Author's Note: Hello Guys! I have just been inspired by the new UR/SR cards in LLSIF Japanese version, and I said, "Let's try a baseball AU fanfic with our beloved µ's!" I hope that many will read and review my fic! Suggestions are also welcome! Let's try a bit of a prologue, shall we?
Chapter 1
The scorching heat radiating from the summer sun was felt by everyone inside the stadium, but they paid it no concern. All that matters is what is happening below in the field. Loud cheers from the fans in the stands echoed, wanting to be heard by the players standing in the field below. People wearing the same uniforms from the two separate dugouts on the other side of each field were cheering for their respective teammates and friends standing under the blazing sun.
This is it; the last inning of the final game of the Tokyo qualifying tournament before going to Koshien, the dream of every baseball player. Only one team from all of the schools in Tokyo will qualify. This is high school baseball. This is for Koshien. In the back of the stadium, a big screen shows the score between the final two teams from more than 50 schools in Tokyo:
5-4
As the next batter stood up from the on-deck circle, a huge roar of cheers erupted from the stands: The clean-up hitter has arrived. Fixing up the ponytail of her blond hair unto the helmet firmly and making sure that her batting gloves are secure; she gazed upon her team's dugout to see the coach's instruction and acknowledged it by nodding her head. Before walking to the batter's box, she saw her best friend's worried turquoise eyes looking straight at her from the dugout. Crooking up her mouth a little, she gave her a reassuring smile before turning back and walked to the batter's box. She lifted up her bat, and with her ice blue eyes, she stared through the opponent's pitcher that is making her wind up for the first pitch. Observing the ball's trajectory through the home plate through the catcher's mitt, the umpire behind shouted, "Strike!"
Drowning out the loud cheers from behind, she lowered her bat and closed her eyes, imagining the ball's course and anticipating the next one. After exhaling out a long breath, she opened her eyes and focused again on the pitcher. Gripping her bat tightly, she readied herself again.
She hit a foul ball that fell near the edge of the right field at the second pitch. After that, a couple of balls flew by her onto the catcher's mitt.
Two balls and two strikes.
'Two balls and two strikes. One more strike and the game will end.'
She gripped her bat securely as the pitcher started to wind up her fifth pitch. Like in a slow motion, she caught the trajectory of the ball and saw the inside pitch. She swung her bat, as if her life is on the line. And as the barrel of her bat nears upon the incoming ball…
…
…
"Urgh…" A small, quiet groan was heard inside a room.
The blond haired student council president opened her eyes slowly and found herself slumped over the middle of the desk of the student council. As she slowly raised her arms to wipe away the grogginess in her eyes, she felt something fall down behind her. Turning to look at what fell, she saw a green blanket sprawled in the floor. She tried to crouch down to get the blanket, when a small giggle from her right startled her awake from still dazed self.
"Aw Ericchi, you're so cute when you're waking up." Her best friend spoke up with a twinkle in her eyes.
"N-nozomi!" Eli, the quarter Russian student council president exclaimed after being surprised by her best friend. "Mou! You should have woken me up when you saw me sleeping earlier. The freshman orientation of the school clubs will start next week and I have too much work piled up on the tabl-…" She stopped herself after glancing at the now empty space in front of her desk.
"What Ericchi?" Nozomi happily asked her blond friend as she skipped around her and picked up the blanket on the floor.
"D-did you finish all of those?" She asked Nozomi as she stood up went to the filing drawer at the side of the room to check all the records and documents that she needed to look upon and approve this afternoon, or so she thought.
"Yep!" Nozomi replied as she shuffled her tarot cards while looking at something outside the window of the student council. She turned back to look at Eli and raised the Judgment card. "You shouldn't wear yourself out like this Ericchi. It's just the start of the year."
"I'm fine." Eli curtly replied. "Anyway, don't you have to go to the shrine later?" She asked her.
'Trying to change the subject again Ericchi?' Nozomi thought as she replied to her, "Nope. I'm going to help at the shrine tomorrow morning."
Eli glanced at the somewhat bluish-orange sky and realized that it's getting a bit late. "Are you finished with everything for today?" She asked Nozomi while fixing up her school bag.
"I'm all ready to go. Let's go home?" Nozomi replied then walked to the student council door.
After finishing up, Eli turned off the lights and closed the door of the student council. Together, they went to the shoe lockers and wore their leather shoes. They went outside the school and walked to the gates. Occasionally joking about her friend's cute sleeping face earlier, Nozomi looked back to Eli when she realized that her friend is not following her anymore.
Her eyes soften as she saw Eli standing and gazing at the baseball field of their school, Otonakizaka Academy. A couple of students were practicing their batting, particularly a short black twin-tailed girl and a taller blue-haired girl and some were running around in laps. As Eli saw one of the people doing laps look up to her, her eyes widened up and she realized that she's been staring at them for too long. She immediately turned away, closed her eyes and started to walk away towards the school gates.
Not even taking three steps from her position, Eli felt a hand grabbing her wrist gently. She stopped in her tracks and stared again at those uncanny, worried turquoise eyes. "Eric-"
"Nozomi." Eli stopped her friend from saying anything else. She felt guilty as she stopped her friend from trying to say something that she didn't want to hear again. Wanting to change the mood, she tried to think of something that would ease the atmosphere.
Smiling, she said to her:
"Want to eat some parfaits on the way home?"
Another author's note: This is a bit short right? I'm just testing the waters here and let's see if you guys want to see this continued! Anyway, I wanted this to be a softball fic because they are girls, but I think baseball will be better, not because I think that baseball is better, (I played softball in highschool), but because I can explain baseball terminologies better due to my baseball anime watching (Major, Cross Game, Ace of Diamond, etc.)
Anyway, thanks guys!
