Dark History?

"Um, excuse me, are you Sendou-san?"

"I am Sendou, that's right, but... do you need something?"

"I'm your fan!"

"..."

"Huh? A fan?" Sendou wore an expression that said, What did I do?

"A fan?" The friends who had been about to try hitting hardballs were equally shocked!

"Yes! Even though Sendou-san never participated in the Summer Tournament, he was the ace and cleanup hitter in official games!

He was the Wildcats' only fourth-year First Team player, regular, ace, and cleanup hitter in eighteen years. Every one of those was a Wildcats record!

And Sendou-san's photo is even on the Wall of Fame, though he seems completely different from how he looks now!"

"Wall of Fame? What's that?" Sawamura shouted.

"It's the wall full of photos in the reception room!"

"Is Sendou on there?" Sawamura said, trying to remember.

"Hey, Sendou!"

"I don't know!" As he spoke, Sendou's eyes slid to the left, making him look shifty-eyed in an adorable way. (Based on Azuma's little sideways glance at 8:50 in episode 47 of Cross Game. I especially like making that expression too, so the protagonist does it as well, hahaha.)

"Ah! That's it!" Takada said as he remembered something.

"What is?"

"Sen-chan's expression just now—I think I saw it on the Wall of Fame. That must have been Sen-chan from before he came to Nagano as a child, right?

His hairstyle was completely different, so I didn't recognize him at first. Now that I think about it, it really did look like Sen-chan."

"No way, that was an official photo, right? You were really mischievous as a kid, huh? Making faces for an official photo! Sendou!" Sawamura had finally found a chance to thoroughly mock Sendou's dark history!

Maybe it did not count as dark history to others, but for the normally serious and steady Sendou, hahaha!

By then, Sendou had rolled his leftward-looking eyes upward, wearing an expression that said, Say whatever you want. I can't hear any of it!

"All right, hurry up and go hit!"

Fumino stepped in to defuse the situation. In truth, those words would have been completely useless coming from anyone else, but when they came from Fumino, who was as beautiful as a fairy-tale princess, they worked wonderfully. The group immediately behaved themselves and went to prepare for batting!

As his childhood friend who stuck close to him every day, Fumino understood Sendou's personality very well. Being exposed like this over his dark history would make him feel awkward and embarrassed.

That old man really would do something like this! Sendou thought.

"Junior, what's your name?"

"Tanaka Ryouta! Um, Sendou-san, anyway, I'm sorry! It seems like I caused you some trouble because of my mistake!" The little boy bowed and apologized.

"Don't worry about it! So, Ryouta-kun, did you need something from me?" Sendou said, crouching down and patting the other boy's head. Although Sendou was not much older than him, his height made the scene look perfectly natural!

"Could you give me your autograph?" The little boy was probably nervous in front of Sendou, and he spoke slowly!

"I've never practiced making an autograph. Is that okay?"

"Of course! Thank you very much!"

He immediately handed over a hardball and a pen. Clearly, he had come prepared. Sendou generously signed for him, and then the others came over asking for autographs too. Sendou was practically everyone's idol.

"Thank you very much!" Tanaka Ryouta bowed again in gratitude!

"Thank you very much!" His other teammates followed suit and thanked him as well!

"Don't worry about it! It's just a small thing. I'm not some celebrity." Sendou waved his hand.

Afterward, he watched his teammates bat with the group of children. Since it was probably their first time hitting hardballs, they had trouble adapting to the ball's weight at first. But after a few pitches, they gradually got used to it. There were not many long hits, but their efficiency was pretty good—aside from one person happily swinging away.

"Here!" When the others had nearly finished batting, Coach Nakanishi handed over a bat.

"What for?" Sendou glanced at him!

"How about stepping into the Batter's Box again after so long? You haven't hit a hardball in a while, have you?"

"No."

"What a troublesome personality! Accept your coach's kindness properly!" Fumino suddenly flared up, grabbed Sendou, and dragged him away!

Coach Nakanishi smiled at the sight and hurried several steps ahead into the cage.

"I'm going to adjust the pitch speed. Those pitches aren't meant for this guy!" he said, leaving behind that excuse!

At that moment, not only were the Wildcats excited, but the children were also full of anticipation. It was their first time seeing Sendou bat, and they gathered around to watch!

"All right, Fumino, let go now! I'll bat, okay?"

Sendou took the bat and gripped it between the handle and the barrel. With his naturally well-proportioned figure, his looks, expression, and eyes, he looked a little cool!

"So handsome! Yay! Yay! Yay!" Seeing this, Fumino suddenly became a little starstruck. She stared blankly at him like she did at the starry sky, then shook her head wildly in an attempt to clear her mind. Then she went blank again and never snapped out of it!

This girl had become utterly captivated by his Natural Airhead dazed expression over the past year!

"Come to think of it, it really has been a long time. This Batter's Box... I kind of missed it." Sendou looked at everything before him as though he could see himself from four years ago. At that thought, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly!

"Sendou... he smiled like he was enjoying himself? What a serious smile!" Sawamura cried out in surprise, pointing at Sendou!

"Quiet down, Eijun!" Wakaba said. She could tell that Sendou was thinking about something else!

"Okay!"

The past was like the wind!

"All right! Are you ready, batter?" Coach Nakanishi's voice interrupted Sendou's memories!

"Heh! I'm ready. We can start anytime!"

"Then! Begin!" Coach Nakanishi shouted at Sendou, though no one saw the sly grin on his face after he said it! (Old man, you've turned bad!)

Without making a sound, Sendou rested the tip of the bat against the ground with one hand. His eyes were even slightly narrowed, as if he were reminiscing about something. That was right—the familiar machine from long ago made its familiar sound!

Whoosh! A white flash vanished in an instant!

Bang! With a huge sound, the ball slammed into the backstop beside the Batter's Box, completely pulling Sendou out of his reminiscence—and his absent-mindedness—back to reality.

That's just how bad he was. Also, I realized I had miscalculated the previous fourteen consecutive championships. It should have been thirteen, and I've corrected it.