"He framed that pitch." - As soon as Shun returned to the dugout, his doubts were cleared up by his friend Kenta.
"Oh! I see..." - Shun murmured, a bit surprised. He had never seen Sugawara framing pitches before. In fact, he was genuinely impressed; he had never seen any middle school catcher frame pitches like that.
"Looks like this is the national level, huh?" - Shun muttered to himself with a slight smile as he glanced at Sugawara behind home plate. As strange as the white-haired maniac was, Shun couldn't deny that playing against players of this caliber made him excited.
'I'll pay you back soon, just wait!' - Shun thought to himself, his gaze challenging Sugawara. He couldn't stop his hands from trembling with anticipation—he wanted to take the mound already and deal with Sugawara and the rest of Hokuto. But of course, he knew they had to stick to the game plan, and his turn to pitch would come soon enough.