Baseball and the Azure Blue Sky

Chapter 27: Baseball Idiots and One Piece

"Wahaha! I'm gonna be the King of Pirates!" Sawamura shouted, hands confidently placed on his hips and grinning widely from ear to ear.

Sora and Tomoko were utterly impressed.

"Wow, Tomo-chan... That really fits well!"

"And we didn't even have to do much either"

"Amazing..."

The brown haired pitcher had pestered Sora that he wanted to try out cosplay after he had worn that waiter uniform back at the wellness center. Taking pictures for the young manager of the cosplay café apparently had been so much fun that Sawamura had insisted on trying out the real deal. But since the young Seidou southpaw was inexperienced and also didn't have any own costumes or wigs, the blue haired girl had asked Tomoko if she would let them try on some things after closing time.

"He isn't even wearing a wig, but still..." the blonde manager mused, fingers placed thoughtfully on her chin.

"Yup, the personified Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece in the flesh", Sora agreed.

"The next King of Pirates..."

"The next ace of Seidou!"

To be completely honest, the blue head would never have thought that simply putting Sawamura into an unbuttoned long sleeved red shirt, knee-length light blue jeans with a yellow shawl around his waist as a kind of belt, a straw hat and some flip-flops could have an effect like that! It was truly amazing how well that fit together. Sawamura having brown instead of black hair and not wearing a wig didn't even make that much of a difference with the hat on his head, shadowing his features enough to just classify it as dark hair only.

"Eijun, you're a prodigy!" Sora declared proudly, making Sawamura blush with happiness, bright sparkles appearing in his hazel eyes all of a sudden.

"Ah, no, no, no", he laughed awkwardly. "Or well, if you really think that... Maybe I am..."

"Yes, Eijun-kun, I'm impressed", also Tomoko praised much to the young pitcher's joy. "So, how about we take some pictures, Sora-chan?"

"Sure, that's why I'm still in my cosplay anyway"

It was One Piece theme week in the café and the blue haired girl was cosplaying Princess Vivi since it fit well with her natural hair color. She was wearing the oriental seeming Alabasta Arc costume and took a lot of pride in it since it looked truly gorgeous on her. Two of her actual female colleagues had volunteered to do Nami and Robin as well, so the girl's cast of the Straw Hat Crew of the popular anime was taken care of, much to Tomoko's relief.

"C'mon Eijun, let's do some posing for Tomo-chan"

"Hell, yeah!"

January had been over in a flash even though it was still the off season and Seidou was forbidden to have practice games during that period. The usual practice schedule had been more than enough to keep the players occupied, not to mention the retired third years were still coming over to help every now and then.

Additionally, Sora had been busy with homework, studying and tutoring sessions since the final exams were getting closer and with that also the graduation of their senpais. Nothing the young girl was actually looking forward to, but it couldn't be helped. In fact, she had gotten very attached to the brotherly third years over the last weeks.

After they had been in the wellness center and also after Christmas and new year, the almost graduates had kept their promise and had stopped by in Tomoko's café very frequently. They had made it their usual meeting place, whether to relax after a hard day of studying for entrance exams or just to get some coffee before starting a study session some place else or even holding their cram meetings right in the café, the third years soon enough had established an own regular's table.