[Ace of Diamond] Who's the Immature Ace?

During the summer vacation after their ninth-grade year, in the game Through the Starry River, "I'm Going to Be the Number One Ace" and "Tokyo Prince" became rivals more firmly than the stitching on a baseball. Sawamura Eijun munched on a popsicle as he typed, watching the other guy park his battleship in an asteroid field yet again. He couldn't resist posting in global chat: "Your Highness, are you using those asteroids for target practice?"

A private message came back instantly: "What would an idiot like you know? It's called strategic stealth." The System immediately announced, "Tokyo Prince was hit by an asteroid. HP -99%." Sawamura laughed so hard he nearly dripped popsicle all over his keyboard.

By their three hundredth argument, somehow they'd ended up in a voice call, playing a dungeon together. Hearing a pen scratch across paper through his headset, Sawamura asked, "Your Highness, are you writing your will?" There was a pause, then the reply came: "I'm drawing your pitching form. You look as dumb as a chicken that's just learned to fly."

Before long, voice calls became routine. Sawamura would demonstrate the curveball he'd just learned in front of his screen, and Narumiya Mei would scoff from the other end. "You aren't even using your wrist. You'll hit your own foot when you throw that." But before hanging up, he'd add, "Tomorrow at seven a.m. Bring you to the advanced dungeon." When Narumiya complained about the coach making him practice late into the night, Sawamura would tell him, "Serves you right," while secretly checking Tokyo's weather and messaging him, "Remember to bring a towel."

On the day of the three-school round-robin tournament, Sawamura dashed into the training field in his Seido uniform and ran straight into a boy in a white shirt. His hair tips were a pale gold, his eyes tilted slightly upward, and a crowd was gathered around him, calling, "Mei-chan!" The boy turned, his gaze sweeping over Sawamura, and the baseball in Sawamura's hand thudded to the ground.

That face was exactly the same as the "Tokyo Prince" in the game livestream screenshots he'd secretly saved. Not just a little similar. Identical.

"Well, if it isn't the 'Number One Ace' who can't even dodge an asteroid?" Narumiya Mei walked over with a raised eyebrow. His voice was exactly the same as it sounded in Sawamura's headset. "Seido's training field is bigger than your vegetable garden, isn't it?"

Sawamura's face turned bright red, and it felt as if a hundred baseballs were bouncing around in his head. "W-Why are you here?!"

"I'm Inashiro's ace." Narumiya Mei bent down to pick up the baseball, deliberately brushing his fingertips across Sawamura's palm. He grinned like a cat that had stolen a fish. "And you, idiot. You spent the whole summer falling for someone online, but never realized he went to your rival school?"

Sawamura's ears were red enough to fry an egg. He stammered, "W-Who said I was falling for you?!"

"Oh?" Narumiya Mei waved his phone. The screen showed their chat history, including Sawamura's confession followed by a goofy little star emoji. "Then what do you call this? Inter-school friendship?"

His teammates started hooting around them. Sawamura wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it, but Narumiya Mei just kept pushing. "Still, since you're kind of cute when you're being an idiot..." He leaned closer, lowering his voice as if he were a cat brushing against him, whether on purpose or not. "Next time we meet online, want me to give you a three-point handicap?"

The sunlight felt warm on their skin. Looking at the smile Narumiya Mei couldn't hide, Sawamura suddenly thought: So what if they're from rival schools? After eight hundred rounds of sabotaging each other in the game, and finally meeting on the field in real life, their noisy, bickering connection had already melted into something as sweet and sticky as a melting popsicle, binding them together so they couldn't be pulled apart.

"W-Who wants you to go easy on me!" he yelled, stiffening his neck. But when Narumiya Mei turned away, he secretly changed the contact name "Tokyo Prince" in his phone to "Tsundere Mei-chan (Inashiro Edition)."

Hmm, bullying each other online and offline sounds even more fun.

Loudmouthed idiot pursuer vs. tsundere, awkward recipient

Theme: Watch two idiots argue online until the whole place is up in flames, then discover that the person on the other end of the internet is their rival on the baseball field. From sabotaging each other in the game to bickering face-to-face, they threaten to "crush you this time" while secretly slipping candy into each other's sports bottles. The motto is: "The harsher the insults, the sweeter and sillier the feelings." They turn a chance encounter with a nemesis into a delightful romance, proving that when it comes to love, it doesn't matter if you're from rival schools. Once you fall for each other, even messing with one another feels ridiculously sweet!