Chapter 04 : Massacre! Furuya's Debut!
It was still in the middle of the second inning, but the suspense of the game had already gone. The second team destroyed Tojo's pitches without mercy, and now, a pitcher whose name Hiroto didn't know replaced his new roommate on the mound. Looking at the scoreboard, Hiroto couldn't help but sigh.
Newcomer 0 0
Second team 12 7
'As expected, the newcomers couldn't give a fight even against the second team. They are still not used to the intensity of high school baseball.'
In total, Tojo as the main pitcher for the newcomers suffered 7 homers in the first inning, including two that came from Hiroto and two from Masuko. And when Kataoka-sensei changed the pitcher for this inning, they suffered 4 homers from the second team already still with 2 outs as the count. However, it was not easy for the pitcher to get rid of one final batter to force a change side. After the big blows in just 2 innings, they are too depressed right now to play properly as a team.
'Well, this would be a good wake-up call for them…'
To be honest, Hiroto was a bit disappointed with the quality of the newcomers. Let's not talk about Tojo who Hiroto himself had already predicted he would be destroyed by the second team. But the fielder performed very poorly, couldn't bring relief for a pitcher to do their best. There are several occasions in which the ball that came was quite easy, but it ended up as a hit due to the defense error by the fielder.
That's why Hiroto didn't blame Tojo too much. Even Narumiya Mei with this kind of teammate would be stressed too.
If there is one player who stood out the most, it was Kanemaru Shinji who was responsible for sending two outs for the second team with his strong shoulder from the third base. However, in baseball, except if you are a pitcher or a catcher, no matter how good your performance is, you cannot change the overall direction of the game, so it was quite unfortunate for the new third-baseman.
'Well, his defensive range is quite wide, and his reflex and shoulder strength is good. At least he would be able to join the second team with ease.'
"YES!!!!" A scream from the newcomers' dugout suddenly snapped Hiroto from his daydreaming. When he turned at the source of the shout, it was Sawamura who cried comically, startling even his teammates. "The day has come! Boss, I appreciate your bold decision! This Sawamura Eijun will meet your expectations without fail!"
Seeing Sawamura like that, Hiroto couldn't help but twitch his mouth in amusement. Even though his reaction was a bit exaggerated, Hiroto could understand the burden that was lifted from Sawamura's shoulder. With Kataoka-sensei allowing him to play, that means the coach had already put aside the incident at the introduction session for the first-year pitcher.
"Where are you going?" Kataoka-sensei suddenly spoke when he saw Sawamura walk to the mound. "You are going to the right field."
An awkward silence dropped as Sawamura's happy face changed again into a flat one before he shrieked, "EEEEEEEEEH?!!!!"
Laughter was broken as everyone saw how comical Sawamura's reaction was. From the cry to the flat face, it was impressive how expressive Sawamura is. Coupled with his loudmouth behavior, he easily gained the spectator's attention.
"Wahahahaha! This first year is quite interesting!"
"Look! He is not even bothered by the score! At least he got the right mentality!"
"What do you know? Maybe that's just because he hadn't experienced the despair just like his other teammates. Wait until this inning is over and if he still had this attitude, I will give you props!"
"Oh? How about a bet?"
"Sure!"
Hiroto could only shake his head slightly at the conversation he heard from the spectator's side. Due to the closeness between the dugouts and the fence, he could hear the conversation from the outside pretty clearly. Hearing them mocking Sawamura, Hiroto had a high hope his new training partner would be able to shut their mouths with his good performance. However, it was pretty hard to do in this situation.
The game resumed again, and now, it was Mimura Ryota's turn as the sixth hitter to be in the batter box. And just like before, he hits the first pitch directly in an attempt to destroy the newcomers' mental state more.
*CLANK!*
"Ooooh! Nice hit, Mimura!"
All the eyes were on the ball, waiting eagerly for where it would land. However, after seeing the strength was not quite good, almost everyone sighed disappointedly.
"Oh, it was an easy fly ball.."
"No, wait! It went to the right field! Look at the loudmouth brat!"
Hearing that, all the eyes suddenly turned to Sawamura who panicked, not knowing how to handle a simple fly ball like that. Seeing Sawamura's state, Mimura who at first was disappointed with his hit ran quickly with all his might to get into the base.
And it was the right decision, as the ball dropped further than Sawamura expected. Hiroto cringed a bit, feeling sorry for him. It was clear that Sawamura had never played as an outfielder and he had no knowledge on how to handle a fly ball like this and didn't know how to measure where the ball would fall.
"Bwahahahaha!!"
"Look at that! Who in the hell would go for a banzai posture like that?! This is embarrassing!"
"What are you doing?! Get the ball and send it quickly to the third base! The runner is still going!"
Sawamura who was still embarrassed by his rookie mistake reacted quickly, grabbed the ball from the ground before throwing it as hard as he could. And to everyone's surprise, it went quite fast, chasing down Mimura who had already passed the second base in a second.
*WUUUSHH!!!!*
"OOOH! A LASER BEAM!"
"A good throw! What a strong shoulder!"
Hiroto nodded silently, agreeing with what the spectators said. Even though the transfer from the glove to his dominant hand is quite slow, it was still acceptable for a rookie outfielder like Sawamura. Moreover, what's more impressive is in that couple of seconds after grabbing the ball with his dominant hand, Sawamura managed to find a grip for the four-seam fastball, the natural grip for an outfield player.
'It has a good speed and has no stray lateral movement in the air. Good throw. If he failed the pitcher test, he would be a good seedling to cultivate as an outfielder.'
However, right before the ball could reach the third baseman, something unexpected happened. Only people with good observation skills could see this, but even though the ball didn't lose its speed, it wobbled slightly, changing its direction straight into Mimura's running route. And in a second,
*BRUGH!*
The ball hits Mimura straight in the back! There were a couple of seconds of silence on the court before a sudden roar broke everywhere.
"Woah! He aimed to hit that runner~!"
"Horrible! There's a demon on the first-year team!"
"Wait! I don't mean that!" Sawamura runs to Mimura in panic. "Senpai, are you okay?! I am so sorry!"
However, right before he could approach Mimura, the second-year runner suddenly crawled onto the ground and touched the base first before rolling down in pain. Seeing his determination to get into the base, everyone on the field was stunned, not knowing what should they do.
"Don't worry about me." Mimura suddenly spoke, still trying to catch his breath. Instead of worrying about me, you should think about your team. Third base off a simple fly ball… We're gonna make a hundred more runs in this game, you know?"
Kanemaru who guarded the third base was pretty intimidated by this statement. He could see it. This accident was a catalyst for the second team to have the determination to massacre them. Now, almost all of the senpai on the second team's dugout are looking at them with murderous intent.
'Crap! This is bad!'
And right to his predicament, the rest of this inning was a nightmare for the newcomers. A hit after hit was thrown by the second team without giving them any chance to breathe.
*Clank!*
"Nice hit! Go to the second base!"
*Clank!*
"YOSSHAA!! You got another RBI!"
*CLANK!*
"OOOH! ANOTHER HOME RUN!"
"Come on! Kill them!"
Even though the newcomers only needed to get one more out to change sides, they were too intimidated by the second team to do so. Instead, it was their senpai who kept sending their players back home one after another, kept adding the score for the second team. And it lasted quite long enough until it was Hiroto's turn to go back into the batter box when Kataoka-sensei decided to test another pitcher.
"Change player for the newcomers! Furuya Satoru, come in!"
And right after that, a tall pitcher walked calmly into the mound, not caring anything about the score. Hiroto raised his eyebrows slightly, a bit surprised by the calm demeanor that was radiated from the pitcher.
'Hmm… Either he didn't care about the result and just wanted to show off or he was confident his ability was enough to suppress us. Well, let's see…'
Hiroto took a deep breath, raised his bat and took a stance on the box. Seeing how tall Furuya is, the first thing that came into his mind was Tanba's pitch.
'With his height, everything he pitches would have a nasty route. I need to be careful.'
Furuya also took a deep breath before he raised his left foot, ready to throw the ball. He winded up and swung his arm as hard as he could before releasing the ball with all his strength. And a second later, the ball suddenly approached the strike zone at a shockingly high speed, surprising Hiroto for a moment.
'Damn! This is the fastest pitch I have ever seen!'
However, Hiroto was not helpless. If it was anyone else, they wouldn't be able to see the ball, let alone react to it. But Hiroto had an incredible reflex and hand-to-eye coordination. When he saw the ball almost arrived at the strike zone, he swung the bat strike to the ball, intending to hit it far outside of the field.
However, to his surprise, right before he could hit the ball, it suddenly changed its direction, moving upward slightly and messing up his hit attempt. Since he had already swung the bat, Hiroto had no way to adjust his form, so he just continued swinging the bat. As a result,
*CLANK!*
Even though the ball went outside of the field, it still went into the foul zone, so it wouldn't count as a home run. However, this was enough to stun everyone else who watched the game.
"OOH!!!"
"Goddamn! That was a laser bullet!"
"How fast do you think it is?!"
"I bet it would be around 155, right?"
"Yeah!"
Not only the spectators and the players there, but even Kataoka-sensei raised his helm protector, looking at Furuya in astonishment. For all his career being a professional player and Seido's coach, he only saw that kind of ball a few times, and that was never coming from a newcomer. Looking at how frightened the catcher was, he had no doubt that if Hiroto didn't hit the ball, he would be thrown away a few meters alongside the catcher by Furuya's fastball.
Thinking about that, his hand was trembling in excitement.
'We finally have a good pitcher! Maybe, Koushien wouldn't be that far away from us!'
In a normal situation, he would just stop Furuya from pitching more ball and ask the first-year pitcher to go directly to the first team tomorrow. However, seeing the pitcher's baffled face, Kataoka-sensei decided to wait and see how would Furuya react after this.
Yes, the one who was surprised the most here was not Kataoka-sensei, but Furuya himself. For all his life, he had been told that it was impossible to hit his pitch, that only a monster like himself would be able to do that. At first, he thought he would be able to find that kind of monster in Koushien. However, never in his mind he thought a second team player from Seido would be able to kill his ball.
And yeah, he hadn't known yet that Hiroto was a member of the first team.
'No, it was just a coincidence. He wouldn't be able to do that for the second time.' Furuya shook his head, trying to calm himself down.
As for Hiroto, he didn't even notice the ruckus he created outside of the field. Right now, all of his focus was in front of him, while his mind recalled the last ball.
'Why did the ball go upward in the last moment? If I let that ball slide, that would be a ball. Is it a deliberate attempt? But judging by his reaction, it seems he was more surprised I could hit the ball rather than it changed direction. Does that mean he didn't know about that? Well, it was a possibility. With that kind of fastball, let alone observe it, not a lot of catchers would be able to handle the ball. Hmm.. This is getting tricky..'
"Hiroto-kun, is everything okay?" Kataoka-sensei suddenly asked, snapping him from his daydreaming.
"Yeah, don't worry, Sensei."
They had an eye-contact for a second before they nodded to each other and continued the game. And now, the tense silence suddenly descended on the field as all the eyes were focused on Furuya and Hiroto. Everyone was still excited about the fastball that went around 155 kmph. If converted into miles per hour, it almost touched 100, which was an absolute number even in the major league. If Furuya could keep hitting that number consistently, he would be a big weapon for Seido in the next tournament.
However, many people are still optimistic about Hiroto. The fact that he could hit the ball even though it landed in the foul zone showed his capability in the batter box. Moreover, he had more experience handling an exceptional pitcher, so he knew what button to press to put the pressure on the pitcher. On the other hand, Furuya is a no-name newcomer. No matter how outstanding his pitch is, no one could guarantee how he performed under the pressure.
Hiroto took a deep breath, ready to take a stance again. He gripped the edge of his bat quite tightly, ready to blast Furuya's fastball outside of the field once again. Furuya himself also doing the same, taking a deep breath while taking a stance, ready to kill Hiroto with his ball.
And a second later,
*WUUUUSHHH!!*
The monster fastball was sent straight into the strike zone, and it was faster than before! Everyone else held their breaths unconsciously, some even closed their eyes, not wanting to see the result. Kataoka-sensei also braced himself, ready for the impact of the ball if Hiroto couldn't hit it.
But unlike before, Hiroto didn't swing the ball too early. Even swinging the bat late against such a monstrous fastball is quite risky, he still wanted to confirm whether the ball would change its direction again or not. And no matter how off his timing is, as long as he could touch the ball, he could send it to the foul zone again, giving him another chance to observe the ball.
However, it seems he didn't need to do that. Right in the last second, the ball suddenly went downward just as Hiroto expected.
'It changed again! He didn't know his control was off! I could hit it!'
And in the next second, he swung his bat with all his strength, showing off his strong core and sending the ball outside of the field.
*CLANK!*
And just like against Tojo before, he didn't wait for anyone to react as he threw his bat away, starting to run slowly to each base. As the ball disappeared from their sight, all the eyes suddenly turned to Hiroto, looking at him as if he were a monster. However, it didn't last long, as the silence was suddenly broken by the roar from the outside.
"NICE HIT, HIROTO!"
When Hiroto turned to the source of the roar, he could see Isashiki Jun, the center of the first team, giving him a thumbs up while the other first team members nodded in approval. Seeing that, Hiroto just smirked, sending back a thump before he continued running, going back to the home plate.
Newcomer 0 0
Second team 12 14
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Author note :
Hey! I have written a few next chapters of this new story and posted it already on my patreon account. If you want to read it in advance, you can visit patreon(.)com/ZetaFaes .
You can read this story up to chapter 9, and I will try to update it faster.
You can also read my other fanfiction, Kuroko no Basket: The Sixth man of Seirin Basketball Team up to chapter 150 on that page.
Thank you for your support! I appreciate it! :)
-Zeta Faes-