I Am A Shadow (DnA Fanfic)

24. Sick to Her Stomach

"We'll now introduce the player from Akikawa Academy.."

The announcer for the next game began to list the lineup for Akikawa Academy. In the stands, prepared to watch the game, the Seidou baseball team sat eagerly. They were very interested to see who their next opponent would be.

Esumi sat in between Ryousuke and Jun, being directly in front of her brother. On her lap was a dark blue notebook. Her hand tightly gripped a pencil. She tapped the writing utensil at a rapid pace against her book. Jun reached out, grabbing the girl's hand. Esumi looked up at him. "Stop that, will you?" Jun scowled, pulling his hand away.

"Sorry." Esumi laughed, tucking the pencil behind her ear.

"Esumi-chan." Ryousuke called the girl's attention. Esumi turned to the male on her right.

"Ah, that's right." Esumi flipped toward the beginning of the notebook on her lap. "What I meant earlier was I have a prediction." She stopped at a page. Black lead scribbles covered the page. There were numbers and letters running across each of the lines.

"What's your prediction?" The pink haired male took the notebook. His eyes scanned back and forth, searching for the answer. Esumi leaned over, pointing to the very bottom of the page. In the bottom right corner, a word was circled in red ink. "Akikawa Academy?" He questioned, looked at the girl besides him.

"You think that Akikawa is going to be our next opponent?" Masuko asked, having overheard the conversation.

"Yep, I took in consideration all of the different ways the game could play out." Esumi mentioned, showing the all the work she had done on the pages.

"You took every possibility into consideration?" Eijun butted into the conversation. He leaned over his sister, trying to peek into the notebook in Ryousuke's hands. Esumi nodded her head, tilting chin upwards.

"Of course." Came her reply.

"Take a good look at the pitcher from Akikawa." Miyuki interrupted, taking Eijun's attention and directing it toward the field. "He's got what you're lacking."

"That's You Shunshin-san." Esumi pointed to the pitcher that Miyuki was talking about. "He's an exchange student from Taiwan."

"Actually, he came on a language program." Chris added in, reading from his own notes instead. "But it seems that he became fascinated with Japanese baseball."

"In fact, he stays behind to practice longer than anyone." Esumi interjected, flipping a couple pages in her notebook. "His lust for sucking up knowledge about Japanese baseball is greater than anyone else." She turned to look back at Furuya and her brother. "I'd watch out for him if I were you. He gives off an atmosphere that doesn't let anyone close. The ball control he polished for day on end. His nickname is: precise machine."

On the field, Shunshin stood on the mound. He readied his pitch, then released the ball toward the strike zone. The batter flinched backwards. The small white ball created a loud smack against the catcher's mitt. The batter leaned forward a bit as the ball was returned to the pitcher. The fear was clear on his face. 'Well that ball was incredibly near his face..' Esumi reasoned.

Again, Shunshin threw the ball. This time, the course was toward the outside. The pitch was rather fast, leaving the batter almost no time to react. "Strike!" The umpired declared. Then next ball was already in the motion of being thrown. The batter began to panic, deciding that the ball would follow the same course. He swung his bat, yet still missed. "Strike, batter out!!"

Akikawa's pitcher had thrown three consecutive pitches to the same spot!

Eijun and Furuya watched from the stands. Seeing Akikawa's ace's control, it lit a fire within them. Both of the freshman pitcher's lacked complete control over their pitches. Neither wanted to lose to You Shunshin.