Requirements

The next morning, Raiki walked to school lost in his thoughts. His right arm still felt a slight weakness, but luckily, it didn't seem to be anything serious. Raiki had decided to follow his grandfather's advice — he wouldn't overdo it anymore, and he'd try to take things slowly. However, quitting baseball entirely was out of the question.

He wanted to play baseball as soon as possible. But to do that, he needed a team. That was something he had to solve before anything else. After all, you can play baseball without an arm — but you can't play without a team.

So, Raiki made up his mind to fix that. Since this school didn't have a team he could join, he would create one! And until then, he'd also hold himself back and avoid overdoing it. After all, even if he managed to get a team together, it would be nice if he still had his right arm when that day came.

As Raiki crossed through the school gate, he heard a familiar voice call out from behind:

"Hey, Raiki!"

"Yu-Yuuma?! What the hell happened to you?" Raiki asked, concerned. Yuuma looked completely exhausted, with deep dark circles under his eyes, and he was walking with noticeable difficulty.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Yuuma asked, not understanding.

Raiki simply stared at him with a serious look and pointed to the otaku's eye bags. After a few moments, Yuuma finally seemed to realize the source of Raiki's concern and quickly explained:

"Ohh, it's nothing! You know, I got really excited after our batting session yesterday, so I decided to learn a bit more about baseball. I think I got a little carried away, and before I knew it, I had pulled an all-nighter watching stuff, haha!"

"Seriously?! What did you watch?!" Raiki ignored the fact that Yuuma had stayed up all night despite having school the next day, and just asked excitedly. He already knew Yuuma had a knack for batting, and seeing how fired up his friend was to learn about the game, Raiki was certain — he had found the first player for his team. Now they just needed to figure out what position Yuuma would play…

"That baseball anime… Major. It's been on my list for ages, but I'd never started it. It's so good, man — honestly, it's been a while since I cried that much watching an anime. And the baseball part? Goro is just the best!" Yuuma said, full of energy. The young otaku really came to life when talking about anime. Well, usually it was about slightly more obscure shows, but that didn't matter now.

Raiki just stared at his friend, speechless. He couldn't believe Yuuma actually thought watching a baseball anime was the best way to learn about the sport… but in the end, Raiki just sighed and said nothing. 'At least he's watching something related to baseball...' Raiki thought.

"So, why are you walking like that?" Raiki noticed that if Yuuma had spent the night watching anime, there shouldn't be any reason for him to be walking funny. So, he asked, suspicious.

"Ehh, well…" Yuuma's face began turning red with embarrassment, but after mustering a bit of courage, he continued, "My mom made me put a medicated patch on the bruise I got yesterday…"

"Bruise?" Raiki asked, confused, unable to recall where Yuuma would've gotten a bruise. But before Raiki could remember on his own, Yuuma helped jog his memory:

"You know… from the ball that… hit me…"

Raiki's expression lit up the moment he remembered that scene.

"You've got a patch stuck to your butt?" Raiki said a bit louder than necessary, causing poor Yuuma to panic:

"Shhh! You don't have to shout, man!" Yuuma said quickly, glancing around in a panic, praying no one had paid attention to Raiki's words. The last thing the young otaku wanted was to get stuck with some dumb nickname related to butt patches. Luckily, no one seemed to have heard Raiki.

"Pft! My bad..." Raiki clutched his stomach, doing his best not to burst out laughing at his friend's situation. Unfortunately for him, the bell rang, signaling that classes were about to start — cutting his fun short and forcing the two boys to hurry to their classroom...

Class was boring, as always. During the break, Raiki asked Yuuma if it was possible to start a club from scratch. Yuuma replied that he thought it was, but they'd probably have to meet a few requirements. In the end, the two decided to head to the teachers' office to ask. And as soon as the final bell rang, marking the end of the school day, the two boys made their way there, hopeful that starting a club wouldn't be too difficult.

Unfortunately for them, starting a club was pretty difficult. As the teacher in charge of the school clubs explained to them: "You'll need a teacher to be the club supervisor — that's the first requirement. In addition, you need at least 10 members. You also need permission to use school grounds for the activity, and if other clubs already use the same area, you'll have to either share the space or set up a schedule to rotate usage. Finally, after one year, the supervising teacher has to confirm that you've actively participated in the club's activities throughout that time. Only then can you become an official club and be allowed to compete in external tournaments and events."

"What?! A year? That's way too long!" Raiki said, outraged. He and Yuuma were already in the middle of their second year, and a year from now, they'd be in the middle of their third and final year of Middle School. In Japan, third-year players could only compete until the summer of their last year, since they needed to focus on studying for final exams and preparing for high school. That meant if they followed this one-year timeline, the baseball club would only be allowed to play in official tournaments after next summer — meaning Raiki himself wouldn't be able to play a single official game in Middle School.

"Sorry, kid, that's the school's rule." The teacher said sympathetically. "If the teacher responsible for the club requests an exception, it might be possible for them to shorten the time frame — but of course, that would require an excellent reason. It's highly unlikely, and it's never happened before, so I wouldn't get my hopes up."

But that tiny chance was more than enough to keep Raiki from giving up. The determined expression quickly returned to his face, and he bowed to the teacher in gratitude. Yuuma did the same, and shortly after, the two boys left the teachers' office.

"So… what are we going to do?" Yuuma asked, worried. The young otaku didn't seem too hopeful that they'd be able to get the school to shorten the one-year requirement — after all, as the teacher had said, it had never happened before.

"You heard him… We need eight more members." Raiki got straight to the point. It was clear he was fully determined to find eight more people and somehow convince the school to make an exception to the one-year rule.

"Alright..." Yuuma just shrugged and smiled. He had made his decision too — he was going to follow Raiki on this crazy journey and play baseball. The two of them started walking toward the school gates, but when Raiki suddenly stopped and pulled out his phone in a rush, Yuuma asked, concerned:

"What is it?"

"You should let your mom know you're not going straight home… I'm calling my grandpa..." Raiki said quickly before putting the phone to his ear and dialing.

"You're right." Yuuma muttered, pulling his phone from his pocket and calling his mom.

This time, both boys remembered that they were only fourteen — and still had to answer to the adults in their lives.