Diamond Ace: Another Story of Sawamura

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"..." It doesn't seem that simple. Rong Chun thought for a moment and replied, "What dance?"

'Family dance.'

"No!" Rong Chun shook his head and refused without even thinking, then walked out of the hall and closed the door.

In his previous life, every dance he attended would cost him half his life.

Especially for family dances, it's all about luck. If you're lucky, everything will be fine and good things will happen. If you're unlucky, it's no joke, either death or injury is all good luck.

"I heard that Ichiro will be here this time too!"

Eijun paused as he fiddled with the baseball and put the ball back into his pocket. "Ichiro...it's been a while since I last saw him..."

"Fran will be there too!"

“Oh my god!” Rong Chun suddenly shouted, startling a senior who happened to be walking by and looking at them. He gritted his teeth and whispered to himself, “That bastard! This time I must beat him down with one punch, step on him, and pluck all his bird feathers…”

"Hehe~" Yi proudly made a victory gesture to Xiang Xin.

"..." Xin looked at Rong Chun, who was emitting a black aura, and smiled helplessly, "Let's go for a walk."

"Good~"

"I want~"

The break lasted until the next morning, and Rongjun just managed to get back to school before the game started. He changed his clothes and sat directly in the rest area.

“Every Sunday there are many visitors...”

“Graduates, journalists, etc. would come to see our practices.”

"Oh no... I'm so nervous..."

"I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep yesterday..."

"We never thought that we, who have only been here for less than a month..."

"We're actually going to have a competition with the second and third graders..."

Unlike the nervous classmates in front of him, and also unlike the fierce seniors opposite him, Rongchun sat quietly in the corner, with only his eyes exposed from his hat and mask, empty.

He is in a daze...

"Hmm... I didn't expect to see the strength of the first-year students so soon..."

"This is also a rare thing for Qingdao..."

"It seems like they are very troubled by the pitcher's poor pitching!"

Amid the discussion among the audience, Director Kataoka arrived at the first-year rest area fully equipped and asked, "Are you ready?"

“Okay…Okay!”

"I will give all of you first-years a chance to play... so everyone should warm up on your own until you are ready to play at any time!"

"Yes!" The first-graders didn't expect that the supervisor would be the referee, and they were a little panicked.

"..." Eijun was awakened by the first-year's response.

Coach Kataoka announced the starting lineup, and if Eijun hadn't woken up too late, he would have missed hearing his name.

"That's right..." He wasn't nervous at all. He only threw a few balls in the test and then stopped throwing balls. He has been running for three weeks now...

"It's only natural that I won't be allowed to play..."

Looking at Chris senior on the opposite side, Rongjun felt angry and happy at the same time. He was angry about why Chris senior was not the main player, but he was happy that he could play with Chris senior.

The game started and the third-year ace Mitsuichiro Tamba took to the pitcher's mound. Although he was demoted to the second team due to his unsatisfactory performance in the spring tournament, his strength was still there.

His first pitch started with a tricky curveball, protesting to the first graders.

Seeing the first-year batter falling to the ground in fear after being hit on the head by the ball, Miyauchi threw the ball back to Tamba and said with a smug smile: "What's the matter? A newbie...how are you going to swing the bat while sitting on the ground!"

"..." The batter was so scared that his face turned pale, and the ball just now was still vivid in his mind. 'What kind of ball was that just now! I have never seen such a curveball...'

I thought the ball would hit my body...but the ball seemed to stop suddenly, then avoided my body and flew into the catcher's glove.

Danbo himself was quite satisfied with this ball, and he looked at the batter with an intimidating aura.

"Tamba's momentum today is really scary!"

"Being moved down from the starting pitcher position may have aroused his fighting spirit."

"His pitch path is already very tricky. If he can throw that curveball with a big drop beautifully, it means that he is almost fully resurrected!"

The audience was talking about it and it was obvious that they were very satisfied with his opening.

Then, Danbo used a curveball to lure the batter who still remembered to swing and miss, and used a straight ball to get the first strikeout of the game, "Great!"

"Ooooooh——that quiet Tamba is actually shouting!"

The referee, Kataoka, was impressed by Tamba's performance, "Stupid... Why can't you throw a ball like this in a real game!"

"..." Rongchun was brought back to his senses by Danba's shout. After a moment of hesitation, he took out a book from his bag. He stopped daydreaming and started reading and eating candy, not paying any attention to what the people around him were saying.

He just looked up when he felt someone looking at him, then continued reading.

For now, let’s not talk about Furuya who fell asleep while sitting without noticing Tamba-senpai’s gaze.

Director Ohta in the observation room disagreed with letting the freshmen compete with seniors at this time, although the freshmen had just graduated from junior high school and some of them had good abilities and grades.

But Ota worries that the game might ruin the freshmen's self-esteem.

"I know this match is inappropriate. However, if someone cannot display their strength under disadvantage, they are not worthy of being a force for Seidou."

Minister Ota was shocked when he heard this. Putting aside the fact that she was the chairman's daughter, this person was as cruel as Coach Kataoka when it came to baseball!

The first-year starting players who were ready to go on defense were puzzled by the aggressive attitude of the seniors.

"Isn't this just a normal Red and White practice match?"

"Why are the seniors taking this game so seriously?"

"Why are the seniors so childish... We can never win like this!"

"Damn it... the more I think about it, the more upset I feel..."

"Forget it, we can only try our best!"

With the mentality of trying their best, the contestants were forced to retreat again and again by the continuous attacks as soon as they came on the court.

For the freshmen who just joined the team, the pitching of the third graders is still unknown territory, and the third graders also swing very fast...

In a blink of an eye, in this first inning alone, the sophomores and juniors took a big lead with a score of 0 to 12, completely defeating the pitcher on the mound.

"Are you okay? There are drinks here..." Seeing Tojo covered with a towel and keeping silent with his head down, the people who didn't play surrounded him worriedly.

The pitcher of Matsukata Junior High School, one of the top four teams in the country, was so exhausted after only pitching one inning. The other first-year students felt frustrated and hung their heads in despair.

"This competition is a great opportunity for the third years to show their strength to the supervisor..." Rongchun turned a page and did not look up at others. He just continued: "This competition is already the last competition for them."

"If they don't get the starting number, it means their high school baseball career is over."

"What...what?" Everyone looked at Rongchun, as if they had just realized that there was someone sitting in the corner.

“So, even if the opponent is a freshman, they will definitely not show mercy... If they don’t have the determination to knock down the seniors, they will never be able to score against them.”

As if to verify what Eijun said, Tamba-senpai on the field once again performed perfectly and struck out the sixth batter.

"To put it bluntly, we are just stepping stones for them to climb up."

In the bottom of the second inning, Coach Kataoka decisively chose to make a substitution based on the current score and performance. "First-year players! Substitute all the fielders and pitchers!"

When Kataoka noticed Eijun curled up in a corner reading a book and eating candy, he couldn't help but frowned, "The defense whose name is called..."

"..." Rongchun noticed the supervisor's gaze, closed the book in silence, bit the lollipop into pieces, and slowly put away the book.

Then he put on gloves and walked out, just in time to meet Supervisor Kataoka who called his name.

"Seventh batter right fielder Sawamura Eijun..."

With Rongjun coming on the court, the atmosphere among the sophomores and juniors suddenly became tense. After all, his performance in junior high school had made almost all the senior players remember him, and they wished they could do it all over again.

"..." As the protagonist of that incident, Rongchun naturally accepted the gazes of the seniors.

It’s better to say that their gaze is so piercing that it’s hard to ignore it.

"Chris-senpai, isn't he going to play yet?" Rongchun muttered as he looked at Chris-senpai, receiving a look from Chris-senpai that indicated he was serious about the game.

Then there was Miyuki who was standing behind Chris and laughing smugly. Eijun just frowned and rolled his eyes at him.

"..." Chris looked at Rongchun standing in the right outfield with amusement, helpless as the kid didn't seem happy at all to be playing.

"Hey! The ball flew over there, don't just stand there!"

"..." Rongjun frowned as his eye contact with Chris was interrupted by this shout. When the ball was about to hit the ground, he quickly caught it and threw it to third base.

"Wow! Laser light!"

"Just now he caught the ball and threw it straight away without even preparing for it!"

"It's a very clean double kill! The situation suddenly becomes two outs!"

The crowd watching was very surprised by the double kill and started discussing the freshman who was wearing a mask during the game.

As a result, even with two outs, the pitcher on the mound couldn't withstand the fierce bombardment of his predecessors and gave up nine points before finally getting the last out.

"How boring..." Apart from the double kill at the beginning, Eijun just sat there in a daze afterwards.

Because the ball was not flying in his direction at all.

In the top of the third inning, Senior Danbo once again let the freshmen go up and down three times, showing his pitching to the fullest.

Seeing this, Kataoka thought it was time, and waved his hand to announce a substitution, "Change the pitcher! Fūya Akira...you go in!"

Fūya, who was sleeping on the bench, suddenly jumped up, startling the classmates next to him. As others looked at him wondering if he didn't warm up...was it okay?, he walked up to the pitcher's mound.

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