Ace of Diamond: Return of the Pitcher

V6_Chapter 53: Straight

“STRIKE!”

As Sawamura unlocked the new Cutter, the crowd in the stands, especially the supporters of Seidou and Sawamura’s own fans, erupted in excitement.

“Who are we?”

“King Seidou!!!”

“Demon King!”

“Sawamura!!!”

The previously subdued voices suddenly burst into a roar.

Carlos, standing in the batter’s box at the eye of the storm, was hit hardest by the commotion.

He frowned, looking at the fans who were nearly going wild.

At this moment, he really wanted to say something like "What the heck?", but he wasn’t sure if he should.

This isn’t a professional baseball broadcast with slow-motion replays. Besides him, how could the audience even know what was happening?

It was ridiculous.

But the reaction from the crowd was so bizarre that it was as if they actually saw something.

they didn’t see it but felt it. These spectators had a sharp sense that the situation had changed.

This game had become a real contest!

Seidou, who was suppressed, suddenly displayed a fierce drive due to the powerful leadership of their Ace.

“I’m not out yet!”

Carlos muttered in frustration.

He gripped his bat tightly, repeatedly replaying the pitch that Sawamura had thrown before in his mind.

That pitch kept breaking down in his thoughts. But the final conclusion seemed to be that it was no different from a straight ball.

‘How could this be?’

Carlos couldn’t understand.

He knew it wasn’t the time to be stuck on this issue. He was currently facing off against Sawamura Eijun!

But without an answer in his mind, Carlos didn’t think he could hit the ball.

‘What to do?’

Just as he was at a loss, Sawamura pitched the ball.

Having already fallen behind by one Strike, Carlos couldn’t afford to let this pitch go and fall further behind.

So he gritted his teeth and swung his bat.

At this moment, his swing was entirely based on feeling.

By luck, the bat actually made contact with the ball.

Ping!

The white ball was hit and rolled foul.

“FOUL!”

‘Damn!’

This pitch didn’t provide any relief for Carlos. On the contrary, his situation became even more dire.

Having been behind by one Strike, he was now down by two Strikes.

Sawamura gave him no chance to react and threw the third pitch without hesitation.

Whoosh!

The trajectory of the ball was almost identical to the previous ones.

Carlos couldn’t avoid recalling the ball that had disappeared earlier.

He had a hunch that this pitch was that ball.

‘But what is it?’

He was just as clueless and didn’t know where the ball would go. Top or bottom, left or right?

Inside or outside corner?

Completely at a loss, Carlos stood there confused, missing the opportunity to swing.

Snap!

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!”

Carlos, who had previously been regarded as a hero, was now completely defeated.

He didn’t even swing the bat and was Struck Out.

For a batter, this kind of frustration was even worse than a pitcher hitting a home run.

“Demon King!”

“Demon King!!!”

Seeing Sawamura exact his revenge, his fan club cheered in triumph.

“This is how it should be!”

“SAWAMURAAAA!”

“This is how the Demon King should be—how could anyone defeat him so easily?”

“Right!!”

“It was just that the Demon King had taken a short nap earlier, which gave the opponent a chance.”

Three outs, offense and defense exchange.

In the bottom of the third inning, Seidou High School went on the attack.

The seventh batter was Toujou.

He was the fourth Seidou freshman to secure a starting position after Sawamura, Furuya, and Kominato.

Now, like Kominato and Sawamura, he had become one of the main starters.

“Seventh Batter, Center, Toujou-kun.”

Toujou, who was stepping into the batter’s box, was ambitious. Although he had seen Narumiya’s pitching before and knew it was tough to handle, he still had dreams.

People need to have dreams. Just because others can’t do it, maybe he can.

It’s all uncertain.

ROAAR!!!

This mindset began to change once Toujou saw the baseball pitched right before his eyes.

‘So fast!’

The ball came in like a flash of white light, giving no time to judge.

SNAP!

“STRIKE!!”

Toujou looked at the small ball in the catcher’s Mitt in shock.

He recalled everything he had just seen.

‘Incredible.’

‘How could the ball be so fast?’

Narumiya Mei was a celebrity in Tokyo. As Toujou and the others grew up in the youth baseball world, they had played against him before in middle school. Although Narumiya Mei might not remember Toujou, Toujou was very impressed by Narumiya.

In middle school, Narumiya was already a formidable pitcher.

But he didn’t feel completely incapable of dealing with him.

In other words, this opponent was manageable. Although it was a bit more troublesome and had a lower success rate, it was still possible to face him.

But two years later, looking again now.

Not at all.

Forget the breaks in the ball itself, just hitting this pitch was extremely difficult.

At this moment, Toujou couldn’t help but think of Maezono and Shiratsu before him.

‘In just the first round of the match, they kept up with Narumiya’s pitch speed of 150 km/h.’

‘Were these Senpais really this amazing?’

For the first time since entering high school, Toujou even began to doubt his own hitting ability.

To make a good baseball player question their own strength shows the power of Narumiya’s pitching.

‘Wasn’t this guy always so calm before?’

Looking at Toujou, who was stunned in the Batter’s Box, Miyuki frowned slightly.

‘His momentum was completely suppressed by Mei!’

How to counter this?

“Perhaps after entering high school, Narumiya Mei’s growth has been completely different from before. His old opponent Toujou, is too shocked by this?” Sawamura said.

Miyuki nodded: “Indeed, even though this guy was very impressive in the summer, after just two months, his strength has soared so much. Was he really that jealous of us?”

Sawamura rolled his eyes.

If Narumiya Mei knew that Miyuki had badmouthed him like this privately, he would definitely pitch a Dead Ball at this scheming boy out of pettiness.

He could already imagine Mei-san throwing a Dead ball at Miyuki where Miyuki would dodge and angrily say -Hay! That was too close!-

And Mei-san would shamelessly reply -Don’t worry! I still have three more chances!-

Leaving the childish thoughts in his mind, Sawamura still wondered.

‘But indeed, Mei-san’s growth was somewhat surprising.’

‘Could something have triggered this?’

Miyuki and Sawamura speculated, but they didn’t know the real reason was indeed them.

It was because he lost to Seidou in the summer.

Even in his strongest form, he couldn’t even break into Koshien.

This made Narumiya realize the harshness of high school baseball, which became the driving force for his transformation.

Of course, his strength didn’t grow in the past two months. He had already reached a critical point before; that defeat was just a catalyst, helping Narumiya break through that point and reach a higher level.

This is what they call the accumulation of effort.

“STRIKE!”

“STRIKE!!”

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!”

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!”

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!!!”

Toujou, Kanemaru, and Aso were struck Out one after the other.

Kanemaru and Toujou had performed very strongly after they became main force members, achieving results no worse than those of the second-year seniors.

Even they themselves thought their strength could match the seniors.

But when facing a strong opponent, the difference was still very obvious.

Maezono and Shiratsu could still make contact with the ball in the first round, whereas Kanemaru and Toujou couldn’t even make contact.

In the top of the fourth inning, Inajitsu went on the attack.

At this point, Sawamura spared no effort, not even withholding his new Cutter.

With a tough stance, he counterattacked Inajitsu.

“STRIKE!”

“STRIKE!”

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!”

He first struck out Shirakawa with a Bunny ball.

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!”

Then used a Moving-Up ball to strike out Narumiya.

“STRIKE! BATTER OUT!!!”

And finally Struck Out Yamaoka with the new Cutter.

Powerful, extremely powerful.

For the next period, it was almost a duel between the two pitchers.

They kept getting strikeouts and outs.

Not allowing a single batter to reach base.

Throwing with all their might naturally consumes both their stamina.

This consumption was unprecedented.

First, because of the fast pace of the game, and second, because of the frequent and fierce breaking balls.

In the blink of an eye, the game had reached the seventh inning.

At this point, the game was in the later stages.

But the score remained 1:0, with Seidou High School trailing.

If Seidou High School couldn’t score now, this game would really be at risk.

By the seventh inning, two rounds of batting was over.

Inajitsu was only nine Outs away from victory.

In the top of the seventh inning, Inajitsu went on the attack!

“Second batter, shortstop, Shirakawa-kun.”

…

T/N: As always, Thank you all for reading!!

And I hope you all have a good day!

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