The day after Koshien ended, all the high schools began heading home, including Aoba Private Academy.
Aoba returned, but the baseball club members stayed in Nishinomiya for two more days to hang out.
It wasn't until the third day after the finals that Takashi finally boarded the return bus with the baseball club members.
As soon as he got on, he put on his headphones and collapsed into sleep.
"Something's off. Something's definitely off. Takashi, you're acting strange!"
Otani Shota, who had excitedly pulled out a deck of cards from his bag to play with Takashi, furrowed his brow after seeing how drained and lifeless he looked.
He gave Takashi a shove and pulled off his headphones.
"You haven't returned to the hotel these past few days. No one's seen you around. Come on, spill it. What have you been up to?"
"The coffee left the coaster, and the emotions I held back came flooding out later…"
Takashi sang with a voice weak and full of exhaustion.
"…What?"
Otani Shota was completely confused.
"It's called Secret That Can't Be Told!"
Momodani seemed to recognize the song and chuckled. "Takashi means don't ask—he won't tell even if you do."
Takashi gave Momodani a thumbs-up and then put his headphones back on and shut off his phone.
"Kitahara's like this… yeah, we all know what that means,"
Kamiozawa gave the kind of smile all guys understood and winked at the others.
"Definitely that."
Noda Yusei nodded confidently.
"Every time I see my girlfriend, we go all out."
"When we first got together, we'd eat out, watch movies, take walks… Now we skip all that and go straight to the hotel after dinner."
"Yeah, after a while it's like that. Now when we go out for a walk, she doesn't even bother with makeup—just throws on a mask."
"A mask? You guys are into some kinky stuff, huh~"
"Get lost. That's not what we meant!"
Otani Shota didn't get it at first, but as the conversation went on, he slowly began to understand.
"Wait, you're saying Takashi has… graduated?"
Seeing his shocked face, the seniors looked confused this time.
"Takashi's got so many girlfriends, and they're all beautiful. Isn't that normal?"
To them, it would actually be weirder if Takashi hadn't graduated by now, with all those gorgeous girls around him.
If he really could hold back, they'd seriously wonder if something was physically wrong with him.
"Losing it in high school is pretty common, right?"
"If you can't get a girlfriend in high school, odds are you won't in college either."
The more Otani Shota listened, the more anxious he became.
He was already in his first year, and he still didn't have a girlfriend. What now?!
Ding!
While Otani was spiraling, his phone buzzed.
He looked down to see he had a private message on Twitter.
["Hiii (*≧▽≦)ノノ I'm a diehard fan of Kitahara-oniichan! I saw a picture of you with him in one of your posts. Are you his teammate?"]
Otani Shota: [Yeah, what do you want?]
NoCilantro: [I really want one of his jerseys (>///<). Preferably one he wore after sweating a lot—one that still smells like him~]
NoCilantro: [Don't worry, I'll pay ˙ᵕ˙♡]
Otani stared at the message with his metro-line grandpa-style phone, squinting.
What the heck?
He'd heard of people asking for Takashi's jersey. Even signed ones. But this was the first time someone wanted one that smelled sweaty.
Otani was already annoyed enough—he didn't have the patience for weirdos. He replied:
[You're nuts.]
As he was about to block the person, his finger slipped and tapped their profile page.
Stockings, JK uniform, cute face… and he had only one thought:
Crap, too hasty!
He quickly switched back to the chat, trying to delete the message.
But the read receipt was already there.
Regret flooded him.
Hoping for one last chance, he typed:
[Haha, uh… what if I said that was my other personality replying? Would you believe me?]
NoCilantro: [??]
…
The Aoba team bus left in the afternoon.
By the time they entered Tokyo city, it was nearly evening.
Takashi was sleeping soundly when someone shook him hard.
Groggy, irritated, and cranky from being woken, he opened his eyes and glared at Otani Shota.
"You'd better have a reason."
If Otani didn't give him a good excuse, Takashi was going to get someone to give him the aruba treatment later.
"Takashi, look outside! Look!!"
Otani ignored the death glare and kept shaking him while pointing outside the window.
Takashi brushed his hand away and turned to look.
He saw the streets packed with people on both sides.
Rolling down the window, he was immediately hit by a wave of sound so loud he instinctively covered his ears.
"Takashi !!!"
"MVP!!!"
"Takashi !!!"
"MVP!!!"
All the cheers were for him.
Whoosh—whoosh—
To Takashi's stunned eyes, helicopters flew overhead.
The first one carried a massive banner showing the entire Aoba baseball team.
The night wind flapped the banner while Tokyo's neon lights lit it up.
Then came several helicopters trailing streamers, until the last one flew directly overhead—spotlights lit up the sky like daylight. Another enormous banner unfurled.
This one showed the back of a lone boy fishing amidst time, his silhouette standing above the roars of a frenzied crowd at Hanshin Koshien Stadium.
It was a legendary snapshot captured by a journalist during the finals.
That photo had also made the Koshien front page headline the next day.
On the banner, four huge words:
"King of Tokyo!"
Takashi 's mouth fell open in shock.
Isn't this a bit too over the top?
Hitomi had told him Aoba had a surprise planned.
He thought the banquet was already impressive enough—but now he realized how shallow he'd been. He'd really underestimated how outrageous rich people could be.
Or maybe he just underestimated the influence of Aoba's championship win.
Before he could process any more, sharp whistles pierced the already buzzing city. From all directions, fireworks exploded in the Tokyo night sky.
"King of Tokyo!"
"Takashi !"
"GOAT!"
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