For the next two hours, the freshmen and the upperclassmen had no contact. Zhang Han said nothing to his two junior classmates either. He hadn't planned to say much in the first place, and now that he was going to be playing against them, he would say even less. The field was a better place to communicate anyway.
At 3:30 PM, the welcome match began.
A few old alumni had come by specifically to visit. The moment they arrived, they could tell the atmosphere was unusual.
"Good timing. Is it the welcome match today?"
"I wonder if any of this year's freshmen have something to show."
"Last year, Zhang Han and Miyuki made quite a stir."
"Apparently there are a few with real ability among this year's intake. They should be playing today."
"But their opponents are the second string, so they probably won't be able to show much."
While they were talking, they got a look at both teams standing on the field.
The senior team didn't have that many players. A few core second string members. But alongside them stood several first string faces.
Chris. Miyauchi. Kawakami. Masuko Toru.
"What are they doing?"
The alumni who knew Seido's routines were stunned. In all their years following this team, they had never seen anything like it. Four first string players in a welcome match. Was this the second string, or was it the first string?
"Wait. That person standing at the very back. Is that Zhang Han?"
One of them pointed at the senior team's dugout, barely believing his own eyes.
"No way. I'll be—"
The second alumni trailed off. He had seen it too.
Even standing at the back of the group, Zhang Han's presence was impossible to miss. He was talking quietly with a teammate beside him, but people noticed him first regardless.
"What is Coach Kataoka trying to do? Even if he wants to give the freshmen a taste of how brutal high school baseball can be, does he really need Zhang Han for that? If the hitting is this overwhelming, some of these kids might just quit baseball entirely."
Even the alumni watching from the side felt the weight of it. The first-year players who were actually about to face Zhang Han felt it even more.
In the freshman team's dugout, Kanemaru Shinji, who had made it through the selection and earned one of the eleven freshman spots, stared across at the opposing dugout with undisguised unease.
"I knew this day would come eventually. I just didn't expect it to come this fast."
"There's nowhere to retreat now. Even if you're scared, Han-san isn't going to go easy on us."
Toujou didn't look scared at all. If anything, he looked like he had been waiting for this.
Kanemaru studied him for a moment.
During junior high, Toujou had competed with Zhang Han for the ace pitcher position. He had won that competition in the end, but even then, there were people within the team who quietly believed Zhang Han was the true ace. Not out of favoritism toward Zhang Han, who had been a third-year at the time, but because their coach, Director Ono Binchi, consistently sent Zhang Han to the mound in the games that mattered most. When it came down to it, the coaches and players seemed to find Zhang Han more reliable.
Toujou had never accepted that, but with Zhang Han moving on to high school, the question had been left unresolved. No more shared field, no definitive answer.
And then Zhang Han had entered high school and seemed to activate some kind of cheat code. His hitting exploded, and he awakened the Light Speed Ball. The gap between them, which had once been close enough to argue over, had grown into something Toujou couldn't even measure anymore.
He had never said anything about it. But he had never stopped thinking about it either. He had always wanted one fair chance to compete against Zhang Han on the same field.
For most of the other freshmen, facing Zhang Han was a nightmare scenario before the game had even started. They had come in wanting to perform well, and now their confidence was already half-gone.
But not all of them.
A few of them had the same look on their faces as Toujou. Eager. Hungry.
Jinguuji. Furuya Satoru. And Sawamura, who had somehow talked his way into the welcome match despite everything.
And one more. A quiet, small figure who hadn't drawn much attention before.
Seeing his companions so fired up, Kanemaru felt some of it rub off on him.
"Alright then. Let's see exactly what these upperclassmen are made of."
The match began.
The freshman team had come prepared this time. They had received advance notice, gone through a proper selection process, and been assigned a dedicated coach. Coach Ochiai had his own reasons for wanting this to go well. This was a chance to demonstrate what he could do.
What he hadn't fully accounted for was that Coach Kataoka was running two tests at once. He was testing the freshmen, yes. But he was also testing the first string players he had put on the field.
Zhang Han's right-handed pitching, for instance, would go a long way toward determining his future role. Given Seido's severe lack of pitching depth, if he could hold his own on the mound with his right arm, there was a real case for getting him more innings.
Kawakami's performance against Ichidaisan had been disappointing. If he couldn't deliver today, his pitching time would be cut.
Masuko was currently competing with another player for the starting third base position. If he couldn't show enough here, he might be shifted to the outfield, or dropped from the active roster entirely.
And then there were Chris and Miyauchi, both backup catchers on the first string. Miyuki's position was rock solid. If the team didn't need three catchers, one of them would either move to a new position or lose their first string spot altogether.
Coach Ochiai doubted it would come to that. Both players had strong overall ability and solid bats. Cutting either of them from the first string would be a significant loss. Coach Kataoka likely had something else in mind for them.
"I've told you everything you need to know. Get ready to play."
Top of the first inning. The freshman team was up to bat, and the first to step to the plate was their shortstop, Takatsu.
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