Takashima Rei was a ninja.

(And speaking of ninjas, do you know how glad I was for not being reincarnated in a fighting shounen anime or manga?)

Anyway, I was not joking. Considering the fact that I was currently standing in front of Seidou's gates, that was the only theory I could find acceptable as to how Seidou's assistant coach managed to get me here.

I mean, after I was hit with the sudden epiphany of who I was, and more importantly, exactly what world I was in, I was more than ready to hide in my room and meticulously examine my life as a fictional main character. Taking my time to leisurely have a hysterical break-down didn't sound that bad either.

But no, somehow despite my (very loud) protests, Seidou's recruiter managed to wheedle a visit to Seidou out of me. So here I was, a small country boy at the doors of one of Tokyo's most prestigious of high schools. And boy, Seidou sure lived up to its name well. Huge fields with hundreds of hard-working, sweating baseball players filled my gaze. Even the air itself felt different compared to the air in my home . . . though that may just be because of the city's more polluted landscape.

"Well?" Takashima said with a smile, as if she could tell I was slightly impressed. "We take pride in our baseball facilities here! Off over there is where we practice during the rainy weather, and over half of our players live in our dormitories!"

To be very honest, everything really was quite impressive. But unfortunately for Takashima, I wasn't someone who could be manipulated and swayed that easily. Arranging my slightly surprised face into a completely neutral one, I hummed in disagreement.

"Money should not be the most important thing in playing baseball."

To Takashima's credit, she didn't even twitch at my offhanded accusation. Instead, the woman put on a serious look as she dramatically turned her face to the sky.

"I agree," the recruiter said with pursed lips. "Heart, practice, and talent are. Boys as young as fifteen leave their homes to reach their full strength from the training we provide . . ."

I listened intently as Seidou's assistant coach waxed poetry about their players. To be honest, though I knew it was all just propaganda ―something to lure me in― I was still intrigued. Because from what I could remember of the manga, the students of Seidou really did try extremely hard.

Ever since I had my startling realization as to who I really was, details of the manga I was in became more and more clear. Unfortunately, I hadn't been the biggest fan of the series, but though I couldn't remember everything, I still had a decent recollection of the events that happened in the story.

. . . Great. So either I was really possessing the body of a fictitious manga character, or I had somehow awakened the ability to tell the future. I couldn't even decide which was the lesser evil of the two choices.

Looking down at me again, Takashima finished off her very long speech. ". . . And that is why I respect them. The athletes that carry such determination―!"

"HEY, YOU STUPID PITCHER! WHAT KIND OF COWARDLY PITCH WAS THAT? YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME?"

. . .

Wow, that was awfully on time. Conflict after a cheesy, inspiring moment. Come to think of it, something like this happened quite frequently in my life. How did I never suspect being a protagonist of a story?

. . .

Oh, right. I never suspected anything because back then I had been still under the delusion that I was normal.

"That wasn't even good enough for practice! Gimme a livelier throw!"

Turning around, I mentally raised an eyebrow at the truly buff and huge teenager standing in the batter's box, holding his bat tauntingly at a short pitcher. The pitcher himself was puffing for air as he laboriously wiped droplets of sweat from his face.

Though they felt really familiar, no names came to mind. I bit my lower lip as I valiantly tried to remember who these people were.

"I hate them like that! If you're going to be like that, you can't even warm up the bench!" The batter continued to yell.

"Geez, I'm sooooo sorry," the poor pitcher huffed out sarcastically, his voice almost immediately swallowed by the batter's next bellow.

"IF YOU'RE NOT EVEN GONNA TRY, GO BACK TO YOUR LITTLE FARMHOUSE YOU LITTLE SHIT! I'M LOSING MY EDGE GOING UP AGAINST DILLWEED PITCHERS LIKE YOU!"

This time, my eyebrows furrowed as I observed the scene. So I wasn't the first country boy Seidou had accepted?

Takashima must have seen my disgruntled expression because she immediately started damage control. "Compared to everyone else, that kid's batting really is top-notch. The prideful Kiyokuni Azuma. He hit forty-two home runs in his high school career and is a contender for this year's draft."

Azuma . . . Azuma . . . who was Azuma again?

THWACK!

My head whipped up as my eyes widened, just in time to see this 'Azuma' hit a powerful home run. The beefy boy was shouting at the poor pitcher again, but this time it seemed as if the pitcher had lost all his spirit.

"Somebody throw this guy out of here! Send him and his weak arm back to his village!"

As the batter continued to yell insults at the already defeated pitcher, I felt my hands clench into fists. Why . . . was nobody stepping in? They were all team-mates, weren't they? Heck, why wasn't Takashima stepping in?! This could definitely be considered as bullying!

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I pondered over my options. Technically, this had nothing to do with me. I was only here as a guest, and if everyone was ignoring this scene with ease then it would be normal if I did it too. In addition, even I knew not to pick a fight with someone so much bigger than me.

But . . .

Could I really just ignore this? The pitcher's slumped and dejected figure, a bully hurling obscenity after obscenity . . .

. . . Yeah, not possible. With a small sigh, I opened my eyes and decided to start my first incident in the very first arc.

"Pro? You can't be serious! It'll save you a load of trouble if you'll just give up now!" Increasing the volume of my voice, I made sure that my words could be heard clearly even from the batter's box. And with the frozen figure of Azuma, I knew I had probably succeeded.

"Hey―!" Takashima hissed as players around us started flailing in fright. If I hadn't been so worried about what would happen next, I would have laughed at how Takashima seemed to have lost her composure the first time since I've met her.

"W-Who are you *$%#!#!" Azuma turned around slowly, his face as black as a witch's cauldron.

Stifling the sudden urge to shake like a leaf, I instead crossed my arms haughtily and ignored Takashima's attempts to get me to apologize.

"With your attitude, do you think anyone would honestly draft you?" I asked with a silly laugh, eyes as sharp as broken glass. "To treat even your own team-mates this way . . . ! What team would draft you and chance their team falling apart from internal conflicts?"

Takashima's protests faltered before stopping completely. Even the students around us quieted down, and instead began to stare at me with wide eyes. Taking that as a good sign, I continued my spiel.

"In the end, to me baseball is supposed to be fun!" I said firmly as Azuma stalked toward me angrily. "You can't play this sport by yourself! Or has this famous private school forgotten the most basic of facts?"

If this was a real anime or cartoon, dramatic music would start to play as lightening began to flash between my and Azuma's eyes. Thankfully, my life had not become that crazy yet so there was only a few seconds of tense silence before Takashima made her move.

"Sorry about this, Azuma-kun," the assistant coach said sweetly as she sidled up to Azuma's hulking body. "This kid just left behind all his friends coming here so he doesn't really understand any of this."

My eyes narrowed at her words, but I didn't get a chance to speak before Azuma grinned mockingly.

"Oh?" Azuma said with a nasty smile. "The baby bird's first flight, huh? In that case, should I show you some batting?"

I hesitated slightly, knowing exactly what the batter was implying. But a quick glance to the ridiculed pitcher from before ―who no longer looked so defeated― immediately helped me to make up my mind.

"Pfft, you can only show me if you actually manage to hit any balls!"

The senior's face immediately darkened as his smile became a tad scarier. "Alright, brat, you're not leaving the mound unless on a stretcher."

. . . I knew it was going to end up like this. Despairing slightly inside, I attempted to talk my way out of this.

"Hold on, I'm not even part of your school!"

Azuma's face immediately coloured as he growled. "WHAT?!"

Oh! That wasn't such a bad response. Perhaps I could get out of this . . . ?

"Sawamura-kun, this is a baseball field." Andddd my attempt to escape was blown into smithereens as Takashima pressed a baseball into my hand.

With another sweet smile (if she was not a ninja then she was a devil I tell you!), Takashima gestured to the mound. "Now that you've shot your mouth off, how about showing me what you could do?"

You saw my match, you know the extents of my prowess! But of course. First problem and first antagonist, check. First shounen hero kicks antagonist's butt incident, now under-way!

. . . Yeah, right.

"Hurry up and get changed!~" I resisted the urge to sob as I tightly gripped the baseball in my hand. How had this even became my life? Why did I even agree to come here again?

"Hehe, now isn't this interesting?" A new voice cut in. Tensing slightly at the intrusion, I turned around to see glinting glasses before my vision cleared and I was left staring at . . .

"Rei-chan, is it okay if I catch for this guy?"

. . . Whoa, wait up. Pause, baaaack up. If I remembered correctly, the person who first offered to catch for Sawamura Eijun was the genius catcher, the whole reason Eijun elected to go to Seidou in the end . . .

"HEY MIYUKI! First Years shouldn't butt in where they don't belong!"

. . . Miyuki Kazuya.

I stared at the boy, who could have been a perfect cosplay of the character in the manga. Brown hair styled in that special way, sports glasses balancing on his nose, and even that grin that played on his lips. This was my favourite character in the manga? This was the boy I had read fanfictions about, the one I drew fanart for and gushed over?

This was Miyuki Kazuya?

"Ha ha ha! I'm sooooo sorry!" The bespectacled brunet laughed as he lazily cocked his head. Takashima actually looked flabbergasted as Miyuki casually threw another baseball into the air. "But Azuma-san, seems like lately, you've been something of a big mouth . . ."

Giving his audience a definitely fake sweet smile, Miyuki continued. "You play like a little kid, but I think its great you want to recapture that youthful spirit!"

. . .

"WHY YOU―"

The area erupted into complete pandemonium as curses began to fill the air. I . . . tried to not let my despair show as I looked to the skies for guidance. Why did the so-called 'genius catcher' just have to needle my opponent like that? Looking back at the my new battery partner, I was surprised to see him already staring at me, even as he began putting on his equipment. Takashima also left her place beside me as she ducked by Miyuki to speak some words I wasn't privy to.

A few minutes later, I had changed into one of their spare uniforms they had provided. Fully stretching out my limbs, I bit my lower lip nervously as I tried to remember what had happened in the story.

Obviously something had happened, since Eijun had made the decision to go to Seidou. But what exactly had happened here? What happened in the first chapters? What did Eijun do, what was I supposed to do?

. . . And why hadn't I paid more attention to the manga? All my memories about chemistry wasn't going to help me here!

"Okay kid," my opponent said beside me as he arrogantly tilted his head back. "If you grovel, I'll let you off for now . . ."

Turning around, Azuma gave me a very intimidating smile. "But once you get onto that mound, there's no escape."

Just for a moment, as I stared at this scary upperclassman's face, I wanted to bolt. I may have his name, I may have his looks, but I was not Sawamura Eijun. I was just someone who liked my friends, someone who enjoyed baseball and loved the violin.

This school ―Seidou― had nothing to do with me. I didn't need to go here, and I didn't need to be shuffled to the side as a relief pitcher. I could be happy with my friends, I could enjoy baseball as my small hobby.

But . . . was that what I really wanted?

"Hmph," I said snobbishly, turning my head to glare at the buff teen. "You mean there won't be any escape for you!"

Standing up fluidly and moving to the mound, I swung my throwing arm in an effort to loosen it. Ready or not, going to Seidou or not, I wasn't going to lose to this arrogant nincompoop who didn't even treasure his teammates. Catching Miyuki's eyes, I stared at him firmly before the guy broke into a smirk.

Absent-mindedly, as I kicked my leg up and began going through a few warm-up pitches, I wondered if this was going to be the start of my story.

AN: Ahh, I lied. Chapters will probably be around this length. I think it'll take me much longer if I wanted to do the 5k chapters I had wanted to write before.

I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! We'll get more onto the plot in the next one~ Please leave a comment with your thoughts if you have any; I would love to know what you think of this story!