The Geniuses of the Same Cohort

The following month.

Shikinomori Sports Park.

The National Tournament had ended. The senpai from the previous year had finished their junior high careers—some advanced to higher education, others went their separate ways.

And the Junior Tournament for young tennis players was now in full swing.

Saeki Muneyoshi, of course, was not participating in this tournament.

He had been in Chiba before; now that he had come to Tokyo Metropolis, the registration period had long since passed, leaving him no chance to join.

However, that didn't stop him from visiting Shikinomori Sports Park to look around.

Saeki Kojiro had also left Tokyo Metropolis yesterday afternoon and returned to Chiba to participate in the tournament hosted by Chiba Prefecture.

Now alone, Muneyoshi had hit a bottleneck in his home training and was feeling bored, so he decided to come here to kill some time.

This Junior Tournament had also attracted a large number of tennis enthusiasts to watch the matches.

Coinciding with the unprecedented back-to-back championship of the National Tournament just concluding, the passion for tennis in Japan had soared to new heights, drawing significant attention to the tournament as well.

By the time Saeki Muneyoshi arrived, the matches had already reached the semifinals, and both semifinals were starting simultaneously, with the courts surrounded by spectators.

Besides these ordinary spectators and students, Muneyoshi also noticed many tennis journalists frantically snapping photos of the players on the courts with their cameras.

Paying no attention to these journalists.

Saeki Muneyoshi, carrying a tennis bag, mingled among the crowd, silently watching the players competing on the courts.

Continuously moving between the two courts, he actually spotted a few "familiar faces."

One, wearing a green headband with flowing blue hair, was none other than the future famous Child of God in Japan's junior high tennis world.

Yukimura Seiichi!

This boy, who would almost dominate Japan's junior high tennis world for three years, had yet to develop that imposing aura; he still looked a bit immature and adorably naive, cute and seemingly easy to bully.

On the other court, a boy in a cap was launching a storm of attacks against his opponent.

"Is this your tennis? How pathetic!"

Such overbearing words coming from a child's mouth always felt out of place, but the boy paid no attention to others' gazes.

This was Sanada Genichirou.

He was very confident in his own strength.

In his eyes, he had some understanding of all his peers practicing tennis in Tokyo Metropolis.

Only Yukimura Seiichi, competing in the semifinals on the other court, was the opponent he needed to defeat.

As for the others, he didn't take them seriously at all.

In his memory, ever since he started playing tennis, he, Sanada Genichirou, had only ever lost to one person—Yukimura Seiichi.

Because of this, his arrogance was directed at everyone except Yukimura, including himself.

By now, Yukimura could already use techniques that plunged opponents into the Yips.

Having personally experienced Yukimura's mysterious skill of depriving one of sight and touch once left too many shadows on Sanada Genichirou.

Precisely because of this, although he valued Yukimura Seiichi and wanted most to defeat him, his fear would only be broken when he actually did.

Saeki Muneyoshi silently observed from outside the court. Compared to three years later, both Yukimura Seiichi and Sanada Genichirou were incredibly immature now.

If you don't believe it, just picture it!

Of course, he himself was about the same.

Junior high's three years were the golden period for a boy's physical development. During this time, their height would skyrocket, and all aspects of their physique would march toward their peak.

Take Saeki Muneyoshi as an example. From elementary school graduation to now, as the two-month summer vacation was nearly over, his height had been increasing by about two centimeters every month.

He had already reached 170 cm and was still growing. At his current age of 12-13, by the time he reached third year, he could grow at least another ten centimeters.

Shaking off these stray thoughts, Muneyoshi focused again on the matches on the court. Comparing the battle situation and actual performance on both sides, Sanada Genichirou was still a step behind.

Although his strength was a bit greater than Fuji's when they had fought a month ago, it wasn't by much. Simply estimating his five-dimensional attributes, he probably only had a slight edge over Fuji.

Opening Fuji Shusuke's five-dimensional graph:

Speed 3

Strength 3

Stamina 3

Technique 4.5

Mental 3.5

Total 17.

After their previous match ended, he had already obtained Fuji's five-dimensional attributes.

Overall, it was actually quite good. Before even entering junior high, he already had the strength of an ace player at the Kanto Tournament.

But thinking about Fuji's original growth—picking up balls for a year at Seigaku in his first year, only becoming a regular in his second year, and facing suppression from other senior regulars at Seigaku—his results weren't good either.

It wasn't until his third year that he truly began to break through the Kanto Tournament.

His growth was probably concentrated in the two areas where he was already outstanding: technique and mental fortitude.

This also matched the data from when he originally entered U-17.

But the growth was too slow. Since Saeki Muneyoshi had now appeared in this world, he certainly hoped that his opponents would all grow and surpass their original achievements.

That was also the reason he gave advice to Fuji. As for whether Fuji was willing to take it, that was none of his business.

By comparison, Sanada Genichirou's current strength was indeed a notch above Fuji's, but the gap wasn't large.

However, after entering Rikkai Dai and making it to the National Tournament three years in a row, gaining opportunities to compete and spar with countless opponents, and completing two consecutive championships, his strength exploded.

By the time Fuji faced him again, he was far from being a match.

Only after entering U-17 would it be possible to close that gap.

But even though Sanada was strong now, compared to him, he still fell short. The difference wasn't huge, but it didn't put any real pressure on him either.

Saeki Muneyoshi simply stopped paying attention to Sanada and began focusing on observing Yukimura's match.

Compared to the wildness of Sanada's match, Yukimura's was much quieter.

Outsiders watch the excitement; insiders watch the craft.

As he watched, Muneyoshi began to feel a pressure. Yukimura's strength completely surpassed his opponent's; he was practically toying with him like a puppet.

Although the match had only reached the second set, in Muneyoshi's eyes it was already over. It just depended on whether Yukimura wanted to end it quickly. The opponent's strength couldn't compare to Yukimura's at all.

Like a manipulated marionette, bit by bit, all his confidence was shattered.

"Child of God... what a viciously twisted hobby..."

"Only a personality like that could master the terrifying technique of the Yips."

But Saeki Muneyoshi didn't dwell on that. Instead, he silently watched Yukimura's match, constantly placing himself in the opponent's position in his mind, trying to simulate a confrontation.

"Bam!"

One final beautiful smash.

The tennis ball carried a gust of air, "waking" the opponent across the net.

But waking up now was useless. He hadn't broken free on his own; Yukimura had let him wake up. And when he woke up, it was already over.

"Game, Yukimura Seiichi wins, 6-0."

There was no suspense in such a match. As for the finals later, he didn't need to watch them either. The final result shouldn't hold any surprises.