One out, no one on base.
After Harada stepped into the batter's box, he looked out at Zhang Han on the mound.
That boy seemed destined to live in the spotlight. He didn't even need to do anything; his whole presence already radiated an immense light. The fans in the stands cheered wildly for him. Not just the devoted girls, but many neutral fans too. Without realizing it, they had become his supporters as well.
And Zhang Han wasn't even a particularly charismatic person.
Yet he had won over the neutral crowd through sheer performance alone. If Harada hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he never would have believed such a scene could unfold on a baseball field. It seemed like everyone had become Zhang Han's fan. Everyone was cheering for him.
And the team currently in the lead was Inashiro, not Seido.
Harada raised his bat. He had already made up his mind: the moment he saw the ball coming, he would swing without hesitation. No extra thoughts. Once he fell into the opponent's trap, he would never be able to unleash the full power of his swing.
He had been struck out by Kawakami earlier precisely because of overthinking. A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit. This time, he would not stumble in the same place twice.
Just concentrate on hitting the ball. He repeated it to himself. It was advice Coach Kunitomo had given him, and it was the conclusion he had reached on his own.
What Harada didn't realize was that having his head so full of that one thought was itself a form of distraction. He couldn't concentrate.
In the catcher's position, Miyuki looked at the slightly stiff Harada, and a smile nearly broke across his face.
This was truly a gift.
Inside.
Seeing Miyuki's signal, Zhang Han was surprised.
Harada was a hitting master on par with their own captain Yuuki and Ichidai Third High School's captain Omae. He had no obvious weaknesses. Pitching inside might not be his strongest zone, but it wasn't somewhere he could be easily attacked either. Going inside against Harada felt close to a direct confrontation.
After a moment's consideration, Zhang Han decided to follow Miyuki's lead. He couldn't identify any clear weakness in Harada worth targeting, and beyond that, he trusted Miyuki.
Chris, who had gradually rejoined the team's training after months of recovery, had once privately offered his assessment of Miyuki. His exact words:
"When I come back, I might not be able to reclaim my starting position."
From that one sentence, the weight of Miyuki's talent as a catcher became clear.
Chris had been known as the top catcher in Kanto during his junior baseball days. To hold that title in a region as competitive as that, the things he had accomplished were beyond what most players could imagine. And yet, after months away from the game, he wasn't even confident he could take his position back from someone a full year younger than him.
If Miyuki had a plan, Zhang Han was willing to trust it, even without knowing what it was.
Zhang Han took his stance and threw.
The burly Harada frowned as the ball came in.
The speed was fast enough.
From where he stood, the pitch was nearly on par with Narumiya Mei's. And the location was tricky.
Yoshizawa's advice had been wrong. This pitcher's level was clearly high. He would need to be careful.
Harada swung directly.
But what came out wasn't the long hit he had planned. He switched to a bunt mid-swing.
"Ping!"
The swing was uneven, without full force behind it. The ball went high into the outfield.
Zhang Han, not entirely sure why, called for his teammate anyway.
"Center fielder!"
"You don't need to direct me. I haven't reached the point where you need to worry about me."
Isashiki Jun had no interest in the help. He ran to the landing spot and caught the ball easily.
"Pop!"
"Out!"
Two outs, no one on base.
Without anyone quite noticing, the game had completely fallen into Seido's rhythm.
"We've been completely outmaneuvered, senior."
Narumiya Mei looked at Harada, openly annoyed.
Harada, for reasons he couldn't explain, had been thoroughly played by Miyuki today. In three at-bats, he had managed only one hit at the start, and that one had owed a good deal to luck. The swing itself hadn't been impressive. After that, against both Kawakami and Zhang Han, he had been struck out without much of a fight.
Harada's face was flushed. He didn't know what had happened. It was as if he had been possessed, falling into one trap after another. This catcher, a full year younger than him, was somehow harder to deal with than Chris had been.
"You be careful yourself."
Harada said it grumpily.
"Don't worry. I'll show you what a genius looks like at the plate right now."
Narumiya Mei puffed up and stepped into the batter's box.
Nearly the same pitching speed as his own? Nonsense.
His top speed was 147 km/h. That kid's fastest had been 144.5, and only once. A full 2.5 km/h separated them. That was a significant gap.
"Whoosh!"
The white ball whistled in, and before Narumiya Mei could react, the baseball had already passed him.
What just happened?
Narumiya Mei stared in disbelief.
"Strike!"
The umpire didn't wait around and announced the call.
Narumiya Mei wanted to say he hadn't been ready. But his pride wouldn't allow him to show weakness in a confrontation with Zhang Han and Miyuki. He swallowed the frustration and waited for the next pitch.
"Ping!"
"Foul…"
He made contact that time, but the ball went foul.
Then came the last pitch.
Narumiya Mei felt confident about this one. He wasn't going to swing. He knew Miyuki's tendencies inside out. With a two-strike lead, Miyuki would throw a ball outside the zone. He had done exactly that when dealing with Shirakawa and Yoshizawa.
Others might think Miyuki wouldn't try the same trick again. But this was Miyuki. That guy was rotten to the core, full of tricks from head to toe. If there was a trap to set, he would set it.
When Zhang Han began his motion, he also aimed toward the outside.
That made Narumiya Mei even more certain. He had read it correctly.
However, Zhang Han's control wasn't that precise.
The throw was off.
The white ball grazed the outer edge of the strike zone and settled into Miyuki's glove.
"Pop!"
The umpire had no way of knowing. As far as he could see, Zhang Han's control had been perfect.
"Strike!"
"No swing, strikeout!!!"
The stadium fell silent for a moment.
Then, as people began to process what had happened, it hit them. In the fog of the tense back-and-forth, they hadn't fully registered it as it unfolded.
But thinking back now: Zhang Han had successively struck out Carlos, Shirakawa Katsuyuki, Yoshizawa Hideaki, Harada Masatoshi, and Narumiya Mei. He had taken down Inashiro Industrial's core top five batters single-handedly. Not a single hit. Not a single run.
"This kid is simply defying the heavens…"
Zhang Han, having just finished the seventh inning, felt hollow inside. But to everyone watching, he was Seido's savior, surrounded by an impossible glow.
If this kept up, Seido High School Baseball Team might truly find their opening. The bottom of the seventh inning was coming, and the lineup had rotated back to Seido's upper batters.
At this moment, even the players of Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team felt that Zhang Han had become something they could no longer fully read.
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