Azuma Kiyokuni was struck out cleanly.
It was a massive blow to Seido High School.
The cleanup hitter. The strongest batter on the team. With the bases loaded and runs desperately needed, he had been shut down without mercy.
When Azuma returned to the dugout, his whole body seemed to shrink, as if he wanted to crawl into his shell.
It was humiliating.
In sharp contrast, Inashiro Industrial, which had looked on the verge of collapse just moments ago, suddenly came back to life.
That was the truth of it.
Before this inning, Inashiro's players hadn't believed they had any chance to turn the game around. There was no need for complicated analysis. Their batting lineup was inferior to Seido's, and their ace pitcher didn't seem as durable as Seido's either.
Struggling on both offense and defense, how were they supposed to compete?
But now, the new pitcher who had just taken the mound displayed terrifying power.
This wasn't empty hype. It had been proven in real combat, against some of the strongest batters in West Tokyo, even nationwide.
That kind of pitching was like a powerful injection straight into Inashiro's veins. Their momentum flipped completely.
More importantly, that strikeout meant two outs.
Put bluntly, Seido might not be able to do anything after all.
They only needed one more out.
To be precise, as long as they dealt with Yuuki, the inning would end.
Before this, no one on Inashiro would have dared think that way. Yuuki Tetsuya was no ordinary batter. Getting him out was never easy.
But now, there was no hesitation.
Narumiya Mei was the pitcher who had just struck out Azuma Kiyokuni.
That alone was enough to earn complete trust.
On the mound, Narumiya Mei lived up to that confidence.
Against Yuuki, he seized the initiative immediately. After a short exchange, he relied on a fastball-forkball combination to force Yuuki to hit an infield grounder.
The third out.
Three outs. Side retired.
Bases loaded. Seido's fourth and fifth batters up.
Everyone had thought Seido was guaranteed to score here. Some even believed the game might be decided in this inning.
Instead, the rookie pitcher who had just entered the game resolved the crisis on his own.
Inashiro didn't give up a single run. The score difference remained one.
Narumiya Mei returned to the dugout.
He looked like a weasel that had just stolen a hen, grinning so wide it reached his molars.
"Hehe. So that's all Seido High School Baseball Team amounts to."
He said it casually, but his words carried.
Two figures immediately appeared behind him. One grabbed him by the collar. The other twisted his arm.
"What did you just say, kid?"
Nishimonji and Fujita felt their insides boil.
This brat was truly infuriating.
Talking trash about Seido was one thing, but why did he have to drag them into it indirectly? If Seido was "nothing special," then what did that make them, who had nearly been blown away?
"I—I wasn't talking about you guys! Really!"
Narumiya widened his eyes innocently and pleaded.
Seeing that face, Nishimonji and Fujita couldn't stay angry.
"Watch your mouth next time," one of them warned. "You won't get off so easily again."
"Seido is strong! Seido is really strong!"
Narumiya nodded vigorously.
Even so, the two seniors still felt uncomfortable. The more they thought about it, the more irritating his words sounded. But they couldn't quite figure out why.
In the end, they could only glare at him and silently decide to deal with him later.
This small farce in Inashiro's dugout went unnoticed.
The spectators were still immersed in Narumiya Mei's shocking performance.
"My god, what was that pitch just now?"
"It had to be a forkball!"
"At around 140 kilometers per hour, with that kind of movement and control… no wonder."
Even Seido's core batters, Azuma Kiyokuni and Yuuki, had struggled badly against it on their first encounter.
The result was partly due to Narumiya Mei's sheer pitching power.
But more importantly, Seido had been completely unprepared. He was like a dark horse that appeared out of nowhere, catching everyone off guard.
Meanwhile, in Seido's dugout.
Azuma struck out. Yuuki was retired.
Saying the team was unaffected would be a lie. They had missed a golden opportunity, but more than that, the impact on morale and confidence was severe.
"Zhang Han," Coach Kataoka said, turning his gaze to him, "did Narumiya Mei throw a forkball when he was in middle school?"
Compared to Miyuki's junior team, Zhang Han's Matsukata team had been much stronger and played far more games. He had faced Narumiya Mei many more times and knew him better.
"No," Zhang Han answered. "Back then, he couldn't throw a forkball. His main weapon was his slider. He could throw a curveball too, but it wasn't very powerful, so he rarely used it. Mostly fastballs and sliders."
"Then that means…" someone muttered, "…he refined that forkball to this level in less than a year?"
The Seido players exchanged glances.
Inashiro's luck was terrifying.
Talent like that, paired with such growth speed.
Calling Narumiya Mei's future "limitless" might not even be enough.
Zhang Han sighed inwardly as he looked at his teammates' gloomy faces.
Before this game, he had thought it would be easy.
He had even believed that high school baseball wasn't as frightening as people claimed. Making it to Koshien didn't seem that hard.
Now, his view had completely changed.
High school baseball was merciless. Even if your team was strong, you never knew what trump card the opponent might reveal.
You could stumble and lose everything at any moment.
Especially in West Tokyo.
Getting to Koshien was anything but simple.
"Everyone," Zhang Han said quietly, breaking the silence, "don't lose heart. Narumiya Mei's pitching is strong, but that doesn't mean he's invincible."
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