16-to-8 Begins (I)

In episode 89, his finger tapped a spot on the schedule as he continued, "They were one of the top four teams in the prefecture. Like Ryonan, they had played a practice match against Ryonan before, and the memory still haunted him. So he felt that none of the top four teams would be easy to deal with."

Akagi stood at the very front, his brows twisted into a deep furrow. His gaze locked onto the words "Group Five" as if in an iron grip, and his fists slowly clenched.

Kakuta Gatsu scratched his head and forced out a smile. "Hey, don't be so nervous. This is a round-robin format, and each group has two qualifying spots. Even if we lose to Ryonan, we still have a chance to advance as long as the other results go our way."

Sakuragi Hanamichi was unwilling to accept that. He said bluntly, "What's so special about Ryonan? Can't we just beat them?"

"Why make it so complicated?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Akagi slowly turned around, his gaze sweeping over everyone. Chen Sheng spoke up. "That's right. As long as we give it everything we've got and defeat every opponent, the qualifying spot will naturally be ours."

Ayako lowered her head and flipped through the materials in her hands before looking up. "There are only two courts for this tournament. The first matches will be Hainan from Group A and Ryonan from Group C. Groups B and D won't play until those two groups are done. Should we go watch their games?"

Mumu Gongyan cut in, "There's no need to watch Hainan, right? You don't even have to guess—they'll definitely win. If we're going to watch a game, it should be Ryonan's. Even their weakest opponent was in last year's top eight."