Under the sunlight, the Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team players stood in a line, as if surrounded by a halo.
They didn't need to do anything special. They simply and firmly drew everyone's attention.
"Inashiro! Inashiro!!!"
"Mei!!!"
In the stands, thousands of fans shouted the names of the Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team and Narumiya Mei.
It felt like a celebrity concert.
"This scene is really something," Zhang Han said.
He hadn't watched many games from the stands. This one didn't have the most spectators he had ever seen, but it was definitely the most enthusiastic.
Kuramochi glanced at Zhang Han with a strange expression, opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Better not to tell Zhang Han how wild the stands got when he played.
Especially those young fans. Their screams could drown out the cheers of tens of thousands.
Zhang Han was already proud enough. Hearing that would only make it worse.
Unlike Zhang Han and Miyuki, Kuramochi, despite being a second-year regular player now, had been in the stands with the second team just half a year ago, cheering for his seniors and the regular starters.
That period had left a deep impression on him.
Zhang Han, on the other hand, had barely spent any time cheering from the stands since he started playing baseball, whether in middle school or now.
"Look, the game has started."
"I've always heard that the Yakushi High School Baseball Team has some strength, but we've never faced them. Any particularly eye-catching players?" Zhang Han asked Chris beside him.
During his injury, Chris's favorite thing to do, besides rehabilitation, was to collect information.
In his own words, watching healthy bodies running on the field made him feel as if he was seeing himself after recovery.
It helped him hold onto confidence.
For information on strong players in Tokyo, Chris was the right person to ask.
"Their Ace and power hitters seem fairly average. It's said that they changed their coach last autumn, and their results haven't improved much. If there's anyone worth noting, it's probably the second-year relief pitcher, Sanada Shunpei."
"Sanada..."
Zhang Han had no memory of dealing with him, but based on what Chris said, they were from the same generation of players.
That was interesting.
"Are there players that strong among our generation?" Zhang Han turned to Miyuki.
Miyuki was also puzzled.
"Never heard of him."
"His performance in middle school wasn't outstanding, so it's not surprising. What made this player known wasn't any particular achievement, but the attention of professional baseball scouts."
Professional baseball scouts.
The level of interest immediately said something.
"Sounds impressive. Could it just be Yakushi exaggerating?"
"Probably not. Although nothing has been published formally, there's an online column specifically about him. Both the outlet and the reporter are reliable."
In other words, the probability of it being a rumor was almost negligible.
Among the second-year relief pitchers of the Yakushi High School Baseball Team, there was genuinely a player whose talent had caught the eye of professional scouts.
Zhang Han looked toward the Yakushi High School Baseball Team's dugout, wondering to himself.
Which one was he?
To attract professional scouts, his pitching had to be something. So why was he still a relief pitcher and not the Ace?
Zhang Han was curious.
Miyuki, meanwhile, had other thoughts. Chris was remarkable. Even while injured and rehabilitating, he had been tracking every strong player emerging in Tokyo.
With that ability to gather information and that kind of dedication, the coming months would require Miyuki's full effort just to hold his position.
One slip and he could be replaced.
Setting aside Miyuki's sense of urgency, the game on the field had already begun in earnest.
From the very start, the Yakushi High School Baseball Team sent out all their regular players. The numbers on the field ran from one to nine, each representing a confirmed starter.
Inashiro Industrial, by contrast, had sent out most of their regulars but left a few key players resting in the dugout.
Among them was their Ace, Narumiya Mei.
For the Inashiro supporters and even the neutral fans present, there was some mild disappointment, but no real surprise.
No one believed the Yakushi High School Baseball Team could win. Even without their Ace, Inashiro might face a slight twist in the game, but the final result would not change.
The team destined to win this game was Inashiro Industrial.
The game's progress was more or less what everyone had expected.
The First Batter to step up was a third-year substitute from Inashiro Industrial.
Although this player wasn't among their top performers, he cleanly hit the ball as soon as he stepped onto the field.
Inashiro had a hit immediately.
Right after, the Second Batter and Third Batter worked together closely, scoring the first run at the cost of two outs.
That wasn't all.
Up next was their Fourth Batter, a man who stood shoulder to shoulder with Yuuki and Omae.
Harada hit a Homerun.
"Ping..."
The white ball traced a wide arc and landed in the outfield stands.
The entire stadium erupted.
The hearts of the Seido High School Baseball Team players all tightened at once.
This was too much to bear.
What were they seeing?
The player who had once been left behind by Yuuki had now caught up entirely.
Watching that Homerun, Tanba and Kawakami's faces went pale.
Both pitchers, they instinctively imagined themselves standing on the pitcher's mound in place of Yakushi's pitcher.
If that were them up there, how would they deal with the Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team's hitters?
This wasn't just imagination for the sake of it.
The Seido players believed they would be in that position soon enough.
Hongmo High School was one thing. The name sounded imposing, but their strength was manageable. The Seido High School Baseball Team had full confidence in that next victory.
So they were already looking ahead to what they would do if they faced Inashiro.
Seeing Harada's Homerun, both pitchers asked themselves the same question. Standing on that mound today, they probably couldn't have stopped him.
Harada Masatoshi.
Having come through the fierce battles of Koshien, he had now fully matured.
Even placed alongside Yuuki Tetsuya, the captain of the Seido High School Baseball Team, he was not inferior in the slightest.
How were they going to fight an opponent like that?
The score was 2-0.
Hachioji Stadium had already become Inashiro Industrial's home ground. Not just the die-hard Inashiro supporters, but even neutral fans had begun to root for them.
Everyone was full of confidence in this team, believing they would achieve even greater things.
The Spring Koshien championship was just an appetizer.
The Summer Koshien championship was the real main course.
The Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team had embarked on the path to becoming national champions, and everyone watching believed they would keep winning.
This left the Seido High School Baseball Team players feeling deeply unsettled.
They were too unlucky, ending up in the same bracket as the Inashiro Industrial High School Baseball Team.
It meant they had no choice but to fight Inashiro Industrial for the sole qualifying spot.
Coach Ota nervously rubbed his hands.
Perhaps they shouldn't have brought the players to watch Inashiro Industrial's game. This match was too discouraging.
It might have been better to wait until the actual confrontation and let the players face Inashiro Industrial directly on the field.
************************************
Upto 50 Chapters In Advance At: P@treon/Vividreader123