Shun finished his daily Saturday training in the morning. The boy then spent the rest of the day in the arena practicing. Unfortunately for him, excitement wasn't enough to make him win the second game of the Bronze Championship, but it was enough for him to get his first hit.
The first hit was just an infield ground ball that, luckily, was slow enough for Shun to reach first base. Of course, the boy didn't care about that, he was happy to have finally gotten a hit. Now, he only needed nine more to complete his Bronze Arena mission.
[Contact Hitter (Bronze)
Get 10 hits in Arena games (1/10)
Rewards: 100 coins, 1 silver arena pass, and a random grade B elixir.]
Shun went to bed early, and thanks to deep sleep mode, he slept well. Without the system to help him, he probably wouldn't have been able to sleep because of the anxiety.
The boy woke up on Sunday morning and went out for his morning run. When he returned home, he saw his father sitting on the living room couch and his mother cooking breakfast in the kitchen. He went upstairs for a quick shower and came down already dressed in his uniform.
"Good morning!" - Shun said with a smile as he sat at the table, where his whole family was already seated, waiting for him.
"Good morning, bro!" - Little Yumi said excitedly.
"Hahaha, you look confident, boy! That's the spirit!" - Kenshin laughed loudly when he saw his son, then continued.
"Yumi and your mother told me you've been playing really well. I'm excited to see how much you've improved, boy!" - Kenshin hadn't seen Shun play since his son played for Tokyo Nakano Junior.
"I'm not extremely talented. No matter how hard I try, I'll never be able to turn pro. In fact, even in high school, I'd have a hard time playing for a good team."
"Captain, that's not true—" - Shun tried to speak but was cut off by Kazuki again.
"You don't have to try to cheer me up, Shun. Honestly, I've accepted this a long time ago. In fact, I used to think you were like me, and maybe that's why I'm telling you this." - The captain said.
"Huh?" - Shun was left speechless, unsure of what to say.
"When you joined the team and I found out you were from Tokyo Nakano, I was surprised. We formed a battery, and I realized you were like me, someone with limited talent, destined to watch the truly talented from afar..." - Kazuki looked into Shun's eyes, and the boy could feel the sincerity in his captain's words.
"But... somehow you overcame that. You changed positions to be useful to the team. In no time, you became an essential part of our lineup, both offensively and defensively. You might not realize it, but that was like a slap in my face, it woke me up. Thanks to you, I realized that a man's limits are only in his mind, and making excuses won't get me anywhere." - Kazuki clenched his fists.
"Shun, I've decided to give everything I have to baseball. I'm not going to hold myself back anymore. I'm going to give it my all and go as far as I can!" - Kazuki spoke with determination, sending chills down Shun's spine.
"Captain..." - Shun didn't know what to say. He had never imagined that his captain had the same feelings he did before receiving the system. He felt a pang of guilt in his heart, shame. He was ashamed at that moment.
His captain was speaking about him as if he were an example, but in reality, he was just someone who had given up. If it weren't for him receiving the system, he would have quit baseball. Without the system, he would never have done well in the outfield or made it to base easily.
Without the system, he was nobody.
At that moment, Shun felt a strong emotion within him. He looked at his captain, who had gone back to taking swings into the air. He admired this person. He wanted to help his captain win. Not only that, the feeling of victory, he wanted to experience it.
"Captain, we're going to win! We'll win today, and after that... we're going to win it all!" - Shun said with a determined look. He no longer wanted to win to impress his father or his friends. No, he wanted to win to become someone.