What More Could I Need (Book #2) AOT Fanfiction

Baseball Chaos

Maki Yamazaki

For the past two weeks, Aki has been acting very strange lately. It all started when he spent a night in Hange's lab for another high fever. Once he came home, he changed. He barely says five words to anyone and sits in a room by himself throughout the day. When he went back to school, he walked the halls in silence. He works in the library silently but goes past his limit at practice. He threw a pitch so hard, it broke one of our wooden bats in half. The coach was so upset, he almost took him out of our championship game. If it wasn't for him being a star player, he surely would have.

This game is against Haru's school, one of our biggest rivals. They're winning record is just as large as ours. They are actually coming after lunch to spend their day at the school. Last year, when they came, two of our players got into a fight with theirs. Hopefully, it doesn't happen again but I wouldn't put anything past them. During my first year, I heard they hid away all of our equipment so the team had to forfeit the game.

The varsity team is excused from afternoon classes to spend practicing. After batting for hours at a time, I take a trip to the cafeteria to buy a small snack. Hmm. Maybe I should buy a roll cake for Aki. It might bring up his mood a bit. As I'm going back to practice, I happen to run into Aki coming from the bathroom. Why is he going to the bathroom on this floor when there's one closer to the field2? "Is practice over?" he asks as we continue walking together.

"Sort of. People are starting to show up and the umpires just pulled up. I thought I would eat something before we started. I got you something as well."

"Thanks."

He's not the same. Something just isn't right. When I get home, I need to ask Saichi is she knows anything that might have happened. When we get to the field, I'm surprised to see Saichi talking with our coach by the bleachers. She's still wearing her lab coat and glasses. Did she leave work just to be here? Standing behind her is Takahiro and Levi. I look around and find Haru sitting at the top of the bleachers with Yuri. They came. But I thought... I drop the bag in my hand to run up to her. The coach nods to me and joins the team in the locker room. I look at the three, waiting for some kind of explanation. They say nothing. But Aki does as soon as he joins me. "I thought you had to work." he bluntly says.

She shrugs her shoulders. "I went, then I told Erwin I'll take a night shift and a morning shift tomorrow if he lets me go so here I am."

Why is she working herself so hard? We would have told her how it went once we got home. She didn't have to make such a sacrifice. I want to thank her but the coach blows his whistle just for us being the only ones not with the team. After our usual huddle, we do the coin toss and Aki is up for pitching. After four innings, we keep at zero to zero. We either strike out or get out by the second or third base. It becomes exhausting. I can tell Aki is more than irritated. He never stops smiling when he pitches but today he is nothing of the sort.

During the seventh inning, the umpire makes it clear that they will call a draw if it stays at zero. I lean on the gate from the dugout, mentally hoping we get them out. Aki takes a deep breath and throws his first pitch. First ball. He adjusts his hat, kicking back dirt. Without even thinking about it, I call out, "Come on, Aki! I know you can do it!"

He looks at me and, even with his eyes shaded, I can see a change. He grips the ball in his glove and nods, cracking into a smile. He throws the next ball and gets a strike. The rest of the team has joined me at the gate, cheering. Aki manages to strike every single one of them out. Great. Now we just need some runs to take the reins of this game. Aki comes back into the dugout, taking hugs and pats to the head. Once he reaches me, he slowly wraps his arms around me. He hasn't been near me for weeks now. It feels good to have him back at this moment. "Thank you for believing in me," he whispers.