Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

'A Hit!!'

Watching the bat connect with the ball, Kojima's anxious heart finally calmed down.

At the same time, he was finally convinced of one thing.

'It turned out that Sawamura Eijun's pitches were not impossible to hit.'

The joy in his heart was reflected on his face, making Kojima appear radiant.

The small ball landed just behind the pitcher and was about to fly out.

Kojima was even more thrilled.

What he initially thought was a simple hit now seemed to be something more.

He didn't just make contact with the ball; the baseball flew off nicely.

It seemed like he had a good chance of getting a hit.

The first time he faced the Maou, Sawamura Eijun, he managed to get a hit. While there were other batters in the country who had achieved similar performances, they were certainly few and far between.

Moreover, each of those batters was a famous star player nationwide.

Could it be that he was about to reach that level?

Kojima felt as if his body was starting to float as if he was about to soar with the wind.

"Hyaa-ha-haa!!"

At that moment, a figure suddenly appeared, pulling Kojima back from the brink of soaring.

That figure, of course, was Kuramochi.

He darted forward in a single stride, skillfully catching the small ball in his mitt, and without hesitation, passed it to first base.

Snap!

"OUT!!!"

Such a perfect play naturally drew a lot of praise.

"That fielder's range is incredibly wide!"

"As expected of Seidou's cheetah!"

"That ball—if it hadn't been caught, it would probably have gone to the outfield!"

"Nice job, Kuramochi!"

A good performance deserves praise.

Sawamura also turned around and gave a thumbs-up.

Kuramochi returned the gesture with a thumbs-up as well.

The players shared a mutual understanding, and their coordination was seamless.

This put enormous pressure on the opponents.

Kojima reluctantly returned to his own dugout.

He couldn't understand why Kuramochi's range was so wide.

Even if Kuramochi was fast, how could he have gotten to the ball in such a short time? Kuramochi shouldn't have been able to cover nearly ten meters in that little time.

It was truly baffling.

Kojima sulked, not understanding why he was so frustrated.

Beside him, Matt's eyes glimmered with intelligence.

The surrounding audience was discussing how Kuramochi had been able to catch the ball purely by coincidence.

'But how could there be so many coincidences?'

Matt never believed in coincidences. Just now, he had caught a detail with his telescope.

A detail that even he found hard to believe.

'However, when combined with the positioning Kuramochi had just taken before moving to the side...'

That detail became very interesting.

'Together with the earlier defensive shift...'

The fog blocking his eyes seemed to gradually lift.

Revealing the true nature of the mountain.

'Excellent, I wanted to see what the true face of this mountain was."

The game continued, and the second batter was Tanaka.

From the information gathered during the previous game, his role should be similar to Kominato Haruichi.

But Tanaka was 180 cm tall and looked very muscular.

He didn't resemble Kominato Haruichi, who was more of a technique-based batter.

There was so little information that it was hard to make a definitive judgment.

For this, Sawamura was helpless.

All he could do was continue targeting the opponent's potential weaknesses.

A player's physique, batting stance, and posture while waiting for the pitch...

To some extent, these characteristics reveal a batter's style.

In this situation, Sawamura placed a lot of trust in his partner's judgment.

Miyuki wouldn't disappoint Sawamura and quickly gave a signal.

'Inside corner!'

This was the weakness Miyuki had identified.

Sawamura didn't hold back and continued to throw the ball toward the inside corner.

Since Sawamura was a left-handed pitcher, his inside corner pitches had the greatest break.

It wasn't easy to hit such a pitch.

Not to mention that Tanaka wasn't good at handling inside corner pitches.

Although Tanaka thought he had hidden his weakness well, that no one would know about it...

The Seidou High School battery duo seemed to see through him completely, repeatedly throwing inside corner pitches.

"STRIKE!"

"STRIKE!!"

At first, Tanaka tried to be patient, but once the count reached two strikes, he couldn't hold back anymore.

He had no choice but to swing.

At that point, even if he was foolish, he understood that the opponent was attacking his weakness.

Although he didn't know how his weakness was leaked, the facts spoke for themselves.

The ball kept coming in on the inside corner.

In order not to be led by the nose, Tanaka mustered his courage and swung at the inside corner pitch.

But the result was nothing short of tragic.

The small ball didn't appear on the inside corner, but instead on the outside corner, exactly where Tanaka had been hoping for.

'NOOOOO!!!'

At that moment, Tanaka felt his spirit crumbling.

The rest was tragedy.

"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!"

Two Outs with no hits and the second batter struck out.

Regardless of the battle's process, the result was clear—Sawamura's title was still very much qualified.

"SAWAMURA!!"

"SAWAMURA!"

"DEMON KING!"

The fans in the stands, supporting Seidou High School, excitedly shouted Sawamura's name or his nickname.

This unintentionally boosted Sawamura's momentum.

He now truly looked like the real Maou.

The game continued, and the third batter stepping into the Batter's Box was Shonan High School's Ace pitcher Nigima.

In fact, Sawamura didn't find any overwhelming talent in this pitcher.

From the perspective of raw talent, Nigima didn't belong to the top pitchers in the country.

But he had the strength of one of the top pitchers in the country.

This was an incredible thing, yet at the same time, very reasonable.

In the end, he proved his thoughts with his pitching.

Three Breaking balls in a row solved the batter in front of him.

"STRIKE!"

"STRIKE!!"

"STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!"

At this point, Sawamura had easily achieved three Outs and completed their defensive half of the inning.

The opponent's once radiant momentum was abruptly halted.

Next, it was Seidou's turn to attack.

The players were already rubbing their hands together, eager to get started.

"Hyaa-ha-haa!"

The first to stand in the Batter's Box was, naturally, Seidou High School's leadoff batter, Kuramochi.

He is the offensive engine of Seidou High School. Once on base, Seidou's chances of scoring in the first inning will greatly increase.

In particular, his recent strength has been growing rapidly, so much so that it's not an exaggeration to say he has made tremendous progress.

Everyone was looking forward to his performance from the start. In the stands, besides the unified cheers for Seidou, Kuramochi's name could also be heard.

But nothing around him could affect Kuramochi's focus in the Batter's Box.

In these short six months, he has matured a great deal. Especially in the past two months, it felt like he had aged several years.

Now, he no longer loses his bearings because of a few words of praise from others. He knows very well that everything else is false; only his own strength is real.

As long as he can perform well, his success will come.

If there is one regret from his high school years, it would be not having a good girlfriend.

Everything else, Kuramochi has no regrets about.

His next goal is to focus entirely on working towards professional baseball.

Although his academic performance is slightly better than that of Isashiki Jun, it's not by much. If he were to follow the usual steps to find a job, it would just be like that.

In comparison, playing baseball is the most promising option.

Not to mention that he loves baseball very much. Even if he weren't particularly passionate about it, he would still view baseball as a job for the sake of his future.

This is the best choice for Kuramochi at this stage of his life.

In the Batter's Box, Kuramochi's eyes were locked on his opponent, unblinking.

He was very aware that the pitcher in front of him was not an ordinary opponent.

Not long ago, Seidou High School had played a practice game against another team from Kanagawa. That is Tobuyasu High School.

Although that school's overall strength wasn't very strong, it left a deep impression on the players of Seidou High School.

Especially their Ace, Senzo Shiki.

He was a very good pitcher.

Such a pitcher, when facing Shonan High School, was completely helpless.

This is why the players of Seidou High School remained cautious.

'We need to carefully watch what kind of tricks this Shonan High School has up their sleeve.'

Kuramochi looked at the pitcher, Nigima Aota, on the mound and, at the same time, kept an eye on the actions of the other fielders with his peripheral vision.

He noticed something very strange: the infielders of Shonan High School didn't move forward despite him being the batter.

Considering Kuramochi's speed, this was almost a death wish for the opponent.

'Should I go for it?'

In Kuramochi's mind, two little boys appeared. One had angel wings, and the other held a trident fork.

The boy with the fork kept encouraging Kuramochi to steal the base.

The boy with angel wings, on the other hand, advised caution.

'If something is off, there must be something fishy.'

Shonan High School isn't a weak team, and Kuramochi found it hard to believe that they would have no awareness of his speed.

Yet, the way they were set up felt like two bundles of money left on the side of the road.

If he didn't pick up the money, it would feel like a waste.

Kuramochi instinctively believed the boy with angel wings was right. He should be cautious and at least observe one pitch before deciding.

But he wasn't the type to listen to the angel.

The boy with the trident fork gained the upper hand. As the pitch flew towards him, Kuramochi decided to go for a bunt.

Kuramochi wasn't Carlos, and he never agonized over how to get on base. No matter the method, as long as he could reach base and continue his at-bat, it was a victory for him!

As Kuramochi leaned down to execute the bunt, he noticed something strange out of the corner of his eye. The Shonan infielders were charging forward desperately.

'Wasn't it a bit too late to be rushing forward now?'

A cold smile appeared on Kuramochi's lips as if he were a demon pushing someone into an abyss.

Ping!

The bat struck the ball, and Kuramochi immediately let go of his bat and sprinted toward first base.

However, the ball he had bunted seemed to rebound faster than he expected—much faster than Kuramochi had originally imagined.

Snap!

The third baseman, who had charged forward, managed to catch the ball. Without even standing up straight, he threw the ball directly to first base.

Snap!

Kuramochi, like a cheetah, and the ball, like a sharp arrow, reached first base almost simultaneously.

It was hard to tell with the naked eye who had reached first base first.

Kuramochi and Shonan's first baseman both furrowed their brows, looking at the umpire on the first base side.

After some hesitation, the umpire finally made his call...

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