37, Long Time No See

Back in the Rest Area, Coach Kunimoto did not say a single word, but Su Qing shivered all over. This aura was way too cold. None of the coaches he had encountered before had been this cold.

Is this what a character from a manga feels like? Terrifying!

As expected, Su Qing was replaced by Coach Kunimoto in the next Half Inning.

Like Narumiya Mei, Su Qing muttered complaints under his breath. He had already played, so replacing him now was basically like covering his ears while stealing a bell.

Narumiya Mei had initially been gloating, but he soon could not laugh anymore either. Coach Kunimoto pulled him from the game too because he had been fooling around.

"I only threw one breaking ball, didn't I? It was to get the batter out. And you pulled me for that? So unfair."

"Shu Bei's batters didn't need you to use a Changeup against them, did they?"

Su Qing took a sip of water. What goes around comes around. Hahaha.

"Even if I don't throw it now, I'll throw it later. Seido will find out sooner or later anyway. Besides, we're both Seeded Teams, so we probably won't meet until the Semifinals. By then, it'll probably have been exposed already."

Narumiya Mei said aggrievedly.

Of course he knew what he had done was wrong, but he still wanted to find an excuse for himself.

"You can start packing up. The game should be ending soon."

It was already the Seventh Inning, and no one had any desire to keep playing. The game ended quickly afterward, with Inashiro defeating Shu Bei 12–0. That was truly an ugly score.

At the very least, Shu Bei's coach's face had turned green.

"Are we heading back to school?"

Su Qing put everything back on the bus. When he noticed everyone else had gotten off after storing their things, he asked.

"Shu Bei still has to play Seido next. We have to watch. You guys revealed so much—shouldn't we go gather some intel?"

Oh, right. Shu Bei still had a game against Seido.

Something suddenly came to Su Qing's mind! Tanba! Tanba was going to get hit by a pitch!

Su Qing could no longer remember the details. He only remembered that Tanba got hit by a pitch, causing him to miss every game until Yakushi.

It also gave Sawamura and Furuya Satoru a chance to put on relatively eye-catching performances.

So Seido handed out jersey numbers later than Inashiro. For some reason, Su Qing's focus had drifted somewhere else entirely.

Should he remind Chen Xin and have him take precautions in advance?

Su Qing hesitated. Tanba's injury would benefit Little Angel and Furuya Satoru. Without this incident, the two of them could not have grown so quickly. Just like how Chris's injury had made Miyuki.

"Hurry up, Su Su. What are you spacing out for? The game's about to start."

"Coming."

Forget it. He would decide when the time came.

Then Shirakawa led Su Qing outside the Wire Fence.

"We're watching the game from here? We're not going inside?!"

"Yeah. Where else would we watch from?"

"The Seido guys were watching from inside just now! How are we supposed to watch through a Wire Fence?!"

"They're the hosts, after all. Just bear with it. It'll be over soon."

Su Qing absolutely did not want to watch through a Wire Fence. He had the SC System. Hehehe, it really was a great tool for gathering intelligence!

After opening the SC System, Su Qing first looked around for Chen Xin. He had decided that if he saw Chen Xin, he would tell him; if he did not, then forget it.

That hit by pitch would only put Tanba out for less than two months. It was not some major injury.

Su Qing had forgotten that it was an extremely dangerous hit to the head.

After looking around without spotting him, Su Qing gave up.

Still, Tanba truly was Tanba. In an unofficial game, he was insanely fierce, striking out batter after batter. Shu Bei's players were really miserable—not only had their pitcher been beaten into doubting life, their batters were completely useless too. Miserable, miserable.

"Was that a Forkball?"

Carlos asked after Tanba struck out another batter.

The movement of that pitch had not looked like a curveball, though Tanba's curveball did have a huge break.

At Carlos's words, Su Qing hurriedly used SC to replay Tanba's grip and the pitch's trajectory.

It was an especially obvious Forkball grip, but the trajectory was indeed very good! Not only was the release point consistent with his fastball, even the trajectories had begun to converge.

Su Qing was stunned. Was it a coincidence, or had Chen Xin been up to something? No way. He had taught Narumiya Mei for nearly several months as a professional pitcher and still had not fully refined his Trajectory Synchronization. How long had Chen Xin been doing this to get results like these?

Su Qing puffed out his cheeks. He had decided—when they got back, he would definitely make Narumiya Mei work hard on his Trajectory Synchronization. He had to get it fully polished before summer began! At worst, they could sacrifice a little batting practice time.

Narumiya Mei suddenly sneezed for no apparent reason. What was going on? Had he caught a cold? How could he catch a cold in such hot weather?

The others immediately asked about Narumiya Mei's condition as well. It would not matter much if someone else caught a cold, but if Narumiya Mei caught one, that would be a serious matter. They had Su Qing now, but Narumiya Mei was still their ace. He absolutely could not get sick!

"I'm fine, I'm fine. It was just a sneeze."

"Can I stand over here?"

Su Qing, who had pretended to care but had actually been squeezed over by the others, quickly turned his head. He knew that voice all too well. It was Chen Xin.

"How come you're here? Shouldn't you be sitting in the Rest Area?"

Narumiya Mei asked. Yeah, why hadn't he noticed that Chen Xin hadn't shown up at all until now?

"Take a guess."

Chen Xin's teasing reply immediately reminded Narumiya Mei of the meeting in Seido's cafeteria earlier. But unlike before, when everyone in the cafeteria had been from Seido, everyone here was from Inashiro!

Keep acting up, kid, and I'll have someone beat you up!

Seeing that the two were about to clash, Su Qing hurriedly pulled them apart.

"I need to talk to you about something. Come with me for a moment."

Chen Xin followed Su Qing, but not before teasing Narumiya Mei one last time.

"Bye-bye~"

If Narumiya Mei had a baseball in his hand right now, he would probably have already thrown it straight at Chen Xin's face.

"What is it?"

"If I remember correctly, Tanba might get hit by a pitch from Shu Bei's pitcher this inning. And it'll be a pretty serious one. He'll need nearly two months to recover, and he won't return until either the Semifinals or the quarterfinals."

"Huh?! Where does it hit him?"

"That... I forgot too. Anyway, you just need to know that he gets hit by a pitch."

"Then at least tell me which inning! If you aren't more specific, how am I supposed to stop it?"

Making someone leave the field for no reason would be incredibly awkward, especially since Tanba was a senior and he was a junior. In Japan, where seniority and hierarchy were taken so seriously, that could be fatal.

Su Qing shook his head. He truly couldn't remember. So he could only open the Livestream, which he hadn't checked in a long time, and glance at the comments.

"Looks like it's in the top of the sixth."

"Huh! Isn't it already the sixth inning now?"

Just as Chen Xin was struck dumb, waves of shocked cries erupted from Inashiro's side.