DISCLAIMER: I do not own Daiya no Ace or its characters. I only own the plot and my OCs.

This is the first real chapter. Sorry for the length. I even made some cuts and it still ended up being this long. Thanks for reading!

Responding With Violence Is Never Okay Unless You Have Proper Training.

"Are you sure you don't want me to help you carry your things? It's still a long walk to the dorms, Kurokage-kun," the brunette woman to my left asked for what seemed like the hundredth time since we'd passed through Seidou's school gate.

I smiled politely and shook my head. "Thank you for offering, Takashima-san, but I've got it. It just looks like a lot, but it's not heavy." I couldn't blame her for wanting to reduce some of my baggage load; I looked like a pack mule hauling a years worth of goods down a mountain. It really wasn't heavy, but I will concede that it was difficult to walk whilst sandwiched between seven separate bags.

Takashima-san returned my smile. "If you say so. Just let me know if it becomes too much."

"Hai."

"You look different from the last time we met," she said, keeping the conversation going.

I laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, well, I thought 'new school, new me'," I tried to pull off a dramatic hair flip but instead ended up just smacking my head into the end of the bat sticking out of my equipment bag. Smooth.

"Short hair is a very flattering look for you. The bangs make your face look even cuter," she replied.

I failed to suppress the furious, embarrassed blush that spread across my cheeks. "I don't know about all that, but it does make it easier to do things," I said with a nervous chortle. I'd never had short hair before; my father was always insistent that I keep it long and feminine so as to not dishonor the clan. Something about the heir's image needing to coincide with traditional gender roles which I always found ironic considering how fiercely he preached about the irrelevance of gender in the dojo. The reason why I'd decided to cut it short wasn't to spite him (although that's what he almost certainly believes); it was because I wanted to be taken seriously as a member of the team. I did come here specifically to play baseball, after all. If I'd showed up with waist length hair, they would have all dismissed me as a fragile little girl. Plus, I thought that a more conventional haircut would help me to blend in at school. The idea was to make the least amount of waves as possible.

"First, I'll be showing you to your dormitory, Kurokage-kun." Rei called over her shoulder.

I had never lived in a dormitory with other people before, and now I was about to be thrown into a building full of boys and only one bathing facility? What could go wrong?

I cleared my throat. "Ano, Takashima-san, what will my rooming situation be?" I was on my knees mentally praying that I would be an exception to the 'roommate rule' on account of certain, well, gender discrepancies.

"You'll be assigned your own private room, however, you will still be expected to use the community washroom. There are private stalls fitted with locks in one portion of the facility and we've worked out a bathing schedule where you'll have your own time slots in the morning and evening; you'll never be put in a compromising position so long as you adhere to those guildlines," she replied.

Oh, thank the sweet merciful heavens. I don't give a dusty old fart about the bathrooms, but throwing a socially inept only child into a roommate predicament and expecting her to painlessly transition from solitude to sharing everything would obviously be a flop.

We finally were entering baseball territory as I could see the Seidou Spirit Dorm and training facilities ahead followed by the massive fenced in fields. My anxiety was starting to melt away being replaced instead with excitement. This is what I was here for; not school, not roommates, but pure, raw baseball. I couldn't wait to get settled in so I could make a mad dash to the batting cages. Or really any section of their seemingly immaculate training facilty. I'd been cooped up on the train for so long that I really just wanted to kill off all of the excess energy that had welled up inside of me.

Takashima-san made a right towards the dorm building, "You'll be on the second floor in room 204. The rest of the rooms below you and next to you are all occupied by one boy from each grade level, so you'll still have neighbors close by."

I gave her a grateful look. "Arigatiou, Takashima-san. You've been so helpful throughout this entire process." She really had been. Without her I never would have even known where to begin with the enrollment and transfer processes. Plus, even if I had managed to figure out how to do either of those things, actually finding this school and making it here would have been a completely different fiasco. I'm what you might call 'directionally-challenged'; I can't even find my refrigerator for a drink in the middle of the night.

"Well, it is my job, after all," she said with a laugh. "But, I do rather enjoy your company, and I believe that you will make our team even stronger."

I wonder about that, I thought to myself. I mean, not only was I going to be the only girl on this team, but they already had such a strong, experienced batting line-up composed mostly of third-years. I could already feel the fire being lit underneath me. I'd already accepted the scholarship, so the time was nigh for second guesses. I was here to play, and I wouldn't settle for anything less than first-string.

"Here we are." We had come to a stop in front of a blue door- not surprising since I had already taken notice of the almost sickening amount of blue all over this campus.

"Kurokage Kaien." I read aloud. My name was hanging from the name plate to the right of the door, and I stifled a snicker as I observed the three names hanging outside of all the other room. Oh, yes, the double standards of the female gender could be so sweet at times. Though, those times were far and few between.

"Hai, it must be nice know you'll have a whole room all to yourself instead of having to share it with two other people," Takashima-san replied as she unlocked and opened the door to my dorm.

I let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, I'm an only child, so, therefore, sharing does not equal caring for me."

Takashima-san adjusted her glasses before handing me the key she had used to open my door. "Well, you're about to have nearly a hundred brothers. I hope you're prepared, Kurokage-kun." The smirk on her face told me that fear should be the appropriate response but boys were always something I could handle. Girls however… well lets just leave it at 'the last communication I had with a female my age resulted in bodily injury.'

"I'll leave you to get settled in. Don't forget that you begin classes and practice tomorrow. All of the information you need is in the file on your desk. Come find me if you have any issues or need anything at all, including someone to just talk to, you know, girl to girl. I'll be rooting for you, Kurokage-kun," and with that, the bespectacled brunette exited my room, making sure to close the door behind her, leaving me alone to unpack my belongings.

I looked around my room. It was relatively small, with bunkbeds to the right, an entertainment center at the back, and a desk to the left being the only pieces of furniture in the room. I grinned to myself. Screw getting settled, time to change and have a look around.

I opened my suitcase and grabbed a set of training clothes; just a black t-shirt with my clan's mon, the Higenbana, printed on the back in white and a pair of black shorts. Being the beginning of April, it was just warm enough to get away with short sleeves and shorts so I was going to take advantage until the dreadful cold of winter stole away the privilege.

I quickly threw off my travel clothes and got into my new ones, pausing to look at myself in the full body mirror hanging on my door before I left. For the amount of time that I spent in the sun, I still managed to remain a nice fluorescent shade of white. That coupled with my messy, short black hair and nearly yellow amber colored eyes really pulled together the whole 'vampire walking among humans' look for me.

I ran my fingers through my hair trying to smooth out the fly-aways, but, as always, it was a lost cause. I sighed and shrugged it off, remembering that I wasn't here to win a beauty contest. I had already bid my farewells to my nearly hip length hair when I'd made up my mind to transfer schools.

Making sure to grab my dorm key, wallet, and cell phone, I flung my door open and bounced from my doorway, excited to finally have a look around this place unsupervised.

Naturally, though, in my race to explore unknown territory, I ran directly into someone who'd just happened to be stepping out of the dorm next to mine. I guess not even a lifetime of martial arts training was enough to work the airhead out of me.

"Sonovabitch, my nose!" I swore and reached up to poke and prod the tender area that had made contact. Not that it particularly hurt, but my eyes began to well up with tears in reaction to the irritation the blunt force trauma caused to my sinuses.

"Ah, sorry, sorry! Are you okay? I wasn't paying attention! Aw, man, I can't believe I hurt a girl!" The boy in front of me panicked. He was almost a head taller than me with messy brown hair and bright amber eyes. His skin was tanned, like mine should have been, but his body structure was a little underdeveloped. He was probably a first-year, and a loud one at that.

I rubbed my nose, kneading out the tenderness, and then held up my hand to hush him. "It's fine, I promise. It was probably my fault for just running out of my room and not even looking where I was heading. I'm sorry, too. No harm, no foul." I smiled sincerely, hoping that he would calm down once he saw that I was okay.

He still had a slightly panicked expression on his face. "Still, I am truly sorry! I'll add twenty more laps to my evening menu as punishment! Please, forgive me!"

My eye twitched. Did he have to yell everything? Although, he did kind of remind me of a cute golden retriever, with all of his energy and emotion. "Really, it's fine. But, if you do feel that bad about it, then I know of a way you can make it up to me."

He nodded vigorously. "Of course! Anything!"

I grinned at his enthusiasm. "Could you show me around here? I'm new and I'd really like to get a tour of the facilities so I know where to go tomorrow." Maybe literally running into someone wasn't such a bad thing.

The boy's amber eyes lit up. "Yes, of course! Did you get lost from the school? I'd be happy to show you around campus!"

There was a pause. I realized after a moment that he was being serious and decided then that this kid must be a complete fucking moron to not read the context of the situation, i.e. me walking out of the dorm next to his, my athletic clothes, etc. Therefore, with his IQ level in mind, I did not feel the least bit sorry for the lad as I flipped him over face first into the ground with a one armed shoulder throw, twisting his arm behind him as I sat on his back pinning him down. "No, I didn't get lost from the school you little shit! I'm here to play baseball just like you are! Don't think just because I'm a girl I'm not qualified to be here!"

"Wah~~~! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know!" He cried.

Suddenly, the door to room 203 opened, and a guy with green, spiked hair stepped out. "Oi! Bakamura, if you've time to dick around, you've got time to go get us drinks!"

The one accurately dubbed Bakamura jumped below me with a look of horror appearing on his face. "Kuramochi-senpai!"

Kuramochi froze, obviously trying to process the fact that there was a female in their dormitory.

A few awkward seconds of our Mexican stand off ticked by, but I didn't loosen my hold on Bakamura.

"The hell did it get so quiet for—," the guy who had broken the awkward silence appeared in the doorway. He stopped halfway through his sentence though when he finally got a good view of what had shut Kuramochi up. The second guy was the tallest of the three boys and had messy brown hair and glasses. And can I also just say that he was definitely the best looking of the group? I mean seriously, who the hell looks like that in real life?

So, around this time was when the blush started creeping up to my face from all of the stunned stares, and naturally I said what any sensible girl would say in the midst of three good-looking guys. "Howdy there, neighbors." I wondered if they could hear my internal screaming. If death by embarrassment were a thing, I would have died at that exact moment.

The ridiculously attractive guy in the glasses was the first to loose his cool and start laughing hysterically. Kuromochi didn't last long after him thank the Lord.

"We should send Bakamura out for drinks more often!" Kuramochi howled.

The other guy nodded, gripping his stomach in laughter. "Holy shit, yes! Sawamura is on drink duty for life!"

I'm sure that whatever look was on my face was a mixture of pained anxiety as I let out a few tense laughs. Not exactly the intro I had in mind for my next-door neighbors but I just had to roll with it at this point.

"So," the guy with the glasses began, flashing me a blinding grin that should be made illegal on the grounds that it could cause physical harm to someone's heart. "You must be the new recruit Rei-chan's been yammering about. I almost didn't believe her when she said that she'd scouted a girl to join our team," he said the word 'girl' with a slightly dismissive scoff.

As my murderous aura began to gather around me again, I decided that he'd probably still be just as cute with a black eye.

"Miyuki, wait—!" Sawamura's warning wasn't faster than my movements, though, as I tackled the glasses wearing asshole into his room and put him in the same lock I'd had Sawamura in.

"Temeeeee~~! You wanna say that again?! This girl is about to end you!" I yelled, off in my second blind rage of the evening. Things were going so well already.

My inner demon hushed after a moment, though, once I realized how many pairs of eyes were on me. A quick nervous glance around the room later and I realized that I was surrounded by seven very surprised looking young men, obviously very curious to know just who the hell the screaming banshee sitting on top of their teammate was.

And, que a repeat of the awkward Mexican stand off that happened thirty seconds ago.

"Howdy there, neighbors." Nailed it.

"Oi, that was only cute the first time you did it!" the guy pinned underneath me mumbled into the carpet.

And, just like that, my third blind rage of the evening began. "Miyuki, was it? I'm sorry, mind repeating that? I couldn't hear you with all that rug in your mouth."

Kuramochi, who'd never stopped laughing completely from before, was the first one in stitches. "This chick's the best! Can we make her vice-captain? Anyone who can shut up both Bakamura and Miyuki deserves it!"

The rest of the guys joined in on the laughter, and Miyuki took my temporarily frozen state to sit up and roll me off of him. I landed in a graceful mess of limbs on the floor next to him.

"I'm guessing that this is the girl Takashima-san just recruited?" the pink haired guy with slits for eyes sitting on the bed to my right asked. I jumped a little. I hadn't sensed his presence.

I nodded, and sprang up, bowing deeply once I was standing. "My name is Kurokage Kaien. I'm a second-year student and I just transferred from Akishino Academy in Kyoto. It's a pleasure to meet all of you. I look forward to playing baseball together." My voice was loud, hoarse and spastic sounding as it always was when I was put on the spot. Again, not the intro I'd hoped for, but its not like the captain of the team was there or anything.

"Hello, Kurokage-san. I am Yuuki Tetsuya, and I will be your captain for the remainder of this season." Motherfucker.

I looked up to see a tall, muscular guy with short black hair standing in front of me with his hand extended for a handshake. I nervously shook his hand thinking to myself that the only thing that could put the icing on this giant metaphorical shit cake would be if the vice-captain was here too.

"I'm the vice-captain, Isashiki Jun."— Of course you fucking are.— "Sign me right the fuck up for whatever those two morons ordered because I wouldn't mind being pinned underneath someone like you," the guy with light brown hair and facial hair standing next to Yuuki winked at me, and I tried to repress a furious blush. Sweet merciful heavens, Takashima-san certainly outdid herself on gathering the most attractive baseball players in all of Japan into one team. I didn't even know how to reply when my own grandmother complemented my looks, much less a good-looking male.

"Geez, is the whole first-string here too?" I asked jokingly, inwardly pleading for it to be just a joke.

Isashiki rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah mostly." He replied with a laugh.

Why do I even bother thinking things?

"Introduce yourselves. Ryo-san, you start." Yuuki definitely had a paternal vibe going on around him. I felt like I was in school doing an icebreaker on the first day with the rest of my class.

The pink haired guy to my right stuck out his hand. "I'm Kominato Ryosuke, a third year."

I took his hand and shook it, looking to the next guy to continue.

"Tanba Kouichirou. Third-year." Supplied the tall bald-headed guy.

The lanky black haired boy sitting against the bedpost was up next. "Furuya Satoru, first-year."

Next came the pink haired boy in the corner who looked like he could be Kominato's twin. "I'm Kominato Haruichi. It's nice to meet you, Kurokage-senpai." He said politely, bowing.

Oh my goodness he's adorable.

"Masuko Tooru, third-year." The giant guy with buzzed black hair continued.

I felt a hand on top of my head. "You can call me Kuramochi, Kuro-chan! I live in room 205, so if you ever need anything, just come find me!" Kuramochi ruffled my hair, proceeding to laugh on as he had been since I'd entered the room.

Suddenly, the kid from earlier was in front of me, bowing as low as the cramped space would permit. "My name is Sawamura Eijun! I am still very sorry about earlier, I had no idea that you were my senpai! Please allow me give you a tour of our training facilities as compensation for my rudeness!" Christ, did this kid have a pair of lungs on him.

I opened my mouth to reply, but was cut off by Kuramochi. "Hey, why do you get to give her a tour? You're still figuring out where things are, too, ya know!"

Oh, no, please let's just everyone yell.

The captain, Yuuki, was the one who cut me off this time. "I agree. It would be more beneficial for one of the upperclassmen to show her around."

"I'll do it," the glasses wearing jerk from earlier volunteered immediately. My eyebrows shot up to my hair line. Really?

Before anyone else could protest I found myself being forcibly dragged from the room by the wrist. The words of objection coming from behind us were silenced by the door slamming shut, and I was led down the open air corridor by the brunette boy in front of me.

I stared at his back and wondered why he'd been in such a hurry to leave.

His shoulders are really broad, I thought as my cheeks began to heat up.

I immediately snapped back to reality, slapping myself internally for letting this guy lead me around like a dog on a leash, and swiped his hand from my wrist. "Hold up a sec! You can't just drag someone off against their will like that," I fussed.

"Yeah? Well, you also can't just judo flip someone on your first time meeting them either," he retorted snidely, turning slowly around to face me. He was even taller close up; I had to crane my neck just to look him in the eyes since I only came up to his collarbone.

His wide and well-toned chest was covered by a maroon and white raglan shirt and a pair of black sweat pants hung loosely around his narrow hips. I felt my mouth go dry as I watched him cross his tan muscled arms across his chest.

No, Kaien, get it together! This is no time to be ogling! I inwardly chastised.

It was when he tilted his to the side that I noticed the glowing red rug burn along his jawline. Suddenly, my chest felt heavy with guilt. I dropped my gaze to the concrete floor. "You're right. I guess my introductions still need some work," I murmured, my poor attempt at a joke falling short.

I bowed ever so slightly. "I'm sorry. Please forgive my rudeness," I apologized. I did kind of go off on him to no reason and we were going to be playing on the same team for the next two years, not to mention living in the same building. It was too early to start making enemies.

"At least you know how to make an impression," came the taller boy's surprisingly lighthearted reply.

Then, a hand was suddenly thrust into my vision. I raised my head to see the glasses wearing male grinning impishly down at me. "Let's try again, shall we? My name's Miyuki Kazuya, second year. And you are?"

I could have shed tears of relief but I settled for a relieved smile. "Kurokage Kaien, second year." I placed my smaller hand in his rough and callused one, locking grips with him in a firm handshake.

"Much better," he said softly, releasing my hand before pivoting on his heel to resume his previous trek.

I watched him walk for a few steps, unsure whether or not I should be following.

Miyuki paused, sensing I wasn't behind him, and tilted his head to throw me an over the shoulder glance. "You comin' or what?"

I shot him a glare in response to his rude tone but said nothing as I trotted up beside him. "Where are we going?" I asked as we took the staircase at the end of the walkway to the first floor.

"I'm showing you around. Don't you want the grand tour?"

"Wait, you were serious? I thought you were just using me as an excuse to slip away without getting into trouble," I clapped a hand over my mouth as my unfiltered thoughts flow from my mouth, soaked with every bit as much offensive incredulity as they would have been inside my head.

I waited for him to snap at me, but he shocked me by doing the complete opposite and laughing. "Was it obvious?"

I lowered my hand, feeling a mixture of confusion and relief but ultimately just deciding to roll with it. "Kind of with the way you pounced on the chance to escape. Were they holding you hostage in there or something?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation friendly and playful.

Miyuki let out an exaggerated sigh, shaking his head dramatically with a hand on his forehead. "No; close, though. It's seems to be the unspoken consensus amongst my fellow teammates that my room is the designated meeting area outside of practice, so I have a tough time getting any rest."

"That'll be fun living next door to," I commented dryly. Good thing I'm a heavy sleeper.

"It'll be fun living next to me, at the very least," his lips curled into the same impish grin he'd flashed me earlier, while he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I can't tell if he's joking and that's very concerning. I looked away from my tour guide half out of embarrassment and half because we'd just arrived at the doorway to a warehouse looking building.

"This is the indoor practice ground. We come in here when it's raining or if it's late and we don't feel like carrying all of our equipment down to the fields."

I scanned the vast space with wide, curious eyes. The ground was laid down similar to that of a baseball field and I took note of the stacks of training materials piled high in the area beneath the balcony that wrapped around the entire perimeter of the room. It was all fairly impressive and I soon found myself twirling excitedly in circles, arms held out and bubbling with laughter like a child.

"Sugoi~~! We didn't have anything like this at my old school!"

I was off in my own little world as I bounced around the practice ground, taking in every detail of the new uncharted territory. I completely forgot about the tall, brown haired male standing behind me, observing my hyperactive enthusiastic display with keen eyes.

It wasn't long before one of my favorite pieces of training equipment caught my attention. No friggin' way, they even have climbing ropes!

I dashed over to the nearest tightly wound band hanging from the ceiling and began to pull my way up its length with ease. And they don't even have knots to get in the way! I thought gleefully as I wrapped the thick cord around my leg to give me more control. While having knots tied every foot or so helped those who were less experienced by giving them something to hold onto, it made it a harder to do anything fun. Like flipping upside down, for example.

I nimbly fell back, allowing my hands to slide down to my feet until I was completely upside down. A happy giggle found its way past my lips. Oh, how I loved to climb.

"Enjoying yourself there?" A deep voice chimed as a familiar face popped up directly in front of mine.

I let out a startled yelp, letting go of the rope unintentionally, and fell unceremoniously in heap at Miyuki's feet. Whelp, that hurt.

I heard the guy above me cackle like a wild hyena. Ignoring the pain in my head and back, I jumped back up to my feet and narrowed my eyes at the asshole clutching his stomach in front of me. "Thanks for the concussion, jerk," I growled, reaching up to rub the bump on my head. Today was just full of injuries, it seemed.

The laughter died down. "Don't blame me because you've got butterfingers," he countered as he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.

As much as I wanted to slam him into the ground again, my brain was soon cleared of all other thoughts when I found the newly forming bruise on the upper left side of my skull. I couldn't stop myself from wincing visibly when I pressed the painful swelling. Great, just what I needed before my first day. A literal head ache.

"Here, let me see," Miyuki's hand was on top on mine before I could protest.

My body went rigid as the taller boy raked his fingers across my scalp, stopping only when he noticed me flinch. I tried to repress the furious blush that'd spread across my face from the proximity and contact.

"Hmm, yep. It looks like you bumped your head alright," came his brilliant diagnosis.

I snorted, shaking his hand off of the top of my head. "Yeah, did you learn that in medical school?" I shot back.

"Hey, I was just trying to help. No need to get snarky with me."

"And what an immense help you've been," I deadpanned.

That earned me a flick on the forehead. "I've graciously agreed to give you a tour. I think that constitutes as being helpful."

I glared up at him with set pout. "Whatever. You've only shown me one place. That's a pretty crappy tour."

Miyuki rolled his eyes and turned on his heel, walking in the direction we'd just come from. "It's obviously not over, dummy. Come on."

The remainder of the tour went fairly painlessly. Miyuki took me by the two practice fields, the batting cages, the bullpen, the weight room and the cafeteria. I had to admit, I was grateful to him for showing me around; the facility was enormous and I would have definitely gotten lost had I been left to my own devices.

We'd also gotten to know each other quite a bit throughout the duration of our long journey. I found out that Miyuki was the starting catcher for the first-string, he's sixth in the batting lineup, he throws right handed while he bats left, he was scouted by Takashima-san when he was in seventh grade and he like to cook and play video games in his free time. Aside from his cocky attitude and general asshole-ishness, he seemed like just a regular guy. He still irritated the shit out of me, though. It felt like he was just trying to get a rise out of me with most of his sarcastic comments.

After making the walk back to the dorms, Miyuki and I stopped in front my door to bid our farewells.

"Thanks for the tour. It sounds pretty quiet in your room now, so hopefully its safe for you to go back in," I jested with a chuckle.

He laughed too, running his hand through his umber locks and making my heart flutter in a foreign manner. "Don't be fooled. I bet there are still some stragglers in there trying to keep the party going."

A somewhat awkward silence settled over us as we both stared at one another, waiting for the other to say something.

Miyuki forced out a cough. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Try not to judo flip anyone else."

My eyes narrowed slightly.

"How is that look necessary? I'm just trying to be a good teammate and look out for you," he defended without me having to utter a single word.

I sighed before placing a hand on my door knob. "I appreciate the concern. Have a good night, Miyuki-san."

"You too, Kaien-chan." And that was the final blow to my heart for the day. It was definitely time to go to sleep.

I offered Miyuki one last smile before entering my room and shutting the door behind me. The pile of luggage stood untouched as a daunting and looming figure in the center of my room, and I decided that I'd save the arduous task of unpacking my belongings until tomorrow. With that thought in mind, I removed my pillow and comforter from their respective carrying cases and plopped down onto the bottom bunk. Setting my alarm for 5AM, I fell back onto the bed, my exhaustion from the day's activities finally catching up with me. I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

To Be Continued... (Obviously)