Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens Volume 2 Chapter 12

Top of the Extra Twelfth Inning

After he checked the GPS log he was able to find Banba's current location. He was in Susaki city. He was at the building adjacent to the building belonging to the Kakyuu Group.

He pushed his way through the Yamakasa spectators and hurried to where Banba was. After Lin arrived to the building, he hurried up the stairs. He carefully checked each room on every floor, but he did not see Banba anywhere.

He went up to the highest floor and opened the door to the roof.

A man stood at the center of the rooftop. He was dressed in a white happi and s.h.i.+mekomi and had a j.a.panese sword in his right hand. He knew even from far away. It was Banba.

What, so he was alive. He gave a small sigh. His happi was soiled in blood, but he seemed to be fine.

He looked around the area. On the rooftop of the building next to them there were men in suits fallen on the ground. They must have been lackeys of the Kakyuu Group. From seeing how much blood they had lost they were likely dead. Was it Banba's doing? So after he fought the guys over there he jumped over to this building then?

Just as he pondered over it, Banba noticed his presence and turned towards him.

"Ah, Lin-chan." He said with his usual cheerful voice. "Whatcha doin' here?"

"What? Listen here……"

I came all this way to save you. The old man asked me to.

It was when he was going to tell him that in answer. He saw a silhouette behind Banba.

"Banba!" Lin shouted. "Behind -"

A man stood up from the mountain of bodies on the other rooftop. He appeared to still be alive. Blood was pouring from his head, and he held up a gun, shaking. He was going to shoot. Banba immediately brandished his sword. There was a gunshot. He tried to block the bullet with his blade, but he was slow to swing it. The force of the bullet was stronger than the blade, and the sword rebounded. Banba dropped the handle. The sword was then blown away to Lin's feet.

The man who nearly escaped the verge of death took aim at Banba again, now unarmed.

Lin took out his knife pistol for backup and held it up. However, the effectiveness of his gun was weak if it was not between five to ten meters. There was too much distance between him and the man. Even if he made a shot from here, there was a high possibility the bullet would not hit the man. Even if he managed to hit him it would not be a fatal enough wound to stop him. He would just be wasting the few bullets he had.

Then what should I do? He could not think under the stress.

Banba noticed while Lin was hesitating to pull the trigger.

"Hey!"

He yelled and raised his hand.

Banba was between Lin and the enemy. He was within ten meters from the man. From where he was he could possibility hit him.

The man fired again. There were a succession of gunshots. Banba ran to the side, dodging the bullets.

Lin gripped his knife pistol in his right hand and threw it, matching Banba's speed.

The weapon was thrown at Banba's chest. It was a punctual throw-in. Banba caught it with both hands and placed it in his right hand. It was the same execution as when he caught the pitch from the shortstop to throw to first base.  He spun around in half a circle and held up the gun. He pointed the tip of the gun towards the man and pulled the trigger.

There were three gunshots.

He splendidly managed to fatally shoot the man in the heart, and he fell.

Banba blew over the mouth of the knife pistol and smirked.

"……What are you doing acting all cool with your a.s.s hanging out?"

Lin slumped his shoulders.

'Oissa! Oissa!'

'Oissa! Oissa!'

Men wearing the same happi jackets as Banba were carrying their floats and heading to the goal on the street directly below them.

"Ahhh." Banba scratched at his head and grimaced. "I ain't gonna make it to Yamakasa now."

He was terribly crestfallen.

"It's not that big of a deal, right? They'll be one again next year."

Even though he tried to cheer him up, Banba merely pouted. "That ain't the problem."

Banba started to sing suddenly while gazing into the distance in regret. "Celebrate, Wakamatsu-sama~."

"What is that song?"

"It's Iwaimedeta."

"Ee-why-meh-deh-tah?"

"It's a Hakata song for celebration. It's sung in the beginning of Yamakasa."

"Uh-huh."

"Your branches and flourished leaves are rampant~."

He hummed the strange lyrics of the song while clapping his hands. His face looked desolate. He really could not bear not being able to go to Yamakasa.

"……I'm hungry." Lin then suggested. "Let's go home and have some ramen."

I guess I'll treat for today.

"Now then everyone! Don't hold back from drinking and eating as much as you like!" Jiro held up his beer mug and raised his voice. "Since today it's Lin-chan's treat!"

Jiro took the lead, and everyone but Lin rose up from their seats.

"Cheers!" As he watched them clank their gla.s.ses Lin gave a sigh.

The gra.s.s-lot baseball primaries were going to start soon, and so there were rallies for it now as well. They were at a chain pub often found in the area. They had private rooms for large groups of people to reserve.

The expenses for the get-together were all Lin's. There were the nine Tonkotsu members, the coach Genzo, and Misaki. Lin had to cover for the food and drinks for eleven people by himself. The member who least made feats in the game had to treat everyone as part of the punishment made earlier at the last practice game.

"Excuuse me." Banba called out to the server. At some point his gla.s.s became empty. "Could I have a refill of draft beer?"

"Ah, me too."

"Me too."

"Three draft beers, please." After he held up three fingers, Banba then pointed to the menu.

"And then can we have all the food listed on this page?"

"Hey, stop, idiot Ban!" Lin unconsciously raised his voice. How much do you plan on frickin' eating? He glared at Banba. How dare he take advantage of other people paying. "Hold back a little."

Each person enjoyed themselves; the inside of the private room had a lively atmosphere from beginning to end. Banba and Yamato, sitting in the center, and Jiro especially were gulping down beers one after the other and got into high spirits, slightly tipsy. Each time they made an order Yamato would ask for the contact information of the female servers.

At the end of the table, Enokida and s.h.i.+gematsu were discussing work. s.h.i.+gematsu was sitting to Lin's right side and Enokida was sitting across from him.

"That reminds me." Enokida asked him. "I heard that the head of the Kakyuu Group died?"

"It was poison." s.h.i.+gematsu answered as he gulped down his shouchuu beverage. "He had a small cut no more than a centimeter long around his artery on his neck. The poison must have been administered that way. There's speculation the culprit was a woman killer."

"Is that true?" Lin was shocked. He could not believe someone could kill Long Fang w.a.n.g with ease considering how many guards he head. How did she do it?

"You said it was a cut……What was the weapon?" He tilted his head in wonder. In order to be left alone with w.a.n.g they had to pa.s.s an elaborate body check process. It should have been impossible to bring in a weapon.

"From the autopsy results they found nitrocellulose and toluene on his wound."

Enokida grinned at s.h.i.+gematsu's words. "The composition of nail polish."

"Is that it?" Lin raised his voice. The composition of nail polish. A cut not even a centimeter long. He knew what the weapon was. "Nail extensions?"

There were various shapes for nail extensions. There was the standard opal, the round, cut square, and a tipped point shapes.

If someone dipped the pointed shaped one into poison, they would become a great lethal weapon. And initially they would look like normal nails. No one would guess those cutely decorated nails could be used as a murder weapon. He could not blame the henchmen for missing that.

"That killer sure is something." Enokida remarked in admiration.

Lin nodded as well. It was a simple method, but it was perfectly ambiguous. He did not know who hired her, but there was no mistaking that she was a skilled killer.

"Excuse meee." Banba voiced. He had called for a server. "Can I have one more beer!"

Lin made an annoyed face, giving him a side glance, and muttered. "……Isn't he going a bit fast?"

Saitou was sitting to the right of Enokida. Saitou's gla.s.s hardly was drank in contrast to Banba, who was downing beer mugs one after the other. Saitou's expression was dark as well.

"What's wrong, Saitou-kun?" Enokida spoke up. "You don't look so good."

"……As if I could be fine right now." Saitou answered him bitterly. "I was almost killed by a killer for a second time today."

"That's quite the disaster."

"Although, it was your fault to begin with!"

"And you got me involved too." Lin frowned. He was woken up early in the morning and had to fight a killer in a train one on one.

"Thank you for that time." Saitou made an apologetic expression and bowed his head.

"……Whenever I think that the company is still going to come after me for my life," Saitou turned teary eyed and had a shaky voice. He braced his head in his hands. "I can't get into the mood to drink."

Enokida said to him to cheer him up while patting his back.

"Don't worry." He grinned. "Didn't I say I'd make it up to you?"

Bottom of Extra Twelfth Inning

When he opened his eyes there were lights. They shone brightly on Yamamoto's face.

A man was peering at him. He could not make out his face from the back lighting, but he was wearing a mask and appeared to be a doctor. He seemed to be in the middle of surgery. He must have been sleeping upon the operating table.

Why am I here? Is this a hallucination? ……Ahh, that's right. Now that I'm thinking about it, Yamamoto recalled. I got into an accident. When he tried to make a run for it he got hit by a car. He was. .h.i.t by the full impact, and he was dazed. At some point he lost consciousness. He remembered hitting his head on the window and blood pouring from his head. From the severe pain he was in, he thought he was going to die.

He must have been put into an ambulance and sent to a hospital.
When he opened his eyes again he would be in a hospital bed. That was what he thought.

However, he was not. Yamamoto was in the center of a s.p.a.cious warehouse for some reason. His wrists and ankles were tied together, and he was crawling on the ground like a caterpillar.

A man stood in front of him. He was a young man he was unfamiliar with. He had silver mushroom-like hair and long bangs that covered half of his face.

"You there." The mushroom head male grinned at him, showing his teeth. "You mistakenly killed a bystander right?"

When he mentioned that he remembered. About the job they accepted from their mediator back in late June. Yamamoto mistook their target and ended up killing the wrong person.

" – Then you won't have any complaints being mistakenly killed in someone else's place, right?"

The young man uttered an unbelievable statement.

What do you mean? Yamamoto's eyes widened. What are you planning? Although he tried to question it, his mouth was covered by packing tape. He could not speak.

After awhile,

"Sorry for making you wait."

Another man appeared. From what he could see he was not j.a.panese. He was Asian.

"Hey, Nguyen." The young male spoke to him. "An acquaintance of mine coincidentally caught the man you were looking for. So they handed him over for me."

"You were a big help."

"Now you can do whatever you like with him."

The man named Nguyen took a close look at Yamamoto's face. "We meet again, huh, Saitou."

Saitou?

Who's that? Yamamoto tilted his head.

"I was in a huge pinch thanks to that hitman you hired. I was wearing a bulletproof vest, so I survived, but man did that guy me a number……So in return I'm going to hurt you good and then kill you. So prepare yourself."

The man easily picked up Yamamoto's body. He then left the warehouse and put him in a black vehicle parked outside.

Seeing his reflection in the car window, Yamamoto's eyes popped out of his head in shock.

Who the h.e.l.l is this?

He was shocked seeing his face. What was there was a completely different person. Just how? Special makeup? Plastic surgery? When?

He instantly had a thought. Maybe it was then? Was that operation a plastic surgery?

Yamamoto paled.

This man had some sort of connection with this Saitou person. A relations.h.i.+p in which he had to die. And this person is mistaking Yamamoto as that Saitou. He at last became aware he was in the worst situation.

No. This is a misunderstanding. My name isn't Saitou. You've got the wrong person. Don't kill me. Although he tried to yell them, his mouth was sealed shut and he could not. Nevertheless, Yamamoto kept shaking his head desperately.

Hero Interview

The batter hit back the ball Saitou pitched. It could have pa.s.sed between first and second, but the shortstop Lin made a splendid diving catch. Lin remained on the ground. He could not throw from that posture. The batting runner was quick on his feet. Even if he got up and threw to first he would not make it in time to get him out.

Seeing that, the second baseman Banba moved.

"Hey!"

He called out to Lin. He went over close to second base. Lin threw the ball towards Banba while still laying down. It was a superb glove toss. Banba caught it barehanded, and while rotating his body he pitched it to first. It was close in timing, but they managed to cut off the batting runner.

With that it was three outs. They changed positions. The scene had two outs and a s.p.a.ce open on second base. The runner cut pa.s.sed the starting point and immediately got to third base. If the hit ball had pa.s.sed through them they would have lost a point. Even if the player made it to first base safely their team would have gotten a point. It was a tough situation, but the middle fielders pulled through.

"Nice! Lin! Banba!"

The other nine members called out to the two returning to the benches. Everyone was clapping their hands in praise.

"When you try you can really work together, huh, you guys."

"They've finally become proper midfielders, haven't they?"

It was the first game for the f.u.kuoka softball league primaries.

Their opponents were the Kokura Fried Wings, a team based in Kitakyushu. Saitou started the top of first inning. They had some runners, but they managed to have them scoreless.

The nine returned to the benches and began to make preparations to change to offense. The first to bat was Enokida. He put on his helmet on his mushroom-like hair and started to make practice swings.

"Whoa." Yamato suddenly raised his voice. He pointed to the benches near third base.

"That team's manager is downright gorgeous! ……Wonder if I should approach her after the game is over."

Yamato grinned, but Enokida told him. "That person is likely Banba's ex lover."

"Ehh, are you serious?" Yamato's eyes widened.

"Wait, what woman?" Jiro also leaned forward.

"The person who looks like they're from Munakata City."

"……You sure know everything." Martinez was amazed.

"Hey now, stop with the gossipin'." Banba pushed Enokida and Yamato's helmets further on their heads. "Focus on the game."

The pitcher wearing the vertically striped uniform began practicing his pitches on top of the mound.  He had a right-hand submarine throw.

Their coach Genzo muttered to himself while watching him. "An underthrow pitcher……That's gonna be tough."

He had a unique form to release the ball mere centimeters off the group. He was a type of pitcher they had never gone up against before.

The first to bat, Enokida, missed and got three strikes.

"That's rare of you to get three strikes."

"It's difficult to hit that ball." Enokida pouted as he took off his helmet. The shape of his hair was a mess. "He didn't have enough control pitching it."

They certainly could not say good compliments about the pitcher's control. It was quite rough. Just as he thought it greatly strayed from the striking zone it would then closely flew by the corner of it. Sometimes he would throw straight in center, but other moments he would completely pitch it in the wrong direction. It was hard to evaluate what pitch it was. It was not as though they were mixed pitches on purpose, but rather the pitcher still has not grasped controlling his pitch. That was the impression he had. The umpire and the lead-off man had a difficult time trying to stop the b.a.l.l.s pitched around everywhere like goalkeepers.

The second batter Yamato had went for a safety bunt, but there was more force to the ball than he expected and it ended up flying into the air. "d.a.m.n, it's hard to hit that pitcher's throws."

They had two outs and no runners on the bases.

Next the third batter Banba entered the batter's box.

It was the first pitch. A straight ball flew up high. It was aiming right for Banba's head. Banba greatly moved back to dodge the ball.  He turned over from the force and fell down onto the ground. It was a dangerous pitch that nearly nicked him in the head.

The team's pitcher smoothed down the mound with a composed expression as though nothing had happened.

Banba saw that and banged his bat against the ground.

"……This isn't good." s.h.i.+gematsu held his head. "Banba lost it."

Banba turned towards the pitcher and yelled at him.

"What's up with your att.i.tude?!"

The other replied back immediately. "Shut it! Go and get yousself ready!"

"You ain't gonna tip off your hat?!"

"Haa? You wanna go at it, huh!"

Banba was livid and rushed towards the pitcher.

"Oh? Is this a fight?" Martinez was practicing his swings in front of the benches and put down the bat. He headed over to the mound cheerfully.

"Leave this to me."

On the mound, Banba grabbed a hold on the pitcher. The man hit Banba on the head.

They began to scuffle.

The members on both teams dashed out of the benches and rushed over to the two. Martinez stood between them and was trying to pull Banba off the man he grabbed. The game was completely suspended.

Lin stood off near home plate and watched the fight from a distance. He's such a pain in the a.s.s. He slumped his shoulders. Why is it he always gets so worked up when it comes to baseball?

"We're sorry our pitcher is causing trouble."

A woman came out from the benches near third base and talked to Lin. She was the manager of the other team Yamato mentioned earlier. She looked to be in her late twenties. She had short black hair. He heard she was Banba's ex lover, but she was beautiful.

He felt like he saw her face somewhere before. Her hair style was different, but he felt she awfully looked similar to the hostess at that club.

"……No, not really." Lin answered her bluntly. "Ours is too."

"I guess you're right." The woman smiled. "He's an insane man as always."

"Sayuri-saaan." The bespectacled umpire called out to the woman. "Please bring out the emergency kit."

The woman nodded and headed back to the benches.

Lin looked back towards the mound. The two men did not stop fighting each other still. The pitcher also struck his teammates who were trying to stop him. Martinez struggled to hold back the man throwing punches indiscriminately. I guess I should go and help out too then. Lin walked over to the mound as well.

The two continued to bicker at each other.

"You no-control, clumsy pitcher!"

"Shut it! My first pitches are just bad!"

The pitcher made a swing with his fist. And Banba threw one back. It was like a close counter in boxing. Their fists sunk into each other's faces. Banba's helmet and the pitcher's hat were blown off from the blow and fell through the air.

Under the pouring sunlight their faces were fully exposed.

"……Ah?"

"…..Hm?"

They both closely looked at each other's faces and muttered that at the same time.

They then raised their voices in shock.

"Wait, could you be -"

"Ah! You're that guy from -"

Banba and the pitcher pointed at each other and had their eyes wide open.

Lin tilted his head slightly, seeing their odd behavior. "What? You know each other?"

GAME SET