• Summary version 1 by Hitoshi Doi, 1993.03.21

Hiro threw the ball.. and shattered his right elbow. Hiro's dream ended as he fell out of the bed and landed on his right elbow.

Hiro was outside in his yard burning something. A lot of smoke was coming out, and his mother asked what he was burning. Hiro said that he was burning the memory of his youth. It was his baseball glove. Hiro's mother said that she wished Hiro would burn his porn books that he had hiding under his bed. But Hiro said that that was his life.

Hiro was in a bookstore looking for some books. Then someone came up and said that they had the book that he was looking for. A girl stuck a porn book in front of Hiro's face. Hiro gladly took it, but he quickly got mad and returned the book. Hiro said that he was very busy. Then the girl said that she was busy too. She had a date with Hideo to go to a movie.

Later Hikari was with Hideo at a coffee shop. Hikari told Hideo that Hiro was looking through some introductory sports books.

Hideo said, "With his athletic ability, he'll do great at anything. Yeah, he better find something to do fast. If you take baseball away from him, all you have left is a pervert."
Hikari said, "It's a waste."
Hideo said, "It's not just that! There were so many high schools inside and outside of this prefecture that wanted him. The baseball people had all of their attention on which high school Hiro and I were going to choose. That Sengawa High School that Hiro goes to.. has no baseball team?"
Hikari said, "Yeah."
Hideo said, "That's why he chose it. So there wouldn't be any lingering affection for baseball."
Hikari said, "But he made his decision so easily. His elbow didn't completely get destroyed yet."
Hideo said, "Since the doctor said that his elbow would get destroyed for sure if he threw for another three months, there was no other choice."
Hikari said, "But I know you would have continued until the end."
Hideo said, "Because I'm stupid."
Hikari said, "Hiro is stupid too."
Hideo said, "No! I'm thankful to him. It's because of him that I can go on a date with you like this."

On the first day of high school, when Hiro was walking through the school a girl's bloomer came falling from the sky onto his head. Then some books and even the entire bag came falling down. A cute girl apologized and came down to pick up her things. After the girl got her things, she went off and ran into another person. Hiro guessed that the girl was pretty clumsy. But he thought that she was pretty cute too.

Then Hiro ran into his friend, and former catcher, Noda. Noda had a back injury so he couldn't play baseball any more. Noda told Hiro that he had just signed up for the swim team. When Noda asked Hiro what club he was going to join, Hiro said soccer. Then Hiro found out that the girl that he had ran into earlier had taken his bag by mistake. Hiro found out that the girl's name was Koga Haruka.

When Hiro went to look for Haruka, a twirling baton came flying at his head. Hiro dodged the baton, and picked it up after it landed on the ground. The baton belonged to Haruka. After getting his own bag back, Hiro took out his new book on soccer. When Haruka asked if Hiro was on the soccer team, Hiro said that he was just going to join. Haruka said that soccer was very popular, but that she liked baseball more.

At Meiwa Daiichi High School, Hideo was practicing with the baseball team. One of the upper classmen got angry that Hideo was taking batting practice. He said that freshmen weren't supposed to start off with batting practice. But the coach said that Hideo was different. Then Hideo hit some balls out of the practice field. Everyone was shocked at the balls that Hideo hit.

Hiro attended soccer practice at school. They made all of the freshmen run laps. Hiro was running it very easily when the captain yelled at him. The captain said that Hiro was not "cute". He said that the freshmen were supposed to collapse because of the hard running. Then he pointed to the area where all of the other freshmen were lying on the ground. The captain told Hiro to sit down so he can go yell at the other freshmen. Then a baseball came flying into the soccer field. Hiro was surprised. The captain got very mad and kicked the ball back to the two students in baseball uniforms that came to get the ball.

Hiro asked, "I thought we didn't have a baseball team in this school?" The captain answered, "It's not an official team. It's a club. They can barely play catch."

After school, Hiro ran back kicking the soccer ball to Tachibana Hideo's room. When he went in, Hiro saw Hikari cleaning the room. Hikari complained that it was Hiro's fault for messing up Hideo's room. Then Hikari said, "Hey old man, this is your porn book."
Hiro said, "Why do you know it's mine?"
"Then I'll throw it away."
"Hey, that's mine!"

Then Hiro spotted a sign saying, "Go for the Koushien! Tachibana Hideo." Hiro said that he would choose a new road and started to write his own. After writing, "Go for the" Hiro stopped. Then he asked Hikari where the soccer national championships were held. Hikari answered, "Ryougoku Kokugikan." So Hiro wrote that and made his sign.

[The Ryougoku Kokugikan is where the sumo tournament is held, not the soccer championships, but Hiro didn't know that.]

Then Noda came into the room and rested on the bed. Hikari said, "I wonder who's room this is," and got ready to go take care of her store. When Hiro asked about Hideo, Hikari said that he had baseball practice, even on Sunday because their school was very serious about baseball.

Hideo was at baseball practice watching the team's ace pitching. Then a teammate came up and said that their ace Maruyama was one of the best right handed fastball pitchers in the prefecture. Then Hideo recalled an incident in the past. Hiro was practicing pitching. Noda was catching and Hideo was behind him watching the ball. When Hiro got upset that his fastball went right down the middle, Hideo said that it didn't matter because nobody would be able to hit such a ball anyways. Then Hiro threw his favorite forkball. Noda told him to stop it, but Hiro threw it and the ball bounced before the catcher. Noda said that it was just a 140 km wild pitch, but Hiro said that it had dropped.

[a forkball is supposed to drop near the plate because of the lack of rotation on the ball.]

The next morning on the way to school, Hiro's father stopped him and told him that the president's daughter (of the company that he worked at) went to the same school as Hiro. He asked Hiro to get along well with her so he could do well in the company. Hiro's father said that the president's daughter's name was Koga Haruka.

When Hiro was walking in the school grounds, a bunch of baseballs came rolling his way. Hiro stepped on the balls and fell down. Then Haruka came around the corner and apologized to him. Haruka asked for his name and Hiro told her. Haruka then introduced herself. When Hiro asked what she was doing with the baseballs, Haruka said that she had just become the manager of the baseball club.

During soccer practice, Hiro and most of the freshmen were picking weeds in the soccer field. Then they saw a flashy guy score a goal. It was Kine Ryutaro, a freshman who used to be the ace striker for Kitano Junior High School, who placed second in the prefecture championships. Then the captain called Hiro and made him by some canned drinks for the upper classmen. When Hiro started running off, Kine threw him 110 yen and asked for a canned coffee too.

On his way back with two bag loads of drinks, Hiro saw the baseball club practicing. Kine was also there trying to pick up Haruka. He asked her to become the manager of the soccer team. But Haruka said that she liked baseball. She said that she would try to make the club into an official team.

When Kine gave up on Haruka, he spotted Hiro with the bags of drinks. He quickly took his can of coffee and told Hiro that he would score with the cute Haruka before summer. Then Hiro grabbed Kine by the collar and told him that he should first say "thanks" for the coffee. After Kine thanked Hiro, Hiro gave him one bag to carry.

That night when Hiro, Hideo, and Noda were in Hideo's room (Hiro was watching a porn video), Hideo asked if Hiro was enjoying sumo. Since Hiro gave a very surprised look, Hideo pointed to the sign that Hiro had written with "Ryougoku Kokugikan". Then Hiro got mad that Hikari had tricked him. Noda commented that Hiro had only been interested in baseball ever since he was little.

When Hikari was practicing with the archery team, she recalled an incident in the past. When she had just entered junior high, Hikari was watching her school's baseball team practice. She noticed a big boy who was taking fielding practice. When Hiro came, she asked him who that boy was. Hiro said that it was Tachibana Hideo, who used to be the number 4 batter for the famous Hakusan Angels little league team. Hiro said that Hideo was huge. Then Hikari said that it was Hiro who was too short. Hiro was still much shorter than Hikari. After saying that he would probably grow into his large baseball uniform by the end of the year, Hiro flicked up Hikari's skirt and ran off.

Haruka found out that the baseball game that was to be held that next day was called off because the other team couldn't make it. The baseball club members were disappointed, but they decided to just have practice.

During soccer practice, Kine took the ball away from Hiro and caused him to fall on his face. Then Kine kicked the ball and scored. Hiro got a bloody nose, so the captain let him rest off the field. When Kine looked in Hiro's direction and smirked, Hiro stuck up his middle finger at him.

After practice Kine suggested that they (the soccer team) play baseball against the baseball club the next day. The captain liked the idea, saying that if the soccer team defeated the baseball club, the baseball club would be the laughing stock of the high school. Kine was very confident that they would win.

On the way home from school, Hiro ran into Hikari's mother. She said that just a while ago, Hikari and Hiro looked like an older sister and younger brother. Hiro said that he reached Hikari's height by the end of the first year of junior high, and passed her in the summer of the second year.

The day of the baseball game came. Kine was warming up as the pitcher for the soccer team. But when he started throwing hard, the boy playing catcher couldn't catch the ball. So Hiro volunteered to play catcher. Kine didn't think Hiro could catch his balls, but when he threw some fastballs Hiro caught them without any problems. So the captain told Hiro to bat ninth and play catcher.

The game started and the soccer team got 3 runs in the top of the first inning as the baseball club's fielding was very bad. Number three batter Kine and the number four captain both got hits and were feeling very happy.

After Kine finished his warmup pitches, Hiro went up to him and asked if he wanted to use some signs for the curveball. But Kine said that he only needed his fastball against the baseball club.

Then Noda came riding on his bicycle and spotted Hiro playing baseball.

Kine was enjoying himself as he struck out the baseball club's first batter. A crowd of girls had gathered to cheer for him. Then he struck out the next batter too. Noda was wondering who the soccer team's pitcher was. He knew that it couldn't be just someone without any experience.

Meanwhile Hikari was in Hideo's room looking at some old pictures. Hikari was surprised that Hideo was so big, ever since 5th grade. She said that Hiro had always been very small, and looked like her younger brother. She also said that she was better than Hiro in everything, except for baseball. Hideo said that he was shocked when he first faced Hiro too. Hideo had struck out on three pitches. That had changed Hideo, who had never practiced hard until that moment.

Hikari said, "So that turned you into the great batter who in his first year bats fourth for the famous Meiwa. But didn't you usually get hits off of him during practice?"
Hideo said, "There's no ace who would destroy his own team's number four batter."
Hikari said, "Well, now there is no way that we will get to see you two face off for real."

In the next inning, Hiro's turn at bat came up. But he just gave some advice to the catcher about the baseball club's pitcher, and struck out as he didn't swing at all.

The soccer team had scored 6 runs by the end of the third inning. The captain told Kine that they should play with them a little. Then the soccer team kicked the ball around and made errors on purpose. When one of the baseball club batters got a hit, one runner came around to score. But Hiro just avoided the throw back to the plate. Kine got upset and yelled at Hiro. But on the next pitch, when the runner on first tried to steal second, Hiro fired the ball back to second and gunned down the runner easily to surprise everyone.

In the next inning, after Kine hit the ball over everyone's heads, he talked to Haruka as he ran the bases. He told her to give up on the baseball club. Haruka got mad and told him to run seriously. But Kine said that if he ran seriously, he would get a homerun.

When the baseball club finally held the soccer team scoreless in the fourth inning, they felt very happy.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Kine hit the first batter and walked the next two. Kine pretended like he was in a pinch. But he then struck out the next three batters, and got a cheer from his fans.

In the top of the fifth inning, with one out and a runner on second, Hiro hit a homerun. Almost everyone was surprised. After Hiro ran the bases, Kine said, "There's nothing to be proud of for hitting that kind of pitch for a homerun."
Hiro said, "Yeah. It's embarrassing so don't tell anyone."

Kine was going to walk the top three batters in the next inning also. Haruka said that she was very upset. Then Noda, who had been watching in the baseball club's bench, started to warm up. After Kine walked the third batter, Hiro fired the ball back to Kine, knocking the glove off of his hand. Then Hiro went to the soccer team manager and told her that he was going to quit. After signing his name on the resignation form, Hiro walked to the baseball club side and asked if he could join. The baseball club captain just asked for Hiro's name. Hiro said, "Kunimi Hiro," and Noda said, "Noda Atsushi."

Hiro went up to bat as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded. One of the baseball club members said to one of his teammates, "Hey, that Kunimi and Noda. It can't be.."

Haruka also thought that she had heard Hiro's name before.

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