When me and my family arrived at the train station, there were already people waiting for me.
My friends had come to see me off.
I felt quite emotional when I saw them there, I hadn't known them long, but I felt deeply connected to them as a had Sawamura's memories and also the fact that I had spent time with them since I arrived in this world.
We spent some time cracking jokes and farewells until my train arrived.
When it did arrive, I stepped up to the door and turned to look at the people gathered.
My family and my friends.
"I guess it's time to get going." I said to them, my eyes watering slightly, as did theirs.
"I promise I will work to the bone and become the best pitcher in Japan, please come down to Tokyo sometime to watch me." I said to them all with a wide grin.
"I will see you guys soon. Wish me luck!" I continued.
"Of course, Ei-chan!"
"Good luck, Eijun!"
"We'll be there for sure!"
"Make sure to show them the Akagi Junior High spirit!"
My friends started shouting in unison.
Wakanaka walked up to me and passed me a baseball cap.
As I looked at the cap, I saw all my friend's name written on there with their own individual handwriting.
"Everyone put this together for you as a farewell present." She spoke. "Try not to embarrass us when you're over there." She continued with a smirk.
I laughed when I heard her words.
"Hahah, don't worry, I will make you guys proud!" I replied.
"Alright, get on the train before it sets off without you, brat!" Grandad said.
"Good luck, my son." Mum said.
"Make sure to blow those Tokyo lot away, kid!" Dad said.
I looked at them all with a smile.
"I will!" I replied, turning and stepping onto the train with my suitcase.
After I got on, I turned back to them again.
"This is goodbye for now, I'll see you guys soon." I said with a wave.
The train door then closed after I said this.
As the train started moving away, I saw my friends running along side the train, there were tears in their eyes as they ran.
I pressed up against the window and had small tears of my own.
When the train passed the platform and my friends went away from my view, I was still crying a little.
My heart ached quite a bit and tears kept flowing.
After a couple of minutes to calm myself down, I then looked at my reflection in the window and wiped the tears away.
My face was now one of full determination and my eyes were glowing with their usual golden fire.
'Now it's time to make a name for myself. I will succeed, no matter what. I will get everything right. I will make my name known across the whole of Japan. I will make Seido get to nationals this year, I can do it!" I thought to myself.
****
When my train arrived in Tokyo and I entered the platform, I looked around until I saw Rei standing there, waiting for me to take me to the school.
"Rei-sensei!" I called out to her with a big grin on my face, as I walked up to her.
She turned to look in my direction and then looked a little confused.
I finally got up to her and saw her facial expression.
"It's me, Sawamura!" I said to her.
"Huuuh? Sawamura?" She replied with shock.
She looked me up and down as she saw my changed appearance from the last time she saw me a couple of months ago.
"What the hell happened to you? You look like a completely different person!" She continued.
I couldn't help but laugh at her reaction.
"Hahaha, I had a little growth spurt since I last saw you, and I trained to my limits almost everyday to be ready for school." I replied with a smile.
"What kind of training did you do to change your body like this is 3 months?" She asked, still looking me over.
"Oh, you know, this and that." I replied with a cheeky grin.
She let out a deep sigh at my response but then smiled at me.
"Well, it looks like you've worked hard. Good work. Hopefully you can make a splash when you start training." She spoke.
"Don't worry, I won't let you down." I replied.
"Okay, I look forward to it. Now let's get going, it's getting late." She said whilst turning to exit the station.
I followed closely behind.
We reached her car and then headed to the school.
I was excited but also nervous on the car ride to the school.
I couldn't sit still and kept fidgeting throughout the journey.
Rei smiled when she saw my antics.
When we finally arrived at the school, my nerves grew even more and took a deep breath as we arrived at the dorm of the baseball team.
"Sawamura, be sure to get a good rest after you finish moving in." Rei said to me.
"Our practice will wear you out even during the spring break." She continued.
When I didn't reply, she looked over at me.
"You nervous?" Rei asked me.
"Yes, but I'm also excited to start my journey here." I replied with my fists clenched.
"There's no need to be nervous." She replied.
"You might come across speed bumps being in a new environment, but I believe in what I saw that day, on your last game. And the day you stuck out Azuma. Good luck, our future Ace." She said whilst turning to walk away.
I instantly snapped my head to her when I heard her words.
'Future Ace.' I thought.
My nerves instantly dissipated, and a fire of determination started flaring in my chest.
I then bowed to her departing figure.
"I won't let you down, Rei-sensei. I will prove that your decision to scout me wasn't wrong." I said to her.
She waved her hand without turning back. "I look forward to it." She spoke.
After she left, I looked towards the dorms.
I saw the iconic sign that said 'Seido Spirit Dorm' that led up to building that had two floors filled with doors.
I walked up to the dorm and went to find my name on one of the doors.
I finally found it alongside two names I recognised, 'Kuramochi Yoichi' and 'Masuko Tohru'.
'So, I'm still in the same dorm as these two, as was the original Sawamura in the manga.' I thought.
'Wait doesn't that mean they're going to prank me when I open the door?' I sighed whilst thinking this.
'Alright, I will play along because it will only be one time as a 'tradition' to the new dorm roommate.'
I took a step forward and opened the door.
When it opened, the room was pitch black.
Then suddenly a torch turned on in front of my face that lit up a face that was pulling a zombie-like expression with fake blood coming out of his eyes and mouth.
'I would probably be pretty scared if I didn't know it was coming.' I thought as I stood there blankly.
'Oh right, I need to react.'
"AHHH! A GHOST!!" I screamed whilst making myself fall backwards.
'My god, this is embarrassing.' I couldn't help but inwardly cringe at my actions.
"YAHAHA!" A loud cackle entered my ears.
The light turned on and I saw two figures standing there.
The one who was cackling had spiky green hair and short eyebrows.
The other had a shaved head to a stubble, he had bushy eyebrows and slight markings of a moustache on the sides of his lips.
'Kuramochi, second year and Masuko, third year. Both part of the regulars of the team.' I thought, looking at them.
"Great success!" Kuramochi continued. "Don't hate me for this. I was in your shoes last year."
He then bent over and held out his hand to me.
"Welcome to the Seido High School Baseball Team." He spoke.
I put my hand on my chest and drew out a big breath, still playing off as having been scared.
"Pfff, you scared me senpai." I said grabbing his hand to help get up off the floor.
Kuramochi was slightly surprised at my hardened hand and tight grip when I grabbed his hand, but he quickly recovered.
"I'm Kuramochi, a second year." He said as a stood up, he then gestured towards Masuko as he continued. "This guy here is Masuko, a third year."
Masuko then held up a piece of paper that had 'nice to meet you' written on it.
I bowed to them both in response.
"Nice to meet you senpais. I'm Sawamaura." I responded with a smile.
Kuramochi than turned to walk further into the room.
"Don't mind his weird practise." He said as he gestured to Masuko.
"He made an error yesterday, so he banned himself from talking. Crazy, right? Yahahah!" He continued as he started fishing into a box.
Masuko responded with a slightly flushed face.
"Ooooh! That's some dedication, Masuko senpai!" I responded, looking to Masuko.
He then turned to me with a slight smirk and grunted whilst nodding.
"Ah! There it is. Alright, lets get this started." Kuramochi then turned to me holding a game console and some controllers.
"A video game tournament welcoming the newcomer!" He continued.
"Let's get this over with quickly. We've got an early practice tomorrow." He said whilst sitting down in front of the TV.
Masuko sat next to him and held a piece of paper to me that said, 'bring it on!' on it.
'When did he write that?' I thought.
"Yosh. Let's do this senpais. I won't hold back." I said sitting next to them.
We then started playing video games for a while which I managed to win.
Luckily in my past life, I played videogames a lot and was quite good at it so it felt nice to go back to it after a while.
We started getting ready for bed and got changed.
As I took off my shirt, both Kuramochi and Masuko snapped their heads towards me and looked at my figure.
Kuramochi then looked at his own which was well defined but wasn't as chiselled as the first year's that had just arrived.
"So, what position do you play?" Kuramochi asked with curiosity.
"I'm a pitcher." I replied with a smile.
Masuko then held up some paper that said, 'what type of training do you do?' on it.
"Hmmm, it's a bit of a mouthful to say. I'm planning on doing it tomorrow, before training, if you're interested. You guys want to join?" I asked in reply.
Both of them looked at each other with the same question.
'Before training?'
But they were both curious about the training and nodded to each other.
"Okay, you're on!" Kuramochi said.
"Okay cool. I will wake you both up tomorrow and we can get started right away." I said with a grin. "What time does training start tomorrow?"
"7am, I think." Kuramochi responded.
"Okay great, we can start at 5:30am then get the training done before the start." I said whilst getting into bed.
Both of their faces paled when they heard that, but they didn't want to be shown up by a first year on the first day, so they reluctantly agreed to it and went to sleep.
'Max, activate sleeping function and set the wake-up time to 5:30am, please.'
[Activating sleeping function. Goddnight, User.]
'Goodnig…'