For free-cutting steels, their mechanical properties, especially local toughness, are functionally degraded. The second phase exists in steel matrix, as a chip breaker, tool edge stabilizer and tool life extender. For these purposes, the second phase plays the role of a solid lubricant. Typical materials as the second phase in free-cutting steels are Pb and MnS. The second phase grains are recognized as stress concentrated points during machining. Such points have the possibility to be new crack initiation sites during fatigue loading. Formerly, the present author found that some Al alloys are degraded by loading combination of fatigue and dynamic tension. On the other hand, for some structural steels, almost no degradation is found by the fatigue-impact loading in tension. However, in 2013 the present author reported that free-cutting steels are deteriorated to some extent by such a loading combination. The deterioration may be caused by the stress concentrated points around the second phase, MnS in SUM24L (JIS G 4804:2008, equivalent to AISI 12L14 steel), which is weakened by pre-fatigue process. In this paper, in order to detect microscopic difference between the specimens fractured in dynamic tension with/without pre-fatigue, geometric features of MnS grains are observed by an optical microscope. In the microscopic observation, typical deformation of surrounding matrix steel is found. Into MnS grain, steel matrix is penetrated. Focusing on the existence of the matrix penetration, the number of MnS grains in free-cutting steel is counted with geometrical features. The experimental results show that the information of the penetrations has a possibility to be an indicator of the dynamic strain rate, comparing with the specimens fractured by quasi-static tension.