Changeup?

Japan's school system was very strange. There were three semesters a year. Unlike China, where new students enrolled in September, Japan's school year began in April. The first semester ran from April to July, followed by summer vacation in August. The second semester ran from September to December, with Christmas break lasting until early January. The third semester ran from early January to early March.

Of course, what students cared about most was exams. The second semester's midterms were in the latter half of December, while finals came after school resumed in January.

So now, the Sasaki Family faced its biggest crisis of the month.

"What does this formula even mean?!" Lang Zhi was on the verge of collapse. He held a book in each hand. Before he had even read two lines in the book on the left, he anxiously looked at the one on the right again.

"Quiet!" Kōshū covered his ears and pulled out Lang Zhi's in-class test paper. "Start with the points you got wrong. Learn one more point, and you'll get two fewer questions wrong."

"But there's no time! Winter Training starts this week." Kinoshita Little League's Winter Training stretched over a long period, from December through January. It included strength training, endurance training, and basic baseball drills. Strength and endurance training alternated from Monday to Friday, while weekends focused on baseball fundamentals—basic throwing and catching, handling different kinds of pitches, baserunning practice, and so on.

"I'm the one who has no time, okay? I have Winter Training, midterms to prepare for, and I still have to tutor you!" Kōshū was studying an illustrated Japanese History guide, struggling to memorize the material.

Once Winter Training began, their difficult days officially started. Mr. Sasaki also shortened the clinic's business hours and began his daily driving routine. He first drove Shen Qing home, then headed to Kinoshita Club. While they waited, he turned the heater up high so the two children could gradually stop sweating and avoid catching colds.

While waiting at a red light, Kōshū wiped the condensation from the inside of the car window. Outside, the Christmas atmosphere was growing stronger. Christmas trees, colored lights, decals, and ornaments decorated the shop windows, and people stopped to look from time to time.

It was an American holiday, yet the Japanese celebrated it like one of their own national festivals.

There was no Spring Festival here. If someone's internal clock included an alarm for holidays, then this world was already completely prepared to ring it. But by Kōshū's sense of time, there were still two months to go.

Lang Zhi was really looking forward to the break. He even complained that Kōshū showed no excitement at all about vacation. But rather than saying Kōshū was not excited for the break, it was more that he still had not adjusted to the time difference.

I've already left my homeland. After so long, he once again deeply felt that sense of being torn apart.

What did that feeling look like?

It was like a seed falling into a rushing current, traveling thousands of kilometers before taking root. Its springs, summers, autumns, and winters, its flourishing and withering, still happened at the same time as the mother tree it could no longer see. Before leaving, it had made up the mother tree. After leaving, it discovered that everything about the mother tree had made up it.

But I no longer have a home there. Neither physically nor in terms of relationships. There were few people left on his mother's side, and the relatives had long since stopped gathering. He had cut off contact with his father's side, and even his maternal grandparents' house belonged to someone else now.

"What are you spacing out for again?"

Only the voice by his ear was real. This car was warm. Kōshū came back to himself and patted Lang Zhi's head. "I'm worrying about you. If you don't finish reviewing these points today, don't go to sleep. Ugh—you're sweating so much. Gross."

"Aren't you the same?!"

In late December, the midterms and Winter Training came to a temporary close. Kōshū, who had been sleeping until he woke naturally every day at home, received a text from Miyuki right on time: "You're on break, right? Want to come pitch?"

Ever since he learned that Kōshū would be joining Seido, Miyuki had often invited him out.

After rolling over twice in bed, Kōshū replied, "Same place, 1:30 this afternoon."

The usual place they spoke of was not the Baseball Field where they had previously gone with Narumiya Mei. They had switched to one halfway between their homes.

"Good afternoon, Kōshū. Ah—little brother, have you been stretched vertically by someone? Are you okay?" Miyuki had now become Lang Zhi's main sparring partner.

"What do you mean, stretched vertically? I grew taller, okay? Taller!" Lang Zhi gestured at his height beside Kōshū.

"Isn't that the same thing? Like dough. After being stretched, it gets skinny and long. Hahaha."

"What kind of ridiculous comparison is that?"

"It's vivid, right, Kōshū?" Miyuki called out to Kōshū, who had become completely numb to their bickering.

"Senior Miyuki, I'll be relying on you to help me assess my condition today." Kōshū got straight to the point, greatly dampening the playful mood.

Wow—look at those eyes. He's completely treating me as a catching tool, Miyuki thought with a grin as he put on his gear. What a coincidence. Should I say pitchers are all sensitive types? This fits perfectly with my goals too.

A pitcher who could put the ball wherever he was told was the best tool for testing a catcher's ability. Once Kōshū joined the team, it would be possible to fully determine who was better between him and Takigawa Chris. Of course, getting familiar with this pitcher in advance was not cheating. Senior Chris had a full extra year of catching experience over him; he was only making up for it.

After warming up, Lang Zhi stood in the Batter's Box while Miyuki first set his glove on the inside corner.

Bang— Lang Zhi abruptly jumped backward. "Why is the first pitch a Cutter?!"

"Haha, if it's always fastball first and then Cutter, won't that get boring?"

Though he was clearly making things difficult for the pitcher, he still looked so relaxed. Kōshū nodded at the Signals and threw another fastball to the Outside Low Corner.

"That velocity is really stable."

"Yeah, I can keep it around 138 now."

"What about the average?"

"About 134 to 135." After Winter Training's strength and explosive-power exercises, his pitch velocity had all turned into steady improvements.

"It's hard to imagine that you were still a beginner just over four months ago." Miyuki usually spoke quite normally and seriously with Kōshū now. If he tried joking around with him, the guy would simply ignore his senior and not respond at all.

"Then next, help me take a look at my Changeup."

"Huh? Didn't the coach forbid you from learning new Changeups?" Lang Zhi clearly remembered Kōshū mentioning that at home.

"Oh, I accidentally threw it while pitching."

"Who are you trying to fool?!" Lang Zhi retorted. Then he looked at the unexpectedly calm Miyuki as though he were a bad influence leading Kōshū astray. "Senior Miyuki, you taught him, didn't you?"

"Ah—what he said is true. It really was an accident. I was startled at the time too~" Miyuki replied with an easygoing expression.

Kōshū's Changeup had appeared when he got distracted while throwing a fastball. His finger caught slightly, and he threw what was almost a random pitch. Yet it flew out surprisingly well and dropped before home plate.

"This pitch... the speed changed, didn't it?" Miyuki had called for a High Rotation Speed Straight Ball at the time, but for some reason he received a strange pitch instead.

"Ah—I caught my finger."

After reviewing the outline, I decided the content ratio going forward would be 3:1 for games or pitching-related content versus daily life, so what was originally three chapters in the outline got compressed into one chapter~