The Road Ahead

This team was both lively and disciplined. In the time it took to finish one meal, the two newcomers, Kōshū and Lang Zhi, had been greeted in turns by everyone on the team. One person even came over carrying a tray and demonstrated how to eat a chicken wing the size of a fist, stripping the bone clean in one bite. Amid the surrounding cheers, he took a bow.

After lunch, everyone was chased onto the field to walk off their meal. The loose procession stretched on for quite a distance. Kōshū blended into the Infield Group, while Lang Zhi had already found someone from his elementary school and started talking about people they both knew—mainly complaining about various teachers.

"So that bald math teacher used to be your homeroom teacher? You guys really had it rough."

"Exactly. Who would've thought that, in our final year, we'd get replaced by that demon?"

"Haha, you're exaggerating," one of the listeners said with a laugh.

"Seriously, he was a demon. Right, Sasaki?"

"Just thinking about it still gives me chills," Lang Zhi replied.

The two of them then began recounting the former math teacher's demonic deeds, while Kōshū drifted along the edge of the group, only half listening.

Then his gaze suddenly caught a pair of eyes ahead. It seemed to be that Second String Catcher, Hayakawa Aki. He stood off to the side as though waiting for someone—and apparently, he was waiting for Kōshū. So Kōshū nodded first in greeting, and Hayakawa Aki fell into step beside him.

"Kōshū, Coach Ninomiya wants you to stop by his office after training today."

Kōshū was a little surprised, but he agreed.

Hayakawa explained, "It's probably about your training plan. Oh, and your pitches are pretty interesting. You can warm up with me from now on."

Just as the two had started talking, a commotion broke out nearby. "No way, you two are brothers?"

"You don't look alike at all." "You don't even have the same last name."

"Don't say it so loud! It's remarriage, remarriage!" Lang Zhi hurried to patch up his slip of the tongue. "Stop shouting!"

Kōshū silently endured everyone's stares, then looked toward the short boy who had turned his face away to avoid meeting his eyes.

"Haha, little brothers really can be a headache," Hayakawa said with a smile as the middle schoolers nearby moved on to another topic. Kōshū asked, "Hayakawa, do you have younger brothers too?"

"I have two. One's two years younger than me, and the other is my cousin, but he's lived at my house since he was little, so he's basically my real little brother."

"Your house must be lively. I only have one at home, and he's already noisy enough to drive me crazy."

"Yeah. When we were little, our parents weren't home, so they made me look after them. The two of them got into a fight, and after I pulled them apart, they just sat on the floor and cried. Ah, they were so loud. Our parents happened to be about to come home, and if they saw both of my little brothers crying, they'd definitely blame me. So I sat on the floor and cried with them." Hayakawa Aki was a cheerful boy. The helplessness in his smile at the memory made Kōshū laugh too.

"So what happened in the end? Did they scold you?"

"No, hahaha. Thinking about it now, the moment our parents opened the door, they got hit by a wave of crying from three kids. It must've given them a terrible headache."

The weather was excellent today, surprisingly not muggy.

After being sent out to stroll around the field for ten minutes, some people could no longer resist touching a baseball. There was no intense exercise, just some casual catch. "Hayakawa, want to play catch?" Hayakawa readily agreed.

After they threw a few balls, Kōshū could not hold back his curiosity.

"When do we start practice this afternoon?"

"Didn't Grandma Gu Yue tell you? We walk off our food for half an hour, then take another half-hour nap before afternoon practice starts. So, around two."

"There's something else I've been wanting to ask. Have all the members here been around for a long time?"

"Yeah. I moved nearby in fifth grade and have been here ever since. It's been almost three years now. Most people joined in elementary school."

"Ah, but we're already in our second year of middle school."

At first there were only two or three at a time, then four or five. Everyone gradually filed into the Indoor Training Field.

"Kōshū, it's time for a nap. If we keep exercising, we definitely won't be able to sleep." Hayakawa put the ball back in its basket and led Kōshū inside. The artificial turf of the Indoor Training Field was covered in sleeping mats, and the air conditioning had been turned on.

Lang Zhi was waving at him from over there. The two casually picked a mat, rolled up their baseball uniforms to use as pillows, and went to sleep. Kōshū had thought he would not be able to fall asleep, but when he woke again, it was to the coaches urging everyone to get up.

After resting for a while, I feel so energized. My arm doesn't even ache anymore. After helping the staff gather and fold the mats, afternoon training began.

As usual, warm-ups consisted of running and stretching. The field had already been set up. While everyone happily went off to bat, Kōshū once again followed Coach Yoshioka to one side, where he began correcting his batting form in front of a T-stand.

"Keep your waist straight, but don't puff out your chest. Relax your upper body."

"When you set up, you can raise your rear right arm. Keep your left arm tight, but when you swing, both arms need to stay close to your body. The process of bringing your rear arm from relaxed to tight also accelerates your swing, so your rear arm needs to be raised at the start."

"Swing level from the side and hit the ball. That one was good. Remember that feeling."

A light sheen of sweat formed on Kōshū's forehead. This coach teaches at such a fast pace. There are so many key points to each movement. As they pile up one by one, I have to retain what I already remember while adjusting things without ruining what came before. This is hard.

Yet Coach Yoshioka was marveling inwardly. Not bad. He has excellent control over his own body.

Once Kōshū had more or less found the feeling for batting, Yoshioka removed the T-stand before he could even catch his breath and began tossing balls for him to hit.

"Whew—" By the time Coach Yoshioka told him to observe the live practice, Kōshū was already exhausted.

Baseball is different from what I imagined. It's constant repetition, correction, and more repetition. The excitement only lasts for a moment. Most of the time, it's just tedious. He wiped his sweat and returned outside, where everyone on the field had already taken their positions.

Coach Ninomiya stood in front of home plate, the bat in his hand hanging at his side over a basket of balls.

"First round. The four groups will rotate onto the field, half a basket each. My balls can go anywhere, so stay alert."

"First situation: no runners on base. Catchers, make sure to call it out."

"Ready?!"

"Yeah—!"

With his first swing on his first ball, Coach Ninomiya punched it straight through the gap between first and second. The catcher shouted, "First!" The ball rolled in front of the right fielder, who scooped it up one-handed and fired it quickly to first.

The second ball was hit straight at the shortstop. The shortstop made a diving stop, then threw to first amid everyone's cries of "First!"

"Call it out!"

The third ball barely sailed over the second baseman's head. The second baseman stretched desperately but still could not reach it. The center fielder was playing fairly shallow and came in to throw it to first.

"Kitahara, Fujiwara, Yoshino, why are all three of you outfielders playing so shallow? The next batter is a power hitter, right-handed pitcher and right-handed batter, good at going the other way, with a .500 batting average over the past few games. He hit a Home Run in the last game. Think fast about how you should defend!"

Huh, a pop quiz on the field? The brothers, observing from the side, were unusually on the same wavelength.

The players on the field shifted seamlessly. The second baseman moved directly behind the line between first and second, the shortstop came to second base, the third baseman moved between second and third, and the right fielder retreated deep. The next hit was a long ball, but because the second baseman happened to be in position to field it, it was immediately thrown to first.

Coach Ninomiya hit through half a basket of balls, then paused to catch his breath. "Switch groups!"

By the time all four groups had rotated through, an hour and a half had passed. It was now four thirty, and the coach hitting with the Coach's Bat had changed to the Infield Group's coach—Coach Yoshida.

"Back to the first group. Pitchers, take the mound this time. Group Two, get ready to bat. Outside Corner Balls only."

Someone Kōshū had seen in the Bullpen that day ran onto the Pitcher's Mound. He was a somewhat bookish-looking boy. His well-developed jawline and the sharp downward curve of his mouth gave him an air of calm intelligence.

"Feels like he'd be really good at solving problems..." Lang Zhi could not help practicing his swings nearby.

First pitch: fastball, around 130, high outside corner, foul ball.

Second pitch: slider breaking toward the outside corner and dropping into the bad-ball zone. The batter held back.

Third pitch: the glove was set at the Outside Low Corner, but the ball came into the Sweet Spot. Single.

Fastball plus slider. It looked like the pitcher only had those two pitch types. As for control, three or four out of every ten pitches landed fairly far from the glove. The pitcher successfully retired three batters, took off his cap to wipe away sweat, and left with a deep exhale.

It's a matchup, and they're restricted to the outside corner too. Looks like there's pressure. I wonder when I'll get to take the field. Kōshū held the ball in his hand, slowly warming it with his palm.

In the final matchup, the two losing groups had to stay behind and clean up the field. But almost everyone remained anyway. Kōshū joined them, retrieving balls. Whenever he brushed past the others, he could feel the heat radiating from their bodies. I really want to get on the field.

"Lang Zhi, wait for me in the Indoor Training Field later. Coach Ninomiya wants to talk to me in the Staff Room." Kōshū decided that during the conversation, he would express how badly he wanted to join in as soon as possible.

Perhaps that feeling showed on his face. After Coach Ninomiya finished summarizing the day's work and returned to his office, he looked at Kōshū. It seemed as though he discarded whatever he had originally planned to say, and his first question was, "Kōshū, have you ever stretched plastic wrap?"

Kōshū froze for a moment. Before he could answer, Coach Ninomiya sat down opposite him and leaned back in his chair. Though he did not complain, the brief daze and comfortable expression that crossed his face as he rested against the back of the chair made Kōshū realize that this man was no longer young.

Coach Ninomiya straightened up and placed a cup of water between them. "Kōshū, suppose the water here represents the nutrients you absorb every day. Those nutrients will either make your body stronger now or make you taller. But there is always a limit. Although your limit is also increasing, if you had to choose, would you use them to grow taller or to grow stronger?"

Kōshū seemed to understand a little, so he replied pointedly, "Half and half."

"Haha, you're thirteen years old and already one meter eighty-two. You've grown another two centimeters over the past six months. Of the nutrients you absorb, roughly seventy to eighty percent are probably going toward making you taller."

"Back to the plastic wrap. If you take plastic wrap of the same length and pull it outward from both sides, it becomes thinner. People are the same. With limited nutrients and limited time, growing too much too quickly leads to insufficient Bone Density, making injuries much more likely. You also don't have enough muscle to protect yourself. Why? Because the nutrients went toward height, not muscle. Do you understand now?"

Kōshū hurriedly nodded, focusing with complete attention. The feeling was somewhat familiar, like going to the doctor back home. Usually, there were too many people, and doctors were too exhausted to explain. They would simply tell patients what tests to get and what medicine to take. But sometimes, when there were fewer patients, a doctor would have time to carefully explain the condition and how the medicine worked.

"So you don't need to rush. Today, you and your brother were both observing and learning, but you'll learn quickly. You must build a solid foundation first. And pay special attention to this: don't do extra training at home. The club's training load is already enough. Once you leave the club, all you need to do is rest." The wrinkles between Coach Ninomiya's brows eased, and his expression became somewhat kindly.

Kōshū nodded again. As expected of a head coach who had guided so many children. His original plan to practice pitching at home disappeared.

"Many children have left this place. In the end, only a few truly continued playing baseball. But because of the baseball they learned here, everyone gained a hobby they could devote themselves to later in life." Coach Ninomiya raised his brows, lifting the sagging eyelids of age. The eyes that were usually half-hidden beneath them looked directly at the child across from him. "Kōshū, you understand, right? You have a long life ahead of you. And to put it plainly, you're very talented. If you follow the training plan we set for you, perhaps you'll be able to make a living from baseball someday."

Before receiving such a clear assessment of being "very talented" from a head coach, Kōshū had never felt such intense excitement. Even on the Track and Field Team, they had always followed a harsh, suppressive style of teaching. He smiled like a country child who had never entered the city before. Every bone in his body ached. He suppressed his trembling and met the old man's burning gaze.

"I understand, Coach Ninomiya."

Happy National Day, everyone. I woke up at home today~

I spent the whole day researching things related to writing. Why?

Because I received a private message offering me a contract. My emotional journey was probably surprise—excitement—hesitation—resolve.

Surprise: I had always written purely for love. I used to post on the Green Site, then came to Qidian because of Ace of Diamond fanfiction. I thought this place would be some remote wilderness with hardly anyone around. I called out, "Hello?" and someone in the mountains suddenly answered, "Hi." It scared me half to death.

Excitement: It was my first time seeing a real, live editor.

Hesitation: My abilities are limited. I don't know whether I can write a novel with no bugs and a smooth plot. And the sheer scale of Qidian novels, often hundreds of thousands of words long, always leaves me in awe.

Resolve: The first thing I learned after starting work was to turn "I have to do this" into "I want to do this." So I broke down the complicated feelings in my heart and made a simple SOP. My mood immediately brightened, because I had dismembered that monster. Once dismembered, it no longer seemed so huge.

1. What do I need to do to sign a contract?

2. What do I need to do to ensure daily updates and word count?

3. What do I need to do to ensure the work is complete and bug-free?

4. What do I need to do to ensure the work is engaging?

5. How do I ensure that my efforts are rewarded, and how do I verify what I've gained?

After all that nonsense, what's the conclusion? I'm going to sort out the outline during National Day, write around fifty thousand words, and if I feel I can keep going by then, I'll sign the contract. Anyway, I have to print the contract at the office.

Today I created a whole pile of folders. Some are for baseball materials, and some are for all kinds of story settings. I wrote all day and only got this little done...