After the game, the Seido High School Baseball Team barely celebrated.
They bowed deeply to the supporters who had come to cheer for them, then prepared to leave.
For Seido, although there had been some minor setbacks in this game, it was normal to have issues after changing their tactics. The result was more or less what they had expected, and that was enough.
As for their dejected opponents, it was only the Spring Tournament, so they weren't overly devastated.
On the contrary, their pitcher Aikawa passionately addressed his teammates after the loss.
The Seido High School Baseball Team players didn't know exactly what he said, but seeing the Ushimaru Agricultural players with red eyes, it was clear enough.
Have you ever seen a bullfight?
The Ushimaru Agricultural players basically looked like that right now.
Not the bullfighters. The bulls, enraged by a red cloth.
But this had nothing to do with the Seido High School Baseball Team anymore.
Although Ushimaru Agricultural had shown some potential, they were still far from reaching the top level in Tokyo in just a few months.
In the Summer Tournament, the Seido High School Baseball Team would almost certainly not cross paths with Ushimaru Agricultural again.
And even if they did meet, Seido was completely confident they could defeat them.
After the game, the players wanted to take the bus directly back to school.
But the reporters who had specifically come to cover the game wouldn't let them go so easily. There were only just over a thousand spectators, yet seven or eight reporters were present.
The Seido High School Baseball Team players were quite speechless.
Coach Kataoka and Zhang Han were stopped by reporters for interviews.
Kuramochi, standing behind them, muttered with a hint of envy.
"Being good-looking really pays off. Even reporters..."
"If you had hit two Homeruns in this game, reporters would interview you too."
Miyuki cut him down without mercy.
"It's better to know some things and not say them. Then we can still be friends. If you keep this up, we can't even be that."
"Who's friends with you?"
Miyuki looked disgusted.
Kuramochi felt his fists itch. He hadn't had enough action during the game. Was this the universe offering him a chance to stretch his muscles after the final whistle?
Watching the second-year players bicker, several third-year seniors felt genuinely envious.
"Look how good their relationship is!"
Although the third-years had been through hardships and fought together, their usual interactions were mostly limited to training and games.
There wasn't much private connection.
Unlike the second-year players, who spent all their time together, practically inseparable.
That was a real friendship.
If Kuramochi and Miyuki knew what the seniors were thinking, they would surely be on the verge of tears. Their relationship was nowhere near as close as the seniors imagined.
Zhang Han was no longer the naive young man he had been a year ago. He was now adept at handling interviews.
In fact, it was always the same few lines.
Praise the opponent, commend his teammates, say a few words about continuing to work hard. If asked about his goal, he would glance at his coach and reluctantly say the words "dominate the nation."
Although it was somewhat formulaic, it worked.
Not only did reporters like it, but even fans who read the reports responded well.
They liked this kind of persona.
Unique personalities could attract a certain kind of fan, but they were ultimately a minority.
The vast majority of viewers preferred players who projected positive energy and strong values.
In that regard, Zhang Han fit the mold naturally.
He didn't need to overact. As long as he was mindful of his wording and attitude, he could complete an interview without issue.
Coach Kataoka listened from the side, satisfied.
Over the past year, Zhang Han had not only improved his skills but also shed much of his arrogance.
The old Zhang Han had been like a rare treasure, something people only dared to admire from a distance, never daring to approach.
Now, although he still carried that pride, it no longer put people on edge.
That was good.
A baseball player's edge should only show on the field. With Zhang Han's looks and skill, he didn't need to go around making a statement to attract attention. He only needed to be himself, and eyes would naturally follow.
This young man's future was limitless.
The interview was friendly and the questions were not sharp. Both Coach Kataoka and Zhang Han felt they had done well.
Then the reports came out, and they were something else entirely.
"Seido, the Slump of a Powerhouse."
"Seido High School, Past its Prime, or Biding its Time?"
"West Tokyo's Group of Death, How Far Can Seido High School Go?"
When Zhang Han saw these reports, he wasn't particularly angry. He was just puzzled.
During the interview the day before, those reporters had been practically deferential. How had the report turned out like this?
Coach Kataoka was furious, pounding the table.
Although he had always disliked the media, feeling they either overpraised or unfairly buried players, this was too much. They were openly misrepresenting the situation. And it wasn't just the printed reports. There were aggressive comments flooding in under the online coverage as well.
How had the Seido High School Baseball Team gone from being the nation's strongest batting lineup to an object of widespread pessimism?
Most people, just from the headlines, would want to push back.
Zhang Han stayed composed.
Although he was also annoyed, he read through the reports carefully.
While the headlines were sharp, the content was actually measured. The reporter calmly analyzed the situation in West Tokyo and the shortcomings of Seido's performance in the previous game.
Based on that, they concluded that the probability of the Seido High School Baseball Team winning the Summer Tournament was not particularly high.
It wasn't that they believed Seido was incapable of winning.
The main reasons were the strength of their opponents and some internal team issues that had not yet been fully resolved.
On the opponent front, the recently concluded Spring Koshien made clear how difficult Seido's path in the Summer Tournament would be.
Before reaching Koshien, they would first have to defeat a national top-eight team and the Spring Koshien champion.
And that was without factoring in the other strong teams in West Tokyo.
That was the external threat.
As for internal concerns, although Koichiro Tanba had performed well in the recent game, he had still given up runs against a team of Ushimaru Agricultural's caliber.
Looking at Tanba's pitching alone might not reveal much, but comparing him to the Ace Pitchers of the other two powerhouses in West Tokyo, the gap was stark.
Narumiya Mei. Manaka Kaname.
Against either of them, the difference was shockingly clear from the data and performance alone, without needing a direct head-to-head comparison.
With such an uncertain Ace Pitcher, how could Seido contend with the other two major powerhouses?
During dinner, the teammates were all worked up about the reports.
Kuramochi directly accused the reporters of talking nonsense.
Miyuki, sitting across from Zhang Han, held his chopsticks and said evenly:
"They're not exactly talking nonsense. The analysis in the report is biased, but it's not without basis."
Given the strength the Seido High School Baseball Team had shown in their first game, it would genuinely be difficult for them to go all the way in the summer.
"When the army comes, we'll block them. When the water comes, we'll build a dam. If you want to shut them up, just perform well in the next game."
Zhang Han said.
The cafeteria fell silent.
"Alright, kid!"
"Didn't know you had it in you."
Several third-year seniors gathered around Zhang Han.
Zhang Han himself was puzzled.
He was just stating facts. Where did they hear anything philosophical in that?
A week later, the Seido High School Baseball Team welcomed their second-round opponent.
Shichimori High School.
The tournament had reached the fourth round, an important and decisive stage.
Teams that won this round would officially enter the top 16 and also secure a seed spot when the Summer Tournament began.
The Seido High School Baseball Team had been looking forward to this game.
They were determined to show the media, who had been writing them off, exactly what they were capable of.
At this point, the freshmen were still doing basic training.
The Spring Tournament had nothing to do with them.
If there was any connection at all, it was that some of them sat in the stands to cheer during games.
Some didn't even do that.
One of them was a young man named Sawamura. After being disciplined by Coach Kataoka, he seemed to have gone into a kind of single-minded focus.
He just ran. No sign of backing down or trying to make amends with Coach Kataoka.
In the last game, he had been the only freshman who didn't come to watch.
He didn't come to today's game against Shichimori either.
He seemed completely absorbed in running.
Zhang Han asked Kuramochi about it privately. Kuramochi was quite exasperated with his junior roommate.
He had already been generous enough not to make an issue of the offense when Sawamura first joined the team.
And he had hinted more than once, privately, that Sawamura should go and make things right with Coach Kataoka.
It wasn't that Coach Kataoka was overly concerned with saving face.
The main thing was that their coach valued players who were willing to own their mistakes. Someone who wouldn't admit fault was very unlikely to earn his approval.
But Sawamura, whether out of genuine obliviousness or stubbornness, had completely ignored those hints.
He just kept running.
Kuramochi was at a loss.
He was a freshman, and Coach Kataoka was still angry. A bit of hardship would do him good.
"Is he really that stubborn?"
Zhang Han was a little surprised.
He had interacted with Sawamura before and hadn't gotten that impression. Perhaps their time together had been too short for Sawamura to fully show his true nature.
Still, if Sawamura's personality truly was that stubborn, some tempering would do him good. Not just for baseball, but for his life going forward.
Fortunately, Sawamura had no idea what his two seniors were thinking. If he had, he would have been furious.
They were setting him up.
The truth was, he wasn't being arrogant at all. He genuinely hadn't understood Kuramochi's hints.
Being told that the coach was strict and that he might never get a chance, who would read that as an instruction to go and apologize?
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