The girl from the Soba Restaurant?
Yeah.
Looks like they moved from their store near the cemetery and are settling in next door.
Her name is Akane Takigawa.
Kitamura doesn't seem to know much more than that either.
Did she really look that much like her?
Like who?
Your dead sister.
The Waka inside of me is still as she was in the fifth grade.
She doesn't get older.
He said the same thing.
Who did?
Mitsuru Adachi
（Serialized in Shogakukan's 「Weekly Shonen Sunday」）
Created by
Toshihiro Nakazawa
Nobumasa Sawabe
Planning
Masato Hayashi
Rei Anami (TV TOKYO)
Shin'ichirou Tsuzuki
Planning Assistance
Toshisato Okuno Shin Omura Takenori Ichihara
Tetsuya Takeda
Supervisors
Original Planning Assistance
Michihiro Tsuchiya
Series Composition
Yuji Kondo
Main Character Design
Maho Takahashi
Tomoyuki Matsumoto
Koichi Imano
Art Design
Subcharacter Design
Prop Design
Kayoko Ono
Miki Tsubouchi
Hiromi Komine
Yutaka Kuramoto
Art Director
Color Design
Photography Director
Editing
Nobuhide Tanaka Toshiyuki Kuroiwa
Kotaro Nakagawa
Takeshi Takadera
HALF H・P STUDIO
Music Producer
Music
Sound Director
Sound Production
「Summer Rain」
Lyrics／Composition: Kentaro Kobuchi
Arrangement: Kobukuro
Kobukuro
（Warner Music Japan）
Opening Theme
Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment
TV-TOKYO Music
Warner Music Japan
Music Assistance
Ryosuke Sakurai
Animation Producer
Animation Production
Shin'nosuke Wada (TV TOKYO) Naohiko Furuichi
Producers
Osamu Sekita
Director
Shogakukan Shueisha Production
Production Studio
SUBTITLED BY ANBU
So they're moving in over there?
Yeah.
They're apparently going to be living on the second floor.
Did she really look that much like her?
I only caught a glimpse of her.
Which was apparently enough for you to drop ramune bottles
and make a fuss about a ghost coming back to life or something.
What did you think of her, Ko?
The Wakaba inside of me is still as she was in the fifth grade.
Why are you raiding another person's fridge without permission?
My bad.
It's a habit of mine.
You're even eating our meat.
Yet another habit of mine.
It'd be great if she really was exactly like Wakaba Tsukishima, though.
You can't find many girls who were as good as her.
Didn't your mother ever tell you to not talk with meat in your mouth?
If...
If everything about her was exactly like Wakaba,
she'd fall for you, too.
Let's not jump to conclusions, shall we?
And that's it for the game!
Ryuou Academy, representing the North Tokyo Region,
now advances to the third round!
Eleventh grader Oikawa deserves to be credited for this shutout victory,
as should the clean-up hitter, Mishima, who now records two home runs in consecutive games.
We gave those guys the biggest challenge of the tournament at this point, huh?
Yeah.
No doubt about it.
Who said you could take more from the fridge?
Sorry, that's a habit of mine, too.
Akane Takigawa.
An eleventh grader at Seisen Academy for Girls.
Born June 25th.
Blood type: A.
She's born in June just like Waka, but I guess their blood type is different.
Waka was type AB.
She boasts excellent grades, and is a member of the Art Club.
No brothers or sisters.
That part is different, too.
She's very popular with the boys from other schools, but is currently single.
I bet that's a relief for you.
No one asked you to find out, you know.
But I went to great lengths to get this information for you.
But nothing I couldn't find out for myself once she moves in next door.
Well I just figured you'd appreciate learning about her even if it's just a day earlier, so...
Perhaps I was just being nosy.
I'm sorry.
Hey.
Yes?
What's your blood type?
It's type B.
Thought so.
What's that supposed to mean?
Ryuou Academy trailed early with Matsushima starting the game;
their failure to come back from the deficit
sees them exit in the semifinals of the Koshien tournament, as they did in the spring.
I bet the Ryuou coach is going to be all rowdy about trying to win the Koshien again next year.
And if they win, they'll probably get rowdy about winning the tournament back-to-back.
I see.
All we can do now is do our best in preparing for the Fall Tournament.
Summer's already over, huh?
Where's Azuma?
He left about twenty minutes ago,
saying something about morning practice.
He sure is hard-working, isn't he?
Which club did he belong to again?
I wonder.
Good morning.
Good—
Morning, Akane.
Have fun at school!
We will!
She really does.
She really looks like her.
Yeah.
That's a lot of luggage you've got there.
Yeah.
I happen to have a little more painting materials today than—
I'll hold this for you until we get to the station.
Thanks.
Oh yeah, you're in the Art Club, aren't you?
How did you know?
Oh, I...
Heard from someone.
Do you always go to school this early?
I'm late, actually.
I have morning practice.
Oh yeah, you're on the baseball team, aren't you?
Aren't you the one who's early?
Well school's a little further away now that we moved,
and I'm on morning cleaning duty this week.
I see.
The store...
seems to be getting a lot of business, huh?
Yeah, we're running some special promotions this week for our grand opening.
It's all uphill from here.
Your train's here.
So is yours.
Good luck with practice.
See you.
Morning.
Where's the ace?
Where's the ace?!
I wouldn't worry about that.
I saw him snoring like a little baby just a little while ago.
Oh well, I guess I'll just have to pitch in his—
We've secured a suspicious-looking young male inside campus grounds.
Roger that.
W-Wait a minute here.
We're bringing him in.
Was it this man?
What do you think?
I couldn't get a good look at his face.
Where were you looking, if it wasn't his face?
Oh, you perverted detective.
Hang on, what's going on here?
We've been getting reports that there's a man
conducting indecent acts on this campus in the mornings.
Many girls have fallen victim to his conduct!
I don't know anything about that;
I'm just here to bring something my friend forgot—
Are you a student?
Do I look like an office worker to you?
Save your breath, will you?
State your name and the school you attend.
My name is Ko Kitamura;
I'm an eleventh grader at Seishu Academy.
Kitamura...
Ko Kitamura.
Wait, you're the Ko Kitamura?
Which one is that?
The same Ko Kitamura who had double digit strikeouts against Ryuou Academy
before suffering a close walk-off loss in the tenth inning?
I was watching that game!
My son goes to Ryuou,
but I was mesmerized by your pitching!
I even started rooting for Seishu in the second half of the game!
You're talking kind of loud.
I see, I see.
So you're the Ko Kitamura.
And why would you do something so asinine?
I told you, I didn't do it!
Code Red!
The man who was hiding in the girl's dressing room
has escaped toward the schoolyard!
What?
So that's the guy!
Don't let him get away!
He's too fast; we can't keep up!
What?
Kitamura!
This is a tennis ball.
You might actually hurt him if you were to hit him with a baseball.
He's getting away.
Nice pitching!
Oh yeah.
He was on the baseball team, huh?
"A pervert has been caught at an all-girls school;
perpetrator struck from 100 meters away."
Why do I remember seeing a similar article a few years ago?
Why is that, Senda?
Everyone's forgotten about it.
That's ancient history now.
*whistle whistle*
Ko!
Looks like he's doing a good job getting close to Akane.
Well they are neighbors to begin with.
I see.
Now that you mention it, I guess so-ba.
Just kidding.
You guys are alike.
"You guys"?
My bad, that one was too high-di Klum.
Just kidding.
You should try drawing a little slower.
You're wasting your talent like that.
But I don't have time;
this is my summer break homework.
Oh my.
Momiji.
Shouldn't you be hurrying?
So this is where you live.
I actually live right near to you guys at—
The soba restaurant.
This is my dad.
I'm the daughter from soba restaurant "Takigawa";
we moved here at the beginning of this month.
My name is Tsukishima; nice to meet you.
Here, Momiji.
I want you to have this.
That's really good!
Look, Ao!
She's really good, isn't she?
That's Aoba, her elder sister.
I'm—
I know.
I'll excuse myself, then.
Bye bye!
Wait.
How long is your opening promotion running for?
Oh, it's until the end of the week.
Hear that?
Please drop by the restaurant some time.
Until then.
Bye bye!
I'd heard the rumors but boy, was that a shock.
They're doing it until the end of the week.
So?
Thank you.
Mom, have you seen my blue sneakers?
They weren't blue anymore so I washed them and put them out on the porch.
At least ask before washing them, will you?
If only you were there to see my send-off infield hit.
"And Satomi Girls High has clinched it!"
"Their first glorious All-Japan Girls High Baseball Tournament championship!"
T-That's great.
I'm going to ride this wave all the way to the National Team selection tryouts in March.
Let's each try our best.
See ya.
B-Bye.
Akane Takigawa?
Like I said, we're trying to raise funds.
Please pitch in and help out poor delinquents like us.
Stop that.
And who the hell are you?
You better stay out of this before you get hurt!
Are you all right?
Yes.
You're quite strong, aren't you?
I used to do a little boxing.
You scraped your hand.
You should get that disinfected.
I live close by.
Why don't you stop by?
Oh I see, thank you.
Come on, "I see" is not the thing to say here!
But I'll have to make a call before that.
A call?
To who?
You might end up in a lot of trouble if any of these guys were to die.
I'll have to call the police and explain what happened.
T-They won't die, don't worry.
I did hold myself back a little.
Either way, those guys were trying to extort money.
Y-You've gotta be kidding!
We were only doing what we were asked to do!
The real criminal is the guy you're talking to!
...and that's what they're saying.
Should I sue them for slander?
Girls who are too smart for their own good aren't cute you know!
I wasn't lying about the boxing part.
What about girls who have too much ball control for their own good?
Isn't that a baseball?
Yes.
I'm part of the baseball team, after all.
Murderer!
You'll regret this!
I heard you and Kitamura were on the same baseball team.
I gave him some soba the other day to thank him for bringing me my art supplies.
He told me about you at that time.
He also told me about the three Tsukishima sisters.
There's four of us.
Oh, nothing.
Oh yeah, thank you.
I should also repay you for saving me.
Feel free to come by the restaurant any time.
I'll let Daddy know what you did for me.
No, don't worry about it.
I insist.
I'll whip up a plate of soba for you at any time.
I'll be waiting.
It's not like you to be late.
I'm sorry.
It's all right every now and then.
No one's worried. At least we're not.
Hey guys!
I just called her house and she apparently left over an hour ago.
I'm going to go look for her!
I left my train pass in the club room.
You guys go on ahead.
'kay.
What did you talk to her about?
Akane knew who I was.
Oh yeah, we talked when she gave me some soba the other day.
I only gave her a quick summary of you.
She said we were three sisters.
So you didn't tell her about Waka.
What and how should I tell her about Waka?
No clue.
She's really like Waka.
And not just her face.
I guess she really is, if it's coming from you.
But she's not Waka.
Of course not.
Thanks.
For worrying about me being late to practice.
Attention all passengers:
all inbound train service has been postponed
due to a railroad crossing accident near Tokoroyama station.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
See!
This is what happens when you say "thanks"!
What's that supposed to mean?
This is why you should never say things you're not used to saying!
How is this my fault?
Watch, it's going to start snowing out of nowhere now.
Like hell it is!
How old is this Tanabata decoration?
The bamboo grass is completely dry now.
Why don't I throw this away for you?
Don't touch that!
I've thrown away things that belong to me,
but never anything that belonged to Waka!
She was still cute, though.
Does she really resemble Tsukishima's older sister that much?
Ko's the one you should be asking.
Next time, on Cross Game Episode 33:
Or is it fate?
Do you guys believe in destiny?
Gross!