Chapter Twenty: Stolen Thunder
Koshien is a high school baseball tournament. It's huge all over Japan, kind of like the World Series but with high schoolers. Also, baseball games at this level are 7 innings, not 9, so I'm going to assume softball games are the same.
Softball games were usually not very well-attended, as most people chose to pay attention to baseball games because their players had a possibility of growing up and going to Koshien or possibly the major leagues. However, now that Sayaka was on the team, everyone she knew was making a positive effort to attend softball games, such as the opener, which Sayaka considered an important milestone.
Sayaka sat in the bullpen, chewing gum and looking out at the stands. It took her a moment to see, but she scanned the thin crowd carefully and saw the smiling faces of Sakura, Suzumi, Natsumi, Aiko, Usagi, Minako, Makoto, Toshiya, Michiru, and even the Hino twins, still clad in their T.A. uniforms. They were all sitting together, some eating the snacks that were being sold at the concession stand and some just chatting with one another.
They're all here to watch me, Sayaka remarked to herself. So I need to do my best! The game started and Eri ran out onto the field to take her place at the mound, which still infuriated Sayaka as she sat in the bullpen with all the other girls who weren't starters on the roster.
By the time Eri came back to the bullpen at the top of the fourth inning, the other team—Shiba Kouen Junior High—was winning 4-1. Some of the people in the stands were already starting to speculate about who would win and lose this particular game, most people calling for Shiba Kouen to win simply because they were already on top. Sayaka, though, had a different idea. She noticed flaws in Eri's pitching style that she was going to improve on as she put on the glove and ran out onto the field, causing her friends and family to erupt in cheers and Eri to sulk in the bullpen.
Sayaka threw beautifully during her innings, fourth through seventh. The Shiba Kouen players were unable to tell where the pitches were going to go most of the time and were therefore unable to hit them correctly. Juuban won by a score of 6-4. Afterwards, the members of each team told one another "good game" and dispersed, searching for their parents or their rides home. Sayaka was walking off towards the rest of her group when she felt a firm hand on her shoulder and whirled around to see Eri glaring at her.
"You stole my thunder!" Eri barked.
"There was no thunder to steal," Sayaka replied. "Eri, your pitches were so misguided today. If you want to even try to compete with me, you need to try a lot harder than that."
"Okay, maybe I will!" Eri declared.
"Maybe you will," Sayaka echoed, glancing down at her shoulder. "Please remove your hand from my shoulder." Eri did so hurriedly. "Thank you." Sayaka turned around again, so Eri was staring at the back of her uniform, where SAKAMOTO 7 was written in huge white letters. With a burst of energy, Sayaka ran off and found her group.
"Sayarin!" Sakura cried out, waving her arms. "Sayarin, you were great!"
"You really turned the game around," Natsumi added helpfully.
"It's sad to see my alma mater lose, but the better women won," Minako said with a shrug.
That stupid Sayaka, Eri thought as she walked along the field, kicking dirt up with her feet. But I shouldn't worry. I know I'll get the upper hand. I already gave her the Mark when she took the mitt from me before the fourth inning. As Eri walked along, a smile broke onto her face before turning into full-on laughter that made some of the people in the stands give her funny looks.
As a celebration, Sayaka's entire group went into an ice cream shop near the school and had ice cream. Sakura was poking at strawberry gelato, Suzumi was dipping into some old-school chocolate, Reiko and Keiko were sharing a banana split, Natsumi was working her way through a huge sundae, Aiko nibbled daintily at vanilla, and Sayaka had vanilla drenched with hot fudge sauce. The adults all shared a large variety plate and talked about their days at school.
While Sayaka chewed on a bit of hot fudge, though, she noticed a bit of a stinging sensation in her left hand. She glanced at her palm, but saw nothing different, and thought that, perhaps, one of the balls she caught during the game were so forceful that it just made her hand hurt a little. Shrugging the slight pain off, she went back to nibbling at her ice cream.
The next day at softball practice, Sayaka was throwing too well for Eri's tastes. So, Eri squinted and concentrated deeply on making Sayaka's throws errant and off-center. Sayaka reacted to this with natural shock, wondering what was making her so terribly 'off' and getting embarrassed as the coach started critiquing her rather harshly. She happened to glance into the dugout and saw Eri giggling at her misfortune.
"Come on, Sakamoto, are you being possessed or something?" the coach shouted when Sayaka threw her mitt down in protest and stomped off the field, saying something about going to the bathroom but grabbing her bag from the dugout while she left. Instead of going to the bathroom, she left the school. After a quick stopover at The Sweet Bean for a sweet treat to drown her emotions in, she decided to go to Aiko's house. Aiko was good at listening to people's problems and suggesting solutions, though sometimes they were unorthodox.
"Hi, Haruka-san," Sayaka said glumly when Haruka answered the door at the Kaiou-Tenou condo.
"Oh, Sayaka, what's wrong? You look sad," Haruka remarked. "Please, come in." She stepped aside to allow Sayaka entry. "You were just on the top of the world last night. It seemed like nothing could bring you down." Sayaka heard, from behind a closed door, Michiru practicing a complicated violin piece. When Haruka noticed Sayaka hearing this, she smiled. "Aiko!" Haruka shouted. "Sayaka's here!"
"Ah, hold on!" Aiko shouted back from her room, followed by a rumble as she ran out of her room and into the living room. "Hey, Sayarin. You look pretty down in the dumps. What's up?"
"I was really off today," Sayaka explained, hanging her head. "I don't know what's happened to me! It was like a day and night thing." She sighed loudly. "That Eri girl was laughing at me."
"Who's Eri?" Aiko asked.
"Oh, right, you're in 3-C, not 3-B. Eri is this new girl from Osaka. Her family name is Nakajima. She was the starting pitcher last night," Sayaka explained.
"She was terrible!" Aiko exclaimed. "You were a great chunk of the reason Juuban won!"
"Really, Sayaka, she was terrible," Haruka added.
"Do you think so?" Sayaka asked, her eyes brightening slightly.
"Definitely," Aiko replied, nodding. "But if she gets in your way again, do you want me to take care of her?"
"Aiko," Haruka said sternly. "You can't solve every problem by 'taking care' of people."
"Aw, come on, Haruka, not even just a little roughing up?" Aiko bargained.
"What a moral standard," Haruka muttered, holding her head.
"Okay, I won't rough her up." Aiko glanced at Sayaka as if to say 'The deal's not off just yet'. "But Sayaka, if she starts talking trash to you, try just ignoring her. If you can come up with a really good reply, say it!" She gave a victory sign right as a surge of pain made Sayaka's left palm throb.
"Ow!" Sayaka barked.
"Sayaka!" Aiko and Haruka shouted.
"Are you okay?" Aiko asked.
"Ah, my palm just hurts," Sayaka explained, smiling wearily.
"Oh, maybe I can help with that," Aiko offered, taking her stick out from within her skirt pockets. "Triton Satellite Power, Make Up!" Once she was transformed, she concentrated deeply, clapped her hands together, and watched them start to glow. "Hold out your hand." Sayaka held out her left hand and Aiko hovered her glowing hands over it for a few seconds.
"Is it feeling any better?" Haruka asked. Sayaka waited for a moment to see if any pain would come back before answering.
"Yeah, it is," Sayaka replied with a smile. "Thanks, Aiko! I didn't know you could heal, too."
"Me neither! I just can," Aiko replied, touching her button and de-transforming.
"Thanks for hearing me rant," Sayaka said graciously.
"It's no problem. I always will, you know," Aiko promised. "Until we're old and wrinkly grandmas yelling at kids to get off our lawns."