The Showdown

After bouncing the tennis ball a few times, Horio casually tossed it into the air.

Then Horio struck a familiar pose, surprising those in the audience who had witnessed this move before.

Is it the Limitless Scattered Flowers?

"Yes, it must be."

"I didn't expect Horio to use the Limitless Scattered Flowers so early."

"It seems Horio was serious from the very beginning."

"After all, our opponent is that Byodoin, so we have to get serious from the start."

The familiar Outer Spin Serve indicates that Horio has brought out his "Limitless Scattered Flowers" serve.

Horio jumped up as the tennis ball began to fall from the nail.

At the same time, the racket is swung out, hitting the falling ball.

The tennis ball didn't have any particular power; it just flew towards Byodoin in an ordinary fashion.

"Limitless Scattered Flowers, no matter what tricks you use, this ball can't do anything to me."

Watching Horio's unremarkable shot, Byodoin moved his feet.

Seemingly dissatisfied with Horio's serve, Byodoin's eyes flashed with a fierce light, waiting for the ball to bounce back before launching a powerful counterattack.

But his expression changed after the tennis ball landed.

The seemingly ordinary tennis ball suddenly exploded with intense spin after landing, and then, under Byodoin's watchful gaze, the tennis ball split into eight pieces, sliding along the ground in all directions.

Bang!

"Horio scores, 15:0"

"As expected, the Limitless Scattered Flowers is truly powerful."

"Those balls that are close to the ground are really hard to hit. I could barely try to return the Vaishra Serve after judging its trajectory."

But Horio's serve... it's too difficult to distinguish the real ball from eight directions."

Outside the stadium, after the middle school students finished their exclamations, the high school team members, who had never witnessed the Limitless Scattered Flowers move before, were all shocked by Horio's attack.

"Eight balls to distract me? You think that's enough to trap me?"

Limitless Scattered Flowers scored a goal against Byodoin had a solution.

Horio was already preparing to take the second shot, and as he moved to the other baseline, he threw the ball up again.

The Limitless Scattered Flowers appeared, and the tennis ball flew towards Byodoin.

Indian Snake Charmer!

At that moment, Byodoin's figure suddenly multiplied into eight, arriving at the landing point of the tennis ball, with the eight figures distributed in eight different directions.

"Is this a new trick from the Byodoin...?"

"It was probably learned from practicing with ten balls, but now you can hit balls in different directions."

"Then Horio's Limitless Scattered Flowers is useless."

Seeing Byodoin use the Indian Snake Charmer, Oni and the others couldn't help but wonder what made this move so powerful.

The tennis ball landed at that moment, and eight ball shadows slid outwards.

Eight figures from Byodoin swung their rackets simultaneously. After seven fake balls were exposed, the eighth ball, which slid to the left parallel to the net, was finally hit.

Byodoin slammed the racket to the ground, and the racket frame struck the tennis ball.

Feeling the touch from the racket, Byodoin swung his racket.

Puff...

"Horio scores, 30:0"

"You hit it, but it was still a little short."

"This is the first time Limitless Scattered Flowers has been caught, isn't it? I never thought that Horio's move would be countered one day."

The Limitless Scattered Flowers was caught, much to the surprise of Oishi and Fuji, while the other members of Seigaku also looked quite displeased.

"To hit a shot like that and still maintain such strong spin..."

At the net, Byodoin, having failed to return the ball, looked at Horio with a serious expression.

"You're pretty lucky! Want to try again?"

Before Byodoin could respond, Horio had already hit the ball.

Seeing this, Byodoin didn't waste any more words, Indian Snake Charmer made his move.

This time, the real tennis ball slid towards the net, Byodoin flipped his racket, and the tennis ball bounced off the racket frame.

"This time it really hit!"

"And they successfully fought back!"

The Seigaku students exclaimed in surprise as they saw the tennis ball clear the net.

However, Horio paid no attention to this return shot, which resembled a short ball.

Horio bursts out from the net, swinging his forehand and aiming at Byodoin's baseline to hit a volley.

Bang!

"Horio scores, 40:0"

The tennis ball struck the bottom corner of the court, and although Byodoin successfully returned the ball with Limitless Scattered Flowers, he still lost the third point.

Bang!

Horio scores, score 1-0

The fourth ball was the same; after the Limitless Scattered Flowers was returned, Horio scored with a counterattack.

Horio won a point, holding his serve.

After losing the first point, Byodoin said nothing and silently walked to the baseline.

He tossed the ball up and Byodoin delivered a powerful serve.

Horio didn't think too much about it, took a few steps, and swung his racket at Byodoin's serve.

The racket hit the tennis ball, and a powerful blast of air erupted.

The wind made Horio's clothes flutter loudly, and his hair flew wildly.

Horio swung his racket forward and returned the ball.

"American Pirates!"

Byodoin swung his racket and hit the American Pirates.

After the tennis ball flew back to Horio's half of the court, it bounced off the ground and created many tennis balls.

"You think you can handle multiple balls like a snake charmer, but I can't?"

As multiple balls appeared, Horio's eyes flashed.

Suddenly, several Horio figures appeared on the court, knocking away the Horio one by one before returning the real ball.

"Spanish Bullfight!"

How could Byodoin tolerate this? He turned around, moved behind the tennis ball, and hit Spanish Bullfight shot.

The tennis ball lands close to the ground, like Swallow Returns to Nest.

Like a real Spanish Bullfight, it charged at Horio.

Those watching from the sidelines felt the immense power emanating from the bull, as if they themselves were about to be knocked away by it.

"Finally, I have a chance to test the effectiveness of that move."

But Horio on the field didn't seem scared at all; on the contrary, he was quite excited to see the bullfight.

Then, a purple ball made of air appeared in Horio's left hand, and just as the tennis ball was about to enter Horio's hitting zone, Horio hit this virtual ball.

The virtual ball strikes the real ball that is sliding on the ground. The two balls collide the moment the real ball enters the striking area, and the real ball bounces up.

"That's... Gemini?"

"Gemini can be used like this?!"

"I haven't seen him use it since the Wimbledon exhibition match."

"Did he learn this just to deal with this kind of ball?!"

"Using a virtual ball to alter the trajectory of a ball sliding on the ground, thereby turning a nearly unsolvable ball into an ordinary one, is indeed feasible."

Outside the venue, junior high school students who witnessed this familiar scene were discussing it animatedly.

At this moment, Horio had already swung his racket at the bouncing ball. After the trajectory of the ball was altered by the virtual ball, his originally powerful move became quite ordinary.

Bang!

"Horio scores, 15:0"

Facing the ball that bounced slightly, Horio swung his racket in advance to Half Volley.

Horio's powerful shot, combined with the angle of his Half Volley, gave Horio the first point in Byodoin's service game.

"That kind of skill... have you traveled the world with it?"

"It was just a friend who taught me; if you insist on calling it traveling the world, you could barely count it."

Recalling the ball he had just created, Byodoin was somewhat surprised by the technique of forming a ball from air.

It's important to understand that Byodoin's Spanish Bullfight is different from Fuji's Swallow Returns to Nest; the Swallow Returns to Nest is slower in both timing and speed.

Even if it lands smoothly, the tennis ball's spin will only cause it to glide along the ground.

Spanish Bullfight is different; it lands on the ground early and quickly.

Even after landing, the tennis ball retains its powerful spin, thus possessing immense power.

But even this powerful shot was countered by Horio's virtual ball made of air.

How could Byodoin not be shocked by such an incident?

What he didn't know was that Horio had only used the most basic method.

At this moment, Byodoin was already wary of Horio's move, after all, the Gemini technique was used for too many things.

After returning to the baseline, Byodoin served again.

A powerful shot was launched at Horio, Horio calmly responded, swinging his racket to hit a cross-court ball.

Byodoin quickly appeared in the frontcourt, intercepting the ball with a backhand and returning a short shot.

Seeing this, Horio had no choice but to go to the net to defend, and successfully returned the ball after it landed.

Byodoin, who was originally in the frontcourt, also came to the net and swung a backhand.

The tennis ball flew high into the air in an instant, just like a regular Lob Shot, the only difference being that the ball's speed was much faster.

When a ball with a speed comparable to a straight drive reaches the backcourt, it suddenly spins extremely fast.

As the rotation accelerated, a phantom image of a phoenix appeared.

This time, Byodoin unleashed the Egyptian Phoenix, the tennis ball's downward speed resembling Smash Shot.

Balancing speed and power, the phoenix charged toward the ground.

"Those who know me well know that distance advantage tactics are useless against me."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Horio appeared at the baseline.

Horio stood there waiting for the tennis ball to fall before returning it.

Bang...

"Byodoin Score, 15:15"

However, Horio miscalculated this time. The ball, which he thought would bounce, landed and spun close to the ground.

"If you think the Egyptian Phoenix I played the day before yesterday was the complete version, then you're absolutely ridiculous."

Only after the tennis ball stopped spinning did Byodoin look at Horio and speak.

Horio hadn't expected Byodoin's shot to turn out this way, yet it was also quite reasonable.

"Since it doesn't bounce back, we can just hit it back before it hits the ground."

The weather seemed to sense the tense atmosphere between the two sides; it had been sunny just moments before, but now it had turned gloomy.

When Horio announced that he would return the ball before it hit the ground, Byodoin simply smiled and then walked back to the baseline.

Without saying a word, he hit the ball.

Horio didn't waste any time and returned the ball directly to the front of Byodoin.

Seeing this, Byodoin no longer beat around the bush as before, and directly countered by striking out the Egyptian Phoenix once again.

Provoked by Horio, Byodoin retaliated, with Horio swinging a downward slap at the rapidly falling phoenix.

Bang!

"Byodoin Score, 30:15"

The tennis ball landed, Byodoin scored again.

Horio looked at his racket; this was the first time anyone had managed to hit a hole in it since Horio got the custom-made racket.

"Kid, the world isn't as simple as you think."

At that moment, Byodoin's mocking voice rang out again.