Ken watched as the coach walked off, letting a smile creep onto the corner of his lips.
He enjoyed seeing the expressions of his coach, especially when he did something that was unexpected or shocking. In his previous life, Coach Hanada was known for his brilliant poker face, rarely showing much emotion.
However since regressing, Ken had seen more expressions in this past month than he had in the almost 2 years he knew him beforehand.
Of course, there was an expression that he didn't want to see again…
Just remembering the look of sorrow on his coach's face after he was injured in the summer of his second year was enough to turn his mood sour.
Ken shook his head, thankfully history would not repeat itself.
"Time to go swing the bat."
Since the conversation with the coach hadn't lasted long, the players were still making their way to the locker room to go get changed. Ken's eyes surveyed the troops, looking for a certain shorty.
His eyes narrowed as he caught a figure crouching within the crowd, trying to go by unnoticed.
"You think you can escape from me?" Ken almost laughed aloud, seeing the actions of Shiro.
He moved towards the group and plucked out the rat who had been trying to escape.
"O-Oh hi Ken. I was just looking for you." He said, although his facial expression did not match his words.
"Mhmm sure you were. It's time to start your new training regime."
Unbenknownst to Ken, a wicked grin formed on his face, scaring the already anxious rodent in his hand.
Shiro felt warm tears fall down his face for the second time that day, however unfortunately for him it wouldn't be the last time today.
***
Ken arrived home a couple of hours later, feeling some tightness in his upper body. He had never swung a bat that many times consecutively, which meant his muscles would be feeling it for the first few days.
Thankfully, due to his fatigue management skill there wouldn't be too many issues recovering from the strenuous activity.
"I'm home."
"Welcome home Kenny."
Ken breathed out a sigh of relief. His mother was back to her old self, despite this mornings antics.
Since he had stayed late at practice this afternoon, he told his mother of the new arrangement so she wouldn't worry in the future.
"That's fine. Just go have a shower quickly so we can eat some dinner." Yuki said, shooing her smelly son away from the food.
Ken obliged, heading straight for the bathroom. He would need to start taking deodorant with him to practices, since even he had trouble smelling his own sweat.
'I hope he got home alright.'
As Ken got under the shower, his thoughts moved to Shiro who had completed the training plan under his watchful eye. He had needed to bark out orders while swinging his bat at the same time.
Now that he thought about it, he probably looked pretty intimidating swinging a metal bat with all of his strength and bossing the poor Shiro around.
Remembering the sight of his friend almost passed out on the ground after the training, a smile couldn't help but form on his face. As long as he kept up with it, he could see that Shiro would have tangible improvements by the end of the 3 week training regime.
'Maybe I can try use the Training Plan function on Hiroki?' Ken mused.
However, he didn't have much hopes in that regard. The system had already told him that no further improvements could be made to his stats.
They also had a game coming up in two days time against Shuei High School at their field. Of course since Shuei was also Kanagawa prefecture it meant that he would likely not get a chance to pitch.
While Ken was in the shower, Yuki picked up the phone which was ringing in the kitchen.
"Hello, Takagi residence." She answered.
"Hi Mom it's me."
"Daichi honey! I'm so glad to hear from you."
Yuki's face lit up as she heard the voice of her other son. She quickly chastised him for not calling ever since he moved to the Osaka Toin dorms, however she wasn't that upset since she knew he was busy.
They'd also received a call from Naoki to let them now how Daichi was doing a month earlier.
After some apologies, the two caught up.
"Ah Kenny is just in the shower, I'll go get him for you." Yuki said, getting up from her chair.
"No it's fine. I just called to talk to you." Daichi replied, his tone clearly more flat than before.
"Oh… Okay then."
"I've gotta go get some dinner and head to bed mom. We've got an early training session tomorrow."
Yuki frowned, feeling as if something was off. However, she still said her goodbyes and urged him to call more often so she didn't get lonely.
Almost the same moment Daichi hung up, Ken waltzed out of the bathroom feeling refreshed. The first thing he saw was a worried expression on his mothers face as she looked at him.
"What is it?" He asked, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"Daichi called, but he said he didn't want to talk to you."
As a mother, it was painful to hear that her sons didn't want to talk to each other. Especially since she didn't know the reason.
Ken frowned for a moment, trying to figure out why. A few moments later his face changed to one of understanding, a smile forming on the corner of his lips.
"Heh. Don't worry mom, since we're in different schools now we have become fated rivals."
Ken's tone was dramatic as he whisked away his wet and messy fringe from his face with dramatic flair.
His mother merely stood there, staring at him unblinkingly.
'Oh god why is he so much like his father…' Her hand instinctively crept up to her face as she performed a facepalm.
The silence between them was broken by the sound of Ken's grumbling stomach, pulling him back to reality.
"Umm, is dinner ready?"