Prince of Tennis: The Emperor's Eye

With Fudomine Middle School taking the championship, all those people who mocked them before the tournament got completely slapped in the face. Inoue Mamoru, the journalist who'd always kept an eye on the junior tennis world, suddenly remembered that previous interview—Akashi Seijurō's bold words. Back then, he'd thought Akashi was being way too arrogant. Now it seemed he'd just underestimated a real genius.

At the awards ceremony afterward, the Fudomine regulars didn't show much emotion. Akashi just kept his usual polite smile. For them, this regional tournament was just way too easy. On the other hand, the other members of Fudomine had faces full of pride and excitement.

Meanwhile, Seigaku's Yamato Yūdai had already disappeared, probably to get his arm treated. Ryūzaki Sumire accepted the runner-up medal for Seigaku, but her face was full of mixed feelings—some unwillingness, some worry, and a little regret.

In the back of Seigaku's team, Fuji Shūsuke and the others watched Akashi on stage, their admiration written all over their faces. Especially Fuji—his old friend Tezuka Kunimitsu was already shining on the court, while he could only stand by as a spectator.

Fuji's mind was already turning over what to do next. After going back, he planned to try talking things over with Ryūzaki-sensei one more time. If that didn't work, then just like Akashi said, he'd have to start a revolution with the others.

Actually, before coming, Fuji had already discussed this idea with Oishi Shūichirō and the others. Kikumaru Eiji and Inui Sadaharu didn't object—Kikumaru even looked ready to start right away. But Oishi was still hesitant. With his personality, doing something so out of line was tough for him. As for Kawamura Takashi, he said he'd go with whatever everyone decided.

But after this regional tournament—especially after seeing Seigaku's crushing defeat, watching Yamato's desperate struggle—Oishi's internal scales were starting to tip toward Fuji.

When the award ceremony finished, Akashi and the others boarded the bus. On the bus, Fudomine's members were still fired up, talking excitedly about the tournament. Akashi didn't stop them. They'd get used to it soon enough. For the next three years, Fudomine would be racking up so many championships they'd get tired of winning.

Soon the bus dropped the regulars off at home one by one, while the other members got off at school and headed home together. Only Akashi and his butler were left on the bus. Akashi turned to ask the butler,

"Tanaka, how's the thing I asked you to check?"

"Reporting, young master, I've found the exact location. Also, I found out that master actually has a bit of a connection with that person!"

"Oh? That's a nice surprise. If that's the case, this will be even easier. Tell my father my plan. Have him go talk things out first!"

"Yes, young master!"

Akashi's eyes grew deep as he stared out the window, his plan becoming clearer step by step. Everything was moving exactly as he wanted. He murmured softly,

"It's time to speed up everyone's growth. The ones who'll shine on the world stage… will only ever be us!"

With the end of the regional preliminaries, all kinds of tennis magazines, journals, and sports news began reporting on the tournament results.

Just as everyone expected, all the famous tennis powerhouse schools took the regional titles—like Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku, Hyōtei Academy, Yamabuki Middle School in Kantō, and in Kansai, Makinofuji Academy, Shishigaku, Shitenhōji, and so on.

Only one school surprised everyone—Fudomine Middle School. Hardly anyone had heard of them before, but this time they crushed the well-known Seigaku to win the regional championship, and it was a total blowout: 3-0.

Even though Seigaku's tennis strength had gotten worse over the past few years, they were still a seeded school, long-time champions, and still basked in Echizen Nanjirō's glory. People always paid attention to Seigaku, so their crushing defeat quickly spread.

Because of that, Fudomine's name got out more and more, with a big push from the media. Compared to the same old champion schools, Seigaku's loss and the rise of a dark horse like Fudomine grabbed everyone's attention.

"Dark Horse Fudomine Rises! Seigaku Reduced to the Background!"—Seishun Sports Times.

"Perfect Record! Fudomine's Strength Is Unstoppable!"—Junior Tennis Weekly.

"The New Fudomine! Pioneers of a New Era!"—Tennis Monthly.

All kinds of articles came out. In this tennis-obsessed world, even a tiny regional junior high tournament could grab everyone's interest. Of course, for every bit of praise, there was also criticism and slander—some media just loved to stir up controversy.

"Shocking! All-First-Year Squad Wins—The Tragedy of Japanese Tennis!"

"Violence on Fudomine's Court! The Tennis Association Investigates—Possible Ban from Nationals!"

"Bloody and Cruel! Are Fudomine Tennis Club Members Mentally Unstable?"

"Is This Tennis or Just Violence? The Truth about Fudomine!"

Krauser's Cross Punishment became the main target of all kinds of shady media, who twisted the facts and quoted things out of context, just to boost their sales and grab attention.

A lot of people who didn't know what really happened started getting a bad impression of Fudomine after reading these stories. Some people even actually filed complaints with the Junior Tennis Association, demanding a full investigation into Fudomine's so-called violence.

But the Tennis Association totally ignored it. When it came to violence, Fudomine was nothing compared to last year's Makinofuji captain! As long as no one was as crazy as Toono Atsukyou, or if there was no actual fight off the court, the association usually wouldn't step in.

While everyone was caught up in the drama, some of the shady media suddenly issued public apologies, admitting their reports about Fudomine's tennis club were false. The ones that didn't apologize quickly got tangled up in lawsuits or ran into money problems, and soon went bankrupt one after another.

Obviously, this was the Akashi Group at work. No way would the Akashi family's young master let these tiny gossip papers slander him however they wanted.

As for all the outside noise, Akashi and the others didn't care at all. Akashi knew his family would clean up any trouble, so everyone just focused on training as usual.

During this time, Akutsu challenged Tachibana again for ranking. This time they fought all the way to a tiebreak. Under that intense match pressure, Akutsu broke through to near-national level—just one step away from truly reaching the national stage.

In the end, Tachibana barely held his spot with a 73-71 win in the tiebreak, taking the set 7-6. After losing, Akutsu only trained even harder.

Everyone except Akashi felt the pressure from Akutsu's crazy improvement—especially Kite. Watching Akutsu, who used to be around his level, start to pull ahead was hard to accept.

But Akashi noticed Kite's mood right away. He could totally understand what Kite was feeling. It was tough to stay calm facing a monster like Akutsu, so after practice, Akashi had a talk with Kite, hinting at a few secrets and telling him to look at the bigger picture.

Meanwhile, back at Seigaku after the regional loss, a lot of students started to grumble about the defeat. This put a lot of pressure on Ryūzaki-sensei from the school leadership, but at least there was still the National Tournament. As long as they did well and maybe even reached the Kantō Tournament, things would be fine.

So lately, Ryūzaki-sensei pushed the regulars even harder in practice. But she didn't expect them to start slacking and complaining all the time. Only Yamato, with his injured arm, still managed to finish all the required training.

This made Ryūzaki-sensei furious, but she was out of options. If she tried to punish them, all Seigaku ever did was more running or even harder practice. But these regulars couldn't even finish the normal training now, let alone extra punishment. What, was she supposed to actually hit them?

At this point, in the coach's office, Ryūzaki-sensei and Yamato were agonizing over how to get the regulars to practice seriously. To be honest, Ryūzaki-sensei's patience was almost gone, but she needed these players for the Nationals, so she held it in. Just then, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Ryūzaki-sensei frowned and called out.

"Hello, coach! Hello, Captain Yamato!" Fuji walked in, wearing a friendly smile.

When she saw Fuji, Ryūzaki-sensei's frown faded and she looked at him curiously.

"Fuji, what's up? Did you need something?"

Yamato just watched quietly. Fuji saw Ryūzaki-sensei's question, dropped his smile, opened his eyes, and looked straight at her, serious.

"Ryūzaki-sensei, I've heard the school is putting a lot of pressure on the tennis club lately, and you and the captain have been pushing the regulars in practice. But honestly, it doesn't seem to be working. So on behalf of all the first-years, I want to ask you and the captain to give us a chance to prove ourselves!"

Ryūzaki-sensei almost reflexively wanted to shoot him down, but something made her pause. Yamato, off to the side, stroked his chin and seemed deep in thought.

A long silence followed. Just as Fuji was about to say something else, Yamato suddenly spoke up.

"Fuji, I get what you're thinking. The tennis club really is in bad shape right now. As for a chance... well, it's not impossible..."

"Yamato, this is a serious matter. We need to be careful!" Ryūzaki-sensei jumped in, seeing Yamato was about to agree.

"Coach, don't worry. The chance I'm talking about is for Fuji and the others to earn for themselves!" Yamato gave a smile that hadn't been seen in a long time.