Again. After Maki crashed at Ushio's place once after they trained for the arcade game challenge, it eventually became a habit that Maki loved to crash at Ushio's place whenever she wanted. This time was because a drool pool made by Maki on Ushio's desk back in class. Maki begged Ushio to help her with her never finished homework and upcoming tests and quizzes.

"Please, Ushio-chan. You are my only hope. I know you are the smartest girl in the class. And I know you will not ignore your best friend who has some difficulties and troubles." Maki begged Ushio while drooling on top of Ushio's desk.

"Fine, just stop making a drool pool on my desk. It's getting more and more disgusting." She said while wiping the drool away.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Maki hugged Ushio forcefully.

And tonight after finished the never finished homework of Azumaya Maki-kun (again), Maki fell asleep on Ushio's couch. Such a surprise for Ushio that Maki is actually a smart girl. Her laziness just made her a total wreck in her score but when she pulled out an all-nighter, she could do tests, quizzes, and every other question easily. That's why she was doing fine in the first year of high school even her quizzes and her homework were destroyed like nuke fallout.

As usual, Ushio put a blanket on Maki before getting ready to sleep (or talk with Takajo in the balcony like usual). Maki only shuffled a bit when the blanket touches her skin. Ushio then walked to her bathroom, took a quick bath, and changed into pajamas. Like it was a habit, she walked to her balcony first before throwing herself to the bed. And as usual, Takajo has waited for Ushio in his balcony.

"Is it becoming a habit that each time Maki crashed at my place you are waiting for me there?" I asked him.

"I don't know but it might be just some coincidence." He said while giving Ushio a huge smile.

"Well, I excuse you this time but next time, I will make you say that this is your habit after all." She fumed.

"Don't say that. What will you say if you are missing me and I'm not here?" He asked her and made her blush.

"I was joking okay, hahaha." He awkwardly laughed.

But when he stopped laugh and looked at Ushio, he caught Ushio staring at him with a sweet smile. The moonlight lit Ushio's smile and made it perfect. Takajo could not resist but look at her in awe. She was beautiful in Takajo's mind.

"Okazaki-san…"

"Ah, look at the time. I should really go to sleep. Don't forget about tomorrow, okay? My parents are coming over! See you!" Ushio dashed to her room leaving Takajo alone.

Ushio was dumbstruck. She felt her heartbeat beating in an abnormal pace. She tried so hard to calm herself down. Why was she staring at Takajo like that? It must be scared him a lot. She threw herself to her bed and tried so hard to go to sleep.

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She still could not sleep. She shut her eyes very intensely to bring herself to sleep.

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Zzzz… zzzz…

"WHOAH! Who are you?!" Ushio could hear Maki yelled.

Ushio got up from her bed as fast as she could to reach Maki. She was afraid Maki's father's subordinate wanted some revenge or something.

"Hey! Who are you?! A cross dressing boy?" A familiar man voice yelled at Maki.

"What? I'm not a boy! I'm clearly a girl you see." Maki replied the man.

"Akki? Sanae-san?" Ushio shocked to see four familiar figures in her apartment room.

"What are you doing with Maki-kun?" She asked.

"This gender bender is sleeping on your couch with girl uniform! See! His chest is too flat to be a girl." Akio said.

"Hey, what's your problem with flat-chested girl like me?" Maki complained.

"Stop that Akki. She's my best friend, Maki-kun. And she's a girl. I was tutoring her last night until she fell asleep on my couch." Ushio explained.

"Hmph… If Shio-chan said so, I let you go this time, Gender Bender." Akio decided to stick that nickname to Maki and let Maki go.

"What's going on in here, Shio-chan? Old man, are you doing something to Shio-chan?" Tomoya entered the room and followed by Nagisa.

Nagisa shocked and froze as she saw Maki. She could not believe her eyes. She saw her best friend when she was little in Maki.

"Huh, why you just standing there, Nagisa?" Tomoya asked.

Maki took a glance on Nagisa and gave her a huge grin as a welcome and an introduction to Ushio's parents. The smile resembled the smile Nagisa's best friend when she was a little. But it could not be possible since Maki must be around Ushio's age.

"… Hana-kun?" Nagisa said in a little voice.

"You know her, Nagisa?" Tomoya asked.

"Yeah, I got that a lot Mr. Okazaki. And fortunately, my mother had told me once about this. My name is Azumaya Maki, Azumaya Hana's only daughter. Please call me, Maki or Maki-kun. It's very nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Okazaki." Maki gave a deep bow to Nagisa.

Nagisa finally got it. Maki is Hana's daughter and she took a very resemblance from her mother. Nagisa pulled a small smile.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Maki-kun. You are really a carbon copy of your mother. How is your mother, Maki-kun? It's been a long time since the last time we meet." Nagisa asked.

"Now, she is fine. Thanks to Ushio-chan, my mother was saved from my ruthless father. Your daughter helped me to find my mother and saved her." Maki said.

"Let's cut out the talk and let's do the playing!" Akio suddenly yelled.

"Playing?" Ushio asked.

"Yes, we're going to play baseball! Come on! Get ready and grab your four eyes boyfriend! You should get ready too, Gender Bender!" Akio said and made Ushio blush with the remark of four eyes boyfriend. He must be referring to Takajo.

"Ah, yeah. Come on Maki, get back to your room and get some change. I'll change and call Takajo to join us." Ushio said to Maki.

"We should have breakfast first. I'll get it ready for all of us and Takajo-kun." Sanae said.

Maki went to her own room and got change into her regular casual outfit. Today, she picked red sleeved hoodie with huge "OPPAI" writing on it.

"What? Saitama wears this. And I don't want to be misunderstood by Akio-san as a boy. Again." Maki said referring to a nickname that has been sticking on her back since this morning.

"Now, where's Takajo-senpai?" Maki asked.

"Well, I… uhh…" Ushio could not explain to Maki what happened last night.

"Is something happened last night?" Maki asked.

"No! There's nothing! I just want to call him now!" She denied and went directly to Takajo's room.

"Well then I will go to your room and talk with your parents or your grandparents while you are flirting with your boyfriend there." Maki said playfully as she entered Ushio's room.

Ushio fumed to herself. She pushed the bell button and waited patiently for Takajo. He finally arrived at the door.

"Uh, Takajo-senpai, are you ready now? We will have a breakfast together with my family and Maki-kun." Ushio said in stuttered words.

"Yes, I'm ready. Is there something wrong, Okazaki-san?" Takajo asked like there's nothing happened between them last night.

"N… No, there's nothing wrong. Come on, we will start to eat the breakfast." Ushio said and went to her room.

Today's breakfast was simple. Fried rice specially made by Sanae and Nagisa. Maki and Akio have shown their compatibility to each other as they have some same brain of unfunny jokes and punch lines. Tomoya left unimpressed as he saw Akio throwing unfunny jokes to Maki and replied by the awfully unfunny punch lines by Maki.

"Hey, Takajo! Since there are three Okazakis here, I want you to call Ushio by her first name so I won't confuse or whatsoever." Akio said and made Ushio burst.

"Akki!" Ushio complained.

"No, no, it's okay, uhm… Ushio…" When Takajo said Ushio's first name they both blushed.

"Then let me use your first name. Uhm…" Ushio felt not ready to say it.

"Ah, come on! Just call him Jiro-kun!" Maki said.

Ushio turn her head just to hide her shame over this. She took a deep breath.

"Okay, here we go… Then I will call you Jiro-kun from now." Ushio said to Takajo as she gave him a sweet smile of hers.

Takajo looked at Ushio in awe. But they never knew that this thing planned by the notorious Maki-kun and Akio himself. They laughed in victory as their victim falls into their trap.

"It's been a long time since I held the baseball bat in junior high. I wonder if I still got my hit. Okay! Pitch it, Akki!" Ushio got ready at hitting stance.

"Okay, Shio-chan! Show me what you have gotten for these years!" Akio threw a fast pitch to Ushio.

Ushio saw the ball closer and closer. Like it was a natural reflect, Ushio swung her bat powerful enough to send the ball to the skies. The legendary super home runner from Hikarizaka has awaken from her dormant state. Maki gave a little smirk as she remembered her fierce baseball match against Hikarizaka junior high school team. Maki remembered how she broke the record of Hikarizaka's legendary player for hitting her fast pitch. Even she got out from the game since the others from her team could not hit her pitch, she smiled all day because what she have done could change the game for the rest of Hikarizaka baseball team matches. The Bastard Hitter. For days, weeks, and months, they called Maki with that name.

"Maki-kun! You are next!" Ushio yelled at her.

Ushio gave her the baseball bat and smiled at her. Maki gave her a long pause before replying her smile and said,

"Well, it's been a long time since the last time we met, Hikarizaka's Legendary Player. How does it taste when I broke your pitching record last time?"

"Hmph… It's still a little bit sour in my tongue until now, The Bastard Hitter. Want to try hitting my pitch again? I won't let you hit this time." Ushio said.

"Then try to hold your cries when I'm about to hit your pitch again." Maki replied.

"Uooooh… The match is beginning." Akio said.

"So, they are the ones that being the headlines in sport news for weeks. Ushio, Hikarizaka's Legendary Player, and Maki-kun, The Bastard Hitter. I never knew that the two nicknames were belongs to these two." Takajo said.

From her bag, Ushio pulled a baseball cap she used to wear back when she was in junior high. She wore it proudly to make Maki startled. But that would never startle her.

"Hey, is that The Bastard Hitter? And that's Hikarizaka's Legendary Player! Hey, guys, the junior high baseball legends are here!" A man shouted to his friends to make them come over and watch.

"I bet they are in high school now. What are they doing here? A revenge match?" Another man said.

The park suddenly became crowded of curious people from around town. The two junior high school baseball players that have filled the sport news headlines for weeks were there holding their baseball equipment. People were curious why they were there.

"So, Maki-kun is actually the baseball player Ushio told us for long weeks back when she was in junior high. What a coincidence." Tomoya said.

"Okay, here's the rule! Shio-chan will throw three times. If Maki-kun successfully hit one out of three, Maki-kun wins. If Maki-kun could not hit any of it, Shio-chan wins. By hitting, I don't mean that silly short hit." Akio said.

"But hitting a homerun." Ushio and Akio said together.

"Hmph… Then, BRING IT ON!" Maki taunted Ushio.

Ushio felt herself on fire. She never felt like this since junior high school. It's been a long time since a good spar with another baseball player and she remembered how The Bastard Hitter took a long hit from her fast pitch. She smiled at herself while remembering the infamous scene of The Bastard Hitter ended her pitching spree. Hikarizaka's Legendary Player started to move into a pitching stance followed by The Bastard Hitter moved into her signature batting stance. Ushio took a deep breath before throwing her first pitch at Maki.

Maki saw the ball rolling in the air but she was too late to realize that the ball was too far from her hitting point and knew that she could not hit the ball. The net behind her was creaking loudly as a sign for she missed the ball. Maki mumbled to herself as she was too impatient.

"Losing yourself there, eh?" Ushio taunted her.

"Hmph… Don't get too cocky! We will see who will cry in the end." Maki replied and pulled herself back into batting position again.

Ushio smiled to her brave opponent. She gave Maki a little time to take a breath before she pulled her right arm to throw the ball more powerful. As the ball rolled in the air, everybody could hear the "WHOOOSH…" sound loudly as the ball cutting through the air.

"YOSH!" Maki strengthen her feet grip to the ground as she could see the ball getting closer. She swung fast enough to hit the ball but not powerful enough to make the ball fly into homerun. It was just a silly short hit. Maki mumbled to herself because she knew that didn't count as a hit for the referee, Akio, or for her opponent, Ushio, or even by herself. The Bastard Hitter could do much better than that. She knew that. But she took a deep breath as she knew that hit must be a punch for her opponent even it was not a homerun hit.

"What's wrong? Getting tired, huh?" Maki started to mock her.

"It was not even counts. I know The Bastard Hitter! She could at least score a long hit from that pitch." Ushio replied to calm herself down.

"Then, I will show you the true power of the girl who once called The Bastard Hitter who once ended pitching spree of Hikarizaka's Legendary Player." Maki said while taunting her opponent with her bat.

"Hmph… Suit yourself!" Ushio said and smiled to herself before getting ready for another throw.

Maki pulled herself to the batting position again. This time she held her feet against the ground firmer than ever. Ushio looked into Maki's eyes before she threw the ball and saw fire inside her eyes. Ushio smiled devilishly and gave a little stroke of her ability to the throw. For a second, Maki could saw Ushio's eyes turned red. Maki was getting ready with whatever would happen. But she definitely knew that this throw would be the fastest and the most powerful one. With a huge confident on herself, Maki swung her bat as powerful as she could.

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"TWACK…"

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"CRAAAASH…" Maki and Ushio could clearly hear a cracking voice of window.

Maki indeed hit a homerun but she hit a nearby window, too. Maki and Ushio looked at each other in panic. They then shared a smile and laughed at each other as they just did something terrible.

"Bah… You were cheating. That's not fair." Maki said to Ushio.

"Yeah, and you break those glass! That's terrible." Ushio said and made Maki laugh.

"Guess, there's no one win this time." Maki said.

"Yup, let's say this is a temporary truce for Hikarizaka's Legendary Player and The Bastard Hitter and a huge step for Ushio and Maki." Ushio said to Maki.

"By the way, we got to apologize for breaking those windows." Maki said and dragged Ushio along with her.

The audience let a relieved sighs as they left the park. Takajo was still staring at Ushio after he saw the actions of Hikarizaka's Legendary Player.

"Hey, Takajo-kun! Are you staring at my daughter?" Tomoya caught Takajo staring at his daughter.

"Uh… Ah… No…" Takajo answered.

"Hmph… Just say it to her. You like her, right?" Tomoya said.

"You are a good boy. Not to mention the last time we met. You saved her from that gang. And by the look of it, you still keep your promise to me. You have done every possibility available to protect her. I knew what happened last time in this neighborhood arcade." Tomoya gave Takajo a teasing smile.

Takajo looked away from Tomoya to hide his shame. Tomoya gave a supporting pat on Takajo's shoulder. Tomoya got up and picked up his baseball, glove, and the bat that was used by Maki. Tomoya gave Takajo the bat.

"Let's count this as a little test. I know you are a strong man, Takajo-kun." Tomoya challenged Takajo.

Takajo pulled a smile and got up from the picnic.

"Somehow, I felt this had happened once, right Nagisa?" Sanae asked her daughter.

Nagisa just formed a smile on her lips and started to cheer for her husband. Takajo pulled himself in a batting position. He repositioned his glasses before Tomoya threw the baseball…

"Well, were you insane Jiro-kun? You made us apologize twice in the same time. TWICE." Ushio complained to Takajo.

"I'm sorry Ushio. I didn't mean to get you in trouble." He said to her.

"Huff… You and Papa are the same." Ushio said and shut her mouth in anger.

"Come on, Ushio. Just let it go and enjoy the dinner." Maki said.

After they finished playing baseball, they have a little tour in the city to have a lunch and buy some grocery for dinner. They visited the arcade where they met Shiki, Ryo, and Fujimaki. Then they came back to the condo. Nagisa, Sanae, and Ushio prepared the dinner while Maki, Takajo, Tomoya, and Akio played a game of poker which Akio kept losing. Thank god that they didn't bet on anything.

Ushio just gave Takajo small fists to his shoulder which Takajo said that was too cute. Takajo ruffled Ushio's hair because he could not handle the cuteness and that made Ushio gave Takajo more fists to his shoulder.

"This Gender Bender is really a coincidence person. Everything we have done somehow connected with you. Your mother is Nagisa's friend. You were the only one person who could hit Shio-chan's pitch back in junior high school." Akio said.

"Stop calling me, Gender Bender…" Maki complained.

"Even your hoodie is proclaimed everything, Maki-kun." Ushio said referring to her "OPPAI" hoodie.

"I'm a fan of Saitama and every other anime characters, okay?" Maki defended.

"Hey, let's cheers for this friendship and family." Tomoya said.

"Yes, that would be great!" Ushio said and raised her glass.

"CHEERS!"

Takajo let Tomoya and Akio to stay at his room while Maki crashed (again) at Ushio's couch and Nagisa and Sanae already fell asleep in Ushio's room. Like usual, when Maki crashed at Ushio's, Ushio would always got to her balcony first before get to sleep. And like usual, Takajo was there waiting for her. Ushio smiled at him with the sweetest smile of hers. The moonlight lit Ushio's smile and made Takajo stare in awe.

"Jiro-kun, let's take some walk! Wait for me in front of my doors and try not to wake anyone, okay?" Ushio said cheerfully.

Takajo fixed his glasses position and gave Ushio a nod for an affirmation. He snuck out of his room quickly and waited for Ushio in front of her door. Ushio got out from her room and smiled brightly at Takajo. She gave her hand for Takajo to take it.

"Come on, let's go." Ushio said and let Takajo held her hand.

ARC 2 : LONG SATURDAY - TO BE CONTINUED

A/N : Well, I will start to throw the romance in the next chapter. So, be ready for full of fluffiness in the next chapter!