"This is the driving range in front of the station? But it's not close to the station at all."

After the weekend afternoon practice, Lee was taken by Yabe to a building near the school. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIt is 1,500 meters from the nearest station.

"This is the striking practice ground called 'Stand Mae'."

It is said that this striking practice range was originally built next to the station, but more than 20 years ago, the price of land near the station soared, and the owner sold the original site and moved to its current location.

In order to let regular customers know that it was the striking practice range in front of the former station, the boss specially added the word "station front" to his name.

Li Yuanrang and Yabe went to the front desk of the batting driving range and found that sitting there was a third-year baseball club senior Miyagi with blonde hair chewing gum.

"I recently wanted to buy a new motorcycle, so I came here to work."

Without waiting for the two of them to ask their questions, Miyagi preemptively said the answers they wanted to know.

Most of the students in the Peace School are from good families, and they help a lot in their own businesses in their spare time, but few of them work outside.

"The fastest fairway has been raised by another kilometer today, you can try it."

After exchanging tokens for Lee Motorang and Yabe, Miyagi said.

This driving range has more than a dozen fairways, ranging from the slowest 80 kilometers to the fastest 160 kilometers.

One of the fairways claims to be the "fastest in Japan". The top speed could have reached 163, but today it has been increased by another kilometer, and it seems that the ball speed is already 164 kilometers.

Lee Motorang and Yabe came to the side of this fairway, which is now being used. The user was a woman, none other than Kazusa Aragaki, the convenience clerk she met during a practice match last week.

"Sure enough, it's on the fastest fairway......"

In fact, the purpose of Li Yuanrang and Yabe coming here today was not to do striking practice, but to meet with Aragaki here as agreed.

In the hitting zone of the fairway, Kazuma Aragaki swung hard at a straight ball at 164 kilometers per hour.

Next to the coin box behind her was a stack of tokens, about seven or eight of them.

In this striking driving range, one token can play twenty balls. The price is 200 yen. It's a lot cheaper than the 1,000 yen and 60-ball driving ranges in central Tokyo.

Of the 20 goals, Aragaki and Sa hit at least 15 or 6 goals. Although not every batter can be turned into hits, this still surprised Li Yuanrang, who was watching from the sidelines.

"164 km, that's the fastest ball speed in Japan, right?"

"yes, a record that has just been broken this year."

Yabe replied.

"That should be hard to hit, right?"

"It's not easy for ordinary people to fight, but it's different for people who are trained. And if you keep playing the ball bowler with the same speed, you can get used to it by observing a few more balls. At this speed, it shouldn't be difficult for you to fight. ”

"Can I go and fight?"

"If you don't believe me, you can try it for a while."

Aragaki and Sa finished a set of twenty balls. Turning around and about to continue the coin, she saw Li Yuanrang and Yabe sitting on the outer bench waiting for her through the iron net of the fairway. So I collected the unused tokens and walked out.

"Sato-sensei, he didn't come?"

Aragaki and Sa asked.

"It's no longer working time, and Mr. Sato never works overtime. But he must have made it clear in his email. ”

Yabe replied.

"So I'm going to have you two male high school students interview?"

During afternoon practice, Yabe and Fukushima suggested to Sato-sensei that they hire a coach for the team.

It is not a "supervision" who is responsible for tactics and scheduling during the game, but a "coach" who can assist the players in practice. After discussing with a few people, they felt that the most suitable candidate at the moment was Aragaki and Sasa, who lived in the near future and could accept part-time jobs freely.

"There's no need for an interview, we've all seen what you're capable of. The two of us are just here today to give the 'signing money'. ”

Li Yuanrang opened his sporting goods backpack and took out a wooden bat from it.

"I just bought it at the sporting goods store next door, the same one you interrupted last week. But it doesn't seem to cost 20,000 yen, but only 15,000 ......."

"Rounding up is 20,000."

Kazusha took the bat without hesitation. Then continue.

"What about wages?"

"According to the hourly wage, your hourly wage at the convenience store is nine hundred and five."

Yabe said.

"It's a thousand or two for the night shift."

"We can get a thousand five. Three hours a day, it will not affect you to go to other places to work. There may be more time on weekends. The baseball club's training facilities can be used as much as you like. Gratis. ”

"Does the baseball club have a ball machine that can shoot hard balls?"

The driving range uses soft rubber balls. Therefore, hardwood sticks cannot be used. Kazusa Aragaki is interested in a hard ball machine that can use wooden sticks.

"There's one, but the ball speed is only 14."

Listening to Yabe's words, Kazusa nodded and asked.

"So I just have to verbally promise you two men to be high students here? If you look at your height, you're only in the first grade, right? ”

Compared with Li Yuanrang, who is nearly 1.8 meters tall next to him, Yabe is more than half a head shorter.

“…… I'm the team's vice-captain. I came here at the behalf-time request of Mr. Sato. ”

Yabe squeezed a few words out of his mouth.

"Okay, I know, I'll do it next time."

Aragaki and Sa smiled and put the bat in their backpack.

After saying goodbye to Li Yuanrang and Yabe, he walked out of the strike training range.

"I'll send an email to Mr. Sato to confirm."

Before leaving, He Sha turned back and said.

……

Next, Li Yuanrang asked Yabe his own question.

"You just said you were the vice-commander?"

Li Yuanrang had never heard of a baseball team having a vice-captain. But when Yabe said this just now, he was embarrassed to debunk him.

"Actually, it should be said that the Lord will be an alternate. After Fukushima's senior retires this summer, I should be the main general. ”

Yabe replied.

"Decided so early? Isn't there a second-year senior? ”

"It's something that was decided at the beginning of this year, and the manager of the team is not an idle job, and no one wants to do it. The Peace Academy doesn't pay attention to seniority.,As a result, Fukushima's seniors told me that I should be the next commander.。 ”

"And you said yes?"

"yes, I can't say no, the team didn't even have a starting lineup. If there is no more Lord, wouldn't it be to abolish the ministry? But now I've got nine people......"

"Ten of them, right?"

"Tian Gu? It will take a long time for him to get back to playing. ”

Tian Guwu, who was addicted to computers in middle school, also participated in a practice competition last week. There was nothing wrong with the garrison. On the strike side, it got four strikeouts.

"Instead of talking about that, let's try this......"

Yabe took out the token he had just exchanged and handed it to Li Yuanrang.

"It is known as the fastest fast straight ball in Japan with a speed of 164 kilometers per hour."