AN: Kyonko's developing an odd relationship with Law.
ALSO: Next chapter will be starring the canon world with Kyonko visiting. It'll be a fun read.
XOXOXO
So… Two days later. Sunday. 8:00 AM sharp.
"Be there or suffer a death penalty!" were the words of motivation Ace had for us.
We were gathered at the Municipal Sports Center where there were two baseball fields adjacent to the community track field. The tournament would be a series of six-inning games, and would take two weeks to complete. The semi-finalists were to be decided by tonight, with the semi-finals and final being played next Sunday.
Since the SOS Brigade team didn't own any standard baseball uniforms, we were standing out in our school track suits. And, I know that this would be digressing a bit, but this was the first time I've seen Basil wear something other than his school uniform.
Anyway, a six-inning game meant that there would be five switches between offense and defense, rather, than say, a nine-inning game where there would be nine switches. I guess I should be grateful that we were playing three-innings short than how playoffs usually go.
Earlier, I had given my friends a call to come play. They both agreed, eager to see the members of the SOS Brigade up close, that and Kuina's competitive spirit would never say no to an athletic event. I would have cried tears of joy if it wasn't for my self-restraint.
The person Chopper had brought was a guy who managed to dwarf him—this guy was even taller than Ace and Law. Chopper introduced him as Bepo, a friend of his in his class. At the mention of Bepo's name, I noticed that Law's eyebrow rose ever so slightly before lowering back. I take it that he was surprised by something…
When introductions were over, Bepo shot me a cheerful grin and walked over to me, clapping a large hand on my shoulder. "So, you must be Kyonko-chan, eh? Chopper's always been talking about you!"
"Is…that so?"
"Yup!"
My head automatically turned to Chopper, as if I needed further confirmation about this. Chopper just flushed and looked away. I don't know what he told his friend about me…but he's so cute!
Later, Ace confronted me about our last player. I presented him of my final choice.
He stared blankly for a moment, and then said, "Kyonko, come with me. We need to talk."
We huddled behind the bleachers, and that was when Ace blurted in my face, "What exactly are you on? Look at that thing! You're actually going to let him play?"
"What do you mean?" I said. "I don't think it's a problem that I brought my little brother here to play with us."
That's right. I brought Wataru.
He snorted. "He's your little brother? You know what he did when we got here? He came up to me and said that he was the best in his fifth grade year when it came to sports, and he's here to 'kick ass and chew bubblegum'. He's way too cool to be related to you." Ow. "Wait, no, that's not my point. Look, it would have been fine if he was playing in the little league, but this baseball tournament is for big kids!"
Yeah, yeah, I get ya, Ace.
Of course, I didn't do this without thinking. I guess now would be a good time to imagine myself wearing a villainous smile while rub my hands together in a devious fashion, and the lightening crackling in the background would be a nice addition. I call this my master plan. Kinda.
You see, it would be natural for me to want to hasten this tournament so that I could go home and sleep. So, I decided, why not bring Wataru? Oh, and, by the way, Wataru's essentially the worst in his grade when it comes to anything athletic.
It kind of made it more so of a rag-tag team than a group of teens looking for fun (which was what only Ace was having), but no matter. And, besides, when facing an elite team of actual players, we're going to lose quickly by default.
"Eh, forget it," Ace grunted and turned around. "We'll let them win one inning. It won't be fun if we win too much."
He's just a load of hot air, wasn't he?
"We still haven't decided on the fielding positions and batting order yet," I remarked. "What do you have in mind, chief?"
"I've already thought of that." His face glowed while wearing a smug grin—I didn't know whether it was because he had actually thought of something beforehand or that I called him chief. He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it so that I could see. "I decided to use this. No one's going to disagree, yeah?"
From each side of where the crease had made its divide, there was a crisscrossed pattern with eight lines. It looked like that ladder-tracing lottery sheet one of our classmates had tried.
"Don't tell me that you're planning on using this to…"
"Of course I am! I split the lottery into two, one for batting and one for fielding positions. I'm the pitcher and the fourth batter, by the way."
I felt a headache coming up. "You're seriously going to use this?"
"What's with that face? Don't you know that this is the most democratic way? The ancient Greek leaders were chosen by ladder-tracing, just so you know."
I wanted to tell that to not compare the Greek's selection method to the use of a baseball team, and that because he decided this on whim, just how was this democratic anyway? But I figured that it'd be pointless to tell him all that. We're going to lose, so whatever.
Anyway, the team we were playing against was known as the Kamigahara Ninjas, a team from college best in defense for three years running.
And as for the official positions our teammates were assigned to? First batter, second baseman: me; second batter, center fielder: Basil; third batter, right fielder: Chopper; fourth batter, pitcher: Ace; fifth batter, left fielder: Wataru; sixth batter, catcher: Law; seventh batter, first baseman: Kuina; eighth batter, third baseman: Bepo; and ninth batter, shortstop: Nojiko.
This was the SOS Brigade team. No substitutes. No refreshments. No uniforms. No serious participant (maybe except for Ace). Yup, what a great, great baseball team we have here on our hands.
…Wait, I'm first at bat?
XOXOXO
After both teams had paid their respect to one another, Ace grinned at me and jerked his head towards the batter's box. Sadly, I had to comply, and since we had completely forgotten the existence of helmets we had to borrow second-hand dusty helmets from the Organizing Committee. If there was anything that truly belonged to us, it would have to be the loudspeakers in obnoxious yellow from Ace.
The opposing pitcher, a gangly-looking man, tilted his cap downwards and gave a nod to the catcher. I gritted my teeth and waited, the bat raised in my hands.
When the umpire yelled, "Play ball!", the pitcher stretched his arm back and hurled the ball straight at me. A small gasp left my lips when the ball sliced through the air, making a high-pitched whizzing noise—holy crap, it was fast! It moved so fast, that I didn't have time to blink as it landed in the catcher's glove.
Because I didn't swing, it was a strike.
The second pitch, the ball curved. If I had ignored it, it would have been a—what do you call it?—"ball", but my arms were ache-ready to make a swing so I took a swipe at it.
You can guess how things went from there. I was declared out after the third pitch, and as I passed by Ace when I headed back to the bench, he gave me a thumbs-up in congratulations for my failure.
"Good job out there, Kyonko! Don't sweat it! Baseball isn't a girl's sport anyway, so leave it to us men," he said, puffing out his chest. "We'll show you how it's done."
I kicked him in the shin.
The second batter was Basil, who treaded silently to the batter's box, dragging the tip of the aluminum bat on the ground. Back on the bench, Wataru slid close to me, asking me in an overly curious tone, "Hey, hey, Kyonko! Isn't that guy up there the one who walked you home once? Isn't he your boyfmmph!"
I slapped my hand over his mouth and looked over to Ace, who was watching Basil while wearing an eager smirk.
Back at home-base, as balls were being pitched his way, Basil didn't even bother to swing, just stood there. He returned to the bench and handed his helmet and the bat to the next batter, Chopper.
Ace, who recovered from his dumbfounded state, looked at Basil angrily while exclaiming, "Hawkins! Oi! What the hell was that? You call that batting? You're supposed to hit the ball!"
"…"
"Look, just… Never mind! Chopper!" Ace stomped over to Chopper and threw an arm around his shoulders. "Listen up! You're the last batter for this one, so you're our only hope. The only person we can rely on," he articulated with seriousness.
Chopper trembled.
"You understand? This is something that only you can do."
And, so, our third batter, who was wearing a helmet that barely fit on his small head, walked reluctantly to the box. "M-may the best win—GYAAH!"
Before he could finish, a high-angled straight ball came shooting at his way...and right into his gut. Chopper immediately doubled over in pain. The pitcher hurried over and began to apologize profusely. For a second, I thought that Ace would grow livid that someone had hurt one of his brigade members, but instead…
"Suck it up, Chopper!"
He didn't care at all.
The umpire ruled it a foul, but after he stood up, Chopper just stood as stiff and still as a Buddha statue, and only trembled slightly when all three pitches flew past him. When he was called out, he breathed a sigh and returned to the bench.
"I'm disappointed in you, Chopper. You were our only hope," Ace lectured, scowling.
It ended with three consecutive strike outs, and both sides had to switch fields.
What happened to your perfect winning now, Ace?
XOXOXO
"C'mon, asswipes! Bring it on!" Ace went to the pitcher's mound and delivered a challenging grin to the upcoming batter. Law, donning shin guards and a chest protector, was squatting behind the batter, looking rather bored. Jeez, he and Basil lack so much enthusiasm.
Ace wound up his arm in an exaggerated fashion, slung his arm, and made his first pitch.
A strike!
It was a really good pitch. Perhaps it was the angle, speed, or control of the ball, I just don't know. Either way, the ball landed perfectly in the center of the strike zone, and the batter didn't even get a chance to swing his bat.
Of course, the SOS Brigade members, myself included, weren't surprised by this at all. If Ace were to be suddenly recruited by the National Soccer Team, we wouldn't be one bit fazed. Nothing was impossible for Portgas D. Ace when it comes to athletics.
It wasn't easy for the opponent's first batter. He couldn't swing his bat for two consecutive strikes, and only managed to react for the third pitch, but still struck out. The third pitch seemed like one of those change-up balls that curved slightly when entering the strike zone.
The second batter attempted to bunt, yet hit the ball outside the foul line twice and missed the third pitch, so he, too, struck out.
"Alright!" Ace punched the air happily. "Let's get this going on!"
Now, the third batter put an end to Ace's joy. He managed to smack the ball, sending it flying overhead. Basil could have stretched his arm and caught it, but he had slow reaction timing. Ace glared at the batter as he ran over three bases to home-base.
Since the Ninjas had yet to face their third out, their fourth batter came up to the box. Because of Ace's fury, he made it so that the fourth batter didn't get a chance to hit the ball like how the third batter did. Thus, he was out.
Anyway, as a result, we were now one run away behind.
Frankly, our defense had more holes than you would find anthills in a tropical savanna. The outfield defense was especially ridiculous. As I learned throughout the game, neither our right fielder, fragile Chopper, nor left fielder, my lying brother, could catch a single ball. When the ball sailed to the right side of the field, it had to be retrieved by me, the second baseman; when it went to the left field, Nojiko, the shortstop, would have to sprint every time to fetch it.
Probably a trauma that would momentarily etch in his mind, I don't know, but whenever Chopper would see the ball flying towards him, he would collapse and curl up on the ground, muttering something about "high hopes", so we can't expect him to do any actual defending.
As for Wataru, he'd certainly chase after the ball energetically, but the ball would always land three feet away from where he was standing, so he wasn't much of help either.
Credit should be given to Basil, the center fielder, for catching balls flawlessly, but he only reacted to the ones that flew within his immediate range, and his reaction time, as I mentioned before, was dead slow. If a line drive rocketed straight past him, our opponents might as well score a run already.
Gosh, our team sucks.
The fact that the Ninjas had scored only a first few runnings was because their swings were late. I guess they were feeling lethargic when it comes to Sundays. However, when it came to our turn at batting, we've gained only one running from a homerun by—and you guessed it—Ace.
At this point, the only one who's basically playing for our side was him.
Wataru was terribly clumsy when holding the bat and nearly hit the umpire when he swung and released the bat. Law, on the other hand, was somewhat close, but in the end he couldn't even hit the ball. I had a strange urge to laugh at him when he came back to the bench, like how Wataru would tease me about my grades and my lack of dating history.
"This isn't as simple as I thought it would be," Law sighed.
I offered a half-smile. "I take it you didn't play baseball where you come from, eh?"
"Any sports that you know, actually. Well, aside from a bit of swordsmanship, but that was it."
Swordsmanship, huh? I wonder how Kuina would react to that if she heard him say that.
It seemed that Ace was beginning to lose his touch with pitching. The Ninjas made five runnings, and this brought back Ace's scowl. If he kept that up, that scowl will soon be perpetual.
Nothing could back down Kuina's competitive spirit, so when it was her turn to hit the ball, she had made it to first base. This had sent a roar of cheer from our team, nearly causing my ears to bleed. Bepo was up next, and he hit the ball so hard that it was another homerun. Nojiko, like Law, was so close, yet no success.
"I didn't know your friends were athletic," Law commented as we moved to the field.
"I didn't know that they would take this game so seriously," I muttered.
It went on like before. Some of us couldn't catch and some of us couldn't throw. Man, this was getting ridiculous, for Ace, I mean. As for me, like how I emphasized it before, I just wanted to go home.
Passing by him, I noticed how petulant he appeared. "Things aren't looking so good," he grumbled, glaring at the scoreboard.
"No need to make yourself frustrated," I said. "It's just a game, you know?"
"Who said that I was talking to you?" he snapped.
Sheesh, someone's getting a bit moody.
Before I retrieved the bat and a helmet, Law looked at me and said, "Things aren't looking so good."
"That's what Ace said," I groaned. "Whatever. What is it?"
"Closed Space is starting to form, spreading at an alarming rate. It'll continue growing, and Celestials will keep tearing things apart until Portgas-ya's mood improves."
"Is this happening because we're losing?"
"What else would it be?"
My shoulders slumped. "Oh man, you've got to be kidding me."
"You know, I've been thinking, what did you do to get out of that Closed Space you were stuck in with him?"
He wanted to know that?
"Because if you were to use that with him, then everything might go back to normal," he elaborated.
"Yeah, I don't think so," I said with a grimace. Just imagine me walking up to Ace and pulling him down for a kiss. Ugh. If I did that—not that I ever will—then I'll have to do it in front of so many people! What would Nojiko and Kuina say? Gah, what will Wataru say? He might comment about how I'm cheating on Basil or something, and that'll just cause a riot, now won't it? And I have a feeling that kissing Ace won't exactly improve his mood, just leaving him flabbergasted.
"I thought you might say that," Law sighed, although there was that enigmatic smile on his face. "Very well, let's just win this game."
"How can we win when we only got three good batters?" I pointed out, throwing a hand in the air. "And, by the way, I'm currently up at bat."
"Not a problem. We could always get help from Basil."
Basil?
I watched him push himself up and take the bat with him, then strolling to Basil who was just coming here. Law was murmuring to Basil, who took the bat from him. After a second, he then came to the benches and handed the bat to me, saying, "I changed the elemental positional destination."
"The elemental what?" I said, blinking.
"Homing mode," was the only clarification I got.
Seeing him crack open his book, I could only sigh and shrug before dragging my feet out there again. Whatever Basil had done to this bat, it must be something good, I guess. I mean, after all, they got to do whatever it takes to please Ace, right? Because then the world might be destroyed, right? Maaaan… How troublesome…
Almost makes me want to throw my head back and laugh until tears come out. The fate of the world rests on a baseball game. What a joke.
"Play ball!" the umpire called out.
I held up the bat, and by the time the pitcher raised his arms to make a throw, I made a quick glance around to see if anything out of the ordinary was coming. Suddenly, my wrists twitched and my arms made a sharp jerk downwards, bringing the bat along with that descent. I was so shocked by the fact that my arms had moved on its own—no, it wasn't my arms, it was the bat!
Anyway, I was so shocked that the bat was moving on its own that I didn't even realized the loud clang it made with the ball. When that registered in my mind, I quickly took off. I was a pretty slow runner, but that didn't matter because by the time I landed on first base, the SOS Brigade team encouraged me to keep on running, and that was when I realized that I—uh, no, the bat had scored a homerun.
Ace clapped a hand on my shoulder and gave me the brightest grin I had ever seen on his face, telling me, "Awesome, Kyonko! You're amazing!"
Aww! Thank you, Ace!
"Now you proved that you aren't so useless after all!"
I kicked him on the shin.
Kuina and Wataru, who knew me the best, kept commenting how the un-athletic Kyonko had done something that might change the world. I told them to shut up.
I watched carefully when Basil was up to bat, and the same thing happened to him! The same with Chopper and Ace and Law and Wataru…all the way until I was batting again. I was a bit surprised to hear that people outside the SOS Brigade club members didn't comment about how the bat was moving on its own, but rather how they were so amazed that they actually managed to make their own homeruns.
After making another homerun, I picked up the bat and winced how banged up it was. There were dents everywhere. And judging by the looks the Ninjas were giving us, I'd say that we might as well put an end to this.
"You should cancel the homing mode now," I told Basil as I passed the bat and helmet to him.
"I see," he said.
And, so, we earned ourselves three struck outs without our magical bat.
"Is it necessary for us to win?" I said offhandedly.
"Of course," Law said. "Because of the amount of homeruns we've scored, the expansion of the Closed Space ceased to grow anymore, but that will be temporarily depending on how things will go."
"But if the opposing team make a comeback, that'll be it." Though it might be pointless to think about it, knowing how unpredictable Ace was. It would be plain to see that he'll be dismayed by a loss, but would he be mature and suck it up or would he put an end to humanity? Yeah, that sounds a bit dramatic…
"I've got an idea."
The first part of Law's idea was to make Basil the catcher. I wasn't sure what was going on in his head, but Ace didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, he thought that it was a fantastic idea. Well, it wasn't like Basil would make an attempt to go after the ball.
After having Bepo and Chopper help him put on the catcher's gear, Basil pulled the mask over his face and squatted down behind the batter, glove up and ready.
The second part of his idea was…just outright crazy. Law wanted me to be the pitcher.
When he told me that, I gave him a look. "You cannot be serious."
He smiled. "Oh, I'm dead serious."
"Maybe your brain is suffering a thinking retardation…"
Ridiculously enough, Ace agreed to it!
"If Law suggested you, I have no qualms about it," he said, shrugging. "You better do this right, Kyonko!"
Wasn't that placing too much faith on me?
I made it to the mound, feeling just absurd standing there. The umpire indicated for the game to continue, making me feel even more uneasy. Having the ball in my hand and being relied on to make a good pitch… Well… What can I say? May the Lady Luck find favor in me!
I did a half-hearted effort to copy Ace's wound-up arm, but when the ball was out of my hand, it went up high landed softly in Basil's glove. The umpire called out, "Foul!"
"I said that you better do this right, Kyonko!" I heard Ace holler at my back. "So do it right, dammit!"
Tracing back to when Basil told me that the Ace I know was just a fragment of another Ace, I'm thinking that he was flat-out wrong. The Ace I know just has way too much personality to not be a person of his own. And I wonder if the other Ace was as loud and annoying as this one here.
I sighed and made another pitch, doing the same mistake of sending it soaring high and slow. But, just when it was going to make another foul, the ball was pulled down as if by an invisible string and sped into the strike zone. The batter was pretty darn stunned by this that he openly gawked at the ball in Basil's glove.
The umpire blinked owlishly before saying, "St-strike!"
No doubt that this was Basil's doing.
"Yeah! Way to go, Kyonko!" Ace cheered.
"Way to go, big sis!" Wataru rooted.
Please, hold your applause for I do not deserve it. Seriously.
All of my pitches, so far, had been absolutely lame, yet Basil altered it every time, each one being a surprise strike-out. All of them never failed to leave each batter confounded. It was when the third batter had changed the routine when he was facing his last pitch.
No, the batter didn't smack the ball and send it flying. Actually, when the ball sped up for its strike, it hit the corner of Basil's glove, and then rolled behind him. The batter, seizing this chance, bolted out of the base and went for the first.
"Pick up the ball, sempai!" I called out hurriedly. "Pick up the ball!"
Basil leisurely rose to his full height and walked over to ball, picking up the ball with no hurry or panic at all. He turned to me, and, for what seemed like a phenomenon, raised an eyebrow.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a minute to revel in the change of Basil's usual blank expressions. The batter was quickly making it to second base. I pointed at Ace and continued yelling. "Throw it! Throw it to second base!"
"Over here!" Ace shouted, jumping up and down.
Second phenomenon of the day was seen when Basil had drew back his arm and shot the ball. The ball flew like a bullet! It was faster than the Ninja pitcher and Ace's throws combined! It sliced through the air like a flash and clouted right into Ace's glove, but with velocity like that the force literally knocked the glove out of his hand!
The glove then flew right into Law's glove, and Law had been standing only a couple meters away from Ace.
Oh my goodness.
I looked down to find the batter down on the ground, failing to make a full slide since his foot hadn't touched the base. I knew that he could have made his chance of securing a base if he quickly got up and stood on it, but it seemed that he too was way too awestruck to peel his eyes away.
Law casually jogged up to the batter and said in an amicable tone, "I'm sorry, but it seems that you're out," and then tagged him.
XOXOXO
"By the looks of things, we're doing a good job," I said.
"Seems like, but, sadly, I must help my colleagues destroying a Closed Space." With that said, Law sighed. You could really tell that he equaled Closed Space to chores, like hanging the laundry or scrubbing toilets. "What a pain."
"I guess this means we forfeit. Not too bad since we won't be playing for next week, then."
"Sounds like a good idea."
And that's what we did. We forfeited.
Ace grumpily watched the field being cleared for the next teams to play, his arms folded against his chest. I stood next to him and rolled my shoulders. "Law-sempai said that he had to bail on us because something important came up. But that's alright, yeah? We had fun today."
Ace looked down at me, his lips still set in a pout, and then shrugged. "Well, if you're okay with it, I guess it's alright." He then smiled. "Hey, I'm hungry. How about we get some lunch?"
"I like that," I said, smiling back.
The Kamigahara Ninjas captain was so happy that we were forfeiting that he had tears streaming down his face. This tournament must really mean that much to him. Since I was the person who Ace sent to give regards, I had to deal with the guy's "Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!"
"Y-yeah, no problem!" I said, backing away. "Well, see you around."
"Ah, wait! That bat…"
I blinked, looking at the aluminum bat in my hands. "You mean this?" I said, lifting it.
"Yes! Um, could you…?"
Apparently, the Ninjas believed that the bat was a good luck charm after watching our performance. It didn't matter, anyway. The bat's so banged up; I think the Organizing Committee would have just thrown it away if we were to give it back. So I gave it to the captain, who cried tears of joy again.
The SOS Brigade team found a restaurant to have lunch. It was a lively group. Kuina and Nojiko were having a blast discussing with Chopper and Wataru while Bepo exclaimed the number of runs we made compared to the number of runs that the Kamigahara Ninjas had made. I didn't care to pay attention to the scoreboard or to what Bepo was saying, just relieved that it was finally over.
Ugh! What a day!
XOXOXO
The next day found me playing Go Fish with Law, who was obviously cheating again. Before I could accuse him of such, the door slammed open.
Ace held out a paper with a football and a jersey on it. "Hey, guys! I just registered us to enter an American football tournament! Hey, Kyonko, do you know how many players we need to play?"
Here we go again…
Wait a minute!
"American football? No way! How about bowling?"