“Why did you force yourself to play when you’re hurt? I’m not the least bit happy, even though you kept your promise!”
The interesting thing about the flashback of Tezuka and Fuji’s first match is how it’s used in totally different places by the anime, manga, and chinapuri. The anime did it first–they used it during a ranking match to tell us why Tezuka and Fuji’s dynamic ended up the way it did. The manga used it during Fuji’s match against Niou, as a source of of motivation for Fuji. Both the anime and manga used this match to create tension about which of Seigaku’s third year aces are better.
Chinapuri, on the other hand, used it purely to emphasize the depth of Tezuka and Fuji’s care for each other. The flashback happens just before the Hyotei matches, in another private match between Tezuka (Mu Siyang) and Fuji (Zhuo Zhi). In this adaptation, it was Fuji who seems to have asked for the match. Fuji who first started to play seriously. Fuji who knows he is one of the few who can push Tezuka to the limits, and does so to see if Tezuka’s arm is really healed, or if he is, once again, charging ahead recklessly for the sake of his friends. Fuji, whom Tezuka can’t lie to, and Fuji who asked Tezuka to look after himself.
Fuji, whom Tezuka named as the person who understands him the most.
