The surroundings were bustling with noise.
The shouts, the drumbeats, and the sound of the baseball landing in the catcher's mitt on the field all made the male protagonist feel a lack of reality.
"Really?"
"This is the Koshien Tokyo Qualifiers!"
Only then did he come back to his senses.
"If that's the case..."
"Then Li."
He looked up at the cheering stands.
Yoshida Li was sitting right there.
As long as Li was still there.
Everything was beautiful.
...
Bottom of the ninth inning, Ryuzan High vs. Risshu Affiliated High, score 1 to 0.
The male protagonist was a member of Risshu High's baseball team.
It was now Risshu High's turn to bat, and Ryuzan High was pitching.
On the field, one out.
The situation was not optimistic; it could even be said to be hanging by a thread.
Whether they could enter Koshien, no, whether they could win this game, would depend on this last half-inning.
Just as the male protagonist was thinking this, the batter on the field, Gan Xiong, was also struck out.
The opposing pitcher was clearly very strong.
"Ah~ we're cornered."
Furukawa Hirozawa himself became nervous.
Baseball, in Japan, is equivalent to the number one ball sport. Many boys, when they are in school, will more or less come into contact with it. Even if they have never played baseball, they are very familiar with the rules of baseball.
The current situation was very dangerous: bottom of the ninth, down by one run.
And two outs.
If there was one more out, the game would end with Risshu High losing.
The pressure was immense.
Just then, the coach called the male protagonist's name.
"Iwa Sejian, come here."
Seeing that the male protagonist made no move, the coach urged again, "Iwa Sejian, quickly!"
"So scary."
Iwa Sejian sighed and walked towards the coach.
"You're up next. Go prepare."
"Huh?" The male protagonist was stunned for a moment, thinking he had misheard, and put his hand to his ear.
"Pinch hitter, pinch hitter."
"Pinch hitter?!"
The coach commented in disbelief, "What are you even here for?!"
Ah...
So it was a pinch hitter.
The male protagonist finally remembered.
The male protagonist first warmed up on the sidelines, then swung his bat and walked to the batter's box.
The BGM began to become tense.
...
"You've returned to the past to live a life without regrets."
"Time is limited. Whether to use it effectively or waste it depends on your choice."
The fairy's words echoed in the male protagonist's ears.
When he looked back, the female protagonist was standing in the cheering section, cheering him on, and her expression had even changed from before.
The female protagonist was clearly also getting nervous.
But because it was Iwa Sejian, Yoshida Li's eyes sparkled.
"Strike!"
"Strike!!!"
After two consecutive strikes, the male protagonist remembered again.
He had already experienced it once; this time, there should be no problem.
[Third pitch!
It should be a very weak inside high curveball!]
Playing to this point, Furukawa Hirozawa's palms were sweating.
Sure enough, the opponent threw a very weak inside high curveball.
It was hit firmly by the male protagonist.
The baseball flew high, passing over everyone's line of sight. Just as Furukawa Hirozawa thought it would be a home run, the white ball hit the outfield wall with a bang.
"Wow!!!"
The entire stadium erupted in an uproar; no one expected a good-for-nothing like Iwa Sejian to hit such a powerful long ball to the outfield.
"I'm truly a genius!"
The male protagonist himself couldn't believe it.
"Run! Run!" Yoshida Li shouted loudly.
Iwa Sejian then reacted and quickly ran towards the base.
Due to the long distance, he had enough time to run to second base.
He could even safely reach third base.
Furukawa Hirozawa thought.
At the same time, as the next batter, Kohaku was already warming up.
While running from second to third base, the male protagonist's forgotten memories gradually resurfaced:
"Oh no!"
"I remember. It was like this back then too; this game was ultimately lost because He was struck out."
Thinking of this, the male protagonist braced himself and, disregarding everything, rushed past third base and then charged towards the final home plate.
"Hey, isn't that too reckless?" Gan Xiong was completely stunned.
Not only were the characters in game stunned, but Furukawa Hirozawa himself was also shocked.
A long hit, but not a home run. It was almost impossible to run from home plate and back to home plate in one go.
This was truly too reckless.
The male protagonist ran desperately, and everything seemed to slow down.
In the stands, Yoshida Li gripped the omamori in her hand, and she couldn't help but take a small step forward, worried.
Everyone held their breath, watching the male protagonist.
And Kohaku, who was preparing for the next at-bat, completely broke down, "No way?!"
The outfielder threw the ball back, and the shortstop immediately threw it to third base.
At this moment, Iwa Sejian had already crossed third base and charged towards home plate, then dove forward just as he was about to reach it.
The third baseman caught the ball and quickly threw it back to home plate.
Bang!!!
A loud thud, and dust flew.
The male protagonist was sprawled on the edge of home plate, held down firmly by the catcher after catching the ball.
The umpire's voice then rang out loudly: "Out!!!!"
...
The game was ultimately lost.
Everyone was very sad.
After the crowd dispersed, the male protagonist lay alone on a chair in the stands.
"Even if I go back to the past, am I still me?"
"A useless person who gives up halfway."
Seeing this line, Furukawa Hirozawa really felt so uncomfortable he wanted to cry.
Isn't it too real?
Pokeni seems to really like creating such male protagonists.
Other people's male protagonists are all-powerful, capable of anything, and in some game, the male protagonist can support an entire country.
Unexpectedly, in "proposal daisakusen", he was so ordinary, so ordinary that Furukawa Hirozawa wanted to cry.
It was like seeing his former self.
Just then, the female protagonist, Yoshida Li, came back after tidying up her things. Seeing Iwa Sejian lying dejectedly on the spectator's chair due to the failure, she couldn't help but go forward and mock him.
The two of them argued for a while, and the female protagonist's eyes showed a look of loneliness. She silently walked to the cheering section above, took down the banner that read [Go! Koshien Victory!], and put it into her bag.
"To pray for the victory of the game, I specifically went to a shrine in Chiba, a two-hour drive, and I even went to worship."
"I also bought an ema, bought an omamori..."
"But, it seems like none of it worked."
It would definitely be false to say it wasn't upsetting.
Not winning the game would make anyone feel bad, especially since Yoshida Li was also the team manager.
"But why did he keep running forward even when he was already there?"
Yoshida Li looked at Iwa Sejian and said, "I was startled."
"Mr. River, who has always been like this, like a river, a guy who wouldn't move at the critical moment, is also like this now."
"Why did he suddenly become so desperate today?"
"Why?" Yoshida Li took a deep breath, tilting her head, seemingly not understanding.
No matter how one looked at it, Iwa Sejian's actions today were too reckless.
If he had steadily stayed at third base, then if Kohaku had hit a single, they could have tied the score.
However, Mr. River's all-out run this time, a desperate gamble with no hope, directly destroyed the team's hope.
It would definitely be false to say it wasn't upsetting.
Yoshida Li also couldn't understand this point.
"Because we made a promise," Iwa Sejian said.
"Huh?" Yoshida Li turned her head.
"Because when you wrote that, we had already made a promise." Iwa Sejian pointed to the banner in her bag.
"Even if you don't write such things, I will still take you to Koshien."
"Not just going to Koshien, but winning it, right?" Yoshida Li responded.
"Idiot, it's already a miracle if we can go to Koshien, okay?"
"What do you mean 'promised'? We lost the very first game, okay?" Yoshida Li's eyes welled up with tears, and she laughed.
Iwa Sejian stood upright, not answering.
"English words, math formulas, you can't memorize anything, but you remember such boring things," Yoshida Li said with a laugh and a playful complaint.
"And I also remember when you were a child and milk came out of your nose when you drank it."
"And getting on the wrong bus during the school trip..."
The male protagonist, like giving a speech at Li's wedding, spoke of Li as he remembered her.
Hearing his words, Yoshida Li was first stunned, looking at Iwa Sejian in disbelief.
After two seconds, she feigned anger, pouting, "Wait a minute, how long are you going to talk about that?!"
"Of course, I'll keep talking about it."
Iwa Sejian retorted.
"I promise I'll keep talking."
Yoshida Li was a little speechless, and a little amused, rolling her eyes and softly scolding, "You're really terrible, Mr. River."
Iwa Sejian did not retort, but silently watched Li.
Yoshida Li took a deep breath, turned around, and faced the direction of the baseball field.
"However, Mr. River, when you ran towards home base, I didn't feel like that was the final moment."
"I firmly believed that you would definitely reach home base."
Oh my god, hearing Yoshida Li's words, Furukawa Hirozawa was almost moved to tears.
Damn it…
It's those dead memories attacking me again!
He didn't know why, but when he saw this girl, even though she was just a two-dimensional paper character, she inexplicably moved him.
Bits and pieces of past memories slowly surged up in his mind.
"You betrayed my expectations countless times since childhood."
"Although I don't know why."
"Mr. River, you are clumsy, slow, and naive."
"It feels like you're always missing a screw somewhere… But at that moment, I believed in you."
Speaking of this, Yoshida Li took a deep breath and turned back to face Iwa Sejian.
"Baseball team manager, Yoshida Li."
"Even if I retire today, I have no regrets!"
"You've worked so hard until today, truly."
Li smiled happily and bowed deeply to the male protagonist.
At this moment, the sunlight cast a faint golden hue, coloring the scene like an old photograph.
Next up was the team photo.
To commemorate everyone's hard work over three years and their efforts on the field today, and also to remember today's preliminary match, the team members gathered for a group photo.
Click!
The moment the shutter was pressed, the male protagonist returned to Yoshida Li's wedding again.
"Huh?"
He looked around, finding that nothing seemed to have changed.
Li was still the bride, and the groom was still Teacher Duoda.
The only thing that changed was when Iwa Sejian looked at the big screen—
In the team photo, Yoshida Li was smiling particularly happily.
…
"Ah~ In the end, nothing changed," Iwa Sejian couldn't help but feel disheartened.
"But her smile changed, didn't it?"
The fairy reappeared, startling Iwa Sejian.
"But isn't it foolish of you to think that if you turn a crying face into a smiling face, everything will change?"
"No, I didn't think that."
"Is this your best effort? Haven't you thought about trying harder, doing a bit more, and reversing the past in a more dramatic or flamboyant way?" The fairy was very disappointed with the male protagonist's performance.
"Give me another chance!" The male protagonist pleaded with his hands clasped, "Give me another chance, I promise I'll seize it properly this time!"
"No."
The fairy said.
"You can't go back twice with the same photo."
Leaving those words, the fairy disappeared.
Huh?
Furukawa Hirozawa found the key point, which meant that he could go back to the past with different photos, right?
That's what it means, right?
…
Speaking of which, it's really interesting.
How to put it, "proposal daisakusen" made Furukawa Hirozawa see the shadow of "to the moon."
"to the moon" returns to [important nodes in past memories] by finding key items.
And this time, "proposal daisakusen" genuinely returns to the past through photos to change the future.
This setting made Furukawa Hirozawa happier than "to the moon."
After all, changing memories is false, but changing the past is real. Even if it hasn't yet led to a change in the marriage partner, Furukawa Hirozawa firmly believed that as the game continued, as long as enough events accumulated, Yoshida Li would eventually be his.
…
So the subsequent game process was the male protagonist constantly traveling back to the past through photos, attempting to change the future.
With the fairy's help, Iwa Sejian finally returned to the past again.
It was Iwa Sejian's birthday, but Iwa Sejian himself had forgotten. Li and a few good friends were secretly planning a birthday party for him.
The lonely Iwa Sejian began to regret his inability to express his true feelings. He found a CD that Li had been listening to repeatedly today, so Iwa Sejian opened the CD and took out the song list, only to find a piece of paper had fallen out, with some cipher-like text written on it.
Recalling what had happened today, Iwa Sejian realized that these words referred to the call number of a library book Li was holding, so he walked to the library and found a gift from Li on the bookshelf that he hadn't noticed before: a model of a famous baseball player.
Li and her friends were waiting at a pub to celebrate Iwa Sejian's birthday. Li's face lit up when she saw the model in Iwa Sejian's hand.
Iwa Sejian told Li that he hoped she would come to the classroom early the next day, as he had something to tell her.
Iwa Sejian decided to write his confession on the blackboard for Li to see.
Unfortunately, Ito brought the new Teacher Duoda to the classroom to familiarize him with the environment. Seeing the words on the blackboard, he thought it was a prank, so Teacher Duoda erased everything Iwa Sejian had written on the blackboard.
At the moment the photo was taken at the birthday party, Iwa Sejian returned to Li's wedding ceremony again. In the photo, Li was smiling at the birthday party, but the groom at the wedding was still Tada Tetsuya.
…
Next was the high school graduation ceremony.
Iwa Sejian, who had just traveled through time, stood before a girl.
Although the girl was cute, she wasn't Li.
She held out her hand, asking Iwa Sejian for the second button on his school uniform.
There was a legend in high school—
If a girl could obtain the second button from a boy's school uniform before high school graduation, it meant she had obtained the boy's heart and would receive the blessing of love.
Because—
The second button is the closest to the heart; it represents the boy's heart.
Because of his two bad friends, who felt the girl was particularly pitiful, Iwa Sejian's second button was forced out of his possession.
Seeing this, Furukawa Hirozawa was both angry and amused.
"What kind of hellish start is this? As soon as I traveled through, the second button was gone."
What about Yoshida Li?
What should Iwa Sejian do?
It looks like this mission clearly failed.
Damn it…
Iwa Sejian failed to give his second school uniform button to Li, and he had always regretted it deeply.
Moreover, he gave that button to his junior, Nagase Misa, and although it was not his intention, it ultimately happened because of a group of bad friends.
Precisely because he lost the second button, Iwa Sejian was unable to confess his feelings to Li, and at the same time, he dared not tell Li that his button had been given to someone else.
And Li never asked anyone for their second button, even refusing others, simply waiting silently for Iwa Sejian.
To receive the second button from Mr. River's hand was more important than anything.
Li probably thought so.
Iwa Sejian speculated.
However, the more Li was like this, the more Iwa Sejian felt profound regret and endless sorrow when he saw her again.
No, I can't let regrettable things happen again.
This time, no matter what, I must convey my feelings to Li.
Iwa Sejian then called out to his companions who were about to go eat dinner.
"Huh?" Li, holding Aoku Elimei's arm, turned her head.
"One last thing."
Iwa Sejian held up a finger, "There's one last thing I haven't finished."
…
So Li and Elimei sat outside the school's baseball field, waiting.
"What exactly is it, something only boys can do?" Elimei asked curiously.
"It's probably going into the girls' locker room again, isn't it?"
Yoshida Li said with a bitter smile.
Furukawa Hirozawa's heart sank. With that tone, she probably didn't have any hope for the male protagonist, right?
The second button was already given to someone else.
Thinking of this, Furukawa Hirozawa felt angry, with an urge to stand up and smash the television.
But he still restrained himself.
No matter how disappointing Iwa Sejian was, the TV was innocent!
He'd just send two more razor blades to Aoki Haruhi then.
Furukawa Hirozawa noted Aoki Haruhi's name in his little book of grudges.
It's strange, actually. This was probably the first time Aoki Haruhi appeared in that little book.
Before this, Furukawa Hirozawa's little book of grudges basically fluctuated between [Furuhara Tsubaki], [Ishino Mika], [Gen Urobuchi], [Maeda Jun]…
So far, Furuhara Tsubaki should be the most hateful.
But Furukawa Hirozawa felt that Pokeni's president was also a potential stock.
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