'This is it!' Hiroki felt the ball was a tad slower than the last and also right down the middle. An imperceptible grin formed on his face as he calculated the timing and trajectory of the ball.
"Goodbye."
SWOOOSH
Hiroki's face turned from grinning to complete and utter shock as his bat sailed over the baseball which seemed to have dropped right before crossing over home plate.
PAH
Shiro who had braced himself for impact, suddenly felt the ball appear in his glove like magic. He almost couldn't believe what had just happened, even though it took place right in front of his eyes.
"Was that a forkball?" He muttered, catching the batters attention.
"What? He didn't tell you what pitch he was throwing?" Hiroki turned his head and asked, his tone sounding flustered.
Shiro shook his head. "This is the first time I've caught Ken's pitches, I didn't even know he could throw a fork." He admitted.
Hiroki let out a sigh of disappointment, however a smile appeared shortly after. He walked over to Ken who was still at the mound and held out his hand.
"I completely lost, that was a brilliant battle. Welcome to the team, my name is Hiroki Kondo."
Ken felt a wave of accomplishment after managing to strike out Hiroki so he was in a good mood. This was the first time that he had thrown the forkball with his right arm, so he knew it was a gamble, however it had paid off.
"Thanks, I'm Ken Takagi." He grasped the hand of Hiroki and smiled with satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Tatsuya was standing on his newly stolen third base with a stifled expression on his face.
'Why is no one noticing me!' he screamed internally, tears flowing down his face.
Coach Hanada felt as if his mind was going to explode. Just where had this boy come from?
'That forkball would have fooled even some of the best batters in University.' He thought inwardly, directing his attention back to the radar gun.
"137km/h… Even his breaking balls are fast."
"HAHAHA, the kid's got guts. Don't mind Hiroki." The captain Makoto slapped Hiroki on the back on his way to the batters box, his muscles almost bursting out of his uniform.
Hiroki winced in pain, however he seemed used enough to the treatment from the muscle head captain.
Everyone in the first team dugout seemed abuzz with excitement after seeing such a promising first year. Everyone except for one who had turned 4 shades of red by now.
'How can that bastard be so good? He's only a first year.' Akira ground his teeth, feeling his face heat up as his position was threatened.
"F-Fluke! It has to be a fluke!"
He had never struck out Hiroki, even in practice. So his brain moved to the only logical explanation that he could think of, or in this case, illogical explanation.
"Pffft."
"Yeah right."
A few muffled laughs and even obscenities were thrown at Akira after his outburst, causing him to grow even redder in the face.
Hiroki who had just arrived in the dugout after walking off the field turned his attention to Akira, his eyes narrowing.
"You better sort your crap out, otherwise you'll find yourself in the second team with all the other you make fun of."
After saying so, Hiroki ignored him and went to find a spot on the bench.
It was rather apparent that the team only tolerated Akira because he was their Ace pitcher, not because they liked him as a person.
Since he sucked up to the best players on the team and trashed anyone who couldn't make it, they had quite an unfavorable opinion of him. So much so that they felt a huge sense of relief after finding out that there was now an even better pitcher on the team.
'I-Impossible…' Akira placed his head in his hands, feeling his whole world crumble around him.
Meanwhile on the pitch, the captain Makoto had a giant grin on his face as he stared down at Ken on the mound. His whole body was screaming that he was ready to go.
"Wait you two." Coach Hanada stepped onto the field with his hands in the air, stopping play.
"Ken, come off the mound. I'm replacing you."
"WHAT!? C-Coach what do you mean?"
Surprisingly, it wasn't Ken who reacted so strongly, but Makoto in the batters box. He had just warmed up and was ready for a showdown with their brand new canon-armed 1st year.
"There's no point in Ken continuing to pitch. Shiro here doesn't have the capability of catching the pitches right now."
"Huh?" Makoto turned around to look at Shiro who instantly felt intimidated by the large and muscular frame of the captain.
"Tch, so he noticed." Ken murmured.
He had thought that Shiro might have been good enough to catch his fastballs considering he used to play for Fujimi.
'That Kenji used to pitch at 130km/h so why can't Shiro catch my pitches?' he thought, making his way off the mound.
"Fortunately we have someone who can replace you. Katsuya, you take the mound." The coach called out to the dugout, eliciting a nervous exclamation in response.
He then walked back to the dugout with Ken, leaving the depressed Makoto in the batters box, his earlier fighting spirit now flushed down the drain.
Coach Hanada placed his arm around Ken's shoulder and pulled him closer, a smile planted on his face.
"Why didn't you tell me you could pitch so fast? Man, Chris must have been training a monster like you since you left the womb." His tone was merry, understandably.
Ken tilted his head in confusion, "How fast was I pitching?" he asked.
"What? You don't know?"
This time it was the Coach's turn to be confused.
Ken shook his head. "No, in truth I stopped pitching all of last year thanks to a shoulder injury."
Coach Hanada's jaw dropped, almost dislocating thanks to the shock that came with Ken's words.
"A-Ah don't worry, I'm all healed. My dad took me to the physiotherapist who cleared me to pitch." Ken panicked, thinking that the Coach might look at benching him because of it.