Chapter 31

Short Summary
Arai manages to get an RBI hit and the Lycaons finally have the lead against the Mariners.

Long Summary
Manager Mihara declares the Lycaons will definitely win this game. The team find his fighting spirit unusual and say they’ve ‘caught up pretty well’ considering they’re against the Mariners. Tokuchi says they can’t proceed as they did before since time is no longer an issue. He tells the team there is ‘yet another great hurdle to oversee this inning.’

The teams are still tied at 16-16, and Oikawa wishes for the Lycaons to get one more point. The Mariners pitcher, Tashiro, throws four ‘balls’ in a row. With the rain, he can’t throw his regular curveballs. Arai goes up next to bat. Tashiro still throws balls, but they’re getting gradually more controlled, and on the next pitch he gets a strike with a fastball. Ideguchi says the ‘crucial pitch’ is next, as Arai is a great batter until the count reaches 2-1 or 2-2. He fouls on the next throw, making the count 2-2. Ideguchi shouts at him to relax. Arai feels under great pressure, as if he’s put out now, the teams will switch over and the Lycaons won’t get another chance to go on the attack. A ball suddenly hits him on the side of the head. Tokuchi comes up to apologise so that he can whisper something. When the others ask him what he said, he reveals he told Arai the next pitch is definitely going to be a curveball on the outside. Tokuchi’s prediction is correct and Arai hits it. A runner gets home and the Lycaons are finally in the lead.

The others say Tokuchi must have ESP, but Ideguchi says he think he knows how Tokuchi guessed right. Tashiro’s curveballs before had all been way outside the strike zone, but the two he threw against Arai got closer to getting in as he got used to pitching in the rain. With the count at 2-2, he had a free pitch left to play around with and used it to improve his curveball technique.

Tokuchi says he’s half-right- he was more concerned with making sure Arai swung than telling him the precise pitch. He asks them if any of them have heard the story of the ‘British donkey’. A hungry donkey was presented with a bucket of water and a bucket of hay, and spent so long deciding which to eat from he starved to death. When Arai has a bad count, his indecision results in a bad hit. Tokuchi says this doesn’t only apply to Arai, and he considers the rest of them ‘British donkeys’ too. When they realised the game wasn’t going to be made invalid, they lost all their confidence. Thus Tokuchi felt the need to lie by telling them there was ‘another great hurdle’ to come. They admit that they did become more alert after Tokuchi said that.

The Lycaons finally get three outs and the teams switch sides. Imai and the others promise to do whatever they can to protect their one point lead.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Ideguchi
 * Tashiro
 * Imai
 * Arai
 * Manager Mihara