Chapter 317: Departure
"Good grief! Fine, fine! I can't do anything about you!"
"Hahaha! As expected of my best friend! I love you!"
"Shut up! I'll go get my mitt! Wait for me at the indoor field!"
"Mhm!" Sawamura was, for once, obedient like a shiba dog.
When Sawamura started acting spoiled, he was impossible to deal with—whether you hit him, yelled at him, or reasoned with him, nothing worked…
Of course, right now he only behaved that way toward Sendo. Six years of friendship, and their families had been connected for three generations.
Sawamura treated Sendo's home like his own.
"Sigh! Seriously! They're all baseball idiots!" Sendo muttered as he headed back to the dorm.
"I'm back."
"Welcome back."
"Good evening, Watanabe-san." Sendo saw only Watanabe in the room; Miyauchi was probably training with Tanba somewhere.
"Looks like you and Harada-san got along."
"No, we ended up talking about baseball again.
That guy's also a baseball idiot." Sendo answered while rummaging.
"What are you looking for?"
"Catcher's mitt. Found it!"
"Sawamura begged you to catch for him?" Watanabe knew very well that Sendo was not the kind of guy anyone could just order around.
"Yeah, that idiot leaves me no choice."
"Don't let him throw too much. Even if we got a bye in the first round, if we go all the way, it'll get tough.
He's an important piece for us."
"Got it. I'll keep him in check. I'm heading out."
What most of the regulars—except Tetsu—didn't know was that Kataoka had been considering small adjustments to the lineup.
Not big changes, nothing that would hurt the team, but after facing Inashiro a few issues had surfaced.
For example, Kuramochi's low on-base rate. Usually Onii-san could compensate for the leadoff role, but on base they still didn't apply enough pressure.
Which meant when Tetsu came up, the situations weren't ideal.
If they had put real pressure on Inashiro every time someone got on, Tetsu's average in the final might have been higher.
…
"Hahaha! You're here!" Sawamura lit up with excitement when Sendo entered the indoor field.
There were a lot of people—mainly the pitchers—and the Kominato brothers practicing with the net.
"Hey, Sendo—are you really gonna catch for that kid?" Miyuki asked quietly.
"Yeah."
"He's been practicing a lot lately…"
"Don't worry. …Hey, Eijun! Twenty pitches max!"
"Eh? A little more!"
"I'm going back."
"Wait!!! Sendo!!! Twenty! Twenty pitches!!"
"I've changed my mind. Ten."
"Ten—! …Fine! Ten! Ten!" Sawamura agreed immediately when he saw Sendo about to walk out. With this many people around, his spoiled routine wouldn't work.
"So tsundere really is the way to handle that idiot…" Miyuki murmured.
"I heard that." Sendo said coldly.
"Ahaha—sorry sorry." Miyuki scratched his head.
"So? What pitch do you want to work on? Cutter? Diagonal fastball?"
"Low and away! Chris-senpai's specialty! As Sawamura Eijun, I must master it!"
Sendo didn't look pleased—I'm the one who taught you that—but since it was Chris-senpai, he let it slide.
"You're ten years too early for outside corner.
Inside! Or go run laps."
"I knooow!!!" Sawamura answered reluctantly.
Sendo wanted him to gain courage attacking inside. That hit-by-pitch last game had been in a terrible spot—better to be solid.
"Kanemaru!!! Stand in the box!!! Kanemaru!!!"
As expected—when in doubt, Sawamura yelled for Kanemaru.
"Stop yelling, idiot!" Tsundere Kanemaru arrived fully armored—clearly expecting this.
"That tsundere—he looks so unwilling and yet the gear is perfect." Sendo thought.
"If he gets hit a few times here, maybe he'll finally shake off the shadow from the game."
"Heh heh heh! Kanemaru! Sendo! Behold! The evolved—NEW Sawamura Eijun!"
"What the hell is that? Just pitch already."
"Oh!" Sawamura replied blankly.
"Watch closely! This is my evolved diagonal fastball!!!!" He declared, chunibyo in full bloom.
"Swoosh!"
"Pop!"
"Aagh!!!"
"You did that on purpose, you bastard!"
And just like that—it turned into an accident.
"Ah! Sorry! I didn't mean to!"
"Yeah right! You were yelling something about your 'evolved diagonal fastball' a second ago!!!"
"Really! It was just an accident!!!"
"Pfft—pfft—pfft—" While Kanemaru and Sawamura argued, Sendo covered his mouth with his right hand so Kanemaru wouldn't hear.
Nice job, Kanemaru.
If you get hit a few more times, maybe you'll finally get over that hit-by-pitch trauma…
Of course, Sendo would never say something that evil out loud—it would completely ruin the harmony of the team.
Miyuki beside them was already doubled over laughing.
…
Although Sawamura screwed up the first pitch, the rest weren't bad. His cutter was still sharp—though Kanemaru was pitiful and got hit twice by it. Three hits out of ten pitches.
Sawamura had never hit that many batters even in official games…
With Sawamura around, life was never short on comedy.
And now that Seidou had made it to Koshien, the overall atmosphere was remarkably good.
That was important. After all, they had a bye in the first round—and the first round was always the longest to play.
Seidou was seriously aiming for the national championship.
…
The next day
"Today we're not doing any pitcher duels. Focus on batting—treat it as actual game situations.
Sendo, you run the bases. Isashiki! Yuki! Masuko! Miyuki! You four will bat. There will be slight adjustments to the batting order for Koshien, so Sendo might be hitting before you guys. After the simulated games, you'll privately go over signals as well. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!!!"
"Also—" Sendo raised his hand.
"You're participating in all of today's practice." That clearly answered whatever Sendo intended to ask.
Just like that, his vacation ended.
Though technically, it was only half a day. After lunch, they'd be taking the bus to Hyogo.
This time the school was incredibly generous—not only were they staying in a hotel, they were even using some of the hotel's facilities as temporary training spaces.
Not to mention the cheer squad, brass band, and other clubs were all being put up in hotels too.
That was the luxury of a powerhouse school.
The school truly wanted its name to echo throughout the nation.
Their request: at least the quarterfinals.
Seidou's bracket luck looked good on paper, but you couldn't underestimate those traditional schools or dark horses—Koshien was full of upsets.
This was Koshien: consecutive games, consecutive pitching, single-elimination brutality.
Nothing like the summer qualifiers where there was time to rest.
And with Sendo's steady performance through the morning, Kataoka nodded in approval.
...
"Yuki! Give us the usual!" Before departure in the afternoon, Kataoka called to Tetsu.
"Yes!"
The eighteen-man roster formed a circle.
By the way—Haruichi's number was 17, Sawamura's was 18.
"Who are we?!"
"The kings—Seidou!!!"
"Who sheds the most sweat?!"
"Seidou!!!"
"Who sheds the most tears?!"
"Seidou!!!"
"Are you ready for battle?!"
"Ou!!!"
"Yaaah!!!"
"We bear the honor of this school! Our goal is one!
To conquer the nation! Let's go!!"
"Ou!!!"
"Board the bus! Departure!!!" Kataoka shouted.
"Ou!!!"
For the first time in six years, Seidou High School embarked for the 89th Summer Koshien.
"They should be departing around now. Your summer is just beginning. Good luck, Sendo."
Inashiro's library—Harada closed his book on the Warring States and looked toward the sunlight outside.
"Brat! If you're going to Koshien, bring back the championship flag!"
In the second string, mid-dieting, Azuma also thought of Sendo.
Power respects power.
After all, Sendo had practically dragged Seidou to Koshien with his bat alone.
"Use that bat of yours and beat the hell out of Japan's elites."
Ozawa's thoughts were unlike a girl's at all—full-on tomboy mode.
"Shock Japan with your strength."
That came from a certain famous Sendo fan.
"Seidou's first game isn't until the 12th—let's just sightsee first!"
That was Sendo's parents.
And those weren't the only blessings aimed at him.
"Can we come back smiling? No… all we can do now is give it our all. We must not play an embarrassing game."
Sitting by the window looking at Seidou's field, Sendo felt complicated.
…
After a long ride, Seidou finally arrived at the hotel.
Even after settling in, the players still had the energy to train on their own.
Even chronic lazybones Sendo walked out with a practice bat.
He wasn't the only one who refused to show a shameful game.
He wasn't the only one who truly wanted to conquer the nation.
It was the will of the entire team.
Tomorrow was the opening ceremony.
After that, they'd have plenty of time to recover.
If all went smoothly, Seidou's first opponent would be the team they faced in the Kanto tournament and got knocked out by—Yokohama Kouhoku Academy of Kanagawa.
A strong school, yes. A traditional school, yes.
But not so strong as to be unbeatable.
In both the previous timeline and this one, the result had been about the same—Tanba's pitches got read around the seventh inning and imploded.
This time, it was time to settle that score—unless they had improved significantly, they were going to get crushed by Seidou.
But after going through qualifiers and months of training, it was impossible they wouldn't have grown—otherwise they wouldn't have made Koshien.
Kanagawa wasn't Tokyo or Osaka, but its school quality wasn't low either.
Especially Osaka—except for the once-every-five-years double slots, all those powerhouses were fighting for one ticket.
Just like the recent West Tokyo "Three Giants," while East Tokyo was dominated by Teito alone.
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