"Hahahahahahahahaha, I'M BACK!!"
Kenta was right behind his friend and felt the stares of the entire team. There wasn't much he could do, so he just lowered his head and thought:
"This idiot just came back and he's already making so much noise. Doesn't he fear getting scolded by the senpais?"
"Hahaha hey Shun! You're finally back, man. You won't believe what happened!" - Shun and Kenta looked in the direction of the excited voice, though their reactions were quite different. While Kenta looked at the boy running towards them and sighed:
"Now there are two noisy idiots."
"Hey Ren!" - Shun responded excitedly. The boy running was Ren Yamashita, the person closest to Shun in the club after Kenta, but since they weren't in the same class, they only saw each other during practice.
"Dude, you won't believe it. In our last practice game, a group of girls our age came to cheer for our team. You should have seen them, they were so beautiful!" - The young Ren spoke excitedly. He was 14 years old, a little taller than Kenta, about 1.65m, with an average face but a samurai topknot that gave him a unique look. Like Shun, he wasn't very good with girls, so he was thrilled when an entire group of them came to cheer. Well, he was a second-base reserve and hardly ever played, but he liked to think they were there because of him.
"Huh? Are you serious? What did they look like?" - Shun got super excited hearing that girls had started watching their games. The young man, who had never kissed a girl, was happy thinking he might have a chance, but quickly a voice shattered his dreams.
"What the hell are you guys thinking? Why would any girl want to be with either of you? You're not even starters, in fact, you're not even the first reserves! Instead of thinking nonsense, you should focus on training, you idiots!" - Kenta couldn't stand hearing his friends' nonsense anymore and shouted at them. This wasn't the first time he had to wake the two idiots from their foolish thoughts, it happened quite often.
Shun and Ren glared at Kenta angrily.
"Who do you think you are to say that? A lucky bastard like you doesn't understand our pain!" - Shun said.
"Hm, who are you to talk? You're dating that beautiful girl Mio Shimizu, and you want to talk about training?" - Ren spoke right after, his eyes burning with envy looking at the lucky bastard.
"Huh? Sh- she's not my girlfriend." - Kenta got embarrassed and stuttered a bit when talking about the girl. Luckily for him, before the two could continue talking, another voice was heard.
"Ohh, look who's back! So Shun, how were the holidays?" - Shun felt an arm touch his right shoulder while pulling him into a hug. Someone who knew nothing about the two would think it was just a happy friend seeing another, but Shun wasn't happy at all, in fact, he was terrified.
"He- Hey captain, how are you?" - Shun stuttered. The person with the arm on his shoulder was the starting catcher and the team captain, third-year Kazuki Yamamoto. Shun knew him well since they used to form a battery together, so he knew Kazuki was furious.
"Ohh, you're worried about me? Hehe, you bastard, you missed so many training days. Do you think you're such a good pitcher that you don't need to train anymore?" - Kazuki pulled the boy with his arm while giving him a noogie on the head.
"Uh, about that... senpai, I'm not going to play as a pitcher anymore." - Shun said with difficulty while being punished by his captain.
"What!!??" - Both Ren and Kazuki exclaimed in surprise.
Shun managed to escape because of Kazuki's surprise and continued.
"I already talked to the coach. From today, I'll be training as an outfielder."
"Huh?" - Ren continued not understanding anything.
"I see. Good luck. Don't underestimate the outfield." - Kazuki looked closely at Shun. The boy seemed determined, and since the coach had already approved it, he decided not to interfere.
Before they could say anything else, Coach Yamada called everyone to gather and start training.
As everyone started walking, Shun thought of something. He looked at his captain and asked the system to show his stats.
[Kazuki Yamamoto
Overall: B
PITCHING: C+
BATTING: B
FIELDING: B-
RUNNING: B+
GAME IQ: A-
Overall Potential: A+]
"Huh? The captain's overall is the same as Kenta's, but his overall potential is much lower. Actually, even my potential is higher than his. How does the system evaluate someone's potential?" - Shun was confused. The captain was the best player on the team along with Kenta, so why was his potential lower than his? Shun gave up trying to understand the system and looked at his friend Ren, asking the system to show his stats.
[Ren Yamashita
Overall: C-
PITCHING: D+
BATTING: C-
FIELDING: B-
RUNNING: S-
GAME IQ: E+
Overall Potential: SS+]
"Huh? How does this guy have such high potential? It's the same as Kenta's! Not only that, this is the first time I've seen an S grade. This guy, I knew he was fast, but how can someone with so much potential be a reserve?" - Shun was lost, he had no idea Ren had so much potential. In fact, even with his current stats, he could be very useful to the team. Shun couldn't help but think about what would happen if both Ren and Kenta reached their full potential, a star shortstop and a star second baseman. Wouldn't that be the perfect infield?