The Roster Announcement
I had completely forgotten about it.
I had definitely been thinking about it at the start of the season, but somewhere along the way it had simply vanished from my mind. Especially lately, with so much going on, it had slipped even further out of reach.
A perfect game, then All-Star Game MVP. After that, giving up four runs and catching hell from every direction before clawing my way back. And on top of everything, some absolute lunatic had shown up, and I had to spare a little attention for him too…
Then a call came in from Korea.
It was from such an unexpected person that I was thrown off at first—but the moment I realized where he was now, I understood exactly what the call meant.
And my guess was right.
Not long after the call ended, a Korean article went up.
That was it.
I was joining the national team that had gotten screwed over at the Olympics. And I finally had a shot at settling this whole military service problem.
Granted, the Asian Games only granted military exemption for a gold medal… so I just had to bring home the gold. The only teams worth watching out for were Japan and Taiwan, and of those, Japan was fielding a squad built around industrial league players. People said you could never take a Japanese industrial team lightly… but they still had to be easier than a full major-league all-star roster scraped together from every corner of the country.
The person who had called me before that article dropped was the Asian Games national team manager himself. The same man who had been managing the Raiders until last year, then stepped down the moment the season ended and moved over to the national team.
Manager Oh Jeong-geun.
He had called and asked me to join the team the moment we won the championship. He spoke as if winning were a given, and I answered the same way. Of course I would.
This year's Asian Games were being held in Qatar. The Doha Asian Games. Given the region's climate, the schedule ran a little late—early November.
And that timing could not have been more perfect for me. Early November. The World Series usually wrapped up right around then. The exact dates shifted a little depending on results, but it was always roughly the same window. Meaning even if the Red Sox went all the way and won the World Series, I would still be free to play in the Asian Games.
All thanks to Qatar hosting this time around.
Looking over the national team roster, I spotted some welcome names.
First, Jeong Jong-seong. Our Jong-seong had locked down the catcher's spot for the national team. This season he was still ceding the starting job to Ko Mandeok, but I had heard he was wearing the mask a lot more than last year. Given how many young players got selected for the Asian Games, Jong-seong was easily the best choice among catchers in that age group—both in skill and experience. And he and I already worked well together.
Among the pitchers with ties to me, Hwang Chan-young and Hyeon-bin had both made the team as well. On the hitting side, Na Seung-won had been selected, so we would be playing together for the national team.
"…Okay, this might be a little too stacked."
And then there was Kwon Jong-jin, brought in on a wild card. A starting rotation of me and Kwon Jong-jin… that was basically cheating.
It would have been even more fun if Lee Gijun's name had been on there too. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The heart of the order looked like it would be built around Chae Jin-hak—the kid everyone called the next Lee Gijun—and Jo In-beom, who had come in on a wild card. The remaining spot… well, either I would fill it or someone else would.
The bullpen looked a little thin, but there probably hadn't been much they could do about that. Building the roster around younger players left them with limited options there. They had already burned the wild cards on the starting rotation and the cleanup hitter.
Anyway.
"…Should I skip the Booster for this game?"
I was torn. Something told me I might regret taking it later…
After turning it over and over, I decided to take it for this game.
Han Song-yi had been in a seriously foul mood. Joining the national team barely got a reaction out of her—she said she had assumed it was a given. But that no-name Japanese player's interview had clearly gotten under her skin. Though from what I heard, he wasn't quite as much of a nobody as all that.
"Don't worry. I'll crush him flat."
I had said that on my way out the door. After a promise like that, how could I not take it…
I fully intended to stomp that loudmouth from today's interview into the dirt.
I arrived at the ballpark, finished my various warm-up routines, and was taking a breather when I spotted Yua walking up to someone ahead of me. Shortish build, thin lips pressed into a stubborn line—an East Asian guy who looked like trouble. It was unmistakably Shoda Hiroki.
I deployed Ho-min, who had been loafing around nearby. Ho-min's English was excellent, and his Japanese was practically native-level. On top of that, everyone knew him as my English interpreter, so I figured Shoda wouldn't be on guard around him.
Ho-min strolled over toward the two of them, casually whistling in the most suspicious way imaginable.
"What is this kid doing…"
Whistling out of nowhere… At least, if you could call it a silver lining, Shoda Hiroki didn't pay Ho-min any attention despite how shady he looked. And Yua… just seemed to take it in stride. He had seen Ho-min pull plenty of insane stunts before.
So there the three of them were. Yua approached first with a smile and spoke to Shoda Hiroki. Even that didn't sit right with me. Yua was clearly the senior figure in Japanese baseball—why was he the one walking over and starting the conversation? That punk should have come over and greeted him first. But what could I do? That was just Yua's personality.
Then something truly absurd happened. Shoda Hiroki's face twisted up, and he started spitting words like he was chewing Yua out. Watching and listening from the side, Ho-min's expression shifted into pure shock.
"What the hell did he just say to get a reaction like that?"
Yua's face turned bitter. Without another word, the meeting between the two of them was over. Yua trudged off in another direction.
"Whoa… that guy is a complete psycho."
Ho-min hurried back to me, shaking his head the moment he arrived.
"What did he say?"
"So Kats went over and gave him a perfectly nice hello, right?"
Kats was Ho-min's little nickname for Yua.
"And?"
"And the guy goes, 'Why are you even here?'"
"……"
"Kats still smiled and said they were from the same place, so wouldn't it be nice to get to know each other, but…"
"And then?"
"He dropped a string of curses and told him to get lost…"
"Huh?"
What?
Was this guy insane? Someone comes over to say hello and you curse them out and tell them to get lost? Yua wasn't the kind of person anyone had a reason to talk down to—and even if you hated him, there was no call for a reaction like that. Especially since Yua said he had never even met the guy before…
If Shoda had broken into the majors and become a massive success, maybe I could almost understand the attitude. It would still be garbage behavior, but those types existed. This guy wasn't even that. From what I could tell, he was barely hanging on by a thread performance-wise…
"So he was just a natural-born piece of trash?"
No matter how I looked at it, the kid was a born idiot. Picking a fight with me, cussing out Yua, and ruining Han Song-yi's mood on top of it…
My reasons for taking the Booster today just kept piling up.
"Where are you going?"
"Bathroom real quick…"
"We're about to start. Is this gonna take a while?"
"……I'll be right back."
"Don't come back with it all over your uniform. Just finish everything while you're in there, yeah? Heh heh heh."
"……I'm not taking a dump."
Leaving Buxton's nonsense behind me, I bolted for the bathroom. I ducked straight into an empty stall and clicked the lock shut—
"What? You said you weren't taking a dump!"
You've got to be kidding me…
"Get lost already…"
Buxton had followed me all the way into the bathroom. What the hell was wrong with this guy?
"Eheheheh. I'm out. Five minutes left, so wrap it up and get back."
"Ah, come on…"
Damn it… I came here to take the pill. I was going to sneak it down real quick in the bathroom, and then this bastard had to…
I heard someone leave the bathroom. When I came in I had been alone, and Buxton had come in after me, so that had to be him heading out. I pulled the carefully hidden pill from my pocket. A round, golden tablet rested on my palm.
Special Physical Enhancement Item
Temporarily boosts pitch velocity and physical stats.
"Just how different am I going to feel after taking this?"
I had never tried one before, so I was a little uneasy. The last thing I needed was something completely insane happening the moment I threw a pitch.
"Hoo…"
Then again, I only had three of them. I couldn't exactly burn one as a test run.
"Just go up a reasonable amount… reasonable…"
With a flicker of nerves, I put the pill on my tongue. Just like before, it dissolved and vanished the instant it hit my mouth.
"…Not bitter."
That crushing bitterness from the old pills was gone. It barely tasted like anything at all. And since it melted away so fast despite having no flavor, it almost didn't feel like I had swallowed anything.
"Did it work?"
I clenched my fist tight, but I couldn't feel any real difference. Honestly, that was a relief. If I had changed in some ridiculous, uncontrollable way, I wouldn't have had the first clue how to rein it in.
"Alright. Let's go."
The moment I got back to the dugout I finished my prep and climbed the mound. I took the ball and settled into a four-seam grip. Even squeezing it hard, nothing felt all that different from before.
"Still… just in case."
I threw my first warm-up pitch to Eric. As light as I could make it—just loosening up the shoulder, nothing more.
WHAP!
"……What the hell was that."
It didn't feel like my velocity had skyrocketed or anything. But the way the ball drove through the air…
Eric, who had just caught it, shot to his feet in shock.
"This is… insane."
If I threw it for real, there would clearly be a jump in velocity too. But what stunned me even more was the spin rate. My four-seamer already got called the best in the game, and somehow it had climbed even higher.
"This isn't just the feeling of rising anymore—is this thing actually climbing?"
The Hooded Woman had given me one hell of a gift.