Chapter 170: Spiral Serve

On the court.

"Zero-Style Serve, you don't intend to hit all 4 points with Zero-Style, do you!"

"What a middle schooler who hasn't seen the world!"

"The world is far, far broader than you imagine!"

"There are also far, far more people who can return a Zero-Style Serve than you imagine!"

Byodoin looked at the tennis ball rolling on his side of the court and mocked.

"No, this is just an appetizer."

"However, for the next 3 points, you will repeat the same action."

"That is, no action at all!"

As Takahashi spoke, he took a tennis ball out of his pocket.

He twisted his wrist, tossed the tennis ball upward, and when the ball reached the appropriate position, he raised his arm and swung his racket!

"Boom!"

Accompanied by the sound of the strike, the tennis ball arrived at Byodoin's side of the court at almost lightning speed.

This speed!

Byodoin's eyes narrowed slightly.

It not only far exceeded the previous Zero-Style Serve, but even he, the captain of the Japan Representative Team, almost failed to track the tennis ball's trajectory.

World Level strength!

Without a doubt, this is World Level strength!

However, Byodoin had seen plenty of World Level experts; if Takahashi thought he could score relying solely on speed, he was being a bit naive.

It seems that for this match, he would have to properly exert his own strength.

He moved quickly to the ball's landing point, preparing to wait for the moment the tennis ball bounced.

However, the tennis ball landed with astonishing momentum and spun violently on the ground.

Byodoin stared intently at the small yellow ball, arching his body slightly and bending his knees downward.

With such complex spin, the angle of the bounce would be hard to gauge.

He must seize the right moment to successfully return it.

To be able to hit such a serve, no wonder he could earn the high regard of the coaches!

However, the strongest person in the Training Camp was still himself!

This is an unchangeable fact!

Byodoin waited in place for several seconds, and he was surprised to find that the tennis ball showed no tendency to bounce upward at all.

All the spin on the tennis ball had turned into intense backspin.

Calling it backspin might not be descriptive enough; it was more like a spiral rotation.

"Screech!"

The small yellow ball spun violently on the ground, emitting a sound that made one's teeth ache.

In Byodoin's eyes, a large cloud of dust drifted out from the tennis ball's landing point.

Ignoring the irritation of the dust, he kept his eyes fixed on the tennis ball.

The tennis ball was actually drilling a small pit into the ground like a spiral drill bit.

When the dust gradually dissipated, the tennis ball was lying right in the pit.

The whole arena was silent!

Only the rapid breathing of the onlookers could be heard!

Mouri and Irie looked at the small pit on the ground, utterly shocked; what on earth was this!

They had never imagined before that a tennis ball could rely on spin to drill a small pit into the ground.

Wasn't the main material of a tennis ball rubber?

Does rubber have such great penetrating power?

This small pit, which could only hold the tennis ball, looked exactly like it had been drilled by a construction drill.

"30-0!"

"Takahashi scores!"

After a pause of several seconds, Irie finally came to his senses and announced the score.

Takahashi looked at the scene before him, the corners of his mouth curling into an arc.

This serve was a special move Takahashi had only recently developed, which he named the Spiral Serve.

Its greatest feature was that it did not bounce at all after landing, drilling a small pit into the ground like a drill.

Takahashi had once studied the reason why a tennis ball bounces after landing.

When a tennis ball lands from the air, it possesses a certain amount of kinetic energy; when the ball strikes the ground, this kinetic energy is converted into elastic potential energy, and part of that elastic potential energy is then converted back into kinetic energy, causing the ball to bounce.

For shots like the Zero-Style Shot that roll along the ground without bouncing, that is also because the complex spin on the ball changes the direction of the kinetic energy, while the kinetic energy itself remains.

Since kinetic energy must exist in the tennis ball, that kinetic energy can be combined with the violent spin on the ball to be converted into a force that shatters the ground.

This is the principle of the Spiral Serve.

Therefore, when serving, Takahashi applied backspin to the tennis ball the moment he tossed it into the air, and then, while swinging the racket, he fine-tuned the angle of his wrist so that when the racket rubbed against the ball, it added another layer of backspin and adjusted the angle at which the ball landed.

Likewise, he added astonishing speed and power to the serve to maximize the kinetic energy of the tennis ball.

The powerful kinetic energy combined with the deliberately applied double backspin caused the tennis ball to rub against the ground violently after landing, until it drilled a small pit into the ground.

Takahashi believed such a serve was unsolvable.

Because the rules of tennis state that when receiving a serve, one must wait for the ball to land and bounce before hitting it.

And this ball, just like the Zero-Style Shot, does not bounce at all.

The Zero-Style Serve can be performed by swinging a tennis racket through the air to alter the airflow around the tennis ball, thereby changing the spin on the ball.

But the Spiral Serve is different; it inherently contains astonishing power and speed.

Because the speed is extremely fast, the opponent has almost no time to get to the net and swing their racket first.

And because the power is too great, even if the opponent is lucky enough to reach the net and swing their racket to change the airflow around the tennis ball, the effect on it is negligibly small.

You must know, the energy contained within the Spiral Serve is enough to drill through a concrete floor.

Therefore, this is Takahashi's true ultimate move, the ultimate move that truly makes Byodoin Houou stand rooted to the spot without moving.

He looked up and glanced at Byodoin on the opposite side.

Sure enough, the gaze Byodoin cast toward him was filled with vigilance and apprehension!

"How about it? This ball can be considered as having shown you the world, right!"

Takahashi said calmly.

……

At the side of the court.

Oni said: "I really underestimated Takahashi's ability to provoke people."

"He really managed to stomp wildly on every one of Byodoin's minefields with every sentence!"

Yukimura smiled.

"However, Takahashi truly has this capability!"

"I have never thought of such a creative serve."

Sanada said: "Yes, this ball is even more advanced than the Zero-Style Serve; it is fundamentally unsolvable."

Kirihara said: "Great, this move won't be broken by the opponent again, right!"

"The trajectory of the tennis ball is so complex that I can't even see it clearly, let alone understand it!"

"There are two more balls; as long as they are successfully hit, Master will be victorious!"

Oni pondered for a moment and said: "But..."

At the same moment, Byodoin's gloomy voice came from the court.

"I admit, this is indeed worthy of being called a perfect serve; the speed, force, spin, and angle are all exceptionally complex and ingenious."

"It's just, what is the success rate of this ball?"

Oni continued: "Byodoin is not wrong; this is also what I am worried about."

"The more complex a serve is, the lower the probability of success."

"And the power, speed, spin, and angle utilized in this ball of Takahashi's are all extremely complex; wanting to perfectly fuse so many elements together is very difficult."

Mouri nodded and said: "Oni is right; if Takahashi had a one-hundred-percent success rate, then Byodoin would have lost."

"However, this ball seems quite complex and cumbersome to me; it requires very strong foundational strength. Can Takahashi succeed again with his current age and experience?"

"He and Byodoin have a six-year gap in time, after all!"

……

On the court.

Takahashi did not care at all about Byodoin's words; he smiled and said: "Then why don't you try it!"