Changing Speedball?

Japan's school system is very strange. There are three semesters in a year, unlike China where new students enter in September. In Japan, it's April. The first semester is from April to July, August is summer vacation, the second semester is from September to December, and the holiday is from Christmas to early January. The third semester is from early January to early March.

Of course, what students care about most is the exam. The mid-term exam for the second semester is in the second half of December, and the final exam is after returning from the January holiday.

So, now, the biggest crisis this month has arisen in the Sasaki household.

"What does this formula mean!" Lang Zhi collapsed. He held a book in each hand, and after only glancing at the book on the left, he anxiously looked at the one on the right.

"Quiet!" Kōshū blocked his ears and took out Lang Zhi's quiz paper. "Start with the knowledge points you got wrong. Learn one more knowledge point, and you'll get two fewer questions wrong."

"But there's no time. Winter Training starts this week." The Kinoshita Little League's Winter Training has a long duration, from December to January, including strength training, endurance training, and basic baseball training. Strength and endurance training are interspersed from Monday to Friday, and basic baseball training is concentrated on weekends, including basic throwing and catching, handling various balls, base running practice, and so on.

"I'm the one who doesn't have time, okay? I have to do Winter Training, prepare for mid-term exams, and tutor you!" Kōshū was looking at an illustrated Japanese History book, struggling to memorize history.

After entering Winter Training, the difficult times for the two officially began. Mr. Sasaki also shortened the clinic's business hours and began his daily commute. He first drove Shen Qing back, then went to the Kinoshita Club. During the waiting time, the air conditioning would be turned up high to allow the two children's sweat to slowly dissipate, preventing them from catching a cold.

During a break at a traffic light, Kōshū wiped the water vapor from the car window. Outside, the Christmas atmosphere was gradually becoming stronger, with Christmas trees, colored lights, and stickers decorating the shop windows, and people stopping to admire them from time to time.

It's an American holiday, but the Japanese celebrate it like a national holiday.

There is no Spring Festival here. If a person's biological clock includes a holiday alarm, then the world is completely preparing to ring the bell, but in Kōshū's premonition, there are still two months to go.

Lang Zhi was looking forward to the holiday and complained that Kōshū didn't have any excitement about the holiday. But rather than saying he wasn't excited about the holiday, it was more like he hadn't recovered from jet lag yet.

I have already left my country. After a long time, he once again deeply experienced a kind of tearing.

What does that feeling feel like?

It's like a seed falling into a rapid current, traveling thousands of kilometers, and after taking root, its spring, summer, autumn, and winter, its prosperity and withering, are at the same time as the distant mother tree. Before leaving, it formed the mother tree, and after leaving, it discovered that everything about the mother tree formed it.

But I no longer have a home there, whether physically or relationally. There are few people on the maternal side, and relatives no longer gather. The paternal side has broken off contact, and even the grandparents' house belongs to others.

"What are you spacing out about again?"

Only the voice in his ear was real. This car was warm. Kōshū came back to his senses and patted Lang Zhi's head: "I'm worried about you. If you don't finish reading the knowledge points today, don't sleep. Ugh—so much sweat, so dirty."

"You're the same!"

In late December, the mid-term exams and Winter Training came to an end. Kōshū, who had been sleeping until he woke up naturally every day at home, received a text message from Miyuki at the last minute: "You guys are on vacation, right? Want to come out and pitch?"

Ever since he found out that Kōshū was coming to Seido, Miyuki had often asked him to come out.

After tossing and turning in bed a few times, Kōshū replied: "Same place, 1:30 in the afternoon."

The old place the two were talking about was not the baseball hall they had been to with Narumiya Mei before, but had been changed to the middle of their residences.

"Good afternoon, Kōshū-kun. Ah—Younger Brother-kun, were you stretched vertically? Are you okay?" Miyuki's main sparring partner had now become Lang Zhi.

"What do you mean stretched vertically? I've gotten taller, okay? Taller!" Lang Zhi gestured his height next to Kōshū.

"Isn't that the same thing? Like dough, after being stretched, it becomes thin and long, hahaha."

"What kind of weird analogy is that?"

"It's very vivid, right, Kōshū-kun?" Miyuki called out to Kōshū, who had no reaction to their bickering.

"Today, I'm counting on Miyuki-senpai to help me determine my condition." Kōshū went straight to the point, diluting the atmosphere of the quarrel a lot.

'Wow—look at that gaze, he's totally using me as a catching tool,' Miyuki chuckled, wearing his protective gear. 'What a coincidence, should I say pitchers are all meticulous? It aligns perfectly with my goals.'

Such a pitcher who throws exactly where he's told is the best tool for testing a catcher's ability. Whether he or Takigawa Chris is superior can be fully verified after Kōshū joins the team. Of course, him familiarizing himself with this pitcher in advance isn't cheating. Chris-senpai has always had one more year of catching experience than him; he's just making up for lost time.

After warming up, Lang Zhi stood in the batter's box, and Miyuki positioned his mitt on the inner corner first.

"Bang—" Lang Zhi abruptly stepped back. "Why a Cutter as the first pitch!"

"Haha, wouldn't it be boring to always start with a Straight Ball then a Cutter?"

Clearly giving the pitcher a hard time, yet acting so nonchalant. Kōshū nodded at the signal and threw a low, outside corner Straight Ball.

"This speed is very consistent."

"Yeah, he can consistently maintain around 138."

"Average speed?"

"134-135, maybe." The strength and explosive power training during Winter Training all turned into a steady increase in ball speed after it ended.

"It's hard to imagine that just over four months ago, you were still a novice." Miyuki now speaks to Kōshū quite normally and seriously because this guy completely ignores his senpai when he jokes around, not even replying.

"Next, please help me take a look at my Changeup."

"Eh? Didn't the coach forbid you from learning new Changeups?" Lang Zhi clearly remembered him mentioning this at home.

"Oh, I accidentally threw it while pitching."

"You're lying!" Lang Zhi retorted, then looked at the surprisingly calm Miyuki, as if looking at the bad influence who corrupted Kōshū: "Miyuki-senpai, you taught him, didn't you?"

"Nah—he's telling the truth. It really was an accident. I was shocked at the time~" Miyuki replied with a relaxed expression.

Kōshū's Changeup was thrown when he spaced out while throwing a Straight Ball. At that time, his finger hooked, and he threw a ball almost randomly, but it was thrown out well and dropped in front of Home Plate.

"This ball... the speed changed, didn't it?" At the time, Miyuki called for a high-rotation Straight Ball, but for some reason, he received a strange ball.

"Ah—I hooked my finger."

After reviewing the outline, the proportion of content will be set as: game or pitching related: daily content = 3:1, so this chapter was originally three chapters in the outline, but now it has been directly reduced to one chapter~