Morikawa felt Su Qing's presence change in an instant. Earlier, Su Qing had stood in the batter's box casually, with none of the hunger to win. He was completely different from Inashiro's other batters. Even with a huge lead, the rest of Inashiro's batters still wanted hits and swung aggressively.
But Su Qing had given Morikawa the impression that he was not aggressive at all. On the first pitch, neither Su Qing's body nor bat had moved. Only his eyes had shifted. On the second pitch, he had waited quite a while before swinging.
Still, Su Qing's swing speed was truly fast. The ball had only just started dropping when Su Qing's bat was already level with it, faster than any batter Morikawa had ever seen.
If the previous Su Qing had kept himself restrained and only released his presence at the instant of his swing, then the current Su Qing had completely unleashed it. His aura was overwhelming!
Kobayashi was still immersed in the delight of making Su Qing swing and miss. Since he was some distance from Su Qing, he did not feel the suddenly blazing presence around him. He only felt that Su Qing's gaze had suddenly turned colder.
Kobayashi looked at Morikawa, but Morikawa did not give him a signal for a long time, leaving him puzzled. Then he saw Morikawa stand up and ask the umpire for a timeout, which filled Kobayashi with questions. Morikawa had not called timeout when he was so nervous earlier, so why call one now that he had finally loosened up?
Morikawa had called timeout to interrupt Su Qing's momentum. It was experience he had gained over years as a catcher facing powerful batters. Once he sensed that kind of presence, it meant the batter had entered a serious mode. If they continued pitching without regard for it, there was a high chance they would get blasted out!
So Morikawa hurriedly called timeout, but he did not tell Kobayashi that Su Qing had gone berserk. Kobayashi was a very timid pitcher. If Morikawa told him, the morale he had finally recovered would likely plummet again. Then, even if Su Qing's momentum faded, they would still be in trouble.
After discussing what to pitch next with Kobayashi, Morikawa walked off the mound.
When Morikawa squatted behind home plate again, he discovered that Su Qing's presence had not dissipated because of the sudden timeout. It was still terrifying.
But there was no turning back now. It was the final out, and no matter what, they had to fight for it. Walking him was out of the question. At worst, they would ignore Su Qing and protect home plate directly. So this ball absolutely could not become a Home Run!
Morikawa gave the sign. This time, Kobayashi did not hesitate. He nodded and threw the ball.
Waiting to receive it, Morikawa saw Su Qing's left foot stomp forward sharply, and his entire body moved with it.
Morikawa's entire body tensed. He had a feeling that this pitch was going to be hit! How could that be? The pitch he had called was clearly supposed to be a ball!
Su Qing seemed to see his confusion and said something just as his bat was about to touch the baseball.
"Too low."
Bang!
The baseball soared into the sky once more, a scene that looked all too familiar. Morikawa tore off his mask and stood up, while Kobayashi turned around and bent over, watching the outfielders chase the flying ball until it was finally stopped by the wall.
After doing all that, Su Qing tossed away his bat, winked at Narumiya Mei, who was still standing outside the Rest Area, (*｀▽*), and then jogged out. At this point, Su Qing could not care less about whether it counted as provocation. They had provoked him first; he was only returning the favor.
After returning to the Rest Area, Su Qing pulled the unwilling Narumiya Mei into a brief celebration before sitting down.
He had barely taken a few drinks of water when it was time for Su Qing to take the field again.
Yamaoka Riku was not very reliable. He was caught out immediately.
After getting the final out, Kobayashi was not happy at all. Only after being comforted by the catcher and his teammates did he return to the Rest Area in deep dejection.
Su Qing, on the other hand, happily ran onto the mound.
After pitching this inning, he could clock out!
Was there anything happier than getting off work? No!
Unlike the cheerful Su Qing, Shin Kō's coach gathered all the batters together. The atmosphere was extremely serious. No matter what, they had to score a run this inning. Being down 16–0 was simply too humiliating! They were, after all, the runner-up team of the Saitama Autumn Tournament. If the game ended with that score, the folks back home would definitely tear them apart.
But ideals were plump while reality was skinny. Su Qing struck out all three batters again in nine pitches and clocked out. Until the very end, not a single Shin Kō batter could catch up to Su Qing's fastball, much less hit it.
Thus, Fujita became Shin Kō's true winner for the entire game, the only batter Su Qing had not struck out.
After recording the final strikeout, Su Qing wanted to go back and pack his things, but Harada grabbed him.
Su Qing was dragged to the very front of the team. This time, he did not embarrass himself. After the air-raid siren sounded, he obediently took off his cap and bowed.
"Thank you for the game!"
Shin Kō's players looked rather unhappy, but in the end, they had simply been outmatched, so there was nothing to say. Besides, the Kanto Tournament was not the Summer Tournament. Soon enough, Shin Kō's players happily began chatting with Inashiro's players. Only Su Qing and Narumiya Mei had no one approaching them.
After all, Su Qing and Narumiya Mei had thoroughly crushed every Shin Kō batter. Who would come over and talk to those two? That would just be asking for trouble.
The chatting did not last long before both sides headed out. After all, someone else would be using the field soon, and they could not hold things up for too long.
After Su Qing returned and packed his luggage, he went to find Inashiro's manager and coach.
"What is it? Do you need something?"
Coach Kunimoto thought, I had not even gone looking for him, and Su Qing came right to me. Since the players were packing their bags, this was a good time to have a chat.
"I want to go outside the field and retrieve the ball I hit earlier. It was a Home Run in my first high school plate appearance, so I want to keep the ball as a memento."
"I see. I'll have someone go with you."
Coach Kunimoto was not an unreasonable man. He immediately agreed to Su Qing's request to retrieve the baseball and called Yamagami over to accompany him.
Narumiya Mei wanted to come along after hearing that, so what had originally been a two-person group quickly grew to six. Narumiya Mei, Shirakawa, Harada, and Carlos all joined them.
They handed their bags to teammates who were not going, asking them to carry the bags onto the bus, then accompanied Su Qing to look for the ball. This left the reporters who had specifically rushed to the vicinity of Inashiro's bus to interview Su Qing and Narumiya Mei completely empty-handed. They could only interview Coach Kunimoto.
Coach Kunimoto, however, was an old fox who deflected every question with ease, making the reporters grit their teeth in frustration.
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