Muneyoshi walked out of the park with his tennis bag on his back, listening to the faint voices drifting by. He couldn't help feeling a little envious of Atobe.
He turned to look at Ariake Tennis Forest Park once more, and Saeki Muneyoshi made a silent vow.
Being stuck as a spectator was an awful experience.
Next year, Fudomine would make it here too—and go even further!
At the same time as the Metropolitan Tournament was being held in Tokyo, the tennis powerhouses in other regions had also begun their own campaigns.
At the Kanagawa Prefecture tournament, Rikkai Dai swept aside two teams with ease, surging ahead without a hitch.
They ultimately claimed the prefectural title as well, setting out on the road to another consecutive championship.
At the Kyushu tournament in Kumamoto, Shishigaku had grown even stronger with the addition of two prodigies, Tachibana Kippei and Chitose Senri. They, too, crushed their opponents.
Then there were Osaka's Shitenhoji, Nagoya Seidoku in the Chubu region, Makino Fuji in Hyogo, and other prestigious tennis schools. They all took to the courts and left their opponents unable to fight back.
Of course, there was no shortage of disappointing news, either.
Midori Mountain Junior High, last year's Kanto Tournament semifinalist, had lost its strongest class of seniors to graduation. With few capable newcomers to take their place, the team had been knocked out in the regional tournament.
The giants who had dominated junior high tennis had all disappeared. Every powerhouse was now looking forward to the National Tournament two months away.
They wondered whether the old king would defend his crown—or a new one would rise...
Unfortunately, none of this had anything to do with Saeki Muneyoshi anymore. He had left Tokyo and truly begun his travels across the country.
His first stop was Kanagawa Prefecture.
"Hey, Kojiro, I heard you won the Chiba Prefecture championship. Congratulations!"
"Haha, Muneyoshi, I didn't lose a single match in the Chiba Prefecture tournament. How's that for impressive?"
"Very impressive! Keep it up at the Kanto Tournament, and then at the National Tournament!"
"Of course! You know, on my first day at school, the Old Man made me captain of Rokkaku. I was totally confused. Then I found out Rokkaku had a tradition of making first-years captain!"
"Kojiro, make sure you learn everything you can from the Old Man. I'll come watch you when I get the chance!"
"Muneyoshi, you promised! I'll be waiting!"
"Yeah. Bye."
Click. Muneyoshi hung up and walked down the streets of Kanagawa with his backpack on.
Kojiro had somehow heard about what had happened to Fudomine and had called to cheer him up.
But they'd been brothers for so many years, and when it came time to speak, Kojiro just couldn't find the words to comfort him.
In the end, he could only talk about Rokkaku Middle School's matches.
Kojiro was far stronger than he had been in the original story, so dealing with regional and prefectural tournaments was a piece of cake.
Among the people Muneyoshi had faced so far, Kojiro would originally have ranked fourth in strength.
But they hadn't played each other in months, so he had no idea how much Kojiro had improved. On top of that, Akutsu had gotten stronger at an incredible pace.
Based on the data he'd recorded earlier, Akutsu's five stats had already surpassed Kojiro's and were nearly on par with Fuji's.
And Akutsu was still getting stronger.
Unlike in the original story, where Akutsu wasted two years and only started learning tennis in his third year, he had begun much earlier.
His body still wasn't as powerful as it would be two years later, but he had already shown astounding potential.
And he had lost to Muneyoshi twice, to Tezuka at least twice, to Fuji once, and now to Atobe as well.
With Akutsu's personality, those humiliations and defeats would keep piling up.
Muneyoshi was a little worried. If all that pressure built up to a breaking point, Akutsu might rebound completely.
If he turned those agonizing defeats into spiritual fuel,
then he would have a better chance of opening the Asura Path—and do so sooner—than anyone else!
I might really have raised a monster without even realizing it...
But Muneyoshi didn't try to stop or sabotage Akutsu. He had always felt that the original story had overshadowed many prodigies—people who could have unleashed far greater abilities, but ultimately faded away.
Wasn't it a good thing if these prodigies evolved to even more astonishing levels under his watch?
That had been one of his goals from the start.
He shook his head and stopped worrying about how quickly Akutsu was improving. Akutsu, Tezuka, Fuji, and Atobe were all growing stronger, but he wasn't standing still, either.
Besides, unlike them, Muneyoshi had a cheat of his own.
It might not give him any powerful skills.
But he felt that being able to see every bit of his progress displayed as data, and track his training in the same way, was already the greatest help he could ask for.
Compared to everyone else, he could avoid a lot of needless detours.
And once he hit a bottleneck or reached his limit, that would be when his cheat could truly show its power...
Rikkai University Affiliated Junior High.
A private school in Kanagawa Prefecture with a long history and an impressive record.
It had a total student body of 2,677.
For a school founded a century ago, Rikkai Dai was undoubtedly an institution with outstanding teachers and honors, backed by a deep tradition. Its clubs also achieved impressive results nationwide.
Its strongest club, the Tennis Club, was a national powerhouse. Including this year, it would have won the Kanto Tournament thirteen years in a row—if history hadn't changed because of Muneyoshi.
It was hard to deny the enormous pressure that put on other schools.
After chatting with several pretty older girls, Muneyoshi finally found out where the Rikkai Dai Tennis Club's courts were.
With the enthusiastic older students crowding around him, Muneyoshi reluctantly chose the prettiest one. She led him along a campus path to the entrance of the Rikkai Dai Tennis Club.
"Muneyoshi, this is the Tennis Club!"
"Thank you so much for your help, senpai!"
Muneyoshi had always been polite to pretty older girls who liked helping others—especially when they were helping him. Along the way, he'd kept cracking jokes to make them laugh.
The older girl liked him a lot, too. She had even personally led him around several times before bringing him to the Tennis Club...
After finally managing to send the enthusiastic older girl on her way, Muneyoshi had time to look around.
Last year, when Muneyoshi was still in elementary school, Rikkai Dai had struggled into the national semifinals under the leadership of Date Otori, Ban Rikiya, and Mitsuya Akito.
It wasn't because they lacked skill. Date Otori and Ban Rikiya in particular made a formidable doubles pair. Even later, when they entered the U-17 training camp, they were considered the top doubles team in its early days.
It was only after Ochi Gekko rose to prominence, along with the pairing of Ōmagari Ryūji and Tanegashima Shūji, that they were overtaken.
Their failure to achieve better results was entirely because the teams they faced in the previous few years had been too strong.
There was no need to even mention Makino Fuji. With Byōdōin Hōō, Tōno Atsukyō, Kimijima Ikuto, Fuwa the Iron Man, and the brothers Jikō Meitaku and Jikō Meiya, they had a lineup that was simply unbeatable, with formidable players in both singles and doubles.
Aside from the doubles pair of the Jikō brothers, who were suppressed by Yamabuki Middle School's other set of twins, Mutsu Yūma and Mutsu Yūho, they had almost no weak spots.
And Fuwa the Iron Man was only in his third year. It was precisely because he was still there that Makino Fuji hadn't completely fallen apart this year.
The runners-up, Maizaka School, had Tanegashima Shūji, Irie Kanata, and Akitomo Kōyō—three powerful players who could make the expedition team, or even the First String.
Hyotei Academy had aces like Ochi Gekko and Hakamada Izō.
Shishigaku might have been unlucky, but it still had a beast like Kaji Fūta.
All of them would later join the U-17 expedition team.
Even Shitenhoji from Osaka hadn't made the semifinals last year, despite having National Level powerhouses like Hara Tetsuya, Hirazeni, and Mori Juzaburo.
Rikkai Dai had already done very well to reach the semifinals.
But this year, Rikkai Dai had undergone a complete transformation and was about to enter a new era of growth.
The team didn't have many upperclassmen, but it still had Mitsuya Akito, a strategist-level player in Data Tennis.
He could guide them in the right direction, and he had passed everything he knew on to Yanagi Renji.
Muneyoshi also knew that Mitsuya Akito would move up to high school next year, and that before this year's National Tournament, family circumstances would force him to transfer to Rokurigaoka in Aichi Prefecture.
But Mori Juzaburo from Osaka should be transferring here soon, too!
Looking at it that way, Rikkai Dai's two consecutive championships in the original story had been all but inevitable—especially the first one!
But Muneyoshi hadn't come here just to admire Rikkai Dai's past glory.
He had come to challenge them.
His dark evolution couldn't wait!
Before you continue