Talent (1)

In his previous life, Sendou had been a fan of sports anime and knew a little about baseball, though only the most basic rules.

He could not play, but he was not completely unfamiliar with it either.

Overall, Sendou had high expectations for his Little League career.

Sendou was also enjoying the easygoing final semester of his third year.

In April, on the first day of school after spring break, Sendou came alone to the Tokyo Wildcats Little League training grounds after school.

"I'm Nakanishi, coach of the Wildcats Little League. Are you this year's new recruits?

Then introduce yourselves first!"

"Aka-dou Elementary School, Satou Mei. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"..."

"..."

"Sendou Akira, from Teikou Elementary School. I'm still a beginner at baseball. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Sendou was the last one.

There were more than ten new members, enough to prove just how strong and professional the Wildcats Little League was.

"Now we'll begin infield throwing drills! Line up. The veteran players will go first, and the newcomers should watch carefully."

The infielders formed a long line, followed by the new recruits. The coach hit grounders, and the infielders fielded them before throwing to the first baseman.

Even the newcomers with prior experience had never undergone such professional training. Most of them waited until the ball had nearly stopped rolling before making their throws.

So, once the veterans were done and it was the newcomers' turn, it became a complete mess. Some let the ball roll right past them, some had it bounce off the edge of their gloves when they tried to scoop it up, and some beginners like Sendou had the ball luckily bounce into their gloves only to fail to catch it and have it pop back out to the right.

Yet none of the older players laughed at them. They were beginners, and they were all still very young.

The upperclassmen had gone through the same things themselves. Elite programs were harsh, but they were equally tolerant toward newcomers.

Everyone had to field ten balls.

Sendou was the last in line. That was simply his personality—he preferred staying somewhere less noticeable.

The first ball did not travel far, and Sendou immediately rushed forward.

When it bounced, something unfortunate happened: it took an irregular hop. Just as everyone thought he would miss it—

Sendou's gloved right hand darted sideways, and the ball dropped right into his glove.

Since Sendou had not settled on a position or bought a glove of his own yet, he was borrowing one from the team.

It was not as stiff as a new glove, so he caught the ball easily, then quickly scooped it up with his left hand and threw it to the first baseman. The first baseman caught the throw effortlessly without even needing to move his glove, and it landed with an exceptionally crisp smack.

Amid the murmurs of "That was amazing," Coach Nakanishi's eyes lit up.

When Sendou's father had signed him up, he had said that aside from hitting a ball once at a batting center in town, Sendou had never touched baseball and had no particular interest in it.

Still, the other parents at the batting center had all said he had a real talent for hitting.

But Sendou usually did not like playing with other people, so his father had hoped that agreeing to learn baseball would help him change.

That last play had been caught entirely because Sendou's reactions were far beyond normal.

And his shoulder was strong. An ordinary fourth grader could only throw a little over half the distance and had to rely on a bounce to reach first base, but Sendou had thrown it directly into the glove. That level of control and strength was innate as well.

It showed that he was extremely suited to being a pitcher. A pitcher's ball power and velocity required explosive power.

Yet judging from the sound it made entering the glove, there were probably very few sixth graders in the entire country who could match him.

"One more ball!" Coach Nakanishi shouted.

Sendou said nothing, but his eyes told him that he was ready.

What a quiet, withdrawn kid, Coach Nakanishi thought.

His hands did not slow as he thought that. He hit another ground ball.

But this one was much faster than before, on the level of the veteran players' drills, and it did not bounce as kindly either.

The instant the ball left the bat and flew toward him, Sendou reacted quickly, spun around, charged forward, fielded it, and threw.

Smack!

It landed in the first baseman's glove again.

"Are you serious?!" This time, Coach Nakanishi was genuinely shocked.

If he had not coached for over ten years and come from Major League Baseball, he probably would not have noticed it.

But precisely because of all that experience, he understood just how terrifying the talent Sendou had revealed through that series of movements was.

Yes, terrifying.

In his eyes, Sendou had started moving almost as soon as the ball left the bat. That meant that shortly after seeing the ball fly off, he could already judge both its landing point and speed.

It meant his Dynamic Vision could easily track the ball's trajectory and rapidly determine where it would land.

And that calm expression suggested he might even be able to judge the timing difference with extreme accuracy. His sensitivity to differences in speed was practically inhuman.

That kind of reaction speed was practically a divine skill for infield defense, and it was just as valuable for a batter.

With that ability, he would not need to fear the speed differences between an opponent's Fastball, Changeup, and breaking pitches like other batters did. He would only need to identify their weaknesses and trajectories. And he was clearly immensely gifted at judging trajectories, spatial movement, and tracking moving objects through Dynamic Vision.

It was as though he simulated everything in his mind, then simply followed the script, aimed for the point where the trajectory and bat would meet, and hit the ball.

As long as the upper limit of the pitch speeds he could judge was high enough, his static talent would be downright bug-level.

Combined with the explosive power he had displayed earlier, that kind of dynamic talent was simply the sort of ability that would make pitchers despair.

Of course, those were only his personal judgments. He was already extremely excited and wanted to find out just how far Sendou's static talents went.

At the same time, he was thanking his luck. If Sendou had already undergone training for some time, those static talents would have been difficult to spot.

Then, people would only know that he was impressive without knowing exactly what made him so impressive.

"One more ball!" From then on, the difficulty of the balls hit to Sendou increased, and Coach Nakanishi hit them faster and faster. By the fifth ball, he accidentally put too much force into it, and the ball shot through the infield before Sendou's body could react at all.

Strictly speaking, Sendou had reacted. But his young body simply could not keep up. His eyes followed the ball, his head turned slightly, but his body did not move.

What kind of madness is this coach up to? Sendou complained inwardly.

Sendou's hitting talent had been modeled after the genius batter from One Outs who could see the ball's rotation, Mishima Shintarou—the monster from Cross Game whose high school batting average exceeded .600—and Azuma Yuuhei, who was of comparable ability but had played too few games due to absences and missing Koshien, resulting in a batting average that was nearly perfect, along with some ideas of his own. The result was an all-rounder capable of playing almost any position. However, he would not truly begin learning proper baseball until high school, so that was probably still a long way off before everyone could see it.