Diamond No Ace: The Strongest Hitter Has Arrived

Chapter 464 464: Supervisor?

The distance between Zhang Han and Miyuki kept growing.

When it reached sixty meters, the other players in the indoor practice facility gave up on their own training entirely.

They all watched, wondering when these two would finally stop.

"Are they really ordinary high school players, just like us?"

"They're definitely high school players. Ordinary, though, I don't think that word applies."

That more or less summed up what everyone was thinking.

Despite the distance, neither of them made any mistakes, even as they began shifting their feet between throws.

That alone was difficult to believe.

At the main entrance, Coach Kataoka stood with his sunglasses on, tapping his arm with one finger.

His gaze drifted to Zhang Han from time to time.

He said nothing until both of them stopped warming up.

Everyone had been so absorbed in watching that no one had noticed Coach Kataoka's arrival.

Then, a player who had come to the indoor facility for extra practice happened to spot him. Just as he was about to call out a greeting, Kataoka stopped him.

"Go to the equipment room and bring the speed gun."

"Yes, sir!"

The young man moved quickly and was gone.

"Are you going to pitch now?"

Miyuki had already put on his gear.

Catching other people's pitches was one thing. Catching Zhang Han's was something else. Proper preparation was necessary.

When a pitch exceeded 150 kilometers per hour, anything could happen.

"Let's go."

Zhang Han had finished his warm-up. Shoulders and wrists were loose.

At this point, he was eager to just throw.

Zhang Han took his position on the mound, and Miyuki crouched down in his gear, ready to receive.

The other players had no interest in continuing their own practice. They lined up on either side of Miyuki, wanting to see where Zhang Han's pitching was now.

In the past, his extraordinary speed had made many teammates believe Zhang Han was the strongest Ace candidate the Seido High School Baseball Team had.

Then he was injured and had to stop pitching.

More than three months of rest. Nearly a hundred days.

Although Zhang Han hadn't given up and had kept up with other basic exercises throughout, pitching was different. It demanded continuous repetition.

Keep throwing consistently and there was no slippage, perhaps even further growth as experience accumulated.

But put it down for a stretch, and getting back to where you were was genuinely difficult.

In the Major Leagues, there were quite a few pitchers who had retired because of wrist and finger injuries.

Did any of them want to retire?

As long as they could still play, no one left willingly.

The problem was that after coming back, they simply couldn't recapture their previous form.

It wasn't a matter of desire. Their ability at the time just wasn't enough to stay on that level.

Zhang Han had now been away from pitching for over a hundred days. How much of his previous ability had he held onto?

He answered that question quickly.

He took a light step and swung his arm without particular effort.

The baseball left his hand.

"Whoosh!"

The white ball arrived in front of Miyuki, and he caught it cleanly.

"Thwack..."

Every player watching wore a complicated expression.

The speed on that pitch was genuinely fast.

In all of Tokyo, there were probably no more than five pitchers who could match it.

But they couldn't quite be pleased about it.

Because the old Zhang Han had been throwing pitches above 150 kilometers per hour.

Without even looking at the rest of the country, in terms of pure pitch speed, Zhang Han had been undeniably at the top.

This pitch, by comparison, was a clear step down.

"Excellent control."

Miyuki, however, was not disappointed. His expression was focused and serious.

The pitch had landed only two or three centimeters from where he had called it.

That was precise.

If he hadn't known Zhang Han's situation well, he might have doubted what he had been told before. How could someone who hadn't pitched in months throw with that kind of control?

"You weren't at full strength just now, were you? Try one at full effort."

Miyuki said it without hesitation, whether out of unwillingness to accept less or some other instinct.

"I still haven't fully warmed up. But since you're asking, be ready."

Zhang Han acknowledged it. That first pitch had been mostly about control. Speed hadn't been the priority.

Now that Miyuki had asked directly, holding back further would have been pointless.

Zhang Han stepped lightly forward, settling the full weight of his body onto his back foot.

Then, with a stride, his center of gravity shifted in an instant.

As it shifted, his arm came through.

At the same time, his middle and index fingers, gripping the ball, carried the full momentum of his body behind them.

In terms of raw physical strength alone, Zhang Han was strong at Seido, but not overwhelmingly so.

Purely relying on muscle to throw a pitch above 150 kilometers per hour would have been very difficult.

What made it possible was the use of his entire body, the massive inertia of the movement coordinating all at once.

Like a sprinter pushing their center of gravity forward, every part of the motion feeding into the final release.

"Whoosh!"

This one was faster. Considerably faster.

Most of the players watching didn't even have time to track it before the baseball had arrived in front of Miyuki.

And this time, even Miyuki, who had caught for Zhang Han before, was caught off guard.

The pitch came so fast he didn't have time to reposition his glove. The ball hit it and flew back behind him.

"Clap clap! Clap clap clap!!!"

Kataoka was clapping as he walked in from the entrance toward Zhang Han and Miyuki.

"Coach!"

"Coach!!!"

The players greeted him quickly.

Zhang Han and Miyuki paused their practice and came over.

"Good."

Kataoka looked at Zhang Han with clear satisfaction.

"That's enough for today. Save your strength. You will be the starting pitcher tomorrow. I'm counting on you."

He patted Zhang Han's arm and turned to leave.

Zhang Han as the starting pitcher for tomorrow's game.

Zhang Han himself hadn't fully processed it yet, but the teammates around him already looked stunned.

Miyuki went with the coach to discuss tomorrow's game strategy.

Zhang Han headed back to shower and prepare.

After several months, he was finally going to stand on the pitcher's mound again, representing the Seido High School Baseball Team in an official game.

Thinking about it, he felt a quiet excitement.

In Coach Kataoka's office, Miyuki found that Tanba and Kawakami had also been called in.

This wasn't just a conversation with Miyuki.

It was a meeting for the entire pitching staff.

Strangely, Zhang Han, the starting pitcher who had just been given the responsibility, was not there.

"Tomorrow, I will have Zhang Han start. After that, I will rotate depending on the situation. Tanba, be ready from the opening. Prepared to replace Zhang Han at any moment. Kawakami, start warming up and preparing from the sixth inning onward."

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir."

Although Zhang Han had been given the start, reading between the lines of Coach Kataoka's words suggested he didn't fully trust Zhang Han to go the distance. Why else would Tanba be on standby from the very beginning?

Miyuki, on the other hand, was confused.

Only ten minutes ago, Coach Kataoka had said something quite different.

He had said he would leave the game to Zhang Han, which Miyuki had taken to mean the intention was for Zhang Han to pitch the full game if nothing went wrong.

Now he was telling Tanba to be ready from the start, and even bringing Kawakami into the picture.

These two positions were entirely different.

He looked at Tanba and Kawakami, both of whom seemed motivated by what they had just heard.

Miyuki began to have a sense of what was actually happening here.

He had not expected his own coach to operate this way.

It was not something that fit the impression he had built of Kataoka Tesshin.

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