Chapter 153 Chapter 153 National Competition Finals (Part 1)...
"We won! We won!"
When Anko Morimoto returned from her phone call, she was greeted by cheers before she even sat down. Her classmates, who had come to watch the game with her, were even more excited, hugging her and shouting, "Great, Anko! We won this round!"
Caught off guard by being hugged, Morimoto Anzi was stunned for a moment, then her eyes shifted to the scoreboard, which clearly read:
D1: Rikkai University vs. Hyotei, 5:7
She then stood up a beat later, her eyes shining: "Ah, Shishido-senpai and Feng-kun won!"
*
Listening to the countless cheers and encouragement from the crowd behind him, Oshizuka Yuushi congratulated Shishido Ryo and Hou Chotaro, who had just left the field. Then, leaning forward, he said excitedly to Atobe Keigo, who was sitting on the sidelines preparing to enter the game, "Atobe, you're really good at using psychological tactics. Warming up before the game is even over shows your immense trust in Shishido and Hou, and your belief that they will definitely win."
Hou Changtaro nodded repeatedly, "Yes, seeing the captain's trust in me and Shishido-senpai gave me the fighting spirit to persevere to the end and win the serve in one go."
Atobe Keigo responded absentmindedly, his eyes scanning the audience as if he was looking for something.
"Are you looking for the manager?" Ozuchi Yuushi raised his glasses and sighed inwardly. If it were any other time, he wouldn't have pointed it out. "When you went to warm up just now, I helped you check, but the manager didn't come. I also told the students sitting in the four corners of the auditorium that if they saw the manager coming, they should notify him and bring him in. Atobe, now is the last minute..."
Atobe Keigo raised his hand to stop him from speaking: "You don't have to say more, I understand. I won't be distracted, I just have a little hope..."
I hope that person happens to be here today.
Yuushi Ozuki felt that it was not easy for him to get involved in this matter. After all, it was their captain who fell in love. He had only read a lot of pure love romance novels, but he did not have much experience in love, so he could not give Atobe any practical and useful advice.
Furthermore, Saionji hadn't been seen since the semifinal match against Shitenhoji three days prior. The tennis club had asked Atobe about this, but received a vague explanation, saying the manager was out of town for something, so they stopped asking. After all, Saionji's status was special, and he might be on some secret demon-slaying mission, so they were willing to keep it a secret.
It's just hard for Atobe, because the meaning of it is definitely different when his sweetheart is present. But seeing how determined he is on the field, whether facing Shiraishi of Shitenhoji or Echizen of Seigaku, he resolutely persisted until the last moment and won the victory. Sometimes, Obito would suspect that he was not affected by personal feelings at all.
This is Keigo Atobe, the leader of Hyotei.
Perhaps, he just needed to believe it, just like Atobe believed that Shishido and Feng would win the doubles match and leave the final victory to be decided by the singles match.
The break between the two games was not long. Hyotei and Rikkai University had already played four games before, and some of them were dragged to the last minute to take the lead. The last singles match was played by the captains of both teams. The start time of the game was already very late, so after the organizers of the event cleaned up the venue, they immediately summoned players from both sides to play.
Atobe picked up the racket that was most comfortable for him, took a last look at the audience, and turned to go on court.
From this moment on, his attention would be focused solely on the court, seizing every flaw of the enemy until he won the victory.
*
The referee blew the whistle and the game started off very intensely.
Both sides are celebrities in the junior high school tennis world and have a certain understanding of each other, especially Atobe Keigo. Not to mention how many times he has played since the national competition, the previous two fierce battles with Shitenhoji Shiraishi and Seigaku Echizen have proved his strength.
On the contrary, it was Seiichi Yukimura who was unable to participate in the Kanto Tournament and the previous competitions due to illness and hospitalization. In the national competitions in the past few days, Yukimura has not played in the court. All the singles matches were played by Genichirō Sanada. Such an arrangement inevitably makes people suspect that his illness has not been recovered or he has been affected by the long-term lack of training, and his actual combat level has not yet returned to the best condition.
Atobe Keigo started a fierce fight right from the start, and he might have intended to test Yukimura Seiichi's recovery. If the opponent's recovery was not good, he would of course add insult to injury and beat the man when he was down. If Yukimura's level was not affected by the illness, then they would enter into a real confrontation.
Facts have proved that the reason why Rikkai University dared to let their recovered minister fight alone on a single day was out of recognition of his true strength, rather than any emotional factors. No matter how strong Atobe's attack was, it was blocked by Yukimura Seiichi. Under his powerful and insightful observation, Yukimura did not reveal any flaws, which can be said to be flawless.
Each ball was exchanged for a long time, and either of them could win in the end, as they kept close to each other. Technically, the two were evenly matched, but Atobe Keigo was well aware of his own strengths. In terms of power, he had a slight advantage over Yukimura, but in terms of stamina, only one or two people in the entire junior high school tennis world could surpass him, and Yukimura Seiichi, who had just recovered from an illness, was clearly not one of them.
In other words, dragging the game into a protracted battle is beneficial to Keigo Atobe.
Some people may say that his victory was unfair, but this is sports. Just like his last match against Kunimitsu Tezuka, defeating his opponent is the greatest respect that Keigo Atobe can show to his enemy.
But at the same time, Atobe also understood this very well. He could quickly realize this on the court. The same was true for Yukimura Seiichi. The opponent knew his disadvantages earlier than him and would never sit still and wait for death.
Finally, when Atobe was leading 2-1 in one game and was planning to win the fourth game in one go, an accident happened.
When he ran to the boundary line and was about to return Yukimura's ball at an extremely tricky angle, the racket that Atobe was holding tightly suddenly slipped out of his hand.
Not only did he fail to catch the ball, but due to the violent swing, the racket slipped out of his hand and hit the low wall below the audience seats on the sidelines with extremely fast acceleration, then bounced back and hit the ground hard.
Faced with this sudden accident, the audience's originally boiling cheers stopped, and a period of silence was created.
Atobe Keigo lowered his head and looked at his palm, stretching out his five fingers. He could clearly feel the reason. It was not an accidental accident. At that moment, he lost control of his fingers holding the racket.
He suddenly raised his head and looked across at the other side. Yukimura Seiichi smiled at him and said, "This is just the beginning."
【Eliminate the five senses】.
A skill name appeared in Keigo Atobe's mind. It turned out that this was the skill of destroying the five senses. It seemed that it started from the sense of touch. If the fingers lost control of the racket, they would not be able to fight back well. It was indeed a trick that was difficult to deal with.
Atobe picked up the racket and saw a crack on the edge of it. He greeted the referee, asked for a brief ceasefire, turned around and went to the bench to pick out a spare racket.
Although it is difficult to deal with, it is not impossible to crack. He had heard of Yukimura Seiichi's unique skills before and had done a lot of special training for it. Later, Yuyin came to his side, and with Yuyin's help, the special training was replaced with an upgraded version, and he took on all those upgraded training.
Since his sense of touch is disturbed, he will not be able to return the ball with too much force, which may easily cause his movements to be deformed. It's no problem. He will just reduce the force of his return and the accuracy of his movements will be affected.
Yukimura will certainly not miss the opportunity to press on with his victory, and perhaps he will strike back and even surpass his current lead.
But Keigo Atobe believed in himself more. Before that, he had cracked the opponent's special move, and by then [Destroy the Five Senses] was completely ineffective.
*
The distance from the Dema family residence to the competition venue is not short, and the traffic in Tokyo is congested. Sitting in the back seat, Saionji Tamane was secretly anxious and couldn't help but miss the good days when she could use her spiritual power smoothly. A teleportation array could shorten the distance a lot.
"I'd better let me accompany you."
When the car arrived at the destination, Shizuka Deiba, who was sitting in the back seat, looked at her impatient expression and sighed, "Even a medium-sized monster would chase you away and force you to signal for help. I don't want to be driven halfway and have the driver turn back."
Yuyin wanted to refuse, thinking that she was not that fragile. It was just that she could not use her spiritual power temporarily. She made it sound like she would fall down with a gust of wind. She could not fight the cursed monster in hand-to-hand combat. She had quite a few talismans on her.
Deba Shizuji glanced up at her and knew what she was about to say the moment she opened her mouth. "Didn't you say that places with a lot of people and negative emotions are most likely to breed cursed spirits? Atobe Keigo is the target of the Deba family's protection mission. You were away for three days, and there were no inspections around the competition venue beforehand. With me here, I can always ensure the competition goes smoothly until the end."
This was a perfectly legitimate reason; no one could harm the Chang family's reputation. Yuyin was well aware of how much her senior brother valued the family's honor. She tactfully swallowed her earlier objection and simply warned him, "Today is the national finals. There will be a large audience, and it will be quite noisy. Be prepared, senior brother."
Although Yuyin had explained it in advance, when Jingsi walked to the edge of the stage with her, he found that he had underestimated the enthusiasm of the audience.
Before they even entered the venue, they heard overwhelming cheers, which were so loud that there must have been more than one or two hundred people.
Yuyin laughed and said that youth is like this.
Jing Si was very quiet and quietly used a talisman to weaken her hearing before following Yuyin in.
"Manager!" "The manager is here!"
Unexpectedly, before they had taken two steps towards the auditorium and were looking for an empty seat, the students sitting nearby had already spotted Yuyin. Someone immediately came forward to greet them, and someone else spontaneously made way and led them to the front.
Shizuka Deba lagged behind slightly, and seeing the cheerful tone of voice in front of him where Tamane was talking to the classmates from the so-called tennis club cheering group, he finally realized that his junior sister was indeed a junior high school student now.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com