Episode 16: Boomerang Snake

Right down in the middle of Doubles 1, rain started to pour down, yet the match continued. However, due to the greatness that is the Golden Pair, the Fudoumine Doubles 1 didn't stand a chance and lost their game to Seigaku. It was just a very bad match-up against the acrobatic Kikumaru who could return all shots even when he's doing some tumbling in midair or stumbling on the mud. After the Doubles match, the next match, Singles 3 was postponed for a moment since it was already raining quite hard. Kaido stood up from the bench and strode out of the court and went "image training" as Momoshiro puts it.

Ryoma didn't stay behind too. He went to a secluded bench outside the court only to be stalked by the freshmen groupees and Sakuno and after a while, Inoue appeared too. Inoue told the freshmen and Ryoma what happened to Fudoumine the previous year and relied them the information that the strength of Fudoumine comes from their trust to their captain, Tachibana. Inoue even told them that Fudoumine wouldn't be an easy win since they know the feeling of building something from scratch and making it turn into a great thing. All the freshmen sans Ryoma were awed and somewhat problematic about the turn of events, they're now worried if they would be able to win. However, Ryoma stood up and told everyone, "Tennis is tennis. All you must do is chase and hit the ball". At that, he left the table and strode off to the Seigaku bench.

The rain stopped a while later. It's now Kaido's turn to play Singles 3 against Fudoumine's Kamio. Right of the bat, once they've faced each other for the customary greeting of each other's opponent, Kamio opened his big mouth and made fun of Kaido saying that his name "Mamushi" (Viper) really fits him well, and we all know how temperamental Kaido is, in retaliation, Kaido swung his racket towards Kamio's face although he oly hit air since Kamio moved fast enough to avoid the racket. Oishi (aka Motherhen) was worried and told off Kaido, to no avail. The referee reprimanded Kaido about his behaviour which earned him a glare from Kaido. Finally, Tezuka had enough and told off Kaido. Kaido immediately apologized to the referee. Tezuka stood up from his bench and went to Tachibana to excuse Kaido for his behaviour, Tachibana just apologized too because Kamio was the first to provoke.

The match commenced. They both hit each other difficult pin-pointed corner shots. However, it was then that Kamio's nickname was publicized. He was the "Speed Demon" of Fudoumine and because of this he could catch all the difficult shots Kaido hit him. Suddenly, Kaido hit him a snake with a nice acute angle. The Seigaku members were shocked to see that Kamio caught up with the snake and hit it back to Kaido with ease. Kamio told Kaido to hit him more snakes to make the match interesting.Kaido did hit a lot of snakes after that, but he learned that the snake doesn't affect his opponent, he could really catch up to all his snake shots. Kaido even slipped and fell towards the ground. He's not really good on his footwork unlike Kamio, who, not only is spotless but very quick on his feet and always saying "I'm getting into my rhythm". Kamio started to hit Kaido difficult shots which, for Kaido, is extremely difficult not only because those shots were fast but the ground is slippery. Another shot flew towards the corner of Kaido's, he ran and tried to reach for it, he slipped, but he stretched his arm to its fullest and the racket made a contact with the ball. Kaido flung it hard and the ball went around the pole and hit the other end of the singles court. Kamio and the others (Seigaku and Fudoumine members) were surprised. It was one of a kind "around-the-pole" shot. Ryoma commented that his senpai's got some good moves. Kaido slowly got up to his feet and stared, feeling awed by the shot he just hit. It was then called "Boomerang Snake" since it moved like a boomerang.