Originally, Tachibana Kippei had planned to lead Fudoumine Middle School to make a surprising breakout in the regional preliminaries, and Wenren Seiya was considered his hidden trump card.
After all, in the past, Fudoumine had always been an obscure school—one that Seigaku probably wouldn't even bother to take seriously.
Their opponent's carelessness would be their advantage. That, too, was a kind of strategy.
But what Kippei didn't expect was for Seiya to run off with his sister to show off in a place like this—and of all people to play against, he just had to pick Seigaku, their fiercest rival in the regional tournament!
"Big brother, I'm sorry… We just wanted to gather a little bit of information about our opponents before the tournament started."
Seeing her brother's anger, Tachibana An was clearly nervous and hurried forward to apologize in a placating tone.
But since Kippei himself had come all the way here, the match naturally couldn't continue.
So Seiya could only look at Momoshiro and Ryoma with an apologetic expression. "That's how it is. It's our captain's order, so I can't do anything about it. Let's save the result of this match for the regionals."
Without any hesitation, Seiya slung his racket over his shoulder and left the court. Meanwhile, An, who was facing her brother's scolding, repeatedly sent pleading glances toward Seiya for help.
However, Seiya chose to ignore her silent plea—and even made things worse. "Captain, the reason things ended up like this is entirely An's fault."
Then, with perfect composure, he explained everything that had happened from beginning to end.
Watching her brother's face grow darker by the second, An glared at Seiya in frustration. "Seiya, you jerk! How could you throw me under the bus like that? Are you even my boyfriend?"
"Boyfriend, my ass! You're the one who dragged me into this in the first place. Just take your scolding like a good girl—I'm out of here."
Under her grinding-teeth glare, Seiya heartlessly left her behind without a trace of pity.
Just as he stepped out of the street tennis court, a man and a woman who seemed to have been waiting for quite some time blocked his path.
"Hello there, I'm Inoue from Tennis Monthly, and this is my assistant, Shiba Saori. You're Wenren Seiya, right? Would you happen to have a moment to—"
Before Inoue could even finish his sentence, Seiya raised a hand to stop him. "Sorry, both of you. I appreciate your interest in interviewing me, but I'm really tired right now—I just want to go home and rest.
Besides, I'm not the kind of undiscovered tennis prodigy or hidden master you might think I am. My background's simple—no outstanding records or achievements to show. I'm just an ordinary second-year student from Fudoumine's tennis club."
Leaving those words behind, Seiya waved casually and walked away.
Inoue, however, wasn't angry about being rejected. In that brief exchange alone, he had already gathered plenty of valuable information.
"Wenren Seiya, a second-year from Fudoumine, huh…" he murmured thoughtfully.
"Maybe this time, Seigaku really will have a tough rival in the regionals."
Although Seiya's match with Momoshiro hadn't reached its conclusion, anyone with a discerning eye could tell that in the final service game, with that move 'Aragami Fang', there was no way Seiya could have lost.
And let's not forget—Momoshiro was a regular player of Seigaku!
Among Seigaku's main lineup, the only ones who could completely crush him 6–0 were Tezuka Kunimitsu and Fuji Shuusuke.
Yet Seiya, who was also a second-year student—and not even Fudoumine's captain—had displayed such overwhelming strength.
That led to an interesting question: if Seiya was already that strong, just how powerful was Fudoumine's captain, Tachibana Kippei, the man they'd just seen?
And what about the rest of Fudoumine's team?
The more Inoue thought about it, the more eager he became to dig up information about the mysterious Fudoumine Middle School.
How could a player as strong as Seiya—and a school like Fudoumine—remain completely unknown?
It was worth noting that Prince of Tennis took place in the early modern era, when computers and the internet weren't yet widespread.
Most information was still preserved through magazines and newspapers.
Later, with help from his contacts, Inoue managed to find a few old newspaper clippings that mentioned Fudoumine Middle School.
But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find a single record about Wenren Seiya.
Just as Seiya had said earlier—neither he nor Fudoumine were names anyone had ever heard of.
On the day of the regional preliminaries, Inoue and Saori woke up early and rushed to the venue.
Since Seigaku was the top seed, they had a bye in the first round. But Inoue's focus this time wasn't on Seigaku—it was on Fudoumine.
Fudoumine's first-round opponent was Daigosho Middle School.
Since neither school was particularly famous, and it was only the first round, there weren't many spectators in attendance.
Fudoumine's lineup for the day was as follows:
Doubles 2: Ishida & Sakurai
Doubles 1: Uchimura & Mori Tatsuhiko
Singles 3: Kamio
Singles 2: Shinji
Singles 1: Tachibana Kippei
Wenren Seiya served as a substitute.
When Inoue arrived at the venue, he was surprised to notice a few familiar faces not far away—junior high students wearing blue-and-white uniforms.
They were none other than Inui Sadaharu, Echizen Ryoma, and Momoshiro—Seigaku's data-gathering squad.
Despite his humiliating defeat the night before, Momoshiro still felt obliged to report to his seniors about Fudoumine and Seiya, which explained their presence here.
As the top seed, Seigaku naturally drew attention wherever they went.
The moment the trio appeared in their Seigaku uniforms, whispers spread among the crowd.
"Hey, look—it's Seigaku!"
"Yeah, what are they doing here? Don't tell me there's someone in Daigosho or Fudoumine they're watching?"
"I'd bet on Daigosho—they made it to the quarterfinals last year. Fudoumine? Never even heard of them."
Hearing those dismissive remarks, Kamio and the others, fiercely proud of their team, were about to lose their temper—but Kippei quickly stopped them.
"Let them talk. On the court, it's strength that does the talking, not words.
Because of Seiya and An's little stunt, we've already drawn unnecessary attention.
There's no need to go all out—just win. It's about time we show everyone that Fudoumine isn't a school to be underestimated."
(End of Chapter)
---
patreon.com/dzeref887