Finals: Fudomine vs. Seigaku!

At first, everyone present had not taken Fudomine Middle School seriously, believing Daigosho Middle School had an unbeatable advantage.

Yet after all five matches were played, Fudomine Middle School had claimed victory in less than an hour.

The final score was five to zero. Whether singles or doubles, nearly every match had been a complete rout.

Even when the Fudomine Middle School players left the court, the spectators present—including their opponents from Daigosho Middle School—were still completely stunned.

"Senpai, aside from Wenren Seiya, the other players from Fudomine Middle School really are quite strong too."

Although Shiba Saori was a complete tennis novice, even she could tell that this match had been a total one-sided beating for Fudomine Middle School.

"Yeah. Fudomine Middle School really has been reborn. This year's regional preliminaries look like they'll be fiercer than ever."

After watching the match, Inui Sadaharu silently closed his notebook and returned to where Seigaku had gathered.

Their next match against Gyokurin Middle School was about to begin as well.

"Inui, didn't you go to Fudomine Middle School's court to gather information? I can understand the little guy and Momoshiro coming back because they have a match, but why did you come back so quickly too?"

Seeing the three of them return, Kikumaru asked curiously.

"The match over at Fudomine has already ended."

Hearing that Fudomine's match was already over, the Seigaku players present immediately asked about the result with interest.

"Five to zero. Daigosho, who made it into the quarterfinals last year, was crushed by Fudomine. Whether in doubles or singles, their players were all at a high level. Leaving aside the doubles players for now, the two second-years in singles seem no weaker than Ryoma and Momoshiro in either skill or talent. Fudomine's captain in first singles ended his match in just fifteen minutes without dropping a single point. In my opinion, Fudomine Middle School's captain is on the same level as Tezuka and Fuji, because all three of you are impossible for me to see through."

Inui Sadaharu's words left everyone at Seigaku stunned. They all understood Inui's personality well enough to know that, with how serious he was, he would not make baseless claims.

And for Fudomine Middle School to receive such high praise from him meant that they truly were Seigaku's formidable rivals this year.

"What about that second-year who beat Momoshiro-senpai? Is he as strong as Fuji-senpai and the others too?"

The first-years Horio and Tomoka seemed to have remembered something important as they looked toward Inui-senpai again.

"Fudomine's second-year, Wenren Seiya, did not play this time. He was listed as a substitute. Perhaps their captain is deliberately concealing the existence of this ace. But judging from how effortlessly he defeated Momoshiro, he may be even stronger than the other two second-years in singles."

It had to be said that the intelligence Inui brought back instantly put considerable pressure on the Seigaku players.

They had originally thought this year's opponent would be last year's strong rival, Kakimotoyama Middle School. Instead, Fudomine had appeared out of nowhere.

And the facts proved Inui's intuition correct. In the matches that followed, Fudomine Middle School swept through their opponents almost effortlessly.

Like a dark horse, they charged into the Semifinals, then crushed Kakimotoyama Middle School, last year's Regional Tournament runner-up, three to zero.

Starting from the Semifinals, there was no longer any need to play all five matches. Securing three victories first was enough to win and advance.

Against Kakimotoyama Middle School, Fudomine's second doubles pair, Ishida and Sakurai, won six to two.

As for first doubles, Seiya and Tachibana Kippei, Fudomine's ace pair, won six to zero without any suspense.

In third singles, Shinji faced Kakimotoyama Middle School's ace, Kuki, but Kakimotoyama still suffered a crushing six-to-two defeat.

When Fudomine truly reached the finals, every school in the Regional Tournament was astonished, because they had genuinely never heard of a middle school called Fudomine.

"Hey, hey, do you think Seigaku can still take the Regional Tournament championship this year?"

"Isn't that obvious? Seigaku makes it into the Kanto Tournament every year. Compared to them, Fudomine Middle School has just had a bit of good luck. Even if they're a dark horse, they can't stay dark all the way to the end, right?"

"But they beat Kakimotoyama Middle School. I think this final might actually have some suspense."

"What suspense? Didn't Kakimotoyama Middle School lose to Seigaku in previous years too?"

Listening to the murmurs of the surrounding crowd, An held a soda in her hand and smiled as she muttered to herself, "Looks like everyone still favors Seigaku more. But once they see Fudomine's true strength, they should be in for quite a shock."

Since Fudomine's strength had far exceeded expectations, Ryuzaki Sumire specifically called Tezuka and Inui over to discuss the lineup when it came time to decide who would play.

Very quickly, a list of players appeared in the hands of every Seigaku regular.

Seigaku's first doubles pair remained the unchanging "Golden Pair," Kikumaru and Oishi.

For second doubles, Ryuzaki Sumire had the unconventional idea of pairing Momoshiro and Kaidou, whose personalities clashed, hoping they would produce an unusual chemical reaction.

Originally, Ryuzaki Sumire had wanted to assign Fuji and Kawamura to that doubles position.

But considering how strong Fudomine's singles players were as well, putting Fuji into doubles would truly have been a waste of fighting power.

So after some discussion, Ryuzaki Sumire and Tezuka decided to have Fuji play second singles.

They believed that position would most likely be occupied by either Wenren Seiya, who had defeated Momoshiro, or Fudomine's captain.

Ryoma had always wanted to face Seiya, but the key issue was that both Ryuzaki Sumire and Tezuka believed the current Ryoma might not necessarily be able to defeat Seiya.

For the team's honor, they had to ensure victory. Thus, Ryoma could only play third singles, while Tezuka, as always, held down first singles as their final trump card.

At present, only Ryuzaki Sumire knew about Tezuka's injured elbow, so if possible, she wanted to reduce his burden as much as she could.

To be fair, there was practically nothing wrong with Seigaku's lineup. Unfortunately, Fudomine had a Transmigrator like Seiya, so he directly anticipated their anticipation.

According to the original plot, Seiya remembered that Fudomine had ultimately lost to Seigaku one to three.

In second doubles, Ishida's Hadokyu had forced Fuji and Kawamura to forfeit.

First doubles lost to Seigaku's Golden Pair. In third singles, Kamio was directly worn down by Kaidou's stamina, and Kaidou even happened to unleash the Boomerang Snake.

In second singles, Shinji faced Ryoma. His Temporary Paralysis was incredibly powerful and nearly turned Ryoma into a One-Eyed Dragon, but in the end, he still lost under psychological pressure.