บท 62: 62. Training Start (VII)

Rei entered the dining room and Narumi was already setting up the table with Meiko's help. Narumi looked towards him and asked, "Can you call everyone they are in the hall."

Rei simply nodded and went towards the hall. He reached there and saw all three of them watching some television news. He cleared his throat and informed them, "*AHEM* Oji-san is calling for everyone to have dinner please come quickly."

Shirogana, who had the remote in his hand, nodded and turned off the television. Along with them Rei reached the dining room and sat in his place. Completing his dinner, Rei went back to his room after helping Narumi.

He started doing the drills Shirogana showed for his core muscles. After that, he started his stance training. He was able to stay for 2 hours and 15 minutes before he fell on his butt with pain.

He slowly sat on his bed stretching his legs for a rest. He massaged his legs with one hand and took his phone with another. He opened his messages and saw many from his friends and senpais. He calmly replied to each one of them.

Mizuki and Keiko would be coming back to town one week before the holidays would be over, which was correctly a month away. Mizuki begged Rei to get his holiday homework done by then so that she could copy it as soon as she came back to town. Making Rei giggle seeing this.

After a while, he told bye to all 4 of them and slept. He had his regimen set for the next one month till his holidays are done, as he learned all he could for a beginner from Shirogana and now all that is left is his effort.

He slowly closed his eyes escaping to a dreamland.

*TIME SKIP TO ONE WEEK BEFORE SCHOOL OPENS*

Rei woke up feeling refreshed. In the blink of his eyes the summer vacation is nearing its end. He wore his shoes and went for his jog. It gave him the sense of peace he needed in the quiet chilly morning.

Coming back after an hour Rei immediately went towards the bathroom to wash up. Coming out he went towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast for everyone. Narumi and Shirogana took Meiko to her new highschool, 'Horikoshi High School' a few days back and will be coming back by today night leaving her there with her aunt.

Meiko had to report earlier to her new team to get to know everyone. She was very unwilling to leave home when the time came and promised Sora and Rei she would call them every week and be in touch with both of them. Rei felt sad seeing her leave probably for the next 3 years even though she will come home for holidays.

Meiko helped him a lot in the past one month of his training with the soft hand's drill and the blocking drill. As she did not have to go to the club she trained with Rei increasing his progress leaps and bounds.

Rei completed the breakfast and went to call the remaining members, Shidou and Sora. He went towards the backyard and saw Shidou reading the newspaper. He informed him breakfast was ready and went towards Sora's room.

He went in and grabbed his blanket, saying, "Come on breakfast is ready." he only left when he got a yes as an answer.

After a while, all three of them were seated and started to eat. Completing his food Shidou praised Rei, "You are really a good chief Rei. This past week went without a problem because of your cooking." and Sora nodded to his words agreeing to them.

Rei felt embarrassed being praised like that but did not reply. He washed the dishes and went back to the backyard to start his training. He started with the drills for his core muscles which were taking a good shape after all the exercises he has done.

He felt them grow stronger and estimated it's at the level of average catchers by now. Completing them he started his stance practice. He continued to stay in the stance and the clock slowly crossed the 3-hour mark but he showed no signs of getting exhausted. Another 30 minutes passed and his body shook a bit. After another 30 minutes, he fell down.

He looked at his phone and noticed he stayed for 4 hours and felt very proud of it. But he still needed to improve. He wanted to stay until 4 hours without any discomfort. That was his goal for now.

He went back inside, washed up the sweat, and came back to the kitchen to cook lunch. Swiftly cooking lunch he heard the doorbell ring. He opened the main door and saw Izumi waiting. Izumi came in and Rei called Shidou and Sora for lunch.

Izumi has been helping out Rei with his blocking and soft hand drills for the past one week filling Meiko's absence. He comes to the house at lunch and trains with Rei for long periods of time intervals. Him not having club training was lucky for Rei.

Rei improved a lot in his soft hand's training and is easily above average currently. His blocking has also been good and he is easily very good for a middle schooler and even a high schooler.

Izumi training with him was a blessing this week. Without Izumi, he would have lost a week to do the two drills. After lunch, both of them went back to the backyard and began their training. Rei was very hardworking this whole summer not taking any breaks.

Rei wanted to be a good catcher for the team he will be joining. He knows the school team is missing a catcher and this is his opportunity. He doesn't want to drag it down only due to his poor performance in a game.

After their training session, Izumi went back home and Rei took a long refreshing bath. He sat on his bed feeling refreshed.