Adventures of Young Tezuka Kunimitsu
Chapter 9 : Echizen Nanjirou
Kunimitsu still had not figured out a good way to deal with balls going left and right, making him tired and too slow reach the far ones. He had taken to running longer and longer laps to build stamina, so he could run and not get tired for longer time. But it only allowed him to rally longer, not return the balls that were out of his reach. Hokage-kun simply hit the ball further away to where he could not reach easily. It only made him run more and it was tiring to keep at it all the time. He slumped down dejectedly over his maths homework.
"I'm home!" Tezuka Kuniharu came in, changed his outdoor shoes to indoor ones.
"Welcome home, Papa," said Kunimitsu. He took the briefcase his papa left on the floor and carried it to the study.
Kuniharu had hung up his coat, loosened his tie, and slouched loose-limbed on the sofa. Whenever he came home early, he always watched the news before dinner. Kunimitsu knew this and in a moment, had brought the TV remote to him. He turned on the TV and let the news run on low volume. Then he slid down next to Kunimitsu, who was supposed to be doing homework on the low table but was not. He had a serious thoughtful look on his face as he chewed lightly on the end of his pencil.
"What are you thinking?" he said.
"Tennis."
"Tennis?"
Kunimitsu pointed at the television. There was a tennis game being shown. Kuniharu turned up the volume.
"... shocked the world at the sudden withdrawal and disappearance of Echizen Nanjirou in Wimbledon Finals. Echizen's management office had not released any further statement beyond the cryptic 'Echizen Nanjirou had gone home'." The news cut to a photo of the Japanese tennis pro. Kunimitsu promptly lost interest in it.
"He swings with his right hand, then left, then right ... Papa, we can play tennis with both hands too?"
"Aa. It's perfectly allowed."
Kunimitsu looked at his left hand, still holding the pencil. If he hit with both hands, he would have less distance to run and he could reach the ball faster, wouldn't he?
"Ayana, what is Kunimitsu doing?"
"Good morning, Otousan. I think he is training to play tennis with his left hand."
They both watched Kunimitsu, still in his judogi from his morning zazen, swing his racquet. Over and over as he counted. Ninety seven ... ninety eight ... ninety nine ... tenty*.
Kunikazu cleared his throat. "Kunimitsu! What did I tell you just now?" he barked.
The effect was immediate. "I'm going. I'm going right now, Ojiisan!" Kunimitsu hid his racquet behind his back and sprinted for his room. Not that it was effective, with the head poking over his shoulder.
Ayana followed after him at a more sedate pace to help him prepare for school.
"Today, we will practice forehands for 10 minutes as light warm up. Pick your partner. Stand at the middle T. Start with underhand serve and rally to each other. Use only forehands. No backhands, no smashes. Don't lob the balls. Try to hit as close to the centre line as possible. The pair that hits the highest number of balls in a rally wins. Begin!"
Kunimitsu was standing in front of Hokage again. "Please practice with me," he said politely.
Hokage smirked. He turned his back deliberately to Kunimitsu and took position at the nearest court. Kunimitsu hurried to the other side. "Forehand only, Shorty. Can you keep up?"
"Forehand is enough," said Kunimitsu.
Hokage served to the corner of the service line. Kunimitsu sprinted after it like a greyhound. His return was six inches from the centre line. Hokage hit back to the other corner towards his backhand. Kunimitsu was all ready there waiting for him. He transferred his racquet to his left hand and returned with another forehand. It went a little wide to the middle of Hokage's left service box. Hokage chased it down, taking an extra step to allow him to hit it back with a forehand.
"Watch out for your foot work. I want to see smooth effortless swings." The coach moved from court to court. "Yanagi! Keep your eyes open! Don't slack off just because this is too easy for you. Fix your posture properly. Your left foot is slow."
"Seito, don't hit so hard. Try to aim for the middle. Straight down the line. That's right. Good job."
When the coach reach the last court, he stood stunned for two minutes. He did not know how long they had been at it, but Hokage and Kunimitsu had been on continuous rally all the time he was watching them. Both were drenched with sweat. Neither were willing to let the ball pass them. Kunimitsu was running from side line to side line, switching his racquet from left to right, right to left. Hokage was also running from side to side, his steps getting less and less. Finally, Kunimitsu was hitting within one foot on both sides of the centre line.
Hokage was fighting against his instinct to hit a backhand every time Kunimitsu aimed to his left. With both of them so close to the net, it left him little time to react. The intense concentration to control his natural reflex and maintaining his posture and balance was draining.
Kunimitsu did not have the same problem as Hokage. Once he switched the racket to the appropriate hand, it was always forehand to him. But it was awkward having to pass the racket from hand to hand, fumbling with the sweat slicked grip. He was quickly tiring from the constant running.
"Hokage! Tezuka!"
Kunimitsu missed a step and stumbled. His racquet slipped and dropped to the ground. The ball zoomed past his feet, bouncing off the side fence.
"Both of you! Slow walk around the fence. 5 laps. Now!" He watched as both abandoned their places and stumble-walked to the perimeter. He kept an eye on them for a few more moments to ensure they cool down properly.
"You lost, Shorty," Hokage panted. Kunimitsu simply hung his head and continued walking. "Hey, kid." He shoved lightly at Kunimitsu. Kunimitsu looked up at him, frowning slightly. Hokage held out his hand. "You're okay, kid. Let's play a proper match next time."
Kunimitsu looked at his outstretched hand, then back up into his eyes. "Tezuka."
"Huh?"
"My name is Tezuka."
"You haven't won yet, boy-o. You have to earn it ..." After some thought, Hokage added, "Mittsu."
Kunimitsu scowled and turned away, pointedly ignoring Hokage's hand. "I will beat you."
"Oi!" They heard the coach yelled. "Feet not moving! 10 laps."
Both of them broke off and continued to trudge around the fence. "But I didn't break any rules," Kunimitsu said morosely.
Coach heard him complained under his breath. He shook his head as he collected their racquets. The irony was, Kunimitsu was technically right. He was practising forehands, hitting as close to the centre line as he could. Still, he had to be fair and 'punished' them both. Especially if he did not want to deal with any cramps later.
He looked down at the small racquets in his hands. Like the rest of Japan, he had been disappointed and shocked at the news of Echizen's sudden retirement. It ended whatever hope Japan had of having a Grand Slam title. But looking at the small white and baby blue racquet in his hand, he wondered if a new Echizen was being born right that moment.
He did not know how close he was to the truth. There were two new Echizens being born at that moment in time*.
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Note:
* No, I don't intend to make nintouryo young Tezuka's style. While he is resilient and still learning, he will try anything at least once. He is still young and still finding his own tennis. This is just one natural stepping stone.
*Japanese numbers are counted quite literally (and very easily) from base numbers 1... 10. If you know your numbers from 1 to 10, you can count to 99 easily. E.g. 11 is jyu-ichi or ten-one. 20 is ni-jyu or two-ten. 21 is ni-jyu-ichi or two-ten-one. 99 is kyu-jyu-kyu or nine-ten-nine. 100 introduced a new term, hyaku. Same hyaku as Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami. Hyakuren literally means 100 practice/drill/refinement. (Off-topic: Jitoku is made up of 2 characters - oneself & gain/earn/benefit/ability). With that, you can count to 999 (kyu-hyaku kyu-jyu kyu). 1000 is sen. Tezuka used jyu-jyu(ten-ten) for 100. This is called over-regularisation in language-learning process. Language normally have a general rule or pattern that children learned to recognise. E.g. adding 's' to make something plural and adding 'ed' to make a verb past tense. Over-regularisation happened when they encounter exceptions or irregularities to the pattern and makes the mistake of applying the general rule. Common English over-regularisation - buyed for bought.
