25 Camp

After teaching Su Qing, he made a run for it. He had been exhausted all day and only wanted to take a shower, collapse onto his bed, and rot, because he still had classes the next day! And there was a game that night!

What surprised Su Qing was that Coach Kunimoto did not put him on the field the next day. He did not even get to play as an infielder. The protagonists of the two games were Maruse and Kuwahara. So Su Qing went to train with Narumiya Mei. In his opinion, Narumiya Mei's Trajectory Synchronization still needed polishing.

So he grabbed a catcher's mitt from the assorted gloves the system had just given him and caught for Narumiya Mei. After all, the catcher was definitely the one who could see things most clearly.

By the time Su Qing felt they had trained enough for the day and dragged the deeply unwilling Narumiya Mei, who still wanted to keep practicing, to the field to watch the games, the games were already over. Both the First String and Second String games had ended.

Kuwahara's start had been a difficult victory. It could only be said that the batting lineup had carried them, though Kuwahara had done his best as well. He pitched seven innings, threw 128 pitches, gave up five runs, struck out two, walked or hit three batters, allowed eight hits, and committed one error.

That put a lot of pressure on Maruse.

However, Su Qing felt that Coach Kunimoto clearly favored Maruse more. Maruse's opponent was a powerhouse from Nagasaki, and both its batting lineup and pitchers were obviously much stronger than Kuwahara's opponent. So long as Maruse could secure the win, his First String spot would be secure.

Unfortunately, Maruse had not been able to earn the winning decision. He pitched six innings, threw 110 pitches, gave up five runs, struck out three, walked or hit three batters, allowed seven hits, and committed one error.

Su Qing even suspected that Maruse had done it on purpose. Their results were roughly the same, so if Coach Kunimoto hesitated, he would probably take both of them.

To thank the Nagasaki team for coming from so far away, Su Qing, who had been watching from the sidelines, was temporarily dragged onto the field as extra labor. Su Qing pitched the remaining three innings. Overall, he had a very favorable impression of this team. He even felt that their batting lineup was stronger than Yamamori's, because they could make contact with his pitches!

Even if they only made contact for pop flies or weak grounders, they had genuinely made contact!

On offense, even after Su Qing entered the game and turned things around, they still could not get two runs off Nagasaki's steadfast ace. In the end, Inashiro lost 3–4 to the Nagasaki team.

Based on his own impressions, Su Qing believed Coach Kunimoto would most likely choose Maruse. Though their results were evenly matched, Maruse had faced a much stronger opponent. Giving up only five runs in six innings was already quite good. Usually, once a pitcher imploded, he imploded completely, giving up several runs at once. It had not been easy for Maruse to allow only five runs. Of course, Kuwahara had worked hard too.

After the game Maruse started ended, Inashiro's Golden Week came to a satisfying close. On Friday, Coach Kunimoto announced the roster, but he did not assign uniform numbers...

As Su Qing had expected, Maruse ultimately remained on the First String. The one exceptionally promoted to the First String was none other than Little Tada. Clearly, Coach Kunimoto had also realized Inashiro's problem at catcher. He promoted Tadano Itsuki, the Second String catcher who had performed best during Golden Week, to the First String.

Many third-year players were deeply unwilling to accept it, but there was nothing they could say. They had all seen Tada's performance. If they were less skilled, what else could they say?

Kuwahara accepted the reality calmly as well. Inashiro Baseball Club's third-years did not cry their eyes out like Seido's players had. The main reason was that everyone had already known what was coming. They had long prepared themselves for the possibility that they would not be able to keep playing baseball. Besides, they were third-years now and had to start planning for graduation. Baseball was, at most, a hobby. Life was what mattered most.

Whether they would continue their education or go directly into the workforce, they had to begin preparing. Even if they could keep playing baseball, that did not mean they could get into school through baseball or go professional.

Everyone was very realistic, but an enormous number of third-year players still said they were willing to remain with the club and contribute their strength to Inashiro's journey to Koshien.

After the roster was announced, they naturally entered the camp phase that both Su Qing and Narumiya Mei dreaded!

On the first day of camp, Narumiya Mei and Su Qing became the dorm room's hardest people to wake up. Carlos, Harada, Shirakawa, and the others forcibly dragged them out of bed.

This time, the system thoughtfully included Sunscreen! Su Qing did not understand why at first, because they got up so early that the sun had not fully risen yet. But when noon approached, Su Qing thoroughly experienced the sun's hostility. Without another word, he slathered on the Sunscreen.

It had to be said that anything produced by the system was good! It not only blocked the sun, but also felt cool! Afterward, the four-man group swindled the Sunscreen away from him. Su Qing looked at Harada and Carlos's faces and seriously wondered whether they even needed Sunscreen.

Although Inashiro's camp was not as murderous as Seido's, it was still unbelievably exhausting! Especially after Coach Kunimoto assigned Su Qing to the infielders, Su Qing felt numb from all the fielding and throwing.

Especially since failing to field or throw properly meant doing ten frog jumps! It was terrifying!

After the first day of camp ended, Su Qing once again considered asking for sick leave.

Then, on the second day, his unscrupulous roommates dragged him away again. Su Qing had thought that once the weekend ended and weekdays began, they would have classes, so the training load should decrease somewhat. After all, there would not be enough time.

But that was not the case! The training load did not decrease at all! The only thing that changed was the time they returned to the dorms! For the first time, Su Qing saw the massive floodlights at Inashiro's field all switched on.

They were blinding! And they still had to practice batting and base running! A whole week passed like that, and camp finally ended. Su Qing wanted nothing more than to sleep himself dead in bed and make up for all the sleep he had lost.

But at eight in the morning, Harada dragged him up again. Although camp was over, regular training still had to continue.

No matter what anyone said, Su Qing would not get up. He clung directly to his bed. Fortunately, he did not like sleeping naked, or the scene would definitely have been chaotic.

In the end, Harada could not overpower Su Qing. He could only drag Narumiya Mei, who wanted to imitate him but lacked the strength to pull it off, to practice.

After sleeping until eleven, Su Qing finally felt reenergized. After getting himself cleaned up, he prepared to report to the field.

Then he ran into Shirakawa head-on. Before he could even greet Shirakawa, Shirakawa swiftly dragged him away and sprinted all the way to the field, not giving Su Qing any chance to catch his breath.

Only when they arrived at the field did Su Qing understand why Shirakawa had been in such a hurry. They were handing out uniform numbers. After greeting Coach Kunimoto, Su Qing followed Shirakawa to the end of the line under Coach Kunimoto's fairly friendly gaze. Standing beside Su Qing was Little Tada, isolated and without support.

The moment he saw Su Qing, he began frantically blinking at him.