A New Day

Seido High and Komadai Fujimaki's match was being shown on the TV.

All the 1st team members of Inashiro Vocational High School were sitting together and were fully focused on watching the match.

"Koshien…", muttered Narumiya watching the match. He clenched his hands seeing Rei pitching on the Koshien mound.

'That should have been me', he thought.

Yakushi High.

Raichi and his father were watching the match as well.

"You better improve your batting, so the next time you can hit a home run off of Rei, RAICHI!", said Raizo.

Raichi quietly nodded as he ate his banana.

Present Time. In the cafeteria.

Kuramochi opened the newspaper to see who won the Koshien Finals.

A big picture of Komadai Fujimaki was printed across the newspaper.

Komadai Fujimaki Vs. Ikuei. 8-7.

"I'm not surprised that Komadai won", muttered Kuramochi. Shaking his head looking through the newspaper.

"YAAHAA!", laughed Kuramochi finding a particular box.

"What are you laughing at, seems fun", commented Miyuki sitting beside Kuramochi.

Kuramochi chuckled and gave Miyuki the newspaper while pointing at a particular section.

"Hahahaha…Our Rei is famous now", Miyuki laughed so hard that tears formed in his eyes.

The newspaper section that both of them found funny was about a teammate of theirs.

The section had Rei's picture of when he was pitching and the headline was about how Rei, a 1st year shut Komadai Fujimaki out during the later innings of the match.

You may be wondering why are they laughing at it.

It's because the section Rei mentioned was only in a box that was in a corner of the newspaper. It was too small compared to the other boxes.

"Why are they so many people gathered around Miyuki-senpai and Kuramochi-senpai", questioned Haruicchi walking into the cafeteria.

Furuya shrugged and came inside the cafeteria with Haruichi.

"Oh, by the way. Where's Rei, I haven't seen him for 2-3 days", said Haruicchi.

Meanwhile in the field.

Rei was running laps around the field with 4 tires attached. He looked to the side as he heard the sound of something running toward him.

"Wait...wait…REIIIIII!!", yelled Sawamura who was following behind Rei.

"Why do you keep coming here? Go bother Miyuki-senpai to catch for you or something", said Rei.

"Are you kicking me out?", said Sawamura gasping.

'What's with that dramatic gasp', Rei thought.

Knowing Sawamura's personality, Rei gave up. "Che…do whatever you want", he said as he continued running.

Inside Ryosuke's Dorm room.

Ryosuke sat on his bed looking at the injury that he got right before the west tournament finals. He was shocked looking at the injury now since all the pain had gone away and even the scar was disappearing little by little.

"Unfortunately, the cream Rei gave me is finished or I would have kept it for my future use", said Ryosuke.

He smiled and sighed a sigh of relief since his injury was healed now.

In Kataoka's office.

"It's about time we announce the new captain for the team", said Kataoka.

Takashima nodded and said, "Why don't we just call the candidates into the office and have them decide amongst each other".

"Not a bad idea, contact them and tell them to come to my office", said Kataoka.

Takashima nodded.

Meanwhile in the field, Evening practice.

Furuya and Sawamura who were running kept thinking about their Koshien match.

Furuya kept replaying how Rei struck everyone out in the match.

'Rei's amazing for being able to pitch under such pressure. Plus, he couldn't get any help from the batters during the match', thought Sawamura as he replayed the Koshien match in his mind.

"THUD", suddenly this sound echoed attracting people's attention.

Everyone looked toward Rei throwing in the bullpen.

"Woah…that's so fast".

"Is that around 140 KM?".

"No, that has to be at least 150 KM".

Discussed people in the gallery.

"Excuse me, is that a 1st year", asked a man.

"Oh, are you new here?".

"Yes", said the man.

"The one throwing in the bullpen is Rei. He throws really fast, and he also throws various types of pitches. Overall, he's my favorite pitcher".

The man nodded and asked, "What about the other 1st years in the 1st string".

"Oh, then. You see those 2 students running laps, right? The taller one is Furuya Satoru. He's also a monstrous pitcher. The loud one is Sawamura Eijun. He's a valuable southpaw for the team".

The man nodded particularly interested in Rei and Furuya.

2 Hours later, the evening practice ended, and Rei headed to the meeting room.

"WAITT", yelled Sawamura.

"Too loud", muttered Furuya.

"Let's go together", said Sawamura approaching Rei.

Rei frowned and Sawamura laughed as they stared at each other.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the meeting room.

Walking into the meeting room, the atmosphere wasn't like what Sawamura expected.

"What is happening?", asked Rei.

"We are getting a new assistant coach. They say he'll start by Tomorrow", said Kanemaru.

"Assistant Coach?", muttered Rei.

In The cafeteria, at night.

Sawamura, Rei, Furuya, and Haruicchi sat at the same table to eat.

Rei had 4 bowls of rice on his tray.

"You're going to eat that much", said Haruichi.

"Yeah, anything wrong with it", said Rei.

"N-Nothing", said Haruicchi. 'What kind of steel stomach do you have' , he thought.

"Anyways, what do you guys think the new coach will be like", asked Sawamura stuffing his face.

"I hope he doesn't particularly favor someone", commented Rei. He felt like there was something in his memories about the assistant coach, but he couldn't remember it clearly. He doesn't know why but a few months ago his past life memories were getting hard to remember.

After a few minutes, in the field, Night Practice.

"Your new Captain has been decided", said Kataoka shocking everyone except 3 players.

Kuramochi, Miyuki, and Maezono knew about this already since they were the candidates Kataoka called into his office and they decided that Miyuki would be their new Captain even though they hated to admit it.

Miyuki came to the front and said, "I am your new captain and I look forward to working with you". He stood there awkwardly not knowing what else to say.

'What are you doing, Miyuki', thought Kuramochi sighing.

"Good Luck, Leader-in-training", yelled Sawamura.

Rei smiled since he loved the team's decision. He was a little worried that Miyuki might not become the captain but thank god his worries were needless.