Night Watch

In which the security guard is witness to a mixed bag of emotions

From day one of his posting to Seidou High, the security guard learnt that this was a baseball-crazy school whose students constantly put themselves in danger. The kids insisted on jogging all over the sprawling grounds and moving between the dorm, training fields and indoor facility into the early hours of the morning. One or two would even sit outdoors on the stairs across the paved road from the back of their dorm so they could stare out over the fields – at two in the morning.

Heaven forbid that some intruder with murder, rape or abduction on his mind should sneak into the grounds one night and ambush an insomniac player. Or hide in the dorm until everyone was asleep, break into a room, and hurt the kids. That was the security team's worst nightmare.

Since it was impossible to secure every foot of the perimeter without a small army on 24-hour duty, they focused on general entry points in the day, and made sure all visitors who came to watch the team train or play practice matches left the premises after each session unless accompanied by a staff member. At night, they concentrated their resources on the main gate, dorm, indoor training area, the two fields, and the private road running between the fields on one side and the dorm and indoor facility on the other.

Only the players, authorised staff members like the coaches, club president, principal, vice-principal, selected teachers on duty and – in special circumstances – the maintenance crew, were permitted into the dormitory compound and indoor facility after dark. In the daytime, a few others like the student-managers and administrators could enter when games and team meetings were scheduled.

At first, he found the responsibility unnerving. But by now, years later, he'd become used to the job – and the non-life-threatening but definitely entertaining incidents that tended to mark the night shift (like the time the principal almost had a stroke during one of his incognito inspections because he mistakenly thought the players were engaged in a wild orgy).

As it turned out, the run-up to Seidou's semi-final against Seiko High on 23rd October was fairly eventful. Two evenings before the match, he started his shift as the baseballers held a meeting after what his colleagues told him had been an exciting intra-team game umpired by Yuuki Tetsuya, with the regular starters coached by Ochiai and the reserve first-stringers coached by Kataoka.

One of the first to leave the post-game meeting in the canteen was second-year pitcher Kawakami Norifumi, emerging with so downcast an expression on his face that he must have had a rough time with the analysis of his performance. But retired third-year catcher, Miyauchi Keisuke, was waiting for him at the dorm – to the security staff, they were by now a familiar pair, often meeting in private.

"…I had to swallow some hard truths from Nabe," the guard heard Kawakami saying when he patrolled the area they were in – the far end of the dorm wing furthest from the indoor facility. The two kids sat on the veranda steps.

"Was Nabe right?" Miyauchi asked.

"Right on target. Surprisingly, Miyuki was softer on us after the game – he actually thought all of us regular pitchers did well. But Nabe was more blunt with me – he said Furuya and Sawamura did well, but I didn't. I've got a lot of work to do on the sinker, and I let myself get rattled by the batters."

The guard stopped a little way off from where they were to hear what Miyauchi would say to cheer Kawakami up.

"It's brave of you to even try pitching the sinker at all after it failed you so badly last year. Don't shy away from your weak areas; know them and strengthen them," Miyauchi said simply.

"It's not just areas I'm weak in – I'm falling so far behind Furuya and Sawamura, who seem to advance by the day," Kawakami grimaced. "I need a workable breaking ball to keep up with them."

"Is that your main motivation? Catching up with a pair of freakishly talented kouhai?"

"Well, I am starting to feel left behind."

"It's fine to benchmark yourself against others, but it's more important to grow stronger for yourself, regardless of who else is around."

"During tough moments, though, it's hard to remember why I keep working so hard – unless I'm driven by someone younger than me outstripping me by miles."

"I know how you feel. We've always grown as a team, worked for the team, and pushed ourselves to outdo our teammates even before our opponents. But since retiring, I've realised that all those times when I knew I'd never be better in Kantoku's eyes than Chris and Miyuki, I trained till I dropped anyway, because I wanted to be my best, even if it meant I could never surpass my rivals."

"Miya-senpai…"

"I never wanted to turn into someone who wouldn't push harder just because I wouldn't win the race."

"You never stopped pushing yourself to the limit – I always admired that. It's given me so much strength all this time."

"Has it? That's good. But I want to tell you that I also didn't want to become someone in future who might be complacent if I should find myself being the best at what I do – and I wouldn't want you to be like that either. Not pushing yourself because you're way ahead is as bad as not pushing yourself because you think you'll never catch up. I hope you'll always have that internal desire to grow stronger in all areas of your life instead of looking to others for that drive."

"I'll remember that. Although there'll never be a time when I'm the best at what I do," Kawakami sighed. "I'll always be catching up."

"You're better than you think."

"I could say the same for you."

"Oh, I already know I'm bloody good."

Kawakami laughed then, and the gloomy clouds gathering over him dispersed.

"Miya-senpai, you always know how to make me feel better, even when you're in the middle of exam prep and have better things to do than to talk to me," he chuckled.

Miyauchi gave a huff and said: "There are few things I'd rather do than talk to you."

"Likewise. It's not only because you always make me feel better – I just really like it, talking to you like this."

Another pleased huff, and Miyauchi rose, saying: "Hmm. We'll talk again tomorrow. I have to get back to my revision, and you need to get some rest. You have a big match coming up on Saturday."

"Which I may not even play in," Kawakami laughed.

"I know it hurts not to play. But whatever you do or don't play in makes no difference to how I see you as the sidearm pitcher I'd drop every other pitcher to play with in a heartbeat – here, or at uni in future, or as a pro."

He turned to go, but Kawakami took three quick steps to catch up with him, and wrapped his arms around Miyauchi from behind, pressing his face to his broad right shoulder. Miyauchi always looked so much bigger than Kawakami that it was surprising to see, when they were standing close together, that Kawakami was really only an inch or so shorter.

"Thank you, Miyauchi-senpai," Kawakami whispered, a slight tremor in his voice.

Miyauchi didn't move for a few moments. When at last he stirred, it was to carefully turn halfway round in Kawakami's arms and to press a single kiss to the top of the pitcher's head before muttering "good night" and walking briskly away to his room. Kawakami watched him go, then left for his own room, taking the other staircase, with a blush on his cheeks and a gentle smile.

The security team had figured out that Miyauchi had a sort of unrequited crush on the younger kid… who now, at last, seemed to be opening his mind to the idea of exploring possibilities he might have previously drawn a line against.

More incidents occurred that night, however, that weren't as calm or heartwarming as Kawakami's talk with Miyauchi. About fifteen minutes after those two had parted, Miyuki Kazuya and Kuramochi Youichi came along, with Kuramochi demanding snappishly: "What was with you being so damn nice about the team's performance today, huh? It's not like you to just go 'yeah, everybody did well'. I can't believe Nabe – Nabe, of all people – is actually being harder on the pitchers than you are. Poor Nori looked like a kicked puppy after his appraisal."

"Really? But they've put their all into it, and I only want them to continue doing exactly that for the final two matches, so we can take Kantoku to Koushien and convince him to stay," Miyuki said breezily. "Nori's only just relearning the sinker. His performance wasn't as good as Furuya's and Sawamura's today because I kept pushing him for that pitch even when we both knew it wasn't polished."

Kuramochi scowled. "I can hear the words coming out of your mouth, but they jar so much with everything I know about you, it's almost like I can't understand their meaning – it's weird," he grumbled, glancing suspiciously at Miyuki. "It's him, isn't it? Bakamura – he's infecting you with all his sweetness."

"Rubbish."

"You're letting him right in where you haven't let anyone before, and it's eating all your unpleasantness out of you."

"Nonsense."

"And you're walking me back to my room like a gentleman because you're actually looking for him, aren't you?" Kuramochi cackled, face splitting into a hyena grin.

"I'm walking my favourite deputy captain back to his room because I don't trust him out of my sight," Miyuki said sarcastically.

"You mean you still don't trust me not to jump Sawamura's bones the moment I'm alone with him in our room," Kuramochi laughed.

"He may be enough of an idiot to let you pin him to the floor with every wrestling hold known to humankind, but he'd give you a kick to remember if you were ever really stupid enough to jump his bones. You're far from stupid, Youichi."

"I could say the same for you, Kazuya. Isn't that exactly why you still haven't told him? You're afraid he'll run from you if your confession freaks him out."

"He won't run."

"You sound mighty sure of yourself, as always, which is the most irritating thing about you… oh – he's not here," Kuramochi said, as they reached Room 5, opened the door and flicked the light switch to find the space unoccupied. "But his phone is!"

The guard saw Kuramochi gleefully enter his room, presumably to pounce on the gadget left behind by his roommate. The boys didn't shut the door behind them, so it swung back halfway and stayed ajar, letting him easily hear the exchange between the second-years.

"I'm sending Wakana-chan a text message," Kuramochi chuckled.

"Haven't you graduated to texting her from your own phone yet?" Miyuki sighed.

"Of course I have. The idiot's left his phone unattended so many times, I got her contact details from it ages ago."

"So why are you still using his phone to communicate with her?"

"Because it's fun to see how she always knows it's me – it's amazing. I love sending her a message and seeing how fast she works out that it isn't her 'Eijun' talking to her. She usually figures it out in one or two messages – she's really smart," Kuramochi gushed.

"You're fascinated by this girl, aren't you?"

"She's fantastic. I don't know why Bakamura never took it into his head to date her, but I'm glad he didn't – oh! She's replied – she knows it's me!"

"I'm delighted for you," Miyuki said, voice heavy with irony.

"Let's send her a picture of us," Kuramochi suggested.

"I think she already has more than enough pictures of all of us from that evening before the final with Inajitsu – which, as you may remember, didn't turn out too well for our side. You're not planning to jinx the Seiko game with another round of selfies and wefies for her, are you?"

"This isn't going to jinx any games. It's just a picture of Sawamura's two favourite second-year senpai, for his never-to-be girlfriend. Maybe it'll persuade her to send me her picture at last."

"You don't know how absurd you sound."

"Come on – we'll do it in Sawamura's bed – you'd like that, wouldn't you? You haven't been in his bed since the night you outraged the modesty of his pillow – he changed the pillowcase right after that, did you know? Hyahahaha!"

Miyuki must have been tempted by Sawamura's bed, because the guard heard the creaking of the bed frame and the snapping sounds of a mobile phone camera as Kuramochi went: "Okay, smile – tilt your head against mine."

More creaking, grumbling (from Miyuki) and cackling (from Kuramochi), and prompts to pose this way or that, with more snapping noises. Then Kuramochi did something that made Miyuki yelp: "Oi! there's no need to molest me to impress your girlfriend."

"I'm not molesting you – I'm just going to smooch you for this shot."

"I'm not smooching you."

"Don't tell me you were never curious about trying it just once, Kazuya – we knew from the start that you and I swung both ways…"

"Make it fast."

"Here goes…"

The security guard was too absorbed in the borderline risqué exchange (risqué for a pair of teens, at least) to register that Sawamura Eijun was that very moment trotting towards his dorm room, probably to retrieve his phone. The guard saw him with his eyes, but his mind didn't put two and two together until the pitcher threw open his room door to reveal to himself and the guard the frankly incriminating scene of Kuramochi in bed with Miyuki, the shortstop on top of the catcher, planting a kiss on his mouth and taking a picture.

"Shit – Sawamura –" Miyuki began, shoving Kuramochi off him.

The guard couldn't see Sawamura's face, but from behind, the kid's silhouette froze in the doorway before he murmured: "Oh. I just… my phone…"

"Sawamura," Kuramochi said, scrambling up from where he'd landed on the floor. "We were just – using your phone…"

"Ah – hahaha," Sawamura made nervous sounds of humourless laughter as he backed out of the doorway. "I'll come back for it later as you're… uh…"

Sawamura turned and walked quickly away, his face pale under the overhead corridor lighting. The guard heard Miyuki hiss at Kuramochi: "You stay here – I'll talk to him."

The captain hurried after Sawamura and caught up with him at the end of the veranda.

"Sawamura!"

The pitcher stopped, but didn't turn around.

Miyuki stepped past him to look him in the face as he explained: "We were taking stupid pictures – that's all – Kuramochi wanted to send some to your friend, Wakana, as a joke. We're sorry we used your phone – and your bed. It seemed amusing at the time…"

Again, the guard wasn't in a position to see Sawamura's face, but the boy said a little too quickly: "Heh, no problem – it's not like Kuramochi-senpai hasn't nicked my phone a hundred times before to send nonsense to Wakana."

"Sawamura, look at me."

"Eh? I am."

"You're not. Look at me. There's nothing going on between Kuramochi and me…"

"Whoa! It's none of my business!" Sawamura laughed nervously again, holding up his hands, palms out to Miyuki. "What's going on between you two – nothing to do with me! No need to explain, Captain! Though at least I now know what it was you said you didn't want to tell me until you were ready."

"What…? No – Sawamura, this is not what I said I wanted to tell you."

Sawamura, however, did not seem to be listening, as he went on: "I can see why you might've worried about my reaction, but honestly – I'm cool with it! I thought it was some big, dark secret – and I suppose it kind of is – but hey, if you're both happy about it…"

"Sawamura!" Miyuki interrupted him. "Stop – stop and listen to me. You said you could sense I had something to say to you that wasn't all the crap I was spewing. Stop and think back to that – do you really think this was it? That this was what I had to tell you?"

Sawamura was silent for a few seconds before saying: "No. This – this thing with you and Kuramochi-senpai – is a total surprise. I thought – I thought… uhm… you wanted to be friends."

"What?"

The boy scratched his head a shade too roughly and said, a little too brightly: "You know, I thought you were finally tired of all your snarkiness and nasty manipulative behaviour and wanted to be actual, normal friends with someone, and you weren't sure how I'd take it."

"That's what you thought?"

"Yeah!"

"And you're happy about it – to be friends with me?" Miyuki asked quietly.

"Of course! You're horrible on the outside, but you're actually more decent than anyone knows on the inside. Why wouldn't I want to be friends? But I guess I was mistaken – this was what you wanted to say, right? About you and Kuramochi-senpai, and you wanted me to know because I'm Kuramochi-senpai's roommate, and I'm also your pitcher, and there'll be times when you'll want me to leave the room so you can be alone with him, and –"

"No!" Miyuki cut off Sawamura's near-feverish rambling.

Other players were making their way towards this wing, and the guard, Miyuki and Sawamura – as well as Kuramochi, who was slowly emerging from Room 5 – knew they had no more time to hold this conversation without half the team overhearing them.

Miyuki hurried on: "No, Sawamura – there's nothing between Kuramochi and me. What you saw was a joke – meant for him to tease Wakana with. There really isn't anything to tell about him and me."

"There isn't?" Sawamura asked, as a small group of players headed their way.

"There isn't."

"So what I sensed…"

"Yes, you're right – I wanted to be friends. And I didn't know how you'd take it."

"Oh," Sawamura murmured, then fell silent, as if he wasn't sure what else to say.

The players greeted Miyuki and Sawamura as they passed. Yet another group, however, was moving towards this wing as well, and the captain quickly said: "So… is that what you want?"

"Huh?" Sawamura asked, seemingly snapping out of a daze before rambling on: "Oh – uh – yes – let's be friends after these two last matches – win or lose."

"We have to wait to be friends until the final is over?" Miyuki asked, with an oddly wry yet puzzled smile.

"You're the one who wanted to wait to tell me, right? So let's wait."

"Then what are we now?"

"We're teammates, Miyuki Kazuya you idiot," Sawamura muttered, as more people came their way. "I have to go – I told Harucchi and Furuya I'd meet them at the baths. We've already showered, but we just did some more training, so… ja ne!"

The boy fled, and Miyuki stared after him, barely noticing the teammates who filed past him and said hello. Kuramochi finally came all the way out of Room 5 and stood beside Miyuki, both of them watching the figure of Sawamura running off towards the baths.

"Dammit, Miyuki – that wasn't what either of you wanted to say," Kuramochi growled, after the other players walked past them.

However, none of his usual confidence was in Miyuki's voice when he murmured, in an apparent state of shock: "This is why Chris-senpai is light years ahead of me in intelligence. Even Tanba-san is a genius compared with me. Tanba-san warned Chris-senpai off Sawamura because he knew how important Sawamura was to him – and he could see that Sawamura saw Chris-senpai as his shishou and not a potential romantic partner. And Chris understood immediately – he understood that if Sawamura suspected anything, it would destroy their relationship. He knew it, and he backed off. I'm the idiot who kept pushing in. Shit. You were right – he'd have run if I'd told him what I really wanted to."

Kuramochi was staring at Miyuki, eyes wide, mouth agape. He stared until Miyuki drifted out of his stunned state enough to notice him staring, and then Kuramochi said in amazement: "You've really got it bad, haven't you?"

"Huh?"

"When things go wrong with Sawamura, it really, seriously affects your brain, doesn't it? He has that much effect on you?"

"Eh?"

"Are you listening to yourself?" Kuramochi yelled, after which they both had to keep quiet for an awkward minute because another three players were heading their way. Once their teammates greeted them and moved far away enough, Kuramochi continued, voice lowered: "I've never seen you like this – Miyuki Kazuya, Tokyo's most unpleasant genius, lost and foundering. Snap out of your shell-shocked state, Captain Moron! Sawamura can't lie to save his life – geez, even an earthworm would have grasped how pathetically he was covering up – so if you believe what he just said, you're blinder and deafer than a worm. The shock must have addled your brain. Did you even hear his voice? He was doing everything he could not to cry."

"He was upset because he wanted to be friends, then he thought I was hiding some affair with you from him…"

"Seriously!?"

"Yes, he – no, I mean… oh."

"Uh-huh."

Five long seconds of silence as the penny dropped, then Miyuki murmured: "He was jealous."

Kuramochi rolled his eyes. "I'll talk to him tonight when he comes back to our room – and I won't touch him, I swear – don't look at me like that."

"Damn," Miyuki muttered angrily. "This is exactly what Rei-chan warned me about. He gets to me. And I'm not neutral around him – or particularly bright right now. Shit. She'll laugh her head off when she finds out she was right."

"Sheez, Miyuki – you play him like a fiddle on the field the same way you play every other pitcher, and you've been teasing him endlessly for months, but merely being caught by him kissing me turns you into a wreck."

"This is different from… the field – from everything else."

"Pull yourself together, man, or you'll be leaking tells like a bullet-riddled water bucket to Seiko on Saturday."

Kuramochi gave Miyuki one more hard glare, then returned to his room, and Miyuki himself went upstairs after staring into space for a minute. The security guard wondered how Kuramochi's talk with Sawamura would go later that night. However, it never took place. When Sawamura finally returned to the dorm at an unearthly hour, he didn't go back to Room 5. He went to another room instead, and a sleepy Kanemaru Shinji came downstairs to inform a still-wide-awake Kuramochi that Sawamura was sleeping elsewhere tonight.

As the guard was leaving the school when his shift ended early in the morning, the players were heading to the canteen for breakfast, and he overheard Kuramochi say to Miyuki as they walked past: "Kanemaru came by to tell me Sawamura fell asleep in Chris-senpai's old bed last night."

"I know. I heard his voice through the wall and I knocked on their door, but Kanemaru came out into the passageway and shook his head at me, saying it was better not to disturb him."

"He was avoiding you, but he went to hide out in the room next door to yours?" Kuramochi muttered. "He's really not the brightest spark in the box."

"That never stopped you from wanting to get your hands all over him."

"Same goes for you."

"Which makes us both bigger idiots than him?" Miyuki grimaced.

"Speak for yourself," Kuramochi snapped. "And sort this out before the Seiko match tomorrow, for pity's sake."

"We'll be fine against Seiko."

"Says the captain whose super-sharp brain just dissolved into mush last night over a boy who isn't talking to him right now…"

The boys' words faded as they moved further away from the security guard, who fleetingly wondered as he left for home if he should say anything to Sawamura. But no, it was best not to interfere in these kids' crushes. They'd have to learn how to navigate turbulent emotions by themselves over the years; premature interference could stunt that development.

Besides, his job was to keep them safe from the truly scary things of this world – like ill-intentioned intruders who would do them grievous bodily harm – and not to coddle them like a grandfather would. So he and his colleagues would deal with potential intruders, while the boys would just have to manage other things themselves. And really, there was nothing like a little bit of heartbreak to make a kid grow up just a shade faster.