Chapter 132 Chapter 132 Smoke on the Road
As soon as Keigo Atobe stood up, the cheering group began to shout his name excitedly.
Although the beginning of throwing the coat is omitted, snapping fingers + cheering commands are still essential.
Ending with a snap of fingers and the words "Indulge in my magnificent art~", the cheering group fell silent. This unified and majestic scene completely overwhelmed Echigo Taira's momentum. Even though Echigo Taira was on the side with the strongest captain, at this moment, he had completely lost all his fighting spirit.
Yuyin herself didn't realize it, but looking at Atobe's tall and shining figure in the center of the field, the corners of her mouth rose up and she smiled unconsciously.
Excluding the last Japan-US Youth Friendship Exchange Tournament, this was indeed the first time that Yuyin watched Atobe's official competition live.
After all, Hyotei was unfortunately eliminated early in the first round of the Kanto Tournament. At that time, the relationship between Tamane and Atobe was just that of classmates who looked familiar to each other. Apart from the conversations when handing in homework every day, the two of them rarely spoke to each other.
Even a shrine maiden with the ability to predict the future probably couldn't have predicted that in just two months, the two of them would become close, inseparable friends, and that Atobe Keigo even wanted to take this relationship a step further...
"Atobe wins this game, Hyotei leads 1:0."
The referee's decision brought Yuyin back to her senses.
Forget it, don’t think about the confession anymore. Yuyin tightened her arms around her coat, then relaxed again, concentrating on watching the game.
*
After the match, Atobe Keigo gratefully accepted the towel and water bottle handed to him by Tamane. He wiped the sweat off his face and turned to the regulars beside him and said, "Let's go have a feast together later."
"Yeah~ Atobe, you're the best!" Mukai Taketo was the first to jump up happily.
Yuushi Oshizuka pushed up his glasses and said, "Don't overeat. It'll affect your competition tomorrow."
"What do you care! You're not my partner anymore, Yushi!" He made a face at Hitaketo and hooked his arm around Hiyoshi Wakaba, "Hiyoshi, now we're one country, right?"
Hiyoshi Wakaba put his hand expressionlessly on the arm that Mukai Taketo had hooked around his neck, "Mukkai Senior, please let go. I'm very uncomfortable with you doing this."
"Oh, Hiyoshi, you're so boring. You should be helping me, your senior, to denounce that heartless Yuushi."
Ozuki Yuushi laughed unhappily: "Who is so heartless? Next time you run away from home, I won't take you in."
"No, Yuushi!"
Everyone knew that Ozuki and Mukai had a good relationship, and they didn't care about their jokes about each other. Sure enough, in the end, Ozuki was "more skilled" and made Mukai "admit defeat."
As Keigo Atobe listened to his teammates playing and packing up, he beckoned the head of the cheering group over and instructed him to make arrangements for the group, urging him to ensure order and organization for all 200 people. The head agreed and ran back to gather a few more group managers to divide the group into groups and manage the orderly exit of the cheering group.
"Here, your jacket." Yuyin waited until Atobe had finished all the post-match matters before returning the jacket to him.
"Thank you." Atobe Keigo took it with a smile, and did not forget to ask her about her impressions of the competition. "How was it? It would be more exciting to watch my solo show live in the front row."
Atobe still remembered that Tamane had only seen him play an official match once before, which was the doubles match between him and Sanada at the Japan-US Youth Friendship Exchange Tournament. Seeing him firmly holding the number one singles position in Hyotei, it was clear that his favorite position was singles, which best reflected his gorgeous skills.
However, the only regret for Atobe is that his opponent today is a little bit inferior and he cannot fully show his brilliance. It seems that he still has to wait until the last two rounds to meet the real strong teams in the national competition before he can play to his satisfaction and present a truly exciting game to Yuyin.
Yuyin nodded and said with a smile, "I haven't congratulated you yet, Hyotei, on advancing in the first round." Then she asked, "It's still early. Should we go watch other teams' matches and gather intelligence? For example, who will be our next opponent?"
"No, our next opponent, Makinofuji, has a bye in the first round," Atobe Keigo slung his jacket over his shoulders and shook his head, his tone remarkably confident. "As for the teams I'm interested in, they're all seeded teams in the national tournament and have received a bye in the first round. They won't play until tomorrow. As for the other teams, even if there are one or two dark horses that I'm interested in, their competitions should have almost finished by now. There's no need to even look at those that are still playing."
Although Yuyin has been trying hard to catch up on the junior high school tennis world over the past month, her understanding is not as deep as that of Tetsube, who has been the tennis captain for many years. She did not object at the moment and helped the regular team members pack up their things, and then everyone left the venue together.
*
Although they said so, not long after Yuyin and the group of people from the tennis club walked out, they were blocked by another group of people halfway.
To be specific, this is not a group of people, but from two different teams, one of which is an old acquaintance of Tamane and Atobe Keigo, the people from the Seigaku Tennis Team.
"Tezuka, you're here to watch the match too." Atobe Keigo's expression changed immediately when he saw the Aogaku president in the crowd. "That's right, your Aogaku's next opponents will be chosen from Higa and Rokkaku, so it's only natural for you to come and check out the enemy. Rokkaku, you've played against each other before, right? Who won today?"
Before Tezuka could reply, the man in the purple uniform on the other side spoke up, "Rokkaku? You're not even taking that kind of rubbish seriously? Of course, Higachu will win."
Atobe Keigo frowned slightly. If he remembered correctly, this was Higashikata's chief, Kita Nagashiro. He didn't like the tone of his voice and immediately mocked him back: "I'm talking to Tezuka, what does it have to do with you?"
"Hmph," Kide Nagashiro pushed his glasses and retorted sarcastically, "We at Higachu will definitely beat Seigaku, advance to the semifinals, and eventually win the national championship. As for you Hyotei, you can even make it to the Kanto tournament in one day. You won't lose to Makinofuji in the next round, will you?"
According to the schedule, Hyotei and Higachu need to advance to the semifinals to meet, so Kide Nagashiro used this to mock, implying that Hyotei will never have the chance to meet Higachu.
"Oh, you're quite the boaster," Atobe Keigo crossed his arms, his expression even more arrogant than Kide Nagaku's. "Only when you defeat Seigaku will you be qualified to speak to me. However," he sneered, "with your level, this is completely impossible."
"you!"
As the captain, Nagashiro Kimura was able to remain calm in the face of trash talk, but the team members behind him were different. They were so angry that they wanted to rush up and start a real fight.
The regulars from Seigaku nearby couldn't help but sweat for Atobe Keigo. Kikumaru Eiji whispered to Oishi, "What should we do? Those guys from Higachu know Okinawan martial arts. What if they lose control of their temper and beat Atobe up? We'll definitely be disqualified, and Seigaku will automatically advance to the next round, but what if Atobe gets injured and it affects the rest of the competition..."
He thought he spoke quietly, but the two teams were too close to each other, and athletic teenagers usually have good five senses, especially hearing, so they could hear clearly the worried complaints of him and his teammates.
Yuyin was one of the people who knew everything. She couldn't help but chuckle and said to the cute cat-eyed boy who looked like a big cat, "Don't worry, even if they want to fight, they can't hurt Atobe."
Are you kidding? With her as a gold medal bodyguard, if Atobe gets injured in front of her, she will be laughed at by the world of sorcery, among exorcists and people with special abilities.
Hearing Yuyin's reply, Kikumaru Eiji breathed a sigh of relief and patted his chest: "That's good, that's good. I feel relieved now."
Before Yuyin could turn her attention away, she heard the young man throw out another earth-shattering sentence, "But Atobe's girlfriend, how do you know they can't hurt Atobe? Is Atobe really good at fighting?"
“Ahem…”
Yuyin was almost choked by his words "Atobe's girlfriend" and subconsciously denied it, "I'm not..."
In an instant, she realized belatedly that in order to find a reasonable reason for her to stay by Atobe's side for close protection and to prevent others from getting suspicious, she and Keigo seemed to have claimed and misled the outside world into thinking that they were a couple.
In other words, in the eyes of those who have had contact with her in Hyotei Academy and the junior high school tennis club, she and Atobe are boyfriend and girlfriend!
Yuyin couldn't help but want to hold her forehead with her hand. Was she shooting herself in the foot?
The most frustrating thing is that she can't deny this matter in person, because once she denies it, someone may curiously ask her why she goes in and out with Atobe. She can't just change her words and make lame excuses like "Actually, I am the daughter of the Atobe family who has been separated for many years."
Yuyin glanced at Atobe next to her. She almost suspected that Atobe had done it on purpose. However, facing Kikumaru's curious eyes, she could only change her words and said, "Well, I wanted to say that I am Saionji Yuyin, a classmate of Seigaku. You can just call me by my name."
"Then I'll call you Saionji~" Kikumaru Eiji said happily without noticing Yuyin's complicated mental journey.
"Okay." Yuyin nodded. He was obviously a very likable person. Even when Yuyin was accidentally exposed by his straight shot for a fact that had been ignored for a long time, she could not have any negative emotions towards him. After all, cute little animals are meant to be pampered.
The tension in the atmosphere, which had been as tense as a powder keg, was immediately deflated by Kikumaru Eiji's interruption. Everyone in Higa remembered that they were not on the court and that they could not use tennis balls to "disguise" accidents to attack their opponents.
If the organizers discovered that they had any bad behavior outside the stadium, they would be disqualified, and all the hard work they had put in preparing for the national competition over the past two or three years would be wasted. This was something that no one in Higa could tolerate.
Kimute Nagashiro pushed his glasses up and silently reflected on his own inconsiderate thoughts. He ignored the Hyotei people who had joined later and turned to Seigaku, giving him a malicious smile: "Everyone at Seigaku, we will take our leave first. I hope your performance tomorrow will live up to what you said today. Goodbye~"
After everyone from Higachu had left, Atobe Keigo raised an eyebrow and said to Tezuka Kunimitsu, who had maintained an expressionless face the entire time, "It's rare to see you look so angry. Tell me, what did Higachu do during the match?"
Tezuka Kunimitsu wasn't one to gossip about others behind their backs, but it was Momoshiro Takeshi, who usually had a hot temper, who stepped in. "The coach will definitely be furious. That guy from Higa Middle School went too far. He deliberately hit Coach Rokkaku's eye with the ball during the game, and he was even sent to the hospital. I'm going to teach these immoral people a lesson tomorrow!"
"Momoshiro." Tezuka called out lightly, and then said to Atobe, "That's probably what Momoshiro said."
"I see, no wonder you're so angry."
Atobe Keigo nodded. Even he had heard that the reason Tezuka's arm was injured was because he had been maliciously bullied by his seniors in the tennis club in the past. That was outside the court. Higa Chuu was clearly hitting someone with a tennis ball on the court, which was exactly what Tezuka hated.
He touched his teardrop mole, his lips curled up in an extremely arrogant arc: "It seems that you will teach Higachu a profound lesson tomorrow. As for Tezuka, I will wait for you in the semi-finals."
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The author has something to say: At this moment, Mu Te would never have thought that one day he would fall under the black card of Mr. Atobe ^_^
*Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided me with nutrient solution between 2022-08-17 00:27:12 and 2022-08-17 21:31:18~
Thanks to the little angels who threw grenades: Ouyang Zhenluo 1;
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Yuechengran 40 bottles; SY 2 bottles; Elix 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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