The Old Baseball Player System

Shun was in the stadium dugout, preparing his gear for the game. He looked out onto the field and saw his friend and team captain, Kenta, walk toward the umpire.

"Heads." - Kenta said to the umpire, nodding toward the Suzuhara captain.

The umpire quickly tossed a coin into the air. When it landed, he checked the result and announced:

"Heads! Shoto, your choice!" - The umpire said, looking at Kenta.

"We'll take the field." - Kenta replied without hesitation, heading back to the dugout.

"Well?" - Coach Yamada asked as Kenta returned.

"We're fielding first." - Kenta said calmly.

"Looks like it's your turn, Jiro. We're counting on you!" - Shun said, giving Jiro a few encouraging pats on the back.

"Yes, senpai!" - Jiro replied with determination.

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Meanwhile, in the stadium stands...

"Looks like the kid with glasses is pitching today." - Kaori said, watching Jiro walk up to the mound.

"That's good, right, Satoshi? You were quite interested in him last year…" - Hana said with a smile, glancing at the handsome black-haired boy.

"Hm. I just hope being stuck on a weak middle school team hasn't slowed his progress." - Satoshi said honestly. While he recognized Jiro's talent, he knew that talent alone wasn't enough to make a good pitcher, it required good coaches to guide, a reliable catcher to lead, and a solid defense to instill confidence in the pitcher.

"Hey, Satoshi! Watch how you talk about my brother's team!" - Mika said angrily. Although she loved teasing Shun, that didn't mean she would allow anyone else to badmouth his team.

"I'm just telling the truth…" - Satoshi shrugged, speaking quietly, knowing that, from what he'd seen, Shoto Junior High wasn't exactly a strong team.

Meanwhile, Toji was too busy trying to pick his nose while staring distractedly at the field, paying no attention to the conversation. Suddenly, someone shouting his name behind him startled him.

"TOJI TAKEDA!" - A white-haired boy yelled angrily, drawing the attention of everyone around them.

"Huh? Hey, Suga! What are you doing here, man?" - Toji turned around in surprise but smiled as soon as he saw Sugawara.

"I told you not to call me Suga, you bastard!" - Sugawara snapped, grinding his teeth in frustration just from looking at Toji.

Of course, the reason for his anger wasn't Toji's face but rather an unresolved grudge from last year's U-15 Asian Championship. Both Toji and Sugawara had been called up to the national team, but, for the first time in his life, the white-haired maniac was benched.

Sugawara still hadn't accepted being Toji's backup that year and was now glaring at the green-eyed boy as if he were his sworn enemy.

"You're still upset about being my backup? I already told you not to stress over it, Suga. You're really good!" - Toji said with a grin, throwing an arm around Sugawara's shoulders as if oblivious to his anger.

"Haha, it's been a while, hasn't it? What are you guys doing watching a second-round game in the Tokyo tournament?" - Kohei, noticing his friend's growing frustration, quickly changed the subject.

"Huh? That's not fair, I asked you guys first!" - Toji whined like a child, keeping his arm around Sugawara.

"We're here to study the weaknesses of that blue-eyed idiot and his stupid friends!" - Sugawara growled, pushing Toji's arm off his shoulders.

"Blue-eyed idiot? Are you talking about Shun?" - Toji asked, confused.

"Huh? You know that blue-eyed idiot?!" - Sugawara said, shocked. He hadn't expected his two nemeses to know each other.

"Of course I know him! We've been friends since we were kids!" - Toji answered honestly.

"Oh, that makes sense…" - Sugawara murmured under his breath, realizing that it did, indeed, make sense for the two most annoying people he knew to be friends. While he was familiar with Toji's irritating personality, his encounters with Shun had been limited to two games.

However, those two games were enough for Sugawara to despise Shun. He still remembered the kid robbing his home run last year. On top of that, in their friendly match this year, Shun had not only ground Sugawara out but had also hit against all their pitchers and even figured out a pattern in his pitch calls.

"You guys aren't going to watch the game? The top of the first inning just ended…" - Mika asked, looking at Toji and the others as if they were fools. They had come all the way to watch Shoto play but had missed an inning because they were chatting nonsense.

Of course, the only reason the inning had ended so quickly was that Suzuhara's first three batters had grounded out against Jiro's splitters.

"Huh? What?" - Sugawara asked in surprise, quickly glancing at the field, only to see the Shoto players returning to the dugout.

"Are you serious? How did the inning end so quickly?" - Toji quickly looked toward the field, asking in disbelief. It was obvious from his expression that he regretted missing the inning.

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Unaware of what was happening in the stands, Shun returned to the dugout, feeling excited.

"Haha, well done, Jiro! You can start mixing in some knuckleballs in the next inning." - Shun said with a smile, patting Jiro on the back.

"Huh? Are you sure that's okay, senpai?" - Jiro asked, concerned. As much as he valued Shun's opinion, he didn't feel very confident in his knuckleball.

"Haha, don't worry! We'll score some runs for you! There's no point in learning a pitch if you're not going to use it in the game!" - Shun said, starting to put on his protective gear for batting.

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It was natural for Jiro to feel worried. Even though he and Daigo had trained hard, Jiro's knuckleballs often slipped past the catcher. Since he didn't want to risk the team's victory, he hesitated to throw them.

Shun understood all of that, but as he had said, there was no point in learning a pitch if you weren't going to use it in a game. Grabbing his helmet and bat, Shun climbed the dugout steps, ready to be a good senpai and give his kohai a comfortable lead to pitch with confidence.