Man it has been a long time.
Sorry bout that. I don't know what else to say. Stupid stuff happens yeah?
This is awkward…
This took a little longer to come up with. I'm trying to keep things light. Although I think I could try writing some more angsty stuff. This chapter focuses more on Hisako, one of my favorite AB characters, but one of the more neglected ones. It doesn't particularly have a point, or a plot, I just wanted to clean up my writing after so long. Hope you like it. It's set pretty randomly, not in any particular episode. Just really between episodes, the random things they do.
Sorry if it sucks. I hope it doesn't. Although my grammar does haha. Whee!
Hisako had always been a strange girl. She'd been told that plenty of times. It didn't really bother her so much, whenever she was told this she would just grin and wink, with a thumbs up. Nothing big really.
In reality, she was actually pretty normal by most standards if you were fortunate enough to see her normal side. She was just a little scary, is all.
Her life wasn't all that great though. That's how she ended up in the Afterlife. But it was a gift for her in the end. She met her best friend, she started a more or less successful band, made tons of friends (despite her scary personality) and she was actually able to enjoy life for the first time since her childhood.
Right now, Hisako was happy. The said girl looked out to the distance from her secluded spot on the rooftop. She sighed happily, reminiscing her childhood. She thought of old friends, and family. Good times and bad. Because for her, she really only had one big regret. Big enough to make her regret her life. Because her life had been good for her, up until her second year of high school. When she got into that band.
She was always cheerful, and fierce. She had tons of friends in school, always, whether it be boys or girls. Everyone admired her because she was apparently really cool.
Which she was.
She could play guitar like a goddess, and she was smart too, maintaining good grades throughout elementary and middle school. Her witty sarcastic remarks won over many. She was constantly pursued by suitors throughout middle school and what little high school she lived through, although she turned down each and every one of them. She was an amazing athlete, better than EVERYONE at EVERY sport. For that, she won various trophies and rewards, and the respect of the boys as she proved time and time again she could kick their butts. She was also strong, thanks to her brother, both physically and mentally. Anyone who bullied her or her friends got a pretty severe… lesson taught to them, and that would end that.
She remembered that one time, she was playing baseball with a bunch of her friends that happened to be boys in her first year of middle school. They were all laughing and playing merrily, until this former gangster who had just transferred in came up to them.
Truth be told, everyone was scared of him. Even Hisako now, looking back on it, agreed that he was rather frightening. But of course, she would NEVER say that out loud. And he knew that he was frightening, so he more or less abused that and started bullying others, pushing people around.
The boy had moved away from his gang in the city into their small town in the more rural area. He had seen her playing baseball, and he thought that to be funny. So he had apparently decided to walk on over and make fun of her and her friends for it, letting a girl play ball with them.
Hisako's friend, Suuichi was first to notice him come over. "Hey, guys, Kairo's coming!" he whispered frantically to all of them. But too late, Kairo had already made his way over to the field. He shoved Suuichi aside and headed straight for Hisako.
She was at bat when he was going over to her. She only noticed him because the pitcher, her other friend Tomoya, had not pitched the ball but was instead looking at her with big frightened eyes. Then she noticed the large lug coming over to her, with an evil glare in his eyes. She narrowed her own silver/grey eyes and lowered the bat.
"What?" she asked Kairo coldly, as he stopped in front of her with his arms crossed. He was a lot bigger than her, and taller.
"You playing ball?" he asked mockingly, grinning snidely at her.
"What about it?" she asked, leaning on the bat with her signature cocky grin. Apparently her friends thought that was a bad move, because they all got behind Kairo and frantically signaled her to stop. She had merely rolled her eyes. "Tch. What cowards they are." She thought.
"What kind of girl plays ball? I bet you play like crap. Or are you too ugly to be hanging out with the girls?" he sneered at her.
Hisako raised her eyebrows and smirked. "What a loser." She thought to herself, then turned back to her annoyance.
"I'm ugly? Have you looked in the mirror lately Kairo? Oh wait. You haven't. Because every single mirror within ten feet of you shattered to pieces before you could even get near them." She smirked at him, flashing him a cocky grin. He flushed red. "Apparently gangsters are easily provoked." The middle school Hisako thought.
"What was that? You wanna fight?" he asked/yelled. Hisako yawned and looked at her nails, unimpressed. Her brother had taught her through a lot worse. "Not really." She replied lazily, looking him right in the eye.
By this time, quite a crowd had gathered to see this spectacle. Apparently they were pretty loud. Most of the crowd was made of kids from Hisako's school, she noted, and she even saw some uniforms from other neighboring schools.
She grinned. Performing was one of her best talents. She turned back to Kairo. "And plus, you totally look like a poser." She said to him.
"I bet you couldn't even beat up watermelon with a pipe, much less another human being." She heard the crowd whisper among themselves, and she smirked.
Kairo growled. Hisako grinned provokingly at him. He was turning purple, and was clearly quite angry at this point. He looked around at the crowd, and grabbed the nearest boy which happened to be Suuichi. Suuichi yelped, as his feet dangled uselessly off the ground.
"You wanna go? I'll beat this kid up right now just to show YOU who's boss!" he yelled rather scarily at her, but she didn't flinch. She didn't even blink. Her brother did that all the time to teach her strength. And she mastered it.
But no one messed with her friends. No one.
Hisako sighed, then looked at Suuichi who was turning colors and looked rather frightened.
"Alright then. Fight me. But put him down first." She gestured to Suuichi, who looked at her in disbelief.
Kairo smirked. "Fine! Let's go then!" he tossed Suuichi down roughly and seemingly sized her up to be harmless, another soul he was gonna beat up. Hisako smirked at him.
"Come at me."
And he did.
Needless to say, he got the thrashing of his life, coming out with two black eyes, a sprained ankle, and various colored bruises adorning his body when she was done. He didn't dare speak to her again, as she would smile sickly sweet at him whenever she passed him in the halls, and he would glare at her and walk away as quickly as possible.
Hisako smiled at the memory fondly. She remembered all the cheering that followed suit his beating, the praise she received from her pupils, and warm smiles from her neighbors who heard of the incident.
She also remembered that after she beat him, he cleaned up his act. He stopped the whole "gang member" thing and started studying, playing team sports, making amends with the neighbors and pupils, and eventually cleaned up his bad reputation. He turned out to be quite good looking, with dark brown hair that reached just below his ears, earrings that looked quite good on him, bright green eyes, and a lean muscular physique. He soon became popular with the ladies. But she recalled that every time he was asked out, he would decline, saying he was deeply in love with someone else.
That someone turned out to be her.
And she remembered the time he asked her out. And she said yes. He turned out to be a great boyfriend. He'd even been her first kiss. He was kind, sweet, handsome, smart, and he really had changed from the idiot he used to be. She remembered she told him that once, and he had smiled and hugged her, saying that it was all thanks to her beating sense into him on that baseball field in that annoying, provoking way of hers.
Good times, good times.
Too bad life just couldn't stay that way.
The door to the rooftop opened, and a familiar redhead stuck her head through the door.
"Hisako? There you are! Come on, remember we promised Hinata to play baseball with him? We're all waiting." Iwasawa walked on to the roof, Sekine following her.
Hisako blinked. "What? What time is it?" she asked blankly.
"Six thirty." Iwasawa replied. "We're playing till we drop, according to Noda and Hinata."
Sekine leaned over the railing to the field and started waving. Hisako looked up and saw all her SSS friends waving back, including Yui and Irie.
"HEY GUYS! WE FOUND HER!" Sekine hollered enthusiastically.
"ABOUT TIME! TELL HER TO GET HER BUTT DOWN HERE SO WE CAN START THE GAME!" Takamatsu hollered back at Sekine. Iwasawa smiled, and lead the two down the stairs to the fields as quickly as possible.
Hisako walked up to her friends. "You could've started without me you know." She said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.
Hinata grinned at her. "Well it wouldn't have been much of a game without our best player right?" he replied.
"COME ON, LET'S PLAY ALREADY!" Noda roared from behind the home base. His voice was slightly muffled by the mask.
Hinata put a hand on her shoulder. "You're up first." He said, handing her a bat, then running off to sit in his place on the bench.
Hisako stepped up and raised the bat. Otonashi was pitching for his team, and Yui, Irie, and Ooyama were all waving to her from the outfield. The sun was setting, and everyone was waiting. She could hear her teammates egging her on from behind her, Iwasawa's calm encouragement, Hinata's crazy remarks, Sekine's piercing squeal, Fujimaki's rough shouts, even Yuri's commanding, well, commands to "smash the stupid ball through the stratosphere or else!"
She smiled. Otonashi raised his arm to pitch.
She kept her eyes on the ball, something her late brother had taught her.
She kept her knees slightly bent, as her friends in middle school taught her.
She kept her smirk on her lips, something Kairo had taught her.
She kept her eyes shielded by her hair, something her first band's late vocalist taught her.
The ball came straight at her bat, fast, but an easy hit for someone like her.
She swung, and heard the satisfying CRACK as she slammed the bat into the ball.
She heard her teammates whooping and cheering, shouting praise to her, and she saw both Matsushita and Takamatsu running towards it, to no avail. The ball flew over the fence and quickly out of sight.
"HOME RUN!" Yuri and Sekine shouted simultaneously. Hinata was stomping his foot screaming "DAMN, I SHOULD'VE SAVED HER FOR THOSE HITS!"
She grinned, and jogged around the bases. Yui was screaming like everyone else, and Otonashi smiled warmly at her, congratulating her for the hit.
Sure, her life back then was good for a time.
But life here was better.
Sorry bout the ending. This was a pretty random thing, I had no inspiration for this chapter whatsoever, but I wanted to put something up. I kinda winged it when I was writing, so sorry for the quality I guess. I noticed that I haven't updated this story since last summer, August or so, and I'd like to change that. If anyone reading this has any good story ideas, please let me know. I'm definitely short on ideas.