Study, Nikogaku, Study! - Day 2

by Wind Chijmes

The next morning, arriving a little earlier, Mikoshiba began the preparations for the morning baseball practice. The no-show by the guys the night before still stung, but he tried his best to tell himself that it was a new day today and things would get better. He lugged out the equipment, set it up, then he waited.

And waited.

At half past eight, Mikoshiba checked his watch incredulously. Were the rest of the guys really planning not to turn up at all?! Frowning, he stared around him. Kawato-sensei had a meeting that morning and Yagi was at remedial sessions. And looking at the situation now, the team certainly wasn't coming at all. Which left him, alone, on the field, with a whole bunch of baseball stuff and not a single soul in sight.

"Idiots," Mikoshiba muttered into the empty air. He felt a familiar sting behind his eyes, but held it back. As if he would cry over those morons! Instead, he yanked up a practice bat. "Idiots, idiots, idiots," he ranted.

Lifting the bat, he swung it once, twice, thrice, each time imagining he was aiming at the image of the whole bloody team. After twenty swings, he started to feel a little less pissed. Ok, this was working!

"Jerks!" he yelled as loudly as he could. "Morons!" Swing. "Bastards!" Pause. All right, that was a bit much. But Mikoshiba ignored his conscience. He pulled back, and then swung again. "Stupid bunch of – people – who do stupid things!"

"That'd better not be me you're bitchin' about."

Gasping, Mikoshiba whirled around in mid-swing, almost tripping over his feet. "A – Aniya!" For the next few seconds, he could only stare at the approaching youth in a daze.

Clad in his baseball uniform, Aniya tossed his bag on the ground and began lazily stretching. That was it. No explanation. No apology. No nothing.

"Let's practise," Aniya said airily, looking it was the most natural thing to do in the world although the team was in shambles and Mikoshiba was even more pissed off than before.

"We can't practise with only two persons," Mikoshiba muttered, heading back towards the bench. He was stopped when a hand gripped his arm.

Aniya's face was serious. "I'll get the others back."

That made Mikoshiba pause. He regarded Aniya with a mixture of uncertainty and hope. "You can?" It was not that he wanted to doubt Aniya, but getting the team back together for the purpose of study, and not baseball, sounded like a monumental task even for Aniya.

"Tch." Aniya rolled his eyes. "Who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

The first sign of a smile dawned on Mikoshiba's lips. "Aniya Keiichi."

"Damn straight," Aniya smirked. "However – " he paused, his gaze deepening. "I expect something in return."

"Wh – What?" The smile disappeared from Mikoshiba's face. "But you – "

"Do I look like a fucking charity organisation?" Aniya informed him bluntly.

With his rakish hair, roguishly handsome features and arrogant sneer – nope. Not at all. Mikoshiba rolled his eyes in long-suffering silence, deciding it was wisest not to give a reply.

"I'll get the others back for you. And you – " Aniya gave an innocent smile, which just looked eerie coming from him. "Help me with my Civics and Moral Education."

Mikoshiba bit his lip, torn in indecision. On one hand, Aniya's proposal seemed perfectly logical. Yet, on the other hand, something about the whole perfectly logical part of it bugged Mikoshiba. If he knew Aniya by now, the boy never did anything without a certain measure of self-interest involved. But Mikoshiba simply could not fathom what exactly Aniya's personal agenda was.

"Fine," Mikoshiba sighed at length, seeing no way out of it.

"Deal. See ya tonight then, Captain."

Just like that, Mikoshiba was left alone at the baseball field yet again, watching the disappearing figure of Aniya, and getting the distinct feeling like he had just sold his soul to the devil.

++++++++++

He spent the better part of the day working out the plan in his head. He would have to go about this with all the skill he possessed. There were too many variable factors and the failure of just a single one could affect the entire plan. Yet he relished a challenge. Thinking about that was enough to put him in a reasonably good mood. Till this date, there was nothing that Aniya Keiichi could not get if he wanted it bad enough.

At night, he got out of the house and went to find the others. Instinctively, he knew the rest of the team was at the batting centre. There was nowhere else they could be. So, when he set foot at the batting centre, it didn't surprise him to see the familiar figures of those eight morons sprawling all over the last booth, and making quite the nuisance of themselves.

"Oi, Aniya!" they greeted in a noisy chorus of voices when they spotted him.

He lifted a hand in response, and sat himself on the bench, next to Shinjo and Sekikawa. Then they watched in companionable silence as the others took their turns at batting. Taking turns was an optimistic perspective of the boisterous, loud and bickering manner those idiots worked out their rights to the bat. Wakana and Hiyama blustered and bullied their way around, and ended up turning on each other. Yufune whined and got into everyone's face until the others let him a turn just to shut him up. A resourceful Okada took his chances every time the others got into a fight. Imaoka stood by helplessly and tried to stop Hiratsuka from lighting into everybody else.

"Fucking idiots..." Sekikawa murmured, his impish face unusually thoughtful. "They just miss baseball, that's all."

"Look who's talking," Shinjo responded, his gaze wry behind his blonde fringe, and that strange twitch to his lip he always got when he could not decide whether or not to smile.

Look who's babysitting you all, Aniya sighed inwardly. Still he waited, watching in bystander silence as the others quarrelled even harder, over the most ridiculous things, and in complete denial that they were just pissed because the batting centre was a goddamned poor substitute for the baseball field. He didn't stop them either, when Sekikawa bounded over for his own turn and instantly got into a shoving match with Hiratsuka.

It was only when the batting centre had closed for the night, and they were all kicked out by the security, that Aniya spun on his heels and began walking away. The others immediately followed, curious and annoyed at the same time. Aniya said not a word and simply walked along. It didn't take long for the boys following behind him to realise where they were going to. That certainly shut them up for good.

All fell quiet as they headed towards the one place that welcomed them with neither judgment nor reproach.

With loud sighs and groans, the youths reached their spot on the grassy slope and flopped to the ground. Whether by mutual agreement or habit, they fell into a row, leaned onto their backs, and gazed up at the night sky. There, at their hideaway, the city was a distant hum, the sky seemed more velvety, and the stars just that little bit brighter.

"Feels nice, naa..." Sekikawa drawled as he stared upwards unblinkingly into the night sky.

"Yeah..." the other boys echoed in various expressions of agreement. None would elaborate much more, opting for stoic silence instead.

"Two nights now..." Wakana murmured, probably not intending to be heard, but the others certainly caught his words. There was an uncomfortable shifting throughout the entire row of boys.

Aniya sensed the opening immediately. "Yeah," he rejoined. "Imagine Kawato-sensei in the office, preparing all that revision work for no one. Always an idiot."

Uneasy laughter came in fits and starts from the rest.

"You went to school today, Aniya?" Yufune asked, a tinge of hesitation to his tone.

"I popped by," Aniya said evenly. He was silent for several moments, before deciding to go for the jugular. "Saw Mikoshiba, that moron, doing solo practice."

"'Course he'd do that," Hiyama grunted. "Captain and all."

Silence reigned yet again, leaving each boy to his own unsettled thoughts.

After what seemed like eternity, Wakana was the first to get up. Swinging his bag roughly over his shoulder, he made a show of straightening his uniform. "I'm outta here," he said brusquely, not looking at anyone else.

From the ground, Hiyama gave a snort or a chuckle, no one knew for sure, and lifted a hand. "Gimme a hand here, bro." He muttered a curse as Wakana took his hand and tugged him up roughly. "Easy. You wanna snap my joints or something."

Okada had already sat up, features pinched in cautiousness. "Where're you guys going?"

Wakana cocked his head and flashed him a wry smirk. "Where you'll be going later. Ja," he turned and began striding away, Hiyama following behind in the same gruff fashion.

Aniya folded his hands at the back of his head. He listened to the sounds of the other boys shifting restlessly, and slowly, in ones and twos, began getting up and cooking up excuses to leave.

Closing his eyes, Aniya grinned into the darkness.

++++++++++

Swallowing didn't really ease that lump in his throat, Mikoshiba found out as he stood on the path. Aniya had said he would round up the others by that night, didn't he? Yet, now, standing on the path that would lead to the club room, Mikoshiba was afraid to find out just how good Aniya's word was. That was the problem when one was given that ray of hope. It made disappointment that much harder to swallow afterward.

But Aniya had said...

Taking a deep breath, Mikoshiba willed his feet forward. If Aniya had said he'd get something done, he'd do it if it took his life. Bolstered by that knowledge, Mikoshiba kept moving, letting his feet carry him forward. He stopped at the steps that led up to the club room, eyes staring down at the ground, hands damp.

It was so silent.

Mikoshiba's heart hammered like a wild drum. That was abnormal, and totally unnatural. There was never once that the club room was quiet like this if there were people in it. It would always be noisy with the din of voices and laughter and quarrels. Well, unless...there was no one there after all. Mikoshiba felt his head swim; he was so nervous it felt like the first time he thought maybe there was a chance he could play baseball with his comrades again.

After several minutes of standing there like a fool, Mikoshiba eventually chided himself for being such a coward. Even if there was no one there that night, there were still three days left of the study camp. And even if – heaven forbid – the rest totally refused to turn up for the rest of the camp, surely Kawato-sensei could change the Principal's mind about cancelling their baseball practices.

Biting down hard on his lip, Mikoshiba looked up.

His heart dropped right to the pit of his stomach. He stared dumbly. There was...the lump was back in Mikoshiba's throat. There was a light coming from the club room! Could Aniya really have –

Taking the stairs two steps at a time, Mikoshiba bounded towards the club room. He reached the door and threw it open.

The light made him blink and for a split-second, Mikoshiba couldn't see beyond the whiteout.

Then, the room came sharply into focus and Mikoshiba saw the first baseball glove hurtling through the air. It smacked him right in the head with a painful thunk. Before he could yelp, the other missiles came flying – gloves, unwashed T-shirts that stank to high heavens, old baseballs, a freaking catcher's helmet – and he heard a roar of voices that sounded sweetly familiar to his ears.

"Mikoshiba, you bastard! Where've you been?!"
"Here we are suffering, and you're fucking enjoying yourself somewhere!"
"What kinda Captain are you, nyaa!"
"I need help with the neuro-fucking-sensory system, dammit, get your ass over here!"

Mikoshiba gazed at the faces of his team mates, some scowling, some tired, some grumpy as hell, but all eventually breaking into grins. He saw the schoolbooks scattered around the room, torn and worn out with repeated flipping and thumbing and writing, and tried to blink away the suspicious moisture in his eyes.

"If you start crying, I'm gonna pound you into dust!" Hiyama barked at him warningly, but everyone called his bluff.

"You ingrates," Mikoshiba scolded them, bending down and picking up the objects they had attacked him with earlier, swiping away at the traitorous tears with one hand. "You made me so worried."

"You're our Captain," Sekikawa laughed. "You're the biggest idiot of us all."

"That's the most correct thing I've heard all night," came another voice at the doorway.

Mikoshiba stood up, arms full of baseball paraphernalia-slash-weapons, and looked at Aniya. He wanted to say thanks, or something in gratitude, or anything, but somehow, when he saw the knowing glint in Aniya's gaze, there was no need to.

"Saa," Aniya straightened and gestured a hand towards the general baseball population in the room. "How you gonna punish them, Captain?"

Above the violent protests and insults of Aniya's lineage, Mikoshiba stared around him, now noting the tons of undone worksheets and test sheets with horrific red markings. "I guess none of us is sleeping tonight," he said wryly.

Aniya met his gaze, and his eyes crinkled up in a rare genuine smile.

Prologue ~ Day 1 ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5 ~ Epilogue ~