Believing She Has Been Reincarnated into a Baseball Game, My Little Sister Is Aiming for the Koshien, While I Give It My All to Keep Her from Finding out That It’s Actually an Ntr Game - Chapter 18/19

“It’s not like that! Seriously, don’t get it wrong! It’s for an experiment! I wasn’t eating it, Riko’s lying! I wasn’t rolling it around in my mouth and making tasting notes or anything!”

At 3:30 PM, in the clubroom before practice.

As soon as we were alone, Maika began to rant with such intensity it felt like she might grab me. Her face was so red it looked like it might explode. Tasting notes? Such a terrifying term had never been mentioned by Riko, yet Maika was confessing to it all on her own.

“It’s okay, relax. You see, Maika, I’ve always made an effort to forget those sides of you when I’ve seen them.”

“Don’t pat my head with that sweet face! The fact that you remember you’re supposed to forget means you haven’t forgotten at all!”

True enough. Now that she mentions it, I probably remember most of it.

I was horrified when I found a romance novel written in the first person from her real brother’s perspective, where she was the heroine. The “serves you right” scenarios Riko came up with were too numerous to count, and I was shocked by the ending where it turns out the heroine isn’t related by blood and they get married.

What was my sixth-grade self even reading? I had absolutely no intention of forgetting it.

“Maika, a piece of advice—if you’re planning a twist ending, sprinkle some hints and foreshadowing throughout. If it’s too abrupt, you’ll get slammed by the readers and users.”

“What are you talking about? We’re talking about Kyugo’s semen!”

“So, you’re not even trying to hide it anymore.”

“But! There’s nothing shameful about it! I told you, it’s for an experiment! I was exploring its potential benefits for baseball!”

“How on earth do you plan to use semen in baseball… That’s terrifying, your ideas. It’s the hormones involved in producing it, not the semen itself that’s…—”

I stopped mid-sentence as a thought struck me.

“Kyugo…? Why have you gone all quiet all of a sudden?”

…Could this actually… No, it couldn’t… Or? No, no, no… Wait, can it…?

“Maika… I might have just had a ridiculous idea…”

It felt like a stroke of divine inspiration.

If this works, we might advance not just one step, but dozens towards Koshien.

I can fulfill my promise to Riko!

“That ridiculous idea of yours… huh? ‘Abrupt ending’? ‘Getting slammed by readers’?… Kyugo, don’t tell me…! You were reading the pure love novel I posted on Kakuyomu in high school…? Go die! Forget it, you pervert!! Ah, the names of the protagonist and the heroine were just placeholders I forgot to change before posting! Don’t get the wrong idea!”

I didn’t know that. Now that I’ve heard, I probably can’t forget. I’m not the one getting slammed in a novel where I’m the protagonist. I might cry.

◆　◇　◆

Tonight, as usual, Maika and I were sitting on my bed while Riko took her long bath, marking the start of our secret regular meeting.

“Kyugo, it was hard to watch today. Their defense was beyond pathetic, wasn’t it?”

“Well, that’s about what I expected.”

During today’s practice, before the weight training, we held an intra-squad game to measure the current abilities of Netora Academy’s baseball team, including the new members.

The starting pitchers for the red and white teams were Nomo Makoto and me.

Nomo’s pitches maxed out around 130 km/h, but he had good control and managed his changeups well. Being a lefty is a significant advantage at the high school baseball level, and if he keeps training his body, he’ll likely develop into a reliable second pitcher.

As for me, I was able to pitch at the level of my previous life’s senior year of high school summer. I was confident in my physical sensations, but actually replicating it brought me relief and nearly moved me to tears. Maika was actually crying, trying to disguise it as wiping sweat, but it was obvious. Riko cheered, waving a fan that read “Niisan” and “Number One.” Every time an unfavorable decision was made against me, she heckled the old man umpire—something a manager shouldn’t be doing during a game. But it was cute, so it was fine.

My pitches included a fastball exceeding 140 km/h and a changeup that dropped out of the strike zone from the same arm motion.

The sudden awakening of Yamada Kyugo, who hadn’t been much of a pitcher until recently, shocked the second and third-year students and the coach. I excused it by saying it was the result of my training during the winter, though that alone wouldn’t account for such a dramatic change. However, it did serve to motivate the others for their own training, killing two birds with one stone.

As for the other team members, at least their batting wasn’t bad. Actually, their forms were quite unique yet beautiful. I hypothesize that the illustrators who created this world, “Live! Powerful Koshien,” modeled their batting forms on real professional baseball players. The swing speed wasn’t impressive, reflecting our school’s underdog status, but that should improve with our intense training regimen.

In short, we should be able to bring the offensive side up to a decent level by summer.

As for base running, it’s not that important. Baseball enthusiasts tend to praise high-level base running skills, but in the grand scheme of the game, base running plays a minor role in winning. Smashing home runs is quicker; if you hit a home run, speed doesn’t matter. It’s not worth expending effort on base running given our limited time.

Our scoring strategy is simple: intimidate with muscle to draw walks, load up the bases, then hit long balls with power.

“The infield is especially bad, though. Even if we aim for ground balls, the throwing errors make them practically as damaging as extra-base hits.”

“That can’t be helped. It’s basically my fault, or rather, Yamada Kyugo’s fault. A baseball team dominated by delinquents wouldn’t have proper defensive training.”

So, I’m the one to blame as the pitcher. Errors are unavoidable. If they’re bad, they’re bad. We can’t expect much improvement in defensive skills by summer.

“I was thinking, why not let Nomo play first base when he’s not pitching? Or… maybe even second base could work?”

“That’s a good idea…”

I had considered having Nomo cover first base but hadn’t thought about second base. Typically, you don’t put a lefty at third, shortstop, or second because of the time lost throwing the ball.

But considering our infield, even a lefty like Nomo might be an improvement, especially at second base where the distance to first is shorter. The disadvantages of being a lefty would be relatively minimized, and with Nomo’s excellent fielding as a pitcher, he could probably handle at least the basics of playing second.

“Maika, as expected. For now, let’s have Nomo pitch against weaker teams, and I’ll cover shortstop. We won’t force the other infielders to make throws if it seems unlikely. We’ll train them to give up on impossible plays. No need to aim for double plays or shift for bunts. Just make sure to get outs one at a time.”

“That’s a pretty dreadful strategy for a baseball enthusiast, but yeah, it’s realistic…”

“And when I’m pitching, meaning we’re up against strong schools, we’ll always position the outfielders way back. Even they should be able to catch easy fly balls, but they can’t handle anything over their heads. We won’t make them try what they can’t do. Any balls that drop in front for a single hit are unavoidable. This applies regardless of the game situation, runners, score difference, or any other factor.”

In fact, expecting them to make plays at home or third base is the real mistake. Taking extra risks and allowing more extra-base hits is just bad cost-performance.

“It’s incredibly boring baseball…”

“It’s fine, being entertaining but losing is meaningless. My goal is to win and go to Koshien. All we need is power for that.”

“If the late Noriaki Nomura heard this, he’d have a fit.”

He’s probably not in this world, so no worries.

“And with all that in mind, the most important thing is that I, the pitcher, simply don’t let the ball hit the bat in the first place. Aim for all strikes, all strikeouts. Everything we’ve talked about is just what to do if the ball does end up going forward.”

“That’s the complete opposite of the Kyugo from my past life…”

That’s right. In my previous life, they could actually defend behind me. Always pitching to conserve energy and letting them hit into outs was just a suicide mission with this team.

But in this world, as me,

“Don’t worry. By summer, my pitch speed should be insanely high.”

Kyugo, with his unusually high testosterone levels, has already experienced the effects of intense weight training on his body. It’s the most reliable and efficient way to increase his pitching speed.

“Truly, the results have been beyond expectations. Obviously, muscles don’t grow significantly in just a few days, but the recovery speed after intense training is abnormally fast. This will allow me to train very frequently. Of course, the strain on my joints will increase, but that’s unavoidable—as long as I can make it through this summer.”

“If I can get Riko to Koshien, it’s okay if my body breaks down.”

“Seriously, if anything feels wrong with your body, you’d better report it to me immediately, or I’ll kill you. So, you’re planning to rack up a ton of strikeouts with that fast fastball and changeup, right?”

“No, I’m ditching the changeup.”

“What? That’s been your signature since middle school!”

“It can’t be helped. The kind of changeup I used to throw in my past life, aiming for mis-hits, is no good here; it almost always results in infield grounders. I can throw a changeup that drops significantly for strikeouts, but with that catcher, it just leads to fumbles and isn’t feasible.”

“So what will you do then?”

“A slider with a big horizontal break—a sweeper. Like the pitch Ohtani threw to strike out Trout in the WBC final. I’ll learn that.”

“You really watch a lot of baseball, huh?”

“A pitch that moves vertically would be better for strikeouts, but our catcher can’t handle it properly. Besides, I’m not good with forkballs or split-finger fastballs, and those pitches don’t mesh well with my ‘secret strategy.'”

“Yeah, I mean, you could throw a horizontal slider, but it wasn’t really anything special, right? Maybe useful for controlling the count or aiming for routine plays, but I doubt it can snag strikeouts against strong schools. Maybe we should stop aiming for all strikeouts; even if your fastball has gotten faster, there’s a limit to what a four-seam fastball can do alone. We should probably go back to basics and focus on defensive drills.”

“I can throw it—a sweeper for producing strikeouts, and not just a fast one, but the best fastball.”

“…You mean increasing the spin rate?”

“Yes.”

“I see, you get it.”

“Increasing the ball’s spin rate could significantly raise the chances of getting a swing and miss with just a fastball, and even if they do hit it, it’s more likely to result in a fly ball rather than a grounder.”

“But you say that like it’s easy to increase spin rate overnight, which it isn’t.”

“It’s possible.”

“Huh? If it was possible, you would have done it in your past life.”

“I couldn’t in my past life.”

“What are you even talking about—”

“Use semen.”

“What are you talking about now?”

“You apply semen on your hand and grip the ball. The adhesive strength of the semen increases grip strength, and as a result, the ball’s spin rate dramatically improves.”

“Are you going to die?”

“My sperm might die, yeah.”

Maika, holding her head in despair, is understandably horrified. She doesn’t want to recall how she once rolled my semen in her mouth during taste tests. What a bizarre sibling dynamic.

“But… well… if your semen really does have that kind of sticky, gum-like quality…”

As Maika mutters, pitchers applying sticky substances like pine tar to their hands to increase spin rate is an old trick, especially in the Major Leagues. Bauer has confirmed this, so it’s definitely true.

“…But that’s illegal! A violation! You’d be ejected from the game on the spot!”

Maika is right to protest—using anything other than rosin bags for grip is strictly against the rules. Major League pitchers have skillfully hidden their use of substances on belts, hats, or their skin.

“It’s okay; bodily fluids are a gray area.”

“No, it’s not okay if it’s done intentionally, even if it’s a bodily fluid.”

“Ohtani and Kikuchi lick their fingers, and everyone sweats a bit on their hands! Why is semen any different?”

“Because it’s semen!”

“Fair point.”

I’m thoroughly defeated in the argument.