"What is it?" He asked airily.
"Dude… did you reach nirvana last night or something?" Ken asked, slightly worried for his wellbeing.
"Huh? What do you even mean?"
Ken rubbed his temples, trying to control his irritation.
"Man are you going to be alright to catch my balls today?" He asked, full of concern.
Yuta nodded enthusiastically, "Yes yes, need to cup the balls."
Ken's mouth widened and he blinked a few times.
'Don't tell me this kid has hit a home run off the field?' Ken thought inwardly.
He suddenly remembered that Yuko had been blushing all morning, her skin even radiating a certain air about it.
SLAP!
A resounding slap was heard within the locker room, drawing everyone's attention to the origin. Ken felt his hand throbbing from the connection, yet he didn't care in that moment.
Perhaps it was because of jealousy, but he may have put a little more strength into his slap than he had first intended.
Yuta's face showed the intense shock that assaulted him from the unexpected slap to the face. His mind was jumbled for a moment, before anger touched his features.
Just as he was about to get up and retaliate, Ken placed his hands on either shoulder, weighing him down.
"Senpai look at me…"
Ken's voice was calm, yet deep and rather chilling. Yuta felt his body subconsciously tremble underneath the eerie feeling.
He could only do as Ken said, staring into his wild brown eyes.
"I don't care what happened last night, but you need to get your head in the game. This is our most important match of the year and we need you to be at your best."
Yuta didn't respond, yet his expression flickered when Ken mentioned the words "last night."
He sat silent for a few moments before nodding. He had been too caught up in remembering the bliss he had experienced the night before, not even realizing so until Ken's intervention.
After taking a deep breath through his nose and exhaling through his mouth, Yuta's expression hardened.
"Thank you Ken."
Ken breathed out a sigh of relief as he finally saw his catcher snap out of his mood. Yuta was a large part of why he was able to pitch as well as he did, if the guy was in fairy land, they would be in some trouble.
He took the opportunity to sit down next to Yuta and talk about another thing.
"Shiro, come here for a moment."
Ken beckoned his small friend over, who had already gotten changed.
"Eh? O-Okay."
Once they were all present, Ken told his plans for today.
Since the coach had insisted he use the curveball this match, he needed to make sure that the catchers knew all the signals and what to expect.
He brought over Shiro because he was the one who'd been catching his curveballs this whole time, whereas Yuta had not.
If the coach hadn't waited so late to tell him, he probably could have got a few practices with Yuta beforehand. Yet considering how intelligent the youth was, it likely wouldn't take him long to get used to it.
"I'll be adding the curveball to my pitches as of today." Ken stated simply.
While Shiro nodded, Yuta seemed to be taken aback.
"But didn't you say earlier that it wasn't completed yet?"
Ken had told his friends that he was working on the curveball, and that he didn't believe it was ready for games, especially on the national stage. However, that was around 3 or 4 days ago.
"It's more or less polished at the moment." He said simply, yet Yuta didn't seem too convinced.
"Isn't it too risky? We've done fine with just your fastball and forkball after all."
Ken shook his head, "The coach was the one who told me to unleash it in this game, so I'm doing so on his orders."
Both Shiro and Yuta seemed surprised. Usually the coach was the one erring on the side of caution, especially with things like this. Very rarely would he allow spontaneity, particularly in a game as crucial as the semi-finals.
"Really?"
The two replied at the same time.
"Hey if you don't believe me, ask him yourself." Ken shrugged, gesturing towards their coach who had been pacing back and forth for the last 10 minutes.
"Ah… No thanks."
Seeing how on edge the coach was, it probably wasn't the best time to second guess his tactics.
"How confident are you?" Yuta asked, seemingly already accepting the situation.
Ken paused for a moment, almost as if he was thinking.
"91.8% confident." He stated matter-of-factly.
"…"
"Hahaha! How can you say that with a serious face." Both Yuta and Shiro couldn't help but laugh at the absurd number Ken had thrown out.
"If you're confident, why not just say 100%? Haha."
Ken smiled, yet inwardly he felt wronged.
'The system says 91.8%, I was just relaying it…'
Afterwards, Yuta asked Shiro a bunch of questions regarding the curveball. Since they were both catchers, they had their own lingo, so Ken decided to finish getting ready before he was hauled out by the coach.
Around 5 minutes later, Seiji couldn't handle it anymore.
"Alright you lot, you've had enough time. We're heading onto the field." He announced, leaving the room right away.
Everyone could tell that he was eager, yet they didn't want to push his patience.
Finally, everyone walked onto the field and set there stuff down in the dugout before returning to the coach.
"Alright let's go through our warm up routines and we'll set up some quick drills before the game starts. No slacking!"
The coach seemed right at home as he ordered the team around. The Yokohama players felt like they were back at club practice, being driven like slaves in the sweltering sun.
Of course it was a lot different now, especially since there was thousands of people who were in attendance in this moment.
Around 20 minutes later on the opposite end of the field, their opponents arrived.
Ken's gaze traveled to the spot and locked gazes with someone almost by instinct.
Sparks seemed to fly across the field as the noise in the surroundings were drowned out, bringing with it a tense atmosphere.
Daichi felt a confident grin crawling onto his face as he stared at his Big brother. Their fighting spirits seemed to clash as they stared at one another, neither backing down in this electrifying moment.
Both of them were thinking the same thing.
'I wont lose'