Episode 49: Different Kind of Fight



It was the normal boring day in Ryoma's view, he was currently in English class (which he's best at since he came from US) and napping. Their teacher saw Ryoma sleeping during the class and opted to call his attention and told him to answer their homework on the board. Ryoma just nodded his sleep off and answered their homework to the surprise of their classmates and teacher. Horio just stared shocked on the board, not even reading a word. Anyway, a mysterious student was lost in Seigaku, apparently, he's also a tennis player (judging from the racket he's holding). He's talking to his coach who's waiting for his arrival on their school for practice, he just told his coach that he's lost and before he could tell his coach where he was, the coach hung up on him, much to the mysterious student's annoyance.The student just went inside the school and looked for the tennis club which he found after some difficulty since Seigaku is big. He entered the courts and was immediately spotted by Inui and Oishi who asked him who he was, judging from his uniform, he wasn't from Seigaku. Now, we can put a name to the student, he told them that he's Kirihara Akaya, the junior ace of Rikkaidai Fuzoku Chuu. Oishi and Inui was surprised. They knew who Akaya was from his reputation and Rikkaidai's the number 1 in Kanagawa prefecture and the usual Champions of the Kantou Taikai.

Anyway, it seemed that Ryoma's on duty with Horio and a couple of girls from their class. They're assigned to clean the stairs somewhere on the school grounds. The girls were going "fangirly" towards Ryoma after his showcase of intellect in English. They asked him about his life in the US, what was it like, etcetera, much to the annoyance and envy of Horio. As they were walking towards their assigned duty, some older students playing basketball ran towards them.. and as they passed Horio, Horio accidentally hit one of the older students, Kazu, in the face with his broom. Luckily, their English teacher appeared and saved Horio from the torturing of those older students in the basketball club.

Anyway, back to Kirihara's disturbance. Kirihara was looking for Tezuka, the person his senpais are worried about since Tezuka apparently defeated one of his senpais from the previous Kantou Taikai (tournament).When Tezuka entered the court, Kirihara immediately knew it was him and asked him for a match. He pressed that it would only be a friendly between the two of them. Tezuka refused, telling Kirihara that anyone who doesn't belong to the club shouldn't be there, but Kirihara is sooo stubborn, he told Tezuka that he should lighten up so there wouldn't be any wrinkles on his forehead! XD Due to his affronting attitude towards the Seigaku captain, Arai bursted a vein and hit a ball towards Kirihara shouting that he shouldn't be disrespectful to their captain, Kirihara lightly fielded the ball with his racket to the amazement of everyone. So anyway, before Kirihara left, he hit the ball towards Arai while his back was turned to him. This boastful attitude from him only led to missing Arai and hitting Momoshiro on the face, then the thrown racket from Momoshiro hitting Kachiro (who was carrying the balls) on the neck who looses his balance and spilled the ball on the court that led to the members of the club loose their balance and a lone racket from a random player who lost his balance, hit Kaidoh, who was sipping coffee, on the head. This prodded the temperamental player angry and this drove Kirihara to retreat from the vicinity immediately~ XD

So anyway, back to Ryoma and company. As they were sweeping the stairs, Horio was spotted by Kazu from the basketball club who he hit accidentally with a broom. Horio was really scared this time since no one would be able to interrupt their torture. Anyway, before things got nasty, Ryoma came to Horio's aid and told Kazu that he should help them clean since apparently, Kazu kicked the leaves they were sweeping. Kazu was angry at Ryoma for even suggesting about that, Ryoma came up to the solution that they should have a match in free-throwing instead, whoever shoots 10 straight no-miss throws, wins. If Kazu loses, they would sweep the leaves in their stead, while if Ryoma loses, they would do the same thing to him like what they did to Horio. Kazu agrees to this, he would be using the usual basket ball, while Ryoma would be hitting a tennis ball with his broom to shoot the ball towards the basket. Anyway, their little match attracted several students (including Momoshiro who was looking for Ryoma in the first place). Anyway, with every shot, Ryoma backs away so that there would be more distance from him to the basket which puts great mental stress on Kazu, during their last shot, Kazu misses. This time, Ryoma walked all the way back just like the distance of the whole tennis court, Momoshiro called Ryoma and handed him his racket. Ryoma was gratified, he thank Momo-senpai. This time, when he hit the ball, it fell through the net without even touching the net. It just skimmed over smoothly inside the basket to the amazement of everyone. Even the two friends of Kazu, immediately recognized who that freshman was. He was the rumored first year regular of the tennis team! So obviously, Ryoma won and gave Kazu their brooms. XD

Anyway, right after practice, Coach Ryuzaki and Tezuka were talking about the team. Tezuka agreed that their team needs to be stronger than before so there should be another Ranking Tournament amongst the members. Inui heard this and he's extremely happy. Here's his chance to become a regular once more.