Diamond No Ace: The Strongest Hitter

Chapter 221: The Yakushi Battle (4)

"Are you serious? He threw that kind of pitch on the first ball!" Miyuki looked completely incredulous after getting out.

He truly hadn't expected the pitcher to throw the same pitch that Sendo had previously hit foul—right from the first pitch.

"And Sendo actually managed to hit that thing foul... Unbelievable! That guy is insane!" Miyuki quickly adjusted his mindset and glanced over at Sendo, who was standing on third base.

"A hitter as sharp as Miyuki… and he still missed? What was that pitch?"

Ota, the team manager, had been slow to react, but now he finally realized something was off.

From the bench, it was almost impossible to distinguish that type of breaking ball.

Chris and Coach Kataoka both had serious expressions. They still weren't sure what kind of pitch it was, but it was clear that against left-handed batters, it was exceptionally sharp.

Not just Sendo—Miyuki had been completely focused as well. And yet, both of their swings had failed. That alone proved how difficult the pitch was to hit.

"Sorry! I blew that opportunity!" Miyuki apologized after returning to the dugout.

It was a typical Japanese habit—apologizing first before discussing the details.

"What was that pitch just now?" Coach Kataoka asked sternly.

"I'm pretty sure… it was a cutter," Miyuki replied, removing his helmet.

"A… cutter? What's that, Chris-senpai?" Sawamura, as usual, made his presence known.

"A breaking ball that suddenly veers off near the batter's hands. It doesn't break as much as a slider, and its speed is nearly identical to a fastball. It's commonly called a 'cut'—one of those so-called 'quirky' pitches."

Hearing the term "quirky pitch," Sawamura was visibly shocked. He immediately realized that the opposing pitcher was a "kindred spirit."

"Not only does he have a deadly two-seam fastball, but he also has a cutter.

And now it makes sense why he keeps throwing inside pitches," thought Yuuki.

"Unlike Sawamura's naturally bizarre pitches, this guy is deliberately making the ball break," Chris added.

That statement stung Sawamura's pride.

"Interesting! A pitcher with a quirkier pitch than Sawamura, but with a higher level of refinement," his older brother teased.

"Yeah, I didn't expect him to throw it on the first pitch. And since it starts out looking like an easy pitch to hit, it's even harder to differentiate from his fastball, which already has a hittable-looking trajectory."

"But no matter how good his breaking balls are, they're useless without a solid fastball."

"A weakness is still a weakness. His fastball control is unstable, and that's the key to breaking him down. He can't rely on breaking balls for every pitch," Miyuki pointed out sharply. His time spent with Sendou had clearly sharpened his thinking.

"I bet that cocky guy on third base figured that out too. That's why he looks so relaxed. And forcing him to show his best pitch this early? That just means we'll find a way to counter it."

After saying that, Miyuki turned to look at Sendo, who remained completely at ease on third base.

Whether it was because of their lead on the scoreboard or because he had already worked out the pitcher's weakness, no one could tell.

"Hmm," Coach Kataoka nodded slightly.

Meanwhile, Haruichi was busy comforting Sawamura, who was sweating nervously.

"You have your own unique weapons! As a pitcher, you're not losing to him!"

"Now hurry up and get ready!"

Seeing how dejected Sawamura was, Miyuki—uncharacteristically—refrained from teasing him.

The next batter was Furuya, followed by the ninth batter—Sawamura himself. In all the excitement, Sawamura had completely forgotten about his turn at bat.

Realizing this, he panicked and rushed off to grab his helmet and prepare for his at-bat.

...

"Pop!"

"Strike! Batter out!"

"Yes! The runner on third is stranded!"

"So reliable! Sanada-senpai!"

"Nice pitch, Sanada!"

Sendo watched as Furuya struck out. He glanced at Sanada, who seemed to sense his gaze and turned to meet his eyes.

Then, Sendo removed his helmet and slowly walked off the field.

"As expected of Sanada-senpai!" Raichi, as usual, eagerly trailed behind Sanada, following him back to the bench like an excited puppy.

"That was unfortunate, Sendo!"

"Shake it off!"

Back on the bench, Sendo was met with words of encouragement from his teammates in the stands.

"Sorry about that, Sendo! It was a rare chance with you in scoring position." Miyuki immediately apologized.

"No big deal. You're smart, but you always overlook the details, so I didn't have high expectations to begin with."

"Even I couldn't figure it out, and I already paved the way for you, yet you still fell for it."

"I definitely didn't expect a double play on top of that." Sendo's usual sharp tongue was in full form, but Miyuki knew he didn't mean a word of it.

"Hah! I'm not as bad as you make it sound!"

"Hah! Exactly! That shameless attitude of yours is what I like!"

That wasn't a jab—it was just how smart people talked. Knowing the insult wouldn't land, Sendo said it anyway, which meant his real meaning was the opposite.

"Hah! As long as you're happy." Miyuki even threw in a mock aristocratic bow, turning the exchange into a little performance between the two.

"That bow would be perfect if you were a lady!"

"You want me to be a woman?"

"Bingo!"

Then, shifting topics, Sendo asked, "By the way, what's up? You've been making weird faces since earlier."

He was referring to the short break between Miyuki's at-bat and Furuya's.

"Hey! Even during a break, your attention is wandering, huh?"

"Instead of spacing out on the bench, why don't you focus on how to deal with that cutter?"

Miyuki wasn't sure if Sendo knew what the pitch was called, but with his intelligence, if he couldn't figure out that the cutter was the breaking ball causing trouble, he wouldn't be Sendo.

So there was no need to keep calling it "that pitch." In fact, Miyuki was secretly hoping Sendo would make a rookie mistake—like Sawamura—by asking, "Cutter? What's that?"

"Do I even need to think about it? Just aim for the fastball. If I see it again, I'll just foul it off."

Sendo's answer was flawless, completely dodging the trap Miyuki had set. That left Miyuki thoroughly disappointed.

He had really hoped—just this once—that Sendo would make a simple mistake.

After all, people should be allowed to dream.

At first, Miyuki had been excited, thinking Sendo's analysis would save him the trouble of figuring it out himself.

But the second half of Sendo's strategy? It almost made Miyuki lose his temper.

The amount of hope he had in the first half was equal to the frustration he felt in the second.

"How am I even supposed to respond to that?" Miyuki said, exasperated.

And why was he so frustrated? Because only Sendo could pull that off!

Being able to recognize the ball's movement and adjust mid-swing to foul it off—if he could do that, he wouldn't need a plan in the first place!

"Speak human language!"

With a light hop, Ryousuke gave Sendo a chop to the head.

A light hop…

"Smack!"

Shirasu, who had been warming up to be ready at any moment, also gave Sendo a swat on the backside.

"Yeah… speak human language!"

Who would've thought the usually silent Shirasu had this side to him?

He had even casually asked the freshmen what kind of music they liked back in his third year—with the same deadpan tone.

Sendo had been too focused on teasing Miyuki to realize that these two were also left-handed batters.

Ryousuke, on the other hand, usually refrained from hitting Sendou's head.

And the reason? Everyone understood.

Trying to kick up and hit him properly would just end up as a light tap…

A group of players watched with great interest as Miyuki and Sendo bickered—it had practically become a tradition at Seidou. This was their signature act, often dubbed Seidou's Specialty: a battle of wits between two sharp minds.

That being said, Miyuki had never actually won one of these exchanges...

"So, what exactly happened earlier?" Sendo, ever the gossip, asked again.

"Sawamura got hit hard by the fact that Sanada is a more refined 'quirky pitcher' than him," Miyuki answered casually.

"And then you cheered him up? That's why his expression changed right after you finished talking?" Sendo pieced it together instantly.

"Alright, time to get back on the field!" Ryousuke grinned, signaling the end of their banter. The fourth inning was about to begin, and they needed to take their positions.

"Hey, Sawamura! Don't go making weird mistakes!" Kuramochi called out with a grin—though his tone didn't sound like a warning at all.

"Three walks max! If you go over that, you're dead!" No need to guess who said that.

"We've got the lead! Pitch freely!"

"I can replace you anytime," Furuya chimed in, ever the copycat.

"With such a big lead, you shouldn't be scared anymore, right?" Sendo sighed dramatically.

"Shut up, Sendo!"

"Stick to your own pitching style, Sawamura!" Chris, as always, was gentle with his encouragement.

"Thank you! I'll do my best to live up to everyone's expectations—"

"Enough! Get on the mound already." Coach Kataoka, clearly out of patience, cut him off.

"Huh? BOSS!" Sawamura barely stopped himself from saluting on the spot.

At that moment, the third-year players from Ichidaisan High finally arrived at the stadium to watch the game.

After briefly assessing the situation, they spotted Manaka sitting with a familiar underclassman beside him.

It made sense—if that first-year had time, he would never pass up the chance to watch Sendo play.

Then, catching sight of Hirakawa—who had insisted he wasn't coming but clearly had snuck in—they strolled over to confront him.

...

The leadoff batter, Mishima, failed to adjust to Sawamura's timing and grounded out. With that, the inning was over.

A closer look at Yakushi's lineup revealed an interesting dynamic—while Raichi was the leadoff hitter, the team's original core lineup before the three first-years joined was centered around the middle of the order.

Once the lineup turned over, Raichi wasn't carrying the offense alone, especially when the batters before him weren't power hitters.

That said, Yakushi's batting lineup was anything but weak. The combination of their top-order hitters, the team's core power at the 8th and 9th spots, the three first-years, and Sanada gave them an incredibly high floor.

Aside from the three first-years and Sanada, the other players might not be on the level of You Shunshin, but they weren't far behind.

This was nothing like the weak lineups from the earlier rounds.

Bottom of the Fourth Inning

"Furuya! Since I'm replacing you in the lineup, I'll make sure to hit this one out!" Sawamura, gripping his bat in his right hand, stepped into the batter's box with overwhelming confidence.

"I'll show you! (Swing—whoosh!) I'll show you! (Swing—whoosh!) I~ (Swing—whoosh!) will show…!"

Every time he swung and missed, his teammates cringed harder. They stared at him in stunned silence, and even Sendou squinted, as if resisting the urge to cover his eyes.

"Show what, you idiot!" Sendo, completely exasperated, couldn't hold back his frustration.

"Strike! Batter out!"

Even the umpire was momentarily stunned.

Three consecutive swings, all missing by several inches—he had never seen anything like it before.

…It was kind of adorable, in a way.

"D-damn it…! So that's the cutter, huh? As expected, I can't handle it the first time I see it!"

Sawamura dramatically raised his bat as if about to smack his helmet in frustration, then stormed off the field with just as much confidence as when he had walked up to the plate.

"No! Those were all straight fastballs! And they were all in the exact same spot…!"

Yakushi's catcher, Watanabe, was speechless at Sawamura's antics. He felt… strangely reminded of his own team's cleanup hitter.

For some reason, watching Sawamura act like that made him feel secondhand embarrassment—probably because it reminded him of Raichi.

"Next time, I'll hit it!!"

But Sawamura was already lost in his own world.

He wasn't actually that clueless—he was just covering up his embarrassment, just like how Raichi always laughed off his defensive mistakes.

One had power, the other had defense. They were quite complementary… though what happens when you add one idiot to another?

"Clap, clap, clap!"

Back on the bench, Sawamura clapped his hands a few times to get everyone's attention.

"Alright, guys! Let's shake it off and give it our all!"

"Who the hell asked you to say that?!" Kuramochi was thoroughly annoyed by his ridiculous energy.

Top of the Fifth Inning

Yakushi's leadoff batter this inning was Sanada. Having just returned from an injury, he wasn't as dominant as he would be in the fall.

Coach Todoroki had instructed him to focus on observing pitches—after all, Sawamura's pitches only looked different inside the strike zone. From anywhere else, they just seemed like slow fastballs.

Even so, it only took three pitches to get him out. The seventh batter? Also down in three pitches.

The real challenge started with the eighth spot.

As mentioned before, Yakushi's lineup from the 8th batter to Raichi at leadoff was essentially an alternate version of a standard 2-3-4 combination.

Even with two outs already recorded—

"Batting eighth, shortstop, Kobayashi-kun!"

...

"Pop!"

"Strike!"

Kobayashi, remembering Coach Todoroki's instructions to observe the pitches, didn't swing at the first pitch at all.

Sawamura's gaze sharpened—it carried a strange, striking beauty.

"Nice pitch, Sawamura!"

"He's in top form! Keep going!"

"Dominate them! The batters can't time his pitches at all!"

After experiencing the first pitch, Kobayashi finally understood what his teammates had meant.

"From inside the batter's box, it really does look faster than from the side!"

But just like the previous two batters, Kobayashi had hesitated, failing to swing. Miyuki wasn't about to let that slide—he took full advantage of the opening and called for a fastball right down the middle, easily stealing another strike.

While giving feedback to the pitcher (which, in this case, meant saying a few words of praise while returning the ball), Miyuki did compliment the pitch… though inwardly, he was just thinking, It was literally right down the middle.

Miyuki wanted to capitalize on Sawamura's rhythm and quickly finish off the batter, but Kobayashi casually called for a timeout, using any excuse to adjust himself.

He understood now—it was incredibly difficult to get used to Sawamura's pitches while standing in the batter's box. He hoped this short pause would give him a chance to think of a strategy.

Meanwhile, Sawamura's energy only intensified. He kept swinging his arms in wide arcs, laughing loudly, piling the pressure on the batter.

…Even if he did look a bit ridiculous doing it.

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