Chapter 196: The Evolving Changeup

Seeing Miyuki fooling these two little guys, Huangqian Yangyi shook his head secretly to the side. There really wasn't a spot for these two kids in the current First String, as the pitching staff wasn't lacking anyone for the time being. Huangqian Yangyi estimated that Director Kataoka would promote these two to the Second String after the Spring Metropolitan Tournament, letting them accumulate experience in practice games. As for whether they would have a chance in the summer, that would depend on their own performance.

After sending the two away, Miyuki and Huangqian arrived at the Indoor Training Ground after walking for half an hour to digest their meal.

At Seido, most members would conduct self-training after dinner. Under the streetlights, by the side of the paths, one could see the figures of teammates swinging their bats everywhere.

"This bat is really not bad; it's just right for improving swing speed," Miyuki said with a face full of smiles while swinging the bat.

Upon learning that Huangqian Yangyi had ordered a bat with double the weight, Miyuki followed suit and ordered one as well, which arrived a day later than Huangqian Yangyi's.

"Heh." Huangqian Yangyi sneered. He didn't know when this guy would ever fix his habit of going silent when there were no runners on base. Clearly, his batting level wasn't bad at all; Huangqian Yangyi even felt that this might be a psychological issue for Miyuki.

Seeing this expression on Huangqian Yangyi, Miyuki hurriedly apologized with a smile: "Don't be impatient. I guarantee that I will definitely enter the upper batting order this summer!"

"You'd better."

Huangqian Yangyi rolled his eyes at this guy. In his view, if Miyuki were the 6th Batter, it would better enhance the aggressiveness of the Seido batting order. After all, he himself was the 5th Batter; his on-base percentage went without saying, and with him on base, Miyuki could also exert more influence.

As for the senior Masuko Toru, although his batting had quite a sense of power, his accuracy was a bit low, so serving as the 7th Batter was also quite good.

After the two had each swung their bats one hundred times and were just preparing to conduct pitching training, Huangqian Yangyi noticed two heads poking in and out at the entrance of the Indoor Training Ground, peeking sneakily.

"Look over there," Huangqian Yangyi said to Miyuki in a low voice.

Miyuki also discovered those two wretched figures, smiled, and said: "These two juniors look very anxious."

"Don't worry about them," Huangqian Yangyi said.

As for Sawamura and Furuya Satoru, Director Kataoka already had proper arrangements for them.

The Seido Twins were the absolute core of Seido now; Director Kataoka would absolutely not let these two freshmen delay the time of Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki.

Ignoring the two idiots outside, Miyuki changed into his gear and glove, and Huangqian Yangyi also stood opposite him with a baseball.

"Come on, throw two Fastballs first," Miyuki said, patting his glove.

"Catch this."

After Huangqian Yangyi finished speaking, he took a deep breath, and his entire aura instantly stunned the two little brats outside the door.

They hadn't felt it deeply while watching from afar on the field before, but at this distance, the two were clinging to the doorway, one on the left and one on the right, watching with rapt attention.

Whoosh!

The baseball in Huangqian Yangyi's hand flew out, shooting into Miyuki's glove in just an instant.

Bang!!

The sound of the baseball entering the glove echoed inside the Indoor Training Ground.

"So fast!"

Sawamura's eyes widened into circles, his mouth slightly agape, while Furuya Satoru's pupils dilated; he looked extremely excited.

Faster than me! If Miyuki-senpai can easily catch such a pitch speed, then my pitches will definitely be catchable too! This is great!

Furuya Satoru's hands trembled slightly. During his middle school years, because the friends around him who played baseball couldn't catch his pitches, no one was willing to play with him, and the child had almost become withdrawn.

After seeing the news about Seido on TV and in the papers and learning of Miyuki's existence, he had the idea of coming to Seido. For this, he even studied hard, hoping to pass the entrance exam.

Who could have expected the surprise from heaven: the Vice Director of the Seido High School Baseball Club, Takashima Rei, had actually found his home in person and invited him to join Seido. At the time, Furuya Satoru was completely stunned; he hadn't expected that a country boy from as far away as Hokkaido could be noticed by such a powerhouse.

It wasn't until later that he learned from Takashima Rei that it was actually the ace of Seido who had recommended him.

Standing here now, Furuya Satoru watched as Huangqian Yangyi threw pitch after pitch; that terrifying pitch speed was practically telling him about his future.

Unlike Furuya Satoru, Sawamura's cat-like eyes were full of envy at this moment; he wished he could replace Huangqian Yangyi and go pitch himself.

Unfortunately, the training items for newcomers were almost all basic training; it was absolutely impossible to pitch to his heart's content in a short period of time.

Inside the training hall, after finishing a few Fastballs, Huangqian Yangyi began practicing Breaking Balls, starting with the Cutter Slider. Different locations, different trajectories, and angles—he could throw it almost exactly where Miyuki asked.

Next was the Forkball. After months of practice and tempering in competition, the completion of Huangqian Yangyi's Forkball had reached a very high level. A high trajectory, an exaggerated drop—from the batter's perspective, it was clearly a high, easy-to-hit pitch, but it would suddenly disappear right in front of the Home Plate, causing them to swing and miss directly.

Finally, it came to the Changeup, the lifeline of Huangqian Yangyi's pitching nowadays.

"Ono, please take the speed gun," Huangqian Yangyi turned his head and shouted.

Ono Hiroshi, who had just finished pitching training with Kawakami, heard the voice and immediately ran over to get the speed gun.

"You can start," Ono Hiroshi said, standing to the side.

"Wait! I want to hit!"

Kuramochi, who was doing swing training, walked over with a grin.

"Huangqian, watch me hit your Changeup away," Kuramochi said triumphantly.

Huangqian Yangyi was speechless. A Changeup was meant to be used in combination with a Fastball to disrupt the batter's rhythm.

Now, knowing full well that he was going to throw a Changeup, Kuramochi still came to join the fun; he was truly shameless.

"If you want to hit, then hit. If you can't hit it, I'm going to laugh at you," Huangqian Yangyi said.

Hearing this, Kuramochi laughed "yahahaha," "Don't worry, I'll definitely blast it away."

"Then give it a try," Huangqian Yangyi said, gripping the baseball in his hand.

Shiu!

The baseball flew out. Kuramochi focused his spirit and stared intently at the ball's path; since he knew it was a Changeup, he definitely couldn't swing too early.

This is it, swing! Kuramochi laughed wildly and swung the bat.

Huh??

How is it... so slow!

Kuramochi finished his swing, and only then did the baseball fly to the position of the Home Plate.

"Hey, hey, has this Changeup of yours evolved again??" Kuramochi looked at Huangqian Yangyi in surprise.

During the previous Autumn Tournament and the Jingu Tournament, the speed of Huangqian Yangyi's Changeup was less than 120 km/h, but now, it seemed to have become even slower!

Even knowing that this would be a Changeup, Kuramochi had still swung early. If a batter were to see Huangqian Yangyi's Super High-speed Fastball in a game and then face a Changeup like this, wouldn't they go crazy?