10 Expansion

In the end, Shirakawa, Harada, and Narumiya Mei each snatched several gloves. Su Qing did not mind, though. He had plenty of stuff anyway.

Narumiya Mei and the others had long grown used to all sorts of strange things appearing around Su Qing. Every night, Su Qing left Inashiro carrying a large box, so naturally they assumed he had bought everything outside. Sometimes they grumbled about Su Qing wasting money, but they never got tired of helping themselves to things from him.

In truth, the large boxes Su Qing carried back were empty, while the boxes he carried out were full. Common sense simply made Narumiya Mei and the others assume that the boxes came before the things inside them.

Su Qing had successfully rented a small place near Inashiro. At present, one-quarter of it was already piled full of all kinds of baseball shoes, caps, gloves, bats, and other strange items, leaving Su Qing miserable. If this continued, he would have to find a way to rent a large warehouse. After all, property prices in Tokyo were quite expensive.

Su Qing had originally planned to buy a place, but the housing prices successfully scared him off.

After setting aside several dozen gloves to distribute among his other teammates, Su Qing tossed all the remaining gloves into his empty box, planning to carry them back to his rental that night.

Today was destined to be an extraordinary day, because Su Qing had received several love letters. At Inashiro, boys who could join the Baseball Club—especially the First String—were naturally more attractive in the girls' eyes. Besides, Su Qing was indeed quite good-looking.

Su Qing felt nothing when faced with the love letters. Whether in his previous life or this one, aside from baseball, he was a complete emotional idiot.

Otherwise, he would not have remained a loner throughout his previous life.

He turned a blind eye to the girls' expectant yet shy gazes, casually stuffed the love letters into his bag, and went straight to baseball practice after class.

Being able to safely bring the love letters back to the dormitory made Su Qing feel that Japanese high schools had such a great environment. In his previous life, his bad friends would have publicly executed both the girl who wrote the letter and him long ago.

Inashiro's pitching training had now changed completely. In the past, the pitchers threw while Coach Kunimoto watched from the side. Now, the pitchers threw while Su Qing watched from behind.

Coach Kunimoto was not someone who could not tolerate others. After confirming that Su Qing's training method was indeed beneficial for pitching, the private training Su Qing had been doing with Narumiya Mei was brought into the open. The rest of Inashiro's players were trained along with them.

"Your release point was off. We fixed it yesterday, so why was it off again today?"

Narumiya Mei snorted coldly.

Su Qing hurried over to soothe him.

"Go do your own training. The captain can watch over things here."

"Yeah, yeah. Good luck."

Actually, the catcher alone could handle this, since he squatted behind home plate and could definitely see more clearly than Su Qing. But Coach Kunimoto insisted that Su Qing observe first, intending to hand the job over fully to the catchers after some time.

After watching for several days, Harada had found the trick as well. It was simply about watching the release point. He had understood that before too—using the release point to judge what kind of pitch the pitcher was throwing.

As Narumiya Mei's longtime partner, Harada was the person who knew best what changes Narumiya Mei had undergone since stabilizing his release point.

Although Narumiya Mei was still somewhat slow to warm up, his control had become much more stable. He no longer showed the unstable pitching he had at the start of games.

Even that alone felt like a huge harvest to Harada! With Narumiya Mei stable from the opening and Harada's pitch calling to support him, so what if Narumiya Mei still warmed up slowly? Harada would not let him give up runs early again!

The afternoon pitching practice ended quickly. Once defensive practice was over as well, Coach Kunimoto gathered everyone together, including the Second String players.

"Everyone should already know that the Golden Week round-robin tournament begins this Saturday. The First String players will head to Miyagi for a practice game with Ikuei. As for the Second String players, I plan to divide you into two groups, both staying in Tokyo. One group will play Yakushi, while the other will remain at school for a practice game against Sosei. Here are the rosters."

"Although I will be traveling with the First String, Coach Yoshida and Coach Okugawa will help me observe all of you." Coach Kunimoto did not say it outright, but the meaning behind his words was already obvious.

"During the coming Golden Week, I will give every player an opportunity to take the field! I hope none of you will have any regrets this summer!"

"Yes!"

"Dismissed."

"Thank you for your hard work, Coach!"

After confirming that all the players had dispersed, Inashiro Baseball Club's manager walked over to Coach Kunimoto.

"Have you decided on the final roster?"

Coach Kunimoto shook his head. He was still somewhat hesitant about the final roster.

"You're hesitating between Maruse and Kuwahara, aren't you? With Su Qing here, it would be enough to keep only one of Maruse and Kuwahara."

Coach Kunimoto still shook his head.

"I plan to wait until Golden Week is completely over before deciding on the final roster! We cannot let any player's efforts go to waste!"

"Yes!" The manager also knew he had said something out of line. After all, he was not an expert; the school had merely assigned him to assist Coach Kunimoto in running the Baseball Club. Asking about such matters really was overstepping his authority.

"In a couple of days, I'll be leaving with the team. I'll have to leave the club matters to you."

"What are you saying? It's what I should be doing!"

The manager had not been wrong. Coach Kunimoto had indeed intended to replace one of Maruse and Kuwahara. But both Maruse and Kuwahara were third-year players, both personally trained by him, and this was their final summer. Coach Kunimoto could not quite bear it, so he wanted to watch them a little longer.

That evening, Su Qing also asked about the final roster. The entire dormitory was made up of regulars anyway, so there was nothing awkward about asking.

"Coach usually announces the final roster after Golden Week."

"That late?"

Su Qing remembered that Seido next door seemed to have finalized theirs long before Golden Week began. After all, only after finalizing the roster could they carry out their hellish training camp. Once camp was over, Coach Kataoka would brutally make the main cast drag their exhausted bodies into games. When Su Qing had read it back then, he had thought it was utterly insane. Weren't they afraid of training the players into the ground with such intense pregame practices?

"Oh, right. Are we having a training camp too? I heard Seido next door is almost done with theirs already."

"Oh? You even know about Seido? We'll have a camp too, but it won't be as insane as Seido's. We'll just double the usual training volume and start morning practice earlier."

"Earlier!"

Getting up every morning for practice was already painful enough. Su Qing absolutely did not want to wake up even earlier!

"You'll need to be at the field by six in the morning."

"Six o'clock!!!"

"Can I skip the training camp?! I think I might get sick those days."

Su Qing immediately thought of feigning illness. He did not care much about doubling the training, since Inashiro's daily workload was not that heavy to begin with. Coach Kunimoto was still very conscientious and responsible.