Chapter 22

Short Summary
Takami explains his plan to use Brooklyn’s bat to overcome Tokuchi’s pitching. Nonetheless, Tokuchi outsmarts Takami at the last second and the Lycaons win the game.

Long Summary
Takami explains to the Mariners' hitting coach, Awaguchi, that to beat Tokuchi they must make their actions 'independent from (their) thoughts,’ made necessary by Tokuchi’s skill at reading people. He describes Tokuchi’s pitching as ‘playing a guessing game.’ He has one of two ‘cards’ to choose from, a black or a white one (referring to the regular fastball and the low-spinning one) and they must guess which card he’s chosen.

Takami explains that, by giving his teammates one of Brooklyn’s heavy bats, the unexpected extra weight would allow to them hit Tokuchi’s low-spinning fastball while they were trying to aim for a regular fastball. He'd told them not to take any practice swings so they wouldn’t unthinkingly adjust their swing to compensate for the heavy weight.

The next batter to face Tokuchi is Brooklyn, who gets struck out. Tokuchi now has two outs with bases loaded. Takami goes on next. He lets the first two pitches go by. On Tokuchi’s third pitch, the Coach Awaguchi sees it’s not the low-spinning fastball, and fears Tokuchi’s got them, but another player points out that Takami's using his own bat, not one of Brooklyn’s. Takami expected Tokuchi to figure out their trick after he struck Brooklyn out and throw a regular fastball for the next batter, which is why Takami is now using his own.

To Takami’s shock, he swings and misses. With his superior motion vision, he spots too late that Tokuchi threw neither a regular nor a low-spinning fastball. Instead he increased the rotation so that the ball unexpectedly travelled upwards of the bat. Acknowledging he’d been outsmarted, he describes Tokuchi as having pulled out a ‘grey card’ whilst he was still guessing between black and white.

The Lycaons score a walk-off run during the bottom of the ninth, earning their first win against the Mariners. Back at Saikawa’s office, Oikawa fears the owner will be angry, but he looks unworried and says, ‘Tokuchi is approaching total and complete defeat.’

After this match, Tokuchi’s salary is 555 million yen.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Takami
 * Brooklyn
 * Coach Awaguchi
 * Oikawa
 * Saikawa (Owner of the Lycaons)