"Strike Three! Batter Out!"
"GAME OVER!"
The chief umpire's booming voice echoed throughout Jingu Stadium.
For a brief moment, the entire stadium fell silent.
The only sound that remained was Ushijima Wakatoshi's roar from the mound.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Months of pressure.
Months of expectations.
Months of hard work.
Everything burst forth in that single shout.
The Seidou players stared at him in disbelief.
Especially the third-years.
Many of them already had tears in their eyes.
They had won.
They had really won.
They were going to Koshien.
"YEAHHHHHHHH!"
Isashiki was the first to move.
The center fielder sprinted toward the mound like a madman.
"Hahaha!"
Kuramochi followed immediately.
Then Miyuki.
Then Yuki.
Then every single player on the field.
The dugout erupted as well.
The entire Seidou bench poured onto the field.
Cheers exploded from the stands.
The Seidou supporters were going completely wild.
Even the third-year members of Seidou's Second String squad were shouting themselves hoarse.
In the stands, Azuma Kiyokuni, Uesugi, Nitta, Tokuchi, Shigeno, and the other graduates clenched their fists tightly.
They had dreamed of this moment.
Last year, they had fallen just short.
Now their juniors had accomplished what they could not.
The dream they had carried.
The regrets they had left behind.
Everything had been inherited.
Without realizing it, tears streamed down their faces.
On the field, all twenty members of Seidou's roster crowded around the mound.
Then—
"One! Two! Three!"
They tossed Ushijima into the air.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Their ace had carried them to Koshien.
Their summer wasn't over.
Meanwhile...
The atmosphere on Inashiro's side was completely different.
Heads hung low.
Fists clenched tightly.
Nobody could hide their tears.
Narumiya Mei stood frozen.
His eyes were red.
His body trembled.
He still had unfinished business.
He still wanted another chance.
He still wanted to return to Koshien and erase last year's regrets.
But now...
It was over.
The realization crushed him.
The tears he had desperately held back finally began to fall.
The same was true for the other players.
Especially the third-years.
Their high school baseball careers had ended here.
Scoreboard:
Seidou: 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 ... 5
Inashiro: 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 ... 0
After several moments, Harada stepped forward.
The captain's eyes were red, but his voice remained steady.
"Line up."
Everyone immediately straightened themselves.
Harada looked at his teammates.
"We gave everything we had."
"No one needs to be ashamed."
"We lost because Seidou was better today."
"We practiced hard."
"We shed sweat and tears."
"But so did they."
"We lost a fair fight."
"And because of that, we have to acknowledge their victory."
The Inashiro players silently nodded.
They gathered themselves and walked toward the center of the field.
The contrast between the two teams was striking.
On Seidou's side, every player stood proudly.
On Inashiro's side, most players kept their heads lowered.
Only Harada remained relatively calm.
As Ushijima looked at the scene, memories surfaced in his mind.
A different future.
A different outcome.
If he hadn't been here...
The teams standing in victory and defeat would have been reversed.
But now he had changed that future.
"Thank you for the game!"
Both teams shouted in unison.
Their voices echoed throughout the stadium.
After the lineup ended, Harada looked directly at Ushijima.
Sensing the gaze, Ushijima looked back.
Then he suddenly said:
"Yoshizawa-senpai, I'm sorry."
Everyone froze.
Yoshizawa raised his head in confusion.
"Sorry? For what?"
Ushijima scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Before throwing the final pitch..."
"I actually had a selfish thought."
The Inashiro players blinked.
Even the Seidou players looked curious.
Ushijima continued.
"For a moment, I thought about intentionally walking you."
The entire Inashiro lineup stared at him.
"What?"
Carlos couldn't help blurting it out.
Ushijima nodded.
"I wanted Harada-senpai to be the final batter."
"I thought that if I could face him one last time and strike him out head-on, maybe the regrets of your third-years would be a little smaller."
The surrounding players became silent.
No one expected such a reason.
"But I didn't do it."
"Why not?" Carlos asked.
Ushijima thought for a moment.
"Two reasons."
"First, intentionally walking Yoshizawa-senpai would have been disrespectful to him."
Yoshizawa snorted.
At least the brat understood that much.
"Second..."
Ushijima glanced toward Seidou's third-years.
"This was their final chance to reach Summer Koshien."
"I couldn't risk taking that opportunity away because of my own selfish wishes."
"If a senior missed Koshien because of my decision, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself."
Silence fell.
Then Ushijima bowed slightly.
"So even though it was only a thought..."
"I'm still sorry."
Yoshizawa stared at him for several seconds.
Then he laughed.
"You little brat..."
"If Inashiro had a pitcher as calm as you, we'd have a lot fewer headaches."
"Nonsense!"
Narumiya immediately exploded.
"What's wrong with me?!"
Unfortunately, nobody paid attention to him.
Harada stepped forward.
His expression became serious.
"There's something I want to ask."
"Your pitches."
"They all evolved today."
Ushijima nodded.
Then he revealed something that stunned everyone.
"Actually..."
"They didn't evolve today."
"What?"
The entire Inashiro lineup froze.
"The Two-Seam, Cutter, Sinker, and Shootball could all exceed 150 km/h before the Summer Tournament even started."
Everyone's eyes widened.
Harada was equally shocked.
"You could do that before the tournament?"
"Yes."
Ushijima nodded.
"Although the Sinker and Shootball improved recently, the Two-Seam and Cutter were already capable of reaching that speed."
"But as you saw..."
He shrugged.
"Once those pitches exceed 150 km/h, the control becomes unreliable."
"Whether they become strikes or balls is almost a coin toss."
"Honestly, if Inashiro wasn't so strong, I wouldn't have dared throw so many of them."
The Inashiro players were speechless.
So that terrifying performance wasn't even fully mastered yet?
Narumiya clicked his tongue.
"Hmph."
"What about the Forkball?"
"You hid that until the very end."
Harada nodded as well.
"If you had used it earlier, we might not have gotten on base at all."
Ushijima smiled.
Then he looked directly at Narumiya.
"You're a pitcher too."
"You should know better than anyone."
Narumiya immediately understood.
"The strain on the fingers..."
"Exactly."
Ushijima nodded.
"A Forkball is powerful."
"But every pitch puts enormous stress on the fingers."
"If I threw it throughout the entire game, I wouldn't be sure my hand could survive until the end."
The Inashiro players fell silent.
Now they finally understood.
It wasn't that Ushijima didn't want to use the Forkball.
It was that he couldn't afford to.
Because the moment he chose to reveal that pitch...
He had already decided that the game was ending soon.
And Seidou's summer...
Would continue.