Patlabor: Personal Files
An Episodic Patlabor Fanfic by David A. Tatum
Disclaimer: Insert legal junk here...
Episode 10: Gotoh At The Bat
January 27, 2000
It was an unseasonably warm January day in Tokyo. All of the SV2 was
off-duty at the moment- all three units had been called to provide
round-the-clock security for some very high-level political negotiations,
but they had arrived at the site ahead of schedule and had several hours of
time to kill. Noa just happened to have her glove and a softball with her,
and suggested to Asuma that they head over to a nearby field (belonging to
a high school) and get a game of catch going. Shortly thereafter, they
were joined by the rest of the second unit, and finally the other two units
joined in as well. Soon, they were divvying up teams for a friendly little
match of softball as the three unit captains looked on.
"So," Noa whispered to Asuma. "Same bets as before?"
Since coming back from that nearly disastrous engineering and mechanics
conference nearly two weeks beforehand, the two of them had been coming up
with some sort of daily competition. Whoever lost had to be the one to
find that day's private location, where they could act like the couple they
were becoming (they had figured that going to the same place all the time
might get a little suspicious). This impromptu softball game was a perfect
opportunity, since they had been made the opposing team captains.
"Nah," Asuma said, shaking his head. "After our duty shift, we'll be free
to go out on our own, so we don't need to worry about privacy today.
Instead, let's say whoever loses buys dinner tonight, okay?"
Noa smiled and nodded. "Deal."
Gotoh, watching them in the background, sighed. "Oh, to be young again."
Asuma stiffened, overhearing. He wasn't ENTIRELY sure that Gotoh knew what
was going on, but when he first saw the captain upon returning from the
convention he and Noa had gone to, Gotoh had casually said, "I know what's
been going on for the past week or so. Make sure you don't let it
interfere with your job." While that SEEMED to refer to the incident with
the mechanics, the way Gotoh had said it made Asuma think that he was
referring to something else. The thought that he and Noa might already
have been 'caught' made Asuma a little jumpy, at times.
"Okay, team," Noa cried as she walked off, bringing him back to the
present. "We'll bat in this order..."
Soon, Noa's team was up, with Ueki Mashimo, one of Unit 1's transport
officers, on the plate and Natsume Kawai on deck. Ohta was pitching,
Shinshi was catching, and Asuma was playing shortstop. Officers of the
Riot Squad, who had also been called in to protect this delegation, were
watching from the fence. And the game was on.
Ohta's first pitch screamed past Ueki, and hit the top of Shinshi's glove
so hard that it ricocheted into his head and knocked him over.
"Oof!" Shinshi gasped.
"Nice pitch," Gotoh commented wearily.
"Yeah... for a baseball game," the riot squad commander said.
"Throw it underhand, you idiot! UNDERHAND! This is softball!" Ueki
shouted angrily.
"You're a cop!" Ohta shot back. "You should be expecting anything, and be
able to adapt to any situation!"
Shinshi sat up dazedly. "Tamiko, did you get the number of the labor that
hit me?"
"We aren't on duty, you idiot!" Ueki returned to Ohta. "And this isn't the
sort of thing that philosophy applies to!"
"Tamiko, where are you?" Shinshi muttered, walking around and looking from
person to person.
"You call yourself a police officer?"
Shinshi walked up to Natsume, and looked her up and down. "You aren't
Tamiko... what have you done with Tamiko?"
Natsume blinked. "Um..."
"Your own catcher wasn't expecting you to throw the ball that hard! Now
he's going around calling everyone 'Tamiko!'"
The riot squad commander, still standing next to Gotoh, laughed. "No
wonder you guys have such a bad reputation. You're teams can't work
together at all- you're hopeless!"
"They aren't that bad, once you get to know them," Gotoh noted.
"Oh, please. These people couldn't get along if their lives depended on
it! They're utterly incompetent! It's amazing that no-one in the SV2 has
been killed, yet," the squad commander snorted.
"Oh? You really think we can't get along?" Gotoh queried, noting that the
other man's voice had caught the attention of a couple of the people
waiting to hit.
"I'd be willing to bet on it!"
"Is that so?" Gotoh said. "How about a little softball match, your riot
squad unit versus the SV2? Seven innings, losing squad treats the winning
squad to dinner after this assignment is over?"
The riot squad commander raised an eyebrow at Gotoh. "Anything we want?"
Gotoh nodded. "Even Tokyo beef, if you want. But you must be prepared to
reciprocate in kind."
Tokyo beef! At 15,000 yen a pound, it was one of the most expensive
available not just in Japan, but anywhere in the world. On a policeman's
salary, it would be VERY difficult to save up enough money to spend it on
such an extravagant meal. Even the chance to be treated to such a meal was
more than the riot squad commander could even dream of. And what were the
chances of this disorganized group of misfits defeating his well-trained
and highly competent team? He could almost taste that meal already. A
thin line of drool escaped out of the corner of his mouth.
"Are you sure you want to do this? This is your last chance to back
out...." the riot squad commander asked.
Gotoh smirked. "That's my line."
The riot squad commander raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Very well. A
match, then. Seven innings of softball. After the assignment has been
completed."
Shinshi, still dazed, walked up to Gotoh and grabbed him by the lapels of
his shirt. The glasses he wore were humming mysteriously as they shined in
the sun. "What have you done with Tamiko?" he demanded.
The riot squad commander could barely keep a straight face. "Good luck,"
he chuckled.
* * * * *
Gomioka raised an eyebrow after hearing Gotoh's request. "Let me get this
straight. You made a bet that you would pay for dinner for the fifty men
of the Riot Squad- a dinner which could cost you anything- that involved
not just your OWN troop of misfits, but Shinobu's and my units as well?"
Gotoh looked at him tiredly. "Um, you expect me to have that much money on
hand? You and I make pretty much the same salary, you know."
"Yeah, I know. How do you expect to pay for it? You DO plan to pay for it
if you lose, right?" Gomioka growled.
Gotoh coughed. "Well, I plan to pay part of it."
"Part of it? Who do you think is going to pay the rest... oh, no. No!
I'm not having any part of this!"
Gotoh shrugged. "I didn't ask you to. I have a feeling that everyone will
be willing to help out, however."
Gomioka stood proudly. "You may try to talk them into it if you wish, but
I doubt that you'll be able to talk anyone into following this ridiculous
scheme!"
Gotoh shrugged. "If they don't, I can call things off easily enough."
With that, he left the temporary command station that the SV2 had set up
for the assignment.
Shinobu stood up from her chair, tapped the pages of the report she had
been writing evenly on her desk, and sighed. "Captain Gomioka," she began,
trying to keep a smile from appearing on her face. "You're going to have
to learn that Gotoh is quite capable of getting people to do what he wants
them to do. He's going to win that game."
Gomioka stood up himself. "I'll be shocked if he can even assemble a full
team for the game. Win it? Ha!"
* * * * *
The eighteen men and women who crewed the SV2 limbered up in the baseball
park. The game was only a half hour away, and they needed to be ready.
After all, this wasn't just about some silly bet- this was about honor.
Joudo Ishikawa and Takeo Kumagami had BOTH heard the captain of the riot
squad call them all incompetent, and lucky not to be dead. It was probably
at least partially true, but STILL- it was insulting when someone just said
it like that.
When Gotoh had come to them, letting them know that there was a chance to
redeem their honor- only risking the cost of paying for a few dinners (not
thinking how much those dinners might cost, mind), there was little
hesitation. Well, a few people with small bank accounts hesitated a
little, and Shinshi hesitated a lot, but that was because he was still
hurting from that pitch Ohta through.
That changed, though, when a few riot squad officers, carrying some papers
that Captain Gotoh had asked to be delivered to their captain, came by
while Shinshi's group was getting ready for their shift to start. Ohta,
thankfully, was unable to hear their taunts from the cockpit of his labor-
he might have been angered to the point of murder, otherwise- but Shinshi
had no such protection.
"Oh, look- it's the SV2," the first one noted in a sing-song voice.
"Getting ready to look all impressive in their giant tin cans."
"Heh," the second one snorted. "Real men don't need labors to do their
fighting for them."
That caught Shinshi's attention.
"Yeah," a third agreed. "You people in the SV2 aren't real men- you're
just a bunch of boys. How do some boys like you expect to beat a bunch of
men like us?"
"Excuse me?!" Shinshi replied in a very strained voice, his glasses singing
as the sun glared off of them.
"You heard us!" the first exclaimed. "You BOYS are hopeless! Give up now,
and spare yourselves a little dignity."
The other riot squad members laughed as the first one led them off to the
makeshift lounge area that had been set up for the off duty police during
the visit. Shinshi, however, was not going to let his targets disappearing
dissuade him from his wrath. Walking over to the command car, he grabbed
the radio transmitter.
"Ohta!" Shinshi barked. "Get out of that labor right now! I'm going to
get someone else to take over our shift."
Ohta was a little surprised at this change of plan. "What? Why?"
"When you get out of there, find your glove and ball right away! We have
to practice! And we ARE going to win that game, if I have to kidnap the
rest of the SV2 in order to get them to play!"
With that, Ohta was browbeaten into a three hour practice session that made
Shinshi into a very respectable- and very determined- catcher.
That practice was long over, however, and Gotoh was making the last minute
alterations to the SV2 team's starting line-up while the four volunteer
referees from the security guards they and the riot squad had been working
with looked on. A couple of members seemed a little reluctant to stand
anywhere near Shinshi, but that was to be expected- they were the people
who he had 'convinced' to participate.
Gotoh checked something he had written on a piece of paper and frowned
slightly. Walking up to Kanuka, he asked, "Hmm... do you know how to pitch
softball?"
Ohta, stretching nearby, fell flat on his face. "WHAT?!" he cried.
Kanuka shrugged. "Softball was never my best sport, but I'm pretty sure my
skills are more than adequate for this game."
Ohta picked himself up off the ground and ran over to Gotoh. "But I want
to pitch!" he whined, using the same voice he usually used when begging to
fire a gun.
Gotoh shrugged. "I'll put you in as the closer, but I don't think you've
got an arm that will last for the whole game...."
"Of course I do! I spent three hours practicing with Shinshi yesterday-"
"And that is why I don't think you'll have the endurance for today. You
already tired out your arm, you won't be able to pitch very many
pitches...."
Ohta facefaulted as soon as he understood what the captain was saying- he'd
practiced his way out of playing. Gotoh ignored him and continued
assigning people to their positions.
"Asuma, you'll play shortstop. Noa, you're second base. Shinshi's
catcher..."
* * * * *
When all was said and done, the SV2 had a rather solid starting lineup,
even including a third base coach. Hideki Nomo, the old officer with just
one hand who drove one of Unit One's labor transports, wasn't able to play,
but Gotoh was able to convince him to relay his calls to the base runners
or onto the field.
In addition to having Kanuka as the pitcher, Noa and Asuma as the second
baseman (woman) and shortstop, and Shinshi as catcher, Gotoh had filled the
rest of the starting line-up with the most athletic of his team. Takeo
Kumagami was on first base, the very friendly and enthusiastic rookie labor
pilot for Unit One, Koichi Miyagi, was playing third, and in the outfield
were the mop-haired Ueki Mashimo, the competent and efficient Yamane
Seiroku, and Unit One's senior labor pilot Yuhki Watanabe.
The SV2 retired the riot squad rather quickly in the first inning, with
three strikeouts being dished out with the minimum number of pitches thanks
to Kanuka. She was also the first one to bat, and looped a ball over the
riot squad's infield to reach first base. Yuhki Watanabe was up next, but
was startled by a brush-back pitch that nearly grazed his nose and played
the rest of his at-bat overcautious. As it turned out, it didn't matter
too much, since the pitcher walked him anyway. Next up was Takeo, who
calmly and coolly stepped up to the bag and smiled as the pitcher through
three strikes right past her for the first out.
Next up was Seiroku, who snorted out of his once-broken nose as he
approached the plate. The riot squad's catcher, seeing his opportunity,
decided to try taunting him good-naturedly.
"Your mother worked for Beach House!" he said, invoking the name of one of
the most inept group of terrorists that plagued Japan.
Seiroku sniffed. "So?" he said coolly, as the pitcher rose in his wind-up.
The pitch came, Seiroku swung, and the ball went flying out of the park.
Smirking calmly at the catcher, Seiroku took his bases, and the SV2 was up
3-0.
The riot squad captain, in his dugout, slammed his hand against the water
fountain in frustration. "Dammit!" he growled.
"Relax, Cap'n," one of his subordinates soothed. "We'll get those ones
back."
Noa, up next, grounded out to first, and Asuma quickly followed, bringing
the inning to a close. The riot squad went up again, eager to try and
rally, but once again Kanuka shut them down with three strikeouts- again,
on the minimum nine pitches.
This time at the plate, the SV2 didn't do quite so well. Ueki Mashimo hit
a single, but Shinshi wasn't really ready for batting.
'Oops,' he thought to himself as he struck out swinging. 'I should have
spent some of that three hours with Ohta yesterday batting and not just
catching....'
Koichi Miyagi grounded into a double play, and the second inning was over.
Once again, Kanuka was as methodical as ever, not letting her opponents
even have a trace of mercy. To say this frustrated the riot squad captain
didn't exactly do it justice. As his team left the dugout, he pulled his
own pitcher aside to talk to him in secret.
"We don't stand a chance while she's still pitching," the captain said,
gesturing to Kanuka in the on-deck circle. "Hit her- hard. Knock her out
of the game. It's the only way to win."
The pitcher looked flustered. "Captain, you can't ask me to-"
"Do YOU want to pay for these idiots' food?"
"Of course not! But-"
"Then this is the only way. Do it... that's an order."
The pitcher looked tight-lipped for a moment before nodding slowly. He'd
do as ordered. Besides, this was softball- there wasn't really any way he
could hurt her seriously with a pitch, was there? The captain wasn't
thinking straight- he'd see how ridiculous this was once the girl just
shrugged off being hit by the ball. "Yes, sir."
He stood up to the plate, and stared over at Kanuka as she waited, the bat
slung over her shoulder. The pitcher regretted what he had to do- she
looked kind of cute. Well, maybe when this was all over he could take her
out for drinks, or offer to pay for her share of the dinners as an apology
for what he was going to do. Well, no more time to worry about the
consequences- it was time to pitch.
His first pitch was wide to the outside. Best to let them think he was
losing control of his pitches, so that it wouldn't seem so intentional.
Kanuka smirked, and the pitcher took a deep breath. Wind-up, deliver....
With a meaty thump, the ball crashed right into Kanuka's eye, knocking her
down. The pitcher didn't need to fake horror at the strike- he hadn't mean
to hit her nearly so hard, so when she fell, he let out a shocked gasp.
"Ack- no! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he cried, running up to make sure she
was okay. "Are you all right?"
He was stopped when she sat up and glared at him out of one eye, barely
restrained anger showing in her face. She slowly stood up and dusted
herself off.
'Hmm,' the pitcher thought to himself as he stumbled back to the mound. 'I
don't think she's going to go for a make-up coffee.'
Gotoh slowly strode his way from the dugout to home plate. "Can you still
play?" he asked.
Kanuka shook her head. "Not as a pitcher- I won't be able to see the plate
clearly. I'll run the bases, but get Ohta warmed up."
Gotoh sighed. "Do you think he's up to it?"
Kanuka shrugged. "If he remembers that this is a softball game." Her good
eye narrowed, directing itself at the Riot Squad's pitcher. "He did that
intentionally."
Gotoh nodded. "It wasn't his idea."
Kanuka nodded, redirecting her gaze at the Riot Squad captain. "I know."
* * * * *
Kanuka, at the direction of the umpire, walked over to first base. Yuhki
walked up to the plate, remembering how he'd nearly been hit himself the
first time up to the plate. He struck out despite the fact that the
pitcher was rattled by his own pitch, too worried to get close enough to
the plate.
Kumagami walked up to the plate, and this time her calm smile was gone.
The ball came in, and with a crack went back out. Unfortunately, it didn't
quite go far enough- it was caught at the fence for another out.
Seiroku was next up. He was calm as he waited for the pitch, and smacked
the ball out of the park for his second home run of the game.
Noa came up next. She was starting to get mad- after all, this had all
started because she had wanted to have some fun playing catch with Asuma.
Then everyone else had to butt in- which wasn't so bad, as long as it had
been a friendly game. But then, her dinner out with Asuma had been
interrupted by this stupid challenge that the Riot Squad had issued- they'd
been forced to practice instead of going out. THEN this stupid pitcher,
who was winding up to throw his next pitch, had hit a friend of hers... She
was more than just mad, she was FURIOUS.
*crack* Asuma gaped as the ball went flying out of the park. "Eep," he
said, noting Noa's expression as she rounded the bases. This was more than
just a game for her- this was getting personal. "Good shot," he said as
she walked by.
"Asuma," she said sternly as she walked by. "Remember not to strike out...
or I'll be really mad at you."
'Oh, yeah... she's pissed,' he thought as he stepped up to the plate. He'd
never been good at sports- he figured he could do pretty well at shortstop,
considering how often he and Noa had played catch while off duty over at
SV2 Headquarters, but hitting was another matter. He slumped back, waited
for the pitch, closed his eyes, and swung as hard as he could.
His ball went soaring as well, ending up with another home run. As Asuma
rounded the bases, he could tell that the pitcher still hadn't quite
recovered from hitting Kanuka- something which the Riot Squad captain saw
as well after the back-to-back-to-back home runs, as he called time out to
change pitchers.
Noa, however, didn't care why the pitch went so far- she was just glad that
Asuma had listened to him about not striking out. When he got into the
dugout, she grabbed him and gave him a kiss, not thinking about the danger
of discovery.
Once they realized what they were doing, however, they quickly broke apart
and glanced around. Asuma noticed that only Gotoh could have seen them,
and he wasn't looking at them. Of course, the captain might have just been
pretending to have not seen anything, but Asuma couldn't be certain.
Asuma coughed, and whispered into Noa's ear, "If we win, I'll make sure we
can eat our dinner privately."
Noa just beamed at him, saying nothing. They were now leading seven to
nothing- even IF Kanuka was out, their lead was large enough that they
could just coast through the rest of the game.
* * * * *
The new pitcher for the riot squad proved to be coolly efficient, striking
Ueki Mashimo and Shinshi out without any difficulties and bringing the Riot
Squad up to the plate. As Ohta approached the mound, Asuma pulled him
aside.
"Remember, Ohta," Asuma noted, "This is SOFTBALL, not baseball. Throw
underhand, not overhand."
Ohta didn't say anything- he just nodded. After the three hour practice
Shinshi put him through, he didn't want to risk throwing overhand. At
least, he would at first. Use that overhand fastball for a surprise move-
that was the key.
Ohta threw a pitch and, for the first time, a member of the riot squad made
contact with the ball, sneaking between first and second base and into the
outfield, where Yuhki Watanabe picked it up and cut the runner off before
he could advance the hit past a single.
When Ohta got the ball back, he grimaced. That pitch didn't work as he had
hoped. Gritting his teeth, he looked at the signal from Shinshi and
nodded. Once again, he threw an underhand pitch... and once again, with a
crack of the bat the riot squad players were running.
The ball bounced in the direction of Asuma, who dove and grabbed it before
it could get past him. "Noa!" he cried, tossing it straight to her from
his back.
Noa, in perfect co-ordination, caught his toss, tagged the bag with her
foot, and fired the ball over to Takeo at first.
In the dugout, one of the riot squad players whistled. "Nice double play,"
he said. "Those three work well together."
The riot squad captain nodded. "Next time someone's running into second
base, take that girl down."
The others looked at him in surprise. "What?"
"You heard me- take her out. Slide into base with your cleats- spike her.
If you can't do that, run into her and knock her down. Get rid of her- if
you remove the linchpin of that group, the others will be will be
weakened."
"Captain, that's-" one of the officers started.
"Are you considering disobeying my orders? If so, do you realize I could
charge you with insubordination?" Silence answered him. "We are NOT
going to lose this game to these incompetent fools, no matter what we have
to do."
The man at the bat (who had not heard the orders given by his captain) ALSO
made contact with the ball, sending it flying into the outfield, between
Ueki Mashimo and Yamane Seiroku. Both players sped towards the projectile,
neither looking out for the other. In the middle of the field, they
collided into each other and tumbled to the ground. Mashimo, struggling to
disentangle himself, reached out and caught the ball before collapsing back
into a heap.
Seiroku jumped up, a scowl on his face directed at Ueki. The two
outfielders made their way back to the dugout in silence, but when they got
there, neither of them were particularly happy.
As Koichi Miyagi walked up to the plate, Seiroku started blowing some steam
off against Mashimo.
"What do you think you were doing?" he ranted. "Don't you look where
you're going?!"
"Hey, it was my ball!" Mashimo shot back. "You should have been looking
out for ME!"
"I'm the center fielder! It's ALWAYS my ball, unless you call it!"
"It was in right field! It's not your ball if it's in right field!"
"It was NOT in right field!" Seiroku screamed. "Are you BLIND?"
By this point, everyone in the dugout was staring at the bickering pair, so
no-one noticed when Koichi struck out and Ohta went from the on-deck circle
to the plate. Koichi approached at this point, smiling as usual, and
looked around. "Hey, gang, what's up?" he asked.
"Just shut up!" Ueki shouted, throwing a wild punch in the direction of
Seiroku. The fist made impact against Seiroku's battered nose, splattering
it across his face.
Ueki paused, staring at Seiroku's ruined face, then at his bloody hand,
then back at Seiroku's face, and gaped.
"I. Can't. Believe. That. You. Broke. My. Nose. AGAIN!" Seiroku
growled. "That's it! This time, I'm not going to just let you get away
with this without answer!" Charging in, Seiroku started pounding on
Mashimo, sending punch after punch into the other man. In self defense,
Ueki started returning the attacks blow for blow.
Even Gotoh was a little ruffled by the sudden outburst between the two
officers. "Hey, break it up! That's an order!" he cried.
The fighters didn't listen... until, that is, Hiromi came between them,
picking each of them up by the back of the neck and pulling them apart. As
the two of them were held in mid-air by the gentle giant, Gotoh came over
and inspected the two of them.
"Hmm. Bruises, torn uniforms, looks like at least one dislocated arm,
and... if I'm not mistaken," Gotoh said, poking each of them in the ribs.
Both Seiroku and Ueki shuddered. "Yep- rib injuries as well." He paused,
contemplating what to say. "You do know that there are penalties for
intentionally rendering yourself incapable of working, don't you?"
"I beg your apologies, sir," Seiroku muttered.
"Yeah, same here," Ueki said.
Gotoh shrugged. "I accept, but you aren't going to have as easy a time
apologizing to the people who it will really matter to- your captains. But
in the meantime, you will have to go to get those injuries checked out."
Gotoh turned away to inspect his bench players as Ohta returned after
striking out. Pointing to two people at random, he said, "I don't know
either of you, but you'll probably be best suited to playing in the
outfield." Tazaki Hiroaki and Toru Sasaki, the commander car operators for
Unit 1, both accepted their new roles with a simple nod. "Oh, yeah," Gotoh
said as he turned his attention back to the game. "Hiromi, you can let
them down now."
* * * * *
With Ohta out, Yuhki Watanabe went up to the plate, and he, too, struck
out. The two new players, together with the rest of the team, went out to
the field and prepared to play defense.
Once again, the first pitch towards the riot squad player was hit. It was
popped up into center field, right where Tazaki Hiroaki was standing. He
was so surprised that a ball was coming his way on his first play that he
didn't move to catch the ball, and it fell a couple of feet in front of
him. Quickly gathering his wits, Tazaki grabbed the bouncing ball and
threw it as hard as he could to Noa, who tossed it to Asuma covering her
spot on the second base bag. It didn't matter, though, because the person
who hit the ball didn't even try to move past first.
A scowl grew on Ohta's face, but he was determined not to make any
mistakes. Once more, he threw underhand. Once more, he watched the ball
bounce over his head. Asuma darted back, fielding the ball behind Noa and
tossing it to her. She caught the ball, tagged the bag, turned...
And was plowed over by the runner coming from first. In addition to being
knocked over, she was stepped on by the riot squad player's cleeted shoes,
sending several small spike wounds into her back.
"NOA!" Asuma cried, running over to her and picking her up, cradling her in
his arms. "Noa, are you all right?"
"My back!" she whimpered. "Aagh! It hurts... Asuma, it hurts."
Asuma grimaced. Only now did he notice the cuts in her back, as blood
started dripping over his hands. "Damn," he cursed. Gotoh and the rest of
the team ran up.
"Noa, are you okay?" Gotoh asked. When she didn't answer, he turned to
Asuma. "Is she okay?"
Asuma shook his head. "She's bleeding... Captain, request permission to
take her to be examined."
Gotoh half-smirked and nodded. "Of course, Shinohara. Attend to her well.
I'll just have to find a replacement for you."
Asuma, carrying Noa in a classic damsel-in-distress pose, hurried away as
Gotoh returned to the dugout to find a couple of replacements. "Ishikawa,
Kawai, go on out there."
Natsume Kawai and Joudo Ishikawa nodded. As they trotted out to the field,
Natsume whispered to Joudo, "Um, what am I supposed to do? I've never
played this game before."
"Urk!" Joudo squawked. "Um, okay, first, you need to stand by that bag
over there... when the ball comes you direction, you..."
* * * * *
Joudo finished his crash course in softball as the two of them walked up to
their positions, and the game was underway again. The end results of the
play that injured Noa was an out, but there was still a man on first base
to deal with.
So, in order to get past the inning, the SV2 had to make two more outs...
AND contend with Ohta, who by that point had blown his top.
'All right,' he thought to himself. 'These little "underhand" pitches are
getting me nowhere- I'm going to throw a REAL fastball!'
And so he did. It was perfectly straight, perfectly on target- and
perfectly illegal.
"That's an illegal pitch!" the umpire shouted.
Ohta ran up to him, and would have confronted him directly if Shinshi
hadn't stepped in his way.
"It IS a legal pitch!" Ohta barked. "A fastball's a legal pitch!"
"This is SOFTBALL! A fastball's only legal if you can throw it underhand!"
"What does it matter? We're police officers- we should always be expecting
the unexpected!"
"THIS IS A SOFTBALL GAME! WHETHER YOU'RE A POLICE OFFICER OR NOT DOESN'T
MATTER!" the umpire cried.
"Help," Shinshi, now crushed between the two of them, whimpered painfully.
* * * * *
Ohta managed NOT to be ejected, but in the process the batter was to first
and Shinshi was so battered that he had to be carried off on a stretcher.
Gotoh sent in the biggest target possible- Hiromi. In fact, Hiromi was so
big that the umpire couldn't see around him, so when (the now emotionally
contained- sort of) Ohta tossed in his next pitch a bit outside, the umpire
couldn't exactly tell what to call it.
"Uh... um... strike one?"
The game continued, and Ohta actually managed to strike out the batter.
When the next one came up, however, a crack of the bat cleared the bases
with a home run. The final batter of the inning popped out to Koichi
Miyagi, and the SV2 came back up to the plate.
Takeo Kumagami was the first batter, and she had words for the catcher,
opening her mouth for the first time since the game started. "You know, I
wasn't taking this game very seriously," she noted. "Not until you started
intentionally hurting our people. And then, of all things, you hurt Noa in
front of her boyfriend- which really ticks me off, because those two have
something really rare. Something I wish I had. And that shouldn't be
hurt, no matter what. And yet, you did."
She slung her bat over her shoulder. The pitch came in, and Takeo smacked
it out of the park. "I'm going to start trying to win, now," she noted as
she set down the bat before making her way around the bases.
Toru Sasaki, the grizzled old veteran who had taken over one of the
outfield positions when Seiroku and Ueki Mashimo left the game, stood into
the plate next. He smacked the ball off into right field, but was unable
to run fast enough to beat the throw to first base, and was called out.
Following Toru was Noa and Asuma's replacements, Joudo Ishikawa and Natsume
Kawai. Joudo grounded out on his first pitch, and then Natsume came up to
the plate.
"Um... I've never played this game before," she said to the catcher. "What
am I supposed to do?"
The catcher smirked. This was too easy. "Don't worry, sugar," he said
flirtatiously. "This is all you have to do- when you see the ball coming,
close your eyes and swing your bat against the plate."
Natsume frowned. "That doesn't sound like what the others were doing...."
"What, you don't trust me?" the catcher whimpered, trying to get that
puppy-dog look on his face.
"No, I don't mean that!" Natsume assured. "I believe you! Don't be
upset!"
"I won't. Now, are you ready to play?" he said. Natsume nodded, the curls
of her hair bobbing in acknowledgment. 'Like taking candy from a baby,' he
thought as he put on his mask.
The ball came in, Natsume closed her eyes, and *bam*.
"Ow," the catcher said, as he removed the bat from the back of his head.
Natsume looked deeply apologetic. "I'm sorry- I couldn't see with my eyes
closed, and so I missed the plate, and..."
The catcher wasn't in any position to reply.
* * * * *
After the riot squad changed catchers (and Joudo snuck up to give Natsume a
more correct version of how to act when a hitter), the game resumed.
Natsume actually got a bat on the ball- to hit a couple of fouls. Finally,
though, she struck out, and the game went on.
The SV2's luck ran out the next inning. Several balls skipped past Natsume
Kawai or over the reach of Joudo Ishikawa. Several balls hit to the
outfield were fumbled by Tazaki Hiroaki or could not be reached by the
slow-moving Toru Sasaki. Ohta was able to manage one strikeout, and
Kumagami was able to stop a ground ball and run to the bag to get another
out on her own, but six runs scored before the last out could be made- and
that last out a difficult one, as well.
Finally, though, Joudo was able to field a ground ball, and toss it to
first- off balance, but he made it just in time for the out to be called.
"Good play, Joudo!" his teammates called, but their voices were a little
dispirited. They were now losing, eight to nine.
The opposing captain, however, was grimly satisfied. "Okay, men- we're now
in the lead. Make sure we stay that way- I don't care WHAT you have to do,
got it?" His team knew better than to question him, that time.
Tazaki Hiroaki was the first one up. He went down rather quickly, swinging
wildly and popping up a foul ball that the catcher caught. Hiromi was
next, looking a little too large for the bat he was carrying.
The first pitch came in right down the middle, hitting the catcher's mitt
dead on. "Ball one!" The umpire cried.
The pitcher didn't believe it. "Ball? How can you call that a ball- it
was a perfect pitch!"
"It was low- it needs to get at least as high as the hitters knees!"
"Are you kidding? His knees are taller than my catcher!"
"Sorry, but I can't help that- the rules say-"
"Fine!" the pitcher growled. With that, he wound up and threw his next
pitch... which went soaring over the catcher and clonked the umpire,
knocking him over.
"That was intentional!" the umpire growled, standing up with a hand on the
lump that was forming on his head. "You're out of the game!"
The pitcher's eyes widened. "WHAT? You're throwing me out?! For what?"
"For hitting me on the head with a softball- what do you think?"
The pitcher couldn't reply to that.
* * * * *
The new pitcher decided it wasn't worth trying to get Hiromi out after the
debacle with the last pitcher, and so just walked him intentionally.
Koichi Miyagi, who had yet to lose his smile since the game began, came up
next. The new pitcher hadn't yet gotten control of his pitches, however,
and walked him. Then Ohta came to the plate, but he was a bit too
enthusiastic. Believing he had to give the team the lead himself, he swung
for a home run at every pitch, even those that would not have been strikes,
and so was quickly struck out.
Yuhki Watanabe was up next, and for once he actually wasn't nervous.
Swinging heartily, he hit a nice ball into the outfield. He rounded first
and started to second, but couldn't go on because there were people in
front of him. Koichi Miyagi, rounding second, was tripped up by the
shortstop. He stumbled up, and limped back to second Hiromi made it home
for the tying run. Gotoh walked out to first base to talk to Koichi.
"How's your leg?"
"Hurt, sir... I don't think I'll be able to run around the bases."
Gotoh nodded, and singled to the dugout. Yoshi Tobe, the transport driver
for unit three with a pleasant disposition and a scar over his left eye,
ran out and took Koichi's place while Gotoh helped him off the field.
Kumagami came up next. The catcher, remembering her threat from the
previous time she'd come up to bat, intentionally walked her. The next
person due up was Toru Sasaki, the oldest and slowest member of the team.
Gotoh, sighing, grabbed a bat and a helmet. "Sasaki, sit down. I'm going
up to hit, myself."
"Sir?"
Gotoh smirked. "I'm a player-coach this game. We didn't have enough
people on the bench for my comfort, considering he had fifty to choose
from, so I made myself eligible to play. Since I was the only person left
on the bench, I figured I'd go up to bat."
Seated on the bench, the very non-descript Kenji Iguchi wondered why Gotoh
had completely forgotten about him. Then he remembered he wasn't ever
remembered by anyone, including the author of this fanfic when he was
plotting all of this, and decided to remain quiet and sit right where he
was.
Gotoh stood at the bat, slung the bat over his shoulder, crouched down, and
looked into the pitchers eyes. The pitcher glanced in to see the catcher's
sign, and caught the look Gotoh was giving him. He froze, hesitating.
There was a power in those eyes- something he couldn't quite explain. It
was something that caused the hair to stand up on the back of his head, and
made him fear throwing that pitch... he wasn't quite sure what to do.
"Pitch the ball," Gotoh said, calmly and evenly.
The pitcher could hardly refuse a request like that, and reached back to
pitch the ball.
With the bases loaded, two outs, and a tie game, the ball soared in. Gotoh
eyed its trajectory, pulled back with the bat...
And dropped it when his cell phone rang, letting the ball pass by for
strike one.
Turning to the surprised umpire, Gotoh pulled out his cell phone. "Um,
time out- I need to answer this." Flipping open the phone, he said, "Gotoh
here... Ah, Shinobu! Why didn't you come to the game? Oh... ah... uh
huh... well, okay, we'll be there in an hour." Closing his phone, he
sighed. "I'm afraid we'll have to end this little match- duty calls."
The referees and all the players from BOTH sides collapsed, not believing
that the whole game was for nothing. The riot squad's captain, however,
was furious. Charging up to Gotoh, he growled, "So, you forfeit?"
Gotoh shook his head. "Why should I forfeit? This is no different from
what would happen if it had rained. It's beyond the control of either of
us. Furthermore, the score it tied right now, so neither of us would win."
"Then when do you want to schedule a rematch?" the captain growled.
Gotoh's eyes hardened. "I won't."
"What?"
Finally, Gotoh exploded. "You idiot! This was just a stupid game, and yet
you crippled half of a police unit to win it! I'm not going to risk my
people's necks just because you want to prove yourself, damn it! Now,
excuse us, we have a job to do."
The members of the SV2 followed Gotoh out, looking at him with shock at his
furious explosion. The members of the riot squad, on the other hand,
looked at their captain with something very different- contempt.
-------------------------
Next Episode: With the second and third unit largely decimated by the
softball game and Gotoh actually taking the day off for a change, the SV2
is temporarily reorganized back into two units, one under Shinobu and the
other under Gomioka. Shinobu's shift is rather lonely without either Gotoh
or Gomioka around... what does she do when no-one else is there?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
desaix@sysnet.net
Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee
anime fanfics available at
http://www.geocities.com/zednik.geo/fanfics.htm
An Episodic Patlabor Fanfic by David A. Tatum
Disclaimer: Insert legal junk here...
Episode 10: Gotoh At The Bat
January 27, 2000
It was an unseasonably warm January day in Tokyo. All of the SV2 was
off-duty at the moment- all three units had been called to provide
round-the-clock security for some very high-level political negotiations,
but they had arrived at the site ahead of schedule and had several hours of
time to kill. Noa just happened to have her glove and a softball with her,
and suggested to Asuma that they head over to a nearby field (belonging to
a high school) and get a game of catch going. Shortly thereafter, they
were joined by the rest of the second unit, and finally the other two units
joined in as well. Soon, they were divvying up teams for a friendly little
match of softball as the three unit captains looked on.
"So," Noa whispered to Asuma. "Same bets as before?"
Since coming back from that nearly disastrous engineering and mechanics
conference nearly two weeks beforehand, the two of them had been coming up
with some sort of daily competition. Whoever lost had to be the one to
find that day's private location, where they could act like the couple they
were becoming (they had figured that going to the same place all the time
might get a little suspicious). This impromptu softball game was a perfect
opportunity, since they had been made the opposing team captains.
"Nah," Asuma said, shaking his head. "After our duty shift, we'll be free
to go out on our own, so we don't need to worry about privacy today.
Instead, let's say whoever loses buys dinner tonight, okay?"
Noa smiled and nodded. "Deal."
Gotoh, watching them in the background, sighed. "Oh, to be young again."
Asuma stiffened, overhearing. He wasn't ENTIRELY sure that Gotoh knew what
was going on, but when he first saw the captain upon returning from the
convention he and Noa had gone to, Gotoh had casually said, "I know what's
been going on for the past week or so. Make sure you don't let it
interfere with your job." While that SEEMED to refer to the incident with
the mechanics, the way Gotoh had said it made Asuma think that he was
referring to something else. The thought that he and Noa might already
have been 'caught' made Asuma a little jumpy, at times.
"Okay, team," Noa cried as she walked off, bringing him back to the
present. "We'll bat in this order..."
Soon, Noa's team was up, with Ueki Mashimo, one of Unit 1's transport
officers, on the plate and Natsume Kawai on deck. Ohta was pitching,
Shinshi was catching, and Asuma was playing shortstop. Officers of the
Riot Squad, who had also been called in to protect this delegation, were
watching from the fence. And the game was on.
Ohta's first pitch screamed past Ueki, and hit the top of Shinshi's glove
so hard that it ricocheted into his head and knocked him over.
"Oof!" Shinshi gasped.
"Nice pitch," Gotoh commented wearily.
"Yeah... for a baseball game," the riot squad commander said.
"Throw it underhand, you idiot! UNDERHAND! This is softball!" Ueki
shouted angrily.
"You're a cop!" Ohta shot back. "You should be expecting anything, and be
able to adapt to any situation!"
Shinshi sat up dazedly. "Tamiko, did you get the number of the labor that
hit me?"
"We aren't on duty, you idiot!" Ueki returned to Ohta. "And this isn't the
sort of thing that philosophy applies to!"
"Tamiko, where are you?" Shinshi muttered, walking around and looking from
person to person.
"You call yourself a police officer?"
Shinshi walked up to Natsume, and looked her up and down. "You aren't
Tamiko... what have you done with Tamiko?"
Natsume blinked. "Um..."
"Your own catcher wasn't expecting you to throw the ball that hard! Now
he's going around calling everyone 'Tamiko!'"
The riot squad commander, still standing next to Gotoh, laughed. "No
wonder you guys have such a bad reputation. You're teams can't work
together at all- you're hopeless!"
"They aren't that bad, once you get to know them," Gotoh noted.
"Oh, please. These people couldn't get along if their lives depended on
it! They're utterly incompetent! It's amazing that no-one in the SV2 has
been killed, yet," the squad commander snorted.
"Oh? You really think we can't get along?" Gotoh queried, noting that the
other man's voice had caught the attention of a couple of the people
waiting to hit.
"I'd be willing to bet on it!"
"Is that so?" Gotoh said. "How about a little softball match, your riot
squad unit versus the SV2? Seven innings, losing squad treats the winning
squad to dinner after this assignment is over?"
The riot squad commander raised an eyebrow at Gotoh. "Anything we want?"
Gotoh nodded. "Even Tokyo beef, if you want. But you must be prepared to
reciprocate in kind."
Tokyo beef! At 15,000 yen a pound, it was one of the most expensive
available not just in Japan, but anywhere in the world. On a policeman's
salary, it would be VERY difficult to save up enough money to spend it on
such an extravagant meal. Even the chance to be treated to such a meal was
more than the riot squad commander could even dream of. And what were the
chances of this disorganized group of misfits defeating his well-trained
and highly competent team? He could almost taste that meal already. A
thin line of drool escaped out of the corner of his mouth.
"Are you sure you want to do this? This is your last chance to back
out...." the riot squad commander asked.
Gotoh smirked. "That's my line."
The riot squad commander raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Very well. A
match, then. Seven innings of softball. After the assignment has been
completed."
Shinshi, still dazed, walked up to Gotoh and grabbed him by the lapels of
his shirt. The glasses he wore were humming mysteriously as they shined in
the sun. "What have you done with Tamiko?" he demanded.
The riot squad commander could barely keep a straight face. "Good luck,"
he chuckled.
* * * * *
Gomioka raised an eyebrow after hearing Gotoh's request. "Let me get this
straight. You made a bet that you would pay for dinner for the fifty men
of the Riot Squad- a dinner which could cost you anything- that involved
not just your OWN troop of misfits, but Shinobu's and my units as well?"
Gotoh looked at him tiredly. "Um, you expect me to have that much money on
hand? You and I make pretty much the same salary, you know."
"Yeah, I know. How do you expect to pay for it? You DO plan to pay for it
if you lose, right?" Gomioka growled.
Gotoh coughed. "Well, I plan to pay part of it."
"Part of it? Who do you think is going to pay the rest... oh, no. No!
I'm not having any part of this!"
Gotoh shrugged. "I didn't ask you to. I have a feeling that everyone will
be willing to help out, however."
Gomioka stood proudly. "You may try to talk them into it if you wish, but
I doubt that you'll be able to talk anyone into following this ridiculous
scheme!"
Gotoh shrugged. "If they don't, I can call things off easily enough."
With that, he left the temporary command station that the SV2 had set up
for the assignment.
Shinobu stood up from her chair, tapped the pages of the report she had
been writing evenly on her desk, and sighed. "Captain Gomioka," she began,
trying to keep a smile from appearing on her face. "You're going to have
to learn that Gotoh is quite capable of getting people to do what he wants
them to do. He's going to win that game."
Gomioka stood up himself. "I'll be shocked if he can even assemble a full
team for the game. Win it? Ha!"
* * * * *
The eighteen men and women who crewed the SV2 limbered up in the baseball
park. The game was only a half hour away, and they needed to be ready.
After all, this wasn't just about some silly bet- this was about honor.
Joudo Ishikawa and Takeo Kumagami had BOTH heard the captain of the riot
squad call them all incompetent, and lucky not to be dead. It was probably
at least partially true, but STILL- it was insulting when someone just said
it like that.
When Gotoh had come to them, letting them know that there was a chance to
redeem their honor- only risking the cost of paying for a few dinners (not
thinking how much those dinners might cost, mind), there was little
hesitation. Well, a few people with small bank accounts hesitated a
little, and Shinshi hesitated a lot, but that was because he was still
hurting from that pitch Ohta through.
That changed, though, when a few riot squad officers, carrying some papers
that Captain Gotoh had asked to be delivered to their captain, came by
while Shinshi's group was getting ready for their shift to start. Ohta,
thankfully, was unable to hear their taunts from the cockpit of his labor-
he might have been angered to the point of murder, otherwise- but Shinshi
had no such protection.
"Oh, look- it's the SV2," the first one noted in a sing-song voice.
"Getting ready to look all impressive in their giant tin cans."
"Heh," the second one snorted. "Real men don't need labors to do their
fighting for them."
That caught Shinshi's attention.
"Yeah," a third agreed. "You people in the SV2 aren't real men- you're
just a bunch of boys. How do some boys like you expect to beat a bunch of
men like us?"
"Excuse me?!" Shinshi replied in a very strained voice, his glasses singing
as the sun glared off of them.
"You heard us!" the first exclaimed. "You BOYS are hopeless! Give up now,
and spare yourselves a little dignity."
The other riot squad members laughed as the first one led them off to the
makeshift lounge area that had been set up for the off duty police during
the visit. Shinshi, however, was not going to let his targets disappearing
dissuade him from his wrath. Walking over to the command car, he grabbed
the radio transmitter.
"Ohta!" Shinshi barked. "Get out of that labor right now! I'm going to
get someone else to take over our shift."
Ohta was a little surprised at this change of plan. "What? Why?"
"When you get out of there, find your glove and ball right away! We have
to practice! And we ARE going to win that game, if I have to kidnap the
rest of the SV2 in order to get them to play!"
With that, Ohta was browbeaten into a three hour practice session that made
Shinshi into a very respectable- and very determined- catcher.
That practice was long over, however, and Gotoh was making the last minute
alterations to the SV2 team's starting line-up while the four volunteer
referees from the security guards they and the riot squad had been working
with looked on. A couple of members seemed a little reluctant to stand
anywhere near Shinshi, but that was to be expected- they were the people
who he had 'convinced' to participate.
Gotoh checked something he had written on a piece of paper and frowned
slightly. Walking up to Kanuka, he asked, "Hmm... do you know how to pitch
softball?"
Ohta, stretching nearby, fell flat on his face. "WHAT?!" he cried.
Kanuka shrugged. "Softball was never my best sport, but I'm pretty sure my
skills are more than adequate for this game."
Ohta picked himself up off the ground and ran over to Gotoh. "But I want
to pitch!" he whined, using the same voice he usually used when begging to
fire a gun.
Gotoh shrugged. "I'll put you in as the closer, but I don't think you've
got an arm that will last for the whole game...."
"Of course I do! I spent three hours practicing with Shinshi yesterday-"
"And that is why I don't think you'll have the endurance for today. You
already tired out your arm, you won't be able to pitch very many
pitches...."
Ohta facefaulted as soon as he understood what the captain was saying- he'd
practiced his way out of playing. Gotoh ignored him and continued
assigning people to their positions.
"Asuma, you'll play shortstop. Noa, you're second base. Shinshi's
catcher..."
* * * * *
When all was said and done, the SV2 had a rather solid starting lineup,
even including a third base coach. Hideki Nomo, the old officer with just
one hand who drove one of Unit One's labor transports, wasn't able to play,
but Gotoh was able to convince him to relay his calls to the base runners
or onto the field.
In addition to having Kanuka as the pitcher, Noa and Asuma as the second
baseman (woman) and shortstop, and Shinshi as catcher, Gotoh had filled the
rest of the starting line-up with the most athletic of his team. Takeo
Kumagami was on first base, the very friendly and enthusiastic rookie labor
pilot for Unit One, Koichi Miyagi, was playing third, and in the outfield
were the mop-haired Ueki Mashimo, the competent and efficient Yamane
Seiroku, and Unit One's senior labor pilot Yuhki Watanabe.
The SV2 retired the riot squad rather quickly in the first inning, with
three strikeouts being dished out with the minimum number of pitches thanks
to Kanuka. She was also the first one to bat, and looped a ball over the
riot squad's infield to reach first base. Yuhki Watanabe was up next, but
was startled by a brush-back pitch that nearly grazed his nose and played
the rest of his at-bat overcautious. As it turned out, it didn't matter
too much, since the pitcher walked him anyway. Next up was Takeo, who
calmly and coolly stepped up to the bag and smiled as the pitcher through
three strikes right past her for the first out.
Next up was Seiroku, who snorted out of his once-broken nose as he
approached the plate. The riot squad's catcher, seeing his opportunity,
decided to try taunting him good-naturedly.
"Your mother worked for Beach House!" he said, invoking the name of one of
the most inept group of terrorists that plagued Japan.
Seiroku sniffed. "So?" he said coolly, as the pitcher rose in his wind-up.
The pitch came, Seiroku swung, and the ball went flying out of the park.
Smirking calmly at the catcher, Seiroku took his bases, and the SV2 was up
3-0.
The riot squad captain, in his dugout, slammed his hand against the water
fountain in frustration. "Dammit!" he growled.
"Relax, Cap'n," one of his subordinates soothed. "We'll get those ones
back."
Noa, up next, grounded out to first, and Asuma quickly followed, bringing
the inning to a close. The riot squad went up again, eager to try and
rally, but once again Kanuka shut them down with three strikeouts- again,
on the minimum nine pitches.
This time at the plate, the SV2 didn't do quite so well. Ueki Mashimo hit
a single, but Shinshi wasn't really ready for batting.
'Oops,' he thought to himself as he struck out swinging. 'I should have
spent some of that three hours with Ohta yesterday batting and not just
catching....'
Koichi Miyagi grounded into a double play, and the second inning was over.
Once again, Kanuka was as methodical as ever, not letting her opponents
even have a trace of mercy. To say this frustrated the riot squad captain
didn't exactly do it justice. As his team left the dugout, he pulled his
own pitcher aside to talk to him in secret.
"We don't stand a chance while she's still pitching," the captain said,
gesturing to Kanuka in the on-deck circle. "Hit her- hard. Knock her out
of the game. It's the only way to win."
The pitcher looked flustered. "Captain, you can't ask me to-"
"Do YOU want to pay for these idiots' food?"
"Of course not! But-"
"Then this is the only way. Do it... that's an order."
The pitcher looked tight-lipped for a moment before nodding slowly. He'd
do as ordered. Besides, this was softball- there wasn't really any way he
could hurt her seriously with a pitch, was there? The captain wasn't
thinking straight- he'd see how ridiculous this was once the girl just
shrugged off being hit by the ball. "Yes, sir."
He stood up to the plate, and stared over at Kanuka as she waited, the bat
slung over her shoulder. The pitcher regretted what he had to do- she
looked kind of cute. Well, maybe when this was all over he could take her
out for drinks, or offer to pay for her share of the dinners as an apology
for what he was going to do. Well, no more time to worry about the
consequences- it was time to pitch.
His first pitch was wide to the outside. Best to let them think he was
losing control of his pitches, so that it wouldn't seem so intentional.
Kanuka smirked, and the pitcher took a deep breath. Wind-up, deliver....
With a meaty thump, the ball crashed right into Kanuka's eye, knocking her
down. The pitcher didn't need to fake horror at the strike- he hadn't mean
to hit her nearly so hard, so when she fell, he let out a shocked gasp.
"Ack- no! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he cried, running up to make sure she
was okay. "Are you all right?"
He was stopped when she sat up and glared at him out of one eye, barely
restrained anger showing in her face. She slowly stood up and dusted
herself off.
'Hmm,' the pitcher thought to himself as he stumbled back to the mound. 'I
don't think she's going to go for a make-up coffee.'
Gotoh slowly strode his way from the dugout to home plate. "Can you still
play?" he asked.
Kanuka shook her head. "Not as a pitcher- I won't be able to see the plate
clearly. I'll run the bases, but get Ohta warmed up."
Gotoh sighed. "Do you think he's up to it?"
Kanuka shrugged. "If he remembers that this is a softball game." Her good
eye narrowed, directing itself at the Riot Squad's pitcher. "He did that
intentionally."
Gotoh nodded. "It wasn't his idea."
Kanuka nodded, redirecting her gaze at the Riot Squad captain. "I know."
* * * * *
Kanuka, at the direction of the umpire, walked over to first base. Yuhki
walked up to the plate, remembering how he'd nearly been hit himself the
first time up to the plate. He struck out despite the fact that the
pitcher was rattled by his own pitch, too worried to get close enough to
the plate.
Kumagami walked up to the plate, and this time her calm smile was gone.
The ball came in, and with a crack went back out. Unfortunately, it didn't
quite go far enough- it was caught at the fence for another out.
Seiroku was next up. He was calm as he waited for the pitch, and smacked
the ball out of the park for his second home run of the game.
Noa came up next. She was starting to get mad- after all, this had all
started because she had wanted to have some fun playing catch with Asuma.
Then everyone else had to butt in- which wasn't so bad, as long as it had
been a friendly game. But then, her dinner out with Asuma had been
interrupted by this stupid challenge that the Riot Squad had issued- they'd
been forced to practice instead of going out. THEN this stupid pitcher,
who was winding up to throw his next pitch, had hit a friend of hers... She
was more than just mad, she was FURIOUS.
*crack* Asuma gaped as the ball went flying out of the park. "Eep," he
said, noting Noa's expression as she rounded the bases. This was more than
just a game for her- this was getting personal. "Good shot," he said as
she walked by.
"Asuma," she said sternly as she walked by. "Remember not to strike out...
or I'll be really mad at you."
'Oh, yeah... she's pissed,' he thought as he stepped up to the plate. He'd
never been good at sports- he figured he could do pretty well at shortstop,
considering how often he and Noa had played catch while off duty over at
SV2 Headquarters, but hitting was another matter. He slumped back, waited
for the pitch, closed his eyes, and swung as hard as he could.
His ball went soaring as well, ending up with another home run. As Asuma
rounded the bases, he could tell that the pitcher still hadn't quite
recovered from hitting Kanuka- something which the Riot Squad captain saw
as well after the back-to-back-to-back home runs, as he called time out to
change pitchers.
Noa, however, didn't care why the pitch went so far- she was just glad that
Asuma had listened to him about not striking out. When he got into the
dugout, she grabbed him and gave him a kiss, not thinking about the danger
of discovery.
Once they realized what they were doing, however, they quickly broke apart
and glanced around. Asuma noticed that only Gotoh could have seen them,
and he wasn't looking at them. Of course, the captain might have just been
pretending to have not seen anything, but Asuma couldn't be certain.
Asuma coughed, and whispered into Noa's ear, "If we win, I'll make sure we
can eat our dinner privately."
Noa just beamed at him, saying nothing. They were now leading seven to
nothing- even IF Kanuka was out, their lead was large enough that they
could just coast through the rest of the game.
* * * * *
The new pitcher for the riot squad proved to be coolly efficient, striking
Ueki Mashimo and Shinshi out without any difficulties and bringing the Riot
Squad up to the plate. As Ohta approached the mound, Asuma pulled him
aside.
"Remember, Ohta," Asuma noted, "This is SOFTBALL, not baseball. Throw
underhand, not overhand."
Ohta didn't say anything- he just nodded. After the three hour practice
Shinshi put him through, he didn't want to risk throwing overhand. At
least, he would at first. Use that overhand fastball for a surprise move-
that was the key.
Ohta threw a pitch and, for the first time, a member of the riot squad made
contact with the ball, sneaking between first and second base and into the
outfield, where Yuhki Watanabe picked it up and cut the runner off before
he could advance the hit past a single.
When Ohta got the ball back, he grimaced. That pitch didn't work as he had
hoped. Gritting his teeth, he looked at the signal from Shinshi and
nodded. Once again, he threw an underhand pitch... and once again, with a
crack of the bat the riot squad players were running.
The ball bounced in the direction of Asuma, who dove and grabbed it before
it could get past him. "Noa!" he cried, tossing it straight to her from
his back.
Noa, in perfect co-ordination, caught his toss, tagged the bag with her
foot, and fired the ball over to Takeo at first.
In the dugout, one of the riot squad players whistled. "Nice double play,"
he said. "Those three work well together."
The riot squad captain nodded. "Next time someone's running into second
base, take that girl down."
The others looked at him in surprise. "What?"
"You heard me- take her out. Slide into base with your cleats- spike her.
If you can't do that, run into her and knock her down. Get rid of her- if
you remove the linchpin of that group, the others will be will be
weakened."
"Captain, that's-" one of the officers started.
"Are you considering disobeying my orders? If so, do you realize I could
charge you with insubordination?" Silence answered him. "We are NOT
going to lose this game to these incompetent fools, no matter what we have
to do."
The man at the bat (who had not heard the orders given by his captain) ALSO
made contact with the ball, sending it flying into the outfield, between
Ueki Mashimo and Yamane Seiroku. Both players sped towards the projectile,
neither looking out for the other. In the middle of the field, they
collided into each other and tumbled to the ground. Mashimo, struggling to
disentangle himself, reached out and caught the ball before collapsing back
into a heap.
Seiroku jumped up, a scowl on his face directed at Ueki. The two
outfielders made their way back to the dugout in silence, but when they got
there, neither of them were particularly happy.
As Koichi Miyagi walked up to the plate, Seiroku started blowing some steam
off against Mashimo.
"What do you think you were doing?" he ranted. "Don't you look where
you're going?!"
"Hey, it was my ball!" Mashimo shot back. "You should have been looking
out for ME!"
"I'm the center fielder! It's ALWAYS my ball, unless you call it!"
"It was in right field! It's not your ball if it's in right field!"
"It was NOT in right field!" Seiroku screamed. "Are you BLIND?"
By this point, everyone in the dugout was staring at the bickering pair, so
no-one noticed when Koichi struck out and Ohta went from the on-deck circle
to the plate. Koichi approached at this point, smiling as usual, and
looked around. "Hey, gang, what's up?" he asked.
"Just shut up!" Ueki shouted, throwing a wild punch in the direction of
Seiroku. The fist made impact against Seiroku's battered nose, splattering
it across his face.
Ueki paused, staring at Seiroku's ruined face, then at his bloody hand,
then back at Seiroku's face, and gaped.
"I. Can't. Believe. That. You. Broke. My. Nose. AGAIN!" Seiroku
growled. "That's it! This time, I'm not going to just let you get away
with this without answer!" Charging in, Seiroku started pounding on
Mashimo, sending punch after punch into the other man. In self defense,
Ueki started returning the attacks blow for blow.
Even Gotoh was a little ruffled by the sudden outburst between the two
officers. "Hey, break it up! That's an order!" he cried.
The fighters didn't listen... until, that is, Hiromi came between them,
picking each of them up by the back of the neck and pulling them apart. As
the two of them were held in mid-air by the gentle giant, Gotoh came over
and inspected the two of them.
"Hmm. Bruises, torn uniforms, looks like at least one dislocated arm,
and... if I'm not mistaken," Gotoh said, poking each of them in the ribs.
Both Seiroku and Ueki shuddered. "Yep- rib injuries as well." He paused,
contemplating what to say. "You do know that there are penalties for
intentionally rendering yourself incapable of working, don't you?"
"I beg your apologies, sir," Seiroku muttered.
"Yeah, same here," Ueki said.
Gotoh shrugged. "I accept, but you aren't going to have as easy a time
apologizing to the people who it will really matter to- your captains. But
in the meantime, you will have to go to get those injuries checked out."
Gotoh turned away to inspect his bench players as Ohta returned after
striking out. Pointing to two people at random, he said, "I don't know
either of you, but you'll probably be best suited to playing in the
outfield." Tazaki Hiroaki and Toru Sasaki, the commander car operators for
Unit 1, both accepted their new roles with a simple nod. "Oh, yeah," Gotoh
said as he turned his attention back to the game. "Hiromi, you can let
them down now."
* * * * *
With Ohta out, Yuhki Watanabe went up to the plate, and he, too, struck
out. The two new players, together with the rest of the team, went out to
the field and prepared to play defense.
Once again, the first pitch towards the riot squad player was hit. It was
popped up into center field, right where Tazaki Hiroaki was standing. He
was so surprised that a ball was coming his way on his first play that he
didn't move to catch the ball, and it fell a couple of feet in front of
him. Quickly gathering his wits, Tazaki grabbed the bouncing ball and
threw it as hard as he could to Noa, who tossed it to Asuma covering her
spot on the second base bag. It didn't matter, though, because the person
who hit the ball didn't even try to move past first.
A scowl grew on Ohta's face, but he was determined not to make any
mistakes. Once more, he threw underhand. Once more, he watched the ball
bounce over his head. Asuma darted back, fielding the ball behind Noa and
tossing it to her. She caught the ball, tagged the bag, turned...
And was plowed over by the runner coming from first. In addition to being
knocked over, she was stepped on by the riot squad player's cleeted shoes,
sending several small spike wounds into her back.
"NOA!" Asuma cried, running over to her and picking her up, cradling her in
his arms. "Noa, are you all right?"
"My back!" she whimpered. "Aagh! It hurts... Asuma, it hurts."
Asuma grimaced. Only now did he notice the cuts in her back, as blood
started dripping over his hands. "Damn," he cursed. Gotoh and the rest of
the team ran up.
"Noa, are you okay?" Gotoh asked. When she didn't answer, he turned to
Asuma. "Is she okay?"
Asuma shook his head. "She's bleeding... Captain, request permission to
take her to be examined."
Gotoh half-smirked and nodded. "Of course, Shinohara. Attend to her well.
I'll just have to find a replacement for you."
Asuma, carrying Noa in a classic damsel-in-distress pose, hurried away as
Gotoh returned to the dugout to find a couple of replacements. "Ishikawa,
Kawai, go on out there."
Natsume Kawai and Joudo Ishikawa nodded. As they trotted out to the field,
Natsume whispered to Joudo, "Um, what am I supposed to do? I've never
played this game before."
"Urk!" Joudo squawked. "Um, okay, first, you need to stand by that bag
over there... when the ball comes you direction, you..."
* * * * *
Joudo finished his crash course in softball as the two of them walked up to
their positions, and the game was underway again. The end results of the
play that injured Noa was an out, but there was still a man on first base
to deal with.
So, in order to get past the inning, the SV2 had to make two more outs...
AND contend with Ohta, who by that point had blown his top.
'All right,' he thought to himself. 'These little "underhand" pitches are
getting me nowhere- I'm going to throw a REAL fastball!'
And so he did. It was perfectly straight, perfectly on target- and
perfectly illegal.
"That's an illegal pitch!" the umpire shouted.
Ohta ran up to him, and would have confronted him directly if Shinshi
hadn't stepped in his way.
"It IS a legal pitch!" Ohta barked. "A fastball's a legal pitch!"
"This is SOFTBALL! A fastball's only legal if you can throw it underhand!"
"What does it matter? We're police officers- we should always be expecting
the unexpected!"
"THIS IS A SOFTBALL GAME! WHETHER YOU'RE A POLICE OFFICER OR NOT DOESN'T
MATTER!" the umpire cried.
"Help," Shinshi, now crushed between the two of them, whimpered painfully.
* * * * *
Ohta managed NOT to be ejected, but in the process the batter was to first
and Shinshi was so battered that he had to be carried off on a stretcher.
Gotoh sent in the biggest target possible- Hiromi. In fact, Hiromi was so
big that the umpire couldn't see around him, so when (the now emotionally
contained- sort of) Ohta tossed in his next pitch a bit outside, the umpire
couldn't exactly tell what to call it.
"Uh... um... strike one?"
The game continued, and Ohta actually managed to strike out the batter.
When the next one came up, however, a crack of the bat cleared the bases
with a home run. The final batter of the inning popped out to Koichi
Miyagi, and the SV2 came back up to the plate.
Takeo Kumagami was the first batter, and she had words for the catcher,
opening her mouth for the first time since the game started. "You know, I
wasn't taking this game very seriously," she noted. "Not until you started
intentionally hurting our people. And then, of all things, you hurt Noa in
front of her boyfriend- which really ticks me off, because those two have
something really rare. Something I wish I had. And that shouldn't be
hurt, no matter what. And yet, you did."
She slung her bat over her shoulder. The pitch came in, and Takeo smacked
it out of the park. "I'm going to start trying to win, now," she noted as
she set down the bat before making her way around the bases.
Toru Sasaki, the grizzled old veteran who had taken over one of the
outfield positions when Seiroku and Ueki Mashimo left the game, stood into
the plate next. He smacked the ball off into right field, but was unable
to run fast enough to beat the throw to first base, and was called out.
Following Toru was Noa and Asuma's replacements, Joudo Ishikawa and Natsume
Kawai. Joudo grounded out on his first pitch, and then Natsume came up to
the plate.
"Um... I've never played this game before," she said to the catcher. "What
am I supposed to do?"
The catcher smirked. This was too easy. "Don't worry, sugar," he said
flirtatiously. "This is all you have to do- when you see the ball coming,
close your eyes and swing your bat against the plate."
Natsume frowned. "That doesn't sound like what the others were doing...."
"What, you don't trust me?" the catcher whimpered, trying to get that
puppy-dog look on his face.
"No, I don't mean that!" Natsume assured. "I believe you! Don't be
upset!"
"I won't. Now, are you ready to play?" he said. Natsume nodded, the curls
of her hair bobbing in acknowledgment. 'Like taking candy from a baby,' he
thought as he put on his mask.
The ball came in, Natsume closed her eyes, and *bam*.
"Ow," the catcher said, as he removed the bat from the back of his head.
Natsume looked deeply apologetic. "I'm sorry- I couldn't see with my eyes
closed, and so I missed the plate, and..."
The catcher wasn't in any position to reply.
* * * * *
After the riot squad changed catchers (and Joudo snuck up to give Natsume a
more correct version of how to act when a hitter), the game resumed.
Natsume actually got a bat on the ball- to hit a couple of fouls. Finally,
though, she struck out, and the game went on.
The SV2's luck ran out the next inning. Several balls skipped past Natsume
Kawai or over the reach of Joudo Ishikawa. Several balls hit to the
outfield were fumbled by Tazaki Hiroaki or could not be reached by the
slow-moving Toru Sasaki. Ohta was able to manage one strikeout, and
Kumagami was able to stop a ground ball and run to the bag to get another
out on her own, but six runs scored before the last out could be made- and
that last out a difficult one, as well.
Finally, though, Joudo was able to field a ground ball, and toss it to
first- off balance, but he made it just in time for the out to be called.
"Good play, Joudo!" his teammates called, but their voices were a little
dispirited. They were now losing, eight to nine.
The opposing captain, however, was grimly satisfied. "Okay, men- we're now
in the lead. Make sure we stay that way- I don't care WHAT you have to do,
got it?" His team knew better than to question him, that time.
Tazaki Hiroaki was the first one up. He went down rather quickly, swinging
wildly and popping up a foul ball that the catcher caught. Hiromi was
next, looking a little too large for the bat he was carrying.
The first pitch came in right down the middle, hitting the catcher's mitt
dead on. "Ball one!" The umpire cried.
The pitcher didn't believe it. "Ball? How can you call that a ball- it
was a perfect pitch!"
"It was low- it needs to get at least as high as the hitters knees!"
"Are you kidding? His knees are taller than my catcher!"
"Sorry, but I can't help that- the rules say-"
"Fine!" the pitcher growled. With that, he wound up and threw his next
pitch... which went soaring over the catcher and clonked the umpire,
knocking him over.
"That was intentional!" the umpire growled, standing up with a hand on the
lump that was forming on his head. "You're out of the game!"
The pitcher's eyes widened. "WHAT? You're throwing me out?! For what?"
"For hitting me on the head with a softball- what do you think?"
The pitcher couldn't reply to that.
* * * * *
The new pitcher decided it wasn't worth trying to get Hiromi out after the
debacle with the last pitcher, and so just walked him intentionally.
Koichi Miyagi, who had yet to lose his smile since the game began, came up
next. The new pitcher hadn't yet gotten control of his pitches, however,
and walked him. Then Ohta came to the plate, but he was a bit too
enthusiastic. Believing he had to give the team the lead himself, he swung
for a home run at every pitch, even those that would not have been strikes,
and so was quickly struck out.
Yuhki Watanabe was up next, and for once he actually wasn't nervous.
Swinging heartily, he hit a nice ball into the outfield. He rounded first
and started to second, but couldn't go on because there were people in
front of him. Koichi Miyagi, rounding second, was tripped up by the
shortstop. He stumbled up, and limped back to second Hiromi made it home
for the tying run. Gotoh walked out to first base to talk to Koichi.
"How's your leg?"
"Hurt, sir... I don't think I'll be able to run around the bases."
Gotoh nodded, and singled to the dugout. Yoshi Tobe, the transport driver
for unit three with a pleasant disposition and a scar over his left eye,
ran out and took Koichi's place while Gotoh helped him off the field.
Kumagami came up next. The catcher, remembering her threat from the
previous time she'd come up to bat, intentionally walked her. The next
person due up was Toru Sasaki, the oldest and slowest member of the team.
Gotoh, sighing, grabbed a bat and a helmet. "Sasaki, sit down. I'm going
up to hit, myself."
"Sir?"
Gotoh smirked. "I'm a player-coach this game. We didn't have enough
people on the bench for my comfort, considering he had fifty to choose
from, so I made myself eligible to play. Since I was the only person left
on the bench, I figured I'd go up to bat."
Seated on the bench, the very non-descript Kenji Iguchi wondered why Gotoh
had completely forgotten about him. Then he remembered he wasn't ever
remembered by anyone, including the author of this fanfic when he was
plotting all of this, and decided to remain quiet and sit right where he
was.
Gotoh stood at the bat, slung the bat over his shoulder, crouched down, and
looked into the pitchers eyes. The pitcher glanced in to see the catcher's
sign, and caught the look Gotoh was giving him. He froze, hesitating.
There was a power in those eyes- something he couldn't quite explain. It
was something that caused the hair to stand up on the back of his head, and
made him fear throwing that pitch... he wasn't quite sure what to do.
"Pitch the ball," Gotoh said, calmly and evenly.
The pitcher could hardly refuse a request like that, and reached back to
pitch the ball.
With the bases loaded, two outs, and a tie game, the ball soared in. Gotoh
eyed its trajectory, pulled back with the bat...
And dropped it when his cell phone rang, letting the ball pass by for
strike one.
Turning to the surprised umpire, Gotoh pulled out his cell phone. "Um,
time out- I need to answer this." Flipping open the phone, he said, "Gotoh
here... Ah, Shinobu! Why didn't you come to the game? Oh... ah... uh
huh... well, okay, we'll be there in an hour." Closing his phone, he
sighed. "I'm afraid we'll have to end this little match- duty calls."
The referees and all the players from BOTH sides collapsed, not believing
that the whole game was for nothing. The riot squad's captain, however,
was furious. Charging up to Gotoh, he growled, "So, you forfeit?"
Gotoh shook his head. "Why should I forfeit? This is no different from
what would happen if it had rained. It's beyond the control of either of
us. Furthermore, the score it tied right now, so neither of us would win."
"Then when do you want to schedule a rematch?" the captain growled.
Gotoh's eyes hardened. "I won't."
"What?"
Finally, Gotoh exploded. "You idiot! This was just a stupid game, and yet
you crippled half of a police unit to win it! I'm not going to risk my
people's necks just because you want to prove yourself, damn it! Now,
excuse us, we have a job to do."
The members of the SV2 followed Gotoh out, looking at him with shock at his
furious explosion. The members of the riot squad, on the other hand,
looked at their captain with something very different- contempt.
-------------------------
Next Episode: With the second and third unit largely decimated by the
softball game and Gotoh actually taking the day off for a change, the SV2
is temporarily reorganized back into two units, one under Shinobu and the
other under Gomioka. Shinobu's shift is rather lonely without either Gotoh
or Gomioka around... what does she do when no-one else is there?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
desaix@sysnet.net
Sir Desaix, member # 116 of the Knights of the True Fiancee
anime fanfics available at
http://www.geocities.com/zednik.geo/fanfics.htm