A Pitch That Couldn't Be Used

"Then let's start with a Fast Changeup," Miyuki said to the ready Sawamura.

The Fast Changeup used a Five-Finger Grip, so it should have been the easiest pitch to throw relaxed.

Miyuki hoped they could get off to a good start and guide Sawamura into form.

Everyone watched him with smiles and expectant expressions.

No, Maezono alone stared resentfully at Isashiki-senpai, like an abandoned wife nursing a grudge.

To Maezono, Jun-san's actions did carry a sense of having cast him aside.

"Fwoosh!"

Sawamura took a deep breath, raised his arm high, and flashed his signature goofy grin.

If there had been special effects, Sendou felt certain that little flowers would have been blooming all around Sawamura.

"Phew!"

"Whoosh!"

"Smack!"

The instant the ball entered the mitt, the upperclassmen's expressions changed.

The anticipation vanished from their faces and eyes, replaced by stern seriousness.

If Sendou had not seen it so clearly just now, he would have suspected that he had imagined it.

"Yeah! That's it, the Quirk Ball!" Gossip Tetsu was unexpectedly the first to ridicule him.

"Not a clean or pretty fastball at all!" Kadota-senpai, whose presence had recently shot up, added.

"A filthy fastball!"

"You actually managed to throw that with an eagle-claw grip, Sawamura-chan!" Even Pudding-senpai could not hold back any longer.

Sendou maliciously guessed that Pudding-senpai was getting revenge for all the pudding Sawamura usually stole, as well as for forgetting him just now.

Though that was impossible...

Sawamura, bombarded by the upperclassmen's comments, looked as though he had been struck by a barrage of arrows.

Sweating profusely after being roasted, Sawamura stared blankly ahead.

"Want to try the cutter next?" Miyuki, finding this rather amusing, named the next pitch.

The cutter was also one of Sawamura's proudest pitches.

After all, in a sense, it had replaced