Chapter 240: Reunion
Although jealous, it wasn't time for the meeting yet.
Kuramochi temporarily suppressed his burning jealousy.
"Just one more game to go, Yuuki-chan!"
"Oh?"
"This team is sure to make it! To Koshien!"
"Huh?" Sawamura looked at everyone, bewildered, having already forgotten about it.
"You might even debut nationally as a first-year!"
"That's really impressive!"
"We'll definitely cheer you on!"
Sawamura fell silent.
"This idiot probably forgot all about it!" Sendo cut in.
"Huh?"
"Yeah! Just one more game, and we're off to Koshien!
In every match, just fulfilling your role is already a huge effort! The seniors, all of them are amazing, respectable, and very cool!"
"I just want to keep playing with this team!"
"Idiot! If you're serious, then just follow our middle-school slogan! Let's dominate the nation! Only the seniors retire last!"
"Huh? Dominate the nation?"
"This is the seniors' final summer! If we lose, they'll retire—And that's the only reason!"
"Retire…"
"Ugh!" Just as Sawamura looked shocked, as if hearing this for the first time, Sendo spotted a figure approaching.
"What's wrong?" Wakana asked.
Everyone followed Sendo's gaze and turned toward the figure.
"Ah!"
"Is that…?"
"Why are you here? Aren't you injured and supposed to be resting?" Sendo blurted out.
"Skipping the formalities, huh? I'm not so hurt that I'm bedridden! And since I'm here to watch your game, this is the attitude you give me?"
"…" Sendo's mouth twitched.
"Don't worry about it, Ozawa-san. Sen-chan's always like this!" Ohno interjected.
That's right—the visitor was Ozawa, who had come to watch the game.
"Sorry," Sendo mumbled quietly.
"But Seidou's performance today was worth watching.…Nice game!" Ozawa ignored Sendo's apology and quietly praised them.
Ignoring him didn't mean she didn't forgive him; she wasn't an unreasonable person. Their bickering was routine, and no one paid much attention to it.
"Thanks!"
"Although it's a bit early to say, your opponent in the finals is likely to be Inashiro Industrial, last summer's champion! I'll be there for the decisive match, so don't lose easily!"
"Baseball's not that predictable. You can't determine the outcome without playing. Nobody wins all the time! Come on, you're professional players now. Don't make me spell it out." Sendo sighed, looking exasperated.
"Well, of course I know that! But as a batter, you better not lose to their ace! That's all there is to it!
Geez, you're so unlovable!" Ozawa said, leaning in closer.
Over the past few years, she had changed quite a bit. Faced with Sendo's early dose of harsh reality, she was no longer the short-tempered firecracker she used to be. Instead, she now exuded a certain refined beauty and grace.
"I can't promise any results, but this match is sure to be the most exciting one. I've been waiting for this day!" Sendo recalled the practice matches and the intense fighting spirit that had ignited at that time.
He remembered the feeling of possibly encountering an unbeatable opponent, which had his blood boiling.
"Oh? It's rare for you to take an interest in other players!"
"What are you talking about? Who would lose to Inashiro Industrial? Don't go spouting such bad luck before the match even starts! We absolutely won't lose! Say it again!" Jun-san jumped in, locking his arm around Sendo's neck.
"Ow, that hurts…!"
"It's supposed to hurt!" Isashiki said, tightening his grip further.
"Pfft! Haha! Your seniors are much more charming than you are! My name's Ozawa, nice to meet you!" Ozawa cheerfully extended her hand.
"Uh…" Jun-san, the straightforward guy he was, just stared blankly at Ozawa's hand.
"What's the matter?" Ozawa asked, amused by Isashiki's reaction.
"Oh! Uh, nice to meet you too!" Jun-san shook Ozawa's hand with all the courtesy he'd usually reserve for an umpire, bowing deeply as he did so.
"Well, I'll be heading off now. Since you speak so highly of Inashiro Industrial, I'll keep some mystery by not watching their match today. Let's meet again after the finals, if you win!" With a subtle smile, Ozawa turned and walked away, her confident demeanor becoming even more striking as she left.
"So cool!" From a distance, Haruno watched Ozawa's retreating figure. Although she couldn't hear what was said, the gestures left a lasting impression. She looked on in admiration.
"Unbelievable! How could you say something so unlucky! And knowing such a cool, beautiful lady, you didn't even introduce me? If Ozawa-san hadn't introduced herself, I wouldn't have had any chance to talk to her! You idiot!" exclaimed Isashiki. He threw all his strength into taking it out on the junior he blamed for his missed opportunity.
"Of course, that's the real issue…" Sendo wanted to quip, but he was already being choked into silence.
Isashiki, being one of Seidou's standout strong arms, delivered a punishment that Sendo definitely felt deeply.
Afterward, Isashiki let him go—any more, and it might have been dangerous.
Meanwhile, Sawamura was already being disciplined by the middle infielders.
A sharp hand chop from his "big brother" took him down in one blow, as if the older sibling were confronting a cheating brother-in-law to defend their sister's honor.
With a grim yet adorable expression, Big Bro stood firm.
Nearby, Haruichi, who came along, looked as if he were the wronged sister standing by her man, trying to explain his innocence.
When Sawamura struggled to his feet, still holding his head, Kuramochi—now overcome with jealousy—took him down again with a kick.
Kuramochi's expression looked like something out of a gangster movie, leaving his pure-hearted teammates in shock.
"Hurry up, Sawamura! The Inashiro Industrial game's about to start! C'mon!" Kuramochi's jealousy was so overwhelming it showed on his face.
Big Bro, standing with his hands behind his back, pretended not to see anything.
"Ouch… that hurts! It feels worse than usual!" Sawamura muttered. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have been able to tell, but this time, the force of the blow was hard to ignore.
"That's just your imagination, idiot!"
When Kuramochi mentioned the game's start, Sendo's eyebrow twitched.
"Don't talk nonsense! Kuramochi's already at his limit!"
"Now I get it!" Sendo realized. Coach Kataoka did want everyone to gather, but it wasn't quite time yet.
Ryousuke had called out because Sawamura hadn't been paying attention, but Kuramochi? He was just driven by jealousy.
Sawamura probably didn't even notice that they had plenty of time before the game started; there was no reason to rush so frantically.
"Well, we'll take him along now! Please come and cheer for us again!" Kuramochi turned on a dime, showing a sunny smile to Wakana, who could only watch with a head full of question marks.
Sawamura puffed out his cheeks, astonished at how gentle Kuramochi suddenly sounded.
"Get over here! Kuramochi!" Then, under the collective bewildered stares of the red-cheeked crew, he once again roughly dragged Sawamura away.
"Move faster!" Ryousuke added another chop to the back of Sawamura's head.
"Ah…isn't this considered junior abuse?!"
"We should get going too! Weren't you always looking forward to facing Narumiya?" On the other side, Jun-san let go of Sendo.
"Alright! Well then, see you later!" He waved to his friends as he left with Fumino.
Dragged off by force, Sawamura also waved his hand, saying goodbye to his friends.
"More than Koshien, I'd rather just keep fighting with this team," Ohno said, watching the two of them leave, his tone full of emotion.
"That sounds just like something you would say!" Akio chimed in.
"Speaking of which, it's true…"
"There's only one more game left, huh! Ei-chan! Sen-chan!"
"We really want to see what they'll look like on the Koshien stage!"
The others waved back just as enthusiastically, with Ohno even raising both hands in an exaggerated manner.
"Koshien, huh? I nearly forgot. So there really is only one more game to go! Time flies…" While walking along with everyone else, Sendo, too, only just realized that the summer qualifiers were nearing their end.
"Ha! Narumiya Mei! Finally, the day has come!" But before long, he became excited at the thought of facing their upcoming opponent.
Sendo's heart, which had been quiet for so long, now pounded so strongly it felt like the first time in his life.
And of course, when they got back, Sawamura kept throwing puzzled looks at Kuramochi.
After all, they'd dragged him back…just to rest by the bus.
...
At 12:30, Seidou's team entered the stadium.
As soon as they stepped onto the field, they saw the Inashiro Industrial team warming up.
The players on the field made casual remarks about Narumiya Mei, but unfortunately, Sendo couldn't hear them from where he stood.
As one of the championship favorites, Inashiro had drawn a decent crowd even on a weekday. Without Sendou's increasing popularity, the morning game wouldn't have had so many spectators.
"Whack!!"
"That bastard, he seems to be in pretty good shape! That sound was so sharp!" Jun-san broke the silence, but nobody responded. Everyone's gaze was heavy as they watched Narumiya.
"To us, he's a fateful rival. If we can't hit his pitches, we'll never get our ticket to Koshien," thought Miyuki. He quickly turned to Sendou.
"What do you think? Can you hit that pitch?"
"If it's just that level of a fastball, I can handle it. But he hasn't even started pitching at full throttle yet! And in baseball, nothing is absolute. In basketball, there's often a clear gap in skill. But in baseball, any batter can strike out, even against an amateur pitcher," said Sendo gravely.
What Sendo didn't say, however, was that baseball does still have a certain gap in skill. While top-tier pitchers might occasionally be hit by amateurs, sustained solid hits are almost unheard of.
This rarity of no-hit, no-run games demonstrates just how extraordinary those records are, and it's no wonder Narumiya Mei had the audacity to argue with his coach in previous matches.
"How rare! You actually look serious. What's the matter? Feeling scared? Are you just trying to come up with an excuse for losing?" Miyuki teased, feeling for once like he had the upper hand in their banter.
"No, I'm excited! Losing is what makes it fun!"
"Huh?"
"If we could win easily, that would be boring. Why would I put so much focus on him if it wasn't worth it?"
"You…!" Miyuki realized he had underestimated Sendo's strong-willed nature.
"You like your opponents tough, huh?"
"Exactly! It gives me the drive… the drive to beat him!" Sendo thought back to the praise he had received from Coach Nakani.
He knew that, in terms of talent, he wouldn't lose to anyone, which meant there wasn't an opponent he couldn't overcome.
It was simply a matter of motivation. If possible, Sendou truly wished for a rival who could match him in every way—a rarity he found almost arrogant to admit, but a truth nonetheless.
"Everyone's watching, you know. They're all looking this way! You should pay attention—tiny hopes and dreams, I'll turn them all into despair!"
It wasn't just Sendo who felt this way. Narumiya Mei, often hailed as an elite pitcher, carried the same conviction. He was already at a professional-level standard.
"Whack!!"
"What a sharp pitch! With breaking balls added to it, it won't be easy to hit," even Haruichi, known for his precise hitting, admitted. That showed how challenging it would be.
Of course, Haruichi's perspective differed from Sendo's. Sendo's natural explosiveness and quick reactions gave him more time to see the ball.
So their analyses were fundamentally different. For players with less refined hitting skills, it was bound to be a rough experience.
Mei hadn't reached the level where his fastball alone was overwhelming, but it was still very tough. When his velocity peaked at 148 km/h, it was already difficult for high school batters to even make contact.
Even the team captain missed on his first swing.
That kind of fastball, combined with breaking balls, meant that even at his peak, Mei could challenge the best hitters.
The sheer speed of his fastball absorbed so much of the batter's focus that even center-cut pitches could induce swings and misses—let alone those he managed to place at the corners.
As they say, outside of knuckleball pitchers, fastball velocity largely determines a pitcher's ceiling. If a fastball can't command a batter's attention, even the most diverse array of breaking pitches won't matter.
It's like Furuya's split-finger fastball: its power comes from its velocity and late drop. Compared to his fastball, it's not as heavy, but it heavily relies on the fastball's effectiveness.
Of course, there are exceptions—like that oft-mentioned cutter with an average velocity over 160 km/h. A pitch like that doesn't rely on the fastball. Even the hardest fastball can make such a pitch seem hopeless to hit.
But even that pitch can only be thrown a handful of times in a game, and it's not immune to being hit.
In MLB hitter surveys, even that pitch isn't ranked as the most difficult to handle.
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