First Meets Second at Tokei RC's Home Wall as Naniwa Closes to Three Points

Round 21 of the wall-racing league, with two rounds left in the season, pits league leaders Tokei RC (44 points) directly against second-placed Naniwa WC (41 points) on the night of Sept. 11 at Kameido Second Wall, Tokei RC's home ground. A win for Tokei RC would stretch their lead to as much as nine points and put the title nearly out of reach before the final round on Sept. 18; a win for Naniwa WC would close the gap and set up a title race that runs to the last match. Advance tickets sold at a brisk pace again, following the previous round, and a line had already formed at the same-day ticket window before the gates opened.

For Tokei RC, the match is also a chance to shake off the frustration of Round 20, when they lost 7 tiers 1 link to 6 tiers 4 links away at Owari's Horikawa Wall — the "dry wall" — and missed a fourth straight win. That defeat came down to Owari's strength rather than conditions. Kameido Second Wall, by contrast, tends to pick up a faint dampness from bay winds that can make its surface slightly more slippery — a very different set of conditions from the away leg.

Naniwa WC climbed to second place after beating Hokuto 6 tiers 2 links to 5 tiers 3 links in Round 19, raising their point total from 38 to 41. Their captain and first-leg runner, Ushio Nadaoka, 29, is known for a fast start that sets the tone for his team. "Three points can look close or far, depending which side you're on," he said ahead of the match. "Tonight, I want to make it close." Naniwa WC has an unusual record this season of winning more often away than at home, and some in the league have taken to saying "the wall chooses its opponent" after watching Tokei RC stumble at Horikawa.

Tokei RC's third-leg runner, 17-year-old Rui Migiwajima, reached a personal-best ninth tier even in last round's defeat, building steadily on her eighth-tier mark from Round 19. As previously reported, league publicity officials maintain that she is a real contender to become the league's first teenage Athlete of the Month. Ahead of tonight's match she offered her now-familiar line: "The wall isn't the same wall it was yesterday. All I do is get along with today's wall." Since the announced second season of the anime "Rui on the Wall," more young fans have been turning up at Kameido Second Wall hoping to catch a glimpse of her in person.

This season, Tokei RC has relied on well-rounded strength across all legs, with Migiwajima's third-leg performance the standout; Naniwa WC tends to build an early lead through Nadaoka before pushing hard in the closing legs. The two teams have not yet met this season, leaving little data to read the match by. True to this paper's practice of not explaining the details behind a "tiers-links" score, league officials declined to weigh the two sides' chances, saying only that this was "the hardest result to call all season."

Whatever the outcome tonight, it will shape what the final round means. If Tokei RC wins, the title could effectively be settled before Round 22 on Sept. 18, whose matchup is due to be announced separately. If Naniwa WC wins, that final round is likely to become the season's biggest fixture. The forecast for the Tokei area calls for cloud with occasional sun, a high of 28 and a low of 22, with a 30 percent chance of rain — leaving the question of a damp wall as one more variable in tonight's contest.