Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Azumanga Daioh: A Heart to Love (A Sakaki Love Story)
Chapter 4: Swinging with Power…. I'm so Sorry
Waiting for their turn to bat, Ashitaka's self-proclaimed best friend, Torigai Kasagawa leaned towards the taller boy a bit and asked, "So what's going on between you and Yukari-sensei?"
The taller boy's right eye began to twitch. Slowly, he turned to stare at the shorter boy with glasses. "What on earth are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb with me. It's plain as day she enjoys giving you special attention," Torigai observed.
"Believe me, nothing would make me happier than being treated like everyone else in her class," Ashitaka retorted.
"Next!" Minamo called out.
The two boys shifted up the line and continued to wait.
"Come on, you mean to tell me you haven't done or said anything to encourage her actions?" the spectacled boy inquired.
"That's exactly what I'm saying." Ashitaka placed his hands on his hips and twisted from side to side, sending a ripple of cracks up his spine.
"Eew, how can you do that? Doesn't that hurt?" Ashitaka's friend asked.
"Actually, it feels good. Helps loosen up the back." The sandy-haired boy smiled.
(000)
"Say, look!" Kagura called out, having rushed to the windows in the home economics class that faced the sports field. "The boys are playing softball and Ashitaka-san is up next!"
All the girls rushed to the windows to watch.
(000)
"Will you give it a rest already, Torigai?" Ashitaka gave his supposed friend an annoyed glare.
"Next!" Minamo called out once again.
"It's just, sure, Yukari-sensei acts kind of weird and… well, even childish at times, but this is my third year in her class and I never recall her acting like this towards any of her other students before," Torigai reasoned.
Ashitaka just stared at the other boy with a look of total disbelief.
"Nitobe, are you waiting for a personal invitation?" Minamo asked impatiently.
"Oh!" The tall, sandy-haired boy jumped with a start. Realizing he was next up, he quickly picked up a bat and walked up to the plate. "Sorry, sensei," he apologized, then readied himself for the pitch, but his mind was elsewhere at that moment.
Damn that Torigai, he sighed. Why does Yukari-sensei have to act like that towards me?
"Strike One!" Minamo called.
"Uh?" Ashitaka looked down to see the back catcher standing up and tossing the ball back to the pitcher. The boy gave Ashitaka an arrogant smirk, then crouched down behind the plate.
What's his problem? Ashitaka pondered for a moment before shaking it off and preparing himself for the next pitch. This time he swung, but was a little late and tipped the ball foul to the right.
"Foul ball, Strike Two!" the gym teacher called out.
The catcher stood up and waited while the ball was being retrieved.
Sensing the boy's eyes upon him, Ashitaka turned to verify his suspicion. Sure enough, the shorter boy was staring at him with the same arrogant smirk as before.
"What?" Ashitaka asked, his patience growing thin with the other boy.
"I told Sanada-san we didn't need a small town hick like you on our baseball team. You can't even get a clean hit on a softball, I doubt you can hit a baseball," the boy challenged.
"Really?" Ashitaka nodded, looking down at his gym shoes and using the end of the bat to knock the sand from the bottoms of them. "What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"
"It's Akagi, Akagi Yukigawa," the catcher replied. "Why do you ask?"
The ball was back in the pitcher's hands and he readied himself to hurl another rocket past his opponent.
Ignoring Akagi's inquiry, the tall boy dug his shoes in and readied himself for the pitch.
With a lightening fast wind up, the pitcher whipped the ball towards his catcher.
Stepping into the pitch, Ashitaka brought his bat around with godlike speed in a smooth, powerful swing. The echo of the ball hitting the aluminum bat was so loud that the students playing softball in the field closest to the school building stopped to look.
The ball took off like a missile, sailing high into the air as it flew over centerfield. Everyone on the fields turned and watched the ball rocket overhead, past them all.
Ashitaka tossed his bat aside, turned to the catcher, and said, "That was for all the small town hicks everywhere, Akagi-san." Rounding first on his way to second, he thought, Man, I really got all of it. It's going further than I thought it would.
(000)
"Ohhh!" The girls from senior homeroom class three sighed in unison.
"He didn't even swing," Kagura observed sadly.
"What's happening? I can't see!" Chiyo cried out. "Can someone please tell me what's happening?"
"Here you go, Chiyo-chan." Osaka placed a stool in front of the cabinets that lined the wall under the windows.
"Thank you, Osaka-san." Chiyo smiled.
"You're welcome, Chiyo-chan." The dark-haired girl grinned.
"He hit it!" Yomi yelled.
"Yeah, but it's going foul," observed Tomo.
"Come on, Ashitaka-kun, you can do it." Chiyo and Kagura gave each other an inquisitive stare.
"I wonder what he and the catcher are talking about?" Yomi thought out loud.
"Maybe the catcher's offering Ashitaka-san some advice," Osaka suggested.
"Mmm, maybe…" Yomi replied.
"Or maybe he's mocking Ashitaka-san for his two strikes. Maybe he's daring Ashitaka-san to try and hit the next pitch. Maybe he's threatening to hurt Ashitaka-san if he hits the ball foul again. Maybe he wants to kill Ashitaka-san whether or not he hits the ball foul!" an excitable Osaka blurted out, her eyes opened wide in horror, her breathing labored. The girls just stared at her in disbelief.
"What the heck are you talking about?" Kagura asked.
Ignoring her classmate's inquiry, Osaka's normal happy disposition returned as she observed, "Oh, here comes the third throw."
All eyes instantly shifted from Osaka back to the field just in time to see the new transfer student swing.
"Woah!" Kagura yelled. "What a shot! He nailed that thing!"
"WOAH!" The rest of the class marveled in unison.
"Have you ever seen a ball hit so far?" Yomi wondered aloud.
Kagura shook her head, "No, never. It's … It's …" Her eyes went wide. "It's heading right for us!"
Screams echoed in the class as everyone ran from the windows. Everyone except Chiyo-chan, who stood paralyzed on top of the stool Osaka had given her.
She saw the ball heading directly towards her, but was powerless to move. Her throat strained in a silent scream that filled only her mind. Her eyes were transfixed upon the approaching white sphere as it made its decent directly towards her. I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die!
(000)
Ashitaka let out a sad sigh as he swept up the broken glass that covered the floor.
"When you're done with the floor you can help me put up the plywood," the school custodian said as he finished removing the rest of the glass shards from the window frame.
"Yes, sir." The boy nodded then returned to cleaning the floor. As the bristles of the broom ran over a few spots on the floor, the spots smeared. Crouching down, Ashitaka ran his fingers over the smear and looked at them. Blood.
(000)
Kagura sat next to Yomi on the bed in the hospital room, holding a can of juice while the sandy-haired girl drank it from a straw. With a soft slurp telling Kagura that Yomi was finished, she pulled the can away and tossed it in the nearby garbage can.
"Feeling any better, Yomi-chan?" A teary eyed Tomo asked, clasping her friend's glasses up against her chest.
"Mmm, a little bit." The injured girl reached up and touched the side of her bandaged head. "Ouch!" She winced. "Not that much better, I guess."
"You're lucky," Kagura said as she stood up.
"Lucky? How do you figure that?" Tomo asked with a hint of anger in her voice.
"Kagura-chan is right," Sakaki replied. "If Yomi-chan had been hit directly with the ball rather then after it ricocheted twice, she could have been killed instead of just knocked unconscious."
"Oh, Yomi-chan." Tomo's lips quivered as her eyes watered up again.
"Don't worry, Tomo. I'm fine, really." Yomi smiled weakly, still a bit groggy from the experience.
"Okay, girls," the nurse said politely. "Time to let your friend get some rest."
"Yes, thank you, ma'am." Sakaki bowed low, then, turning to the girl in the bed, she added, "I hope you're feeling much better tomorrow, Yomi-chan."
The sandy-haired girl nodded slowly, still offering her weak grin.
"Later, Yomi-chan," Kagura added, then she bowed to the nurse as well and followed Sakaki out into the hallway.
"I'll come by tomorrow, Yomi-chan?" Tomo give her best friend a thumbs up and tried forcing a big toothy grin, but as tears pooled up over her lower eyelids she turned and rushed out the door so her friend wouldn't see her cry.
The nurse smiled. "You have some wonderful friends."
Yomi looked up at the older woman, "Yeah, I guess I do."
"Okay now, let's lie back and get some rest, shall we?" The nurse grabbed the controller for the bed and reclined it all the way back to the sleeping position.
"Mmm, okay." Slowly, Yomi's eyes closed, not realizing how very tired she was. "Will I have to stay here past tomorrow?"
"That's up to the doctor, dear, but I'm sure if you get plenty of rest and do as the doctor says you'll be able to go home very soon." The nurse smiled.
"Okay, thank you," Yomi said sleepily, then swiftly drifted off to Neverland.
(000)
As the three girls came to the fifth floor lobby, their two friends got up from the sofa.
"So how is Yomi-chan doing?" Chiyo asked, having jumped up from her seat first.
"She seems to be doing much better," Kagura answered. "She asked about you guys." The short-haired girl grinned.
"Really?" A sad expression played across Chiyo's face. "I wanted to go in and see her, I really did. But after seeing her in the nurse's office before the ambulance arrived, I felt so ill I thought for sure I was going to faint. I didn't want to do that in front of Yomi-chan."
"Funny, I felt like I was going to throw up," Osaka replied, having come up behind Chiyo.
Sakaki and Kagura took a step back from the soft spoken girl, just to be safe.
"Well, it was a good thing neither of you came in the room then. Yomi-chan looks like she's at death's door, all swollen, her eyes all red and puffy. And she kept blacking out right in the middle of the conversation," Tomo said in all seriousness.
"Really?" Chiyo's voice quivered as tears welled up in her eyes.
"No, Chiyo-chan. Tomo's lying. Yomi-chan looks just fine, she's doing good. In fact, I'm willing to bet they'll let her go home tomorrow," Kagura assured her.
"Is that right, Sakaki-san? Does Yomi-chan really look much better?" Chiyo asked the girl she most respected for confirmation.
"Hmm." Sakaki nodded. Looking about, she asked. "Where is Yomi-chan's family?"
"Oh, they had to go home to put her little brother to bed, but her mom said she was going to come back and spend to night. The doctor already approved it," Chiyo explained.
"Oh, well, we probably should head home, don't you think?" Kagura looked to the other girls for confirmation. Each nodded in agreement and they headed for the elevator. As they waited for it to arrive the swimmer added, "You know it really is terrible what happened to Yomi-chan and all, but you've got to admit that was one amazing hit Ashitaka made."
They all nodded. The ding of the elevator drew their attention, and as they filed in, Chiyo said with a sense of hostility, "Yeah, but I can't believe Ashitaka-kun didn't even bother to check up on Yomi-chan. I thought he was more sensitive than that."
"Well, he might be cute and all, but in the end he is still just a boy," Tomo replied, to which everyone else nodded. Everyone except Sakaki, who was looking out the elevator doors as they drew to a close. Just before they shut, the elevator across the hall opened and the boy in question stepped out, a large bouquet of daisies in his hands and a sorrowful expression on his face.
(000)
Slowly, the young man pushed open the door to Yomi's hospital room. Peering in, he saw the injured girl fast asleep. As he stepped into the room, he looked for a good place to put the flowers, finally settling on the windowsill. Since he had promised the nurse on duty not to disturb the resting girl, Ashitaka considered turning and walking out so as not to wake her, but he thought better of it and sat down carefully next to her on the bed.
Staring down at the sleeping girl, a faint smile crossed his face. "You're so very pretty, Yomi-chan, especially without your glasses on," he whispered. "You look almost angelic." His smile grew a bit until Yomi turned her head and flinched in pain. Ashitaka's smile vanished as his attention shifted from the girl's tranquil face to the bandage on her head.
Lowering his head, the boy squeezed his eyes shut and struggled to hold back the tears. "Why? Why do I always hurt the people around me?" he softly murmured. "First my sister, then my parents…" He opened his eyes and looked up at Yomi's tranquil expression. "And now my classmates." Ashitaka took Yomi's hand into his and whispered, "I'm sorry, Yomi-chan. I'm so very sorry for hurting you." Tears began to roll down his cheeks. "If I wasn't such a showoff, if I had just let the pitcher strike me out, none of this would have happened. It's always the same. It's always about me. I always make it about me… I'm such a selfish bastard."
With his tears falling freely, Ashitaka failed to notice the young teen stir and her eyes flutter open.
"Ashitaka-kun? Is that you?" Yomi whispered softly.
The boy looked up abruptly and quickly wiped roughly at his eyes. "Yomi-chan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."
"It's okay, Ashitaka-kun. After the tests the doctors said there wasn't any danger if I fell asleep, but I guess maybe I've watched too many movies. I feel like if I go to sleep now, I might not wake back up." The injured girl giggled.
Unfortunately, Yomi's little joke had the opposite affect on the boy, and he slumped over and began to weep. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…," he whispered over and over.
Yomi gasped in shock over the boy's unexpected reaction. Ashitaka-kun. She sat up and wrapped her arms around him. "It's okay, Ashitaka-kun. I'm okay, really." She leaned over and rested her cheek upon the boy's back, the whole time whispering, "It's okay, Ashitaka-kun. Everything's fine now."
(000)
As the girls left the hospital Sakaki excused herself from the rest, saying she needed to get something from the store across the street. The girls looked at her with a hint of suspicion, seeing that the store was a men's clothing store, but they offered no protest and went on their way to the train station.
Standing in front of a rack of ties near the window display, Sakaki watched the hospital entrance, patiently waiting for the person she felt she needed to talk to. Father always says never let the sun set on your anger, work things out before you lay your head down for the night. I have to talk to Ashitaka-san and let him know I'm sorry for the things I said this morning. It's the right thing to do, she told herself while she idly ran her fingers through the ties.
"May I help you find something, Miss?" the salesman asked.
"Oh." Sakaki looked up with surprise to the shorter man, then down at what her fingers were fumbling through. "Hmm…"
"Yes?" He smiled. "Looking for something for your father… or perhaps your boyfriend?"
Sakaki gasped, turning beet red with embarrassment.
(000)
After almost 45 minutes of waiting, the tall girl spotted the boy she was waiting for exiting the hospital. Quickly walking out of the store, she made her way across the street and caught up with him in no time.
"Hmm, Ashitaka-san," Sakaki said just above a whisper. After receiving no response from the boy who was just a half a step ahead of her, she repeated herself a little more loudly.
Ashitaka stopped and turned. "Sakaki-ch… Sakaki-san?"
Sakaki felt her heart sink a bit when the boy stopped himself from calling her 'chan'.
"What a surprise to see you here." Looking back at the hospital building, he asked, "Were you visiting Yomi-chan?"
"Hmm, yes, me… along with the other girls, we stopped by earlier," she told him.
"Oh." He looked around. "Where are they?"
"Who?" Sakaki's eyes went a little wide.
"The others," Ashitaka replied with a smile.
"Oh, they left almost an hour ago," she answered.
"But you stayed?" A look of confusion crossed the boy's face.
"Hmm… well." Sakaki blushed and turned away. "You see, I wanted to talk to you."
"You knew I was at the hospital?" The boy struggled to understand the circumstances of their meeting.
"Well, yes. I saw you getting off the elevator. See, we were on the elevator across the hall. We were just leaving," she explained.
"And you waited almost an hour to talk to me?" The boy shuffled his feet nervously. "Now you have me worried."
"Oh?" A surprised expression crossed the girl's face.
"What could be so important that you couldn't wait till tomorrow at school?" he asked.
"Well..." Unconsciously, she clutched the gift box close to her chest. "I wanted to tell you… I wanted to tell you… I'm sorry." She pushed the box in his direction.
Startled, the boy didn't know what to do. Finally, he asked, "Sorry for what?"
Gradually, Sakaki lowered her hands, still clutching the box, and answered, "For my rudeness this morning. I should never have spoken so harshly to you."
Ashitaka smiled. "It's okay, I deserved it. I was being presumptuous. I'm sorry."
Sakaki shook her head. "No, you didn't deserve such harsh words. I was wrong and I'm sorry." Sakaki bowed low. "Please forgive me, Ashitaka-san."
"Huh…" The boy stared with wonder at the girl. "Very well, I accept your apology… under one condition."
Straightening up, she asked, "Condition?"
"Please, allow me to still call you Sakaki-chan." The boy bowed.
"Aaah." The startled girl hesitated, but offered a faint smile. "Alright, if you really want to."
"Thank you, Sakaki-chan." The tall boy smiled.
"Oh, here." Returning his smile, Sakaki extended the box to him again.
Taking the narrow, rectangular box this time, he replied, "Thank you, but what is it?"
"It's just my way of saying sorry." Sakaki blushed slightly.
"Oh, okay. Well, may I open it?" Ashitaka asked, still staring at the box.
"Please do," Sakaki answered. "I hope you like it."
Removing the ribbon that held the box closed, the fair-haired boy opened the gift. "It's a tie." He stared at it for several long seconds.
"If you don't like it, I can exchange it for something else," she said with concern in her voice.
"No, no, I love it. Really, I do. It's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you very much," he replied almost instantly. "I just…"
"Just what?" Sakaki tilted her head.
"I just feel so undeserving of this," Ashitaka replied. "The least you can do is let me buy you…" He looked at his watch. "Dinner." He then pointed at a small noodle shop across the way.
Smiling faintly, Sakaki replied, "I'd like that."
"Great," Ashitaka said softly, and to the girl's surprise, he took her hand and led the way to the noodle shop.
( To Be Continued)
AN: Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things are going to start getting a bit sticky between Ashitaka, Sakaki, and Yomi. How will they handle it? Will Sakaki and Yomi's friendship survive? And what happened to Ashitaka's family that drove him to tears? Sorry, but you have to wait for the following chapters to find out the answers to these and other questions.
With Acen'05 coming up soon, I'll try to get a couple more chapters written before hand, but since I'll be hosting 2 fan panels: Escaflowne and Outlaw Star, I don't really know how much time I'll have to write. But I'll do my best.
Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing my story. I really appreciate you taking the time to do so. I'd also like to offer a special thank you to my beta-reader, Janice. You're the best, Janice. Thanks for everything.
A. Amishi