Chapter 271: If You Think You Can Do It—Come and Try
"OH!!!"
"YOSSHAA!!"
"Haha! Another hit!!"
Maezeno's loud voice boomed across the dugout, clear enough that even Sendo could hear it perfectly.
"If his bat didn't break, that might've been a high fly ball!"
Kanemaru—also ridiculously loud—shouted.
"As expected of that guy, he really is lucky!"
Maezeno-senpai officially acknowledged the "Lucky Boy" title.
"If he were using a metal bat, that would've been a long hit… maybe even a home run."
Hearing them, Sendo muttered quietly.
On the sidelines, Ochiai—future coach of Seidou—was tugging at his mustache, agreeing silently.
"Nice batting!!!"
Kuramochi yelled in excitement, without his usual "yah-haha!"
"This isn't luck at all! Right, Haruichi?"
Onii-san looked warmly at the blushing Kominato Haruichi on first base, raising his left arm in celebration.
"One out, runner on first—that's an ideal setup for Seidou's heart of the lineup!!"
"Beautifully done, underclassmen…"
Jun-san sighed in admiration from the on-deck circle.
"Number 3! Right fielder, Isashiki-kun!"
As the announcement echoed, Seidou's brass band immediately began playing Jun-san's cheer song.
"Jun-san! We're counting on you!"
"Just one hit! Please!"
"Jun-san!!"
"This is your chance to become a man!!!"
Sawamura, once again, was acting reckless.
"So noisy! Does Seidou not have a single quiet, cute guy on their team?"
Narumiya mentally complained, hearing Sawamura scream.
"I told you—I will turn your hopes, dreams, EVERYTHING into despair!"
Boom! Foot stomp!
Whoosh!
"Ah!"
Ping!
"Foul!"
"First pitch, high outside corner—but fouled off!!"
Second pitch!
Whoosh!
Pop!
"Ball!"
"The second pitch—a diagonal fastball! Just barely missed!"
"Lucky! If he'd swung, he was dead!"
Pop!
"Ball!"
Ping!
"Foul!"
"He's pressuring him!!!"
"He's biting down hard, Jun-san!"
The cheering from both sides now sounded like a literal war.
Ping!
"Foul!"
"Two balls, two strikes! Isashiki is fighting back with fouls!"
Once he had Isashiki in a bind, Narumiya started throwing nasty pitches.
Ping!
"Foul!"
"So persistent!"
Narumiya was starting to tire—With temperatures easily over 30°C and nearly two hours played, the heat amplified the exhaustion.
…
"He's sitting on the fastball series, huh?"
Harada began to notice something.
"If we disrupt their rhythm now…"
But remembering the earlier high changeup that got crushed, Harada fell silent.
"Ya-san, what are you hesitating for?"
Narumiya grumbled internally when Harada delayed the sign.
Though unable to read Narumiya's mind, Harada understood from his confident expression.
He finally gave the sign.
"Jun-san!"
"Hit it!"
"I—I'm telling you, we've already abandoned the changeup!"
Manager Ota's heart couldn't take this anymore.
"If they throw a changeup now… it means they still have stamina left! Our offense this inning would be in danger!"
Chris-senpai was equally tense.
"Come on! Bastard! Come on! Come on!!"
Isashiki raged internally—though in reality, he was panicking like crazy.
"Hit it, Isashiki!"
"Please, Isashiki-kun!"
Takako-senpai prayed with clasped hands.
"Please!"
Yui and Haruno also prayed.
"!"
Fumino panicked slightly, whispering Sendo's name for strength.
"Hit it out, damn you!!"
Sachiko—the tough girl who looked like a perfect match for Jun-san—was sweating nervously.
"Damn it… as much as it kills me to admit…
No matter how hard I struggle, there's a monster batter behind me. No… two monster batters."
The usually fierce-looking Jun-san let a small smile slip.
"This pitch—end him!"
"If you can do it, then show me!!"
Seeing Narumiya begin his motion, Jun-san roared internally.
Whoosh!
"Ugh! … A slider?"
Pop!
He forcefully held back his swing—eyes bloodshot.
Isashiki knew he came within a hair's breadth of getting obliterated.
"Ball!"
The umpire made the call while Harada gritted his teeth.
"Too low, outside the zone! YOSSHY YOSSHY YOSSHY!!"
Sawamura screamed.
"Oshi… oshi…"
Furuya managed two shouts before Sawamura overshadowed him with three more.
"That makes it a full count!"
"As expected from Isashiki! He saw it clearly!"
Now the pressure shifted to Inashiro's side.
Pop!
"Ball four!"
"Four-pitch walk!"
"In the end, that was my job…Captain, I'm leaving the rest to you!"
Isashiki held out his left fist toward Tetsu before jogging to first.
He wasn't fully satisfied…
But the whole stadium was cheering for him!
"Sorry! Time!"
Harada called for a timeout.
The entire infield gathered.
Clack!
Sendo placed his helmet on.
"Alright… let's go."
He murmured as he stepped out of the dugout.
"You didn't have to come over, you know."
Narumiya said tsundere-like.
"Tetsu… Narumiya's last pitch clearly tightened up because of nerves."
Jun-san thought.
"The momentum—without a doubt—is on our side."
Seidou's two "monster catchers" reached the same conclusion.
....
"Hey, relax your head a bit. You were stiff earlier."
Harada leaned in close to Narumiya's face.
Narumiya stared back with intense annoyance.
"I get it already! Your face is too close! Too big! Scary!"
"Too big!? What's that supposed to mean?!"
"It is big!"
The two stared each other down—another iconic comedic moment.
"Relax a little! The 4th and 5th hitters aren't a joke!"
"Well, I mean… the batters are under huge pressure too! Even Tetsu-san must be impatient! And that bastard after him—Sendo—must be shaking in fear!
If it's 60–40…Ah—but I'm pitching, so it's more like 80–20! No wait! Tetsu's strong, so maybe 70–30 in our favor! But Sendou's just a first-year—so that's 90–10!!"
"..."
His teammates stared, dumbfounded.
Narumiya was getting a bit inflated.
Though he talked big, they knew he never actually relaxed inside.
"See? This isn't a crisis at all! Alright, break it up! Too hot! Let's finish this inning already!"
He was impatient for the timeout to end.
"Seriously, this guy…"
Everyone laughed.
"What kind of kingly arrogance is that?"
"Well, if he weren't like this, he wouldn't be Narumiya."
"In any case—stay sharp. Tetsu is starting to catch up to your pitches. His last at-bat, he made perfect contact with your fastball. And Sendo is the same.
Though earlier he couldn't deal with your changeup and forkball. We can't throw changeups anymore…
But if we center the attack around the forkball, we can get him. Just—NO MISTAKES."
"Tch."
Narumiya accepted it internally, but refused to show it on his face.
Timeout ended.
"Number 4! First baseman, Yuuki-kun!"
"A man with his own world! If one were to compare him—he's like a star streaking across the sky!
Hit it!!! Yuuki! Yuuki! Yuuki! Yuuki!!"
"Go for it!"
"Narumiya!"
"Come to think of it… a crisis like this—
It's been a while!"
"Shut them down! Just like always!"
"We believe in our Ace! Our Ace said he's got this!"
Inashiro's defense was completely united—ready for battle.
"Three straight hitless at-bats for Seidou's cleanup!
A rare scoring chance!!! All eyes on the first pitch!!"
Whoosh!
Pop!
"First pitch—forkball! Swing and miss!!"
"STRIKE!"
....
When the ace and the clean-up hitter simultaneously clenched their teeth, Inashiro celebrated the first strike!
"Phew!"
Even someone like Tetsu-san had to steady his breathing amid this suffocating tension, trying not to get crushed by the pressure.
Only Sendo's eyes were shining with excitement—his strong heart had begun to pound again.
"He swung without hesitation! As expected, he was targeting the fastball? Then—!"
"Second pitch!"
Whoosh!
"Ugh!"
A huge-breaking slider—clearly a control miss from Narumiya.
Harada failed to catch it cleanly, but quickly covered the ball before it rolled behind him.
Seidou's eighth-inning "don't care about strikeouts, force consumption" strategy finally paid off a little. Although only a handful of players could actually take advantage of the opportunities it created.
"Hurry up and self-destruct already!" Jun-san cursed.
Because of that wild pitch, Harada and Narumiya hesitated, shaking off signs over and over.
"Don't pitch! Don't pitch! Don't pitch! Don't pitch!"
The more this kind of thing happened, the more Seidou feared a changeup. Manager Ota gritted his teeth as he turned into a human repeater.
Finally, the battery settled on a sign!
Narumiya began his pitching motion.
"Hit it out!!"
"Tetsu!"
"Tetsu-san!"
"Leader!"—that one was definitely Sawamura yelling.
"Aaaaaah!!!" Narumiya unleashed every ounce of strength he had.
Whoosh!
A full-speed diagonal fastball.
…
"Phew!"
Ping!
For a split second, every Inashiro player felt their hearts crack.
Whizz!
Thump!
"...!"
Countless people stared wide-eyed!
"OUT!"
Tetsu-san had hit the ball directly into the first baseman's glove—so fast the defense barely reacted in time.
Even Yamaoka broke into cold sweat!
If that ball had hit someone, it would've shattered whatever body part it struck!
And if it had gone to the infield instead, no one would've reacted fast enough—
At least one run would've scored.
But—!
"YO—SSHAAAA!!!"
Regardless of what happened, they finally got Tetsu-san out, and Narumiya roared like the pressure had been lifted off his shoulders!
Tetsu-san looked stunned.
At such a critical moment… had Lady Luck really smiled on Inashiro?
More than a few Seidou supporters were thinking the same thing.
"Ah!!! Nooooo!!"
Manager Ota screamed miserably.
"My turn."
Sendo said calmly.
"Inashiro's first baseman unbelievably managed to catch that ball! That makes two outs—two outs!!!"
Even the commentator sounded shocked despite trying to maintain professionalism.
"Yes! Two outs! Sendo!"
Even Sawamura was panicking, but the commentary seemed to give him a final lifeline—he whispered, almost pleadingly.
"Sendo…!!"
His whisper turned into a full-power scream!
Sawamura knew there was only one person left he could rely on.
This man had never once disappointed him.
Sawamura was slow, but not stupid—logic said that if even Tetsu got shut down, then Sendo was probably…
And even he, the usually dense one, could feel the suffocating pressure. How could Sendo not feel it…?
"Eh?"
Sawamura blinked in surprise.
Sendo… didn't seem as tense as he expected?
—
"Fifth batter! Center fielder, Sendo-kun!"
"Sendo!"
"Hit it out!"
"We're begging you!"
"Please, just get any hit! Even a simple single is fine!"
"Hey, kid! You were the one who invited me to watch this game! You'd better hit it out! If you guys get blown away like this, I absolutely won't forgive you!"
Azuma growled.
Of course, he knew these were just frustrated words—him sulking because he couldn't play.
But no matter who it was, everyone was clinging to Sendo like he was their final lifeline.
Even a double. Even a single!
If both the clean-up and the fifth batter were shut down in succession, the chain reaction would be catastrophic.
...
"Damn, that was close! That last ball was pure luck!
But at least now we've got two outs!"
"Like we said earlier—work around the forkball! Absolutely no mistakes! He's easier to deal with than Tetsu…But if we miss our spot against him, the consequences will be even worse than missing against Tetsu! Remember that hit in the first inning!"
Harada, relieved yet immediately tense again, spoke quickly.
This was the kind of pressure only Seidou's 4th and 5th hitters could create.
"That brat! I admit, before our meeting the day before yesterday, I underestimated you! To think that even in this situation, you're not showing anything close to the panic a normal first-year would! Fine—I'll acknowledge your skill. Just like I said before—prove it with baseball! But you're still far from beating us!
The ones who will win… will be Inashiro! Right here, I'll defeat you! I'll lead my team to Koshien!"
Narumiya's fighting spirit burned hotter than ever.
"If you can do it… then try. I still haven't tasted defeat."
Sendo, understanding the meaning behind Narumiya's gaze, whispered to himself.
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