The Regional Preliminaries Have Begun!

Tachibana Kippei had originally intended to lead Fudomine to a sudden, stunning rise during the regional tournament, with Seiya serving as his hidden trump card.

After all, Fudomine Middle School had always been an obscure, nameless institution; he doubted Seigaku would even spare them a glance.

The opponent's carelessness was an advantage for them, and that, too, was a form of strategy.

Yet, Tachibana never expected Seiya to run off to a place like this with his younger sister to show off—and of all people, he had to pick Seigaku, their formidable rival in the regionals, to challenge.

"Brother, I'm sorry! We just wanted to gather a bit of intel on our opponents before the tournament started."

Seeing Tachibana's anger, An was clearly frightened and quickly stepped forward to offer a conciliatory apology.

Since Tachibana had arrived on the scene, the match could naturally no longer continue.

Seiya could only look at Momoshiro and Ryoma with an apologetic expression. "That's the situation. This is an order from our captain, and there's nothing I can do about it. Let's save the final result for the regional tournament."

Seiya picked up his racket and walked off the court without a hint of reluctance. Facing her brother's reprimands, An kept casting pleading glances toward Seiya for help.

However, Seiya chose to ignore the girl's silent pleas, even going so far as to kick her while she was down. "Captain, the reason things turned out this way is entirely An's fault."

Soon after, Seiya recounted the entire sequence of events to Tachibana.

Watching her brother's face grow darker by the second, An looked at Seiya unhappily. "Seiya, you jerk! How could you throw me under the bus like that? Are you even my boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend, my foot. Wasn't that just an excuse you used to drag me into this? An, you'd better just accept the captain's lecture obediently. I'm heading out."

Under An's teeth-gritting glare, Seiya abandoned her without a shred of chivalry.

Just as Seiya left the Street Tennis Court, a man and a woman who seemed to have been waiting for a long time intercepted him.

"Hello, I am Inoue from Tennis Monthly, and this is my assistant, Shiba Saori. Wenren Seiya, is it? I wonder if you have some time for an interview..."

Before Inoue could finish, Seiya raised a hand to interrupt him. "You two, while I appreciate your interest in interviewing me, I'm exhausted and just want to go home and rest. Besides, I'm not the undiscovered tennis genius or the hidden master you imagine me to be. My past is quite simple, and I have no impressive records or achievements to speak of. I'm just an ordinary second-year student in the Fudomine Middle School tennis club."

Leaving those words behind, Seiya waved his hand at the pair and walked away.

Inoue wasn't angry at being rejected; in Seiya's brief remarks, he had already gleaned a great deal of useful information.

"Wenren Seiya, a second-year at Fudomine Middle School..."

"Perhaps Seigaku really will encounter a formidable rival in this regional tournament."

The match between Seiya and Momoshiro hadn't reached its conclusion, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that in the final service game, it was impossible for Seiya, who possessed that move called "Storm Fang," to lose.

One had to remember that Momoshiro was a Seigaku regular. Among the official team members, the only ones capable of crushing Momoshiro six-love were likely Tezuka Kunimitsu and Fuji Syusuke.

Yet, a player like Seiya was merely a second-year, just like Momoshiro, and he wasn't even the captain of the Fudomine tennis club.

That raised the question: was the captain of the Fudomine tennis club—the man from earlier—even stronger than Seiya?

And what of the strength of the other members of the Fudomine tennis club?

At the thought of this, Inoue couldn't wait to return and look up information on Fudomine Middle School.

Why was a school with such a strong player so obscure?

The era of Prince of Tennis was set in the modern day, but computers and the internet were not yet particularly widespread; much of the information and data was still preserved through magazines and newspapers.

It was only with the help of a friend that Inoue later found relevant reports on Fudomine Middle School in old newspapers.

As for Wenren Seiya, no matter how much Inoue searched, he could not find a single shred of information.

To put it bluntly, just as Seiya had said, neither he nor Fudomine Middle School itself seemed to be anything of note.

On the day of the regional preliminaries, Inoue and Shiba Saori rose early and rushed to the venue.

Because Seigaku was the top seed for the regionals, they received a bye in the first round, but Inoue's target this time wasn't Seigaku—it was Fudomine.

Fudomine's first-round opponent in the regionals was Daigosho Middle School.

Since neither Daigosho nor Fudomine were famous schools, and it was only the first round, there weren't many spectators.

Fudomine's lineup featured Ishida and Sakurai in Doubles 2, while Uchimura and Mori Tatsumi played Doubles 1.

Kamio was Singles 3, Shinji was Singles 2, and Tachibana Kippei was Singles 1, with Seiya serving as a substitute.

When Inoue arrived at the court, he was surprised to find a few middle schoolers in blue-and-white uniforms already there to watch the matches.

These individuals were none other than Inui Sadaharu, Ryoma, and Momoshiro, who were in charge of gathering intel for Seigaku.

Despite the embarrassment of last night's crushing defeat, Momoshiro felt it was necessary to inform his upperclassmen about Fudomine and Seiya.

That was how the current scene of them coming to watch the match came to be.

As the highly anticipated top seed, Seigaku's every move was naturally a matter of concern for many schools.

When the group in Seigaku uniforms appeared, they naturally drew the attention of many.

"Hey, look, isn't that Seigaku?"

"Indeed, why would they come here to watch the match? Could it be that there are players on Daigosho or Fudomine that Seigaku needs to keep an eye on?"

"I'd guess it's Daigosho. They were a quarter-finalist school last year. As for Fudomine or whatever, I've never even heard of them."

Hearing the passersby's comments, Kamio and the others, who possessed a fierce sense of team pride, were about to flare up, but they were stopped by a sharp reprimand from Tachibana Kippei.

"Let them talk if they want. The court is won with skill, not with mouths."

"It's all because Seiya and An acted recklessly, causing us to attract unnecessary attention ahead of schedule."

"There's no need to reveal our full strength; securing the victory is enough. It's time to make everyone who looks down on Fudomine shut their mouths for good."