Prince of Tennis: Shocking! Hyotei's Demon King is a Yukimura fangirl!

There was a collective sigh from the Seigaku stands.

"What's going on? Why isn't Captain Tezuka's Zero-Shiki short ball working anymore?"

"Are you too tired?"

"It must be because I used too much of my domain earlier and my stamina can't keep up."

Everyone was talking at once, guessing that it was due to physical exhaustion, but no one thought about the possibility of injury.

Break point.

Tezuka was unwilling to give up his obvious advantage and used the area to make Atobe run around a large area again, finally hitting two high-quality zero-style short balls.

They held their serve.

"Game, Seigaku. 3-1."

As the referee announced the score, the numbers on the scoreboard jumped, and Hyotei was still leading by two games.

Cheers erupted from the Seigaku stands. Momoshiro waved his flag and shouted, Kikumaru jumped high, and the three first-year students yelled "Go Seigaku!" at the top of their lungs.

Tezuka stood at the net, his back to the stands, his left hand hanging at his side, his fingertips trembling slightly. He quickly wiped his trouser seam to hide the slight twitch.

Atobe still saw it.

He stood behind the baseline, looking at Tezuka on the other side, his anger growing stronger and stronger.

Even in this state, they still have to keep going.

As Atobe switched sides, he paused for a moment when passing by Mochizuki Ryo.

Wang Yueling looked up and said in a low voice, "Don't get carried away. Increase the rotation steadily, don't use brute force and waste your energy."

Atobe snorted, which meant he had taken it to heart.

Watching his arrogant back, Mochizuki Ryou's lips curved into a smile. Their Hyotei captain, though seemingly impulsive, was actually quite shrewd. Confirming Tezuka's injury, despite her anger, her attacks remained disciplined, each ball precisely hitting the corners where he could least exert force.

It was worth the two months he spent practicing with him.

The fifth game, Atobe's serve.

Before the start of this round, Atobe stood behind the baseline, stretched his wrists, looked up at Tezuka on the other side, and curled his lips into a mocking smile.

Tezuka looked back at him, his eyes still calm, like a bottomless pool of water.

Game start.

Atobe's serves remained dominant, while Tannhäuser's serves alternated between the inside and outside corners, displaying a wide variety of spins. Tezuka managed to return the serves, relying on anticipation and his area of ​​effect, but the quality of his returns steadily declined. Atobe would occasionally drop a short ball, forcing Tezuka to run forward and wear down his wrist.

Tezuka is also making adjustments.

He reduced his use of the zero-style short ball, relying more on the spin of the field to guide the return shot from Atobe, looking for counter-attack opportunities. Occasionally, he would hit a short ball, but he would try to use a more energy-efficient slice technique. Although the roll distance was short, it was still enough to score a point.

The score was even closer than in the previous game.

Fifteen points, thirty points, thirty to forty.

Atobe received a backhand slice from Tezuka, the ball grazing the net and landing in front of the opponent's net. Tezuka quickly rushed forward to save the ball, barely managing to return a zero-style shot.

Atobe quickly went online and looked at Tezuka, who was standing up straight on the other side. The knuckles of his left hand, which was holding the racket, had turned white.

Even though it hurts so much, you still insist on enduring it.

Atobe sighed softly, turned sideways and swung his racket cleanly to catch the ball, which flew past the baseline with strong sidespin.

During the pause in the game, he suddenly spoke. His voice wasn't loud, just enough to travel across the sound of the ball hitting the other side.

"Tezuka, with elbows like that, how many decent 'Zero Style' attacks can you still land?"

This statement was like an atomic bomb, crashing onto the field.

The entire room was silent for half a second, and then the discussion exploded like a mushroom cloud.

"Holy crap! What did Atobe say? Tezuka has an injured elbow? Really?"

"They've already asked directly, so it must be solid evidence!"

"No wonder you couldn't catch the ball earlier! It wasn't a matter of stamina, you were injured!"

"My God, Kawamura's hand is useless now? The captain is injured too, how is Seigaku supposed to win?"

"Could this be a psychological tactic? They're deliberately trying to get you to stay calm."

"Psychological warfare? Tezuka was almost completely shut out in this match, is it really necessary to resort to such tactics?"

"Exactly, if you really want to win, can't you just rely on skill? Why bother spreading rumors?"

"Didn't you see him switch hands to pick up the racket? You can donate your eyes if you don't need them."

"Seigaku is the most tragic, getting one injury after another."

"If you ask me, it's the coach who's incompetent. He doesn't care when the players are injured. Ryuzaki Jin hasn't shown up yet."

"That's right. The coach goes to the hospital to relax, leaving the players on the field to tough it out."

The murmurs surged in from all directions like a tide, carried by the wind throughout the entire stands.

On the Seigaku stands, Oishi's expression instantly changed. He took a large step forward and almost blurted out, his voice so loud it was distorted:

"Impossible! Tezuka's hand healed a long time ago!"

He froze as soon as he said it.

The surroundings were so quiet that only the sound of the wind could be heard.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Momoshiro's hand, holding the flag, froze in mid-air. His voice trembled, tinged with panic, "Oishi-senpai... what injury? Has the captain... been injured?"

Kikumaru, standing nearby, was also stunned. He immediately turned around, his eyes wide, "Oishi, what did you say? When was Tezuka injured? How come I didn't know!"

The three first-year students looked at each other, their mouths agape for a long time. "Tezuka-Captain was injured? Was it serious?"

Ryuzaki Sakuno clutched her skirt, her face a little pale, and asked softly, "Is... Captain alright now?"

Looking at the shocked faces of his teammates, Daishi suddenly snapped back to reality, realizing he had misspoke. He quickly waved his hand, composed himself, and tried to calm his tone, "N-nothing! It happened a long time ago, it's all better now."

Fuji stood to the side, his brown eyes fixed on him, saying nothing, but his gaze held a hint of understanding.

"It's all better now?" Momoshiro frowned, taking a large step forward. "Oishi-senpai, that's not right. What do you mean 'all better now'? Did the captain injure his hand before?"

People around immediately gathered around.

Qian pushed up his glasses, a glint of light flashing in the lenses. Haitang turned to the side, her eyes dark. The three first-graders huddled at the back, their faces tense, barely daring to breathe.

"It was... back in your first year of middle school, before you joined the club." Oishi's Adam's apple bobbed, knowing he couldn't hide it anymore. He forced himself to explain quickly, "When Tezuka first entered the club, he played so well that a third-year student was jealous of him. During a practice match, the student deliberately hit Tezuka's left arm with his racket."

"What?!" Momoshiro's voice rose eight octaves, his face filled with shock. "Such a thing happened? Those upperclassmen went too far!"

Kikumaru covered his mouth, his eyes wide: "And then what happened? Was it serious? Why didn't anyone tell us?"

"After the incident, the third-year student quit the club. The school felt the nature of the incident was serious and suppressed the news." Oishi forced a smile, trying to make his tone sound relaxed. "Tezuka himself didn't want to talk about it either. He returned to training after three weeks of recovery, and everyone thought... his injury wasn't serious."

"Back in three weeks?" Momoshiro dropped the support flag in his hand with a "thud," his face filled with disbelief. "How can that be! Even a broken bone takes a hundred days to heal!"

"Tezuka did miss twenty-three days of summer training for the first year of high school." Inui said, flipping through his notebook, his fingertips quickly tracing the pages, his tone becoming serious. "The file says it was a training accident."

Haitang Xun hissed, her brows furrowing. "Was there not even a single record of that incident back then?"

"Your school's afraid of damaging its reputation, huh?" Niou's voice drifted over from the Rikkai University stands, tinged with mockery. "This kind of thing isn't new in junior high school tennis. For the sake of results, they'll suppress anything."

Sanada immediately turned around and glared at him. "Niou! Don't talk about other schools."

Niou shrugged and didn't say anything more, but there was still a cryptic smile on his lips.

The atmosphere at Seigaku became a bit somber after being interrupted.

Fuji's eyelashes trembled slightly after hearing Oishi's words. His tone was calm, revealing no emotion, "Oishi, didn't you just say Tezuka was already better?"

Oishi paused for a moment, meeting Fuji's gaze, and felt inexplicably guilty. But he quickly forced a bigger smile and nodded vigorously, "Don't worry, I accompanied Tezuka to Tokyo General Hospital for a check-up a month ago. The doctor said he's completely recovered and has no problem playing tennis."

"Really?" Kikumaru blinked, still a little worried.

"Of course it's true." Oishi nodded vigorously, speaking with absolute certainty. "Atobe is using psychological tactics to deliberately disrupt Tezuka's mindset. Don't panic, Tezuka will be fine."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

"That scared me to death! I thought the captain's old injury had flared up again." Momoshiro patted his chest, then angrily clenched his fist. "Atobe must be petty and jealous that the captain was playing one-on-two, that's why he made up this lie! How despicable!"

Kikumaru let out a sigh of relief, his worry largely dissipating, and nodded vigorously. "Exactly! It's been two years, he must have recovered by now! This is just a smokescreen deliberately planted by Atobe!"

"That's right, that's right!" Horio shouted, "Tezuka-sama is so amazing, how could he possibly be injured?!"

Katsuro and Katsuo nodded quickly and echoed their agreement.

Ryuzaki Sakuno stood at the back of the crowd, clutching her skirt, her face pale, her eyes fixed on Tezuka on the field, muttering softly, "Tezuka-sama... please be alright..."

Only Fuji stood to the side, silent. He looked at Oishi, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.

Did you go for a follow-up check-up last month?

He was in the same class as Tezuka and trained together every day, so why did he never hear that Tezuka needed to have his arm checked?

Fuji tapped the railing lightly with his fingertips, his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly before quickly relaxing. He didn't point out the flaw in Oishi's words in public, but kept his doubts to himself.

Ryoma Echizen sat on the Seigaku coach's bench, listened to the discussions behind him, and slowed down the speed at which he twirled the tennis ball.

The injury of the national first-class player...

Is it really healed?

He recalled how Tezuka had picked up the racket with his right hand earlier, and his doubts grew stronger.

If you're truly cured, why would you use your right hand to pick it up?

The discussion in the stands spread outwards from Seigaku, growing louder and louder, with all sorts of opinions circulating.

"Holy crap, Tezuka Kunimitsu has an old injury? And it was from when he was in first grade and got hit by an upperclassman? How cliché is that?"

"It can't be real, even the Seigaku members themselves have said so. It's definitely Atobe's psychological warfare!"

"Come on, didn't you see Tezuka pick up the racket with his right hand? It must be because his left hand is inconvenient."

"Exactly, who would normally use their non-dominant hand to pick up something? And you're talking about psychological warfare? They're practically sending him to Seigaku 'Breadstick,' why bother with all that effort?"

"So what if you're injured? Isn't it normal to fight while injured? Kawamura won while injured too."

"Normal what? His hand is ruined, how is that normal? In my opinion, Seigaku's coach is too irresponsible. One after another, the players he's coaching like to play injured. It's really like using players as expendable resources~"

"Wait a minute...you've all overlooked something. If Tezuka Kuniichi was injured because of a violent incident, that's a serious matter. If their school hadn't covered it up, they wouldn't have been able to participate in the national tournament preliminaries back then."

"Exactly, exactly. You know, this year's dark horse of the tournament, 'Fudomine,' was restricted from participating last year because of a violent incident within the tennis club. Seigaku's actions are clearly exploiting loopholes."

"Sigh, it's been two years since this happened, and there's no point in holding anyone accountable. It just goes to show that Seishun Academy has a lot of problems. I was thinking their tennis club was pretty good, and I was even planning to recommend my nephew for next year. Now it seems I'm glad I didn't, otherwise, what would I do if he got into the tennis club and was treated like this…"

It was noisy and chaotic, like a pot of porridge boiling over.

In the press box, Shiba Saori was so angry that her face turned red. She threw her camera onto the chair with a soft "thud".

"That's outrageous! How could Atobe Keigo do this!" Her voice was shrill and urgent, her eyes practically spitting fire. "Just focus on the game, why bring up someone's old injury! Tezuka looks perfectly fine, not injured at all. Spreading rumors like that is so easy! Where's your sportsmanship?!"

"The Seigaku first-year middle school injury incident..." Inoue frowned, took out his phone, and flipped through old interview records. "I checked a lot of information, but there's no record of it at all. However, there are some rumors that Tezuka was injured when he entered the school, but Seigaku has never officially acknowledged it."

"It's definitely a lie, Inoue-senpai!" Shiba Saori retorted, her neck stiff with indignation. "Think carefully about the injury you sustained in your first year of junior high. How could it still not be healed by now? Atobe's words are completely baseless. Besides, Oishi said the doctors have declared you fully recovered! I think Atobe is just making up excuses to smear Tezuka because he sees Tezuka is about to launch a full-scale counterattack!"

She talked for a long time, then stopped to catch her breath, still angry. Pointing at the Hyotei coaching bench, she said, "And that Mochizuki Ryo, even just seeing the back of his head makes me think he's full of bad intentions. He must have taught us those underhanded tactics, otherwise why would Atobe suddenly say that he's bullying people just because he has a bit of family background? I don't think he knows anything about tennis, he just relies on dirty tricks!"

Inoue sighed and didn't argue with her. He simply picked up his camera and took several pictures of Tezuka on the court. In the photos, the boy's back was still ramrod straight, but the knuckles of his left hand gripping the racket were so tight that the veins bulged.

His heart tightened as he read it. He lowered his head and wrote "suspected recurrence of old elbow injury" in his notebook. He paused for a moment, then drew a question mark after it.

This matter is probably not unfounded.

If it's true, then Seigaku...

On Hyotei's side, because of the previous discussion, no one was surprised.

"There really is an old injury."

Shishido frowned as he looked at Tezuka, who was facing off against Atobe on the field. "It's been two years since Kuniichi was injured, and he still hasn't fully recovered."

"Speaking of which, when I was researching Seigaku before the match, I found out some rumors." Shinobu crossed his arms and looked at the situation on the court, speaking slowly, "Back then, junior high school tennis clubs liked to post their members' attendance and win rate rankings online. Tezuka Kunimitsu missed three weeks of summer training, citing a hand injury from a training mistake."

"I thought it was made up at the time, but now it seems to be true."

Shishido frowned, a vein throbbing on his temple. "Hit someone with a racket? How despicable?"

"They can't accept losing." Shinobu shrugged. "It's embarrassing for a third-year student to lose to a first-year student."

Shishido turned to look at him: "Then why didn't you say so before?"

"What's the point of telling me? It's an injury from two years ago; who would have thought it wouldn't heal properly?"

Shinobu paused for a moment, a self-deprecating smile playing on his lips. "To be honest, when I saw that my opponent in the singles match was Tezuka Kunimitsu, I repeatedly searched my mind for a useful breakthrough. Tezuka is too perfect. I went through it over and over again, and this was the only piece of information I could use to break through."

"My first thought was to 'drag things out.' Even if the old wounds were physically healed, the psychological trauma might still be there. The longer it went on, the more openings we'd make, and the greater our chances of winning would be."

"It's a perfectly reasonable tactic." Shishido snorted, his eyes sharply fixed on the field. "In competitive sports, it's all about skill. If your opponent has weaknesses, don't blame others for targeting them."

Hiyoshi crossed his arms and said in a low voice, "Whether he gets hurt or not is his own choice. It's not like we hurt him on purpose."

Feng, being gentle by nature, sighed, "That's true... but there's still a bit..."

"What? Despicable?!" Shishido turned to look at him. "Could it be that you knew your opponent's possible weakness, but just because it's morally wrong, you chose to admit defeat?"

Feng quickly shook her head, "Senior, that's not what I meant!"

"Alright," Shinobu said with a smile, trying to smooth things over. "Ryo, don't be too harsh. Chotaro is just too soft-hearted. But then again, the greatest respect for your opponent is to give it your all. Giving up is truly contemptible."

Irie leaned against him, listened to Oshitari's words, and patted him on the shoulder with a smile, "Not bad, little Oshitari. Your thinking is very clear under pressure. You know how to use old injuries to fight a protracted battle, not bad at all."

"I would have played the same way."

His sunglasses had slipped down to the tip of his nose, revealing a pair of smiling eyes. His tone carried a hint of admiration as he said, "On the field, there are only opponents, not patients. Exploiting every possible weakness is simply part of the skill."

Tokugawa stood beside him, his expression stern, his gaze fixed on the field, and remained silent. He too agreed with Irie and Oshitari's approach. Weaknesses on the field, whether technical or physical, could be exploited.

As long as it's not intentional harm, there's nothing to criticize.

"Exactly." Irie nodded with a smile. "You can't just intentionally lose a match because your opponent is injured. That would be too disrespectful to your opponent."

Seeing that his tactical views had been approved by the tennis veterans, Shinobu's self-deprecating smile quietly turned into a proud upturn.

Jiro scratched his loose, curly hair, his mind full of questions. "Then why didn't he fully recover before playing? He was only a freshman in junior high school back then. I remember Seigaku's old tradition was that freshmen could only pick up balls, not play. With so much time for rehabilitation, why is he still not fully recovered?"

"The coach needed it." Shinobu pushed up his glasses. "At the time, Tezuka had just participated in the Jr. All Japan Junior Tennis Championships and was the dark horse. It's understandable that the coach wouldn't let him go."

Upon hearing this, Jiro tilted his curly head. "Then Atobe definitely won't go easy on me, right?"

"Nonsense." Shinobu laughed and ruffled his hair roughly. "Don't you know what kind of person he is? He's too proud to go easy on him."

Feng blinked but didn't say anything.

He suddenly felt that being able to play at Hyotei was quite lucky.

At least they don't have to play with serious injuries.