Chapter 125

Short Summary
Tokuchi goes to the emergency owner meeting and makes a deal with Tanabe

Long Summary
Kojima tells the team that there’s a possibility Tokuchi won’t be accepted as an owner. The team start to worry again. Ideguchi asks why, and Kojima tells him as long as Tokuchi’s owner the push for baseball restructuring won’t proceed further.

The press surround Chairman Tanabe to ask for the purpose of the emergency meeting. Tanabe tells them they can’t allow ‘just anybody’ to own a team, which makes it to the front-page headline the next day.

The owners discuss the meeting before Tanabe and Tokuchi get there and agree there’ll be hell to pay if they don’t follow Tanabe’s lead. The headline proved the Chairman’s already made his mind up and the meeting’s a formality. Tokuchi arrives dressed casually, and sits in the Chairman’s seat. The owners all jump up and yell at him to move. Tokuchi laughs and mocks them all for being scared of Tanabe. Tanabe comes in and says he can sit where he likes.

One of the owners stands up and begins the meeting announcements; they’re here to discuss Tokuchi’s ownership rights. Tokuchi suddenly interrupts, seemingly confused. He says he thought this was his welcoming party. The speaker repeats that not ‘just anybody’ can be an owner and Tokuchi replies he has enough money. Tanabe tells him it takes a ‘qualification examination’ to become an owner, carried out by them. There are various factors but the most important for Tokuchi is whether he has any talent for managing a baseball team. Tokuchi laughs and says in that case, all the managers who let their teams go into the red should also have their abilities tested. He calls out the Bugaboos owner for going 4 billion yen into deficit every year, then turns to the owner of the Sparrows and asks if he thinks he has any aptitude as a manager. The Sparrows owner stutters and Tanabe interrupts. The Bugaboos are a strong team, which requires spending money on players, not like his ‘pathetic Lycaons.’ One of the other managers shouts his agreement and says anyone can avoid debt if they’re OK with coming in dead last every year. Another says it’s good to have an owner who doesn’t throw away the team when things get bad.

Tokuchi guesses they're referring to Saikawa and they affirm it. He says in that case, he has another question; did anyone here point out Saikawa’s lack of disposition for the task when he became an owner? They all remain silent. Tokuchi tells them they don’t have the skills to examine other people’s abilities. Tanabe asks him how they should measure his disposition in that case. Tokuchi says, based on what’s been said in the meeting, if he manages not to go into deficit while maintaining a strong team, that should be enough. He says to try letting him do it for a week. If at the end of it he goes into deficit, or if the Lycaons haven’t reach a leading position within ten games, he'll forfeit his ownership. Every time he clears these conditions, his time as an owner will be extended by another week. Finally, Tokuchi says that if the Lycaons don’t win the championship, he’ll also step down.

Tanabe finally says he agrees, promptly echoed by the rest of the members.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Chairman Tanabe
 * Kojima
 * Ideguchi