Last Innings in Hokkaido

Sunrise covered Sapporo in a calm blue glow. As light painted the large office towers in the city center, birds chirped and called out into the air, hoping to find one another. Bells sounded at temples to announce the start of the day. Water flowed along the cuts of the Sōsei River as Sapporo TV Tower shined red and green with its clock forever announcing the time. Beneath its enormous beams, Kai trotted alone in the quiet dawn. Footfall sounded out in repetitive claps as his sneakers struck the pavement and propelled him forward.

Running had always been a stress relief mechanism for him, and these days he found himself sneaking out in silence every morning to spend the hour getting his blood flowing, sweat running, and tears dried. A creeping dread had fully infiltrated his psyche and each existing moment felt more and more in vain, but he carried on so that he could be with his friends. Fear was not what he felt. Death was a natural finale, but the uncertainty around this impending death for him and all others was most troubling. Kai knew he was not alone, even among his friends, in worrying about this, but the fear had become nearly debilitating in his chest.

So he ran. He ran every day so that at least the stinging in his lungs and throat from gasping for air could offset the weight of sorrow that threatened to collapse him into an early oblivion. Turning the corner to return to their current hotel, Kai was surprised to see Arata and Riku waiting for him at a nearby cafe table. Kai accepted his cover was blown and didn’t try to hide his red eyes as he made his way to join them.

“You okay?” asked Riku.

Kai shook his head no.

“But are any of us?” he laughed.

“We’re here for you if you need to talk. Remember, no lies or secrets. Let us be there in your grief,” said Arata.

Kai inhaled and the tears returned.

“I fucking hate this,” he sobbed.

“I really do,” he said as he wiped tears from his face and sweat from his brow.

Arata placed his hand on Kai’s shoulder as Riku stood slowly to join them.

“I’m just not used to allowing myself to be sad,” he explained as he hugged Arata.

Realization made its way to Arata and Riku.

“You always were the light-hearted one. I’m sorry if you felt you couldn’t be sad around us,” said Riku.

Kai nodded.

“It wasn’t just for you guys. I think it was for myself, so I could mask what I really felt. My parents always fought, and home life was never that pleasant. Baseball was stressful because I made it this thing that was going to be my one way to get out of town. Grades weren’t good enough, and I never really had a career I was passionate about…”

“You were very good at baseball though. You would have been a star,” said Arata, who had been his teammate for several years.

Kai chuckled and shook his head.

“Guess it doesn’t matter now,” he said as he shook his head.

They sat down at the table as tears continued to fall from Kai’s cheeks. His friends sat with him and let him move through the grief. An idea came to Riku.

“You should do an interview with Kureha. Let her take some photos of you. The whole thing,” he proposed.

Kai looked at him with uncertainty.

“I don’t know,” Kai murmured.

“It’s like therapy that Westerners do. Maybe it would be good to talk it out. And I’m sure she’d cherish getting to photograph you.”

Kai thought it over.

“Maybe sometime. Not today, though,” he answered.

Riku didn’t press. As they spoke, a separate idea came to Arata and he began to devise a secret plan. Sapporo did not have a massive agenda for the friend group, beyond taking in as much of its metropolitan wonder as possible while exploring as many hidden alleys as they could find. The night before had involved them finding an underground club that had once been voted for having the best sound systems in the entire world. Hours had been spent dancing. Now, they were tapering down their time in the city and had some freedom. Arata had come up with the perfect solution to conclude their stay and prayed it could succeed.

“Well, I have an idea. Keep the day open because this might require some effort,” said Arata as he stood and fixed his pants legs.

“What?” asked Kai and Riku in unison.

“Oh, you’ll see,” grinned Arata.

In Kitahiroshima, about twenty kilometers southeast of the friend group’s hotel, there was a former professional baseball stadium. It was relatively new and had only been able to host a few seasons of play before The Calamity arrived and destroyed all future baseball season schedules. Following the fall of most of society, the Nippon professional league cancelled all remaining games. The stadium was abandoned. Seats that were once meant to hold tens of thousands of cheering fans now sat empty and covered in dust. Vines grew along the edges of the retractable roof that was now stuck open. It was here that Arata was driving in the early afternoon.

The friend group was clueless about their destination, including Rin. Arata didn’t want to over-promise or create too much hype, so he kept the idea to himself. All he had said was to Shiona, when he asked her if she would be open to spending some money if needed, to which she agreed without any need for explanation or elaboration. As the van approached the site, the giant overhang of the western roofline rose from the hills to announce its presence.

“No way,” laughed Kai.

“Arata, we don’t have to,” he said from the backseat.

“Oh hell yeah we do!” grinned Arata.

“I’m confused, what is that? An airplane hangar?” asked Rin.

“It’s a stadium!” said Riku with excitement.

“Arata you’re a genius,” he added as he rubbed his elbow into Kai’s shoulder with excitement.

Kureha watched the boys’ excitement build as they approached the empty parking lot. Up ahead was security fencing and several barriers.

“OK, so, who’s open to breaking into a professional sports stadium?” asked Arata.

Everyone raised their hands in unison.

Arata let out a howl of joy and pulled the van over as close to the stadium as he could reach. Soon they had all exited and made their way to the fencing. Surprisingly, it was not incredibly secure and was only slightly taller than Kai and Riku’s head height.

“I think we can climb it,” said Rin.

“I think so!” agreed Kureha.

“Well, you guys go ahead. I’ll watch the van,” said Riku from the back.

Kureha embarrassedly realized she had not even considered Riku’s leg. Kai shook his head.

“No, we’re all going in,” he said to Riku as he scanned the fence.

“It doesn’t look super sturdy, I bet we can knock it over if we remove the fence sandbags,” explained Arata as he pointed at the bases of the fence posts.

Kai, Arata, and Shiona set out to remove the sandbags as Kureha took photos and Riku watched. Behind them, Rin slid back to the van and started the ignition. Once enough sandbags were gone, the boys began to rock the fence to try and tip it over. Its long connections made that harder than anticipated, but then from the parking lot they heard a honk. Headlights shone forward and the engine revved. Rin pulled the van forward and rolled down the window.

“How about a battering ram?!” she asked.

“That should do it!” cheered Shiona.

Rin pulled the van up to the fence line until the front bumper dug into the metal. Fencing popped and strained as the mass of the vehicle bent it forward until it started to give. After a few seconds, Rin tapped the acceleration pedal for a little more pressure, and soon the fence poles snapped and began to fall over. One final push sent the barricade toppling over as the friends let out a cheer.

“That’s my wife!!” cheered Arata as Kureha and Riku clapped.

With that, all of them set off into the stadium's maw of an entrance. Moonlight guided them into the stands and from there they were greeted with silent, dark screens that once projected statistics and advertisements. Rows and rows of seats lined the entire perimeter and Kureha couldn’t help but imagine the joyous screams of thousands of people as runners slid into home base and scored runs for the favored teams. Beside her, Kai was silently soaking it all in as he stared out at the field.

“This was your dream, huh?” Kureha asked.

Kai nodded and blinked.

“It was a good dream,” he replied.

“Here, let me get your photo,” said Kureha in a gentle offer.

Kai faced her with the empty field behind him. His hands habitually slid into their pockets and Kureha noticed his smile didn’t reach his eyes that time, but it felt all the more true. He was very handsome and had once been one of the most popular kids in school. Now, before her, he seemed so mellow and reserved, it was almost as though he was a completely different person than this time last year. Their friends joined them to see the photos.

“I would have loved to come to watch you play,” said Kureha as she snapped a few photos.

“I would have loved to have you be there. Every game. All of you. I have always loved every one of you. Sorry it took me so long to say,” he replied.

Riku held out his hand and Kai took it in support.

“I love you too,” replied Riku.

All of them agreed and Arata joined Kai and Riku in an embrace. Kureha caught another moment of photos and then lowered the camera to join them. Kai’s face was warm from tears.

“Thank you,” said Kai to Arata.

“Of course, Captain,” said Arata in response.

Kai laughed and sniffed his tears away.

“Well, Captain, what are you waiting for? Go down there!” commanded Shiona as she pointed to the field.

So down they went, and for the first time, Kai’s feet touched the dirt of the batter’s box and baselines of a professional facility. Images of him in a branded jersey, playing before thousands and on television flashed in Kureha’s mind as she captured more photos as the rest of them mimicked playing a game.

“Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded. Two outs. Tied game! Championship on the line! Arata takes the plate to the roar of the crowd!” yelled Arata from the pitcher’s mound.

Shiona, Kureha, and Riku called out a cheer as though they were the horde of fans in the stands. Kai motioned his invisible bat to the stands and set his feet. Arata wound up and hurled the invisible ball to the mound. Kai swung and boom!

“It’s a high fly ball deep to the left! It’s going! GOING! GONNNEEEEE!!!!!” screamed Arata as everyone cheered and Kai ran around the bases with his arms to the sky.

Kai jumped onto home plate and into the arms of his friends as they all screamed in joyous celebration of their imaginary victory. For that moment, his chest was as light as a petal in the wind. As the Sapporo sky looked down on them in peaceful silver and silence, terror felt far away and long forgotten. Hours later, he did tell his story to Kureha, who soon uploaded dozens of photos to the internet so that all could know about the professional that would never be.  It was the perfect last night in Hokkaido.