Why of All Things (1)
"Waaaaaaaaah!"
Meiji Jingu Baseball Stadium.
The instant Hongo Yukihisa's pitch slammed into the catcher's mitt—and anyone watching could see the batter's swing had come up empty—a roar erupted that sent a thrill even through the spectators who hadn't been hoping for that moment.
Nine innings. Two hits allowed. No walks. Seventeen strikeouts. A shutout.
That was Hongo Yukihisa's final pitching line in the West Tokyo qualifier final.
"Good work."
"Yeah."
The moment the last out was recorded, Yukihisa and Matsuda Masahiro had clenched their fists and roared. But once the game was truly finished, Seisho's battery pair high-fived with faces so calm it was as if none of that had ever happened.
Even they seemed to find it a little funny—because at the end, both of them smiled.
"Hey—!"
"Wooooah!"
"It's Koshien!"
"Hongo! Stop playing it cool by yourself and act happy for once!"
Yukihisa found himself surrounded by his teammates. The second-years were celebrating, of course—but it was the third-years, whose final high school tournament had just transformed from a summer Koshien qualifier into the summer Koshien itself, who were going wilder than anyone.
"·····"
Pinned in by teammates shoving him from every direction, Yukihisa stood there.
I'm exhausted.
Maybe it was the adrenaline draining out of him now that the game was over. The backlash of carrying the team as its ace pitcher all the way through the Koshien qualifiers was starting to hit.
But a man had his pride. He wasn't about to let it show here.
"We're going to Koshien!"
"I still can't believe it."
"This is unreal."
In the stands at Meiji Jingu Stadium, the fans who had cheered Seisho so fiercely were so overcome that some of them were crying. Seisho alumni. Children of alumni. Ordinary baseball fans who simply rooted for the most famous high school team in Nerima. Right now, every one of them was part of Seisho.
"Haa·····"
Seisho's second-year manager, Nagasawa Haruka, felt her legs give out and sank straight to the ground.
"Haru-chan, what are you doing?"
Third-year manager Fukada Riko, standing beside her, laughed and rested a hand on Haruka's shoulder.
"Uwaaah—we won."
"Yeah, we won. Which means we've got to work even harder from here."
Haruka looked half-soulless. Riko, by contrast, seemed perfectly composed.
"Good thing he's at our school, huh—Hongo."
"Yes····· you're right."
Only then did Haruka smile.
What had been Seisho's weakness—the absence of a clear ace—had been flipped into a strength by Yukihisa's arrival. Unlike last year's loss in the qualifier final, this year they had blown the doors to Koshien wide open with overwhelming play. He had been the driving force behind it all.
"All right—line up!"
Seisho's captain, Shirakawa Satoru, still had his heart pounding as he spoke. Even so, as captain—and as the winner—there were things that had to be done.
"Thank you!"
The victors, Seisho. The defeated, Soun. Twenty players from both sides stood in a row and bowed to one another.
The end of summer—the season that defined high school baseball. More than half of Soun High's players were in tears, but they still clenched their teeth and held themselves together.
"Congratulations."
"·····"
Soun's ace, the one who had just thrown a complete-game loss, Ootsuka Goro, held out his hand to Yukihisa. He looked utterly spent—and yet there were no tears, and nothing about him felt like a loser. For a second, Yukihisa was thrown off.
"Yeah."
Yukihisa took Goro's offered handshake.
The winner was not arrogant. The loser was not abject.
"Hongo—make it so we lost to the best school in Japan."
"·····"
"Just that we ran into you guys too early."
"I will."
Become the strongest team. Don't let our loss be for nothing. Yukihisa answered with a resolute look in his eyes.
Heavy.
Going to Koshien didn't just mean competing as a member of Seisho High's baseball club. It meant carrying the weight of the hundred and twenty-three schools that had fallen in the qualifiers, too.
The higher you climbed, the heavier the responsibility became. Yukihisa felt the things he would have to carry in his life steadily multiplying.
"Ugh."
I was doing a little better now, but my stomach had been heavy and unsettled all day.
After the game yesterday, we'd gone back to the baseball club at school and thrown a victory party. There had been sushi and fried food and all kinds of things laid out—it had been nice enough—but I must have overeaten.
Before, I could eat whatever I wanted without a problem. Maybe it was because the tournament was over and the fatigue had finally crashed down on me all at once.
Yesterday's after-party. I supposed you could call it a team dinner, in a way. Everyone had looked so happy that I hadn't hated it—but I should have just said I was tired and left early.
And if I'm being honest, today's the same.
This was Ikebukuro.
With the Koshien qualifiers finished, we'd been given some time before heading to Nishinomiya, where Koshien Stadium was, for the main tournament. And today, I had agreed to meet Hirose Satsuki.
Part of me just wanted to rest through today, too. But we'd already set the date for after the tournament, so better to get the appointment out of the way sooner rather than later.
"Hongo!"
"Ah—!"
Hirose had arrived. There should have been a good ten minutes left until our meeting time.
"You're early."
"Yeah·····"
"Hmm?"
Hirose tilted her head and smiled. I looked away slightly. It wasn't like this was the first time we'd met—there was no reason I shouldn't be able to meet her eyes, but·····
Her outfit today is a little·····
Hirose's skirt was short, and she'd left the buttons on top undone enough that the lines of her figure showed. Wasn't that a bit much exposure?
Well.
Tokyo had a heat-wave advisory out today. If I glanced around for even a second, plenty of other girls were wearing less than she was. The difference was that those girls were just background to me—and Hirose was someone I was going to spend the next few hours with. That was the problem.
"We've still got a little time. Want to hit a café?"
"Sure."
I nodded at Hirose's suggestion. We'd planned to go to the aquarium today. I had no idea why an aquarium all of a sudden—but if that was where we were going, that was where we were going.
"Hey—I've got something to show you at the café."
"Yeah?"
"Yep!"
"·····"
Hirose beamed. I answered flatly.
Already something feels off.
Hirose was always bright and high-energy, and I still hadn't gotten used to it. On top of that, I wasn't in great condition today either. This felt like throwing a complete game yesterday and then having to face a Major League All-Star lineup the next day.
"I heard coffee's actually really good for people who work out."
"Is that so? Haha."
We arrived at the café, and I accepted the coffee from Hirose with an awkward smile. Come to think of it, Shirakawa-senpai had said something similar once.
"So—you said you had something to show me earlier."
"Hm? Just a sec."
Hirose started opening her bag.
"Ta-da!"
"Ah·····"
"Hehehe."
"This is·····"
A photo of me roaring, and the headline above it. It looked like she'd cut it out of a newspaper—but she hadn't just brought the clipping. It was set inside a frame.
"It came out this morning. Did you see it?"
"No. I had no idea."
I didn't really read the paper. If I looked at articles at all, it was online.
"I wanted to give this to you as a present, so I put it together."
"·····"
I took the frame from Hirose.
It's really nice.
I'd never received anything like this before. You could feel how much care had gone into it.
"Thanks. That must have taken a lot of work."
"No way—I actually like making stuff like this."
"Yeah?"
I nodded.
Weird feeling.
I felt bad, and grateful, and a whole tangle of other things. At a moment like this, the right thing was probably to say something like how beautiful it was, or that I was so thankful I could cry·····
"Ah! We should get going now."
"Oh."
While I was still stuck in my head, Hirose grabbed hold of me and pulled me along.
"Waaah! It's so pretty!"
"Yeah."
Hirose was delighted like a little kid. We'd arrived at our destination—the aquarium.
It's kind of dark in here.
It felt a bit like a movie theater right after the film had started. The lighting stood out more than the fish themselves. Looking around, most of the people were couples, or groups of girls out together.
"Hongo, what do you think? What do you like best?"
"Huh?"
A hard question.
"That one's pretty cool."
I pointed toward the orcas.
"You like orcas!"
"Maybe?"
"Heeh."
"·····"
Yeah—this was still hard. The place, and Hirose, both.
"I've wanted to come here at least once. It's so nice."
"Yeah. Me too."
"I'm gonna run to the bathroom real quick."
"Sure."
Hirose headed for the restroom.
"Haa."
I waited until she was completely out of sight, then let out a quiet sigh.
It's not like I'm losing anything.
This was rest time either way. Sleeping more was an option, but that risked wrecking my sleep schedule. Spending time with Hirose like this wasn't going to hurt my life.
No—objectively speaking·····
Hirose was a high school girl anyone would call beautiful. The number of guys who would want even a day of her time—or an hour or two—had to be endless.
So wasn't I the one coming out ahead here? We were spending time alone together like this. You could probably even call it a date.
"·····"
I didn't really know. It wasn't as if I felt any urge to make her my girlfriend, or to pursue her.
A girl like Hirose—wouldn't she want a cool boyfriend who confessed romantically, always planned thoughtful date courses, and told her he loved her carefully, every single day? Someone who would show up at her door with a bouquet just because he suddenly missed her.
That kind of person was a long way from me.
And besides·····
I didn't think Hirose was interested in me as a guy anyway. Looking at how well she got along with Nagasawa out of nowhere, she was probably just a people person.
My role was simply to treat a connection that had happened to form with basic courtesy. She might not even contact me starting tomorrow.
"Onii-chan, why is this one a 'shark whale'?"
"Because it is."
"Ayako-chan, hurry up—we have to take a picture!"
"Just a second!"
Looking around, everyone seemed so happy.
"Look at this! That dolphin just blinked!"
"Ahahahaha!"
Is that funny?
Beside me, three girls were cracking up over a dolphin. I had no idea which part was supposed to be hilarious.
"·····"
No.
Everyone around me was laughing, enjoying themselves, looking happy—and I was the only one standing here being gloomy about it. If anyone was the weird one, it was me.
Yesterday had been the same. I'd thrown a shutout and we were going to the main tournament, so of course I was glad—but listening to the club members talk about everything that had nothing to do with baseball, forcing myself to laugh along, had been exhausting. Everyone except me had seemed to laugh so naturally.
"Fuu·····"
It's not like I didn't already know.
I was pretty sure something was missing in me as a person.
Sizzle—!
"Look—ours is cooking!"
"Yeah."
Hirose laughed and took a picture. After our time at the aquarium, we'd decided to eat at an okonomiyaki place, also in Ikebukuro. The dish we'd ordered was listed on the menu as Hiroshima-yaki. According to the description, it was basic okonomiyaki with noodles added.
"Hongo, did you know? If you go to Hiroshima and call it Hiroshima-yaki, they get really mad."
"Yeah? Why?"
"There's this whole fight between the two regions over whether okonomiyaki originated in Osaka or Hiroshima. So if you go to Hiroshima, they call Kansai-style okonomiyaki 'Kansai-yaki,' and if you go to Osaka, they call Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki 'Hiroshima-yaki.' But if you go to Hiroshima and actually say Hiroshima-yaki, they get angry."
"Ah—haha. That's pretty funny."
Hirose explained it all with real excitement. Someday I might end up playing baseball in all kinds of regions across Japan, so learning local etiquette like this was probably a good idea.
"Hm?"
Suddenly Hirose leaned in and whispered right by my ear.
"Looking at how they wrote Hiroshima-yaki on the menu, the owner is probably from the Osaka side."
"Ah····· yeah, maybe."
Hirose kept smiling. We were sitting at a slightly uncomfortable table seat, taking heat off the griddle, and she didn't show a single sign of minding.
"You know a lot of things, Hirose."
"Eugh····· that's embarrassing. Actually, Naoming told me about it a while ago."
"Naoming?"
"My friend Naomi! She's smart, good at school, and really kind. Once you meet her, Hongo, you'll like her too."
"Yeah. Looking forward to it."
I said something I didn't mean. In my current state, I had no particular desire to expand my circle of acquaintances.
"Boss—you're not watching Koshien this year?"
"Once TL Academy's baseball club disappeared, my high school baseball was over. I don't care about any of the other Osaka brats."
"·····"
While Hirose was watching the okonomiyaki, I overheard the conversation between the owner working in the kitchen and one of the staff. So he really was from Osaka.
Osaka·····
Not as big as Tokyo, but the high schools representing major Osaka would be in this tournament too—Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, and the representatives from every other region, all coming to compete.
Beating all of them and standing at the top. Just imagining it made my chest race. When I'd recorded that last out yesterday, it had felt like my heart might burst—and now I might get to experience a moment even greater than that.
"Hongo."
"·····"
"Hongo?"
"Ah! Sorry."
"It's done cooking?"
Crap. I'd gotten lost in thought and missed what Hirose was saying. When I came back to myself, the Hiroshima-yaki we'd ordered was sitting on the griddle in front of us.
"Heeh—it's summer, but it's already getting dark."
"Yeah."
After we finished eating, we stepped outside. Thanks to my body recovering a lot by the time we'd been at the aquarium, I'd managed dinner without any trouble. A reasonably successful day, then?
"Hongo."
"Yeah."
"Today wasn't much fun for you, was it?"
"Huh?"
So it hadn't been a successful day?
On the way to the subway station, another assignment had suddenly been handed to me.