After we split off from the rest of the team, the first years arrived on Field-B.
There were some assistant coaches around with clipboards.
"Alright, everyone, gather on me." One of the coaches said.
As we started heading towards the coach, Haruichi leant to me and asked, "You have any idea what we are going to be tested on?"
"I don't know to be honest." I replied.
I really didn't know, this was never shown in the manga, so I was in blind.
"However, considering Coach said, 'physical skills', I'm guessing it'll be like, speed, stamina, strength, throwing distance, stuff like that if I was to guess." I continued.
"Hmmm, that makes sense." Haruichi agreed with my suggestion.
"Alright, everyone, we will be running a couple of tests in this session before you go eat to see where you are at. We will start with a 30-metre dash. Each person will get two goes and we will time each run. Alright, first person up." The assistant coach said.
'Hmm, I probably won't get a great score in this test. Agility is my weakest stat after all.' I thought.
The first round of players running went smoothly.
It eventually got to me.
I walked up to the start line and then got into position.
I dug my cleats slightly into position and leaned forward as I waiting for the whistle.
TWEET
As soon as I heard the whistle, I kicked off the ground with all my might and shot off the ground pushing forward.
Pieces of mud flew up from where my feet dashed into the ground as I strode forward.
I started off low and gradually lifted my upper body up until I was in a full sprint.
My breaths were short but controlled and I kept my pace all the way until the finish line.
As I crossed the finish line, one of the coaches looked at his stopwatch and then raised an eyebrow a little, then wrote something on his clipboard.
'Hmm, not as bad as I thought.' I thought to myself as I jogged back to the rest of the group.
It was then I noticed that people were looking at me again.
'Why're they all looking at me again. Was it that bad? I thought I did okay.'
"Nicely done, you were fast." Haruichi said to me when I got back to him.
"Was I? I didn't think I went that fast." I replied.
"Is that why everyone is looking at me?" I asked him.
"Yes, and also because you sprayed some of them with dirt when you kicked off the start line." Haruichi said with a chuckle.
'Oops, I didn't mean to hit anyone when I dug into the ground. But I was fast? That's a surprise." I thought.
[User underestimates himself.]
[Despite not having a great agility stat, it is still very good for a first year. Also, because your balance and coordination and strength stat are so high. You can run quite fast in this short distance. Agility isn't just about speed; it's also about how far you can keep up your peak speed up as you run.]
'Ahhhh, that makes sense. At least I have an okay speed for the distance between bases then.' I thought as I saw Max's words.
After a while, it was my turn again.
As I got to the start line, a lot of the guys behind me started parting slightly.
'They probably don't want to get sprayed again.' I slightly chuckled when I saw this.
I dug my cleats into the ground again and waited for the whistle.
'Okay, now that I know my strength can help, I'll put more power into my strides this time.'
TWEET
This time, I kicked off with maximum power, pushing my leg muscles to the absolute limits as I strode with force.
Every stride I took ate the ground and flung pieces of dirt behind me.
I made sure to use every muscle in my core and arms as used them as support and momentum with each rotation.
When I crossed the finish line, I looked over at the coach with the stopwatch.
He looked at the stopwatch and raised he's eyebrows considerably and nodded whilst writing something down on the clipboard.
'Looks like I did better this time.' I thought.
At the end of this exercise, we moved on to another test.
We went through a whole wide range of tests throughout the session.
From grip strength to long distance running, even to flexibility.
Many different forms of tests were given to test our physical aspects.
I personally thought I did well throughout the session.
I'd guess I was in the top 3, maybe even the top, for every exercise.
I was only guessing because they never gave any results after the tests which made me kind of frustrated as I wanted to know which areas I need to improve on.
The only test I knew for sure I didn't get the top on was the ball throwing distance test.
The one who won that was Furuya Satoru, without at doubt.
He threw way further than anyone else in the year by a long distance.
I was expecting this though, so I didn't give much of a reaction when everyone else looked at him with awe.
I just looked at him with a smile, but my eyes were filled with determination.
'I'll get to that pitching speed eventually.' I thought.
Furuya again noticed my gaze and turned towards me.
This time though, I didn't turn away.
Our eyes locked and sparks seemed to fly as we started a little staring match.
After a while, his eyes must have started to sting because he suddenly closed his eyes.
'Hehe, I win.' I thought with a chuckle.
"Alright, good work you lot. Go and join the others and get something to eat." The coach running the tests said.
"Yes." We replied as went to the cafeteria.
When we arrived at the cafeteria, the other players were already there, eating.
"Oi, first years." A player called out to us as we came in.
"Make sure to eat a lot of food. You also must eat 3 bowls of rice with every meal. No exceptions! You need the energy to keep up with the training in the afternoon." He continued.
"Yes!" we replied.
"You want to eat together?" I asked Haruichi.
"Sure!" Haruichi replied.
We got our tray of food and sat down on one of the tables.
"Oooooh! Sawamura! You're finally here! I've been waiting for you ever since we last met!" A loud and excited voice came from behind me that captured a lot of the players attention in the room.
I turned around and saw Miyuki walking over to me with Kuramochi close behind him.
"Oh? Miyuki-senpai! Hello, long time no see! How've you been?" I replied with a smile.
"Yeah, it's been a while. 3 months now, right?" he said to me as he sat down next to me, Kuramochi sat next to him. "I hardly recognised you when I saw you. You're like a different person from 3 months ago." He continued as he started digging into the food.
"You know my cute roommate Miyuki?" Kuramochi asked.
"Yeah! You remember the junior high kid that came to our school for a visit and then struck out Azuma senpai in 3 pitches? That was Sawamura!" Miyuki said with a loud voice.
After he said this, everything went silent.
Every player that heard this instantly stopped what they were doing and turned towards me.
Almost everyone heard about the rumour of a junior high kid striking out Azuma last year, but most didn't believe it.
Only the people who saw it knew for sure it was true.
However, because it was Miyuki saying it right now, people started to believe it more.
They all looked in my direction to get a look at me.
"That guy struck out Azuma-senpai?"
"Yeah, I saw it, it's true! But he looks a lot different from back then."
"I know, right? What happened to him in a couple of months? He was quite skinny back then compared to now."
The murmurs and looks were quite distracting but I just kept eating.
"Yaha! Sawamura, you really struck out Azuma-senpai?" Kuramochi asked me.
"Yes, I did, but I wouldn't have been able to if Miyuki wasn't catching for me. He knew where Azuma liked to hit and used it against him. Plus, I had the element of surprise in my favour." I replied.
"True that!" Miyuki said.
He turned to Kuramochi as said with a cheeky giggle, "You should have seen Azuma-senpai's face when he struck out. Hahaha! I wish I took a photo of it!"
"Kahaha, I can imagine." He replied.
Miyuki turned back to me and asked, "So have you improved pitching wise?"
I nodded my head in response, "Both my speed and precision has improved a lot, especially my precision. I've also managed to add 2 more pitches to my arsenal."
"Ooooh? Which pitches?" Miyuki asked with curiosity.
"A two-seam fastball to add variation to my four-seam and a change up for an off-speed pitch. I'm also working on a splitter as well, but I just haven't been able to control it properly yet. Maybe you can help me out with it when you have some time? I've been doing everything without a catcher so far and I need someone to check out the 2 new pitches as well to see if they're good enough to be used in games." I said to him in between mouthfuls.
Miyuki was thinking deeply as I was talking.
'Hmmm, a two seam and a change up are both great weapons for variation to add to his four seam and cutter. And a splitter on top of that? This guy is good at self-analysis, especially when he hasn't had a catcher checking up on him. And thinking about his form on top of that, he might become one of the deadliest weapons of Seido if he keeps this up, I'm getting excited.' He thought with a little shiver going up his spine.
"Yeah, a two seam and change up are good weapons to have on your arsenal if they're game ready. I can have a look at them when I have time. However, if you want me to catch for you regularly, hurry up and join the first team." He said to me with a cheeky grin.
I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I will do my best to get there a fast as possible. But in the end, it's the coach who makes the decisions, so I need to convince him I'm good enough." I spoke.
"Right, true that." He replied.
"Ahem." A little sound was heard to my side.
I turned and saw Haruichi there.
"Ah! Haruichi, meet Miyuki-senpai and Kuramochi-senpai, both seconds years and regulars on the team. Senpais, this here is Kominato Haruichi, another first year, he's got a mean swing on him as well." I introduced both parties with enthusiasm.
"Hmmmm, Kominato, pink hair…. AHHH!" Kuramochi suddenly outburst as he suddenly realised the resemblance. "Are you Ryosuke-san's brother?"
Haruichi nodded slightly, blushing. "Yes, that correct."
"Hooo, so you have a brother here as well?" I asked him.
"Yeah, he's in third year, also a regular." Haruichi replied.
"That's cool." I said, not dwelling on it too much as I already knew this fact.
We then carried on eating whilst talking about random things.
Kuramochi complained that he was still aching from the morning train with me this morning and informed me that he and Musako agreed to never join me again.
This made all three of us laugh quite a bit, especially when we saw Masuko walk past with a piece of paper that said, 'Never again!' written on it.
After the meal we went back to training and did some fielding training, specifically when a pitcher is needed to leave the mound, pick a ground ball up and throw it to first before the runner.
It was safe to say it was a disaster at the start, it was obvious that I wasn't very good this was the first time I had trained in it since coming to this world so I didn't get embarrassed and fully focused on the training, trying to absorb as much information as possible and not make mistakes during my rotation.
Near the end of the practise, I was starting to get better and better, my movements were still slow and amateurish, but I was making less mistakes.
'Okay, I just need a lot of repetition of these exercises, and I should get to a level that would work in a game.' I thought.
'One step at a time.'