His earlier anger turned into wariness, forcing him out of his mood.
Ryan took a few deep breaths, doing his best to compose himself.
Coach Williams in the dugout saw this and nodded. It was only the second inning, so he was reluctant to pull Ryan from the mound. Yet if he was going to continue being rash and angry, he would be left with no choice.
For some reason, the guy had quite a grudge against the Japanese team.
Leo too managed to compose himself. It seemed that the gloomy aura of Kuro had successfully tamed the Ice and Fire duo of Leo and Ryan.
However, he had no idea of this. In reality, he just wanted to do his best, keeping the momentum up for the Japanese team.
After letting out a small sigh, Leo called for an inside pitch.
Ryan nodded, lifting his leg and performing his pitch.
The ball flew towards the inside, yet Kuro judged that it would be outside of the strike zone. He calmly leaned back a little, which would have been enough if the ball was a four-seam fastball.
Unfortunately for him, it was a two-seam fastball which broke towards him a few feet away from the plate.
"Eh?"
Thud
A dull thud sounded as the 90mph pitch hit his forearm, narrowly missing the elbow guard that he had on his left arm.
For a moment, the gloomy guy produced the scream of a banshee, causing those who heard it to shiver uncontrollably.
Even the plate umpire was stunned into silence for a few moments, trying to understand what had just happened. It was only when he saw Kuro crouched in the batters box cradling his arm that he sprung into action.
"H-Hit by pitch. Take your base."
Kuro was silent for a few moments before he got up and jogged over to first base, still massaging the spot where he was hit on the arm.
Ken's eyes widened in shock and elation. While it wasn't great that Kuro was hit by the ball, the fact that he was now on base made him almost jump for joy.
"Was that Kuro who screamed like a girl?" Riku asked, his eyebrow raised in concern.
"I don't know, but that was creepy."
"Is he okay?"
Only when Kuro sent a thumbs up to everyone in the dugout did they feel a little better.
"Atsushi, try and watch some pitches first. If you see an outside fastball, that's the one to swing on." Ken reiterated.
The guy let out a grunt of understanding, before placing his helmet over his perfectly shaped bowl cut. He grabbed his bat and headed up onto the field, followed by Riku who was going to be after him.
"Do you think he'll keep throwing outside?" Masayuki asked, his face showing a little concern.
Now that he had heard about such a tactic, he wanted to capitalize. There was no point in knowing this information if they couldn't use it to get as many runs as possible.
"Yeah, at least in this game." Ken said simply, his gaze moving toward the opposition dugout, specifically where his Grandfather was.
"I have a feeling this will only work once. Also, Ryan will probably be substituted at the end of this inning."
Ken seemed sure about his guess, though he didn't have any evidence to back it up.
"I see." Masayuki didn't question Ken, just choosing to go with the flow. For this guy to come up with such a tactic against the best team in the World Cup, who was he to question how his brain worked.
If he thought that Ken was special due to the talent he'd shown on the field, he now thought so even more after hearing his genius tactics. What Japan lacked was a player like Ken, a proper general off and on the field.
Even he as captain could only marvel at the effect Ken had on the other players.
The moment the guy stepped onto the mound, all of his teammates would breathe a sigh of relief. It was as if the match was already decided, and no more runs would be given up.
Masayuki suddenly felt a little old, despite only being 2 years Ken's senior.
"Now I know how my Grandpa feels…" Masayuki muttered.
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"Nevermind."
"Batting 9th, DH, Atsushi."
The announcer called out for the next batter, prompting the wide-shouldered youth to step into the batters box. He was calm, yet his eyes held an imperceptible twinkle as he stared at Ryan on the mound.
Ryan on the other hand felt his frustration mount again. He glanced at Kuro and Aki who were on base and couldn't help but grit his teeth.
'Why am I playing so poorly?'
In reality, it had been so long since he'd been in this kind of position. Even then, it had never happened while Leo was his catcher.
Usually, the guy would always choose the best lead, giving him the confidence to just focus on pitching the best ball possible. This was what allowed his High School team and in this case, the US team to succeed.
Yet for some reason, his pitches were being hit, by none other than a foreign team from Japan.
"Unforgivable…"
No one knew whether he was mumbling to himself or the Japanese team, yet everyone could notice the shift in him.
Ryan's whole body seemed to have grown in size as he entered his wind up. He lifted his leg and pounced forward, sending the next ball firing down the inside of the strike zone.
PAH
"Strike!"
"101mph! Holy crap is that his fastest pitch ever?"
"That's almost as fast as the Japanese guy."
The crowd let out a cheer after finally seeing the US pitcher let loose a crazy fastball. While he had been pitching in the high 90's thus far, the last ball was something that got the crowd going.
Atsushi's eyes widened in surprise as he began to question his life decisions.