161. Slice-of-Life: The Small Orange Book

Just as the teenager finished breaking up the scuffle, Kajimoto Takahisa squeezed through a gap in the crowd. Spotting Tezuka, he extended a hand and said, "Hello, I am Kajimoto, the tennis team captain of Jyosei Shonan."

"Hello, I am Tezuka."

Seeing this, Tezuka reached out and shook hands with Kajimoto Takahisa.

"Congratulations on advancing," Kajimoto Takahisa said.

"Thank you." Tezuka nodded slightly.

"Oh, right, I wanted to ask—who is your Singles 1 player?" Kajimoto Takahisa asked, nearly forgetting the primary reason he had come to find Tezuka.

"It's me."

Akazawa Yoshiro stepped forward. Knowing the other person's status as a captain, he rubbed the back of his head and said, "Please don't expect too much from me, though. After all, our strongest singles player is Captain Tezuka."

With that, Akazawa Yoshiro glanced back at Tezuka.

"I see. It's a pity I won't get a chance to play against you on the court, but let's have a match sometime in the future when the opportunity arises."

Kajimoto Takahisa wasn't particularly concerned with the relative strength of his opponents; he had simply wanted to know who Changqing had assigned as Singles 1, both to chat and kill time, and to become a bit more acquainted. Since he hadn't played today, he practically had no further opportunities to take the court in the remaining matches. With Jyosei Shonan's defeat today, advancing to the National Tournament was out of the question, and even reaching the semifinals seemed as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

"Certainly, it would be my pleasure."

Akazawa Yoshiro shook hands with Kajimoto Takahisa.

As he parted ways with the Changqing members, Kajimoto Takahisa suddenly scratched his head. "This Akazawa Yoshiro has a much steadier demeanor than I first thought. In his eyes, there is the exact same resolve as Tezuka, who is a captain."

For some reason, Kajimoto Takahisa felt this way after speaking with Akazawa Yoshiro. But since he was in the same grade as Tezuka, he probably wouldn't have been able to secure the position of captain, right?

Municipal General Hospital.

"I see. Tezuka used the Instigation of Self-Actualization in the final moments to win the match?"

Lying in a hospital bed with his leg in a cast, Yanagi Renji listened as Inui Sadaharu finished summarizing the entire match, and nodded.

"Yes. According to intelligence I've just gathered, due to the exceptionally fierce competition in the Kanto Tournament, our victory over Jyosei Shonan originally only put us in the quarterfinals, and our next opponent was supposed to be relatively easy. However, because the tournament eliminated a large number of teams, our advancement now places us in the semifinals, where we will face Hyotei in the next match."

Inui Sadaharu flipped open his notebook and spoke.

"Hyotei..."

Yanagi Renji looked startled. As expected, a fierce battle with Hyotei was inevitable after all.

"The teams in the semifinals this time are your former stronghold, the championship favorite Rikkai Dai Junior High; the second seed, Teitan High School Affiliated Junior High; the third seed, Hyotei; and the fourth seed, us, Changqing."

Inui Sadaharu closed his notebook.

"Teitan High School Affiliated Junior High? If I recall correctly, their high school soccer team is extremely formidable, isn't it?"

Yanagi Renji had assumed the second seed would be Changqing, and was surprised to find it occupied by an affiliated junior high not particularly known for tennis.

"That's right. Teitan High's soccer club is famous throughout the entire Kanto region, but their junior high counterpart is rather lacking. I suspect a large component of luck was involved in their middle school division reaching the semifinals this time. Aside from a narrow escape against their opponents in the regional preliminaries, they practically coasted through all the rest of their matches. They can truly be considered an oddity among middle school tennis programs."

Inui Sadaharu nodded.

...

Having defeated Jyosei Shonan, Changqing had secured the final spot in the Kanto Tournament semifinals, and the semifinal matches were set to take place a week later. That would be the decisive battle against Hyotei. If they emerged victorious, Changqing would encounter either Rikkai Dai or Teitan High in the finals of the Kanto Tournament.

"The semifinal opponent is Hyotei..."

Walking home, Matsubara Naru held his head and muttered to himself. After returning to Changqing with the team, he had also listened as Inui Sadaharu recounted the intelligence overview of their semifinal opponents.

There was nothing particularly surprising about ultimately facing Hyotei; after all, the raw talent of Hyotei's first-year players was there. If they had been eliminated in the first round just like in the original work, that would have truly felt like a forced plot kill.

Although the current Hyotei roster only featured Keigo Atobe, Jiroh Akutagawa, Yushi Oshitari, Hiyoshi Wakashi, and Ryo Shishido—wait, missing Ryo Shishido meant the lineup didn't have any obvious weaknesses to exploit; instead, it posed a tremendous threat.

On the other hand, the absence of Hiroshi Kabaji provided the teenager with some comfort. After all, Changqing's greatest fear right now was power-type players, and if he had to face such power-type players himself, his win rate would undoubtedly plummet to a terrifying degree.

According to Inui Sadaharu's intelligence, Hyotei's second doubles would be the combination of Gakuto Mukahi and Yushi Oshitari; the first doubles would be Oshitari's partner alongside someone named Tamotsu Yamada; the third singles would be a person named Ogenji; the second singles would be Jiroh Akutagawa; and the first singles would be Keigo Atobe.

"To think the school facing Rikkai Dai is actually Teitan High School Affiliated Junior High—that's something I didn't expect..."

Matsubara Naru repeatedly read the words on the slip of paper. Confirming that it really was Teitan High, he gave a wry, helpless smile. As expected, due to his transmigrations, this world had changed to some extent. He had originally thought his transmigration would only alter the people and events that came after his arrival, but he hadn't expected it to affect things beforehand as well.

"Thinking about it, it's not actually strange for Prince of Tennis to merge with Conan, since they both take place in the Tokyo area. I just wonder how far Mihana Town is from here..."

Still talking to himself, Matsubara Naru passed by a newsstand. As his gaze drifted casually, he noticed an orange little book that looked terribly familiar.

"Are wa..."

The teenager abruptly halted his steps. Seeing the joyful illustration of a man and a woman chasing each other on the cover of that orange little book, Matsubara Naru let out a gasp, "Icha... Icha Paradise?!"

"Oh? You know this book?!"

Hearing what Matsubara Naru had said, the newsstand owner's eyes lit up. As he poked his head out, the owner frowned slightly, "Um... you look like you're still a minor, kid?"

"Um... yeah..."

Matsubara Naru nodded obediently.

"Ah... if you were an adult, I might have sold this book to you. This is strictly for adults, you know."

The owner sighed with a headache, then flipped *Icha Icha Paradise* over to reveal a red prohibition symbol printed on the back cover.

"Soka. By the way, Boss, where did you get this book?" Matsubara Naru asked.

"Well... I saw it when restocking, and plus, this genre is one of our store's specialties. Even though it's restricted, the content isn't actually very explicit; it's even a bit naive..." The owner glanced upward, deep in thought.

"I remember hearing on a certain forum before that the *Icha Icha Paradise* series isn't actually as wild as everyone imagines, and that it's fundamentally just a romance novel riding on a clickbait gimmick. Looking at it now, it seems that really was a divine prophecy?" Matsubara Naru rubbed his chin and thought.

"Say, Boss, is there an author listed for this book?"

The teenager stood on his tiptoes, resting both hands on the edge of the newsstand's counter as he asked.

"There is. I remember it's a rather absurd pen name, let me check..."

The owner flipped the book open and said, "Got it. It's called 'Lecherous Sage'."

"As expected, it's Jiraiya..."

Matsubara Naru's eyebrows twitched slightly. In reality, the author of this book was Jiraiya, and using 'Lecherous Sage' as a pen name was entirely understandable. But one had to remember that the world Matsubara Naru currently inhabited was the real world blending into a fictional one. For *Icha Icha Paradise* to appear here—even a fool would know Jiraiya couldn't possibly be the original author; someone must have impersonated him.

As for who was doing the impersonation, Matsubara Naru wasn't particularly interested. Since even Conan had crashed into the Prince of Tennis world, what did a crossover with Naruto matter? The whole beginning and end of this was simply caused by his own transmigration.

"Thanks, Boss."

After expressing his gratitude, Matsubara Naru turned around and waved goodbye to the owner. However, just as the owner smiled and waved back at him, a wave of gray energy suddenly swept outward. Every moving thing instantly froze in place, and even a single leaf drifting down from a tree after a gust of wind stopped dead in mid-air!