New chapter of Plant Magic Lord is out! (6/10 chapters)

 

 

Sound

(Thank you for reading at bayabuscotranslation.com)

…Now then, although there was excitement, what should we do next?

Stella’s sparkling eyes were fixed on me.

Let’s organize this. What exactly is this Flower General’s magic bullet? There are various kinds of so-called disappearing pitches. They use the characteristics of the ground or the way of throwing, the ball doesn’t really disappear. It just becomes extremely hard to see.

But the magic bullet is truly “invisible”. From what I hear, the magic attached to the bullet must be
[Invisibility]. The invisibility magic makes the target impossible to see. In other words, it is invisible because of magic. Needless to say, this is absurd. The invisibility magic itself is canceled by impact, but that is mostly meaningless.

The Flower General’s shooting accuracy is extremely high. Even in a forest, he shoots accurately at several hundred meters, with the bullet traveling at 150 kilometers per hour.

…Hmm. Can this be hit back…? Even inside the game, the Flower General’s magic bullet was not something to be hit back. Most players either defended against it or dodged. It was common to increase defense power to block it. Only very few would try to dodge it. Even if someone could shoot it down, I had never heard of anyone hitting it back and defeating the opponent.

However, Stella’s reflexes and physical abilities are outstanding. Frankly, she is incomparable to normal players, and she has the skill of a genuine top-level athlete. There is indeed a method to break through it. I know it from memories of my past life.

A countermeasure against the Flower General’s invisible magic bullet. It was thought up on the game’s strategy forums, but no one was actually able to do it, so it failed.

That is…

“Do you have any suitable cloth?” (Elt)

“I have some, but what kind of cloth do you mean?” (Stella)

“Oh, something like this…” (Elt)

I made a gesture of covering my eyes with my palm. Stella blinked a few times.

“Covering the eyes?” (Stella)

“Yes. That is necessary for the training to break through the magic bullet.” (Elt)

If you can hit it even without seeing it, that is enough. The Flower General’s shooting is flawless. It aims with very high precision at the lower abdomen. And all its bullets are straight balls. There are no breaking balls.

So, if you can catch the timing of swinging despite the bullet being invisible, you should be able to hit it, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. After all, inside the VR game, it couldn’t go beyond a lucky hit due to game limitations. In reality, if it’s only straight balls, there should be some superhuman who can time it right. And Stella should be that superhuman… or rather, she must be.

In a corner, the ninja and Leia were talking.

“They seem to be starting something amazing, degozaru.” (Ninja)

“Yes… That relentless challenger spirit is the mark of an S-rank adventurer. ‘Hit it’… the bat seems to have conveyed such a good phrase. Let’s make new Stella-sama goods.” (Leia)

“Leia, your merchant spirit is lively, degozaru.” (Ninja)

Afterwards, Stella went to get the cloth, and I told her,

“The training will happen. But it will be hard.” (Elt)

“That’s okay…! I have plenty of stamina…” (Stella)

“I see… but if it gets tough, say so.” (Elt)

“I’m fine even if I don’t sleep for five days… How long will you keep up, Elt-sama?” (Stella)

“Huh?” (Elt)

Hmm… I can’t keep up that far…

 

—

 

Evening.

The wind has settled, and it is cool and comfortable. I returned to the village first, along with Wood and Stella. We left the grass dumplings behind and focused on the training first. Stella stood in the square with her eyes covered. She was already holding the bat.

Hmph… I really am making her do reckless training. Can she really hit invisible magic bullets like this? Have I read too many sports manga? N-no… if it’s Stella, the hero Stella, she should be able to grasp something from this training.

I squeezed the ball in my hand.

I will throw slowly first to see if she can really hit it. If that fails, then we try a different training…

“If I get hit, then, it’s Wood’s turn.” (Elt)
“Ugo ugo, understood!” (Wood)

Wood throws pretty fast. Probably over 100 kilometers per hour. But for now, I will start by throwing first. If she can hit Wood’s throw without seeing, that will be a success. But I wonder if it will go that well. Well, we just have to try…

“Alright, I’m going to throw… I’ll give a signal, so swing to that.” (Elt)

“Yes!” (Stella)

This is not a bad training method. Actually, batting is not done by “looking and judging”. The ball thrown from the mound reaches the mitt in less than 0.4 seconds. There is no time to think. Pitchers’ preferred pitches, habits, stance just before throwing, the count… Various clues make the body react instinctively. And the Flower General’s bullets are fired at regular intervals with great accuracy. If the timing is caught, the straight ball should be hit to some extent… or rather, it must be hit.

I wound up and threw smoothly.

“Here it comes!” (Elt)

Good, I threw well. The ball landed in the strike zone as planned..

Kachin!

Stella swung. The moment I thought that, the batted ball passed just beside my body. It almost hit me. A perfect pitcher’s return.

“…How was it? The ball should have passed beside your body…” (Stella)

Eh…?  She can’t see, right? She should only be able to time it by voice… And what she aimed at just now…

“Perfect, but…” (Elt)

“Yay…! I see… If you catch the timing, you can hit it!” (Stella)

No, I can’t hit it right away. Well, if I repeat it enough and learn the timing, I should be able to connect… that’s the level we’re talking about. Right…? I’m starting to lose confidence in a strange direction. Could it be that, without me knowing, professional baseball players are already at this level from the start?

“…Alright, I’ll throw one more pitch.” (Elt)

I have to try.

I wound up and threw it the same way.

“Sei!” (Elt)

*Clang!*

The hit ball flies past my side again.

O-one more time…

“Sei!” (Elt)

*Clang!*

“Sei!” (Elt)

*Clang…!*

After ten pitches… I thought I threw them well. And Stella’s batting was perfect. She struck the ball with the sweet spot and returned every single one.

Huh… amazing. Is it really possible to hit just with a simple signal?

“How was that…!?” (Stella)

“With my pitching, it’s no longer even practice… Alright, let’s move to the next stage!” (Elt)

“Ugo-ugo, is it my turn?” (Wood)

“That’s right. This time it’ll be faster.” (Elt)

“Yes, please take care of me…!” (Stella)

Well… this is a pleasant surprise. At the very least, the blindfold training probably has meaning. What remains is speed and whether she can eventually do it without the signal…

 

—

 

As the sun began to set, it gradually became dim.

A good point about that training was that as long as the pitcher was fine, it could go on endlessly. We couldn’t cover a wide area, but there was magic to make things easier to see.

[Moonlit Moss]

The glowing moss illuminated the space between Stella and Wood. I never thought I’d use this magic for baseball practice.

However, there was a bigger problem.

“…O-one more set…!!” (Stella)

“Ugo-ugo, got it!” (Wood)

What we were doing then was throwing the first ball with a signal, then throwing the second ball five seconds later. That was one set. There was no signal for the second ball. She had to hit it based only on the timing from the first one. It wasn’t just difficult; it was clearly a superhuman challenge.

But she stopped being able to hit the ball. When we reduced the signals to every other pitch, the effect was huge. She could hit the first ball. That was impressive. But the second ball, five seconds later, rarely even connected. It was nowhere near being returned.

Wood’s pitching was perfect. He never got tired, and once he learned something, he could repeat it with precision. That was a hidden strength of plant-based beings, something he shared with magical beings from the Flower species.

“…Ugh…!” (Stella)

As expected, when the cues were reduced, she couldn’t hit. Still, just being able to return a pitch based only on a voice while blindfolded made her a god-tier batter. If this continued, Stella would just get exhausted. We might have to give up and try another method.

…No. Not yet. If there’s sound, she can hit. That hasn’t changed, even with Wood’s pitches. Even with her eyes closed, Stella can use sound to hit. The issue is how much sound she needs.

At the very least, the shoo… sound of the ball flying isn’t enough. If it were, she’d already be hitting it. Stella needs a bit more to go on. Unless I understand that, I can’t solve this. What is the absolute limit of Stella’s ability to react?

Something is bothering me… I feel like I’ve missed something. Think back. Invisible magic bullets… Right, invisible. And they only make a normal flying sound.

…Huh? Wait a minute, that’s strange. Earlier, the Flower General’s shots were supposed to be aimed at Stella. Yet she avoided them.

She said she could only manage to dodge them, not return them… but no, that doesn’t make sense.
Why was she able to dodge them? How did she avoid an invisible magic bullet that was targeting her?

In baseball, that wouldn’t be a problem. If you can’t see it, it’s just a strike or a ball. But the Flower General’s magic bullets would cause injury if not avoided. I feel like the secret lies there.

“…Stella, I want to ask you something.” (Elt)

“Yes… what is it?” (Stella)

“You said you dodged the magic bullets in the forest earlier, right? How did you do it? You couldn’t see them, could you?” (Elt)

“…That’s right. But in the forest, there’s sound, so… somehow, I could tell.” (Stella)

“…” (Elt)

Sound. Something clicked in my mind.

“You can’t tell here?” (Elt)

“No… It’s strange, but in the open field, I can’t hear it. Or rather, it’s hard to grasp. I’m sorry, I’m not explaining it well…” (Stella)

“No, that’s more than enough.” (Elt)

Stella tilted her head. I understood.

I’m pretty sure my theory is correct. Stella unconsciously used sound to detect and dodge the bullets. In this world, the principles might still be unknown, but I have knowledge from a previous life.

Echolocation.

There were trees in the forest. The echo of the incoming bullet’s sound probably helped her avoid it.
Well, it’s a superhuman ability… but as a world-class adventurer, maybe she does it unconsciously, instinctively. But if we can replicate those echoes… Then, maybe, she can hit the ball. This method is probably unheard of…

I quietly muttered to myself.

“…Let’s try it. The echo-based swing.” (Elt)

 

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