Diamond No Ace: Life As Sawamura Eijun

The night flowed on quietly.

Lying on his bed in the dorm, Eijun felt an odd emptiness, as if something important had been pulled out of him.

It wasn't just the fact that he usually spent this time training and now could only lie here, idle.

It was because…

Only now did he truly realize it.

Today, on the grand stage of the Jingu Stadium finals—

They had lost.

Unlike the summer, when he had walked off that field as a victor, this time he left as nothing more than the defeated. A wry smile touched his lips. He really was slow to feel it, wasn't he?

So that's it. Today, we lost. In the original story, this was supposed to be a victory… but here, I lost.

An emptiness.

A suffocating weight in his chest.

His eyes held a complex light. He had once believed he could accept defeat with composure, because he knew that anyone could lose—no one sails through life unscathed, whether in the real world or here. No one wins forever.

But when it was his turn to face it—when defeat truly came for him—he found he couldn't be as calm as he'd imagined.

Defeat always meant losing something.

Defeat always meant failing to grasp something you'd wanted.

And so, no one wanted to accept it. And when it came, no one could truly welcome it.

So this is what losing feels like… it's awful.

Careful not to put weight on his left arm, he murmured softly. This was, in truth, his first time tasting the full bitterness of a real loss.

"Beep-beep."

His phone on the bedside table buzzed.

He picked it up and checked.

A text…

"Are you free right now, Eijun? — Wakana"

He sat up, and a certain face flashed through his mind. After a brief pause, he tapped the call button.

The dial tone rang only a few times before a familiar, warm voice answered.

A gentle smile broke across his face, the kind that could melt away even the coldest winter frost.

"Hey, Wakana?"

"Mm."

"…Uh—"

They say childhood friends are special—especially when it's a boy and a girl.

Because they grow up together, each knows the other's habits, personality, and little quirks inside out.

Although the current Eijun wasn't the exact same as the original, he still carried part of that original Eijun's nature. In many ways, he was still Sawamura Eijun—especially in how he approached certain situations, in his daily habits, and in his baseball instincts.

And with the soul of the one who had crossed into this world now fused with that, the result was a Eijun who retained the original's charm but without his weaknesses—someone more refined, more complete.

Aotsuki Wakana had been the first to sense this.

She wasn't the only one. Back home, Eijun's mother—more than his boisterous father or grandfather—had noticed something different in her son.

After all, this was the boy she had carried for ten months and raised for over a decade; even the smallest change couldn't escape her.

Fortunately, Eijun's personality and habits still matched the boy they knew, and the shift in his demeanor had been smoothed over by the bonds he carried, as well as the timing—his joining Seidou after Takashima Rei's unexpected invitation had made the change seem natural.

Even after moving to Tokyo, that connection to home hadn't faded. In fact, his feelings for the people there—his family, his friends—had only deepened. And when it came to Wakana, his childhood friend…

That bond was something even more special—an intense, radiant warmth, like the summer sun.

And on her side, it was the same.

Their relationship had already begun to change since that autumn day, when Eijun had first arrived here and they'd had their first real conversation.

Because this Eijun wasn't as dense as the original one from his previous world.

And this Wakana was also a little more forward than the one in the original story.

At the very least, once she'd noticed subtle changes in his personality, she had, from time to time, dropped hints—some so obvious that from Eijun's point of view, they were practically spelled out.

He wasn't as oblivious as his counterpart in the original. He didn't stumble about like certain "science" stories, nor would he act recklessly like certain "white" ones, and he certainly wasn't the kind of scumbag "Makoto" had been.

So after his initial hesitation, his mind was made up.

"Mm, just a week of rest and I'll be fine. Don't worry, Wakana."

"I know, you can rest easy."

"Oh, right—I'll be coming back for New Year's."

"Great! Let's all go make New Year's visits together—bring Shin along, too."

"Hahaha, yeah, yeah. I'm starting to miss Shin and the others already."

"Mm. After winter training's done, I'll get in touch again."

"Alright then, good night, Wakana."

When he ended the call, the faint glow of the phone screen reflected in his eyes, and somewhere deep within them, a trace of warmth lingered.

Perhaps… this was what people meant by "fated."

"Heh… feeling a little better now."

A small smile tugged at his lips. He tightened his grip slightly on the phone, thinking to himself:

Just over two months until New Year's, huh?

He tossed the phone aside, lay back, and stared up at the ceiling, murmuring softly.

Come to think of it, this would be his second New Year here.

Time had flown.

He even found himself marveling at how quickly he had adapted.

Last year at this time, he'd arrived in this world.

Almost immediately, a "story event" had been triggered—Takashima Rei's invitation to visit Seidou High.

Before I knew it, it's already been a year…

"Next year, I've got to work even harder!"

His right hand clenched into a fist, and in his pupils, a faint golden light flickered.

Failure may be the mother of success—

But in truth, no one ever wants to fail.

The only reason people call failure "the mother of success" is because once you've already lost, the only thing left is to salvage something of value from it.

Eijun was no different.

Dwelling on the past was meaningless.

The only choice was to look ahead.

To move forward—always forward.

That was Sawamura Eijun.

That was Seidou High School's one and only best path.

------------

If you want to read 10 advance chapters ahead.

Visit my patreon: patreon.com/Leonzky