Seigaku Wins

"I understand now. The Outer Spin Rotation Ball can cause irreversible damage to the bones if Fuji Yuta uses it too often while he's still growing.

So that's what Horio meant when he said the parts would break down someday... A robot trained into shape... That means Mizuki knew about the dangers of this serve." Inui Sadaharu also understood what Horio had meant, and gained a new appreciation of how unscrupulous Mizuki was. Fuji Syusuke still wore a serious expression. Horio could already imagine how Fuji Syusuke would deal with Mizuki, though he regretted that he couldn't teach Mizuki a lesson himself. On the court, Fuji Yuta kept using the Outer Spin Rotation Ball, while Ryoma continued trying to figure out how to counter it. After returning Fuji Yuta's powerful Half Volley several times in a row, Ryoma's results improved with each attempt. But he still hadn't scored. So, when the next game began, Fuji Yuta sent out another Outer Spin Rotation Ball. Ryoma rushed to the net again. Everyone thought he was going to try the powerful Half Volley once more, and even Fuji Yuta thought it was impossible. But when they looked again, Ryoma had vanished from the net. "Holy crap, you can really slide like that? That's so fake!" Horio knew the moment Ryoma vanished that the B-move Serve was coming. But seeing him slide across the ground still felt unreal. "How badly must that hurt your butt? ...All that flashy stuff can't be good..." Ryoma slid beneath the ball, leaped up, and swung his racket with his left hand, hitting a drive. The ball, which everyone had thought would go out, suddenly changed its spin and dropped, tracing a B on the ground. "Nice angle. That should settle things. Senpai, I think you can start warming up." Horio spoke to Fuji Syusuke beside him, then seemed to think of something. "Or are you going to have that guy warm you up?" "Now that you mention it, I was thinking the same thing." "Then make sure you teach that guy a good lesson for me. I'm starving, so I'm going to get something to eat." With that, Horio left the court. ... An hour later. "Horio, over here." Horio had just woken up and was heading back to the court when he heard Katsuro call out. He turned and saw the Seigaku team walking toward him. "You little brat. You actually slipped away at such a crucial moment in the match? You're First Singles, you know." "Exactly! What if you'd had to play?" Horio just smiled as Kikumaru and Momoshiro, the team's two easygoing members, complained. "I had plenty of faith in Senpai. Even Inui Senpai didn't have detailed data on him, right? Mizuki could smash his racket and still wouldn't win." The others were still a little annoyed, but Horio's words did make sense. "Forget it. We won anyway. The next match isn't until next week, so everyone can take tomorrow off. After that, we'll go back to training as usual." After laying out the schedule, Oishi dismissed everyone and sent them home. They were all a little tired after a full day of matches. Horio, who was alone, turned down Katsuro and Katsuo's invitation and went by himself to a tennis training center. Looking at the dozen or so ball machines around him, Horio, holding a purple racket, nodded to the owner in the distance. The owner understood and turned on all the machines at once. The dozen machines fired tennis balls nonstop, and Horio, standing in the middle, returned them with ease. After more than ten minutes, the machines finally ran out of balls. "Boss, what was the speed just now?" "Two hundred kilometers per hour." "Let's do it again. Set them to two hundred and twenty." "Uh... are you sure? Don't you need to rest?" "I'm fine. Go ahead. Two hundred and twenty might even be too slow." ... More than ten minutes later. The owner stared at Horio in disbelief. Though a few beads of sweat dotted Horio's face, he didn't look tired at all. "As expected, my body's still holding me back. No matter how much I train, my muscles can't get any stronger. Even if my body were perfect, it would still have to develop with age. Looks like all I can do for now is refine my technique." The ball-machine test had given Horio a rough idea of his strength limit: about 240 kilometers per hour. That was more than enough for these middle schoolers, of course. But he might struggle against the high schoolers he'd face later on. "Just give me a year. Once I'm a year older, my body won't hold me back nearly as much. Then I'll be able to master world-class techniques completely. It's not bad that I've already gotten the basics down." After reassuring himself, Horio left the room with the ball machines. What he needed now was to keep facing strong opponents so he could hone and refine his technique. ... Early the next morning. Horio headed out early, thinking he'd ask Katsuro and Katsuo to come help him practice. He decided they should meet in a park. As Horio neared the park, he heard Katsuro and Katsuo talking to someone. When he got closer, he saw a boy in a cap and two girls with them. "What are you guys doing here too?" Everyone turned at the sound of Horio's voice. "Hi, Horio. Tomoka and I were going to ask Ryoma to teach us tennis, and we happened to run into Katsuro and Katsuo, so we decided to practice together. You don't mind, do you?" Horio looked bewildered. Why would he mind...? It wasn't his park. "It's fine. We can all practice together. Katsuro, Katsuo, don't forget your prescribed swing drills. Take them seriously." Then he sat down beside Ryoma and watched the four of them swing their rackets like little kids. "Want to play a match? You didn't play against St. Rudolph, and I'm curious how much stronger you've gotten." "Wouldn't that be bad...? You lose to me every day at home. Wouldn't it be embarrassing to come out for fun and lose again?" Horio knew Ryoma hadn't grown into his potential yet, so he wasn't in the mood to play. "I've gotten stronger too. Or are you afraid of losing and don't want to play me?" "Yeah, yeah, I'm afraid of losing, so I'm not playing." "..." "Oh no, what do I do? I hit the ball too far..." While Horio was brushing Ryoma off, the four practicing their swings ran into a problem. Sakuno had made a mistake and hit the ball into the woods. She went to retrieve it, and Tomoka offered to go with her. Sakuno said she could go alone, ignored Tomoka's protests, and ran straight into the woods. After quite a while, Sakuno still hadn't returned from retrieving the ball, and Tomoka couldn't help worrying. She went into the woods to look for her. A few minutes later, they heard Tomoka scream. It turned out that while looking for the ball, Sakuno had come across the tennis club from another school practicing. Because she'd taken so long to find the ball, the club members kept scolding her. Seeing Sakuno being bullied, Tomoka hurried back to get Ryoma. Katsuro and Katsuo heard her and started to follow, while Horio initially didn't want to go. Then he suddenly remembered something. According to the original story, this was when there should be a chance to run into that person, so he followed them.