Catcher (Mid)

"Smack!"

"Ow! That hurts—hurts, hurts~"

"Hurts? Where?" Sendou walked over to the machine and stopped it.

"My fingers!"

"Of course it does. You're supposed to use your palm. Even Major League catchers get swapped out pretty often unless they're the team's backbone. Because if a catcher's even a little off when receiving, it hurts like hell. Unlike us, those are hardballs—wrapped in wood shavings, basically no different from solid wood. And some are even harder than softer solid wood!"

Sendou repeated Coach Nakanishi's words verbatim, silently grateful that his memory was incredible in this life.

"One more ball!"

"Easy to say! But using my palm, I can't keep up!"

"I see." Hearing A Shin's words, Sendou started thinking. He'd never run into this situation before, so Coach Nakanishi had never mentioned it.

"Right, you said that Eijun guy's balls go who-knows-where, so you told him to throw lightly, yeah? Maybe it's because you've only ever caught his lob-style throws before, and you've never seen fastballs in a game, so your eyes and body aren't adjusted. I can't make your body adapt, but... heheh!!!" Sendou suddenly recalled what his old buddies had told him and analyzed it, though that last sly grin made A Shin a little uneasy...

"Something about your laugh makes me feel like something bad's about to happen. What are you plotting?"

"No, 'plotting' sounds way too harsh, A Shin. But I do have an idea. Right now, put both hands behind your back, squat in a proper stance—keep your body a bit higher, or you'll get hit in the head. Use the chest protector to catch the ball, and as soon as it rolls away, snap into a throwing stance! That way, you'll get used to the ball speed while training your throwing at the same time. Two birds, one stone. I'll call it Sen's Practice Method!" Sendou said with a straight face.

"You devil!" A Shin muttered under his breath. He knew Sendou wasn't lying, but... catching with his body was terrifying.

"Scary? Then Sen's Practice Method gets a third function—it'll make you stop being afraid of the ball. After all, a catcher can't let fear make them take their eyes off the ball, not even for a second."

"Yeah, Sen-chan's personality really is..." A Shin thought to himself. He didn't dare say it out loud. Usually, watching Sendou mess with Eijun was hilarious, but when he became the target, it wasn't fun at all. And Sendou's brand of sadism was more refined—when he bullied someone, he always had a point you couldn't argue with, so you just had to take it and swallow it.

Sendou didn't care about any of that and just started the machine.

"Clank, clank, clank." The machine's familiar sound rang out, and the display began playing a pitcher's delivery.

"Whoosh!"

"Thump!"

"What are you doing? Get up and throw!"

"Clank, clank, clank."

"Whoosh!"

"Thump!"

"You idiot, don't be scared! If you close your eyes, you won't be able to get out batters you could've handled in a game. With a runner on third, that's a direct Runs Allowed!"

"I told you to squat higher, and you forgot again. Isn't getting hit on the headgear terrifying? Sure, this effect will speed up getting over your fear of the ball, but if you like it, we can keep going like this!"

To A Shin, Sendou's voice was like a demon's whisper right now—but the whisper kept going!

"What did I just say? You forgot again? Don't be scared. Don't take your eyes off the ball, not even for a second. If you're scared of this, forget about Eijun's balls—even if that guy could throw a straight fastball down the middle, you wouldn't catch it. His balls are way faster and more powerful than this."

The nearby teammates watched, dumbfounded, but none dared to turn their heads, terrified that Sendou might shift his gaze to them—that would be too horrible.

And Sawamura, who'd finished his run a while ago, was frozen in fear, repeating in his head: "Kowai, kowai. Something about today's Sendou feels especially scary!"

"You lot!" Sendou suddenly glanced sideways at the group.

"Eek!!!" They all jolted.

"What are you standing around for? If you don't want to practice, go outside and swing the bat!"

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" They quickly realized they'd unconsciously stopped practicing and had been caught by Sendou, so they immediately resumed training.

"Alright, let's continue." Seeing the others get back to it, Sendou turned back to the poor little catcher in front of him.

And then...

"Bend forward—did you forget the basic stance? What do we do about that?"

"Open your eyes wider! I can't tell if you're catching with your eyes open!"

"Hey, that last part was unnecessary!" Everyone—A Shin and the teammates alike—silently grumbled that thought. But not a single person dared to say it out loud. Like Sawamura said, something about today's Sendou felt way too serious, way too scary!

"Alright, looks like your eyes have adjusted. Let's try a few more catches. If you get these, we're done for today. We've still got homework tonight, and if we're too tired, we'll just get drowsy again." Sendou shut off the machine and spoke to A Shin.

The past couple of days, they'd studied right after dinner, but everyone started nodding off, so they decided to eat, bathe, rest, then study, and do a round of Self-Practice before bed.

"Youxia, let's go!" A Shin shouted to psych himself up, squatted down, and raised his mitt. The others stopped to watch, silently cheering him on, but knowing better than to distract him, no one spoke.

Seeing this, Sendou started the machine again.

"Cack-cack-cack."

"Whoosh!"

"Smack!"

"Nice—you can already catch the ball with your palm now. That'll hurt a lot less. Being able to catch a fastball is a huge step forward. There are plenty of techniques after this, but no matter what, you've got to catch the ball first!

So? That impact of a fastball against your palm—feels pretty good, doesn't it?" Sendou encouraged.

"Alright, we'll leave the other stuff for tomorrow. A Shin's already worked hard enough!"

But what Sendou was really thinking about was something else. After all, as someone called a genius, his own experience was completely different from A Shin's. The mistakes he never made, even on his first try—others had to struggle to overcome. He could understand that, but he couldn't share in that kind of joy. That was one of his regrets.

"That's it for today. Let's all head back and get dinner ready together!" Sendou checked his phone and announced to the group.

"Yeah!"

That evening, dinner tasted especially good. After all that hard work, eating food they'd helped prepare with their own hands felt completely different.

To keep from giving anything away while cooking, Sendou had Fumino help run the bathwater.

After dinner came rest, then bathing, then study time. And after the bath, study time belonged to Sendou and Fumino.

I'd gone so many days without writing about baseball that I almost forgot this was a baseball novel. Then I forgot to mention it again these past two days. The catcher really is a tough position. If you're not a genius catcher or a genius field commander, the catcher is an unremarkable yet crucial role—basically an unsung hero. As always, one last plea for recommendations and bookmarks. I just noticed we're almost at 500 bookmarks. Oh, and I pinned a request post in the reader circle. If any of you have a good school name you think fits, leave a comment below. In the end, the choice comes down to my personal taste, so don't take it to heart if yours isn't picked—everyone's preferences and judgments are different, after all.