In front of the dugout, Kataoka stood with his arms crossed, eyes following Rinichi as he ran.
"How many batters can he strike out? How many fewer hits can he allow the opponent? In high school baseball, where there's no tomorrow unless you win, a 'good pitching performance' means nothing to us. No matter how bad the content is, as long as the pitcher wins the game—that's my definition of an ace."
"In that sense, the only one who qualifies right now is Kamishiro."
This was the conclusion he had come to during this period.
Rei's lips curled into a slight smile as she adjusted her glasses. "So you've made your decision on Kamishiro?"
Kataoka was silent for a moment. "If he performs steadily in the upcoming games, I'll make him Seidou's ace."
"But… Kamishiro is just a first-year, isn't he? Isn't it too soon?" Ota still sounded uneasy.
"If it's based on ability, no one can object."
The firm tone left Ota speechless.
Skipping over second- and third-years to give a first-year the No. 1 jersey still didn't sit right with him—no matter how impressive Rinichi's strikeout rate was.
He just felt it was more reliable to give it to an upperclassman.
Inside the room, it was pitch black and silent. The sound of rain falling outside could be heard clearly—it was coming down quite heavily.
Rinichi got up and changed his clothes.
"Where are you going?" asked Kuramochi from the bed.
Kuramochi chuckled, "Now that's rare—voluntarily going to pitch."
"Looks like Kamishiro's fire has finally been lit. Kinda reassuring."
Rinichi felt like that wasn't really a compliment. "…"
"Is that a bad thing?" he asked.
Kuramochi blinked. "No, it's good. Just don't overdo it."
"Got it," Rinichi replied politely and closed the door behind him.
He went specifically to look for Miyuki at his dorm.
But the senpai in the room said he'd already gone out—and mentioned he was at the indoor training field.
So Rinichi had missed him.
At least now he knew where to find him.
Sure enough, at the door to the indoor training area, he spotted Miyuki.
Miyuki saw Rinichi and smiled, "Knew you'd show up."
"Just throw a few today and call it a night."
"Tomorrow's when the real hell starts," Miyuki added with a sly grin.
That creeped Rinichi out a little.
So, tomorrow was the start of training camp.
Rinichi didn't know what it would entail, and couldn't really imagine how tough it would be, so he didn't worry too much about it.
Once inside, he spotted Chris and Furuya.
Chris seemed to be correcting Furuya's pitching form.
Rinichi frowned, feeling a little left out: "…"
He was suddenly glad he came today.
"You know what your biggest weakness is right now?" Miyuki asked.
"Stamina," Rinichi answered immediately.
"You're pretty self-aware… yep, Chris-senpai thinks so too."
Rinichi: "…" Why was Chris-senpai dragged into this?
"The coach personally asked Chris-senpai to help us," Miyuki added.
Rinichi nodded in understanding.
"Well, improving stamina isn't something you can do overnight, and the coach isn't expecting you to pitch a full nine innings."
"You wanted to bat too, right? But no matter how good your hitting is, if your speed is slow, you'll get thrown out before you even reach base."
What does foot speed have to do with stamina?
Daytime, first day of training camp.
Pitching assignments were arranged by Chris.
Rinichi hadn't expected that Chris wouldn't let him or Furuya pitch. Instead, their task was to familiarize themselves with playing various positions.
So the two of them could only watch helplessly as Kawakami-senpai and Tanba-senpai entered the bullpen.
"After this, you two are going out to the outfield for fielding practice," Chris said.
Rinichi and Furuya: "…"
"Not only do you have to catch the ball, but you also need to throw it back to home plate," Chris continued.
Not only running, but catching and throwing too…
Just thinking about it exhausted Rinichi.
But there was no avoiding it—they had to do it.
So he started taking it seriously.
From initially missing catches, he progressed to catching them consistently, then throwing, all in smooth and fluid motion.
Even his running became more agile.
It was only the fifth roundtrip.
His progress was miles ahead of Furuya's.
Eventually, Rinichi headed to the bullpen first and waved to Furuya, "I'm heading in."
"Furuya, stop zoning out! You're the only one left!" Maezono called out.
Seeing Rinichi enter the bullpen, Miyuki looked a little surprised. "You finished Chris-senpai's assignment already? You didn't sneak out early, did you?"
Rinichi: "…Is that how little you think of me?"
Miyuki laughed, "Weren't you the one who skipped training before?"
"But you were quick. Have you played infield or outfield before?"
"Outfield, yes. Never played infield," Rinichi answered casually.
"You mean when coach had you try left field at the beginning? I remember you being awful. So it's true—you really do have a talent for baseball."
"…Was that a compliment?"
Training continued until sunset, the sky glowing red-orange.
The team managers had prepared dinner for the First String.
Onigiri, bananas, fried chicken, and drinks—pretty lavish. Clearly the managers had spent a lot of time on it.
But there weren't any chairs. Everyone either sat on the ground or ate standing up.
Rinichi, too tired to stand, chose to sit and eat.
He sat with Kuramochi.
"Doesn't feel all that different from regular training," Rinichi said, chewing on a banana.
"They just have the usual commuters stay in the dorms now. But since there are only two fields for twenty people, everyone's getting twice the normal training load," Kuramochi replied.
"You better be grateful and thank the teammates who are supporting us, got it?"
"Anyway, eat up. We're continuing training after nightfall," Kuramochi said with a grin.
But something about Kuramochi's smile seemed suspicious to Rinichi. "If we're training again, wouldn't it be better not to eat so much?"
If there was more training tonight, Rinichi definitely thought it was wiser not to eat too much.
"…," Kuramochi's smile was starting to falter. "Just trust your senpai!"
"No thanks. I think you're trying to set me up, Kuramochi-senpai," Rinichi said bluntly.
Nearby, Miyuki burst out laughing, clearly mocking Kuramochi mercilessly.
"As expected from Kamishiro—no way to fool him."
"I bet a bunch of kidnappers gave up trying to scam him as a kid."
He didn't think that was the same thing at all.
If you want to read 20 chapters advanced.