Yamabuki Junior High.
A prestigious school with a history of more than sixty or seventy years, it was fairly well-known in Tokyo and was a private school in the metropolis.
Unlike other junior high schools, Yamabuki had no elementary school. It only had a junior high, with students able to advance all the way through university and graduate school. It was unquestionably a prestigious institution.
Yamabuki's tennis club was also famous far and wide, especially for its doubles.
Almost every year, Yamabuki made it to the National Tournament, only to be eliminated in the first round. If they were lucky, they could make it to the second.
Even so, Yamabuki still held a respectable position in junior high tennis.
The winds of reform, in the end, had yet to sweep through all of Yamabuki. Or perhaps only Hyotei and Rikkai Dai Fuzhong in Kanagawa Prefecture had truly managed to bring about reform!
At that moment,
a smiling, kindly-looking old man regarded the boy before him with a mischievous grin.
Banda Mikiya, Yamabuki Junior High's tennis coach, had been advising the tennis club for more than twenty years.
A bowl cut, a pale face, a fierce look between his brows, and a pair of defiant eyes.
There was something deeply incongruous about the scene.
"Old man, don't look at me like that. It's creepy!"
The boy's voice was cold.
"Akutsu... You have extraordinary reflexes, speed, power, flexibility, and balance. Are you sure you don't want to join the tennis club?"
Old Man Ban smiled as he approached him from behind and squeezed Akutsu's shoulder. "With your physical abilities, you'd be a top athlete in any sport."
"Are you really not interested in playing tennis?"
By now, Akutsu was fed up with the old man's nagging. He grabbed Old Man Ban by the lapels and stared him down with defiant eyes. "I already told you. I have absolutely no interest in tennis."
With that, Akutsu shoved Old Man Ban aside. Then he glanced at the racket on the ground, his face full of disdain.
Tennis... What a boring sport.
"Akutsu... This year's different~"
Old Man Ban brushed the dust from his lapels and smiled. "A lot of geniuses have appeared this year. Geniuses even stronger than you."
"Tell me... If someone beat you at something you don't even like, wouldn't you—"
Before Old Man Ban could finish, Akutsu turned around and glared at him with wolfish eyes.
"Old man, are you asking to die?!"
"Why not give it a try, Akutsu?" Old Man Ban clasped his hands behind his back and slowly walked past him, glancing now and then toward the courts nearby. "You can go see what the tennis club's like... Find out if tennis is really as boring as you think."
Akutsu stood where he was, his eyes fixed on Old Man Ban. Then he glanced at the racket on the ground and bent to pick it up. Holding it sideways at his waist, he followed Old Man Ban toward the tennis club.
Old Man Ban heard the footsteps behind him, and an involuntary smile tugged at his lips.
Akutsu Jin. He never thought Yamabuki Junior High would produce a prodigy like him.
Sengoku Kiyosumi was already an outstanding singles player, but compared with Akutsu, he wasn't even in the same league. Akutsu was a natural singles player, with a talent so astonishing it defied understanding.
In the past ten years, Old Man Ban had seen plenty of prodigies, but none of them, in his eyes, had shown talent to match Akutsu's.
"I'll have to provoke his interest in tennis a little..."
Old Man Ban had only managed to hold Akutsu's attention for the moment, stirring up his desire to win. The instant Akutsu decided Yamabuki's tennis wasn't anything special, he'd drop his racket and go back to drifting through life.
That was just the kind of contradiction Akutsu was.
And that was exactly why his arrival would make Yamabuki's tennis club stronger.
"Hyotei..."
"This year, Hyotei has turned out some exceptionally gifted first-years. Maybe they'll become stepping stones for Akutsu."
Old Man Ban had stumbled upon Akutsu by chance. As for Hyotei, he'd heard about them yesterday, when Yamabuki's regulars returned from a friendly match.
After all, more than half of the players they'd faced were first-years who had just enrolled at Hyotei that year. Every one of them had beaten Yamabuki's players in singles.
It seemed the winds of reform had reached Yamabuki, too.
Meanwhile, Kamikawa arrived at the gates of Yamabuki by subway and took a deep breath of fresh air.
Unaware that the story had already changed, he slung his tennis bag over his shoulder and headed toward Yamabuki's tennis club, hoping to meet that tennis prodigy ahead of time.
Three figures suddenly emerged from the bushes and stared in the same direction.
One of them, a boy with long brown hair, couldn't hold back any longer. "Isn't it kind of wrong for us to follow him like this?"
"Ryo~ Don't you want to know the secret behind Kamikawa getting stronger?!" the boy with wine-red hair coaxed him.
"Yamabuki Junior High?! They made it to the National Tournament last year, too. I heard they're one of Tokyo's old-school tennis powerhouses. What's he doing here?"
The boy beside them, with short dark blue hair and black-rimmed glasses, looked puzzled.
They'd ended practice early, and he'd assumed they were going off to do some secret training. But instead, they'd come to another prestigious tennis school. What exactly was Kamikawa up to?
"I'd guess he came here to challenge them."
A voice suddenly came from behind them.
The three boys jumped and spun around.
Standing behind them was the unmistakably smug young Atobe. Tezuka had come along as well, though the two of them had barely spoken on the way.
"Captain, Vice Captain, why... why did you follow us here?" Shishido awkwardly scratched his head.
Atobe looked at Shishido as though he were an idiot. "Four people leave early at once, and you expect me to think I'm an idiot?"
"We just wanted to find out how Kamikawa got stronger. Who knew he'd end up at Yamabuki Junior High?" Mukahi admitted frankly.
"Yeah."
Oshitari nodded quietly. "I thought he lived around here."
"Hey, what if he's a spy Yamabuki sent to get information on how our Hyotei tennis club is developing?!" Shishido suddenly blurted out.
He was met with a series of looks that said he was an idiot.
Join Hyotei's tennis club just to gather intelligence?
Only an idiot would do that!
"Heh... I was just trying to lighten the mood~"
Shishido knew how stupid he'd sounded. He'd only been trying to ease the awkwardness.
"So what now?"
"Should we go in? If we do, will the Yamabuki guys kick us out?"
"Come to think of it, what's Kamikawa even doing in there? Could he really be there to challenge them?"
Everyone talked over one another, but no one had an answer.
In the end, they all looked to Atobe. Atobe glanced at Tezuka beside him.
Tezuka fell silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Let's go in and take a look."
With that decision made, Shishido and the others nodded and headed toward Yamabuki Junior High's tennis club.
Before you continue