Around 10 minutes later, Daichi sat down and leaned against the wall behind him, his face full of disbelief. His mind thought back to the 20 balls he’d caught, each as sharp and precise as the last.
Even with his standards, the pitches were spot on. Not only were they at full speed, they also broke at the correct time, to the point where he could not find a single flaw.
“Hehe, so what do ya think bro?” Ken said, punching his fist into his glove with a smile.
He was ruthless, having no sympathy for the defeated party. His own brother no less.
Daichi let out a deep sigh, not having any words to reply. While he was a little depressed that his ploy had not worked, he was even more impressed with the pitching standards of his brother.
‘He’s a monster…’ Daichi thought inwardly, staring at the tall figure across from him.
Despite this, he felt a surge of excitement. He had the chance to form a battery with Ken on the world stage. While it wasn’t the Major League like they had promised, it was the next best thing.
‘I can’t fall behind.’
With that, his features turned determined as he picked himself up off the ground.
“Alright, I’ll help you with your new pitch.” He said with a grin as he walked towards Ken.
“But I want you to help me improve also.”
“Hmm?” Ken was a little surprised since he thought Daichi was doing quite well already. However, seeing the fired up expression on his face, he couldn’t help but smile.
“It won’t be easy though…” Ken replied in a sing-song tone.
“Hehe, it wouldn’t be worthwhile if it was.”
Ken nodded, happy that his brother had set his sights on improving. Making the National Team was just the first step, they still had to show their talents on the world stage if they wanted to stand out from the masses.
“I’ll work on a training plan tonight for you. But now, it’s time for you to hold up your part of the deal.” Ken stated, snatching the ball from Daichi’s hand.
He made a shooing motion for his brother to get back to his place, making sure to act haughty after winning the bet.
Daichi had no choice but to laugh it off, considering he’d made a promise.
The two then began to work on Ken’s new pitch for the next couple of hours before deciding to return home.
As they were walking, Daichi was busy analyzing Ken’s new pitch. Originally he had been skeptical, however the longer Ken pitched it, the better he became.
After around 100 pitches, his brother had managed to successfully throw 60% correctly. While it still needed some work, it was definitely improving at a fast pace.
“How long did you say you’ve been learning that pitch?” Daichi asked.
“Hmm? I just decided to learn it last night.”
“Oh I see last night…” Daichi continued to walk for a few moments before suddenly freezing in place.
“WHAT THE HELL!?”
His shout was so loud that Ken quickly covered his ears from the impact. He turned to his brother with a frown which deepened as he wiped away the spittle that had been projected onto him.
“Dude, I’m right here, is there a need to yell?”
“Wha— I mean how— are you even huma—”
Seeing his brother go stammer and stumble through his words Ken feared that he might be having a stroke.
“One question at a time man, otherwise I’ll have to call an ambulance.” Ken said, patting Daichi on the back.
Only after a few moments was the teen able to compose himself enough to ask a proper question.
“How can you pitch like that when you’ve only just started learning it last night? That’s not normal.”
Ken let out a hollow chuckle and started walking slowly once more. In reality he had spent around 3 hours last night in the Image Training, doing his best to throw the new pitch.
He also received a boost in proficiency thanks to the “Pitching Variety” skill, bringing his total proficiency to 60% with just one session.
However, it wasn’t like he could tell this to Daichi, so he needed to come up with a decent excuse.
“Well, the slider is pretty similar to a curveball so the learning curve isn’t as steep as you might think.” Ken’s explanation had some truth to it, though it wasn’t as exaggerated as he made it out to be.
Daichi was deep in thought for a moment as he tried to fact check. Since he wasn’t a pitcher, he didn’t focus on the specific grips and wrist movements a pitcher would use for individual pitches.
The slider had a lot of spin, yet it broke laterally in comparison to the curveball which broke vertically. Depending on the direction of the spin and the wrist action at release, theoretically it made perfect sense.
So while he still might not understand it as well as specialists in the field, he decided to take his brother’s word for it. Also there didn’t seem to be another viable reason as to why Ken could pick up the pitch so fast.
‘At least he explained it, I thought he would have just haughtily proclaimed to be a pitching genius.’ Daichi thought with a wry smile.
Now that he could comprehend Ken’s abilities, Daichi felt a bit better. Though he wasn’t naive to assume that every pitcher would be able to pick up a new pitch this fast.
“I guess it makes sense.” He said finally, accepting Ken’s words.
“I mean it’s not like you can cheat at such a thing right? Hahaha.”
Daichi laughed heartily after saying this, mostly because of how outrageous it sounded.
“Ha ha ha.” Ken did his best to laugh along, however he felt a drop of cold sweat run down his back.
‘If only he knew…’ Ken thought inwardly.
He was lucky that no one in this world had invented some kind of truth serum that would cause one to spill out all of their secrets.