“What are you all gathered here for?” As soon as Tezuka Kunimitsu arrived at the court, he saw his younger brother surrounded by a group of second-year club members. One of them was even approaching his brother with a racket in hand, looking particularly unfriendly.
Thinking that Koku was being bullied, he quickly shouted at everyone present, “Why aren’t you all training? What are you standing around for?”
Although Tezuka Kunimitsu’s expression was as serious as ever, everyone could clearly sense his displeasure from his tone. The second-year students who were arguing quieted down immediately, not daring to make a sound.
Even Arai, who initially wanted to cause trouble for Tezuka Koku, wisely lowered his head, not daring to meet Tezuka Kunimitsu’s gaze.
Tezuka Koku, however, was completely unaware of the situation. He saw his brother approaching and was about to go up and talk to him, but was stopped by Echizen Ryoma. Ryoma signaled with his eyes, indicating that he should stay quiet and not stare at his brother.
At this moment, the regular team members also arrived at the court from the lounge. As soon as they entered, they noticed the unusual silence and the not-so-good expression on their captain’s face.
Sensing that something was off, Oishi gave Fuji a look and began to ease the atmosphere. “What’s going on here? Why is everyone just standing around?”
“Get back to training, now.”
“Yes!” With Oishi’s command, the second-year students quickly sprang into action, running back to their original positions and earnestly starting their training.
Fuji Shusuke walked over to Tezuka Kunimitsu, showing concern, “What’s wrong? Why do you look so upset?”
“Nothing much, I just saw Arai and the others surrounding Koku when I came in.” He thought something had happened, but fortunately, it was just a minor dispute among the members, and his timely appearance prevented it from escalating.
Hearing this, Fuji Shusuke understood what Tezuka Kunimitsu was worried about and asked softly, “Is Koku okay?”
“He’s fine.” Tezuka Kunimitsu shook his head. “I interrupted them just in time, but I can’t go check on Koku right now. Could you go see how he’s doing?”
“Sure, leave it to me. I won’t let anything happen to Koku in the club.”
With that, Fuji picked up his racket and began looking for an opportunity around the tennis court. To avoid being too obvious in approaching Tezuka Koku, he occasionally guided other lower-year members, sharing some of his training tips.
“Thank you, Fuji-senpai!”
“Fuji-senpai is so nice!”
“I’ve decided, Fuji-senpai is my idol.”
Under Fuji’s careful guidance, many members were impressed by his skills and became his loyal fans. So when Fuji appeared at the first-year training area, the newcomers knew he was there to guide them, and they stood obediently, hoping for his guidance.
However, Fuji Shusuke headed straight towards where Tezuka Koku was. He noticed the hopeful looks in the eyes of the other first-year students but didn’t forget his purpose for being there. He planned to give the newcomers some unified guidance after understanding Koku’s situation.
To his surprise, he found Echizen Ryoma teaching Tezuka Koku how to do a “Twist Serve.”
Fuji Shusuke thought, so this is the teacher Koku mentioned?
Judging by the twist serve posture, this newcomer indeed has some skills and is qualified to teach Koku. But if he remembered correctly, today was Koku’s first day playing tennis. Teaching him such a difficult serve on the first day, was this Ryoma doing it on purpose to give Koku a hard time?
He knew that many experienced second-year students couldn’t even perform a “Twist Serve.” If Koku couldn’t learn it, he would surely feel disappointed!
Thinking that Koku might feel down because of this slightly challenging serve, Fuji Shusuke quickened his pace, ready to comfort the little guy in case of a failed serve.
However, Koku didn’t need his comfort. After Ryoma’s demonstration, Tezuka Koku easily replicated his movements. Although his personal strength wasn’t enough to make the ball spin as aggressively as Ryoma’s, his serve did successfully bounce back.
“Ryoma, this serve feels a bit off.” After hitting the ball, Tezuka Koku vaguely sensed something was amiss, but he couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong in his mind.
The ball’s height matched Ryoma’s, the hitting position was the same, and even the force used was similar. Why did it feel a bit awkward?
“Haha, I knew you would notice~” Echizen Ryoma chuckled. He wasn’t surprised that Koku could detect something wrong with the serve because he had already noticed Koku’s exceptional observation and memory skills while teaching him. Koku could perfectly replicate all the actions he saw and notice details that ordinary people couldn’t.
So Ryoma didn’t plan to keep it a secret and directly switched the racket to his dominant hand, demonstrating again, “Because the real ‘Twist Serve’ is like this.”
Seeing Ryoma switch the racket to his other hand, Tezuka Koku suddenly realized, oh, it needs to be done with the left hand!
Excitedly, he mimicked Ryoma, switched the racket to his left hand, and attempted another “Twist Serve.” However, this time, he overestimated his reaction speed and swung at nothing.
Undeterred, he quickly picked up another tennis ball and tried again.
This time, after considering his reaction speed and the ball’s landing distance, he successfully executed a left-handed “Twist Serve.”
Did he just learn “Two-Handed Play” on his own?
Fuji Shusuke, who had been watching Tezuka Koku closely, was a bit surprised. Many tennis beginners habitually use only their dominant hand when learning tennis because most people are accustomed to using one hand for various tasks in daily life. So when playing tennis, they naturally use one hand to hold the racket and hit the ball, not even considering that both hands can be used.
Only a few people deliberately train themselves to use both hands for matches. Unexpectedly, little Koku was so talented that on his first day playing tennis, he could effortlessly switch between hands to serve.
With his excellent dynamic vision, Fuji Shusuke could see clearly that, unlike Ryoma’s stronger left-handed serve, the power of Koku’s “Twist Serve” was similar with both hands. This meant that both his left and right hands were well-suited for serving.
Moreover, his grip with both hands was very standard, showing no awkwardness, making it impossible to tell which hand was his dominant one.
If he wasn’t naturally gifted with coordinated motor skills, it would be really hard to achieve this!!!
It seems I’ve discovered a true little genius, Fuji Shusuke thought with some excitement. But then he remembered their captain, Tezuka Kunimitsu, and wondered if the captain knew how amazing his brother was!
If Tezuka knew, he probably wouldn’t worry about Koku being bullied in the club!
“Koku, you’re amazing for your first day playing tennis!”
“Did your classmate here teach you this serve? Is he the teacher you mentioned?”
During the break after Koku finished practicing his serve, Fuji Shusuke finally spoke up.
“Fuji-nii, why are you here!” Tezuka Koku was pleasantly surprised, only now noticing that Fuji Shusuke had been watching him from the side. He reflexively looked around, thinking his brother Tezuka Kunimitsu might be there too.
“Did you see Koku’s serve just now? Ryoma just taught him, and Koku already learned it.”
“Yes, yes, Fuji-nii saw it. Koku is really amazing!”
“It seems your teacher is very good,” Fuji Shusuke said thoughtfully, looking at Echizen Ryoma standing next to Tezuka Koku. “Is he also a first-year like you?”
“Yes, yes, Ryoma is in the same class as Koku!”
Completely missing the probing tone in Fuji Shusuke’s words, Tezuka Koku only noticed Fuji-nii praising him, making him smile happily, his big eyes almost squinting with joy!
Fortunately, Echizen Ryoma caught the underlying meaning in Fuji Shusuke’s words and introduced himself, “Hello, senpai. I’m Echizen Ryoma, in the same class as Koku. You can call me Echizen.”
“So you’re Echizen-kun!” After hearing Ryoma’s introduction, Fuji Shusuke replied politely, maintaining a calm exterior while analyzing internally.
The surname Echizen is quite rare. The only person Fuji Shusuke could think of was the man who set records in the tennis world, Echizen Nanjiro. Both share the Echizen surname, and the tennis skills of the person in front of him seemed quite good too. Could there really be a connection between these two?
“I’m Fuji Shusuke, from Class 6, Year 3. Nice to meet you!”
“I heard from Koku that you taught him tennis. Thank you for that~ Teaching him the ‘Twist Serve’ on the first day!” Are you making it too hard for this newbie?
“It’s no trouble. I’ve known Koku for a while, and I’m well aware of his abilities!” I’m not making it hard for him; Koku is naturally talented, and I’m just teaching according to his abilities.
“Is that so? Then I’ll be looking forward to it, anticipating Echizen-kun’s future performance. But I hope Echizen-kun will remember to balance work and rest~” After all, Koku’s health is a bit weak, so please make sure he doesn’t overexert himself!
“Yes, yes, thank you for the reminder, senpai!” I’ll be careful, I won’t let Koku get hurt.