"Bzzz... bzzz..." With no phone to play with, and the person beside him sleeping so soundly, Kōshū, who had barely exercised at all today, fell asleep as well. By the time they reached Seido and he picked up his phone again, there were more than fifty messages waiting for him, all harsh words from the Inajitsu Ace. Kōshū eagerly read through them twice before typing a single character at the end: "Read."
He would get to meet Narumiya Senior again this year. Just thinking about it was exciting. To the Kōshū of the past, that senior had seemed so towering and untouchable that he had needed to humble himself to dig up information on his pitches. But after beating him so many times, the results spoke for themselves, and much of his fear of that senior had faded as well.
We're a team with a relay pitching strategy. So what if Inajitsu has an ace left-hander? There are plenty of ways to reasonably wear down a pitcher during a game.
Seido's next game was already six days away. Over those six days, Kōshū needed to recover quickly enough that the coach would feel at ease putting him on the mound.
At the Bullpen on April 7, as usual, many people had gathered around with cameras and recording equipment to report on Seido's pitchers.
"Nice ball! That pitch had a lot of power."
Over the past few days, Miyuki had been conducting intensive pitching practice with Kōshū, testing pitching strategy options for all kinds of situations.
Naturally, they started with power hitters like Yakushi Todoroki Raichi. Batters like him were also the type pitchers hated most. No matter what location or pitch they threw, as long as the batter felt he could hit it, he could send it flying.
That was