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“Phew—”
Sawamura stepped out of the restaurant, spread his arms wide toward the empty street, and took a deep, exaggerated breath.
A small delivery truck came trundling along in the distance. Its headlights swept across his faintly flushed, tipsy face and were gone in an instant.
“Try not to forget your cap when you're on the mound.”
A baseball cap was promptly dropped onto his head, the brim deliberately tugged much lower than necessary.
Sawamura adjusted it indignantly and muttered, “Miyuki-senpai was the one who insisted on coming outside for some air, and now you're the one stopping me from enjoying it!”
“Hey, hey, that's not what I meant.” Miyuki pulled out a face mask and held it toward him. “Star players need to be careful about their image. Here.”
“It's this late already!” Sawamura pointed emphatically to the deserted road on the left, then the equally deserted road on the right.
“And it's summer! It's hot and stuffy! I, for one, refuse!”
“Then hurry up and pick a direction. If we stay out here much longer, someone's going to drag us back to the drinking party.” With a resigned sigh, Miyuki put the black mask on himself, his voice turning muffled behind it.
Sawamura closed his eyes, tilted his chin up slightly, and slowly spun in a circle as he sniffed the air.
“That way!”
He raised his right hand and pointed with absolute conviction—
straight into the roadside shrubbery.
The next second, his right hand was caught and pulled in a direction several degrees off course.
Streetlights stood sparsely at each intersection, tiny insects circling around them with a faint buzz.
“The hat's... so hot.”
Sawamura rudely tried to pull his hand free and reached up to grab the brim.
Miyuki caught his wandering hand in time.
“How come you didn't think it was hot when you were pitching earlier? It's cooler now than it was during the game.”
“It's hooot—”
Sawamura experimentally raised his left hand instead, only to stop himself almost immediately. In the end, all he could do was pout in displeasure.
“The great Sawamura-sama left an air-conditioned room just for you!”
He turned toward Miyuki. His unfocused gaze paused briefly on the black mask, black-framed glasses, and baseball cap.
“Aren't you hot?”
“Not really.”
Miyuki kept looking straight ahead, still holding Sawamura's hand as he steadily led him forward.
“But your palm is all sweaty. I don't want to hold hands anymore.”
“...Oh, look. An intersection.” Miyuki glanced around. “Which way now?”
“I'll decide!”
Sawamura immediately perked up. He shook free of Miyuki's hand, shut his eyes again, spun around while sniffing several times, then confidently pointed at a darkened residential building.
“That way.”
Under the streetlights, the flush on his face was unmistakable, as was the curve of his smile.
Miyuki took out a handkerchief, wiped his hand, then took Sawamura's right hand again and led him along the road running past the house.
They passed a brightly lit convenience store in the distance, then rows of small shops at the foot of the hill that had already closed for the night, gradually wandering farther and farther away from the busier streets.
“This way!”
Miyuki looked where Sawamura was pointing and, for the first time, objected.
“We've already been walking for half an hour. How about we head back?”
“No.”
Sawamura pouted, caught Miyuki by the hand instead, and started marching decisively toward the direction he'd chosen.
“That's a wall over there...”
Sawamura's eyes widened. Then he squinted into the blackness ahead and stopped uncertainly.
“Well, no matter where we go, Miyuki-senpai can always find the way back to the hotel.”
“Come on, come on!” He tugged Miyuki twice, immediately eager to keep going.
“But we can't keep walking forever, can we? You threw a lot of pitches today. You need to rest properly.” The heartless catcher remained unmoved.
“Just ten minutes! Ten more minutes! This is my greatest wish in life, cap~”
“...Fine.”
Sawamura spun around and threw up an enormous victory sign, then immediately started urging him to hurry.
[21:48]
Miyuki pulled out his phone, checked the time, then shoved it back into his pocket and resigned himself to hauling Sawamura onward.
Why am I listening to this drunk in the first place?
A slow night breeze drifted toward them, carrying a faint trace of salty moisture.
Sawamura bounced along as he walked, humming the team song and occasionally mixing in cheerful declarations of, “We're almost there! Almost there!”
They rounded one last corner.
Farther down the road, old-fashioned bulbs glowed along the roadside, some flickering at an unnatural rhythm.
Beyond those lights, however, stretched a broad expanse of deserted beach.
The sound of waves rolling ashore gradually grew clearer.
The salty smell of the sea thickened in the air.
Sawamura suddenly tore his hand free from Miyuki's.
“It's the ocean!”
He bolted toward it.
“Slow down!”
Miyuki hurried after him and barely managed to grab him before he tripped over a metal railing.
“Look! It's the ocean!”
Sawamura's eyes shone brightly, unblinking.
“Yeah.” Miyuki pulled his mask down, revealing his face. “We can stay for a bit, but not too long.”
“Yes, cap!”
Sawamura jogged down the steps toward the shore and immediately took off running across the sand.
Miyuki followed at a much slower pace, only calling after him every so often.
“Slow down.”
“Don't get your shoes wet!”
Away from the shorefront lights, the sea was nearly pitch-black. The crescent moon was hidden behind clouds, and only the faintest traces of white foam could be seen on the waves.
Miyuki took a few deep breaths, as though trying to let the wind blow the alcohol out of his system.
Looking out over the open water, even his shoulders seemed to relax.
The slap of approaching footsteps reached his ears.
Not long after, Sawamura came running back, face slick with sweat.
“Cap, I want to set off fireworks!”
“Huh?”
Miyuki tossed him the handkerchief and checked his phone with his other hand.
[22:07]
“Where are we supposed to buy fireworks at this hour?”
Behind them, one of the bulbs mounted on the railing flared with a blinding flash, then went dark with a sharp pop.
Sawamura froze in the middle of wiping his face and frowned in thought.
“Would a twenty-four-hour convenience store have them?”
“Hmm... actually, maybe.”
Miyuki thought back over the route they'd taken and pulled his mask back up.
“There was one on the way here. Let's go.”
“Okay!”
Twenty minutes later, they were standing outside the convenience store they'd passed earlier.
“Welcome—”
The young woman behind the counter looked curiously at the two customers who seemed strangely familiar.
“Hello!” Sawamura asked with boundless energy. “Excuse me, do you sell fireworks?”
“I'm sorry. We've already sold out of this season's stock, and we don't have any left in storage.”
“Ehh... Why would a convenience store not have fireworks?!”
Someone pushed the brim of Sawamura's cap down another inch.
“A convenience store isn't obligated to fulfill every random life goal you suddenly come up with.”
“Um...” The clerk cautiously cut into their exchange. “If you follow the main road that way for about ten minutes, XX Supermarket might still have some.”
Miyuki nodded his thanks and pulled Sawamura back outside.
“Well?”
“I want fireworks...”
“I know.”
He searched for the supermarket on the map, worked out the direction, and set off with Sawamura again.
The night breeze had scattered the clouds overhead. Stars glittered above them, and the crescent moon shone softly.
Farther from the coastline, even the air seemed lighter.
They made their way back into the streets and eventually stopped in front of XX Supermarket.
The metal shutter was already down.
“...”
“We're going back.”
“...Okay.”
Sawamura's head drooped.
“Let's go back.”
Miyuki didn't say anything. He simply opened the navigation app again and continued walking through the unfamiliar streets.
Ten minutes later, Sawamura looked at the bright phone screen glowing in the dark, then at Miyuki typing one-handed.
“Miyuki-senpai?”
“Mm?”
“Aren't we going back?”
“We are.”
Sawamura leaned over to look at his screen.
“Then why are you still searching for fireworks?”
“You're really noisy.”
“Mm...”
Another five minutes passed.
The familiar salty scent of the sea reached their noses again, and the shops along the road gradually shifted toward fishing gear and outdoor supplies.
The nearest one still had its lights on. The owner was bringing in the sign from outside, apparently getting ready to close.
Miyuki jogged a few steps ahead.
“Excuse me, do you still have any handheld fireworks?”
The owner thought for a moment.
“I think there might be some left from last year.”
He bent down behind the counter and rummaged around for quite a while before finally pulling out an old-looking packet of fireworks from deep inside.
“I have money! I'll buy them!”
Sawamura came running over too and, quick as anything, grabbed a small bucket and a lighter.
“And these too! Please ring them all up~”
The old-fashioned, slightly tacky packet of fireworks sat bunched inside the bucket.
Sawamura hummed happily, eyes curved into crescents.
With Miyuki leading the way, they reached another stretch of beach.
Once again, the only light came from a thin line of bulbs along the railing, nowhere near enough to illuminate the black sea dozens of steps away.
Miyuki turned on his phone flashlight and held it above Sawamura, who was crouched down opening the packet.
“Sparklers!”
Sawamura quickly divided them into two piles.
“Half for Miyuki-senpai, half for me.”
Then, with great generosity, he picked up the extra one and added it to his own pile.
The waves rolled in and out only a few steps away.
When one wave receded, Sawamura jogged forward and scooped seawater into the bucket, getting only the very tips of his shoes wet.
“Senpai, come here!”
With his back to the sea breeze, Sawamura clicked the lighter and held the end of his first sparkler to the flame.
Nothing happened.
“Maybe it's damp?” Miyuki handed him one from his own pile. “Try this one.”
“They all came out of the same bag. What difference would that—waaah!”
The sparkler suddenly caught, startling Sawamura so badly he nearly jumped.
Tiny sparks burst outward, and red, orange, and golden light washed the two crouching figures in warmth.
“Pff—hahahahaha!”
“What are you laughing at?!”
Sawamura immediately put the lighter away and simply held one of his own sparklers against the sparks of Miyuki's.
For one brilliant instant, the light flared.
The sparks burned brightest where the two met, then traveled upward along their separate paths.
Crackle, crackle.
The sound of the fireworks nearly drowned out the waves.
They crouched on the sand in silence, lighting one sparkler after another.
When the final sparkler was nearly burned out, Miyuki dug around at the bottom of the package and found two senko-hanabi.
He held them toward the sparkler's last dying glow.
“Want to compete?” Sawamura rested his cheek against one hand and looked up at Miyuki. “See whose fireball lasts longer.”
“Oh?”
“...”
“You lost.”
“Why?! That's not fair!”
“Skill issue, maybe.”
“What skill is there to this?!”
“Who knows?” Miyuki said with a smile.
There were no fireworks left in the packet.
At their feet, only the bucket of water and the trash remained.
Sawamura stood up and stretched his arms high overhead.
“That felt amazing—except for the part where I had to compete with a scheming four-eyes at the end!”
“You're the one who suggested the contest.” Miyuki started gathering the trash. “What exactly felt so amazing?”
Sawamura stayed in his stretch and looked up at the moon and stars, now clear of the clouds.
He thought about it for a moment.
“Dunno.”
He loosened his shoulders and knees, finished stretching, then said,
“Let's go back.”
“...”
“? How did you get that far already?!”
“Aren't you going to hurry up and follow me—Sawamura-sama, who'll get lost if you don't—”
“You really are a scheming four-eyes!”