The sun was beginning its retreat onto the horizon by the time everyone was leaving the stadium. Those departing were filled with satisfaction after witnessing some of the best High School teams battle today.
"Man I'm beat."
"Yeah me too, and we didn't even play today."
The Yokohama High team made their way out of the arena with mixed emotions, but everyone could agree that it had been a tiring day.
"Still, I can't believe you had such a talented brother Ken." Hiroki said, his face still full of awe.
"Yeah, why couldn't you have brought him here? We could use an upgrade at Catcher."
Tatsuya's words were loud enough that Yuta's ears perked up. He glared towards the back of the culprit's head and was about to go over and deliver some punishment.
"Yu-chan don't mind that smelly idiot." Yuko spoke up, grabbing Yuta's arm and holding it against her mountains.
"Y-You're right." He replied, feeling his face flush red.
"Tch."
Seeing the scene of Yuta's bliss, Tatsuya clicked his tongue in annoyance. His eyes drifted to Kaori, the other manager who was chatting with Ai, as an idea suddenly drifted into his head.
As if sensing his gaze, Kaori lifted her head and locked eyes with Tatsuya for a moment. He flashed her a wink, giving his best smile, the one which had a formidable 65% success rate.
However, a look of disgust crept onto the cute girls face as she quickly averted her gaze.
"Geh."
Tatsuya suddenly lost interest. Thanks to his long list of rejections, he was quick to get over such things, allowing him to focus on the next task at hand.
The group were on the way to their lodgings, since Yokohama was 3 hours away by bullet train. Thankfully for the coach, the school had provided the funds to house the players for Nationals since traveling every day would work out more expensive.
This meant that they could focus on competing, rather than having to travel so much.
However, since the length of their stay was not guaranteed, Seiji was tasked with booking the room for 2 days at a time in case they were eliminated at an early juncture.
Ken suddenly saw a tall figure standing outside talking to someone. Once he got a little closer he instantly recognized the two.
"I'll be back in a sec." He told his teammates before quickly jogging forward.
SLAP
"Nice play out there lil bro!"
Daichi who had just copped a slap to his behind from out of nowhere, clenched his cheeks and covered his bum out of reflex. He went from a relaxed posture to a stiffened toy soldier in an instant.
"Hahahaha!"
Chris couldn't help but roar with laughter seeing almost the exact scene of the other night play out in front of him. Yet this time the culprit was his son who had been on the receiving end earlier.
"K-Ken what the hell man?"
Daichi's face flushed red and his expression turned wild. He was about to lunge at his brother who just so happened to hide behind the tall figure of their father who was still in the middle of his laughing fit.
"Hey man, it's a common form of endearment over in America. If you wanna go to the Majors you'll need to get used to it." Ken grinned, enjoying the light atmosphere.
"Ah man that was classic." Chris said in English, wiping the tears which had formed on the corner of his eyes.
Seeing his father in such a good mood, Daichi couldn't help but smile, though he didn't forget to send a menacing gaze towards Ken afterwards.
"I was being serious though, that was some nice playing out there Daichi." Ken asserted, his expression turning serious.
"I knew you would win, I just didn't think it would be in 5 innings." He said with a crooked smile.
Daichi smiled in return, however he didn't seem surprised.
"Since Wataru pitched all through nationals last year, there is plenty of tape on him. Once we figured out his flaw there was no way we could lose."
His tone made it sound like it was a piece of cake, yet Ken knew that there would have been hours of research gone into discovering such a flaw.
Not only that, the team had to be good enough to capitalize on the flaw, otherwise it would have all been for naught.
"Still… Did you have to hit 3 home runs in only 4 innings?" Ken asked smilingly.
"Heh, I was showing off for Mom back home."
The trio let out a hollow chuckle almost in unison, thinking about the woman they left back in Yokohama.
"When is your game tomorrow Ken?" Chris asked expectantly.
"We'll be the first game tomorrow." He said with a smile.
Daichi grinned, sending a weak punch to his left arm, "You better not lose."
"I wouldn't even dream of it." Ken responded nonchalantly.
"Ken! Our bus is about to leave."
Ken heard Shiro's voice from behind him, beckoning for him to hurry up.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Ken said before running off to the team abruptly.
Daichi saw the short teen who'd called out before and felt as if he looked familiar. However, he shook his head a moment later and said his goodbyes to Ken.
Since they were in Osaka, he could just return to the school dorms instead of staying in a hotel for Nationals. This was a perk only available for the Osaka Prefecture.
"I should probably head back too Dad. I'll see you tomorrow, maybe we can watch together?"
"Sounds good now go get some rest."
Chris ruffled Daichi's hair and sent him on his way. After watching his retreating figure he let out a sigh, feeling some fatigue from the long day beginning to set in.
'I can't believe how much he's improved in such a short time.'
As someone who had dealt with professional players for the better part of 20 years, Chris was insanely impressed with Daichi's progress. Since he knew that Daichi knew nothing about baseball over a year ago, it made it even more crazy.
'I just hope Ken also does well.'