Diamond No Ace: The Strongest Hitter Has Arrived

Chapter 462 462: Weird Father

When Nitta asked how he had trained Raichi Todoroki, Todoroki Raizo looked very pleased with himself.

"Speaking of which, it all comes down to circumstance. As you know, we don't have much money."

Todoroki Raizo said this lightly. "So I had no way to send him to little league or junior league. His current strength is entirely the result of his own hard work. The only thing I could give him was a gift."

He had assumed that after dropping that hint, any reporter with a bit of sense would know exactly what to ask next.

The obvious follow-up was: what was the gift?

That would give him the perfect opening to talk about his son.

As a former professional player, his own life hadn't been without its difficulties, but for his son, he had genuinely put everything he had into thinking it through.

Nitta, however, did not cooperate. He stared with an expression of genuine confusion, struggling to understand what Todoroki Raizo meant by not having money.

"Does going to little league or junior league even cost money?"

Todoroki Raizo looked at the young man in front of him in disbelief.

"Of course it does. At least a few thousand a month, and the better programs can run into the tens of thousands."

"What can that much money even do?"

Nitta looked puzzled.

How could such a small amount be out of reach?

The female assistant who had come with Nitta also asked curiously: "Coach, you played professional baseball, didn't you? And you played until you were forty, I heard? Even the most ordinary professional player earns five or six times what an average person does. With your reputation, your income would have been even higher, right?"

By any measure, Todoroki Raizo shouldn't have been living anywhere near destitution.

"Hehe."

Todoroki Raizo looked mildly embarrassed.

"Besides baseball, I was never any good at anything else. After retiring, I spent years doing nothing at home, worked through my savings, and then my wife left."

The life of a happy person and the life of an unhappy person diverged in ways that were each unique to the individual.

Todoroki Raizo's particular version of misfortune was a little unusual, but he wasn't exaggerating about the financial situation.

The female assistant had initially felt some sympathy for him. The longer she listened, the more that sympathy shifted into something else.

This man was entirely responsible for his own situation.

He had been useless outside baseball and had failed to hold up his end of the family. It was hardly surprising his wife had left.

"You didn't deliberately make your life this way to motivate your son, did you?"

Nitta asked with genuine curiosity.

Todoroki Raizo smiled broadly and nodded.

"That's exactly it."

Everything had been for his son.

Nitta looked impressed.

To push his son to strive harder, he had willingly lived a stripped-down life.

What kind of commitment was that?

The female assistant beside Nitta, however, had already decided she was not buying a word of it.

After covering Todoroki Raizo's personal background, the interview moved on to the Yakushi High School Baseball Team's training methods.

Todoroki Raizo was mildly put out that they hadn't continued asking about his son. Still, he gave a thorough account of the team's players.

He spoke about his son in particular with great enthusiasm, as though worried the world might not yet fully appreciate the young man's talent.

The more he talked, the more Nitta and the others casually asked follow-up questions.

Eventually, Todoroki Raizo proudly picked up a bat with "Money Tree" written on it and handed it to Nitta to try.

"What's this?"

The moment Nitta took it, he felt something was wrong. It was far heavier than a normal bat.

He could hold it, but it felt like gripping three bats at once.

"Raichi Todoroki practices with this every day?"

"Didn't I say already? I had no money to send him to little league or junior league. This bat was his only companion. That boy has sharp instincts and a vivid imagination. While swinging this bat, he has been facing every kind of pitcher in his mind. Fastballs exceeding 160 kilometers per hour, suddenly dropping forkballs, breaking balls moving in every direction. Even the butterfly ball, whose landing spot not even the pitcher can predict. Over the past few years, he has mentally faced every formidable pitcher you could name. And on top of that, he has never eaten his fill, so now he is like a hungry beast..."

Todoroki Raizo said all of this with an expression of unguarded pride.

Nitta stared in shock at the young man on the field, diligently working through his swings.

He had found it strange before. The presence this young man brought to his swing was simply too strong.

How strong?

That powerful feeling even surpassed what last year's Zhang Han had projected.

Last year, Zhang Han had appeared out of nowhere, immediately becoming the center of attention, a core player for the Seido High School Baseball Team from the moment he arrived.

He had gone on to become a standout rookie at Koshien Stadium, breaking two long-standing records.

A stunning debut by any measure.

Although what Zhang Han would ultimately achieve was still impossible to predict, his first-year Koshien performance had left an indelible impression on everyone who watched.

And Raichi Todoroki's presence surpassed even that.

Nitta had initially assumed it might be a one-off. There were precedents for players performing brilliantly in one or two games and then fading into mediocrity. Players who maintained that level of competitive form consistently, the way Zhang Han did, were genuinely rare.

But now it seemed Raichi Todoroki's earlier performance had not been a fluke.

This young man possessed real ability.

Tomorrow's game against the Seido High School Baseball Team was probably not going to be straightforward.

As some in the media had pointed out, Inashiro Industrial had not been caught off guard or careless in their loss to Yakushi. They had shown a large part of their genuine strength.

And Yakushi had still won.

That indicated the Yakushi High School Baseball Team had the genuine ability to disrupt the existing order. They were qualified to challenge West Tokyo's three major powerhouses.

The first challenge had been Inashiro Industrial.

The second was very likely to be the Seido High School Baseball Team.

The female assistant's thoughts were running along entirely different lines.

She too was staring at Todoroki Raizo, but what she was thinking was:

"How is this man qualified to be a father?"

No sense of responsibility. Taking pride in having put his son through hardship.

Should she be calling someone about this?

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