Chương 26: Pre-Summer Camp, Start!
In the Weight room at night.
"Practice isn't about aimlessly working hard. You have to learn how to rest. Do you want to end up like me? It's not bad to have the responsibility of a first-string player. However, you don't need to shoulder everything by yourself. So do a light workout today. Okay?", said Chris.
Sawamura started crying and said teary-eyed, "Chris senpai I…"
"Jeez, you're quite a handful", said Chris seeing Sawamura cry.
"What are you guys doing…", asked Rei standing at the door ruining the moment.
There was silence in the room as everyone stared at him dumbfounded.
"YAAHAA…Thanks for changing the atmosphere, Rei, I was about to cry too", said Kuramochi.
"I-I…What?", said Rei confused.
"Uh…I forgot to call you here. Hahaha…", said Miyuki laughing awkwardly.
Rei ignored him and muttered, "Betrayer" under his breath.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY…I didn't hear you", said Miyuki.
Rei walked away from Miyuki.
"Where are you running away?", said Miyuki as he followed Rei.
"I want to discuss something important", said Rei approaching Chris. Miyuki was behind Rei and was overhearing their conversation. Which Rei didn't mind.
"What kind of news?", asked Chris curiously.
"I recently learned a new pitch", said Rei surprising everyone in the room.
Chris was shocked but didn't show it on his face. "Which pitch and how efficiently can you pitch it", he asked.
"Cutter. I just recently learned it so I'm not that efficient with it", said Rei.
"How about you show it to us", said Chris.
Rei nodded agreeing with Chris's suggestion.
After 10 minutes.
Rei was preparing to throw his 'new' pitch while Miyuki was ready to catch his pitch.
"Go ahead and show me your new pitch", said Chris observing from the sidelines and gesturing for Rei to start.
Rei nodded and took his pitching position, held the ball in a new way, swung back his arm with force, and released the ball aiming toward the mitt.
The ball went 100 KM hitting the strike zone.
(Authors Note: Rei's speed is 150 KM with the fastball but if he levels up the cutter, he should be back to 150 KM. His speed is 100 because the cutter pitch isn't leveled up yet.)
Everyone was shocked and happy for Rei as he learned a new pitch.
"Oy, oy, oy, Tanba-san is in trouble. Why are this year's 1st year's so talented?", thought Kuramochi.
"That's why I love this kid, he always throws to where my mitt is", thought Miyuki.
Sawamura and Furuya were dumbfounded at Rei's revelation.
He had gotten ahead of them again by going and learning a new pitch.
Pitches are easy to learn but hard to master. For example, in Sawamura's numbers, he had a lot of grips and techniques for his pitches, but he couldn't throw a strike with them because he hadn't mastered them.
"Awesome…", said Sawamura with twinkling eyes.
"Eijun-Kun that's going to be hard to beat", thought Harucchi.
"I bet I could hit a home run on it", thought Masuko and Zono.
"You were too quick on learning a new pitch, your control sucks, it's slow…", said Chris seriously.
Rei laughed awkwardly as Chris senpai stated the pitch's weaknesses.
"Have you been practicing it recently?", said Miyuki.
"No, I have just been focusing on the fastball pitch", said Rei.
"I think that's why your control sucks", said Miyuki.
"I have to inform the Coach about this", thought Chris. The coach had assigned him to look over the team and guide its pitchers.
For a few hours Rei, Sawamura, and Furuya were receiving guidance from Chris and Miyuki that could be useful to them. Rei didn't find any information that was useful since he already knew about it so he couldn't blame them.
Zono, Masuko, and Harucchi were helpful because they batted while Sawamura, Rei, and Furuya pitched.
At night in the dorms.
Rei and the rest of them had separated, and they all went to their dorms.
He went to the bathroom freshened up and hit the bed.
2nd week of June – Camp Day 1 – Morning
The batters were practicing their batting and the Fielders were practicing their fielding but Rei, Sawamura, and Furuya were a special case since they were practicing fielding.
Needless to say, they were bad at it.
Rei had trouble catching the ball and reaching the base in time.
Chris assigned the 3 of them to the outfield as it would help them practice their fielding.
Near the dugout, Kataoka, Takashima, and Director Oota were discussing about the camp.
"With this camp happening, it really feels like summer's approaching. I sure hope there won't be any quitter again this year", said Director Oota.
"That would be best", said Takashima.
"Becoming one with the team. That's the goal of this camp…", said Kataoka.
"I GOT IT…I GOT IT", yelled Sawamura and Rei while out fielding and suddenly crashing into each other.
They both massaged their throbbing head and went back to their position as Zono kept yelling at them.
"Will we really be, ok?", said Director Oota worryingly.
Evening in the practice field.
Everybody was provided with rice balls, and they could eat as many as they wanted.
"Here, eat as many as you want. It'll help your stamina during the night practice", said Miyuki handing Rei a big plate full of rice balls.
Rei refused it immediately as he knew what Miyuki was planning. He didn't plan on barfing today.
"I'm not gonna fall for it", said Rei grabbing a rice ball from the plate. He planned to eat only 1 rice ball to stop his hunger.
Miyuki clicked his tongue in annoyance.
While eating Rei saw Sawmaura eating plates of rice balls and thought, "He's definitely going to barf".
Night Practice, the field lights turned on.
"20 sprints from pole to pole!", yelled a 3rd year, who was measuring their time.
Rei did these sprints 2 times; it was a little easier for him considering he ran with tires every day.
The next exercise was, running 100 bases. This got Rei sweating like a maniac. He was panting hard.
The 3rd year told them to go sprinting again. Rei didn't complain since he was addicted to training and was motivated for the summer tournament.
After the exercise's ended, Kataoka said, "All right, that's enough for the first day. Finish up with 20 laps around the field! Everyone's running, and everyone's yelling!".
When they were about to start sprinting Rei saw Sawamura puff up his mouth as if he was about to barf. Just to be safe Rei backed away from him a few inches and started sprinting.
"Let's show some spirit!".
"Hoorah!".
"One, two! ".
"One, two, one more time!".
"One, two, three, four, one!".
The Players yelled simultaneously while sprinting together.
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