Shouya approached the batter's box hesitantly. He was not expecting to be able to play, especially in a tournament as fierce as the grand finals of the Koshien and at such a decisive round, too, but it was at least an opportunity to prove himself to the world. Akane and Ayaka sat above the baseball field with bated breath, obviously pretty worried, as both teams had been neck and neck, currently tied at 2-2 in the 9th inning.
The pitcher tried to gauge Shouya's capabilities, having not prepped for his appearance at all, and threw a fastball directly at the strike zone and Shouya got himself ready to strike it but stopped himself as it curved out of it and fell onto the ground, caught by the catcher behind him and tossed it back at the pitcher, making the result 1-0. the pitcher threw another fastball slightly below the middle of the strike zone, and Shouya tried to swing it but missed. The ball flew onward to be caught by the catcher again, making it one ball and one strike. At this point, his team thought that Shouya would throw the game for them.
There was silence; another curveball missed and became a foul, two balls, one strike. A fastball that Shouya once again misses fills his teammates with even more despair and Akane with slight worry as it now becomes two balls and two strikes. It all came down to this one very moment, a final game-deciding pitch. Feeling confident, the pitcher threw a curveball, and time seemed to slow down to a crawl as it flew. This was do or die for Shouya, Miss, and forever cement himself as a useless player in the team that will never be able to play again or win. Win through all the harsh training of Ayaka and all the after-club training he does to make Akane proud of him.
The ball flew and landed on the solid metal of Shouya's bat, and it flew upwards, straight ahead, much higher than anyone else on the field could catch, and as he saw his hit, he knew he had to run. Run like there was no tomorrow. The commentator's commentary and the crowd's cheers faded into the vacuum of his inner thoughts as he reached the first base, then the second base. He recalls the time he spent with Akane and how much Ayaka helped him, his life basically flashing before his eyes as he reaches third base, and finally, at the final stretch, he instinctively does a slide back to home base as the ball falls directly onto Akane's hand and she catches it. Shouya did it. He won a game for his team and a pretty stacked major, too. His teammates ran up to congratulate him on his victory, pushing him up and down as the golden confetti rained down on them. Looking up, He sees Ayaka with a small smile on her face and Akane looking at him excitedly, holding the ball that she caught while looking down at him, forcing out a small, genuine smile from him.
After the award ceremony was over, Shouya walked out into the locker room to change into his regular clothes and went out to see Akane, who quickly hugged him tightly, "Shouya... I saw you out there just now... I'm so proud! All the training you did finally paid off!" Akane exclaimed while Shouya calmly said "Yeah it did." and waited for a while out of politeness before wriggling free from Akane's warm and tight embrace. "Speaking of which, we should definitely celebrate. Are you free for this week?" Shouya asked, and Akane nodded. "Good cause I think I found a really good spot for us to spend the week at to celebrate; somewhere far from the city." Shouya said as he showed Akane the location on his phone, a resort located somewhere in the mountains. Akane looked at it and found it to be an amazing vacation for the both of them.
As they both got a cab and left to their own houses. they began envisioning what might potentially happen between the two of them during the trip and how much closer they will get. Once Shouya reached his house, he began humming a small tune as he began packing up for the trip when suddenly, a small medal dropped from his closet, a red medal with edges and rims adorned in gold depicting a hawk. "Weird... I don't recall having something like that before but oh well." Shouya asked as he wondered where the medal even came from but still places the medal in his pocket regardless, not thinking much of it but feeling a strange connection to it.
Author's final notes: Thank you everyone for reading my story. Chapter 3 still isn't done so I decided to write out the ending first but after chapter 3 is over, the story is finished as a whole. Honestly for my first work it was such a rollercoaster of things. I thought of writing the anti-ntr first but once it was done, I decided to resolve the conflict in the doujin source material or hentai but in writing so, I realised I knew nothing about baseball and it was evident in chapter 2 so I made a vow to learn more about it and baseball training before writing chapter 3. Overall, this was a great experience for me and I will continue writing more stuff in the future. Stay tuned for a Himawari wa yoru ni saku Fanfic I will write the moment chapter 3 is done and a giant crossover story featuring Ji-A, Natsuha, Hisato, Akane, and Chifuyu with their respective loved ones.
UPDATE: I finished chapter 3 so lmk if you want me to finish this or make a short chapter 4 which would just be smut between Akane and Shouya a few moments after chapter 3
