The violence only stopped a few moments later when Chris left the meeting room and walked over to them. He saw Hiroki on the floor with disheveled hair and his clothes a mess, yet peeking through his shirt was a chiseled 6-pack.
Chris's face darkened briefly.
"Get off the ground and fix yourself up Hiroki, no one wants to see that."
Hiroki once again looked aggrieved, yet he picked himself up and quickly adjusted his clothes. Yet in the corner of his gaze he saw two women in their early twenties staring at him with wide eyes.
He quickly turned red from embarrassment before sitting down next to Daichi.
Ken didn't miss the interaction either, causing him to stifle his laughter. He wasn't surprised that others would react in that way after seeing Hiroki's muscular figure.
"Alright, everyone get to the bus, we'll be leaving in a few minutes." Chris announced.
As the team filtered out of the doors, the two women were still busy whispering to each other.
"Damn, that guy had a rockin' body."
"Was he a model or something?" The other girl asked.
"Surely not. They look like baseball players since I can see equipment in their bags."
"Hmm, I'll check it out." She said, grabbing her phone.
"They're the U18 team!?" A few moments later she almost yelled, feeling her cheeks redden.
"Oh man… That was close."
***
The team arrived at the stadium and went straight to the locker room. Since this was their 6th game so far, everyone knew what they were doing. It was even to the point where they had claimed their own lockers despite not being labeled.
"Looks like there's a few more spectators today." Ken announced.
"Yeah, but it's still nowhere near filling the stadium."
"It's not like we came here to play in front of fans." Masayuki replied, shrugging his shoulders.
To him, it didn't matter if there were no spectators, he just wanted to win.
"I guess that's a fair assessment."
The Japanese team were rather relaxed as they got ready. One of the perks of being the first match of the day was that they were allowed to arrive a bit earlier than their scheduled game.
This allowed for more time to get ready and to go through the game plan.
After around 20 minutes, most of the players were ready. They sat comfortably while they waited for the coaching staff to address them.
Not long later, Coach Takashi approached the front of the room and addressed everyone.
"We've pretty much gone over everything yesterday in the film session, so I won't say much." The coach said, running his hand over his goatee like he usually did.
"I don't expect us to have any problems against this team as long as we stick to our game plan. Remember to hit into the outfield or into the stands, there are no in betweens."
"Bunts are out of the equation, If I see you bunt, you'll be spending the rest of the match on the bench, regardless if you make it or not. If you see an opportunity to steal a base, be decisive."
The Head Coach said a few more words, basically giving a summary of what they had talked about yesterday in the film session.
"Satoshi will be starting pitcher today, followed by Ken as a closer if we need it. Any questions?"
"No sir!" The team responded in unison.
"Hehe, then let's continue our domination." He said with a grin.
"Gather around, Victory on three!"
Chris moved into the middle of the pack and held his hand up high. Due to his height, it made it difficult for everyone to reach, but they did the best that they could.
1
2
3
"VICTORY!"
With that, the Japanese team left the lockers and headed through the tunnels on their way to the field. As the sun met their eyes, they heard the cheer of the crowd which had almost doubled from the group stages.
"GO KEN! GO DAICHI! GO JAPAN!"
Yet despite this, Ken could still hear his mother over the crowd.
"Hahaha, I need to bring my mom next time." Riku said in amusement.
"Mmm that would be nice." Kuro said off-handedly.
Riku's face morphed for a moment before he stared at the guy.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Hmm? I just meant that it would be nice if my Mom was here too…"
Riku breathed out a sigh of relief. He had thought that the guy suggesting something completely different.
"Oh wait, where are the Australian cheerleaders?"
The whole group apart from Ken and Daichi looked around, trying to locate the pretty women who came all the way from the land down under.
"AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!"
"OI OI OI"
"AUSSIE"
"OI"
"AUSSIE!"
"OI!"
"AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!"
"OI OI OI"
Riku turned his attention over to the chanting coming from the other side of the field, his interest piqued. The first thing he saw was a bunch of shirtless guys, wearing green and gold colors and shaking pom pom's in the stands.
"Eh?" Riku's face contorted, pain and disgust evident on his features.
"Pfft… HAHAHAHA"
Ken felt as if his sides were going to explode as he was assaulted by intense laughter. The whole situation was causing him to lose his composure, unable to breathe properly from the onslaught of cackles leaving his mouth.
It wasn't just him, Daichi had also lost it. The look of disappointment on Riku's face was just far too priceless, making it hard not to laugh.
It was obvious that when Riku heard the world cheerleaders, his brain automatically assumed that they were women. Not once did he think that the cheering squad would be a bunch of shirtless men.
"Haaaahh, it's just too cruel. Will I forever be single in this forsaken world?" He muttered, feeling dejected.
"There there Riku." Hiroki comforted him, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"Get away from me!" he cried, slapping away Hiroki's hand. This was the last person that he wanted to get comforted by.
"Hahahaha." This only served to fuel Ken and Daichi's laughter.