"Eh?"
Ken heard the notification from his system and felt a wave of happiness spread through his body.
'SSS-Grade mental elixir…'
He swallowed hard, trying to stop himself from salivating.
"Please welcome the president of WSBC Richard Fresco and Tetsuhiro Suzuki who will be handing out the awards."
The crowd began applauding for the winners of the individual awards.
Ken received 2 different trophies. The ERA trophy was silver with a glass baseball fastened on top and looked quite fancy. The MVP award seemed a little more simple, but it truly was beautiful.
He accepted the awards from the two men, though he felt the wide-shouldered man was looking at him intently.
'Hmm?'
Yet just as Ken turned his attention to the man, he had already moved onto Daichi. He handed Daichi the RBI trophy and held out his hand for a handshake.
"Thank you." Daichi said, taking the hand. He was going to pull away but he couldn't due to the man holding on tightly.
He lifted his head and looked at him with confusion, only to see the man staring at him intently. His brown eyes were locked onto Daichi's, not moving in the slightest.
"Daichi…" He murmured, his face showing untold emotion.
"Mr. Suzuki?" Richard said from beside him.
They needed to hand out the remaining awards to the other players.
Only then did Tetsuhiro relinquish his grip on Daichi's hand, moving down the line alongside Richard to hand out the other awards.
Ken frowned, feeling the interaction was rather odd. Yet Daichi quickly moved on, too preoccupied with the festivities to pay anymore attention to the situation.
Once the awards were handed out, there was a photo taken with all the award winners and a few of the VIP's who were introduced earlier.
"Smile please."
The photographer singled out Ken who was horrible when it came to posing for photo's. Unfortunately for him, it took a while before the photographer was satisfied with the photo.
After what seemed like an exorbitant amount of time, the players were sent back to their teams and the next part of the ceremony started.
"Next we'll be announcing the World Team." The speaker said smilingly.
"Starting pitcher, Satoshi Subaru."
"Relief pitcher, Ryan Smith."
The list continued until the best 10 players were announced. From Japan Satoshi, Ken, Riku, Hiroki and Daichi were announced as part of the world team, showing just how well they performed in comparison to their opponents.
The award this time was a plaque, given to everyone on stage. Thankfully this time the Director of Suzuki corporation was not the one giving out the awards.
After returning back to their teams, Cuba was called up to receive their bronze medals and get a photo. This repeated a few minutes later when the United States went up for their silver medals.
By this time, the Japanese players were getting rather restless. It had been a long 2 weeks for them, not to mention they had just played a grueling game.
*GRUMBLE*
Riku painfully lowered his head and held his stomach.
"I'm so hungry…"
The game had finished around 6:30pm today and the proceedings had taken longer than anyone expected. It was currently around 7:30 and the players hadn't eaten since about 10 that morning.
No one made fun of Riku, mainly because they lacked the energy needed to do so.
"Now calling up your U18 Baseball World Cup winners… Team Japan!"
"Ah, let's go."
This time, both Coach Chris and the Head Coach were gestured to come onto the stage. Their names were called out 1 by 1 and medals were placed around their necks by the President and Mr. Suzuki.
Thankfully nothing weird happened this time.
For the final moment, Coach Takashi and Masayuki accepted the winners trophy. It was around 3 feet tall and was painted golden with a baseball nestled on top.
After the proceedings and some more photos, Japan returned to their position on the field and the Japanese National Anthem was played. The Head Coach had tears run down the corner of his eyes as he sang along passionately.
Once this was done, the closing ceremony finally came to a close. As the speaker said one last thanks to the crowd, the teams were allowed to retreat and grab their things.
When Ken arrived in the dugout, Daichi nudged him, getting his attention.
"Hey, I managed to get a few game balls…" Daichi whispered, showing his bag almost full of them.
He had a wide grin on his face, as if he'd just won the jackpot.
Ken shook his head and laughed. "Maybe we can get some framed."
Daichi nodded, "Then sell them on 3bay!"
Ken didn't exactly agree with this as it seemed far too petty. However, his face changed in the next moment.
"Hey, can I have one of those?"
"Hmm? Sure."
Ken placed it in his pocket and smiled before walking out of the dugout, following the rest of his team towards the tunnels.
His gaze moved over the crowd, as if he was trying to spot someone in particular.
"Ah, there he is." Ken exclaimed before jogging over.
"Hey Michael! I thought you'd be here." He said with a grin.
"K-Ken! You were so cool out there!" Michael's eyes shined as if he'd just met his idol.
Even his friend was stunned into silence seeing that such a big shot knew Michael's name and had even come over of his own volition.
"Hehe thanks. You got a marker?"
"Y-Yes of course!" Michael wasn't sure what it was for, but he eagerly agreed to lend him his marker.
Ken took the game ball out of his pocket and began to skillfully write upon the ball before he flourished his hand and wrote his signature.
"Can't have my #1 fan leaving empty handed right?" He said with a grin, handing the ball over.
"What is this?" Michael asked in confusion.
"It's one of the match balls of course. If I see it on 3bay I'll be disappointed okay." He said, feigning anger.