18 Rising

With that fierce throw, Su Qing's body instantly became unsteady again. Fortunately, Inashiro's players were already experienced and promptly steadied him.

The umpire also signaled a double play. After Su Qing flashed Narumiya Mei a two-outs gesture, he ran back to his position. There were only two outs; the half inning was not over yet, so he still had to return to the field and play defense.

Before Yamamori's sixth batter stepped into the Batter's Box, Shirakawa walked over to Su Qing. There was something he was deeply puzzled about.

"What was up with that throw just now? Why did it feel like the ball was floating upward?"

As he spoke, Shirakawa recalled the moment he caught it. When Su Qing released the throw, he truly had not expected the ball to come in so high. It was as if the ball had risen during its flight, yet the first half of its trajectory had clearly been flat. How could it have gone up?

Su Qing immediately understood what Shirakawa meant and said to him, "It's a little complicated to explain. I'll explain it after the game ends."

Shirakawa nodded and returned to his position.

However, the final out did not require any defense. Narumiya Mei struck Kamizu out directly. The moment he saw Kamizu swing and miss, Su Qing took off running. Time to clock out, time to clock out.

Of course, he did not forget to encourage Narumiya Mei on his way off the field. This time, Narumiya Mei did not keep acting tsundere and instead replied, "You did pretty well too."

Su Qing chuckled.

Once they returned to the dugout, Shirakawa went straight to Su Qing for an explanation. The others gathered around as well, wanting to hear what Shirakawa had come to ask Su Qing about—especially Harada, who had just discovered a hidden treasure.

"The ball seemed to rise because its spin rate was too high. The rotation generated upward Magnus Force that resisted gravity, ultimately giving you the sensation that the ball was rising."

Narumiya Mei understood the relatively new term "spin rate." Su Qing had mentioned it to him before and taught him many methods to increase it. During the period when they had been working on Trajectory Synchronization, Su Qing had helped raise the spin rate of his fastball from 1,900 RPM to 2,100 RPM. He had someone test it, and everyone said his fastball had become harder to hit. Not only was it harder to time, but its Pitching Power had increased too. Without a full swing, it was difficult to even put the ball in play.

In Narumiya Mei's mind, spin rate was unquestionably synonymous with Pitching Power. Why was it related to rising now?

Harada's reaction was somewhat different. The moment Su Qing mentioned rising, he suddenly thought of someone—a Fastball pitcher much like Su Qing.

"I wonder if you watched the Kanto Tournament interviews. Seido produced a monster rookie too, a Fastball pitcher like Su Qing. What was his name again? Furuya something."

"Furuya Satoru." Su Qing answered. The moment Harada brought it up, he knew who he meant and understood why Harada had mentioned Furuya Satoru.

"Right, Furuya Satoru. Batters who faced him said his fastball felt like it rose. Is it because of this?"

At this year's Kanto Tournament, the Tokyo-based baseball media had failed to interview Su Qing, and they had not even managed to interview Narumiya Mei. They had turned that frustration into motivation and focused it all on Furuya Satoru. Several highly authoritative baseball magazines had even put him on their covers, interviewing not only him but also the batters who had faced his pitching.

"It doesn't rise. A ball can't rise. Like I said just now, it only feels as if it's rising."

Su Qing corrected Harada. As a former professional pitcher, no one understood the principle behind a rising fastball better than he did.

"The Magnus Force generated by the ball's spin does give it an upward force, but that force can never exceed gravity. It can only offset some of gravity's effect on the ball. So the ball doesn't rise—it just doesn't drop as much as before. The reason you think it rises is that your brain tricks you into believing it does."

Seeing the question marks all over everyone's faces, Su Qing could only explain further and guide them along.

"When you hit, do you wait until the ball is right by your hands before swinging, or do you swing toward where you predict the ball will arrive?"

Harada felt as though he had grasped something.

"You swing where you predict it'll go. If you wait until it's right by your hands, it's already too late."

Su Qing nodded approvingly.

"Exactly. Everyone predicts the ball's trajectory in their minds first, then swings toward the spot they predict. So when you see this kind of pitch for the first time, your brain judges that it will drop this much. But in reality, because its spin rate is so high, the Magnus Force it generates is stronger and offsets part of gravity's effect, so it only drops this much." Su Qing used his hands to indicate a two-finger distance, then a one-finger distance.

"You swing toward the spot you expected, only to find that the ball is above your bat. That's why you think it rose. In truth, it didn't. It just didn't drop to where you expected it to."

Su Qing looked helplessly at the crowd, who only half understood. He had already explained it as simply as possible, hadn't he? Still, since no one asked any questions, Su Qing continued.

"And if that pitch also has extremely high velocity, things become even more different. Greater speed means gravity has less time to act on the ball, so the distance it drops becomes even shorter. This time, it'll only drop this much." Su Qing held up half a finger's worth of distance. "It practically doesn't drop at all. But since you don't often face—or have never faced—pitches like that, your brains subconsciously think the ball rose."

"Understand?"

Everyone nodded, only half understanding.

Even if some of them did not understand, there was nothing Su Qing could do about it. If they had not learned physics properly, what could he do?

Harada felt that Su Qing had said a whole lot of nonsense. In his opinion, Su Qing only needed to say that the ball practically did not drop. There was no need to ramble on about all that other stuff. But none of that was what Harada cared about. Right now, he only cared about one thing.

"Can you throw that kind of pitch?"

Su Qing thought about it seriously. Of course he could throw it, but it was somewhat difficult. Neither his velocity nor his spin rate had reached the top level yet, so throwing a fastball with Upward Movement was quite difficult. The reason he had thrown one just now was entirely unconscious—it was uncontrollable. As a pitcher who would rely on control later in his career, he did not like that feeling of being unable to control it.

So Su Qing shook his head.

Harada was deeply disappointed by the answer, but Su Qing quickly added another sentence.

"If my velocity can reach Hundred Miles, I should be able to do it."

"Oh, that's 161 kilometers per hour."

By now, Su Qing could smoothly convert between miles and kilometers.

Everyone was stunned by Su Qing's ambition. There probably were not many people in all of Japan who could throw over 160 kilometers per hour.