Chapter 91

Short Summary
The other players are angry with the former minor-leaguers promotion and agree to a One Outs match to determine whether or not they can stay. Tokuchi finally reveals the hidden abilities of Muruwaka and Kurai.

Long Summary
Oikawa arrives at the Lycaons’ practice and sees a fight has broken out among the players. Ideguchi asks Sugadaira to calm down but he angrily shouts that the other players had been laughing at them while they’d practised. Pitcher Takahashi Tadamasa, one of those laughing, tells them they’re a hindrance. Oikawa watches in horror as they continue to fight when he notices Tokuchi applauding from the stands, telling them to ‘keep it up’.

Takahashi turns to the manager and lets him know the pitchers disagree with their promotion and don't understand why he keeps using them as starters. He says if Mihara doesn’t give a good reason he’ll boycott the matches, unaware it’s Saikawa who’s behind it. Tokuchi intervenes and tells Takahashi if he wants a say in their position here, he has to have a ‘One Outs’ match against one of former minor leaguers. Takahashi agrees.

He pitches against Muruwaka, who misses the first two pitches. Takahashi laughs and calls his batting ‘horse shit’ because he’s late even on his fastball. Tokuchi asks Ideguchi if he agrees, and Ideguchi says he doesn’t understand why Muruwaka is late regardless of the type of pitch. Tokuchi reveals he met ‘an old geezer’ named Narazawa who explained to him why. Sugadaira once got hit in the head by a 160km/h fastball (faster than the world record) and has had an unconscious fear of the ball ever since. He won’t begin to swing until he’s certain that he won’t be hit. Takahashi laughs and still considers Murukawa useless, but Tokuchi suggests they try the next round with a rubber ball instead.

This time Muruwaka steps in to swing and connects with the ball in time. The ball flies to the stands, making it a home-run. Sugadaira starts gloating but the other players insist it only travelled so far because it was a soft ball and they need a rematch. But Takahashi reluctantly reveals that Tokuchi had told him to secretly use a regular hard ball instead.

Oikawa’s delighted, but Ideguchi points out they don’t know how to remove the unconscious fear created by the pitching machine. Tokuchi asks him what makes him think it was a pitching machine who threw the ball and declares it was a person. He points to Kurai and says it was he who hit Muruwaka in the head. The others don’t believe him. Kurai says he’s not certain how fast the pitch was but confirms he was the one who injured Muruwaka. Tokuchi tells Kurai to show them his ‘true power’.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Oikawa
 * Ideguchi
 * Takahashi Tadamasa
 * Manager Mihara
 * Muruwaka
 * Sugadarai
 * Kurai