Chapter 2

Short Summary
Nanake accepts the pitcher’s bet, but loses despite the pitcher throwing three fastballs with the same trajectory. He and Kinosaki leave all their money and bank cards with the foreign woman, who reveals the pitcher to be called Tokuchi Toua.

Long Summary
Kinosaki warns Nakane the pitcher’s offer is a trap but the pitcher states he doesn’t need cheap tricks and Nakane won’t be able to touch any of his pitches. His pride flaring, Nakane accepts the bet. The pitcher’s confidence fills Nakane with doubt. As a young player, 40,000 dollars is a large sum of money for him.

Nakene lets the first pitch go by, earning a strike. He notes the pitch was nothing special. The foreign woman, Big Mama, tells Kinosaki that that pitch decided the game and Nakene should have swung. Kinosaki insists letting the ball go by was part of the plan, but the woman says he was simply ‘running away’ which is a bad habit the Japanese have.

She speculates the pitcher could see this flaw in Nanake which is why he proposed the bet. She tells Kinosaki they don’t understand the essence of the rules and have fallen into the pitcher’s trap. Kinosaki realises that letting the ball go by, while a legitimate strategy in baseball, is pointless here because all Nanake has to do is graze the ball, and he’s wasted a strike. He yells at Nakene to ‘swing’ and ‘just go for it’ as the pitcher throws the ball. Nakane swings and misses, realising his mistake.

Kinosaki wonders what the pitcher’s final throw will be, suspecting he’s saved his best pitch for last. He calls for time out and tells Nakane to calm down; he doesn’t need to worry about what kind of pitch the last will be as the pitcher’s not wearing a glove and his grip is visible. Feeling more confident, Nakane goes to bat and sees the pitcher has a ‘forkball’ grip on the ball. He doesn’t swing as he’s sure the forkball will drop out of the strike zone, which will be a point against the pitcher. But when the ball hits the strike zone, Nakane realises it was actually a fastball and the forkball grip was used to mislead him.

Big Mama tells the pair to leave all their money and credit cards with her since they don’t have 40,000 dollars. She then tells them that while she brought them there with the intent to swindle some money, that particular pitcher isn’t one she’s in cahoots with; all of his strikeouts were genuine. During Nakane’s match, he pitched to the same spot on the lower right corner of the strike zone, yet Nakane couldn’t hit it. She describes the pitcher to be ‘something else’ and reveals his name to be Tokuchi Toua.