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“Strike! Batter out!” The emperor exclaimed, for around the 8th time today. Sawamura was getting bored of these “Baseball Prodigies” from across America, not even being good! How can someone call themself that and not be able to hit a simple fast ball. Pathetic.He looked up to see his coach staring at him. “Sawamura pitcher change with Theo!” he exclaimed, obviously not happy, Sawamura implied by the neutral, but scowling look that stayed on his face, the whole time Sawamura looked at him, and it still never left.Sawamura mumbled something under his breath and jogged over to the bench. Why did he sub him out? He could have won this game by himself, with how everyone was playing today. He is not trying to be mean to his teammates, but anyone could tell he’s the best on the team, by watching one of his games. It wasn’t mean to say the truth.“What’s wrong coach? Why did you sub me out, I was playing well today.” Sawamura said and his coach sighed heavily, his face returning to its ‘non-scowling’ face.“I’m sorry Sawamura. I don’t think you are a good..fit for this team. You need to learn to work as a team, not try to carry the whole game on your back.” his coach stated looking Sawamura dead in the eyes.“So you want me to play badly?” Sawamura asked “What’s the fun in that, if I try to mess up all of my pitches?” He looked at his coach confused and slightly angry, by what his coach was telling him.“You won’t have to pitch for this team anymore, because I’m kicking you off. I’m sorry, Sawamura.” Sawamura looked at him dumbfounded with this new information.“What?” Sawamura asked, making sure he heard him right, knowing deep down that he did. “Fine, whatever.” Sawamura mumbled, taking off his jersey and handing it back to his coach. Sawamura walked off back to his parents telling them the news.His mom looked at him angrily and walked over to the car, obviously mad at him, for something he can’t even control. Why was this his fault? Why was he getting punished for being too good? He didn’t ask to have all this talent.His dad looked at him sympathetically and walked over to the car with his mother. He followed soon after, not wanting to make her more mad then she already was.He hopped into the car, buckled his seatbelt, and his dad started driving, reversing out of the parking spot and out of the parking lot, onto the road ahead.This was going to be a hell of a car ride, that’s for sure.
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The drive home was quiet. The silence was swallowing him whole. Every breath rang through the air like an echo. He couldn’t take the silence anymor- “Eijun.” his mom said harshly, obviously not happy with the news he had given her moments earlier.Sawamura stayed silent listening to his mom lecture him again. “I can’t believe you got kicked off another team. What did you do this time?” his mom spoke loudly at him.“Nothing! I didn’t do anything.” Sawamura tried to explain, knowing his mom wouldn’t listen to him, trying to make the story his fault, just like she does every time something happens that includes him.“You expect me to believe that?” she asked amusement in her voice, like she was mocking him. “Obviously you did something, you can’t keep getting kicked off teams, we have to pay for these.”“I know i’m sorry, but I really didn’t do anything, I swear!” Sawamura tried to make her believe him, but it didn’t work how he wanted it too. “Nevermind, it was my fault. Sorry.” he said, his voice sounding quiet and small.The rest of the ride home was quiet, sickeningly quiet. They finally got home, his parents leaving the car without saying a word. He packed up his things and followed closely behind them, his head tilted towards the ground, in an attempt the hide himself from the rest of the world.He sat on the couch, a look of defeat plastering his face. He heard his parents start talking, before they were interrupted with a loud couple knocks on the door. Sawamura quickly answered the door, revealing a young woman, with brown hair and glasses , standing in front of him.“Hello, would you happen to be Sawamura Eijun?” The woman asked politely. How does she know me? “I have been scouting your games and it’s safe to say, I am very impressed with your playing style. If your parents are home, i’d love to have a talk with you guys.” his question answered almost immediately as if she could read his mind.“Okay?” Sawamura asked slightly confused by who this woman was, asking about him. “You can sit follow me to the couch, my parents are sitting there anyway.” The woman nodded and followed him inside.They all sat down around the coffee table in the middle of the room, Sawamura and his parents on one side, and the woman on the other. “Hello Mr and Mrs. Sawamura, I am a scout from The Seidou baseball team, all the way in West Tokyo, i’ve come here for a couple weeks, and have been scouting your performance over this time. I would like to offer you the chance to play on our team. We would like to give you a sports scholarship to make this happen.”Sawamura’s jaw felt like it hit the floor. Was he hearing this right? 6000 miles away from home? To play baseball? “Japan?!” Sawamura whisper shouted across the table. The woman looked at him and nodded, not at all shocked by the reaction.“Yes, that is correct.” she stated again. His parents looked star struck, in a bad way. (If that was possible). “We would really appreciate your help on our team.” she continued on.Sawamura looked at his parents “It’s up to you kiddo” his dad spoke kindly. Sawamura smiled brightly and nodded vigorously. “I would love too! That would be a dream come true!” The woman smiled softly at him.“You would be leaving in 3 days if you take the offer.” The woman stated all of the precautions, making sure he actually wanted to do this. “Please reach out to me, if you decide to change your mind. It has been a pleasure talking to you, and I hope you decide to come to our school. Have a nice day.”The woman waved off and made her way towards the door. “I’ll be off now.” she said and walked out the door, obviously pleased with the reactions she got out of Sawamura, hoping he would choose to participate on their baseball team.
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Time skip: The day of the flightSawamura had just finished packing his bags and put them near the front door, to be ready to leave when the scout comes to his door, to go to the airport. He can’t believe he’s actually doing this. He gets to go to Japan? On one hand he’s very excited, on the other he has to leave his whole life behind, travel across the world, and he knows no one there.Suddenly, there was a knock on his door, he knew all too well who was standing, waiting for him at the door. He opened the door, the woman from 3 days ago, standing in front of him. She stepped inside, next to Sawamura.“Go say goodbye to your parents.” she told him, knowing he wasn’t going to see them for a little while, unless he wanted to fly back and forth, but that would be a hassle. “Then we will get going.” she added as he started walking away, towards the stairs.He nodded and ran up the steps, opening his parents bedroom, to see them sitting on their bed talking about who the hell knows what. He walked over to them and sat down on the bed. He threw himself around them, hugging them with all the strength in his body (which wasn’t too much, but whatever).“I’ll miss you guys so much, I don’t know when I will be able to see you again, but I hope sometime soon.” Sawamura cried out. The thought of leaving his parents behind was something he had never even considered before. He thought he was going to live with them forever, but that obviously isn’t the case anymore.His dad patted his back, “Hey don’t cry. It’s okay. We will see you again you know. It’s not like you are leaving forever, so don’t worry about it.” he stated reassuringly, trying to calm his son down. His mom added on “Yes your father is right, we will see you again, Eijun.”“Well I guess this is goodbye for now.” He smiled through his tears. “Yes, make sure to come visit us and tell us how Japan is.” his dad joked, “Bye Eijun!” both of his parents said in sync. He bid them farewell one last time and walked back down the stairs, wiping his tears on his sleeve.The scout nodded towards his bags and made her way out of the door. “By the way, my name is Takashima Rei, but I don’t mind whatever you want to call me.” she said as they walked to the car together, hopped in, and drove off, leaving Sawamura’s past in the past, and ready for a brand new start.When they finally got to the airport, they quickly made their way through security, trying to get to the gate as soon as possible, realizing that their flight left in less than an hour. The drive had taken a little longer than expected with all the traffic that she had hoped wouldn’t be there, but surprise surprise it was.She knew they should have left earlier, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment between him and his parents. They finally made their way to the gate in around 30 minutes and sat down to wait till they were called to board their flight.They started announcing who could board. They called first class to board and suddenly, Sawamura saw Rei hop up and start walking towards the gate. He jumped up and followed after her. They got first class?! He had never been in first class before! How rich was this woman?They got into their seats. Sawamura looked around, the seats were very spacious, his legs having a lot of room to stretch. He had his own little small room to himself. The walls surrounding him were a light shade of periwinkle blue.He sat down on the seat and turned on the above averaged sized airplane TV and put on the movie 10 things I hate about you and grabbed a blanket beside him, draping it over his torso and making himself comfortable with all the space he had. Soon after he fell asleep, his mind wandering into a dream space.Suddenly, he felt himself drift back into reality and a harsh shaking to his body. He opened his eyes slowly to see the shaking had come from Rei who was waking him up. “The plane is about to land.” she said yawning tiredly.Sawamura sat up in his seat, waiting for the plane to land any moment now. The plane finally arrived to the landing spot and came to a quick stop. They exited the plane and made their way to the exit doors of the airport.Rei quickly called a cab to come grab them from the airport to take them to the school, where Sawamura would be staying. The cab arrived in record time and they hopped in, buckling their seatbelts. The cab started driving and in no time they made it to the school.Sawamura was shaking with nerves and excitement. He was about to grab his bags when Rei cut him off, “I’ll take them to your dorm. You can go check out the field and maybe meet some of the players. Just walk that way and turn left.” Sawamura nodded and grabbed his phone out of his backpack just in case, and started walking towards the direction she pointed him in.
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Sawamura walked forward and turned left, like she had directed him. He walked through a hallway, the walls looking worn out, which wasn’t surprising. He wasn’t paying attention because suddenly he hit a sturdy chest. His face flushed in embarrassment and he stammered out an apology in english, forgetting people spoke Japanese here, “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”He looked up to get a glimpse of the boys face, then realized there were 3 other people with him. Two of the boys started speaking overlapping each other, which is when he realized he didn’t apologize in Japanese, “It’s okay.” and “What the fuck does that mean.” one talking in English the other not.“What was he saying, Chris?” The green haired boy asked, looking at him with a look of…awe? Sawamura collected his thoughts as he looked back as the boy who’s name was Chris. “He was just apologizing.” The green haired boy just nodded.The other two boys next to him just looked confused. “Who are you?” the boy with pink hair asked, his gaze locking with Sawamura. “My names Sawamura Eijun.” I introduced, speaking in the correct language this time. “Sorry for bumping into you by the way.”Chris just tilted his head, as if saying ‘Its fine’ and looked at him again. “What are you doing here?” he asked, curiosity evident in his tone of voice. “Uh i’m looking for the baseball field. I was scouted to join the team.” The boys seemed to understand and one of them said, “Well in that case we might as well introduce ourselves because we are your new teammates.”The pink haired one nodded, “I’m Ryousuke Kominato, pleasure to meet you.”The green haired boy went next, “Kuramochi Yoichi!”The next one was a slightly taller boy than him, with brown hair, “I’m Miyuki Kazuya, nice to meet you, Sawamura.”“And you already heard my name but i’m Takigawa Chris Yū.” he introduced last of the four.“Nice to meet you guys too!” Sawamura responded quickly and kindly, hoping that maybe they could all become friends.Before he could get lost in thought Miyuki questioned, “So what position do you play?” he pushed curiously. Sawamura smiled, “I’m a pitcher.” Miyuki grinned widely at him, “Ah well i’m a catcher. Maybe I could catch for you someday.”“Don’t get too ahead of yourself.” Ryousuke said calmly. “We have to get going, Sawamura. See you on the field tomorrow.” he continued. The boys all said their goodbyes and walked away, going the opposite direction of Sawamura.He turned around and saw Rei standing behind him. “I forgot to tell you earlier, but your dorm is number 5, just that way.” she pointed her finger out. “I put all your bags down, but you can go unpack. See you later.” She bid him off and walked away.He started off to his dorm, when he was stopped by again, another person. He looked up at the man standing before him. He definitely wasn’t a player. Was this his coach?“Who are you? Why are you walking around the field?” he questioned, sternly. Sawamura’s nerves skyrocketed at the tone of voice. “Uhm I’m Sawamura Eijun, a new player, I was scouted out.” he answered cautiously.The man still looked confused, “The new players aren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow. Why are you here so early?” he questioned.“I’m from America and the flight was today, so I had to get here early because that’s when the flight was booked.” he answered, a little more pride in his voice than before.The man nodded, “What position do you happen to play?” he asked curiously. Sawamura responded quickly, “I’m a pitcher, sir!” he said smiling at him, but the mans face stayed in a neutral scowl.The man nodded. Sawamura looked at him expectantly, but he just walked away. Weird… Sawamura thought as he continued on his walk to his dorm and walked inside. Seeing his things on the top bunk on one of the sets of bunk beds.He realized there were two other people who lived here (based on the backpacks on two other beds). He was really excited to meet his new roommates. Maybe one of them would be one of the boys he met earlier. He hoped so, at least then he would know one of them.He sat down on his bed, deciding he’s just gonna rest today, and prepare for his first tryouts tomorrow morning. He sat in bed for around an hour, before he heard someone opening the door. Finally one of his roommates was here. The door opened revealing the green haired boy from earlier.“Oh hi Sawamura!” Kuramochi said with a big smile on his face. “I didn’t realize we were roommates.” He said a confused look on his face, before he just shrugged and made his way to the bottom bunk, under Sawamura, placing his backpack on the floor next to him.“Do we have any other roommates?” Sawamura asked, his eyes still glued to his phone. Kuramochi nodded, “Yeah we have one more. His name is Masuko.” Sawamura hummed in acknowledgment.Suddenly, the door opened and ‘Masuko’ walked in and walked over to the other side of the room, to the other bunk beds. He moved his backpack to the bottom bunk and climbed up to the top one. He turned to Sawamura and greeted him, “Hello, you must be Sawamura, right? I’ve heard about you from one of my friends.”Sawamura nodded, “Yes that’s me.” Masuko looked over at him again and then turned away to grab something, “Want some pudding?” Sawamura started at him confused, until he actually pulled out a thing of pudding and tossed it over to him. “Yeah, thanks?” Masuko opened his own thing of pudding and started eating it. Where was he getting all this pudding?Sawamura and Kuramochi chatted all night, not getting all the sleep they were supposed to, but they had fun, so it was worth it. The two boys finally went to sleep at 2am. Sawamura slept great, better than most days, for some reason.
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When he woke up he looked at his phone, it read,6am, the time he woke up to go on his morning run. He quietly got up out of bed, realizing Kuramochi and Masuko weren’t up yet. He just shrugged it off and exited the dorm.He ran in a circle around the outside of the field 3 times, before walking over to the a bench and picking up his water bottle and taking a sip. He jogged back over to his dorm, opening the door and climbed up to the top bunk, grabbing his phone and checking the time, 7:30am. He was out that long?He sat in his bed for another 30 minutes, before he decided to get ready. It was already 8:10 by the time he got ready. He grabbed his backpack, filled with everything he needed, a glove, two bats, a helmet, etc.By the time they got there, everyone was also walking over to the field. Once all the first years got there, Sawamura looked around to be surrounded by at least thirty other players. The man he met yesterday walked onto the field and shouted, “You can call me coach Kataoka! Everyone separate into your position!”Sawamura found the other pitchers trying out and followed them over to the bullpen and every one of them stood in front of one of the catchers lined up across the bullpen to catch for us.A woman walked up to all the pitchers tossed a ball to each of them, “Throw five practice pitches, so we can evaluate them.” she said sternly. Sawamura called her over confused. She walked over, “What do you need?” she asked.Sawamura turned around to look at her, “Well I have twelve pitches. Am I just supposed to pick five of them? Or should I throw all of them for the evaluation?” He asked. The woman had a look of surprise cross her face, “Uh give me a minute.” She said as she walked over to the coach.Seconds later he walked over to Sawamura, “What do you want?” he asked, tiredly. His neutral resting bitch face never leaving his face, their whole conversation they had“Well, she told us to throw five pitches, but I know how to throw twelve, so should I throw all twelve, or just pick five to throw?” he asked, repeating his question. A look of surprise he had never seen before, crossed his face, “You can throw twelve?” He asked, a face of disbelief.Sawamura just nodded at him, still wondering if he should choose five. “Uhm you can just pick your best five pitches.” he responded. Sawamura nodded again, going back into pitching position as The coach walked over to the middle of the field, watching over everyone and the woman went back into position to watch everyone’s pitches, “Okay everyone can start now, sorry for the wait!” she spoke loudly at the pitchers who nodded and started pitching.Sawamura chose five of best pitches (all of them were good, but he felt these ones were the ones he has perfected the most). He started with a screwball, he raised his hands, getting ready to do his windup. He raised his leg unbelievably high, before twisting his whole body down towards the home plate, until his foot was facing the plate. He released the ball from his grip, swinging his arm down fully.The catcher didn’t even have to move his glove, as the ball landed right in the middle of it, the sound echoing through the air, stunning the catcher. He threw the ball back to Sawamura and awaited another pitch. He decided to throw a simple fastball, going back into his abnormal position, releasing the ball from his fingertips, watching it sore through the air, straight into the catchers glove, giving a loud *smack* noise.Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to face Coach Kataoka who just looked at him with a straight face“First string. Tomorrow.”
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Sawamura stood there stunned for at least a couple minutes, not processing what just happened. He stood there staring off into space, before a giant grin broke out on his face, obviously pleased with himself.He was in another world for the rest of the tryouts, not fully knowing what he was doing, but proud of himself for getting on to the team so fast, considering how good some of the players were.When the tryouts ended he skipped (yes skipped.) off to his dorm and opened the door, meeting the laughing faces of Kuramochi and Masuko.They noticed him standing there and Kuramochi immediately fired up a conversation. “How did it go, Sawamura?” he asked excited to hear about his day and more specifically how tryouts had gone for him.“I’m on the first string..” he said, still kind of in disbelief at that fact. How did he get on to the first string so fast? Kuramochi mouth gaped “WHAT? HOW? ALREADY?” jaw literally hitting the floor.Sawamura laughed at the green haired boy. “Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.” he said awkwardly, not wanting to say anything that could potentially make him sound cocky.Kuramochi picked his jaw up from the floor and let out a breathy, “I’ve never heard of anyone getting on to the team so fast.” disbelief evident in his tone of voice.The momentary disbelief on his face was swiftly overtaken by a giant grin, stretching from ear to ear, almost as bright as the sun and it almost sounded as if he screeched by how loud he exclaimed, “Oh my god! This means we’re going to be on the same team! This is going to be so fun!”Sawamura thought his eardrums were bursting by how loud Kuramochi was talking, but he couldn’t help the smile that made its way on to his face at the boys excitement.“Yeah I guess i’ll see you on the field!” Sawamura said. He was about to walk away and plop down onto his bed, even though he wasn’t even tired, when Masuko suddenly spoke up, “Wow how is a first year better than me.” He said, sarcasm hinted in his voice.Everyone laughed at his joke and fell into deep conversation, laughing and chatting, Kuramochi bursting everyone’s eardrums. They were all chatting away, when there was a knock on there door, it was quiet compared to the talking in the room, but not quiet enough to not be heard.Kuramochi quickly opened the door, seemingly knowing who was standing on the other side. The door swung open revealing the tall catcher, who he had met the other day, now standing outside his dorm room.“MIYUKI! What are you doing here?” Oh so Sawamura was wrong, Kuramochi didn’t know who was on the other side. Miyuki laughed, stepping inside of the dorm.“I was just bored, so I came here.” he walked over to Kuramochi’s bed, sitting down without a care in the world. He looked over towards Sawamura and smiled, “How did tryouts go? Coach like you?”Before Sawamura could speak up, Kuramochi spoke for him. “OH MY GOD I DIDNT TELL YOU! SAWAMURA MADE THE FIRST STRING ON THE FIRST DAY OF TRYOUTS!” Kuramochi said sounding more excited then even Sawamura felt at the moment.Miyuki’s face turned into confusion. “What? On the first tryouts?” Kuramochi nodded enthusiastically and the confusion on the catchers face was replaced with a devilish smirk. “Ah I was right, I will be catching for you.”Sawamura’s face flushed slightly and he nodded. Miyuki looked back over at him and started, “Well i’ll see you at practice.” He winked and stood up, waking out of the room and shutting it behind him. Sawamura blinked, processing what just happened.Kuramochi laughed, “That’s Miyuki for you, he’ll take any chance to tease people, don’t worry about it.” Sawamura just nodded and laid down in his bed, not realizing how late it had gotten and how tired he suddenly felt.He bid goodnight to everyone and as his head hit the pillow, he closed his eyes and fell into the world of dreams. Awaiting the day tomorrow.