Tennis: one step ahead

"It's finally time for the tournament to start, I've been waiting for days. "

"It's not just you, we're all waiting. "

"Which school will you say will be the champion of this year's MUSC?"

"Do you need to ask? Of course, it's the Ice Emperor. ~"

"Ice Emperor, not necessarily, the strength of the mountain blowing is not bad. "

Today is April 27th, the day of the start of the HKMU-Tun University.

Unlike the regional qualifiers, more than 100 schools participated in each region of the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition.

Among the more than 100 teams, only five schools are finally qualified to advance to the next round of the competition.

Its elimination rate is as high as 95 percent.

You must know that the teams that can participate in the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition are the best in the regional qualifiers and have a certain strength.

Therefore, every edition of the competition can be described as extremely tragic, and there is no shortage of wonderful competitions.

In particular, the Tokyo area has a large number of strong schools, which has always been the focus of attention from all parties.

Once the Tokyo Metropolitan Tournament starts, the stadium will be filled with people.

There are players, tennis enthusiasts who come to watch the game, and people who work in the field of tennis......

And so on and so forth.

After submitting their lists, the participating schools go to their respective courts.

The audience who came to watch the game was looking for the school they were optimistic about, and at the same time had a heated discussion with their peers and friends.

"This year's Tokyo Metropolitan Contest is as lively as ever. "

Mamoru Inoue is a journalist for a professional tennis monthly.

Although the professional tennis monthly magazine, most of the news published are related to professional players.

However, Mamoru Inoue himself pays special attention to the younger generation in the neon tennis world.

The annual Neon National Junior High School Student National Competition is a must-see event for him.

Because of his work and residence in Tokyo, Mamoru Inoue paid more attention to the Tokyo Metropolitan Tournament and the Spectator Contest before the final stage of the national competition.

This year, too.

On the opening day of the Tokyo Metropolitan Tournament, he arrived at one of the divisions on time.

Carrying a backpack with a work camera on his shoulder and a press card around his neck, he walked along the path of the tournament venue, scanning the stadium on both sides of the road.

Mamoru Inoue is targeting the three strongest schools in the division.

A well-known strong school in the country,Ice Emperor School Park。

A legend in the neon tennis world, the alma mater of samurai Echizen Minamijiro, Youth Academy.

A school based on doubles, Yamabuki Junior High School.

"Huh?"

As he walked, a somewhat familiar earthy yellow color broke into Mamoru Inoue's line of sight.

He chuckled, his gaze turning to where the earthy yellow was.

In front of me, a teenager who looks like a junior high school student is standing on the steps of a certain court, watching the game below.

Around the teenagers, the spectators who came to watch the game were obviously a little absent-minded.

His eyes glanced at him from time to time, with unconcealed surprise and doubt in his eyes.

Some of them also whispered to their peers, looking at their performance, eighty percent of the topics revolved around teenagers.

"W-how is this possible?"

As a person who has been mixed in the neon country junior high school national competition all year round, Mamoru Inoue recognized the origin of this teenager at a glance.

He was the champion of last year's national tournament and a member of the tennis club of the High School Affiliated to Lihai University.

And judging by the team uniform, it is one of the members of the main selection department.

Although Lihai University is in Tokyo, it can be divided into the same competition area as Bing Emperor and Qingxue schools.

Without the Kanto Tournament, the two sides will not be able to meet.

Nowadays, the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition is in full swing.

Yukimura Seiichi, the head of the Lihai University Tennis Department, how could he allow the department to be selected and come to other divisions?

"It's only the second round, and the level of each school is uneven. "

"The more interesting games are estimated to be in the rematch stage in the afternoon. "

"I don't know which school Qingxue and Ice Emperor's opponent will be?"

The Lihai Tennis Club that appeared here is the main selection, who else can it be if it is not Bo Li Hiiragi Night?

Hakurei Hiiragi deliberately applied to Yukimura Seiichi to be absent from the capital competition, so that he could choose the right player to replace him, and boredom was one of the reasons.

The second reason is to meet other important characters in the original book.

Especially in this area, there is a protagonist team Qingxue, and there are the most plot characters.

It's just that he seems to have come early,

"Boy, can I take up a little of your time?"

I was thinking about whether to find the players of Ice Emperor and Qingxue, or to find a place to rest for a while, and wait for the afternoon rematch to start.

Behind the night of Hakurei, the voice of a strange middle-aged man came.

“......"

Sensing that someone was talking to her, Hiiragi Hakuri stopped thinking for a moment and turned to face backwards.

When he saw the face of the accoster, the depths of his eyes revealed an imperceptible surprise.

It's Mamoru Inoue.

This is an "acquaintance", and he has a lot of scenes in the prologue of the original book.

"If you have time, may I ask you what's the matter?"

Hiiragi Hakuri knows Mamoru Inoue at night, but Mamoru Inoue doesn't know him.

When the two met for the first time, they had to pretend that they didn't know each other.

"Thank you very much. "

When I saw Hakuri Hiiragi just now, Mamoru Inoue suddenly committed an occupational disease.

In addition, he was indeed extremely curious about the reason why Hiiragi was here.

So, I stepped forward to talk to Hakuri Hiiragi at night and found out why.

"You are the main candidate of Lihai University, there is a question, please allow me to take the liberty of asking. "

"As the main candidate, why didn't you participate in the Tokyo Metropolitan Competition with the team, but came to another region?"

"For no particular reason, just pure boredom. "

Mamoru Inoue's question was spoken, and Hakurei Hiiragi immediately understood his intentions.

This is very much in line with Mamoru Inoue's style.

"Bored?"

Inoue Mamoru was stunned, and then carefully examined Hakuri Hiiragi's face.

I hope to find clues to prove that he is lying.