Southpaw

In Which Strange Things Happen to the Sawamura Family

Okay, so maybe it wasn't as easy as Eijun originally thought it would be to learn more pitching from only a book. Practicing was great and all , but it was definitely harder than it sounded. Eijun grumbled as the ball curved away from the wall at the last second.

Recently he had discovered that his weird pitch was actually a moving fastball, something that he could hone... maybe?  Either way, with his minimal training in baseball during middle school he knew he had a lot of work to do if he wanted to play anywhere in high school. So he started somewhere easier. 

First Eijun decided to get some money for basic equipment. Things like medicine balls, weights and other training equipment were expensive, so he spent his mornings doing chores for his neighbors. Which is what lead to the meager pile of training items he had in his yard. plant tape, for the Sawamura crops helped him make a makeshift strike-zone on the wall, for him to practice control.  And so he had a rough practice area that would help him get better.

Eijun cried out in triumph as he finally got a ball to not veer away from the wall. He released a deep breathe before collecting  his ball and fingering it to ingrain the grip in his mind. The four seam appeared to be ball that wouldn't break... or at least not as much as his other balls usually did. However, He knew that while learning grips were great, he would actually need to watch someone pitch a breaking ball before he could try it himself. So for the first time in his life, Eijun prepared to watch baseball, and not just play it. 

"MOM I NEED TO USE THE COMPUTER REALLY QUICK!" He rushed into the house quickly wiping his feet on the door mat, before sprinting to the computer desk as if it was the home plate and executing a beautiful dive into the chair... at it would have been perfect if Sawamura Eitoku hadn't been watching.

"Brat! You better watch what you're doing. You could've knocked me over!" Eijun felt the punch to his head before hearing his grandfather. Sawamura Eitoku was a stern man, who had many wrinkles from smiling and frowning. The frowning was probably a result of Eijun's shenanigans as a child... and even now.

"Ah, sorry grandpa." Eijun winced apologetically before turning back to the computer. Eitoku huffed before moving out of the room, muttering about disrespectful brats, and still having a strong body.

Eijun sighed booting up the computer before biting his lip to figure out a plan of action. He opened up the search bar and typed in Baseball Pitchers, before shaking his head and typing in Southpaw baseball pitchers high school Japan. The super long search parameters came in handy when the results popped up. First there was an article about someone called Narumiya Mei, a star pitcher for Inashiro Industial High School; Then there was a small bio on some pitcher from a school called Teito whose name was Taiyo.... Eijun snickered slightly at the closeness of the names before scrolling down to the rest of the page. He ended up picking the article about Narumiya Mei, because that Teito dude happened to be a sidearm pitcher.

Narumiya Mei, also known the Prince of Capital is known for his flashy pitching style of breaking balls, and fast balls. As a first year, he became a regular, and then the ace of Inashiro. However, when the team reached Koshien this year, they lost in the early rounds. Narumiya's pitching style is centered around a fast pace, and aggressive pitches that are called by his pitcher Harada. 

The rest of the article went on the explain Narumiya's fanbase, and how cool he was. By the time he was done reading the article, Eijun had noticed a link at the bottom to the game and scrimmage schedule for their off season and in season play. Eijun's eyes widened as he realized that there would be a game that upcoming weekend. Just then, the door slammed open, startling Eijun from his reverie. 

"Eijun, there is someone here to visit you! Get downstairs right now." Eijun staired at his grandfather confused. Wakana and Nobu knew that he was busy this week, so it couldn't be his friends-

"Eijun Stop moping and go right now." Eijun sighed before shuffling down the stairs at a moderate pace. When he reached the sitting area, he immediately took notice of the unkown person present. 

She had dark brown hair, an athletic build and a pair of glasses that gave her a calculating look. The way she dressed indicated that she was probably someone from a professional field. She looked up at him when he coughed to get the room's attention. 

"Sawamura Eijun-kun. My name is Takashima Rei. I am a scout for Seido High school in Tokyo." She took his left-hand in hers feeling the callouses on his fingers that indicated the hours of practice he put in for baseball.

"Seido? that prestigious school? How do we know that you're not some fake?" His father questioned. She slid over a professional looking business card as evidence before pushing up her glasses. But before she could continue, Eijun's mother also interjected.

"Why would a school like Seido want Eijun? After the incident, we didn't think that anyone would want him." She frowned.

"I could see this when he was slapping people, but his technique and flexibility indicated his skill as a pitcher...." As she was talking Eijun zoned out.

'Why  would anyone want me to play at their school? I know that I've been working... and improving, but we lost every single one of our games. Besides, I promised my friends that I'd take them to Koshien... I can't break that promise.'

"I can't go..." He said quietly looking down, something that was abnormal for him, "I promised everyone that I'd take them to Koshien... and besides, you don't need to go to a fancy school to play baseball, you can play anywhere." Eijun's family glanced at each other before brining him into an Emergency family meeting. 

"You should go Eijun, this might be your only chance to go to high school."

"You'd be hard-pressed to find a school or even a team in Nagano that would take you after the incident."  The comments came flooding in, until Eijun finally had enough.

"ENOUGH!" He shouted shocking everyone present, "Can I at least visit the campus first? If I a go there, and I mean if, then I want to know what my prospective teammates might be like."

Takashima-san's glasses glinted as she smirked. "In two days, you may visit the campus, I will pick you up from the station so that you can check out the equipment. My card has both my email and number, please contact me if you have any questions." With that she bowed, courteously before leaving.

Not even a second later Eijun's mother pounced on him causing him to squeal. He wasn't very tall in the first place, in fact his mother was taller than him, so he nearly fell when she jumped on him.

"Mom, I'm not promising that I'll like it, or even that I'll go... I still have that promise I made to my teammates about Koshien. Either way, I guess I'm just going to check it out..." He sneakily looked at his grandfather before adding, "By the way, Grandpa, you didn't think that I would get an option for high school... For a reward, can you take me to watch the Inashiro versus Ichidai baseball game?" He gave his grandfather a pleading look.

It took a moment, but once his words sunk in, his family gasped. Two strange things had happened today. First, a recruiter came for Eijun, and now Eijun wanted to watch baseball?

Then it was pandemonium.

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Author's Note: Yeah... So I forgot to mention this, but you've probably noticed that this isn't going to follow cannon. I know that Eijun is a little OOC right now, but I think that studying even something like a baseball book would make you learn, and eventually get "smarter". Either way, Eijun has been working on baseball for over a moth since his last game with Akagi. So, you can imagine how much he'll change for later. I'm trying to keep true to the essence of his character though, so yeah. I also didn't mean to update this so soon haha, but the ideas wouldn't stop plaguing my mind so here?

-CinnamonRoll0307