The Director's office of the Seido High School Baseball Club.
Late at night.
Under the stadium lights, the silhouettes of several teenagers could still be seen faintly swinging their bats. From the top floor of the Director's office, it was impossible to tell who they were. Their faces blurred with distance and darkness.
Yet Coach Kataoka remained seated by the window, quietly watching those figures practice.
Seido's performance in recent years had been unsatisfactory. It disappointed school leadership, frustrated longti alumni, and disheartened fans who had supported Seido baseball for decades.
Even Kataoka himself was dissatisfied. But Tokyo was a battlefield where effort alone did not guarantee results.
To break through Tokyo, a team needed a burning ambition to dominate the entire nation. No hesitation, no retreat—just overwhelming force. Anything less, and reaching Koshien required luck.
And Seido's luck had been poor for years.
This was why they had been unable to return to Koshien for so long.
To be fair, Kataoka's coaching was not as incompetent as rumors claid. Despite Seido attracting fewer promising prospects in recent years, Kataoka still managed to build competitive teams every sumr. Teams with energy, talent, and the potential to fight for the Koshien ticket.
But there were two major reasons they kept failing:
First, their competitors were too strong. Inashiro Industrial. Ichidai Third High School. Even at Koshien, those schools dominated.
To defeat such opponents, being "strong" wasn't enough. You had to be overwhelmingly strong.
Second, Seido suffered from bad luck. They never lacked powerful hitters. But their Ace Pitchers were always just slightly below the true top-tier level.
Pitchers like Hidezawa could barely squeeze into Tokyo's elite group, but in reality, they lagged behind the true monsters of high school baseball.
Fear the god-like opponent, but fear even more the pig-like teammate. And when your Ace—the cornerstone of the team—was the "pig-like teammate," even the most brilliant coach could only accept fate.
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It wasn't that Kataoka hadn't tried. He simply lacked the core piece needed for victory.
Without good prospects… Without a reliable Ace… No matter how hard they trained, Koshien remained a dream.
Kataoka knew this. But what could he do?
Good talent and strong prospects couldn't be summoned by wishing. He received the players he received. Facing a roster of diocrity, he couldn't demand miracles from them.
The only controllable factor was effort.
The clumsy bird must fly early into the forest.
Only through overwhelming effort could a talent gap be bridged.
So Kataoka pushed his players harder than any other school. He believed the disciples of Seido must be the ones who sweat the most.
"Director, what do you think?"
Manager Ota's voice snapped Kataoka out of his thoughts.
What ti was it? Was this really the mont for daydreaming?
Even Kataoka felt awkward getting caught zoning out. Thankfully, his sunglasses hid his expression.
He paused for four or five seconds—not to appear wise, but because he genuinely had no idea what Ota had asked. He had been completely lost in thought.
Still, this wasn't enough to trouble him.
"What do you think?"
Even if he hadn't heard the question, he could simply return the inquiry. Once Ota and Takashima Rei explained, he'd naturally know what they were discussing.The two exchanged looks.
Finally, Ota straightened up.
"Six First-string players were temporarily removed. Now that the Freshman Welco Ga is over, should we allow them to return, or promote six new players?"
"What are your opinions?"
"We discussed earlier," Ota continued, "and keeping those third-year players in First-string won't help the team much."
A hint was enough. Ota and Takashima Rei were preparing to promote new blood.
"Do you have candidates?" Kataoka asked.
"We plan to keep two third-years, then choose four players from the first- and second-year groups. But the problem is—we have five serious candidates.
"For first-years, Miyuki and Zhang Han. Even though the freshn didn't win today, this was the most competitive welco ga in years. These two contributed greatly."
The remaining candidates were second-years: Kominato Ryosuke, Isashiki Jun, and Masuko Toru.
If possible, Ota and Takashima Rei would have preferred to promote all five. But that was unrealistic.
Six slots had already been vacated from the third-years; taking more would be excessive. Even with six, unless those who were removed were truly useless, and the new players clearly superior consideration still had to be given to third-year pride.
And the third-years being replaced weren't all incompetent. Many were still solid players.
So so spots needed to be reserved for them.
On this point, Ota and Takashima Rei were aligned. They believed the most balanced distribution was two players from each grade.
However, this ant Masuko, despite his strong performance, might be left out.
Kataoka listened silently to everything, then fell quiet.
Under normal circumstances, promoting new players wasn't imdiately impactful. They would be long-term projects rather than instant firepower.
But this ti was different.
Whether it was the two freshn or the second-year candidates, every single one of them could contribute imdiately.
Choosing correctly now might give the Seido High School Baseball Team a crucial new opportunity.
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