Major League System

Ken woke up on Saturday morning feeling refreshed despite his alarm clock beeping at him at 5am. Since they had a light training yesterday, his muscles had time to recover and since he didn't text Ai last night he'd had plenty of sleep.

It was weird. Ai hadn't attended training on Thursday afternoon, and she was away from school yesterday, something that was very rare for her. He'd even tried emailing her last night to check on her, only to receive a short reply.

He shrugged, clearly not understanding how women operated.

"Maybe I'll swing by her house on my run." He mumbled.

Since it was game day, he had until 9am when the bus would depart to arrive at school.

After getting dressed and saying goodbye to his mother, Ken popped on his shoes and began his morning run. Now that it was summer he was able to catch the sunrise on most mornings, adding a touch of beauty to the Japanese skyline.

He completed his normal running circuit before veering off towards Ai's house which added another 10 minutes to his run.

It was around 6 by the time he arrived at the bakery which already seemed to be full of people. He popped his head into the shop and looked around, waiting for Naomi to finish serving the customers.

It was then that Tetsu spotted him from the back, his eyes narrowing. Without a word, he accelerated to Ken and grabbed him by the arm and led him outside and around the corner.

"H-Hey what are you doing?" Ken was taken aback. Not expecting such a firm reaction, even if it was Ai's father who didn't seem to like him.

"What did ya do?" Tetsu asked, his face showing a serious expression.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Don't ya dare play dumb with me…" He raised his finger to Ken's face and looked as if he was about to assault him.

This time Ken really started to get annoyed. He had just come to check on Ai since she'd been absent from club and school, yet he was suddenly accused of something?

"Look. I don't know what you're talking about, I just came to check on Ai. If she's fine then that's all I need to know." Ken stated, trying to control the anger within him.

While he liked to think he was a nice guy, he wasn't exactly a saint. If someone was violent towards him, he wouldn't always be passive in such situations, no matter who it was.

Tetsu's face softened a little. Even though he was likely overprotective, he had enough sense to judge if a man's words were sincere.

He let out a deep sigh in response.

"Ay look I'm sorry, I'm a bit on edge. Ai came in to the shop two days ago and went straight to her room cryin'. She won't speak ta me or her mother."

Ken could feel the concern from her father, yet he was equally confused. What was it that happened two days ago that could affect Ai in such a way?

He was silent a moment, desperately trying to comb through his brain in order to find an answer. Yet nothing was coming to mind.

"Is she coming to the game today?" Ken asked.

Tetsu shook his head. "She won't even leave her bedroom."

"I'll just have to try and message her later." He said, feeling a little helpless.

It was not like he could just go up and barge into Ai's room, that would probably only exacerbate the issue. Plus, what if he was actually the reason she was like this?

"Alright then… Thanks fer checkin' up on her, and uhh sorry." Tetsu replied, feeling a little embarrassed.

Ken bid his farewell, quickly getting back up to his running speed and arriving home in around 10 minutes. He sent another message to Ai, however she did not even reply this time, causing Ken to frown.

'Man, what has happened.'

***

"Ken… Are you listening"

"Hmm?"

Ken turned his head to Yusuke who was sitting on the seat next to him on the bus. It seemed like the teen had been chatting to him during the trip, yet his mind was elsewhere the entire time.

"The coach will be starting Akira this match, so you might not even get a chance to play" He repeated, holding eye contact with his friend.

"Ah, okay."

Ken had forgotten that this was the plan. While he had originally been a little disappointed, his mind was quickly preoccupied by the Ai situation.

'It's not like her to do such a thing.' He thought, trying to rack his brains.

The Ai that he knew was upbeat and would never miss a practice, let alone a day of school. Of course there were exceptions, but something didn't feel quite right about this scenario.

Yusuke saw that Ken had gone back into deep thought after his lackluster response. Eventually he decided that it would do no good to try and talk to him while he was in this mood.

He had expected a little bit of annoyance or something when he remembered he wasn't in the starting line up, however the response was almost as if it had nothing to do with him.

'What has got Ken like this? Is it because Ai isn't here?' Yusuke thought curiously.

He shook his head, there's no way such a small thing could have such an effect on him.

The rest of the trip continued in silence, bringing Yusuke down a little.

"Alright we're here everyone. Please head straight for the changing rooms and meet on the field in the next 20 minutes. If you need the bathroom, do it now."

With that, everyone got off the bus in a single file.

"Ken, we're here." Yusuke nudged Ken's figure, finally snapping him out of his trance.

"Alright, coming."

The coach waited until everyone was off the bus before meeting up with the umpires and opposition coach. Since Shonan Senior was also part of the Kanagawa big 4, the two coach's knew each other rather well.