Chapter 21: Onigashima Akako, Yadano Makeru
Onigashima had became familiar with this batting cage. The neverending whirrs of the baseball machines, the satisfying 'pakk' of bats hitting balls, the dusty air from shoes scraping against the red clay, the intense stare from the space to her left…
No, wait, not that last one. Onigashima looked to the space next to her. "Yadano! Good afternoon. You're doing well?"
Her old classmate from 1-1 just stared at her, biting her thumb. Onigashima saw that there were so many balls on the ground around her. "Do you want me to teach you how to hit it?"
"I can do it," Yadano said. "Just not as often. Because my machine's broken."
Onigashima laughed. She used to blame the machines too. "Don't get angry, Yadano. Batting cage is for getting rid of your rage." Onigashima prepared for another ball and as started to swing it, Yadano screamed, causing her to miss it.
Onigashima stabbed the net between her and Yadano with her bat. "Oy. You bastard. What are you doing?" Yadano backed away.
"If you're so good at batting, try my machine," Yadano said.
"Sure thing," Onigashima said. She moved to Yadano's spot and faced the machine. There was the familiar whirr, the familiar swish of a ball moving through the air. She hit it, but at such an angle that the ball landed on the ground just in front of her. Didn't even go past the net on her side. "Ohh," Onigashima said, her demonic aura of fury started appearing around her. "You're right, Yadano...this is interesting."
Onigashima tried again. The ball went up, then down, then up and down again, moving in a harsh zigzagging pattern as it went from the mouth of the machine to the wall behind Onigashima. She threw her bat to the ground. "What was that!?" She looked at Yadano, who was also angry.
"The machine never threw that...I lost again," Yadano said.
Onigashima tried again. Both of her demon horns fully standing, Onigashima could see exactly the zigzagging pattern. Calculating the distance and how fast the ball moved up and down, she predicted the ball would descend as it entered her strike zone. Swinging her bat upwards, it struck the ball! However, the ball flew upwards and landed in front of her, just at the end of the red clay.
"You bastard!" Onigashima threw the bat at the machine, but the machine shot a ball at the exact correct time to deflect the bat. It began whirring, but Onigashima heard laughter.
Yadano handed Onigashima another bat. Her Demon Meter had reached 100, her demonic aura burning bright and furious. The bat she wielded turned black.
Onigashima stood at the batting box. To her surprise, the machine threw a straight. In fact, it was such a normal straight even Tadano could hit a home run. Putting all her force behind the swing, Onigashima's bat swung futilely on the air, missing the ball completely.
Her eyes widened. The ball stopped in mid-air. It stopped above the line demarcating the red clay and the green grass, as if the whole world was paused. A few seconds passed before the ball moved again in that straight line, hitting the board behind Onigashima.
Onigashima tried again. The machine threw the same boring straight and at the exact same place it stopped mid-air. Onigashima waited until it moved. Unfortunately she swung too late. The ball flew to the net on her right, bouncing to the left net and then landing in front of her batting box.
Onigashima broke her Demon Meter. She never felt this angry. "You're going down next time," she said, pointing her bat at the machine. "I know now how long the ball stopped mid-air."
The machine shot another ball. There was a new pattern. The ball moved to the her left, then sharply, as if bouncing from a well-placed board, to her right, before sharply turning to the left again. It repeated, creating a steadily widening zigzag pattern. However, compared to the first zigzag, this was far harder. The first pattern was restricted by the height of the cage; the second was restricted by the width. Onigashima could see the ball moving left and right past her field of vision.
As the ball moved to the far left and the far right, it took far longer to reach Onigashima's box. The wait was painful. The constant swish as the ball changed direction felt terrifying. It felt hopeless. How can she hit what she couldn't see?
The ball appeared in her net from the right. Onigashima was too late to react, and by the time she lifted her bat, the ball already went past her.
Pakk.
The ball went past her, past the red clay, and straight into the bullseye target on the far net. Onigashima turned around. Yadano was the one who hit the ball.
"That's against the rules," Onigashima said.
"This isn't a baseball game. This is a batting cage," Yadano said. "And this is a victory in my book."
Onigashima laughed. "Alright then, Yadano. Let's destroy that bastard."
[break]
"They ended up destroying the machine," Komi said.
"Did they find out what went wrong with it?"
"Yeah, the owner said it was hacked and thanked both of them for their work."
"I'm surprised Yadano would cooperate," Tadano said. "I've always seen her as a very competitive type."
"So do I," Komi said. "But I guess everyone has another side to them."
"Speaking of another side, have I told you about Urana and Maeda?"
Author's note: All the special ball movements were taken from a manga series titled "Dorabase".