Diamond Ace: Another Story of Sawamura

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'Missed the shot!'

Chris saw that it was a clear path for the ball, and the batter had obviously caught it. The ball was hit hard and flew out with unstoppable momentum.

"I got hit!" Rongchun felt a sharp pain in his body when the ball hit him, even though the ball was not flying towards him.

"Wow! He used his body to block that powerful ground ball!"

The ball fell to the ground due to the rebound force of hitting the body, but was caught firmly before it rolled out and then quickly passed to the base.

"And seemingly unharmed."

"One out... Sawamura-chan." Masuko confidently made a victory pose and told Eijun that there was no problem with defense.

"Yes! Masuko-senpai did a great job blocking it!"

"Saved by garrison."

"Ok!"

Chris called a timeout and walked onto the pitcher's mound to check on Eijun's condition. Perhaps because of the missed shot just now, Eijun was now very serious.

"The next batter is the fourth batter representing the Osaka team..."

Seeing Eijun staring at Tong Guangmei in the batter's box, Chris saw from his eyes the provocative psychology of the pitcher facing a strong opponent, and couldn't help but smile, "Strike him out!"

"..." This was the first time since entering high school that senior Chris asked Eijun to strike out a batter. Eijun looked at Chris with affirmative eyes.

His pitching style doesn't require him to waste energy on striking out batters, and as for his resistance to baseball at the beginning, Senior Chris was also trying to avoid making him feel bored.

Ever since Eijun recovered from his illness, Chris has been trying every means to reduce the number of pitches he throws, trying not to let Eijun become overly fatigued.

So, Eijun hasn’t struck out in a long time. “Yes!”

"Just throw it over!" Just as Chris wished, Rongchun became excited.

After all, he is also a pitcher. Only pitchers will feel the same way when they strike out a batter, and catchers cannot fully empathize with them.

"Use your best inside corner ball and strike him out!"

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From the 6th to the 9th inning, Osaka lost 2 points in the last two innings due to lack of physical strength. The final result of the game was 13-7 and Osaka won.

"You are so lucky to have four team managers."

"Our team is so terrible that no one dares to be the team manager."

“And they’re all so cute!”

The four managers blushed at the praise from Kiryu, and after a burst of envy and jealousy, they finally turned their attention to the regular players of Qingdao.

"By the way, you guys are still in training, right? You guys are really too difficult to deal with!"

“The offensive in the ninth inning gave us a cold sweat.”

"Stop making so much noise! ​​How can we let the game end like this!" Isashiki was still angry about not being able to use his strikes well in the game, "We were suppressed by you guys in the middle of the game..."

"Next time I see you, I will pay you back double!"

“Haha…I could never ask for more!”

On the other side, the supervisors of the two teams were also having a friendly exchange before finishing off the game.

"How enviable! There are two completely different types of pitchers in the first grade!"

"The super fast pitcher who started to stabilize in the latter part was very good..." Director Matsumoto was really envious of Kataoka for being able to receive such a good seedling.

"Especially the left-handed pitcher who played as a reliever. His pitch path is really amazing... If he continues to grow... he should be able to become a great pitcher, right?"

"Really?" Minister Ota also recognized Sawamura, but he did not expect that Director Matsumoto would have such a high evaluation of Sawamura.

"Thank you for the compliment, Director Matsumoto. They still have a lot of shortcomings." Kataoka did not show any particular joy at the compliment from Director Matsumoto, but responded modestly.

"Haha...you're really strict! Then let's fight at Koshien next time!"

"Yes!"

During the time when Kiryu and his group were seeing off, Eijun had already gone to take a shower. After he quickly finished, the others also prepared to take a shower.

When everyone gathered in the cafeteria, coach Kataoka announced that Kawakami would pitch in the first game and Tamba would start in the second game tomorrow, then he left the cafeteria to let the students have a good meal.

"Why did you two eat so little?" Xiaochun looked at the completely absent-minded Fūya with some concern, "Fūya, you hardly ate anything, are you okay?"

"Well... I just feel so tired..." As Jōgō said this, he was already nodding his head, looking like he could fall asleep right away if he lay down.

"Because you all tried your best, but you still have to eat well."

"Yeah." Jyougu nodded and stubbornly continued to eat his rice in small sips.

Seeing that Eijun was eating seriously, Koharu didn't say anything else. Although Eijun's expression looked no different from usual, he became unusually silent after the game.

When Xiaochun finished eating, he realized that Rongchun had finished eating and left without knowing when.

"Woo..."

My bones were creaking, my flesh was splitting, the pain seemed to be strangling my throat, my consciousness started to blur, I had difficulty breathing, and tears kept overflowing. It was not a pleasant feeling at all.

The slightest movement would cause a sharp pain as if a piece of flesh were torn off, making even a simple process like climbing into bed extremely painful.

"It's okay... It will be fine soon, just fall asleep, it will be fine..."

Rongchun wrapped himself tightly in the quilt, lying on his side, not daring to move a finger. Obviously, both physically and mentally, he was very tired, but he still didn't feel sleepy.

Closing his eyelids made the feelings even clearer. Rongchun could only stare blankly at the baseball and wishing card placed next to the pillow.

"Eijun...Eijun!"

"...!" While his consciousness was blurred, Rong Chun heard a familiar call and came back to his senses. However, due to the stimulation of the sudden movement, the feeling of suffocation was followed by severe pain, "Ouch..."

"Eijun!"

"Sawamura! What's wrong?!"

Suddenly, the mother's urgent cry was heard, and Kuramochi, Chris and others who were originally standing outside the door were so scared that they broke in directly.

"Don't come in!"

"!" As soon as they stepped into the room, they were stopped by the woman sitting on the bed. They all stood at the door and dared not move.

"Woo...Mom..." That sweet voice, like a life-saving straw, made Rong Chun feel more at ease than anyone else.

"Hmm..." Mom nodded heavily and stuffed the medicine and the lollipop into Rongchun's mouth.

Looking at Rongchun who was holding onto the corner of her clothes, trembling with pain and not daring to move, the mother couldn't help but shed tears of heartache.

"Eijun...I'm sorry, mom is late!"

"Uh..." Looking up at his crying mother, Rongchun wanted to comfort her and tell her not to cry, but he couldn't move because of the severe pain.

"I'm sorry... Mom shouldn't have forced you to come here. If you really don't like baseball, then don't play it... If you want to continue playing football... Mom won't stop you..."

The mother sat on the bed for an hour, until she saw Rongchun's relieved expression due to the effect of the medicine, then she felt relieved and put away the candy that Rongchun had not finished eating, and got out of bed carefully.

"Mrs. Sawamura, what on earth is going on..."

"I'm sorry..." Mom stopped Takashima Rei from talking, "I will complete the transfer procedures for Eijun as soon as possible in the next two days."

"Hey! Wait a minute, Mrs. Sawamura! What's going on?" Takashima Rei was really confused, but seeing that Sawamura's mother had made up her mind and walked straight towards me, when Takashima Rei wanted to follow her, Chris blocked Sawamura's mother.

"Is this... what Eijun wanted?"

"..."Looking at Chris who had a determined expression in front of her, the mother sighed helplessly.

"Mrs. Sawamura, let's talk!" Kataoka, who had been silent nearby, walked up to Sawamura's mother.

"Last night, we received calls from Ms. Takashima and Chris-kun. We weren't really worried because Eijun wouldn't be devastated by that."

Sure enough, when he received a call from Chris in the morning to report that he was safe, Rongchun did not feel disappointed because the scar he had always hidden was seen.

"But when Chris-kun said this morning that Eijun was upset because he had finished all his lollipops, I panicked all of a sudden."

"Those injuries not only caused trauma to Rongchun's body, but also left indelible damage to his heart."

"Could it be..." Chris searched his own knowledge for possible symptoms described in the description. Although he was not sure, looking at the expressions of the supervisor and Xiaoli, Chris thought he should have guessed it right.

"Memory trauma..." The mother said with a trembling voice what they guessed was the condition, "The memory of that time has been tormenting Rong Chun. Although Rong Chun has been cooperating with the doctor's treatment, it's all useless..."

As she spoke, the mother covered her face and cried silently, "Eijun... may even go into shock due to the severe pain..."

'That means...Eijun played today while enduring severe pain that made him feel like he could collapse at any time...' Chris couldn't imagine how painful it would be to be in shock. It must be a feeling he had never experienced before.

"But Sawamura was fine before, which means he has actually started to recover..." Takashima Rei, who was sitting next to him, comforted Sawamura's mother, "Now it's just intermittent..."

"That's because Eijun has been eating candy!" Mom shook her head and denied Takashima Rei's guess.

She could never forget the wailing sound. Her mother really couldn't bear to see Rongchun in so much pain. "The doctor said it might be a psychological sustenance. Rongchun can stop the pain by eating candy!"

"I don't want Eijun to experience any more harm!"

"I understand." Kataoka, who had been silent all this time, spoke up at this time, "I understand that you love your son so much, but... I hope you can let Sawamura make his own choice. If he doesn't want to play baseball anymore, I won't try to keep him!"

"Supervisor!" Chris panicked when he heard this. He was so good, but he had never shown an expression of being very happy when playing baseball.

"If he wants to continue playing baseball, I hope you can respect his choice! Please!"

"..." Seeing Director Kataoka bowing and sincerely asking for help, the mother stopped crying...

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