A/N: After watching the second season of Ace of Diamond, I can't stop worrying about Miyuki. I'm glad that his injury is recoverable, but I can't stop thinking about the bad things that could happen if ever his injury is really fatal to the point of no recovery. I wrote this fanfic just to calm myself down.

Disclaimer: I don't own Daiya no A/Ace of Diamond.

Summary: Ever since Miyuki Kazuya got injured so badly, he began to think about various things, (mostly regarding his future without baseball).

"In the End…"

Miyuki Kazuya wanted to laugh. He really wanted to since he recalled the time when he reminded himself once that he wouldn't end up like Chris yet it happened to him. However he couldn't laugh. When he did laugh at Eijun's funny reactions earlier, he felt that he might break completely sooner... Was this what it felt when someone had an injury near the ribs that was caging a fragile heart?

"Miyuki."

"Hm?"

Turning around, he found Kuramochi Youichi with a scary expression on his refreshed face. They just finished cleaning themselves at the communal bathhouse after their meeting (and watching the loud southpaw's pitches) at the indoor training facility. Feeling those sharp eyes directed at his hidden injury, he smirked awkwardly. He didn't like how perceptive the shortstop could be sometimes.

"Ah, Kuramochi. What is it?"

"You…Are you really fine after our match against Seiko?"

"Yeah, I already told you many times that I'm fine. There's no need to worry. We should just focus on our match against Yakushi tomorrow."

"I know, but…"

"What? Are you really that worried about me, You-chan~?" he said with his silliest grin, making Youichi cringe in disgust.

"Not in a million years! And don't call me 'You-chan'! It gives me the creeps!"

"A-ha-ha~! I won't stop, You-chan~!"

"Arggh! This is stupid! I don't care anymore!" the shortstop shouted madly before stomping towards his room. Although Kazuya wanted to tease him more in order to distract himself from the pain, he felt weaker… He felt he was about to break. He shouldn't have done his fake laugh. He must go to his room… now.

After pretending to walk normally to his room and making sure that no one was inside, Kazuya entered the room quickly and released a pained groan, which was loud enough to notice that he was really suffering. He made his way towards his bed slowly and slumped onto it. He continued to pant heavily and to sweat excessively while caressing the right side of his torso. Suffering like that alone, it felt nostalgic to him… He used to have injuries all the time when he was still in middle school. He thought that he could handle the pain and pretend like it was nothing serious, but it hurt too much. He knew pretty well that his current injury wasn't a minor one which he used to receive before. Also, it might cost him his future if he remained silent about it… However he still lied that he was fine and hid it from everyone like he always did when he was still a mischievous kid who loved baseball more than anything…

Even now, baseball was still his everything.

"This was bad…," he thought, almost wanting to laugh at himself… at how helpless he was right now on his condition.

Although he already accepted the bitter reality of his situation, decided to take the riskiest path (of not letting anyone know about his injury in order to play in the final match and not to make the team worry), and considered its consequences, he began to wonder if he made the right choice… of choosing baseball out of thousands of other things that he could pick for his future earlier in his life. He wasn't dumb enough to not think about other options if he ever got a major injury that would prevent him from playing his favorite sport for years (or worse, forever), but ironically, he couldn't think of doing something else other than baseball in his entire life. Well, he did like cooking but the thought of doing it as a lifelong job made him somewhat… discontented. Heck, being the captain of the team forever sounded much better now than before! Should he just flunk his tests over and over again in order to retain his position? Nah, he couldn't do that. The school would kick him out (but it was kind of interesting to watch their reactions if he really did that).

Maybe he was just being biased since baseball already grew in him… as if it was already his heart. Everything in his body only responded fully to all things that were connected to baseball – the smoothness of the white ball with stitches on his right hand, the lightness of the catcher's mitt on his left hand and the heaviness of the metal bat on the other, the earthy smell of the ball field though his nose, the sweltering heat of the sun that he could feel even beneath his clothes and gears, the burning gazes of pitchers standing on the mound as they gave him the best pitches that he could ask for, the sharp sound of the ball hitting against his mitt, the defeated looks of the batters that got struck out, the frustrated sighs of runners when they didn't get to the base because of the fielders' cooperative plays, the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd, the loud cries of opposing teams when there was only one inning remaining, and the overwhelming joy and satisfaction when he and his team won the match… Ahh…, he couldn't get tired of those sensations and sights.

Baseball was the only thing that could make him feel… so alive. He was willing to do anything just to play it even if he would experience many unpleasant things, would shoulder heavy burdens or would be hated by the whole world. To be honest, he would rather avoid those unnecessary hardships and just create game strategies to annoy the opposed team and manipulate his team to win matches, but it would be no fun if there was no other challenge for him, right?

If someone took baseball away from him, he would probably die… No, it would be his worst death – much worse than losing his mother, whose face was only remembered in old photographs.

But even if he made a wrong choice, took a path leading to a dead-end, defied his destiny, or couldn't play sports anymore because of his greediness to win, there was no doubt to Kazuya that being able to play baseball was the most miraculous thing that ever happened in his life. He would never regret that he chose baseball.

"And if I really need a job later on, I'll just be a baseball coach!" he thought with a wide smile on his pained face as he put on a sleeping mask and remained awake with an irregular breathing until his consciousness finally went to a heaven-like realm for baseball addicts.

After Seidou won in the finals and got the ticket to Spring Koshien, Kazuya finally showed his vulnerable self for a day. Youichi thought that it was really surreal yet funny to see the tough catcher complaining and being weak. Actually, it was better to see the catcher like that because in the end, the shortstop was more convinced that his classmate and teammate was also a human. Yeah, Kazuya could throw a ball like a potential pitcher, could catch any kind of pitch without trouble, could bat like a demon if they were in a pinch, could motivate the team as if being the captain was a natural position for him, could create great strategies that wasn't supposed to be in the head of a mere high school student, could smile even if the world was almost against them, and unbelievably, wouldn't cry even if they lost terribly in an important match…, but wasn't that too perfect? And too scary? But now, he realized that Kazuya wasn't just a twisted bastard who could do anything for the sake of winning.

"He just loves playing baseball even if he's badly injured. What an idiot," he thought as he laughed at a nearly crying Kazuya when the doctor was checking his teammate's injury inside the clinic.

A/N: I really love Miyuki for who he is. I wish that he's a real person. And Kuramochi, thanks for staying by his side even if he's annoying you. ^^

Thanks for reading this~! I hope that you'll continue to support Daiya no A and Miyuki (like me) forever~!