Chapter 12

Short Summary
Tokuchi plays against the Fingers and gets a perfect game.

Long Summary
Saikawa calls the manager of the Lycaons and asks him not to take Tokuchi off the pitcher’s mound until he's lost at least 3 runs in their upcoming pre-season game against the Fingers.

Kojima is a guest commentator for the game as he’s still injured and can’t play. The host commentator says to Kojima that as a new player, Tokuchi must be nervous- until he looks to the Lycaons’ dugout and sees Tokuchi asleep on the bench. The commentator notes that Tokuchi’s previous opponents, the Bloomers, were young players, and the Owner is confident that Tokuchi will not do so well against the Fingers.

Tokuchi walks to the mound without doing any practice pitches, claiming he ‘doesn’t need them,’ which is met with indignation from the opposing team. Tokuchi’s first batting opponent is determined to teach him a lesson, but the Fingers finish the first inning with no points. Even so, in the dugout the Fingers players are confident Tokuchi won’t last long. Kojima says to the commentator that the Fingers are in for a surprise if they underestimate Tokuchi.

The other team’s pitcher, Kawanaka, pitches well too, and neither team get any points for the first three innings. Kawanaka tells his teammates to, ‘just hurry up and get some runs.’ He alone has perceived Tokuchi to be a formidable pitcher, but his teammates think he’s overreacting. The only other individual to have recognised Tokuchi’s talent is Ideguchi, the Lycaons’ catcher.

The Lycaons score in the seventh inning. Kawanaka is sure they can’t win the game and begs his team-mates to get at least one point. At the eighth inning, the Fingers finally realise how skilled their opponent is. Tokuchi finishes with a perfect game.

Afterwards, Ideguchi approaches Kojima and says he’s never seen a pitcher like Tokuchi. He’s in shock that Tokuchi only ever threw fastballs without getting a hit. He wonders what Tokuchi, ‘sees that we don’t.’

Manager Mihara tells the Owner that he didn’t plan on promoting Tokuchi to the First Team yet, but Saikawa insists that he do it immediately and Mihara obeys. Tokuchi appears in another pre-season game 4 days later, and at the end has earned a sum total of 270 million yen.