Afternoon, department activity time.

White Mountain High School Baseball Field.

When Tetsu Nishino and others arrived at the baseball field one after another, preparing to start today's training, they found that the seniors of the First Army, who had arrived early, had already gathered there.

Moreover, the seniors all wore the uniforms of the Hakusan High School baseball team, and each of them was carrying a backpack. Bats, gloves, baseball and other equipment were also packed in bags. Two seniors were also taking inventory over there with notebooks.

Materials.

Nishino Tetsu vaguely guessed in his heart.

"Seniors, what are you doing and where are you going?"

Teruaki Tatsumi, who is also a first-year student next to him, asked Tetsu Nishino curiously.

Teruaki Tatsuki is a freshman in high school. He was also in the baseball team in junior high school and is very familiar with Kazuya Nishino. He is also a pitcher, but a right-hand pitcher.

In the three years of junior high school, he served as the team's second pitcher in the baseball club. In other words, Tatsuki Teruaki has been playing as a substitute for Nishino Kazuya for the three years of junior high school.

However, Teruaki Tatsuki didn't complain at all, because he considered himself a happy pitcher.

The so-called happy players refer to those players who play baseball simply because they like the sport. Their goal is not professional baseball, and they do not plan to engage in baseball-related jobs in the future, so they have always pursued the "smiling face" on the court.

"the rules.

In Tatsumi Teruaki's own words, if you can't play baseball happily, then what's the point of playing? There are hundreds of thousands of high school students across Japan who play baseball. If it only makes sense to win, then no one else has to play.

After all, ninety-nine percent of high school students will be defeated.

Entertainment, hobbies, exercise, making friends.

This is why most high school students play baseball.

Because Tetsu Nishino wanted to try to catch balls from different pitchers on the team, he also caught a lot of balls from Teruaki Tatsuki during this period. Gradually, Teruaki Tatsuki became familiar with him, and they chatted together when he had time.

"I'm not sure, but it probably has something to do with the competition..."

Although Tetsuya Nishino was just guessing, thinking of the competition that Aoi-senpai mentioned yesterday, he thought that there was a high probability that a nearby school contacted Hakusan High School for an exchange competition.

"Yes, the First Army is indeed planning to go to other schools to play an exchange game, and some seniors from the Second Army will also go with them."

After giving instructions to everyone on the team, Takuji Azuma, the supervisor of the baseball club, and Gochi Iwata, the deputy director, came over to Tetsu Nishino and the other first-year students. Hearing their discussion, they said something.

"Good supervision! Hello Iwata-senpai!"

Higashi Takuji raised his hand and made a quiet gesture, signaling Nishino Tetsu and the others to pay attention to his next words.

"Time flies so fast, and it's been almost a month since you first-year students joined the club. During this month, many of you have gradually transformed from baseball rookies to high school players. This is all because of your hard training every day.

The results. I believe that over the past few days, you have gradually realized the fun of baseball and are eager to play."

Upon hearing the word "game" in Supervisor Higashikata's words, some first-year students immediately showed expressions of interest and eagerness to try. They had obviously been looking forward to their first baseball game for a long time.

Seeing the undisguised expressions of expectation on the first-year students' expressions, Supervisor Higashi Takuji also smiled happily.

"It happened that another school invited our first army to play an exchange game, and I agreed. Then our school's baseball field will be vacant most of the afternoon, and we can arrange a training match for you."

"Several seniors will stay to guide you and record your performance. Iwata, I will leave the first-year students to you." Supervisor Higashi Takuji turned to Gochi Iwata next to him and said.

"No problem, this is what I have always done." Iwata replied.

...

After Supervisor Higashikata explained a few more safety issues in detail, everyone in the first army set off one by one and left the baseball field.

"Yes, there is finally a competition!"

"But it's suffocating me. I feel a little bored after training for so many days."

"Yeah, I really want to play. I haven't officially played baseball yet."

"As for us first-year students, we should all have a chance to play..."

After the seniors left, this group of teenagers finally couldn't help but start a lively discussion. Because they were also looking forward to today's game and thinking about how they would look on the field.

"I don't care about you!"

"Eh?!"

Vice Minister Gochi Iwata, who had been listening to them next to him, sneered and dropped a sentence.

"Eh? Why?" Tatsuki Teruaki felt very strange and couldn't help asking.

Because after so many days together, it was Deputy Minister Gochi Iwata who mainly led the first-year students of their Second Army for training. Although the Deputy Minister was a little grumpy, everyone could clearly see his sense of responsibility.

.It’s impossible to ignore them.

"This game is all about you first-year students. We seniors will only be responsible for refereeing and recording."

Gochi Iwata explained.

"Another purpose of this game is to test your teamwork ability."

"That is to say, how to play the game, how to set up the tactics, how to arrange the defense, how to arrange the batting order, and who will play, these are all your internal discussions and decisions."

After listening to the explanation, the first-year students were a little overwhelmed. There were so many things thrown at them, and they didn’t know where to start. So someone suggested that they choose a temporary captain to be responsible for the arrangements. They also said that it would be best to find someone who is diligent and conscientious, good at offense and defense.

At the core, someone with a big-picture perspective becomes the temporary captain.

Diligent and conscientious?

The core of offense and defense?

Have a view of the big picture?

When the first graders were thinking about who this person was, their eyes lit up one by one and they slowly looked at Tetsu Nishino.

"..." Tetsu Nishino.

"Well... I recommend myself to be the temporary captain. Do you have any other opinions?" Nishino Tetsu simply took the initiative.

"No objection, no objection!"

"It would be great if you could be Zhesang."

"Yes, Zhesang, we all see your performance and we believe in you!"

Hearing that Tetsu Nishino volunteered to serve as the temporary captain, the other first-year students also breathed a sigh of relief. After all, positions such as captain bring more responsibilities. No one dares to say that he will be able to do a good job and there are others willing to take the responsibility.

There's nothing like this kind of pressure.

And Tetsu Nishino is not a person who likes to escape. Since he was a child, he has been receiving expectations from others, from his parents, seniors, and peers.

This developed Nishino Tetsu's character of being brave enough to take responsibility. Since everyone believed in his ability and he believed that he had the ability to shoulder this expectation, he stopped being coy and expressed his attitude directly.

...

Based on everyone's opinions, Tetsu Nishino arranged the fielding positions, with Teruaki Tatsuki as the starting pitcher and Kazuya Nishino on the bench. As for other infield and outfield positions, they will take turns to give everyone enough time to play.

.

There must be only Tetsu Nishino as the catcher, there is nothing to arrange.

As for the batting order, according to Kazuya Nishino's suggestion, Tetsu Nishino could arrange himself into a baton and give it a try. So their batting order was quickly arranged.

"How about forming a circular formation and shouting slogans or something?" Someone suddenly suggested.

"Yes! I almost forgot about this. I joined the baseball club just because I saw this and thought it was very handsome."

"What slogan is more appropriate?"

"Japan one?"

"National dominance?"

"Koshien?"

Tetsu Nishino quickly stopped their divergent thinking. Every slogan they came up with was extremely shameful, "Just say something simple."

Under the leadership of Tetsu Nishino, all the members of their current generation formed a circle, shoulder to shoulder, and shouted to the sky: "One, two, three! Come on!"

After shouting slogans and doing preparatory exercises, Tetsu Nishino wanted to know the strength of their opponents, so he asked Deputy Minister Gochi Iwata, "Iwata-senpai, which team are we competing against?"

Gochi Iwata stopped and pointed to the team wearing red uniforms on another field nearby.

"You are very familiar with it, the junior high school baseball club."
Chapter completed!