The Way (道のり Michinori) is the 13th chapter of manga, Baby Steps.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Eiichiro Maruo
- Natsu Takasaki
- Hana Yokoyama
- Masumi Makihara
- Yukichi Fukazawa
- Hiromi Iwasa
- Takuya Miyagawa
- Hiroshi Araya
- Ryou Oobayashi
- Takuma Egawa
- Yusaku Miura
Synopsis[]
Eiichiro goes to the court again to watch and learns who are the top 6 seed players in the tournament. In order to become stronger, Coach Miura invites him to come at STC for practice.
Summary[]
After finishing his homework, Eiichiro decides to watch the Kanagawa Junior Tennis Circuit in order to cheer and to learn more from the top 8 players. While checking the brackets who among the players are winning, Yukichi approaches him. Yukichi introduces to Eiichiro the top 6 of the competition: Takuma (1st), loud counter-puncher Araya (2nd), "Seven-colored stroke" baseliner Miyagawa (3rd), hard-to-read and has good control Iwasa (4th), Eiichiro's previous opponent Oobayashi (5th) and Yukichi himself (6th).
After Yukichi leaves to return the tennis balls to the main office, Eiichiro continues to watch Takuma's match. While watching, Coach Miura approaches Eiichiro and checks his notes. Eiichiro tells the coach that he did have fun in his match even though he was lost and that if only he becomes stronger then, the match will be more fun. Coach Miura explains to Eiichiro that through his eyes and taking notes on what he had seen, he had wasted no data, which in effect, he manages to fight in a match against a seeded player even though he only played for 4 months. Then the coach invites Eiichiro to come at STC at 7 if Eiichiro wants to become stronger.