The brief New Year holiday was far too short for working adults, but for baseball boys accustomed to training every day, it was far too idle. After finishing their schoolwork, they played catch every day. At first, they could still hit into the net in the backyard, but once the two of them got going, they never stopped. Every time they came back after cleaning up, they would find Shen Qing, who should have been resting, forcing herself to make them something to eat.
"Lang Zhi, there are only a couple of days left anyway. Let's not practice batting."
Shen Qing's due date was April 7, which meant she still had three months to go, yet she had already begun resting at home. With placenta previa and twins, the underside of her swollen belly was covered in deep stretch marks like ravines, with bluish capillaries spreading between them like rivers.
A few days earlier, both babies had shifted into a head-down position. Whenever Shen Qing bent over even slightly, their feet would kick her internal organs. "Let me feed you." Mr. Sasaki naturally understood what was going on.
"My mouth tastes so bitter. I want to lick some candy."
"No. Gestational diabetes is dangerous. You studied medicine, so you definitely understand that, right?"
"I'll only lick it once, then rinse my mouth and spit it out." In the late stages of pregnancy, Shen Qing, usually so calm and self-controlled, had somewhat lost her usual composure.
Mr. Sasaki naturally talked her out of it gently. Then he specifically reminded the two brothers to memorize all the things pregnant women were forbidden from eating, so they would not bring any of them home.
"Pregnancy is really hard. Did I put Mom through all this too?" Lang Zhi muttered. He was sitting sloppily, leaning sideways against the back of his chair.
"Then you should ask your birth mother." The dining table had now been converted into the two boys' desks, and from there, they could see Shen Qing resting inside.
"Huh? Why did you answer what I was thinking? Did I say it out loud?" Lang Zhi looked horrified, embarrassed that someone had seen through his feelings. Seriously, they were too close. He had absolutely no privacy.
Kōshū rolled his eyes at him. Recently, he had clearly sensed the changes in Lang Zhi's emotions.
Seeing how difficult pregnancy was, he had somehow imagined a trace of maternal love between himself and his birth mother. Maybe those hands had once touched her belly with anticipation. Maybe those eyes had once been filled with smiles. Maybe that love had truly existed, but he could not see it for himself, so he wanted to get closer, to see whether he could find traces of its existence in the shadows of the present.
But this child would ultimately be disappointed. After that disappointment, the coldness, violence, and sadness buried in his memories would all resurface. So rather than letting him be disappointed, it was better to leave him with this small, lucky hope.
"No, Lang Zhi. Don't disturb someone else's life. Sometimes, staying where you are and not reaching out is the best thing." Kōshū did not look up, but he could feel the sharp gaze from the boy across from him. For the first time, he did not dare lift his head. He forced himself to work on his problems, and as he became absorbed in them, he eventually looked up again to find the boy across from him studying seriously as well. At some point, the tense, drawn-sword atmosphere had vanished.
The brothers' days of keeping watch downstairs over the high-risk pregnant woman quickly passed. Shen Qing refused Mr. Sasaki's suggestion to half-close the clinic, and she also refused Lang Zhi's Grandmother's offer to come care for her. In the end, they hired a maternity caregiver at a high price.
"Ten thousand yen a day," Lang Zhi muttered on the first day of the new term.
"You know that too?" Why was this kid so sensitive about prices? He had previously spent all day complaining about how expensive the club was.
"Of course. Just look up the company's rates online."
Ms. Huizi was probably in her forties. Her fingers were thick, and her face showed little expression, but she worked extremely efficiently. She could help Shen Qing with everything that required bending over. She only stayed at the house for eight hours, and the moment Mr. Sasaki came home, she would leave immediately. After becoming more familiar with her, Kōshū discovered that when she smiled, the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes stretched all the way to her temples. Perhaps because of those wrinkles, she chose to keep a straight face while working.
Her presence was faint, and she was excellent at respecting boundaries, so the Sasaki Family later hired her on a monthly salary until the babies turned two.
However, the two brothers rushing to school at the time had not yet met this future old acquaintance.
Once the third term began, the atmosphere among their classmates was clearly different. Some attended information sessions for various schools, some started cram school, and others began looking into different recommendation materials in advance.
The Kōshū brothers were busy as well. Their final exams would be held at the end of January, and at the same time, they underwent their monthly physical assessments. Nearly half a year had passed since they first joined the club and received their physical tests, so it was time to evaluate the half-year plan they had set at the beginning.
"Weight: 75 kilograms, just one kilogram short of the goal. Height: 185 centimeters. He's grown another three centimeters since joining the club." Mr. Fujii flipped back to the first record and made the comparison with satisfaction. Nothing was better than seeing young boys grow.
Of course, there were also things that worried him. Looking up, he saw Shibasaki's physical measurement results from June. His height had not changed at all, while his weight had even dropped by one kilogram.
"Coach Fujii, I really have been eating properly." As if sensing the coach's mood, Shibasaki raised his hand to explain.
"Sigh... Fortunately, your pitching speed has now increased to 130."
Another important metric was pitching speed. Half a year ago, Coach Ninomiya had assigned Coach Fujii the task of raising Kōshū's pitching speed to 135. Now, that goal had been surpassed.
"Kōshū, the next half-year plan is about to begin. What do you have in mind for yourself?"
"Still, while stabilizing my existing system, I want to try more things. For example, I want to add a changeup. With horizontal movement, the different drop created by the fastball's spin, and then a speed difference as well, my overall pitching strategy should become more flexible."
"...With that expression, tell me honestly. Did you secretly learn a changeup on your own?" Coach Fujii had seen many pitchers. Kōshū was the type of kid with an especially large number of ideas, and he knew that all too well. Once Kōshū suggested something, it meant he had already tried it for a while and was beginning to see results.
The pitchers' testing had just ended, so Coach Fujii, wearing a deeply wrinkled expression, immediately called Kōshū to the Bullpen to show him this changeup. Inside, he groaned at the thought of all the analysis work that was about to pile up again.
"Hayakawa, sorry." Kōshū called over his partner, and those were the first words he said.
"Did you and Miyuki secretly study something together?"
"Huh? Did Senior Miyuki say that?" That Miyuki Kazuya really was an unreliable guy.
"Not exactly, but he said something like, 'Please look forward to it,' so I guessed you might have come up with something. So what is it?"
"A changeup."
Hayakawa returned to home plate, still wondering what that "changeup with a twenty-kilometer speed difference from his fastest fastball" would look like.
Coach Fujii stood nearby and turned on the camera again. Kōshū began with a fastball, throwing it at his top speed.
"Oh—138. Not bad. The fastball hasn't lost any juice."
"Next is the changeup." Kōshū gave the warning. Then, inside his glove, he changed his grip into an OK shape. After lifting his leg, every movement was identical to his fastball delivery, and his arm whipped through with full force, but the ball did not come. It was twenty kilometers slower than the first pitch, drifting lazily toward home plate before stalling and dropping above it, landing at the Outside Low Corner.
"Oh—" Kōshū looked up and saw that everyone in the Bullpen had gathered together. "That's a good pitch."
Coach Fujii clenched his fist inwardly. This kid might really be able to make a living off baseball!
"NICE!" Hayakawa Aki, who had personally caught the pitch, was the happiest of all. It had not only a speed difference and a sharp drop, but accuracy as well. This was Kōshū's changeup.
His pitching speed had risen to 138. He had polished his fastball, acquired a cutter and a changeup, and in the half-year since becoming a baseball rookie, Kōshū had advanced like a charging beast.
Before they knew it, half a year of baseball time had passed in the story.
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