Ken wasn't feeling much better despite his S grade stamina. He could feel his legs trembling as if they were jelly, however he persisted.
"I-I told you it wouldn't be easy." He placed his hands on his hips and stared out into the horizon, trying to look as if he wasn't struggling himself.
However, Hiroki saw straight through it.
"Bah, just tell the truth. You're trying to make me quit."
Ken shook his head vehemently.
"Do you think I'd be doing this crap with you if I wanted you to quit?"
"Ah."
Hiroki suddenly saw the flaw in his words and felt a little embarrassed. At least until his leg began to cramp up, causing him to roll in pain on the ground.
"H-Hiroki!"
Thus ended the first day of Hiroki's special training, only hours after completing their first friendly match.
After his strength and conditioning training was completed, Shiro improved considerably. His physical grade was now B+ and his fielding had improved to A-.
He finally thought that he was free from training, until he was dragged by both Hiroki and Ken to their extracurricular sessions.
What ensued was a level of torture that made his previous experience seem like a relaxing walk in the park.
Almost a month into the harsh training, Yusuke showed up, finally free of his injuries after being cleared by his doctor. He quickly joined the party, and apart from Ken, he was the only one who was not complaining bitterly by the end of the sessions.
Ken wiped the sweat from his brow after throwing his final pitch to Yuta.
"Great work Ken." Yuta called out as he headed over to him.
"Man your pitches have become sharp lately." He said with a smile.
"Thanks." Ken took the compliment, but didn't let it get to his head. Despite keeping up his 150 pitches a day, he was still stuck at the A- grade for pitching.
"Hey, you're close with Hiroki right?"
"Mmm? Yeah why?" Ken was a little taken aback.
"He seems to be a bit tired lately, do you know what's going on?"
Ken froze for a moment, feeling a little guilty.
"Ah, well he asked me for help with training so we've been doing some sessions after practice." Ken admitted, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Oh?" Yuta seemed a little interested, but he didn't pursue any further.
"I've gotta go Senpai. Great work today." Ken said, heading over to get ice for his shoulder.
Yuta nodded, watching Ken's retreating figure in contemplation.
A little later that day, Ken, Yusuke, Hiroki and Shiro were at the usual spot where they had been training lately. He had borrowed some markers from the club and set up stations for the interval training set out by the system.
One would think that after a month of doing the training program that it would be a little easier, however that was not the case. The system seemed to know exactly how far to push Hiroki until he dropped.
Since Shiro was below Hiroki's physical grade, he was the one that suffered the most throughout the training. However, with how miserable everyone was at the end, he felt slightly better and could persist.
Ken took the others through a warm up routine to ensure that no one would get hurt, something he did at the start of every session. He was about to speak but was interrupted.
"So this is where you guys have been training?"
Ken turned around and saw Yuta's smiling face staring back at him.
But that was not all, he was flanked by nearly all of the first squad members.
"Heh, so our cute juniors have been training in secret all this time. I can feel my muscles shivering in anticipation." Makoto said, taking the opportunity to strike a flexing pose.
"Got room for some more?"
"You guys…" Ken seemed shocked, however a smile appeared on his face afterwards.
He had wanted to make the team stronger and had been worrying about his dwindling Major points. However now, the perfect opportunity had arisen to progress all at the same time.
The newcomers had smiles on their faces, looking eager to join in on the fun.
Hiroki, Shiro and Yusuke also had smiles on their faces, yet theirs looked a lot more sinister.
'Hehe more fools have decided to join.'
They say that misery begets company, so the trio rejoiced in the fact that there were more people who decided to join in on the suffering.
Ken took the newcomers through the warm-up exercises for a few minutes and explained the different training that they would be doing. What was once smiles on the faces of the newcomers quickly turned to frowns.
Apart from Makoto, the rest seemed as if they had just swallowed a rock.
"Alright let's go."
And so the newcomers began the training, quickly finding out that their earlier assessment of the difficulty was still too lenient.
An hour later, Ken had his hands on his knees and was busy trying to catch his breath. Besides Makoto, he was the only one left standing.
Seeing the Captain on his own two feet, Ken felt his respect for the man increase even more.
'As expected of the captain.'
"That was fun, even if it was a little easy. Do you do this every day?" He asked.
BLURGHH
The sound of someone emptying the contents of their stomach rang out in the background as Ken was about to answer.
"Ah, we do this every day after practice. On Saturday as well." Ken replied.
Makoto's face paled a little, however he did his best to seem unfazed.
"Well, I'll see you here again tomorrow then." He said before walking off, trying to stay cool.
Unfortunately for him, his body didn't seem to want to comply. His legs began to wobble as if they were made out of jelly, creating a hilarious scene.
"Pfft HAHAHA!"
The players who had been staring daggers at Makoto during his declaration earlier all burst into hearty laughter.
"Is that really the captain? He looks like a baby trying to walk for the first time!"
Another bout of laughter ensued, only being drowned out by another person vomiting.