Manga Vol 33 - Tezuka Kunimitsu Kyuushuu Hen

As seen from the title, this volume focuses primarily on what happened to Tezuka when he was in Kyuushuu for his treatment. Thus, there are 4 chapters dedicated to that section alone.

When Tezuka was in Kyuushuu, the treatment itself did not take a long time but the real issue was coping with the emotional trauma of injuring himself again which would rule out the possibility of joining his teammates for the Nationals. Due to this, he was apprehensive about raising his left arm despite the doctor's assurance that he shouldn't have any problems. It was then when he met a little girl, Miyuki there who had a similar problem like him where she would freeze with nervousness whenever she took part in official matches even though she was really good at the game. Some Shishiraku guys came along and challenged Tezuka to a match but for fear of aggravating his injury, Tezuka didn't even dare to do a proper serve. Of course, it wasn't surprising that he had lost by 6-0. Miyuki knew that Tezuka shouldn't be playing like this and took on those Shishiraku guys alone. This made Tezuka overcome his fear syndrome as he derived courage from Miyuki's refusal to give up and trounced those arrogant guys. A few days later, when Miyuki won her first match, she went back to the hospital to look for Tezuka but he had already returned to Tokyo.

By the way, Chitose who was previously from Shishiraku with Tachibana also appeared at the end to watch what was going on and Miyuki called him Onichan. Are they siblings in the first place? Since there's an unexplored link between them, I suppose Miyuki might appear again when Chitose's team Shitenbouji takes on Seigaku in the semi-finals since Fudoumine looks set to lose to Shitenbouji even if Tachibana does beat Chitose in the match which has barely begun in Jump.

Coming back to Tezuka's match with Kabaji, the going gets tough for Tezuka due to the fact that Kabaji copies his every move and with increased strength since he has a larger build as compared to Tezuka. However, experience and adaptability in the form of Hyakuren Jitoku no Kiwami (loosely translated as The Self-Attained Essence of Endless Practices) gives Tezuka the upperhand as a sudden downpour causes Kabaji to be unable to copy Tezuka to a T in such conditions. Atobe had expected Kabaji to give Tezuka a hard time because it is hard to fight against yourself but the downpour thwarted his plans.

Due to the rain, the quarterfinals match has to be postponed. As such, the Doubles 1 match between the Golden Pair of Seigaku (Ooishi & Kikumaru) and Hyotei's version of the Golden Pair (Shishido & Ootori) takes place at 9am on the next day. This is a very close match since both pairs boast of a strong partnership and are in sync with their partners. However, the postponing of the match proves to be a big test to the stamina of these guys since the high temperature and humidity make it feel as if they are in a furnace when they stand on the court. Coupled with the fact that Ootori has managed to "upgrade" his Scud Serve to the new version "Neo Scud Serve" which is even faster than Inui's "Waterfall", this makes it difficult for the Seigaku duo to do anything about the service aces which go to Hyotei as a result. The match goes into a tie-break and by the end of this volume, we see the score at 6-3 with Hyotei needing a single point to win this match.

Well, from what I remember, this tie-break is going to take quite some time. As such, I'm not sure whether we will be done with the Singles 1 match between Atobe and Echizen in Vol 34 because that was also a lengthy match right till the end. And that bozu challenge...oh my god! I think those who have read my past entries would have known the outcome of this match so I won't go into details in case people do not want to read spoilers.

Before I forget, Vol 34 will be published on 4 July as announced on Shueisha's website. Till then!