Chapter 72: Honing the Slider

After training ended, Huangqian Yangyi finished dinner and returned to the dormitory, where he lay on his bed, not wanting to move at all.

"Huangqian, how are you feeling?" Chris asked with a rare, mischievous expression.

"Chris-senpai, I suddenly don't want to play baseball anymore," Huangqian Yangyi said listlessly.

"Heh, this is only the beginning. The afternoon training will only be more exhausting. Keep it up," Chris said with a smile.

"Ugh~"

In the blink of an eye, it was the second day of the training camp, and Huangqian Yangyi dragged his exhausted body to the field.

There were two others who, like him, were completely unable to keep up with the intensity of the camp: Miyuki and Kuramochi.

"I want to die," Kuramochi roared at the sky.

"Ah, it's been so many years, and I've suddenly discovered that I don't actually like baseball that much," Miyuki said, his voice sounding like a deathbed confession.

"Hey, hey, you just don't like physical training, right?" Huangqian Yangyi said.

Miyuki twisted his body and leaned against Huangqian Yangyi's shoulder: "Yangyi, carry me to the field."

"Huh?"

"Can't you?"

"No way!"

Huangqian Yangyi pushed Miyuki away and kicked him in the butt.

The second day of the training camp still began with running, and the ones lagging at the very back of the pack were naturally the three First Years.

"Kuramochi, didn't you say you were a speedster? What's with you hanging at the back now? Are you a weakling?!"

"Huangqian, Miyuki, aren't you the 'Twin Stars'? Look at yourselves now, you're more like 'Twin Turtles'!"

The shouts of the upperclassmen came continuously from the sidelines.

Yet the three of them had absolutely no strength to fight back, moving forward step by step, their legs as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

"Hoo... hoo..."

"Ha... ha..."

The three were breathing rapidly; even if there were a fierce tiger behind them right now, it would be useless.

Meanwhile, the other First Years on the sidelines were helping to organize the training equipment to be used later while also keeping a constant eye on the training on the field.

It's only morning; is the training this cruel right after waking up?

After an hour of running ended, with less than 5 minutes of rest, the next training item followed immediately.

Starting with defensive training, then base running, batting, and passing—the endless variety of training left everyone unable to catch their breath.

Constantly switching training items and defensive positions, the day slipped away bit by bit, until finally, in the evening, after Director Kataoka made everyone do ten sets of shuttle runs, the training was finally over.

Such bitter days passed one by one, and the intensity of the training increased slowly every day.

When the final day ended, the fatigue accumulated over the week had already left the three First Years on the verge of collapse.

The three brothers-in-misery leaned on each other, listening to Director Kataoka's summary of this training camp.

Just when everyone thought everything was finally over, Director Kataoka's voice came again.

"Now, run 10 more laps around the field. Azuma, you lead the way!"

"What??" Huangqian Yangyi stared at Director Kataoka in disbelief. Is this man a devil? Can't he see that the three people here have already had their souls leave their bodies?

Kuramochi went limp all over upon hearing this, lying flat on the ground, his entire appearance turning grayscale.

Huangqian Yangyi: "Help, help me, Kuramochi is dead!"

Miyuki: "He's out of breath! Can't save him!"

The one-week summer training camp ended, and Director Kataoka kindly gave everyone a one-day holiday to rest and recover their strength.

Huangqian Yangyi, who had originally wanted to get some good rest after returning from class, was called out by Chris as soon as he entered the door.

"Chris-senpai, where are we going?" Huangqian Yangyi asked, yawning and rubbing his arms.

Chris walked ahead with a smile, "Pitching."

"Ah? We finally got a day off," Huangqian Yangyi protested strongly. The training camp had just ended; could it be that Chris-senpai was gradually turning into a devil himself because he served as Director Kataoka's assistant?

"Today's pitching is to be practiced while you are tired," Chris said.

Huangqian Yangyi hurried forward to walk side-by-side with Chris, "What does that mean? What kind of pitch are we practicing?"

"Slider!"

Arriving at the field, Huangqian Yangyi and Chris went straight to the Bullpen.

"Warm up," Chris said.

Huangqian Yangyi nodded, asking while warming up: "Chris-senpai, is there a problem with my current slider?"

His current slider, after modifications, used the grip of a Cutter on the foundation of a Slider grip; it was fast, had a large break, and after a period of practice, he could now throw it into the Strike zone.

Chris shook his head: "There's no problem, but if you want it to be truly useful, you'll still need to practice for a long time according to the conventional methods."

"With your current slider, as long as the ball speed is too fast, the break will shrink significantly. And if you deliberately slow down the ball speed, it will cause the break to be too large. These are all caused by your subconscious movements. To solve this problem, you need to find a balance point in between."

Huangqian Yangyi nodded. He didn't deny this point, but finding that balance point was quite difficult—considering ball speed, spin rate, fingertip force, release timing...

To throw a pitch that satisfies oneself requires considering many aspects.

"You are physically exhausted now, so even if you want to use more force, you can't. It's the perfect time to practice control. Taking this opportunity, you might be able to completely master that strange slider of yours," Chris said.

Upon hearing this, Huangqian Yangyi thought it sounded quite reasonable.

Thinking about being able to fully master that slider that had tormented him for so long, Huangqian Yangyi immediately felt fired up. Little brat, watch me take care of you today!

Soon, after the warm-up, Huangqian Yangyi stood at the Pitcher's position, with Chris opposite him fully geared up.

Huangqian Yangyi took a deep breath and was just about to pitch when he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly stopped.

"Senpai, is your hand okay?" Huangqian Yangyi asked. He had been so muddled from exhaustion this week that he had actually forgotten that Chris was still carrying an injury.

Chris paused for a moment, then shook his head: "It's fine, don't worry. There's no problem at all with just catching the ball without making other big movements."

Hearing this, Huangqian Yangyi finally set his mind at ease; the current Chris was not as severely injured as in the original work, and after a period of recuperation, he should be able to catch a few balls.

"Then I'm going to pitch," Huangqian Yangyi said.

Chris nodded: "Come on, try your best to feel that moment when you pitch."

Huangqian Yangyi gave a grunt of acknowledgement, then took a deep breath, forgetting the exhaustion accumulated throughout his body in that instant, swung his arm, and the baseball flew out, tracing an arc.