Devilish (Diamond no Ace)

Life Goes On

Oota tapped his thumb nervously against the steering wheel. The atmosphere within the car was tense—or rather than tense, it would be better to describe it as melancholic. He couldn't blame Yuki for feeling that way though, not after what happened to Tanba. All the third-years became quiet in their suffering and Oota would allow him the silence to think. Even if it meant losing one of the students he found it easy to chat with due to his maturity.

The issue however was—

"What are you doing?"

Oota flickered his eye to the rearview mirror to check in on the two students in the backseat. Yuki, who had been staring seriously out the window addressed Tokuchi with a question. It was the first time he had spoken up since they got in the car to head to the summer tournament drawing as Seidous' representatives.

Hana didn't bother looking up from the notebook (titled: Become the Reincarnation of Kikuchi Yusei Even Though He's Not Dead) that she was furiously scribbling words out of.

Her finger tapped against the pen in her hand creating even more noise, "Readjusting the training manuals since the Mutt and Ice Prince are going to have to pick up the slack with Baldy-senpai being MIA in the coming weeks."

'AHHH TOKUCHI! Sensitivity! PLEASE learn it!' Oota cried internally as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

"...I see."

The captain took on a weird look as he had no idea how to respond to such a blatant statement. All the adults and other students had been tiptoeing around their feelings as if even mentioning Tanba's name would cause them to crumble on the spot. And with everyone acting like that, it feels hard to say they're wrong. As if their breath would be stolen away if they gave words to the feeling of despair that's been haunting their steps since the day before.

But with her, it was like...

"What about you, Senpai?"

Yuki blinked.

"What are you going to do?"

About what? About the other third-years? About Tanba? About leading the rest of the team?

Before he could respond, the club president shouted, a little too vigorously, "We're here!"

The adult stiffly ushered them out of the car and speed-walked into the building. He couldn't move fast enough to get away from that uncomfortable atmosphere and conversation that he was listening in on.

'I swear I lose years off my life hearing this girl talk.'

The black-haired third-year fell into step beside his junior.

"Tokuchi."

"What."

"I don't know what we're going to do."

"The hell?" She stopped and turned to look up at him, eyes a glistening red under the sun. A flame that would ignite his own forgotten fire just by being in proximity, "You're gonna keep swinging your bat, aren't ya? Just keep doing what you've always done. You're the captain, Senpai. And people are idiots so monkey sees, monkey do."

Ah, that's right. With this girl, it felt like life went on. That no matter what happens, you were expected to keep going on because "what happens next" wasn't an impossibility, but an inevitability.

You won't break from just this.

He felt like he could breathe.

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