Ken stared in silence at his two new skills after leaving the Image Training. There was a mixture of disbelief and excitement, like a pie had just fallen from the sky into his lap.
‘With Deadeye Batter and Home Run King my batting will be almost unstoppable…’ Ken thought, his eyes shining.
While he could expend his mental capacity to calculate the trajectory of the ball, it put a significant strain on Ken’s mind. He would often get headaches, or feel nauseas after using it.
This was why he only reserved it for the situations where it was completely necessary.
KNOCK KNOCK
“Food is ready.” Daichi’s voice came from the other end of the door, startling him.
“Coming.”
He must have been in the Image Training for around 2 hours, but Ken felt refreshed and full of energy. However, his stomach grumbled loudly in protest.
Game 6 of the World Series wasn’t till tomorrow, so he had plenty of time to rest and relax today. However, there was no way he wasn’t going to test his new skills today.
Ken attended lunch with his family, but he was feeling anxious to get out of the house. Throughout the meal everyone was stealing glances at him, as if they could feel his unease.
“Are we keeping you from something?” Chris said, his face filled with amusement.
“Ah… I need to move my muscles, that’s all.” Ken replied, feeling a little embarrassed.
“Should we go workout after this?” Rohan perked up.
Ken smiled in response. He was already intending on asking Rohan to help him, after all where else could he find a major league pitcher at his disposal?
“Yeah, but Daichi will need to come as well.”
“Count me in.”
“Looks like you boys have a lot of energy.” Ai said with a giggle, cradling her belly.
After lunch, the trio of Daichi, Ken and Rohan left the house and made their way to Comerica Park early. There was a training session in the afternoon, so they could kill two birds with one stone.
“I’m having trouble understanding you lately Ken. You’ve postponed the morning runs for the past week but now you’re coming to training early?” Daichi stated wearing an odd expression.
“Don’t worry about it. I want to try something today, will you guys help me?” Ken said, changing the subject.
Both Rohan and Daichi looked at him curiously, waiting for him to continue.
“Go warm up your arm Rohan, I’ll be hitting your pitches for a while.”
“Oh, here I thought you would want to pitch.” Rohan said with some surprise, however he seemed rather pleased. After all, no one would want to willingly stand in front of 105mph+ fastballs.
“Good thing I brought my equipment.” Daichi muttered to himself.
Around 15 minutes later, everyone was set up and Rohan had warmed up his shoulder enough to begin. With one of his backup bats, Ken approached the batters box, his expression unreadable.
It was odd doing this when the stadium was empty, but he didn’t hate it.
“Did you want me to start slow?” Rohan yelled out, tossing the rosin bag in his hand.
Ken shook his head vehemently, “Go at full pace from the start, otherwise there is no point.”
He needed to work out how the skill worked and how effective it would be before the game tomorrow night. The only way he could do that was if he faced a major league pitcher at full strength.
While Rohan had pitched 3 nights ago, he only threw a few innings, there shouldn’t be an issue with him throwing at full speed.
Rohan shrugged, “If that’s what you want.”
Behind the plate, Daichi spoke up, “How are we doing this? Freestyle? Or 3 strikes?”
“Treat it like it’s a real game.” Ken said, not turning around. His eyes were locked onto Rohan on the mound, gripping the handle of his bat tightly.
“Heh, looks like you’re fired up.” Daichi said with a dry chuckle.
He crouched down and called for a pitch, all while Ken waited patiently.
Rohan nodded and lifted his leg, kicking off the pitchers plate and striding forward with momentum. His arm whipped past his face before his fingertips raked down on the ball, sending it down the lane.
Ken’s eyes widened. The moment the ball left Rohan’s fingertips, the trajectory of the ball was shown to him in the form of a yellow line.
PAH
“That’s a strike.” Daichi said, casually sending the ball back to Rohan.
Ken on the other hand was still shocked. While he had read the description of his skill Deadeye Batter, seeing it in action was another thing entirely.
‘I didn’t expect it to show the path of the ball like that…’ He thought, trying to keep his excitement at bay.
“Next one.”
He gripped his bat once more and kept an eye on Rohan unblinkingly. The guy started his pitching motion and once again something appeared as the ball left his fingers.
A red line appeared this time, showing exactly where the ball would be going.
PAH
“Ball.” Daichi called.
Ken felt his mind rattle.
‘The line even changes colors?’
From just those two balls, it seemed that the line would change color depending on if the ball would be a strike or a ball. If this was the case, nearly all of the guesswork would be taken out of batting.
However, Ken quickly learned that that was not the case.
PAH
“Count is 1-2.”
The last pitch had been green this time, throwing off his previous theory.
“What have you called so far? Fastball, slider and curve?” Ken asked.
“Yeah, why? Are you having trouble seeing them?” Daichi quipped with a smile.
A sudden realization struck him. The colors of the trajectory were not based on if it was a strike or ball, it was indicative of the type of pitch. Yellow was fastball, red was slider and green was curveball.
“Again…”
The next pitch that came was yellow, giving Ken the confidence to strike.
WHOOOOOOSH
THWACKKK!