Chapter 94

Short Summary
On the day of the first match against the Fingers, Tokuchi tells Oikawa he chose Kurai as a starter to get Saikawa to increase the rates. On the Kurai’s very first pitch, he gives up a home run.

Long Summary
Oikawa panics to Tokuchi about today’s 20x One Outs rate. Kurai has yet to get a single out in a game and cannot be benched until the fifth inning, leaving Tokuchi with, at best, a loss of 3.5 billion yen. He laments over why Tokuchi chose Kurai as a starter, and Tokuchi tells him it’s because he wanted to lure the Owner into increasing the rate.

The day of the match against the Fingers, Saikawa and his Secretary try to guess how many runs Kurai will give up. Oikawa tells Saikawa that Tokuchi said he welcomes the increased rate with open arms and Saikawa looks alarmed. On the field, Ideguchi tells Kurai not to hold back. The Fingers players watch Kurai throw warm-up pitches and think he doesn’t look like much.

Sakaiwa demands to know what the hell Tokuchi could mean, but Oikawa says he doesn’t know and can’t figure how Tokuchi plans to beat them. At the game, the commentators say they’d heard Mihara plans on switching Kurai out with Tokuchi once a runner gets on base. Saikawa is outraged as that would go against the One Outs contract, but Oikawa shows him it wouldn’t. Kurai can be placed on as a fielder rather than being benched. The Secretary says it won’t work anyway as Kurai giving up even one home-run will render Tokuchi’s outs useless.

On Kurai’s first pitch, the batter hits it and gets a home-run and a relieved Saikawa laughs.

Characters

 * Tokuchi Toua
 * Oikawa
 * Saikawa: Owner of the Lycaons
 * Saikawa's Secretary
 * Ideguchi
 * Kurai