Forbidden Protege

Ch. 2: Class and Field (Part 5)

"Yo, Haruichi-kun, Eijun-kun!" Alexia called out to the two boys as they all headed towards field B. They turned and waited for her to catch up. Alexia noticed that there was a tall, black-haired boy with them and nodded at him as she walked up. "Hello, what's your name?"

"Ah," he replied quietly. "Furuya Satoru. It's a pleasure to meet you, Naru-san." He bowed towards her slightly and Alexia immediately perked up.

"Miyuki-san and Mochi-san said that there was a guy called Furuya that can throw insanely fast. Is that you?" Alexia asked energetically, bouncing a little with her step. Furuya nodded. "Awesome! I want to try catching your pitch sometime. Can I after practice today?"

"Are you sure?" Furuya said hesitantly. "It's pretty hard..."

"I'll be fine! Like I said, my primary position is pitcher, but I played catcher all the time on my team in America, too. One of my other pitchers could throw fast, too. Maybe not quite as fast but he was still really good," Alexia started spouting off at the younger pitcher. She was obviously very excited and so Furuya relented. "Great! We'll meet after practice in the indoor area, then."

"You played catcher often, Miya-san?" Haruichi asked as they made it to the field. All of the first-years began jogging and Alexia started off slow in order to stay with him.

"Yeah. In America, they limit how many innings a pitcher can throw, so in order to keep me on the batting line up, if I wasn't pitching, I was catching. I know it's rare, but it's what worked for my team since we were smaller and our main catcher was a great all-around player."

"I see. That's really cool," Haruichi said, increasing his speed a little.

"Furuya isn't the only pitcher here, ya know! You'll have to beat me before you can become the ace of this team!" Eijun yelled before taking off in a sprint. Furuya silently followed Eijun, now racing him.

"Oi! Idiots! You're going to exhaust yourself if you do that!" A blond haired guy yelled after the two of them. He glared at their backs before turning his head slightly to look at Alexia. "Sorry, those two are idiots. I swear we're not all like that."

Alexia laughed loudly, surprising everyone around her. "Too bad! It'd be so much fun if you were." Before anyone could ask her what she had meant, she picked up her pace and began chasing after the two idiots, leaving the rest of the team behind.

"Hey! You're going to push yourself too hard!" the blond exclaimed. He scoffed and then picked up his own pace. 'Like hell am I going to be left behind by the new kid!'

Before any of them had realized it, the entire group's pace had increased as they chased after the three leaders. None of them attempted to catch up, but none of them had any intentions of being left behind either.

Eijun yelled as he saw Alexia pass him. "Haa?! How dare you pass me!" He started running even faster. Furuya looked back to see and noticed Alexia right behind him. He wordlessly increased his pace, earning a light laugh from the girl.

~

"How... the heck... are you not... out of breath!" Eijun panted as he leaned on his knees. Alexia was breathing slightly heavily next to him as she stood with her hands on her hips. She just shrugged and gave a chuckle.

"I'm impressed. Did your team do a lot of endurance practice in America?" Haruichi asked curiously. He was also out of breath like the other two Alexia had practically raced and she made a mental note that his stamina wasn't that great. Not as bad as the pitcher who was currently laying on the ground half-alseep, but still.