The Old Baseball Player System

WOOSH

DING

"Foul!" - The umpire announced, his eyes wide as he took in the scene before him. This was the sixth pitch in the duel between Kohei and Shun, and in all six pitches, Kohei had thrown insane fastballs, while Shun had fouled every single one.

'This son of a bitch!' - Sugawara cursed silently from behind home plate. This was exactly as the white-haired maniac had expected, Shun was incredibly annoying as a batter, probably the most infuriating of all. And knowing this only made Sugawara angrier.

But even with his irritation, Sugawara didn't stop analyzing the situation. To be honest, he found it extremely suspicious that Shun hadn't managed to land a hit on Kohei's fastballs yet. That didn't mean Sugawara was underestimating his pitcher—on the contrary, as Shun's biggest stalker, he knew all too well that the blue-eyed idiot had the ability to hit pitches over 140 km/h. After all, he'd done it many times before in past games.

'Let's see what the hell you're up to...' - Sugawara thought silently, his intense gaze locked onto Shun standing in the batter's box. For the first time in the game, Sugawara signaled for a different pitch and positioned his glove dead center in the strike zone.

"Heh!" - Kohei let out a faint smile when he saw the pitch his friend had called for. Without hesitation, he nodded. With complete confidence, Kohei lifted his right leg high into the air and stomped down forcefully, twisting his entire body and whipping his arm toward home plate.

Shun calmly observed Kohei's motion, from the moment he raised his leg to when the ball left his hand. Kohei's form was identical to his fastball delivery. However, as soon as the ball began traveling toward Shun, the system's skills proved their worth. Shun easily identified the pitch's spin and realized immediately that it was a different pitch—a curveball—and that it would drop out of the strike zone.

Just as Shun predicted, the ball plummeted right before it reached home plate, nearly grazing the dirt before landing in Sugawara's glove.

PAH

"Ball!" - The umpire announced. Sugawara frowned slightly at Shun's lack of reaction but quickly turned his focus to deciding the next pitch. Unfortunately for him, Shun didn't seem to want to let Sugawara have a moment's peace.

"Uoooh! Nice pitch!" - Shun said in a calm, measured voice—neither too loud nor too soft, but just enough to carry a mocking tone to Sugawara's ears.

"Huh?!" - Sugawara froze for a moment, his irritation bubbling to the surface. For an instant, he almost let his anger get the better of him, nearly standing up and readying his fists to go after Shun. But fortunately, he restrained himself, glaring daggers at Shun before throwing the ball back to Kohei on the mound. No matter how much Shun pissed him off, Sugawara wasn't stupid. He wasn't about to get ejected for starting a fight—at least not yet.

Shun met Sugawara's glare with a small smirk. It wasn't as if he wanted to start a fight, but he had no qualms about riling Sugawara up. After all, the white-haired maniac was the brains of Hokuto's team.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Fueled by irritation, Sugawara's desire to crush Shun intensified. Without much thought, he signaled for another fastball. Hokuto's poor ace, Kohei, had no idea what was happening at home plate. Oblivious to the tension, he nodded and prepared to pitch.

The eighth pitch of the duel left Kohei's hand, shooting toward home plate like a laser. But with a faint smile on his face, Shun swung his bat with determination.

WOOSH

DING

"Foul!"

"Fuck!" - Sugawara muttered under his breath, unable to contain his frustration as Shun once again made effortless contact with Kohei's fastball. This blue-eyed idiot was truly infuriating. Without much thought, Sugawara continued calling for more fastballs, and Shun continued sending them all to foul territory, much to his annoyance.

After another four fastballs, bringing the duel to a total of 12 pitches, and with a count of 2 strikes and 1 ball, Sugawara finally calmed himself enough to think of a way to eliminate Shun. He signaled for a different pitch at last. Kohei, who was also growing frustrated by all the foul balls, didn't hesitate.

Kohei lifted his leg high into the air again. Stomping down with authority, he twisted his body toward home plate and whipped his arm forward, delivering the 13th pitch of the duel straight into Sugawara's glove on the low, outside corner of the strike zone.

'Slider, low and outside! It's going out of the zone!' - Shun thought quickly as he tracked the ball. Trusting completely in his skills and vision, he remained still, deciding not to swing and waiting for the umpire to call the second ball of the duel.

Meanwhile, the white-haired maniac Sugawara was grinning widely, realizing that Shun wasn't going to swing at the pitch. Without hesitation, he positioned his glove at the low, outside corner of the strike zone. The slider was indeed going to fall outside the zone, but only just. At the last moment, Sugawara skillfully adjusted his glove to make it appear as though the ball had landed within the zone.

PAH

"Strikeout!" - The umpire announced after a brief pause. From his perspective, the way Sugawara's glove didn't move outside the zone made it seem as if the pitch had been a strike. And, well, no middle school umpire was equipped to deal with a catcher who could frame pitches as perfectly as Sugawara just had.

"Huh?" - Shun stared at the umpire in disbelief. He knew better than anyone that the pitch hadn't been a strike. But there wasn't much he could do about it, and not wanting to cause a scene, Shun simply started his walk back to the dugout, still a little confused and irritated by being struck out in such an "unfair" way.

Unfortunately for Shun, he had forgotten that Kohei wasn't the only national-level threat in Hokuto's defense. As maniacal as Sugawara might seem, he was also part of Japan's U-15 national team, and his national-level skills weren't limited to batting. Explore more stories with empire

In a way, setting aside his terrible personality, Sugawara was by far the best catcher in this Kanto tournament, and Shun had only gotten a small taste of what it meant to face a player of this caliber.