Kippei Tachibana had planned for Fudomine to surprise everyone in the regional tournament, and he had considered Seiya his secret weapon. Fudomine Junior High was an unknown school, and he thought Seigaku wouldn't even pay attention to them. Their overconfidence would be Fudomine's advantage—a classic strategy. He never expected Seiya to show off with his sister at a public tennis court and, of all people, play against their main rival, Seigaku.
"Brother, I'm sorry. We just wanted to gather some intelligence on our opponents before the tournament started." An looked at her brother, who was clearly angry, and apologized.
With Kippei there, the match was definitely not going to continue. Seiya could only give Ryoma and Momoshiro a helpless look and apologize, "This is our captain's order; there's nothing I can do. Let's settle our match in the regional tournament."
Seiya walked off the court without a second thought, ignoring An, who was still facing her brother's angry lecture and giving him a pleading look. Seiya chose to kick her while she was down. "Captain, this whole thing is all An's fault." He then went on to explain the whole story to Kippei.
An watched her brother's face get darker and gave Seiya a look of betrayal. "Seiya, how could you kick me while I'm down? Are you even my boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend?! That's just an excuse you came up with to drag me into this! You should just take your scolding from the captain. I'm out of here." Seiya left An to her fate under her furious brother's glare.
Just as he walked out of the court, a man and a woman stopped him. "Hello, I'm Inoue from Monthly Tennis, and this is my assistant, Saori Shiba. Are you Wenren Seiya? Do you have time for an interview?"
Seiya held up his hand to stop Inoue from talking. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm tired and just want to go home. I'm not an undiscovered tennis genius or a secret master. I'm just an ordinary second-year from the Fudomine Junior High tennis club with no notable achievements."
With that, he turned and walked away. Inoue wasn't angry about the rejection; he had learned a lot from Seiya's short speech. "Wenren Seiya, a second-year at Fudomine Junior High... It seems Seigaku might have a formidable opponent in the regional tournament."
Seiya and Momoshiro's match didn't finish, but anyone could see that with his "Tempest Fang" serve, there was no way Seiya would lose. Momoshiro was a Seigaku regular; the only people who could beat him 6-0 were Tezuka Kunimitsu and Shusuke Fuji. And yet, Seiya was just a second-year, and not even the captain of his club. This raised a few questions: Was Fudomine's captain, the man who just showed up, even stronger than Seiya? And what about the other players on the team?
Inoue was eager to go back and find information on Fudomine Junior High. Why would a school with such a strong player be so obscure? The world of Prince of Tennis was set in the modern era, but computers and the internet were not yet widespread, so most information was found in magazines and newspapers. Inoue had to ask a friend for help and found some old newspaper clippings about Fudomine. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find any information on Wenren Seiya. It was true, just as Seiya said; neither he nor his school were well-known.
On the day of the regional tournament, Inoue and Saori got up early to head to the venue. Seigaku had a bye for the first round since they were the number one seed, but Inoue's target was Fudomine. Fudomine was playing against Daigoso Junior High in the first round. Since both schools were unknown, there weren't many spectators.
The Fudomine team's lineup was: Double 2 was Ishida and Sakurai, Double 1 was Uchimura and Moritatsu, Single 3 was Kamio, Single 2 was Shinji, Single 1 was Kippei, and Seiya was a substitute.
When Inoue arrived at the court, he was surprised to see a few students in blue and white uniforms watching the match. It was none other than Seigaku's data guy, Sadaharu Inui, along with Ryoma and Momoshiro. Because of their embarrassing loss last night, Momoshiro felt it was his duty to tell his upperclassmen about Fudomine and Seiya.
As the number one seed, Seigaku's every move was watched. When they arrived, they immediately attracted attention.
"Hey, look, isn't that Seigaku?"
"Yeah, why are they watching this match? Are there players on Daigoso or Fudomine that Seigaku needs to look out for?"
"It has to be Daigoso. They made it to the top eight last year. I've never even heard of Fudomine."
Hearing the whispers, the proud members of Fudomine were about to get angry but were stopped by Kippei. "Let them talk. On the court, strength matters, not words. Because of Seiya and An's antics, we've already gotten unnecessary attention. We don't need to use our full strength. A win is all that matters. It's time to show everyone who looks down on Fudomine what we're made of."