Episode 38: Penal-Tea



Kachiro was suddenly assigned as ball manager with his senpai, Arai who's known to be temperamental. Katsuo and Horio scared Kachiro about this, but Kachiro remained brave and continued on to his duties. Anyway, as Kachiro and Arai make their way to the tennis court, Arai spotted an unfamiliar guy and gets his attention buy calling out to the stranger. The stranger turned out to be the trouble maker from the former episode, Akutsu. Then, after catching Akutsu's attention, Arai asked quite rudely what's he doing here on their school when all of a sudden, Akutsu took his racket, grabbed a ball and hit the ball pretty hard towards the box of balls Arai's been holding making Arai lose his balance and fall. Akutsu then proceeded to kick and hit Arai while Kachiro just stood shocked still. Akutsu turned to Kachiro when he's done with Arai and asked him to fetch the First year Seigaku regular "Echigoya". Kachiro found it strange, the "Echigoya" that is, but when he heard the "First Year regular" part, he suddenly knew it was "Echizen" he's talking about. As Akutsu hit the ball toward Kachiro's face, Echizen appeared looking totally relaxed and hit the ball back to Akutsu.

Akutsu seemed to be really pleased after Ryoma showed up. Ryoma asked for Akutsu's name but Akutsu just ignored him and proceeded to pick up some random stones on the ground. After Akutsu gathered quite some stones, he hit them hard with his racquet in one blow towards Echizen's face. Ryoma was shocked (and was wounded apparently). When Akutsu sees Ryoma bleeding and all, he turned to leave, but Ryoma's not letting him get away that easily! Ryoma hit an intense shot only to have his shot caught by Akutsu bare-handed. Akutsu smirked and told Ryoma not to be hasty. He told Ryoma his name at last. Akutsu Jin, Senior in Yamabuki Jr. High. Of course, Ryoma's little rendezvous with Akutsu was made known to the regulars. Oishi was worried (surely!), Oishi told some regulars that Tezuka, Coach Ryuzaki and him will be talking about the incident later and then decided what to do about it. Suddenly, the door opened and Echizen walked in looking real beat. Ryoma insisted to everyone that he just fell down and there's no need to report it. Momoshiro deduced according to Ryoma's facial expression that he's going to solve it himself. Oishi just sighed in exasperation.

Their training that day is harder than before. Inui really made it harder after seeing Ginka's tired selves the other day and assumed that it was because of a new practice menu. The club members were currently running laps around the court when Inui made the ones who finished the laps in over a minute drink his "Penal-Tea". Ofcourse, the first victims of Inui's penal tea were the freshmen sans Ryoma. This made the regulars feel the pressure and actually made effort to run the laps faster. Coach Ryuzaki complimented on the pressure Inui was able to instill the regulars to work harder. The last lap is nearing, Inui decided to make the stakes higher. Inui suddenly announces that the one who'll finish the lap last would drink a pitcher of his "Penal-Tea". This drove the regulars crazy, but in the end, all of them finished at the same time. Therefore, no one drank the pitcher even if Inui suggested that since no-one lost, they would just "share it" altogether.

After practice, Kawamura seemed really distracted and asked Ryoma about his wounds. Ryoma just shrugged and told him that it's fine and there's nothing to worry about. Momoshiro then invited Kawamura to join them since they'd be heading to a hamburger shop. Kawamura declined saying that he has to do some stuff at home with his dad. This left Eiji to go with Ryoma and Momoshiro to the hamburger shop where he almost blew all his allowance since he's to treat his kouhais (Momoshiro and Ryoma) as their senpai. After heading out of the shop, Eiji spotted Kawamura walking down the sidewalk. They decided to follow him since Kawamura lied to them about going home and they're really curious. As they followed Kawamura to a restaurant, they were spotted by Inui who was also following Kawamura for more "personal data".

Once inside the shop, they were flabbergasted to see that Kawamura's meeting with an older woman who's really beautiful too! Anyway, they also see that the woman started crying all of a sudden in front of Kawamura. Momoshiro was ticked at Kawamura for making the woman cry, although, they really don't know what's happening since they couldn't hear a thing they're saying.It also seemed that the woman wasn't the only one Kawamura's meeting with since all of a sudden, Akutsu walked up to them and sat beside the beautiful woman. This shocked Ryoma, Momoshiro, Eiji and Inui. They didn't know that Kawamura and Akutsu were classmates in a karate dojo before, and the reason Kawamura's talking with Akutsu was just to tell him not to bother the students of Seigaku. This meeting seemed to tick Akutsu. Although he didn't do anything violent since they have mutual "acquaintance" present, Akutsu just poured tea on top of Kawamura's head telling him not to bother him anymore. The woman was horrified at Akutsu and reprimanded him with a tense "Jin!" and proceeded to wipe Kawamura's face with her handkerchief, apologizing in behalf of Akutsu.

The regulars were shocked, but they quieted down once they saw Akutsu heading their way towards the exit. Momoshiro stood up to confront Akutsu only to find himself pulled to his seat by Eiji. Anyway, as Akutsu walked by (he didn't noticed the regulars), Ryoma put out his foot and tripped Akutsu. Before Akutsu hit the floor he gained his balance and turned to glare at the offending person. He saw Ryoma who stood on front of him. Ryoma told him, "I haven't introduced myself, I'm Ryoma Echizen, Seigaku first year regular".