Chapters 30-76

After chapter 29, the next morning, the other kids reminisced about General Kaname, highlighting his admirable traits. Kaname, however, grew increasingly irked that they are talking about him but also not talking about him. The question on everyone’s mind was: how did Kaname became the current him?

Kiyomine insisted that the current Kei was the “real” Kei, and that playing baseball had altered his personality. But the others wondered if it was not baseball that changed him, but rather that he had changed himself for the sport. They posited that the intense competition of baseball might have forced him to change himself in order to adapt and survive in that world. During their discussion, Yamada recalled his first meeting with Kaname who said he never wanted to have anything to do with baseball again. The group agreed that playing at such a high level must have been miserable.

Hearing this, Kiyomine became pensive, lost in thought.

That evening, he invited Kaname to the park to play catchabll. As they played, Kiyomine asked, “Did you hate playing baseball with me in the senior league?”

Kaname responded, “How would I know? I don’t remember at all. But I’m sure we must had lots of fun since we were the best and always won, right? If winning a match feels this great, I’m sure we must have had a blast!”. Kaname then stated that he now finds baseball enjoyable, but the constant comparisons to General Kaname were irksome. So he makes a declaration: “I will strive to surpass the General Kaname!”

With the summer tournament approaching, they get their uniform made at a sports store where they bump into Teitoku’s coach who invites them to watch the Hikawa vs Teitoku practice match.

After the match, Kaname’s in shock seeing the level of baseball those teams were playing at. Both teams had most of the regular members participating in the match. Both Chihaya and Toudou noted and suspected that it’s possible that both teams didn’t even show all their cards yet. Even so, the match quality was already insanely high. Makita was taken out quite early because all he had were fastballs, and there’s no way you can win at the high school level with just that. Kaname then realizes that oh no, Kiyomine only has fastball - to which Kiyomine was a little upset. Chihaya and Toudou then confirmed that he actually has a high-speed slider which is his winning pitch. The reason why he hasn’t shown it is because Kaname can’t catch it!

So Kaname works hard with the team (bullying him) and eventually he is able to catch it!

Right before their first match for the summer tournament, Kaname’s mom dug up a old box of notebooks. They were titled “Zettai Notebook” (“zettai”, in this series’ context, means “Definitely”) and there were many, many volumes! When Kaname opened them and saw the scrawls, he realized it was him who wrote them. These notebooks covered everything about baseball that he learned since he was in elementary school. The things that Chihaya and the rest were trying to teach him today … the him in the past already knew and mastered.

So he read some of them (there were many) and used those techniques in the first match.

Skipping to their 3rd match, it was Seimei (where Toudou’s senpais are at now) vs Kotesashi. At the end of that match, they won but Kaname was shocked to see the other team bawling at their defeat. This was his first match with a top baseball school - their level of preparation and determination was different - and he felt quite distraught about the whole situation. Kiyomine makes a comment about forgeting about losers which triggered Kaname to say that he should not to be so flippant about their feelings. But Kiyomine responds, “Well, would you prefer that we lost?”, to which Kaname responds, “Not really…”. The whole experience makes him realize that perhaps General Kaname may not have been very happy about winning all the time after all. He also started to experience flashbacks of those faces we see in chapter 29 but has no idea what they were.

Finally, it’s their fourth match, with Teitoku. He meets one of their ace pitcher, Hinomoto, who is quite jovial and who has invited several of his teammates to join this team. He notes that he seems to be the kind of player that he’s always wanted to be: “a love and peace” player! As he prepares for the pitch, he would say things like “we will definitely win” - the word “definitely” (zettai) triggers something in him. While trying to catch a missed ball, Kaname accidentally crashed onto the fence. From there, as the game progreses, his memories start to slowly come back.

He met Kiyomine as a child in a neighbourhood playdate. Kiyomine was bawling so Kaname invited him to play catchball with him. Kiyomine never played it before but when he threw the ball back for the first time - his throwing form, and the speed of the ball coming at Kaname was really fast. Kiyomine really enjoyed playing catchball and so Kaname suggests that they join a team together to play. Although Kiyomine went to the practices, Kaname stopped going after two practices. Then one day, Kiyomine came by and asks why Kaname isn’t showing up and that he really just wants to play with him. So Kaname gives in to his whining, and plays catch ball with him. However, Kiyomine is having trouble getting the ball to him. When Kaname asks why he is throwing in a strange way, Kiyomine says the adults told him to try this and that.

Kaname realizes that if he leaves Kiyomine to them, they will break him with all their good intentions to make him a “better pitcher”. He realizes that each adult have their own ideals of what is best, and it could possibly destroy Kiyomine’s potential before he grows up.

So Kaname makes a promise to Kiyomine: to forget everything they’ve taught him, and return back to his own form and Kaname will “definitely” make him the top pitcher. Kiyomine agrees. Kaname goes home, and is freaked out at the promise he made, because he said he will “definitely” do it.

From that day on, he started to learn baseball, practice, and teach Kiyomine.

Eventually, they joined the Houya Senior League and gained the notoriety that we know now. All of this was because he wanted them to get a ticket to Osaka’s Youmeikan - the one school in Japan that not only has the ability to make it to Koshien but also to win the Koshien.

Eventually, the coach of Youmei comes to his home and invites him to join his school. That night, Kaname is just over himself with happiness - they finally did it! All the pain and suffering he went through playing baseball has finally paid off. Even though he is not a talented player like Kiyomine, he was able to still make it!

Then back at the senior league practice, he walks into his coaches’ conversation - it turns out that he was invited to Youmei as a “barter” player. A barter player is someone that they take in in order to get the player they want. Kiyomine didn’t want to go to Youmei without Kaname, so Youmei’s coach invited Kaname - but with the intention of never planning to use him in games.

When Kaname realized this … something broke inside him. He then realized that deep within, he had always known that he was never a “chosen one”. Just like all those players who had lost to them, he was also one of the “losers”. All this talk about being Kiyomine’s accomplice when in reality, he was just afraid to be lumped with the losing side.

Even after all the effort he had made and everything he had given up, even to the point of becoming the General Kaname, he was still unable to be at the same (level) as Kiyomine.

In the end, for one moment, he thought, “I wished I never met Kiyomine”.

Back in the game, things progress to a point where Kiyomine has pitched over 100 pitches and is now totally exhausted, no outs, runner on 1 and 2 and Kokuto is up. Although they all went to the mount to cheer Kiyomine on, as they were returning back to the positions, Kaname looks back (based on General Kaname’s suggestion) and sees Kiyomine’s truly exhausted look. General Kaname mentions that when the body is exhausted, sometimes, by being revived mentally, you can miraculously revive the body. But that only Kaname will know what to say to him.

Kaname runs back to the mount, and Kiyomine asks him, “Is it not okay for us to win?” since the atmosphere of the stadium was as if everyone just wants them to lose so that the match could be concluded (ie. stop dragging out this match when you have no chance to win). Kaname realises just how exhausted and dispirited Kiyomine really must have been to have entertained such a thought!

Suddenly, in that moment, he realizes something: The one thing he wanted to forget wasn’t Kiyomine Haruka. It was himself, who for a moment, had wished that he never met Kiyomine. This “filthy, lowly, and lame” him who could have entertained that thought even for one moment – he wanted to “reset” himself, so that he can start over and become a battery with Kiyomine Haruka again.

He looks at Kiyomine and said, “Forget about the cheering in the stadium. Forget about who you are batting. Forget the scoreboard.”

“Then, we are just playing catchball!”

Kiyomine, surprised, says, “Catchball. Yeah!”

After that, Kiyomine throws as if he was never exhausted and succesfully takes out Kokuto, to which the entire stadium erupted in cheer.

Then, he lost all gas after that, and the 5th batter hits a homerun and Teitoku wins the match.

That marks the end of their team’s first summer.