"Sawamura-"

"Call me Eijun, Senpai!" Eijun interjected energetically.

"Ja, Eijun, here is your menu for today." Chris stated, handing a scroll to the energetic brunette. "Make sure you warm up thoroughly." 

"Sure Takigawa-Senpai!" The brunette yelled. Chris sighed, confused as to why the boy was so happy, even when he himself was not excited about their new battery. "Good luck at physio Senpai!" He said, gently touching Chris's shoulder. Chris's eyes widened in confusion. How had he known about my injury? Who told him? Why?  

"How did you...?"

"Well, Takigawa-Senpai is someone who Miyuki Kazuya looks up to. He wouldn't look up to you if you weren't an amazing player. But Senpai, you don't play, and you leave practice early. So you must be injured. Miyuki Kazuya would never look up to someone who was lazy and uncommitted. That means you must be trying really hard... Right Takigawa-Senpai!?" Eijun tried to finesse his explanation so that he wouldn't give away his and Miyuki's talk. He wasn't the smartest person, but even he knew that that would be a bad idea.

"Ah, that was a good deduction. I didn't realize that anyone from the second or first year classes would know or figure it out." Chris' frown deepened mildly. 

"Mmm, it might just be me and Miyuki-Senpai. He knows because he looks up to you and follows your progress closely, and I know because I look up to Miyuki-Senpai and you, and I figured it out." Eijun laughed nervously, hoping that Chris bought it. Chris hummed.

"Well either way, I hope that you don't go spreading it around. I don't particularly care what the underclassmen think about me. It's not like I'll get to play in high school again anyway." He sighed, and while his face remained quite neutral, it was easy to see that it wasn't some Chris was happy about. Eijun bit his lip before sighing.

"How do you know?"

"What?" 

"How do you know that you won't get to play again in high school?"

"Well its obvious isn't it? Seidou is a highly competitive school, and I've been injured and out of practice for over a year and a half now. With how large our club is, and the rate at which everyone improves, I find it unlikely that I'll ever get to play in another official match before I graduate." Chris, looked at his spikes frowning. "It's not like I want to sit out of my third-year, its just that I can't find it in myself to get my hopes up." The younger brunette sighed before grasping at both of Chris's shoulders. 

"Senpai, just because its unlikely, doesn't mean its impossible. I can't say I know what you're going through, because I'm not and haven't gone through it myself." Eijun's grip tightened. "But... I know you love baseball!" Eijun's eyes, glimmered fiercely. "You put yourself through too much pain everyday not too! So, Senpai, please don't say that you are going to give up." Tears gathered in the corner of his eyes.

"I-" Chris looked up into his eyes and then away again. "I can't imagine the circumstances that would allow me to play again. But fine..." Chris sighed, "I'll keep working at physio with the goal of coming back. Sawamura, no Eijun, show me why I should believe in you."

Chris stepped back, and let the shorter brunette's hands fall from his shoulders. Chris raised his fist, and tapped Eijun over his heart on his chest. 

"H-hai!" Eijun called! "I'll do my best Takigawa-Senpai!" Eijun bowed.

"Mah Eijun, if we're going to be partners, then you might as well call me Chris." Chris rubbed the back of his neck.

"Okay, Chris-Senpai!" Eijun cheerfully grinned at the older boy. "Now you should hurry up and go to physio! You'll be late Senpai!" Eijun waved, double checking that he had the training scroll in his grasp. "See you later Senpai!" and off he went.

"He's like a whirlwind. He comes when he wants, says what he wants and then leaves like a storm..." he muttered to himself, and if Chris walked to his father's car with a little bit of a prep in his step and a little more light in his eyes than there had been in a long while... well no one would know.

***

I don't know how to do half of these exercises. Eijun thought hysterically. Miyuki was busy working with Furuya, Nori was in the bullpen, and Eijun didn't know any of the other catchers well enough to ask them. Eijun ruffled through his hair roughly, letting out a silent scream of frustration. 

"Sawamura." A commanding voice came out from behind him just as he squatted down and tried to curl into himself in frustration. Eijun jumped up and whirled around in surprise.

"B-Boss?!" Eijun, exclaimed loudly, gathering looks from some of his teammates who were doing other drills on the field.

"What are you doing?" Clearly the man had given up on trying to get Eijun to refer to him in any other manner.

"Ano, Chris-Senpai left me this training menu, but I'm not sure how to do some of these exercises." Eijun bit his lip jittering. The coach held out his hand, his stoic expression unreadable from behind his sunglasses.

"Ah, here!" Eijun handed the scroll over, fumbling a bit with his hands. The coach was scary, totally like some kind of Yakuza boss from those movies grandfather used to watch. 

"This is a good training menu. It's meant to help you build up some lean muscle, stamina all while keeping your joints flexible. Chris did a good job writing this." The coach turned to look at Eijun. "Is it the abbreviations that are giving you trouble?" 

"Hai! I recognize some of them, and I understand the style of sets and reps, but I can't figure out what exercises he wants me to do."

"Okay, let me explain it to you then. You are doing four sets of twenty reps for these exercises. The exercises are as follow: squats, jumping squats, one legged squats, lunges, lunge jumps, crunches, sit-ups, V-ups, Russian twists, reverse crunches, thirty second planks (front, and then one on each side) then lastly a 20 meter sprint to complete each round. Then to build stamina he included a base runs and laps with tires. Does this make sense?" Eijun looked at him determinedly.

"Hai! I think I understand Boss! This Sawamura Eijun will endeavor to complete the exercises in a timely fashion." Eijun saluted, and the coach sighed.

"As long as you understand, that's fine. Oh, and ask Chris about adding shadow pitching to your menu. Tell him I said to add it." The boss looked at him intently.

"Shadow pitching? Yes Boss!" Eijun nodded rapidly.

"Good, get to work then." With that the slightly intimidating, yakuza like boss (coach) walked away to go oversee other parts of Seidou's practice.

Eijun sighed, deflating like a balloon. He clenched his fist, before taking a deep breath. Eijun wanted to be the ace, and that meant putting in as much time, effort and work as he physically could. He would do it, he had to! To prove to Chris-Senpai that it was possible, and to be Miyuki Kazuya's battery partner, Eijun would work harder than anyone else!

***

Hello everyone! Cinnamon Roll here. Sorry for the super late update, its been a few months eh? I recently got a internship, so I'm working, going to school full-time, playing a collegiate sport and being a club president. Anyway, life has been super busy, and I'm sorry for not updating sooner. That being said, this chapter was a long time coming, and I'm glad I was able to update it tonight. I don't know how frequently I'll be able to update from now on, but I promise that this story is not dead and will not die. 

Question of the week: What do you think Kataoka thinks about Eijun? 

If you want to talk to me about Daiya or other sports anime, or you feel the urge to give me some prompts that you'd like to see me write eventually feel free to come join me on my discord server, my nickname there is Miyuki Kazuya (lol) and I may or may not have coded a Okumura Koushuu bot... Eijun bot is still a WIP: https://discord.gg/j5PdQ2U

Love you guys! 
-Cinnamon Roll