Episode 18: Love Letter



The first thing we see is Nanako cleaning up a room and has stumbled into an old album filled with Nanjiroh and Coach Ryuzaki when he's still in Jr. High at Seigaku. Nanako was thrilled to have stumbled upon such a rare treasure and it's also such a rare opportunity to see a glimpse of Nanjiroh's history. Nanjiroh sees Nanako and went to peak, but when he saw what Nanako's looking at, he made a desperate grab at the album, but it was in vain. Nanako has her claws on the album and wasn't about to let it go.

Back at the Tokyo District Selection, it was now time for Ryoma's debut to Singles. His opponent is one of Fudoumine's best, Ibu Shinji, who rivals Fuji in terms of Tennis Sense. When the spectators see that Seigaku's throwin a no-name freshman into the ever important Singles 2, they immediately thought that this is a mercy match from Seigaku and a terribly easy win for Fudoumine. Coach Ryuzaki just smiled when she heard the murmurs and gasps from the crowd. For her, it's now time for Ryoma to show what kind of fight Nanjiroh's son would show them. It was Ryoma's serve, it was then when he hit the first Twist Serve that had the crowd shut their mouth and eyes glued on the match. Shinji couldn't move a muscle, he was shocked with the way the freshman served. By the second Twist Serve, the crowd was now murmuring praises as to how great and what a genius this freshman really is and who says that this is a mercy match?! Everytime Ryoma hit a Twist Serve, Shinji couldn't do nothing to stop it. It was 1-0 game to Ryoma from the start.

Ryuuzaki commented about how Ryoma's eyes brings back some memories. Oishi heard this and asked about Ryoma's father and how did she knew Ryoma's father. It was then that Coach Ryuzaki told Oishi (and an eavesdropping Tezuka) that Ryoma's father was a pro tennis player and that he retired early. She remembered how she taught Nanjiroh tennis when he was still a Jr. Highschool student. She knew that Nanjiroh's only weakness was his backhand strokes and she challenged him to hit backhand strokes for a while during their practices. Nanjiroh was very sullen about this because he knew then that his weakness is indeed backstrokes. Coach Ryuzaki instilled to Nanjiroh that he wouldn't beat her with that ugly backstroke of his and that he should learn how to strengthen them.





While Coach Ryuzaki reminisces about her past with Nanjiroh (eww.. that sounds somewhat... wrong ^_^v), the match of Ryoma against Shinji continues. It was now Shinji's turn to serve. As he took his position, the Seigaku regulars widened their eyes, Shinji's form in serving looks familiar and as Shinji served the ball to Ryoma, the ball hopped towards Ryoma's face. It was a Twist Serve?!

Nah. It wasn't twist serve. It was a Kick Serve which is somewhat the new version of Twist Serve, although the difference is that Twist Serve uses more spin and more power behind it. The second time Shinji uses his kick serve, it doesn't work anymore to Ryoma, he effortlessly returned Shinji's Kick Serve. Shinji suddenly turned to Ryoma and told him that he feels that Ryoma's still hiding something from him. Ryoma just smiled and switched his racket from his right hand to his left hand. The Fudoumine members were confused, a Southpaw?!

Anyway, back to Coach Ryuzaki's reminiscing. She's now remembering that Nanjiroh overcame his ugly backhand strokes by using Nitouryuu or to simple put it, going ambidextrous. Coach Ryuzaki was shocked to say the least and just stopped in the middle of their practice match. Nanjiroh was confused as Coach Ryuzaki admitted defeat on their abrupt ended match. Nanjiroh was baffled when Coach Ryuzaki handed him a letter. Nanjiroh thought it was a love letter! but when he opened it the words were: Aim for the world!.

Back to the match, Shinji was having somewhat a hard time since Ryoma's hitting all his Kick Serves. Suddenly, he caught Ryoma going the wrong way, the ball was hit towards the right corner. Ryoma ran towards it, never giving up, but he couldn't reach it with his left hand, so he suddenly switched his racket from his left to his right to reach that ball and returned it to Shinji.

Meanwhile, back on Seigaku's bench, Coach Ryuzaki finished reminiscing about her past when Tezuka spoke up. Tezuka says that he understood now everything about Ryoma. He now understands that the person who's playing against Shinji on the court isn't Ryoma Echizen but his father, Nanjiroh Echizen. The speed, reflexes, technique and style are all copies of Nanjiroh's tennis. Tezuka now understands that Ryoma's style is only a copy of Nanjiroh Echizen's tennis style.