Chapter 158 Tennis 46
Kirihara Akaya's question seemed to have a muting function. In an instant, the whole place fell silent, and surprised glances shifted between him and Kurikawa Sana.
At this time, Keigo Atobe also arrived at the competition venue, and as soon as he arrived, he heard Kirihara Akaya's loud questioning.
He frowned and immediately looked in the direction of the black-haired girl, but there was no blame in Atobe Keigo's eyes, only worry.
The girl, under countless gazes, still stood where she was. She did not look embarrassed, but her expression and the aura she exuded were unusually cold.
That face, which was already extremely delicate and beautiful, brought an unprecedented sense of distance when she was not smiling. The contrast brought by the rare indifferent expression made the girl exude an even more astonishing beauty.
Perhaps it is because she always has a gentle and sweet smile on her face and her personality is so easy-going that it is hard to imagine that she can be so difficult to approach at times.
——She is angry.
Many people who looked at her were stunned.
The same goes for Kirihara Akaya. With his scarlet eyes, he tends to be more impulsive than usual. As soon as he asked the question, he felt a little regretful.
But once the question was spoken, it was like spilled water, with no room for retraction. Especially now, seeing Kurikawa Sana's unprecedented expression of indifference and anger, Kirihara Akaya felt a lump in his throat.
Why are you looking at him like that?
Did he say something wrong?!
"Kirihara! Please focus on the game and don't ask questions unrelated to the game!" The referee sitting high up was surprised at first, then looked at Fuji Shusuke who fell to the ground in pain after being hit by the ball. The referee turned to Ryuzaki, the coach of Seigaku, and announced the score: "The score is 2 to 1, CHANGE COURT, break between sets--"
During the 120-second break between venues, Kirihara Akaya could no longer contain himself and walked straight towards Kurikawa Sana: "Why didn't you answer my question?!"
Like a child throwing a tantrum, the more he is ignored, the more he cares and the harder it is to let go.
Kurikawa Sana still didn't say anything. She just looked intently at Fuji Shusuke returning to the rest bench of Seigaku. Coach Ryuzaki immediately stepped forward to check the condition of his knee.
Judging from Coach Ryuzaki's relieved expression, fortunately it's nothing serious.
Kurikawa Sana also slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
She finally looked at Kirihara Akaya and asked indifferently, "Does Kirihara-kun always injure his opponents like this during competitions?"
"I didn't hit them on purpose. It's their fault for not being able to dodge my ball!" Kirihara Akaya said with a bit of annoyance, "And didn't I apologize already?!"
Kurikawa Sana: "..."
It turns out that when people are speechless, they can really get angry and laugh.
After each hit, he would condescendingly say to the person lying on the ground, "Oh, sorry, I thought you could dodge that shot with your strength," "I'm so sorry, I hit the same spot again" - is this an apology? It's clearly sarcastic.
Even if he didn't mean to do it, he had clearly seriously injured someone and caused them intense pain. Why could his tone still be so innocent and righteous?
"Even if you didn't mean to, you did hurt someone, didn't you?" Kurikawa Sana said expressionlessly, "And after all, why did Kirihara-kun tell me all this? Regardless of whether you hurt someone intentionally or not, what does my opinion have to do with it?"
“?!”
Kirihara Akari couldn't help but be stunned, his scarlet eyes widened a little.
Yes, why did he have to explain so much to her?
Why should I care if she's angry?
After all, she was just a senior from another school, and her only connection with Rikkai University was that she had once pursued Minister Yukimura. Apart from that, they had no other relationship, and he didn't seem to have any right to question her.
...Is it because of Yukimura? Is he worried that Kurikawa-san will dislike him and, in turn, have a bad impression of Yukimura?
I don't want Minister Yukimura to be disliked because of me.
Kirihara Akaya's eyes became a little confused, and he didn't reply for a moment.
Seeing him stunned, Kurikawa Sana pondered for a moment, and suddenly felt that he was not hopeless, and perhaps there was still room for change. She continued -
"Is it because Kirihara-kun subconsciously feels that what you're doing is wrong? That's why you're hoping to gain recognition from me, an 'outsider' who doesn't belong to Rikkai University or Seigaku?"
“……!”
Kirihara Akaya clenched his fists suddenly and shouted in his heart, "No way!"
He just wanted to win, and he had always done so, triumphantly winning all the way and laying the foundation for Rikkai University to advance to three consecutive championships. No one had ever said that he couldn't do this!
By the way, three consecutive championships... They also want to give the Kanto Tournament trophy to Minister Yukimura as a gift for the surgery!
Kirihara Akaya gritted his teeth and asked, "Our captain is still in the hospital and he's about to go into surgery, but you're concerned about the guys from Seigaku! Do you like Fuji Shusuke or our captain Yukimura?!"
Hearing his name suddenly mentioned, Fuji Shusuke's back in the rest area of Qingxue School stiffened slightly, and the action of applying the ice towel to his knees also paused.
Kurikawa Sana wasn't distracted at all, her voice only growing colder. "So you also remember that Yukimura-kun is about to have surgery, right? Then why did you deliberately drag out the match just to torment your opponent?"
“…!!”
"If you really wanted all of Rikkai University to catch up with Yukimura-kun's surgery, you wouldn't have deliberately dragged out the game for your own amusement. You could have scored directly, but you deliberately delayed the game and made Fuji-kun run around, just to make it 'more interesting' and make his knee more uncomfortable."
At this point, Kurikawa Sana raised her hand and glanced at the time on her watch. "At this time, the number one singles player, Sanada-kun, is obviously too late to join everyone in escorting Yukimura-kun to the operating room. He has to stay here and compete alone."
The girl's question was so powerful that Kirihara Akaya's eyes widened again.
Genichirō Sanada, who also heard her words, closed his eyes and took a deep breath in silence.
Just as she said, there was not enough time and he couldn't send Yukimura to the operating room in person.
The other regular students of Rikkai University were also present and heard the conversation between Kirihara Akaya and Kurikawa Sana. After listening to the whole thing, everyone sighed silently.
Forget it, Chiye, you can't argue with her at all.
...I am indeed in the wrong.
In fact, they did not completely agree with Kirihara Akaya's playing style. Just like when Kirihara Akaya squeezed the tennis ball tightly and was about to make an extremely dangerous irregular serve, everyone in Rikkai changed their expressions.
Niou Masaharu was sweating on his forehead. Yanagi Renji also shouted loudly, "No, this serve is too dangerous!", and Kuwabara Jack asked loudly to the court in disbelief - "Do you really want to destroy Fuji Shusuke?!"
The knee-jerk reaction was the most genuine, and the reaction of the Rikkai public showed that they also did not approve of Akaya's injury. However, because Kirihara Akaya was the much-loved second-year ace, everyone often turned a blind eye to his playing style.
When Akaya's pride is aroused during competition, his blood pressure rises, causing his eyes and skin to turn red, and even entering a "demonization" state where his hair turns completely white. Once Akaya's eyes turn red, he unconsciously becomes more violent than his normal self, losing his mind in pursuit of victory.
Whenever he really went too far and caused irreversible damage to his opponent, Rikkai University's Vice Minister Genichirō Sanada would step in to stop him.
Just like at this moment, Genichirō Sanada also spoke up to stop it.
"Akaye! Don't do unnecessary things!" Sanada Genichirō shouted majestically: "The break is over! Return to your venue and continue the game--"
“……!”
Genichirō Sanada had an extraordinary deterrent effect on Akaya Kirihara. The kelp-haired boy's entire body was shaken, but he finally obediently returned to the competition venue.
When he stood in the center of the court again, Kirihara Akaya felt extremely irritated, and this irritation became even worse after hearing Tachibana Kihei's voice.
Tachibana Kippei, the captain of Fudomine, was known as one of the "Two Heroes of Kyushu" and was the guy he defeated in the previous game in 14 minutes and one second.
Now, Tachibana Kihei was leaning on crutches with a plaster cast on his foot, standing next to his sister Tachibana An and Kurikawa Sana, and shouted to Fuji Shusuke who was still half-bent over and enduring the pain in his knees -
"Fuji! Your strength is more than just this, right?! If you lose now, Seigaku will stop here. Can you accept that?!"
"Stand up and keep fighting, Fuji!"
Encouraged by Tachibana Kihei, who had come specially from the hospital, Fuji Shusuke slowly stood up and gripped the racket again, his icy blue eyes filled with determination, "I will win."
Kirihara Akaya frowned irritably.
...meddlesome guy!
But looking at Tachibana Kiyohira who was leaning on a crutch, Kirihara Akaya's frown relaxed. He grinned and suddenly had a sudden idea.
Kirihara Akaya clenched the tennis ball, threw it upwards, swung the racket vigorously, and sent out an irregular serve with force!
With a "bang" sound!
The yellow ball slammed hard into the singles line, creating a powerful whirlwind that lifted Fuji Shusuke's chestnut-brown hair, revealing a look of astonishment. Then the ball rushed toward the orange-colored flat gate at the edge of the wire fence.
"careful!!"
The ball spun and rubbed against the wire mesh with immense force, deforming the black mesh and nearly punching through it, hitting Ju Juping in the face.
Ju Juping had an injury on his leg, and was so startled by the sudden ball that he lost his balance and fell to the ground with a bang, showing a painful expression.
"elder brother!"
"Captain Tachibana! Are you okay?!"
The people around came forward to show their concern, and Kurikawa Sana, who was closest to Tachibana Kihei like An, also subconsciously helped him up.
When she looked up at the court again, Kurikawa Sana's face was filled with disbelief. "Kiriya-kun! You served the ball so hard it went out of bounds just to hit Tachibana-kun. You'd rather lose the point than hurt him, and you still say it wasn't intentional?!"
Kirihara Aka also paused, and didn't reply for a moment. He just turned his head away awkwardly and didn't look at her. "...It's his own fault! It's his own fault for not dodging!"
“………”
Kurikawa Sana was completely shocked by his logic and was speechless.
After confirming that Tachibana Kihei had been helped up, Fuji Shusuke turned around and looked at Kirihara Akaya again with a gaze as cold as ice. "It seems you really don't intend to change, at least not in today's game."
Kirihara Akaya twitched his lips. "Huh? You want me to change? What are you talking about when you're so far behind?"
Fuji Shusuke's aura was frighteningly cold. When it came to his serve, he silently clenched the ball between his fingertips, and then delivered an irregular serve exactly the same as Kirihara Akaya's, which also hit Kirihara Akaya's right knee!
"……What?!"
"Fuji Shusuke also knows Akaya's irregular serve?!"
"Did he hit Chiye's knee on purpose? Tit for tat?"
"No, according to the original trajectory of the ball, it should have passed under Akaya's feet. But he dodged in a panic, which caused the ball to hit his knee." Genichirō Sanada calmly answered his teammate's question.
The following game was completely under the control of Fuji Shusuke. Facing the same serve as his own and personally feeling the pain of being hit hard in the body, Kirihara Aka also fell into a state of panic and made mistakes one after another.
On the contrary, Fuji Shusuke seemed to have only become serious at this moment. He used basic single-foot steps with his left foot to reduce the pain and burden on his right foot. He used irregular serves, disappearing serves, white whales and phoenix returns to the nest one after another, and won the last few games with a completely dominating posture.
"GAME FUJI! Seigaku Fuji Shusuke wins, score 6 to 4!"
This thrilling game finally came to an end. One of the three types of return balls, the white whale, was blown by the wind, and the yellow ball returned to Fuji Shu's assistant.
He stretched out one hand to hold the flying ball, and let the other hand hang down naturally to hold the racket, a posture of victory.
The wind blew his short chestnut-brown hair. The boy slowly turned his head, his ice-blue eyes looking behind him.
Caught off guard, Kurikawa Sana met his gaze.
【Fuji Shusuke, Favorability +3. 】
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