Chapter 15

**The Solitude of the Ace** (エースの孤 (こ) 独 (どく) , *Ēsu no Kodoku*?) is the 15th chapter of the High School Family manga series.

## Summary

Kotaro is training on his tennis team uniform, Takumi tells him that he looks great in that uniform and that the ace of the first year of the team to which Kotaro gets excited and starts training, Takumi follows him to which Ayumu and Hayato assumes that he is desperate to keep Kotaro on the team.

In the gym, the volleyball team is training next to them is Tohru Suzaki, a new first year student in the team, the captain and vice captain admire Tohru's skill to which the captain mentions that with him it is possible that arrive at the nationals, at the end of the practice Tohru thinks that he joined the team because he heard that they were strong but when he saw the training he was disappointed so he goes running alone, the rest of the team mentions to the captain that despite their skills are good, he strays far from people to which the captain replies that he is a lone ace after all.

During Tohru's walk he observes that a person follows him so he begins to run, Tohru listens as the person keeps calling him to what he ignores and continues running at that moment he observes how the person is next to him and asks asks Tohru if he is part of the volleyball team since he wants to join the team, Tohru notices that this person looks like an old man and wonders if he is a student, to which she remembers talking about a family that entered high school, so she deduces that the belongs to that family.

Noticing his age, Tohru wonders if due to his age he can stand being in the team so he tells him to ask the captain since he is a first year and runs away, Ichiro manages to catch up and tells him that he is too. first year and introduces himself to Tohru, who is surprised at Ichiro's speed and decides to run down some stairs to get Ichiro away and Ichiro decides to follow him.
Tohru wonders how Ichiro can be so fast to which she remembers that during the test results Ichiro had the second place, after remembering that Tohru stops and mentions to Ichiro that the captain mentioned that they will not include more members this year for which makes Ichiro sad.

Tohru returns to the high school gym, the captain asks why it took so long which Tohru mentions is a long story at which point Tohru watches Ichiro in the gym, the captain tells Tohru that even though he told her that they wouldn't include more members this year Ichiro insisted on buffing the balls or helping the team so the captain let him join the team as the errand boy to which Tohru is surprised, Tohru asks Ichiro if he's really happy to joining the team that way as it would be a waste of her skills, Ichiro mentions that he doesn't mind starting at the bottom and Tohru decides to back off slightly happy that Ichiro is joining the volleyball team.

## Characters In Order of Appearance

* Kotaro Ietani
* Takumi Kitayama
* Hayato Sano
* Ayumu Kurokawa
* Tohru Suzaki (Debut)
* Seitaro Naruse (Debut)
* Toya Nagai (Debut)
* Ichiro Ietani
* Shizuka Ietani (Mentioned)
* Haruka Ietani (Mentioned)
* Gomez (Mentioned)

## Trivia

* Ichiro joins to the Volleyball team as the errand boy.
* Despite being the official debut of Seitaro and Toya their names are not mentioned in this chapter.
* In Chapter 78 during a flashback it is shown how Ichiro asked to be the errand boy before Toya and Seitaro and how they let him into the team.
* When Tohru mentions that he heard the rumor about a high school family, a title drop occurs.