Love Tennis and Yumiko Miura

"This is Umetaro Nozaki, also known as Yumeno Sakiko-sensei. Sakura and I are currently his assistants," Chixian introduced. "By the way, Hori-senpai and Mikoshiba are also his assistants."

"..." Youmiko was stunned. Her brain was overloaded, so it temporarily stopped working and entered a shutdown state.

"Yumiko has always been a fan of yours, Nozaki." Zhixian said again.

"Really?" Nozaki was very happy. He took out a board from somewhere, signed his name on it with a quick stroke, and handed it to Yumiko.

"thank you for your support."

Incidentally, this is the same signature Chiyo got after confessing her love.

Youmeko took the signature and took out the book from Zhixian's schoolbag to compare it - the two signatures were exactly the same.

"Is Nozaki really teacher Yumeno Sakiko?" Yumiko looked at Zhixian and asked cautiously.

"It's absolutely genuine." Zhixian said helplessly. Indeed, almost no one could immediately accept the fact that Nozaki was a girl cartoonist. "Nozaki, can you show me that?"

(Author's voiceover: Jotaro, can you perform that?)

Nozaki took out his sketchbook and in a flash sketched out the faces of the heroine Mamiko and the hero Suzuki in "Moe Ai".

"...It's really Ms. Yumeno Sakiko! Many of my friends and I are your loyal readers!" Yumiko instantly became extremely happy, as excited as if she had really met her idol.

As for why he was so excited, it was definitely not because he met the famous cartoonist Yumeno Sakiko. As for what it was, I believe everyone knows it very well.

Great, it turns out you're not a rival! Sakura Chiyo over there, sorry for misunderstanding you—the look in Nozaki's eyes told me you're not an enemy! You're so understanding! Are you secretly in love with Nozaki? What a cute girl! I'll support your relationship!

Chiyo was also confused. She didn't know why, but she felt that the way Yumiko looked at her was different from the sharp look when she just entered the door. If Zhixian hadn't been speaking, she felt that she would have been completely engulfed by the aura emanating from Yumiko's whole body.

However, it was like an illusion. Yumiko's aura completely disappeared, and now she looked like a naive little girl who had seen her idol.

Chiyo couldn't help but blink her eyes, but Yumiko still had a beautiful smile on her face, as sweet as it could be.

Was that just an illusion? Although she had only heard some legends about the "Queen of Fire" before, Chiyo had never actually had any real contact with Yumiko. They were never assigned to the same class during the two divisions. If it weren't for Zhixian, she wouldn't even have had the chance to speak to Yumiko.

Their date was so sweet... Wait, did he say something when he sat down just now? Chiyo suddenly remembered that because Zhixian asked the waiter to take the order, no one responded to Zhixian's words.

"Tachibana-san, you actually discovered that the two of us were following you???"

"I did find it, but I thought it was quite interesting so I pretended not to notice." Zhixian moved the coffee brought by the waiter in front of Yumiko, and then naturally tore open the sugar and added it to her mocha coffee. After stirring it with a spoon, he added sugar to himself.

"When exactly did you discover it?" Nozaki entered the state of collecting materials. He pursued realism. "And can you tell me what you did after entering the store?" Nozaki said as he took out a stack of comic storyboard drafts.

"Okay, you can come up with the other lines as you like." Zhixian picked up one of the sheets and began to tell Nozaki what exactly happened.

"Ahahaha, don't mind me, Miura-san. This is how Nozaki-kun looks when he's in his creative zone. His inspirations are all drawn from real life."

"Hmm, now I understand why Chixian always goes to Nozaki's house." Yumiko looked at the two people who were working. "When Nozaki draws comics, the characters in the comics are based on real people, right?"

"Wow! Miura-san is amazing! You guessed it right away!" Chiyo took out a comic book, intending to use this opportunity to build a good relationship with Yumiko. "There's a character in it that's based on Tachibana-san!"

"Is it the senior who has a good relationship with the heroine?" Youmeko said. Although she didn't like the comic "Moe Ai" as much as she showed, she had read it several times and was impressed by most of the characters.

"As expected of a couple! Miura-san knows Tachibana-san so well!"

Yumiko couldn't help but smile at Chiyo's praise.

Among the many characters that appeared, Yumiko was particularly impressed by the somewhat cold, unique and slightly paranoid senior sister.

Until she saw Sandwich Oolong Tea... Isn't this Zhixian? ? ? Exactly the same except for the gender, right? ? ?

After realizing that Chixian = senior, Yumiko found the comics much more interesting when she read them again.

Here, the plot where the senior girl rejected a boy’s confession and threw away a gift, isn’t it an adaptation of Zhixian rejecting a girl’s confession and throwing away a love letter?

Here, the senior only smiles at the heroine Mamiko and treats others coldly. Isn't that the same expressionless face that Zhixian makes when facing outsiders?

Even in the extra story of the comics, you can see the Zero-style slice in the senior's tennis match, and the styles of the tennis bag and sneakers are obviously the ones Zhixian usually uses, although the letters have been modified to avoid suspicion.

"This character is so much like Chixian." Yumiko looked at the full-body drawing of the senior in the comic character introduction column, "Nozaki really knows Chixian very well."

The similarity between the senior sister created by Nozaki and Zhixian is very high, but they are still different people after all. Special attention is paid to the different reactions and behaviors of women and men. It is not a copy, but a re-creation based on Zhixian's personality.

The prototype of a character is not a character after all.

"He's simply a master of personality transformation." Yumiko couldn't help but say.

"Actually, the prototype of the heroine is also someone from our school!" Chiyo came over mysteriously.

"Do I recognize him?"

"of course!"

127. They are wearing matching outfits!

"Chiyo this way~"

"Yumiko, here I come~"

On the day of the regional preliminaries, Chiyo and Nozaki came to watch the game.

What surprised Zhixian was that his girlfriend seemed to be making rapid progress with her new friend. After just a few days, they were already close enough to call each other by their names.

"Good morning, Tachibana-san." Chiyo said.

"Hello, Orange."

"Good morning Nozaki, Sakura."

Originally, Zhixian hadn't invited Nozaki and Chiyo. After all, it was just a regional qualifier, with roughly three matches a day, and the regional qualifier champion would be announced over the weekend. Mixed doubles was the event with the fewest applicants.

When the two drew lots, they had a bye in the first round, so they had to wait until the first round was over to find out the arrangements for the next game. Therefore, Zhixian and Youmiko had nothing to do for the time being.

As for Chiyo, it was Yumiko who called her, and Nozaki who was called by Chiyo. They probably tricked her out of the house under the pretext of collecting materials or something.

As soon as the two girls met, they put their arms around each other and sat together to talk in private.

"When does the competition start?" Nozaki asked expressionlessly, holding a sketchbook.

"It was supposed to start right now, but we drew a first-round bye..." Zhixian was also helpless. A first-round bye basically meant no matches this morning. But he couldn't leave either, because if anyone withdrew, they would be assigned to fill in.

After all, there aren't enough venues for all the players in the first round to start the competition at the same time.

After all, it was just a regional qualifier, so the venue wasn't that grand. The venue in Tokyo would probably be even tighter.

"Ah?" Nozaki's disappointment was beyond words. He had missed Chixian and Yumiko's practice match with Kaihin Comprehensive High School before, but he rushed here excitedly today, but he got a bye in the first round... It was a good thing that he even brought a camera.

"Don't be so disappointed. You don't need a tennis plot for the time being, right?"

"To be honest, I really want to draw a manga about tennis."

"...It's not called The Prince of Tennis, is it?"

"I'm a shojo manga artist, and your name sounds like a passionate shojo manga."

"But 'Moe Love' won't be finished for a while, right?"

"I probably won't finish it before college," Nozaki thought for a moment and replied, "but I did develop a certain interest in tennis after watching your matches."

"You were a basketball player before?"

"Basketball is cool, but wouldn't it be more engaging if the heroine played tennis? Like a mixed doubles partner, or a male teacher and a female student."

"From the perspective of girls' comics, tennis is indeed better." Zhixian thought that Nozaki could observe Wakamatsu and then transform Seo Yuzuki into a ruffian basketball boy, and then draw the character based on the daily life of the two.

Zhixian doesn’t know what others think, but he is very interested in it, and he is also interested in Hori-senpai and Kashima!

"Speaking of Tachibana," Nozaki looked at Chiyo and Yumiko, who were laughing not far away, "Can I draw your girlfriend in the manga? Recently, some readers have said they are very interested in the love story of the senior."

"......" It's because you laid the groundwork without authorization (see Chapter 71 for details)! Zhixian was speechless, "You must have thought of everything, right? Even the storyboards have been drawn?"

"You still understand me." Nozaki took out a stack of storyboard drafts from his bag.

"...I knew it would turn out like this. You definitely won't be satisfied with just being the protagonist."

"I got inspiration without realizing it." Nozaki took out another sketchbook and showed it to Zhixian like Doraemon. "I drew this during your last date."

"I feel like this could even be printed into a comic strip..." Zhixian couldn't help but complain, "You're observing too closely, aren't you? It turns out the storyboard you showed me before was an abridged version."

"The official plot would be too long, so it was simplified." After all, the main plot of Nozaki's chapter is the story of the heroine Mamiko and the hero Suzuki tracking the senior and her suspected boyfriend. The key point is that when the two of them were tracking the senior, they actually did all the things that couples usually do without realizing it.

Well, double the dog food and double the happiness, Nozaki-kun is worthy of his name, he easily did what other cartoonists couldn't do.

"Tachibana Chizuru and Miura Yumiko, please go to venue XX after hearing the announcement." The announcement sounded at this time.

The whole audience was silent for a moment after hearing the names of Chizuru Tachibana and Yumiko Miura, and then exploded.

"Is the Platinum Team competing again?"

"Didn't you come last year?"

"Didn't Ju Zhixian change his career to play singles?"

"Oh my god, these two great players are back, what are they still fighting for the championship? Who will compete with us for the runner-up position?"

After all, the contestants in the regional qualifiers were all from Chiba Prefecture, and they still harbored a scar on their junior high school days, when they dominated the Chiba Prefecture mixed doubles scene with the "Platinum Combination." They had won all three years of the prefectural tournament and had struggled to win at the Kanto tournament.

The sudden return of the Platinum Combination after a year really made the partners who grew up listening to the legend of the "Platinum Combination" break out in a cold sweat.

Although most of the people present may not have had the experience of playing against Yumiko Chigen, the legend of their sweeping across Chiba Prefecture is deeply engraved in the hearts of every mixed doubles player in Chiba.

"Youyouko, let's go." Zhixian smiled and took off the long-sleeved jacket he was wearing to keep warm.

"Here I am, Chiyo, please cheer me on~" Yumiko also took off her long-sleeved jacket.

The tennis uniforms of the two were revealed, with a big letter Y wrapped in a letter C on the front.

"Wow! They are both wearing couple outfits, Nozaki-kun!" Chiyo pulled Nozaki's sleeve.

"Let me draw it!" Nozaki started to draw. The scene where the two of them took off their coats to reveal their tennis uniforms was very vivid, and he was instantly inspired.

Zhixian and Youmiko put down their tennis bags and reported to the referee.

"It's been a long time, you two." The referee was also a familiar face, having officiated the mixed doubles matches since junior high. "I knew you would come back."

"You won't be disappointed. The current 'Platinum Combination' is not the same 'Platinum Combination' as before."

"Then I look forward to it." The referee smiled at the two and put on a professional expression. "Then both players, please spin your rackets."

Then Yumiko took a step forward and, having guessed the direction correctly, chose to serve - everything was no different from the Platinum Combination in junior high school.

The Platinum Combination has truly returned! The referee sighed inwardly.

128. Easy Qualifiers

After choosing their serving rights and courts, the two pairs of partners took their positions and prepared themselves.

The first game was Zhixian's serve. He stood at the baseline with a tennis ball in his hand and hit the ball with his racket.

Yumiko, who was ready at the net, turned around and gave Zhixian a thumbs up, indicating that she was ready.

Although it was a serving game, the two did not adopt the Australian formation - through the practice match with Haibin Comprehensive High School, they probably had mastered the level of players at this stage and there was no need to use the Australian formation.

There was no strategy for this ball either. The goal was to hit four aces to directly secure serve and enter the next game.

Zhixian stopped bouncing the ball with his racket and held the tennis ball in his hand, ready to serve. Although it was only the regional qualifiers, it was still the first serve of the Platinum Team back in the league, so he didn't intend to hide anything. He wanted to let the onlookers know that the Platinum Team was not retreating, but advancing.

Tell them that the platinum combination that swept Chiba is back.

Zhixian threw the tennis ball in his hand. His stretched body was extremely smooth, and his serving action was like flowing water. The tennis ball went straight to the male player who had been waiting for a long time at the diagonal line.

"The landing point can still be judged." The male player was a little surprised. He didn't expect that he could judge the landing point so easily.

So he was ready and swung the racket confidently as he expected, thinking that even the platinum combination would have to give it a try in the first game.

......

However, his swing missed, and the racket only hit the air, without any sense of heaviness from hitting the ball.

The male player was stunned. He had clearly predicted the ball's landing point! Why didn't he hit it? Was he hallucinating?

I've heard some tennis players can deprive people of their five senses and even cause hallucinations. Could Tachibana Chixian on the other side be capable of that as well? The nation's strongest players are truly terrifying!

As a result, the male player looked down and found the tennis ball on the ground.

“…” Fortunately, he was just doing his second-year thinking in his mind, otherwise it would be embarrassing.

“15:0” the referee announced.

Zhixian stood there, his face calm and composed.

Zero serve is always successful.

Because it was the first time that the Zero serve was used in a high school competition, the male player on the opposite side did not understand the principle and just thought he was seeing things.

Zhixian's second ball was still a zero-type serve, and he still scored directly.