The Prince of Tennis: The Quincy of Rikkai University

Jack Sangyuan responded seriously, "As of today, our tennis club has recruited more than 90 new players, and % of them are freshmen."

“So many?!”

Marui Fumita exclaimed in surprise and stopped blowing bubbles leisurely.

You have to know that when this group of people came in last year, the entire tennis department had only more than 40 people in total. As a result, the number of new recruits this year is so exaggerated.

"Hmph, so what if there are a lot of people? Not even half of them can actually stay." Genichirō Sanada snorted coldly, as if he didn't care much about the situation.

But his words were not refuted by others present because everyone agreed with his point of view.

The training volume of the Rikkai University tennis club is different from that of other schools' tennis clubs, and not everyone can stick with it.

"Is there anyone worth paying attention to among the newcomers this time?" Without taking Sanada's words to heart, Yukimura smiled slightly and continued to ask.

"Someone to watch..."

Jack Sangyuan pinched his chin and thought for a moment, then seemed to remember something.

"Come to think of it, there is indeed one person among the new recruits this time who really surprised me." Sang Yuan's words made everyone present turn their eyes to him, waiting for his next words.

"Everyone should be familiar with Shitenhoji Temple in Kansai." Jack Sangyuan said slowly.

"Of course I know. As a traditional powerhouse in Kansai, Shitenhoji caused us a lot of trouble in the national competition last year." Yanagi Renji took over the conversation and then asked, "But what does this have to do with the freshmen?"

"In fact, among the many applicants for admission today, I met someone from Shitenhoji. If you still remember him, you should be able to remember that his name is Mori Juzaburo, and he was the regular candidate for Shitenhoji last year."

Jack Sangyuan did not leave any suspense and announced the answer directly.

"Mori Jusaburo?!"

Except for Maya Yuuki who still had a calm expression, all the other candidates from Rikkai University present showed surprised expressions.

You know, in last year's national competition, the one who really put some pressure on Rikkai University was not the runner-up Makinofuji, but Shitenhoji whom they met in the semi-finals.

Due to misjudging the strength of Shitenhoji at that time, Yanagi Renji made a mistake in the deployment of troops in the semi-finals, allowing the opponent to win a doubles game, turning the game that could have been won 3-0 into 3-1.

This also led to the breaking of Rikkai University's undefeated record in the national tournament. In that lost doubles match, one of the players in Shitenhoji's number one doubles team was called Mori Hisaburo.

The outstanding strength displayed by the opponent in that game also had a profound impact on them, because in that doubles match, this guy suppressed the ace combination of Marui Bunta and Jack Sanzono by himself.

"If I remember correctly, that guy last year was a sophomore." Niou Masaharu discovered a blind spot.

"Yes, I talked to him for a few minutes and learned from him that he came to Kanagawa due to some family reasons and then transferred to Rikkai University." Jack Kuwahara announced what he had found out.

"But I don't seem to see that guy in the freshman queue." Genichirō Sanada frowned slightly, as if he was carefully recalling whether he had missed him.

"Huh!? No way, how could I not see it? Was it because you, Sanada, didn't supervise carefully?" Marui Bunta asked with a little doubt.

"Hmph, I'm not the kind of person who would let down my guard!" Genichirō Sanada immediately retorted.

Seeing that the two were about to start arguing, Yuuki Maya, who had been slacking off for a long time, interrupted them.

"Both of you should stop for a moment. There is no way that Sanada could not spot such a powerful person. The only possibility is that the other party probably did not come to participate in the training."

Compared to other people in Rikkai University who are not familiar with Mori Jusaburo's style because they have never met him before, he, as a time traveler, of course knows how lazy this guy was in junior high school.

"Regarding the matter of Mori, we should let Liu contact him first and see what the situation is over there. What do you think, Yukimura?" Maya Yuuki made a suggestion.

This kind of thing cannot be left to Sanada to do, the meticulous Yanagi Renji is more suitable for communication.

"Of course, no problem. The tennis club will not reject a talented player who takes the initiative to join us."

Yukimura smiled. The news of Mori Jusaburo's sudden joining was the first good news he had heard this year. It could be said that his joining made the Rikkai University Tennis Club, which already had a lot of talent, even stronger.

"Actually, you seem to have forgotten that there is another person who is also worthy of attention." Marui Bunta said leisurely with his hands behind his head.

"Bunta, you're not going to talk about that first-year student who made Sanada angry." As a good friend of Marui Bunta, Jack Sangyuan understood what the other party meant at the first time.

"Otherwise, I think that guy has potential."

"What's there to expect from a guy who doesn't follow the rules?" Genichirō Sanada retorted disdainfully, obviously still brooding over what happened before.

"But, as a first-year student, you were able to force out your Fuurinkazan, Sanada. How many first-year students can do this alone?" Marui Fumita looked at Sanada Genichirō seriously and said slowly.

"..."

Although he wanted to continue refutation, Genichirō Sanada rarely continued speaking, because he had to admit in his heart that what Marui Bunta said made sense.

"Let me say a few words about that first-year student." Yukimura Seiichi spoke at the right time, easing the atmosphere which was gradually falling.

"Bunta is right. That freshman is indeed a very promising freshman, but Sanada's idea is not wrong either. We will not welcome someone who does not abide by the rules of the tennis club."

"So, I'll leave that first-year question to you, but actually even if I don't tell you, you'll take the initiative to do it, right, Bunta?"

Yukimura Seiichi smiled meaningfully at Marui Bunta. He had vaguely seen what Marui Bunta was thinking when he saw the other party picking up the racket on the court before.

"No problem, leave that seaweed-head to me. I'll convince him to come back to the tennis club."

Marui Fumita made an OK gesture and already had some plans in mind.

……

Chapter 16: New competition system, unexpected grouping (please read it, it is very important!)

Two weeks is just a blink of an eye for a junior high school student who is still in school.

However, today is an important day for the Rikkai University Tennis Club.

Because today is the day for the Rikkai University Tennis Club to reshuffle its main lineup, and the annual main lineup group selection tournament officially begins today.

However, this time's selection system is completely different from previous ones.

In the past, the director of the tennis department would personally divide the participating members into groups, and then they only needed to rank in the top 2 in each of the four groups to qualify for the main selection.

But this time it's different.

This time, Yukimura will write the names of all the starting players from the previous year on paper, make them into capsule toys and throw them into the box. By drawing lots, no more than 2 starting players will be randomly placed in the four groups.

Once all the starting players have been finalized, the remaining players will be randomly placed in the groups in the same way.

Moreover, this time only the first place in the four groups can directly qualify for the main selection, while the second and third place in each group, a total of eight players, will be divided into a new loser group to play a single round-robin match again. The top four winners will obtain the remaining four main selection qualifications.

In other words, this method even allows the president and vice president of Rikkai University to appear in the same group, which would have been impossible in previous group matches.

The reason why the competition system was changed to this type this year was entirely due to the fact that when Maya Yuki was participating in the group stage last year, she casually complained to Seiichi Yukimura, who was not yet the captain, about the simplicity and unfairness of the tennis group stage.

But this casual remark at that time was firmly remembered by Seiichi Yukimura, and then he changed the group competition system of the tennis club this year.

At this moment, Seiichi Yukimura, who is on the 3rd floor, is looking down at the entire tennis court through the window with his arms folded across his chest, and can see all the actions of the tennis club members below.

Beside him, Genichirō Sanada and Renji Yanagi stood on his left and right, looking out the window together.

"Liu, how is the current retention situation of new students?" asked Yukimura Seiichi without looking away.

As the head of Rikkai University's tennis club, he was naturally very concerned about this issue.

Because compared to the first few days of school, in just two short weeks, the number of new members of the tennis club has been decreasing at a visible rate, and every day Yukimura Seiichi receives a large number of withdrawal applications from Jack Sangyuan.

However, this phenomenon was also within their expectations, because the training of the Rikkai University Tennis Club was very strict, and those freshmen who joined just because of its reputation could not sustain this amount of training.

"It's much better than expected. Compared with last year, more than one-fifth of the new members chose to stay in the tennis club." Yanagi Renji answered slowly.

"It seems that the situation is much better than I thought. So, do you have any freshmen that you are optimistic about?"

"On this point—"

Yanagi Renji glanced at Sanada Genichirō and said hesitantly, "From what I can see so far, the first-year kid named Kirihara Akaya has the most potential."

"It's the red-eyed first-year with the weird hairstyle, right? I have a deep impression of him." Yukimura Seiichi smiled and glanced at Sanada next to him meaningfully.

"Hmph, he's just a kid with some potential." Genichirō Sanada said with a straight face. Although the latter had performed very well in the tennis club in recent days, his first impression of him was too bad, which resulted in him not being able to easily accept the other party.

A lot of things happened in the tennis club during these two weeks.

The first one was Kirihara Akaya, who was severely taught a lesson by Genichirō Sanada on the first day. He came back low-key after disappearing for two days, and it seemed that his temperament had changed drastically. He trained unusually well with the freshmen of the same grade.

It can be guessed that all this is definitely the work of Marui Bunta.

However, Maya Yuuki often saw Bunta Marui taking Jack Kuwahara to the first-year floor to find him. The three of them are now very close, and it seems that something happened without the knowledge of others, and they have become good friends.

Secondly, Niou Masaharu, who behaves rather lazily, has recently become very close to a student council member who wears round-frame glasses, and often actively takes the other person to visit the tennis club.

Maya Yuuki naturally knew this person, who would become one of Rikkai University's regular players and Niou Masaharu's doubles partner - Hiroshi Yagyu.

At this time, Hiroshi Yagyu was still a member of the golf club, but Maya Yuuki felt that it would not be long before he would be recruited to the tennis club by Masaharu Niou.

Finally, in addition to these two things, there is another thing about Mori Hisaburo.

The opponent frequently avoided the tennis club's training and practice matches for various reasons, which really irritated Genichirō Sanada, but because of his outstanding strength, Seiichi Yukimura condoned this behavior.

"Okay, it's almost time, let's go now. I'm really looking forward to this draw."

With a gentle smile, Yukimura Seiichi decisively turned around and left the classroom, while Sanada Genichirō and Yanagi Renji looked at each other and then left.

A few minutes later, in a corner of the tennis club's court, Yukimura and others walked into the crowd under the attention of other members of the tennis club.

Yuuki Maya and other regular candidates have also been waiting here for a while.

The match schedule for this match was posted on the bulletin board around the tennis court a few minutes ago. It is currently blank and the students responsible for writing the players' names are already in place.

Two first-year students carried a table and placed it in front of Yukimura Seiichi. On the table was a lottery box.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting. Now, the draw for the group selection tournament of the Rikkai University Tennis Club will officially begin." Without any nonsense, Yukimura Seiichi put his hand in very skillfully.

The attention of everyone present was focused on his hands.

"Team A, Marui Bunta."

"Team B, Yanagi Renji."

"Team C, Genichirō Sanada."

"Team D..." Yukimura Seiichi paused, chuckled, and continued, "Team D, Yukimura Seiichi."

"Ugh--"

As soon as Yukimura Seiichi finished speaking, there were sighs from the crowd.

There is no other reason. The battle between ministers and deputy ministers that many people expected did not happen.

After the first round of drawing lots for the four groups in the match schedule was over, the whole venue quickly quieted down after watching the names of the four first-choice players being written down one by one in each group.

Because the second round of draw is equally exciting.

Without any pretense of suspense, Yukimura Seiichi reached into the lottery box again.

"Team A, Niou Masaharu"

The first pair of official matches was unveiled, and Niou Masaharu and Marui Bunta, who were drawn, looked at each other tacitly.

"Hehe, Niou, you're just waiting to lose." Marui Fumita said confidently.

"Pfft, if my opponent is you, I'd really be relieved." Niou Masaji also smiled. As long as he didn't have to fight against those three monsters, he was already very satisfied with this grouping.

"Team B, Jack Mulberry Garden."

The sorrows and joys of people cannot be communicated to each other. Compared to Niou Masaharu's good mood, Jack Sangyuan took a breath and touched his bald head helplessly.

"Oh, this is really a headache."

"Sangyuan, let's have a good fight." Yanagi Renji walked up to Jack Sangyuan and said calmly.

"I couldn't ask for more." Jack Sangyuan quickly adjusted his mentality and responded.

"Wait a moment!"

Suddenly, as if he had discovered something incredible, Marui Bunta suddenly shouted: "Six of the seven main candidates have been drawn, doesn't that mean..."

The other regular players also reacted at this time, because among the eight regular players last year, one was a senior in the third year of junior high school, who has been promoted to the first year of high school this year, so there are currently seven regular players in Rikkai University.

At the moment, only Group C, where Sanada Genichirō is, and Group D, where Yukimura Seiichi is, have not yet entered the second place selection, which means -

At this moment, Yanagi Renji and others all looked at Yuuki Maya who had not been pulled out yet.

At this time, Yukimura Seiichi's expression had become somewhat serious. In his hand was a spread-out piece of paper that he had just taken out of the lottery box.

"Group C——"

"Yuuki Maya"

As soon as the words fell, the whole place was in an uproar.

……