Episode 37: Tennis ball with Ryoma's Face
This filler episode started with Ryoma's dream. He dreamt that he hit Tezuka on the head with a tennis ball which bounced off to Fuji then to Oishi then to Kikumaru then to... you get the picture. Suddenly, Ryoma was awoken by a sound from outside his room, as the door of his room opened, it was only his father who told him to get off his lazy butt. After Ryoma dressed up, his father began driving him to someplace. Nanjiroh told Ryoma that one of his friend's needing a tutor for her grand daughter and since Nanjiroh's busy, he told Ryoma that he would go to fill in. He even offered Ryoma a manjuu which Ryoma immediately ate and as he swallowed the manjuu, Nanjiroh suddenly stopped and dropped off Ryoma telling him that since he ate the manjuu that his friend gave him, he's now obligated to fill him in, and Nanjiroh hurriedly left Ryoma. Ryoma gave his father a glare when someone called his name: it was Tomoka Osakada, Sakuno's friend. Which means that the grand daughter his father's talking about it Sakuno.
As their "tutorial" started it became apparent that Tomoka's much athletic than Sakuno even if she's not in any club. Sakuno became envious that Tomoka seemed like a natural in playing tennis, so Sakuno decided to show off, she bent her knees and focused on the ball only to hit it too hard that it flew far away. Good thing that her and Tomoka's balls were marked with Sakuno's drawing of Ryoma's face for them to not mix it with other balls.
Sakuno told Ryoma and Tomoka that she'll be fine looking for the marked ball alone. So she ventured out only to find that her ball flew inside some tennis court. So as she reached it from under the railings, some random guy with a jersey signifying that the guy is from Ginka's tennis club stepped on the ball and invited Sakuno in the court to get her ball. Sakuno happily thanked the guy.. but as she went in to take her ball, the guy kicked their club's tennis ball's basket and made the balls scatter.
The guys from Ginka began picking on Sakuno, good thing that Tomoka decided to follow Sakuno and saw the whole thing. Tomoka rushed to Ryoma and told him what's happened. Anyway, back to the Ginka tennis club members, they continued on picking on Sakuno who's trying to look for the ball in vain (since one of the guys took her ball and hid it behind his back). Suddenly one of the guys was hit on the side of his face by a tennis ball. They quickly looked where it came from when they saw a little hole in their fence and Ryoma standing quite far and holding a racquet. They couldn't believe that the little guy standing quite a few meters away from the fence could get a ball through the little hole. Suddenly, Ryoma spoke up, "Ah. Sorry, my ball went in".
Anyway, one real scary guy entered the Ginka's premises and was let into the tennis club's locker room (which was strictly prohibited if you're from other school which this scary guy is) by another Ginka tennis club member. We will know now that the scary looking guy was named Akutsu Jin and that the guy who let him in was one of his childhood friend and was real terrified of him. So back to the tennis court, Ryoma now entered tha court to the annoyance of the club members. He saw Sakuno still looking for the ball. One Ginka member told Ryoma that Sakuno disturbed their practice by knocking off the basket which Sakuno vehemently denied. She's really close to crying now. She couldn't find her ball!
Good thing that Tomoka saw one guy hiding the balls behind his back and screamed to Ryoma about the guy who's hiding the balls. Ryoma just smirked and turned to the club members, he told them that if he wins each member of their club would search for 10 balls, and if he loses, they would leave immediately. The Ginka member, we will now know his name is Suzuki, told Ryoma that there's about 300 balls each and that he plans on taking 30 persons?! Suzuki couldn't believe that this chibi (little) kid is asking for a match.
Well, nonetheless, Suzuki and the others agreed to this. Too bad, it seemed that Ryoma's way too strong for them since not one of their regular members could even score a point against Ryoma and that's saying a lot since Ginka's one of the best 4 schools in the prefecture. Akutsu remained watching from the locker room with his terrified companion who begs him to leave the school since he doesn't want to get caught letting in an outsider. Akutsu asked his companion who's the guy on the court who's currently making ruckus (he's asking about Ryoma). His companion shook his head and told him that he doesn't know.
Funny thing was that Inui was about to scout Ginka's tennis club members. When he arrived, he saw the members sweating and panting heavily, this made him think that Ginka's been practicing a really hard menu for them to be tired like that. He didn't know that Ryoma's been through all of them. Inui then promised to himself that he would make an improved Practice menu for Seigaku members.
Nanjiroh picked up Ryoma as well as Tomoka and Sakuno. It seemed that Ryoma was tired as well since he slept on the back of their vehicle along with the balls he took home with him c/o Ginka tennis club.