Chapter 119

Short Summary
With Saikawa’s company going bankrupt, it looks like the Lycaons baseball team will be dissolved.

Long Summary
Following the three Blue Mars games, the Lycaons have risen to second place in the League. The team celebrate their achievement with drinks before a travel day, foreseeing their perfect game as being on the front page of every newspaper tomorrow.

The next day, a breaking news report says that Saikawa’s construction company has fallen under and Ron Wood Capital, the corporation funding him, has fired him from their executive board. Oikawa finds himself surrounded by the media, asking him if the restructuring of Saikawa Group will mean the disbandment of the Lycaons. Oikawa declares that to be impossible and escapes.

He meets with the team, who are all in bad spirits. Ideguchi asks him what will happen to the Lycaons. Oikawa says the annihilation of the team was just a sensationalist headline, but it’s true Saikawa’s company is in the red. Nonetheless, due to good management, the team is in a healthy condition financially. They ask what purpose it would serve to get rid of them if they’re generating a profit and Oikawa only responds with the assurance that the Lycaons will '"never"' be disbanded. Kojima is satisfied with Oikawa’s promise and encourages the team to come practise with him.

They leave and Tokuchi remains behind. He laughs and asks if it’s OK to tell such ‘soothing lies’, but Oikawa denies he said anything false. Tokuchi says a huge management reconstruction doesn’t make sense for Saikawa Group’s situation and asks why they’re not undergoing a more gradual plan with bank aid. Oikawa responds he wouldn’t know anything about that. Tokuchi reminds him there’s no pretending the Lycaons had healthy management when the Owner agreed to such a ridiculous contract with him.

Oikawa reveals that the money they’ve been paying him hasn’t come from the Lycaons funding. He had a look, but found no records of Tokuchi’s payment anywhere. The Lycaons are still in the black and really are in a healthy state. Where Saikawa got Tokuchi’s money from is a mystery.

In the locker room, the team watch a live press conference with Ron Wood Capital. They say they’ve bought out 70% of Saikawa Group. Their reconstruction plan will begin with shutting down unprofitable departments and they plan to lay off 70,000 workers over the next three years. A journalist asks what they plan to do with the Lycaons, and the Chairman reveals they have no plans to keep them. However if an individual wants to purchase the team, they have a deadline of two weeks to make an offer. The team are devastated.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Oikawa
 * Ideguchi
 * Kojima
 * Ron Wood Capital Chairman