSU, thanks guys! You really know how to welcome someone back!”

Kazuya came over and handed her a tiny package discreetly, “I wasn’t sure if you wanted everyone to know about your birthday on top of everything else. Happy birthday Bakamura.” He gave her hand a quick squeeze and walked over towards Kuramochi to have some cake.

⚾

Even if she could never celebrate her birthday again, the welcome party was worth it.

The people that didn’t even like me still showed up.

She couldn’t help but skip her way back to her room, where she finally opened the small package from the tanuki.

Inside was a beautiful necklace in the shape of the moon and a note that simply read: “ I have the other half to remind me of you.”

Eiko would be a liar if she didn’t admit the fact she was blushing as she put it on and cradled it as she slept.