Forbidden Protege

Ch. 7: Play Ball (Part 2)

"Strike three! Batter out!"

"Gah! I was so close!" Eijun wailed as he made his way back into the dugout. Alexia rolled her eyes. He was at least a mile away from a decent hit.

She turned to Ono as he adjusted his chest protector. "You ready to go?" she asked him, smiling lightly.

He returned her smile. "I should be asking you that, seeing as how this is your first time. Your arm is good, right?" Alexia nodded. He had helped her warm up and she was feeling excellent. However, a small worry nagged at her as she made her way onto the field. Kawashima and Eijun had done well keeping the opponents down and the score going into the seventh inning was eight to four in Seido's favor. She had a good buffer, but Ono still was a bit inconsistent with catching her pitches. The sound of the announcer caught her ear and she steeled herself, pushing everything down.

"Seido has announced a change in players. Going in for pitcher Sawamura-kun is pitcher Narumiya-chan. Pitcher is Narumiya-chan."

The sound of her surname grated on her ears but she kept her face even as the murmurs of the small crowd reached her.

"Narumiya? Is Mei here?"

"Wait, why did they say -chan?"

"Narumiya-chan? What the heck?"

"Hey, look! The pitcher is a girl!"

"What is Seido thinking?"

"Look at her, there's no way she's related to Mei."

Ono looked over at her worriedly as she took a deep breath. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"

She offered him a lopsided grin as she made her way to the mound. "I don't have a choice. I've got a game to close down." Her smile grew bigger as she added, "Just make sure you catch my pitches." Ono felt himself relax and he gave her a reassuring nodded as he went to home plate.

Alexia kicked the dirt on the mound, taking deep breaths and taking her time looking at each of her teammates. She pulled her focus in and tuned out the whispers and shouts from the crowd and opposing dugout. She looked at Haruichi last and gave him a smile. He returned it and she looked towards homeplate. The umpire was talking to Ono who looked like he was confirming something. Then he gave her a quick glance before calling the batter up to the plate.

The first batter walked up and Alexia could tell that he wasn't taking this seriously. He was way too lose and was casually standing in the box. If she had to guess, the team probably thought she was only put in as a favor since this was not an official match and Seido was ahead by four. She felt her lips turn up into a smirk as she dialed in to the batter's form. He was looking forward to an easy hit. She was going to enjoy shutting them down.

Ono gave her the first sign. A fastball to the outside corner. Alexia shook her head, the nagging worry growing bigger. She bit her lip as Ono hesitated. He signaled for another fastball to the inside this time and Alexia nodded. The batter who was up now had been doing well against outside fastballs. Ono probably wanted to check her pitch since she just went in, but they didn't need to sacrifice the team's momentum. An aggressive pitch to instigate a battle with the batter is what they needed.

Alexia took her position and wound up, twisting her body back and then suddenly and swiftly sending the ball flying towards homeplate. The batter flinched back from the ball as it grazed the strike zone by his chest. Ono took a sharp intake of air as he reacted a second late. The ball deflected off of his mitt and landed in front of him.

"Strike!" the umpire called as Ono retrieved the ball and threw it back to Alexia. He yelled encouragement at her but she didn't hear him. The worry grew slightly larger, seeing Ono fumbled her pitch. She took her place on the rubber again and threw the next pitch Ono asked, a shootball.

A small smirk played on her lips. It was a nice aggressive pitch to follow a fastball to the chest. As she pulled back to deliver it, the sounds of the crowd died around her. Silence engulfed her and she felt the thrill come back, the thrill that she had missed since leaving America. The ball flew straight and true, the batter again not swinging. And again, the pitch bounced off of Ono's mitt. The thrill subsided.

The umpire called the strike again but Alexia didn't hear. Instead, the worry was pooling in her gut. She silently cursed herself. She should have spent last night practicing with Ono. She knew he would have problems. She had been throwing to the same catcher for five years, so she hadn't thought about it took much. She should have made sure Ono was able to catch for her. She should have prepared more.

Reflexively, she caught the ball that was thrown back to her. "Sorry about that. That was my fault," Ono called out to her. He pulled his lips into a thin line. When he had caught for Alexia yesterday, he had noticed her weird pitches. Her form made it so that not only did the ball seem to come out later, but it was delivered in a whip-like fashion, making it hard to time and hard to determine the exact release point. Her control was superhumanly exact, but catching for her was almost harder than catching for someone with no control.

He crouched behind the plate again, determined to catch the next pitch. He signaled for an outside fastball and Alexia nodded. She set up and threw the pitch perfectly, right into the pouch of his mitt. The batter didn't even swing. Ono held his breath as his mitt closed around the ball praying that it wouldn't pop out again. As he heard the umpire call the batter out, he exhaled. He stood smiling and threw the ball back to Alexia.

"One out! Let's get the next batter, too!" he yelled to her smiling. She smiled and nodded back at him, but something felt off. She was always loud and overly confident; Ono had assumed that would transfer onto the field as well. While she didn't seem nervous, she was lacking that spark that seemed to be a permanent fixture of her eyes.

Something wasn't quite right, and both of them could feel their anxiety building.