The Prince of Tennis: The Quincy of Rikkai University.

Chapter 156: New school year, lively tennis club
The accidental encounter with Ryoma Echizen did not cause any fluctuations in Maya Yui's mood.

But he did think of one thing. The appearance of Echizen Ryoma meant that Echizen Nanjiro had also returned to Japan.

Maya Yuuki is very interested in this former world number one.

Unfortunately, when she thought of the other party's current physical condition, Yuuki Maya's interest suddenly faded a lot.

A brain aneurysm has made it impossible for this former "warrior" to use his full strength.

When she thinks of the famous scenes of "loving father and filial son" that his two sons would have in the future, Maya Yuuki can only feel pity for him.

Time flies, and spring break is coming to an end in the blink of an eye.

Yuuki Mayu had a very dull spring break, training and meditating as usual, and occasionally going out to practice tennis with Kanzaki Tomoyo at a nearby tennis club.

Tomoyo learned tennis very quickly. After just one holiday, she had already mastered the basic skills and was able to play tennis fairly well with the coach at the tennis club.

In terms of strength, it is probably equivalent to the level of a captain of a school that was eliminated in the first round of the regional tournament.

In April, new students entered school, and Yuuki Maya and others were promoted to the third year of junior high school.

As the new school year begins, it is time for Rikkai University's tennis club to recruit new members.

At the entrance of the tennis club, people were coming and going, and the atmosphere was extremely lively.

The number of new applicants this year is even greater than last year.

All this is thanks to the impact caused by the feat of Yuuki Maya and others winning two consecutive national championships.

Anyone who follows junior high school tennis competitions basically knows that Rikkai University is determined to win its third consecutive championship this year.

This year, Rikkai University's uniforms have been improved based on Yuuki Maya's suggestion last year.

While the yellow base tone remains unchanged, the red stripes from the cuffs to the shoulders have had their threads replaced, and the previously dull red now reflects bright red under the sun.

Especially on the chest, there was originally only a Rikkai University school emblem, but now two golden stars are embroidered below it.

These two stars symbolize the two national championships won by the Rikkai University Tennis Club.

Therefore, for all the freshmen who enrolled this year, when choosing sports clubs, their first choice is basically the tennis club of Rikkai University.

For no other reason than to wear the clothes that symbolize the Rikkai University Tennis Club, so that one can look proud when going out.

Since Kuwayoen quit the club for personal reasons, the application process for new students that he had been responsible for was now handed over to Yanagi Renji.

After the first day of club activities ended, Yanagi Renji still received a lot of applications for membership that had not yet been processed.

The next day, at the regular election meeting, Genichirō Sanada asked about Renji Yanagi's situation yesterday.

"Liu, what's the situation this year?" Sanada was also very curious about how many people were there this year.

When he started training the freshmen in basic racket swinging yesterday, newcomers kept coming in from time to time, and in the end the entire venue was almost full of people.

Sanada had never seen such a situation before, and finally had no choice but to divide the newcomers into two groups, with Marui leading one team to the nearby stadium to guide training.

"After I counted yesterday, the total number of people in the entire tennis club is now 187."

When Yanagi Renji said this number, everyone present was really surprised.

This number is almost catching up with the population of Hyotei's tennis club.

"Wow, this is too much!" Marui Fumita widened his eyes in surprise and even stopped blowing bubbles.

“Pfft, even though I know there will be a lot of people signing up this year, this is indeed too exaggerated.” Niou Masaharu complained.

The halo of winning two consecutive national championships was far more attractive than he thought.

"Don't worry, this is only temporary. It won't be long and this number may be less than half of it." Compared to the surprise of others, Yuuki Maya did not show any fluctuation in expression.

It's just the beginning now, and the tennis club is well-known so this phenomenon is normal.

However, once the formal training begins, the intensity of Rikkai University's training will make many people who do not truly love the sport of tennis give up the idea of ​​staying here.

"Yuuki is right. Remember last year? There were quite a few people coming in, but in just two weeks, more than half of them left."

Genichirō Sanada nodded. He had already suppressed his surprised expression and was well aware that what Maya Yuuki said was right.

"I hope there will be some newcomers with good abilities among this group of people." Marui Bunta said with a little expectation.

"Marui, don't you mean to say that there should be a few more people who challenge Sanada like Kirihara did last year?" Niou Masaharu joked suddenly.

As soon as these words were spoken, Kirihara Akaya, who had been sitting there silently and slacking off, was immediately shocked and looked at Sanada Genichirō with a guilty look.

"There's no need to bring up this matter again, Niou-senpai!" Kirihara Akaya said angrily.

"Haha, I still haven't forgotten how arrogant Kirihara was at that time."

When this matter was mentioned again, Marui Bunta couldn't help but smile. It can be said that this incident has become Kirihara Akaya's dark history.

There was a burst of cheerful laughter in the conference room. Everyone present except Kirihara Akaya showed a faint smile, including Sanada, who usually had a stern face and pursed his lips.

After a while, the regular meeting of the starting players ended and everyone dispersed. Sanada and others who were responsible for leading the freshmen went to the training ground of the new voices to supervise, while the rest of the starting players returned to their courts to start their daily practice.

……

One week later, it was just as Yuuki Maya said before.

The tennis club, which was originally packed with people, has seen a number of people submitting applications to leave the club this week.

The amount of training of the Rikkai University Tennis Club is unbearable for these people.

In just one week, the number of new students in the tennis club has dropped by one third, and the number of people leaving continues to increase.

It’s a new day of club activities, and freshmen are training on the field.

Yuuki Maya, Sanada Genichirō and Yanagi Renji stood there together, observing the freshmen who were still here for training.

Except for Yuuki Maya who remained calm as always, the expressions of Sanada and Yanagi looked a little unhappy.

"Is there not even a decent newcomer?" Genichirō Sanada said in a low voice.

After a week of observation, the quality of this batch of freshmen has basically been determined.

There wasn't even a freshman who was half as good as Kirihara Akaya was at that time. There wasn't a single eye-catching player among this group of freshmen.

"Relax, this year's performance was a little off, but our second-year talent pool is still reassuring," Yanagi Renji comforted.

Now, after a year of growth, there are already several second-year students with good abilities among those who joined the club at the same time as Kirihara Akaya. These people represent the backbone of Rikkai University.

The most remarkable one among them is Ryoo Tamagawa. His strength is only inferior to Kirihara among the second-year players, but he possesses leadership qualities that others do not have.

Upon hearing this, Genichirō Sanada nodded slightly in relief.

The current situation is indeed beyond their control.

But what is more important is the tennis team's goal of winning three consecutive championships this year.

As for what happens after that, by then their batch will have graduated, and Kirihara and his group will have to worry about it.

(End of this chapter)