Chapter 84

Short Summary
Tokuchi is introduced to the minor team players by Kinosaki.

Long Summary
The Owner laments his losses to Oikawa and the Secretary. Oikawa tells him not to beat himself up for it, since the debt to Tokuchi has now been cut from 4.3 billion yen to 1.8 billion. Sakaiwa shouts it's not enough and he must get rid of the whole debt.

Saikawa receives a call from the owner of the Galalians, a prestigious team who are at ‘the centre of attention in Japan’s baseball world.’ While the Lycaons are part of the Pacific League, the Galalians play in the Asian League. After the phone call, Saikawa tells the other two he’s going to meet with the Galalians owner and claims his 1.8 billion debt has now been solved.

The Lycaons' minor team are practising when they notice Tokuchi watching. Kinosaki approaches him to say hi, but has to remind Tokuchi who he is. When asked why he's there, Tokuchi claims he’s killing time on suspension, but Nakane says that he heard from Kojima he’s here to scout for potential players to promote to the pros. Tokuchi doesn’t remember him either. Nakane asks another player, Kurai, to be a catcher for him so he can show off his pitching skills and shouts at him for being slow. He throws and turns to Tokuchi, but he and Kinosaki have already walked away.

Kinosaki tells Tokuchi about the other players' abilities, and points out the especially skilled members but Tokuchi complains they’re boring. He takes an interest in Murukawa, a 2.07m tall player from Dominica who fails to land a single hit.

Kurai gets a drink can thrown at his head because he’d bought the wrong flavour. The players tell him if he doesn’t bring the correct order within five minutes, he has to clean up the training ground by himself again. Tokuchi asks Kinosaki about him, who replies that Kurai is ‘too stupid’ to be a professional player. Tokuchi spots another member sitting on his own with a radio, and Kinosaki informs him he’s lost his life and family to gambling and always skips practices to follow the live racing broadcast. The player, Sugadaira, suddenly jumps up shouting he’s lost 100,000 yen. Kinosaki suggests he go practise, but Sugadarai says this counts as practising since gambling hones his intuition skills. He tells Tokuchi he should understand since he’s a gambler too, but Tokuchi seems insulted by the comparison and tells him gamblers are people who come out on top while Sugadarai’s just a loser. Sugadarai gets angry, but suddenly sees two debt collectors entering the grounds and runs away.

Later, Kinosaki is shocked to see Kurai cleaning the whole grounds by himself, but Kurai says it’s OK as he knows he’s useless and this is the only thing he can contribute to the team. Tokuchi laughs and calls the minor team an interesting place.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Saikawa: Owner of the Lycaons
 * Saikawa's Secretary
 * Oikawa
 * Kinosaki
 * Kurai
 * Murukawa
 * Sugadaira