"You deliberately threw a Changeup at the end, didn't you?"
After the game, Zhang Han sought out Hidezawa specifically.
"Are you showing off, kid?"
Hidezawa wore his usual impatient expression.
"Thank you!"
Zhang Han bowed halfway.
He did not normally like the Tokyo way of greeting seniors, but this time he meant it genuinely. At the last moment, Hidezawa had appeared to be deliberately guiding him.
"It looks like you've figured something out." Chris had drifted over, asking with a light smile. "Next time you face Narumiya Mei's Changeup, do you have the confidence to hit it?"
He had only played three innings today, but he felt comfortable in a way he had not experienced since the injury. This was truly living, not just lingering.
"If I face him again, I can definitely do it."
The Changeup had actually given Zhang Han more trouble than a regular breaking ball. He could generally estimate the landing point of most pitches and had even begun to read the general movement of the ball. But he had been completely clueless about the depth of the Changeup's movement. If he committed to his swing on a fastball rhythm and Narumiya chose the Changeup, he had been helpless.
Now he felt like he had found the direction he needed.
"Narumiya Mei's Fastball is incredibly fast, and what's even more terrifying is his rate of improvement. To be born in the same era as a pitcher like him — I truly feel sorry for you guys."
Hidezawa said it plainly.
"Our luck isn't good," Zhang Han agreed without hesitation.
Being in the same era as Narumiya Mei, and both operating in the same battle zone, was objectively bad luck. But the misfortune ran both ways.
"Next, I will fully commit to practicing hitting Fastballs. Even against Narumiya Mei's Fastball, I will wait until the ball is completely within reach before swinging."
Zhang Han said it decisively.
Chris and Hidezawa exchanged a glance. The admiration in both their expressions was plain.
"Then we'll be counting on you from now on. The team's new Ace."
Compared to Tanba, Chris and Hidezawa clearly had more faith in Zhang Han's trajectory. His pitching speed had been genuinely astonishing everyone around him. It improved a little every few days — nothing dramatic in any single session, but continuous and relentless. From 140 kilometers to 146 in just two months. Nobody could say where his left-handed pitching would ultimately land once it was fully developed.
After the farewell game, many of the third-year seniors stopped coming to the baseball field. They had exams to prepare for. Not everyone had a professional draft invitation or a university offer waiting.
The more outstanding ones did. Azuma Kiyokuni was selected in the professional draft in January, going in the second round and joining a professional team. Tanaka, Hidezawa, and Yamada all received invitations from their desired universities. The impression Seido had made at Koshien had opened plenty of doors.
On the day Azuma Kiyokuni left, the baseball team pooled their money and bought him a gift — a wooden baseball bat and a glove, both name brands, both usable at the professional level. Split among the group, it came to around ten thousand yen each. Combined, the items ran into the hundreds of thousands.
Azuma Kiyokuni cried like a baby.
A big man, standing there with tears streaming down his face, clutching his bat and glove. Whether it was his juniors he was reluctant to leave, or his high school baseball career, nobody could quite tell.
He recovered quickly. Got into the car with his new equipment, Takashima Rei accompanying him, and headed toward his new team looking entirely cheerful.
After the farewell, Seido's special training began in earnest.
Two other matters deserved mention.
The first was the Autumn Tournament result.
Seido's players tried their best to act as though they had moved on and no longer cared about the outcome. Nobody was genuinely fooled, including themselves.
What happened in the final surprised many people. The assumption had been that this year's Inashiro would sweep everything without facing a real obstacle. Instead, in the final against Ichidai Third High School, they nearly capsized.
Inashiro had entered the final with soaring morale after beating Teito and Seido consecutively, but their players were also exhausted. Several were not in peak form and made errors. Ichidai Third High School, playing as though they had been injected with something, came out fiercely and built an early three-run lead that Inashiro could not recover until the bottom of the sixth inning.
The two teams traded leads across the final three innings. It was not until the ninth that Inashiro finally put Ichidai Third High School away.
Final score: 5-4. Inashiro had the last laugh and became Tokyo's representative.
In the subsequent playoff game, Ichidai Third High School defeated the fifth-ranked Kanagawa team and secured their own spot in the Spring Koshien.
The Seido players discussed it quietly among themselves.
"Not only Inashiro, but Ichidai Third High School is also an opponent we need to take seriously."
Zhang Han felt, for the first time, that West Tokyo was simply a massive pit. Their three major powerhouses had to fight each other to pieces before any of them could stand out on a national stage.
The second matter was the Jingu Tournament. Inashiro represented Tokyo, reached the final, and lost to Saibo. Second place.
After the farewell to the third-years and a winter of hard special training, the new school year arrived.
Zhang Han and his classmates had moved up to second year. New students would enroll on April 1st. The baseball team, as always, arrived at school a week early.
************************************
Note: And that's a wrap on Volume Two! This was a rough Volume, But hey on the bright side we are finally at the start of the anime, the gang is entering the school. Trust me, this one is way better than two.
Upto 50 Chapters In Advance At: P@treon/Vividreader123