The second semifinal in West Tokyo is underway, where the prestigious school, Sankou High, faces off against the rising underdog, Yakushi High.
The match is progressing at full speed.
At the start of the game, most of the spectators were actually not optimistic about Sankou High.
Although the game had a lot of attention, and the evaluations of both teams were fairly even, it seemed that whether one side won or lost was just a normal occurrence.
However, in the previous two encounters, Sankou High had lost to Yakushi despite having favorable situations.
This naturally made people wonder.
Could it be that Yakushi High's style is just the perfect counter to Sankou High?
Sankou High, whether it's in pitching or in the batters, is quite strong.
But their style is somewhat conventional, not like the distinctive styles of the Inashiro and Seidou High School baseball teams.
Yakushi High, on the other hand, is completely the opposite.
They have a tough and flexible style…
A random punch might strike down an experienced boxer.
Not knowing what kind of trick Yakushi High's baseball team might pull out, even a prestigious school like Sankou High might struggle to handle them.
It's not just the bystanders who think this way, even the Seidou High School baseball team is more inclined to favor Yakushi.
This isn't because of any particular sentiment toward Yakushi, it's just a gut feeling.
To put it simply, while Sankou High is strong, the Seidou High baseball team can easily overpower them.
Whether it's batting, fielding, or pitching, in all the areas where Sankou High excels, Seidou High's baseball team is equally as strong.
They would clash head-on.
Seidou High's team has absolute confidence that, in the end, they definitely won't be the ones to lose.
This is the confidence they've built over a long period of time.
On the other hand, if the opponent is Yakushi, it becomes more troublesome.
This doesn't mean that Yakushi's baseball team is really stronger than Sankou High by much.
The main reason is that Seidou High's team feels that they can't quite figure out Yakushi!
No one knows what kind of strategy this team will come up with in the end. What decisions will they make? What style will they adopt?
With everything uncertain, Seidou's team doesn't even know how to prepare when facing Yakushi's team.
Normally, they would just rely on their own strong skills to crush the opponent.
Though a bit rough, this method is simple and effective.
When their strength is overwhelming, they can definitely beat Yakushi's team.
But Yakushi's baseball team is no slouch, especially in the past six months, since returning from the spring Koshien, they've become unpredictable.
Despite all this, if Seidou High's baseball team could choose, they would actually prefer to face Sankou High.
They wouldn't want to meet Yakushi!
The troubles Seidou High faces, teams with a similar style, like Sankou High, would face too.
Looking at it this way, Yakushi's baseball team would undoubtedly have a considerable advantage in this match.
Apart from all these factors, there's one more thing to mention.
That is the personality of Sankou High's ace, Amahisa Kosei.
Normally, when someone hits a dead end and realizes a road doesn't lead anywhere, they turn around.
If this road is blocked, just take another one.
But there are some stubborn people who, even when faced with a dead end, keep ramming their heads into it.
They call it fearless, but in a negative sense, it's being pig-headed.
Don't think these people are fools; on the contrary, they are often very talented and intelligent, like Inashiro's Ace, Narumiya Mei.
When Narumiya was at his peak, he was exactly that type of person.
During his match against Sawamura, even though he took a loss, Narumiya absolutely refused to give up. He wanted to avenge that loss and wouldn't stop until he had taken down Sawamura.
That's the Tokyo Prince at the time!
After crashing into a few walls, Narumiya learned to compromise, for both the team and himself.
If it had been up to him, even if the team lost, he wouldn't have avoided a direct confrontation with Sawamura.
But the reality was harsh. If he hadn't avoided the confrontation, Inashiro's team would have lost much earlier in the game.
It was precisely because Narumiya grew and learned to compromise that they almost managed to defeat the mighty Seidou in their previous match.
To get something, you must give something up.
Sankou High's ace, Amahisa Kosei, is a different breed.
His personality is even more stubborn than Narumiya's. He's the type who, after hitting a wall, doesn't just turn around. He'll smash that wall to pieces!
As for the team's victory or defeat, he long ago set it aside.
What he loves most is enjoying the game facing off against strong opponents and becoming stronger.
With Amahisa's personality, do you think he'll give up a direct confrontation with Raichi?
Even if it's for the team, he can't do it.
This is one reason why Seidou's baseball team feels that Yakushi's baseball team has an edge.
This has become a fatal flaw for Sankou High.
But a person's personality can't change. Forcing Amahisa to Walk Raichi off might make things worse!
Once Amahisa's mentality is broken, Sankou High's players will have a much harder time stopping Yakushi High's offense.
Considering all this, even though Sankou High is a powerhouse, it's hard for people to have high hopes for them.
This isn't just the opinion of the spectators and Seidou's team. Nearly everyone who has studied Tokyo baseball would arrive at this conclusion.
In today's game, Sankou High probably has no advantage.
This is what everyone thought.
No one expected Sankou High's baseball team to make everyone eat their words.
First, Amahisa Kosei, the Ace, started strong, quickly retiring the batters in order.
Two Strikeouts and one shutout.
He completely showed the strong presence of Sankou High.
If that had been all, people would just be mildly surprised. After all, Amahisa is a top-tier pitcher, though he had some small issues at the start of games before.
Today, he's starting solidly.
As for whether he has the ability to do this? No one doubts that.
But what came next was a different story...
The reason people were confident in Yakushi's baseball team was also because of their Ace, Sanada.
While his reputation may not be as big as the Aces of the top three schools, Sanada is a player of solid strength and will.
With him on the mound, even Sankou High's formidable lineup would find it difficult to score off Yakushi.
However, no one expected...
Yakushi's baseball team gave up runs right from the start. They conceded two runs in one go.
Miyagawa and Hoshida Mamoru!
These two powerful hitters secured consecutive hits.
Sankou High was the first to score.
The score became 1-0.
Immediately after, the team's fifth batter used a hit-and-run tactic to send Hoshida back home.
The score jumped to 2-0.
"Sankou had scored first?"
"The highly favored Yakushi had already fallen behind?"
The spectators in the stands were left dumbfounded.
At this moment, they almost wanted to say:
It's not that we don't understand, it's that this world is changing too fast!
Finally, Sanada took three Outs, and the sides switched.
Yakushi's spiritual pillar, Raichi, came up to bat.
Everyone had expected him to hit a home run, or at least a base hit to help his team get back into the game.
But unexpectedly, Amahisa unveiled his new pitch.
It wasn't exactly new, but he added a small variation to his original sharp-breaking Slider.
The difference, however, was enough to cause two results.
Raichi, swinging with all his might, aimed for a home run.
But after making contact, the ball didn't lift. Instead, it dropped straight down and bounced.
Snap!
Amahisa, on the mound, calmly caught the ball and threw it to first base.
"OUT!"
Raichi was out, leaving behind a dejected back.
At this point, the game entered a silent period.
The feeling was strange. Could it be that all their previous assumptions were wrong?
A powerhouse is still a powerhouse.
Although Yakushi High can be unpredictable when facing Sankou High...
They may have just met their nemesis.
In the stands, Seidou High's teammates exchanged glances.
The changes in the game were completely unexpected.
Miyuki adjusted his glasses and, after a brief hesitation, said:
"Sanada's condition doesn't seem right."
Sawamura nodded. "Yeah, Sanada-san is injured."
The fiery spring Koshien saw Yakushi's baseball team make a name for itself.
Their first time participating in the spring Koshien, they made it to the quarterfinals.
While their performance may not have been as glamorous as the other two teams from the same region...
As a first-time Koshien participant, Yakushi was exceptional.
They made fans go crazy, and Yakushi's name spread to every fan's ear.
Although they lost in the semifinals, there's no denying that...
The biggest winners of that spring Koshien were the three teams from West Tokyo.
The champion Seidou High completed the spring and summer double championship.
Tokyo's Prince Narumiya led Inashiro to the finals, finishing second in Koshien.
This was a result that made Inashiro proud.
Then there's Yakushi.
As the strongest Dark Horse, their attention was massive. Even when compared to the other teams in the semifinals, they held their ground.
With three teams from West Tokyo making it to the top eight, Yakushi soared to fame.
Raichi, especially, gained national attention for being such a rare talent.
It's no surprise that he became famous!
Without a doubt, Yakushi's baseball team made huge strides during that spring Koshien.
But such big gains didn't come without cost.
Sanada's injury was one of them.
Sawamura knew about this injury for a while but didn't expect it to be so severe.
Looking at his recent pitching, even his basic pitch speed was affected.
"Though I don't want to say it, it looks like our final opponents should be Sankou," Sawamura analyzed.
But none of Seidou's teammates were in the mood to listen to this.
They all gathered around Sawamura, staring at him with wide eyes, curious how Sawamura knew about Sanada's injury.
Miyuki paused.
He suddenly remembered what Sawamura had told him before.
Sawamura had said:
'He saw it with his own eyes!'
This was when Sawamura hit Mei's Splitter.
Sawamura wasn't guessing; he saw it himself.
Because he saw Narumiya's Splitter, he was able to hit it.
But the problem was, that Narumiya's pitch speed was 150 km/h, and it only took 0.3 seconds for the ball to go from the pitcher's mound to the catcher's Mitt.
The human eye takes 0.2 seconds to process what it sees, and then another 0.2 seconds to send it to the brain and respond.
How could Sawamura possibly see the ball and make a judgment in just 0.1 seconds?
That was why Miyuki didn't believe Sawamura, and he was sure his reasoning was sound.
Sawamura couldn't have seen it!
But now, Miyuki couldn't help but start to doubt his judgment.
Sawamura's composure was just too convincing.
Could it be that he really did see it?
"How did you know Sanada was injured? Did you see it with your own eyes?"
Looking down from the stands, Miyuki estimated the distance.
At least 70 meters!
Could Sawamura have seen that from this distance?
Sawamura rolled his eyes. "Of course..."
Hearing that, everyone looked at him with astonishment.
"Of course not you idiots!"
"What are you guys thinking? The Maou is just a nickname, I am not a superhuman, okay! I found out from Raichi's message."
Everyone was left speechless.
As they stared at Raichi, they silently thought:
'Eh…?'
'Texts?'
'He told you something like that in your texts?'
'That kid… could he be a fool?'
Back in the rest area, Raichi didn't look too downcast.
He plopped down on a bench, pulled out two bananas from somewhere, and began eating them.
And honestly, he did look just like one big fool.
…