WON'T TURN BACK, miyuki kazuya

chapter 1

Just like always, you find yourself thumping a familiar rhythm on the door to the clubhouse, a warning to the team that you're coming in and you do not want to see any of their . . . private parts.

Fifteen seconds pass before you slip inside.

A mix of clay, sweat, and soap hits your senses. Rap echoes from one corner of the clubhouse; loud enough to get them going, excited, but not loud enough to drown out the voices that call to you. Faces you haven't seen since last year, returned for yet another season of baseball.

"You're a sight for sore eyes," Antonio 'Tony' Vasquez, resident shortstop, greets you, in the middle of tugging a black compression shirt over his head. Once finished, he gives you a quick side-hug. "How ya been?"

You shrug. "Can't complain. How was Arizona?"

"Dry as all hell. I went through five tubes of chapstick there."

"Great views of the red rocks, though. How was training?"

"Interesting. Very interesting."

"Yeah? Good season?"

Tony holds a finger to his lips, winking; he won't say anything lest he jinx it but you can tell. He is confident. All of them seem that way. Opening Day brings all kinds of energy as it is the official start of the Major League season, but this energy is different.

Many things can be said about the Seattle Mariners.

A sort of iconic team for having held onto Ichiro for fourteen consecutive years. Yet, lacking a powerhouse status like that of the Yankees or the Dodgers. Especially considering the Mariners have never once won a World Series and in fact, haven't even made it to ALDS or the ALCS in over twenty-one years.

Despite that, today, they feel different. Confident. Charged and rearing to go.

You are absolutely certain it is because of their new catcher.

You would know.

Eijun has been talking your ear off about it since the news broke about the trade.

You recall late December, staying over at his place, laid down on your bellies on his California King, shoulders pressed together, his foot draped over your calf, the screen of his phone irritatingly bright in the darkness of his absurdly large master bedroom. On the screen, a tweet from the official MLB account.

Kazuya Miyuki reportedly agrees to a six year deal for $150 million with the @Mariners

Attached to the tweet is a picture of him in catcher gear, mid-pop-up.

"Finally," Eijun had breathed, bright eyes meeting yours, grin breaking out on his face.

"That is an absurd amount of money," was the only thing you had to say about it.

But you knew - know.

Eijun has spoken extensively about his time in high school, leaving his little town in the countryside to move to Tokyo to attend powerhouse baseball school, Seido High. All to chase down Miyuki Kazuya, the catcher he encountered during his visit to the grounds.

The one that helped to mold Eijun into a fearsome southpaw pitcher.

Together, in Eijun's second year and Miyuki's third, they went to Nationals together and became champions. Using a complex catching system - Numbers, he'd called it - to sweep through their opponents.

You wonder, then, if Miyuki's trade was a coincidence.

For $150 million . . . nearly the same amount the Mariners put down for Eijun a year ago. His deal is $155.5 million for seven years; he has six years left. The same amount of time left for Miyuki as he starts this season.