Yuki was busy contemplating what she needed to do today while sipping on some freshly brewed coffee. Her mind was occupied as she stared out the window, watching the surroundings begin to brighten as it got closer to dawn.
Seeing a shadow in the corner of her eye, she almost screamed in fright, turning towards him with a horrified look.
“Run… back soon.”
Ken mumbled, walking past her half-asleep.
Yuki was still watching on in shock as she responded quietly, “Take care…”
It was only after a few minutes that her mind could fully comprehend what she had just seen. She quickly looked at the clock, then back at the door.
“Honey, Kenny is acting weird. This morning he was up at 5:10am and has just gone out for a run.” Yuki said to her husband whom she had just called.
“HUH!?” The voice responded in utter shock.
Ken had always been a chore to wake up in the morning. Despite setting multiple alarms, he would still find a way to sleep through them, having to rely on his mother to wake him up.
Yet this sleeping machine had woken up at 5am of his own volition so he could go and run. While this could be considered a good thing by any standards, the humongous shift in the behavior of their son only caused the two parents to worry.
“He said that he was training for the upcoming baseball season. Do you have anything to do with this honey?” She asked, hoping to find a reason for his change of behavior.
Ken’s father Chris Takagi was a reputable baseball scout for the professional baseball team; Yokohama Warriors. Yuki guessed that perhaps her husband had talked to their son and finally got him to train seriously.
If this was the case, then there was nothing that she had to worry about.
However after a few moments of radio silence, Chris replied. “I haven’t spoken to him about baseball since the beginning of middle school. He quit training with me because my regime was too difficult.”
He continued, “I remember he told me that he was going to become a pro without my help, even though I was the one who taught him how to pitch. Hopefully this is a sign that he’s getting serious.”
Yuki listened patiently, allowing her husband to speak. While she didn’t know what had gotten into her son, she felt that she may be overreacting.
“I’ll continue to monitor his behavior. I hope that he’s not training to get into more fights.” She said with worry.
If Ken had have heard that comment, he wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This was only the third day after regressing, yet his mother already thought that he was turning into a delinquent.
Fortunately, the person in question was currently in the midst of breathing heavily as he ran through the streets of his neighborhood.
By the time he arrived back home he felt like death. Every part of his body was screaming at him to rest, but thankfully his mind was still lucid enough to trump their complaints.
He needed to stretch and allow his muscles to cool down, otherwise he would likely be unable to walk tomorrow.
“I’m home…” he said, doing his best to speak while huffing deep breaths.
“Welcome home. Did you want some breakfast?” His mother asked, her earlier worry nowhere to be seen on her pretty face.
Ken could only shake his head vehemently in response. Just the thought of having food right now made his stomach turn. He knew that if he tried to force it down, it would quickly make its way back onto his plate.
He made a pointing gesture up the stairs and left without a word. Yuki stifled a laugh after seeing his current state, feeling her worries ease up a tiny bit.
Unaware of his mother’s thoughts, Ken retreated back to his room and began to stretch his muscles. He decided to incorporate them into the flexibility regime that the system had provided considering his muscles were already warm.
He had managed to run the full 10km, but it was not pretty. Not only did he have to stop a few times, he even found out that the system did not count the distance he had walked towards the tally.
So despite the total distance covered being close to 12km, according to the system, he had only run 10.04km in that time.
‘It’s fine. Everything will get easier once I get accustomed to the distance.’ Ken told himself.
After completing his flexibility regime and yoga poses, he felt considerably better. His sore and tired muscles seemed to be revitalized.
The only thing making him feel uncomfortable was the sweat soaked shirt that stuck to his back. He took it off and headed towards the bath, ready to have a relaxing soak before tackling his home study.
Around 40 minutes later, Ken emerged from the bathroom feeling like he had been reborn. His stomach growled in protest within earshot of his mother, as if it knew who to complain to.
“Go get changed and I’ll fix you some breakfast!” Yuki’s cheery voice rang out from the kitchen.
“Thanks mom!” he yelled out.
The rest of the day was filled with getting through the work that his teachers had compiled for the duration of his suspension. He would have to complete this schoolwork before being allowed to return to class.
While it was a bit boring, Ken’s newfound discipline allowed him to complete the task rather easily. It also helped that his phone was one of the older flip phones without touchscreen, meaning he couldn’t procrastinate like he used to.
He had managed to complete everything by around 1pm, which meant he had plenty of free time to kill.
Instead of booting up his old gaming console which was filled with games he had completed tens of times, he decided to head downstairs.
“Mom, can I please use the computer?”
While they were a well off family, that didn’t mean he was spoiled with everything he wanted. His family had a communal computer which was for every day use.
“Okay, but only for an hour.” She replied.
“Thanks!” he replied. It still felt kind of weird having to ask these sorts of things, especially after experiencing the life of an adult for over 6 years.
‘Alright, let’s type it into doogle.com’
Baseball 101 – Rules and regulations
It was time to increase his knowledge.
