"Narumiya, let's talk about it after watching Kōshū's pitching."
Narumiya Mei's eyes flashed with scrutiny, "What's wrong, Hayakawa, do you have any other secret information that I don't know about?" He had obviously turned over the information.
"No," he said, a little dumbfounded. "If he is injured, it will definitely show up in his pitching. In this case, wouldn't it be easier to play the game a few days later?"
"Huh? I'm not surprised!" Narumiya Mei immediately resisted this statement, asking him to bow his head and admit that he could only win against the injured Kōshū, which was absolutely impossible.
"But - this will allow us to win." Hayakawa smiled heartily, matched by words full of pragmatism.
Such a contrast made the pitcher stunned. To be honest, at first, he thought Hayakawa was the kind of simple and cheerful young man.
He bowed politely as soon as he entered the door. When the senior did not give instructions, he went to help Narumiya get things.
"I didn't ask you to help me get anything." Narumiya raised his eyebrows to see the other person's reaction.
"Eh? Is that so?" Hayakawa smiled like this, but did not put down the things in his hands. "Seeing that senior couldn't take down so many things, I unconsciously... Besides, I am a catcher, so I should help the pitcher take things."
"Huh? Are you stupid? Do you know that you will be bullied to death by those ignorant people like this? Fortunately, you are assigned to my dormitory." At this time, Narumiya Mei could already see that there was no sign of tact on the other party's face. Even the second half of the sentence, 'The catcher should help the pitcher get things', seemed to be made up temporarily for no reason.
'Hey, it's too young. ' He decided to protect the junior in his dormitory.
But in fact, under the non-aggressive appearance, this catcher has always hidden a hard and enterprising heart. This is also the reason why Narumiya Mei complained that he was cheated after getting along with him for a long time.
"Eh? Hayakawa, you can actually fight out."
"I guess I ate Natto this morning, and I threw it away for some reason. You can try it next time."
"Wow, Hayakawa, you can actually receive Changeup from senior Narumiya?"
"Oh, it's senior Narumiya who understands me. The trajectory is very clear, so it's easy to catch it."
"...Hayakawa, you can actually persuade senior Narumiya to get out of bed."
"Narumiya-Senior complained that he was very hungry this morning and got out of bed by himself. I hadn't woken up yet."
"Hayakawa, congratulations on becoming a regular catcher."
"Tadano, you have also been selected as First String. Let's work hard together from now on."
If Hayakawa were to speak for himself, he would tell others that his journey has been a blessing in disguise. But as long as you spend more than two months with him, you can understand the hard work behind those good fortunes.
But sometimes, Hayakawa will reveal his accustomed utilitarianism in various aspects.
"Are you flattering me?"
"Of course, senior Narumiya is the team's ace."
Narumiya looked at the other party's still very refreshing expression, and for a moment he began to doubt his understanding of the word "flattery," "This is a bad word, right?" '
Eijun stayed on the field for a total of two games. At the beginning of the seventh game, Kawakami changed the field and continued to vote.
At this time, Inami was already going down to warm up, but their ace was still in the audience, wanting to see Kōshū's pitching with his own eyes.
"Narumiya, we are really going down." Narumiya Mei turned a deaf ear.
When asked anxiously, he asked, "I just want to see Kōshū's pitching. Why can't such a small wish be fulfilled?"
"Okay." Hayakawa couldn't move the pitcher, so he had no choice but to go down with the news.
How Kunimoto Manager picked up the trump card after that will not be shown for now. Anyway, from that day on, Hayakawa felt that his ace seemed to be broken, and he did not care about whether he was a senior or the ace of the team when he was playing tricks.
And less than ten minutes after Narumiya Mei left, the radio told him the news that Kōshū was playing.
"Seido High School Notice of bench change... Pitcher, Kōshū."
A figure ran out of Dugout. On the diamond-like court, the figure alone seemed insignificant. But as soon as this person came on stage, other spectators could clearly feel Seido Cheering Section's heightened emotions.
"Wow, No. 1 comes on stage at this time."
"Is this preparing for Inajitsu Match?"
"If we really want to prepare, then the Ace should pitch two more innings in today's game."
"Yeah, we're already two outs, and we only have to face at least four batters..."
Amidst the discussion and the circle of concerned eyes in front of him, Kōshū breathed out gently.
"What's wrong? It's just an out count."
Kuramochi and Maezono, as vice-captains, had heard some rumors at yesterday's meeting that Kōshū couldn't find the feeling of pitching.
"Be safe, we will be on guard behind you." Kuramochi thought about the words and just said words of encouragement.
"You are the ones, please don't worry about me as the trump card, okay?" Everyone frowned, as if they were afraid that others wouldn't know that you were worried. Miyuki was very quiet in a group of people. Before leaving, he patted Kōshū's chest and said, "Remember the feeling of pitching yesterday."
Then he returned to Home Plate, thought for a moment, and placed his gloves in the position of Outside Low Corner. How Kōshū is doing on the court and the performance of the remaining four outs will directly affect Kataoka Manager's arrangements for Inajitsu Match tomorrow.
The opposing pitcher certainly understood the catcher's probing intentions and did not feel distrusted.
"Huh..." He thought again about how to relax his body and spread his attention throughout his body.
The muscles relaxed from top to bottom, and then tightened again as the pitcher suddenly stepped out.
'Coming! ' The batter's eyes on the opposite side realized that the white ball was coming, and focused on the ball entering the base.
"Pop -" The baseball that rushed into the glove made a clear sound in his ears.
'Sure enough, it's No. 1. This pitcher's pitch is, how should I put it, very powerful. '
"Bad ball!" Of course, this ball is slightly worse to reach Strike Zone.
Miyuki nodded sharply and threw the ball back, but he was thinking about another thing in his mind, 'The one I just compared with Outside Corner Ball was hitting Strike Zone, and it actually went outside and low. '
"Huh——" Kōshū took a deep breath again on Pitcher's Mound, only half a month away from the competition, "Hurry up and adapt, Feeling of the Game!" '
On the second ball, the glove was too high on the inside corner.
"Bump--" The batter was forced to give up the idea of observing two more balls because of the baseball rushing towards his face.
"Hiss--" It was probably a problem with the angle of the hitting point, and the vibration of the bat was particularly obvious, "How much effort did this guy use to throw the ball!" '
Another high inside corner lob, the batter was tricked out of the bat, and Fly Ball was out.
"Three out! Change sides!"