Southpaw

The Truth of Seidou's Pitchers

Training slowly picked up for Eijun and the rest of the first years. While they weren't given practices with much ball content or field play yet, they spent a lot of time building stamina and improving their physique for later in the season. While it wasn't obvious to most of them, there was a chance that some of them would be given to be on the second string. While that seemed like a great opportunity, Eijun's plan was to shoot straight to the first string. He was here to be the ace, and he couldn't do that from the second string. Besides lately there had been some strange rumors going on about the team. According to Mei-Senpai it seemed that a lot of people would be both dreading to face them and underestimating them because there was a strange issue with the team this year. Batting and attack was apparently great, one of the best even, but team morale while high was not enough to make up for the lack of center in their defense. Yes, it seemed that Seidou was having issues with their ability to defend and thus relied too heavily on miracles like Yuki-Senpai (the captain) and Mochi-Nii (a great runner). 

Eijun sighed, he came to Seidou to play baseball, but even though his first day went off without a hitch it seemed that all they were doing lately was running, running, and more running. Eijun started to sigh again only to be cut off by his own yelp. Tanuki-Senpai had come up behind him and had slung his arm around Eijun's shoulders.

"M-M-Mi-Miyuki K-Ka-Kazuya!" Eijun stuttered out flushing red.

"That's my name, don't wear it out okay?" The brunette in glasses snickered at him. Eijun flushed even more red.

"Senpai, what are you doing?!" Eijun barely managed to force out.

"Oho? Are you questioning your Senpai, Sa-Wa-Mu-Ra?" Kazuya's smile widened at the flustered first year. 

"No! But don't you have anything better to do than talk to first years?" Eijun looked at him less flushed than before, but feeling shy.

"That sounds like a question to me. I'm here to check out the first year pitchers, and I thought I heard a familiar loud voice." Miyuki crooned.

"I- that- Ugh!" Eijun huffed moving to leave. But his annoying Senpai grabbed him by the arm keeping him from leaving.

"Sawamura, am I that boring? You wound me!" With his other hand, Kazuya clutched his heart. "Right here. It's a mortal blow." He started to feign choking. It was lucky that the two of them were alone neat the vending machines a little ways off from the fields. Otherwise Eijun would have choked him for real, dealing him an actual mortal blow!

"Anyway, there's a match today right? The first string is playing Ichidai?" Sawamura asked while trying to get out from under Kazuya's arm.

"Yeah, we're actually heading out soon. Are you coming to cheer on your precious Mochi-Nii?" Kazuya teased putting more weight on Eijun to keep him from escaping. 

"Mhm. I have to cheer on my favorite senpais! I'm going to watch Nori-Senpai, Masuko-Senpai and Mochi-Nii!" Eijun said teasingly.

"Sawamura that's cold!" Kazuya cried out. "I thought we had a connection?"  Eijun snickered.

"Well Senpai, if you actually spoke to me once in a while, that would help your case. Buuuuuut, you've been ignoring me!" 

"Well I can't exactly be seen talking to only one of the first year pitchers! That would scream favoritism." Kazuya sighed. Truthfully he did want to speak to the cheery brunette, but unless he made first string or Kazuya started to speak to all of the first years (he was too lazy for that option) there was no way that he could really talk to Eijun. At least not yet.

"Mhm, I see your point! Guess that just means I've got to make first string soon, hahaha." 

"Oho are you talking big?" 

"You've seen me pitch at least once, what do you think?" With that Eijun finally pulled free from Kazuya's grasp and walked away.

***

The stadium was full of people. Today's match was taking place at Meiji Jingu which was close to both schools. Ichidai had an overwhelming crowd at the match, while Seidou had, a couple of true fans... which meant that is was mostly just parents, alumni, and current players. 

Eijun ran down the stairs the get the best seat possible near the bullpen, he wanted to see Nori-Senpai and cheer him on as he warmed up. The Starting pitcher Tanba-Senpai was someone Eijun had never met, so while he would cheer the guy on while he was pitching, Eijun was more or less here for Nori. At the front of the bleachers where there was a great view of both the bull-pen and home base, Eijun settled down before waving down Tojou and his blond friend.

"Kanemaru right? Tojou talks about you during practice!" Eijun smiled.

"Yeah. Sawamura?" Kanemaru nodded at him.

"That's me!" Eijun laughed boisterously drawing looks from people around them.

"Do you guys know where Furuya is?" Eijun questioned, not seeing the sleepy pitcher anywhere. The other two pitchers Hozuki and Mitabe recently were pulled into fielding since the boss had realized that they didn't want to be pitchers and were both more interested in other positions.

"Ah, he's probably throwing pitches at the wall again." Tojou sighed.

"Didn't he put a dent in the wall last time?" Eijun face plamed.

"Yeah. I hope we don't come back to a destroyed field..." Kanemaru tried to keep a straight face but failed.

"Oi, Tojou, Sawamura did you notice yet? Coach has the roster filled wit 18 players currently, but this tournament allows the roster to be filled with 20 players. What do you think is going on?" Eijun shrugged while Tojou looked surprised.

"I guess we'll find out soon! The game is about to begin." Eijun nodded towards the field.

Seidou and Ichidai lined up to bow, before making their ways back to their respective dugouts. Eijun was not surprised to see Tanba come out of the dugout wearing number 1, but he was surprised at the pitching he showcased. This was the truth of Seidou's pitchers... They didn't have an ace in anything but name.

***

Hi guys! It's Cinnamon Roll :) I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry that I updated this tonight rather than this morning. This week is exam period, so I'm drowning in exams, papers, research and reports. Being an engineering major is hard! But it's rewarding. Anyway Sorry for the wait I hope you enjoyed it!

Okay so quick question... I've got three different plot directions that I can take: First Eijun plays in the Ichidai game and gets pulled to first string, second Eijun watches the game and plays in the senpai-kohai game and makes first string; or third Eijun goes to second string after the senpai-kohai game. There are no issues with either direction all of them will need a work around since I will need to give an explanation for all of them, so any of them are possible. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. It would really help me to get an outside opinion. Oh! in case you were worried, in all plot directions Chris still exists and appears! Love you all

~Cinnamon Roll