Slugger (DNA Rewrite)

Chapter 3

(Surprise...)

The night after the game was surprisingly normal for Daniel. He was reading on his bunk bed while Yuki played shogi by himself and Jun went to find Miyuki. Although Daniel didn't show it, he still had adrenaline left from the game. Remembering his home run gave him shivers. That had never happened before when he thought of baseball. Is this what his brother felt? Is this why he wanted to continue his baseball even after high school?

Feeling even more restless, Daniel climbed down and decided to go run. As he exited, Yuki gave him a fleeting look before returning to his precious shogi. Walking through the dorm, memories began to surface: Daniel playing with his brother, finding the news of his death, moving to Japan, deciding to play baseball, getting recruited, being put in third-year classes, his emotional breakdown with Yuki and Jun, and the happiness he felt play baseball today.

"Why are you thinking about all this...?" Daniel questioned himself. As he made it to field B to run, he couldn't help but smile, "How am I suppose to live without baseball now?"

Chuckling to himself at his pointless questioning, he began to run. Again, he lost track of time and only realized how late it was when Miyuki yelled at him saying something about practice tomorrow morning and not overworking himself. Daniel walked back to his dorm and went to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Daniel dreamed for the first time in a while.

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Since Daniel was in the second-string, he was stuck running again. He watched as Sawamura ran ahead with a weird face and continued to pace himself slightly ahead as well. Haru decided to start a conversation with Sawamura while Daniel was concentrating on other things.

"First-year students, Furuya and Sawamura, and third-year student Moore come immediately to the Field A bench." A loudspeaker announced. All three hurried over to seek Miyuki and elder student that Daniel knew as Chris-senpai. 

"You all will be given the pitcher training menu starting today. You'll have more work than the others, so you must work twice as hard. Good luck." As soon as Rei said that, Sawamura started twitching in disbelief. '

It's quite funny seeing him like this.' Daniel laughed to himself. 

"Furuya-kun, you may be pitching in the next game, so practice with Miyuki-kun." Rei continued.

As Miyuki and Furuya walked off to start their training menu, Rei turned to Sawamura and Daniel, "Moore-kun and Sawamura-kun, you both will be training with Chris, a third-year. I'm sure you've already met him, Moore-kun?"

"I have. Since I have a weird schedule, I do see him in some of my classes." Daniel replied, giving a small smile to Chris who nodded. 

"He'll teach you the basics of pickoffs and how to lead on the field." Rei finished. 

Chris stuck his hand out for a handshake. Daniel took it happily while Sawamura seemed outraged. Chris forced Sawamura to shake his hand, "Maybe you should take some notes from Daniel, Sawamura." He commented. "Let's begin then, shall we?"

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Chris helped Sawamura stretch while Daniel stretched on his own next to him. Noticing this, Sawamura decided to complain, "Why does Daniel get to do his own stretches? I'm not a baby, you know!" Daniel simply rolled his eyes and continued to watch the first-string players.

"Daniel already has enough knowledge to know how to stretch properly, unlike you, loser pitcher," Chris replied, making Daniel let out small laughs. "Yah! I heard that, Daniel!" By now Sawamura was annoyed, even Daniel could tell that, "How long are we going to stretch anyways?!" Daniel just rolled his eyes, now annoyed Sawamura couldn't even comprehend what Chris was doing for them. Chris began taking notes with Sawamura still complaining in the background. Once done, Chris walked to the catcher's position, "You want to pitch, don't you? Then let's pitch." Sawamura beamed at this. He began his windup and pitched, but Chris didn't move his glove to catch it. 'So you're making a point about control now are you?' Daniel couldn't help but think.