134. The Wildly Spirited Outward-Swinging Serve and Basic Split Steps

"Game, Jo-Shonan! 1-0! Change ends!"

"Vice-Captain Fuji isn't letting Akutsu stand in front either. If it's him, surely that's better than letting Fuji face Uehara Makoto all by himself?"

Shishido Ryo didn't understand why Fuji insisted on taking the front position. While Akutsu’s physical prowess might not be enough to crush Uehara Makoto head-on, he could at least hold his own.

"Ara, look at Vice-Captain Fuji's stance."

Matsubara Meii noticed that Fuji, eyes narrowed, wore an expression of firm resolve, and his hand holding the tennis ball gripped it slightly.

"That stance... isn't that just how anyone holds a tennis ball?" Shishido asked, not sensing anything amiss.

"Look closer. Vice-Captain Fuji is holding the ball with his hand facing downward. It looks like he’s about to use *that* technique." A flicker of excitement crossed Matsubara Meii's face; it was finally time to deflate the opponent's arrogance!

Just as he spoke, Fuji’s five fingers rotated with fluid agility, and the ball began to spin rapidly in a counter-clockwise direction.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

Stepping back slightly with his left foot, Fuji raised his racket above his head and swung it downward with visible speed!

Mid-swing, Fuji opened his sapphire-like eyes. At the moment of impact, he seemed to blur into a faint afterimage, and the ball shot toward the other side with a sharp, lethal arc.

"It’s the vanishing serve he used against Captain Tezuka in the internal ranking tournament!" Shishido realized instantly.

Upon landing, the ball deformed. After spinning rapidly for a moment, it bounced up, carrying a violent, irregular wobble as it rushed toward Uehara Makoto. Seeing this, the latter couldn't help but sneer: "Is this the kind of serve you’re embarrassed enough to show off?"

Feeling slighted, Uehara Makoto didn't even bother to take a step before swinging his racket. But the moment his strings touched the ball, the wobbling sphere vanished into thin air. When it reappeared, it had already shot past Uehara and landed out of bounds!

"15-0!"

"Huh?!" Uehara’s mouth hung open. That ball had actually vanished.

"Although you caught the landing spot of my serve at first, this ball doesn't just move once." Fuji’s blue eyes were perfectly calm. A light breeze stirred his chestnut hair, giving him an ethereal quality that drew screams from the girls watching from the sidelines.

"So cool! Fuji-kun!"

"Beat them in one go!"

The Jo-Shonan regulars were stunned, but the Changqing side remained composed—after all, it wasn't their first time seeing this serve. To date, the probability of someone returning Fuji’s serve had remained at zero.

"The vanishing serve... the power behind its second bounce is even greater than before," Inui Sadaharu muttered, quickly jotting down the latest data in his notebook.

"As expected of Vice-Captain Fuji. A serve like that can only be pulled off by someone called a genius." Akazawa Yoshirou felt a surge of excitement, and Yanagisawa Shinya nodded in agreement. Seeing this miraculous serve, he felt the set was already in the bag.

As the breeze ruffled his clothes, Uehara Makoto offered a disingenuous compliment: "Impressive. But I won't let you get away with it on the next one."

Just as Uehara grew confident in his ability to return the serve, Kiryuu Hiromi, standing at the back, looked on with a somber gaze.

With a flick of his fingers, Fuji repeated the same motion, and the ball began its counter-clockwise spin again. As Fuji unleashed the vanishing serve once more, Uehara adjusted his sunglasses and suddenly declared, "I’ve already caught the path for this one!"

Refusing to fix his eyes solely on the first and second wobbles, Uehara mapped the entire trajectory of the ball's movement into his mind. It was just oscillating within a fixed area—this time, he would definitely succeed in a counter-attack!

He thrust his racket into the air. The ball was still a dozen centimeters away from his strings when Uehara, anticipating the impact, watched in shock as the ball didn't bounce toward him at all, but instead shot past his feet and out of bounds!

"30-0!"

"Scared me to death. I thought Fuji’s ball was going to be returned..." Shibayama Kumakiri patted his chest.

"It wouldn't have been. The path of this ball was completely different from the last one. Even if Uehara was prepared, the unpredictable trajectory would still cause him to make a mistake."

"Eh? The path was different from before?" Shishido asked, stunned.

"Yes. It seems Fuji has enhanced it. In other words, he can now hit his vanishing serve in more than one way. Compared to the similar landing spots from before, it’s clear he hasn't just increased the power, but also strengthened the spin," Inui analyzed.

"Incredible, to change the trajectory of that kind of serve..." Shiba Saori craned her neck.

"As expected of the genius Fuji Syusuke. His control over cross-court shots has reached the level of pure whim..." Inoue Mamoru said with difficulty.

"To think that Fuji Syusuke, already a genius, still has room to evolve..." On the bench, Hana-mura Aoi sat up straight. Watching the chestnut-haired boy holding the ball, she felt a profound stir in her heart.

"40-0!"

"As expected of Vice-Captain Fuji. Never mind that Uehara guy, even Kiryuu standing in the back is just frozen like a statue," Shishido laughed.

"I suspect he calculated the defensive range of both Uehara and Kiryuu with surgical precision, like threading a needle," Inui remarked.

"Looks like he won't even need to wait until his second year; he'll be a household name in the Kanto region while still a freshman," Matsubara Meii said with a light chuckle as he watched the spirited Fuji.

"It’s not just that. Fuji, show them your full strength!" Tezuka crossed his arms, watching the boy quietly. Only he truly understood the depth of Fuji's current surface strength and hidden potential.

"Move, Uehara!" the silent Kiryuu Hiromi shouted. As Uehara scrambled out of the way, Kiryuu retreated outside the court and swung his arm with ferocious speed, his racket meeting the ball squarely!

*Clack.*

The ball clipped the net and rolled over.

"1-1! Jo-Shonan, Kiryuu to serve!"

"Tch... thought I had read that guy’s trajectory, but it was just a net-cord," Kiryuu muttered to himself.

"Phew... I thought they were going to counter-attack..." Shishido wiped the sweat from his brow. That Kiryuu Hiromi had actually managed to touch Fuji’s ball and send it back, but fortunately for them, it hadn't cleared the net.

"That guy, Kiryuu, seems to have decent dynamic vision. Perhaps he saw the full trajectory before deciding to swing. But because his vision is only 'decent,' he couldn't truly return Fuji’s serve," Inui noted, recording the new data.

"What does 'decent' mean? Is it good or bad, *dane*?" Yanagisawa Shinya felt like Inui was actually praising Kiryuu.

"It’s just mid-to-lower tier. If I had to rank it, it’s probably quite a bit worse than Shishido’s," Inui replied.

"Hey, Inui... why do you always compare me to them?" Shishido complained unhappily.

"Because most of your data is at the bottom of my list. Your dynamic vision is second only to Akutsu’s and above the others; that should give you some small comfort." Inui's blunt words left Shishido speechless, while Yanagisawa burst into laughter.

"To think that serve allowed them to hold two people to zero points..." Hana-mura Aoi thought to herself. "Among the second-years, Uehara, Kiryuu, and Honda are the renowned 'Ebizuka Trio.' No one has ever kept them scoreless in a single game. Even on their worst days, I don't recall any school records showing they failed to score a single point in a game. Today is the first time..."

Images of papers filled with notes and the tennis club’s record books flashed through Hana-mura’s mind, the faces of the three boys slowly emerging from the data.

"A formidable kid..." Uehara Makoto, seeing that even Kiryuu Hiromi couldn't truly return that strange serve, couldn't help but change his opinion of Fuji. The two across the net were not as simple as he had imagined.

"Stop looking around, Uehara."

Kiryuu Hiromi served. Noticing the motion, Uehara gasped, "Is it that?!"

Akutsu watched the ball, which was dropping rapidly in front of him. His eyes narrowed. "It didn't bounce?"

"Spin?!" Fuji opened his blue eyes as he watched the ball continuing to rotate on the ground.

"A Twist Serve?!" Shishido exclaimed.

"You couldn't tell at all from his posture," Inui said, finding it hard to believe.

"Kiryuu’s style is fierce. He can execute a twist serve without jumping, and the angle of his waist is 16.7 degrees lower than a normal player, which multiplies the ball's speed and power," Hana-mura Aoi said with a seductive smile.

"Get out of the way, Akutsu!" Fuji shouted at his teammate, who remained motionless as the ball shot rapidly toward his face.

"Not moving is fine, too. I’ve been tired of your ugly face for a long time," Kiryuu squinted, laughing contemptuously.

"It's not nearly as fast as that kid's zero-spin ball." Akutsu’s eyes sharpened. He leaned his body to the left, and without even looking at the ball, he swung his racket while crossing his legs!

*Boom!*

He sent Kiryuu’s twist serve back to the right side of the court. Just as Akutsu thought Kiryuu wouldn't reach it, Kiryuu lifted his heel, tapped his feet, and sprinted to the right in a single step to intercept the ball!

"That is... a split-step?!" Matsubara Meii leaned forward, a rare sight.

Unlike Echizen Ryoma’s twist serve or split-step, everything about Kiryuu Hiromi—from his serve to his footwork—was filled with a wild, savage intensity, as if he weren't here to play tennis, but to brawl.

Because of the split-step, no matter where Akutsu placed the ball, Kiryuu reached it effortlessly. Over time, Akutsu, who had intended to deflate the opponent's spirit, was dragged into a stalemate where neither could decide the point!

However, Kiryuu seemed tired of trading shots with the oddly-composed Akutsu. He transitioned his split-step into a one-legged split-step, reached the ball a step and a half faster than Akutsu, and scored with a decisive smash!

"15-0!"