"Alright good." Steve shouted, getting to his feet. He headed over to the mound after Ken was done with his warm up throws.
When he arrived he spoke softly, "What pitches do you know?"
Ken thought for a little bit, he had reduced his pitching repertoire while he was readjusting his pitching form since they weren't as sharp anymore. But now that his system was back, he wasn't sure whether to use them or not.
"Fastballs, changeup, curve." He eventually said, deciding to err on the side of caution. Since this was a tryout, he didn't want to mess up badly and give the coach a bad impression.
Steve nodded before going through the signs with him. They were pretty standard, nothing that he hadn't seen before.
He headed back to the plate and took up position, giving the first sign. Ken nodded and was about to get into position, but he was interrupted from the sidelines.
"Ken, how about we up the ante and add a batter?" Coach Wyatt called out, his gaze flickering to the other players watching intently.
"I don't mind." Ken stated. It didn't matter to him if someone tried to hit his pitches, if anything it would be more fun.
Happy with the response, Coach Wyatt's mustache seemed to be quivering with excitement. "Nico, you're up first." He said, pointing to one of the players.
The guy was regular height, and had short blond hair which met his eyebrows. His build was similar to Yusuke, which told Ken that he would likely be fast on his feet.
'Is he the lead-off batter for the team?' He thought.
"Let's go Nico!"
"Smack him out of the park."
As Nico placed his helmet on and walked to the batters box, his teammates cheered for him, trying to hype him up. Ken stared blankly, blinking a few times in confusion.
'Do these guys hate me or something?'
But at the same time he kind of understood. If someone suddenly joined his team and wanted to take over someone like Shiro's position, he might feel a little annoyed.
However, baseball was a competitive sport. This was why Shiro patiently waited his entire first year of High School before he could join the 1st squad and replace Yuta.
Nico arrived in the batters box and sent a glare to Ken, causing the latter to let out a dark chuckle. He had seen this look many times before, at least until he started pitching.
'He's looking down on me… Very well.'
Ken's eyes moved to Steve behind the plate, waiting for his lead.
Steve briefly looked at Nico in the box and called for a fastball, bringing his glove to the inside, close to the chest of the unsuspecting batter.
Ken felt a grin creep onto his lips, he rather liked this Steve fellow. He nodded and took the ball into his glove, letting out a deep breath and relaxing his body.
Since he had been practicing his new pitching form for so long now, it had practically been ingrained into his body. Ken no longer had to purposefully think about his movements, everything just came naturally.
He lifted his left leg upwards and leaned back slightly before kicking off with his back leg. The momentum propelled him forward with a large stride as his hips opened up towards the 3rd base.
The sheer force from these 3 simple steps generated an absurd amount of torque. By the time he cocked his arm and threw the ball, all of his momentum ended up on his lead leg.
With deft movements, Ken balanced perfectly on his foot, following through effortlessly as if he'd done the action thousands, if not tens of thousands of times.
His eyes followed the path of the ball, watching its course carefully. This was the first proper pitch he'd thrown since his system had come back, so he wanted to ensure everything was still in order.
"Holy CRA—"
PAH!
The ball landed squarely in Steve's outstretched glove, exactly where he'd placed it. Steve on the other hand, fell back from the force as the glove was pushed back and hit him in the face mask.
Nico who was giving him an audacious gaze earlier, was still in the same position, however his expression had suddenly changed. No longer was he confident, in fact, his body seemed to quiver, as if he was outside in the Winter breeze.
Steve managed to get to his feet slowly, but his gaze was transfixed on Ken, like he was looking at a monster.
"Was that a strike Coach?" Ken asked Coach Wyatt who had become eerily silent.
"Y—Yes. Strike!" He called, finally snapping out of his stupor.
It wasn't just him that was shocked, the other Gladiator players were in awe. Their captain Max Blair looked as if he'd just seen a murder, his jaw wide open in disbelief.
"How fast was that pitch?"
"I—I didn't even see it properly."
Ken held out his glove, gesturing for Steve to throw him the ball again. He was rather pleased with how the first pitch felt and was eager to experience the feeling once more.
It was a little different from how he normally pitched, almost as if his form had improved once more.
'My earlier theory might be correct, the system was subconsciously correcting my form and mechanics. Since I've improved substantially, I should now see even better results this time around.' Ken thought inwardly.
While Ken was deep in thought, Nico looked towards his coach with the fear of God in his eyes. He didn't say anything, but it was clear that he wanted to be anywhere except in the batters box right now.
Coach Wyatt didn't blame him. Even he who was behind both the catcher and batter was feeling unsafe despite wearing protective gear.
"Just try and hit the ball okay Nico?" He said, flashing him a supportive smile.
However, Nico looked like he had been sentenced to death by the courts.