The Seidou crowd was incredibly lively, drawing attention from even the Sensen players on the other side.
"They sure are popular."
"That's Seidou's first-year ace, Kamishiro Rinichi."
Maki Yousuke quickly spotted Rinichi among the crowd.
"He's from Kanagawa too, right? Just like you."
Maki didn't respond, but his gaze grew slightly hostile.
Top of the 1st inning — Seidou was on offense, Sensen on defense.
Already suited up, Miyuki said, "Let's warm up."
Rinichi didn't answer. He simply picked up his glove and walked off toward the bullpen.
Seriously, what a headache.
The first pitch thudded into Miyuki's glove with power.
Still as sharp as ever…
He stood up and threw it back. "Nice pitch!"
Once the warm-up wrapped, it was time to switch sides.
Seidou didn't score in the top of the first.
As Rinichi stepped onto the mound, the Seidou fans erupted.
Even Sensen's leadoff batter, just entering the box, was surprised. This first-year pitcher had some serious popularity.
After all, in multiple recent games, Rinichi had shut out opponents single-handedly — not allowing even a single run, often striking out batters in just three pitches.
Fastball clocked at around 150 km/h…
Just imagining it was terrifying.
At the umpire's call, Rinichi smoothly launched the first pitch.
The batter didn't swing — too stunned.
The moment that pitcher stepped forward, it was like all his pressure exploded outward, and the pitch was already in front of him.
It was sharp — way more intimidating than anything they'd seen on tape.
"Strike three! Batter out!"
"Strike three! Batter out!"
"Strike three! Batter out!"
Three batters, all struck out in three pitches each.
None of them even made contact.
"Nice pitch, Kamishiro!"
The upperclassmen encouraged him as always.
From the stands, Narumiya Mei looked like a door had opened in his mind: "Whoa, amazing. So this is how little Rin pitches."
Harada crossed his arms thoughtfully. "Since the summer qualifiers, this pitcher hasn't made a single mistake. His control and pitch strength haven't dipped at all — if anything, he's gotten even better."
Shirakawa nodded. "He's basically a perfect pitcher."
Narumiya didn't disagree — in fact, he looked seriously intrigued. "Now this is getting interesting…"
Seidou's first batter was Masuko, but unfortunately he didn't reach base. Miyuki followed and managed a hit — but was also out.
"Seventh batter, pitcher, Kamishiro-kun."
No matter how you sliced it, scoring this inning seemed unlikely.
Might as well use this at-bat to get used to that guy's pitching — Maki Yousuke's ball. Next time around, I'll definitely be able to hit it.
Standing in the right-handed batter's box, Rinichi was puzzled. Did I ever offend this guy?
Maki was glaring at him like he was a mortal enemy.
That said, this guy's tall — and standing on the mound makes him look like a giant.
Rinichi got a piece of the first pitch.
He hadn't expected it — for someone so tall, Maki threw surprisingly low. High release, low pitch — that vertical drop was hard to adjust to.
Well, I guess height is his main weapon.
Decent pitch velocity too…
But his aim wasn't to get a hit right now — it was to hit as many pitches as possible, adjust to the drop, and rack up Maki's pitch count.
If he got out here, the next round might start with the cleanup hitters. If they could connect, Sensen would be in trouble.
Hopefully the upperclassmen would adjust to the drop as well and start stringing hits together.
That was what Rinichi had in mind — even as he kept hitting fouls.
He ended up fouling off about five more.
Even Sensen's catcher was giving him strange looks.
What's with this guy? No matter if it's a good or bad pitch, he keeps turning them into fouls!
Now they couldn't even walk him if they wanted to!
"That's pretty rare. Kamishiro actually pulled a Ryo-san and kept fouling off pitches… but he was even hitting the bad ones into foul territory," Kuramochi remarked.
After tallying over ten foul balls, Rinichi exhaled, cast a sidelong glance toward the catcher down to his right, and said casually,
"This out's yours. I'll give it to you."
So nonchalant—it irritated Sensen's catcher, but he still signaled Maki to throw a proper strike.
Rinichi deliberately didn't swing.
"Strike! Batter out!"
With that, he slung the bat over his shoulder and returned to the dugout.
"You…" Miyuki started, then stopped himself and changed tone, "What were you thinking? You literally turned all those bad pitches into fouls."
He was reminded of what Takashima Rei had once said: "No—Kamishiro cares more about the team's victory than anyone. Some of his decisions may seem strange, but he never acts without considering the team."
If he said something careless like Akikawa did, his relationship with Rinichi might get even worse.
Rinichi gave Miyuki a rare, lingering glance, then swapped his helmet for his glove.
"Timing. Connection."
Just two words—but they left Miyuki momentarily speechless, his smile faltering.
This guy really doesn't play by the rules.
Rinichi strode out to the mound again.
Sure, there were a lot of variables with this approach. But so what? Worst case, it just delays the lineup rotation by one batter.
Besides, during that at-bat, Rinichi had already figured out Maki's pitching patterns and the catcher's game-calling. Next time up, he'd probably hit a home run without much trouble.
"Strike! Batter out!"
Once again—three batters, all struck out in three pitches.
He completely shut down the opposing lineup.
"Just watching from here, you can tell how hard it is to hit his pitches. But I feel like there's still something we haven't seen yet… maybe you only realize it when you're in the batter's box," Harada commented.
Yoshizawa added, "Fastballs, splitters, off-speed… topping out at 150 km/h… and he loves painting the edges of the zone, both low and inside-outside corners…"
"His command is rock solid… He doesn't pitch like a rookie at all. More like a seasoned ace."
Then he suddenly turned toward Narumiya Mei.
"Didn't you grow up with him? How come you don't even know what his pitches look like?"
Narumiya blushed. "A-ah, yeah, my bad!"
He quickly turned away, embarrassed.
"Well, it couldn't be helped. I live in Tokyo, he's in Kanagawa. When we were little, I'd visit every weekend, but something happened later on and I could only go during long breaks. All I knew was he played baseball."
He didn't even realize Rinichi had won a national championship until much later. Only then did he understand how skilled he was.
And because of that, Narumiya had been reluctant to watch Rinichi's games.
Eventually, he did watch one—and only one: the footage from Rinichi's first year of middle school.
The second time Rinichi won the national championship was at the end of his third year. By then, Narumiya was already a rising second-year at Inashiro, so naturally he wasn't paying attention to youth league baseball anymore.
If you want to read 20 chapters advanced.