Disclaimer-I own nothing.
Warning- In a few parts it deviates from canon, but nothing, I think, particularly noticeable or important.

Seven Levels to Heaven

In first grade Ryoma was still trying to use one of his father's old rackets, even though it was far bigger than he was. So, Rinko decided to take him to the nearest shop which sold games things, and even though this racket was also pro-sized and quite as heavy as the other one, it was love at first sight and after seeing her son handle it with assurance, Rinko showed the insight that all parents had (well, almost all, Nanjirou had started laughing when he saw his son staggering in with the racket but who said he counted?) and quietly bought it. Also, she never said a thing when she saw it in her son's bedroom instead of the attic and, for once, neither did Nanjirou.

In second grade, Ryoma was frustrated because he knew he was nowhere near good enough to challenge his father let alone beat him, and he was a child, to him a year was a lifetime. Another bad sign was when people just came up to him and started asking him what was wrong when he just wanted to practice, so, when he was pulled along on a shopping spree by two of his female cousins who were babysitting him and he saw it, it was love at first wear and he coerced his cousins into getting the cap for him (the puppy-eyes worked every single time!). The next day when he was practicing and he missed one of the balls, no one asked him what was wrong, so he smirked, pulled the cap a little lower and went on hitting balls from the ball-machine. Perfect.

In third grade, he sprained his left wrist and wasn't allowed to use it for a month and two weeks. Frustrated with not playing tennis he started trying to play with his right hand, at first it was awkward but then he accidentally hit the ball after a series of random irritated movements and he had shot his first Twist serve. It was love at first sight. Though he couldn't hit it the next time he tried or the next, or even the next hundred.

In fourth grade after constant practice in using both his hands to play tennis, and devoting all his time to it, he was triumphant when he finally hit his second perfect Twist serve, which was all of three hours before his mother got home with his report card that said he had flunked most subjects in his first term. When his usually kind mother threatened him with no more tennis, he got down to business. That was the first year Ryoma topped his class, and hearing the pride in his mother's voice as she congratulated him, it was love at first sight. Of course, the fact that the teachers ignored him falling asleep in class because of his perfect grades might have had something to do with it.

In fifth grade he woke up on Easter midnight because of a soft mewing, at first he thought it was from outside but then he saw two lovely luminous eyes from in front of the bedroom door. Going forward, he had seen an open plastic egg colorfully spotted outside, and inside, sitting on a tiny cushion was an even tinier white and brown kitten. Ryoma cautiously put a hand inside the shell and started petting it; the purrs could have been coming from three extremely large and well-fed cats, 'Karupin' Ryoma decided that she was female. It was love at first sight. His mother saw Karupin cuddled to him and almost squealed when she peeped in the next morning, there was nothing 'almost' about his father's guffaws when he looked in nor about the five scratches on his hand where he had been poking Karupin who seemed to hate being woken up from a fast sleep as much as her Master did. It was love at second sight too.

In sixth grade, the vending machine outside his favorite fast food restaurant was all out of Coke and Ryoma needed soda. So he just pressed a button randomly. It was love at first taste, and he noted the name, Grape-flavored Ponta. After that, he had it every day, it helped that his old man couldn't stand to even look at it, it meant he wouldn't be able to steal the Ponta.

In seventh grade, he met Kunimitsu Tezuka and it was love at first loss.

And, thirty years later when Rosa, Karupin's granddaughter (who was named by Nanako's daughter because really, the puppy-eyes did work every time) was basking in the sun in their bedroom, because she looked so much like the cat Ryoma missed, thirty years later when Ryoma's first racket and first cap were upstairs, carefully kept in the attic, and he had long ago given up relying only on the Twist serve and only occasionally had Ponta anymore, he would come home after the easiest and hardest of tournaments to Kunimitsu Echizen-Tezuka who was probably looking through some case-files for his next client. And however busy he was, (he had by then, taken over Rinko's legacy as the best defense attorney in Japan) he would always look up and smile that half-smile that had taken Ryoma's heart away when he had first told him to become the pillar of Seigaku.