Shattering Humanity-Chapter 328: A Takamagahara Instant Classic Recap
Shelly: "Good luck Itsuka!"
The strong pitcher blushes and gives a thumbs up in return.
Itsuka: "You too Shelly!"
Ruining the good sportsmanship, from third base....
Laban DaeMon: "Heeeyyyy Batter Batter Batter Batter!
Heeeyyyy Batter Batter Batter Batter!
Infield move in!
Free out is at the plate!
Play is at first!"
Both girls shoot hard glares over at the instigating third basewoman snickering at her own shit talking.
Shelly steps into the box and rotates the bat once with just her wrist before getting in her stance.
Itsuka hides the bottom of her gorgeous face with her glove then finally begin her pitching motion just as Laban starts her taunts again.
Laban DaeMon: "Heeeyyyy Batter Batter Batter Batter!
Heeeyyyy Batter Batter Batter Batter!
Heeeyyyy Batter Batter Batter Batter!..."
Itsuka fires the ball towards home plate, heading straight down the middle.
Laban DaeMon: "...Swiiiiiiinnng!"
With a HARD step forward, Shelly brings the bat around and makes such a loud *CRACK* off the bat...
[FLASHBACK]
As soon as her black sneakers, covered in her new aura, touch the ground, Shelly leaps towards both the Don Laban and the HFF’s #1 fighter reward sword.’ Shelly sees the same thing the Don saw, and knowing Laban truly doesn’t appreciate her tenacity as a fighter, Shelly smirks.
Shelly: *Thank you, Katsu. Thank you, Big Sis Itsuka. And thank you, Grandma Skalmönd. Because of you....!*
Now already having achieved the incomprehensible speed, Shelly opens her mouth, bites down on the blade, spreading the thin layer around the blade. Drawing blood from the corners of her mouth and with all the power the Valkyrie descendant could muster in her neck, back, and core abdominals, as well as the little Seiõr surrounding her, she swivels/twists her entire body mid-air, appears behind the over confident Laban and with the flat, not sharp, butt of the katana *CRRRACKKKS* Laban in the CVJ, where the back of her skull and top of the spine meet.
[END FLASHBACK]
...The contact with the ball gives Laban flashbacks off her loss against "Skalmond" and once the DaeMon comes back to, she realizes Shelly has been mean mug staring at her while the home run ball sails over the bright yellow wall.
Xaaydagaay and Friend hear the *CRACK* off the bat. Instead of each other, they chase after it while the ball is in the air but the both of them stop once they reach the warning track and wall.
While she rounds the bases, Shelly doesn’t take her eyes off Laban rounding first and second.
Saku looks over at the dugout where everyone on team Izanagi is cheering for their teammate’s incredible lead off home run, except Katsu.
He is Above Sanpaku smirking at his rival and through the metal cage of his helmet, Saku returns a Below Sanpaku back.
As she rounds around third, Shelly keeps her eye contact with Laban and actually back pedals on her way to home plate, keeping the stare down with each other ’all the way home’.
Once her heel touches home plate, that’s when she smiles and turns around breaking the eye contact.
Laban DaeMon (mumbling): "Fuck you Skalmönd..."
Itsuka looks at her "teammate" over at third base with a hateful stare.
Itsuka: "I don’t know if you’ve learned by now, but how about you stop taunting Shelly, or else she’s just gunna continue shitting all over your life."
Laban: "How ’bout you shut the fuck up?!"
Saku: "Aye!"
The captain/catcher takes off his face mask/helmet.
He angrily looks back and forth between the two bickering women who now have their heads down.
Saku: "That was just one batter!
We still have an entire game left to play!
Now I don’t want to hear anymore bullshit between the two of you for the rest of the game.
Do you both got that?"
Itsuka(mumbling): "Yes..."
Laban DaeMon(mumbling): "Yea..."
From her 2nd Base position, Sol has her arms crossed and watches as the coaching scene unfurls.
She raises an eyebrow while watching the Captain take charge of his arguing team.
Sol: "Not bad, Cap."
Back at the plate the captain/catcher places his mask back over his face and Katsu perfectly tosses in a ball from his dugout which Saku catches.
Saku: "Play ball!"
He tosses the new baseball towards his pitcher and she grumpily snatches it out the air barehanded with a smack.
Coming to the plate, a scared and timid Aiden, batting lefty, creeps up to the plate but a little too far away.
Saku: "Take a step closer to the plate, Nerd."
The shaking genius does as he’s told and looks at the pitcher.
Laban stays quiet as Itsuka winds up her pitch and sends a cannon shot towards the plate.
Aiden swings, but entire 2 seconds late...
...
Katsu: "Okay Princess, since I know how scary and hard it is the hit the ball, how about you pinch run for whoever gets on base first each inning...okay?"
Princess Rebekah: "Pinch...Run?"
In the little girl’s head she imagines running away while everyone tries to pinch her skin.
The cute Princess shivers.
Princess Rebekah: "That sounds like it hurts..."
Katsu laughs out loud, making everyone look at him weirdly (except for Laban, who is silently trying to hide her own laugh).
Katsu manages to wipe a laughing tear away before putting his hand softly on her shoulder.
Katsu: "Haha! Nobody’s going to hurt you, I just need you to run around the bases for us.
Just stand on the base, and when I shout ’Go’ you run to the base your Mama is standing next to, okay?"
The little girl looks over as her 3rd base playing Mama deactivates her alien symbiote and waves over the the little girl.
Princess Rebekah smiles while blushing and pumps her fists in front of her chest.
Princess Rebekah: "I promise, I’ll try my best!"
The captain gives her two soft taps on her protective headgear.
Katsu: "That’s all I can ask for."
Able to hear the coach to player chat, through the face mask, Saku gets an disgruntled look.
Saku(thinking): *Katsu... You have the ability and potential to be an awesome coach and a faultless leader..so why are you such an asshole?*
...
For the third straight time, Zoram’s bat makes a *knock* of contact but this time it lands a few feet in front of her and rolls.
Katsu: "GO!"
Both Zoram and Princess Rebekah perk up and run to their base.
Zoram begins running as fast as she can towards first.
Saku shoots up from his spot and chases the ball down sliding on one knee to grab it.
From one knee, the skilled catcher tosses the ball right at TayTay’s gut.
Comedically, the ball goes deep into the gut of the eating first baseman without him knowing.
Saku: "Out!"
Zoram halfway down the first base line looks discouraged but Katsu runs up with a smile.
Katsu: "Good job Ms. Zoram!"
He points towards 3rd base and during the time out, Laban has picked up the giggling Princess and is spinning around with her while congratulating her daughter.
Katsu: "Now all I have to do is get a base hit and we’ll be up 2-0!"
Zoram smiles realizing her sacrificial bunt could possibly mean her child’s happiness and success.
...
*CRACK!*
The ball flies off of Katsu’s swung bat, towards left field over the heads of the chasing Xaaydagaay and Friend, finally landing behind the yellow fence, and out of sight.
After the deep talk between the older adopted sister and the older biological sister, Shelly watches the base trotting smile glowing Katsu, with a twinkle in her eye.
...
Shelly once again starts the wind-up to her pitch and delivers a white blur from her hand.
It sails over the plate and *CRACK*.
Jormungand makes perfect contact with the ball and it goes sailing towards right field.
The purple haired batter drops the thick wooden stick and sprints for first base.
But from the dugout everyone watches in disbelief....
[Rewind]
Shelly once again starts the wind-up to her pitch and delivers a white blur from her hand.
In the outfield, Katsu makes a mad dash for right field.
*CRACK!*
Jormungand makes perfect contact with the ball and it goes sailing towards right field.
Running perfectly underneath the pop fly just in time to catch it is the quick and aware outfielder/captain.
Shelly jumps in excitement while everyone else stares in disbelief, especially Jormungand who stops rounding first and stands in the base path in front of his equally gobsmacked sister. She recovers and smiles sweetly at her ’out’ brother.
Drakania: "Well that was better than when I tried, Jormy."
The young man finally accepts the out and smiles while shaking his head.
Jormy: "I knew they were both good, but damn."
Smiling Katsu whips the ball back in with easy, perfectly over the brother and sister’s heads, back in to Shelly at the pitcher’s mound.
She catches it and waves as a silent form of congratulations to her chuckling outfielder.
Shelly(thinking): *Katsu isn’t just a good football player, but he’s also exceptional at other sports too!
I have to impress him and show him I can be talented at other things too.
Not just fighting.*
She looks over at home plate and sees Laban already pointing the bat towards the sky.
Laban DaeMon: "Y’all better just sit down, cuz this ball ain’t coming back."
Everyone from the dugout on her side has their head in their hands.
Itsuka: "This dumb bitch."
...
Laban’s grip tightens around the bat, and her teeth clench. The Scandinavian witch gets back into her stance and awaits the delivery.
Shelly wastes no time and once again, begins her motions.
This time she throws a pitch a little inside the playe, but Laban’s swings for it anyway.
The bat makes decent contact with the ball, but it is a fired ground ball right at the scared Aiden at first base.
Both Laban and Shelly break into a full sprint from their spots.
The smacked baseball skips a few times off the dirt, but eventually takes a bad hop right up at Aiden’s face.
The most unathletic of the group can only lift up his glove to defend himself.
The ball ricochets off of the scared first baseman’s glove right at Shelly.
In a close foot race, while on the run, Shelly manages to catch the redirected ball and beat Laban to the bag for the clear out.
...
Katsu: "Aye, Shell!"
The pitcher turns around and sees her purpose coaching her.
Katsu: "Try that pitch!"
Shelly nods with a blushing smile.
From his dugout, Saku becomes skeptic of the phrasing used by the fellow sportsman.
Saku(thinking): *There’s no way he taught her...*
Dom puts the bat on his shoulder and awaits for the pitch.
Saku carefully watches as Shelly begins her wind-up and in slow motion, Saku’s Anjell Eye notices how Shelly’s grip on the ball is slightly different from before.
Saku(thinking): *He taught her how to throw a curveball!*
From center field Katsu is smirking as the pitch leaves Shelly’s hand and the ball breaks in mid air.
Everyone is caught off guard by the off speed, breaking ball.
However, since it was her first ever thrown curveball, the pitch slips and curves hitting Dom right in the back with a *THWAP!*
Shelly: "Oh my God!
Dominic are you okay!?"
The batter, unable to answer or reach the spot where he was beaned by the ball, can only silently yell in pain.
Saku: "Take your base and walk it off!"
...
Katsu: "Okay, so when someone wants to be a pitcher, they need to have what is called ’a pitch arsenal’."
Shelly: "...’Pitch Arsenal’?"
Katsu nods as he grabs the ball from her hands and lightly tosses it in the air and catches it.
Katsu: "Mhm!
So you can just ’hum’ the ball in at 90+mph, but sooner or later, the batters are gunna catch up to your speed.
Baseball is a lot about adaption on the fly, which was my father’s favorite part.
The professional players are so adaptive, that usually batters can get a timing down on a pitcher if they face each other enough."
Shelly is completely interested in the psychological breakdown of her adopted father’s favorite past time.
Shelly: "I can relate to that."
Smiling Katsu nods as he uses his fingers to examine the entire ball while continuing his explanation.
Katsu: "The curveball is one the most reliable ’off-speed’ pitches to have in your arsenal.
Seeing as you can already throw four seam fastballs at a professional level, your curveball should range from 10-15mph slower, which can make a batter uncomfortable.
Because of the spin rate and axis thrown on of a curveball, it causes the pitch to ’break’.
Shelly: "...’Break’?"
Katsu: "To curve."
Shelly: "Ohhhh..."
...
Saku: "Come one Itsuka!"
The blushing young woman looks back and sees Saku hoisting himself over the dugout fence to shout his support for her.
Saku: "You’re behind in the count.
Remember what I just told you!"
Itsuka’s pity washes away and she steps back to the plate ready for the payoff pitch.
Itsuka(thinking): *I have to hit it ...
I have to hit it ...*
Shelly immediately nods her head and delivers the pitch. Just like before, Itsuka notices the twisting release of the ball.
Shelly(thinking): *No it slipped again!*
However this time, instead of it heading for Itsuka, the slow pitch hangs in the air and with her 7th and 8th abdominals exposed, Itsuka twists her torso and rockets the baseball to opposite center/right field.
The ’everyfielder’ Katsu sprints over and reaches the warning track. The athletic young man leaps at the yellow wall but just out of reach of his glove the ball sails over and out of the park for a home run!
...
She throws a missile of a ball towards the plate and Saku barely tips the ball but it still lands in Scylia’s glove.
Saku: "Damn.
Should’ve figured you wouldn’t want to go right back to that pitch.
Okay, 0-1!"
From the outfield, Katsu slowly creeps to his left, moving more towards center field.
However, only Laban and the batting Saku notice, as soon as Shelly starts her wind-up, Katsu makes a dead sprint to his left.
Shelly delivers another fastball right down the middle.
Saku picks up his left foot and plants it hard in front of him.
*KNOCK!*
The batter makes late contact on the pitchand the baseball sails off the wooden bat. It is on a line drive heading towards "empty" right field.
However...
Laban DaeMon & Saku: "No freaking way..."
Already on the move is the ’everyfielder’ and just before the ball hits the ground, Katsu’s makes a diving effort, backhanding the catch out the air for the third out.
The smiling Yang Vessel slides across the grass and gets up, giggling with grass streaks all over his sweatshirt.
He holds up the ball in his glove.
Katsu: "I got it!
You’re out Saku!"
