Baby Steps Episode 20

Impression
After the two months of the hellish training routine, Ei-Chan finally was able to experience and witness the payoffs. Despite being extremely fatigue and entering a tournament only a day after completing it, his body gradually warmed up and sprung into motion of a new tip top form. With the tennis routines drilled into his mind and body he is now stronger than he ever was, and won the STC Tournament- all while crushing his opponents. I won’t lie though: while watching his first match, I couldn’t stop laughing because of the expression on his face. His reactions were way too funny and it was so adorable how ecstatic he was about the results. But this is only the beginning. Ei-Chan has now passed his first test and will proceed to the second stage of the hell-training session where they will once more breakdown his body and renew the foundation to whip him into professional athletic shape so that he can can be up to par to his opponents physical form, however this time: Ei-Chan knows of how rewarding this crunch can be.
Aside from training and winning the tournament, we were given a bit of a break from tennis and a little more focus on the developing relationships and emotions that have been left unattended. Ei-Chan went nuts when Natsu mention how someone from his case thought they were in a relationship. Ei-Chan who really likes Natsu was freaking out about how she responded and lost it when she said she answered with: “Secret” (Ei-Chan is so cute when he’s flustered). On the other hand, poor Sasaki, suffering from unrequited feelings (even worse when Ei-Chan is completely oblivious to it) and was heartbroken to see how close Natsu and Ei-Chan are, and how obvious it is that he harbors feelings for Natsu. Kageyama is a good guy, he really likes Sasaki, unfortunately he didn’t say the right thing to make her feel better, but is trying to look out for her. Speaking of Kageyama, I especially loved how he responded to their classmates who were discussing how much Ei-Chan had changed. And he’s right, Ei-Chan found something else to devote his time to, only this time it’s something that he extremely passionate about, and is now living the life more than ever.
Next week Ei-Chan is entering the Kanto qualifiers for the All-Japan Junior and now has everything on the line. He must beat EVERY unseeded players, including the ones that even Takuma couldn’t beat (Eg: Nabae Yu, second seed). Either way it will be a very intriguing match since Nabae Yu takes notes like Ei-Chan, but in a different way by grading them.