Diamond No Ace: The Strongest Hitter Has Arrived

Chapter 421: Next Opponent

"Livestock?"

Kuramochi, upon seeing those words, was filled with doubt.

"Do people raise sheep in Tokyo too?"

Zhang Han and Miyuki exchanged glances. They barely held back.

"Don't show off your ignorance."

"If students from Seido explained those two words like that, our enrolment rate would definitely drop."

"Little Rei would regret it too. Even special recruitment has standards. It would really tarnish our reputation."

Seido High School wasn't as famous as Inashiro Industrial. But this was mainly because Seido was a private school with an aristocratic reputation, different from Inashiro, which was a key high school affiliated with a key university. In terms of teaching quality and graduate prospects, students from Seido were not much worse off.

A school of that standing would surely be ashamed to have a student like Kuramochi.

Kuramochi's fists were itching.

These two were so verbally relentless that he wanted to settle it properly. In a battle of words, he couldn't get any advantage over them. But if it came to a real fight, he could take on both of them and still spot them three moves.

"Isn't livestock just raising sheep?"

"Livestock and grazing are not the same thing. I don't even need to explain it myself. Kanemaru!"

Zhang Han called out directly.

Kanemaru heard his name and came over at a jog.

"Explain to your Kuramochi-senpai what livestock means."

Kanemaru was a bit stunned, but he wasn't slow.

He could tell this was another verbal sparring match among the First-string senpai, the kind everyone else made a point of avoiding. He was just unlucky enough to have a senpai like Zhang Han who kept pulling him in to take the hit.

Fortunately, Kuramochi-senpai still remembered his position and hadn't come after him directly. From what he had observed on two occasions, he was fairly certain his own abilities wouldn't hold up against Kuramochi-senpai's temper.

Under Kuramochi's chilling stare, Kanemaru's voice wavered, but he answered honestly.

"Livestock, like arable farming, is a branch of agriculture. Arable farming is straightforward: growing things, crops, plants. Livestock is animals. Raising cattle, pigs, horses, that kind of thing."

"Isn't that still just raising sheep?"

Kuramochi was not particularly receptive to this answer.

"Ushimaru Agricultural is best known for its pig farming programme. They also raise large livestock such as cattle and horses."

Kanemaru added, keeping his voice even.

"I see. Very knowledgeable, aren't you. Why didn't you go into agriculture yourself? What are you doing at our school?"

Kuramochi asked, glaring at Kanemaru.

Kanemaru felt thoroughly wronged.

It was simply because his home was close to Ushimaru Agricultural and he happened to know a bit more about it. That was all.

"Senpai, I..."

Zhang Han pulled Kanemaru aside. The kid was still too straightforward, not as quick on his feet as Toujou. Pushing him into the First-string might not even be doing him a favour.

But as his junior from Matsukata, if Zhang Han brought Toujou along and left Kanemaru out, he would feel genuinely bad about it.

It might not be obvious now. But entering the First-string even one or two months earlier could make a real difference to where a player ended up on the team. One step behind at the start had a way of becoming every step behind later.

Two players who looked evenly matched today could show a significant gap in a year's time.

Zhang Han could only nudge things from the side. He couldn't say any of this outright. The First-string members weren't naive. If they felt they were being pushed in, it would breed resentment. And if the First-string came to resent either of them, it would be very hard to break in, and even harder to perform once they did.

Unless someone was a rare talent, ordinary players always needed their teammates behind them to perform well. Baseball was not a solo sport.

"Judging by your tone, it sounds like you look down on agricultural schools. Do you know that agricultural school students have made it to Koshien and done well there? Have you? And for the record, people who graduate from agricultural programmes earn well above average. So what exactly is the problem? You eat rice, don't you? Meat, fish, vegetables?"

Zhang Han wasn't genuinely on a high horse. He was partly helping Kanemaru out of the situation, but mostly he was hitting back at Kuramochi. This guy always came after him, and Zhang Han wasn't about to miss a chance to return the favour.

Kuramochi went red.

He was reasonably sharp and could hold his own against Miyuki in an argument. But with Zhang Han, facing that calm and methodical delivery, he couldn't find a single thing to say back.

He knew perfectly well Zhang Han was just taking a shot at him. But he couldn't shake the feeling that Zhang Han was also right.

This guy looked perfectly decent. His words were just far too persuasive.

Not a good person at all.

Seeing Kuramochi's expression shift, Zhang Han wrapped it up quickly. He wasn't worried about Kuramochi being too deflated. He was more worried about the other kind of reaction.

"Something to think about. Let's go."

Best to leave while the going was good.

Zhang Han took Kanemaru and made a quick exit.

That evening, the day before the match, Seido High School finally compiled all available data on Ushimaru Agricultural and held a dedicated strategy meeting in the conference room.

At the meeting, Kuramochi glanced at Zhang Han and said three words.

"Jinx."

Looking at the information on Ushimaru Agricultural, Zhang Han had to admit that things had a strange way of working out.

The opponent had, in fact, once made it to Koshien.

Around sixty-two years ago, a group of determined teenagers from the school had fought their way through the Tokyo bracket and made it in. They were eliminated in the second round, but that alone was a genuine achievement. They had represented Tokyo, and that counted for something.

Over the sixty years that followed, the programme gradually faded. It even faced dissolution at one point.

About three years ago, a new group of players joined Ushimaru with real ambition and brought the club back to life. Their best result in that time was reaching the Tokyo top eight, but the Baseball Club had been revived in every meaningful sense.

Now was the third year since that revival, and those original players had just graduated. But inspired by what that group had built, a number of talented players had chosen to join Ushimaru in their wake.

The team had entered the official rounds of last year's Tokyo Autumn Tournament and won a match before being eliminated in the round of thirty-two.

As a first opponent, they were not to be taken lightly.

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