Deck's Ace of Diamonds

It's not an act

When he got to his room he unlocked the door and entered inside. Kuramochi and Masuko were both knocked out cold from the incense he burned in the room to make them sleep like the dead until about 6am. One of Kai's concoctions, that has benefited him a lot whenever he needed to sneak out of Seidou at night.

The team did not know his identity as a special operative agent for the Japanese government. He had played baseball in middle school with Nobu and Wakana, and managed to get scouted to Seidou. At first he did not see any benefits to come all the way to Tokyo, but his grandpa persuaded him to go, because Kai would also be moving to Tokyo as well.

To Eijun baseball was his day 'job' while being the Ace of Diamonds was his night job. He never wanted either to interfere with the other. Nobu and Wakana both suggest that he dropped baseball after middle school like they did, because it would be easier getting away without the restraint of attending practice or training. But Eijun loved baseball. If he were a normal kid he would say that he would have been a crazy obsessed baseball idiot like most of the guys on his team. But he wasn't.

Eijun had been training to be an agent ever since he could walk. His father and grandpa were specifically hard on him on the physical aspect of it. While his mother was on his ass for the mental half. To say the least Eijun could be known as a genius despite being a first year in high school because he knows the entire high school curriculum by heart. Actually his whole team does, which is why Kai specifically wanted to be homeschooled. Despited being 15, he takes online 2nd year university courses, while Eijun, Wakana and Nobu could be in their first year of university right now. Academic wise.

But he is not a genius. Because he has been acting like a ray of sunshine, ball of energy, idiot to his team. Eijun's mother always told him acting is a part of being an agent, and Eijun excelled in the art. He played idiot so well he deserved an award.

He purposely tormented a third year batter when he came to visit the school before actually attending. He woke up late on the first day, hoping to get in trouble so he could examine the team from a far. Luckily the first string catcher Miyuki Kazuya had helped him out with that. Kataoka seemed like an intimidating man but nothing was scarier to Eijun then his grandpa in his general mode. So even though he wasn't actually scared of Kataoka, he pretended to be.

But not all his interactions were fake. He really enjoyed his teammates that he got to know over the past two months. Miyuki was a tease but his baseball skills were unparalleled. Kuramochi though he looked scary could be a softy. Haruichi was like an angel but had a hidden demon inside. His older brother Ryosuke had his demon on the outside, but Eijun could tell there was an angel deep -deep- inside.

Furuya though quiet, actually just wanted to be part of the group. Yuki was someone to respect and admire. Jun was loud and brash but softy as well. Masuko was a straight up softy who loves pudding. Tanba though he looked intimidating was really shy. There are few other but they were quick cases to study, but he enjoys having them thrown in the mix.

Chris who despite lost his passion for baseball due to shoulder and wrist injury still continue to stay on the team. Eijun found him the most interesting person to analyze, and when he got paired up with the soulless catcher his interest grew. He could admit that his extreme attention on the catcher was a bit overbearing, especially since no one suspected that he knew about the catcher's injury.

Eijun just wanted to see what was driving Chris to push forward, but somehow not completely. Eventually Rei took him to see Chris at therapy and some pieces fell into place for Eijun. Eijun definitely wanted Chris to teach him all he knew about baseball, which he asked -begged- for because sometimes he got lost in his role of being an idiot.

Either way he eventually saw the light return to Chris's eyes and Eijun thought the look suited him. He made first string; after playing in a game with Chris, along with Haruichi to complete the 20 players for the summer tournament. Eijun was a bit upset that Chris wasn't chosen more so because he thought the catcher deserved it more since he wasn't being half assed about the sport as Eijun was.

Baseball is not Eijun's future, though it hurts him to say so. His life will always be with the Japanese government, so he can never hope to become pro or earn much attention as he would want. It wouldn't be good for him as the Ace of Diamonds and that's just the way it is.

Eijun stopped reminiscing on the past as he slipped into bed, hoping to get about an hour of sleep before continuing the 4th day of training camp.

~~~

Eijun groaned as he woke up to the sound of his roommates shuffling around the room to get dressed for morning practice.

"Get Up! Bakamura!" Kuramochi cackled as he saw how messy Eijun's hair looked. "Your hair! Ha!"

Sleep deprived Eijun took awhile to fall back into his normal acting of 'baseball idiot'. So he just sighed and ran a hand through his hair ruffling it more.

"Sawamura-chan. Your not making it any better." Masuko pointed out as he hid a laugh behind his hand.

"Ugh!" Eijun sighed deeply as he stood up and got changed.

"Are you okay?" Kuramochi asked.

Eijun mentally reprimanded himself for acting like this. It was unlike him to break character but with only an hour and a half of sleep, he was not doing to well mentally. He already had an exhausting training day from the 3rd day of summer camp, but he also had to perform a full base takedown in the span of 4 hours. Also he had to be mindful of the Venom escapees lurking around the streets and to top it off; only getting to sleep until 6:30am.

He wasn't complaining per se that he could not handle it, his body is used to training to the point of exhaustion. He wouldn't be on the Ace team if he could not go 96 hours without sleep -they have tested this-. He would just like the luxury of sleeping, the option would be nice.

"I'm fine, Cheetah-senpai!" Eijun beamed his usual sunshine smile.

"Who are you calling, Cheetah!" Kuramochi yelled as he tackled the southpaw down and put him into a leg hold.

Eijun did his best to make sure his stitches would not open despite Kuramochi making that very hard. He was happy when his senpai finally let loose once Eijun tapped out.

"Come on you two. We have to get to morning practice before Kataoka-Kantaku has our heads." Masuko chuckled at the usual display from his roommates before making his way to the door before putting on his cleats.

"Hai!" They both said in unison, and followed the eldest out of the dorm room after putting on their own cleats. Masuko locked the door behind them and they made their way to the field.

"Oh! Sorry senpais, I forgot something in the room. I will catch up soon." Eijun said quickly before running back to the room not leaving anytime for his senpais to question what he had forgotten.