Episode 56: Doubles for Three



During the first part of the match, Hyoutei clearly dominates the game. Even after Kikumaru trying his best in his acrobatic plays, undoubtedly, Gakuto matches him on his plays. It was even clear that Gakuto's the best of the them when it comes to acrobatic plays. Gakuto jumps higher and is much more creative on his plays. Kikumaru's really feeling the stress and the strength of Gakuto and Yuushi. He's even blaming Oishi for not being there and being injured (although he knows deep inside that it wasn't Oishi's fault). Kikumaru just could help feeling helpless. Meanwhile, Momoshiro's also feeling quite down. He was very surprised by the undeniable strength of Hyoutei Doubles 2. But unlike Kikumaru, he wasn't really becoming depressed, instead, he became more fired up. He thought that he couldn't let Hyoutei dictate the pace of the game. Momoshiro let out an intense Jack Knife which impressed everyone, although it was returned by Gakuto with a lob. However, this was the chance Momoshiro's been waiting for. He hit his specialty: Dunk Smash! BUT, even though they thought it would be alright from then on, they're mistaken. As Momoshiro hit his Dunk Smash, a very unpredictable thing happened, it seems that Oshitari Yuushi is capable of Higuma Otoshi just like Seigaku's Fuji Syusuke. So naturally, Momo's Dunk Smash was useless. As Atobe, the Captain of Hyoutei, looked on, he thought to himself that if Seigaku's got a prodigy in the person of Fuji Syusuke, Hyoutei's got his counterpart in Oshitari Yuushi. The game is clearly dominated by Hyoutei's Doubles 2 with the score of 3-0 in favor of Hyoutei. Even in the Seigaku side, the first years are getting really worried about the possible outcome of the game. Momoshiro and Kikumaru were starting to lose hope. Their opponents' really hard to catch up to. It also seems that Oshitari and Gakuto pair doesn't have any weaknesses at all. With Kikumaru's acrobatic play and Momoshiro's Dunk Smash and Jack Knife sealed, there's not much they could do.

But of course, even though they're feeling disheartened, they would let themselves lose like this. As Kikumaru was thinking about Oishi and wishing that he was there, he kind of got an apparation of Oishi telling him not to lose hope, because if he loses hope, they would surely get defeated. So they shouldn't lose heart in the game and that in every game, there's always a weakness, there's always a chance for them to get back to their opponents and that they should only be able to find it. After that pseudo-apparation, Kikumaru turned to Momoshiro and told him all about apparation!Oishi told him. This lifted Momoshiro's spirit and suddenly out of the blue, they've decided to use the Australian Formation. It is an advance formation where both person needs to be in snych with each other's movements. This time, amazingly, they were able to confuse Gakuto and Oshitari. Thus, gaining points for the first time. Everyone was surprised that Momoshiro and Kikumaru's pairing's got that kind of chemistry and it's like watching the Golden Pair play once again! Gakuto and Oshitaru were confused as to the change in behaviour of the two and how they were able to change. It seemed that during the game, both players were able to evolve into better tennis players. Coach Ryuzaki just smiled while watching Kikumaru, she smiled since Kikumaru's maturing on this game. He's learning to be more selfless and generous. He's given up on using his acrobatic play and trusted on Momoshiro's jumping power instead. Kikumaru's taking Oishi's place as the game-maker of the match. He's the one covering for Momoshiro just like Oishi does for him. He then realized just how hard Oishi's job was after all when they're paired off as the Golden Pair. Kikumaru's now starting to appreciate what Oishi's done for him, letting him be selfish and play any way he likes to play. It was really amazing, Kikumaru and Momoshiro's been gaining points after points and winning sets after sets until they almost caught up with Hyoutei with 3-4 still in favor of Hyoutei. However, it doesn't matter, since after a while, they've managed to tie the game to 4-4. Atobe was really confused as to the reason of the change, when suddenly he saw Oishi grinning at Kikumaru and Momoshiro. Then the answer hit him. They weren't playing a 2-man doubles, they were playing 3-men doubles team. Even if Oishi's not playing, he's still got lots of influence over Kikumaru and Momoshiro.