——Showa sixty-fourth year (1989) summer—— The memories of Koshien are always full of impressions of white light and shadow. The auditorium surrounding the stadium and turned into a huge sun wall, the white uniforms worn by the players, the white balls in the gloves...all these are as white and bright as a halo effect under the strong summer sun! Among them, the memory clearly engraved on Zhongshan is the batter's white helmet seen from the pitcher's board.Even now that he has forgotten the faces and postures of the opponent's strikers, Zhongshan still has a wonderful sense of reality when the helmets they wear reflect the shining summer sun, and he can recall them anytime and anywhere.

Two or three years after the end of the competition, the memory of Koshien is still vivid and clear, the feeling of the soil with brown moisture, the sound of cheers from the auditorium pouring from all directions like a tsunami, the smell of sweat clinging to the uniform And so on, mixed into the "Memories of Jiaziyuan" in Zhongshan's heart, and took root.However, with the passage of time, after the memory gradually faded, only the white impression seemed to be filtered and condensed in Zhongshan's mind. Zhongshan also believes that when the years pass by enough and he is called an old man, "Jiaziyuan Memories" will be condensed into smaller white light impressions, like a bright white pearl, which will last forever like a precious treasure in the corner of memory.If the incident last year hadn't happened, I believe it would have continued like this...

It's summer again this year. The regional preliminaries of the Koshien Tournament, which has caused wars all over the country since the peak of the rainy season, have all forty-nine teams announced after the Osaka area team was decided yesterday. On the first Sunday in August, Ryosuke Nakayama, a reporter from Dongdu Sports News, passed the rare holiday by lying on the bed at home.Although it is a low-cost apartment with only two rooms of six tatami mats, it is too spacious for the leisurely and single Zhongshan.Inhaling the cool morning air, Zhongshan stretched himself. ——Time flies so fast!Looking up at the ceiling, Zhongshan thought.

It has been almost a year since the incident that took place at the Koshien Competition last year. He reached out from the bookshelf and took out the tattered interview notes, which were left over from the investigation of the incident last year. As if telling the hard work of the interview, the edges of the notes were distorted, stained by hand dirt, and beyond recognition. The last page of the note contained a photocopy of a newspaper clipping, headed—— "Baseball player of star school Shinko Park committed suicide by electrocution" The content is that the baseball players of the star baseball school Shinko Park in Osaka committed suicide by electrocuting themselves due to the shock and depression.The date is February 13th, Showa Fifty-five Years.

This is where it all started! ——If the truth of this incident was discovered earlier... I don't know how many times I have thought about this, but Zhongshan also knows that no one can do it.However, he always felt that if he noticed the connection between this incident and the incident last year earlier, he might be able to prevent the tragedy from happening... Gained from that incident too! People around him told him so, and he tried to think so; it was just that there was so much he had lost in that incident that he felt all his efforts were in vain. Zhongshan quietly put down his notes and closed his eyes.The breeze caressed his cheeks.

He opened his eyes slowly, and looked out the open window with his neck sideways.The refreshing wind shakes the light green thin curtains and blows into the room. Zhongshan stood up and opened the curtains all the way to the left and right. In an instant, like water blocked by a dike, the wind that filled the window blows through Zhongshan's body and overflows into the room.The strong summer sun dazzled Zhongshan, and he stood in the wind and light and took a deep breath. Outside the window, the flowing water of the Edo River reflected the rising sun, emitting a golden radiance that slowly spread.There are several baseball fields on the opposite bank, and the cheers of the people who enjoy baseball in the early morning come from the wind, which sounds unexpectedly close.The jerseys imitating the uniforms of the Giants, Hanshin Tigers, Nippon-Ham, etc. are colorful and vibrant.

—Is it baseball? Zhongshan sat on the window frame and sighed while following the movements of these grassland baseball fans with his eyes. ——There is such a joyous baseball, but there is also a fiercely competitive baseball!Coaches and players have tried their best, and sometimes sacrificed everything, and then the tragedy... Zhongshan walked away from the window, opened the glass door of the low cabinet, and took out the balls displayed inside.On the surface of the sphere, it is written in a black fine-character strange pen: This is the victory ball, next to the words representing glory, there are finger-shaped bloodstains I blood stained glory!

Zhongshan felt that this seemed to symbolize that incident. The bloody finger marks were huge, even bigger than the finger of Zhongshan who once wanted to be a pitcher for a professional team, but what exactly does a person with such a thick finger want to master? Zhongshan lay down again and looked out of the open window.From where he lay, the clear blue sky looked like a square cut by the window frame.Zhongshan stretched out his hand holding the ball to the bright blue "court". At this moment, the white ball in the center seemed to be floating in the blue sky. Showa fifty-six years on August 22nd.On that long-gone summer day, the last hitter's self hit the ball over Koshien -- a high-flying foul over the catcher.

— That's what the ball looks like!Zhongshan felt a stabbing pain in his chest while thinking this way.