“High School Boys and Hot Spring Table Tennis” is the 13th chapter of the manga.
Cover Page[]
Karasawa walks past a Shiba Inu.
Detailed Summary[]
After their beach trip, the boys visit an inn with a steam bath. While in the bath, Motoharu credits Karasawa for having found a good inn, but some of the others seem to be overwhelmed by the amount of steam. As they leave the bath, Karasawa asks Motoharu what they did at the beach, and he responds that Hidenori had said something weird again. Karasawa guesses correctly that it related to ramen, and an embarrassed Hidenori asks them to drop the subject.
The lads decide the rules
Shortly after, Hidenori notices that there's a ping pong table at the inn. The boys decide to play, with the following rules: each round features a category chosen by the server, and one can hit the ball only after naming an item in the category. Hidenori suggests there should be a penalty for the loser, and they unanimously agree that the loser should punch the Student Council President . Tadakuni , Hidenori, Karasawa and Yoshitake take their places at the table, while Motoharu announces the categories.
Motoharu announces the first category to be ‘the satellites of Uranus’, which startles Tadakuni. Hidenori, Karasawa and Yoshitake rattle off Ariel , Umbriel and Titania in succession, and Tadakuni flounders, getting one strike out of a possible three. He protests that the topic was too difficult, but Motoharu ignores him and declares the second category: Names of international leaders of Black ancestry.
Hidenori opens with Mwai Kibaki (Kenya), and Karasawa follows up with Abdoulaye Wade (Senegal). Yoshitake, evidently out of ideas, mutters Obama on his turn, dismaying Tadakuni who had the same name in mind. He takes another strike. Frustrated, he accuses the others of setting him up, but Motoharu denies it. Tadakuni then says he’ll choose the last topic, and the others allow it. He thinks to himself that he'll go with ‘his specialty’, before declaring it to be ‘Countries whose flags have moons on them’.
Tadakuni uses the ace up his sleeve
He serves to Hidenori after choosing Malaysia, and Hidenori continues with Tunisia. Karasawa then chooses Algeria, and Yoshitake takes Pakistan. However, with the ball coming towards him, Tadakuni fails a third time, having only known Malaysia all along. Disappointed, he accepts his loss, wondering how the others seemed to know everything.
Characters[]
In order of appearance:
Notes[]
- Karasawa is seen without his cap in the first panel of the second page.
- The unnamed student from Chapter 11 is seen in the first panel on the third page. However, he is absent during the table tennis game.
- The Student Council President is referred to for the first time.
- During the game, Tadakuni holds the paddle with the standard grip, which is normally used by beginners. In contrast, Hidenori, Yoshitake and Karasawa use the more advanced pen-style grip, which indicates their relative experience levels at table tennis.