Manga Chapter 50

[based translation by narwhaltortellini]

In the stands, Roka returns to sit with Kazuki, who explains what happened when he was gone. Kazuki then remembers that Kurata had another close play incident over home plate in Bijou's third match as well, and mentions it to Roka.

On the field, Izumi comes up to bat at the bottom of the fifth inning. He watches the first pitch go by. It's a ball and he notes it is very fast. He figures in theory this pitcher, with his lack of control and only one breaking ball. should be the easiest Bijou pitcher to hit, but he finds in practice things seem different. He swings at the next pitch and misses. Sakaeguchi, waiting to bat next, thinks for batters without much power like he and Izumi, getting the pitcher to self destruct will be more effective.

As Izumi gets his last strike, Abe continues to review the game's pitches with Tajima and Mihashi. He quickly goes over what happened in each of Kurata's at bats. As he attempts to immediately move on to Takenouchi's, Tajima stops him and insists they go further back to review again. Mihashi thinks to himself that he needs to remember too, so that he can help Tajima.

Meanwhile, Sakaeguchi is in the batter's box and has already gotten two balls. He thinks the next pitch should be in, so he makes a full swing, figuring even if he doesn't make contact it will intimidate the pitcher. His swing misses, but as he suspected, the pitcher looks irritated. The next pitch is a fairly obvious ball. Sakaeguchi then grins widely at Takumi, angering him further. The last pitch is so far out that Takeshi has to stand to catch it, and Sakaeguchi walks to first.

As Suyama goes up to bat, Hanai yells to Tajima that he will be up next. Surprised, Tajima begins to leave, telling Mihashi to keep studying without him. Momokan tells Suyama to bunt. Looking worried, Takeshi stands to talk to Takumi, but Takumi embarrassedly waves him back down, knowing he was just irritated by Sakaeguchi and not intending to let it happen again.

As Suyama shows his bunt, Takumi notes that Suyama's head is right behind the bat, and that in that position he can meet Suyama's eyes and give him a mean look, which combined with his power and lack of control should scare him. Suyama is startled, pops up his bunt, and it is caught.

With two outs and a runner on first, Tajima comes up to bat, still going over pitches in his head. He notes that remembering someone else's pitching decisions is a lot harder than remembering his own. Stepping up to bat, he reminds himself that he needs to focus on batting now. Takeshi thinks Tajima will be swinging from the first pitch, and he does, getting his first strike.

After, Tajima thinks the pitch may have been a ball and also that his swing was not timed right. He tells himself again that he needs to focus, and reminds himself that he can review pitches again when his at bat is over, a thought that leads him to become even more distracted due to worries he will forget what he has memorized if he has to stand on base. He berates himself again for getting distracted, and tries to focus.

Tajima swings again at his next pitch, getting a foul. The next pitch is a ball which Tajma lets by. Tajima reminds himself again to focus, and that if they are unable to score, even perfect defense will do them no good. He swings at the third pitch and misses again, making Nishiura's third out. Tajima notes that being both catcher and cleanup is extremely hard.

As Mihashi gets up to go out on the field, Abe calls him back. He tells Mihashi to just keep trusting in the way Tajima tells him to pitch. Mihashi pauses for a moment, but then agrees that he will and heads out. As Mihashi leaves, Abe thinks to himself that he drove Mihashi to only be able to do as he was told, and that Mihashi's blind acceptance of him after that made Abe feel good. Abe thinks that he has completely smashed any chance Mihashi had to think for himself, and yet all he can do is tell him to rely on Tajima. He thinks to himself that after the game, he has many things he wants to apologize to Mihashi for.

On the field, Mihashi remembers Abe's promise to catch at ever game he pitches. Mihashi notes that he has been leaving all the difficult things to Abe and that he has not though for himself at all. He thinks this is why Abe has to say things to him like what he said in the dugout about relying on Tajima. He notes that he practically forced Abe to make him the impossible promise to not get hurt, and he kept believing it the entire time, and that the breaking of the impossible promise clearly bothered Abe. Mihashi resolves to tell Abe after they win the game that he doesn't have to worry about like that anymore.

The eighth inning starts. Bijou's sixth batter, Kashima (Takumi), comes up to bat. Tajima notes that Kashima swung and missed three times in his last at bat. He has the power to hit long, so they should not use high balls. Tajima asks for a slider that goes from a ball to a strike. Kashima lets it go by, getting his first strike.

As Mihashi pitches a fastball and makes another strike, the Bijou team in the dugout watches Momokan's signs and copies them down, noting the variety of pitch that came with each and whether it was a ball or strike. They figure the signal touching her chest is the key to something since it is the only signal she uses every time, but other than that they haven't figured out anything. They wonder if Momokan is actually giving out the pitch types. Yano points out that Tajima has likely had some preparation (being too small to be a likely choice for a last minute catcher), so Momokan is probably leaving pitch types up to him.

As Takumi hits a fly that is caught and the seventh batter comes up to bat, Wada wonders if perhaps she is simply giving out the ball count. They look at the notes in this light, but it still reveals nothing. Yano points out that Momokan seemed pissed about some of the balls meaning they were likely unintended. Throwing out these pitches, they are able to figure out the sign for a strike (which looks to be Momokan touching her mouth). They tell Takii.

In the meantime, the eighth batter has hit a fly and been caught, making Bijou's second out. Takeshi is coming up to bat and is stopped by Wada, who yells for a time out and tells Takeshi he will be given signs. Tajima is confused as to why Bijou would need to talk to their batter so badly when there aren't even any runners on.

Takeshi is signaled the first pitch will be a ball. Mihashi pitches a curve ball, and though Kurata does not swing, he notes he would have had he not been told, as the pitch looked hittable initially. For the next pitch, he is signaled it will be a strike. Takeshi remembers he has not been given a shoot yet, so he expects that. As Takeshi predicts, Tajima chooses a shoot, and Takeshi hits it. Suyama has to dive to catch the ball after it bounces. As Tajima laments that there will not be time after that for Suyama to throw back to first for an out, he suddenly looks surprised, then tells Suyama to throw to first anyway. The ball reaches first and the umpire calls the out.

In the stands, Roka is furious. Takeshi is standing still, having stopped before reaching the base. Kazuki wonders if perhaps he is hurt, but Roka does not think so. Kazuki mentions that Riou had actually asked some questions about close play over home plate, concerning where a catcher can stand to block and not. He points out Bijou's experiences with close play, and asks Roka what he thinks he should answer. (Meanwhile, we see a flashback of Kazuki looking at a message on his cell in class, possibly from Riou maybe asking about the catcher stuff like Kazuki said, but the end also mentions that Junta skipped practice and asks Kazuki to talk to him.) Kazuki also brings up offhandedly that Takeshi hasn't been looking into the stands at all anymore. Roka yells at Kazuki to shut up, and Kazuki notes that there seems to be more behind Roka's behavior than a bad mood and that something must be going on.

In the Bijou dugout, Takii is yelling at Takeshi. He goads Takeshi, asking him if he didn't run simply because he was tired or because they have a three point lead. He asks to hear any excuses Takeshi has, but Takeshi immediately states he has none. Takii is silent for a moment, then tells Takeshi that if it happens again he'll be dropped. Still, as he turns away, Takii notes that such behavior is not like Takeshi at all, and wonders what is wrong with him. Putting on his gear, Takeshi wonders why when he got to first base he stopped and kept asking himself it was ok to run past it or ok to slide, as if he didn't know the answer, as clearly it was fine to run past.

In the Nishiura dugout, Tajima and Mihashi plead with Hanai to make a hit before going back to studying. To Hanai's surprise, Oki comes up to him to do the same. Hanai notes that Oki has not made any hits this game. He observes that they still need four more points, yet their seventh, eighth, and ninth batters are unlikely to get hits. Hanai resolves that he must make it this time.