Tachibana Kippei had originally wanted to lead Fudomine to a surprise breakout in the Regional Tournament, and he had regarded Seiya as a hidden trump card.
After all, Fudomine Middle School had previously been nothing more than an obscure school. Seigaku probably would not have taken them seriously either.
The other side's carelessness was an advantage for them, and that was a tactic in itself.
But Tachibana Kippei had not expected Seiya to come to a place like this with his little sister to show off. And of all people to play, he had picked Seigaku, their toughest rival in the Regional Tournament.
"Brother, I'm sorry. We just wanted to gather as much information about our opponents as possible before the tournament began."
Seeing that Tachibana Kippei was angry, An was clearly a little frightened as well. She hurried forward and apologized ingratiatingly.
And since Tachibana Kippei had come all the way here, the match naturally could not continue.
So Seiya could only look apologetically at Momoshiro and Ryoma. "That's how it is. It's an order from our captain, so there's nothing I can do.
"We'll settle the outcome at the Regional Tournament."
With no hesitation at all, Seiya took his racket and left the court. Meanwhile, as An faced her brother's scolding, she kept casting pleading looks in Seiya's direction.
However, Seiya chose to turn a blind eye to the girl's plea for help. He even kicked her while she was down. "Captain, this situation is entirely An's fault."
Soon afterward, Seiya told Tachibana Kippei the entire sequence of events.
Watching her brother's expression grow darker and darker, An glared unhappily at Seiya. "You jerk, you're even kicking me while I'm down. Are you really my boyfriend?"
"What the hell do you mean, boyfriend? Wasn't that just an excuse you came up with to drag me into this?
"An, you should obediently accept the captain's scolding. I'll be leaving first."
Under An's furious, teeth-gritting glare, Seiya mercilessly abandoned her and left.
Just as Seiya left the Street Tennis Court, a man and a woman who seemed to have been waiting for quite some time stepped forward and stopped him.
"Hello, I'm Inoue from Tennis Monthly, and this is my assistant, Shiba Saori.
"You're Wenren Seiya, correct? I was wondering if you have time to accept an interview—"
Before Inoue could finish, Seiya raised a hand to interrupt him. "You two, while I appreciate that you want to interview me, I'm already very tired and only want to go home and rest.
"Besides, I'm not some undiscovered tennis prodigy or anonymous master like you imagine.
"My past is quite simple. I don't have any noteworthy records or achievements either. I'm merely an ordinary second-year student in Fudomine Middle School's tennis club."
After leaving those words behind, Seiya directly turned his back on Inoue and Saori, waved a hand, and left.
Inoue was not angered by Seiya's refusal to be interviewed. From Seiya's brief remarks alone, he had already learned quite a bit of useful information.
"Wenren Seiya, a second-year at Fudomine Middle School..."
"Perhaps Seigaku really will encounter a formidable rival in this Regional Tournament."
Seiya's match with Momoshiro had not reached its conclusion, but anyone with eyes could tell that with Seiya possessing that move, "Storm Fang," there was no way he could lose the final service game.
Momoshiro was a Seigaku regular, after all. Among Seigaku's official players, the only people who could probably crush Momoshiro six games to zero were Tezuka Kunimitsu and Fuji Syusuke, right?
Yet Seiya was only a second-year like Momoshiro, and he was not even the captain of Fudomine's tennis club.
So the question was, could Fudomine Middle School's tennis club captain—the man from earlier—be even stronger than Seiya?
And what was the strength of Fudomine Middle School's other players like?
Thinking of this, Inoue could not wait to return and look up information on Fudomine Middle School.
Why was a school with such a powerful player as Seiya so unknown?
The era of Prince of Tennis was only relatively modern. Computers and the internet were not yet especially widespread, and much information and many records were still preserved through magazines and newspapers.
With the help of friends, Inoue later found reports about Fudomine Middle School in newspapers from that time.
As for Wenren Seiya, no matter how thoroughly Inoue searched, he could not find any information related to him.
Frankly speaking, just as Seiya had said earlier, neither Seiya nor Fudomine Middle School itself seemed to be well-known.
On the day of the Regional Preliminaries, Inoue and Shiba Saori got up early and hurried to the venue.
Since Seigaku was the top seed in the Regional Tournament, it received a bye in the first round. But Inoue and Saori had not come for Seigaku this time; they had come for Fudomine Middle School.
Fudomine Middle School's first-round opponent in the Regional Tournament was Daigosho Middle School.
Since neither Daigosho nor Fudomine was a famous school, and it was only the first round, not many spectators had come to watch.
On Fudomine's side, Ishida and Sakurai were Doubles Two, while Uchimura and Mori Tatsumi were Doubles One.
Kamio was Singles Three, Shinji was Singles Two, Tachibana Kippei was Singles One, and Seiya was the substitute.
When Inoue arrived at the venue, he was startled to discover several middle school students in blue-and-white uniforms watching from not far away.
They were none other than Seigaku's information gatherer Inui Sadaharu, Ryoma, and Momoshiro.
Although his crushing defeat the previous night had been embarrassing, Momoshiro still felt it was necessary to tell his upperclassmen about Fudomine and Seiya.
That was why the few of them had come to watch this match.
As the much-watched top seed, Seigaku's every move naturally drew the attention of many schools.
And when the group wearing Seigaku uniforms appeared here, they naturally attracted plenty of attention.
"Hey, look. Aren't they from Seigaku?"
"Yeah. Why are they here watching? Could Daigosho or Fudomine have players Seigaku needs to pay attention to?"
"I think it's probably Daigosho. They made it to the quarterfinals last year. As for Fudomine, I've never even heard of them."
Hearing the spectators' discussions, Kamio and the others, who had a strong sense of team pride, were about to get angry. But Tachibana Kippei beside them stopped them sharply.
"Let them talk if they want. The court depends on strength, not mouths.
"It's all because Seiya and An acted recklessly that we received this unnecessary attention ahead of time.
"There's no need to reveal all our strength. We only need to win. It's time to make everyone who looks down on Fudomine shut up."
Before you continue