Ken made his way to the car, his face a deep shade of red. His father wore an amused expression and his steps were light. Clearly he was happy.
"Ahh come on Kenny, don't be embarrassed. You haven't pitched in a year, you can't expect to be at the same level you were before." Chris said, seeing that his son had his head lowered.
"Y-Yeah… I'm sorry dad, will that come out of your pay?" He asked tentatively.
Ken could still hear the crunch sound of the land line telephone he had hit with one of his wild pitches, causing another wave of embarrassment to assault him.
"HAHAHA don't worry about it." Chris laughed, slapping his son on the back in good spirit.
"I'm just happy there's no lingering injury left." He said after a while. "Next time something like this happens, I want you to tell me right away. You don't want to ruin your future over hiding an injury."
Chris's words rang in Ken's mind. He understood completely what his father was saying. If only he had listened to him in his previous life, he could have saved himself a lot of pain and suffering.
Of course he was happy that he was able to come back and have a second chance. But how often was one given something like this? Even he didn't know how he was able to go back in time and try again.
However, now that he was here he would do the best he could to live without regrets.
Ken clenched his fist, a smile returning to his face.
"I've got a lot of work to do." He stated.
"Yes yes. You've got the power but your control is all over the place." Chris said, nodding happily. He was content since he knew that Ken was serious about his training.
"I'll be leaving for America again in two days for 3 months this time. I'm looking forward to how much you improve in that time." He stated, ruffling his sons hair.
Despite saying so, his father sounded pained.
***
Later that night, Ken was laying in his bed and staring at the ceiling. He had been waiting for his parents to go to sleep so he could enter the Image Training and finally begin to work on his pitching.
DOES THE USER WISH TO ENTER IMAGE TRAINING?
[YES/NO]
Ken clicked yes and was met with the familiar feeling of being surrounded by darkness. The feeling was similar to how he imagined full-dive VR technology would feel like if it ever existed.
Soon enough the familiar Koshien stadium appeared in front of him, along with a menu.
PLEASE CHOOSE A SKILL TO PRACTICE.
#IMAGE TRAINING MENU:
>PITCHING
>BATTING
>FIELDING
"Thank goodness…" Seeing that the pitching was no longer locked, he let out a sigh of relief.
PLEASE CHOOSE DIFFICULTY LEVEL:
>MAJOR LEAGUE
>PROFESSIONAL
>AMATEUR
>HIGH SCHOOL (Recommended)
>MIDDLE SCHOOL (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)
>ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Stats will not be recorded towards missions in this difficulty)
Without hesitation Ken chose the High School difficulty. He of course was already in High School now and would be going up against others of the same age. Not to mention that there was no point going against middle schoolers.
#PITCHING MISSIONS:
> Pitch 500 strikes - 100 Major points
> Pitch 500 breaking balls - 100 Major points
> Pitch 125km/h 500 times - 100 Major points
> Pitch 130km/h 500 times - 100 Major points + Silver Lottery ticket
> Throw pick-offs 100 times - 100 Major points
> Strike-out AI - Middle school (upgradeable) - 500 Major points + Silver Lottery ticket
The first thing that struck out at him was the pitching speed required. If he remembered correctly, his fastest pitch during the second year of high school was around 140km/h. However, thanks to his painful shoulder he wasn't able to stay at those speeds consistently.
However he was confident that he could exceed this speed and with a lot more control thanks to the system and his now healed shoulder.
"Strike-out AI?" Ken mumbled.
As he said these words, he was transported to the mound and facing the batters box. A figure appeared on the plate, causing him to gawk for a few moments.
"D-Daichi??"
It was Daichi, or at least an inexpressive Daichi who wore a blank face. The way he was holding the bat was weird, almost as if it was before his father had taught him the correct stance.
"This is what it must have meant when it said Middle school." Ken commented
Ken couldn't help but chuckle seeing the awkward figure in the batters box. He missed his friend and little brother, but this would at least be a good warm up for when they met at nationals.
"Let's do this." He said confidently.
There was no need to warm up his arm in here, so he began right away. Using his usual stance, he wound up and stepped forward with his left foot before whipping the ball towards the outstretched catchers glove.
DING
"H-Huh!?"
His control was good and everything seemed to have gone smoothly, however the awkward figure on the mound was able to make contact with the ball, sending it to first base.
FAILED
2 ATTEMPTS REMAINING TODAY. WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTINUE?
[YES/NO]
Ken saw the text box appear in front of him and shook his head. He needed to get his pitching under control first before taking on the AI. Of course image training wouldn't magically get him into form, but it would certainly make it easier.
"No."
Once Ken clicked no, Daichi disappeared, replaced by a transparent blue box which floated above home plate. It looked like one of those mobile baseball games that he used to play in his past life.
"That's more like it." Ken grinned.
WHOOSH
Ken threw a ball right down the middle. He threw it about 80% prioritizing control over power this time.
[115km/h]
[Base hit]
"Hmm, this is good."
Not only did it show how fast his pitch was, it also calculated if the ball would be hit or not and what the result would be. This was something that could greatly improve his pitching.
"Let's go all out!"
Ken sent another pitch, this time with all his strength. However, this time the ball went a few feet higher than the strike zone.
[130km/h]
[Ball]
"Ah damn it. I need to learn how to walk again before I run."
"Again!"
WHOOSH
"Again."
WHOOSH
"Again…"
For the next few hours, Ken continued to throw pitch after pitch. He had lost count of how many he'd thrown, but he was starting to ingrain the pitching action into his mind once more.
The 1 year break might not seem that long in the grand scheme of things, but if he included the time spent without pitching in his previous life, it totaled almost 8 years.
Even if someone had pitched for many years, taking almost a decade break was bound to regress their skills considerably.
As Ken was about to fire off another pitch, he suddenly collapsed on the mound. Everything around him disappeared, fading to black.
This was the longest that Ken had been inside the Image Training arena at any given time. It seemed that with his current mental capacity, this was his limit.
Ken's snores rang out in his room a moment later after being removed from the arena.