BUZZ BUZZ
Daichi picked up his phone and looked at the notification, his face showing a surprised expression.
"Ai? Why is she messaging me?" He muttered, opening up the message.
"Hey, I saw this article about Ken. Thought you might wanna see it."
With his interest piqued, Daichi opened up the link included and was taken to an English website. At first he was overwhelmed by the foreign letters, but he tried his best to decipher them slowly.
He'd been working quite hard on his English, especially with the tutoring packs that his brother had left him before leaving for America. It was clear that he was working towards their end goal of joining the Majors.
"P—Purodigy… Prodigy… What does that mean?" Daichi frowned, seeing that the first word he read was already one he didn't recognize.
"Oh, Tensai…"
After a few minutes struggling, he could finally read the title of the article.
"Prodigy secures a perfect game in the Perfect Game Tournament."
Having accomplished this much, Daichi switched the language to Japanese, patting himself on the back for a job well done. His eyes scanned the article, only to widen upon seeing Ken's name.
They listed his accolades which included 5 home runs and 13 walks over the course of 6 games, as well as his near perfect pitching record. In all honesty, the way they were describing it was like a professional player had been put into an amateur league.
However, Daichi read with a twinkle in his eye. There was nothing more satisfying to see an entire article praising his own brother. Especially since the Japanese media had torn him apart when he went through his slump last year.
"Ken has gathered the attention of many scouts throughout the country, who are awaiting his next performance in the upcoming WWBA National Championship later in June."
Daichi sat back, feeling a mixture of emotions running through him. He was wearing a large grin on his face, as if he was the happiest guy in the world right now.
But inwardly, he felt the fires of determination roaring to life. This was something that only a rival could stoke properly.
"I can't afford to slack…" Daichi muttered.
"Eh? Slack? When have you ever slacked?" A voice called out to him from across the room, causing Daichi to freeze.
"Kouichi, were you eavesdropping?"
"Bro, I've been here the whole time…" Kouichi said with incredulity.
"Ah, my bad. I just read an article about Ken in the states." Daichi admitted.
"Really? How is he doing?"
Since Kouichi had played together with both Ken and Daichi back in Seiko middle school, he always looked up to the guy. If it wasn't for Ken and his father mentoring him back then, it was unlikely that he'd be where he was today.
"Heh, he's the same as usual. He threw a perfect game on the weekend and caused all the scouts to go nuts." Daichi wore a grin as he responded, enjoying the fact that he could brag about his brother.
"Wow, that's impressive. But you've also been doing really well too Daichi, don't sell yourself short." Kouichi replied.
He had noticed that when it came to Ken, Daichi would often defer to him, even going as far as downplaying his own achievements.
"Well, I mean we play different positions so it's not like we can compare."
Kouichi frowned, "We just won both Summer Koshien and the Spring Invitational, that's gotta tip the odds in our favor right?"
Seeing Kouichi get so worked up, Daichi let out a smile. "Yep, we've done well." He said, jumping down from his bed and walking over to the guy.
He ruffled his hair, much like a father would to their own son. "I also had a lot of help you know."
Kouichi blinked a few times, "What the hell was that about?"
Daichi shrugged, "I pissed on my hand earlier and we were out of paper towels, your hair seemed like a reasonable place to wipe it."
"…" Kouichi stared at him in utter shock and disbelief.
In the next moment he pounced forward, trying to tackle Daichi.
"Hahaha!" Daichi let out a roaring laughter and began to wrestle with the guy. Despite growing into his tall figure and putting on some muscle, Kouichi still lacked the strength to get an upper hand.
Soon enough, the guy was forced to tap after Daichi secured a head lock.
"Hehe, that was funny."
After horsing around, there was a silence that stretched between them, but it wasn't awkward.
"We finally made it to our 3rd year…" Kouichi said softly, staring up at the ceiling.
"Mmm."
Now that Daichi thought about it, it had been over 2 years since he moved to Osaka to live on campus. There had been tough times, but it was infinitely better than living with his mother back then.
Many of his teammates like Kouichi he now considered his friends. After all, it was tough to not get along when they saw each other almost every day.
Classes, practices, meals and games. They were practically his family at this point.
"What are your plans after school?"
"I don't know…" Daichi answered truthfully. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go over and join his family in America and attend college over there, or opt for Tokyo University where Miho was.
"I'm going to declare for the draft."
"Huh?" Daichi sat up from the ground and looked at his friend with shock. He hadn't expected the usually reserved Kouichi to be so forward.
"Don't be surprised… I've changed a lot over these past few years." He replied with a soft smile.
Daichi nodded. Kouichi had indeed changed since joining Osaka Toin. He could now pitch consistently over 90mph and had expanded his pitching repertoire considerably.
"Why don't you declare? I'm sure you'd have a better shot than me."
"Really?" These words caused Daichi to fall into deep thought. Did he want to play in Japan and continue to get better before joining the Majors?