***
The next morning, Ken woke up feeling refreshed. He inwardly thanked Mika again for her sleep protocol which allowed him to enter a deep sleep almost instantly.
As he got up and stretched, he saw a pair of haunting eyes with bags under them staring at him.
Ken jumped in fright as he quickly retreated to the wall, almost tripping on some others. The figure that was staring at him was pale and looked like a zombie, or even a corpse for that matter.
Since it was dark, it took his eyes some time to adjust.
It was only after a few moments that he recognized the figure who had been sleeping in the bed opposite him. Although sleeping might not have been the word he would use.
“Shiro what the hell are you doing man?” Ken whispered, trying not to wake up the others who were still asleep.
Shiro could only let out a groan in response, his body looking as if he hadn’t slept in 3 days at the very least.
Feeling a little creeped out, Ken dodged the many bodies who were laying on futons in the room and grabbed his workout gear. Since it was 5am, there were still snores ringing out within the room.
Just as he was about to leave, he felt a hand grip his ankle, almost causing a squeal to leave his mouth.
“Wait for me.”
The voice sounded half-asleep, but Ken recognized it as Hiroki almost instantly. Ken agreed to wait for the training junkie as he tried to calm down his beating heart.
Not long later they made their way out of the lodgings and began their run.
Ken couldn’t help but smile. There was something peaceful about running in a brand new place, especially while watching the sun peak over the horizon to begin a new day.
After some prompting by Mika, he began to really push the workout, reaching around 90% of his running speed and almost leaving Hiroki in the dust.
The two returned around an hour later and went to shower.
Some people had roused from their slumber, but there were still others who were dead to the world.
Thankfully, the place they were staying at offered buffet breakfast which meant they could help themselves from 6am.
Hiroki, Yuta, Ken and Yusuke were sitting at one of the tables and enjoying a large spread of food. Since it was a continental breakfast, everything from pastries to bacon and eggs were available to eat.
Sooner or later, the rest of the team joined in for breakfast after the coach was forced to wake them up. They still needed to have a meeting before heading over to the stadium, so they were on a tight schedule.
Once everyone was done eating, the coach and assistant coach’s took them to a room which was separate from the other patrons. The room looked like it was built for business conferences, yet it served their purpose perfectly.
“Okay I hope everyone got enough rest last night because we have a big match ahead of us today. I know we’ve already gone over the tactics, but I want to ingrain them into your brains.”
Coach Hanada took on a serious expression as he went over the same source material they’d been talking about since the fixtures were released.
“Shinjuku have a really balanced lineup. Their lead-off batters are by far the best in Tokyo and have some of the highest on-base percentages we’ve seen in High School.”
“Tatsuo Shiraki is going to be our main concern from the lead-off batters. If he gets on base, we can almost guarantee that he will steal a base whenever he gets the chance.”
As the coach called out this name, Ken’s face turned serious. The coach’s words were true, in fact he might have even been underestimating him. But he also wasn’t the only one to worry about.
Seiji continued for a little while longer, talking about the issues they’d face while defending against the batting line up.
“The reason why Shinjuku can play like this, is because of their Ace… Kei Hama.”
“He’s a southpaw pitcher who can pitch almost anything. Slider, sinker, curveball, changeup, essentially everything but a knuckleball. His pitches are so confusing that he even threw a perfect game in the Tokyo prefecture Tournament.”
Some whispers rang out after this was pointed out. A perfect game was when the pitcher gave up no hits or runs, not even allowing a player onto first base for the whole 9 innings.
Only 16 had ever been recorded in the NPB, which went to show just how impressive such a feat was.
Of course the level of competition between the professional league and high school were not comparable, it didn’t diminish the difficulty of throwing a perfect game.
After discussing what to look out for, the coach moved to the next important part.
“Okay for the lineup today we’ll be going with the usual. If we win the toss I want us to bat first and try get as many runs on the board as possible.”
“Ken, your target is to prevent Tatsuo from getting onto base as much as possible.”
“Yes coach!” Ken called out, his tone full of confidence.
Hearing the confidence in his voice, Seiji pulled his lips into a smile.
“If you can keep him off the base the entire match… I’ll take you all to get ramen tonight”
Suddenly an uproar began in the room as expectant gazes turned to Ken in the next moment. He saw the pleading and greedy eyes from his teammates and couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
“Just leave it to me!” He announced, wearing a smug expression.
“ORYAAAAH”
“RA MEN”
“RA MEN”
A chant for ramen broke out, bringing the teams morale higher.
‘This was probably the coach’s aim, to remove any nerves before the match.’ Ken thought inwardly.
However, he still planned on doing as he said. With his new Showdown skill, it should help out in this regard.
‘I can’t wait.’