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Legend of Sawamura	By : eternalstarhaven Category: -Misc Anime > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 971 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: For fanfiction. I do not own Ace of Diamond, the characters, and do not write this for money or profit. Ace of Diamond is the work of Yuji Terajima.

Chapter List
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~ Eijun’s POV ~
Perhaps the most terrifying person at Seidou, was hands down, Tetsuya Yuki. However, despite that, he could say that he was everything that Eijun was not. He was strong, reliable, unrelenting, and the hardest worker he had ever come across in baseball. His gaze could lock you down as easily as an ice storm, intense and missing nothing.
The whispers about him around Seidou had been a mixture of fear, awe, respect, and a unanimous don’t get on his bad side. He didn’t tolerate bullying, hazing, assault, drugs, or discrimination of any kind. Eijun had to wonder how an individual got the way Tetsuya had, especially when his views were not the norm outside of Seidou. Outside of baseball, like at school, they would pass one another, but he rarely spoke to Eijun. Now if he was doing something stupid or reckless, he turned into a scary demon and Eijun would take off running every time.
Tetsuya never yelled, but he didn’t have to. His gaze was enough to hint that Eijun had done something to set him off, even if his expression never gave him a way. Jun Isashiki, his Vice-Captain did all the talking for him. It was like Tetsuya had a voice, but he refused to use it. If and when he did talk, people would scatter like a gust of wind. That was the kind of leader he was. The entire team trusted him, especially Ryosuke Kominato and Jun Isashiki. Eijun had to admit that those two equally unsettled him, but he could never figure out why or how the three were so damn good at baseball when he himself should have probably never learned it in the first place.
Eijun, on a warm summer night, hours before he was supposed to get on a bus, contemplated his life up to this point. Yes, he had finally earned the ACE position he had worked so hard for, but the victory was tempered with one regret after another. How could he want to win at Koshien when the dreams of so many before him had been crushed with his arrogant and childish behavior? There were days when he couldn’t shake the images of his past senpais out of his mind and the Captain was always at the front of those memories, the tears on his face that he tried to hide as he sat at the back of the bus.
It was like Tetsuya had been expecting something from him, but instead of saying what it was, he chose silence and avoidance. Eijun wished he had been more reliable, stronger, faster, but he had never once given baseball the consideration and respect that it deserved. Yes, there were hints that Seidou had been a terrible place once; he had seen it first hand when he had gone head-to-head with Azuma. However, now that he thought back on that incident, he should have never openly called him out the way he had.
Kazuya Miyuki, while not the nicest person in the world, was on the same team as that idiot and he could only imagine what he had gone through after he had departed. He was able to return to the safe comfort of his home, but what about Kazuya? Eijun had chased after him over and over again and there were moments when he thought the catcher truly hated him, but that emotion had gradually changed. It wasn’t friendship that they had at this point in time, but at least they could work together without Kazuya wanting to run away or ditch him for Furuya. Not that he had a choice in the matter. Furuya was broken and that was thanks to that snake Coach Ochiai.
Eijun, by nature, didn’t hate a lot of people. He simply shrugged off insults, bullying, and violence. However, he could say without a shadow of a doubt that Ochiai was evil to the core, as if he was the future of Seidou if something were to happen to Kataoka. That’s why he had no choice but to win the game tomorrow, if not for himself, he had to do it for the head coach so that he could continue standing between these kids and the people that wanted to send them packing.
Coach Ochiai wanted to give the ACE number back to Furuya and while Eijun really didn’t care at this point, he felt that if Kataoka agreed, it would admit that Eijun truly was a failure and only a temporary fix to Furuya’s declining mentality. Eijun wanted a second chance, even if he had no idea how he would go about it or what he could do differently. Deep down, he needed to become the type of player that he should have been from the start. Why he had waited until half way through his first years of high school to understand baseball was beyond his comprehension and he hated himself for it. Now that Kazuya and Yoichi were about to retire, the feeling of self-hatred, guilt, and frustration built up inside of himself. He could never tell them that he was truly sorry for what he had done, that he had been the one to take away the dreams and futures of their senpai’s. Tetsuya and Jun had worked so hard to change Seidou, to get them to a point where they could become something that had been nothing more than a dream.
Another thing he wasn’t proud of… He was so stupid that if he made anything higher than a 5 on his tests, people would say he was having a good day in school. It wasn’t that he lacked intelligence, he simply didn’t care about studying, reading, or writing if all he was going to do in life was play baseball. Even if Kazuya would want to play with him again in the future, his grades were so bad that no college would ever let him past the gates, let alone onto a baseball field. Eijun wasn’t worried about winning the game in the morning, but that didn’t fill the emptiness that he felt with his lack of reliability and his inability to provide this moment for his senpais.
Glancing up at the night sky, he saw a falling star. Not that he believed in magic, curses, or wishes; that didn’t stop him from saying what he felt. He regretted not living up to Captain Yuki’s expectations or efforts to lead Seidou to Koshien. He wanted a chance to start over, so that he could become the person, friend and teammate that the third years had needed, the ones classified as the ‘hopeless generation.’
Standing, he headed back to his room and noticed that the towel on the door knob was gone. Ryo had sprung a surprise visit on them, but thankfully Eijun never said anything about it and their younger roommate would go hang out with some of his other classmates in another room. Yoichi was curled up beneath his covers, Ryo already gone, a large smile on his face. Eijun couldn’t begin to understand their relationship, but he knew Ryo was fiercely protective of Yoichi and to his knowledge, had only gotten mad at him once and that was after the stunt he had pulled with Eijun’s alarm clock two years ago.
Eijun had never kissed or hugged a girl, but because of Ryo and Yoichi, he figured out that he wasn’t limited to that option, even if he would never openly tell anyone that he often found the same sex more attractive than the opposite.
The baseball team might have become accepting of same-sex dating, but not the rest of Seidou. The same-sex couples that he knew about, never held hands or hugged in the classrooms or in the hallways, even if the new incoming first years didn’t seem to care and had a more open mind set on the subject. That’s what winning Koshien in the fall of his first year had done for Seidou. It had opened the door for good, clean, and happy first years, not the filth that often came from drug or gang infested homes.
Yoichi, sensing that he was no longer alone, opened his eyes and spotted Eijun making his way over to his bed. He waved and climbed up the ladder, but paused when he saw Yoichi motioning for him to come over and sit. Considering it was probably their last couple of nights together, he didn’t argue and jumped back down and walked over. Eijun thought of Yoichi like an older brother and he wouldn’t put it past Yoichi to feel the same about Eijun. They were always singing and dancing, their younger roommate with his innocent and timid face smiling with joy as he clapped out a rhythm.
It was a different Seidou now, not the dark and terrifying place that Eijun had sensed when he first came here. Eijun wasn’t a fighter, but he knew when a place was dangerous and that was Seidou. To this day, he had no idea why he had decided to come here and it wasn’t like everyone thought. Kazuya was a damn good catcher, but if he could put into words why he chose this place, it might have been that Tetsuya had been the deciding factor.
There had been a look in his eyes the day he had challenged Azuma; and while he rarely paid attention to people, he had noticed him. Ryo and Jun had been holding him back, his expression seemed to be warning him away, as if he himself didn’t want Eijun to come here either. In the end, he had stormed off, not bothering to stay and watch. Jun had gone after him, leaving Ryo. He didn’t seem shocked after he had taken down Azuma. Those details were coming back to him now.
No one else had expected him to strike Azuma out… the looks of shock on their faces, the rage on Azuma’s, the horror on Kazuya’s after he realized what he had just done… Ryo’s was nothing like theirs. It was like he knew and expected nothing less, before he had turned to walk away. Out of all the students at Seidou High in his first year, he never once heard anything negative coming out of Tetsuya, Jun, or Ryo. They told him to work hard when there were others who could not, to accept the responsibility of being on the first string, regardless if he thought the decision to choose him was wrong. Those were Tetsuya’s words and standing behind him were Ryo, Jun, Tetsuya and Yoichi. The latter was probably with them because of Ryo, but as time went on, Yoichi had become his strongest supporter.
“I don’t want you to go,” Eijun whimpered. He had hated everyone retiring the year before, but he hadn’t been as close to them as he was to Yoichi. “I mean… you adopted me and I can’t do this without you! I know I had friends in middle school, but, they’re not you!”
Yoichi moved over and let the southpaw settle down beside him. It wasn’t anything romantic, but he had learned a long time ago when the kid got emotional, it was better just to let him cry it out than to kick or throw him out of their room. He would just bang on the door all night, begging to get back in and then everyone else would yell at Yoichi to do it or die. Two years ago he would have gladly gone along with Kazuya’s plans to get rid of this kid, but he deeply regretted what he had done.
Eijun seemed loud and obnoxious, but everything he did came from his honest desire to help those around him. He had no filter on his mouth, nor did he know the meaning of restraint. He was hard working and he didn’t seem to have the word quit in his vocabulary. Okay… he didn’t have a large vocabulary to begin with, but his stupidity came from his refusal to open a book that didn’t have anything baseball related inside of it. If you told him that he had to run a marathon to become a better baseball player, he would do it without hesitation and he seemed to ignore the animosity he generated from the players that seemed to put in as much work as he did, but showed less results.
Before high school, Eijun had had no coach and his idea of baseball was having a ball, a glove and hanging out with his friends. He didn’t know how to bat, field, pick off, but he had spent countless hours correcting those mistakes and had somehow become one of the strongest players on the team, minus his batting. It was pathetic, but one couldn’t expect a miracle in the two short years he had had to spend on cramming baseball into his mind and body. Yoichi hated to admit it, but the kid was incredible and nothing seemed to stop him from defying the expectations that didn’t exist for him.
He had been a god awful pitcher, an even worse baseball player but he didn’t let that stop him from changing or trying to become what the team wanted and needed. Eijun had grown up and he was still far too emotional for his own good. He pitched with his heart, good and bad. Kazuya might not hate him any longer, but that incident with Azuma and then the first string after Chris had been removed from the roster, had changed him and not for the better.
Yoichi knew now that Eijun hadn’t challenged Azuma for any other reason than to stop him from picking on Kawagami, but Kazuya had seen it as arrogance, another bully taking on another bully. Ryo had ignored Yoichi for a month after that initial prank, refusing to talk to him until after Eijun was allowed back on the team. In middle school, he thought he had had friends, but they had used him, pretending that they had been hurt, getting Yoichi to go after the fake bullies, and then ruined his chances of ever making it to a decent high school.
Seidou had been a dark place, but somehow Ryo, Tetsuya, and Jun had made it better. He couldn’t begin to describe how many close calls he had had with the older students and the team that had existed back then. It was nothing like it is now and Eijun had made the impossible happen. His outgoing and unrelenting kind heart had gradually changed their dark, dismal futures into something bright and hopeful. They started to believe that Koshien was possible, even if it did come a season later than they had wanted. Yoichi played a part in Eijun not being ready in time; if he hadn’t turned off his alarms, if he hadn’t gone along with Kazuya’s plan to get him thrown out of Seidou… they might have been able to win that game in the summer. Eijun had no chance of winning a game like that. His only experience were short innings on second string and when he didn’t perform the way the players or the coaches wanted, they had pulled him off, always yelling and cutting him down. His guilt and sense of failure was misplaced. Eijun, despite what he thinks, was not the reason they had failed to win that game.
“Eijun,” he sighed, using his first name. The southpaw glanced at him, startled that Yoichi was being nice to him for a change. It wasn’t that they didn’t have fun or anything, but he was never openly kind like he was being right this moment. “I… Don’t you dare tell anyone I ever said this… but… I’m sorry.”
The southpaw’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. He couldn’t even figure out why Yoichi was apologizing, and as the older boy sat up, Eijun turned bright red and turned towards the wall. Yoichi wasn’t wearing anything under his sheets; Ryo must have left not too long before Eijun had returned to the room. “Did you do something that I need to look out for? Like having sex on my bed?”
“NO!” Yoichi shouted, turning the same shades of red as Eijun. Although, now that he thought about it, he probably should have done it and left behind the evidence just for that comment alone. Ryo probably wouldn’t have agreed. He was stupidly protective of Eijun and no amount of asking why would get an answer from him. Ryo hated almost everyone at Seidou, as did Tetsuya. Jun was probably the more outgoing of the group, but Yoichi was wondering if that was just what he wanted people to think? Tetsuya was the only person on the team those two listened to and everyone recognized that fact.
“Then why are you apologizing? Other than that stupid clock incident, I don’t think you’re wrestling matches are anything to get upset over. I’m even getting better at squirming out of them!”
Yoichi snagged his arm and twisted it almost painfully behind his back, a hand grabbing and gripping a specific set of nerves along his neck and spine. “You’re far too young and gentle to get the better of me, brat.”
“OW! OW! I’m sorry! Yoichi, that kind of hurts!”
“And who said you can use my first name?”
“You did when you used mine!”
“I guess that’s okay.” Yoichi let him go and flicked him on the nose. Eijun whimpered, glaring at him, but only half-heartedly. In a couple of days they wouldn’t have a chance to do this anymore and suddenly he started to cry. “Eijun… wait… I didn’t mean…”
“It’s not that! I don’t want to give this up! I know you hate it when I cry, but… I don’t want you to go away! I’m too stupid to go to college, so any chance of playing with you ever again is probably never going to happen! I kept thinking that if I had to do all of this over, I would take baseball seriously, I would learn how to play before I got to high school, I wouldn’t show up late, I would apologize if I did… I know that a lot of what happened was because I always acted before I think...”
“Don’t you dare blame yourself for what happened? I’m the one that turned off your alarm clock and Kazuya was intentionally late that day.”
Eijun shook his head… “You guys did that because of Azuma. The way I handled that caused problems for everyone and it didn’t make me appear any better than him. As far as he was concerned, I was just a bully fighting against another bully. I was always a hot head, even in middle school. Did I ever tell you about attacking and hitting the other team and umpires? I slapped all of them and then just laughed it off later.”
“Why would you do that?!”
“They were laughing at and cutting my female teammate down; said that any team with a girl on it deserved to lose.”
Yoichi would have probably done the same and started to laugh. It made him regret his actions even more and if he hadn’t been such a cold-hearted ass, he could have been great friends with Eijun from the very beginning. “I wouldn’t mind a second chance either, just so that we could help Ryo and the others. I know those three are keeping one hell of a secret from me, but I never gave him a reason to trust me with it. He might have forgiven what I did to you, but he’s against pranks and bullying. The Captain looked like he wanted to snap my neck over what I did to you.”
“Why? Tetsuya doesn’t care about me.”
“Are you an idiot?” Yoichi leaned back, Eijun doing the same. If he was bothered with the fact that all that was between them was a bed sheet, he didn’t act like it. “Tetsuya hates almost everyone and everything about Seidou. The rumors going around about him is that he’s one of the biggest reasons that a lot of the bullies and thugs are gone. He encouraged them to quit or transfer. No one ever caught or turned him in, but the people he saved or helped from getting assaulted or killed figured it out somehow… He’s a legend at Seidou and in most cases, there was one line he didn’t cross. If he got in a fight, he wouldn’t go far enough to kill someone. The one exception always had something to do with you and that’s when Ryo or Jun would step in and stop him. If he even thought anyone was going to hurt you, he lost all sense of reason or how strong he was in comparison to who he was fighting.”
“He never talked to me, not unless I was doing something wrong.”
“Tetsuya wouldn’t, not with how Seidou was before and after you got here. Openly showing that he cared about you, it was too dangerous. As a team Captain and because he was in a different grade and class, he couldn’t protect you like he wanted. I guess, as a way of an apology to you and to get back on Ryo’s good side, I agreed to watch out for you after they retired. It wasn’t really that hard… You were already starting to grow on me at that point and the yips phase made me feel pathetic as a roommate. No one knew how to help you and I think that’s when Kazuya’s opinion about you changed as well. Anyone else would have gotten over that incident you had, but you… all you could think about was what could have happened to that kid. That’s how dangerous a ball to the head was.”
“Yoichi, I guess we both have a lot of regrets, but more than anything, I just want to come back and behave like an ACE should, not as a spoiled brat. Takashima once said that to communicate you had to do it through baseball. She isn’t wrong and if there was a way to go back without losing everything that I’ve accomplished, I wouldn’t challenge Azuma in the same manner.”
“And I wouldn’t try to get you kicked off, but instead I would act like a proper senpai. We never did to our younger roommate what we did to you. It doesn’t matter; miracles like that are only for comic books or movies.” Eijun started to drift off to sleep, their thoughts aligned as they thought about their pasts and wanting to save Seidou and their senpais. The second Yoichi drifted to sleep beside him, time came to a screeching halt, as if the condition Tetsuya had been looking for had been met and reset.

~ Tetsuya’s POV ~
Tetsuya shouldn’t have found this surprising, he really shouldn’t have. I mean, why would he think he was free just because he finally managed to get past high school? He was in college, enjoying life for once and now he was back in his crowded bedroom, a year before he was supposed to start high school again? Last time he had talked to Ryo, everything was still fine back at Seidou. The high school was normal now, not dark and dangerous like it had been. Did he miss something? He spent an entire week… Jun and Ryo had as well… They had made sure that there was no threat to Yoichi, Eijun, Takashima, Kataoka… Everything was fine! So why did they go back so far?
Getting up, he quickly left the house, knowing he was going to have one major tantrum. He couldn’t even meet up with Jun or Ryo; not if they were also in middle school. Why did they go back so far? Did one of them kill someone? He could honestly see Ryo doing something like that, but again, he had been hanging out with Yoichi last night. Eijun never had a problem with it and the other roommate seemed to take a hint and crashed in another room whenever Ryo visited Yoichi. The first years that had come in after they graduated were normal, healthy, open minded kids that were the exact opposite of what Tetsuya’s year had been exposed to. He was not looking forward to going through that again.
He didn’t have their phone numbers, didn’t know if they had phones and as soon as he was a safe distance from anyone remotely nice, he started beating in trash cans, walls, and eventually groups of gang members that thought they could take on a little kid that thought too highly of himself. If he had been a normal fourteen year old, they might have had the advantage, but because he kept all of his skills, strength, and speed every time he went back, none of them got up when he was done.
Word started to spread about him and again, instead of going home where anyone could hurt, he stuck around and for a brief moment in time, police and investigators heard a strange rumor that all the gangs had set aside their differences to unite against a common threat. When they went to the hospitals, all anyone could say was that a single kid beat them up. He had black hair, molten colored eyes, almost gold, but more like carmel brown, and was stronger than any fourteen year old middle schooler had a right to be.
No one knew what to do… From the evidence they were gathering, it was a clear case of self-defense, but for him to fight and crush several gangs on his own… What kind of monster was walking around Tokyo? None of them were expecting a kid that came from a large family of a single mother, six younger brothers and a look that had police reaching for their guns despite him not doing anything other than sitting on his front porch.
“Am I the one that gets in trouble for defending myself? I never started a single fight.”
“No, but you did finish them. Why aren’t your hands registered as a lethal weapon?”
“The law states that if I’m a second degree black belt in Karate, Kung Fu or Taekwondo and a black belt in some of the more lethal styles of martial arts, that I’m required to register my hands. You can ask any instructor in the entire country, I’ve never taken martial arts from any of them. I’ve lived in Japan my entire life, so what I know is what I’ve picked up from watching youtube or personal experience with constant fights with various thugs. Are you going to make all the gang members register their pipes, knives, axes, chains and boot accessories? It’s not like I had an unfair advantage and I did wait until there were ten or more before I used more aggressive methods of getting them to back off. Your laws certainly favor the criminals instead of defenseless kids.”
“You’re not defenseless.”
“No, but my classmates, brothers and mother are. They have to go through those gang infested streets to get to school, usually without lunch money. If they had it, they’d lose it. What do the lot of you do? You track down a single boy that took on and crushed every gang member in Tokyo on his own and without a weapon of any kind?! Who do you think will win this argument when I post it all over social media? Rape, murder, drug and human trafficking, prostituion, gambling, weapon smuggling… Do I need to keep listing off everything those idiots are into? The police won’t arrest them, the lawyers won’t prosecute them, teachers don’t suspend or expel the rotten students from their rosters! What the fuck are we supposed to do if we’re not allowed to fight back and survive?! Is that how I get your respect? Should I go sign myself up as a gang leader and go gather kids that meet my expectations? I might even gather enough money that I can buy you off myself!”
He tossed them the tape recordings he had of the fights and they knew the kid had them. “That’s just a copy of the original so you can keep it,” he growled. There were shouts of kill the kid, mess him up, find his family when they were done and a lot of other things that were all one way tickets to prison if they chose to take the tape and use it to arrest and prosecute. “Would you identify any of the ones that made these threats?”
“And what will that do other than cause more problems for my family? Do you think witness protection will work? We all know that cops and government officials are bought off… If you really give a damn about innocent victims, and I’m not talking about myself, then turn a blind eye like you always do and leave me the hell alone. I didn’t kill anyone; I just broke a few hands or legs… whatever limb that was holding a deadly weapon. Think of it as an incentive for them to find a new profession… If they want a second go at it, I’m more than willing to play.”
Someone’s radio flared to life and they got word that more fights were breaking out in other parts of Japan… It seemed Tokyo wasn’t the only place having a problem with gangs and a single kid wiping them out. Tetsuya knew it was more than likely Ryo or Jun, both of them knew how to fight without killing someone. Like himself, they were not officially trained and as the police tried to arrest one or both of them, pictures, video and tape recordings found their way all over the internet and the news channels. Ryo was the one that had somehow rigged all of the video cameras; he probably hacked into the computer systems of all the surrounding buildings and when he purposely went looking for a fight, the gangs did him the honors of starting every fight, surrounding him like bees did when they were pissed off. As for Jun, while he wasn’t the smartest person in their group, did know how to cover himself in the event someone tried to arrest him.
His sisters were more than likely the ones who put the fights on youtube as they were taking place. Jun had attractive sisters and too often they got unwanted attention, even when he was around. The public started protesting about the gang problems, wanting justice for the kids the police were trying to prosecute instead of the ones that had attacked them. It was self-defense and government officials that normally sided with the gangs out of fear or being paid off, had no choice but to listen or lose their positions.
Tetsuya waited for time to repeat itself like it always did when they caused problems of this magnitude, but when it continued forward he started to feel uneasy. It was probably a good thing they had gotten into the habit of not killing anyone… They hadn’t violated their restrictions necessarily, but as often as he had repeated time, too many people were now involved. Was that a bad thing though? The three of them had been fighting this problem for over four centuries and the public never got involved.
That hadn’t been his intent this time, but Ryo was a bit more direct when he wanted to accomplish something. This was also the first time he had been pushed back this far; Jun as well. His mother was beside herself when she found out that he had been the target of several gangs, but he assured her he was fine and that nothing else was going to happen. He wasn’t going to the police and he wasn’t willing to testify against any of them. Tetsuya would just handle things like he always did. His mother didn’t like him placing himself in danger, but at the same time, she already had a hard time feeding seven boys. The witness protection program would only move them, it wouldn’t help her find a new job, nor would it ensure she could even keep all of them together.
Eventually the gangs were encouraged to leave each boy alone… It wasn’t worth the effort of trying to take them out, nor did they have enough money to hire an assassin to take out fourteen year old kids. Even if they did have the money, If they tried to hire assassins in areas that were controlled with mafia or yakuza, it would make whoever hired them seem weak and no gang leader was going to take that risk. A few yakuza and mafia leaders seemed interested in recruiting them, but each kid firmly declined. They had other goals that didn’t align with the shadow world, but as long as their families and anyone they placed under their protection were left alone, they wouldn’t do anything past defending themselves.
It was a fair deal to keep them from siding with law enforcement or politicians, so the yakuza agreed with their demands and put out an order to leave them alone. It was pathetic that they had more support from mafia and yakuza leaders than they did the police, but Tetsuya wasn’t aiming for acceptance. He just wanted to live, survive, and somehow get beyond being a damn teenager. He was nineteen when he got pulled back this time, almost twenty! If someone did something to any of the people they were supposed to protect and keep alive, school was going to turn into a haunted roller coaster ride for Seidou High.

~ Eijun’s POV ~
When Eijun woke the following morning, he went through the motions of brushing his teeth and hair and in his sleep deprived mind, he didn’t notice anything out of place until he took a moment to stare at his reflection in the mirror. First, he didn’t have a mirror in his dorm room. He had to go down a long wooden walkway and past the cafeteria to get to the bathhouse. Instead, he had gotten up from his futon and walked straight into his family’s bathroom without even thinking twice about it.
He slept on the top bunk at Seidou, not a futon. That and he was almost certain that he hadn’t fallen asleep on his bunk, but beside Yoichi. Everything looked so real that he almost had to commend Yoichi on this prank; it was probably one of the best ones he had ever done. How the hell did he get a calendar that was dated three and a half years into his past? And why did it smell like his mom’s pancakes, something his dad loved. As a half-American himself, he could never say no to pancakes and syrup, but it wasn’t easy to obtain in Japan. Usually, he only got to eat it if his uncle was visiting and brought it over with him in his luggage.
Eijun, instead of going any further, glanced around his room. On his futon was his favorite quilt, the one his uncle had bought from a home craft market back in the United States. There was no way Yoichi could do this, not to this level of detail. One, it was way too much effort. Second, he’d have to know about his uncle and the fact that his favorite breakfast was pancakes and not the standard bowls of rice. God, he’d give anything to never see another bowl of rice for the rest of eternity.
Was he dreaming? He knew his alarm had gone off and while that was perhaps the most insane idea to think he was at home rather than heading to Koshien for his final game; a few pinches later, and he took a chance and walked out of his room, down the stairs and into the kitchen. His uncle was sitting at the table, talking quietly to his father, complimenting his mother’s cooking, and discussing some of his more difficult cases in the United States.
Sesshin Sawamura didn’t travel to Japan often, and in Eijun’s eyes, he came from the country where baseball originated from. He was half tempted to ask him questions, but further observation hinted that this was not Seidou, or the day before Koshien. He really was in the past and his reflection in the mirror hinted at the fact that he was twelve and not seventeen. If he started talking about baseball at the kitchen table, someone was going to think he had lost his mind. Eijun played baseball, he didn’t read or watch it and he most definitely never tried to learn anything about it. There was also the fact that he shouldn’t know anything about baseball yet.
This was too much and he had no idea what he could say without sounding out of place or unnatural. He wasn’t the same as he was when he had left home. While he was still relatively outgoing and hardworking, he wasn’t optimistic, he didn’t laugh or smile at every little thing anymore and he was filled with far too much guilt and regret. Sesshin looked up and started to say something, but Eijun suddenly turned and ran off.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at each other in concern. His reaction was so unlike the boy they always heard before they saw that they had to take a moment to determine if that really had been Eijun and if he really had taken off without so much as a sound or demand for his favorite breakfast. Sesshin had just arrived off a flight from Florida, hoping to introduce his nephew to baseball, but that would probably have to wait.
Promising to finish his breakfast, he got up and tried to follow the boy. The barn door was partially open, the boy hiding in a corner between a couple haystacks. “It’s been awhile,” he greeted, walking over and sitting down in front of him. Eijun spared him a glance, but didn’t move or say anything. “Anything new going on at school?”
Silence was his answer… If he had a word for Eijun’s behavior, it would be that the boy seemed out of it, as if he was trying to figure something out and at the moment he was in full panic mode. As a lawyer, he was good at picking up on what a person wasn’t saying. Eijun had come down from his room and when he walked into the kitchen, he acted as if he was waking up from some kind of dream, and the reality had come as a shock to him. “I was going to show this to you later, but…” Reaching for the bag he had brought side with him, he held out a catcher’s glove and baseball.
Eijun suddenly remembered. His uncle had originally tried to teach him how to play baseball, not as a pitcher, but as a catcher. He had switched over when his classmates were unable to pitch the ball beyond their two feet. It was sad really and he hadn’t been half bad either. His uncle mentioned that he had potential; but he had forgotten about it and eventually all he wanted to do was pitch and stay on the mound.
Without thinking, he reached for the glove and held it in his hand, sliding his fingers inside and was a bit surprised at how easily it fit. Thanks to Chris and Kazuya, he knew probably about as much about catching as he did pitching; he could fit either role at this point, even if he was still a pitcher at heart. “Do you play?” Eijun finally asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“I did, but that was a long time ago. Now I represent athletes as their lawyer when they’re injured or mistreated by managers, owners, and coaches.”
Eijun handed it back. He couldn’t lie to his uncle and pretend that he knew nothing about baseball, not when he wasn’t a catcher. “Can I throw a pitch or two? I just want to know what it’s like to throw for a professional catcher versus one from middle or high school.” Eijun requested. Sesshin had intended on showing him how to catch, but there was something in the tone of Eijun’s voice that had him hesitating.
“You know how to pitch?” Sesshin asked carefully. He had no idea where the boy would have learned; his father was a farm worker and other than himself, there was no one else in the family that played or cared about baseball. Eijun, shouldn’t know anything about baseball.
Eijun nodded, reaching for the glove in Sesshin’s hand. He didn’t exactly have a glove, but he could still make the wall without it. What he needed to know was if everything had been one crazy and terrifying dream, or if he was caught up in something else entirely. Making his way to the far side of the barn, he waited for his uncle to set up. He might have lost his height and size, but Eijun felt a growing sense of alarm as his fingers and body recognized the feel of the ball.
His body moved on its own and before he could think about what he was doing or how to coordinate his body, the ball flew across the barn and against the leather glove on his uncle’s hand. It was as powerful as what he had thrown to Kazuya a few hours ago, as if he hadn’t lost any of the hard work he had put into baseball. What was happening? Why was he twelve, but could play as if he was still seventeen? That had been his four-seam and because he needed to confirm the truth… he asked for one more. It was probably going to raise a lot of questions, but he would figure out his way around that later.
Sesshin Sawamura, a retired professional catcher, thought he had seen everything. Nothing prepared him for the pitch that came flying at him. He didn’t even know how to classify it, but it also landed in his glove with ease. “What was that and where did you learn to pitch like this?” He demanded, rising to his feet.
“I call it a crossfire and I’m self-taught. Everything I can throw was just me trying to figure out the grips on the baseball and how to get it to connect to the glove rather than going wild.”
“Do you know anything else?” Eijun nodded and because Sesshin was like most catchers that came across a pitcher like his nephew, couldn’t help but want a taste for more. He went through pitch after pitch, never throwing the same one twice in a row. He truly did know every possible combination you could use with the hand or fingers. While some of them needed work, if he could master them, he would become one of the hardest pitchers to fight against in all of baseball, regardless of what tier he was in. The problem was that Eijun wouldn’t be able to use his true strength on the field, not with the kind of striking power he had.
Eijun immediately knew that this was not happening the same way it had last time. His uncle had handed him a glove and a baseball, showed him how to use them and then went back to the United States. Because he had half-assed their time together, his uncle had simply told him to keep practicing and he might make something of himself if he ever wanted to get serious about baseball.
Losing track of time, they didn't realize it was getting so late that when his grandfather came into the barn, the two were drenched in sweat, slightly exhausted, but still refusing or wanting to quit. “We need to call it a day,” Sesshin said, spotting his father-in-law. Eijun looked like he wanted to protest and Sesshin smiled, ruffling his hair with fond affection. “We have all day tomorrow and the rest of the week, kid.”
The boy nodded, but instead of following them back to the house, he stayed and went back to pitching again.
Sesshin was at a loss on what to do. The child had real talent, especially if he was self-taught like he said. What he had a hard time wrapping his mind around was the fact that he was so young and could pitch like a professional. Those were not the pitches of a twelve year old, not a normal one. He couldn’t even begin to understand how much work he would have had to put in to get around that form of his, especially with the fact that he was double jointed. That alone had him thinking he would have made a far better catcher instead of choosing what he did, but the boy had decided to make it work no matter how many hours, weeks or months it would have taken for him to achieve success.
The other problem he saw in the future was his need for a catcher that could match that power; he couldn’t think of any in this age bracket that would allow for the boy to go all out. With the way he was pitching, as he changed the grip, the ball’s trajectory and speed also changed. That meant he would have had to master the incredible control to use them in a game setting, something he had obviously done. And then there was the problem of future coaches trying to change him. Not only was that dangerous to his core stability and his joints, but he could easily see him taking the blame for a catcher not being able to get in front of those things.
Sesshin was good enough to know where a player’s strengths were and Eijun should have been a catcher. Why did he choose the path of a pitcher? It wasn’t really important that he was good at it, but all he could see in his future was a lonely path that would get him physically and emotionally hurt because of how special and rare he was. He just couldn’t see anyone putting him in a game, not if they couldn’t match him with a qualified catcher.
There was another way; Eijun could still learn how to get that form under control; something he had no choice in the matter if he was to become an asset rather than a liability. In the meantime, the boy could take on the role as a catcher, spend his time developing those pitches and then start using them in his third year of middle school to get scouts to notice him. It wasn’t an uncommon tactic; to hide a powerful player around the field, but it was mostly done when one had health problems or because catchers weren’t up to snuff. The stronger a catcher, the more options a coach had during a game.
Japan, unlike America with it’s single season, had three. If he went to America to play, he would have far too much down time. For the kids that wanted to go professional, he would have to spend that time working in a private gym, sports club, or private games with older players.
Almost anyone could throw a ball, but not anyone could become what Eijun was. There was a haunted expression in that kid’s eyes, as if he had walked through the pits of hell to become as good as he was. He knew what it was like to hit rock bottom, something only seasoned professionals should have experienced. What was baseball really like in Japan? It was hard in America as well, but Japan’s mentality was a lot different. Failing in a sport was the same as losing a war in this country and their pride and honor seemed attached to everything a person did.
Eijun was self-isolating himself and Sesshin was worried that his true potential wouldn’t happen until college or beyond. He couldn’t let this boy continue training on his own. There were mentors or retired catchers and pitchers that could help him.
Sesshin never thought he’d find himself interested in working with a kid after he had given up professional baseball, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he should do something to help his nephew if this was what he wanted to pursue.
Eijun was, once again, up the following morning, long before everyone else. He thought he would have issues with running, but like his pitching, he had kept everything he had built up in his two years at Seidou. Nothing about what was happening at the moment felt real. Confused, frightened, emotions he was never good at dealing with on his own, ran rampant in his mind.
At least he could run and that was all he needed when he had no idea what his future meant, if he should change it, or leave it alone. If time travel was forbidden, he had his doubts that he would have woken up in his bedroom back in Nagano instead of Seidou High. Step-by-step, he let the wind carry him where it wanted and not to his surprise, he found himself on top of the mountain where he could build his future baseball field. Was it even okay to get them involved again? Unlike before, he did know how to play baseball. He wanted to give them what he had failed to do last time, but would they want to put that kind of work into becoming baseball players instead of just a bunch of kids running around a baseball field.
Eijun had always known that there was something dark about Seidou and he had hesitated to go there. It was everywhere he looked when he conducted his first visit. And yet he hadn’t made things better by challenging Azuma. His head started to hurt and the gaze of the intense Captain came back to haunt him like it always did. He may have said very little to him in the few months Eijun had known him, but Tetsuya had kept an eye on him. Tetsuya was like that though. He watched every player, as if it was his responsibility to protect and guide them. What was he protecting them from? Sawamura had seen enough westerns and crime movies to know a hard individual versus a soft one. Ryosuke and Jun were like that as well. After everything Yoichi had told him, it started to make sense and his heart hurt. He didn’t like it when people tried to protect him, not if they were putting their own lives on the line.
Would he find the answers on the internet? Something about Seidou kept nagging at him; the whispers he had ignored at first, but heard more and more as he became aware of the people, players, students, and teachers around him. Once he was done running up and down the mountain side, he stopped at the library and waved at the old man sitting behind the desk. In a town like this, there wasn’t a lot to do in the way of entertainment, but for a kid that usually didn’t even know what a book looked like, the librarian had to take a moment to assure himself that it was indeed Eijun going through the newspaper archives and then the computers sitting on the back wall.
Eijun looked at a loss on how to use it and the old man went over, asking if he wanted help with something. “If I wanted to investigate the background of a school, how would I go about it?”
“Did you have a school in mind?”
“Seidou High.” The old man frowned and told him to wait a moment. He had seen the kid looking for stuff in the newspapers, but he probably hadn’t known what he was looking for, or the timeframe. “Are you sure you want to read stuff like this; Seidou used to have a proud and solid reputation, but now…”
Eijun had to know; he wasn’t so young or ignorant anymore that he could keep himself in the dark the way he had before. He wanted to know what the school was like before Tetsuya or the others had gotten there, why that dream of Koshien had been so important to them. Even Kataoka had been closed off and unrelenting when Eijun had arrived, stating that he had a rotten personality. Why would Kataoka say that? Eijun had been late to the first day line up. He had tried to sneak back into it and yes he had failed to apologize, but a lot of kids did that. Was that really a reason to ban him from the team and the school?
“No one envies the new coach Seidou just appointed; he was the only one willing to take the job.” The old man, having nothing else to do, pulled up a chair and gave him the articles Eijun had been looking for, as well as old police reports that had been cataloged and archived for libraries to use for law students or police officers in training.
Eijun had to leave after two articles; he couldn’t even finish the second one. That gut feeling he had had… He had known… It was there in Azuma, but from what he had just discovered, it had been so much worse. Was that the kind of school Tetsuya had gone to? What about Chris, Jun, Ryo… He ran to the back of the building and started to hurl and he was never so grateful that he had skipped a meal. Dry heaving was still painful though.
Coach Sakaki had been fired, but it was never proven that he was the one responsible for all the injuries and deaths that were happening at Seidou and on the baseball team. Eijun didn’t even want to get into all the crap going on inside of the school. The one student he finished reading about had been in a same gender relationship; it was kind of a common thing in sports like baseball, especially when kids were sharing the same space all the time. It wasn’t like they had a lot of time to date girls or anything and even if they could, they had absolutely nothing in common with a baseball player.
Eijun remembered that man… He had that sick smile and a menacing aura that was dead set on getting Eijun out of his way. None of the other pitchers had been his target. Why would Tetsuya go to a school like that? Maybe the better question was, why did they all stay? Eijun didn’t want to go back after reading about everything, but could he really stay away and abandon them? Tetsuya, Jun, and Ryo, were fighting against this and no one was helping them. Why? They were teenagers like he was and more of what Yoichi said about Tetsuya and Jun made him clutch at his chest.
It was insane to go back to a school like this, but he wasn’t a coward and he wasn’t clueless like he had been. He had told Yoichi that communication started and ended with baseball. Eijun wasn’t a fighter and violence was already the norm at Seidou. He had to change that, not with more violence, but by getting these kids to Koshien. He wasn’t going to stop Tetsuya or the others; this was their world, but he could find a way to ease that burden. The dream of Koshien had been way more to these guys… It meant that all of their hard work could make a difference and he had failed to achieve that. Second chances were never easy, especially when you realize how dangerous the path was after taking a proper look at what was in the way.
Eijun was going to do it. Yoichi was not only his friend, but his self-adopted big brother, and there was no way he could just leave him to the wolves. What would Seidou become without him? Yoichi said Eijun had made a difference and while he couldn’t see it himself, his roommate would never lie and that apology indicated that he respected and had acknowledged him. Yoichi mentioned that a lot of people had been targeting him, but why? It frightened him that he would have to wait three and a half years before he could go back to Seidou, but he had to trust that Ryo and the others would keep him safe like they had the first time.
Something was off with those three, but he didn’t have a way of figuring that out right now. All he could do was become stronger and smarter, something he had never had a reason to change. Studying wasn’t necessary, not if all he wanted to do was play baseball, but he was dead wrong. According to Kazuya, studying helped with critical thinking, especially when it came to game calling.
With his decision made, he made his way back home and set up a bunch of cans in the barn. One of his biggest problems was the lack of control over his pitches. That was going to change. There wasn’t much he could do about subpar catchers, but if he could get to where he could hit whatever he aimed at, maybe it would be enough to get him through middle school. There was another idea that he could work with. Wakana had potential as a second pitcher. Maybe, when he reformed his team, he could make her the pitcher and he could become a catcher until his third year. If nothing else, he would try out on his first day at Seidou through general admissions, but that would mean he would have to somehow earn an academic scholarship. Until he made the team, he wouldn’t have a sports scholarship to pay for living in the dorms.
Fact number thirty-four, never underestimate Eijun Sawamura when he set his mind to something.
If Tetsuya realized that Eijun and Yoichi were the ones to reset the time loop, plus Eijun’s plans to come back to Seidou knowing how dangerous it was, he would have hunted down the southpaw. There were some things in his many repeats that he had never forgotten and Eijun’s battered and lifeless body had been one of them.
Going back home, Eijun was a lot calmer and without giving a way too much, he asked if his uncle was willing to show him how to catch before he went back to the United States. He wasn't about to give up on being a pitcher, but a lot of things had to change in order to make the changes to the future a success. Seidou could change, but not without him. Even if it could, he wouldn’t even try to go anywhere else.
His uncle not only showed him how, but helped him to develop a training plan and schedule for the team that he wanted to create, using the environment around him to his advantage. They might not have machines or technology, but Sesshin believed that sometimes that could and would restrict a player.
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Legend of Sawamura