2 Chapter 2

I was finally convinced to join Seido by my own friends. They knew that I wanted to go beyond and become a professional baseball player. I was determined from the very beginning but many of them didn't like baseball as much as I did.

I had to convince them to play baseball for the school to even have a team.

I was simply scared of betraying them. But, with their encouragement, I was ready to set my foot into world class high school baseball.

Months later, everyone came to see me off to Tokyo..

[Passengers riding the 3:03 train bound for Tokyo, the train coming to the second platform]

My parents talked to Rei and my grandpa and teachers said their goodbyes.

Right when I boarded the train, I heard someone choke up.

When I looked back, it was each and every friend of mine.

"Hey! Don't cry, idiots! It'll be harder for me to go!!"

Nobu quickly rubbed the tears from his eyes and said, "It's just.. I've always been a nuisance. My shoulders are weak and I let the ball get past me.. I'm such a crappy catcher. I always thought... I was holding you back, right? Eijun?"

I was simply shocked.

As he finished speaking, the rest of my friends began..

"If it's that kind of stuff, I kept running to third first!"

"Oh yeah!? Akio here kept holding the bat the opposite way!"

Nobu wiped some of his tears and said, "Y-Yeah.. but even so... Eijun never glared at us or anything.. Whenever we messed up, he would turn around on the mound and encourage us.. Whenever you fid that  you were so cool.. Really.. even more than Ichiro or Matsui or anyone.. You were, our Hero. Sorry, we couldn't help at all.. But, you know.. We just really wanted to play some more baseball with you!"

Despite knowing about it.. despite knowing how they really felt.. I was overwhelmed by emotion.

As they ran beside the train and waved their goodbyes, I made a promise to myself to go to Koushien as their representative and win.

(PLAYBALL!)

I reached the dorm at night. I already knew who my roommates would be.

When I knocked on the door, Kuramochi opened it with paint or ketchup on his face.

I just responded his juvenile prank with a bland look and said, "Nice try. Very good. I'll give you ten out of ten for effort."

Kuramochi blinked a few times and asked, "You weren't scared?"

"No."

"Really?"

"Yup! Didn't work."

"Oh... Well.. Welcome to Seido High's baseball team!"

Behind him, a huge boy held out a piece of paper that had "Nice to meet you" written on it.

"Uhh... hi."

Kuramochi laughed and said, "Haha!! Don't sweat it, man! He made an error yesterday, so he's not letting himself talk!"

I really admired him for it, even in the anime.

"Anyway," Kuramochi continued. "To deepen our friendship, we'll have a golf tournament to welcome you!!"

I already knew his plan.. but I played the game anyway. It was indeed a roommate bonding time.

I woke up at five in the morning. Kuramochi was not expecting it but I got Matsuko's recognition. The speedy second year was grumpy over his failed attempt.

As every first year gathered in the ground, the legendary coach who I admired when I watched the anime, Kataoka Tetsushin, walked towards us with his face serious as ever and the seniors walking behind him.

"Good morning, sir!!" We all greeted.

He took a glance at everyone and asked, "Is this everyone that wants to join the team?"

"Yes, sir!!"

"First, please introduce yourselves in order."

Everyone began introducing themselves. Unlike in the anime, I got to know about my future teammates. As expected, there were the notable ones like Kominato Haruichi, Furuya Satoru, Kanemaru Shinji, Tõjõ Hideaki, Kariba Wataru (catcher) and well, the others.

"Next!"

It was my turn..

"I'm Sawamura Eijun, from Nagano. I am a pitcher and hope to be the ace of the team in the future."

I could feel the eyes of all the pitchers boring into my skull. The seniors were all amused by the show of my will.

After the introduction was over, the coach gave us a small speach and sent all the first years off to practice field B where we were made to take the physical ability test.

Later, we were made to have a heavy breakfast. I was able to eat it all but it couldn't be said for other first years. They suffered quite a bit and the seniors enjoyed it thoroughly.

We had a short training session after breakfast. As the second and third years were doing their bating, pitching and fielding drills, Kataoka ordered the first years, "After this, we're going to test your ability for your desired position, so put on your spikes and head over to the B ground!"

I was, of course, excited.

While I was warming up, the coach came to me and said, "Alright, Sawamura. You said you are a pitcher. You may have been one back in your middle school but it's for me to decide what your role will be on the team."

I nodded resolutely, indicating I understood.

"Now, throw a fastball in the catcher's mitt."

It was Kariba who was catching for the pitchers. As he positioned his mitt right in the center, I stood at the mound, wound my arm back and whipped it forward.

The ball shot off my hand and slammed right into Kariba's mitt with  a bang.

The coach just nodded and asked me to throw ten fastballs to which I complied. I also took the chance to note the maximum strength I needed to use for Kariba to be able to catch my fastball.

Kataoka immediately noticed that I was holding back. As I was about to throw another pitch, he swiftly grabbed my arm by the wrist and said while growling, "You are not throwing at your best. Why is that? It shouldn't take this long for you to warm up."

The man was glaring down right into my eyes. It was unnerving to say the least. From my periphery, I could see Kariba tense up when he heard the coach say that I was warming up.

Eventually, I gave in and said, "I am sorry, coach. I can throw a lot faster pitches but I don't know if the catcher will be able to catch them."

I turned to Kariba and even apologized to him for not throwing my best pitches and undermining him.

I understood what Kataoka wanted to say as I saw him nod.

"I want you to throw your best fastball. Do not hold back."

I nodded and got back on the mound.

Before I pitched the ball, I said to Kariba, "This one will be faster than the previous ones. Do your best to catch it, alright?"

Kariba was unnerved but nodded none the less. After taking a deep breath, he became focused.

Once again, I pitched the ball. But this time, the ball rocketed straight ahead and smashed into the mitt with a bang loud enough to startle everyone present on the training grounds.

Kariba was unable to hold the momentum and was thrown back. The ball still didn't stop and hit the cage behind, spinning rapidly until it came to a stop after a moment and fell.

The smirk on Kataoka's face was enough to tell how much the pitch had impressed him.

Immediately, he yelled, "Bring a speed gun here!"

I was beginning to sweat. I wanted to impress him but not too much that it would cause a divergence in canon, making my knowledge of the show invalid.

I was made to throw again.

I had never gotten my fastest pitches measured for their speed but when I heard the reading from the gun, even I was shocked.

"159 kmph."

That was two or three kmph lower than the world record back in my last life.

Forget about highschool batters, even professionals in the Major league would have a tough time hitting a pitch of that speed.

"That was a very good pitch." Kataoka said, still smirking.

Then he moved on ahead to others and I could finally breathe.

'Damn! The man is terrifying.'

(PLAYBALL!)

For the next three weeks, we did our own practice. I took the opportunity to familiarize myself eith the tyres that were availible and engraved the truck tyres with my name. I ran for hours while pulling them all around the ground.

It was quite a spectacle for everyone else.

Seido won the next game and made it to the top sixteen of the Spring tournament. Their next game was with Ichidai Third High.

While the batting order of the team was great, but, the pitchers lacked in numbers and the ace, Tanba, was out of form.

Fortunately for the plot, I was not yet added to the first string.

The game started with Seido rallying through the batting order as they scored whooping eight runs in the first inning.

It was a scoring game.

Despite the magnificent win against Ichidai, Kataoka wasn't happy because the Ace of the team had underperformed.

Being a pitcher himself, it grated on his nerves for his team to not have a pitcher who complemented Seido's powerful batting order.

He decided to relieve Tanba off his position as Ace.

Tensions were rising among the second and third year hopefuls who wanted to be the pitchers.

With only three months left until the summer tournament, the coach finally decided to hold a match between the first years and all the seniors who were not in the first string.

Later that night when I was having dinner sitting beside Miyuki, Furuya walked towards us and asked, "Hey.. Is it okay if I sit here?"

Then he tried to push me out of my chair. I was a little ticked off over his disregard.

"Hey! Can't you see I'm sitting here? Just go and sit on the other chair, idiot!"

When I didn't budge, he gave up and sat on the empty chair beside Miyuki.

"Miyuki-san, I don't feel like anyone here will be able to hit my pitches tomorrow. If I am right, Will you be my catcher?"

The entire cafeteria got tense.

All the seniors got agitated with the way Furuya disregarded them. When they surrounded him Tanba managed to placate them.

"You can say you want him to catch for you after you've done something... And enough with the bull!! We'll work this out through baseball."

I whispered to Miyuki, "Does this mean I can make you catch my pitches? I struck that Azuma guy out. That must've meant something."

Miyuki clicked his tongue and said, "You need to prove yourself in tomorrow's game."

"Huh? Wasn't that proof enough?"

"What can I say.. the coach wasn't there."

I huffed in response and resumed my dinner.

(PLAYBALL!)

The ground was surrounded by reporters, the alumni and other baseball enthusiasts.

The first years were nervous about facing the upper-classmen just short of a month they joined the team.

Kataoka, dressed as the umpire walked towards us and asked, "You guys all set?"

"Yes, sir!!"

"I'm going to give every single one you first-years a chance to play so I want all of you to be ready to go out at any moment."

"Yes, sir!!"

The first inning began with us getting our butt handed to us by Tanba and his fast curve balls. No one could even touch the ball with their bat, much less hit it.

When it was our turn to pitch, the upper-classmen humiliated Tojo by scoring twelve runs in the first inning itself. The air was glum in our bullpen. I patted on the boy's shoulder and said, "Don't be so down. You pitched to the best of your ability. But the seniors are playing with a different attitude. This is just a scrimmage for us but for them, it's almost their last chance of joining the first string. So don't try to think you are fighting at their level. Relax.. and trust your teammates."

Tojo gained a little bit of spark in his eyes after he listened to me.

"There's no need to be so glum, guys! That was just one inning! We have eight more turn the tides around!"

Most of them listened to me. Possibly because I was using haki, subconsciously.

In the next inning, Tanba struck the batters out once again. Everyone in the bullpen was getting scared.

"Don't get yourself beaten down before you even face the pitcher. Doing so will make you weak. You won't be able to swing the bat with all of your power. Look at those abasing curve balls. Don't you wanna hit them with all the power you've got?"

Facing the more experienced was scary and I was well aware of it. Keeping the spirits of the team high was key at that time.

Kataoka then decided to change the lineup of the first years after the second inning. I was finally able to step foot on the field. But I wasn't allowed to pitch just yet.

As the new pitcher, Kaneda, threw the ball, the batter sent it flying directly towards me and I caught it.

After the boy gave up nine runs before Kataoka called for a change of pitchers and Furuya replaced Kaneda. I looked directly towards the coach. He knew I was patiently waiting for my turn but it was staring to grow thin.

So, to calm myself down, I threw the ball in my glove right towards the catcher and like a beam of laser it streaked across the field, slamming into the catcher's mitt.

That was enough to catch the attention of many to myself. Kataoka looked towards me and nodded slightly, indicating that I will have my turn and I was sated.

The upper-classmen were anticipating Furuya to pitch. They were still ticked off by his blatant talk in the cafeteria.

But when the boy threw the ball, it shocked everyone present. The ball zoomed ahead and rose upwards, hitting the coach on his face guard.

The coach smiled and he understood the kind of pitcher Furuya was. He immediately switched him out, saying there was no first-year who could handle Furuya's pitch. Tanba was also asked to switch out and was allowed to return to the first string.

"Sawamura Eijun, you're up!"

Finally! I was allowed to pitch and everyone around could feel my excitement. Even the first string players had come when they heard that I was going to pitch. I had a different presence around me because of my haki.

(Batter's POV)

I was ready to show the coach that I was good enough to be in the first string. I was batting great. But, the moment Sawamura stepped on the mound, I wasn't so sure anymore.

The mere presence of him was unnerving. He seemed so huge and so close to the plate.

I had heard that he could throw pitches faster than that Furuya. The coach himself had the speed measured.

It felt like I was being stared down by a predator, a tiger baring its bloody fangs, ready to pounce at its prey.

Sawamura whipped his arm forward and the ball rocketed towards me. It was unbelievably fast. I wanted to swing my bat, but, it suddenly felt too heavy for me to even hold.

The ball banged into the catcher's mitt. Everyone was shocked silent.

The next pitch that he threw went upwards. Given its speed, I was certain that it would be a ball. Yet, as it got closer to the plate, the pitch broke from its path, downwards and out. It slammed into the catcher's mitt once again.

His next pitch seemed to gain speed as it came towards me. Faster and faster it flew towards the in-high corner. I knew that I didn't have time to think any longer so I swung hard.

But the pitch almost stopped at the plate, making me miss the ball completely.

It was surreal. Never had I seen such pitching in my life.

Sawamura... it felt like he could command the pitches at his will.

He was a magician.

Everyone believed Furuya to be the monster rookie of Seido. But having faced Sawamura's pitches.. I knew better.

Sawamura was the true monster.

The next three months were going to be very interesting.

(PLAYBALL!)

Trivia: The second and third pitch Sawamura threw are as follows..

Gyro: It is thrown high into the air. However, it decends very quick and twists to the right/left of the hitter making it a very unprdictable pitch.

R. Fast: It seemingly picks up speed. At the end of the pitch, it seems to just stop moving all of a sudden.

These aren't my original. I picked them up from the android game, 'Baseball Superstars' by Gamevil.