Tokyo — Fudomine Municipal Middle School.
Riiing—riiing—riiing!
The moment the dismissal bell rang, the female teacher on duty, holding fast to the belief that "staying one more minute is a loss," wrapped up the lesson with a few meaningless parting words and cat-walked her way out of the classroom.
As soon as she left, the students immediately reverted to their natural states.
Some couldn't wait to rush home to play video games.
Some had plans to hang out after school.
Others were heading straight for their club activities.
"Seiya, the regional tournament's coming up soon. My brother said you have to go to tennis club today."
Just as Seiya finished packing his bag—having only last night shared his powers with Sword Art Seiya—he was actually planning to skip club today to test whether kendo techniques could be integrated into tennis.
But before he could even make a move, a sweet-looking girl with chestnut shoulder-length hair walked up to him and spoke.
"I've got something important to do and need to go home early today. Can you help me tell the captain I won't make it?"
The sweet girl before him was An Tachibana, Seiya's classmate—and more importantly, the younger sister of Kippei Tachibana, the captain of the tennis club.
Fudomine Middle School, though only a municipal school, was by no means small in size or student population for Tokyo standards.
However, until last year, its tennis club had been utterly unremarkable.
Lazy, apathetic coaches and upperclassmen who picked favorites and looked down on others had kept the club stagnant.
Despite having students with genuine tennis potential, the club hadn't achieved anything in years.
That all changed last year, when a transfer student named Kippei Tachibana arrived—and the tennis club underwent a complete transformation.
Much like how Sword Art Seiya had to complete a prerequisite mission to unlock his system's full capabilities and enter the "Realm Between Dream and Mind," this world's Seiya had received a similar mission.
Coming to a Prince of Tennis world and not playing tennis would've been like going to Yu-Gi-Oh! world and refusing to duel.
So, naturally, when Seiya realized he'd arrived in a world where everything revolved around tennis, he resolutely picked up a racket from a young age.
At first, as a transmigrator, Seiya thought that being part of the "Transmigration Army" meant he'd be absurdly talented—if not godlike, then at least a prodigy.
Years later, however, he had to face a harsh reality:
His tennis talent was only slightly above average.
Thanks to his wealthy family, Seiya had hired plenty of private coaches over the years. Yet, no matter how hard he trained, the only thing that stood out was his naturally superior dynamic vision—everything else was depressingly mediocre.
When he realized this, it hit him hard.
After all, in the Prince of Tennis world, if you couldn't play tennis, weren't you basically just a salted fish?
If you couldn't reach national-level murder tennis, you should at least have Kanto-level or Tokyo-level strength!
But unfortunately, apart from his good eyes and slightly better endurance from years of exercise, Seiya had no other special traits.
Well, being handsome could count as one—but in this world, that meant absolutely nothing.
Every single elite player from top schools was a bonafide pretty boy.
In this world, looks alone got you nowhere—you had to look good and play tennis to be popular.
Just when Seiya was about to lose all hope, the "system" finally appeared and gave him his first mission.
The mission was straightforward: within three years, he had to become a regular member of a Tokyo school's tennis team that was at least of Tokyo Tournament caliber.
There were plenty of schools at that level, but given his only slightly-above-average skills, getting a regular spot was another story.
After much searching, Seiya finally settled on Fudomine Middle School.
Before Kippei arrived, the Fudomine tennis club was, to put it bluntly, trash.
Schools like Seigaku, Hyotei, Yamabuki, or Rikkai were out of the question—the competition there was brutal.
With his skill level, he wouldn't even make it as a background extra.
Fudomine, on the other hand, barely had seven regulars.
Even if he wasn't great, sneaking in as a backup shouldn't have been impossible, right?
So, Seiya refused his family's suggestion of attending Hyotei Academy and instead enrolled in Fudomine.
During his first year, he, like Kamio and Shinji, suffered under the oppressive seniors, spending a year picking up stray tennis balls—until Kippei Tachibana arrived.
In terms of talent and potential, Seiya couldn't compare to Kamio or Shinji. But with his years of experience, he held his own.
When Jippei expelled the old coach and took over the club, Seiya managed to secure a place as one of the regulars.
"The regional tournament's about to start! What could possibly be more important than training? Don't tell me you're going on another date or something?"
An planted both hands on Seiya's desk and leaned forward, her bright black eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"With the amount of training the captain's been giving us lately, I can barely move when I get home. I don't even have the energy to go on dates.
And besides—today's the release of that new game, so I was thinking—"
Before Seiya could finish his excuse, An grabbed his arm and started dragging him toward the tennis courts.
"Seriously? I thought you had something important going on, and it turns out you just want to go home and play games?
Could you be any lazier? My brother already warned you—if you keep slacking off, Kamio and Shinji will surpass you in no time!"
Hearing that his "important matter" was just a video game, An was visibly annoyed. Ignoring the stares of their classmates, she tugged Seiya along toward the club.
"Kamio and Shinji were born more talented than me anyway. And I'm not slacking off—I just want to test whether I can apply techniques from that game to tennis!
Stop pulling, An! I can walk on my own! If Kamio sees this, he'll never let me hear the end of it!"
Seiya's idea of integrating kendo techniques into tennis—based on the mechanics of the Sword Art Online world—made perfect sense to him.
But to An, his serious explanation sounded like complete nonsense.
(End of Chapter)
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