Chapter 63: The Arrival of Summer (Two-in-One Chapter)

Walking quickly toward the Kitauji group, Huangqian Yangyi waved his hand while calling out Kumiko's name.

Hearing her older brother's voice, Huangqian Kumiko hugged her Euphonium and ran toward him as well.

"Kumiko, your brother missed you to death!"

Huangqian Yangyi opened his arms to pull his rushing younger sister into an embrace, his large hands vigorously ruffling her cute bobbed hair.

"Nii-chan~"

Kumiko leaned her head against her brother's chest, humming like a little kitten.

After being clingy for nearly a minute, Huangqian Yangyi finally let go of his sister to look her over carefully.

"Kumiko looks really good in a sailor uniform."

"Gross!" Kumiko pouted, her cheeks flushed red.

Huangqian Yangyi chuckled and said quite exaggeratedly, "The performance just now was great; your brother liked it super, super, super much."

Hearing this, Kumiko also revealed a sweet smile, "Mm, I practiced for a long time."

At this moment, Miyuki, who had been silently watching from behind for a long time, suddenly walked over and looked back and forth at the faces of the two siblings.

"Hiss, you look so alike!"

"No duh, we're twins!" Huangqian Yangyi glared at Miyuki, then said to Kumiko, "This four-eyes is my partner, Miyuki Kazuya."

"Miyuki, this is my younger sister, Huangqian Kumiko."

Kumiko nodded obediently at Miyuki and said, "I am Huangqian Kumiko."

"Aha, I'm Miyuki Kazuya."

Huangqian Yangyi kicked out sideways, "What are you laughing at? Can't you speak properly?"

Miyuki dodged at light speed and immediately retaliated.

"Pfft~"

"Nii-chan, stop messing around," Huangqian Kumiko laughed.

Just then, several more girls wearing sailor uniforms walked over, and Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki hurriedly stopped their horseplay, stood straight, and smiled with a serious expression.

"Nii-chan, they are my classmates and upperclassmen," Kumiko said, standing sideways next to Huangqian Yangyi.

Huangqian Yangyi smiled and raised his hand to greet them, "Hello, I am Kumiko's brother, Huangqian Yangyi."

"I'm Hazuki Kato!" the girl with tea-colored hair raised her hand and said loudly.

Hmm, she's a cute girl.

"Sapphire Kawashima," the little girl with fluffy blonde hair said softly.

Hmm, this one is also super kawaii.

After the two little lolis, a beautiful girl with long black hair and glasses stepped forward and extended her hand, a charming smile on her face.

"I am Asuka Tanaka, Kumiko-chan's best upperclassman."

Huangqian Yangyi reached out and shook it lightly, saying, "Asuka-senpai, I have heard Kumiko mention you."

"Oh? What did she say?" Asuka immediately pressed for an answer.

"Senpai, you..." Kumiko grew anxious.

"Hehe, did she speak ill of me?" Asuka teased, wrapping her arm around Kumiko's.

Just then, the last person walked over, her gaze indifferent, her temperament cold and aloof, as if she carried thorns that made her feel difficult to approach.

"Yangyi-kun, long time no see."

Huangqian Yangyi smiled, "I didn't expect to see Kousaka-san at Kitauji too."

Because they were in the same middle school, the two could be considered acquaintances, though they hadn't spoken much.

"Mm, because of some special reasons," Kousaka Reina said with her head lowered.

Huangqian Yangyi nodded without speaking; he naturally knew the reason—wasn't it because she had her eye on a married man and followed him all the way to Kitauji?

The group stood there chatting for a few minutes and incidentally got to know Miyuki. Seeing that the team was about to assemble to return to school, Huangqian Yangyi opened his backpack and took out the gifts he had bought beforehand.

"Wow! There are gifts too!"

"So pretty!"

"And delicious snacks!"

Hazuki Kato and Sapphire Kawashima were overjoyed, and their constant "Huangqian-niisan" calls almost made Kumiko jealous.

"Thank you for the gift," Asuka said, holding a small gift in her hand, feeling quite embarrassed; she had only come to watch the excitement, yet she had received something from someone else.

"Please take care of Kumiko, senpai, arigato!" Huangqian Yangyi said.

Asuka laughed, "You don't need to tell me; Kumiko is a junior I cherish very much."

After handing a gift to Kousaka Reina, Huangqian Yangyi received a "thank you" while discovering that the other party seemed inexplicably nervous. Not understanding why, Huangqian Yangyi didn't dwell on it and turned to look at Kumiko.

"Here, Kumiko, this is the gift your brother got for you."

Taking out the carefully prepared small gift box and handing it to Kumiko, Huangqian Yangyi patted his sister's head, "Open it and take a look."

"Eh? Now?" Kumiko looked at the others around her; it would be better to open gifts at home.

"It's fine."

"Alright."

Kumiko nodded and immediately unwrapped the box. Inside was an exquisitely shaped square crystal, and inside the crystal was a baseball that didn't look very new.

Below the crystal was a small plaque that read, No. 1 Home Run.

"Nii-chan, this is?" Kumiko's eyes widened.

Huangqian Yangyi looked at his cute sister and couldn't help but pinch her soft cheeks, "It's that ball."

Hearing this, Huangqian Kumiko was moved to tears. It had always been like this; ever since she was little, no matter what request she had, her brother would satisfy it. He gave her fun things to play with and delicious food to eat. Even now that she was grown, her brother still thought of her in everything.

"I will keep it safe," Kumiko said earnestly.

Huangqian Yangyi smiled, then said, "Hurry back, don't keep your classmates waiting too long."

"Mm, goodbye, Nii-chan." Kumiko reluctantly let go of Huangqian Yangyi's arm.

"Go on, I'll come see you again next time." Huangqian Yangyi was equally reluctant.

Holding the Euphonium in one hand and the gift in the other, Kumiko looked back with every step, still watching Huangqian Yangyi even after returning to the team.

"Tsk, the older brother is a sister-complex, the younger sister is a brother-complex, how interesting," Miyuki said with a mischievous smirk.

"Huh? You have an opinion?" As soon as Huangqian Yangyi turned his head, he saw that Miyuki had a pink envelope in his hand, though he didn't know when he had gotten it.

"What is this?"

Hearing this, Miyuki shook the envelope in his hand, "That girl from just now gave it to me and asked me to pass it to you."

"Huh?"

Huangqian Yangyi took it and looked at it; there was no signature on it.

"Which one?"

"The one with long black hair, the one who didn't say much," Miyuki said.

Hm? Kousaka Reina?

No way!

Huangqian Yangyi had a bad premonition; could it be that the target of this love-struck girl had become him?

His thoughts returned to two years ago, when Huangqian Yangyi, who was at the same school as his sister, learned that Kumiko was being harassed by a small blonde guy in the Wind Instrument Department; without a word, he rushed into the music room and gave him a sound beating, the kind where noses were bruised, faces were swollen, and blood was splattered everywhere.

Thinking back carefully, it seemed that Kousaka Reina had also been harassed by that blonde guy at the time.

Holy crap! A hero saving a beauty?

It was a bit scary; Huangqian Yangyi shuddered. Kousaka Reina, don't let her usual quiet and gentle appearance fool you; in reality, she was a bit of a yandere inside, which was hard to deal with.

He hadn't expected that she went to Kitauji not because of that married man, but because she was chasing after him.

It was just that she hadn't expected him to go to Tokyo.

Subconsciously looking toward the Kitauji side, Huangqian Yangyi saw his sister, who was still watching him, at the first glance, and noticed Kousaka Reina at the second glance. The moment their eyes met, Kousaka Reina turned her head away, and Huangqian Yangyi put away the envelope.

A few minutes later, the Kitauji team left.

Huangqian Yangyi put the envelope into his backpack, turned to Miyuki, and said, "Let's go, it's our time now; I'll show you a good time in Kyoto today."

"Haha, you're treating!" Miyuki said.

"No problem."

After spending a day playing in Kyoto, that night, the two took the last Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

"I'm exhausted!"

Back at Seido, Miyuki's legs felt weak.

"There absolutely cannot be a next time; this 'special forces' style of travel is more tiring than training."

"Because of who? You wanted to go to every single tourist spot; it was so annoying."

"Huh? It wasn't me, it was you! You were chatting with girls on your phone the whole way, walking like a snail, so slow!"

From the school gate, the two bickered all the way to the dormitory entrance.

"Asshole, see you tomorrow!"

"Go to hell, see you tomorrow!"

The next morning, two dormitory doors opened at the same time.

"Going for a run?"

"Yeah!"

In the blink of an eye, the time came to May 25th, the day of the Kanto Tournament finals.

In the past few days, Seido had fought its way into the finals, including a semi-finals encounter with Inashiro, where both sides once again staged a brilliant battle of offense and defense, with Seido ultimately defeating Inashiro 2:1 to win.

Compared to the Spring Tokyo Tournament, the gold content of the Kanto Tournament had undoubtedly risen by more than one level; the opponents were all strong schools from different regions of the Kanto area, and reaching the finals was an achievement Seido hadn't had in recent years.

As a tournament second only to Koshien and the Jingu Tournament, the attention it received was extraordinary; even though this year's Kanto Tournament was not held in Tokyo, which was a long distance for Seido, a large number of Seido fans still traveled far and wide to follow the team and watch the games.

Especially within Seido, not only were there student-organized cheering squads, but the Cheerleading Squad and the Wind Instrument Department were also present in full force.

Anyway, the school covered the travel expenses, so they considered it a club activity, which was quite nice.

In the Kanto Tournament finals, Seido High School faced the Gunma Prefecture representative, Hakuryu Academy.

Arriving at the venue, the spectator stands, which could accommodate 30,000 people, were already packed.

Just as the team entered the Dugout, the cheering squads and Wind Instrument Departments of both sides in the stands had already begun their contest; whether it was Hakuryu or Seido, both were on an expedition, so there was no such thing as home-field advantage—at this moment, they were competing for momentum.

After pre-game warm-ups and pre-game handshakes, the game officially began.

In the first six innings, Seido relied on a powerful batting lineup to score 4 runs, while Hakuryu utilized their super-fast base-running speed and precise Stolen base coordination with the Batter to score 3 runs.

After 6 innings, Nanjo Taishi's pitching was gradually becoming familiar to the opponent, and both the batting average and on-base percentage were rising.

After coming off the mound, Manager Kataoka immediately sent in Huangqian Yangyi.

Now with a one-run lead, in such a tense game, 1 run was enough to become the key to the game's outcome.

At a time like this, in order to protect this one run, Manager Kataoka would never send in the second-year Tanba Koichiro.

Bearing the trust of the manager and his teammates, Huangqian Yangyi performed brilliantly after taking the mound, working with Miyuki to completely suppress Hakuryu's batting lineup; while striking out 9 of Hakuryu's Batters in a row, Huangqian Yangyi also hit a base hit against Hakuryu's ace on the batting end, successfully helping his teammate return to home plate to score, securing the final victory.

Kanto Tournament champions, Seido High School!

Coming out of the stadium, the Seido High School Baseball Team was immediately surrounded by a large number of reporters; while Manager Kataoka was being questioned by reporters, Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki put on their caps and quietly slipped from the back of the team into the bus.

"You guy, why are you so unwilling to accept interviews?" Miyuki asked.

"It's troublesome, and besides, there's no benefit," Huangqian Yangyi said, sitting in his seat with a face full of exhaustion.

Seeing this, Miyuki asked with some concern: "What's wrong with you? You only pitched 3 innings, is your stamina drained?"

Huangqian Yangyi raised his hand and said listlessly: "It's alright, let me sleep for a while."

Hearing this, Miyuki reached out and placed his hand on Huangqian Yangyi's forehead: "You don't have a fever, either."

"You're the one with a fever!"

That afternoon, carrying the honor of the Kanto Tournament championship, the baseball team received an incredibly warm welcome upon returning to school, celebrating from the afternoon well into the night.

After a one-day break, Director Kataoka announced some news before training began: in three days, the Seido Baseball Team would hold an internal Red and White Match, veterans versus newcomers!

If the newcomers performed exceptionally, they would have the hope of being promoted by the director to the Second String, gaining the opportunity to play in practice matches.

The newcomers were all rubbing their hands together, looking impatient to get started.

Meanwhile, the seniors on the Second String all had grim faces; this Red and White Match would also be their chance—perform well and they might make the First String, perform poorly and being kicked off the Second String would be only natural.

And after the Newcomer Match concluded, external practice matches would be organized.

These practice matches would ultimately decide the First String roster for this summer, as well as who would claim the ace jersey number!

"Starting today, all jersey numbers for the First String are cleared!" Director Kataoka said.

Hearing this, Huangqian Yangyi and Miyuki didn't feel much, but the seniors were incredibly serious.

Clearing the jersey numbers meant a reshuffling of the starting lineup, and potentially even a change of the ace.

No one wanted to give up their position; faced with challenges from juniors and competition from peers, the only thing they could do was train, train, and train like hell.

"Yangyi, the Red and White Match—it shouldn't involve us, right?" Miyuki asked in a low voice.

"Who knows? I'm not that interested anyway," Huangqian Yangyi said.

The possibility of Director Kataoka letting them play in the Newcomer Match was slim, or perhaps even non-existent.

"I'm actually quite interested, though the chances aren't high," Miyuki said.

He knew clearly in his heart that the purpose of the Newcomer Match was mainly to test the quality and potential of the newcomers; Director Kataoka wanted to see the changes and progress these new players had made after two months of training.

Furthermore, it was to give those seniors on the Second String a chance to prove themselves.