Chapter 84: Tanba, do you not like me?

As an obscure, mid-to-lower-tier team, it was already quite an achievement for Asuka Academy to make it this far, and the biggest contributor to this was their Pitcher, whose pitching level was average but whose batting was very formidable.

Although there was the reason that the opponents encountered in the first three rounds were not strong, this Pitcher from Asuka Academy had indeed made contributions on the batting end.

At this moment, Nanjo Taishi stood on the Pitcher's Mound, and having already secured two outs, he looked toward the opponent's third Batter, who was also the opponent's Pitcher.

Not a bad look, but. To hit my ball, you're still a bit short! Nanjo Taishi evaluated secretly in his heart.

A High-speed Slider flying toward the outside corner was fast and accurate, and the angle was also very sharp; the bat swung by the Batter was a fraction slow and couldn't keep up.

"Strike!"

The baseball was caught by Miyuki, and the Batter made a clicking sound with his tongue; it was obvious that not hitting that ball just now made him very unhappy.

The pitching rhythm was fast, and Miyuki did not intend to give the opponent too much time to think; after throwing the ball back, he immediately squatted down to give the signal, and Nanjo Taishi threw another High-speed Slider to secure the second Strike.

For the final pitch, Miyuki called for a cutter, easily striking out the opponent.

The game thus reached the fourth inning, and the score between the two sides was already 11:0; the Seido batting lineup exploded with top-tier national strength again today, and the Asuka Pitcher had already been blown out since the first inning.

Among them, Yuki Tetsuya and Huangqian Yangyi each hit a Home Run, while Dong Qingguo was unlucky and missed by just a little bit.

In the top of the fourth, Manager Kataoka pulled the Pitcher Nanjo Taishi, and replacing him on the field was the second-year substitute, Tanba Koichiro.

As the Pitcher with the strongest pitching ability among the second-years, Manager Kataoka also placed high hopes on Tanba.

Standing on the Pitcher's Mound, the 11-run lead made Tanba feel incomparably secure; even if he pitched poorly, it would be impossible to lose the game, right?

With this mindset, Tanba's pitching ability was fully unleashed, and he quickly struck out the Batter to get an out; in this instant, the Seido crowd seemed to see the Tanba from his "internal-war phantom god" days.

Bang!

Facing the second Batter, one of Tanba's inside pitches was caught by the opponent and fiercely pulled toward the sky.

"Left Fielder!" Miyuki stood up and shouted.

In Left Fielder, Huangqian Yangyi, who had been a background character on the field for several innings, finally had work to do.

Watching the baseball flying toward him in the sky, Huangqian Yangyi ran to the vicinity of the landing point early, constantly adjusting his position, waiting quietly for the ball to fall into his glove.

Slap!

Without any surprise, he caught it steadily, and the opposing Batter was out on a Flyout.

"Tanba!" Huangqian Yangyi shouted at Tanba on the Pitcher's Mound while holding up the ball.

Seeing this, Tanba also revealed a smile and raised his arm toward Huangqian Yangyi.

The game continued; although Tanba's pitching was not like Huangqian Yangyi's, which could completely suppress the opponent's batting lineup, with the cooperation of his teammates behind him, even if a few people reached base, they could not score.

After five innings, the game ended early, and Seido won with a large score of 14:0, entering the top 16 of the summer preliminaries.

"Kazuya, you kid must be satisfied today, right?" On the bus back, Huangqian Yangyi said while sitting next to Miyuki.

In today's 5-inning game, Miyuki had served as Catcher from beginning to end, and his coordination with both Nanjo Taishi and Tanba Koichiro was excellent.

"It's alright," Miyuki said flatly.

Others might not have felt it, but he himself always had a sense of dissonance when coordinating with senior Tanba; where exactly was it wrong?

Seeing Miyuki's depressed expression, Huangqian Yangyi smiled; this guy, he could just relax a bit now that they had won the game.

"What are you thinking about?" Huangqian Yangyi asked.

Miyuki pursed his lips and thought for a moment before saying: "I have a feeling."

"What feeling?"

"Senior Tanba doesn't seem to like me."

"Huh?"

"Really, although senior Tanba followed my pitch calling during the game, I could always feel a sense of resistance when the ball entered the glove," Miyuki said as if it were a serious matter.

Hearing this, Huangqian Yangyi raised an eyebrow; this was the Catcher's intuition.

In the original story, Tanba was very unhappy with this junior, Miyuki, who was promoted to the First String as an exception as soon as he entered Seido; coupled with Miyuki's style of speaking and acting, Tanba also didn't like him very much.

If it weren't for the manager's requirement, Tanba would not be willing to partner with Miyuki in a game.

"Maybe so; do you want to try changing the way you talk?" Huangqian Yangyi said.

Miyuki turned his head, "What do you mean?"

"Your mouth is too sharp; it's easy to offend people."

"Really?" Miyuki looked disbelieving; he was only saying the truth.

"You really have no self-awareness at all," Huangqian Yangyi said helplessly.

Returning to school, just after getting off the bus, Miyuki actually walked directly toward Tanba Koichiro.

"Tanba."

"Hm?" Tanba was talking to a teammate from the same grade and turned his head after hearing Miyuki's voice.

Miyuki looked straight into Tanba's eyes, and the surrounding teammates also noticed the situation here and looked over one after another.

"Tanba, do you not like me?"

What a super fastball of a question, Huangqian Yangyi covered his face and squatted on the ground.

Hearing this, Tanba was stunned for a good while, then suddenly his face turned red.

No, why are you blushing, you teapot, Huangqian Yangyi was speechless again.

Looking at Miyuki, Tanba Koichiro felt the shame and anger of having his inner thoughts seen through; indeed, it wasn't just Miyuki, he didn't like Huangqian Yangyi very much either.

Although both were strong enough, in Tanba's view, people who entered the First String to serve as starters without going through layers of selection could not resonate with the teammates behind them.

Even if he didn't say it out loud, Tanba still felt some resistance to communicating too much with the two of them in his heart; now that Miyuki had pointed it out directly, Tanba was even more annoyed with Miyuki—look at that, this brat didn't know how to respect his seniors at all, so annoying.

Tanba didn't speak, but Miyuki continued: "Senior, I believe personal emotions shouldn't be brought into the game; that's very unprofessional."

Hiss!

Everyone around was stunned; kid, you're too bold, right? Is that how you talk to a senior?

Don't look at how Huangqian Yangyi usually jokes around with the seniors, teasing Dong Qingguo's belly or calling Isashiki Jun an Akita dog—those were all just jokes.

Miyuki was very serious right now, and Tanba felt a bit annoyed after being told that; just as he was about to speak, Miyuki spoke again.

"I think we should communicate more. If you are willing, Senior, I will catch for you during tomorrow's voluntary practice."

Uh...

Tanba's words were stuck in his throat and swallowed back down.

How annoying, he won't even give me a chance to speak.