Awakening Chapter 98: Masked Rider

“Strike, Batter Out!” On the field, the umpire shouted.

Looking at the three consecutive swing of the batter of Asakura, the batter was striked out by Fukuoka Masato, after which Tanimori coach finally smiled.

Yes, he was indeed the trump card, and he had also attained those two points.

Two batters were out, after the next one, he must rest well. Tanimori thought while rubbing his back.

Compared to Tanimori coach, Fukuoka Masato’s face was very serious.

Looking at the batter on the batting area, with his hat dangling, and a mask on his face, Masato’s intuition told him that this guy was odd.

Although the angle of his batting posture and grip seemed to be very standard, he didn’t know why he felt an unexplainable pressure coming from this person.

Perhaps it was just an illusion, in order to test this, Fukuoka Masato threw a ball.

“Foul.” Cried the umpire.

Is this fellow really a batter? Even hitting such an obvious ‘ball’. Masato increasingly thought that this guy has a problem.

No matter what, I’ll just throw a fast one. Masato threw a straight ball.

“Foul.”

With the same result, Masato began to be wary. Although it was a foul ball, after all, he did hit it. Logically speaking, that ball should have been impossible to be hit.

Masato afraid of his enemy, and threw another fast straight ball.

“Foul.”

“Foul.”

With this two consecutive foul ball, the other players finally began to notice this guy.

“Coach, who is he? He’s quite fierce, he can unexpectedly hit the ball thrown by Fukuoka Masato.” Seeing the player hit the ball from Pang Mu team’s ace pitcher, Rumi speedily asked with amazement.

“An odd person.” The bearded coach definitely said.

“Foul.”

Fukuoka Masato panted and looked at him a little. Is this guy a monster? Even hit his ball every single time.

In fact, he had seen his coach’s gesture and understood what he meant. But he was just unwilling to do so.

Finally, he decided to do it according to his coach’s instructions. And threw such a soft ball.

Mercy? I didn’t receive such feeling for such a long time. Masashi smiled bitterly in his heart.

“Ball.” Fortunately, this guy didn’t hit it.

After several consecutive balls, this guy would finally walk to first base.

Looking at the ‘Masked Rider’ standing motionless in the batting area, the Pang Mu catcher couldn’t help but say to him: “Hey, why aren’t you going yet?”

“He isn’t pitching yet?” He makes a low and deep sound from inside his mask.

“You’re kidding, right? You’ve been sent to first base.” The catcher couldn’t believe it and looked at him.

“Can’t I hit again?”

“This student, there’s a limit in joking. If you don’t leave, then I’ll give you a violation.” The umpire stood up and finally couldn’t tolerate it anymore and opened his mouth to say.

“This is really complicated.” He said something to himself, then carried the bat away.

Did he really not understand the rules? The catcher hearing his words, raised a doubt in his heart. But he quickly rejected the idea, playing so good, how can such people not know the rules.

It was the 8th inning, and Pang Mu school was leading with a score of 2:1. At this time, it was the Pang Mu team’s turn to attack.

After the end of the previous inning, Pang Mu team picked up the pace and attacked, trying to enlarge the gap of the score as much as possible.

At this time, the players on the field finally understood how terrifying this ‘Masked Rider’ was.

Whatever the ball was, whether it hit the ground or a fly ball, as long as they went to the centerfield position, he would catch it and immediately block them.

And afterward, would suddenly appear in front of the Pang Mu players making them unintentionally avoid his position.

From the beginning of the change from defense to offense, after the appearance of the strange man, the game had become too subtle and strange.

Unexpectedly, Asakura school actually had such a hidden monster in their team. Hopefully, we don’t bump into him during the Koshien trials. Tanimori coach secretly prayed on the sidelines.

“Pow!” Fukuoka Masato finally succeeded in hitting again.

The score became 1:3, Pang Mu leading by 2 points.

After the exchange of offense and defense, it was Asakura team’s turn to attack.

Although because Asakura team had three excellent players center fielder, second baseman, and pitcher, their defense seemed to be pretty good. But was obviously far worse when it came to them attacking.

Rumi was not genuinely able to play the game, after the center fielder Yamaguchi was replaced by this ‘Masked Rider’. But because Rumi lacked power, even though she was able to hit the ball, she wouldn’t be able to send the ball flying, so she wasn’t able to become a good batter. Because of an injury, the centerfielder Yamaguchi had to leave, so now all eyes were stuck on the ‘Masked Rider’ body.

“Ball!” Because Tanimori coach didn’t want to cause any trouble, he instructed Masato to let him walk. Although unconvinced, he just followed the instruction.

“Ball!”

Masato was about to throw another ‘ball when he saw the eyes of the odd man.

He sneered?

Suddenly, a strong anger filled Fukuoka Masato’s brain. This guy dare to laugh at me?

Disobeying the coach’s instruction, Masato threw the fastest ball of the whole game.

“Boom!” It was a different sound from the hits that was happened before, and then the ball flew far out.

At that moment, Fukuoka Masato just felt like he was being poured with cold water.

“Home run, it’s a homerun.” Looking at the scene, some people suddenly shouted loudly.

Indeed a home run, and people even saw that the ball flew over the outfield fence, but it still continued to fly.

For a time, everyone cried aloud. It wasn’t only just the Asakura players, even many of the audience went into a frenzy.

This long-distance home run, not to mention high school students, it was also difficult even for professional players to do such a hit. But, in this practice match that no one had actually cared about, a person was actually able to do such a hit.

It felt like a person in school during physical education was suddenly able to break a world record, people just couldn’t believe it.

After going through the three bases, the Masked man finally stepped on the home plate, went back and placed the bat on the shelf. And the person just continued to walk normally.

In this way, to everyone’s surprise, the 8th inning ended.

When the 9th inning began, all players of Asakura school was like they had taken stimulants. Finally, the third batter was struck out, Pang Mu didn’t have the power to get a point from Asakura again.

Soon, it was Fukuoka Masato turn as the fourth batter, but looked first at the center fielder position where the ‘Masked Rider’ stood, and then walked wryly towards the batting zone.

Rumi also knew that they were in a critical moment, as long as her pitch isn’t hit by Fukuoka Masato, then they still had the chance of winning the game. Because there was still that ‘fellow’.

So she made a move that surprised everyone.

With four ‘balls’ the ace of Pang Mu team, Fukuoka Masato, walked towards the first base.

From the beginning up to now, everyone saw that this little pitcher of Asakura no matter who the batter was, would always challenge them and throw a straight ball. This time, she used such a trick, as she was very confident on the ‘Masked Rider’.

After being walked, Fukuoka Masato coldly snorted and left.

When it was Asakura team’s last time to attack, everyone couldn’t wait for the first few players to hurry and get striked out. The person they wanted to see was this ‘Masked Rider.’

Finally, it was the odd person’s turn, and hundreds of people’s attention looked at the freak’s play.

When he had stood at the batting zone, the audience vigorously applauded right away, the scene was very exciting.

Fukuoka Masato on the opposing side, he listened to the coach’s words, throw ‘ball’ at him again?

To be honest, he felt very awkward. Previously, after the person got a home run, all his pride disappeared. Subconsciously, he thought that this plan would be the best. But he couldn’t afford to lose face.

He was Pang Mu team’s ace baseball player and was known as the most likely to lead the team to Koshien, who had allowed them to get third place in the past. If he were to throw ‘ball’ to opponents in such a practice session, his reputation would take a very big blow.

He was embarrassed at the time. He saw Tanimori coach standing on the sidelines making fierce gestures.

I know, troublesome old fogy! Fukuoka Masato was too lazy to think, and threw a ‘ball’ again.

Thus, he threw such an obvious ‘ball’. Even though it was a ‘ball’, the ball that the ace player threw, was a speed that ordinary people weren’t able to hit.

“Boom!” Beyond everyone’s surprise, a nightmarish sound came out again.

Fukuoka Masato had a kind of shocking feeling.

“Grand Slam, Home Run!” If the crowd went crazy before, this time, they went absolutely crazy.

Making a ‘ball’ into a homerun? Everyone couldn’t believe their eyes.

The bearded coach had different ideas from the youthful kids, it was as if he could see the door to Koshien, where a few beauties were wearing a sexy bunny outfit, bowing towards him and said: “Welcome.”

—-

“Sorry, stomach was a little uncomfortable. How’s the game going?” Masashi went back to Kazumi and asked.

Kazumi looked at him with a very strange look, then said: “Tie, 3:3 at the end of the game.”

“That’s the way to go.” Masashi nodded and no longer spoke, just looking at the Asakura players on the field huddling together.

Kazumi turned around and looked at him again, then gently said something: “Brother, because of an upset stomach you wanted to wear a mask?”

Hearing her words, Masashi made a wry smile, “Can’t you sometimes be like a normal girl and not be so smart?”

Kazumi didn’t answer and asked him: “Where’d you get the mask from? Are you always carrying it? This kind of suspicious person can only be perverted.”

“I got it from the infirmary. Hey, don’t tell anyone, not even Rumi, because that kid just can’t shut her mouth close.” Since the time at the Kendo club, where he had defeated Ogata, he was often asked by Omura-sensei to join the Kendo club over and over again. If the bearded coach of the baseball club knew who the ‘Masked Rider’ was, he might get bored to death by both of them.

“Brother, you’re more like a monster. Is there something you can’t do?” Kazumi said with a sigh.

“Hey, this is a compliment from a sister to her brother right? To be honest, I really don’t understand baseball, so many rules, sick and tired of them all.”

The previous owner of the body Hirota Masashi, besides playing the game with the airplane, he didn’t really play baseball.

“Brother, I found out that you favor Rumi very much,” Kazumi said.

“Oh, actually I just wanted to try and give it a go. After all, I haven’t played the game before. But also gradually found that it was a really fun game.”