Chapter 128

Short Summary
The Lycaons lose in their second game against the Eagles, meaning no one gets paid, and they have a fight over who’s to blame.

Long Summary
Tokuchi announces today’s game has about 40 million yens' worth of MVP tickets up for grabs. Imai and Fujita discuss their resentment. They claim Tokuchi’s behaviour is ‘bullying’ and there’s nothing they can do about his enjoyment of ‘inflicting pain’ on them. They ask the others where Kurumizawa has gone and are told he locked himself in the video room this morning, looking really down. Ideguchi says he’s going to check on him, but Kurumizawa suddenly runs up saying he lost track of time. They urge him not to contemplate suicide but Kurumizawa scoffs and says he was researching the opponent’s lineup in the hopes of scoring more MVP tickets. Fujita asks him why he isn’t pissed off about Tokuchi, but Kurumizawa says he’s trying to make their ‘trashy team’ win and clearly believes in them.

Imai bats a home run in the fourth inning and looks shocked with himself. He’s scored the Lycaons two points. He runs round the bases suddenly feeling it’s going to be a 'good day'. On his next at-bat, he scores a second home run, possibly the first double home run he’s ever made. In the ninth inning, the Lycaons are five points ahead of the Eagles. Imai thinks the match is already decided and eagerly anticipates getting at least half the MVP tickets for his performance. But on the Eagles' attack, several batters get walked. With the bases loaded, the next batter hits the pitch and two runners reach home. The next two batters also get hits and the following makes a home run. The Lycaons end up losing 11-9.

At the follow-up meeting, Tokuchi announces everyone’s salary to be zero. Imai stands up and screams that it’s bullshit- he had an amazing performance with 6 RBI. Tokuchi points out it didn't make the team win. Imai points to one of his teammates and says it’s his fault for not getting a hit when the bases were loaded, who then turns to one of the pitchers and tries to pin the loss on him instead. Their argument dissolves into a physical fight amongst the whole team and Kojima stands up and yells for them to stop. They ignore him and Tokuchi laughs. Kojima says the team's a mess because of Tokuchi’s stupid words about ‘true teamwork’. He responds today’s loss was a necessary lesson; they need to be pitted against one another until their ‘useless’ idea of teamwork is thrown away.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Imai
 * Fujita
 * Kurumizawa
 * Kojima
 * Ideguchi