𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 [𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐲𝐚 𝐬.]

𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐨𝐧𝐞.

katsumi sat in between furuya and eijun, eyes unblinking as she watched the video of yakushi. a boy with messy brown hair and a scar on his cheek came on to screen, and eijun poked her. "that's todoroki raichi.." he whispered loudly. katsumi nodded, frowning at the tape as todoroki hit a ball to the back fence, laughing.

'he's strong..' she pursed her lips, leaning forward slightly.

"sanada-kun subbing in for number 6, mino-kun. pitcher, sanada-kun." a boy with the number 18 jersey walked up onto the field, and chris stopped the video.

"after that, he pitched until the seventh inning, when the game was called at 12-3. they still carried the momentum of their victory over ichidai, so yakushi made their way into beat 8 after all." katsumi crossed her arms as chris continued. "it was also this right hander that held down ichidai 2 innings in the later half." the third year looked down to his notes. "strong pitching focuses on in-courses, and aiming at the chest for right handed batters... there's no doubt that he's the ace of the team."

"pretty unique pitch..." yuki muttered with furrowed eyebrows.

"why isn't he pitching from the start?" jun scowled. "he got a handicap..?"

"that, i don't know. however... they used this unorthodox tactic of preserving their ace and suddenly switching out the cleanup hitter. if this was all calculated... then there's a good chance they'll have something in store for us too. and what's more is their lineup." chris pointed to the board, his finger hovering over three names. "number 3, mishima. number 4, todoroki. number 5, akiba. these three cleanup hitters had 7 clean hits and scored 8 points. they might be freshmen, but we can't let down our guard against them..."

kataoka crossed his arms, "they stole a base seven times, eh..."

"yes, their aggressive running made up for their lack of bunting." chris replied.

"while we have to pay attention to their aggressive runners, we also need to watch out for their strong batter lineup. the fact they don't bunt will actually put more pressure on the pitchers!" kataoka told the group. "they may be harder to beat than we think..." katsumi frowned, leaning back in her chair as the others stood to leave.

"h- hey, katsumi..." furuya murmured, standing next to the girl. she looked up, humming softly. "could you do my nails tonight..? i know the game is in two days but..." katsumi smiled with a nod, neither of them taking notice of ryosuke and kuramochi watching them.

"what do you think they're talking about?" ryosuke smiled mischievously.

kuramochi shrugged, "probably whatever kids talk about nowadays."

"you're a year older than them."

"sh- shut up!" kuramochi looked over to the two. "hey, furuya!" he turned, and kuramochi waved him over. he hesitantly walked over, katsumi staring after him. ryosuke chopped furuya's head, smirking as the boy looked at him in confusion. "hey, furuya, what's going on with you and katsumi?" furuya's eyes widened slightly and he looked over his shoulder, watching katsumi listen to eijun yelling about winning against yakushi.

"hey now, we're not trying to kill you. just want to know, you know?" ryosuke smiled, dark aura emitting from him.

"she's going to paint my nails." kuramochi and ryosuke shared a look. "it helps my nails for when i pitch." furuya explained, looking back to katsumi. "can i go now?"

"no!" kuramochi exclaimed, grabbing furuya's arm. "we need to talk about this!"

"no we don't." furuya deadpanned.

"either we talk about this or i threaten eijun into asking her out." ryosuke smiled and the other two boys jumped back slightly. "i'm sure i can find some decent blackmail to convince him." the trio looked over to katsumi, eijun, and haruichi. the two were leaning over katsumi's shoulder as she wrote something and furuya frowned slightly.