Atobe, Worn Down by the War of Attrition

Bang!

"Score for Court No. 3, 1-0"

Bang!

"Court No. 5 scores, 1-1"

Bang!

"Score for Court No. 3, 2-1"

Bang!

Bang!

"Score for Court No. 3: 187-187"

"This is unbelievable..."

"Are you kidding me? This deciding game is going way too long..."

"He's dragging his injured right leg along and dragging the score this far, why is Atobe so persistent..."

"Atobe, if you continue like this, your left leg will be ruined!"

Irie's offensive and Atobe's persistence, which should have been a simple tiebreaker, turned into a terrifying back-and-forth battle where the score reached this level.

The middle school students watching from the sidelines finally couldn't help but urge Atobe to give up, but Atobe's willpower was now entirely focused on returning the ball.

He wasn't pretending not to hear the middle school students' voices; rather, he simply couldn't hear them.

"Why... Atobe... what is it that makes you so excited!"

After a match of over 370 balls, Irie's stamina was also severely depleted by Atobe.

Seeing Atobe persisting even though he had already reached his limit, Irie somewhat annoyed.

"Hmph, stop talking nonsense. My performance isn't over yet."

"That's the end of the game!"

Seeing that Irie's emotions had changed somewhat, but having already been fooled by his acting skills once, Atobe did not easily believe him.

But Irie didn't change her mind because of Atobe's disbelief. Filled with anger, she jumped into the air and Smash Shot.

However, Atobe bravely lunged towards the ball's landing point, caught the Smash Shot, and returned it.

"It's over! It's over! It's over! Didn't I already say the game was over?!"

"I see, that's quite realistic acting."

Every time Irie said "It's over," Atobe would catch the ball in time.

Gradually, Irie's angry expression turned ferocious.

After Atobe returned the ball to the net, Irie, with a ferocious expression, suddenly changed his aggressive attack and switched to short balls.

As if he had known in advance, Atobe immediately ran towards the net after returning the ball.

"Did you already guess that? In that case, how about this move!"

"Ah! Victory belongs to Court No. 5!"

Seeing this, Irie, who had already bent down to hit a short ball, changed his shot at the last minute. After adjusting his swing angle, he sent a Lob Shot flying towards Atobe.

But Atobe was still not giving up. As soon as he reached the net, he turned around and ran towards the baseline.

However, this time the tennis Atobe was a step ahead of Atobe, having already landed and bounced, while Atobe was still some distance from the landing point.

Having already lost the Atobe to catch up, Atobe pushed off with his left foot, no longer caring about the pain coming from it.

His entire body flew out in a position parallel to the ground, and he caught the ball by swinging his right hand smoothly.

The tennis ball was successfully returned, but Atobe flew straight out and crashed into the wall.

"Atobe!"

Upon seeing Atobe collapse against the wall, the middle school students cheered in unison.

"What happened? Is it over already?"

Honestly... I'm really scared of you, I just can't lift my shoulders anymore.

Irie, seeing Atobe's miserable state, did not go forward to check on him. As he spoke, the racket he was holding in his left hand fell to the ground.

"No way, this is way too rushed. Seeing Atobe collapsing against the wall, unable to continue the match, he's pretending again."

Off the court, seeing Irie suddenly throw away his racket, Horio immediately turned to Oni and whispered a complaint.

The demon clearly knew that Irie was acting, but he didn't expose him.

"Honestly, that was a really great match."

Seeing Atobe, who had already fainted from exhaustion, Irie, playing his part to the end, wore a helpless expression.

"Two wins and two losses, even if you don't want to play, you have to play now."

"Perfect timing, I'm also ignited by their all-out effort."

Because of the large score difference, Horio guessed that there would definitely be a tiebreaker.

Moreover, this is the key to determining the outcome of the team battle, and Horio felt that to be on the safe side, the demon must be brought in.

Little did they know that the ghost sitting on the sidelines could no longer contain himself; the passion that had been dormant in his heart for so long had already been activated.

"Because neither side can continue the match, this match is ruled invalid."

The team match record between Court No. 3 and Court No. 5 is two wins and two losses, with one match being invalid.

Therefore, an additional singles match has been added to determine the final winner. Each team is requested to send one representative to the match.

As expected, the game ended in a draw, so the Coach staff played an extra round.

On Court No. 5, Kite, who hasn't played yet, and Akutagawa and Ishida are both ready to take the court.

"Get out of my way! Let me play this match!"

Before Ghost could even designate who would play, he had already taken off his jacket and picked up a complete racket.

Seeing the leader go on stage, the other junior high students who weren't playing naturally didn't say anything.

As the demon stepped onto the court, Court No. 3 also sent out a minor character named Takei Toshio.

"Congratulations! Now we should call you player number three."

Before the match even started, Horio turned to the middle school students who were watching the game intently and said something.

Hearing Horio say that, the middle school student immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Horio has said so, the outcome of this match is pretty much set.

As expected, the demon unleashed a power that Takei Toshio couldn't resist as soon as he entered the arena.

Takei Toshio was repeatedly hit away by Oni's powerful returns, and in the end, he couldn't score a single point against Oni before the match was over.

The team match between Court No. 3 and Court No. 5 ended with a record of three wins, two losses, and one invalid result, with Court No. 5 emerging victorious.

The winning Court No. 5 advanced to Court No. 3, while the Court No. 3 was relegated to Court No. 5.

"Alright, the match is over, I should head back now."

It seems the winners are progressing much faster than the Loser Group; their training is going to be much tougher from now on.

With all the matches over, Horio turned to leave the stadium.

The victorious middle school students watched Horio leave without stopping him; instead, Horio stopped halfway down the road.

"You need to work even harder, otherwise the challenges you'll face soon will be far more difficult than today's match."

Having said that, Horio moved his feet again.

"How are things going with them in the Loser Group? Coach Rudao should have started formally training them by now."

"It starts today, but their training intensity will only increase when I get back."

After leaving the stadium area, Tokugawa and Tanegashima appeared.

When Tokugawa asked about the Loser Group's bracket, Horio didn't hide anything.

After all, he also came back from the Loser Group, so he must be very familiar with Mifune's training methods.

"These junior high school students are really strong. They've made such great progress in such a short time at the training camp, and they've already surpassed most high school students."

"Even with significant progress, it's still not enough. Compared to those guys, they need to take another step forward, otherwise they'll only be a drag when the World Championship starts."

Tanegashima was also surprised by the progress of the junior high school students, but Horio was worried whenever he thought about the First String and second team members returning soon.

"Why think so much? They've improved so much in such a short time; after today's match, their improvement will definitely be even faster."

Tanegashima was quite optimistic. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the two, Horio left the training camp.

"Swing the racket 5,000 times, then switch hands and swing it 5,000 times again. Do this for a total of three sets."

You cannot relax for a moment now, and you are not allowed to say that you have reached your limit.

Those guys in the winning group are evolving every day, so you guys need to evolve to be even stronger too.

If you want to complete the revolution, you only have one path left: to push the limits.

In front of a wooden house in the mountains, junior high and high school students are practicing their racket swings.

Mifune sat on the roof of the wooden house, supervising everyone's movements. The middle school students no longer complained when they heard Mifune's reprimands, because they had indeed seen their own progress.

Just then, the sound of a helicopter suddenly came from afar.

"The kid's back."

Turning his head towards the direction from which the helicopter's sound came, Mifune muttered to himself.

"Who told you to stop! Get back to practicing! Do you want to be losers forever?!"

The group, who were practicing their swings, were also drawn by the sound of the helicopter. Just as they were about to get a better look, Mifune's voice interrupted them.

After the helicopter landed, Horio jumped down from it.

He waved to the pilot, and the helicopter immediately took off.

"How's it going? What's their progress?"

"To be honest, it's a bit beyond my expectations."

As expected of those trained with scientific equipment, their current level has surpassed that of most high school students in the training camp.

Furthermore, in the team competition between Court No. 3 and Court No. 5, only Ghost from Court No. 5 played in the final tiebreaker; the rest were junior high school students.

Aside from the junior high students in Third Singles and First Singles, the other junior high students either won or were evenly matched with the high school students.

What's the situation with those two you mentioned?

"The junior high school student in Third Singles place couldn't continue the match after hitting a game-winning shot due to stamina issues, and the same was true for First Singles."

However, in the First Singles, his opponent was Irie. After that middle school student collapsed, he pretended that he couldn't continue the match, which was ultimately ruled invalid, so the genius had to play in the tiebreaker.

As soon as Horio returned, Mifune inquired about the match, and Horio told him the truth.

Hearing Horio's account, Mifune fell silent, watching the middle school and high school students swinging their rackets.

"Furthermore, junior high school students have now basically entered the front courts, and even court number six is entirely composed of junior high school students."

Seeing that Mifune was probably thinking of a solution, Horio added fuel to the fire.

"The original 5,000 swings will be increased to 10,000, while the rest of the training remains the same. You all need to step up your game now, do you understand?"

"Yes!"

Provoked by Horio's words, Mifune's eyes sharpened, and he roared at the group who were training.

Upon hearing that Mifune had suddenly increased the intensity of the training, no one objected, and they all agreed.