Su Qing and his friends ended up retrieving a total of four baseballs from outside the field. Aside from the one in left field, which could be confirmed as Su Qing's first home run, there was no way to tell which ball had been his second home run. In the end, Su Qing took all four balls back with him. Of course, he wrapped the one from left field separately. He absolutely could not mix them up again, or he would not even have a place to cry about it.
Su Qing finished icing himself on the bus, and by the time they returned to school, it was already very late. Thinking about how he still had classes the next day, Su Qing felt utterly miserable.
That night, Little Tada came to find Su Qing for extra practice as usual, but Su Qing flatly refused him this time. He had truly been exhausted all day. Any more training and he really would die!
In the end, Tadano Itsuki left looking deeply disappointed.
When Su Qing returned to the dorm, all his roommates were already back. Narumiya Mei had even climbed onto his bed, though he was not lying down. He sat there looking down at everyone below, carrying the air of someone towering over the world with no equal.
When he saw Su Qing enter, Narumiya Mei spoke.
"We've more or less found the owners of those extra baseballs. We were the first team to play on that field today, which means the balls were probably left over from yesterday. The teams that played there yesterday were Seido and Yokogaku. No one from Yokogaku hit a home run."
"Oh? Were they Yuuki Tetsuya's?"
Su Qing asked back. He thought there was a good chance the balls had been hit by Tetsu-captain, but who had hit the other one?
Narumiya Mei did not answer. Pouting, he turned his face away.
Judging by Narumiya Mei's reaction, Su Qing felt that he knew who had hit the other ball.
At that moment, Carlos spoke.
"They were hit by Seido's catcher, Miyuki Kazuya, and another player named Chen Xin. Chen Xin is a first-year like you, uses a wooden bat like you, and is also a foreigner like you. The biggest coincidence is that he, too, nailed Yokogaku's ace's Fastball on the very first pitch! There really are a lot of monster rookies this year." Carlos sighed at the end.
"Yeah, I heard Seido also has a monster pitcher. His name seems to be Furuya Satoru. His velocity is a little lower than Su Su's, at 150 km/h, but that's still incredible."
!!!!!
Su Qing had been focused on Chen Xin, a name that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and that he had never heard before. Then Shirakawa's "Su Su" completely shattered his defenses.
Su Qing caught Shirakawa's pronunciation. What he had actually said was Su-chan—Little Su Su!!!
"Cough, cough, cough!"
"Su Su, are you all right?"
"I'm fine. You can just call me by my name."
Su Qing had not expected Shirakawa, who looked so cool and aloof, to be the best at messing with people.
"Calling you by your name doesn't feel close enough. Whose name is as short as yours? It's hard to call out. Should I call you Qing or Su? After thinking it over, Su Su was better."
"Exactly, exactly. Su Su sounds so nice."
Narumiya Mei loudly chimed in from his bed, and then the entire dorm burst out laughing.
Su Qing knew that he could no longer change his fate of being called Su-chan. Fine, they could call him whatever they liked. Back in college, his teammates had loved giving him nicknames too, and theirs had been far worse than this. What was the big deal?
The important thing was Chen Xin.
Su Qing had indeed heard the name Chen Xin before, but that had been in his previous life. Whenever his teammates mentioned that name, his teeth would itch with hatred.
Chen Xin was his old rival, and also the batter who gave him the biggest headache. That guy was practically his natural nemesis! Chen Xin had hit the first home run Su Qing gave up after entering the Major League, and he had also ruined Su Qing's Perfect Game.
Of course, Su Qing had struck him out plenty of times as well. In short, whenever the two faced each other, either Chen Xin got out or Su Qing got hit. There was no such thing as a walk! Even if Su Qing were immediately pulled from the mound by the coach, he would never give Chen Xin Four Balls!
Their love-hate history was famous throughout the entire Major League because they were simply too "well-matched." No matter how their contracts shifted, they always ended up on teams in the same division...
Not long after Su Qing retired due to injury, Chen Xin retired as well.
Su Qing did not know how Chen Xin had lived after retirement, because not long after retiring himself, he had transmigrated here. Still, Chen Xin should have had a strong chance of entering the Hall of Fame. That guy had won a pile of Gold Gloves, while Su Qing had fallen just a little short.
He had spent his entire career battling injuries and had been far more fragile than Chen Xin. The fact that his team had retired his jersey already satisfied him. After all, he had even managed to land a few years of terrible contracts.
So, was it you?
"Su Qing, are you all right? If you don't like that nickname, we won't call you that anymore."
Shirakawa, who was closest to him, was the first to notice that Su Qing had gone silent and that his face was full of sorrow. Thinking the nickname he had given him had hurt his feelings, he hurriedly tried to make up for it.
"I'm fine. I just remembered some things from the past. It isn't because of the nickname. My old teammates used to love giving me nicknames too. I don't mind."
"What? What kinds of nicknames did they give you?"
Narumiya Mei immediately became excited.
"Hmph, I'm not telling you!"
Su Qing could tell at a glance what Narumiya Mei was plotting. There was no way he would let him get what he wanted!
He felt his mindset becoming young again. Having companions really was wonderful.
After entering the professional leagues, he had not had any close companions besides his family. You never knew when a friend you had just made would be sold off by the club, or when you yourself would be sold off.
Teammates might eat and drink together or go shopping together, but there was always a sense of distance between them.
It was not like now. High school really was wonderful.
Su Qing broke into a brilliant smile. Given a second life, he would definitely experience the joy of playing baseball once more. Besides, he had plenty of money now.
"Captain."
"Mm? What is it?"
"Could I ask you to help investigate that Seido player named Chen Xin? I'm very familiar with that name. Back when I played overseas, I met a batter with the same name. So I want to confirm whether he really is the person I know."
"Sure. I'll have the people in charge of gathering information for the team keep an eye out. They should have recordings of yesterday's game. After all, it was Seido's game."
"Thank you, Captain!"
"No problem. Oh, right, I also wanted to talk to you about something. Forget it, it's late now. We'll discuss it during training tomorrow. Everyone, get to sleep early. We still have classes tomorrow."
Harada was every inch the imposing captain. Shirakawa and Carlos put down what they were doing and climbed into their beds. Su Qing climbed up as well, and once Harada saw that everyone was in bed, he turned off the lights.
Lying in bed, Su Qing could think only of one thing.
Was it you, Chen Xin?
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