89. Summer Tounament

"Now This how you three will practice from now on." started explaining Iwata.

Iwata decided to rotate between Takashi and Suzaku. It would be like Suzaku would get Rei to catch for him on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while Takashi would pitch on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. With this, both of them would get equal time to pitch in a week.

When the pitcher is not pitching, he should practice with the team for that day. After Iwata was done explaining the plan all three of them nodded. As it was a Wednesday, it was Suzaku's turn to pitch and Takashi's turn to practice with the team.

Takashi made his way out with Konda while Iwata went near Shindou and Suzuki to observe there. Rei made his way to the plate and got to the position. Suzaku did some extra stretches before he was ready to pitch.

Deciding to get some nice pitches down before going to the corners, Rei asked the first pitch right down the middle. Understanding Rei's intention, Suzaku threw the first pitch right down the middle into the mitt with a considerably top speed.

Nodding to the pitch, Rei returned the ball and got back down. This time he went a bit to the side. Suzaku nodded and continued to pitch the balls as Rei asked him to. Rei asked for easy pitches to get Suzaku going and stopped after 20 pitches for a rest.

Sitting down, Rei asked, "Do you want to go for the corners from now on, Senpai?"

"Yeah, I can start throwing them to the corners from next round."

Rei nodded and looked over towards Suzuki and Shindou, who were practicing while being monitored by the coach. He noticed some mistakes from Suzuki, who was constantly corrected by the coach. Even Shindou's precision was a bit off. He wondered if he had to give some advice to Suzuki and decided to talk to him tomorrow about it.

Noticing their break time over, both of them got up and continued to practice. Rei slowly started to ask the pitches to the corners. Suzaku pitched slower than normal but was able to land them into the mitt.

If he were to increase the speed in some way the pitches lost some control making Rei frame them into the zone. Both of them continued to practice in parts and took breaks to relax in the middle.

Iwata came by once in a while to check on Suzaku's progress and corrected mistakes when he noticed some. He was satisfied by their performance but knew they had to get better at this for the team.

The practice slowly came to an end as the sun faded away. All the players got back into their regular uniforms after changing their clothes. Rei sent a text over to both Keiko and Mizuki to go without him as he needed to have a chat with the seniors.

Making his way out, he noticed Akhira and Shiro standing to the side. Rei walked up to them and said, "Senpai, I need to ask you both something." looking at both of them.

Noticing Rei, Akhira asked, "What is it. Rei."

"I wanted to know about the summer tournament this year and how far were we able to reach."

Hearing his question, Akhira and Shiro looked at each other. Before they could answer Suzaku came towards them as he completed changing.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, it's nothing Rei asked about the summer tournament this year," answered Shiro.

Hearing him, Suzaku suddenly became depressed and walked away from them, waving his hand at them. Noticing him going away, Akhira and Shiro sighed.

"Did I ask something wrong senpai?," said Rei, confused looking at Suzaku's figure.

Akhira simply shook his head and said, "No, it's nothing like that. Suzaku blames himself for us losing last year and by the looks of it, he still didn't get over it."

"Ok, let's talk about this as we walk home," said Shiro.

All three of them walked out of the school and Akhira said, "The summer tournament was a disaster. The team was not yet solid, and after the previous third-year left, there was no catcher at that time. We had to make Daichi who had only a little of experience being the catcher."

Shiro nodded and continued, "The coach was able to form a new team and Suzaku was appointed as the ace. He had the most speed, and by then Takashi was still not good enough for the ace position. We trained our best every day, hoping to at least make it into the semi-finals."

The three of them made their way into a park as Akhira bought ice cream and they took seats on the swings with Akhira continuing from where Shiro left off, "But the reality was something else and it was too cruel for us to handle."

"We went into the first match of the tournament full of confidence but we barely came out winning due to the opponent pitcher pitching a dead ball at the end when the bases were loaded. Suzaku was completely horrible in the match, giving away many free walks to the opponents.

"His pitches were too wild for Daichi to catch them and the team could only work hard for the outs every inning. We were lucky that the opposing pitcher was also someone who wasn't good enough and scored some runs which were later given by Suzaku.

"After that match, the team's morale was completely low, with almost no one with their initial enthusiasm in them. The next match was even worse for Suzaku, who was completely without any confidence after the first match.

"The coach had pulled him out in the 3rd inning after he gave away 3 runs and continued to walk the players. Takashi was doing better but couldn't hold the team for long before giving away runs.

"The team's batting was also very low, with a talented pitcher on the other side. We were only able to hit 2 runs before the match ended with our loss. Suzaku ended up blaming himself and control. He considered quitting, but only stayed back after the coach's persuasion."

Shiro exhaled as he heard Akhira explain what happened, and Rei was completely surprised by the events. He never thought the condition of the team was that bad, with not a proper catcher for Suzaku to pitch.

"After that, the coach decided to prepare a very proper team for the Spring tournament, and now with you here, even Suzaku's pitching increased drastically. But we did not know that Suzaku was still carrying the burden with him from the summer tournament," said Shiro.

"Well, now that is what happened in the summer tournament. Now that it is over we have to practice harder and hope we do better in the spring tournament." Stood up Akhira, patting his pants.

"Ok, then Rei, we will get going now. You can come and talk with us whenever you want to," said Shiro while walking away with Akhira out of the park.

Rei continued to sit on the swing while looking at the sunset, thinking about what he heard just now.

'The team was empty with morale after the first game and not having a proper catcher for the team was one of the primary reasons this happened. Now that I am here I should at least try to make the team perform better. I will help Akihiko-senpai as much as I can so that he can perform better.'

Nodding to himself, Rei stood up and made his way back home. He reached home and Narumi who was in the hall asked him, "Why are you so late today, Rei?"

"I was with some Senpai Oba-san, talking about baseball."

Narumi nodded, and Rei made his way towards his room. Having a fresh bath, he came down and started watching some television with Sora and Shidou. After having his dinner, Rei went back to his room and completed his daily homework.

He then took out his bat and started practicing his swings. He practiced both sides as he imagined in his brain a pitch coming towards him at various speeds. He found imagining a pitch more interesting and helpful than only swinging the bat.

After practicing both sides, Rei noticed he had more time and took out his dumbbells. Lifting the weights, he noticed his muscles becoming much firmer than a month ago and decided to lift heavier ones as the ones he had was now easy for him.

He set down the dumbbell when he saw the time was nearing his bedtime and slowly turned the light off. As he turned around his bed, he saw the photo of him and Tensei lit up because of the moonlight from outside the window.

Taking it into his hands, he stared at the frame while thinking about the training he was going through to fulfill his dream and promise. Holding the frame, Rei slowly went to sleep.