Disclaimer: If I have the money, I'll definitely own One Outs. If. Until then, One Outs strictly belongs to Shinobu Kaitani and this is just a figment of a fangirl's imagination.

With that,

I bring to you,

"The Devil's Equal"

Yorosu Onegashimasu.

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Witnessing the Lycaons's play today is a very special guest. Walking towards the field, a girl raised her head to acknowledge at the sold out stadium. Catching a pair of devilish eyes gazing at her idly across the field, her melodious voice rang throughout the speakers.

**…Show me the way
To the days of yesterday
Nagedashite shimaeba
Tayasui koto dakedo
Kono wagamama wo
Uketomete kureta yasashisa ni
Kotaetai kara…**

"And that was the brilliant performance of Angel Reed, the beautiful and rising singer of Japan! Now the lady would pitch her first ball against the Chiba Mariners in hopes of an exciting game for us to conclude for this season!" the exciting announcer had once again riled up the spectators.

"Just pitch the ball Angel, it doesn't matter if it's in or out, it's just basic etiquette" rambled the singer's manager, who got his recent raise after only 3 months when her talent was recognized.

'Just pitch the ball? …With no consequences…' Angel thought as she studied the seams of the ball. 'Ugh, Big Mama would be so disappointed in my guts if I settled with anything less than interesting after laying this job'

The guest star decided that a mere opening pitch is too boring, so she did what no female fan could ever dream of doing. Studying carefully at the line of pros on the Chiba Mariners side, Angel raised her index finger to her victim of the day "I want to pitch against Itsuki Takami"

"Oh! It seems that Angel Reed has decided to pitch against Itsuki Takami the ace batter of the Chiba Mariners!" cried the hyper announcers.

In an instant, the crowd went berserk and the chaos only increased when Takami stepped out of the Chiba Mariners dugout to face the celebrity before him. After all, there's no harm putting a slight dent in his 0.441 BA for such a beautiful creature. That's what he thought.

Angel studied the man again before walking toward the mound, "Takami-san I would appreciate it if you don't go easy on me, and to ensure that, how about we make a bet?"

Very much amused, Takami replied "Ho~? And what bet might that be?"

"If I lose, you can have a date with me for a whole day without interruptions…" Takami smiled at the offer as the girl continued, "…but if you lose, I'll spend the entire game in the company of the Lycaon's instead of the Chiba Mariners."

"Ho~ so if I win, I get your company as a team player and a date on my personal time, but if I lose I get nothing?" Takami raised his cap slightly, "Interesting, I accept", he is after all, the best batter of the team.

"Just a warning, I can serve a very mean pitch" warned the singer, however, her words are drowned in the overconfident cheers of the other players from the Chiba Mariners.

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~A few minutes later~

"This is unbelievable! Itsuki Takami missed the opening pitch! It must be a gentleman's gesture, must be!" cried the agonized announcer while Angel strolled towards the Lycaon's dugout, leaving a very bewildered tensai in his strike out poise.

Takami, on the other hand had experienced a double shock.

"Daijoubu Sempai! We all know you let Angel-san win on purpose, no way could Sempai have missed that simple fastball…" "Soka Soka, Sempai is a man who looks after girls after all," comment after comment came flying in as Takami returned back to his teammates. Little did they know what was lost when he failed to even touch that ball.

"Oi, Brooke, Tomas," Takami lowered his hat, "I didn't miss that pitch on purpose. She was using Tokuchi Toua's pitching style," he narrowed his eyes, "the ball completely slipped under my bat." The entire team froze at the declaration.

"Here's the other bad news," sighed the tensai of the Mariners as he watched the form of Angel Reed disappear into the competition's dugout, "we just gave her to the Lycaons"

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* Translation* Excerpt Taken from "Faith", sung by Yuna Ito.

**Show me the way
To the days of yesterday
If they're things that can be thrown away
then they're just simple things
This kind of selfishness,
you answered it with kindness
because I needed an answer**

Author's Note:

This is my first fanfiction so I really need reviews to improve, all constructive criticism is welcomed. It's one thing that I like reading the works of others and another trying to spin one myself.

I have the habit of throwing random Japanese phrases around because anime plays around my head whenever I try to think, if it's too much, leave a note/warning/death threat.

Please forgive me on the weird style; I had the narrators' voices from One Outs, Skip-Beat, Noein and many other animes while typing this.

Idea of the opening pitch actually came from an old anime I watched as a kid called "Fancy Lala"