Subconscious (無心 Mushin) is the 169th chapter of manga, Baby Steps.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
Summary[]
As Eiichiro is getting conscious to his ideal state, Nabae takes advantage of it and breaks Eiichiro's service game and the flow of the match.
Synopsis[]
As Eiichiro continues to listen to his instincts' decisions, he manages to win three consecutive games from Nabae on the first set, making the spectators surprised with the current outcome of the match. For the next two games, both players increases their accuracy to hold their service game.
For the next game, Eiichiro decides to be more aggressive on his attacks as he has a two-game lead from Nabae but this seems to lead a serve-error and a counter from Nabae. Realizing that he should not think too far into the future during zone, he focuses about the present instead but it leads to fault. Clearing his thoughts does not help either as it leads to double fault, making Nabae to earn another point. Nabae gets another point as he reads Eiichiro's movement and Eiichiro's field of vision is too narrow during the serve. As Eiichiro subconsciously relies on his previous success, Nabae takes advantage of it and counters Eiichiro's down-the-line attack, having Nabae to break Eiichiro's serve for the first time on this match. As Eiichiro cannot ignore the current results of the match, he decides not to rely on the zone anymore and use what he has now.