Chapter Text
It was an incredible day for Seidou High Baseball club as they have just won their first Koshien in 6 years. Sawamura Eijun a second year, was standing alongside his teammates as they walked through the crowds of supporters. Some were cheering, other’s were crying but they all were congratulating the team and the coach for finally winning and taking home the national champion title. Even the graduated third years all came out to watch the final game; Yuki, Isashiki, Masuko, Ryosuke, Chris, Tanba, Miyauchi and more. As they all stood by the Seidou bus being surrounded by cheers, Eijun laughed while watching as his friends; Haruichi and Furuya looking completely pink in embarrassment as he knew neither were good at the whole getting “complimented” thing. Neither was Eijun, but he did his best not to show it.
While watching his friends he couldn’t help but be drawn to the number 1 sewn onto Furuya’s back. He knew even though he still didn’t have the ace number, he played a big part in getting the team to where they are now, as he has been improving gradually day by day and is always ready to take the number from Furuya. 'What’s a little friendly competition gonna do?! I will definitely be the one to take us to Koshien next year, can’t let Furuya out shine me anymore.' Eijun thought to himself while he watched his surroundings.
Miyuki was talking to Chris closer to the edge of the group, as they wanted to get away from the centre of the crowd to talk. “I’m glad we were able to finally make it here, it feels good to know I can retire on a high note” Miyuki looked over the team as tug on his lips formed into a wide grin.
“You did a good job in leading them as captain, Miyuki. You should be proud” Chris said before continuing “Sawamura looks like he still ready for a fight. Do you think he is upset that he does not have the ace number right now?”
“You might be right, which I don’t get. I guess he doesn’t know that he just played the last 4 innings without conceding any runs, while Furuya only played 2, as some of the pressure got to him leading to 2 runs being scored. And Kawakami did a good job playing 3 innings and only having 1 run scored. You could say that Sawamura was the true ace today, but I guess he just doesn’t see that without the number.” Miyuki grinned in response.
“Well I believe he will not have many issues going into his third year, he is always improving. So I have faith that the next time I see him, he will be the ace.” Chris had a faint smile on his face as they both looked in Sawamura direction.
Meanwhile, Eijun received a text from Wakana;
-Ei-chan that was such a great game, you did so well in holding off the other team for 4 innings. :) We came to say hi but I don’t think you can see us, where standing behind you captain and some other tall guy.-
Eijun looked for his captain through the crowds and finally saw Miyuki standing along side Chris as they were looking in his direction. While just passed them he could see Wakana and the rest of his old teammates, standing with his family behind his senpais like she had said. As Eijun started walking in that direction, he saw a stranger approach his senpais with a bat on his shoulder. 'Well, we are at a baseball stadium and some of the player’s, I.e. Miyuki senpai are already famous, maybe that guy wants his autograph. If that’s the case, damn that Tanuki B*stard!' Eijun thought as he started moving closer to his senpais as he would pass them first before getting to the Nagano group, but as he approached closer he saw the stranger with the bat slowly lift up to a swinging position while having an evil look of his face.
The man looked like he was ready to swing the bat, but Eijun was confused and then it hit him. As he watched the man approach behind Miyuki who did not seem to notice as he was talking to Chris who also did not notice the stranger, Eijun started to sweat.
The man now in bat’s reach of Miyuki, prepped for what looked like a swing to the catcher’s head and at that moment Eijun thought 'Wait, what is he doing? Is he going to hit Miyuki Kazuya? No way, SH*T! Move legs, GOD D*MMIT!! MOVE SAWAMURA EIJUN!!!'
Then breaking out of his thoughts, Eijun sprinted off moving faster then he has ever done - this sprint could even rival Kuramochi speed- moving towards his senpai.
“SENPAI, MOVE!!!” Eijun yelled out as he pushed Miyuki into Chris, and they both fell backwards. Meanwhile, Eijun watched the man in front of him now in slow motion as the bat approached his head.
‘CLANG’
‘CRUNCH’
‘THUD’
The surrounding area went quiet, as they all turn to the direction of the sound to see what had happened.
“OI, Sawamura! What the hell do you think your doing, I know your excited we won but you didn’t have to push us down.” Miyuki spoke with his eyes close as he rubbed the back of his neck before continuing as he now faced Chris who was behind him. “Chris-senpai, are you okay?”
Chris sat there with his mouth open, unable to even hear Miyuki’s question to him as he could not pry his eyes away from who was laying on the floor in front of them. Miyuki looking at the expression of Chris’s face, now felt concerned as he never seen Chris make such an expression before. So he slowly turned his head back to the front of him to look at what Chris was seeing, and at the sight Miyuki’s blood ran cold.
“Damn it, I wanted to get the star catcher, but instead I go the stupid loud mouth pitcher” The stranger grumbled under his breath as he glared at the boy on the ground before making a break for it, running through the crowds.
“CATCH HIM” One of the stadium security guards called out as they had watched what happen, being unable to make it in time to stop the guy from swinging. As he then started to call for an ambulance.
Eijun was laying on the ground with blood spilling out the side of his head. He curled up into ball trying to make it as tight as possible, seeming like he wanted to close in on himself. Eijun could not describe the pain that was going on as he cried and whimpered unable to scream.
“EI-CHAN!!” Wakana yelled out, running over to her friend followed by everyone else in the Nagano group.
“EIJUN-KUN?!” Haruichi yelled out while running towards the boy laying on the ground, catching everyone off guard as they never heard the pink haired boy yell that loudly.
As everyone started to approach the boy, Chris and Miyuki were trying to get his attention. They continued to yell out the boy’s name to no avail, as the boy began to tremble. Eijun now was breathing heavily, while still curled in a ball he moved his hands from his head to his chest where clutched his baseball uniform. The sight of the wound on Eijun’s head spewing blood had Chris taken back, but Miyuki now focused on the boy’s breathing.
“I think he is having a panic attack” Miyuki looked up to Chris, Kataoka and Rei as they had kneeled down close to them before continuing as he looked back at the boy “Sawamura, you have to control your breathing, please. You have to listen to me!” Miyuki watched the boy hoping for a reaction as he tried not to panic, as he too saw the wound on the boy’s head.
Eijun still gripping his chest rolled onto his back, and slowly tried opening his eyes to wince when he felt a sharp throb to his head. Chris who was behind Sawamura had taken off his sweater and placed it under the boy’s head, while trying to apply some pressure to the wound that was still bleeding.
“Good, squeeze my hand if you can hear me.” Miyuki took Sawamura’s left hand from the younger’s chest holding it, waiting for Sawamura to react to his words again. Miyuki felt a small squeeze from the other’s hand and continued “Okay, I need you to breath in and then hold it for 3 seconds. Then I need you breath out, just follow my lead.” Everyone now watched with bated breath in silence as the boy followed along with the other’s breathing instruction.
As Eijun’s breath finally evened out, he slowly open his eyes again, the same sharp pain hit him but he kept his eyes open this time and continued to cry.
“Eijun!” Haruichi spoke out while crying, trying to get closer to his friend but being held back by his brother; Ryosuke. Ryosuke could only watch as he tried to hold his brother back, as there was nothing they could do for Sawamura. They could only stand and watch from behind Rei and Kataoka. What he needed was medical attention, and Ryosuke only hoped that it would show up soon.
“Sawamura” Kuramochi let out a voice full of concern, standing beside Ryosuke who on his right, while he looked over to his left to see Furuya; showing an expression he has never seen before. Anger, Sadness, Confusion, etc were what he could guess from the second year power pitcher’s face, he also realized that he might have been sporting the same expression.
“Ei-chan” Eijun’s mother let out between sobs as she watched her son while she stayed in the arms of her husband as they both were on their knees by their son’s legs.
“I guess I finally used my head for something, huh” Eijun let out with a smile before closing his eyes, as the throb of pain started to hit him again.
“Sawamura! You need to stay with us, the medic are on their way” Kataoka said looking at the boy, hoping that he would open his eyes again.
“I don’t know, boss. I feel really tired and my head really hurts” Eijun kept his eyes closed as he responded as he scrunched his nose when the painful throbbing lasted longer.
“You still have to try and take the ace number from me, remember. You can’t go until then.” Furuya said, stunning everyone.
“He is right you know. What happen to the boy that showed up and said they were gonna be the ace of the team.” Miyuki joined in, still holding Sawamura’s hand.
Chris trying not to be too shaken by the situation turned to look at coach Kataoka, Rei and then the Sawamura family as he shook his head. To then show how the blood was not stopping, as it continued to leak out of the side of Sawamura’s head. Eijun’s mother could only turn into her husband’s chest and continued to cry even harder, and for a while that was heard mostly until Eijun’s Nagano friends started to cry as well.
Eijun opened his eyes and faced his parents and his Nagano friends before saying “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry sad tears. This was supposed to be a joyous moment” Eijun tried to laugh before being cut off by pain.
“Don’t laugh, Bakamura” Kuramochi said as he watched from where he was standing, and closing his fists to the point where his knuckles started to turn white.
Eijun turned his head and looked to the sky, while squeezing the one who was holding his hands. “Just in case I don’t get to say this…”
“Don’t speak like that!” Chris interrupted not liking the way Sawamura was making it sound as if it was going to be last time they will see him.
Eijun moved his head a bit to look back at Chris with a smile, before returning to his previous position. “Just in case I don’t get to say this… I wanted to thank you all for taking care of me and helping me grow to the person and player I am today. I don’t think I would have made it this far on my own, so I want to tell you all how much I appreciate everyone for being there for me. Mom, Dad and grandpa; as your only son and grandchild, I know I must have been a lot to deal with but I want to thank you for raising me to be who I am, I couldn’t have been blessed with a better family. Wakana, Nobu, -etc…-; guys without you I wouldn’t have been able to play baseball in middle school. So even though you guys never really enjoyed the sport as much as me, thank you for putting up with it and having fun with the sport that I love. Rei-chan; thank you for scouting and persuading me to come to Seidou, I don’t even want to think about what I would be doing if I didn’t come to this school. Boss… I mean Kataoka-kantaku; thank you for teaching me baseball in ways that only a coach could do. Since I never had a baseball coach at all in middle school, I’m truly grateful to amount of time you put into me as well as the rest of the team.” Eijun had to take a pause as the pain came in waves and he notice his eyes started to tunnel vision.
“Harucchi and Furuya; thank you for being my friends, I could not have asked for better ones at Seidou. Oh, and tell Kanemaru and Toujou that as well, they were always a big help especially during school” Eijun smiled fondly
“Yah, we will” Haruichi nodded while crying as Furuya just nodded.
“And Furuya just in case I’m not around, doesn’t mean you don’t have competition, kay. I thought you said you wanted to be the best pitcher in Japan.” Eijun continued, making Furuya throw out his aura for second before calming down.
“Kuramochi-senpai; thank you for being like an older brother to me, you may not have realized but that was what I always thought” Eijun said with a smirk as he could sort of spot some of the embarrassment on Kuramochi face.
“Chris senpai; I owe a lot to you, but first I want to apologize again for the way I came off to you when we first met. Without you I would have never learned the important fundamentals of pitching and baseball in general early on, and would never have been able to stand on the mound today. I really wanted to form a battery with you in the future, but I don’t think that will happen now” Eijun said with a soft smile as the tears continued to roll harder down the sides of his face.
“Don’t say that! You are the best kouhai I have ever had, without you I may not have continued to played baseball. Your the one that helped me enjoy the sport again” Chris smiled while looking down at his kouhai as he still tried to apply pressure on the leaking wound.
“Miyuki Kazuya…”
“That’s senpai to you” Miyuki interrupted, with a pained grin.
Wincing and closing his eyes with a smile, Eijun continued “Yeah, Miyuki… senpai. I want to thank you for catching my pitches, practicing with me, helping me learn game theory and what it takes to play your position. The major reason I came to Seidou was because of you, and even though I’m not sure if we were able to create that ‘work of art only a battery can make’ I wanted to tell you I really enjoyed having you as my catcher” Eijun squeezed Miyuki’s hand again.
From the corner of his eyes, Eijun could see the sweater he was resting on was soaked with his blood, and the sight made him feel even more light headed. As if it was not prominent that he was dying, but as the wave of pain seemed to slowly go away Eijun realized he couldn’t feel the rest of his body any more. The most he felt was the other boy’s hand holding his and the weight of his eyelids wanting to close.
So, Eijun once again looked up to the sky with unseeing eyes as they have glazed over, he finally speaks again “I don’t regret pushing you out of the way…. Miyuki senpai. I really wish ….I could…. play with all ….of you again, ….and I’m ….sorry …I …have to go ….but I’m really…. tried. I …..really …..want ….to ….sleep.”Eijun words were slurred as everyone watched the boy fighting to keep his eyes open.
At those words everyone’s hearts dropped, and now everyone was crying. Even Kataoka’s glasses couldn’t hide his emotion as the few tears ran down his face, making him take them off. No one was expecting what was coming next, as Eijun’s grandpa came forward towards the boy before speaking.
“It’s okay, Eijun. Grandma is waiting, so go to sleep. You must be in a lot of pain, right? Try not to cause her as much trouble as you caused us, okay.” Eijun grandpa spoke with a calm voice as tears ran down his face.
“Okay …..grandpa, I ….will ….tell ….grandma …..you ….said hi. …..Good….night” Eijun smiled as he slowly closed his eyes. He gave Miyuki’s hand one last squeeze before his body went limp and his head fell to the side.
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“I really do wish I could play with all of them again, I really wanted to be ace and bring the team to koshien.”
-How would you like a second chance?-
“What?! Really!? Can you really do that? Wait,WHO even are you?”
-I am what you humans call ‘god’, and I heard your plea as well as your friends’s. So I am hear to offer a second chance to change your life, but just so you know you will not be able to tell anyone about your knowledge. That is the only rule you must not break or you will die again. Will you take it?-
“I’m not so sure. Like I said I really do want to play with everyone again, and if that means I can better myself early on then I could help out a lot more. So… you have deal.”
-Excellent! Have a pleasant time.-
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At that, Eijun finally succumbed into the darkness and was pulled into the light.