Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

V6_Chapter 59: Starting Point



V6_Chapter 59: Starting Point

On the mound.

A smug smirk appeared at the corner of Narumiya’s mouth.

‘Yeah, the ball will be hit? Who would believe that!’

With two Outs, Sawamura was behind by a strike.

At this moment, the cloud hanging over Seidou’s head grew heavier.

After Sawamura was out, not only would Seidou’s offense end, but it would also mean that the connection between Seidou’s third and fourth batters had been completely severed.

In such a situation, the probability of Seidou scoring could not be said to be nonexistent, but it was certainly quite slim.

On the mound.

Narumiya Mei was in high spirits.

Even though Eijun still seemed very dangerous, the recent encounter confirmed that Narumiya’s pitching was also very effective against him.

‘Very good!’

As long as he could see the effect, Narumiya was confident he could defeat Eijun with this kind of pitching.

The game continued.

Narumiya Mei didn’t hesitate and threw his second pitch.

Roaar!

‘Here it comes!’

Down by one Strike, Eijun remained calm.

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Perhaps it was because he was in such an extraordinary state that he had no concept of tension at all.

He watched the white ball approach, a hint of confusion in his eyes.

The ball wasn’t coming fast.

Although to Eijun, it seemed slower than the previous pitch, it was clearly much faster than before.

‘Strange!’

Eijun frowned internally.

He forced his mind to stop, refusing to think too deeply.

Otherwise, overthinking could disrupt his current state.

From Sawamura Eijun’s previous performance, Narumiya Mei’s 150 km/h ball seemed too fast for him to wait for the ball to enter his range before swinging.

His batting, clearly, was not at that level. It couldn’t be compared with Tetsu-san and Raichi.

But in such an extraordinary state.

Eijun had the ability to wait for the ball to enter his range and determine its path before swinging.

Seeing the pitching break clearly, Eijun swung his bat without hesitation.

PING!

The ball, after being hit, drew a beautiful arc and finally landed out of bounds.

“FOUL!”

The light in Sawamura’s eyes grew brighter.

At that moment, he thought of nothing else, his focus solely on the pitcher’s mound, watching Narumiya Mei.

He had entered that state so deeply that nothing else mattered.

At the catcher’s position.

Tadano was feeling uneasy.

Although the outcome was almost as he had expected, Sawamura’s explosive aura was so impressive that he couldn’t ignore it.

According to his current thoughts, continuing a direct confrontation with Sawamura Eijun seemed inappropriate.

‘It felt extremely risky.’

But the situation was particularly favorable for them. With two Outs, two Strikes ahead, and the batter is completely pursued.

In this case, Tadano himself couldn’t justify avoiding a confrontation with the batter.

‘Fortunately, the count was already two Strikes ahead.’

‘The three Balls could be used flexibly.’

On the mound.

Narumiya shook his head firmly.

‘No!’

‘Against Eijun, any idea of avoidance was useless.’

‘If Eijun could be dealt with using some Balls, then his previous fame would be in vain.’

‘In this situation, taking advantage of the ball count lead, it was better to determine the outcome with one decisive pitch.’

‘Eijun clearly hadn’t fully deciphered the ball he missed before.’

In such a case, he might as well pitch again and resolve him directly.

Seeing Narumiya's spirit is so high, Tadano couldn’t reject it, as he has no logical reason to.

‘Okay, Mei-san! Let’s do this!’

With that thought, Narumiya adjusted his stance and pitched again.

Roaar!

The white ball appeared like a laser beam, instantly reaching above the home plate.

At this moment, Eijun’s state was quite miraculous.

His mind was extremely calm, yet his thoughts were highly active.

When Sawamura didn’t want to think, many things surfaced on their own.

For instance, the first pitch Narumiya threw that Sawamura didn’t understand.

That pitch felt like Narumiya’s fastest, but it shouldn’t have been.

The actual speed of that pitch was not fast at all; it could even be described as terrifyingly slow.

‘It should be a breaking ball!’

‘And it sank like a screwball.’

‘It sank even more than his previous Change-ups.’

‘The angle of break was similar to that of a forkball.’

‘His second pitch was a straight one.’

With the contrast between fast and slow, although Sawamura Eijun’s mind was calm, his body unconsciously wasn’t in sync yet.

As a result, he didn’t apply enough force during the swing, causing the baseball to fly out of bounds.

‘By adding more speed to a pitch, one pitch can almost become two completely different breaking balls!’

‘Similar to the method used by Umemiya Seiichi before.’

‘However, unlike Umemiya Seiichi, Narumiya’s method was clearly more refined.’

‘Or rather, the two were not on the same level at all.’

In such a case, it wasn’t surprising that Eijun was led astray.

Understanding everything, the third pitch also flew over.

Eijun felt his brain was exceptionally sharp. Everything seemed much easier, even the speed of the ball appeared slower in his eyes. And his body was much more agile than before.

It was incredibly miraculous.

In this state, Narumiya’s pitch became very clear to Eijun.

‘Almost identical to the first pitch.’

It was the pitch that had previously caused him to miss.

‘A different version of the Screwball.’

‘Here it comes!’

He saw every break in the baseball clearly.

Sawamura Eijun’s swing became filled with confidence.

His entire body stance opened, his teeth were gritted, the bat in his hands was swung, and he swung with all his might at the approaching baseball.

At this moment, Sawamura Eijun unleashed every bit of strength in his body.

From his toes, to his thighs, to his waist, to his arms, to his wrists.

All the strength concentrated in his two hands on the bat, gripping it firmly, and then swinging it fiercely.

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PAAAAANG!!!!!!!!

After being hit, the white ball was swept and soared away.

Eijun in the batter’s box had a relieved smile on his face.

‘It worked!!!!’

Based on his past experience, the ball should be able to fly out of the field.

Sawamura dropped his bat and prepared to run forward.

As soon as he took a step, Sawamura felt his body stagger and almost fall…

It was like he had already expended a lot of physical strength, and he was approaching his limit.

‘How could this be?’

Even though he had been pitching with all his might today and had used many breaking balls, the total number of pitches so far was not particularly high.

‘In total, it was just over sixty pitches.’

How could he be hitting his physical limit?

Eijun thought it must be an illusion, so he didn’t pay it much mind and continued running forward.

At that moment, the baseball he hit flew all the way out of the park.

“I-It’S OUT OF THE PAAAARK!!!!!!”

“A CLEAN HOME RUN!!!!”

The usually chatty commentator was, at this moment, undeniably the most excited.

“WHEN SEIDOU HIGH SCHOOL WAS ON THE BRINK OF DESPAIR, IT WAS HIM AGAIN—SAWAMURA EIJUN!!!!! HE STEPPED UP AND HIT A CLEAN HOME RUN, TYING THE SCORE!!!!”

Not only the commentator, the stands were boiling like they had seen a home run for the first time in their life.

“SEIDOU!”

“KING SEIDOU!”

“SEIDOU!”

“DEMON KING!”

“SAWAMURA!!”

“SAWAMURA!!”

“DEMON KING!”

At the bottom of the seventh inning, the game returned to the starting point.

~~~

T/N: This game is almost over!! XD

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