The bat in Sawamura's hands swept past the incoming baseball.
Neither made contact with the other.
The ball continued straight into the glove of Shirin Junior High's catcher.
"Strike!"
"Hehe! Sorry about that! It's been so long since I last swung a bat that my body's practically gone rusty!"
Sawamura offered his outrageous excuse without the slightest hint of embarrassment.
Judging from his expression, he wasn't remotely ashamed of himself.
By this point, Shirin's pitcher, Miki, was beginning to lose his temper.
And to think he'd actually regarded Sawamura as a potentially formidable opponent!
As it turned out, the fellow was nothing more than an empty shell who looked impressive on the outside.
After that first exchange, Miki became considerably more relaxed on the mound.
"Strike!"
"Strike!"
"Strike three! You're out!"
Sawamura had been struck out.
"There's an old Chinese saying that failure is the mother of success! Well, lads, at least we've managed to find the mother first!"
After returning to Akagi's dugout following his strikeout, Sawamura shamelessly delivered this declaration.
Unfortunately, the moment those words left his mouth, his teammates responded with a chorus of merciless ridicule.
"If you're supposed to be our ace, then start acting like one!"
"That was absolutely embarrassing!"
"If even our captain is this hopeless, what chance do the rest of us have?"
…
However, something rather remarkable happened.
As the members of Akagi concentrated on making fun of Sawamura, the nervousness that had previously overwhelmed them gradually disappeared.
Without even realising it, they began to relax.
The match continued.
"Strike!"
"Strike!"
"Strike three! You're out!"
After all, Akagi's players had only been learning baseball for a very short time.
Facing pitches travelling at 110 kilometres per hour was still an extremely difficult challenge for them.
Following Sawamura's strikeout, two more Akagi batters suffered the same fate.
Three outs.
The sides changed places.
By this point, the morale of Shirin's second-string players had practically soared through the roof.
Just as we thought!
Akagi really is a hopelessly weak team!
They're absolute rubbish!
Still, perhaps encountering opponents like these in their very first practice match wasn't such a bad thing.
At the very least, they could use this opportunity to build their confidence.
As far as Shirin's players were concerned, that was probably the only value a weak team like Akagi could offer them.
"Let's go!"
"Swing away! Crush their pitcher!"
Thanks to Miki's excellent performance in the top of the first inning, Shirin's players were cheering with extraordinary enthusiasm.
They wanted to celebrate the first match in their newly established second-string team's history with an overwhelming victory.
Something feels a little strange…
Shirin's coach, who was serving as the home-plate umpire, couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
However, if someone had asked him to explain exactly what was bothering him, he wouldn't have been able to provide an answer.
How peculiar.
It was now the bottom of the first inning.
Shirin Junior High was on offence.
Sawamura stepped onto the pitcher's mound.
Naturally, his battery partner behind home plate was Yamaguchi Ken.
Standing on the mound, Sawamura showed absolutely no signs of being affected by his earlier strikeout.
Quite the opposite.
His eyes were practically shining with excitement.
Finally…
Finally!
I'm standing on the pitcher's mound again!
And this time, it's during an actual match!
"Phew…"
Sawamura released a long breath.
Then, quite suddenly, he turned towards the teammates positioned behind him on defence.
"I'll be letting them hit the ball, so I'm counting on you lot to handle the fielding!"
Hearing those words, the expressions of Akagi's players immediately changed.
Their captain!
The very person who had founded their baseball team!
He was entrusting such an important responsibility to them with complete sincerity.
He trusted them that much!
For some inexplicable reason, the boys suddenly felt their blood beginning to boil.
We're men, aren't we?
How could we possibly betray the trust of one of our own mates?
"Leave it to us!"
"Let them hit! We'll stop anything that comes our way!"
Their legs were still trembling slightly.
They were still frightened by the thought of a baseball hurtling towards them.
Nevertheless, the members of Akagi shouted their support with unwavering determination.
Standing behind home plate, Shirin's coach finally realised what had been bothering him.
That's it!
Just a short while earlier, Akagi's players had been so nervous that they seemed on the verge of completely falling apart.
Yet now, somehow, their tension had miraculously disappeared.
Not only that, but every single one of them was displaying an astonishing fighting spirit.
The coach turned his thoughtful gaze towards the boy standing on the pitcher's mound.
A remarkable possibility occurred to him.
Could it be…?
Did that Sawamura boy deliberately make a fool of himself earlier?
Was he trying to make his teammates laugh so they could relax and shake off the pressure?
The thought left Shirin's coach utterly astonished.
With everyone's attention fixed upon him, Sawamura finally delivered his first pitch.
Whoosh!
The baseball shot from his hand like a beam of laser light.
Fast!
That's ridiculously fast!
Shirin's batter stared in disbelief as the baseball flashed past his eyes.
His expression resembled that of someone who had just seen a ghost in broad daylight.
He looked as though he'd completely lost the will to live.
Before the match, Shirin's players had made some effort to learn about their opponents.
Akagi Junior High was nothing more than a hastily assembled team that had only recently been established.
Like most members of Shirin's second-string squad, Akagi's players were first-year students who had only just entered junior high school.
This Sawamura was no exception.
He was also a first-year student at Akagi.
A boy who had only just turned twelve!
Then how on earth can his pitches be so fast?
THWACK!
The baseball slammed into the catcher's mitt with a sharp, thunderous sound.
To Shirin's players, that sound carried an almost oppressive weight.
It wasn't simply that the pitch was fast.
The sheer power behind it was frightening as well!
With their limited experience, the young players weren't capable of accurately judging Sawamura's actual pitching speed.
However, Shirin's coach was an entirely different matter.
Having spent years involved in baseball, he possessed enough experience to make a reasonably accurate estimate.
He couldn't guarantee that his judgement was absolutely perfect.
But he was at least eighty to ninety per cent confident in his assessment.
That pitch…
It was travelling at no less than 120 kilometres per hour!
For a student who had only just entered junior high school, that wasn't merely impressive.
It was extraordinary!
Between the ages of twelve and fourteen, boys underwent one of the most rapid periods of physical development in their lives.
Consequently, there was an enormous difference in physical conditioning between first-year and third-year junior high school players.
The same was true of their strength.
Admittedly, a fastball travelling at 120 kilometres per hour wasn't particularly exceptional amongst junior high school pitchers as a whole.
Nevertheless, it was certainly above the average standard.
And that comparison mostly concerned third-year students!
As for a first-year student who could already pitch at such speeds…
Shirin's coach couldn't recall ever hearing of anyone quite like him.
One had to remember that just two months earlier, Sawamura and his teammates had still been primary school pupils!
Suddenly, an extraordinary thought crossed the coach's mind.
This boy…
There's simply no telling how far he'll go in the future!
"Strike!"
"Strike!"
"Strike three! You're out!"
"Strike!"
"Strike!"
"Strike three! You're out!"
"STRIKE THREE! BATTER OUT!"
Shirin's so-called second-string team had only been formed because too many new students had joined the baseball club.
There simply hadn't been enough room to accommodate everyone on a single team, forcing the school to establish a reserve squad.
In terms of actual ability, these players were indeed somewhat stronger than Akagi's inexperienced members.
However, the difference wasn't particularly enormous.
And Sawamura was another matter entirely.
Ever since his rebirth, Sawamura had devoted himself almost exclusively to improving his pitching speed and the power behind his pitches.
To accomplish this, he'd even temporarily sealed away his original pitching form and the natural breaking balls that had once been his greatest weapons.
Without experiencing rebirth, Sawamura would never have truly understood the importance of fastballs and pitching velocity.
But having been given another chance at life, everything was different.
No matter what happened, he was absolutely determined not to repeat the mistakes he'd made before.
What exactly is pitching velocity?
If Sawamura had to find a way to describe it, the first things that came to mind were chakra, internal energy, Haki, Nen…
All those extraordinary sources of power found in stories!
In short, without such a foundation, becoming a truly supreme master was extraordinarily difficult.
Of course, difficult didn't necessarily mean impossible.
After all, there were always unconventional pitchers who relied on unusual weapons, such as the knuckleball.
But once a pitcher possessed that fundamental power, everything changed.
It was like a martial arts master with overwhelming internal energy.
Even an ordinary flower petal or a fallen leaf could become a deadly weapon in such a master's hands.
The same principle applied to pitching.
Even an ordinary breaking ball could display astonishing effectiveness when backed by overwhelming velocity.
In his previous life, Sawamura had pursued the art of breaking balls to its very limits.
He'd even been rather proud of his accomplishments.
At the time, he'd genuinely believed that he was only a single step away from becoming a legendary superstar.
However, it wasn't until he finally reached Major League Baseball that he discovered the harsh truth.
Against those monstrous batters who swung with everything they had, even the sharpest and most unpredictable movement on a pitch wasn't nearly as effective as he'd once imagined.
End of Chapter 005