"The First Team's game is about to start. Why is Sendou still here?" Spectators heading for A Ballpark looked at Sendou in confusion.
Furuya had been substituted out, and the First Team was about to play again. The spectators were preparing to move over when they spotted Sendou in the corridor.
"Who knows?"
"We don't know Seidou's exact situation either!"
"But the Second Match is basically played with the bench lineup, right?"
"Maybe the coaching staff wanted him to get more rest!"
"Come to think of it, Sendou had it rough ever since autumn!"
"The new team was in terrible shape at the beginning, and during the Autumn Preliminaries, Sendou actually had to play while injured!"
"Even through spring, it always felt like Sendou was under too much pressure!"
"That could easily become a burden on him, both mentally and physically!"
"Mental strain in particular could affect his physical condition even more!!"
"That's true. I remember that game—Miyuki seemed really impatient at the time!"
"In the end, everyone except Sendou got chewed out by Coach Kataoka!!"
"The Japan-America Exchange Tournament is coming up soon too, and Seidou has already confirmed that Sendou and Miyuki will take part!"
"Though Sendou never showed it, he must have been under enormous mental pressure all along!"
"No matter what, he was still just a high school student. Even adults might not be able to withstand that kind of pressure."
"No matter how capable someone was, there was no way they wouldn't get tired!"
"Now that the team's strength had clearly recovered, Sendou finally seemed to have regained that sense of 'freedom' he had when he first enrolled, right?"
"Hahaha!"
"Sendou last year was really willful!!"
"All he thought about every day was how to slack off!!"
As the two chatted, they unknowingly reached A