Intruder (不審者 Fushinsya) is the 68th chapter of manga, Baby Steps.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Yoshiaki Ide
- Eiichiro Maruo
- Hiroshi Araya
- Takuya Miyagawa (flashback)
- Yukichi Fukazawa
- Himeko Sasaki
- Kojirou Kageyama
- Akiko Kosaka
- Natsu Takasaki
- Yusaku Miura
- Yu Nabae (flashback)
- Takayuki Okada (flashback)
- Ryuhei Aoi
Summary[]
After losing his match in All-Japan Junior Indoor Selectionals, Eiichiro meets Coach Aoi for the first time.
Synopsis[]
Eiichiro checks the list of the representatives for the Nationals and is surprised that Miyagawa lost the first round. According to Araya, Miyagawa was in slump and was trying to change his tennis style. He warns Eiichiro to prepare as Miyagawa will probably overcome his slump by the Junior Regionals.
At STC, Eiichiro continues to practice very hard. He asks Fukazawa to accompany him in practice. They only stop the practice because they had already ran out of balls and were playing for an hour already. When Fukazawa left Eiichiro, Eiichiro decides to run laps. As he runs, he feels a bit heavy but he ignores it. He notices a man is standing near the doors at STC and wonders if the man is an intruder. That man stops Eiichiro from running laps and asks for Coach Miura. Eiichiro answers that Coach Miura is not present and asks the man if Eiichiro can continue his running. The man asks about Eiichiro's running posture but Eiichiro seems to be not conscious of it. The man commands Eiichiro to lie down when he learns that Eiichiro plans to continue running. When the man presses Eiichiro's lower back, Eiichiro cries in pain. The man tells Eiichiro that his hip is swelling a bit and he should not overdo it because his hard work will become meaningless if he ends up hurting himself. Eiichiro stops from his practice and decides to go home instead.
This turns out to be his first meeting with Ryuhei Aoi.