The next day, Hiroshi sees that his opponent is trying to hit him, so he throws an inside pitch to try and force him back into the game. Hiroshi tells his pitcher to relax, because he knows he can take whatever the pitcher throws at him. He tells Hiroshi that he's the one who threw the inside pitch, and Hiroshi says that it was a lot easier than most of the other pitches he throws. The next time he sees the pitcher, he tells him that it's just one strike, and that he can still send a "shock wave" through the whole of Japan. He says that the strike was just the "first stone" in his defeat, and now he has to "swing at anything rotten" to finish him off. He hears the return throw coming from the left field line, and he realizes that the throw has cut Hiroshi off from home. He realizes that he has been "shaky starts" in the past, and this is the first time he has had a bad start. He asks Hiroshi to calm down, because this is just the beginning of a long battle.