Diamond No Ace: The Strongest Hitter Has Arrived

Chapter 430 430: Ushimaru's Soul

When you achieve success one day and someone asks you why you chose this profession, how will you answer?

Perhaps for others, this was just an impossible dream. But for Aikawa, he believed that day would surely come.

Who made his talent so outstanding?

Before entering high school, Aikawa's impression of baseball existed only in his imagination. Although he knew there was a Baseball Club at school, he had no interest in joining.

It was those senior students with something wrong in their heads, about to graduate and not practicing well to leave good memories for their last summer, who insisted on recruiting people for the Baseball Club everywhere.

It was fine if they wanted to fulfill their own dreams. But how could they force their dreams onto others?

Even though he deeply admired those senior students, recalling their actions, Aikawa could only offer five words.

A bunch of lunatics.

How could he, a freshman who had just entered school, withstand the senior students' persistent efforts?

In just a few days, Aikawa found himself pulled into the warm embrace of the senior students. When someone of higher standing voluntarily fetches water or does chores for you, it's very difficult to refuse them.

If a high-status person wants to ask for directions, it's best to ask someone of much lower status. They generally won't refuse.

This is the weakness of human nature.

Although Aikawa had his own ideas, he was, after all, just an ordinary person, and he couldn't avoid that weakness.

When the senior students did his chores for him a second time, Aikawa obediently reported to the Baseball Club.

The senior students used the same method to form a team of over twenty people. This way, even if they left, the Baseball Club wouldn't have to worry about disbanding.

Before leaving the baseball team, those senior students patted Aikawa's shoulder, hoping he would pass on this tradition.

"Only a fool would do that!"

Aikawa rolled his eyes.

If they wanted to recruit people for the baseball team, he had his own methods and would never grovel like the senior students had.

Too embarrassing.

Unbeknownst to him, Aikawa, who had always lacked ambition, had inherited the dreams of his senior students.

He wanted to lead this baseball team into Koshien.

Despite the difficulty of that task, Aikawa, for the first time, had a real goal to fight for.

When he saw his teammates one by one grow dejected and ready to give up the game, Aikawa knew he couldn't let it continue. He had to act.

He stood up and used encouraging words to push his teammates back onto the field.

But pushing his teammates onto the field was not enough.

Facing the Seido High School Baseball Team, they had to defeat these opponents to continue forward.

By the top of the fifth inning, the Seido High School Baseball Team batters had all changed their demeanor.

They had been quite restrained before.

Although they had pushed Ushimaru Agricultural High School to the brink, they were never aggressive. They just advanced little by little, forcing their opponents to retreat bit by bit, never cornering anyone all at once.

But now, their approach had changed.

The Ninth Batter who stepped onto the field carried an imposing aura.

They wanted to swing for the fences.

Even if Aikawa's IQ was only 105, the level of an ordinary person, he could tell what the Seido High School Baseball Team wanted to do now.

They were already impatiently opening their gaping maw, ready to swallow Ushimaru Agricultural in one gulp.

They were eager to finish this game.

Compared to them, Aikawa's teammates were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

They were just short of being plucked, skinned, cooked, and served on the table.

Aikawa took a deep breath, constantly recalling every bit of what his senior students had taught him.

The senior students had always valued his talent. More than once, he had caught them exchanging envious looks.

"You don't need to use so much force. The most important thing is the motion. As long as the motion is smooth, the fastball will naturally become faster."

"Your fastball is very strong. Perhaps it doesn't look like much when observing, but once you stand at the plate, it's like a meteor crashing down. Especially terrifying."

The voices of the senior students kept replaying in his ears.

With the situation so tense, Aikawa Kazuo, on the contrary, relaxed. He lifted his leg high, took a full stance, and threw the ball.

His movements were very fluid, as if he had practiced countless times.

In the Seido High School Baseball Team dugout, Zhang Han's eyes widened.

That was the feeling.

He had vaguely felt this sensation before his left-hand pitching injury.

Everything seemed to fall into place naturally, and the white ball flew out effortlessly. This Aikawa Kazuo had actually achieved a breakthrough during the game.

Not just on the Koshien field.

As long as it was a formal high school game, the opponent was strong enough, and the player's own accumulation was solid enough, a breakthrough after long preparation was very possible.

Aikawa Kazuo probably belonged to that situation.

It seemed it wouldn't be so easy for Coach Kataoka to end the game early in five innings.

"Pop!"

"Out!"

"Pop!"

"Out!!"

Asou was out.

Kuramochi, who stepped up to the plate for the third time, also didn't fare well. Although he made contact, the ball barely moved. It rolled only five or six meters forward before Hase rushed out, caught it, and threw it to First Base.

"Oh my! This guy's cheating!"

Even though the game was only in the fifth inning, the Seido High School Baseball Team's batting lineup had already gone through three rounds.

Even without deliberately trying to exhaust Aikawa's pitch count, his total pitches had already exceeded seventy.

With his first physical peak long past, his pitching velocity was somehow getting stronger and stronger.

This was truly unbelievable.

Kominato Ryosuke also grew wary. After two pitches, he found an opportunity and hit a single.

After the game against Inashiro Industrial, Kominato Ryosuke's entire hitting approach had evolved. He no longer stubbornly waited for walks. If the opportunity was right, he would also try to get a hit.

Just like now.

As long as Kominato Ryosuke could flexibly switch between these two approaches, further improvement was only a matter of time.

Even now, he had fully established himself as a First String regular, a core batter second only to Zhang Han and Yuuki Tetsuya.

One of the baseball team's most reliable hitting points.

Next was Isashiki Jun. Everyone expected Senior Isashiki to continue his good performance and get a hit.

Unexpectedly, his performance was surprising for all the wrong reasons. He swung and missed three times in a row, failing to make contact.

"Strike!"

"Strike!!"

"Strike!!!"

"Strikeout!!"

Seido High School Baseball Team's core Third Batter had been dealt with so easily.

Struck out directly.

The Seido teammates were all stunned.

Kataoka, who had just told everyone to swing with all their might, had an even uglier expression on his face.

Weren't these youngsters slapping him in the face?

And their opponents, despite being far behind on the scoreboard, suddenly had a small surge of momentum.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, it was Ushimaru Agricultural High School's turn to bat.

Having just watched their pitcher hold firm, the Ushimaru Agricultural players stepped up to bat with renewed energy, completely shaking off the slump from earlier in the game.

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