Bat and Ball

I have to go to my club. Wait, four votes in total… did one of her friends not vote for her?              

Maybe I should bring it up…? But what good would that do?

I open the club room, only to find Aki, Nari and Kuro in the room already sitting down. I don’t think Kuro was a part of this club.

“Oh, come on bro.”, Kuro smiled, he was having a discussion with Aki, with Nari trying her best not to eavesdrop and failing from the looks of it.

Well, that is none of my business. I ignore all of them and sit on one of the chairs, far away from all of them. There’s no manga in this manga club room… why is there no manga in this manga club room? Are we supposed to bring our own manga? Maybe I should just leave…

“You can have it.”, Aki smiled. Have what? And now I’m eavesdropping. 

“Dad’s going to bring it and…”, Kuro looked at me and smirked. “How about this!”, he walked towards me. What is he up to now?

“How about we go to a baseball batting centre and duke it out!”, he touched my shoulders. Can he not?  

“You can even bring your friends alongside you. A little three versus one!”, he added as I shrugged off his hands off of my shoulder.

Aki laughed a little, “I told you. You can have it.”, he then turned to another page of the novel he was reading.

“Argh!”, Kuro sat opposite to Aki again. “You’re not even the top of the class anymore! I don’t know how you flunked…”

Nari’s eyes lit up in surprise. “You’re not the top of the class Aki?”

Aki nodded a no while still smiling.

“I don’t even know how you’re going to talk to dad about this!”, Kuro sighed.

“I’ll manage.”, Aki looked at Kuro and then suddenly to me. “You know… brother. If you wanted to play batting with me. You could’ve just asked!”, he closed shut his novel and got up from the seat.

“You guys wanna join us?”, he asked. I mean, why not? Besides, it’ll help take my mind of today.

“Sure. Why not?”, I smiled and got up as well.

“Yes!”, Nari jumped up from her seat as well.

“Well, whatever you say bro.”, smiled Kuro as we all walked outside the classroom and out of the school.

Aki and Kuro chatted away in the front while I was stuck with Nari, walking behind them.

“I can’t believe I’m going somewhere with my friends!”, she murmured. Are we friends?

“You’ve never gone out with your friends before?”, Aki chimed in.

“Wait, you… heard me?”, Her face turned red as she tried to hide it with both of her hands. Looking back, I never did tell her that her murmurs weren’t murmurs at all. 

Aki smiled, “Yes. Don’t worry. There’s a first time for everything.”

“First time for losing too, bro.”, Kuro smirked.

“Haven’t lost yet, now have I?”, Aki smiled again.

Aki didn’t seem like the athletic type, even if was twins with Kuro who seemed very athletic. I’m surprised that he hasn’t lost yet.

“Really?”, Nari sped up and caught up to them, she looked at Kuro, “I don’t think Aki’s that athletic from what I know.”, she really said the quiet part out loud and for once, I’m really thankful.

“Ouch.”, said Aki.

Kuro laughed, “You’re right. He never gave in to my challenges before.”, he scoffed, “I’m surprised that he accepted it today… you’ve changed a lot of bro.”, he looked right at Aki. Probably expected an answer.

“Just trying out new things. Life’s too short for me to not have an interesting high school debut.”, he smiled again, and completely regained his composure. Kuro scoffed again and looked me for a couple of seconds before turning his head to the front.

I wish he just told me what was on his mind. I didn’t reincarnate with mind reading powers.

I have a feeling that Kuro’s ignoring me, and to be fair to him. I am ignoring him too. With our ignore-off coming to an end as we enter the batting centre which wasn’t that far away from our school. Seems like a lot of the students visit it.

We enter one of the many booths? Kuro picks up a bat, “I’ll go first.”, he smiles, “See how the professionals do it!”

There are ten balls per round from the looks of it. Kuro took his stance, the first ball came with a lot of pace, but he hits it rather well. Well enough to hit the one point mark. Thankfully it wasn’t a homerun, I wouldn’t have been able to take it.

He then looks at me, why is he so proud of a single run. “Alright, so you guys may not know the rules.”, another ball came fast but with a little turn this time. He manages to hit it as well, but this time it hit the 2 pointer.

“With two balls, I’ve covered all of my bases…”, another ball comes, extremely slowly as compared to the previous ones. Did someone lower the difficulty? Kuro didn’t lose any focus and hits it hard. Hard enough to hit the homerun pad.

“Now that’s a grand slam!”, he screamed and pointed his bat towards me. “Four points, just for you.”, he smirked.

I don’t even know the guy properly but his actions infuriate me. I’m going to beat him really badly! Or so I had hoped as he proceeded to only miss two and ended up with a total point of twenty.

Nari started to clap. Whose team is she even on?

“Ahh… didn’t do that well.”, he came near us. “Who’s next?”, he held out he bat in front of us. “It should be easy right? After all, it’s three versus one.”, he laughed.

Alright, fine. I’ll wipe that smirk off of his face! I haven’t played baseball before but I’ve played a lot of cricket back when I was a kid, my skills shouldn’t be that rusty!

As soon as I go near him to take the bat away from him, he gives the bat to Aki,”Go on, bro. Show them how it’s done.”

He did that on purpose, he has to have done it on purpose. I clench my fist and try to calm myself down. It’s fine. It doesn’t matter who goes first… I’m sure Aki can hit some. It’s still three versus one.

Aki took his stance, which I don’t think is correct but who am I to correct him? The first ball approaches him fast and he… just stands there? Does he not realize that he has to hit the ball? Did he sleep for five minutes as Kuro went ham?

“I couldn’t see it…”, he mumbled.

Yep. We’re done.

Why did he look confident when he accepted the challenge? Well, at least he’s improving. He swung the bat, still missed the ball though, but we call that progress.

Nine balls in, not a single ball hit. The progress has completely halted, I don’t think there was any progress to begin with. I can’t even be mad, it’s not like he’s not trying his best.

The last ball approaches, his clenches his bat and swings with his eyes closed with full force. I was going to doubt the plan but a miracle finally happened! The bat grazed the ball ever so slightly and sent sideways. At least he hit something… I guess.

Nari started to clap again. Seriously, whose team is she even in?

“I’m sorry…”, Aki came back with the bat in hand and shoulders fully slumped.

“It’s fine.”, It’s not like I can say anything else.

“Yes. It’s fine.”, Kuro chuckled, “I’m glad some things never change, bro.”, he patted Aki’s back.

Alright, I guess it’s my turn now.

“Let me! Let me!”, exclaimed Nari as she snatched the bat from Aki’s hand and entered the pit.

Stay clam! Stay clam! She definitely… probably didn’t do that on purpose.

Alright, maybe she’s a baseball prodigy! You never know!

The first ball approaches, yet again, facing a completely new opponent. The bat connects, but the ball goes sideways.

Well, at least she’s already better than Aki.

Well, what’s the point if the ball never hits any of the stuff on the front? At least she’s not getting out over and over again. So I guess, good for her?

Eighth ball? I think? Two more and then it’d be my turn. I really hope I can score some runs at least…

The ball connects with her bat, but unlike the other times, this one goes straight and hits the one point mark.

“Yes!”, I scream. “You can do it Nari!”, words escaped my mouth, I guess I got too into it.

“Really?”, she puts one of her hands behind her head and looks at me smiling. “Thank you…”, she says as soon as the last ball passes behind her.

And that was that. No score up on the board.

“Ahh…”, she looked behind, “I’m sorry…”, she put her teeth out. Kuro laughed, “Thanks for that…”, he kept giggling.

“It’s alright.”

“Yea.”, Aki joined in, agreeing with me. I’d rather he didn’t.

I took the bat from her hands. Akari has an athletic body and I should have some of my cricketing skills with me. Granted that this is a different sport with a different bat and… ball. But! It’s better than nothing.

“Good luck!”, said Nari.

“You can do it!”, smiled Aki.

Kuro smirked, “Yea, you can do it!”, when I get my hands on him… Alright, don’t let him get to you. Focus.

The first ball approaches for the last time this night. Swing this bat! Like you’ve swung it countless time during the past! Alright! It hit the bat but it went sideways. I let out a visible groan, which seemed to have amused Kuro as he chuckled.

Alright, the second ball. I hit it as fast as I could but I miss. The baseball bat is completely different to the cricket bat. Alright, I can still do it.

Kuro started laughing like a maniac, “Alright… you guys are helpless.”, I missed another shot. I’ll blame that on him, “How about you shut up?”, I say, while being as polite as possible.

“Oh Akari…”, Kuro wipes the tears off of his eyes. “You know what? Just hit a single homerun, then I’ll concede.”, he continues to laugh.

You know what? “Sure!”, I scream. Third ball, bat connects but the same result sadly. The ball just goes sideways, making Kuro laugh again. He’s enjoying this way too much.

The fourth ball, I miss? How? Is this just going to be alternating results?

The fifth ball! Come on! I hit it to the best of my abilities! It goes and hits the two pointer. I smile but Kuro’s laughter fades away.

“Just… Just a lucky shot!”, he says.

I’ll show him what a lucky shot is. Sixth, a hit but it doesn’t hit anything noteworthy. Seventh, one pointer. Eighth, hits the three pointer this time.

Kuro coughs, “Remember… you have to hit a homerun…”

“Yeah, Yeah. I know.”

The world except the balling machine and me don’t exist. I pay no attention to the screams, laughter or chatter besides me. Release your ninth attack, foul demon!

The ninth ball approached me, and I hit it. I hit it hard, hard enough to hit the homerun board. Homerun! I did it! I turn towards the others, Kuro watched with his mouth agape, Aki and Nari both were in smiles and clapped, with Nari going as far as to jumping. Looks like she was in my team afterall.

Oh right, I had another ball!

But as soon I say that it rushes right behind me. Out, it says. Well, it doesn’t matter. We had a victory, all thanks to Kuro. Maybe he isn’t such a bad guy. I really needed this.

Kuro slumped his shoulders, “Alright, fine… you guys win.”

He looked towards Aki, “And you can have those candies dad will bring from Netherlands.”, tears almost started to form in his eyes.

Aki smiled and patted his back, “I told you, didn’t I? You can have them.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Really.”

Wow, look at that brotherly bond. I can’t believe we did all that for some candies… never mind, I’d do it for candy too and I can’t deny that it wasn’t fun. I really needed this.

Aki looked at us, “we’re going to go that way.”

I nodded, “Goodbye.”

We all said our goodbyes, except Kuro who still had it against me, or well Akari from the looks of it. Can’t wait to find more about that.

I look beside me, Nari’s there. Nari’s there. Wait, Nari’s there?

“What are you doing? Are you going to stalk-“

“No!”, she put both of her hands on my mouth as I dodged back.

“No… I just wanted to talk to you.”, she added.

“Talk…? About what?”

“The elections!”

Ahh right. Might as well. Should help gather my thoughts, too, and I’ll get to know about the future arcs too hopefully.

“Alright, fine. Let’s talk.”