Chapter Text
Takigawa Chris Yuu could only watch as Sawamura and Miyuki got the last out and won Koshien for Seidou. While he would never wish to take this moment from Miyuki, he wished he could have gotten the opportunity of catching for his favorite kōhai at the desired Koshien Stadium the previous year.
The only comfort that he had was that Seidou’s main battery searched for him with their eyes and held their fists to him before they even congratulated each other on a job well done. Chris could practically hear their voices echoing in his head as the message was clear in their eyes: ‘We couldn’t have done it without you!’ and he couldn’t help the small smile that spread into his face despite his regrets.
Suddenly the half-American young man felt his vision shift and found himself in a room with blank walls, staring at a beautiful woman.
“Do you want to go back?” The woman asked kindly yet serious.
“What do you mean ‘go back’?” Chris quirked an eyebrow up, intrigued with how he found himself in the current situation.
“If you are willing, I can give you a chance to go to Summer Koshien with Eijun and Kazuya but there are some conditions or drawbacks, whatever you want to call them.” The woman informed before continuing when the male didn’t even attempt to interrupt her. “If you decide to go back, you will be returned to the fall of your last year as a middle-schooler and you’ll have to go through all your years in Seidou again.”
“Is that all?” Chris wondered aloud, expecting harsher things since the woman spoke of drawbacks.
“No. If you accept, I will send you to about one month before the start of the middle-school Fall Tournament in Nagano and I want you to finish middle-school before Akagi’s first match.” The woman continued her explanation, laughing softly at his surprised expression. “They will be debuting in that tournament and they will be completely slaughtered but it will be enough to justify your interest in Eijun. Your story will be that you were feeling pressured by your father’s shadow and all the scouts so you decided to graduate earlier and go around the country watching other schools playing baseball before you had to go to high-school and the first location just happens to be Nagano. You will say that you saw unlimited potential in Eijun and that you want to help him reach it, in hopes you can form a battery with him in your last summer in high-school, so you will be staying in Nagano to coach him and Akagi in all the basics of baseball until you have to go to Seidou. You have to make sure you keep in contact with Eijun, that you don’t hurt your shoulder and that Eijun will be at a similar level of control and pitching arsenal as he is now, with the highest speed possible considering his body type and age.”
Chris considered everything and couldn’t see any reason to refuse. He always regretted having told Eijun that he would never trust him with his three years of High School baseball so the fact that he would get to know the pitcher earlier than in his original timeline as well as make a better first impression on him was also a plus.
“I accept.” The university student nodded. Normally, he would have asked more questions, like who the woman was, but the offer was too good for him to think of anything else.
“Good. Now, I have one last thing to ask of you that isn’t mandatory.” The woman confessed, biting her lip. “I want you to tell Eijun how you feel about him this time, Yuu. Don’t try to lie to me. I know that you have seen Eijun as a little brother for quite some time… Now that you will be even closer to him, I want you to tell him how you feel about him before you have to go to Seidou. As I said before, it’s not mandatory but, for both of your sakes, you should do it. And, please, don’t try to curb your more American tendencies around Eijun, he won’t mind you being tactile with him. I think he might flourish under your attention.”
Chris felt a soft blush rising in his cheeks as he couldn’t deny that the woman was right before he nodded his head in acknowledgment and agreement.
“Ok. I’m going to send you back now!” The woman said.
The last thing he was aware of before his vision went black was a soft ‘Good luck, Yuu. Please, make sure he doesn’t suffer so much this time’ spoken in a tender tone.
---
Chris woke up in his room in his middle-school body, slightly disoriented but found himself easily getting into a routine as the month he had until Akagi’s debut game passed unexpectedly quickly.
Surprisingly, both his middle-school and his father accepted his cover-story, unsuspecting of anything amiss, and let him graduate earlier since he was already enrolled in Seidou as long as he passed the year, leaving him free to go to Nagano for Eijun’s debut match without a fuss.
When he reached the stadium just as the match was about to start, Chris smiled softly as he quickly spotted a very young and excited Eijun amongst the players.
Like the woman had warned him, Akagi was slaughtered so badly that it wasn’t even a game but it was more than enough for him to see Eijun’s potential already noticeable with so little experience and knowledge. He was surprised that his genius bunting abilities were already showing and that his batting wasn’t half as bad as it was when he came to Seidou, he just needed the right form so he wouldn’t ever get used to batting with a poor stance in the first place.
However, what surprised Chris the most was that, despite all the defense errors made by Akagi’s defenders that could have gotten them easy outs, Eijun never got mad or discouraged and seemed to be having fun, instead. The catcher could easily see how Rei had become interested in the young pitcher if the match she watched was anything like this one; Eijun already was more of a true ace at the age of 13 than Tanba had ever been.
Chris left the stadium as soon as the game was over so he wouldn’t be too late to catch Akagi’s team before they left by the players’ entrance/exit.
Eijun was crying as he and his recently formed team left the stadium. Since he was looking down he nearly collided with Chris and startled as the older teen smiled softly at him when he looked up to apologize.
“Please, let me catch for you.” The older bowed to the younger, before the latter could open his mouth, surprising the entire Akagi team, including the club-advisor.
“Eh?” Eijun uttered while giving an impression of a confused puppy, melting the older boy’s heart as Chris instinctively knew that he would love this Sawamura Eijun as much or even more than the one from his timeline.
“I’m a catcher from Tokyo and I was scouted by Seidou so I can, without a doubt, catch your pitches no matter how hard they are to catch.” Chris explained. “I felt a lot of pressure from everyone in Tokyo which was why I asked my dad to let me graduate earlier so I could go around the country and watch some baseball before having to go to Seidou. Your team’s game just happened to be the first I watched and, when I saw your pitches, I couldn’t help myself but want to catch them.”
The time-traveler took a deep breath and blushed in embarrassment as he realized that he was rambling, something he picked up from Eijun in the other timeline. The younger teens looked incredulously at him but the teacher chuckled and decided to take pity on him.
“If you have time now, you can come back with us to Akagi.” The advisor said before guiding everyone to the train station.
“You said you wanted to catch for Eijun but you haven’t even told us your name.” Wakana pointed out, studying the older boy.
“Yeah! How do we know you aren’t trying to take Ei-chan away from us?” Nobu spoke next. “I’m Ei-chan’s catcher, I won’t give him away so easily!”
“Oh! I’m so sorry! I completely forgot to introduce myself.” Chris panicked slightly, blushing coming back full force. “I’m Takigawa Chris Yuu. You don’t have to worry about me stealing him from you, I swear! Well… At least, for now… I might just try to steal him when it’s time for you guys to start high-school. If it makes you feel better, I’ll teach you how to catch his pitches if you let me catch for him.”
“Really?” Nobu’s eyes sparkled at the thought that he wouldn’t be hindering his friend anymore if the older teen was telling the truth. “But how are you so sure that you can catch Ei-chan’s pitches?”
“I was declared the best middle-school catcher in Tokyo. If I can’t catch his pitches, I doubt any middle-schooler would be able to do it.” The older teen explained, managing to not sound arrogant, just stating facts. After all, Chris didn’t proclaim himself the best catcher, the title was given to him by other people.
Eijun who had been unusually quiet due to their loss felt himself cheer up a bit and started to ask the older boy various things about Tokyo as well as his older team.
---
The Akagi Junior High baseball team watched in awe as Chris caught Eijun’s pitch effortlessly on his first try as well as the nineteen others that followed before the older teen announced that it was enough pitching for one day.
The pitcher tried to protest wanting to pitch more but the experienced catcher insisted that he had already gone way over the number of pitches per day a middle-schooler should stick to.
Eijun felt a rush of adrenaline and smiled like an idiot as Chris caught all of the twenty pitches that he threw to the catcher, unaware that the feeling was entirely mutual.
“Those were very nice pitches for a middle-schooler without proper coaching, uh… Eijun, was it?” The older teen admitted, smiling softly as he walked to the makeshift mound and feigning not to know the pitcher’s name while testing the boy’s first name for the first time.
And he wasn’t lying. Chris was surprised to find that Eijun could accurately throw in the direction of the mitt every time before the ball would break at the plate making it land in a different spot than where it was headed in the first place which made it look like he had bad control.
“Yes. I’m Sawamura Eijun but everyone calls me Eijun or Ei-chan.” The pitcher informed, with a big smile. “Feel free to call me either.”
“Ok, Eijun.” The catcher smiled back, fondly. “I’m Takigawa Chris Yuu. My friends call me Chris but my father calls me Yuu. I don’t mind either.”
“I like Yuu… It fits you.” Eijun commented, making Chris blush slightly since the older boy wasn’t used to having anyone calling him by his first name, except for his father.
“I’m sorry to interrupt but...” Wakana started, startling the two boys who had forgotten that they weren’t alone due to the excitement of playing together. “Why would the best middle-school catcher in Tokyo want to catch Eijun’s pitches so badly? Aren’t there better pitchers in Tokyo?”
“You aren’t wrong.” Chris admitted, chuckling. “However, a natural moving fastball is very rare in Japan. If Eijun hones it properly, he will become a very good pitcher in the future.”
---
Before he knew it, Chris hadn’t only been acknowledged as Akagi’s temporary coach but had also been adopted, along with his father, by the entire Sawamura family.
Animal had been very upset when, after the one week that Chris was supposed to spend in Nagano was over, his son called him asking him for permission to stay in Nagano until the new school year started. However, after the man met Eijun and his family he had accepted easily, understanding his son’s feelings.
In that first week, Chris had guided Eijun to achieve the pitching form that the boy had developed in Seidou in the old timeline and had fixed the younger teen’s batting form, making good use of his flexible joints.
When Animal had come to Nagano to check why his son was so determined to stay, Chris had Eijun pitch with his old form first and then with the new form that the young pitcher had achieved after only a week of proper training. The former professional baseball player declared that Eijun was a baseball genius and allowed his son to stay (knowing that he was in good hands) after meeting with the Sawamura family, with whom he got along surprisingly well right off the bat.
In the nearly 6 months that he lived in Nagano, Chris was able to drill all the basics in the entirety of Akagi’s team and, although it was clear that they, pitcher aside, would never be more than average players, as a team, with Eijun as their ace, they weren’t so bad.
Living with the Sawamuras allowed Chris to teach Eijun more about baseball as well as instilling in him good study habits, explaining that better grades would free more of his time for baseball in the long run.
Before Chris finally left for Seidou, he had managed to teach Eijun in fielding not only as a pitcher but also as an outfielder, claiming that training in the outfield could help the pitcher with his batting as it would help him learn to read the ball’s trajectory when he was actually preparing him to be Seidou’s ace pitcher, who had to be able to play in another position in case he had to go back to the mound a second time. He also made a training menu as well as a nutrition plan for Eijun to start building the pitcher’s body at the right pace and taught him how to pitch the four-seam, the change-up and the two-seamer while working on his ball control, finger dexterity and ball speed.
The four-seam was the obvious first choice and, after learning how to pitch accurately enough to the four corners of the plate, the change-up was the only other available option when his normal fastball stopped breaking so much which taught Eijun that he could pitch different balls by simply changing the grip. The ones he could control were again the palmball or fast-change-up (which was a lot like his natural moving fastball, except that he could control it properly) and the circle change-up although Chris took a special interest in the vulcan-grip change-up and decided to work on it, too.
The two-seamer still wasn’t usable and Chris had forbidden him from pitching it without his supervision, afraid that Eijun would mess up with his form trying to master it alone. Either way, Eijun’s four-seam and two change-ups were enough to take Akagi to the best 8 in the summer of their second year so the young pitcher wasn’t complaining.
In Seidou, everything played out mostly the same as the first time although Chris tried to help his year-mates more, especially the ones who he knew would eventually be on the first string. However, he did manage to avoid his injury and had an easier time with the training since he had prepared his body for it while he was coaching Akagi.
Chris kept in contact with Eijun, often calling him to talk about game-calling like they would do when the older teen was living with the Sawamuras and they would visit each other on every opportunity they could get.
Animal would frequently go to Nagano to check if Eijun needed updates on his practice menu and nutrition plan, knowing perfectly well that his son was trying to prepare his nephew/second son to be Seidou’s ace since it was the only thing that the team was lacking to be able to go to Koshien again.
When the time came for Eijun’s last summer in middle-school, Chris had managed to get Eijun’s two-seamer (although it was still sealed in games) and vulcan-grip change-up somewhat under control as well as teach him the improved cutter and a splitter some time after the pitcher learned to pitch the crossfire to the batter’s chest accidentally(again!) during one of Akagi’s practice games. They had also tried a slider, a fork and a curve once, but they were put on hold when Chris felt that learning them then could hurt Eijun’s form if they weren’t careful.
Knowing that Eijun’s control was nearly perfect on every pitch that the teen had mastered and that he had learned how to put more spin on his fastballs, Chris was certain that Rei would still invite him when the time comes and he just had to make sure that she indeed checked Akagi’s first game as she did in the former timeline.
---
Rei had just come back from Nagano the day before when Chris approached her to ask, as he did in the previous year, if she had found any interesting possible new players.
“So, what did you find?” Chris asked, curiously and hoping that she had found Eijun again without his interference.
“A left-handed pitcher with an interesting form, excellent control over his pitches and a considerable repertoire. He pitched mostly fastballs but I noticed that some were four-seam and some were slower but moved at the plate. He can also pitch a change-up although he only used it once, near the end of the game.” Rei informed the teen. “I think you will like him, Chris-kun if he accepts the offer, I mean. I think I’m going to go watch a few more of his games if I have time, his baseball is very fun to watch.”
“Hum… How unusual for you to compliment a pitcher so much.” Chris laughed softly, internally very pleased since he knew that the pitcher she was describing could only be Eijun.
“Yes, I think this pitcher could very well become our next ace.” The scouter nodded with a small smile.
“I see. I’m looking forward to meeting him, then.” Chris smiled back softly.
---
After Seidou lost to Inashiro in the West Tokyo Tournament’s Semifinals and the third-years retired, Rei went to Nagano to invite the pitcher she had her eye on. Akagi had lost 3-2 in the finals, losing their chance at Koshien in their last year so she knew she wasn’t interrupting anything when she knocked on the door of the Sawamura household.
“Nice to meet you.” Rei said when all the Sawamuras sat in the living room with her. “I’m the assistant manager of the Seidou High School Baseball Team. My name is Takashima Rei. We would love to have Sawamura-kun in our team.”
The older Sawamuras exchanged a glance as Eijun turned his head downwards so his hair could hide his eyes and his shoulders trembled. Rei’s eyes widened as she felt the tension in the air.
“You want to go, don’t you, Ei-chan?” Eijun’s mother interrupted the silence with a fond tone in her voice. “You want to play baseball with Yuu-chan.”
“Is it really alright for me to go, mom?” Eijun shot back after a long pause, his shoulders shaking harder and his voice sounding choked up. “Even if it is to play with Yuu, is it really alright for someone like me, who couldn’t even lead Akagi to Koshien, to go to Tokyo and leave his teammates behind?”
“They will understand, Ei-chan. They know how much you would like to play baseball with Yuu-chan, they won’t be mad.” The mother asserted softly. “You aren’t betraying your friends by going to Tokyo, Eijun. I promise!”
Eijun froze and everyone knew she had hit the jackpot. A few seconds later Eijun squared his shoulders and looked up into Rei’s eyes, startling the woman slightly with the strong emotions freely displayed in his watery eyes as he found his determination.
“I accept. I’ll go to Seidou.” Eijun announced before smiling softly at the woman, who couldn’t help but smile back while still slightly stunned with this turn of events.
Everything happened so smoothly, with Eijun’s admittance at Seidou finalized, that it was only when she was back at Seidou that Rei noticed that she hadn’t asked who Yuu was nor invited the teen to visit the school.
---
“Yuu-san!” Chris heard a very familiar voice shouting, nearly jumping out of his skin while Seidou turned as a whole to the owner of the voice.
“Nobu!?” Chris exclaimed, surprised looking at the boy who was running to him waving. “What are you doing here?”
Seidou’s first game in the Fall Tournament and with him as the team’s captain had just finished so Chris was genuinely surprised to see his little brother’s friend running to him.
“We thought that we couldn’t just send our captain to Seidou without knowing what this team is like so I came here to watch your game and make sure Seidou is worthy.” Nobu answered enthusiastically. “I dragged Wakana and Ei-chan with me, too.”
“Eijun is here?” The older catcher’s eyes widened and he started to look around trying to find the young pitcher, ignoring everything else that Nobu said.
Nobu just laughed, knowing that Eijun was Chris’s favorite. The younger catcher couldn’t even blame the older boy since Eijun was everyone’s favorite.
Everyone in the team was surprised at how happy Chris sounded even though the younger teen had just questioned Seidou’s worth. Rei’s eyes widened as everything clicked in her mind before a content smile spread itself in her face while Kataoka Tesshin sneaked a glance at her as he thought, not for the first time, that she was very beautiful when she smiled.
Chris finally spotted two brown-haired teens walking at a fast pace in their direction and nearly laughed at Wakana’s frown. As his eyes locked with Eijun’s, the pitcher stopped before throwing himself into the catcher’s arms when the latter rushed forward to meet him halfway.
Chris vaguely heard Wakana scolding Nobu for disappearing on them but he couldn’t have cared less as he spun his little brother around. He really missed Eijun and he wasn’t going to let go of him any time soon.
Seidou watched, stupefied, as their mature catcher and captain looked like a kid that heard that Christmas had come earlier while Rei’s smile widened in pure glee.
“Just who is that kid?” Tanba grumbled under his breath, angrily while everyone else whispered to each other who they thought the younger boy was.
When Chris felt confident that he wasn’t actually dreaming, he guided Eijun towards his team while keeping the younger boy close to him with an arm over the pitcher’s shoulders.
“You have been holding out on me, Chris-kun.” Rei commented, smirking at the teen’s sheepish smile. “You never told me that you knew Sawamura-kun.”
“Sawamura?” Tesshin asked, suddenly very interested in the conversation, turning to survey the younger teen. “You mean the southpaw pitcher that you won’t stop talking about lately?”
“Yes, that one.” Rei answered, her cheeks going slightly pink in embarrassment at being caught talking about the young pitcher so much before smiling as the boy greeted her enthusiastically.
Chris chuckled but he couldn’t blame Rei for being excited about Eijun since he was a very unique pitcher.
“I’m sorry to break this to you, Rei-chan but you have only seen the tip of the iceberg.” Chris announced, taking pity on her. “You don’t know everything that Eijun is capable of.”
“You mean there’s more?” Rei nearly shrieked as her eyes widened impossibly.
Chris and Eijun exchanged a glance before nodding in unison.
“It’s my fault.” Nobu claimed, making everyone turn to him. “I was his catcher but I couldn’t catch most of his pitches so in our games Ei-chan would only pitch those that I had less trouble catching.”
“Don’t worry about it, Nobu. It’s not your fault that Eijun’s pitches are disgusting.” Wakana said, patting the young catcher’s back in comfort ignoring the loud ‘Hey!’ from her other friend. “Only Yuu-san can catch most of those.”
Chris smiled softly as the three friends started bickering like they always did when Eijun’s pitches came into the conversation.
Tesshin felt himself getting more and more intrigued by the young pitcher and, especially, the influence he had on Chris and Rei.
“Do you have time, Sawamura?” The head-coach asked, taking his chances. “I’m Seidou’s head coach, Kataoka Tesshin, and I would like to see what you can do after hearing Rei and Chris compliment you so much. Would you please come with us back to Seidou for a while?”
Kazuya’s eyes gleamed with interest. He had caught his captain talking about advanced game-calling on the phone with Eijun once and the older catcher had told him a bit about the pitcher. He couldn’t wait to see with his own eyes what the younger teen could do.
Eijun’s eyes widened and he exchanged glances with his friends, who nodded and smiled at him.
“I have some time.” The young pitcher finally said. “Wakana and Nobu are going back to Nagano soon but I was going to Yuu’s house after this and spend the night there so I have some free time.”
“I’ll call dad and warn him that you’re coming with me to Seidou so he knows you will be late.” Chris immediately offered, smiling at his little brother.
Tesshin nodded and started to guide everyone into the bus while Chris and Eijun said goodbye to Wakana and Nobu before calling Animal to explain what was happening.
The ride back to Seidou was quieter than usual as everyone was wondering what kind of relationship the young pitcher had with their captain.
---
Arriving at Seidou, everyone gathered in training field A as Chris geared up and started to warm up with the young pitcher.
“How do you want to do this, Kataoka-kantoku?” Rei asked, curiously as they watched the two teens warm-up, laughing with each other.
“It could be us against the 9 regular first-string players with Miyuki taking my place on the line-up and the benched first-stringers fielding for us.” Chris suggested before the head-coach could answer. “I’ll try to call every pitch he has on his repertoire that is finished or mostly finished. However, you should be the empire, Kataoka-kantoku. It will give you a better idea of what his pitches are like and why Nobu couldn’t catch them properly.”
Kataoka turned to Chris and gave him a calculating look while Rei looked at the teen like he was crazy for wanting Eijun to pitch against their best batters right off the bat.
“Are you saying that you believe Sawamura can get them all out with his pitches?” Tesshin questioned, a gleam of interest in his eyes barely hidden by his sunglasses.
“Yes.” Chris nodded without a single ounce of hesitation. “They don’t know what he can pitch and his form makes it very hard to get the timing right even if they guess what is coming. Even against our best batters, we have the advantage in this challenge.”
“Fine. We will do it that way. Be ready in 5 minutes.” Tesshin accepted after a few minutes of silently watching Chris’s expression and then walked away to get everyone else ready for the demonstration/challenge.
The head coach couldn’t help but laugh when he was walking away as he heard the young pitcher ask Chris if it was really okay for them to crush Seidou’s best batters.
Soon, everyone was in their places and Kuramochi stepped up to the plate, grinning at the young pitcher.
As Tesshin called for them to start, Eijun went into his windup and sent the ball flying directly into Chris’s mitt, a perfect fastball low and inside.
Silence permeated the air as Tesshin could only stare in astonishment at the young pitcher while Rei smirked in the side-lines, despite her slight shock at the improved speed. Mochi’s grin had disappeared and the most skilled batters had their jaws on the floor.
“That’s a strike, isn’t it?” Chris suddenly broke the silence, smirking at his coach, who snapped himself back into the real world and grinned.
“Strike!” Tesshin yelled.
Next, Chris asked for another fastball high and inside, which was again perfectly delivered, before finishing with a third fastball, this time, low and away.
“Strike! Batter out!” Tesshin yelled again, barely resisting the urge to cackle.
Whispers were heard on the sidelines from the second and the no-string players.
“No way!”
“He managed to strikeout Kuramochi with three fastballs.”
“They weren’t even that fast, but he only got to swing once and missed.”
The next batter was Ryousuke, who let a fastball pass by him for the first strike before swinging at a 2-seamer and popping it up for an easy catch by the first baseman in the fouling zone.
In Jun’s turn, Chris asked for a fastball high and inside followed by a fastball low and way before finishing it with a circle change-up making the centerfielder complete his swing before the ball even reached the plate for Eijun’s second strikeout.
The whispers were starting to get louder while Tesshin, Rei and Kazuya could barely contain their glee at the pitcher’s performance.
Then it was Tetsu’s turn. There was a fiery aura sprouting out of Seidou’s vice-captain and clean-up, challenging the young pitcher but he could only watch as the first pitch passed by him.
‘How in the world does a middle-schooler have a crossfire pitch that breaks like a cutter?’ Tetsu thought. ‘It’s bad enough that we can’t see his left arm until it’s too late, but having breaking balls so hard to hit is just unfair.’
The vice-captain snapped back to attention as the pitcher started his windup again. Thinking it was a fastball down the middle, he swung his bat just for the ball to disappear in front of his eyes as he heard it slam into Chris’s mitt just half a second later.
The silence was deafening as everyone’s jaws dropped while Chris tried very hard not to laugh.
“I’m sorry, was that a cutter?” Tesshin asked with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“Yes. Although his control of this pitch is still mostly bad, it seems like it’s on point today.” Chris informed with a proud smile.
Tesshin just shook his head and announced the strike, not knowing what else to do while Tetsu tried to focus again after the shock of seeing a cutter from a middle-schooler.
For the third pitch, Chris called for a vulcan-grip change-up to try for their third strikeout which succeeded since, despite Tetsu managing to time the swing right even out of balance due to observing it when it was Jun’s turn, the ball suddenly dropped at the plate similar to a screwball, making him miss it.
“S-Strike! Batter out!” Tesshin actually stammered but who could blame him when the boy had two different change-ups?
“Nice ball!” Chris called out with a giant smile. “Your control really is on point today. Even the ones where your control still sucks were perfect.”
Eijun grinned back and gave him a peace sign.
The whispers were no longer whispers as some were outright yelling in hysteria as they watched their clean-up batter strikeout swinging.
As Tetsu gave his place to the next batter, Masuko, much like Ryousuke, popped up the 2-seamer but this time to the pitcher, who caught it without any trouble.
Then, it was Kazuya’s turn at bat and the first-year catcher was grinning like a Cheshire-cat, glee coming out of him in waves as he stepped up to the plate.
“I can see why you like him so much.” Kazuya told Chris. “He is very good, especially for a middle-schooler.”
Chris just smiled and called for the first pitch.
‘Honestly, I doubt I’ll be able to hit anything besides his fastball so I’ll just swing at the first pitch and hope it’s a fastball.’ Kazuya thought, grimly. ‘Since he started with a fastball against everyone aside from Tetsu-san, he might ask for it again.’
‘That’s what I hope you’re thinking.’ Chris grinned to himself and asked for a splitter, successfully making the younger catcher swing and miss.
For the second pitch, Chris asked for another splitter, this one in the strike zone, before finishing with the improved cutter for the fourth strikeout.
After quickly getting two more strikeouts out of Sakai and Shirasu, it was Tanba’s turn at-bat. Getting easily cornered with two fastballs, Seidou’s ace frowned in confusion as he watched as a fastball slower and out of the strike zone came at him, making him wonder if the younger pitcher had so little stamina that he would lose his control and speed after such few pitches before paling as the ball suddenly broke at the plate to the inside and landed exactly in the middle of the strike zone.
The silence was all it could be heard for a moment before the chaos broke around the field as a middle-schooler managed to hold their entire line-up with 2 pop-flies to the infield and 7 strikeouts.
Chris nearly ran to the mound in his hurry to congratulate his little brother and they high-fived while grinning at each other.
“You were totally on fire today!” Chris exclaimed as he put his arm around the younger boy’s shoulders.
“Look who’s talking! What on earth were those calls?” Eijun accused. “If my control wasn’t so good today, those splitters and cutters would be sent out of the park!”
“I asked for them exactly because your control was exceptionally good today.” The catcher retorted with a smirk. “Besides, Miyuki sucks at batting with no runners on a base so he wouldn’t have been able to get a good hit out of the splitters even if they weren’t on point and your improved cutters aren’t that easy to hit even if they go wild.”
“Tch! You could have warned me!” The pitcher insisted with a small frown. “I actually got nervous when you called for them!”
“No, you didn’t.” Chris deadpanned, earning himself a laugh from the younger boy.
“Sawamura.” Tesshin interrupted, making the young pitcher jump and turn to look at him with wide innocent eyes. “That was some nice pitching. Who was your coach?”
“My team didn’t have a coach.” Eijun explained, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly before pointing at the catcher. “The one who taught me baseball was Yuu.”
Eijun then proceeded to tell the story of how he met Yuu and how the older boy helped him reach the level of pitching that he had just displayed.
Tesshin’s eyes softened behind his sunglasses as the young pitcher talked animatedly about his training and Chris’s teachings. The man couldn’t help but be drawn to the teen’s personality and pitching style, his decision made in his heart before his head caught up to it.
“I see. Then, when you come to Seidou next year, I’ll be pairing you with Chris so you can continue to learn from him.” Tesshin said before his brain even caught up with his mouth. However, he couldn’t have it in himself to regret it when the boy smiled brightly at him.
“Wait!” Eijun suddenly exclaimed, his smile slowly disappearing as he stared at Seidou’s coach confusedly. “Isn’t Yuu the main catcher and the captain? Why would you pair him with a first-year, sir?”
Tesshin stared at the teen, trying to find a good explanation for his decision when Eijun panicked.
“Not that I don’t want to be paired with Yuu!” The pitcher waved his hands to try to convey his sentiment. “I decided to accept Seidou’s offer because I wanted to play with Yuu, but… I mean, Yuu is the main catcher and I wasn’t expecting that you would pair us so soon.”
Chris laughed and pulled his little brother closer to him, deciding to take pity on his coach and save him from embarrassment.
“It’s not like Kataoka-kantoku has a choice, Eijun.” Chris smiled knowingly at the man. “I would never let another catcher have you so he was just saving himself an argument that I would probably win, anyway. Besides, I’m the only one you trust enough that you don’t have to hold back on your pitches”
Tesshin couldn’t help but be eternally grateful to Chris's quick-thinking. If he was forced to admit that he couldn’t resist the young pitcher’s enthusiasm when the boy talked about training with Seidou’s captain, forcing him to pair the two together, his reputation would have been in tatters.
However, there was one thing Tesshin couldn’t deny: the next year couldn’t come fast enough.