Take Out Your Tennis Racket and Hit It!

Good grief! They'd hired Tezuka Kunimitsu as outside support, and there was a Ryoma Echizen sitting in the class next door on my side?! In this anime crossover world of yours, did tennis matches have to blow up the Earth before they were satisfied?!

"Let's go! We'll find him right now!" Lin Xiao waved excitedly and led the three girls charging aggressively toward the neighboring class.

A few minutes later, in the shade on Sobu High School's rooftop.

A short-haired boy with dark green hair, wearing a white FILA cap and school uniform, lounged lazily on a bench with his eyes closed.

"Found you. You're Ryoma Echizen, right?" Lin Xiao walked over as though they were already acquainted and got straight to the point. "We're from the [All-Heavens Rescue Club], and we're short one person for next week's tennis match. Interested in joining us and playing against Tezuka Kunimitsu?"

At the mention of "Tezuka Kunimitsu," the boy in the cap trembled almost imperceptibly. But he did not open his eyes, merely tugging down the brim of his cap calmly.

"Sorry, you've got the wrong person." Ryoma's voice was incredibly cold, devoid of the old arrogant "You still have a long way to go." "I don't play tennis anymore."

"Why?" Eriri could not help asking. "Yukinoshita said you're an exceptionally rare talent. It'd be such a waste to give up."

"There's no reason. I don't play, so I don't play." Ryoma turned away, presenting the group with his back in rejection.

However, Lin Xiao sharply sensed that something was wrong.

From this boy, who should have been brimming with youthful passion, Lin Xiao could not feel even the slightest "emotion" toward tennis. It was not hatred, nor was it avoidance. It was a strangely profound... emptiness!

As if some incredibly important fragment of his soul had been forcibly carved out!

"Since you don't want to talk, I'll have to use some stronger methods." Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes with a darkly mischievous smile, stepped forward, and allowed a trace of the pressure of the earth around him to leak out.

Feeling that oppressive force, enough to make one's soul tremble, Ryoma abruptly opened his eyes and stared at Lin Xiao warily.

"What do you want?"

"Heh heh heh, desperate times call for desperate measures."

Under Lin Xiao's benevolent intimidation, Ryoma gritted his teeth in pain and revealed an absurd secret.

"It's useless... Even if I join, I can't play." Ryoma lowered his head, clenching his fists tightly. "Because... my passion was taken away."

"???" Lin Xiao, Yukino, and the others looked at one another. What did it mean for someone's passion to be taken away?

Ryoma raised his head and looked at Lin Xiao with utter seriousness. "Do you believe that this world... has monsters?"

"..."

Everyone fell silent, while Miko Yotsuya, hiding behind Lin Xiao, nodded frantically. She not only believed—they were visible to her.

Ryoma took a deep breath, a lingering terror flashing through his eyes as he recalled the past.

"Half a year ago, I took a bus to Chiba Prefecture. In the mountains, we encountered a severe mudslide and landslide. The bus was trapped at the edge of a cliff and could have fallen at any moment. Every passenger on board was crying and screaming in despair."

"Then, a terrifying monster appeared inside the bus."

"It said it could use magic to stabilize the bus and save us. But the price was... one person had to offer up the most precious thing in their soul for it to devour."

Ryoma's voice trembled. "...No one was willing to step forward. So I agreed. It took away my 'passion' and 'talent' for tennis, then pulled the bus back from the edge of the cliff."

After hearing that tragic tale, which carried the air of myth.

The rooftop fell completely silent.

Yukino and Eriri looked at the seemingly cold boy before them in utter shock. To save a busload of strangers he had never met, he had willingly sacrificed his tennis dream, which he treasured as much as life itself... This was not self-indulgent downfall at all. He was a true hero!

Meanwhile, a huge uproar erupted in the Myriad Worlds Chat Group.

[The Boy Who Wants to Be a Hero]: "Trading the thing most precious to yourself for the lives of others... This boy named Ryoma Echizen is someone worthy of respect."

[Smile Under the Wisteria Flowers]: "What a gentle yet cruel story. To make such a choice at that age is heartbreaking."

[The Underdog Who Wants to Be Hokage]: "That damn monster! It actually stole someone's dream! Big Brother Lin Xiao, you have to help him!"

[Dark Knight of Gotham]: "An exceptionally noble spirit of self-sacrifice. If this were Gotham, someone like him would be worth recruiting into the Justice League's reserve ranks."

Everyone was deeply moved by Ryoma's selflessness. Yet just as the atmosphere turned solemn and tragic, that gaming-addicted princess who always ruined the mood popped up again.

[The Shut-In Princess of Eientei]: "No... I'm just curious about one thing. What kind of monster could be that powerful? That's Ryoma Echizen from Prince of Tennis! (≖ᴗ≖)✧"

Seeing Kaguya's remark, Lin Xiao rubbed his chin in agreement.

He looked at the gloomy Ryoma and asked a question that thoroughly ruined the mood.

"Hey... Ryoma." "Let me interrupt this touching moment for a second. Since you ran into a landslide and a monster..."

"Why didn't you just take a racket out of your tennis bag, hit it with a Light Bullet or a Twist Serve, blow that mountain flat, and then threaten that monster with your lethal tennis?"

"With the destructive power of the tennis you people play, shouldn't that monster have been beaten into oblivion?"

The moment those words left his mouth.

The wind on the rooftop stopped in an incredibly strange manner. Ryoma, who had been immersed in his sorrowful memories, stiffly raised his head. A massive question mark slowly appeared on his handsome face.

"Huh???"

Ryoma was completely dumbfounded. Was that even a question a carbon-based life-form could ask?! I'm a student who plays tennis, damn it! I'm not a Terminator! What did he mean, flattening a mountain with a serve?! What did he mean, threatening a monster with tennis?!

"Ahem." Lin Xiao coughed twice naturally, ignoring Ryoma's expression as though he were looking at a lunatic.

He stepped forward, patted the shoulder of this fallen genius with commanding confidence, and made him an offer he could not refuse.

"Anyway, I understand your situation now."

Lin Xiao curled his lips into a confident smile. "How about this? Let's make a deal. If I help you recover that 'passion' for tennis exactly as it was, you'll join our [All-Heavens Rescue Club] and help me knock that Tezuka Kunimitsu guy flat on the tennis court."

"What do you say?"

At Lin Xiao's words, Ryoma's pupils contracted sharply. Recover it? Was that even possible?!

"It can't be recovered..."

Ryoma shook his head in pain, and the hope that had just risen in his eyes went out once more. "Since that accident, I've gone back to that mountain countless times and searched every corner, but I never found any trace of that monster again."

"That's not something you need to worry about."

"You just need to tell me where that landslide happened." Lin Xiao shoved his hands into his pockets, his eyes benevolently fixed on the distant mountains. "What I enjoy most in life is teaching those suicidal wandering ghosts how to behave."

"Fine." Ryoma pressed down the brim of his cap and seriously gave a place name. "Kanagawa... Dragon Abyss Mountain."