Shatter

"Oh... not bad power. Looks like you haven't just been supervising everyone else's training—you've been training even harder yourself."

Feeling the force transmitted through his racket, Horio gave Inui Sadaharu a measure of approval.

In Horio's eyes, Inui Sadaharu was an exceptionally disciplined and hardworking person.

"Still, I'd be more impressed if you took off those wristbands."

He immediately returned the ball with a drive, sending it spinning powerfully back into Inui Sadaharu's court.

"Didn't expect you to notice. You really are impressive."

Inui Sadaharu looked at the wristbands around his wrists, then glanced toward another blind spot on Horio's side and swung hard, sending the ball toward it.

The instant the ball left his racket, Inui Sadaharu saw Horio had already appeared at that blind spot.

"I told you, your Information Tennis is useless against me now."

"You can't deal with Horio by creating distance gaps. That footwork of his alone puts him in an unbeatable position."

Fuji, who had played against Horio before, spoke up at that moment.

"That footwork lets him instantly appear anywhere on the court. I don't know what side effects it might have, but if you want to beat him, you'll have to find another way."

"Then doesn't that mean Agan lost from the very beginning? His Information Tennis specializes in making opponents create distance gaps."

After hearing Fuji's explanation, Oishi could not help worrying about Inui Sadaharu.

"Not necessarily. Horio just told Agan to take off his wristbands. It looks like there's some secret hidden in them."

Having arrived at the hitting point in advance, Horio had already assumed the stance for a powerful flat shot, his eyes constantly shifting from side to side.

Inui Sadaharu kept watching to see which side Horio would send the ball toward, but just as Horio swung with full force, he instantly changed his racket angle and hit a Slice Shot.

The ball that should have been blasted away by a powerful swing suddenly became a drop shot. Inui Sadaharu, unable to rush to the net in time, lost the first point.

"This is only the beginning. If you still won't take off that belt and let me see the results of your hard training, then you'll be eating a bagel too."

Horio suddenly remembered that Inui Sadaharu seemed to have developed a serve later on in the original story. He wanted to see whether his own appearance would cause that technique to emerge early.

Hearing Horio's faintly warning tone, Inui Sadaharu stopped hesitating and took off his belt, tossing it aside.

When the wristbands hit the ground, they made the sound of iron blocks clashing together, shocking everyone present.

"So Agan has been wearing wristbands loaded with iron blocks all this time. Even when we were resting, he was still training himself."

"Then that means... he was wearing those wristbands during his match with Aomomo too."

"If Aomomo found out, he'd definitely feel awful."

"Now that's more like it. Let me try your serve again."

With that, Inui Sadaharu on the other side tossed the ball up and swung his racket, just as he had on the previous point.

The difference was that when the racket struck the tennis ball—

The tennis ball was clearly hit with much greater force, deforming slightly before shooting forward at high speed.

The instant it flew out, it seemed to kick up some dust. Horio immediately used the Eye of Shattering Delusions to catch the ball's trajectory.

He locked onto the incoming ball and swung his racket.

"Not bad. It's over two hundred kilometers per hour, but it's still a little short of the true Waterfall Pouring Down. Looks like it only needs a bit more time to be completed."

Horio used seventy percent of his strength and aimed at the rebounding tennis ball.

After another dull thud, Inui Sadaharu lost another point.

"Inui-senpai, in my opinion, you've improved the most out of everyone so far. But even the greatest improvement won't change the fact that you've already lost."

Despite Horio's words, Inui Sadaharu still refused to give up. He did not believe his data was completely useless.

No matter how perfect someone was, there had to be a flaw. If he persisted a little longer, he would surely find it.

What Inui Sadaharu did not know was that even if Horio had flaws now, they were beyond what someone at his current level could possibly reach.

Thus, as Inui Sadaharu tried again and again, the score continued to widen.

Bang...

"Horio scores, 40:0."

"Inui-senpai, since you insist on being so persistent, I'll let you try a technique I've recently developed."

"If this were an official match, you'd be the first person to see it."

After such a long series of failures beyond anything in his data, Inui Sadaharu on the other side had already lost the calm he had at the start. He had not even heard what Horio had just said.

All he could think was that he had to return the ball. He absolutely had to return it.

Driven by that stubbornness, he once again used all his strength to fire a powerful serve.

Seeing Inui Sadaharu's serve, Horio did not waste any words. He directly used the same shot he had hit against the owner of the training hall back at the training hall.

A purple aura emerged around his arm, gathering at the tip of his racket.

Part of the tennis ball had already struck the racket frame, while the rest rested against the strings.

The ball did not fly off immediately, instead lingering on the racket for a brief moment.

Once all the purple aura had entered the tennis ball, the faintly purple ball flew toward Inui Sadaharu.

Having lost his composure and left with only a single thought, Inui Sadaharu poured all his focus and strength into this shot.

Watching the tennis ball seemingly split into countless images, he saw the muscles in his right arm tense completely.

It was as if all the strength in his body had gathered in his right hand. Once he had finished charging up, he swung at that cluster of phantoms.

Inui Sadaharu had not judged the ball's path completely accurately. It landed near the edge of his racket, but he still managed to return it.

The moment he realized he had hit the ball, Inui Sadaharu first felt relieved. Then he felt the tearing pain transmitted through his racket.

The pain seemed to originate from the tennis ball on the racket, spreading along the racket and up his arm.

Unwilling to accept it, Inui Sadaharu realized that if he did not let go, his entire arm would likely be strained. But if he let go, he would miss the ball he had struggled so hard to return.

Yet the ball gave him no time to think. Though Inui Sadaharu held on mentally, his body ultimately could not endure any longer.

Once his arm had been torn numb, the force within the tennis ball quickly broke through his racket.

"H-Horio scores. The score is 5:0."

"It's unrealistic to think you can return my Shatter through sheer willpower."

"Shatter... Is that the New Tennis Skill Horio mentioned? I can't really see anything unusual about it, but why is Agan in so much pain?"

"Maybe you can only understand after receiving that ball yourself. Horio... between him and Tezuka, who is stronger...?"

On the court, Horio looked at Inui Sadaharu, who was clutching his arm.

"Inui-senpai, are you okay? How about we stop here? Your arm needs ice right away."

"It's fine. There's only one game left. I can hold on."

Seeing Inui Sadaharu grit his teeth through the pain despite barely being able to hold his racket, Horio did not try to persuade him any further.

"I really admire you, Inui-senpai. Compared to talent, I actually admire hardworking people more. So next, I'll use the serve I used against Akutsu. Gather your data properly."