A/N: Rewatching Diamond no Ace has made me grow a greater appreciation for its plethora of side characters, especially Raichi. My favorite character had always been Eijun so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that I'd quickly fall in love with a character most similar to him. So taking that into account as well as the fact that there are barely any fanfics in this fandom, let alone one about Raichi, I decided to write this!

Please bear with me as I haven't written in ages so my abilities are sorely lacking. If anyone sounds OOC or I mess up any baseball jargon (which I'm probably going to try to avoid lol) please do let me know. As I've already planned out most of this fanfic, I will try my best to update weekly, and if not, biweekly. Hope you all enjoy this!

Note: The events of this fanfic will take place before and throughout the West Tokyo Tournament, when Yakushi faced Seidou for the first time.

One

The sun casted a brilliant brown orange streak against the lawn cut grass and diamond shaped field but the girl wasn't quite sure whether she could fully capture it in paper.

Beads of sweat dripped on either sides of her face as she fumbled to grab a napkin to wipe them away while balancing the sketchbook on her lap. Mayu Yamamoto, a first year at Yakushi High School, had just finished practicing—or, well, giving up to put it more accurately—her batting and decided to pull out her sketchbook out, quickly attempting to capture the sight of the baseball field that spawned before her.

"I wonder if my grades will be alright," Mayu mused, readjusting her long brown hair into a messy bun that kept getting undone much to her annoyance. "Saito-sensei was very scary today…"

Her mind flashed to gym class she had a couple hours ago, where she was holding a bat and kept swinging late at every ball thrown in her way and missing the ones she miraculously was on time for. Many of the students weren't particularly skilled in baseball, which does explain the school's baseball team failing to place in tournaments (though, Mayu heard rumors that there were some crazy good players this year but she digressed).

Though she must have performed so poorly that her teacher had called out a small group of students, herself included, and had said, "Students, you guys will have to repeat this class if you don't improve."

The words of possibly failing the class was enough to scare Mayu into practicing when usually doing anything physical made her feel mentally ill. She sighed, a bit annoyed at her lack of athleticism because even her friends, who she believed were just as lazy as her, were able to get by just fine.

Determined suddenly, she placed down her sketchbook and picked up the bat she had borrowed and a ball she found lying around.Okay, I can't afford to lose to my friends!

But uh… how do you do this… She positioned the bat in her hand and tried handling the ball in the other, lightly tossing it up and down before deciding to throw it midair and swinging the bat to hopefully come in contact with the ball. Okay may this work…

And to her (not) surprise, she threw the ball and swung her bat...only to trip at her feet and slip, her butt promptly falling to the ground.

"Ugh…" she rubbed herself. "That worked perfectly well…"

"Uwah, is that a ball?" Startled, the female turned to her left where she spied a tanned boy dangling half his body off the fence behind her. She felt her pulse quicken and face flush. H-how long as he been standing there? And oh man… he saw me mess up so badly…

But if her nervousness and shock was evident, the boy paid no heed and instead, jumped over the fence he was hanging off from with ease. A ring of dirt circled where he had landed and Mayu winced at the pain as though she were the one who jumped down. Seemingly unaffected, the boy looked up at her, the whites of his irises thinning and the brown of his pupils shimmering from the afternoon sun blazing down on them.

"That's a baseball isn't it? Do you play? Can you pitch?"

Mayu felt herself backing up a bit, her nervousness tenfolding. "Uh… no… I can't play at all… I'm only practicing because there's a fitness exam for baseball soon and I don't want to mess up and… uh…" Internally hating herself, Mayu wanted to smack herself for her inability to speak at the moment. Dragging herself to finally face the fact that she was hopeless in physical education and would most likely fail was bad enough. Who knew she would be caught by someone the second she decided to practice?

"Oh… is that so?" Looking up, she saw the boy pick up one of the balls lying on the dirt ground, and then tossing the ball up and down. "Well, if that's the case, let me see your pitch!"

"Wh-what? Didn't you listen to what I was saying before?"

"Well yes," the boy caught the ball he was throwing in midair and then, to Mayu's dismay, tossed it to her direction. "But I want to hit off every pitcher in the country! I want to blow them all away!"

You already blew me away just by being here. Mayu shivered, feeling intimidated by the intense aura the boy was emanating. His eyes glowed and lips curled viciously like that of a hungry predator waiting for its prey. He asked if there was anything wrong and Mayu shook her head no, gulping.

Well. Here goes nothing. Tossing the ball, she winced at the lack of power and distance her pitch had.

She looked at the ball barely reaching the boy's bat yet somehow the boy still swung, his bat surprisingly making contact. Thwack! Unable to react in time, Mayu felt a gust of air shoot by her and she turned, wide eyed at the ball that had been hit far across the field.

"Wh-what the…"

"KAHAHAHA!"

Startled by the tanned boy's sudden burst of laughter, Mayu looked at him, half relieved she hadn't upset him with her poor throw and half scared from the intensity of hit. It had then dawned to her that the boy was sporting a black striped white uniform that members of their school baseball team wore. Was he also part of the baseball team? With that kind of ability, she mused that the rumors that the team now had some amazing players weren't just rumors.

"You're amusing." Mayu didn't realize the boy was so close to her suddenly, his face mere inches away from hers. The heck? How did he move so fast? "And say," his eyes darted sideways, fixated at something else. "Is that your drawing? Sugoi, the field looks amazing!"

She turned to where the boy might be looking at and saw that she had left her sketchbook unattended on the ground, opened to the page where she was still sketching the field. Face growing red, she fumbled for her sketchbook and closed it, promptly shoving it into her bag.

"Y-yeah. It is. Thanks." She was used to showing her drawings to her friends and not so much to strangers. In fact, Mayu couldn't remember the last time she had shown someone her drawings. But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to say she didn't like that the boy had saw them. She didn't know why.

The boy simply grinned, his mouth opening as though he was about to say something but another voice interrupted.

"Raichi!" A cleanly shaven boy appeared, his expression contorted in frustration. "Where the heck are you you dumbass. We have to stretch first."

"UGH! Tell that baka father of mine that I'm busy—"

Despite not appearing to oblige, the tanned boy was promptly pulled by the collar by the other, who dragged him with much effort. Unsure of what to do, Mayu blinked as she watched the boy, who was getting dragged far off in the distance, finally gave up resisting and waved back at her.

"Jaa ne!"

Surprised by his greeting, Mayu wondered if there would be another opportunity that she would see the boy again. With his compliment still fresh in her mind, she thought that it would be probably nice to see him again.

Waving back, she called back, "J-jaa ne!"

—

Mayu arrived at the foot of her doorstep, noticing the overflowing envelopes in the mailbox. She sighed, grabbing them before getting her keys to unlock the door to her house.

"Tadaima," she called out as she stepped into house, flipping the light switch and taking off her shoes. Silence greeted to her, something that didn't come as a surprise to the female.

She strolled in, passing by the empty kitchen and tossing the envelopes she had collected into a bin by the counter before continuing onward to her room. Ever since she could remember, it had become a routine for her to arrive home, collect the mail, retire to her room to refresh before coming out to sort through the mail and prepare herself meals. Occasionally she would be graced with the presence of her mom or dad, who were busy with their demanding jobs she presumed.

After forgoing her school uniform into something comfortable, Mayu seated herself on the kitchen table, taking the stack of mail and going through them one by one by separating the envelopes to be thrown away and contents to be stored back in the bin for careful inspection later.

If Mayu recalled correctly, she was never officially tasked with this job; it had somehow become something Mayu got herself into when she noticed her parents rarely came home and she was always greeted with an overflowing mailbox that left untouched. When she took the mail inside and sorted them herself for the first time, Mayu felt oddly connected to her parents.

Looking at the gym membership bills back then, she had discovered her mom was into yoga classes and her dad into cycling. Her mom frequented the spa a lot and her dad liked to go to the bar. Sometimes she wished could have discovered these bits about her parents through normal means. Like over a dinner meal after a hard day's worth of work where parents and children make idle conversation about each other.

Mayu smiled a bitterly as she opened the first envelope in the pile. Instead of idle conversations, she only recalled disinterested looks from her parents.

"Mama!" She had returned home one day after school, a picture of a building in her hand and a gold medal hanging from her neck. "I got a prize for this drawing! Isn't it amazing?"

Her mom, sparing only a quick glance before turning back to wipe off her makeup, had simply said, "Drawing doesn't support a living. Be realistic with yourself."

She turned back to her chore of going through the mail.

Most of the mail were of overdue bills for the house but the bills for random purchases, like jewelry and chocolate, were what confused Mayu. Her parents never indulged themselves with materialistic means this way and not this frequently either. Could they be… Mayu shook her head, quickening her pace with opening and sifting through the mail. No, no, no. It can't be.

A couple minutes passed until the high school girl was finally finished, the girl shifting gears to cook for herself and finally start the ever loaming homework she had yet to touch. She groaned as she stuffed a spoon of tonkatsu she had cooked herself for dinner as she looked over her notebook. School had been increasingly frustrating, with the materials becoming increasingly difficult.

Admitted to not being the most naturally intelligent person, Mayu often had to practice diligently every day to make sure she was able to keep up with her work. As a result, she had always managed to pull slightly above average marks, which were surprisingly a lot better among her two friends who always seemed to have it better put together.

That reminds me...I wonder how that boy manages… Her mind flashed to the encounter she had with the spiky haired boy from a couple hours ago, his wide toothy grin and crossed scar on his face very much etched into her mind. From the appearance of the boy who was pulled away, Mayu later concluded he was part of the baseball team and wondered how he had time for anything else considering how demanding a sports team would be.

Then again, maybe all he does is play baseball… his batting was unreal… She laid back in her chair, feeling a bit jealous. If she became passionate about baseball, would her parents be impressed or look in her way?

Nah… they definitely won't. Her eyes listlessly wandered around the room until it crept up to the clock that hung against the wall in front of her. Blanching, she realized it was getting late and she needed to get back into work.

But despite her best to immerse herself completely into her work, her mind couldn't help but wonder whether she would be able to see the strange boy again.