Chapter 218: 217: The Real Takashi?

Words : 1140 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

At the batting practice field, the pitching machine fired baseballs at a speed of 155 km/h. Tracking the ball's trajectory with his eyes, Takashi timed his swing perfectly. But the expected solid contact didn't come; the bat swung through empty air. "Tch!" Takashi clicked his tongue. So close again. At 150 km/h, out of ten pitches, Takashi could still hit seven. But once the speed hit 155 km/h, he couldn't hit a single one. Always just missing. Besides, after throwing so many balls earlier, his arm started feeling uncomfortable again. "Don't watch with your eyes, feel it with your body." Takashi wiped the sweat off his forehead with a towel just then, a slightly deep, calm voice brushed past his ear. Turning his head, he saw it was Hayasaka Ai speaking. "?" Takashi looked at her, puzzled. Hayasaka Ai didn't look at Takashi—or rather, she was too shy to look directly at him. Who would reject someone's approach and then eagerly come right back? That's exactly what she did. Hayasaka Ai remembered the message she just received from Shinomiya Kaguya: [Takashi may be useless, greedy, lecherous, and a liar, but overall, he's a pretty decent and outstanding individual with some redeeming qualities.] [Get on good terms with him; he'll be very useful for us in the future.] [Since it's all just acting, I believe with your skills, making him fall madly for you will be easy.] [Once you control Takashi, don't you think we'll have free reign over Yozakura Hitomi, Kamikawa Narii, Ryujuu Momo, Kashiwagi Nagisa, and the others?] Hayasaka Ai began to understand: Kaguya wanted to leverage Takashi to control the ladies. It's a good idea, but only if she can really make Takashi, the sea king, fall hopelessly in love with her. Could she actually do it? Answer: No way. Who is Takashi? He drifts among various heiresses, playing them like puppets—an original sea king. To be honest, Hayasaka Ai had never seen anyone dare to mess with the heiresses of the five major families (Yozakura Hitomi), the Kamikawa conglomerate daughter (Kamikawa Narii), the Shijo family heiress (Shijo Maki), the granddaughter of the Economic Three's conglomerate (Kashiwagi Nagisa), the Yakuza princess (Ryujuu Momo), the beloved daughter of the Sawamura family (Sawamura Spencer Eriri), or the gem of the Hiratsuka conglomerate (Hiratsuka Shizuka). Every one of these is a big shot; even the Prime Minister treats them with utmost respect. And Takashi has tangled with all of them. Isn't he afraid of getting exposed? Hayasaka Ai never understood how a person could be like that. No exaggeration: if something happened, the entire island nation's security and economy would face massive upheaval, possibly reshuffling every power faction. Right now, Takashi is a ticking time bomb. Not just Shinomiya Kaguya, even her older brother, Shinomiya Oko, went silent for a long time after seeing Takashi's network. Hayasaka Ai saw for the first time how Shinomiya Oko repeatedly tried to speak but stopped, tried again but held back, and finally just stayed silent. She knew that Shinomiya Oko was unsure how to deal with Takashi. Putting aside his character, Hayasaka Ai actually admired Takashi's cunning and emotional intelligence. Yes, cunning. If Takashi were just a handsome but useless gentle man, he'd have been dead many times over. Yozakura Hitomi, Kamikawa Narii, Kashiwagi Nagisa, Ryujuu Momo, Shijo Maki... who's easy to get close to? Not only can Takashi hang out with this group every day, he can also make them somewhat obedient. From a certain perspective, he's very impressive. For a girl like her, who's never even been in a relationship, to charm him to death is like asking Xiao Yan, a Level 3 Dou Qi user, to kill the Soul Emperor immediately. = Hayasaka Ai knew she definitely couldn't win Takashi over. But for this request, she still agreed. Even if she was very reluctant, as long as it was Shinomiya Kaguya's request, she would do it. Besides the very good master-servant relationship between them, doing this also made her feel a bit better. "The key to your constant misses is that your eyes receive signals, pass them to the brain, which then sends instructions, and only then does the body act." Hayasaka Ai took the metal baseball bat from Takashi, their fingers 'accidentally' touching. Takashi glanced at Hayasaka Ai. Though the finger touch seemed unintentional, to Takashi it looked deliberate. Because he often did the same. 'Interesting.' Takashi felt like he had met a sea king in his own right. Whether this was a worthy opponent or total domination remained to be seen. Takashi thought he had met a rival, but Hayasaka Ai was inwardly blushing, her face quickly heating up as she turned away. That little tip she gave just now was something her friends had told her to try. 'Not sure if it'll work.' Hayasaka Ai murmured to herself, standing where Takashi had just stood, hands close together, elbows close to her body, forearms level, feet slightly apart. "When swinging, don't overextend your front foot to avoid affecting swing accuracy or hindering your next step off the base." Takashi said nothing, carefully watching. He had been focused on pitching earlier and forgot to practice his batting technique. Shohei Ohtani and the others probably didn't expect that someone who could pitch 153 km/h couldn't get the basics of batting right. Whoosh! A rushing sound came as Hayasaka Ai pushed off her back foot, rotated her body, pulled her arm, flicked her wrist, and swung. Even though the ball wasn't there yet, Hayasaka Ai began her swing early. According to Takashi's judgment, this should have been a miss. But the ball came, and the metal bat connected. Bang! Contact made. The ball didn't fly out like Takashi's home runs but went a moderate distance before quickly dropping and bouncing away. "You need to learn to save your strength. If you swing like you do on every pitch, you'll tire out quickly." Hayasaka Ai handed the bat back to Takashi with a warning like, "This will definitely be tested on the exam." Actually, if you looked carefully at Hayasaka Ai's hands, you'd notice they were trembling slightly. Even with the same 7 points of stamina, there's a difference. It's like a fight between a man and a woman; even if both weigh the same, they're not necessarily on the same level. ___ Lmao player meets player. ___ 20 Advanced Chapters available on p@ tr eon (.) com/HalflingFics Also, please point out my mistakes in the comment, thank you! Don't forget to leave a review too~ Check out the other translations too ___

Chapter 218: 217: The Real Takashi?

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