Ken blinked a few times, seeing the unfamiliar reactions of his father. He struggled to understand it at first, however his mental aptitude worked in the background to bring him to the right conclusion.
‘Dad blames himself for this?’
Seeing the pain in his face, Ken resisted the urge to slap himself hard. He had been keeping a lot of stuff to himself in order to not worry his parents since he thought that was the right thing to do.
However, it seemed to be having the opposite effect. Not only did they worry more, his father also believed it was a result of his own failure.
“No…” Ken clenched his fists, a wave of guilt washing over him.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been hiding a lot of things from you because I didn’t want you to worry.”
Chris and Yuki both looked puzzled, but a smile soon appeared on their faces.
“I… I want to pitch this year and make it to nationals to compete against Daichi. I’ll become the Ace of Yokohama and prove Naoki wrong with my pitching.” Ken said resolutely.
***
A few hours later, Ken was laying in his bed and staring at the ceiling. Since everything was now out in the open, he felt relieved, like a pressure had been taken off his chest.
He could tell how much his parents cared for him just by their reactions. Another byproduct of his resolution was that his father no longer seemed to blame himself for Ken’s keeping of secrets, chalking it up to his teenage hormones.
He had also earned himself a trip to the doctor after school tomorrow so they could check on his shoulder injury. This timing was brilliant as his mission would be cleared by then, meaning the doctor would find nothing.
Ken breathed out a sigh of relief.
‘I need to stop keeping these things to myself. It seems to do more harm than good in the long run.’ He thought inwardly.
He didn’t really feel like entering the image training tonight, especially since it had been a long enough day. With his first evaluation from Coach Hanada in the books and his mission finishing tomorrow, it was a good time to let his body and mind rest.
He felt a little light headed and his muscles ached, probably from the exercise he did at practice today. With that, Ken closed his eyes and drifted into the dream land.
Despite being in a good mood before bed, his dreams were filled with pain and despair. It was as if he was reliving the torture of his shoulder in agony, stabbing directly into his sanity.
He saw his parents drifting away after being turned away repeatedly. Daichi whose face seemed to lack the warmth that Ken was used to in this life appeared in front of him like a stranger.
“Why didn’t you talk to me instead of taking your own life? I thought we were friends.”
Wearing a Hanshin Tigers uniform, an older looking Daichi questioned him with a vacant expression. Ken wanted to answer, but every time he opened his mouth a blazing pain assaulted his shoulder, bringing with it a bone-deep itching sensation.
“Why!? Why would you commit suicide? You should have told us you were unhappy!”
His mother’s shrill voice and sobs entered his ears, causing him to spin around in fright. There he saw her throw herself onto the ground in grief, clutching a worn baseball glove.
Ken then locked eyes with his father who seemed to have aged 20 years overnight, the sorrow evident on his face.
‘W-What is happening?’ Ken was confused, but also in pain. Hot tears ran down his face as his mind tried to make sense of what was transpiring.
*DING*
Ken suddenly sat up from the bed, his body covered in sweat and his lungs sucking in air like he had just run a marathon. His first thought was to look around the room to try and see where he was.
‘My room…’
After seeing the familiar furniture in his room Ken finally managed to calm down. The nightmare he had experienced felt far too real, causing him to believe that he had been transported back to his previous life.
Just as he was about to check his system, his mother opened the door to his room.
“Kenny!? What’s wrong?”
Seeing his pale and sweaty visage, Yuki rushed over to check on him, concern etched onto her features. She placed the back of her hand on his forehead and almost recoiled in shock.
“You’re burning up honey.” Her face turned worried and she told him to wait in bed while she got him some medicine.
Ken let out a sigh. It was true that he wasn’t feeling well, however he didn’t like the idea of missing out on school and baseball club training.
Just as he was about to get out of bed he heard a deep voice.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
Chris was leaning against the door with his arms crossed, tapping his fingers while staring at him.
“Ah, I just needed the toilet.” He replied weakly.
Thankfully he had been quick enough to answer that his father did not call him out, however it looked like he would have to stay home today. He squeezed past and finished his business before returning back to bed on his mothers orders.
Yuki returned not long later with some medicine and a thermometer to check his temperature.
Chris took one look at the results and shook his head.
“You’ll be staying home today and I don’t want to hear any excuses. Since we’re going to the doctors today anyway, we can get him to look at your fever.” He said before leaving the room.
Both Yuki and Ken watched as Chris left the room. Once she was sure that he had left, Yuki turned around and gave him a sympathetic look.
“Did you need anything honey? How about some lemon tea?”
Ken forced down a laugh before shaking his head, thanking god that he had been given such good parents.