Wakaba Tsukishima

Wakaba is cheerful, affectionate and confident in expressing what she wants. Where Kou often hides his feelings behind a casual attitude, Wakaba has little difficulty announcing that she considers him her boyfriend or planning their future together.

She is also perceptive about the people closest to her. Wakaba sees baseball potential in Kou before he takes the sport seriously and recognizes the significance of Aoba's pitching ability. After watching Kou struggle against Aoba's team, she encourages him to adopt her younger sister's training routine.

Her relationship with Osamu Akaishi also shows her ability to handle unwanted attention without cruelty. Akaishi has a childhood crush on her, but Wakaba remains firmly attached to Kou.

Wakaba is a capable swimmer and attends swimming camp during summer vacation. Baseball is not her own principal sport, but she understands the abilities of the players closest to her surprisingly well.

Her most important baseball insight concerns Kou. Long before he becomes an organized pitcher, Wakaba tells Aoba that Kou could become the best pitcher in Japan if he seriously applied himself.

She also imagines a specific future involving Kou and Akaishi as a pitcher-catcher battery at Koshien, with Aoba playing center field. That vision becomes the goal around which their later baseball efforts converge.

Wakaba stands at the center of the childhood portion of the story. Her relationship with Kou connects the Kitamura and Tsukishima families, while her affection for him fuels Aoba's early resentment toward the boy she believes is taking her sister away.

After Kou loses a sandlot game against Aoba's team, Wakaba pushes him toward serious training by encouraging him to follow Aoba's exercise routine. She also gives him a birthday-present schedule extending through their twentieth birthday.

Wakaba dies in a swimming accident while saving a younger child at summer camp. Her death reshapes the lives of Kou, Aoba and Akaishi, and the Koshien dream she had described becomes a central goal linking them through high school.

Kou continues buying the presents on Wakaba's birthday list after her death, preserving the private promise they made as children even as his life changes.

Kou Kitamura is Wakaba's childhood companion, birthday twin and chosen boyfriend. She openly imagines marrying Kou Kitamura one day and believes strongly in his potential as a pitcher. Her dream of seeing him pitch at Koshien remains one of the strongest influences on his life after her death.

Aoba Tsukishima is Wakaba's younger sister. Aoba Tsukishima adores Wakaba and resents how much of her attention goes to Kou. Wakaba nevertheless recognizes her younger sister's pitching ability and uses it as the model Kou should follow.

Ichiyou Tsukishima is Wakaba's older sister and one of the principal caregivers in the Tsukishima household.

Momiji Tsukishima is Wakaba's youngest sister.

Seiji Tsukishima is Wakaba's father and runs the family batting center and café.

Youko Tsukishima is Wakaba's mother. Her earlier death leaves the Tsukishima children being raised principally by their father with Ichiyou's help.

Osamu Akaishi has a strong childhood crush on Wakaba and is jealous of her closeness with Kou. [Wakaba's imagined Koshien future places Osamu Akaishi behind the plate as Kou's catcher, giving him a personal reason to pursue that goal after her death.](#spoiler)