The Old Baseball Player System

Chapter 74: Risk

"Dad, I'm still a pitcher!" - Shun spoke calmly, but his eyes were overflowing with determination.

"Huh? Then why were you playing in the outfield?" - Kenshin asked, clearly surprised. He had already accepted that his son had given up pitching, but if Shun was still pitching, it made no sense that he hadn't played in the last game, even after Jiro gave up so many runs.

Shun felt the curious stares of everyone present. Come to think of it, he had never explained to his family why he wasn't pitching. His mother never asked, little Yumi didn't care about things like positions, and his father and Mika had only watched the game against Hokuto and didn't want to bring him down by asking about it.

"Well, I'm changing my pitching form, but it's not stable enough yet, so I couldn't pitch this summer." - Shun said with a sigh. As much as he wanted to pitch and contribute more in the game against Hokuto, he simply couldn't, thanks to the system. And of course, he couldn't tell anyone that part.

"Changing your pitching form? Son, that's dangerous. If you use a form that's not suited to your body, you could seriously injure yourself. Especially at your age, when your body is still developing." - Kenshin spoke with clear concern. As a retired pitcher and now a pitching coach, he knew the dangers of pitching with an improper form for the pitcher's body.

"Oh, don't worry, Dad. I've done my research, and besides, I feel completely fine pitching with this new form!" - Shun spoke with confidence. Of course, he knew the dangers of using an improper form, but thanks to the system, he didn't have that problem. In fact, he was learning the perfect form for his body.

"Research? What are you talking about?! Since when have you become so careless, son? Do you really think mechanics and pitching forms are simple things to learn?!" - Kenshin became irritated with his son's nonchalant attitude. He clearly didn't trust the "research" his son had done.

After all, Shun was only 14 years old, there was no way he could understand these things, especially since he had never shown any interest in them before.

Of course, Kenshin never even considered the possibility that Shun had a system helping him.

"It's not like that, Dad—" - Shun noticed his father's irritation and quickly tried to come up with a better excuse, but he was interrupted by Satoru's voice.

"Haha, no need to worry so much, Kenshin! The kid said he doesn't feel any discomfort when he pitches, so there shouldn't be a problem with his form. Anyway, why don't you bring him to see me one day? I can evaluate his form and make sure there's nothing wrong, and maybe I can even give him some tips, haha!" - Satoru laughed, trying to ease the tension.

Of course, he also understood the potential danger in Shun's actions, but luckily the boy spoke up before anything bad happened.

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"Hm, right. Thanks, Satoru." - Kenshin calmed down a bit after his friend's offer. He knew that as the Yomiuri Giants' doctor, Satoru was more than qualified to help his son in this regard. Besides, Kenshin himself intended to take a look at Shun's pitching form.

"Haha, it's nothing!" - Satoru laughed casually, and the two resumed their conversation. Meanwhile, Shun was a bit distracted, too busy arguing with an old man inside his head.

[Hmph! Who do these brats think they are? They need 100 more years of experience before they can compare to this old man!]

"Hey, old man, don't call my dad a brat!" - Shun yelled inside his head.

[Hmph! And what should I call him? He is a brat! How dare he doubt my knowledge? Now I get it, that's why you're so stubborn, brat! Son of a brat, brat you are!]

"You... What the hell do you mean by your knowledge?! The perfect form was created by the system, why are you taking credit for it?! And stop calling me a brat! And stop calling my dad a brat too!" - Shun was almost foaming with rage, he simply couldn't stand the old man's attitude.

[I am the system, you brat!]

"You—" - Shun was about to lose control and curse the old man out loud, but was cut off by a female voice calling his name:

"Shun!"

"Huh? He—hey, uh, hi, Hana?" - Shun was caught off guard when he looked toward the source of the voice and saw a pair of beautiful green eyes staring directly at him. The boy tried to act cool, but unfortunately for him, he couldn't help but stutter a little.

"Is everything okay?" - Hana looked at Shun with concern, noticing that he was acting a bit too strange.

"Oh, yes, yes! Everything's great, and you?" - Unfortunately, Shun still hadn't grasped the situation he was in. He just thought the girl of his dreams was striking up a conversation with him, and that made him respond excitedly.

"Huh?" - Hana looked at him, puzzled. She didn't get a chance to respond before Mika spoke up first.

"You idiot! Hana was asking the name of that first-year pitcher on your team, are you deaf or something?" - Mika said in an annoyed tone. But when Shun looked into her eyes, he could tell his sister was enjoying watching him act like an idiot in front of Hana.

"Huh? First-year pitcher?" - Shun asked, confused and embarrassed. Thanks to the old man talking in his head, he hadn't been paying attention to Hana's question, and now he had made a fool of himself in front of the girl.

"Yes! You know, the second pitcher who came in. He was tall and wore glasses." - Hana didn't seem too bothered by Shun's strange behavior and simply asked calmly.

"Jiro? What about him?" - Shun grew even more confused as he saw Hana asking about Jiro.

"So his name is Jiro! He's really good for a first-year... Is he okay? It must be hard for someone so young to recover from a loss like that." - Hana spoke with a worried expression.

"Oh, him... He'll be fine! But why are you asking about him?" - Shun thought about the nerdy boy for a moment. He believed Jiro would be fine, he just hoped the boy would recover from his flu quickly so he could return to practice. Shun then looked at Hana and asked curiously.

"Oh, Satoshi is interested in him!" - Hana said honestly, unaware of the impact her words had on Shun.

"Haha, I see." - Shun gave a light laugh before falling silent and looking out toward the field. He couldn't help but think how pathetic he really was. He liked a girl who didn't care about him at all. In fact, the guy she was interested in was handsome, talented, intelligent, someone much better than him.