Chapter 45
“You can be pretty shameless, you know.”
“What?”
“It’s nothing.”
The playing field was beginning to fall into darkness. I shrugged and walked toward the mound.
Teacher Justina’s admonition suddenly came to mind.
[Rene, make Kairos into an excellent pitcher! Baseball isn’t a sport you can play alone.]
‘An excellent pitcher, my foot.’
I couldn’t exactly refuse in the face of my coach’s blazing, competitive eyes, but the thought of giving this Kairos guy one-on-one lessons still genuinely did not appeal to me.
On the mound, I let out a short sigh and turned to Kairos.
“Can’t you just be a batter?”
“I really want to be a pitcher.”
“Why?”
“Uh… because it looks cool to take responsibility for everything by yourself?”
“Ha. That’s something a neighborhood brat would say.”
Still, he was more of a romantic than I’d expected.
With a snort, I handed him the ball from my glove.
“First, you need to relax your shoulder. You need to distinguish more clearly between when you’re throwing an important pitch and when you’re not.”
“Relax my shoulder….”
Kairos let his shoulders droop.
“Like this?”
“You don’t need to relax it that dramatically….”
I sighed and stood beside him.
“I mean when you transfer mana into the ball. The basics of mana amplification are a stable core and flexible transfer, but if your shoulder is stiff, all the energy leaks out. This is the most basic of basics.”
I made a fist and lightly tapped Kairos’s shoulder.
“Ow.”
“It already hurts after you threw just a few pitches in the evaluation match? That proves you were tensing your shoulder like crazy.”
“Haha… busted?”
“Well, it’s a common mistake beginners make.”
I held the ball up in front of him and explained.
“A pitcher’s job is simply to get the ball to ‘the right spot.’ Rather than throwing the ball, you’re creating an environment where the mana inside it can dance.”
I said this while taking a fastball grip.
“In that sense, a pitcher has absolutely no need to exert any force when throwing a fastball. You just take a fastball grip and give the ball a slight push so it travels straight.”
After winding up, I threw the ball with moderate force.
The ball traced a straight path through the strike zone, then rolled back toward me like a boomerang.
I picked up the ball again and looked back at Kairos.
“See? From right beside me, you can tell I’m not tensing my shoulder at all… What’s with that unpleasant look on your face?”
Kairos was looking at me with an oddly goofy grin. My expression instantly turned cold.
“Ah.”
Kairos immediately composed himself and awkwardly cleared his throat.
He scratched his head sheepishly and said,
“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you looking so excited, Rene.”
He smiled gently.
“You really like baseball.”
“It’s not that I like it. I’m just good at it. Besides, I wasn’t particularly excited, either.”
There was no way I could enjoy teaching baseball to Kairos. Maybe if it were Ellie.
I handed him the ball again, my expression still firm.
“You try throwing it this time. I’ll check your form.”
“Okay.”
Kairos immediately took the ball and assumed his stance.
Whoosh—
He swung his arm with all his strength, and a blazing fastball flew out at incredible speed.
‘He really is a monster without a mana limit.’
The reason starting pitchers had mana limits in the first place was to prevent people like him from blowing a game open with a single fastball.
I deliberately ignored the ball’s power and focused only on his form.
“You were still using too much force just now. Relax a little more.”
“Really? I can’t tell.”
“That’s because you’re still trapped by the fixed idea that you ‘have to throw’ the ball. I told you, we ‘place’ the ball in the right spot.”
I picked up the ball that had rolled back again.
“Now, throw it again. Focus on ‘placing’ it, not ‘throwing’ it.”
“Got it.”
Whoosh—
Another terrifying fastball flew through the air.
Though his form was still a mess.
“Why are you putting even more force into it than before?”
I sighed and picked up the returned ball again.
“Can’t you quite get the feel of it?”
“Mmm… a little.”
“Sigh, this isn’t easy.”
I scratched my head vigorously and fell into thought. How was I supposed to make a normal human being out of this guy?
After thinking for a long while, I came up with one clever idea.
“All right, then let’s change your pitching form entirely.”
“My pitching form?”
“Yeah. If correcting the sensation of ‘throwing’ the ball is difficult, we can at least spare your shoulder some strain.”
I climbed onto the mound and prepared to demonstrate.
“Now, focus on my thighs this time.”
“……”
“Unlike us, Blank players throw the ball with their lower bodies. The arm only transfers kinetic energy; the actual force comes from the lower body’s rotational and rebound force.”
I pictured the dynamic forms of Blank pitchers in my mind.
It was my first time actually doing it, but I assumed the stance without hesitation.
‘First, raise the leg high.’
I lifted my leg straight up.
‘Lock the hips, and rotate my whole body as much as possible.’
I twisted my body as I had imagined.
‘Use the force I’ve generated as it is!’
Whoosh—!
A fastball flew out, slightly slower than before.
As expected, it was difficult to put mana into the ball properly with an unfamiliar stance.
“Ahem, it’s roughly like this.”
I felt slightly embarrassed. The result was underwhelming given how exaggerated the pose was—embarrassing enough to make me cringe.
I managed to keep my expression composed and turned to him.
“Did you see? How my legs moved?”
“……”
“Hey, snap out of it. We’re done.”
“Huh? Ah…! Yeah, yeah.”
“I asked if you saw it. The movement of my legs.”
“Yeah, I saw it well.”
Kairos nodded with an ambiguous expression, making it unclear whether he understood.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at him for a moment, then bent down to pick up the ball that had rolled over.
Just as I was straightening up, I heard Kairos’s voice.
“You must really like those socks, Rene.”
“What?”
“Those star—no, I mean the long socks.”
“Oh, these?”
Because Ria’s mother sent more socks, I could now wear long socks all week.
I was about to answer as though it were nothing….
“Wait. Were you just staring at my legs?”
I glared at him sternly, suddenly realizing what was going on.
Kairos flinched and shook his head.
“N-no, it wasn’t like that! They just happened to catch my eye.”
“‘Caught my eye’ is a weird way to put it.”
Still, I didn’t press him further. I sighed and shrugged.
Well, I was the one who had told him to focus on my legs.
“Anyway, you did watch the movement of my lower body properly, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then give it a try. The important thing is combining the ground’s rebound force with your body’s rotational force.”
“Got it.”
Kairos took a deep breath and assumed his stance.
I stepped back and observed his entire body.
Soon, Kairos began his windup.
Whoosh—!
“Ooh~”
I hadn’t expected much, but his stance was quite convincing. I even felt an unwarranted swell of pride as I approached him.
“That’s good form. Your shoulders are much looser, too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Have you seen Blank baseball before?”
“Ah… yeah, a few times.”
“I knew it.”
Come to think of it, Kairos hadn’t looked like someone with absolutely no baseball experience.
I chuckled and picked up the ball that had rolled back again.
“Practice with this form from now on. Now, throw it five more times.”
“Five more?”
“I need to see whether you can keep your form from breaking down.”
You have to maintain a consistent form to imbue the desired amount of mana at the desired moment.
I crouched beside him to focus on the movement of his lower body. For some reason, Kairos flinched and looked down at me.
“You’re… awfully close.”
“What about it?”
“……Nothing.”
He took a deep breath and threw the first ball.
“Good. Nice form.”
His form was much better than at first. I clapped and praised him honestly.
“Keep doing it like that.”
I handed Kairos the ball that had rolled back again.
He nodded and threw the second and third balls with the same precise form.
“Ooh~ Pretty good.”
Was he more athletic than he looked? For someone doing it for the first time, there was hardly anything to criticize.
Kairos smiled awkwardly and looked back at me.
“Is it looking respectable now?”
“Yeah, though you still have a long way to go to reach my level.”
His form was nearly perfect, but the quality of his pitches fluctuated.
As expected, he must still have been awkward at sending mana through his fingertips.
“They say a good beginning is half the battle, right? Practice with this exact form from now on.”
Then I gestured for him to continue throwing.
Kairos threw the fourth almost perfectly; it was only on the fifth that his form slipped a little.
“Wait, your hips moved.”
I immediately reached out and grabbed his hips.
“M-my hips?”
Kairos jumped in surprise and lowered his head.
I nodded and stepped closer.
“If your hips move, the trajectory of the ball itself has no choice but to wobble. Your control will be a mess.”
I held his hips steady, then reached a little farther and grabbed his butt firmly.
“You don’t rotate your butt like this, but like this.”
“Ah….”
“Not like this, like this. Got it?”
I looked up at him with a deliberately stern expression.
Kairos’s shoulders flinched, and he nodded.
“Y-yeah! Got it!”
That was an unusually hearty response.
I nodded in satisfaction and took a step back.
“Good, ten more times!”
This was surprisingly fun, too. It was kind of like when I’d taught him to dance before.
After that, Kairos seemed to do well but occasionally made mistakes, and each time, I grabbed his waist or butt to correct his form.
After throwing about forty pitches in total, I slowly stood up with a sigh.
“All right, let’s call it a day. You threw this morning, too.”
There was no need to overwork ourselves before the actual game.
Kairos let out a deep sigh, as though all his energy had been drained.
“Nice work….”
“You too. But you’ve got the form down now, right?”
“……”
Kairos weakly nodded and muttered under his breath.
“Sometimes you really have no sense of boundaries.”
“What did you say?”
“N-nothing.”
I glared at him with an expression that said, ‘I heard that.’
He awkwardly cleared his throat and changed the subject.
“Then, we’ll resume practicing tomorrow….”
Suddenly, Kairos’s gaze slid downward.
And then it fixed there as though he had discovered something.
“What are you doing?”
Naturally, his gaze had landed on my legs.
This bastard had been peeking at my legs for days now. Thoroughly disgusted, I opened my mouth.
“You pervert….”
“Rene, listen, and don’t panic.”
“What?”
“There’s a bug on your leg.”
“……?”
A bug…?
At his sudden words, I lowered my head with a creak.
Sure enough, something black and enormous was sitting quietly atop my black sock. A fuzzy body, one large pair of wings, and writhing antennae.
My briefly stalled mind snapped back to reality.
It was definitely a moth. A moth the size of my fist, no less—the deranged creature I hated second only to cockroaches.
“Aaaah!”
I screamed and sprang up like a loaded spring.
“W-wait?”
Then I reflexively hugged Kairos, who was right beside me, tightly.
“Huh?”
It wasn’t a deliberate action. I just happened to find Kairos there when I jumped, and while trying not to crash into him, I ended up hugging him.
Whoosh—
The moth flew away unconcernedly into the night sky, as though nothing had happened.
The dark playing field fell silent in an instant. Left in the silence were Kairos, supporting my weight with his hands on my butt, and me clinging tightly to him like a cicada stuck to an old tree.
……”
……”
Our awkward gazes crossed in midair.
Kairos quietly released the hands supporting me. I also obediently let go of him and stepped back onto the ground.
A brief silence passed.
“……Pfft.”
Kairos reacted first. A breath laced with laughter escaped him.
‘He’s laughing?’
I glared at him, bristling. Kairos laughed even louder and clutched his stomach.
“Ah… so this is how it happens.”
“How what happens?!”
“Nothing.”
Kairos cleared his throat and composed his expression before looking at me.
“I didn’t know you were that afraid of moths.”
Still, judging by his tone, it seemed like we had silently agreed to let the embarrassing hug just now pass between us.
Right, it had been an accident, after all.
I shrugged and answered, pretending to be calm.
“I can’t stand bugs.”
Then I deliberately changed the subject, acting as casually as I could.
“Anyway, we’re doing extra practice tomorrow too! Master this form perfectly by tomorrow night and come back. If you forget it, you’re dead, seriously.”
I may not look it, but I was a responsible man. Besides, to achieve a perfect victory, we absolutely needed a closer to back me up.
“Yeah, got it.”
Kairos nodded, chuckling again.
I turned around with a hmph.
“It really is ‘Sweat Drops in the Dead of Night.’”
Kairos’s voice, which followed absentmindedly, sounded strangely relieved as well.