"Such a quick approach to the net. He spotted his opponent's weakness and attacked immediately."
"I'm afraid that, for both of them, this first point was only a probing shot."
Shishido couldn't help smiling bitterly. Even in their tentative rallies, the two players had displayed such a high level of skill that he wouldn't have been able to return their shots. It showed just how wide the gap was between him and those two.
"Huff..."
Yukimura stopped and looked ahead.
"That speed getting to the net..."
Yukimura paused, feeling the heat in his palm, then said, "No wonder he's so confident. His skill is on par with Sanada's."
"But if this is all he's got, I'll be sorely disappointed."
Yukimura took a deep breath and relaxed his body.
That last shot had only been a test. And he wasn't the only one testing the waters—Kamikawa was doing the same.
But...
Starting with the next point, Yukimura wouldn't hold back. He could feel how strong his opponent was.
Strong enough to be worth giving his all against.
With that in mind,
Yukimura tossed the ball, raised his arm, and swung with all his might.
The next instant, a sharp crack rang out.
Bam!!
The fluorescent-colored tennis ball streaked through the air and struck the inverted-triangle area behind the service line, landing precisely on the line.
The serve was faster and more powerful, with better control, than the one he'd seen earlier!
"Tap... tap..."
Kamikawa stayed near the baseline, running along it as he returned the serve with his backhand.
The instant he touched the ball, Kamikawa sensed something was off.
His eyes flicked over Yukimura. Then he surged forward, approaching the net to return the serve.
Kamikawa rarely rushed the net on a return. Doing so also carried another meaning: he was taking the initiative and launching an attack.
Bam!
With a sharp crosscourt return, Yukimura aimed for the diagonal corner.
Kamikawa pushed off one foot and raced toward the left corner.
Bam!
As the ball hit the ground and bounced, Yukimura appeared at the baseline in the left half of the court. He slammed a backhand, sending the ball hurtling toward the opposite half of Kamikawa's court.
Kamikawa glanced at it and halted his pursuit.
The ball struck the ground, spinning violently as it shot toward the open space on the left and slammed into the fence. Its fierce spin rattled the fence outside the court.
"15–15!!"
"So it looked like a flat passing shot, but it was actually topspin!"
Shishido's pupils contracted. He hadn't even reacted in time.
If it had been him, or any other player, they would've rushed forward to return it. After all, an ordinary flat shot might be fast, but it would still leave room for a return.
But with topspin and that angle, there would've been no chance to reach it.
"Fighting back, are you?"
Kamikawa smiled faintly, his eyes narrowing.
Yukimura was pretty competitive at this age.
Bam!!
Bam!!
The two players moved faster and faster around the court.
Everyone's attention was fixed on their back-and-forth passing shots. They kept driving each other from side to side, wearing down one another's stamina. Then Yukimura turned sideways to hit the ball, slowing his shot.
Crack!!
The ball brushed the net at the center, abruptly changing its trajectory.
"A net shot!"
"What an incredible net shot."
Inoue gripped the fence, his eyes filled with disbelief.
A net shot was an advanced tennis technique, too. It demanded astonishing ball control, though it also involved an element of luck. It was incredibly difficult to produce one at will.
To pull off a net shot with such precision in a rally under this much pressure...
Just how strong was Seishun Gakuen's Seiichi Yukimura?!
Kamikawa rushed forward and lowered his body. He had no choice but to return the ball with a lob.
Bam!!
The ball soared upward. A moment later, Yukimura appeared in the air, gripping his racket as he smashed the ball down.
"Here it comes!"
Shishido seemed to realize what was about to happen, and unconsciously tightened his grip on the fence.
"What's coming, Shishido?!"
Oshitari hadn't yet caught on when an astonishing scene unfolded before him.
Bam!!
The ball plunged down in a smash, carrying tremendous force, but it was returned in an instant.
Kamikawa turned his back and spread his arms. The force of the smash was instantly absorbed and sent back, and the ball flew over Seiichi Yukimura's head.
It landed safely inside the court.
"15–30!!"
"W-What was that?!"
Could an ordinary person really return a smash from a position like that?
Shishido could see Oshitari's shock and said, "He used a similar move when he played against me earlier."
"I felt just like you do now. It was hard to believe—especially when the ball flew over my head..."
This kind of bizarre return wasn't something a normal player could pull off.
You needed absolute confidence in your ability to read where your opponent's smash would land and control the ball yourself.
That guy was just that incredible. He'd done something ordinary players couldn't.
"That was a nice move."
After a brief pause, Yukimura smiled and asked, "What's it called?"
"This move?"
Kamikawa thought for a moment, then smiled. "The Bear Return. Pretty interesting, right? I saw it from someone else earlier."
Someone else?!
Who did he mean? One of the players who'd come with him?
Yukimura froze. He never would've guessed that this move belonged to someone else.
If it really was Tezuka, who had come with Kamikawa and was now playing in the Group A finals, then Sanada was in trouble.
After all, Sanada's greatest strength was his smash.
Yet his rational instincts told Yukimura that the person Kamikawa meant wasn't Tezuka.
Then who could it be?!
Kamikawa didn't explain. He turned and walked away.
He didn't say who it was. Whether it was the still-unheralded genius Fuji or Osaka's Kansai Wolf, both of them knew the move, so it wasn't exclusive to Fuji.
He'd simply let everyone see its power a little earlier.
Bam!!
On the neighboring court, the Group A final was underway.
Truthfully, Sanada was certainly strong enough to reach the Group A final. He was no weaker than anyone else.
And yet the match had become completely one-sided. Tezuka hadn't moved an inch since it began, his gaze so calm he hardly seemed human.
No matter what kind of attack Sanada launched, Tezuka kept the rhythm of the match firmly under his control.
The ball, in particular, always seemed to head straight for Tezuka's ideal hitting point.
"That's... impossible!"
Sanada had joined a tennis club when he was just four years old, so he knew far more than the average elementary schooler. After rallying back and forth, he'd already noticed something was wrong.
Only now did he finally understand just how strong the boy in front of him was.
This was Tezuka's own domain technique: Tezuka Zone. It was an exceptionally advanced skill, one that only someone with a profound understanding of ball control could master.
Not many players could pull off this move—not just in this year's junior elementary division, but even in the middle school or high school divisions. It was a unique gift.
It wasn't the kind of technique you could easily reproduce just by understanding how it worked.
Of course, in theory, Tezuka still hadn't mastered the technique completely. But as he rallied back and forth with Sanada, he was gradually perfecting his own "force."
That was Tezuka Zone!
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