The three friends stayed at the batting center for a while longer until Shun decided to head home with Yumi. The boy finished the rest of his daily training in the afternoon and went to bed early, eager to test his brilliant idea in tomorrow's practice game.
[DING]
[Required sleep time reached]
[Disabling deep sleep mode]
Shun woke up to the system notifications, getting out of bed excited for today's game. The game would take place after lunch, so he still had plenty of time. He decided to check his daily missions, thinking that since he had a game, the system might go easy on him.
[Daily Missions:
#1 Physical Training
Run 15 km
Complete all the following exercises and positions*
Deadline: End of the day.
Rewards: 10 coins and 2 bronze mystery boxes.
Failure Penalty: Loss of the system.]
"Damn! I was too naive to think the system would go easy on me." - Shun was disappointed, but he quickly got over it and decided to go out for a run. With his Divine Recovery quirk, he wouldn't have any issues playing after a bit of training, though he wasn't crazy enough to do the exercise list before the game as well. Even though his quirk was very good, it took some time for him to fully recover.
Shun then went out for a run, completing his 15 km and returning home. After having a hearty breakfast, he went out again to do his swings and pitches. Shun left after lunch, heading to his school's baseball field. Today, the Hoshizora Junior High School baseball team would face off against the Shoto Junior High School baseball team.
Hoshizora Junior High wasn't strong, but it wasn't weak either. It had been a while since they participated in the Kanto tournament, but they were a decent team within their prefecture.
The Kanto middle school tournament took place every summer, but only 16 schools participated. To enter the tournament, a school must win the spot in their prefectural tournament or have reached the finals of last year's Kanto tournament. There were seven prefectures in the Kanto region that participated in the tournament, each with the right to two spots. Shoto Junior High School was part of Tokyo prefecture, meaning that for Shun's team to play in the Kanto tournament, they first needed to be one of the top two schools in the Tokyo tournament. This was not an easy goal considering it had been years since the team played in the Kanto tournament.
Of course, these tournaments used a knockout system, which meant that if you were unlucky and faced a very strong team in the first round, that could be your only game in the summer. That's why practice games were so important, players needed experience in real games to perform well in championship matches.
Shun arrived at the field and saw that the coach and some players had already arrived. He walked over to them.
"Hey Shun!" - The young boy with the samurai bun, Ren, was even more energetic than usual. It was clear that he was anxious about the game.
"Hey Ren!" - Shun responded cheerfully. Normally, he would tease his friend for being so nervous, but he wasn't in a much better situation himself.
Kenta hadn't arrived yet, so Shun and Ren chatted while they eagerly awaited the game. After a while, Captain Kazuki arrived with other third-year students, and the young pitcher Jiro also just arrived when Shun heard something and looked in a certain direction. He saw a bus parking near the field, and several players got out, all wearing the same white uniforms with blue stripes and "Hoshizora" written on the chest.
Coach Yamada went to talk to the coach of the Hoshizora Junior High School team, while a serious-looking young man entered the field. Shun and Ren looked at the young man and smiled, they were about to call out to him when they heard something.
"Kenta!! Good luck! Crush them, this team is nothing compared to my Kenta!!" - A pretty young girl was shouting and jumping excitedly, cheering for Kenta. The girl was Mio Shimizu.
The girl's shouts were loud, and everyone on the field could hear her words. At that moment, Kenta felt murderous glares coming from the opposing team. He looked at them, and even though he couldn't hear them, he had a certain idea of what they were thinking. Kenta sighed, feeling a bit of regret, these guys probably hated him now, and he hadn't even done anything.
He then simply turned and continued walking toward his teammates, but when he looked in their direction, he felt a chill. Even his own teammates were glaring at him with murderous eyes. Kenta could especially feel two distinct glares, he looked at his two friends and spoke.
"Hey, guys!"
"Hey, my ass, you lucky bastard!" - Shun and Ren shouted the same thing at the same time.
Coach Yamada quickly returned to the dugout where his players were and started speaking.
"Okay, guys, this may just be a practice game, but I want all of you to play your best. We'll start by batting, so get ready!"
"Yes, Coach!" - The whole team shouted together.
For the batting lineup, Kenta was third, and Captain Kazuki was fourth. Shun was eighth, right after pitcher Sora, who was seventh. Ren was ninth, batting last after Shun.
And so, Shun's first game with the system began.
SHOTO VS HOSHIZORA!!!!!