130. Sadaharu Inui's Feint

"Heh, their extraordinary mastery of hearing allows them to listen to whatever they want, even while multitasking. They can not only judge the landing point of the ball the moment their opponent makes a move, but they can also judge it while chatting away."

葵 Wakimura crossed her arms, her eyes filled with doting affection for the Tanaka brothers, gazing at them as if they were works of art she had personally carved.

"Inui, Yanagi, your data tennis is indeed impressive. You can feed known data about your opponents into your analysis to determine the trajectory of the ball and the opponent's swing, achieving a preemptive advantage by staying one step ahead. However, Yohei and Kohei can completely compensate for this with their hearing. They possess a pride that exceeds yours; even without using their eyes to track the ball, or while chatting, they can instantly move to the landing spot to launch a counterattack. This... is a height you cannot reach."

"Hehehe..."

A secret monologue from Wakimura made her posture swell with pride. She was now brimming with confidence in the Tanaka brothers. Putting them in the second doubles match was indeed a wise choice; if they had been saved for last, she wouldn't have been able to force Inui and Yanagi into such a tough battle.

It was Yohei Tanaka's turn to serve. The duo's fighting spirit was high, and they continued to chat loudly. With Sadaharu Inui joining the fray, the pressure on Renji Yanagi had eased slightly.

*Thump!*

"15-0!"

"Tch, was that just luck?" Yohei Tanaka narrowed his eyes as he saw the ball fly out of bounds.

"Let's keep up the same offensive, Yohei. That shot must have been a coincidence," Kohei Tanaka said.

"Thanks, Sadaharu," Yanagi said, feeling grateful as Inui suddenly appeared to block a shot for him.

"It's nothing. As long as we maintain enough technical precision, they will naturally be forced to abandon their tactic of using chatter to distract us because they won't be able to handle both," Inui said calmly.

"Indeed. Not looking at the ball and relying solely on hearing might allow one to do things others cannot, but excellence in one aspect often means weakness in another," Yanagi nodded. Inui's previous shot looked simple, but it was aimed at Yohei Tanaka’s blind spot. Even if they could hear the ball’s speed and spin, if their fundamental skills weren't refined enough, they could only watch helplessly as they exposed their flaws.

In other words, while the Tanaka brothers used their hearing to anticipate and suppress their opponents' attacks, this was built entirely upon their exceptional sense of hearing. Perhaps Wakimura had been too focused on training their hearing, carelessly neglecting their fundamental skills.

At this moment, Inui and Yanagi were scoring points against the Tanaka brothers as easily as taking something from a bag, relying on technical shots. With their combined efforts, they quickly brought the score to 40-0!

"How could this be... our conversation can no longer distract them..." Kohei Tanaka felt an unprecedented panic rising in his heart. Always the one to comfort his brother, he now found himself losing his composure.

"Could they have been holding back their strength before..." Yohei Tanaka wasn't as panicked, but he couldn't understand why the pair who had only won one point in the first game had suddenly undergone a 180-degree shift in the second.

"That guy named Inui seems to have jammed Yohei's rhythm," Hiroshi Yagyu observed, a strange glint in his eyes.

"The fluid rhythm has suddenly stalled. But Yohei and Kohei don't seem to have realized where the problem lies yet," Takahisa Kajimoto said, arms crossed.

"..." Reiji Shinjō remained silent, watching the Tanaka brothers coolly.

"Those data boys are quite capable. They’re hitting nothing but technical shots. I doubt the two little guys have ever encountered this in their training," Toshiaki Honda tugged at his mask and coughed lightly.

"Hey, Kohei, where are we going after school tomorrow?" Yohei Tanaka asked, engaging in awkward small talk to cheer his brother up.

"Ah... um, wasn't it decided that we’d go to the school study hall so you could teach me English grammar?" Kohei Tanaka, mid-stride, shivered slightly before smiling and responding.

The two gradually regained their rhythm and continued to stay locked in a stalemate with Inui and Yanagi. On the sidelines, Wakimura rubbed her chin. "Using words to exert mental pressure on the opponent can cause even those with a strong psychological state to collapse. To think they’ve managed to take three points from Yohei and Kohei..."

"I just wonder how long they can keep this momentum up. But my masterpieces... they absolutely cannot have any flaws," Wakimura thought firmly as she watched the Tanaka brothers pull the score back to 30-40.

"Kohei, watch your backhand!" Yohei Tanaka realized Inui's shot had the same trajectory as the one aimed at him earlier and quickly warned his brother.

"I know!" Kohei Tanaka sidestepped cleanly and returned the ball with a forehand-backhand!

"40-40!"

Seeing the Tanaka brothers take another point, Wakimura smirked. "Inui, Yanagi, your talent is great, but... you just haven't met a good mentor."

Thinking this, the woman glanced at Kunimitsu Tezuka, who stood with his arms crossed, wearing the same expression he had held from the beginning.

***

"1-1! Seigaku's Sadaharu Inui to serve!"

Inui gripped the tennis ball, his waist driving his arm, his arm driving his forearm, and launched a powerful serve toward Kohei Tanaka!

*Boom!*

When Kohei Tanaka received the ball, he couldn't withstand the power; his racket was sent flying two or three meters away!

*Clatter!*

"15-0!"

The racket slid across the ground until it hit the fence. Kohei Tanaka’s right wrist was visibly trembling, and his expression turned to one of terror. On the sidelines, Hiroshi Yagyu gasped, "A very fast serve! It’s on par with the 50% Speed Serve (also known as the Waist-Twist Serve) that Kajimoto uses!"

"Did that reach 170 km/h?" Kajimoto asked himself. His own speed serve could reach 180 km/h at 100%. To think that Inui could hit half that speed without any preamble... are these guys from Seigaku monsters?

"So, they can't handle high-spin technical shots, and they can't handle high-power serves either?" Inui continued to refine the data on the Tanaka brothers in his mind. Since Kohei couldn't handle it, the probability that his brother Yohei couldn't handle his high-speed serve was likely 99%.

"Well done, Inui and Yanagi. You can vaguely see a trend where they might surpass the Tanaka brothers' score," Inoue Mamoru sighed with relief on the sidelines. Although it had only been two games, it felt like he had watched a battle spanning several sets.

"Are you okay, Kohei?" Yohei asked with concern.

"It's nothing. I didn't expect anyone other than Kajimoto to be able to hit such a fast ball," Kohei recovered quickly from the shock. Compared to the shots he had struggled with earlier, this serve didn't make him doubt reality.

"But fortunately, we’ve trained against Kajimoto, otherwise we might not have been able to break his service game," Yohei said, feeling a bit lucky.

"Yeah, let's use that move, Yohei!" Kohei nodded in agreement.

"It seems the opponents are prepared for something..." Ryoma Echizen's teammate, Ryo Shishido, muttered as he saw the brothers showing no panic despite failing to return the serve.

*Boom!*

Inui continued to use the high-speed serve toward Kohei. This time, the latter rushed forward, and Yohei followed his pace, the two ending up standing in a parallel line!

"Hmph."

"Heh."

The two assumed symmetric stances to prepare for the shot, a deep smile crossing their faces.

"Take this! Double Strike!"

They shouted in unison. Yohei’s racket was behind, Kohei’s in front. The two rackets overlapped and struck the ball together. Faced with Inui's high-speed serve, a blinding golden light seemed to erupt from the point of contact!

The tennis ball turned into a yellow-green radiance and dove rapidly. Because of the double force applied, the streak of light flew over Inui toward the back of the court. With a dull *boom*, it exploded. Inui stood dumbfounded. "A double attack..."

"There's a move like that?" On the sidelines, Shishido looked shocked.

"Two people together... no way?" Shibayama Kumakiri’s mouth hung open.

"Combining two rackets?" Fuji opened his blue eyes.

"What the hell... that return is absurd..." Yanagisawa Shinya’s sausage lips twitched.

"Yohei Tanaka put so much force into Kohei’s racket, and Kohei hit it with equal force—I can't believe the rackets didn't break," Yanagi murmured as he watched the two maintain their synchronized striking motion.

"15-15!"

"Ah... showing off is the most fatal mistake..." Narumi Matsubara looked at the smug expressions on the Tanaka brothers' faces and sighed softly.

"Inui and Yanagi's situation isn't optimistic. Every time they gain a slight advantage, the opponents swallow it up," Yuna Iwamura said softly.

***

"Yeah..." Fuyuka Oda nodded.

The Tanaka brothers' joint double-strike increased the power of their return from one person to two. Relying on this move, Inui’s service game was ruthlessly broken, and the score reached 2-1!

"Game, Narusei Shonan! 2-1! Change sides!"

"Don't be too anxious, Sadaharu. Even with the double-strike, we can find a way to break through," Yanagi said as they walked.

"I'm not anxious. I’m just surprised Shonan has so many hidden moves. But losing that game wasn't entirely without gain," Inui shook his head; he wasn't troubled by his service game being broken.

"It seems you've found a way to resolve their double-strike," Yanagi’s face showed surprise, followed by a smile.

"Regarding this double-strike, I’ve thought of two methods. The first is the simplest: hit it back with even more force. But this method is clearly unreliable because applying more force to the ball means we lose the ability to hit high-difficulty shots. Even if we could break their double-strike, their terrifying hearing would still dominate us."

"The second method is that we stop hitting balls with higher speed and power, and instead, through calculating their weaknesses, hit the ball to places where they cannot counterattack. This increases our scoring success rate. Although I don't know if they will use the double-strike for anything other than returns, to be safe, I’ve decided to give up the high-speed serves."

Inui had used the entire game to adjust his speed and power. During this, he increased and decreased his force, but no matter the change, the serve remained at the standard of a high-speed serve. The result, however, was that he and Yanagi couldn't return the opponent's shots.

Compared to being seen through, and eventually scoring by hitting the ball to the opponent's blind spots or hard-to-reach areas, relying on power to win was clearly an unwise choice. This was why Inui had suggested Yanagi abandon the idea of a head-on collision.

"Are we going back to the old ways..." Yanagi understood. He then revealed a smile that seemed to see through everything. "However, since their fundamentals are poor, it means there is a 99.9% probability that they are extremely dependent on the sounds transmitted to their ears."

"Renji..." Inui called softly.

"It seems they are discussing some countermeasures..." Kohei Tanaka noticed that Inui and Yanagi’s mouths hadn't stopped moving, and he frowned.

"The sound is too soft... I can't hear what they're saying at all..." Yohei Tanaka cast his gaze toward them. The feeling of being able to hear something but not quite catching it was truly frustrating.

"Have you come up with a winning strategy?" Tezuka asked as the two walked over.

"Yes. My new strategy, combined with Sadaharu’s old methods, should be able to open up the score gap," Yanagi nodded with a smile.

"Go for it!" Tezuka said solemnly.

"No matter what strategy they discuss, we will have a way to break it," Yohei Tanaka said. It was his turn to serve, and he planned to widen the gap in one go. The current stalemate had made him impatient.

"The command is up to you, Professor," Inui said.

"Hit Yohei Tanaka’s shot into the empty space in the bottom right corner, but first, make a motion as if hitting toward the bottom left, Doctor," Yanagi began to command.

"Understood." Inui faced the incoming ball and swung his racket, but he quickly changed his motion and swung again!

*Slap!*

At this moment, Yohei Tanaka stood rooted to the spot like a lifeless wooden sculpture. On the sidelines, the photographer Shiori Shiba saw this and exclaimed excitedly, "Yes! They scored in one hit!"

"What's going on, Yohei..." Kohei Tanaka, standing in the back, had heard the irregularity in Inui’s movement and walked over to ask.

"I don't know... judging from the sound, he must have changed the direction of the hit."

As Yanagi had predicted, because the Tanaka brothers were overly dependent on their hearing, their other faculties were temporarily less sensitive than their ears. Coupled with the habit of not using their eyes to track the ball over these two games, once they encountered an obstacle, their keen hearing led them into error. What caused them to lose the point was precisely Inui’s feint.