Haruno brought up a package for Sawamura.
Opening the box, Sawamura sees some tapes.
"Ah…" Sawamura reads the note his mother sent.
"What ya got there, Bakamura?" Kuramochi asks.
"…Uh, nothing," Sawamura sweat-drops.
"YEAH RIGHT! Give 'em here!" Kuramochi demands as he grabs the tapes, keeping them out of Sawamura's reach.
Meanwhile, Miyuki got the note, "Let's see~ Oh! Tapes of your middle school games~?"
Ryo-san smirks, "Let's watch them, shall we?"
"NO!" Sawamura yells, but he's ignored.
Of course, the team was curious and decided to watch them anyway despite the loud pitcher's pleas for mercy.
Sawamura groans, face-palming as he doesn't want this bomb to drop. A secret that he'd planned to keep. Mostly, it's because no one noticed and no one asked.
As they start a random tape…
"Who's the girl?" Kuramochi asks.
"Wakana," Sawamura answers.
"WAKANA?!" Kuramochi yells in surprise.
"Yup. She was a player, not a manager," Sawamura sighs, resigning himself to his fate. Of his secret being revealed.
"You're the only one pitching?" Nori asks.
"Well yeah," Sawamura shrugs, "I was the only pitcher on the team, so there's not much choice. I also created the team in the first place, so I lead as captain as well."
"You created your own team?!" Jun yells in surprise.
"You were both ace and captain?!" Tanba yells.
"...yeah. I had to do everything myself."
After a while…
"Sawamura… why were you holding back?" Miyuki asks.
"Pfffttt….hahahaha!" Sawamura just laughs, "Of course! Of course, of all people, you would notice!"
After sighing and calming himself, Sawamura explains, shaking his head, "None of them could catch my full force pitches, so I had no choice in the matter. No one noticed though. Not our past opponents nor the adults ever did."
"You didn't-"
"I didn't hold back on you when we first met, stupid tanuki," Sawamura huffs, "Honestly, I was kinda tired of holding back all the time."
Miyuki sighs in relief, "I see…"
Then, the camera turns towards the dugout briefly and…
"There's no one there?" The whole team's jaws dropped.
"You…" Miyuki glares at him.
Sawamura just giggles, "Akagi had no coach, just an advisor. We were on our own from the beginning."
Taking a deep breath, Sawamura just smiles, "I pretty much had to fight just to be able to play baseball at all."
After the tape was finished, the whole team was in their own heads, re-thinking things about their loud pitcher.
"Chris-senpai, how many players here are self-taught?"
"Uh… XX, I think," Chris answers, "Why?"
"Because I'm self-taught too," Sawamura sighs, "You have to understand that some people aren't as lucky. That having fancy equipment and a coach at all…are just privileges most people take for granted and not an absolute necessity."
"If there's no team, create one. If there's no field, make one. If there's no coach, teach yourself and others. Honestly, if I didn't go to Seido, I would probably just teach myself baseball, one way or another," he continues, before putting on a serious face, "Do not make me regret coming to Seido, OK? Just don't."
Sawamura walks off, probably for a run to calm his nerves, leaving his teammates reeling about what just happened.
Omake:
"Miyuki-senpai?" Haruichi asks.
"Yeah?"
"Did you ever have a game against Eijun-kun's team back then?"
"I think I would remember that," Miyuki sheepishly smiles.
After thinking about it, Haruichi looks at Sawamura fondly as he ran laps and nods, "…yeah. You probably would."