This training routine continued until the end of the month. After that, they applied to go home for the weekend twice more. Kōshū had no idea how the other first-year newcomers tried their hardest to prove themselves in the beginning, but he felt taking leave was perfectly normal. Fortunately, he gradually became familiar with the Second String upperclassmen, so no one saw him as someone lacking motivation.
Of course, by the later stages of training, Kōshū's body had adapted to the intensity, and he was gradually able to keep up. Combined with three huge bowls of rice at every meal, his physical advantages became obvious. At 1.89 meters tall, he had put a little weight back on and stood head and shoulders above the other players.
As for Lang Zhi, he could only be said to be following the planned schedule. His muscle mass was slowly recovering, but according to him, having gone so long without playing, the feel in his hands had deteriorated badly. Or rather, standing before the upperclassmen left him with very little confidence.
As expected, he still needs games. Kōshū occasionally served as the upperclassmen's Ball Feeding Pitcher, restricting his pitches by course and inside or outside location. Because he was so accurate, batting practice on his side later became an especially coveted slot. After only a few rounds, Kōshū discovered that even in the Second String, quite a few batters had solid hitting ability. He was beginning to wonder whether he could maintain his previous record under high school firepower.
Miyuki often came looking for Kōshū at night. Hearing his doubts, he neither agreed nor disagreed. "You should hurry up and build up your body. Increasing your pitching speed is the foundation of all foundations."
Then his next sentence would be, "Lang Zhi is giving