Prince of Tennis: The Emperor's Eye

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Ranking Matches I

The much-anticipated matches started quickly. Akashi stayed in the meeting room, using the surveillance feed and Emperor Eye to collect everyone’s data. He’d later combine this with the trainers’ feedback for a full system analysis.

”Game! Tezuka Kunimitsu! 6-0!”

”Game! Akutsu Jin! 6-0!”

”Game! Tachibana Kippei! 6-0!”

...

As the tournament went on, everyone soon noticed a few players were just on another level—winning every match 6-0, not losing even a single point.

After three hours, the selection matches ended. The regulars were obvious—if it wasn’t Tezuka and the others, who else could it be?

Their overwhelming strength left the whole tennis club both excited and worried. Excited, because with regulars this strong, making it to Nationals this year seemed easy. Winning the national championship like the captain said didn’t seem impossible.

Worried, because the regulars were so powerful that replacing them seemed almost impossible for now—but everyone was still determined to train hard and hopefully become a regular themselves one day.

Meanwhile, in the meeting room, Akashi passed all his analyzed data to the system, then came out to where everyone had gathered. He looked at the six regulars in front, nodded in satisfaction, and spoke up:

”The selection matches are done—the regulars are set. If you didn’t make it, don’t lose heart. Like I said yesterday, you’ll get a chance every week to challenge the regulars. After each stage, there’ll be another round of selection matches, so keep working hard!”

Some of the club members even started clapping. Akashi found it funny—this wasn’t some leader’s speech—but he didn’t care and went on:

”Also, about the regulars’ uniforms—I’ve already got a designer working on them. Tezuka, give me your measurements later and I’ll have them made ASAP. From now on, Courts one to three are just for you guys.”

Tezuka and the others nodded to show they understood. Akashi noticed they looked a bit distracted and immediately realized why, so he said with a hint of resignation:

”Alright, in a moment, everyone follow the trainers’ instructions and head to Courts four to ten to start your training. This week, all courts will have the same training routine. Starting next week, we’ll adjust everything based on your matches and training data. But before that, there’s one more thing.”

”Starting tomorrow, we’ll have the regulars’ ranking matches, lasting three days. Anyone can pause their training to come watch—I think you’ll learn a lot from it. The matches use a point system. Each player will play every other regular once. You get one point for a win, none for a loss. The final ranking is based on total points...”

”Sorry to interrupt, Captain Akashi!” Tezuka suddenly spoke up before Akashi could finish.

”Hmm? Tezuka, what is it?” Akashi wasn’t bothered by the interruption and just asked curiously.

Tezuka exchanged glances with the other five regulars. Akutsu looked away, annoyed, while the other four nodded. Tezuka’s voice was serious and sincere: ”About the ranking... we all know there’s still a gap between us and you, Captain, so none of us want to fight for the No1 badge. We suggest you don’t participate in the ranking matches this time. We hope you’ll observe our games and use them to refine our training.”

”Is that so? Hmm... you have a point, Tezuka. Alright, I’ll graciously accept the No1 badge for now. But don’t hold back in your matches—I want to see the results of your last month of training,” Akashi said with a smile.

”Understood, Captain!” Tezuka answered, still serious.

”Hmph! Don’t get cocky, Akashi. That No1 badge is only with you for now. I’ll beat you one day and take it for myself!” Akutsu, annoyed by Akashi’s smile, couldn’t help grumbling.

”Heh, I look forward to your challenge, Akutsu!” Akashi replied, completely unfazed.

Then he addressed the club again:

”Alright, based on Tezuka’s suggestion, the schedule and format stay the same—point system as planned. The final points will decide No2 to No7. Now, everyone get to training—dismissed!”

Everyone was surprised by the regulars’ decision, but after yesterday, it made sense. One by one, they followed the trainers to Courts four to ten to start practice.

The regulars each got to work on their own training.

Akutsu walked over to the wall, took out the cross-shaped racket Akashi gave him, and used the rebound to practice ball control and get used to hitting the super sweet spot.

Krauser went to the serving machines, started up nine at once, and began multi-ball rally training.

Chitose Senri went over to Tezuka’s side to talk about the mysteries of Muga no Kyōchi. After hearing from Akashi at the start of school that Tezuka had already opened the door to Muga no Kyōchi, Chitose was fired up.

Tachibana Kippei and Kite Eishirō both worked on developing new techniques, following the training methods and advice Akashi had given earlier.

Honestly, the system-generated training routines based on Akashi’s data were super effective. Except for Krauser and Tezuka, everyone else had already made visible progress in just a little over a month of training.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Krauser and Tezuka weren’t improving. Krauser kept training as Akashi suggested, steadily growing stronger. Tezuka had already reached a super high level, so even with the most suitable training, it was hard to make huge breakthroughs in a short time, but his stats still went up a bit.

The next day, all the club members gathered around the bulletin board. The day’s ranking match schedule was already posted. There would be six matches, split into two rounds, with three matches happening at once on the three regulars’ courts.

Everyone debated which match to go watch. Honestly, nobody wanted to miss any of them, but there was no way to see more than one at a time, so they each picked the match they most wanted to see. The day’s six matches were:

First round: Tezuka Kunimitsu vs Chitose Senri (Court 1), Tachibana Kippei vs Akutsu Jin (Court 2), Liliadent Krauser vs Kite Eishirō (Court 3)

Second round: Akutsu Jin vs Kite Eishirō (Court 1), Tezuka Kunimitsu vs Tachibana Kippei (Court 2), Chitose Senri vs Liliadent Krauser (Court 3)

Right then, the regulars were warming up near their courts, faces tense. No one wanted to lose or end up with a low ranking.

The matches were about to begin, and groups of club members gathered around each court, buzzing with excitement and nerves. When the umpire announced the matches were starting, everyone cheered.

On Court 1, Tezuka and Chitose walked to the net, shook hands, and spun the racket for serve. Chitose won the right to serve first.

”Alright, Tezuka-kun, let’s not hold anything back, or that Captain of ours will get mad,” Chitose said with a smile.

”Yeah. Don’t underestimate me—let’s go all out,” Tezuka answered with his usual serious look.

Chitose walked to the baseline, took a tennis ball from his pocket, tested its bounce, and got ready to serve. He tossed the ball high, then swung his racket as the ball dropped into place.

With the sound of the strike, the ball zipped over the net with heavy spin, landing in Tezuka’s half. Tezuka moved into position, but as the ball bounced up, it suddenly accelerated and disappeared right in front of his eyes.

”Kamikakushi!”

Tezuka froze for a second, then realized what happened and tried to reach left with his racket, but it was too late—the ball reappeared near the left baseline and shot out of bounds.

”15-0”

Chitose used Kamikakushi from the start. Clearly, he hadn’t lied before—he wasn’t holding anything back. The club members watching were all stunned.

”Did you see Chitose’s serve just now?”

”I saw! The ball just vanished, then popped up behind him!”

”Yeah, that was insane. How did he do that? So that’s regular-level strength?”

”So Chitose wasn’t playing for real when he played me yesterday. I really have to work harder now.”

Tezuka, seeing Kamikakushi for the first time, was surprised, but his emotions didn’t budge. He calmly retreated to the baseline, waiting for Chitose’s next serve.

’Still calm after seeing Kamikakushi? Looks like you’ve already seen through it. That’s scary, Tezuka...’ Chitose muttered, then served again—still Kamikakushi.

But this time, Tezuka didn’t let Chitose succeed. He got to the drop spot, and as the ball disappeared, swung at empty space on the right. The vanished ball reappeared on his racket and was returned.

Chitose had expected his move to be cracked, so he rushed to the drop spot and started trading shots with Tezuka. After a few rallies, he suddenly noticed a white vortex forming around Tezuka, sucking every return toward him.