30 Kanto Continues

"Su Qing, change your gear. Get ready to take the field."

Harada had already changed into his gear and only needed to put on his helmet. Seeing that Su Qing had not even removed his leg guards and was still chatting with Narumiya Mei about who knew what, he hurriedly reminded him...

The sparks between Su Qing and Narumiya Mei had finally faded, which naturally made Harada very happy. The rest of the team was also delighted to see it. Although everyone was curious about what the two of them were talking about, not a single person interrupted their conversation.

"Yes!"

"I'm going on now. We can keep talking when I come back off the field!"

The moment Su Qing mentioned taking the field, Narumiya Mei, who had nearly accepted him already, started sulking again.

"Hmph. Just try giving up runs and ruining my winning decision!"

"Of course not. How could I dare ruin Lord Narumiya's achievement?"

Though Su Qing said that aloud, inwardly he grumbled:

You need to pitch at least five complete innings to get the win, dude!

Su Qing had barely removed his leg guards and picked up his glove when Shirakawa was retired.

After giving Mei Cat another soothing stroke, Su Qing headed onto the field with Harada.

As he passed Coach Kunimoto, Su Qing felt that there was something strange about the way the coach looked at him.

But since Coach Kunimoto had not called for him, Su Qing certainly was not going to take the initiative to go looking for him.

In truth, after Su Qing returned to the Rest Area following his Home Run, Coach Kunimoto had wanted to have a talk with him. Unfortunately, Su Qing had been talking with Narumiya Mei the whole time. Their feud was common knowledge throughout the First String and even Inashiro. Now that the two of them were finally starting to reconcile, how could he, as their coach, interrupt at such a crucial moment?

Maybe he should wait a little longer. From the current situation, Su Qing clearly still had another plate appearance coming. If Su Qing performed brilliantly again in that at-bat, it would not be too late to talk to him then.

The instant Su Qing took the field, enormous cheers erupted from the stands. Inashiro's supporters had been completely won over by his Fastball. In their hearts, Su Qing's status was already nearly on par with Narumiya Mei's. Some of Narumiya Mei's fans even cried tears of joy.

No one understood better than they did just how difficult things had been for Narumiya Mei. Ever since his first year, nearly all of Inashiro's games had basically been entrusted to him as the starting pitcher. The previous Spring Koshien had been even more extreme—he had pitched complete games in virtually every match. Unless Inashiro held an overwhelming lead, it was as though the team had brought only Narumiya Mei as a pitcher.

Watching Narumiya Mei rack up strikeout after strikeout at Koshien made them both happy and heartbroken. Alongside those strikeouts came the sweat constantly beading on his forehead, as well as the rosin bag that had been replaced who knew how many times.

Su Qing's arrival, along with the strength he had displayed, would undoubtedly help Narumiya Mei.

And more importantly, Su Qing was so handsome too!

Su Qing, standing on the field, had no idea that he had already gained a few fangirls with weak resolve.

Since Shin Kō had gone Three Up, Three Down in all three innings, it was now time for the leadoff batter.

"First batter, first baseman, Fujita-kun."

Fujita Mototatsu stepped into the batter's box. He wanted to see just what his teammates had described so dramatically—a blazing fastball that moved—was actually like.

He found out very quickly. The ball shot from Su Qing's hand like an arrow, so fast that he did not notice the slightest sign of it dropping. This was absolutely the straightest Fastball he had ever seen. Yet the instant the ball entered the zone, he changed his mind.

After entering the strike zone, the ball strangely broke and slipped into the catcher's mitt. Only the batter, catcher, and home plate umpire could notice it. To everyone else, it would look like the most ordinary Fastball. The movement was simply too slight and too fast!

The sharp break startled Fujita into breaking out in a cold sweat. He finally understood why Hiraga could not swing at all and had been struck out looking.

Holy shit, who could swing at a pitch that terrifying?!

Fujita still did not swing at the second pitch. How could he dare swing before figuring out the movement? Swinging would just be blind flailing. It was better to watch first and determine whether the break was fixed or intentional, as well as how large its range could be.

After seeing the second pitch, Fujita felt even more powerless. He had the best batting eye on the team. With ordinary pitchers, he could even see the logo on the ball. Even against Ueda's pitches, he could see clearly as long as he concentrated.

But he could not see Su Qing's pitches clearly at all. He could only see the ball coming, then changing freely within the strike zone. Freely—yes, freely. This pitch had moved differently from the previous one, and by an even larger amount. The only thing they shared was that both had been precisely stuffed into the corners.

Fujita wanted nothing more than to throw his bat to the ground and yell, Fuck this! That kind of movement is controllable?! What am I supposed to hit?! As long as the catcher was smart enough, he could toy with batters in the palm of his hand.

Wait!

Fujita felt like he had found a way out. He quickly stepped back out of the batter's box, refusing to give Inashiro's battery a chance to press their advantage.

That was right! This pitcher's control was accurate, but he followed the catcher's lead the entire time. If he guessed the catcher's pitch selection correctly, then wouldn't that mean...?

Hehe. Fujita immediately stopped panicking. This would not work against Ueda from his own team. Sometimes Ueda's pitches floated so wildly that even Morikawa could not catch them. But it could work against someone like Su Qing, whose control was especially precise.

Fujita stepped back into the batter's box. The previous pitch had been low and away, so he bet that the opposing catcher would call for low and inside this time!

Why not high and inside? Fujita had his reasons. No one could hit Su Qing's pitches right now, so there was no point in forcibly working diagonally across the zone. If the batter could not even hit the ball, why bother trying to mess with his head by going corner to corner?

Besides, high and inside was a somewhat dangerous location. If Su Qing lost hold of one and hit a batter, his velocity could cause serious trouble. While watching Su Qing pitch from the dugout earlier, Fujita had noticed that Su Qing threw very few inside pitches—only two.

Low pitches, on the other hand, were extremely common. There had been a full six of them! Fujita could understand why. Low pitches were indeed hard to hit, and catchers these days generally wanted pitchers to keep the ball as low as possible.

So Fujita sat on low and away for this pitch.

Su Qing's velocity was simply too fast, so Fujita started his swing early. His bat swept toward the low outside corner. As he swung, he happened to see the baseball still flying through the air—low and away!

He had guessed right!

On the mound, Su Qing was pulled off balance by his follow-through. He also noticed Fujita swinging early toward the low inside corner, and alarm bells immediately rang in his mind.

He hurriedly shouted:

"Kamiya-san! Shirakawa-san!"

Carlos and Shirakawa were a little confused at being suddenly called out, but the next instant, they saw the baseball soar high into the air.