One More Strike: We Will Not Forget
Chapter 9: Safe

MIYUKI

Miyuki couldn't help but feel the irony as he sat in the blue plastic chair with his elbows propped up on his knees. Chris stood in silence, a stone darkness on his face that stared at the door even though he couldn't see anything inside.

He had been like that ever since that moment Sawamura has gone missing and the darkness had yet to recede of his face. He was feeling guilty about something, but then again, so was everyone.

But here they were, almost a week and a half on, two days after the ambulance had rushed Sawamura back into the hospital after he'd collapsed in fits of pain and agony on the mound. Now they were waiting.

Always waiting.

Miyuki pushed the memory down, remembering how it felt to have his entire world shattering as the shock wore off. The pain of accepting that the old Sawamura wasn't coming back and the pain of reliving the moment that started it all had merged into one agony that he had fought tooth and nail through to make that call to the ambulance operator.

After everything, Miyuki figured he'd be used to it by now, but every time the memories came back, it hurt the same as it had the moment it first happened.

"MIYUKI!"

The voice snapped him from his thoughts.

Miyuki barely had time to look up as Kuramochi's fists buried into the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall. "You were supposed to be looking after him! Why the hell is he back here again?"

"Kuramochi!" Chris reached and grabbed him by the shoulder, dragging him back. "The coach didn't let you come to beat the crap out of Miyuki."

"I don't care!" Kuramochi yelled, still struggling against Chris' hold to lunge for him. Miyuki slumped down into his chair, his hair shadowing his face.

"I do!" Chris yelled, louder than he'd ever heard him. He grabbed Kuramochi and shoved him back. "If you're going to blame anybody for this, blame me!"

Kuramochi slowed, his eyebrows knotting together as he looked at his senpai. "Chris-senpai..."

Chris had said everything that had happened the night before Sawamura disappeared. None of them had wanted to believed that they had been so arrogant in ignoring his feelings but a part of each of them needed to hear it.

Miyuki looked up at their short stop, the darkening bruises on his jaw, neck and arms, and the scabs covering his knuckles. Kuramochi had also said what had happened after the two officers had turned up on their doorstep after an anonymous call had been put in about three hired thugs having been paid to threaten the Seidou students. They filed assault charges against Kuramochi but the case was dropped, though both him and Ryosuke would be added to the list for testimonies at the hearing in two weeks.

Apparently Jun and Yuuki had been approached by the Coach of XX high school and he had found himself in a similar condition when the police hauled him along with money and paper trails linking him to the thugs.

Everyone was tense.

So he didn't mind when Kuramochi sunk into the chair next to him and tilted his hair against the back of the wall. "This again..." He grumbled.

More waiting.

...

MIYUKI

Two weeks later...

They had won the hearing and XX High's Coach had been fired and banned from teaching alongside baseball bans for ten years on the players involved. There was also a hefty sum of reparations for the Seidou board of Chairs and five-year prison sentences for the thugs.

The media had also been a hassle both at the hospital and the school after Sawamura's condition had been leaked to the press and a whole scandal broke out with bad media for XX high school and a nation-wide support campaign for Sawamura's recovery and prospects on his outcome and future.

The "We will not forget" campaign appeared at school, and was even adopted by the sport's media following their story. Their slogan became "Even if Sawamura Eijun forgets, we will not forget him." The school had benefited from it and so they had allowed it at first but as the story spread, it seemed to have blown up more than anyone had expected. Even when several of the players they'd met during inter-high had turned up, and even a few sports stars, nobody could quite believe how it had turned out. The sporting nation was moved by the story.

Not that it mattered.

Miyuki couldn't help the words. Even if a whole nation gave their support, there was nothing they could do. Not even the specialist doctors that had visited could find anything wrong with him.

At first they thought the shock had sent his brain into a coma-like state. But in the weeks after that, he had been falling deeper and deeper into one and now, there was no one who could be sure when or even if he'd ever wake up.

Miyuki sat in his chair outside the room like always. Sometimes Kuramochi would go in there or Miyuki or Haruichi and Jun and Yuuki and the other team members that visited, but not him. Miyuki never went inside.

The nurses had offered to swap his chair with one of the softer ones from the staff room but Miyuki refused. In the end, they only managed to place one on the opposite side of the wall beneath the window, thinking he might use it.

Chris leaned against the wall, his back propped up against the white paint, the wind blowing the cooling air into the hall. He stood beside the comfy chair but ignored it as he looked through the glass window in silence.

Chris hadn't gone into his room either.

Some of them had guessed it was because of the day that Miyuki had broken into his room and Chris had followed him. They never corrected them. They might have been right, but neither of them knew.

They just couldn't enter.

So they waited instead.

An hour a day when they were allowed, they'd visit.

Sawamura's parents were there for the longest during the day, accommodating nearby in some hotel and staying with their son whenever they could. Miyuki had even met some of Sawamura's childhood friends and the girl Kuramochi always moaned about.

She was the only one who didn't cry. All the boys had cried at the sight of him, she just stood back and looked, as if she didn't recognise him. After only a few minutes, she had come and sat beside Miyuki in silence until it was time for them to leave.

"What will you do?" Chris said, drawing Miyuki from his thoughts. He looked up at his senpai.

The third years had gone back to being retired, and the team had gone back to relying on two pitchers instead of three. Hideaki had even stepped up to training to pitch as back up, but the reality was that he was had grown too good as a center fielder to ever risk changing him. Miyuki had gone back to being Captain, and they had started training for inter-high again.

"What do you mean?"

"If Sawamura never wakes up."

"Our Sawamura isn't in their any longer. It's up to him what he wants to do, but like the coach said. It's unlikely he'll ever be able to really play again. Not with the way we've changed him."

"I'm not talking about him." Chris amended. "I was asking you what you'd do."

"I-"

A sudden crash startled the both of them. Alarms and beeping shot through the hallways and Chris was moving before Miyuki could even think.

Chris ran for the sound, not hesitating for a second as his hand slid into the door handle and threw it open. He disappeared through the doorway with Miyuki on his heels, the alarms blaring as the sounds of nurses feet echoed down the length of the hallway.

Chris ran up to the curtain and tore it open and-

Stopped.

"He's awake!" A nurse exclaimed behind them. "Get the doctor!"

Brown blinking eyes looked dreary and half-asleep as he looked to them. His eyes registered half of them before more nurses piled into the room and began trying to drag the boys out of it. They were rooted to the spot, watching Sawamura's face grow with alertness before a huge male nurse appeared and managed to move the pair of them.

Miyuki was staring over his shoulder, his ears deaf to the world around them as Sawamura's lips began to move. He read each syllable off his lips and his heart began to pound.

No...it couldn't be...

...

MIYUKI

Four hours later...

Chris lead them into the room after the nurses had finished with things and the Coach had been called. He stood behind the two of them as they slipped into the private room.

Miyuki had to consciously move one foot and then the other, the scene a few hours earlier stuck on loop in his head. It was a trick of his eye. An illusion. It wasn't real.

Miyuki looked up as he knocked into Chris's back and they both turned to see Sawamura sat up in the bed, a chocolate pudding spoon in his mouth. The tubes and wires that had been linked up to him were gone, and there was no bandages since there was no injuries this time, he was just...Sawamura.

"How are you feeling, Sawamura?" Coach asked.

Sawamura took the spoon out his mouth slowly, looking the two of them up and down before looking over to the coach. "Um, fine, I guess?"

"That's good." Chris sighed.

"By the way, what happened?"

"You collapsed on the mound." Miyuki answered, his feet slowly creeping round the edge of the bed.

"Eh? I did?" Sawamura stood open-mouthed in surprise as he looked down into his pudding cup, as if it might hold the answers to his problem.

Miyuki's eyes washed over him and the relaxed but confused look on the boy's face just made his body fill with relief.

"At least you're okay." Miyuki sighed, reaching up and rustling his hair.

Sawamura's eyes opened wide as he darted to the other side of the bed, and out of Miyuki's reach.

"What?" Miyuki jumped at his startled reaching.

"Why are being so nice?" Sawamura shivered. "It's creepy."

"I-"

Before Miyuki could answer, Sawamura turned to face Chris. "By the way, what happened to the game? Did we win?"

"Game, what are you-" Chris stopped, his face paling.

It wasn't an illusion.

It wasn't a trick of the eye.

Miyuki's mind jerked back to the moment four hours ago. To the name mimed on Sawamura's lips.

"Miyu...ki...?"

Not Miyuki-senpai.

"You remember." Miyuki breathed.

"Remember what?" Sawamura grumbled. "Stop being weird!"

"You remember!" Miyuki yelled. His body moved on its own, grabbing Sawamura by the shoulders and wrapping his arms tight around him. "You idiot!"

"Wha- What's going on?" Sawamura yelled as he tried to pull away but as Miyuki's grip tightened, he stilled in his arms and went quiet.

Or at least he thought he had.

"Miyuki...you didn't do anything to me while I was sleeping, did you?" A pause. "Oh My God! You did! Miyuki, you perver-"

"Shut up, Bakamura!" Miyuki snapped.

A laugh burst out from the back of the room, and they turned to see the whole team crammed into the tiny room, tears in their eyes and grins on their lips.

"Wait...what's going on here?" Sawamura exclaimed.

They all took a step forward and Sawamura's eyes widened. "Wait! STOP! NOO!"

"GET HIM!"

...

SAWAMURA

Two weeks and one expensive hospital damage bill later...

"SAWAMURA!" Miyuki yelled from on top of the path. "HURRY UP!"

"GIVE ME A MINUTE!" Sawamura snapped back. "I'M LOOKING FOR MY GLOVE!"

Sawamura crossed the field, mumbling under his breath as he crossed over onto the training field the team had refused to go onto the past two weeks and to his abandoned glove across the other side of it.

A basket of balls was scattered over the mound and he found his glove laid beside it. He picked it up and patted away the dirt and checked for any weather damage but didn't find any. He slipped his hand inside it and grinned at the way his hand fit perfectly into the molded shape inside.

He began picking up the balls one by one and putting them into the crate until there was just one left.

He couldn't help himself.

He stood on the mound and fitted the ball into the grooves of his fingers. He placed his foot on the mound and found where some dirt had been disturbed and unbalanced his footing.

"You collapsed on the training field."

Miyuki had also been told about what had happened this last month, but not why Kuramochi and Jun-senpai were covered in bruises, nor why Furuya was ignoring him, nor the reason a guy at school had done seiza and apologised for saying disrespectful things, nor why the sports shed had been wrecked.

He never did remember anything that had happened during his week with amnesia, but every time everybody spoke about him, they talked as if he was a completely different person; especially Chris and Miyuki.

But that didn't matter to him anymore. He was back, and he was ready to pitch. He had a whole month to make up for and apparently everyone had so insensitively used his injury to get ahead on him in training. How cruel!

A sense of defeat triggered the competitor inside him and it swelled into his lungs. His body wound tight into a coil as he lifted his knee and brought his elbow back, and lunged, his foot slamming on the floor, his arms like a whip as he flew over his shoulder and his fingers about to let go of the ball with a thundering roar. "I WON'T LOSE!"

Just as the ball went to release out of his fingers tips, he stopped.

His eyes locked onto the floor beneath the square and the round dot beneath it.

A ball?

His body caught up with the delayed momentum and he fell, crashing face-first into the ground. His jaw ached twice as hard as it should have as he moved the ball out from underneath it. One should not try stopping in the middle of pitching.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BAKAMURA?" Miyuki yelled across the field. "GET THOSE BALLS AND HURRY UP!"

"SHUT UP!" Sawamura returned, grumbling under his breath some more, involving names that won't be mentioned for safety reason.

He picked himself up and dusted off the dust, throwing the ball he held into the basket as he made his way over to the batters plate and carried on past it to where the baseball laid abandoned in the dirt. He crouched and leaned down.

His fingers wrapped around the ball and a jolt of energy leapt up his arm. "Ouch, what was-"

The pain, the emptiness, the guilt, it was all too much. Who were these people? Who were they? Why were they looking at me like I was someone else. I was trapped, in pain, but they couldn't understand. I wanted to hate them but...the smiles...the hope...the love. I wanted to protect them. Protect those around me but I couldn't. I shattered their hearts. I hurt them.

"This isn't my body...I'm not the person you want...Why are you still so kind...I want to protect you...Why must I hurt you?... This body is not mine...I do not belong here...what's is this feeling...who are you?...Oh, you're him, aren't you?...you came back...I think this belongs to you...Thank you for letting me meet them...Don't worry about me, I'll be okay...Go back to them...Do what I couldn't do...You are loved...cherish it...cherish them."

Wet drops fell against Eijun's hand, as his whole body wracked with tremors. He lifted the ball up from the ground, his grip tightening around it.

"I will." Sawamura whispered, pressing the ball into his chest, hoping to ease the cavern of hope and pain and despair rising up inside of him. "I'll look after them. I promise."

"WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?"

"I'M COMING!"

Sawamura stood and made his way over to the box and paused for a moment, doing one last thing before he lifted it, and turned to walk towards the friend waiting for him.

A gust of wind rustled through the trees and as it passed him, he couldn't help but feel as if he heard it whispering to him.

He smiled.

"Jeez, what took so long?" Miyuki sighed, taking the box off him without a word and began walking down the stretch of the path.

"So, Miyuki, you can't live without me, huh?"

"Live without you? What?" Miyuki choked. "Who said that?"

"Why else would you start crying when I said I didn't remember you? Did it break you heart, huh? Did it?"

"You do remember, you bastard!"

Sawamura laughed and couldn't help the smile hurting his cheeks as he ran to catch up with his friend as they walked back to the place where the people who cared about him the most were waiting for him.

Miyuki made some offhanded insult, but Sawamura wasn't listening. He was looking back over the warm setting sun warming the burnt orange field and down at the pitchers mound where a single shadow stretched from the white ball laid on the peak. His hair rustled in the breeze.

"...Goodbye, Sawamura Eijun."

"Goodbye."

...

THE END