“Hmm, I could have sworn that we had marked his attendance in the entrance ceremony.” Miss Aoba commented.
“A-Ah, sorry I’m here!” Shiro quickly stood up, feeling embarrassed.
However he quickly composed himself.
“I’m Shiro Masuda. I like baseball and have played since little league as a catcher. Oh and my best squat is 120kg!” A big smile crawled onto his face and he gave a thumbs up, causing the class to fall silent.
The silence was broken moments later by muffled laughter throughout the room.
“Okay okay, very interesting Shiro.” Miss Aoba tried her best to hold her amusement, choosing to continue down her list.
“Ken Takagi.”
Ken who suddenly heard his name stood up, showcasing his impressive height and causing a few whispers around the class.
“He looks foreign.”
“Wow he’s so tall.”
“I’m Ken Takagi. My goal is to become a professional baseball player and join the Major’s one day. My position is a pitcher.”
Ken’s words were confident and concise, displaying his determination to everyone. While the rest of the class had already moved on, there was one person with a shocked expression on his face.
‘Pitcher!?’ Shiro was dumbstruck. When he had played against Ken he had been on first base and was one of the dangerous batters in the line up.
‘If he was stuck on first base, did that mean he wasn’t as good as the Ace pitcher at Seiko?’ Shiro thought, scratching his chin in contemplation.
Ken paid attention to the rest of his classmates introductions, wanting to know if anything else had changed since his regression. Thankfully, Ai was the only one who had any significant change this time around.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about it just yet, but it’s not like he could talk to her and convince her to join the fashion club instead.
“Excellent, now that we’ve got that out of the way… It’s time for a pop quiz.” Miss Aoba said, a smile forming on her face.
The entire class let out a colloquial groan in response, not expecting such a thing on the very first day of high school. The teachers expression darkened, clearly not happy with such a reaction.
“Oho, unsatisfied are we?”
The students were perplexed by the sudden change of tone. The once pleasant and calming nature of Miss Aoba’s voice was now gone, replaced by an icy one.
Ken massaged his glabella, feeling a headache starting to appear. This was the other side of his homeroom teacher, hidden by her usually calm and pleasant demeanor.
“Well I’m also unsatisfied with only 1 quiz. Let’s also throw in an English spelling test while we’re at it.” She said, a small smile crawling onto her face.
This time, no one made a sound. They were too busy rubbing their eyes or pinching themselves to confirm that this situation was real.
‘She’s a devil…’
No one dared to voice these words out loud, however everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion.
“No complaints? Very good.” She reached into her draws and pulled out a pile of paper, packed with questions before handing them out one by one.
The only person in the room who didn’t look crestfallen was Ken. Since he had already experienced this situation previously, he was able to mentally prepare for the scenario in advance.
An hour later, both the quiz and the spelling test were completed and handed to the front of the class. Everyone who had thought they would be having a relaxing first day of High School were thoroughly proved wrong.
Thankfully, none of their other teachers were as sadistic as Miss Aoba who would dare spring a quiz on the very first day. By the time the lunch bell rung, Ken’s stomach was already growling in protest.
Not even waiting for the teacher to leave the room, Ken pulled out his lunch box and began to help himself to mouthfuls of rice. After graduation, he had upped his training regime, and in turn he had to increase his caloric intake to compensate.
Since Daichi was living at the dorms in Osaka on a full scholarship, Ken didn’t feel so bad asking his parents to increase his meal sizes.
Shiro looked at the deep bento box filled with all sorts of foods and felt his stomach stiffen.
“So much food!” he exclaimed.
“I need it for energy.” Ken responded nonchalantly.
‘How much energy does he need…’ Shiro thought inwardly, pulling out his own lunch box with some rice and egg rolls. He wasn’t much of a big eater, possibly because his frame was considerably smaller than Ken’s.
“Are you heading to the baseball club after school?” Shiro asked, helping himself to his own food.
“Yeah, our Senpai won’t be there until later this week. It’s the perfect time to make an impression.” Ken said simply.
Speaking about baseball, Shiro suddenly remembered Ken’s introduction and almost choked on his food.
“Hey what’s this about you being a pitcher? Weren’t you playing first base against Fujimi?” He asked curiously.
A grin formed on Ken’s face as he heard this question. “I’ve been a pitcher since Elementary School, I just took the year off.”
“Huh?” Shiro was confused. Firstly, who just takes a year off of pitching? Wouldn’t he get worse if he didn’t do any pitching for a whole year?
‘Wait. If he’s been a pitcher for his whole school career, then how is he so good at batting?’
Seeing the weird look on Shiro’s face, Ken decided to come clean since they would likely become a battery in the future. He already knew that Shiro had the potential to become a professional, so it was worth building up some trust between them.
“I actually injured my right shoulder at the start of last year. I took a year off pitching in order for it to heal properly. It should be fine for me to start practicing again tomorrow.” Ken said with a smile.
“Oh. That must have been tough. I guess it makes sense why you played at 1st base then.” Shiro nodded, feeling as if he understood Ken a bit more.
“But wait, why tomorrow? Won’t the Coaches be asking for you to pitch today?”
Ken shook his head. “I’ll be pitching with my left arm for a while until I’m fully ready to unleash my right.”
“HUH!?”
Shiro stood up quickly, almost knocking his lunch box over, his jaw slack in disbelief.