Playing during the day had a different vibe to playing at night. Ken preferred the day since it reminded him of back home, playing in the sweltering sun during Summer Koshien.
Of course he was just happy to play, especially if he was on the mound like right now.
'The view from up here is always the best.' He commented inwardly, staring down the lane at his first victim. Ken could see Steve behind the plate, looking as he always did with his glove raised, ready for his pitch.
Not wanting to waste anymore time, Ken began his windup. Every move was meticulous and full of power, yet it flowed naturally through his muscle memory.
With a large stride forward, his fastball roared through the air towards the strike zone, spinning like crazy.
WHOOOSH
PAH!
The sound of the ball striking the glove was like a thunderclap, heard from everywhere in the 1500 strong crowd. All murmurs ceased as everyone glanced up towards the scoreboard to check the speed.
"101mph!? Holy crap."
"This guy has a cannon for an arm…"
"What was his name again? Ken?"
Steve felt his hand sting from inside the glove. By now he was used to the feeling when catching Ken's pitches, but something felt a little different this time.
"Nice pitch."
He threw the ball back to Ken and thought deeply, trying to put a finger on why it felt different. Just to be sure, he called for another fastball, this time on the inside.
WHOOOSH
PAH!
Once again the ball rocketed into his glove, but this time Steve instantly knew what was different.
'I didn't even have to move my glove…' he thought, feeling an odd sense of wonder surge from within.
With Ken's fastballs, they often moved around a lot in the air thanks to the large amount of spin that he put on them. This meant that Steve had to track the ball in the air in order to make sure he could catch it properly.
By this point he'd already gotten a feel for the movements of Ken's pitches, but now, things felt different. It wasn't that the ball had stopped moving in the air, in fact it was quite the opposite.
Yet now instead of him needing to follow the pitch, he could just leave his glove in the same spot.
'Has he improved so much already?' Steve thought to himself.
He wasn't sure what he thought about this change right now, nor if it was just a fluke. While it was technically good, Steve couldn't help but feel like a big part of his usefulness was now null and void.
With Ken's ridiculous control, anyone could sit behind the plate and catch his pitches, provided they could deal with his speed. For some reason, this left him feeling a little bittersweet.
His gaze moved to Ken on the mound who was waiting patiently for the next lead. Steve let out a small sigh and called for a slider, placing his glove to the outside of the zone.
Ken was about to nod, but he suddenly felt weird. A bad premonition came over him as he envisioned his slider being knocked out of the park. He couldn't understand why, since it was almost like intuition.
The moment the word came into his mind, he instantly understood.
'This must be the Legendary Intuition skill I got…' He mused.
With this in mind, Ken shook his head. It was better to not test out the effects, especially since it was the very first at-bat of his first innings in his college career. He could already imagine the headlines now if he gave up a home run.
Steve frowned, his annoyance growing. Having his lead dismissed in addition to already feeling like he was useless had a multiplicative effect on him. He had thought that Ken trusted his judgment, but it seemed that it was not the case.
Without making a fuss, he called for a two-seam within the zone.
WHOOOSH
PAH
As expected, the fastball sailed right into his glove, bringing with it another round of dissatisfaction within Steve.
"Strikeout!"
"Nice pitching Ken!"
Ken then proceeded to strike out the next two players with relative ease. With Ken's deadly duo of Intuition and Zone mastery, the batters couldn't even touch the seams of his pitches.
"3 outs, changeover."
Steve made his way back to the dugout, only for Ken to fall into step beside him. He ruffled the guys hair and spoke with happiness, "Nice catching."
Steve didn't respond, unstrapping his chest guard and speeding up slightly. Just as Ken was about to chase after him, he was stopped by the rest of the players who came to congratulate him on his pitching.
"Damn man, I didn't think you'd go 3 for 3 in your first inning." Kaden said, patting him on the back.
"I believed in him." Ayden stated matter-of-factly. Out of everyone present, he'd faced the most balls from Ken in the U18 World Cup, therefore he wasn't surprised when the guy blitzed through the opening batters with ease.
"Keep up the good work." Coach Brown said, flashing him a small smile.
"Thanks coach."
When he finally got past the influx of people, Ken tracked down Steve at the end of the dugout. The guy was sitting alone, staring at his catchers mitt, deep in thought.
Ken was taken aback a little, but he still took a seat beside his friend.
"What's up with you man? You seem off."
Steve didn't respond right away, paying attention to the webbing in his glove. Just as it seemed like his question was going to be ignored, the guy responded with a question of his own.
"Do you think I'm useless?"
The question itself was almost laughable, but Ken felt as if the guy was being serious. If he were to brush off the question, he felt like it would do far more harm than good.
As he looked at his friend, he realized the guy was self conscious.