Forbidden Protege

Ch. 2: Class and Field (Part 6)

"Alright, Miya-san. It's your turn," Haruichi said as he took off his helmet and wiped sweat from his brow. Alexia dropped her bat from her shoulder and turned towards him. Her first impression of him was right; he was a great contact hitter.

"Thanks," Alexia said as she swapped places with him. Haruichi stood just outside the cage, deciding to watch Alexia practice for a bit. As she stepped in, the boy running the pitching machine called out to her.

"Do you want me to decrease the speed for you?"

"Nope," Alexia replied curtly. "This is a good warm up speed for me." Haruichi smiled lightly. 'A good warm up, she says. I wonder how fast she usually uses for practice?' he thought to himself. He watched curiously as she took her stance in the box, also noting her relaxed grip.

Alexia took a deep breath before nodding at the boy to start the pitches. He grabbed a ball and set it in the machine. It flew out towards Alexia and in one second, her muscles tensed and reacted to the pitch. A satisfying clang was heard as the ball flew to the outfield, landing between where third base and left field would have been. She hummed to herself in discontent. It wasn't quite as far as she had aimed for.

She reset her position and another pitch came. Once again, she reacted in a single moment and this time, the ball flew behind shortstop's position and just to the left of centerfield. It had gone a bit farther this time. She took her stance again and the third pitch landed straight behind second in shallow center field. The fourth went just to the left of right field and the fifth went straight down the first base line. Haruichi was stunned. He had no doubt that she had purposefully directed her pitches to those spots.

Ryosuke was standing behind Homeplate, waiting for his turn to bat and he had seen Alexia's batting as well. He chuckled lightly to himself which earned him a glance from Jun.

"What are you laughing about?" He asked curiously. It wasn't every day that his teammate would laugh at seemingly nothing.

"I might have competition for best contact-hitter," he answered simply before walking away. Jun was still confused but decided against asking. He wasn't going to get more of an answer out of Ryosuke.

Alexia continued her practice, unaware of the looks she was starting to get. She was simply focused on sending the ball to the right spot. Third, left-center, center, right-center, first. She repeated this pattern over and over. It was the basic practice she had done back in America. She was fully aware that she wouldn't be able to overpower a pitcher, so her only choice was to be able to hit any pitch in any direction that she wanted. After she hit another down the first base line, she reversed the direction and went from first back to third. She littered her hits all over the field, landing them in a similar spot every time.

A small crowd was now watching her hit. Not a single pitch had gotten by her, and while none of her hits had gone deep into the outfield, not a single one had been misplaced either. Alexia was completely oblivious to her growing audience. Her entire focus was tuned into her batting and she wouldn't have even known she was being watched until a sudden voice yelled right behind her.

"Bunt!"

The pitch was already coming from the machine as Alexia dropped her hips and adjusted her grip on the bat. She squared up with the pitch and gently knocked it rolling down the third base line. She straightened up and reset her position, satisfied with her performance. Once again, the voice yelled out as the pitch came.

"Right field!"

Alexia waited for the pitch to come and at the last second swung swiftly and decisively. The ball flew out and landed between center field and right field. It went more left than she had wanted and she clicked her tongue in annoyance.