Itsuki readied himself, and threw his first pitch. Like Tokuchi, he could not throw a single breaking ball. His fastball whizzed by Tokuchi, and hit the far upper left hand corner of the cage. Tokuchi blinked at Itsuki, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. As Itsuki readied himself for the second pitch, he almost smiled. He had no idea how he had managed to finagle Tokuchi into this situation. Tokuchi had a hell of a lot more to lose than he did. Just then, he released the ball, sending it careening dangerously close to Tokuchi's hands. Tokuchi obviously did not appreciate it as he pointed to the bat, then to Itsuki's head. Right, he would not be trying that again. He braced himself for what he hoped to be the final pitch. He wound up, and released the ball, only for Tokuchi to make contact. Only it happened to be poor contact, as the ball bounced uselessly off the bat onto the ground, where it rolled a few yards right to the border of out zone. Tokuchi took one long hard look at the ball and turned to Itsuki. "Fuck off" were his only words.

Toa must be some kind of masochist to keep signing his life away like this. Why had he thought it was a good idea to pull this shit again? Oh, yeah. Money. At least it was more than last time, and no retirement bullshit mixed in. But that didn't lessen the sting. He felt hot and cold at the same time. His stomach dropped. Not that he was showing any of this. On the outside, he looked cool as a cucumber.

Itsuki thought Tokuchi was about to throw up. Or punch him. Maybe both. "You okay?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yeah" was the other man's only reply. "When do I start?" He asked in a slightly dazed voice.

"Let me talk to the coach first. Then I will let you know". The walk back to the complex was done in silence. Just as they reached the parking lot, the sun began to peek over the skyline of the city in the distance. After they exchanged phone numbers Tokuchi turned to leave. "Are you going to be okay getting home?" He asked, thinking of the boozy all nighter they had survived.

"I'll be fine" Tokuchi replied, as if still in a daze. Itsuki watched as Tokuchi got in his flashy car, and drove off into the sunrise. This would not be fun to explain to the coach. Or their owner.

Over the next couple of days, Takami spent the vast majority of his time convincing, begging, prodding, and pleading with his coach and Owner Tsutsumishita. Finally, he had secured a place for Tokuchi as the assistant coach's assistant. The pay would be less than stellar, and the hours would be worse, but it was a decent salaried position, which he should hopefully be okay with. He wouldn't be getting any flashy cars, but he would get to see more of the inner workings of the baseball world, and most people in his age range would jump for that job.

Toa was feeling less than stellar. He was nursing a hangover, dealing with another big move, getting ready to start a new job, and he was about to meet up with someone he thought he would never see again. He had meant to do this errand a long time ago, but he had kept putting it off for reasons beyond his comprehension. When he walked into the team conference room, he saw Kojima sitting down with his back to him. As he made his way over, he felt dread in the pit of his stomach. He should have just done this through the mail, and be done with it. But he had to explain what he was about to do, so they didn't misinterpret him. Not so much as to spare their feelings, but to spare his neck in case they tried to jump him after going AWOL for half a year. He sat down next to Kojima, who met his eyes, and smiled wearily at him. He obviously knew this was not a social call. Toa, who intended to keep this a business-like and impersonal as possible, brought out the sheaf of documents that he had already signed. They only needed Kojima's signatures and initials, and they could be on their way.

"If you're here for the reason I think you're here, then I'm guessing this is the end of your relationship with the Lycaons" Kojima murmured.

"If you think I'm here to sign the team over to you, then you are absolutely right" Toa stated. He set the sheaf in front of Kojima, who was significantly paler than when he had first sat down.

"Why me?" he asked.

"Who more than you deserves it?" Toa asked, letting this be the only emotional moment of the day. "I know you won't let them fall apart like anyone else might". As Kojima slowly started signing and initialing, Toa gave him a rundown of what would be happening in the next few months.

"So you are going turncoat on us, huh" Kojima said. "Which team will you switch to next?" Toa couldn't quite tell whether he was just teasing him, or whether he was seriously hurt. Most likely both. He had a right to be. He was being kind of a bastard, abandoning them and switching teams.

After Kojima finished signing, Tokuchi stood up, collecting the papers. "After these get notarized, I will mail these in. The other owners have already been alerted". With that, he stood up, considered clapping Kojima on the shoulder in a friendly fashion, but quickly reconsidered. He never did those gestures when he was on the team, so there was no reason to start now. He turned on his heel, and walked out of the stadium as fast as he could. The next time he would be here, he would be trying his hardest to bring about the victory of another team.

Thank you so much to all who have read, and very special thanks for all who have favorited! These first few chapters will be pretty short, but later chapters will be longer.