Cross Game

At 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.