Time continues to pass, and the feverish atmosphere of the Summer Koshien gradually cools down; with the arrival of the new semester, the Waseda Industries Baseball Club also gradually returns to its normal rhythm.
In the Sadaharu Oh Memorial Stadium, the crisp sound of bats hitting balls can be heard one after another, collectively forming a beautiful symphony—in the lead of second-year students, the first-years of Waseda Jitsugyo are doing their daily batting practice.
Standing on the other side of the field, Izumi Minoru watches his team members while continually pondering the team’s future building plans in his mind.
After the National Games, the third-year seniors of the Waseda Jitsugyo Baseball Club retired from the team and no longer participated in club activities; as third-year students, they must decide their future paths well—whether to continue their studies or to gamble for a chance to enter professional baseball, this is something every high school baseball player about to graduate needs to ponder.
Like all schools in Japan, the Waseda Jitsugyo Baseball Club is currently in the painful transition period of generation replacement: with the retirement of a large number of powerful third-year members, the entire starting lineup of Waseda needs a complete overhaul.
Before next spring’s new first-year enrollment, the team can only try to fill in the strength gaps internally.
The only good news may be that as a private prestigious school, even the lower-grade members of the Waseda Baseball Club have higher skills than players from general public schools.
But after all, this is Tokyo, a gathering place of private prestigious schools, one of the most competitive regions in the entire Japan High School Baseball realm.
The autumn tournament and the local preliminaries of the Summer Koshien are different; all teams in the Tokyo Region will be put together to fight fiercely, whose intensity and brutality are unimaginable for other regions.
Because they participated in the Summer Koshien and reached the last few days of the competition, the time left for this brand new Waseda team to get familiar is very limited; with less than a month left before the opening of the Autumn Tokyo Tournament, Izumi Minoru, as the team’s supervisor, has just confirmed the list of nine starting players.
In terms of the infield group, Shigetsugu Shinjiro’s defense position has changed from third baseman to second baseman. As one of the absolute mainstays of this summer, he and Matsunaga Kenta will be the unwavering second-base combination of Waseda Baseball Club in the coming year.
As for the vacancies of first baseman and third baseman, according to the training and warm-up match status since the new semester, the supervisor Izumi Minoru has respectively selected second-year Hagiyama Mitsuo and first-year Egami Kenji for the starting role.
In the outfield, second-year Sato Ken and first-year Yagaki Kentaro will serve as the starting left and right fielders respectively; the center is still Kenshu Yasuda—in this brand new Waseda team, his core outfield defense status will greatly increase his voice.
Regarding the pitching and catching combination choice, because Lin Guanglai went to the United States for competition, during this period of practice, the starting pitcher and catcher for Waseda are second-year Uchida Saint and Watanabe Taku—although saying it may not be nice, Uchida Saint’s current ability still seems somewhat insufficient when encountering strong teams.
During this period of training, the first-year Uesugi Yasuyuki’s performance is very outstanding, especially his grasp and judgment of the game situation on the field, making Izumi Minoru somewhat impressed—considering his degree of tacit understanding with Lin Guanglai, Izumi Minoru is also thinking about the possibility of this first-year pitching and catching partner.
In addition, if Uchida Saint fails to make any significant progress, finding a relief pitcher to help Lin Guanglai share some of the game pressure is a task that needs to be put on the agenda quickly.
Although on the surface, Waseda is one of the top four teams of this Summer Koshien event, the decline of a prestigious school is not that significant; but underneath the apparent brilliance, potential worries lurk—time does not wait, and Izumi Minoru is somewhat troubled.
Just as Izumi Minoru is browsing various materials in his hands with his head down, the field not far away suddenly becomes bustling.
Hearing the commotion from the field, Izumi Minoru raises his head, initially intending to reprimand his own playful and unserious training members, but instead sees a familiar face in the center of the crowd—
Surrounded by excited teammates, the tall Lin Guanglai, dressed in the team’s training uniform, wears a handsome and charming smile, looking vibrant and full of spirit.
From the change in demeanor alone, one can tell the benefits this trip to the United States has brought him—the once slightly immature boy with a touch of shyness on his face now becomes confident and determined; under the calm exterior lies the sharp embodiment of youthful ambition.
Seeing this growth of his beloved student, Izumi Minoru feels gratified in his heart; but outwardly he still puts on a dissatisfied look, reprimanding his own members:
"Look at your carefree demeanor—did you perform well in the recent training matches?—Hurry up and train seriously!"
After being sternly reprimanded by the supervisor, the baseball club members scatter like birds and beasts; at Izumi Minoru’s call, Lin Guanglai follows him all the way into the supervisor’s office.
As soon as he sits on the sofa, Izumi Minoru speaks:
"Guanglai, why did you come back the second day after returning? Didn’t I ask you to take a good rest for a few days before coming to train?"
"It was my own idea, Supervisor. I still want to come back early and train with everyone—after all, the autumn tournament is soon starting, and I haven’t yet gotten to know the new team."
Upon hearing the other’s answer, Izumi Minoru feels very satisfied in his heart; then expands on the topic of the United States, Lin Guanglai shares the gains from his time in the United States with Izumi Minoru.
Looking at the eloquent Lin Guanglai, Izumi Minoru smiles and asks: "Guanglai, I’ve seen the news sent back by the media, you played quite well in this Japan-US exchange match; whether it’s batting or pitching, you weren’t overshadowed when facing American players." Updates are released by novel-fire.net
"In this match, you must have learned a lot, right."
Upon hearing this, Lin Guanglai sheepishly scratches his head:
"Haha, actually, it wasn’t just me who played well. Many other players also performed very well, like Yamada from Luzheng Society and Iruku from Konan; they also received a lot of praise."
In this Japan-US Goodwill High School Baseball Tournament, Japan’s team achieved two big wins and one narrow loss, which can be said to have an absolute advantage; while the youngest and most outstanding performing Lin Guanglai in the Japan High School Team has already been labeled as "the leading high school student of the 10th generation" by some media.
"If that’s the case," Izumi Minoru hesitates for a moment, then seemingly making up his mind, slowly speaks:
"Guanglai, are you willing to be the captain of the team for the next two-plus years?"