Tournament Begins

The competition begins

Thursday was the day of the Kanto Tournament draw. After the order of appearance of 100 teams in the Kanto region was determined, the opening ceremony would be held on Saturday morning of this week. Three matches would be held on Saturday, and the remaining matches would be completed within two weeks to determine the 64 winning teams for the next round.

"Why 64 teams?" Kōshū asked.

"Because 28 teams will have a bye in the first round, this ensures that the number of teams is always even from the second round onwards." Shibasaki was assisting Kōshū with his bench press, "Do a few more sets at this weight."

The barbell, already at its maximum load, prevented Kōshū from responding. After one set, he shook his head, refusing to reduce the weight.

"Not bad, you're improving every day. You were half-dead a few days ago."

"Didn't Coach Ninomiya say that the principle of muscle strengthening is the body's repair after destroying muscle tissue? I've probably recovered these past few days."

"Haha, Coach Ninomiya is interesting, teaching a bunch of middle school students basic sports theory."

"Indeed... but it's very useful. What did you guys learn before?"

"Each time, we delve into a lot of sports knowledge based on a specific problem. Sometimes, if someone gets injured, the next study session will cover the cause of their injury. Because they're all examples from around us, it doesn't feel boring."

Suddenly, voices came from outside. A chattering sound, like a cloud, floated from far to near. Passing by the training room, Kōshū saw Captain Ito surrounded by a group of people. "Is Captain Ito leaving for the draw?"

"Looks like it. Hopefully, his luck this time will be as good as the previous captain's."

"Was the previous captain lucky?"

"Yeah, we didn't encounter a strong team until the third round of the summer tournament. Although we lost, it wasn't easy for the other team either, and they were eliminated in the next round." Kōshū looked at Shibasaki's gentle smile, feeling that such a person revealing obvious aggression created a kind of contrast.

After the voices gradually returned, Kōshū and Shibasaki continued to practice the remaining two sets of bench presses. "Shibasaki, let me assist you with your bench press."

Shibasaki's bench press weight was similar to Kōshū's. Although he had joined much earlier than Kōshū, the effect of muscle gain was not obvious. His family seemed to have prepared many extra meals, and his appetite had slowly increased after more than a year of adjustment. However, as long as he overtrained slightly, his weight would drop rapidly. Every day when he came to the team, Coach Fujii's first question was what his empty stomach weight was in the morning, and what his resting heart rate was.

Resting heart rate refers to the heart rate measured in the morning immediately after waking up, without getting out of bed. If the resting heart rate is faster than before for several consecutive days, it means that Shibasaki's training volume yesterday was a bit too much, and the coaching staff would formulate different training plans based on his physical condition.

"I really envy you," Shibasaki suddenly said during a break. Yesterday, they measured a new round of ball speed. His own was still around 125, while Kōshū had increased to around 123 after about ten days of training.

"Has Coach Ninomiya had you do a gastrointestinal examination?" Shibasaki's family seemed to be naturally thin. Shibasaki's height of around 1.72 meters was not conspicuous among pitchers, but standing next to his family members, he was already breaking through genetics. This probably explains where his nutrition went.

"There's no way. That's why I really envy you. I was normal before the fifth grade, but the situation became very obvious in the first year of middle school. Now my younger sister is also at this age and has growth retardation. My family is considering growth hormone injections."

Kōshū nodded, not speaking. As members of the low ball speed group, he and Shibasaki often did strength training together. He had learned about Shibasaki's hardships in a few days, and gradually realized why Coach Ninomiya wanted to study attributes like spin rate, probably because he didn't want to give up on Shibasaki. The training methods for pitching accuracy that he would study later were probably to help Sato find confidence in his pitching.

A simple analysis of the current situation of the team reveals a big problem. The two first-string pitchers, Nozawa and Heishi, are both in their third year of middle school. Not considering new members next summer, of the remaining pitchers, Sato's pitch count cannot exceed 60, Shibasaki's ball speed cannot be increased, and it seems that he himself is the only one who can step up.

That's why there's a half-year plan for a Straight Ball.

"However, among pitchers, there are also soft-toss types. Coach Ninomiya has considered a lot for me. After mastering both high and low spin rate balls, I probably need to learn a few more useful breaking balls."

"Yeah, but our team has relatively fewer pitchers compared to fielders in certain positions."

For example, there are already 7 people at the shortstop position. Why not consider having some outfielders practice pitching?

"Actually, some outfielders who are willing to be pitchers also undergo pitcher training regularly, but it's relatively rare. Coach Ninomiya still wants the players to find their strengths early so that they can be reused in high school. After all, every position requires a lot of practice. In middle school, the players' training time is fixed, and it seems that people from the association are supervising."

Wouldn't that be a bit troublesome for the team? But Kōshū didn't say it out loud, planning to ask about it during the next conversation.

When training ended that day, the draw results were also out. Captain Ito drew a bye in the first round, giving Kinoshita more time to prepare.

"Good job, Captain."

"Ito, you've got a lucky draw."

"Quiet!" Coach Ninomiya said sternly, "Victory is earned through hard work, not luck. Although we have more preparation time than other teams, don't forget that Marugame Little League from East Tokyo also had a bye. We will face Marugame Little League, who also got a rest, in the fourth round."

As soon as the coach said this, the joy in everyone's heart immediately sank.

"This year, both of our teams have been reorganized. They no longer have 'Tokyo's Number One Iron Catcher,' but their strength should not be underestimated. Starting this week, we will add an hour of game video study time every day."

"Yes!"

That day, they added five more laps of running, dispersing the impetuousness brought by the bye.

Soon, it was Saturday, the day of the Kanto Tournament opening ceremony. Kinoshita Little League gathered and took a chartered bus to the venue. The regular players could enter as team representatives, while Hayakawa and Kōshū and the others sat in the stands, enduring the scorching sun and listening to the old man on the stage giving a drowsy speech.

It's so hot, and there are so many people. The crowded stands made the surrounding air even hotter. It seemed like the heat from the people behind him was blowing on Kōshū's neck.

He couldn't stand it anymore, so he made an excuse to buy a drink and hid in the air-conditioned entrance hall. After falling asleep while sitting, he dreamed that he was trapped in his younger brother's room. Various beautiful girl magazines and figures blocked the way. Once Kōshū passed by them, these inanimate objects seemed to smell the breath of a living person and suddenly woke up, opening their mouths to bite off a piece of his flesh.

In the dream, he wanted to jump out of the window again, but just as his hand was about to reach out to pull the curtain, he noticed an unnatural bulge in the curtain ahead. That was—behind the curtain, there was a woman at some unknown time. The heavy fabric bulged, outlining her figure. She stood there quietly, right on Kōshū's path. If Kōshū hadn't noticed in advance, he might have bumped into the woman's face as soon as he pulled the curtain. This scared Kōshū so much that he woke up with a "wow."

"Ah—" Miyuki was also startled by him, "What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

Kōshū's body was still half-trapped in that nightmare. Hearing the question, he subconsciously muttered, "My brother's magazines have turned into man-eating things, and there's a woman by the window..."

"Hahahaha—"

Kōshū was interrupted by the laughter, and then angrily stopped him: "Aren't you that glasses kid from that day? Why are you here too?"

"Are you still confused from sleeping? Today is the opening ceremony, and the opening game has already started. You're still sleeping here, hahaha, I'm dying of laughter."

When Kōshū heard that so much time had passed, he didn't care about his slightly sore body and quickly ran back, opening the door to the venue. The hot air rushed in, and his body, which had cooled down, felt like it had jumped into a pot of oil. 'Hiss—' Hot sweat began to seep out.

"Ah, it's so hot."

Back at his seat, Hayakawa quickly pulled him down, and Lang Zhi also said anxiously, "Where did you go? Two groups of people went out to find you and couldn't find you."

"Ah—" Two groups of people, that's a big commotion. The coach must know now.

"The coach just said to have you record all three games today in the scorebook, and he will check it."

The people around him also chimed in, recreating the scene at that time. Mentioning that the coach had also gone out to look for him and hadn't returned yet, Kōshū suddenly covered his face: "Enough, don't say anymore, I already regret it so much."

Shibasaki patted him on the shoulder and thoughtfully handed over the scorebook.

The commotion caused by Kōshū only lasted for a while, and soon the baseball boys were all focused on watching the game again.

The opening game was between Edogawa Central Little League and Kijima Little League. It was already the third inning, and Edogawa Central Little League had already scored the 4th point, but Kijima Little League was slow to break the deadlock.

'It's a slaughter game.' Kōshū also slowly immersed himself in the game, completely unaware of the movement behind him. The coaches also rushed back when they heard the news of Kōshū's return.

Speaking of why two groups of people couldn't find Kōshū, it was because there were two entrances to this venue. Kōshū had said before that he was going to buy a drink, and there was a vending machine near this entrance, so everyone was looking near this entrance. Unexpectedly, Kōshū thought it wasn't cool enough here, so he went around to another entrance, and the bench happened to be behind several landscape plants, which allowed him to take a good nap.

Of course, after Kōshū left, Miyuki Kazuy also thought this place was good, so he took the opportunity to steal a little leisure here, but his team's seats were not far from this exit, and he was soon taken back by the angry supervisor's messenger.

Speaking of which, I only started to notice some things that I had never noticed before when I started writing novels, such as how this competition system is arranged (normally I should go and see how the real situation is arranged, but I'm too lazy to check), so the following happened

[1] 100 teams, just keep dividing by 2 (how come there are odd numbers after dividing twice)

[2] Then just give 4 teams a bye in the first round, but after calculating, it's not right, how come we have to set up bye teams later (at this time I started to think seriously)

[3] The number of teams must be a multiple of 2 by the end of the tournament, and the byes must be set in the first round. The multiple of 2 closest to 100 is 64...

[4] 64 = (100 - x) / 2 + x, which calculates to 28 byes in the first round...

If I weren't writing a novel, I would never have thought about tournament arrangements before... This can be considered an unexpected gain.