Chapter 118: A Troublesome Opponent

"Bang!"

Takahashi's figure flashed, and he quickly arrived at the right side, gently raising his arm at the tennis ball's landing spot.

"Your ability to predict the tennis ball's trajectory is stronger than I imagined!"

Watching Takahashi's rapidly moving figure, Tanegashima couldn't help but exclaim.

The match had reached this point.

It wasn't just Takahashi who felt Tanegashima was a troublesome opponent.

Tanegashima also felt that Takahashi was a headache-inducing opponent.

Facing Takahashi's first and second serves, Tanegashima's eyes instantly found the blind spots in Takahashi's movements.

As long as Takahashi started to move and began to act, there would inevitably be positions uncoordinated with the current action, which Tanegashima called moving blind spots.

Therefore, when returning serves, Tanegashima increased the speed of the tennis ball, attacking these blind spots of Takahashi by surprise.

The facts were just as he had guessed; it was indeed difficult for the moving Takahashi to return the ball from these positions a moment ago.

However, the tennis ball always brushed past Takahashi's tennis racket by less than 0.1 meters.

Tanegashima was somewhat shocked by this reaction speed.

Because in Tanegashima's prediction, Takahashi should have had no room to react to this ball.

Even if he did, it shouldn't have been this quick.

It was just a tiny bit short of reaching the tennis ball.

Especially with the second ball, Tanegashima added quite a bit of speed to it; when the tennis ball landed in Takahashi's half, to the eyes of a normal person, the ball would disappear for a short period.

He hadn't expected that Takahashi would also reach such a super high-speed ball by just a tiny bit.

This Takahashi's fundamental strength was even higher than Tanegashima had imagined.

If he let him adapt a bit more, he feared the tennis balls he hit toward his moving blind spots would be successfully reached by him.

So, he spoke up to tell Takahashi that his trump card could turn anyone's special move into nothingness.

He wanted to use this to exert psychological pressure on Takahashi; after all, there was a 6-year gap between them.

He hadn't expected that even with Tanegashima having already gained the advantage, Takahashi actually had no reaction at all to Tanegashima's intimidating words.

Not only was there no reaction, but it even had the opposite effect.

It stirred up Takahashi's desire to challenge, leading Takahashi to hit a Secondary Acceleration tennis ball.

From the moment Takahashi swung his racket, Tanegashima felt a headache looking at the complex spin on the tennis ball.

So, Tanegashima had to use his own special move, Metsu Mu!

It was those layers of white ripples on the tennis racket.

Tanegashima really didn't want to bring out his special move so quickly, but he knew he couldn't go on without it.

After using Metsu Mu to reach the Secondary Acceleration tennis ball, Tanegashima used his goldfish-scooping technique to hit the tennis ball to Takahashi's other side.

He had thought he could successfully take a point from Takahashi's hands.

Yet he hadn't expected that Takahashi seemed to have predicted the ball's landing spot long ago, arriving at the position the moment the ball landed.

This prediction ability and this reaction speed made Tanegashima feel it was very tricky!

When Tanegashima observed Takahashi's matches against Tokugawa and Oni two days ago, he had already felt that his ability to adapt was very strong.

Today, competing against Takahashi himself, he felt this point especially keenly.

Balls that Takahashi couldn't reach or couldn't react to in time originally could be reached after watching and feeling them a few more times.

This ability gave Tanegashima a headache.

"Eh?"

A scene that gave Tanegashima an even bigger headache appeared.

Takahashi hit a Short Ball, and Tanegashima quickly moved to the net, preparing to return it the moment the ball landed and bounced.

However, after the tennis ball landed, it spun rapidly in place, even creating an afterimage, and after spinning continuously for several turns.

The tennis ball rolled straight toward the left, hugging the ground.

"This..."

"Is this your improved Zero-Shiki Drop Shot?"

Tanegashima said in surprise.

Equally surprised was Mifune, who was drinking in the Monitoring Room.

"The Zero-Shiki Drop Shot goes toward the net while hugging the ground after landing."

"How come this ball of Takahashi's is going toward the left side?"

"Is his ball control that formidable?"

Kurobe recalled the move Takahashi used when he first entered the Training Camp, hitting three beverage bottles with one ball, and said: "I have seen this ball!"

He then recounted the incident from when Takahashi first entered the Training Camp.

"What? Why didn't you tell me about such a thing earlier?"

Mifune was somewhat dissatisfied.

"Although the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot is powerful, I didn't think it was worth reporting to you specifically."

Kurobe explained.

"This is no longer Zero-Style; the tennis ball rolling toward the left while hugging the ground should be a special move Takahashi created by improving the Zero-Style Shot."

"A middle schooler actually has such good creativity and such powerful fundamental strength."

"Just from a technical level, many high schoolers in our Training Camp cannot compare to him."

Mifune sighed.

On the court.

"30-30!"

"Takahashi scores!"

"Bang!"

Takahashi did not choose the Secondary Acceleration serve, but just a plain, unremarkable serve.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The tennis ball flew back and forth in the air continuously.

Every ball carried astonishing speed and power, yet none of them had any spin.

"Why is Takahashi no longer using his special moves, the Secondary Acceleration tennis ball and the improved version of the Zero-Style?"

Tokugawa asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Because he knows that Tanegashima's Mu has neutralized all his special moves."

Irie said.

"Can Senior Tanegashima even return the tennis ball that skids to the left after landing?"

Tokugawa said, somewhat surprised.

"Don't you underestimate Tanegashima; he is the only opponent in the Training Camp that I have never defeated."

"Takahashi was only able to score with that move because he caught him off guard. Once Tanegashima reacts, that move will be countered just the same."

Oni spoke up.

"I think Takahashi might have changed his strategy, switching from offense to defense, waiting to unleash his special moves when he catches him off guard."

"After all, no matter whose special move it is, Shuji can always turn it into Mu. Even if it doesn't work the first time, after seeing it twice or three times, Shuji can always successfully counter it."

"So if Takahashi wants to score, he can only use his special moves unexpectedly at a critical moment, and he will only have one chance to score."

"The second time, Shuji will be able to turn it into Mu."

"Actually, Takahashi is already very impressive. For an ordinary person's special move, Shuji doesn't even need a second time; he can turn it into Mu on the first try."

Irie said.

"If that is what Takahashi is thinking, then he is wrong."

"When it comes to defensive ability, Tanegashima is the undisputed number one in the Training Camp!"

"If the two of them fight to the end, it will only result in Takahashi exhausting all his trump cards, exposing his weaknesses, and being defeated."

Oni said.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The rally on the court was still continuing.

In the Monitoring Room.

Kurobe picked up the coffee at his side, took a light sip, and said, "The two of them have been playing this point for over 10 minutes, and they still haven't decided a winner."

Saito said, "I didn't expect Takahashi's defensive ability to be this powerful!"

"To be able to go toe-to-toe with Tanegashima Shuji."

Mifune chimed in, "Takahashi has improved a lot in this match. At the beginning, he always lost points on balls Tanegashima hit to his dead angles. Now he is already able to handle these balls very well."

"Without seeing any hope of victory, he doesn't attack recklessly and doesn't expose his special moves; his mentality is very steady, neither arrogant nor rash!"

"Switching from offense to defense is, for now, a good thing for Takahashi."

Tsuge said, "I admit that Takahashi's fundamental abilities are excellent, and his defensive ability is also very good, but if the two of them keep playing like this, it will turn into a test of stamina."

"There is a 6-year age gap between them; Takahashi's stamina cannot compare to Tanegashima's."

"The final victory will still go to Tanegashima!"