Episode 4

## Secret Weapon

* Title Screen
* Screenshot

## Episode Guide

**Secret Weapon** is the fourth episode of the *Cross Game* anime.

Keiichirou Senda gets credit for taking out a robber that Kou Kitamura and Aoba Tsukishima actually stopped. Meanwhile, Kou starts a secret spring training session with Osamu Akaishi, who reveals Wakaba's dream to Kou.

## Plot

As Aoba is about to climb into her bed, she stares at Wakaba's bed (the bottom bunk on their bunk bed) and recalls when she used to climb into bed with her. Wakaba would question why Aoba does that and Aoba says she's too lazy to climb into her own bed and that it's warm sleeping next to Wakaba. Aoba then climbs into her bed and cries.

At the train station the next day, Aoba and her friends are running to catch the train. They spot Kou and Aoba just looks at him with an angry expression and runs past him. While on the train, Aoba comments on a wind chime outside of one of the houses. She then realizes the occupant of said house was getting robbed. The minute the train arrives at the next station, Aoba exits the train then runs back towards the house with the wind chime, not responding to Senda who greets her. Aoba arrives at the house and then questions what she's should do. She then hears someone running up the stairs to the house. It's Kou, who knocks on the door and pretends to be the police, and it spooks the robber enough for him to bolt off the balcony and make a run for it. Kou throws a baseball to Aoba, who then pitches it towards the fleeing robber just as he's about to take Senda, who had just arrived at the scene, hostage. The robber is hit in the back by the pitch and is knocked out. Senda get credit for taking the robber out.

At school Senda is getting praised by all his classmates but when he's asked how he knew there was a robber in that house, Senda can't answer, so Aoba steps in and says he must have seen the robbery through a gap in the curtain. While Senda is still basking in his undeserved fame, Aoba says only a person with suburb visual motion could have seen that robbery taking place from the fast moving train. She then remembers Kou. Senda is seen walking out the school with a box of cakes. Kou approaches him and says the cakes look good and takes one, the spongy cake Senda wanted the most. As Kou is running away with the cake, Akaishi, who knew all along Senda is getting credit for something he didn't do, throws him a baseball. Senda tries to hit Kou with the ball but his pitch is lousy and falls flat. Akaishi takes the cakes from Senda and says he's going to give them to person who rightfully earned them, which is Aoba.

Later that afternoon, Aoba is cleaning off Wakaba's desk. Ichiyou tells her that she should clean her own desk every once in a while instead of always cleaning Wakaba's. On Wakaba's desk, Aoba sees a photo of Wakaba and Kou and drapes the towel she was cleaning with over Kou's side of the picture. Senda is cleaning the railing on the balcony at school and drops a towel on Kou who is walking beneath the balcony, Kou then throws the towel back up to Senda, with a rock inside. Akaishi and Daiki Nakanishi are on the roof of the school, talking about Kou joining the baseball club. Nakanishi says the club will improve if Kou joins. Akaishi says it will be pointless since they are about to go to high school. Nakanishi says it would be a shame for Kou's talent to go to waste, even for a short amount of time. Akaishi said he is going to look after Kou and train him so he will be ready to join the baseball club in high school, but Nakanishi must not tell anyone that Kou is training and that Nakanishi must also join the baseball club in high school as well. Nakanishi is reluctant, recalling an incident in which he got into a fight with the other baseball club members. Akaishi tells him not to worry, that next time, he will take them out before Nakanishi gets a chance to.

At the Tsukishima Batting Center, a batter is hitting home run after home run. Aoba, at the front desk is wondering how many he going to hit. Nomo is also looking shocked for a cat. Kou walks in, but before he can say anything, the batter emerges. Aoba offers him the home run prize. The guy rejects the prize, Kou tries to take the socks but Aoba smacks his hand away. The batter Aoba if she can increase the velocity of the pitching machines as the current speed isn't significant for training. Aoba refuses and says that the purpose of their batting center is for both children and adults can come and have fun. The batter asks if there is another batting center. Aoba says there is, about an hour bus trip away from the train station. The batter calls her an ill temper woman and walks off. Kou asks Aoba who that guy was, Aoba says she doesn't know but that he easily broke Kou's home run record.

While training with Akaishi, Kou asks him why he's training in secret. Akaishi tells Kou that he's a secret weapon at least until high school. Back at the café, Ichiyou asks Aoba to watch the café while she runs an errand. A customer comes in, asking for a naporitan and coffee and gets disturbed when he sees Aoba behind the counter. The guy says he just wants coffee as Aoba isn't known to be a good cook. Senda comes in and orders the naporitan and a coffee. The other customers snickers. Senda asks him what was wrong and the customer says nothing and goes back to reading his newspaper. Senda asks Aoba if Kou is planning on boxing, as he saw Kou training earlier. Aoba says it's none of her business what an acquaintance who is a neighbor is doing. Aoba sets the naporitan that she cooked in front of Senda, who looks back and forth between the plate in front of him and the picture on the menu and says that even though it looks terrible, it might still taste good. It didn't taste good.

Makihara, Tsuneki, and Sekiguchi are playing cards in the baseball club room when a teacher opens the door and shows some new baseball players the club room. One of those players was the guy from the batting center, who throws out an insult telling the teacher that the room smelled and to close the door, and the door is closed before Makihara could respond. Tsuneki and Sekiguchi wonder who the that guy was, Makihara says who cared.

Kou is practicing his pitching with Akaishi and comments on how Akaishi looks happy. Akaishi says that he bets Tsukishima is happy. Kou thought he was talking about Aoba but Akaishi said he was talking about Wakaba. Akaishi then tells Kou about Wakaba's dream of seeing he and Kou as a battery at Koshien. Kou as pitcher, Akaishi the catcher and Aoba as center fielder. Kou then reveals that he didn't know anything about the dream and that Wakaba didn't tell him. Akaishi says that Wakaba wanted to tell Kou the dream but couldn't. She had the dream the night before she went to camp and had told Akaishi on her way to the train station. Now knowing about the dream, Kou starts pitching with newfound determination.

## Characters

### Order of appearance

* Aoba Tsukishima
* Wakaba Tsukishima (flashback)
* Aoba's friends
* Kou Kitamura
* Keiichirou Senda
* Osamu Akaishi
* Momiji Tsukishima
* Nomo
* Seiji Tsukishima
* Ichiyou Tsukishima
* Daiki Nakanishi
* Yuuhei Azuma (debut, physical)
* Makihara
* Tsuneki
* Sekiguchi
* Yuuji Kubo (debut)
* Keisuke Kishibe (debut)
* Kazuo Ogura (debut)
* Tatsumasa Miki (debut, physical)
* Minoru Ishiguro (debut)
* Tooru Onoda (debut)

## Trivia

* **Title drop/reference**: "Secret Weapon" is referring to Kou being the secret weapon on the baseball team
* This episode reveals that Kou didn't know about Wakaba's dream, but Akaishi did
* Aoba is shown playing centerfielder in Wakaba's dream. However in reality, since Aoba is female, she isn't allowed to play on a male team at Koshien