The Daily Life of a New Semester

New Semester Routine

In this practice match, Ido was the catcher and Nozawa the pitcher, but the fielding lineup had changed a lot. For example, Lang Zhi was playing shortstop in this game.

'Even though it's just a practice match, Coach Ninomiya is still so confident, adding several players who don't usually get to play,' the Edogawa Little League coach observed these players discreetly, reminding the recorder to note their performance.

"Kinoshita Little League is number one in West Tokyo, as expected, any player they bring out is amazing, scary—" the coach squeezed a bead of sweat from his forehead.

"Miyuki Kazuya, even if you're not playing, you need to wear your team uniform, and you're late."

"Yes—" Miyuki Kazuya took out his uniform and put it on, answering absentmindedly, his mind full of the figure throwing a ball at the net just now.

'Such huge information, should I tell the coach? Haha, anyway, I'm graduating soon, so I'll leave some surprises for the unruly juniors, hee hee.'

The seventh batter went up to bat amidst cheers. The first pitch almost seemed like a hit-by-pitch, and he took a big step back. It turned out to be a slider that went in for a strike. The second pitch was a low inside straight ball, and the third was low and outside, grazing the bat and resulting in a ground ball that led to a force out.

The top half of the inning ended, and it was Edogawa Little League's turn to field.

The pitcher and catcher for this game were Hasegawa and Nakamura, who didn't get along with Miyuki. It was also because of the pitcher's strong objections that Miyuki wasn't able to play as catcher in this game.

Little League games usually end in six innings. In the third inning, Kinoshita Little League lost 1 point, but in the second half, the batting lineup connected, and before the Edogawa pitcher and catcher could react, they launched a fierce offensive and scored 4 points. In the end, the two teams' score was 5:1, with Kinoshita Little League winning.

After the game, the two coaches exchanged pleasantries as usual. Because Little League games are mostly held within branches, teams from two different branches have the habit of playing friendly matches.

"Coach Ninomiya, even with a rebuilt team, Kinoshita Little League still has very strong strength."

"Not at all, not at all."

On the players' side, Kōshū was just about to go to the training room for some strength training when someone blocked his way.

"You're Kōshū, right? Let's exchange email addresses."

"Eh, but I didn't bring my phone." A hand suddenly reached for Kōshū's right pants pocket, because Kōshū wasn't training this afternoon, he had changed back into his sportswear.

"Kōshū, you're not being honest, aren't you carrying it on you?"

Slapping away that hand, Kōshū acted with a face full of black lines: "Eh, I actually brought it? But what do you want my email for?"

"To exchange ideas about pitching."

"It doesn't seem like you need to worry about that."

"I'm a senior, and if you want to pitch, you can always find me. I'm very interested in your pitches."

Kōshū said warily and speechlessly, "Senior, even if I want to pitch, it doesn't seem like I need to find you."

But in the end, Miyuki still got Kōshū's email address and left contentedly.

Kōshū was also called away by the gathering sound, thinking hurriedly, 'I'll delete him after I get home.'

After the practice match, there was a brief summary. Lang Zhi played for four innings without making any mistakes, and was now standing in the second row with a face full of smiles. Kōshū hid in the back row.

He was now slowly realizing that his team seemed to be quite strong.

"School starts tomorrow, everyone pack up your things and go home as soon as possible." Coach Ninomiya urged everyone to go home quickly, "Remember to finish your homework."

"Yes—" Homework? Let's not mention that.

Kōshū didn't get enough exercise today. After returning home, he secretly put on his sportswear and was about to go out for a run. But as soon as he opened his door, he saw Lang Zhi coming up the stairs with a drink from downstairs.

"Hey, what are you up to? Don't tell me you're giving yourself extra training." This kid was acting all high and mighty, taking the coach's words like they were imperial decrees.

"I didn't play today, and it's still early. My body isn't used to so little exercise."

"No way. The coach said that rest isn't just for the muscles, it's for the nerves too. A lot of times, resting the muscles doesn't do any good. Only when the nerves are rested can you achieve the training effect." Lang Zhi pushed him back, the condensation on the drink bottle getting on Kōshū's clothes. "Oh, right, the new season of Idol Live is out. Let's watch it together."

"What's that?"

In Lang Zhi's room, those colorful posters had reappeared on the walls.

"Come on, let's do it together. I'll tell you..." Lang Zhi looked excited, eager to promote his favorite thing.

"Bang—" Kōshū returned to his room, blocking him outside. Running was out of the question for the time being, so he had no choice but to do push-ups and dumbbells at home.

'I'm too weak. Am I just going to watch others play until half a year from now?'

Kōshū's mood wasn't particularly high all the way until dinner. Although he had made some breakthroughs in his pitching, it was only after a week of training, which was far from enough. Shen Qing misunderstood the reason for Kōshū's low mood: "You two, the new semester starts tomorrow. Have you finished your homework?"

The two nodded obediently. Shen Qing took the opportunity to ask, "Then, Kōshū, why do you look so listless?"

Lang Zhi answered for him: "How can students be happy about the start of school? Once school starts, they can only practice baseball with all their might on weekends."

Kōshū also nodded. After school started, without the intensity of training during the holidays, the already slow progress might become even slower.

"But, I'm very happy, because starting tomorrow, I'm going to make lunch boxes for you." Kōshū and Lang Zhi choked in unison, coughing while covering their mouths, and gulping water while tilting their heads back.

Kōshū pointed to the dish on the table that was left untouched: "Are you going to make this for lunch tomorrow?"

"That's right. I made a very thick soup. When you eat it, every grain of rice will be soaked in the meat broth." Then she turned to look at Mr. Sasaki, who was trying to minimize his presence. "Honey, don't you think it's a great idea?"

"I... I think it's great, but don't you think there's too much sauce in this? It's all black, and you can't even tell what the ingredients are." Mr. Sasaki said carefully, "How about this? I'll make the main part of the lunch box from now on, and you can make the side dishes."

"Yeah, I like refreshing side dishes. If we have a snack in the afternoon, side dishes will make it easier to eat, Mom." Lang Zhi quickly chimed in.

Kōshū also rarely took the initiative to persuade her.

"Why do I feel like you don't want me to make lunch boxes?" Shen Qing said helplessly.

'Yes, Mr. Sasaki's cooking is still the best.' The two boys were on the same wavelength for a moment.

So the next morning, Mr. Sasaki still got up to make lunch boxes, Lang Zhi made coffee, Shen Qing fried eggs for breakfast, and Kōshū went for a morning run.

The new semester seemed no different from the last. Kōshū sat by the window. During class breaks, the classroom was divided into many small groups. A boy in front of Kōshū who had spoken to him was said to have been injured during the holidays and would not be able to start school for another half a month. How boring.

Kōshū took out his scorebook and looked at the notes Hayakawa had recorded, studying the pitching strategy.

"Are you in the Baseball Club?" a boy next to him asked, pointing to the scorebook.

Kōshū nodded, "What about you?"

"How should I put it? I want to become a sports reporter. When it comes to sports, you can't avoid baseball, so I've been studying the scorebook recently."

"Oh, um." Kōshū looked at the boy with the flamboyant hairstyle and didn't really want to talk to him. At the same time, he wondered why Japanese boys had to leave their hair so long that it covered their faces. Seeing it this way, the buzz cuts of the Baseball Club members were really pleasing to the eye.

Seeing that Kōshū was ignoring him, the boy wisely stopped talking.

The Little League Team's training that day was only 2 hours, from 4 PM to 6 PM. The main content was physical training. The coach seemed to want to drain the players dry in 2 hours, with everyone flipping tires and doing shuttle runs. After that, the Infield Group also had hopscotch, while the outfield had various sliding catch practices. On the pitcher's side, Kōshū was only allowed to pitch after three sets of strength training.

"Hayakawa, I'm going to pitch," Kōshū said excitedly.

Hayakawa didn't reply, but under his mask, the shadow on his face seemed to shift with a smile.

A regular Straight Ball, a stable pitching feel, then still aim for that spot, with the mindset of throwing a regular Straight Ball, only increase the force of the fingertips, and such a Straight Ball will run to half a ball position higher, becoming a high-rotation Straight Ball.

"NICE BALL," Hayakawa responded, catching the ball.

Coach Fujii was thinking beside him. He had actually had Kōshū experiment a few days ago. It seemed that his accuracy depended only on the position of the glove he was aiming for in his mind. If he was throwing a high-rotation Straight Ball and he was thinking of a position half a ball higher than a regular Straight Ball, then the ball would float to a position one ball higher.

And when Coach Fujii wanted him to do more experiments, Kōshū was very likely to lose the feeling of pitching, so after the coaching staff discussed it, they unanimously agreed that now they needed to stabilize Kōshū first, and then consider the accuracy experiment.

Originally hoping to get more accuracy data from Kōshū to use in training Sato, it seems that it also needs to be postponed. Sato, who is only in the first year of junior high school, already has a ball speed that reaches the level of a third-year student, but after 60 pitches, he will not be able to throw accurately.

"Ah—" Coach Fujii sighed. Although Kinoshita Little League has many pitchers, everyone has more or less some problems, but this is also the meaning of the existence of the coach.

"Sato, after 60 pitches today, you and the catcher reduce the distance to 10 meters. If you can find the feeling of pitching at 10 meters, then slowly increase the distance later," Coach Fujii could only arrange it this way.

"Okay."

When they gathered this day, Coach Ninomiya, based on the practical training of everyone throughout the summer vacation, issued back numbers to the first-string team. Now the ACE of the first-string team is Nozawa, and Heishi is number 10.

"That's great," Shibasaki muttered. Kōshū looked at the number one back number, but didn't feel anything. He can't even play in the game now, let alone any formal back number.

The National Day is almost over, I really don't want to part with my holiday!

There are two major events after the National Day, one is the quarterly report, I haven't made the PPT yet, and the other is the qualification exam, I have only read half of one of the four books, I always have a feeling of impending disaster