Rokko Oroshi (The Wind of Mt. Rokko)

"The Giants."
Hiei glanced up from the newspaper, turning his gaze To Kuwabara, who was glaring at him over a cup of coffee.

"Are going to kick the shit out of the Tigers."

Hiei sniffed distastefully and turned a page.
"The Giants have been worthless since Nomo left, and you know it. Stop living in a dream world, you idiot."
Kuwabara growled at him, and downed his coffee.

"Don't be so sure. We've got Saitoh."

"Your pride in your city is noted and applauded in that you insist on betting on a dead horse." Hie retorted, folding the paper harshly and tossing it on the table. "Saitoh is a joke." He said in parting, and vanished, leaving a loud and angry Kuwabara to finish his breakfast and read his second-hand newspaper.

"I'm honestly baffled at your newfound interest in baseball stats, Hiei." Kurama said an afternoon earlier. They had met to recap current events from "back home," and the conversation had derailed somewhere between census preparation for Gandara and permanent locations for Mukuro's fortresses to, of all things, baseball.

"It... interests me." It wasn't a lie, but he didn't like admitting it. He'd spent more than one summer afternoon or early evening perched within easy viewing of any number of baseball stadiums, after the first explosive crack of a bat hitting a ball and the screams of a thousand-odd human voices had caught his attention. To be honest, he had thought the screams were ones of terror for a moment, and was obliged to investigate, but what he found was - for some reason - far more interesting than run-of-the-mill bloodshed.

And when he had found out about the long-standing rivalry between the respective teams for Osaka and Tokyo, his inner bastard had leaped up eagerly at the chance to antagonize Kuwabara even more than he already did.

Unlike the oaf, Hiei preferred Osaka over Tokyo. The consumerist and busy atmosphere of Tokyo bored him, and Osaka was filled to brimming not only with interesting diversions, but with good food and plenty of places he could quietly sneak into for the nights when he couldn't be bothered to find a tree or a cave, or sneak into Kurama's room for the night. Like Kurama's seemingly unending library of odd literature, baseball was a welcome distraction for those nights he couldn't get the thoughts of home out of his head, and the opportunity to irritate Kuwabara was like the icing on the cake.

So he studied up. It wasn't just the pretence of being a dick that made him like the Tigers, or that it grated against Kuwabara's sense of hometown pride, (something that they had very much in common, Hiei would be loath to admit) but he liked the team, and he liked the game.

It was a weird enjoyment, and something not unlike the enjoyment he got from watching a particulary intense battle. The strategy, the anticipation, even a little bit of blood and tears. It was war, only instead of beating the shit out of each other, the participants were confined to beating the shit out of a little leather ball.
Well, most of the time. Some of the dugout brawls he had witnessed would have made the most hard-assed demon in makai proud.

"Well, I suppose you have to keep yourself occupied somehow." Kurama said, and left it at that. The next night, there were books of batting and pitching statistics from the past decade on his bookshelf. Hiei didn't bother to thank him; it would have been ignored anyway.

Hiei sat once again at Kuwabara's kitchen table, reading the paper first and indulging in idle conversation with Shizuru, who apparently thought the new development was hilarious, and with Yukina, who was just glad that he visited at all. He didn't react when Kuwabara kicked his chair irritably when he entered the kitchen. He kept quiet, only following Kuwabara out of the corner of his eye until he sat down with a bowl of cerial and a scowl that had most likely already curdled the milk.

All was quiet, and for a brief moment, a kind of peace settled over the kitchen. That is, until Hiei began to sing under his breath -
"Rokko oroshi ni sasso to
Soten kakeru nichirin no..."
He just barely kept himself from laughing as he flitted out of the way of a flying cereal bowl and out the door, Kuwabara's indignant shouting behind him.

END - 5/30/2008
So, more Hiei. Blame is placed entirely on BlueUtopiah, because she brings on the Hiei love.

This concept, however, isn't new. I had the singular chance of catching a Hanshin Tigers baseball game back in 2005 (it was fucking awesome. Not a spectacular year for them, but still, it was a great game I forget who they were playing against, though.) and during that time my homestay family explained to me the rivalry between Osaka and Tokyo, and I couldn't help thinking of how hilarious it would be to relate that to Kuwabara and Hiei. It isn't as far-fetched as you would think, either.NERD Hiei's mentioned in one of the CD dramas that his favorite food is Monjayaki, which is an Osaka-style version of Okonomiyaki (and, while delicious, looks like someone vomited on a plate and covered it with mayonaisse)./NERD That, coupled with Kuwabara's brand of hometown Tokyo Pride, gave me the idea for this little ficlet. Hiei is very Osaka, and Kuwabara is very Tokyo, so I think it works. Of course, that's probably the fangirl in me rationalizing, but we're all allowed a little of that, right?
The song Hiei is singing is the victory song for the Tigers, best sung right after they've beaten the Giants. 3