Gathering Intel on Their Semifinal Opponents
Meanwhile, at the other competition venues, Sanada frowned slightly upon hearing the cheers coming from the Fudomine stadium, which was not far from theirs.
"Fudomine been secured?"
He never expected that Higa Junior High, which had recently challenged them at the lottery, would be so easily eliminated by Fudomine.
Although Rikkai Dai is not at its strongest yet, the third round is the quarterfinals, and the opponents who have made it this far are not weak.
For example, Rikkai Dai's current opponent Shishigaku Junior High, has fought Rikkai Dai to the second singles match.
Higa Shishigaku Junior High, which eliminated Shishiraku Junior High and won the Kyushu Kumamoto Tournament, should be the stronger Higa Junior High.
None of the Rikkai Dai players were there to watch the match, so they didn't know what had happened. They just estimated that Fudomine had only finished his third singles match.
He was still somewhat surprised that Higa Junior High three rounds.
Meanwhile, their singles match has only just begun and will take a while to finish.
Little Sanada know that the reason Fudomine fast was simply because the doubles second and singles third matches weren't played in their full durations...
There are actually several other teams that share the same ideas as Rikkai Dai.
For example, Seigaku, which is currently playing against Black Tide Junior High in Wakayama Prefecture.
And Hyotei Academy and Shitenhoji, who met earlier and engaged in a fierce battle.
Both of these schools can be considered the dominant schools in their respective regions.
Hyotei Academy, in particular, would be the Fuji number one seed anywhere else besides Tokyo.
During the years when schools like Makino Tō, Mai no Saka, and Shishigaku dominated, they often managed to squeeze into the top eight or even the top four schools nationwide.
Although Shitenhoji's foundation cannot compare to the Hyotei Academy, it has risen to prominence under the leadership of Watanabe Osamu, and has even conducted joint training with Fudomine.
Their strength has improved significantly.
Atobe also took his team to England for training, and their strength has changed dramatically since the Metropolitan Tournament.
Their meeting was like a collision of planets.
After finishing their match, Muneyoshi and the others ignored Seigaku and Rikkai Dai and headed straight for the venue where Hyotei Academy and Shitenhoji would be playing.
After all, the winner of their two teams will be the opponent that Fudomine will have to face in the semifinals.
On the other side of the field, after Fudomine's match ended, Taki Oginosuke returned to his team.
He quietly approached Atobe and exchanged a brief intelligence briefing.
"Fudomine's doubles pair 2 knocked their opponent out of the game with two straight points, while Saeki Muneyoshi entered the game in singles pair 3 and faced off against the Higa Junior High. The captain of Higa Junior High also couldn't hold on for long."
"Okay, I understand."
An Atobe's eyes; no wonder the match over there was so fast.
However, Atobe doesn't have time to pay attention to these things right now; Hyotei Academy needs to do most right now is deal with their current opponent.
This was a strong Kansai team that put immense pressure on them from their very first encounter.
The same applies to the Rikkai Dai venue. After Yanagi Renji personally went there to collect data, he also told Sanada about the details of the Fudomine tournament.
However, the only way they could face Fudomine was in the finals, so Sanada didn't pay much attention to it.
At this moment, what he was more worried about was Yukimura's recovery. Although he had been discharged from the hospital and had undergone more than a week of rehabilitation, he still had some concerns.
Therefore, he didn't pay much attention even during the competition.
On the court, Kirihara's condition was very strange; with white hair and red eyes, he had clearly entered Demonization state.
However, Rikkai Dai was clearly used to this kind of situation.
Furthermore, given the precedent of Akutsu's suppression, Kirihara, despite only being a first-year student, has significantly improved his control over this state.
Although his fighting style is still cruel and violent, he can now easily control the activation of his demonic state.
Kirihara's playing style is extremely fierce and aggressive.
Drink up!
On the court, Kirihara let out a wild shout at the moment of the smash, and the tennis ball, with an explosive force, formed a dead ball in the bottom corner of the opposing Shishigaku Junior High captain.
Hissing sounds.
The tennis ball bounced rapidly from the bottom corner after kicking up a cloud of dust.
After seeing the tennis ball bounce and score, Kirihara clenched his fists tightly, tilted his head back, and roared towards the sky:
"Ah!!"
Having secured the decisive point, he felt a surge of pride, and his pent-up emotions began to erupt.
"Kirihara! Rikkai Dai will win!"
Upon seeing this, Rikkai Dai's cheerleaders erupted in cheers.
"It seems Rikkai Dai has also secured their spots in the final four."
Hearing the loud cheers, Inoue Mamoru turned his head and looked back towards the direction of the stadium from which the sound came.
Because he was focused on Fudomine's matches, he didn't watch Rikkai Dai and Seigaku's matches in detail.
I had planned to go check on Fudomine now that their match is over, but it looks like the outcome has already been decided over there.
Then he took out his notebook and circled Rikkai Dai's name on the match schedule he had drawn.
At the same time, his gaze swept over another school right next to Rikkai Dai.
"Even Seigaku's rivals probably can't stop them..."
"Now all that's left is Shitenhoji... Hyotei Academy..."
"If Hyotei Academy wins, wouldn't that be a rematch of the Kanto Tournament? But Shitenhoji's strength..."
As a journalist for a professional Tennis Monthly, Inoue Mamoru had a general idea of the strength of each school.
Therefore, he can easily predict which match will be exciting.
However, it is still impossible to determine the final winner between the Hyotei Academy and Shitenhoji, so he decided to go and see for himself.
Meanwhile, Muneyoshi and his group arrived at the venue for the match between the Hyotei Academy and Shitenhoji.
"Only three singles matches? Their game looks very close!"
"And look at our opponents, Atobe and Shiraishi actually went on stage early!"
Muneyoshi and his group had barely arrived at the stands when they saw the score of the two teams.
The doubles match is tied 1-1, and the singles match is now reaching a fever pitch.
"Muneyoshi, who do you think will win, Shiraishi or Atobe?"
Tachibana Kippei glanced at the score, then at the two players constantly pulling at each other on the field, and asked Muneyoshi beside him.
"If Shiraishi can't win within ten innings, Atobe!"
A strange glint flashed in Muneyoshi's eyes. He knew the strength of both of the two players in the match very well, so he was quite certain that the match was already tilting in Atobe's favor.
"Oh, but Shiraishi's strength isn't so easy to deal with!"
After a training camp with Shitenhoji, the members of Fudomine were quite familiar with their strength, and most of them admired Shiraishi.
"Yes, I know Shiraishi is quite strong, but unfortunately, Atobe's specialty is dragging his opponents into a war of attrition."
Seeing the two still locked in a grueling battle of attrition, Muneyoshi bluntly pointed out what would happen next.
"Shiraishi's foundation is perfect, so perfect that Atobe can hardly target it now. But Atobe isn't someone who gives up easily. I believe that through this constant back-and-forth, he should have discovered Shiraishi's weakness."
P. S.: I worked overtime last night and only wrote two chapters. I've reached the monthly pass threshold for an extra chapter, so I'll make it up to you later~
I worked overtime until 9 pm last night and didn't get home until 10 pm. I was so sleepy while writing that I only managed two chapters.