'I am probably the luckiest person in the world.'
That was what Chris thought as he walked out of the field. He glanced slightly at Zaizen in the opponent's dugout and smiled a little as his mind recalled his baseball journey from when he was just a child until now.
It wasn't an exaggeration when he said he was probably the luckiest out of all of the players in Seidou. Being born as the sole child of Animal, one of Japan's best hitters in history, he had all the privilege of growing up healthy and continuing his father's legacy.
The privilege wasn't just the baseball IQ and leadership that Chris inherited from his father. No, it was far beyond that. Having a dad as a professional player, he got a lot of chances to experience the training facility of a professional team and even being guided by the other pro players who were his father's teammates. He also had the privilege of having a nutritionist and a personal chef in his home which ensured he grew into a strong and healthy boy. That was probably why Chris was among the tallest out of all the players in Seidou.
But that wasn't the best part. The best privilege he received by just having a strong background was a high status no matter where he went.
Chris still remembered the first time he joined the team in middle school. At that time, the main catcher was an experienced final-year player who was the top 10 youngsters in Japan. He was in the substitute for the first two months of his career. However, that changed after his coach met his father at that time, and right after that, his playing minutes soared until he replaced his senpai completely. Even though Chris could guess what his father did, he had his eyes closed as it was also for his benefit.
His reputation rose astronomically in his second year. Scout started to smell his talent and observed his game carefully. Even though his name would always stand under his father's shadow, Chris didn't hate it. Of course, that didn't mean he had no ambition to be better than his father. But at that stage, he was satisfied with his condition.
That was when he first met Zaizen Naoyuki. After having a professional player as his dad, meeting Zaizen was probably the second luckiest thing he had experienced in his life.
Unlike him, Zaizen came from an ordinary background. Zaizen's parents were just ordinary teachers in a rural area far in East Tokyo. According to the coach, he also had a little talent as a pitcher. However, by just relying on his hard work, Zaizen grew into a monster in just a couple of months. He grew from a skinny boy who couldn't even throw a straight ball into a monster, whether on the mound or in the box.
And with that, Chris established a partnership with Zaizen as a battery.
It was such a delight working together with Zaizen. They complimented each other very well. Chris helped Zaizen a lot in his early stages to gain experience and learned a lot of baseball tactics that helped him grow to be a better baseball player. And Zaizen with his abnormal control also helped Chris realize all the immature ideas inside his head into a reality.
They both took Japanese baseball by storm with their partnership, sweeping all the championships possible in the span of two years. Unfortunately, their partnership ended when they graduated from the middle school. Zaizen chose Kokushikan which was near his home and Chris was invited by Rei to join Seidou.
He still remembered the last conversation he had with Zaizen in middle school.
-A little flashback-
"Chris, what high school are you going to?" Zaizen asked, leaning his body back to the wall. "If you and I team up again, we will be able to rule the country!"
"High school? I am going to Seidou." Chris replied shortly.
There was a hint of disappointment on Zaizen's face before he spoke again, "Why are you going that far? I will join Kokushikan, it's really close here."
"Well, that's a good choice too."
"So, that means the only place the two of us can meet again is Koushien, right?"
Imagining their next meeting would be in the highest place in a Japanese baseball competition, they smirked, ambition burning inside them. They looked at each other again for a moment before exchanging fist bumps and turned around, a symbolic parting for them both. Even though they were sad because of this parting, they clenched their fists tightly with only one thing inside their mind.
'We will meet again in Koushien!'
-End of the flashback-
Unfortunately, fate didn't favor them. Even though they both had an amazing year when they were first years in their respective team, they failed to enter the Koushien at the last moment. Seidou lost against Insahiro in the semi-final and Kokushikan was defeated by Teitou in the final.
And their bad luck was not over. In the fall tournament, Zaizen had an accident where he tore his ACL in the middle of the game which was usually a career-ending injury for an athlete. Since then, his name disappeared gradually from the baseball world in Japan.
Chris was also the same. Since the team accepted another genius catcher, Miyuki Kazuya, he added his training portion secretly more than necessary until it burdened his body. And since he didn't talk about his training, no one knew about his condition until it was too late. He tore his subscapularis tendon as well as his pronator quadrutus, muscles near the shoulder and wrist that played an important part in throwing a ball.
And since he couldn't throw a ball anymore, Chris decided to resign from the team. He gave up all of his baseball dreams including meeting Zaizen in Koushien just to recover his body and live normally.
But it led him to his third biggest luck in his life, his team and meeting Sawamura.
Even though Chris had never played for a year, the team had never given up on him. Rei would always accompany him whenever he had a schedule to do his recovery training while talking about the team, hoping to ignite the spark that kept getting smaller every day. Kataoka-sensei would also ask him a lot to run errands for the team, hoping that he was still close to baseball and didn't forget the joy in it.
And when the recovery was close, the team put him as a mentor for Sawamura, the naïve boy who had full potential waiting to be tapped. The first-year players reminded Chris a lot of Zaizen in his early years. Both are inexperienced with full of confidence and a unique weapon to make them shine even with their limitation. And the most important thing is how they could always motivate the players around them to do better whether in a good or a bad situation.
To be honest, this was the quality that Chris envied from them both. Even though he was a captain in middle school, it was all because he was the best player and due to his strong background. But the glue of the team at that time was Zaizen. The pitcher was always the one who talked loudly and laughed to lift up the mood, bear the burden whenever they faced a difficult situation.
And Chris saw that quality in Sawamura too.
That was why in today's game, seeing Sawamura stood up against Zaizen when he was down, Chris felt a bit complicated. He was happy for Sawamura, sad for Zaizen, nostalgic about his past, and felt the spark ignited inside his heart, determination burning inside him to continue his baseball career after seeing the two suns in his life shining this bright today.
Even though Chris knew his high school career would be over after today, he had no regrets. Only ambition to be better and play again with Sawamura in the future in his best condition. He knew that with Sawamura's raw ability alone, playing pro in Japan wasn't impossible. He also hoped that Zaizen would also feel the spark after playing against Sawamura today so they could still meet on the field in the future.
Thinking about that, his hand trembled in excitement.
'Well, it seems the future would be more interesting than I have ever thought before.'
Unlike Chris who was excited, Zaizen fell into a depression. Even though the last play was his first time on the box after the first time, Zaizen felt that his baseball career was over. And it wasn't due to his old injury, but the fear lingering inside himself for triggering another injury, afraid that he would burden his parents more.
Yeah. For a child from a middle-class family like him, getting hurt wasn't what he feared the most. The bill from the hospital was what made his body tremble. And when Zaizen first got the news that the surgery cost about 3 million yen, he fainted.
Just to be clear, the salary of both his parents was about 200,000 yen for each. That means in one month, they both received 400,000 yen in total, not even fifteen percent of the surgery cost. And this still didn't include the cost of the recovery treatment which was predicted to be around 10 months to a year until he could finally recover from the injury and could live normally.
Zaizen could still remember the sleepless night when both his parents tried so hard to ask for a loan so that he could get the surgery as soon as possible. At that time, the guilt ate him alive, depression hit him harder than anything he had ever felt before. And just like Chris the first time he had the news of the season-ending injury, the first time Zaizen thought was his baseball life was over. He didn't want to burden his parents again.
At that time, grew resentment and envious feelings toward Chris inside his heart.
To be honest, this kind of feeling was already there inside of him since Zaizen met Chris for the first time. Unlike him who had to start from below and climb with a lot of hardship, Chris got everything just by using his father's name everywhere. However, he hides it deep just because Chris was his teammate at that time and he also had to admit Chris's excellent talent as a catcher.
However, this feeling emerged to the surface again when he heard the news about Chris's injury. Unlike him who was barely able to afford the surgery, with Chris's father's connection, Chris was able to get the best condition to recover. And yet despite all of that, the catcher decided to retire from the team.
Yeah, the resentment grew from the envious feeling after seeing Chris's privilege and the anger from Chris's attitude after getting injured. Zaizen thought Chris was a coward. The first time he got hurt, he crumbled like a wet biscuit, couldn't see his own privilege that the others couldn't get. If anyone else received the same injury as Chris, let alone playing baseball again, to be able to live a normal life again was still a blessing for them.
That was why the moment he saw Chris walking back to the field after a long injury today, he wanted to vent out all of his resentment by targeting the catcher like before. Zaizen knew it was childish and cruel, but he didn't care. This was also his last present for his former teammates before he decided to retire completely from the baseball team.
By hurting Chris, if the catcher fell into the same depression hole again, that meant he wasn't made for baseball. But if he could overcome the struggle, his future would be guaranteed. This was also what he meant as the last rite for Chris. He had determined that this would be the last baseball game in his life. So, he wanted to test Chris for the last time if he was ready to come back or not.
And seeing how the catcher was able to strike him out even after being targeted cruelly like before, Zaizen had to admit Chris wouldn't have a problem coming back after his recovery.
Zaizen could only smile bitterly as he saw Chris and Sawamura fist-bumped with each other, looking at them with a complicated feeling. In the past, it was he who did that a lot with Chris, with a face full of smiles. But now, he was reduced to a crippled player who couldn't even stand on the box without having a psychological burden haunted his mind. He huffed slightly, throwing his body back to the dugout while covering his face with a small towel.
Tears rolled down from his face as the last regret came into his mind.
'If only I had the same supporting system as you, Chris….'
Author note :
Hey! I have written a few next chapters of this new story and posted it already on my account. If you want to read it in advance, you can visit /ZetaFaes .
You can read this story up to chapter 29, and I will try to update it faster.
Thank you for your support! I appreciate it! :)
-Zeta Faes-
