Not beta'd

Word count: 1,545 words

Yamamoto Takeshi was the epitome of normal Japanese boy. Born on April 24th, he had black hair, brown eyes, and fair skin; something that is not in any way differed much from any other Japanese boy. His father was a sushi chef, and his mother was the common, kind house-wife who liked to socialize with other mothers around their living place.

The Yamamoto family itself was a typical family with only one son. They lived happily with each other, the parents sometimes had a small argument, but quickly solved between them. Little Takeshi sometimes threw a tantrum, and although at first he was a quiet boy who liked to just look at his surroundings and seldom talked, at the age of four Takeshi was quite an energetic boy who loved to run around and made his parents sigh in an exasperated way. Altogether, Yamamoto Takeshi was an ordinary Japanese boy in an ordinary Japanese family.

And although when Takeshi started learning to talk he had an accent while saying words, it must be natural because baby never talked before, right? They needed time to remember the Japanese word and it meaning. The way Takeshi looked at his surroundings when he was small was just him being curious, and nothing else. And the jaded look that sometimes appeared in the boy's black eyes was just a trick of light, just the imagination of the one who looked.

Right. Yamamoto Takeshi was just an ordinary Japanese boy in an ordinary Japanese family; nobody would think otherwise.

The boy in question was sitting on a grass field near Namimori Middle School, his father was delivering some sushi specifically made for a group of baseball players. For it, today they had begged his father to deliver it to them, and although their restaurant normally didn't do delivery service, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi had explained to his son that it was a good chance for Takeshi to take a look outside other than for accompanying his mother shopping. The fact that the twelve-year-old boy who pleaded had a very pitiful look and paid extra was just an extra incentive.

Takeshi's eyes were trained on the ball two boys were throwing around in a game of catch though, and not at his father who was approaching the boy who had ordered sushi. The four-year-old boy looked fascinated by the way the ball was thrown by the two boys; his head was following the ball's movement incessantly. When Tsuyoshi took a glance at his son, he hid a smile at the way his normally composed boy was acting. Little Takeshi was always composed, but not in the way one normally thought of. It was more like not many things can surprise him or make him captivated like now. Hence the reason he was normally at home other than for accompanying his mother shopping.

The two boys finally noticed the little boy sitting on the edge of the field, and looking at the awestruck expression the boy had on, they both shared a look. After looking at Tsuyoshi for permission – something that was immediately granted by Tsuyoshi's nod – they approached Takeshi. With smile on their face, they offered to play with the boy.

And thus Takeshi's almost obsession with the baseball started.

.

Takeshi—or the once Harry Potter, had started his new life with many sulking and regrets. And, of course, dreading the life he would have from there. After all, he was Harry Potter, right? Even though his name had obviously changed to something else, the essence of Harry Potter was still inside him, thus everything will go to disaster.

But to his surprise, he was now Japanese. And unlike in his previous life where he got impossibly green eyes and distinct messy black hair, now he had the common look Japanese people had. And he had family! He had a father and mother, and both of them didn't look like anything special either – and he meant it in a good way.

He started to think that maybe he could live happily—and normally—now. He missed his friends a lot, and sometimes he still got nightmares from thinking about his previous life, but he wanted to be happy. He thought that this life would be all like his previous one, full of starving, and then mystery, and violence. But it wasn't like that at all. Here he had parents, he had friends, he had baseball—he was normal.

If it would continue like this, he wouldn't mind at all. He started to think of his previous fear of this life as silly.

.

The once boy-who-lived hit the ball with his bat, resulting in a homerun. A big grin was stretching his face, accompanied by the cheers from his peers.

"Go, Takeshi!" A big voice boomed from the audience. He looked towards the source of the noise, and was met by the sight of his father, clad in his usual clothes when making sushi at their restaurant. His smile just got impossibly bigger. His dad came!

After releasing himself from the clutches of his overjoyed teammates, he made his way over to his dad, still wearing the silly grin on his face. The eleven-year-old boy beamed at the sushi chef, "Dad! You come after all! You said that you are not sure that you can be here!"

Tsuyoshi laughed and reached over, ruffling Takeshi's hair. "Well, I cannot possibly miss the sight of my boy's last match in elementary school, right? I close the shop early. And I think it will be good to invite your friends over, won't it? The celebratory and farewell party on our restaurant!"

Takeshi's beaming eyes and grin had started to dim unnoticeably at the mention of friends, but when Tsuyoshi finished his speech, it had come back full-force. "Okay! I will go to invite them all over!"

Tsuyoshi just watched as his son ran to the still celebrating kids and shouted, no doubt telling them about the party. He and some of the baseball players' parents had met up and decided to give them something to remember. They had no doubt that the kids will win; Takeshi was a really good player, good enough to win their match all alone, and when he was helped by the others' startlingly not bad skills, it was a piece of cake for them to win.

He was a bit worried about his son though. As he had said, Takeshi was a really good player. It was not surprising when he heard about that. He had noticed Takeshi's talent from the first time his son played the game. And as the result, he would be popular among his peers. He knew it.

And Takeshi did become popular. The problem was he never brought any friend home, not since the time his mother died. He focused on baseball, and baseball alone. No room for another, and Tsuyoshi didn't know what to do.

.

Sitting alone in his darkened room, Takeshi stared at the bat on his hands contemplatively. He weighed it a bit then, sighing heavily, he let it go. He flopped on his bed.

He was not the boy-who-lived anymore, but somehow this time he was surrounded by even more shallow people than before. He remembered the girls who wanted him for his fame there, Romilda, Cho, and even Ginny at first. But at least there was Hermione there, Luna, Neville, the twins. Here? Everyone only saw Yamamoto Takeshi, the baseball star.

He snorted at the thought. He was only eleven and already they were idolizing him for his baseball only. He could still remember when his mother died, when he had been down for quite some time, and one of his supposed friends, Ryuuga, had snapped at him.

"Come on, Takeshi! It has been weeks, we have a match tomorrow! You need to practice seriously! Don't waste time anymore!"

He had been seriously shocked at that time. His mother had just passed away the previous two weeks, and they expect him to go playing happily? He had nearly snapped then. But he remembered when he was Harry Potter there was always Hermione who will defend him, telling him to think before acting. So he tried to keep his calm, and looked at his other teammates, searching for someone who will scold Ryuuga.

He found none.

Not even the coach, who he had been looking up to. Not his best friends, Yamada and Sato. And he didn't even need to say anything about the others. They all stayed silent, and he could see in their eyes that they thought Ryuuga was right.

So he did the only thing he could think of; smiling at them all and agreed with Ryuuga—because he didn't want to have a Draco Malfoy here, because he needed to stay normal to die normal and no normal boys will go looking for a fight, right?

He closed his eyes at the memory tiredly. He wanted to sleep. He needed to sleep to get through this life. It had been a year since then, and he still felt tired when he thought of that time. Was he only good as a baseball player for them? Was it normal? Did it mean he needed to get even better at baseball?

He dreamed of a life full of baseballandbaseballandnospaceforotherthings, and though he wouldn't remember it, he hated it.

So, yeah. I continued this story. Finally finished this chapter after long months without inspiration, I hope you guys like it. It comes out different from how I imagined it, but I couldn't try to rewrite it. I actually lose this chapter when I first wrote it, and only recently found it again, and reminded of you guys. Sorry for the long wait though :D Especially for those who took their time to write reviews for me and favorite or following this chapter and my account, many thanks for you all!

I actually finished this because of my birthday. Happy birthday to me! Your reviews will be great present for me. I sincerely wish you haven't abandoned this story yet, and will support me in continuing it! Of course, I don't know when I will have the next chapter ready, and I have final test in January. It means lots of studying, and no fanfiction A

For the Guest who said that Harry was childish for calling immortality a curse, I just want to remind you that Harry had lived a very difficult life, and I think he doesn't even know what 'normal' means, hence the repeated word in this chapter. He thought that his next life will be likely the same like his previous, and as he was Harry Potter, all of it will be filled with hardships—in Hogwarts, every year of his life there was danger waiting. He would likely think the same will happen now. Or, at least, I think so. Feel free to explain what your opinion to me.

As this is not beta'd, feel free to tell me any mistakes I made. And, as an update soon is very doubtful, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Looking forward to your reviews,

Shane