Ken felt a serene calmness overcome him as he watched the ball leave the pitchers fingertips. His mind was fully focused as it took in all the information available.
Spin, velocity, trajectory.
All of these details which should have been almost impossible to calculate were being processed by his insane mental capacity. Time seemed to slow down as he analyzed the ball in flight, even counting how many stitches their were.
Ken felt a headache from behind his eyes, similar to the one he had upon the increase of his mental capacity. It was a sign that his brain was being overloaded with too much information.
Yet he didn’t care.
Like an unfeeling computer, he processed the information and made the appropriate actions.
Planting his foot, Ken rotated his body, using both his leg and core muscles to increase the torque of his swing.
The sound of a typhoon approaching entered the ears of Guillermo the catcher, causing him to flinch in response. To his horror, a metal bat came flying into his vision with murderous intent.
He froze for a moment, barely able to process what he was seeing.
DOOOOOONG!
An almighty sound reverberated from the batters box, spreading out onto the field. The ball seemed to have met its match as it was catapulted into the air and sent flying.
Ken watched the ball’s flight for a moment before turning to the catcher, his eyes still blazing.
Then without a word he dropped the bat gently onto the ground and began his jog around the bases, not even taking a second glance at the ball.
“W-WHOA!”
“HOMER! Let’s go!”
Chris pumped his fist a few times in glee before he was able to collect himself. Despite not being the first home run that he’d seen Ken hit in the World Cup, this one was a bomb worth celebrating.
“Holy crap what a monster…” Kei muttered in disbelief. He couldn’t imagine just how much practice would be needed to be so good at both batting and pitching.
The outfielder did his best to track down the ball, even jumping up on the wall, yet it just sailed out of his reach. Perhaps if he had reacted a little sooner then he might have been able to get a hand to it.
Though he was a little perplexed. The sound of the bat hitting the ball was louder than any home run he’d heard before, yet for some reason it didn’t carry as far.
Unaware of their thoughts, Ken jogged silently around the bases, finally managing to cool down his head a little. With the activation of Limit Break, his mental grade had shot up to SSS-, giving him a much larger capacity.
Unknowingly, he had focused all of his attention on the ball and received an influx of information.
‘I need to be careful in the future…’ He thought.
While it was obviously a great ability, it put far too much stress on him mentally. Until Ken had gotten used to the sensation he decided to use it sparingly.
As he rounded 2nd base, Jorge Lopez followed him with his gaze.
“Nice hit.” He said simply.
Ken didn’t even spare him a glance, leaving him with two words.
“I know.”
Jorge was taken aback a little, yet he let out a laugh in response.
“Cocky bastard.”
Despite saying so, he had a big grin on his face. He couldn’t exactly be upset at the guy considering what had happened, not to mention he had been talking smack earlier.
It seemed as if he had accepted Ken to be someone at the same level as him, or at least someone to take note of.
As Ken returned back to home plate, one of the fans in the audience made their way over to the stands in order to look for the ball. It was a teenager who picked up the ball and suddenly frowned.
“Huh? This ball is broken?”
“That’s my son!” A shrieking voice came out from the audience in broken English as she cheered loudly.
“Mom?”
He moved his gaze only to see his mother decked out in white and red colors with the Japanese flag in her hand. She waved emphatically after seeing him turn towards her.
“Hi Kenny! Nice hit!” Yuki yelled with glee.
Instead of being embarrassed, Ken’s features lit up with a smile. Whatever bad mood he was in earlier was washed away in an instant as he waved back to her before returning to the dugout.
Chris had entirely blown his cover as Ken and Daichi’s father as he poured praises on Ken without regard for his image.
“Hehe that’s my boy!” He said with a grin.
“Bro that hit was awesome! What did you say to the catcher?” Riku was one of the first to mob Ken excitedly.
“Ah nothing at all.” Ken replied, feeling a little caught off guard by the question.
“Eh? So you just stared at him? Hahahaha! Serves him right.” Riku broke into laughter as if he’d heard the funniest joke in the world.
“I never thought you would be one to do such a thing Ken.”
“Ah!”
Ken jumped in fright as the gloomy Kuro popped up right next to him with a look of disapproval plastered on his face.
“No way, you should have said something cool like ‘Better luck next time'” Aki piped up, throwing his 2 cents into the conversation.
“It wouldn’t have mattered, the guy can’t understand Japanese anyway.” Masayuki said from his seat on the bench.
“Ken speaks English, didn’t you know that?” Hiroki added.
“Eh!?”
This time everyone turned to Ken with a look of shock and adoration.
“I amu pleased to meetu YOU.”
Aki couldn’t help himself, saying the only phrase he knew in English.
Ken felt the headache which he had worked hard to get rid of begin to rear its head again. That was when he saw Daichi looking at him from the other side of the bench.
“I’m gonna go sit down for a bit.” He said abruptly, squeezing past the group.
“AKI! You’re up to bat damn it.” Coach Takashi roared out.
“Oh no!” he replied in English.
Hope that was as satisfying to read as it was to write. Ken going beast mode after being toyed with in the batters box.
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