Chapter 93: Injury

After the game ended, when both sides shook hands to show respect, Dong Qingguo and Ishii Yohei didn't say a word, yet the way they looked at each other seemed to say everything.

"Is this what it feels like to be both rivals and friends?" Huangqian Yangyi said while packing his things.

Miyuki shook his head upon hearing this: "Who knows."

"You don't know? I feel like that's exactly how you and the little golden-haired guy are, right?"

Huangqian Yangyi chuckled, "When we meet in the semi-finals and ruthlessly defeat that guy, Kazuya, won't you feel bad too?"

Hearing this, Miyuki actually stopped what he was doing and thought carefully for several seconds.

"Koshien is everyone's dream; no matter who loses, they will be sad. I don't want to be sad, so I can only wrong Mei," Miyuki said.

"He'll cry, won't he?"

"Definitely."

Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki Kazuya sang in harmony as they teased Narumiya Mei.

At this moment, the outside world was already buzzing with discussion about the game Seido had just finished. In the 1/8 Finals, facing Kenda Takasaki, Seido still put up a score of 9:1. This made many people feel the strength of Seido this year, especially since this was without their ace pitching.

When the summer preliminaries first began, although Tokyo's baseball fans didn't underestimate Seido, the vast majority believed that this year would be a competition between the three major powerhouses, even if Seido's chances of winning looked slightly better.

But looking at the games from the first few rounds, Seido's dominance was more straightforward than the other two powerhouses. Every game was a high-scoring victory, which gave more confidence to those who had originally favored Seido, with some even shouting directly after the game that Seido would definitely be the champions.

Seido's supporters saw their confidence soar, but Inashiro's fans were not in a good mood. Seeing Seido's performance being so good, they couldn't help but worry for their own team. Seido had always given people the feeling that their batting lineup was very strong; whether in West Tokyo or nationwide, they belonged to the top tier of batting lineups.

At that time, everyone knew that Seido's weakness was an unstable pitching staff. As long as they could solve the pitching problem, Seido would become a strong contender for the West Tokyo championship.

Later, Huangqian Yangyi appeared and made up for Seido's weakness of unstable pitching, but even so, Inashiro's fans still didn't think Seido could surpass Inashiro.

One reason was that Inashiro also possessed formidable pitchers: their ace, as well as the equally formidable First Year newcomer, Narumiya Mei.

The second reason was the powerful confidence brought to the fans by Inashiro's fierce track record.

Ever since their manager took over Inashiro Industrial, they had been to Koshien over ten times, and in the last few years, they had entered Koshien 6 times. It could be said that every generation of Inashiro players had experience playing at Koshien.

As for the other two major powerhouses, in the last 5 years, Ichidai Sanko had entered Koshien 2 times, while Seido had not entered once.

But looking at these few games now, Seido made Inashiro's fans feel threatened. What made Inashiro's fans feel the most uneasy was not the ace Huangqian Yangyi, but rather Seido's batting lineup.

The strength of this batting lineup seemed to have reached a higher level. Perhaps this feeling wasn't obvious with Dong Qingguo and Yuki Tetsuya, but if one carefully compared past data, the growth of Seido's lower-order batting lineup was extremely obvious.

The current Seido batting lineup was no longer supported by just two or three players like before, but was blooming everywhere, with everyone able to produce the necessary performance at any time and connect the offense well.

Could their own pitchers completely suppress them if they faced them?

An hour later, the Inashiro players stood on the field, while the Seido group was in the stands gathering intelligence.

1/8 Finals, Inashiro Industrial versus Kurotsuchikan High School.

That's right, in this game, the Kurotsuchikan led by Zaizen faced off against Inashiro; there were plenty of highlights.

Sitting beside Chris, Huangqian Yangyi quietly observed Chris's expression.

Seeing his former good friend and partner struggling on the field, he must be feeling both happy for him and frustrated in his heart.

Thinking of this, Huangqian Yangyi couldn't help but worry for Zaizen. This guy was the one who got injured in this year's summer preliminaries; could it be this game?

Come to think of it, Kurotsuchikan's journey to this point had been quite arduous. This team could almost be described as a one-man team; it was completely different with Zaizen versus without him.

It is said that powerhouses lack strong pitchers, and dark horses lack strong hitters.

This saying was only half-true for the dark horse Kurotsuchikan; they lacked neither strong pitchers nor strong hitters, as both were Zaizen.

Being on a weak team, Zaizen possessing great ability also meant his pressure was the heaviest. After several rounds of games, the innings Kurotsuchikan had used were almost maxed out, and Zaizen himself was over-exhausted. Added to this hellish schedule, it wouldn't be strange for him to end up injured.

"Senior Chris, who do you think will win?" Huangqian Yangyi asked while watching the game.

Two innings passed, and Inashiro led Kurotsuchikan 2:1.

"Inashiro," Chris said.

"Then who do you hope wins?" Huangqian Yangyi asked again.

Chris was silent for a few seconds and said: "Kurotsuchikan, I suppose. Facing them, we would have an easier time."

Huangqian Yangyi smiled; that was indeed a very reasonable reason.

Time passed bit by bit. As the game became increasingly intense, Huangqian Yangyi noticed that Zaizen's pitching was gradually becoming strained.

Facing a team like Inashiro, after 5 innings, for Zaizen to keep the score at 3:1 was already extremely difficult.

At this moment, something seemed to be wrong with Zaizen's body.

Two more innings passed, the score was 4:1, and Zaizen on the Pitcher's Mound suddenly collapsed to the ground, clutching his leg and groaning in pain. This sudden scene caused a gasp from the entire audience, and Chris beside Huangqian Yangyi stood up abruptly, his notebook falling to the ground.

"Zaizen!" Chris whispered.

Soon, Zaizen was carried onto a stretcher. When he left the field, he raised his arm to cover his eyes, and tears of frustration slid down his face, dripping onto the field.

Huangqian Yangyi sighed helplessly. He could find a way to prevent Senior Chris's injury, but for Zaizen, he was completely powerless; they weren't even on the same team.

Watching such a talented and capable player get injured and leave the field, with his future baseball career likely to be affected, Huangqian Yangyi's mood was also quite heavy.

A few minutes later, the paused game restarted. Without Zaizen, Kurotsuchikan was completely unable to withstand Inashiro's offense, and the Inashiro players didn't show mercy just because the Kurotsuchikan ace had just had an accident.

They gave up 8 runs in just two innings, and the game ended with a final score of 12:1.

The Kurotsuchikan players didn't even have time to cry over the loss; as soon as the game ended, everyone packed their things and rushed off the field with their manager toward the hospital. They wanted to know Zaizen's condition as soon as possible.