Takane no Hana (Raichi Todoroki)

Chapter 5

Chapter five

The baseball team's in trouble.

It was just a normal day in Yakushi High, and no one expected this storm to approach.

Apparently, the home-run Raichi hit the day before that went over the fence hit the face of the leader of a notorious gang that roamed the area a lot. The guy got mad and demanded that the team pay for it. That's why he showed up with his whole gang at the front gate.

He glared at the entering students, intimidating all of them, although it did not affect Hanako who was currently entering the school and the target of his glares. She had seen far scarier guys than this one. To be honest, the guy seemed weak.

For now, the two of them were having a staring contest, a calm one to a glare, when a member of the baseball team called her out. He was obviously a member because he was playing with a baseball.

"Hey, manage-"

The leader of the gang suddenly let out a maniacal laugh as he faced the whole team. "I've been waiting for you for ages, and you shall pay for what you did to my face!" he screamed, pointing at the band-aid on his forehead.

Hanako merely ignored him and waved at the others to hurry up when he was stopped by the guy who had snaked his arm around her waist. She flinched and glared at him. She tried to resist the urge to beat the guy up. Of course, if she let out her anger now, then her hard work would all be for nothing.

"Let go of me!"

The team's eyes collectively widened. Nobody would try to harass their manager and get away with it!

Someone was about to punch the guy when Hanako stopped him. She pinched the leader's hand hard which made him let go, and she walked away.

She lightly patted the back of the guy who attempted to punch the leader. "Settle this your way, not by violence..."

The guy smirked. "Feisty, aren't you? Ah, what about this...? I'm going to propose a trade. I'll let you guys go if you give her to me."

"So you're asking us to have a match with you?" Sanada challenged. The guy made him furious.

"Precisely."

"Then you're on!" they said.

-•-•-•-•-

The team was on a roll at practice after that. They would win. No, they would crush them.

Meanwhile, Hanako was calmly sitting on the bench, doing her usual job which made them wonder.

"Manager, how could you be so calm?"

She smiled a bit. "Well, for one, I would never go with that guy. Two, I believe in you guys."

Some of them swooned. The words I believe in you guys were greatly encouraging.

"Manager!! We swear we will not make you go to those guys!"

And so, the day of the match came without delay.

The match started, and it was relatively normal at first which nobody expected.

"I honestly didn't think they would know how to play baseball," Hanako muttered though her eyes widened as she saw one gang member smirk and purposely throw a ball that could hurt her teammates.

"He...did that on purpose, didn't he?" she said, loud enough for the coach to hear.

Raichi's father narrowed his eyes at the other team. "We can't say that for sure."

She hugged her notebook to her chest. Why couldn't she shake off that horrible feeling? Her heart raced faster. She could feel it, something horrible.

She felt it more and more as she watched the game progress, and it happened...on the fourth inning.

One of their teammates cried out in pain. The other team had been purposely hitting them with the balls during the game, but they had taken it too far with this one. They were skilled in hiding their rough play. One of them had elbowed that teammate in the gut which he claimed as an accident, the lowest of the low.

"Whoops!" the guy said, raising his hands as if surrendering, with a smile. If anything, the smile looked evil. "What an accident. Could you ever forgive me? Ahaha~"

Dammit! Just what did she expect, that they would play fairly?

*smack* Another victim...

It was her fault. She proposed this idea. Tch.

She has had enough.

She stood up from her seat. She has become tired of seeing her teammates suffer. It reminded her of some pieces of her past. She stood in the bullpen and warmed up though no one really noticed her.

"I will play," she had declared to the coach a bit earlier.

His eyes widened. "What?"

"I'll explain it later. Anyway, I will play."

He shook his head. "Alright."

"Pffft. What will a little girl like you do?" the gang member taunted with a sneer.

They quickly felt themselves pale a bit though when they saw the look on her eyes. They felt a chill on their backs. Right now, she was not the same as before. Right now, she even looked a bit heartless, like an animal wanting to devour its prey.

"I will crush you."

Indeed she did. Her pitches were fast and unpredictable. The catcher barely managed to catch some of them though he did his best and caught them anyway. Some of them barely missed the other team's bodies, but she was not the type to purposely hurt them doing baseball. No, she had more sportsmanship than that no matter how angry she was at them.

One of the balls hit the other team anyway though, but it was an accident.

The guy passed out in pain, and that was how strong it was.

With Sanada's and Hanako's pitching, Raichi's batting, and the others' fieldwork, they easily took the rest of the game and scared the other team shitless. They were never going to play baseball again, ever, if they were going to encounter monsters like them again.

Hanako sighed after the game, realizing what she just did. She unleashed the other side of her again, the side she tried so hard to seal away.

A lot of her friends back then used to avoid her because of that, and she didn't want the same to happen again. She tried to look at them, but she couldn't. She was too afraid to see the reactions.

"Well, I acted good didn't I?" she said, still not looking at them, and she gave them a fake smile.

No one spoke so Sanada broke the silence.

"That wasn't acting wasn't it?"

(A/N)

Gonna stop it here~ haha!

Drama next chapter :">>