***
The next day, Ken woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring in his ear. Out of reflex he whipped his hand over and gently pressed the button to stop it. While feeling a little groggy, he managed to sit up and swing his legs off the bed.
"What happened? I don't remember leaving the arena last night…" He murmured, rubbing his tired eyes.
USER HAS REACHED LIMIT OF CURRENT MENTAL CAPACITY
LEAVING IMAGE TRAINING
Ken checked his notifications, quickly learning the reason. He saw that the time stamp said he received the message at 1 am which meant he lasted around 4 hours.
"4 hours huh?"
Even though he had lasted for so long, he had yet to finish any of the pitching missions. Thankfully, no matter how much he pitched in the Image Training he wouldn't be affected physically.
While this did not help for things like muscle memory, it allowed him to pitch all he wanted without worrying about fatigue on his shoulder. The last thing he wanted to do was get injured once again.
Of course with his new skill "Fatigue Management" it would mitigate some risks, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Time to get some training in before school."
With that, Ken jumped out of bed and got ready for his morning run.
An hour or so later he returned feeling refreshed. Since he had missed out on his run yesterday because of the fever, today's felt that much more beneficial.
"Morning Mom." Ken mused on his way past the kitchen.
"Morning Kenny. Breakfast will be on the table soon. Hurry up and get ready, your father has a meeting soon." Yuki said, shooing him along.
"Yep!"
Ken smiled. His mother had been making a point to eat as a family whenever his dad was home. Probably because she knew that he would have to be away for long stretches of time.
He quickly got dressed and headed down, being met with a wide array of food which tickled his appetite.
"Wow, what's the occasion?" Ken exclaimed.
Yuki flashed a look at him, a tinge of sadness in her eyes. "Your father is off to America for 3 months early tomorrow morning so this will be the last breakfast we have together for a while."
She let out a sigh, "I wish Daichi was here as well"
Ken looked at his mom and felt a little guilty. He internally vowed to try and help her out more often while his dad wasn't here.
"What's with this sad atmosphere?" Chris asked, tightening up his tie after walking out from his bedroom.
"Uwahhhh look at all this food. What's the occasion?" He added on before receiving any replies.
This time, both Ken and Yuki turned to him with serious expressions, forcing him to feel a little uncomfortable.
"Ahem… Let's eat then."
Ken made his way to the other side of the table and began to tuck into the delicious food. There was scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with some avocado on the side and even a heap of fluffy pancakes with maple syrup.
He raised his head every so often to see his mother slowly eating with a sad face. It was clear that she was a little depressed that her husband would be leaving for such a long time.
Just seeing her expression caused Ken's heart to ache.
"Dad…"
"Hmm?" Chris raised his head, attempting to swallow the large mouthful of food he had just shoveled in.
Ken debated for a while on whether or not to broach the subject. He had never once butted into his parents work dynamic, since it wasn't really his business. However, since regressing he was a lot more mature and had a wider viewpoint.
After a few moments he worked up the courage.
"Do you really need to keep working as the foreign adviser?" He asked, locking eyes with his father.
Chris seemed surprised by this question, but not as surprised as Yuki whose eyes had gone wide with shock.
"K-Kenny, what are you talking about?" Yuki stammered, however Ken could see that she was watching for Chris's expression from the corner of her eyes.
"It's fine honey." Chris said, wiping his face with a napkin before setting it down.
He let out a small sigh and responded. "I know it's tough on you both when I'm away, but we need the income. We'd be fine while you and Daichi are in High School, but when you go to University, who will pay for both of your tuitions?"
Ken frowned. He had expected this sort of response from his father, especially now that they had Daichi in the family.
He knew that Daichi would be able to turn professional and enter the NPB after high school. This was especially true since he had started a whole year earlier in this life, but he couldn't convince his father this early.
Which meant that he had to do the same. Get drafted into the NPB right out of high school, something that seldom few are able to achieve.
Ken's eyes flashed with determination. "I won't be going to college, I'll get drafted right into the NPB. So please, take back your old job." He pleaded.
Chris heard the conviction within his sons voice and did not laugh, no matter how outlandish the claim was, he would not crush his sons dreams. However, that didn't mean he thought Ken could pull it off.
"Do you know how tough it is to become a professional baseball player? Let alone right out of High School?" Chris asked, his eyes laser focused on Ken's face.
Ken shook his head, "No, but I'm willing to stake my whole future on it."
His goal was to become a professional baseball player by hook or crook.
This time Chris shook his head, "It's too uncertain. Even if people try their best, it doesn't mean that they'll succeed Ken. While I'll acknowledge your conviction, I cannot risk our family's wellbeing on such things."
What his father said made a lot of sense, after all he was the head of the family, the one who needed to ensure their survival and success. However, it still hurt a little knowing that his father did not trust him completely.
'What can I do to convince him…' Ken thought furiously. Since he had the Major League System, he had complete confidence that he would be able to improve over the next few years and turn the heads of scouts all over Japan.
Yet by the time he had shown his potential, his Mother and Father would have already suffered for too long. He had to think of something now.
"What if I win the national title?" He murmured, clenching his fists under the table.
Chris's eyes widened at these words. As someone who had competed in high school baseball before, he was well aware how tough it was to make it to Koshien, let alone win the entire competition.
One would essentially have to be better than over 4000 high school teams, going through many rounds of single eliminations in order to make it to the top. All it took was having one off game for a teams dreams to be shattered.
He let out a sigh, placing his chopsticks down.
"Alright, I hear your conviction Ken. If you take your team to nationals and win, I'll take back my old job."