How to Deal with Su Qing

Su Qing truly sympathized with Sanada Shunpei. At first, Su Qing had also used that pitching motion, only realizing after getting injured that it put too much strain on his feet. Although he had adjusted in time, the root of the problem had already been planted. After that, he kept ending up on the injured list, turning himself into a glass cannon. If he had not been genuinely fierce when healthy and helped the team secure several crucial victories,

he probably would have been kicked out before even getting a third contract. So he truly felt especially sorry for Sanada. A pitching motion could absolutely be changed! After changing his own pitching motion in his previous life, he had initially felt somewhat uncomfortable and his performance had declined, but he quickly recovered. The main reason he lost velocity was that he had not recovered well after TJ surgery, compounded by his age catching up to him.

Sanada was suffering this badly only because he had not met an excellent pitching coach. Then again, Yakushi's previous coach had no reputation, and Todoroki Raizo had been a batter himself, so it was difficult for him to offer Sanada much help.

But Todoroki Raizo had played professionally, hadn't he? Could he really not have a few close professional friends? Ones who knew how to pitch? If he did not even have that, then Coach Todoroki had really done terribly for himself.

Su Qing did not know much about NPB salaries, but Todoroki Raizo had been a professional player. He only had one son, making them a family of three. Even Minor League players could afford that much, right? Still, he remembered that the Todoroki family was supposed to be especially poor.

But if they were poor enough to be poor yet could still play baseball, that meant they had some money. Baseball was not a cheap sport. Gloves, bats, cleats, tape, and so on—none of those came free.

Little League was even more expensive. "Poor scholars, rich warriors" was not just something people said. As a monster-level batter, Todoroki Raichi probably ate several million yen's worth of food by himself. In any case, Su Qing and Narumiya Mei's nutritional meals had already cost 300,000 yen this month.

But this was an anime world, so the author made the rules. Todoroki Raizo simply did not have a friend who could help Sanada alter his pitching motion, while Todoroki Raichi could become a monster batter entirely through his own efforts. It was just that unreasonable.

"Why do you care?"

"Don't be so irritable. We finally met again. How can you be this irritable?"

Su Qing covered his ears with both hands. If it had not been too embarrassing, he would have wanted to say, Master, stop chanting.

"I really think you should play infielder. Why play the outfield? You're seriously wasting your talent!"

"I refuse to play infield! Bending over every day would keep me from growing taller!"

At that moment, an anime-style GIF instantly appeared in Su Qing's mind: chibi Su Qing with "Infielder, 198" above his head, and chibi Chen Xin with "Outfielder, 197" above his.

Fine!

"By the way, your foot isn't giving you any trouble this time, right?"

"My foot is great! It couldn't be better!"

"That's good. You used to miss several of the few matchups we had every year. I hope that won't happen this time."

If this were an anime, a black mark would probably have appeared over Su Qing's head again.

Su Qing stood up and said to Narumiya Mei and Harada:

"Let's go."

There was no way this conversation could continue. He was afraid that if they kept talking, he would punch Chen Xin in the face.

Harada and the others readily agreed and immediately followed Su Qing out. They had been forced to sit here for nearly half an hour. It was unbearably boring.

They could not get any useful information out of Miyuki and Chris! The two old schemers started changing the subject whenever anything important came up. Neither Harada nor Narumiya Mei was particularly calculating, so not only had they failed to pry out anything useful, they had even let plenty of information get pried out of them instead!

Harada roared inwardly. He hated Miyuki! How could someone be so devious?!

So Narumiya Mei and Harada left in immense relief, terrified that if they stayed any longer and the coach found out what they had said, they would be sent to sweep the field as punishment!

Chen Xin was not at all surprised by Su Qing's departure. Su Qing was simply too thin-skinned. He had clearly played infield in college too. How could someone be so thin-skinned?! Fortunately, he had switched to pitching. Otherwise, the number of times the team cleared the benches because of him every year would have skyrocketed.

Chris and Miyuki, standing beside Chen Xin, exchanged a glance. Both saw delight in the other's eyes. They had never expected to get so much information from Harada and Narumiya Mei. How had they never realized those two were so foolish before?

After Chen Xin returned from seeing Su Qing off, Miyuki hurriedly asked what the two had talked about. Chen Xin thought carefully about it. Tch, none of it could be said. Every topic involved matters related to transmigration.

Seeing Chen Xin babble nonsense in an attempt to change the subject, Miyuki casually asked about another topic he was more interested in.

"What exactly is your relationship with him?"

They had been hugging and putting their arms around each other. It was really hard not to read into it!

"We're just friends."

"Classmates?"

"No."

"Teammates?"

"Not that either."

He had never been on the same team as Su Qing.

"Then what exactly is your relationship?!"

"Just friends. We met while playing baseball. Then what's your relationship with that bun-faced pitcher from Inashiro?"

Bun-faced?

"Mei?"

"Yeah."

Miyuki fell silent. Fine, he understood.

"Do you have any information on him? Inashiro is in the same district as us, which means if we want to advance to Koshien, we have to get past Inashiro." Chris was the one who spoke.

Chen Xin knowing Su Qing was truly a pleasant surprise. No matter what, the information they gathered on the field could not compare to what they could learn from a friend.

At Chris's question, Chen Xin gave it some thought and suddenly realized that Su Qing was really difficult to deal with!

A Major League ace pitcher playing high school baseball—wouldn't that be like brutalizing children?! Su Qing himself was definitely not the problem. He and Su Qing were usually evenly matched, assuming both of them were in good form.

But Seido's other players truly did not measure up.

"I think we can hope Su Qing gets injured, or isn't in form."

???

Chris and Miyuki were full of question marks. What the hell? Was he telling them to directly give up on figuring out how to handle Su Qing?

Chen Xin had no idea what state Su Qing was currently in. Su Qing's professional career could be divided into two major phases. The first ten years had been built on velocity: a 100-mph fastball paired with a changeup, plus a sinker that was impossible to hit. He had been insanely dominant.

Even after losing his velocity, Su Qing had not collapsed. Instead, he had developed both his command and breaking pitches! In the last five years, he had become a master of command, with vicious breaking pitches to boot. He still made batters cry out in misery.

How was Chen Xin supposed to know what Su Qing relied on now? What if he had both? That would be terrifying! Just thinking about it was terrifying!

Meanwhile, among the trio heading back the way they had come, Narumiya Mei asked the same question. Su Qing gave the same answer, because there really were not any suitable words to describe it. Narumiya Mei and Harada definitely would not understand "huddling together for warmth," so he could only call them friends.