Chapter 84: The Semi-Finals Begin

Hearing footsteps and voices approaching, Tachibana Kippei turned his head to look at the other side of the court.

Several people wearing Rikkai's yellow and white school uniforms appeared on the court.

"Too lax!"

"Today is the Kanto Tournament semi-finals!"

The person wearing a black hat said; it was none other than Rikkai's Sanada Genichiro.

"So I said, I specifically arrived 1 minute early today, that's already giving enough face, alright."

A faint voice came over.

Tachibana Kippei could not see the figure of the speaker clearly, as he was blocked by the people in front.

"Master is too amazing, the ability to control time is super strong!"

A person with a seaweed-style hairstyle said boisterously.

Tachibana Kippei recognized that it was Rikkai's second-year ace player, Kirihara Akaya.

The voice in the middle sounded so familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

Then Tachibana Kippei saw Kirihara Akaya's body tilt slightly to the right, revealing a figure.

This figure was about 1.7 meters tall, with a slender build, thin yet powerful.

This is...

Takahashi!

Tachibana Kippei's eyes widened abruptly, his pupils contracting violently.

He stared fixedly at that thin figure.

Afraid that he might have recognized the wrong person.

It really was Takahashi!

He never expected to see Takahashi in the Rikkai team.

Tachibana Kippei was stunned with shock.

Recalling when he met Takahashi at the Tokyo Regional Preliminaries, Takahashi had once said he had a team; at the time, Tachibana Kippei thought that was Takahashi's polite refusal.

Because he looked down on the strength of Fudomine.

Yet he never expected that what Takahashi said was actually true.

He really did have a team.

And it was the champion, Wangzhe Rikai Da!

But why didn't he see Takahashi's figure at last year's National Tournament?

Did he not play?

Tachibana Kippei speculated that Takahashi should have participated in last year's National Tournament and also seen him.

Otherwise, in Tokyo, how could Takahashi have recognized him at a glance after he had changed his hairstyle and color?

And he himself knew absolutely nothing about this figure from Rikkai!

Rikkai is just too strong!

With strength as great as Takahashi's, he didn't even play in last year's National Tournament, yet Rikkai had already achieved victory.

Could it be that Rikkai didn't even exert its full strength in last year's National Tournament?

Having realized this, Tachibana Kippei was shocked once again.

Rikkai's true strength was actually even more formidable than he had imagined!

Even more terrifying!

"Master, why is that black-haired guy on the opposite side always staring at you?"

Kirihara said, somewhat dissatisfied.

"Who?"

Following Kirihara's gaze, Takahashi also saw Tachibana Kippei.

Takahashi smiled slightly at Tachibana Kippei to signal a greeting.

"Captain, what exactly is our order of play today?"

"We are about to go on court, please tell us quickly, Captain, so we have time to prepare."

Sanada spoke up.

At the same time, he pulled Takahashi's attention back.

It turned out that ever since the first match of the Kanto Tournament against Ginka, where Ginka forfeited, Sanada lost the bet, and the order of play was decided by Takahashi alone.

And today, at the Kanto Tournament semi-finals, the match was about to start, and Sanada still did not know the order of play.

Not just Sanada, everyone, except for Takahashi, did not know the match order.

"Don't be anxious!"

"You'll know when you hear the broadcast in a moment."

"Everyone should be prepared to go on court at any time and keep their condition at its peak."

"This is also a rare way of training!"

Takahashi said.

"Testing the players' on-the-spot reaction ability and stress resistance? That's a pretty good method."

Yanagi Renji spoke up.

"It's like drawing a blind box, whoever gets drawn goes? That's quite interesting."

Marui Bunta popped the green bubble gum in his mouth and said.

Sanada watched the others' reactions to Takahashi hiding the match order and fell silent.

Forget it, just consider it a test of mental fortitude.

Everyone was in unanimous agreement, so what could he do?

……

"The match between Rikkai Dai Fuzoku Chugaku and Fudomine School will now begin."

"Starting first is the Doubles No. 2 match, with Ishida Tetsu and Sakurai Masaya of Fudomine playing against Yagyu Hiroshi and Marui Bunta of Rikkai Dai Fuzoku Chugaku."

A voice came over the broadcast.

Marui popped the bubblegum in his mouth and said in surprise, "It's me and Yagyu in the first match?"

Takahashi spoke up, "Yes, that's right."

"Our fastest match finish time currently is 10 minutes. Good luck to you both! Try to break that record!"

Marui and Yagyu stood up, preparing to enter the court.

The match began, and the players from both sides entered the court.

Takahashi and Tachibana Kippei were both sitting in the coaching seats on the court.

The first game was Rikkai's Serve.

"Bang!"

The tennis ball turned into a yellow streak of light in the air, heading toward the middle of Ishida and Sakurai at an astonishing speed and weight.

"15-0!"

"Rikkai scores!"

Ishida and Sakurai only felt a yellow flash before their eyes, and their ears heard the sound of the tennis ball hitting the ground.

They hadn't even had time to react before they lost the point.

……

"Bang!"

……

"30-0!"

……

"40-0!"

……

"Rikkai wins this game, score 1-0!"

……

Beside the court, Fudomine.

"To think they took the first game just by serving, that's terrifying!"

"The most important thing is that Ishida and Sakurai can't keep up with the speed of the tennis ball at all."

"They didn't even have a reaction before the opponent scored."

Kamio Akira widened his eyes in disbelief.

Ibu Shinji was equally surprised and said, "Marui Bunta and Jackal Kuwahara are a fixed doubles pair, and Yagyu Hiroshi and Niou Masaharu are also a doubles pair."

"I didn't expect that even after breaking them up and reassigning them, they could still display such strength."

"Their strength is just too terrifying!"

Ibu Shinji was not only shocked by the previous game, but what shocked him even more was:

It turned out that Rikkai could beat their Fudomine like this even when mixing up their lineup without regard for strategy.

They were beaten until Fudomine had no power to fight back.

Ibu Shinji had done some research; Marui Bunta and Yagyu Hiroshi's strength in Rikkai could not be considered top-tier, at best only mid-level players.

Forming a temporary doubles pair with someone they weren't familiar with actually placed certain limitations on their strength, preventing them from fully unleashing their potential.

Even so, the two of them still easily won the first game.

"Bang!"

……

"Bang!"

"Rikkai University Affiliated Middle School scores, score 2-0!"

In the time it took for Ibu Shinji to think, Marui and Yagyu had taken another game.

Ishida Tetsu and Sakurai Masaya could not only fail to return the serves from Yagyu and Marui, but they couldn't even hold their own service games.

The match was completely one-sided.

After two games, Ishida and Sakurai hadn't scored a single point.

These two were considered relatively good at doubles in Fudomine, and even had the strength to put up a fight against Seigaku in the Metropolitan Tournament.

He never expected that they would be beaten until they had no power to fight back when facing a temporary doubles pair from Rikkai.

The gap in strength between the two teams was truly terrifying!

……

"Bang!"

"Rikkai University Affiliated Middle School scores, score 3-0!"

……

"Score 4-0!"

……

"The score is 6-0! Rikkai University Affiliated Middle School wins!"