Episode 12: Two "Ah-Un" Boys

Finally, the day of the Regional tournament arrived. Everyone was so excited and no one still knows who is the Singles 3 player for Seigaku. Most of the teams needed to arrive early at the place where the tournament will be held, but only Seigaku is exempted since they're the first seeded team. First seeded team will be allowed to be late for an hour. When Seigaku tennis club members arrived at the place, most of the other school tennis club members turn to look at the strongest team at the Regionals. Most were surprised to see that a freshman was included as a regular player. Mostly, there were a lot of "oohs" and "aaahs" from the spectator and the usual squeals of fangirls of Tezuka's. So, at last, the No. 1 seed, Seigaku arrived, they could now start their match with none other than Gyokurin Jr. High.

Most of the spectators were rooting for Seigaku and Kakinoki to win since they were the ones who led the tournament last year. So, they weren't expecting much from other teams. Well, we shall see about that. It was suddenly decided that Tezuka will be kept as a reserve, Fuji Syuusuke to play Singles 1, Kawamura to play Singles 2, Kaido to play Singles 3, the Golden Pair (Kikumaru & Eiji) to play Doubles 1 and surprise! surprise! Momoshiro and Echizen to play Doubles 2.

Unexpectedly, the Doubles pair they played some nights ago were the same players Gyokurin has for their Doubles 2. Fukawa & Izumi thought Seigaku's underestimating them to let these two inexperienced players in Doubles to play them. They even made a comment that this would be an easy win for Gyokurin since Momo and Ryoma doesn't have any combination.

They even told Momoshiro and Echizen that unfortunately they'll be playing doubles because if this were singles, they would win. At that, Ryoma answered arrogantly, "Undoubtedly", which angered the Gyokurin pair. Finally, the match commences and the first point came from Seigaku. The spectators were awed and relieved to think that at least the makeshift pair is somewhat good. The Gyokurin Pair noticed this and they hit the weak point of Momo-Echizen pair, the same centerline they hit a couple of nights ago, but this time, Ryoma and Momo were ready for that attack. They deviced a signal to let the other know who will be hitting the ball if ever it was hit going to the center line, and the signal is shouting "Ah Un".

After some time of shouting "Ah Un" which was quite embarrassing according to Horio and Kachiro, the Gyokurin pair hit the ball towards the side and they got Momo and Ryoma. Both ran up to the ball and their rackets collided which results to the point of their opponent. This kind of strategy of the Gyokurin continued to confuse the Seigaku pair, they even used, Double Approach. to further their attacks, because of this, the Gyokurin could return every shot Seigaku pair makes and makes them both ran towards the ball they've returned and made them always collide with each other, therefore, no points. This angered Momoshiro because he thought the ball was his but Echizen thought it was his, so they've argued on the court, only stopping when the referee warned them.

The Seigaku regular players were not bothered at all, since they've all thought what Horio was thinking and that is, Ryoma would do something about it since he's knowledgeable and all, but all of a sudden, Fuji unexpectedly stepped on Ryoma's bag and it toppled, Fuji turned to pick it up but in the process, a book slid out of Ryoma's bag. All of Seigaku members turn to look what kind of book was it and it was entitled: Doubles for Beginners. They all suddenly went "eeeeeeeeeeeeh?!".