Editing Rapid Fire King:Volume1 Chapter 4 (section)

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Takamura felt like his life was a narrow one.

His entire world consisted of home, school, the clubroom, the baseball field, the arcade, and the lines connecting those five.

If that did not count as narrow, then there could not be much to the world in his opinion.

He was currently in his world’s third location: the clubroom.

It was lunchtime.

The small room was half-filled with lockers. He and Naka the Ace sat across from each other at the long-legged table in the center of the room while they viewed the team roster.

They were choosing players for the next practice match.

After two more of those, it would be time for the summer qualifiers to begin.

That would begin the summer battle for Koshien.

They had not chosen their regular members yet, but Takamura and Naka were almost guaranteed a spot.

The others would be decided in the upcoming practice matches, but the coach had asked them to choose players for the next one.

…''Why us?

While hoping this would not make things awkward with the underclassmen, he stared at the roster and groaned.

“Hmm.”

He had to groan. Because…

“There’s slim pickings this year.”

“We can put some second or first years in the outfield. From what I saw yesterday, they need more practice on defense than at bat.”

“But we don’t want to neglect batting practice either,” pointed out Takamura.

Naka crossed his arms and nodded. And…

“When you get down to it, Takagi isn’t at your level yet. He’s got the individual defense down pat, but he has trouble seeing the big picture.”

“If he can do it on the individual level, it’s only a matter of time until he gets the rest. He’ll get a lot better soon.”

“You sure are dispassionate about this. Why are you defending your own rival?”

Takamura scratched his head.

Maybe he was dispassionate, but those were his honest thoughts. What else was he supposed to say?

Naka looked back down at the roster.

“Can’t you be a little greedier about this?”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said.

He thought back to what he had felt playing that video game the night before. Deep down, he enjoyed getting good at things.

He tried applying that to baseball here.

“I get that getting good at things is fun. But…”

“You don’t want to make a regular position your primary goal?”

That was exactly what he had been planning to say.

That forced him into silence, since he could not argue with what Naka said.

Then Naka sighed up toward the ceiling.

“Y’know,” he began. “That describes what you’re doing pretty well. Listen. Getting good, becoming regulars, playing in the games, and winning those games is the ultimate reward and objective of what we do. We’re willing to push through a lot of hard times to do that. But you’re different, aren’t you?”

“Are you saying the way I act seems to be making fun of Takagi?”

“I’m not saying that,” said Naka. “You’re enjoying yourself and that led to you being a regular. There haven’t been that many hard times for you and you don’t get all worked up about the games. Getting a regular spot like that is honestly impressive. But…that has a way of disgusting the people without the same talent. They all think it’s effort in, results out. You earn the jealousy of the talentless who are having a hard time of it.”

“Naka, you don’t hold back, do you?”

“No.” The corners of Naka’s lips curled up. “I hate hard times too. Unfortunately, I’m a prodigy, so I don’t feel that pressure. And I don’t let my guard down either, so I don’t feel any jealousy like they do. However…”

“However?”

“You never put your guard up. With you, it’s less about baseball and more about-” Naka slapped his forehead. “Sorry, I almost said too much.”