Three up, three down.
Other than that shaky leadoff at the start, Inashiro Industrial hadn't even gotten close to scoring.
Zhou Hao was like a cheat code—suffocating Inashiro's offense, leaving their top-tier lineup utterly helpless.
And we're not talking about just any hitters.
Their second and third batters were so of the best in West Tokyo.
Yet even they were overwheld.
Faced with Zhou Hao's evolving Spiral Ball, they couldn't even put the bat on the ball.
In the Seidou stands, fans were stunned into silence.
They should have been cheering.
They should have been blasting out chants and rattling the opponent's nerves.
Instead, they were just staring, wide-eyed.
Because what they were seeing didn't feel real.
Zhou Hao had made Inashiro look helpless.
A team that had blocked Seidou's path to Koshien for years—reduced to swinging at air.
The Seidou fans were practically giddy. Just thinking about it felt like waking up from a beautiful dream.
anwhile, Inashiro's dugout looked like a funeral.
"How can the gap be this wide?"
"We couldn't even touch the ball…"
"He even knocked soone's bat out of their hands!"
The second and third batters sat silently, heads hanging like wilted plants.
They had no answers.
"Didn't you hit his Spiral Ball during practice?"
"What changed?"
No one could explain it.
Yes, they had made solid contact in the bullpen.
Yes, it looked hittable before.
But when they stepped into the actual batter's box?
It was a different beast entirely.
Zhou Hao's motion hadn't changed. The spin was the sa. The angle, nearly identical.
But the speed—and more than that, the aggression of the pitch—felt completely different.
It was subtle. But on the field, that subtle difference beca a massive wall.
Zhou Hao had leveled up.
Coach Kunimoto finally broke the silence.
"No need to panic. We expected this much. Switch to the second plan."
Inashiro's players didn't like it, but they had no choice.
The second and third batters had already shown the world: Zhou Hao wasn't soone they could handle right now.
"Zhou Hao!"
"Zhou Hao!!"
The Seidou fans finally snapped out of their trance and burst into thunderous chants.
But the ga had already moved on to the top of the second inning.
Seidou was back on offense.
Leading off—the fifth batter, Shimoi.
He stepped into the batter's box, glaring down Inashiro's ace: Yuki.
Zhou Hao had lit the fire. It was their job now to keep it burning.
They were up by just one run—a razor-thin lead. No one on Seidou's bench believed that'd be enough to take down Inashiro.
Shimoi made up his mind. He was going to swing big.
"Ping!"
The ball cracked off his bat and soared upward.
Inashiro's shortstop tracked it easily and secured the catch.
"Out!"
One out. No runners.
Next ca Chris, the sixth batter.
Focused and calm, he watched Yuki's pitch and made his move.
"Ping!"
The ball bounced sharply off the infield grass.
Inashiro's pitcher sprinted forward, fielded it cleanly, and gunned it to first.
"Out!"
Two outs. Still no one on base.
Seidou couldn't catch a break.
Even with a lead, the montum felt like it was slipping.
Now stepping up—Yoshida, the team's seventh batter.
He had recently swapped places with Zhou Hao in the order, dropping from second to seventh.
He squinted at Yuki on the mound, focusing all his attention.
"Whoosh!"
The ball ca flying in. No ti to overthink—Yoshida swung.
"Ping!"
Another high fly ball.
In the Seidou dugout, Zhou Hao watched, puzzled.
"What's going on?"
He knew how solid his upperclassn were. But today?
They looked hesitant.
"Their swings… feel off."
Chris muttered from the bench.
"It's that Forkball. The one that got Azuma out earlier."
Everyone rembered it.
Azuma had been expecting a straight pitch, but instead—Forkball. Total misread. Double play.
That one pitch had left a deep scar on the Seidou hitters.
Even if they tried to read it now, the doubt lingered.
Hesitation crept in.
Yuki had picked up on that—and he was exploiting it.
Three outs.
Side change.
Bottom of the second inning.
Zhou Hao returned to the mound.
"BOOM!"
The Spiral Ball roared once again.
And the batters from Inashiro?
Still looked completely powerless.
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