National Tournament Trip to Kanagawa

Muneyoshi, carrying his tennis bag, walked out of the convention park. Listening to the faint sounds around him, he couldn't help but feel a bit envious of Atobe.

Glancing back once more at the Ariake Tennis Forest Park, Saeki Muneyoshi secretly made a vow.

This experience of only being able to watch as a spectator was truly terrible.

Next year, Fudomine will definitely enter this place and even go further!

While the Metropolitan Tournament was being held in the Tokyo Metropolis area, other tennis powerhouses in various regions also began their own campaigns.

In the Kanagawa Prefecture's prefectural tournament, Rikkai Dai advanced like a storm, easily sweeping two teams out of the competition.

They also ultimately won the prefectural tournament championship, continuing their path of consecutive victories.

In the Kyushu Kumamoto Tournament, Shishigaku, having added two genius players, Tachibana Kippei and Chitose Senri, this year, became even stronger and also defeated their opponents with overwhelming dominance.

There were also Osaka's Shitenhoji, Nagoya Seidoku in the central region, Hyogo's Makino Fuji, and other renowned tennis schools that launched their attacks, leaving their opponents utterly defenseless.

Of course, there was also some sad news.

Last year's Kanto top four, Green Mountain Middle School, because all their strongest seniors had graduated and the newcomers lacked much skill, could only bitterly accept defeat in the regional qualifiers.

The great mountains that once dominated the middle school scene had all disappeared. All the tennis powerhouses were anticipating the National Tournament in two months.

Anticipating whether the old king would defend its throne or a new king would ascend to it...

Unfortunately, all of this no longer had anything to do with Saeki Muneyoshi. He had already left the Tokyo Metropolis and truly begun his national tour.

And his first stop was Kanagawa Prefecture.

"Hey, Kojiro, I heard you guys won the Chiba Prefecture championship. Congratulations!"

"Haha, Muneyoshi, I didn't lose a single match in the Chiba Prefecture competition this time. Pretty amazing, right?"

"Amazing, amazing. You'll have to keep up the good work in the upcoming Kanto Tournament and the National Tournament later!"

"Of course. You wouldn't believe it, on my first day at school, my dad made me the president of Rokkaku, and I was completely clueless. I only found out later that Rokkaku has always had a tradition of letting first-years be president!"

"Kojiro, remember to learn well from your dad. I'll come visit when I have some free time!"

"Muneyoshi, it's a deal then. I'll be waiting for you!"

"Okay, bye."

Click. Muneyoshi hung up the phone and walked down the streets of Kanagawa with his backpack.

Kojiro, having somehow learned about Fudomine, had called to console him.

But after so many years of brotherhood, when it came time to speak, the words of comfort just wouldn't come out.

In the end, he could only talk about Rokkaku Middle School's matches.

Kojiro, whose strength was now far greater than in the original work, found dealing with regional and prefectural tournaments to be a piece of cake.

Among those who had played against Muneyoshi so far, Kojiro's strength could originally rank fourth.

But it had been several months since he last played, and he didn't know what level he had evolved to. Moreover, Akutsu's strength had improved too quickly.

Based on the data retained from before, Akutsu's Five Dimensions attributes had surpassed Kojiro's, almost reaching parity with Fuji.

And Akutsu's strength was still growing.

Unlike in the original work where he delayed for two years and only started learning tennis in his third year, Akutsu.

Although his current body was not yet as formidable as it would be two years later, he had displayed astonishing potential.

Furthermore, having been defeated by Muneyoshi twice, at least by Tezuka twice, by Fuji once, and now by Atobe once.

Given Akutsu's personality, with such shame and failure accumulating.

Muneyoshi worried that if it were pushed to the extreme, Akutsu might completely hit rock bottom and rebound.

If he could transform these heart-wrenching failures into fuel for his spirit.

His possibility and opportunity to activate the Asura Path would come faster than anyone else's!

"I'm afraid I've inadvertently nurtured a monster..."

However, Muneyoshi did not try to stop or disrupt this. He originally felt that many geniuses in the original work were overlooked, and many who could have unleashed greater abilities ultimately faded away.

Shouldn't it be a better thing that these geniuses, under his hands, evolved to even more astonishing levels?

This was one of his goals, after all.

Shaking his head, Muneyoshi no longer paid attention to the opponent's evolution speed. While Akutsu, Tezuka, Fuji, and Atobe were evolving, he himself had not stopped.

Besides, compared to them, Muneyoshi had a cheat system.

Although the cheat system couldn't grant him any powerful skills.

Muneyoshi felt that being able to display the degree of all progress in a quantifiable way, and having his own training visualized through data.

This was already the greatest help.

Compared to others, he could take many detours.

Moreover, it's precisely when one reaches a bottleneck and their limits that the golden finger can best display its abilities...

Rikkai Dai Affiliated Middle School.

A private middle school located in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a long history and outstanding achievements.

The total student population is 2,677.

For a school established for a century, Rikkai Dai is undoubtedly a place where teaching staff and honors coexist, possessing a deep foundation. Its various clubs have also achieved considerable success nationwide.

And among them, the most powerful tennis club is a national powerhouse. Including this year, if history isn't altered by Muneyoshi, they will win the Kanto Tournament for the thirteenth consecutive year.

It must be said that this puts immense pressure on other schools.

After chatting with several pretty upperclassmen, Muneyoshi finally found out the location of Rikkai Dai's tennis club.

Surrounded by very enthusiastic senior students, Muneyoshi reluctantly chose the prettiest one and, walking with her through the campus paths, arrived at the entrance of the Rikkai Dai tennis club.

"Muneyoshi-kun, this is the tennis club!"

"Thank you very much for your help, senpai!"

Muneyoshi has always been very polite to pretty senior students who like to help others, especially those who help him. He also told jokes to entertain them along the way.

The senior student also liked Muneyoshi a lot and even personally led him around several times to the tennis club...

Finally managing to get rid of the enthusiastic senior student, Muneyoshi finally had time to look around.

Last year, when Muneyoshi was still in elementary school, Rikkai Dai, under the leadership of Date Danjiri, Ban Ryūya, Mitsuya Akuto, and others, narrowly entered the national top four.

It wasn't that their strength was lacking, especially Date Danjiri and Ban Ryūya. Their doubles partnership was considered the best, even in the early stages of the U-17 training camp.

It was only later that Ochi Gekko rose to prominence, along with the combination of Ōmagari Ryūji and Tanegashima Shūji, that they were surpassed.

The lack of good results was entirely due to the opponents in the previous few years being too strong.

Let's not even mention Makino Fuji, with Byōdōin Hōō, Tōno Atsukyō, Kimijima Ikuto, Fuwa Tetsujin, the Saigō brothers, Saigō Mine, Saigō Akira, who had both singles and doubles players. This lineup was simply unbeatable.

Except for the doubles pairing of Saigō Mine and Saigō Akira, who were suppressed by another pair of twins from Yamabuki Middle School, the Mutsu brothers, Yūma and Yūho, other positions had almost no weaknesses.

And Fuwa Tetsujin is only in his third year this year. It's precisely because he's still here that Makino Fuji hasn't completely died out this year.

The runner-up, Maizaka School, had three powerful individuals like Tanegashima Shūji, Irie Kanata, and Akiba Kōyō who could enter the expeditionary force or even the main team.

Hyotei had masters like Ochi Gekko and Hakamada Izō.

Although Shishigaku was frustrated, they also had a formidable player like Kaji Fūta.

These are all members of the future U-17 expeditionary force.

Keep in mind that last year, even Osaka's Shitenhoji couldn't make it to the top four. They also had national-level powerhouses like Hara Tetsuya, Hirazeni, and Mori Juzaburo.

Rikkai Dai's position in the top four was already a great achievement.

However, this year, Rikkai Dai has undergone a complete transformation and will usher in a new opportunity for rise.

Moreover, although there aren't many senior students in the team, there is still Mitsuya Akuto, a strategist-like figure in data tennis.

He can lead them to the right path, and he has also passed all of this on to Yanagi Renji.

Muneyoshi also knows that although Mitsuya Akuto will be promoted to the next grade next year, and will be transferred to Rokurigaoka, Aichi Prefecture, due to family reasons before this year's National Tournament.

But Mori Juzaburo from Osaka should also be transferring over soon!

In that case, Rikkai Dai's two consecutive championships in the original work are simply unstoppable, especially the first year!

However, Muneyoshi's purpose here is not to truly admire Rikkai Dai's past glories.

He's here to challenge them.

The evolution of Darkness is urgent!