Daiki Nakanishi

Elementary

* 5-2

**Daiki Nakanishi** (中西 大気) is a character in the *Cross Game* series. He is one of Kou's best friends. He started the Doors sandlot team and played as catcher. He, along with Kou and Akaishi didn't take the selection test when they entered high school so he was placed on the prefab team where he played as first baseman. When the varsity team disbanded, Nakanishi was switched to third baseman. In the batting order, Nakanishi was formerly the 8th batter, now he bats 3rd.

## Physical Appearance

Nakanishi has short dark brown hair and round eyes with small black pupils. He has a small round nose, thin eyebrows and large ears. He is large and overweight. Nakanishi is usually seen in either his high school uniform or baseball uniform, and he tends to wear his baseball cap sideways on his head. When he is not at school, Nakanishi wears casual clothes.

## Personality

Nakanishi loves food, often seen eating something, which causes coach Maeno to put him on a diet and exercise regime, which he was not happy about. Nakanishi is protective of his friends, standing up to Senda on Kou's behalf. He had a short temper back in middle school and ended up getting into a fight with three of his upperclassmen. He's a good baseball player.

## Plot Summary

### *Part One: The Season of Wakaba*

#### Introduction

Nakanishi is first seen with the rest of the Doors players at the unnamed baseball diamond, playing a sandlot game against the Pons. He greets Kou and Wakaba as they ride past on their way to Fukuda Swimming School. He asks Kou if he and Wakaba are on a date, to which Kou says no. Nakanishi then asks Kou if he wants to join the game. Kou declines, saying baseball sucks but thanks them for patronizing his family store. After Kou rides off, Nakanishi and the rest of the Doors players start yelling after him in anger.

#### Pons vs Doors

Nakanishi greets Kou after the latter crashes his bike onto the baseball field to join their game. After Kou makes up some excuse about how he just had to pretend not to care about the team in front of Wakaba and shows his teammates that he had his Doors uniform on the entire time, Nakanishi isn't fooled and asks Kou if he's just wearing his uniform shirt as street clothes. Kou changes the subject and even calls one of his teammates by the wrong name. The game continues. One of the players hurts his finger so Nakanishi asks Kou to take the field. Nakanishi asks Kou if there is a particular position he would like to play. Kou said that any position will be the first for him, surprising Nakanishi. Kou reveals to Nakanishi that he's never played catch before, which surprised Nakanishi even more. The game continues. It's the bottom of the 5th inning. The game is tied 5-5. Nakanishi blames Kou for committing four errors that allowed the Pons to score 5 runs. While Kou is practicing for his turn at bat, his fast swing catches Nakanishi off guard, rendering him speechless.

After Kou is struck out, Nakanishi teases him about how the pitcher just threw fastballs right down the middle. The game is now in the bottom of the 6th. Nakanishi is not pleased with the fact that the Pons had managed to score 2 runs at the top of the 6th and blames Kou's two errors that gave the opposing team the chance to score. It's Nakanishi's turn to bat. He hits it to center field. The bases are loaded. The Pons unexpectantly calls a pitcher change with Osamu Akaishi taking the mound. Nakanishi asked if he threatened the Pons rather than asked. This causes Hayashi to stand up to Nakanishi (who at that point is revealed to be the second strongest kid in the third grade) to state to Hayashi that he was not talking to him. Nakanishi then tells Akaishi not to mess around. Akaishi doesn't reply and walks away. After a few pitches and Wakaba showing up to state loudly that she kissed Kou so he was supposed to pick her up, the Doors win thanks to Kou's grand slam. Nakanishi celebrates with the Doors but is surprised when Kou isn't there to celebrate also, as the latter had already gotten on his bike to take Wakaba home.

#### Practicing catch with Kou

At school the next day, Nakanishi is talking with some friends about the game. He commented on Kou's 6 errors that almost allowed the Pons to win. His friends point out that Kou isn't good at fielding, so that's probably why he committed so many errors. They comment on Kou's batting skills and tell Nakanishi that Kou must have practiced his batting a lot because no one is that good at batting without a lot of practice.

Nakanishi goes to look for Kou and finds him on the roof of the school, advertising his store's lacrosse equipment to a group of kids who don't play lacrosse. Nakanishi interrupts Kou with a kick to the head and tells him to cut it out. He tells Kou that they are going to practice playing catch. He throws the ball the Kou who fails to catch it. Nakanishi tells him to catch the ball and Kou responds that he's never played catch before.

Nakanishi tells him to learn, Kou wants to know why and Nakanishi tells him why: because while the rest of the Doors players barely get allowances and have to beg their parents for money to buy uniforms, Kou gets even MORE money for bringing in sales. He tells Kou that every day after school, they are going to work on Kou's catching. While playing catch, Kou keeps missing Nakanishi's throws. Nakanishi tells Kou that he sucks at catching. One pitch Nakanishi throws lands at Aoba's feet as she's walking by. Aoba throws it back to the two boys, almost hitting Kou in his face. Aoba walks away as Nakanishi and Kou stare after her, stunned.

#### Doors vs Beavers

A few days later, Nakanishi is discussing an upcoming game with Kou, in which Kou is told he's going to pitch in that game. Nakanishi doesn't think the team they are playing, the Beavers, are going to be much of a challenge as they are just a bunch of little fourth graders. He tells Kou to let them hit his pitches. When game day arrives, Nakanishi is stunned to see Aoba pitching for the Beavers. He says she's good but not as good as Akaishi. Nakanishi calls on Kou to agree with him, but Kou is already off at the Beaver's dugout, trying to sell uniforms to the uniform-less Beavers. Nakanishi stops his sales pitch with a swift kick to the back of the head. The game begins. At the bottom of the third inning, Nakanishi is up to bat as the clean up hitter, and hits a grounder but the game is still scoreless. After Kou pitches, Nakanishi compliments him, calling his control of the ball nice.

When Aoba bunts the ball, Kou is flustered and tries to throw to second, Nakanishi tells him he won't make it in time, so Kou throws to first just before Aoba makes it. She's out but the runner on third is able to score, and the Beavers are up by 1 point, but the game ends before the Doors can make a comeback due to the rain. A few days after this game, Nakanishi is watching baseball at his house with Kou and two other friends, and says that one day, he's going to be at Koshien.

#### Wakaba's death

Nakanishi isn't seen after Wakaba's death so it is not known how he reacted to it.

## Trivia

### Etymology

* **Daiki**: "large; big" (大 - **dai**) and "spirit; mind" (気 - **ki**)
* **Nakanishi**: "in" (中 - **naka**) and "west" (西 - **nishi**)

### Other trivia

* He's the second best fighter in 5th grade
	+ In middle school, he became the best fighter in 9th grade
* It's unknown whether or not Nakanishi is in Wakaba's Koshien dream, although chances are he is
* He has been shown to dislike Kou's constant advertising of Kitamura Sports. This dislike likely stems from Kou getting allowance increases while the kids Kou advertises to are less well off financially than Kou is, where they have to beg their parents for money to buy equipment

## References

1. ↑ *Cross Game* manga : Chapter 2 (Pg. 10)
2. ↑ *Cross Game* manga: Chapter 01 (Pg. 13)
3. ↑ *Cross Game* manga: Chapter 3 (pg. 16)