Ken didn’t panic, slowly increasing his pace and continuing to crawl forward. He was currently close to 80% of his full pace, which was usually what he completed his morning runs at.
His lungs which were accustomed to long runs were efficiently pumping oxygen into his body like a machine.
‘Okay, time to stop playing.’ He thought inwardly, feeling a smile form onto his face.
WHOOSH
The second years running alongside Ken suddenly felt something brush past them.
“W-What!?”
5, 6, 7.
Ken began to pass the runners one by one, his eyes set on the runner at the front. It wasn’t long until he was alongside him.
“Haaah haaah how are you so fast” He managed to get out between sucking in deep breaths from his mouth.
“Training.” Ken said simply before pulling in front of him.
Now that he was secured at the front of the pack, he didn’t slow down. He knew that he could only hold this pace for around a minute, but he wanted to try pull away from the rest and return the favor.
Perhaps it was because of his previous life that he felt the need to beat them at their own game, or maybe it was something else entirely. Either way, the gap between Ken and the rest of the students only continued to widen.
Shiro, Yusuke and the other first years watched on in awe as Ken increased his lead, increasing it to nearly half the length of the field. Now that he was so far, the exhausted second years began to slow down having lost their goal.
Coach Hanada couldn’t help but grin widely, making some marks on the clipboard. It wasn’t until Ken had overlapped the runners that he called an end to the exercise.
As Ken slowed down and began to catch his breath, a notification appeared in front of him causing a smile to blossom onto his face.
YOUR STAMINA HAS INCREASED BY 1 GRADE
PHYSICAL FITNESS: (Avg. A)
Balance and Coordination: S
Agility: A-
Strength: A-
Stamina: A
Ken felt a soothing sensation spread throughout his body after the notification, easing his tight muscles considerably.
‘Awesome!’ He exclaimed inwardly.
Such an unexpected outcome caused him to be in a great mood. Despite not running even half the distance of his usual morning workouts, he had sprinted hard for a long period of time in order to pass the runners once more.
‘Will my stats be more likely to increase if I try to reach and exceed my limits?’ He thought, making his way over to the others who had arrived in front of the coach.
The Coach had managed to hide his grin by the time everyone assembled, donning a poker face before anyone could notice. The second year students seemed to be in low spirits thanks to Ken’s domineering performance.
“Well done everyone. It’s great to see that we have some first years who are already in tremendous shape at the start of the year.” Coach Hanada didn’t specifically name anyone, but everyone knew who he was talking about.
Shiro, Yusuke and last of all Ken. Both the second year students and the first years were looking at the three. But while they first years had a look of awe and respect, the second years looked on with bitterness.
Both Ken and Yusuke didn’t seem bothered by the stares, but Shiro gulped nervously. He didn’t like to be singled out, so all of the eyes upon him seemed like a weight that he was not used to bearing.
“However…” Coach continued.
“While athleticism is important, you win baseball with your skills.” He tapped the clipboard with his pen, as if to underline the importance of this point.
“No matter if you’re a pitcher, fielder or catcher, you’ll need to be able to catch and throw. Even if you can do these, it is useless if you can not hit a ball.”
Ken nodded. Unlike other leagues around the world, Japan did not adopt the designated hitter rule which meant that pitchers would have to bat as well.
This changed once one went to the NPB, however the rules were a bit confusing for Ken. Since it didn’t apply to him just yet, he disregarded it.
‘It’s a good thing that I’ve been focusing on batting this past year.’ He thought with a smile.
“As I said earlier, I’ll be evaluating your skills regardless of your preferred position. Let’s start off by playing some catch and we’ll move on to some ground ball drills and batting practice.” Coach Hanada explained.
“Find a partner, grab a glove and ball and begin.”
***
A couple hours later, Ken found himself a seat on the train and got comfortable. He began to recount his performance, comparing it to how he did in his previous life.
Coach Hanada could barely contain his smile after seeing the skills of himself, Yusuke and Shiro. This was a far cry from the first time he had gone through this evaluation, mainly because he was a lazy teen back then.
There was also the fact that Daichi had not even started baseball when he began at Yokohama High, which meant he had a poor performance.
Just remembering Daichi looking like a newborn calf during the evaluation in his previous life almost caused Ken to laugh out loud.
Despite him thwarting the second years plan to leave him in the dust, they actually responded quite well to his presence, surprising Ken greatly.
“First Yusuke and now the second years…” Ken mumbled.
“Ah!”
He almost jumped up as an idea came into his mind. Could it be his Charismatic Air ability that had changed the other players perception of him?
‘That could explain why they weren’t hostile to me after beating them in the running exercise.’
“Hahhh, this feels surreal.”
Ken sighed, laying back in his chair and placing his hands behind his head. The description of the ability was so vague that he had dismissed it for a while, but it looked like it would come in handy in the future.