Chapter 1

Sawamura Eijun was born to an eccentric family. The males were far too excitable, and the females less so.

But Sawamura Eijun definitely had the best family ever, because you see, he had once lived a life before.

His previous life hadn't been a life worth living, in his regard. A girl who spent too much of her time bent over an open book, scared of her mother, her father and alone. Utterly alone and terrified.

Her parents had had expectations.

They had wanted her to be smart, capable and a toy in their desire to continue in her father's legacy. She spent the first half of her life terrified of her mother, and the second half of her father.

In the end, before she had even managed to earn a medical licence, she had half willingly- half shoved- jumped in front of a subway train.

Her life had ended with the sweet thrum of victory in her veins- the first of its kind.

Sawamura Eijun was born to a man who cried too easily, and a woman who laughed and smiled brightly. A grandmother who was cheeky but gentle, and a grandfather who was clumsy but enthusiastic.

Sawamura Eijun was born with a love he had never felt before.

When Eijun was three, his grandmother who laughed loudly but sang gently passed away. The thrum of music remained in the wind along with her spilled ashes.

When he was five, his grandfather taught him how to play shogi, sitting by the veranda, with cicadas screaming in the background and cut apricots in front of them.

His grandfather spent the most time with Eijun. He was beloved, of course he was, but it was his grandparents that he was the closest to. He had spent days crying when his grandmother passed away, comforted only when his grandfather decided to place him on his lap, muttering under his breath about loud children affectionately.

It was around that time that his grandfather decided that Eijun was far too obedient and willing to stay with his family for a boy his age, and he was subsequently introduced to Wakana.

Wakana lived nearby. They could even be called neighbours, as was the case in a small town like theirs.

Wakana was bold, her eyes looked straight at Eijun, it narrowed, then she decided that they were going to be best friends and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

Since then, Eijun and Wakana could be found together, running around and causing mischief. Wakana was a first class enabler. Every little idea Eijun had, Wakana would incite it until Eijun couldn't stop himself from doing it, then stay back and watch with a smile as the world fell apart around them. And by that, Eijun meant, his teacher, fellow students, or his grandfather running after them with a cane.

Though Eijun was far too weak to his family to let that happen more than twice. His grandfather would laugh loudly about how awkward and shy his grandson was, every time Eijun tried to apologise for making his grandfather exert himself. He took delight in Eijun's mischievousness that had been sorely lacking for most of his infantile years.

Eijun used to be the kind who wouldn't cry for attention unless he knew they could give it to him, almost getting an infection at one point because of it.

But Eijun, after becoming friends with Wakana, was a child instead. That Eijun looked at the world with awe, ran and ran without stopping, and fell and hurt himself more times than he could count, then got up to do it all over again.

Eijun's family delighted in his laughter, in his brightness, in his smiles that became larger the more his number of friends grew, until they could barely keep track of everyone.

Then Wakana- the little devil, unknown to every parent- put in an idea of a sport.

It had started with a simple idea. Just an offhand comment to Eijun and Nabe about if they were going to be running around, they should be able to use the school grounds instead.

Nabe, who loved roughhousing as much as Eijun, and studied equally less, brought up baseball.

Eijun was well aware that baseball, as he knew it, was a dying sport. Or at least, it used to be.

But in this life, it was thrumming with life. It spread like wildfire from America to Japan and burst out into the public with such fervour that Eijun normally heard about it at least a couple times a year even in an out of the way, country area such as Nagano.

Eijun hadn't really known much about baseball, or any sport, really. He hadn't been allowed to go out at all.

But here?

Here, Eijun was free.

Being in a small town meant everyone sort of knew everyone. Eijun knew the auntie who sneaked them sweets, but squeezed their cheeks hard enough for them to want to avoid her. He knew his teacher, her husband and their one year old son. He knew the carpenter down the street, the shopkeeper down the road, and the neighbour who moved to Kyoto only a few weeks ago.

And they, in turn, knew about Eijun and his friends, running around, taking fruits down before it was harvest time, running away with that chicken that someone was raising with care. They knew about Eijun's laughter, Wakana's false demureness that left the same moment an adult did, Nabe's attention span of 5 seconds, Akio's parents who fought all day every day, and all his friends.

And Eijun was in the middle of such a group. Wakana made other friends when school started, and Eijun became a 'delinquent' if he could even be called so when he didn't study at all and scored what seemed to be the top score without trying.

Japanese was different, but Eijun had once spent more than 20 years of his life studying for 15 hours a day. Paying attention to classes was almost nothing.

But Eijun never touched a book outside of class. If he accidentally finished homework, it was because he had done it in class. He left his books in school, at his desk, and people got used to leaving it instead of constantly scolding Eijun to take it with him. It wasn't like there was anyone who would take the bag aside from the boy himself, so there wasn't much risk in the end.

Eijun's lowest score, unsurprisingly enough, was therefore Japanese History. His highest ended up being maths.

At first, Eijun used to get scolded for his tendency to not study at all, in fact, at the lengths he went to avoid books. He never opened a single newspaper, never willingly cracked open even a picture book.

Even when his friends begged him for help with their own studies, Eijun, who was normally weak for his friends and family, went as far as to refuse it directly.

But Eijun maintained his mischievousness. In retaliation for his refusal, after a bet he lost to his friends, Eijun spent three months speaking in mock ancient Japanese, pretending to be a samurai, or shogun, with everyone in his life, including his family and teachers, to the eternal delight of his friends.

Eijun's life was pretty amazing overall.

Country life was very different from city life, after all. Eijun woke up unbearably early, earlier than the sun, earlier than he ever used to, before, even.

He stayed up late, at times, had nights where he didn't sleep at all, and then settled back into a habit he enjoyed- waking up at dawn, running, practicing something or the other- like learning how to handstand, flip, throw his baseball as high as possible and catching it; then he took a bath, made breakfast with his mom, until his grandpa woke up. Sometimes Eijun played a gave of shogi while drinking tea with his grandpa, otherwise, his father was awake, and suddenly they were all being loud until his grandpa hit his dad with his cane to shut up before Eijun was late for school.

Then he went to school, studied in class about whatever he wanted- school or non school related- then spent all of breaks and after school time playing and practising baseball with his friends.

Baseball was fun. They weren't all that good, and Eijun absolutely loved physical activity. He had no problem base running until it became second nature.

At first Eijun wanted Wakana to pitch, or Akio, who always seemed to be fiddling with something or the other. But after the first cracked nail incident, both of them firmly refused until it ended up in Eijun's hands.

Eijun took to the mound with ease. Eijun might not have been good at making friends in his last life, but he had been pretty good at leadership roles. He had written thesis, given presentations to a large number of people, and public speaking had come naturally.

It had only been talking about the important things or even being clumsy or learning new things in front of others, that made him stumble.

But baseball was all about learning.

Eijun failed epically the first time he pitched.

His ball slipped from his hand and almost struck Wakana, who was acting as his catcher. Eijun had been horribly embarrassed. He hadn't fumbled with something in front of people in years.

But then his friends were yelling words of encouragement at him, everyone was smiling and laughing understandingly. There wasn't a single scathing comment, or a mocking jibe or even something about how arrogant he was to take over when he couldn't even do it properly.

Instead all Eijun heard was "don't mind" or "you'll get it next time" or even just laughter, but it was Wakana laughing cheerily about how silly Eijun was instead of a fake laughter, or even a mocking one.

So Eijun smiled, straightened his hunched shoulders and pitched again.

Losing was embarrassing every time. Eijun didn't have enough players. They weren't that good either, and Eijun was one of the few who actually exercised as he needed to for the sport. But Eijun's pitching kind of sucked, and only one of his friends had enough hand-eye coordination to actually catch them, and even then, it had to be a pretty weak throw.

Wakana was actually the best at catching his pitches but as much as she loved Eijun, she wasn't willing to spend all her time in baseball like Eijun and his friends were.

Eijun didn't particularly mind it, though. He wanted to punch the ones who laughed at his team, but he had learnt that only the opinions of the people you cared about mattered. And the people he cared about…

Well, they were upset.

Eijun spared no time to get in his opponent's face.

Perhaps it wasn't good sportsmanship but they hadn't been nice about it either. And they were the ones who won.

Eijun didn't throw a punch at them, but he wasn't nice about it either, tearing their petty pride down with his words. In the end, Wakana pulled him away before anyone else decided that Eijun needed a punch in the face to fix his attitude, and his friends looked at him with awe in their eyes.

Eijun quietly preened.

Wakana facepalmed at him.

It became their new normal after a while. Eijun would run ahead, incited by the people around him, Wakana would nag, laugh, and occasionally attempt to scold him while trying not to smile.

In spite of all his friends, Wakana was undoubtedly the one he was closest to. The one his family was closest to. Wakana, Nabe and Akio came over for breakfast and the rest of his friends stayed over during the summers.

So while Wakana didn't care much about baseball, she always stayed by him. She was practically his sister.

There had been a period where their families attempted to tease them about being childhood sweethearts but Eijun made it more than clear that they were to shut up because Wakana was his sister and no one was allowed to talk to her that way.

Then he went ahead and made their lives difficult until they received the message.

Wakana, on the other hand, seemed to have received a message from the act because she stared at him with suspicious eyes for weeks afterwards.

He wasn't exactly sure what she found out, and he didn't particularly care to know either.

Either way, Eijun loved his friends, his family and absolutely loved playing around with his friends.

He'd been hiking (one of the billion things he had never done before), rowing, cycled through a whole district, had camping trips with his friends, scavenged for food to eat during said camping trips, ended aforementioned trip early when Nabe got food poisoning when he ate something Eijun had told him not to.

Eijun's life was filled with things he could do now. He didn't need money, like his parents used to nag. There were some things that he had done alone too, but it was always just so much better with friends.

Friends made Eijun's life wonderful. He didn't worry about exams, he didn't think about studying, he just did what he wanted to.

He ran, he cloudwatched, and he played baseball. He drank tea with his mom, played shogi with his grandpa, sang terrible songs with his dad.

He didn't think about mother or father.

He just…played all day until he went to sleep exhausted but so so happy.

It wasn't like Eijun didn't have weird quirks. He never cracked open a book, knew a little too much, knew himself a little too well. He loved peace, but he would take his family's noisiness any day over that peace.

He was too positive.

He broke a bone once, and he was laughing, while trying to stop his friends from crying, when his family came to pick him up from the hospital.

He would take pain, take life, and chaos over silence any day.

And then, of course, came the day when he was asked to leave it all behind.

Takashima Rei was sincere as she told his family about Eijun's potential. She praised him, but told them that he was rough. That he needed practice and people who had similar talent to really grow into who he could be.

The words sounded condemning.

Eijun refused before Takashima had even gotten the words out, but to his surprise, it was his mom and not his grandpa who requested Eijun actually think about it.

His grandpa was willing to let him stay. He didn't have to do anything he didn't want to. His grandpa wouldn't force him to go. Not for this.

But his mom . She smiled gently through her tears and asked him. Asked him if he would take the time to think about it.

Eijun stared at his mom.

And wondered if she had any idea what she was doing to him.

Even before , it had been his mother who started it. She was the one who looked at his marks and turned her nose at it. She scoffed and looked at who he had been, with cold cold eyes and told her to do better.

That she had potential to be so much better if only she tried.

She tried and tried, right up until the day she died.

And now, his mom was asking Eijun if he could think about leaving his idyllic life behind and reach for something more.

Eijun didn't want to reach for something more.

Not again.

But.

He had never been able to refuse his mom.

Eijun reluctantly gave Takashima Rei a chance, and the woman's glasses glinted as she grabbed hold of the chance with both hands.