Butterfly Dream

"How could this happen... How could it be me... myself..."

Seeing the person standing opposite him, Yukimura muttered to himself.

In his world now, Horio on the other side has disappeared.

The spot where Horio had been standing was now occupied by himself, and he was the confident version of himself, wearing a coat.

"What's wrong with Yukimura? Why is he suddenly spacing out?"

"We absolutely cannot allow any more accidents to happen at this crucial moment..."

"Akaya!"

The Rikkai Dai noticed that Yukimura was acting strangely, Kirihara had just been reprimanded by Sanada, was about to say something unpleasant again.

Marui, who was standing nearby, scolded him and then punched him.

"Do you want to defeat me, or do you want to defeat yourself? Then find out the truth within the Butterfly Dream."

On the field, Horio Yukimura a struggling expression on his face, and couldn't help but reveal a meaningful smile.

Just as Yukimura attempted to use his mental power to deprive Horio of his Five Senses Deprivation again, Horio retaliated with a newly learned technique.

This move is called Butterfly Dream. The two purple butterflies that Yukimura saw were drawn by Horio using his immense spiritual power.

Just as Horio was smiling, from Horio's perspective, the struggling Yukimura suddenly became determined, and then turned and walked towards the bottom line.

But Yukimura, immersed in his own world, was seeing a completely different scene.

"Little brother, what's wrong? Is this all you've got?"

Wearing a coat, Yukimura spoke calmly, his familiar expression and tone practically identical to Yukimura himself.

Then Yukimura heard the word "little brother" and suddenly felt something was wrong, so he looked down at his own body.

"What's going on!? Why have I turned into that little brother!?"

Seeing himself wearing Seigaku's uniform, Yukimura was on the verge of a breakdown.

"What on earth happened! It must all be because of those two butterflies!"

Even Yukimura knew he had been infected, it was too late.

Before he could figure out how to deal with the situation, Yukimura, who was wearing a coat, had already served a ball.

Even knowing it was all an illusion, Yukimura dared not be negligent in the slightest.

Gritting his teeth, Yukimura moved to receive the ball, and after hitting it back, he didn't give him a chance to catch his breath; the ball flew back again.

This time, however, although Yukimura received the ball, he failed to get a feel for it.

"My sense of touch has disappeared!? That imposter actually took away my sense of touch!?"

As Yukimura was still in shock, the tennis ball he had hit was returned to him once again.

Without pausing for long, Yukimura moved again.

Having been deprived of his sense of touch, he didn't know how to successfully return the ball and could only swing his racket based on instinct.

Fortunately, Yukimura's swing was powerful enough to return the tennis ball, and as he secretly rejoiced, darkness suddenly appeared in his vision, quickly filling his entire field of vision.

"Is this another time they're taking away my sight!? This is clearly fake, so why does it feel so real..."

Just as he was beginning to doubt himself, the sound of the ball being struck caught his attention.

Listen carefully to the sound of the tennis ball rubbing against the air, then move your feet to the trajectory of the ball.

Using the feeling from the previous shot, he swung his racket again.

He heard the sound of the racket hitting the tennis ball, and he also heard the sound of the tennis ball rubbing against the air. He knew that he had successfully returned the ball again.

But after he hit the tennis ball back, it stopped responding.

"Even hearing has been taken away...?"

After receiving no response for a long time, Yukimura realized that his hearing had also been taken away by the imposter opposite him.

Yukimura looked around and was met with endless darkness.

In the darkness, the only sound he could hear was his own breathing.

"It's so quiet. Is this what it feels like to be deprived of your five senses?"

"I never imagined I'd be deprived of my five senses by myself. How ironic."

At this moment, Yukimura was already kneeling on the ground, his unseen hands supporting his body so that he wouldn't fall.

"It's all my fault for not being strong enough. If I were stronger, I wouldn't have been caught up and overtaken."

It's all my fault. I couldn't win this crucial match, and all of everyone's hard work over the years has been wasted, and our goal of a three-peat is impossible to achieve."

In the darkness, Yukimura constantly blamed himself.

Finally, when he could no longer support his body with the strength in his hands, he collapsed to his knees.

Exhaustion instantly overwhelmed him, and Yukimura closed his eyes.

"Yukimura!"

"Captain Yukimura!"

Are you alright, Yukimura?

He closed his eyes and almost fainted, but he vaguely heard his teammates calling him.

He struggled to stay awake and then opened his eyes.

This time, what he saw was no longer endless darkness, but Horio kneeling beside him, and his teammates running towards him.

"It seems like it's not a big problem, just overexertion. He'll be fine after a good rest."

Horio's words relieved the Rikkai Dai who had caught up, and then Horio headed towards Seigaku's players' area.

"That's awesome, Horio!"

"Absolutely brilliant! Kid, you're amazing!"

Seeing that Yukimura Seigaku alright, all the members of the Seigaku tennis club cheered, and then the entire gymnasium resounded with cheers for Seigaku and Horio.

"Sanada... did we lose?"

Yukimura, who had been helped up by Sanada and Yanagi, heard the cheers and looked at Sanada with some suspicion.

Sanada seemed somewhat hesitant to face the situation, Yukimura immediately turned to look at the stadium's large screen.

Horio 6:4 Yukimura. When Yukimura saw the score, his eyes were filled with sadness.

"Sorry everyone, we couldn't win the game..."

"You've worked hard. The competition is over. You need to get some rest when you get back."

Yukimura hid the sadness in his eyes and then apologized to the others.

However, Sanada's response was different from usual. Instead of saying that he should remember the lesson and win next time, he Yukimura to rest well, and even his tone became gentle.

Then Yukimura looked at the others beside him. Yanagi, Niou, Wolf, Marui all smiled at him, but Kirihara was crying with his head down.

Don't you think you're carrying too heavy a burden?

At that moment, Horio's voice came again, attracting the attention of everyone at Rikkai Dai.

"In order to achieve the so-called goal of a three-peat, he took all the responsibility upon himself."

I once met someone very similar to you, who also took on a great responsibility for a goal.

But have you ever considered that this excessive burden might actually prevent you from achieving your goal of a three-peat?

Horio's words stunned Rikkai Dai; even Kirihara forgot his sadness.

"Tennis shouldn't be so serious and rigid. Did you feel this way when you first started playing tennis?"