It was fall, not her favorite season of the year. And it was raining outside, making her mood even more gloomy. Zapping through different TV programs, Sora sighed and hugged the sofa cushion she was holding in her lap a little tighter. With the fall tournament of baseball already over there wasn't anything interesting to watch anymore. Seidou High School from Tokyo had been announced the winner a few days ago and since then Sora's boredom had grown to an absolute maximum. There was nothing for her to do after all.

Her parents were always busy with opening their new family business and moving to Tokyo and her older brother Ten was either helping them, studying for college or training for his track and field team. Sora would join him whenever he was running in the past, but she hadn't been feeling like it lately.

Being in the middle of her second year of High School, the young girl was still looking forward to moving away to Tokyo with her family. In fact, she welcomed the change. She wouldn't miss anything or anyone and nobody would miss her when she was gone. Sad but true, unfortunately. Sora could still feel the pang in her heart, the hurt and the disappointment after the betrayal of people she had considered her teammates and friends, some of them since Grade School since they were living in a very small, rural town which only had one Grade School, one Junior High and one High School all the kids living in the neighborhood were attending if they didn't want to travel too far.

After the fallout with both of her teams, the softball team of the girls and also the baseball team of the boys, which wasn't such a long time ago, Sora was still heartbroken. Her brother had been furious and their parents had made a huge effort to keep him from storming into Sora's school to knock some sense back into her former so called friends. Yes, her family was very heartwarming and supportive and it made it easier to some extent, but it wasn't the same as having a best friend in the same age or some baseball idiots to practice and to play video games with. She missed this. Like crazy. The young girl had never been the one to be comfortable being alone.

As a child she had been relying on the three years older Ten most of the time until entering Grade School and only very slowly overcoming her shyness to make some friends on her own. And now after she lost everything that had been important to her, Sora was relying on her older brother once again, waiting to finally be able to move away and to leave everything behind. Hopefully she would be able to make a fresh new start in Tokyo.

Her parents had decided to open a wellness and sports center with focus on physical therapy, rehab, sports medicine and massages for athletes of all kinds and with a casual wellness area for everyone, also the visitors without an athletic background. Her father was a physical therapist and a sports medic who had specialized on pro athletes, while her mother was a masseuse with a focus on sports, sports injuries and helping with rehab of athletes. Even her brother was following their father and was studying sports medicine while being the captain and an extraordinarily gifted athlete of the college's track and field team. Ten was considered a real genius of his generation and Sora was extremely proud to have him as an older brother.

Due to his good influence, the young girl had always helped her brother with his training, running with him, exercising with him and learning from their mother how to do correct stretches, how to tape and how to massage Ten correctly to be a valuable support. Since Ten's Junior High years also Sora had been training as a practice partner for her brother and thus she was very athletic, fast and flexible herself. Yet she never really had been interested in a particular sport. Just being with Ten and helping him had been enough for the little Sora. Until she got hooked on baseball that was.

She had a pro baseball player to thank for her passion towards baseball and the more girlish version of softball. He had been a client of her parents at that time and little Sora, only interested in her drama club, acting and manga, anime and videogames during her Grade School years, had been fascinated by his words, his total conviction and the absolute aura of an arrogant, but highly skilled ace who loved to take on any good challenge standing on the mound.

Entering Junior High, Sora had decided to give it a try and she had entered the softball team, noticing pretty quickly that she liked it, had fun with it and that she also possessed a certain talent for it, so she kept going. Her parents had also been very pleased, supporting her daughter's decision and since she always helped Ten with his training, her brother began returning the favor and keeping her company during her own practice schedule as well. Because of her parent's jobs, she even had the possibility to meet some Japanese pro baseball players and to talk, sometimes even to train with them, which was a huge honor for the young Sora.

Having so much fun with practice and with her new teammates, Sora had been able to make exceptionally fast progress. She was a fast learner and she even had helped out at the boy's baseball team, supporting her friends with their training and making her grow more intensely.

Because of her speed and agility and her track and field training with her brother, the young girl was a very good infield player, taking the starter position of the shortstop quickly, but Sora wanted to be a pitcher instead, so she had started to put in a lot of effort and practiced longer and harder than her teammates to be able to switch positions. She even made her brother play catch with her as often as possible until even the patient and loving Ten had been sick of it and had suggested other training methods to her.

During her Junior High time, Sora had developed the ability of perfect ball control, allowing her to pinpoint her pitches at any target, mostly the catcher's mitt and also to make it spin, curve, break or drop at will. Additionally, she had kept increasing her speed and reaction time, since she never stopped practicing with her brother, benefiting her fielding capability.

In her first High School year however, her incredible fast growth and her amazing changes had crept her teammates out and made the other girls of the softball team feel uneasy around Sora for the first time. As more time passed by, uneasiness had grown into difficulties and accusations of the young girl playing too rough, too reckless or too fast and of being self-centered and inconsiderate towards her teammates, leading to bullying, gossiping, avoidance and finally to a complete fallout when Sora's former friends had told her that maybe she would be better off playing with the boys because she was such a creepy freak.

Hurt and shocked to the core, the young girl had escaped to the baseball team and the boys had accepted her not only as their official manager, but also as a sparring partner and practice buddy. Of course, she hadn't been able to take part in official games anymore, but she took pride in being a practice pitcher for her batters and catchers and to participate in the field training, challenging the boys with her speed and flexibility, motivating them to give it their all and more.

However, constantly practicing with stronger and faster boys with physical advantages hadn't stopped Sora's development and soon enough none of their catchers had been able to receive her pitches anymore. Since her balls lacked speed and force, the young girl had generated a unique strategical playstyle with reckless and difficult moves to outsmart the batters, but unfortunately her teammates hadn't been able to keep up.

Being frustrated and jealous, also the boys finally had kicked her out of the team, because a pitcher whose throws couldn't be caught was useless, even as a practice pitcher and they didn't want her as an infielder, because the boys secretly didn't want a girl in the team who could run faster than them and on top of that she hadn't been able to participate in official games anyway.

This last betrayal had only happened a few weeks ago and Sora hadn't practiced baseball or softball or track and field with her brother ever since. Her heart felt empty. At first she had cried and talked things through with her family, causing Ten to go mad as hell at her former friends who had dared to hurt his little sister, but now not even tears would well up in her eyes anymore.

And if all of that wasn't already enough to handle, Sora had gotten in trouble with her classmates at school as well because after skipping a grade in Grade School, she was one year younger than everyone else despite being in her second year of High School. Apparently the other students had never been very pleased with that, but shortly after both of her fallouts with her clubs, rumors were now spreading through the school and there was a lot of gossip going on. The young girl was suddenly said to be cocky, disrespectful and full of herself, which in fact wasn't true, but she was still being treated like it.

Sora had been a real troublemaker as a child and her parents had taken her to an IQ test during her time in Grade School, because it seemed like she was just being bored. But because living in the country meant not having a special school for prodigies around and because of her parents not being rich and not wanting to move away at that time, Sora had been granted permission to skip a grade. They had decided to rather have her occupied with studying more than allowing her to cause more trouble for her teachers and schoolmates. Thus she also had entered the drama club, because she always had been interested in acting and playing theatre and in wearing costumes or anime cosplays. Also learning her texts by heart had kept her busy and beginning to train with her brother later on had helped with getting rid of excess energy as well.

What had seemed like a good idea back then felt like a huge mistake now, but Sora couldn't care less anymore. So, everybody hated her, not her problem and she wouldn't stay anyway. Besides if only her former teammates or the whole school hated her didn't make that much of a big difference for her since she had always only spent time with her clubs.

"I'm home"

Sora heard the front door click shut and her brother's voice rang through the house as he took off his shoes and his jacket at the entrance.

"Welcome back", she replied and stopped her uncontrollable zapping to turn the TV off.

"Gods, the weather sucks!" Ten complained, walking into the living room and giving his sister a hug and a peck on her forehead as a greeting. "Do you have work today?"

Anime, manga, cosplay and videogame otaku she was, Sora had taken a part-time job in a maid café to support her family financially since opening their new business cost a lot of money and her parents had to take out a loan from the bank. Her brother was working as a fast-food delivery boy and always claimed the additional cycling would be good for his training, so both siblings were usually quite busy with school, clubs and jobs. However today was a different story, so Sora shook her head in response.

"No, the manager said I don't have to come anymore because we're moving so soon. They had a farewell party arranged for me, so I already had my last day, didn't I tell you?"

Ten shrugged, plopping down on the couch next to her.

"Maybe you told mom and dad while I wasn't around and nobody informed me yet"

The young girl only hummed lost in thought and glanced at her brother's features from the corner of her eye. A yawn escaped his mouth. Ten sure looked tired lately, but that fact didn't make him less handsome. He was an athletic and tall guy with dark blue, silky hair and dark green eyes that were almost covered by the too long bangs growing over his forehead. He would need another haircut soon, Sora thought with a little smile on her lips. And it seemed like he was getting more and more similar to their father who had the same dark green, intelligent eyes and black, but short cut hair. They already matched in height and built, the only difference was the hair color and style.

Sora thought it was actually funny how Ten looked so much like their father, while she had inherited her mother's features. The same sky blue hair and eyes, a sporty, but still very female figure and fairly skinned. They both were also quite short, but Sora was still a little shorter than her mother and she had let her hair grown out a lot more. While her mom kept her slight curls at shoulder length, Sora's straight hair reached even past her hips and she had been lucky to not take over her mother's bad eyesight, since she had to wear glasses and her daughter never had needed any.

"What about you? Will you quit any time soon or will you keep working until the last day before we move out?"

Her brother furrowed his brows as if thinking seriously.

"Good question. I already told them that I will be moving, but except for an almost heart attack of my boss because he doesn't have enough employees I didn't get much of a reaction up until now. Maybe I should just stop showing up. That old geezer has been using me for his own benefits long enough"

Sora snorted, nodding her head in affirmation before standing up and stretching her body.

"Gonna make dinner then", she offered, but as expected of her big brother, Ten followed her to the kitchen without a word.

The young girl sighed and shook her head.

"Gee, would you go rest?! You're tired enough already and I don't have anything to do the whole day. You can at least leave the cooking to me"

Ten started chuckling and ruffled her hair affectionately.

"Nah, I love spending time with you like that. Preparing dinner as siblings is much more fun, no? And since you won't practice with me anymore, I'm being lonely"

The dark haired boy switched on the radio and began chopping vegetables while bobbing slightly to the beat of the music. Sora smiled sadly at him and felt guilt burning in her heart.

"I'm sorry, Ten-nii. I promise I'll start training with you once again when we settled down in Tokyo"

"You better keep that promise, peanut or else big bro's gonna be pouty", he gave back, flashing her a wide grin and nudging her with his hips.

Sora giggled. It was a miracle how his sheer presence alone could make her feel so much better every single time. The young girl truly felt blessed with such a wonderful family. She knew that at least they would never betray her, give up on her or push her away, no matter what happened or what she did and this was very reassuring. Who needed friends and teammates and stupid baseball idiots anyway?!