Chapter 52: Clear Sky
Tokyo after the rain was like wet glass. Sunlight penetrated the clouds, and the glass on the tall buildings reflected a dazzling array of colors. The small puddles beside the road reflected the blue sky and white clouds, which were shattered by the boy's hurried footsteps.
Fengjian ran out of the platform. The plaque of Mori no Garden was getting closer and closer. The entrance of the venue was crowded with people and the sound of discussions was endless.
When she saw the figure in the sky blue uniform on the sidelines, Fengjian paused, and her hand holding the shoulder strap tightened slightly. She took a deep breath, but quickened her pace and walked over.
Tezuka and Coach Ryuzaki were the only two people on the sidelines of Seigaku. The latter had already noticed Kazama walking towards them and smiled at Tezuka, "You guys chat."
"President Tezuka..." The apology that he had rehearsed countless times in front of the mirror this morning was wiped out with a "boom" when Tezuka looked at him. "I, I..."
Tezuka was the first to speak, his eyes calm, "Welcome back."
His words were as concise as ever, but they were like a spring breeze, soothing her restless heart. The taut string finally relaxed at this moment, and she suddenly felt a sense of lightness she had never felt before, and the empty space in her body seemed to be filled with cotton.
She responded softly, as if afraid of disturbing the tranquility of the moment, and raised her head slightly, smiling at him:
"President Tezuka, I'm back."
Tezuka lowered his head and stared at her, his eyebrows and eyes like ice and snow slowly melting in spring.
"Kazama! President Tezuka!"
Despite being a full half-court away, Taocheng's loud voice still had the magic to wake people up. They both turned around at the same time. Everyone from Qingxue at the entrance of the venue was greeting them. Yuan rushed over and hugged her, "April, welcome back, everyone is waiting for you."
Fengjian lowered his head and rubbed her head, "Well, I'm back."
"You are not allowed to run away today." Yuan hugged her waist tightly and pretended to threaten her.
"certainly."
"The probability that today will be a sunny day is 100 percent." Gan spoke calmly.
Tao Cheng laughed and complained: "Aren't you two girls too hot hugging each other in the hot summer?"
"What do you care?"
Fengjian looked up at the sky above the venue. The blue sky was vast and the white clouds were leisurely. It was indeed a nice sunny day.
"Where's Echizen?" Tezuka suddenly spoke.
Kikumaru looked around and asked Taocheng, "A Tao, didn't the little one come with you?"
"No," Momoshiro was stunned and scratched his head, "I thought Echizen and you came together."
"Is he going to be late again? This guy doesn't take the game seriously at all."
"Echizen is still in Gaolei Mountain," Coach Ryuzaki came over, covering his forehead with his hands, a serious expression on his face. "His father took him to Gaolei Mountain for training a few days ago."
"Gao Leishan! No way!"
"There's less than an hour until showtime." He checked his notebook.
"I'll go find him right away!" Tao Cheng just turned around when Feng Jian pulled her back. She shook her head and said, "Let's go after the opening ceremony first."
"Kazama is right. The opening ceremony requires all contestants to be present." Gan pushed his glasses up. "But... who will play Echizen?"
Everyone paused for a few seconds, and finally turned their heads in unison, their eyes falling on the three first-year students who had just arrived at the back.
"The National High School Boys Tennis Finals are now open. Please invite the players from both teams to enter."
The cheers from the audience almost overturned the venue, and the salute ended with the organizers' oath.
As soon as the Seigaku team left the stage, Horio, who was pretending to be Echizen, collapsed to the ground, his face flushed red, but he still insisted that he was finally wearing the official team uniform. Fukazaki got on the phone, turned around and looked at the waiting people, and said in a slightly relaxed tone, "Momoshiro said that Hyotei's Atobe helped send a helicopter to pick up Echizen."
"We should be able to catch up with the helicopter," Oishi said before he could breathe a sigh of relief. The third singles match had already begun. He gripped the edge of the fence with both hands. "Let's focus on the game at hand."
"I didn't expect Sanada to use Fuurinkazan right at the start," Kan stared at his notebook, then turned his gaze towards the match on the field. "But with Tezuka's domain, it shouldn't be a problem."
"Maybe not..." Fuji suppressed the smile on his lips. "Look, the irregular circle formed by the territory under Tezuka's feet is gradually expanding outwards."
Everyone looked in the direction of his gaze, and sure enough, they saw that every time Tezuka caught the ball, the circle under his feet expanded a little, as if an unfinished white mark had drawn a circle. Kazama clenched the tip of his pen tightly, not even daring to breathe heavily.
"Tezuka even used his most honed moves. It seems like the two of them will fight without reservation from the moment they enter the arena."
"Thunder."
“0:2.”
"Negative."
The powerful ball wind streaked through the air like lightning, and finally landed in the opponent's court like thunder with the resounding sound of Sanada.
“0:4.”
"No way, President Tezuka lost four games right at the start." Horio stared at the court with wide eyes, and even the usually noisy Kikumaru was holding the edge of the court tightly.
"I didn't expect that besides Fuuinzan, Sanada actually has two more special moves," he flipped through his notes. "As Yanagi said, their numbers are incomparable to those in the Kanto tournament."
"Sanada's special move completely blocked Tezuka's serve and return," Fuji stared at the court with a serious expression, "This match is going to be a tough one."
"President Tezuka..." Kazama's knuckles turned white as he gripped the notebook. He looked at the figure on the court, who was as straight as a pine tree, as if no wind or rain could crush him. He bent his arm to adjust his glasses, and slowly gripped the racket with his left hand hanging by his side.
"It appears! President Tezuka's heirloom sword, the Zero Slicer!"
Before the cheers died down, the opponent's figure blocked the net. Oishi exclaimed: "Oh no! I didn't expect Sanada could even receive this move! Tezuka is in danger!"
"Bang!"
“Out! 15:0.”
The whole room was in uproar, with exclamations coming one after another.
Tezuka pushed up his reflective glasses. "If I can't catch the ball, I'll let it go out of bounds."
"No!" Fengjian stood up suddenly.
"Tezuka, absolutely not!"
Two voices rang out simultaneously from the sidelines of the Qingxue field.
Feng Jian clenched his fists and suddenly remembered the conversation they had during the competition preparations not long ago.
"President Tezuka, the guard range of Tezuka's domain is 1.5 meters in diameter. Does that mean it's impossible to pass the ball beyond that range?" She stared at the data in her hand, turned her head and asked the figure sitting in front of the computer, "Is there no way to make the ball go out of bounds?"
"If the diameter exceeds 1.5m, if you want to catch the ball from somewhere else, you need to expand the range to the entire court, which is a radius of 4.115m."
Feng Jian stared at the final data calculated in the notebook and took a breath. "The guard range will be eight times the original range. My arm will collapse if I do that."
"These two secret techniques can bring the full force of your body to bear on the serving arm, thus pushing your body to its limits," Tezuka said, walking over, taking the pen from her hand and drawing two lines on the court plan. "You need to generate a spin 60% higher than Tezuka's domain to send the ball out of bounds."
......
“Out! 40:0.”
“Out! 1:4.”
“Out! 2:4.”
"To make Thunderbolt go out of bounds means to perform a rotation six levels higher than Tezuka's domain. Tezuka... has already made plans for a do-or-die battle." Oishi said in a serious tone.
"It's no surprise that 99.9% of the players can't get up again after using such a trick." Gan pushed his glasses, staring at the score that was already tied on the field, and his voice sounded like a sigh.
"Because we don't know when the opponent will use that move, Tezuka has to keep activating Tezuka Phantom, which is like... adding insult to injury to his arm." Fuji's voice was as heavy as if it were filled with lead.
The tip of the pen scratched the paper with a hissing sound. Feng Jian's voice was choked with sobs, and tears fell in a daze, "Don't compete anymore, President Tezuka, your hands will be crippled..."
She looked at his arms, which were almost as red as branding irons, and tears flowed like beads on a short string. She couldn't stop crying. She wiped them away and they kept coming out again. "Why, why can you do this..."
"April..." Yuan looked at her blankly. Fengjian covered his face with his hands and leaned on her shoulder, biting his lower lip tightly to prevent himself from crying out.
At this moment, she suddenly didn't want to care about the national competition anymore. She just wanted to selfishly prevent the people she cared about from getting hurt again.
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