93. Month

Slowly three weeks passed by with no big changes for the team and Rei. Because of Rei's talk with Iwata, Takashi practiced with him, supervised by Iwata most of the days. Takashi slowly started trying various amounts of breaking balls, and the one he had gotten a slight insight into was with the Slider.

The slider was the easiest of the breaking balls he learned because it was more like a fastball. Having the same form of pitching for both of them, only the speed and course of the ball varied. The slider was more of a slower fastball, which swayed into the batter laterally.

The pitcher can also change a decision between a slider or a fastball until he releases the ball which is a tremendous bonus for them. Iwata tried to teach Takashi every day, and Takashi slowly caught some advice given.

After a whole 3 weeks of practice, Takashi was still nowhere near throwing the pitch in a match. He coils only nail, 2 or 3 at most for every 10 pitches he threw. Which was a bad percentage to throw in a match.

Rei did not mind this current progress at all. His foremost goal was to use it in the qualifiers for Senbatsu, which happens in a month from then on. The qualifiers for the senbatsu happen in every region in the fall, whereas the major tournament happens in spring, which is still a month after the qualifiers. So, with the time left, Rei was confident Takashi could use it in at least some instances in the tournament.

The past month, there were some changes in Suzaku too. After his talk with Rei, Suzaku became more open. He went around apologizing to the people who tried to help him but got rejected in return. After that, coach Iwata had a deep talk with him on how they move forward.

After their talk, they decided to not let Suzaku learn to break balls like Takashi, but instead continue to use his speed and increase his accuracy. From then on, Suzaki picked up accuracy better.

He started to act more like a real ace and depend on others. In the past month, the coach set up another inter-squad match, to test all their progress once again. This time it was Rei catching for Suzaku and Suzuki catching for both Takashi and Shindou.

The match was very fun for Rei and Suzaku as they managed to hold their opponents at zero. Akira and Chino, who were on the opposite team, were the only 2 people who could get on the base.

Even though Takashi and Shindou increased over the month, they still couldn't stop Rei from hitting their pitches. But they still managed to hold on to most of the players and only gave up 1 run at the end. Both Suzuki and Shindou were able to build a solid battery for over a month.

The team's batting was still very lacking, and now this was a concern for Iwata. Batting wasn't something he could teach the players instantly, and they could only perform better by playing more and more matches.

Rei could not yet hit home runs and felt pain when he lifted the dumbbells and so consulted a doctor. After checking Rei, the doctor told him to not lift too much weight from then on. Even if his body was tough, it can not handle a day of practice and weights after that. Rei could only reluctantly accept his condition and was advised to lift weights when he grew older.

He could now sit a whole 4 hrs in position without even straining his muscles. He felt happy the training he went through the past few months paid off. He continued to swing his bat every day.

.

Now, after a day full of rigorous practice, all the members stood before Iwata, who was holding a meeting. The third and second years already have a guess, while the first years were eagerly waiting for him to announce.

"Now that everyone has gathered, I am here to announce the camp which we conduct every year. The third and second years already experienced this in the last 2 or 1 years, but for the new people. The camp is something our school conducts with 3 other schools for 2 weeks. You guys will play other teams these 2 weeks.

So, the teams which take part with us every year are the Seiki, Tenko, and Teigo middle schools. This year the camp will happen in our school, where the teams will play each other here. We will get to play each team 2 times and will access each other. We could not make a good impact last year and let's hope we do this year." and walked away, leaving the players talking to themselves.

"We need to bag some wins this year," said Daichi, punching his palm with his fist.

"Yes, we will," said Takashi from his other side.

Rei remained silent between these two, only thinking about winning and also gathering information on the teams. He also wanted to hide Takashi's slider from them and make Suzaku pitch slower than usual. They need to be hidden weapons for the team.

Rei slowly walked away from the group and went towards his locker before coming out after changing his dress. He went near the main gate and met up with Keiko and Mizuki before all three of them made their way home.

Rei told them about the camp and that it will happen here. Hearing about the camp, both of them wanted to come over to watch the matches at least once, even sacrificing a day's worth of club practice. Rei agreed when they asked and reached home.

Rei noticed Sora on the couch watching a match and quickly went up to take a bath and join him. Taking a fresh bath, Rei watched the match with Sora while telling him about the camp.

"That is good. Your team's current strength can be gauged better this way. I will come and watch it one day."

Rei nodded before going towards the dining room with him for his dinner. Having a cheerful meal, Rei helped Narumi and went to his room. After completing his homework, Rei practiced swinging his bat and fell on his bed dead tired.

He looked up at his ceiling and wondered what to do tomorrow. It was a weekend without any practice. A sudden thought came into his brain and he rushed out of his room and went into Sora's.