I'm sorry I'm a dormant volcano, Naota thought remorsefully.
He could hear supporters' voices coming from the bench.
"Whack it, Tasuku's brother!"
"Just get on base, Tasuku's brother!"
Not one person called Naota by his name. His name in this game was simply "Tasuku's brother."
Out of nowhere, a terrifying fastball came hurtling toward Naota, who remained uncomfortably in his stance. Exactly like his other times at bat, he couldn't do anything except stand there with his bat in hand and watch the ball fly by.
"Strike!" the umpire shouted.
The opposing team's bench applauded.
Naota stared at the pitcher, who was grinning menacingly, and attempted to catch his breath. The Fragments' pitcher was, surprisingly, Haruko Haruhara.
Haruko, who'd become the Nandabas' housemaid, was dressed in a Fragments uniform and faced Naota on the mound. Feeling full of herself, Haruko blew a kiss to her supporters on the bench, causing the old men on the opposing team to go wild with joy. They were lovestruck. Haruko and her aged admirers were just like a pop star and her fan club.
The tall Haruko had a great style, and her uniformed figure certainly was attractive. It wasn't a big surprise that old men would enjoy watching her move around, throwing and batting as she played. In fact, every motion Haruko's arms and legs made completely captivated men of all ages on the Martians bench. Observing the scene, Naota felt somewhat proud of her. The same Haruko everyone was admiring lived with Naota in his room and had even performed CPR on him. The roommates had a special relationship, and when Naota remembered that, feelings of superiority managed to overtake his feelings of futility.
"Strike two!" the umpire yelled.
As expected, Naota hadn't moved an inch in response to the second pitch. Anyone could see that he didn't intend to swing. His own team was heckling him with questions like, "What on Earth do you think you're doing?"
From Naota's point of view, Haruko Haruhara was a monster that had fought strange robots to draws or victory. He wasn't even considering trying to hit a ball thrown by that fiend. Regardless of whether he could follow the pitch with his eyes, there was no way Naota was going to be able to hit the ball. There wasn't any point in attempting the impossible—that was all there was to it.
Haruko's control was also good. Up until now, Naota had gone down with three pitches, which meant that he'd suffered three strikes each time at bat.
At least I'm smart enough to realize it's useless, Naota reasoned. Nobody here knows how amazing this girl is. I'm the only one…
Staring at Haruko's form as she threw the ball post-windup, Naota's vision suddenly went black. His body felt light, and soon, he felt a blunt, heavy pain in his head. No, don't tell me "that" started again! What he feared was the extraordinary spectacle of a robot coming out of his head. Naota feared that the process had begun again (which had recently become an obsessive habit that he couldn't snap out of).
As soon as the umpire called out, "Take your base!" Naota began to understand the situation.
The pitch had struck Naota's head, and he'd collapsed in the batter's box. That was all there was to it.
After being replaced by a pinch runner, Naota returned to the bench. To be safe, Naota wound a bandage around his head.
That was a pretty dangerous pitch, Naota said to himself. As he watched Haruko on the mound with a sulky face, he heard a camera shutter behind him. Canti was standing behind Naota and, for some reason, had taken a picture of Naota's bandaged head. The robot had a tendency to do things for no reason whatsoever.
The photo developed instantly and printed out from part of the robot's body. It was an X-ray, and the white circle in the middle of the black film was Naota's skull. Canti nodded happily while reviewing the picture.
Staring at the robot, one of the players commented, "Taking X-rays of players during a game seems a bit dangerous."
"It's one of the machines MM makes, isn't it?" another player asked, studying the logo on Canti's chest. "Is the radiation safe?"
"Does MM do weapons research for the American military?"
"Hey, we started losing right around the time that the plant was finished!"
Canti's reputation wasn't very good among the Martians. Everyone was suspicious of this robot that wandered around town, whose true colors and intentions were unknown. To make matters worse, because the Martians were a team based in an older shopping district, they were critical of anything MM.
"Cut it out," Shigekuni ordered, feeling there was no point in finding fault with such a convenient machine, which would run and fetch things for the team. The players didn't say another word about their coach's possession and stopped the badmouthing of the robot then and there.
The batter who went up after Naota also struck out, and the Martians once again ended their stint at bat without having scored any points.
It was time to take the field again, but Naota, whose head was wrapped in bandages, remained on the bench without going out to play defense. He probably could've said a quick apology and left the game, but he decided to stay and watch the Fragments' turn at bat.
The first batter up was Haruko, and that alone was enough to warrant watching. After all, Haruko's swing kind of reminded Naota of his awesome brother. It wasn't that Haruko's swing itself was similar to Tasuku's—it was the level of skill with which she swung. Both of their swings were so complete, each the epitome of perfection.
"Hiii-ya!" With a loud shriek, Haruko swung the aluminum bat without holding anything back.
As the ball soared skyward, it was clear to everyone that it was a home run. With another run for the opposing team, the Martians drooped their shoulders. The ball quickly disappeared into the blue sky, and the players gave up trying to follow it with their eyes.
There was something that kept watching the ball for a long time, though—Canti, the robot.
When the game was over, the scoreboard showed a massive difference in scores. It was an overwhelming win for the Umaguma Fragments. Sadly, the Mabase Martians didn't score any points and had suffered indisputable, utter defeat.
Regardless of whether the Martians had won or lost, it was customary for the team to hold a meeting after every game to reflect. Naturally, all the players could talk about this time was Haruko.
"We need a substitute player like that girl."
"Every time she batted, she hit it out of the park!"
"She even hit home runs off our intentional walks."
"Who is that girl, coach?"
Shigekuni usually severely scolded the players after a defeat, but today, he silently gritted his teeth. Of course, he kept it a secret that the girl the team was curious about was his housekeeper.
Shigekuni had been surprised when he'd first seen Haruko wearing a Fragments uniform. He was the person who wondered the most about why she was on the other team. What wound him up was the fact that he and Haruko had been so close, but he'd never known she was so good at baseball.
I have to do something, Shigekuni said to himself. There were still two games left against the Fragments, and something needed to be done, or the Martians were sure to lose all three games. He didn't know what he could do about it, though.
"Wow, take a look at that," one of the players exclaimed.
Upon glancing in the direction the player pointed, Shigekuni saw balls flying into a basket near the bench, one after the other. The sight of the skillfully aimed balls landing one by one in the smallish basket almost seemed to be a trick.
The responsible party ended up being Canti, who'd been instructed to tend to the grounds. The robot had been retrieving the scattered balls and throwing them from long distances.