After a long and heated argument about the quality of an anime — where Raiki defended it as a masterpiece while Yuuma swore it was a pile of garbage — the two boys were far from reaching an agreement. Still, a strange friendship began to form. Raiki even let Yuuma eat a bit of his food, but it didn't take long for the break to end and the teacher to return to the classroom.
The three bullies also came back. It looked like the chubby boy's nose wasn't broken after all, though it was still bleeding slightly. Raiki figured they hadn't said anything to the teachers about him. That was good — at least his grandfather wouldn't be called in to talk to the principal on his very first day. Not that he cared all that much. Maybe if he did get expelled, his parents would finally give up on this madness.
The second half of classes was a bit shorter than the first. This time, Raiki's only thoughts were about baseball. How could he play in a real game again? When? With which team? On what field? And most importantly, when would he be able to pitch like he used to? So many questions — and almost no answers.
When the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Raiki didn't waste any time grabbing his things and leaving the classroom. He didn't know exactly when it happened, but Yuuma started walking beside him, and soon the two of them were talking.
"Are you going to join a club?" Yuuma asked. Classes ended at noon, and students were expected to dedicate their afternoons to a club. Yuuma, for instance, planned to join the anime club — but now that he had a brand-new friend, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to the same club as Raiki.
"Hm." Raiki nodded. "I'm going to join the baseball club."
"Baseball club? We have a baseball club at this school?" Yuuma asked, confused. He had read the school's club list just yesterday, and he was pretty sure he hadn't seen anything about a baseball club. Besides, their school wasn't very big — he wasn't even sure if they had a baseball field to begin with.
"Not that I know of." Raiki shrugged and spoke calmly. He knew for a fact there was no baseball club — nor a field — at this school. That was, after all, the main reason he was here.
Yuuma looked at Raiki and sighed. His new friend clearly wasn't quite right in the head. But it wasn't like he had many other friend options anyway.
"So what are we going to do?" Yuuma asked.
"I don't know. Eat?" Raiki replied with another question.
"Good idea!" Yuuma perked up.
After a quick discussion, Raiki agreed to let Yuuma choose the lunch spot. He was new to the city and didn't know anywhere to go anyway. His only requirement was that the place had to be cheap — since, like most 14-year-old boys, he was having a hard time making his small allowance last through the whole month.
The two had lunch at a family-owned restaurant serving traditional Japanese food. The food was good — and surprisingly cheap. Raiki realized he had gotten used to Tokyo restaurant prices, and with his allowance, he wouldn't have any trouble eating out every day in this small rural town called Oshu, located in Iwate Prefecture.
During lunch, the two boys discovered they had a similar sense of humor. Even though their interests were completely different, they got along really well. At one point in the conversation, Yuuma even tried to convince Raiki that they should join the anime club together, but he quickly realized that Raiki wasn't open to any other option besides the nonexistent baseball club.
Raiki seemed to have a strange obsession with baseball — something Yuuma couldn't really understand, but he respected it. And since Raiki was new in town, Yuuma decided to help his new friend:
"You know, there's a batting center nearby. If you want, I can take you there. It's usually not very crowded during the weekdays."
"Really? Let's go now!" Raiki lit up with excitement, surprising Yuuma. Raiki's personality seemed to completely change when it came to baseball.
Yuuma had to remind his friend that they needed to pay the bill before leaving, but as soon as that was done, Raiki sprinted off like a madman in the direction Yuuma had pointed toward the batting center. Yuuma, on the other hand, was far from sharing that same level of enthusiasm. The poor otaku didn't want to be left behind, but running after someone was far from his favorite activity — especially when that someone was ridiculously fast.
In just a few minutes, Raiki arrived in front of the batting center. The facade was made of white bricks, with a green-painted bat on one side of the entrance and a green-painted baseball on the other. At the top, the words "Batting Center" were also painted in green. But, of course, Raiki didn't pay attention to any of that — he practically flew through the entrance.
Yuuma arrived a little later and quickly followed Raiki into the batting center.
The place had five batting zones, each equipped with a pitching machine and a sign above it. The first zone had a sign that read 100 km/h — that was the speed of the pitching machine. The second zone read 110 km/h. The third, 120 km/h. The fourth, 130 km/h. And the fifth, as expected, had a sign that read 140 km/h. No one was currently batting in any of the five zones.
The front desk was small and sat next to a snack bar with a few tables and chairs where people usually gathered. Raiki headed straight over there, with Yuuma close behind.
"Hello, good afternoon! I want all of this in tokens, please." Raiki said in a hurry as he placed all the money he had on the counter.
"Uh, hi — are you sure?" From behind the counter, a pretty girl who seemed a bit older than Raiki and Yuuma looked at him, a little shocked. With the amount of money Raiki had dropped on the counter, he could buy around 300, maybe 400 tokens. Since each token was worth 10 pitches, that added up to nearly 4,000 pitches! Naturally, no normal person bought that many tokens all at once.
"Hey Raiki, we don't need all tha—" Yuuma also noticed how over-the-top his friend was being and tried to say something, but Raiki quickly cut him off:
"I'm sure. Can you give me the tokens, please?"
"Alright, alright, do whatever you want..." The pretty girl huffed from behind the counter. She wasn't about to argue with this idiot — if he wanted to waste his money, that was his problem! She began counting Raiki's money and soon handed him a heavy bag with nearly 400 tokens inside.
"Thanks!" Raiki said, not really caring what kind of face the girl was making. He then turned to Yuuma and continued, "Let's go! Have you ever played before? Well, doesn't matter — you're gonna love it!"
Yuuma didn't even get the chance to respond. Raiki quickly dragged him over to the first batting zone — the one marked 100 km/h — handed him a helmet and a bat, and rushed to the machine to insert a token.
Before he could even process what was happening, Yuuma found himself wearing a helmet, holding a metal bat, and standing in the batter's box, while Raiki shouted at him: "Eyes on the ball! Just try to hit it with the bat!"
Yuuma could only think that Raiki was terrible at giving advice, right before the pitching machine spat out the first ball in his direction. But in that moment, Yuuma realized he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. So, he just went with Raiki's terrible advice.
He tried not to lose sight of the ball, and when he thought the timing felt right, he swung the bat, doing his best to hit it.
Ding!