StoryAt the start of Part One, Ko Kitamura, son of the owner of Kitamura Sports, lives in the same neighborhood as the batting center run by the Tsukishima family. Due to their proximity and the relationship between their businesses, the Kitamura and Tsukishima families have been close for many years, and their children go back and forth between the two homes. Because Ko and Wakaba are the same age and always together, Aoba is jealous of all the time Ko spends with her older sister. Aoba is a natural pitcher with excellent form, and Ko secretly trains to become as good as she is, even while publicly showing little interest in baseball. Then Wakaba dies in a swimming accident at a summer camp during fifth grade.
Part Two starts with Ko in his third year of junior high, as he continues training in secret. When he enters Seishu High School, he joins the baseball club along with his childhood friends, Akaishi and Nakanishi. However, the interim principal (the regular principal is on medical leave) has brought in a new head coach, and he in turn brings in transfer students from other schools as ringers just to play baseball. This team, led by their star, Yuhei Azuma, is the clear favorite of the school. Because the three friends refuse to take evaluation tests to join the first-string team, they are placed on the second-string "prefab" team under the former head coach, Maeno, who has to use the Seishu Junior High School field for practice. This causes a rivalry between the two parts of the team. In the first summer practice scrimmage between them, the prefab team loses by only a narrow margin.
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During the summer vacation, while the first-string team plays in the prefectural qualifying tournament for Koshien, Maeno has the prefab team practice at a recently closed elementary school with the support from a mysterious old man. The prefab team also has six practice matches with other local high schools, all of which reached semifinals or higher in the regional preliminaries. Near the end of summer vacation, the interim principal decides to dissolve the prefab team. However, Coach Maeno asks for a rematch scrimmage with the first-string team, after which the losing team would be dissolved and that coach would leave. The prefab team, playing with Aoba, wins a narrow victory. The first-string team is dissolved, and the head coach and the interim principal leave to work at other schools.
In the spring, Ko becomes a second-year student and Aoba enters Seishu High School. Yuhei, who stays at Seishu despite having been on the former first-string team, moves in with Ko's family after the first-stringers' dormitory is closed. The reformed Seishu team goes on to prove themselves by defeating Sanno High School in the first round of the summer prefectural qualifying tournament. However, they lose to their second-round opponents, Ryuo, in overtime, ending Seishu's hopes of Koshien for the year. Ryuo subsequently reaches Koshien, advances up to the semifinals where they are narrowly beaten. However, Ryuo then goes on to win the spring invitational Koshien tournament later that same year.
As Ko and Aoba enter their summer break, a girl named Akane Takigawa with a striking resemblance to Wakaba moves in next door to Ko. This causes mixed feelings among the various characters, particulaoly Ko, Aoba, and Akaishi (who had also liked Wakaba). Akane soon becomes friends with Ko and Tsukishimas, and begins working in the Tsukishima cafe. As another year begins, the romantic subplots further solidify when Yuhei expresses an interest in Aoba. Meanwhile, Seishu gains a new assistant coach in the form of Yuhei's older brother Junpei, after Ichiyo agrees to marry him if Seishu makes it to Koshien.
When the prefectural summer baseball tournament starts, Seishu starts with a dominating shutout against its first-round opponent, Matsunami Municipal High School. In the second round, they face Sena Municipal High School led by Tatsumasa Miki, a former Seishu first-string player, which in the first round had defeated the team coached by Seishu's former head coach. Seishu wins with a nearly perfect game, ending Part Two of the story.
Part Three starts with the prefectural tournament still in progress. After another win by Seishu, Akane is hospitalized due to an unspecified illness. Initially, Akaishi's play is badly affected by his worries over Akane's condition; however he has since regained his form. Meanwhile, Ko continues to perform well and has promised Akane to go on a date with her if he reaches Koshien. However, Akane's illness is more severe than expected, and she is scheduled for surgery on the morning of the prefectural final against Ryuo.
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This story has the part which was created by referencing Wikipedia, so the licence of GFDL is applied to this story. |
