"Shout after you return this ball, brat!" Byoudouin sneered coldly, his tone chilling.
Akashi didn't bother replying. He turned straight to the baseline, picked up a ball from the side, tossed it high, and blasted out a super high-speed serve.
The ball shot over the net at extreme speed, flying straight to Byoudouin's left baseline corner. But the next moment, Byoudouin's figure appeared at the corner. With a swing of his right hand, he instantly drove the rebounding ball back. At the same time, the aura of the Divine Path of Asura around him surged sharply.
The two quickly launched into a fierce rally. After Akashi played a sharp crosscourt passing shot, Byoudouin chased it down. A flick of his wrist and he sent back a Matryoshka of Russia, the ball shrinking rapidly as it crossed the net.
But this time Akashi didn't swing toward the ball's flight path. Instead, he slid his racket downward, and the ball—already shrinking to near invisibility—suddenly collided with his strings. Byoudouin's pupils contracted sharply at the sight.
He hadn't expected his Matryoshka of Russia to be unraveled in just three shots. Back then, he had completely suppressed the Russian pro Lubrif with this move. That player's proud dynamic vision had instead become his fatal shackle.
Yet Akashi, whose vision was just as sharp, could see through it so easily. A sense of unease rose in Byoudouin's heart. His opponent's eyes were unlike any he had ever faced. Even compared to that brat Atobe just now, this was on another level.
But there was no time to think further. Byoudouin, staring at the ball Akashi sent back, stubbornly unleashed another Matryoshka of Russia. The result was the same—Akashi intercepted it precisely.
Byoudouin finally realized it hadn't been luck earlier. His Matryoshka of Russia had indeed been cracked. But instead of deflating, his aura only surged higher. Sprinting up, he gripped the racket with both hands and struck fiercely.
In the mental world, the skeleton pirate battling Gilgamesh suddenly pulled back. His attire shifted, the captain's uniform becoming more ornate. The long saber vanished, replaced by a finely crafted short-barreled flintlock.
"Second Stage Alternate Dimension—Pirate!"
The transformed pirate raised the gun and fired straight at Akashi. Round lead bullets, propelled by gunpowder, shot toward the Akashi preparing to swing.
In reality, Byoudouin's full-power stroke became a yellow blur, flying over the net and smashing at Akashi's feet. Just as it was about to bounce out of bounds, Akashi extended his racket leftward and blocked it.
But the next instant, the ball pierced straight through Akashi's racket and shot out of bounds. In the mental world, Akashi was struck by the pirate's shot, blood spraying from his shoulder.
"Game! Japan Team! 3-1!"
"Don't underestimate pirates, brat Akashi!" Byoudouin growled, eyes fierce as he stared at him. Two eerie soul flames flickered in the pirate's sockets, the gun still aimed at Akashi.
"Second stage alternate dimension... as I expected. But do you really think that's enough to win, Byoudouin?" Akashi was unsurprised—he had already known this was coming.
As he finished speaking, Gilgamesh shifted again. His golden armor vanished, leaving only a cloak. Behind him appeared two golden swords—the old-shan form he had shown in his match against Tokugawa.
Golden form versus old form.
"Akashi's alternate dimension changed again. Isn't this the form from his match with Tokugawa-san? So interesting~" From the stands, Jirō's face lit up with excitement, wide awake now.
"Looks like I was right. Akashi-kun's alternate dimension must be a very special type," Yukimura reaffirmed his thought.
"By the way, did you guys understand Byoudouin-san's move just now? Why did the ball suddenly shrink?" Kikumaru asked curiously.
"Huh? Shrink? I saw the ball suddenly change trajectory just as Akashi-senpai was about to hit it," Ōtori Chōtarō said with doubt.
"I didn't see it shrink either. Eiji, maybe you were mistaken?" Kawamura Takashi said weakly.
"No way! I saw it clearly! Don't you believe my eyesight, Taka-san?" Kikumaru widened his eyes and leaned toward Kawamura, shouting.
"Kikumaru-senpai is right. I saw the ball shrink too," Ryōma added, backing him up.
"That ball seems tied to the opponent's dynamic vision. Atobe, what did you see?" Fuji stroked his chin, asking Atobe.
"Heh~ I don't know how that guy Byoudouin did it, but in ore-sama's eyes, the ball really did shrink, so small it was almost invisible, slipping right through the gaps of Akashi's strings!" Atobe said with irritation, annoyed that he hadn't figured out how Akashi cracked the move.
"So that's it… the sharper the opponent's eyesight, the stronger the effect of this technique. It was developed specifically to counter dynamic vision! As expected of the current No.1 of the Japan Team!" Niō spoke with sudden realization.
On court, even though Byoudouin cared a little about the change in Akashi's alternate dimension, he still quickly tossed up the ball and sent out a powerful high-speed serve filled with both speed and force toward Akashi's court.
The pirate raised his gun and fired again at Akashi, but this time Gilgamesh moved too. He combined the two golden swords behind him into a strangely shaped longbow and immediately drew and shot at the pirate.
Golden arrows and black lead bullets crossed paths repeatedly in midair. In reality, Byoudouin and Akashi were locked in rapid rallies, their auras giving off the sense of an even battle.
Soon Byoudouin seized an opportunity and unhesitatingly unleashed a Glowing Shot—Destruction. The ball, wrapped in dazzling golden light, carried a destructive aura as it blasted toward Akashi.
At this point, Byoudouin had already revealed nearly all of his techniques, so Akashi no longer held back. He intercepted the golden ball precisely, and it vanished. A spatial rift opened above him, from which a spiral-shaped longsword shot forth.
"Gate of Babylon—Rainbow Sword!"
The ball Akashi returned turned into a brilliant rainbow streak, blasting straight toward Byoudouin as he ran. Byoudouin immediately swung to meet it, but an unimaginable weight surged through his racket. The next instant, the ball pierced straight through his strings and flew out of bounds.
"0-15!"
"So that was your answer to my shot? You're something else, brat Akashi!" Byoudouin looked at the racket pierced by the ball, pretending not to care, but the sweat beading on his forehead betrayed his true feelings.
"If this keeps up, Japan Team's No.1 will be replaced, Byoudouin!" As he returned to the bench to switch rackets, Mifune's voice reached his ears.
"That brat still has a long way to go before he can take No.1. Since my match with Oni, it's been a long time since I've had such an exciting battle!" Byoudouin's eyes burned with fighting spirit. He hadn't expected anyone besides Oni within the Japan Team to ignite such a strong will to fight.
Once he changed rackets and returned to the baseline, Byoudouin wasted no time. He fired off another high-quality serve, and the skeleton pirate attacked again. As they clashed, Byoudouin's offense grew wilder, unleashing one world-class technique after another.
But Akashi had already seen through them all. With the insight of the Complete Emperor Eye, Byoudouin's every move was predicted precisely. Slowly, a pressure began to grow in Byoudouin's heart.
Although his willpower and mental strength were extremely high, making ordinary mental attacks useless against him, Byoudouin's personality had one major flaw—an obsession with victory. In the original timeline, it was this extreme obsession that led him to fall into Volk's Spiral Baptism, endlessly resetting his own memory.
Now, faced with a situation where all his techniques were being unraveled, that obsession with victory once again weighed on him heavily. Though it hadn't yet crippled his play, Akashi could clearly feel that Byoudouin was becoming more impatient than before.
In the mental world, Gilgamesh spread his arms wide. A spatial rift opened behind him, and a cursed blade slowly emerged, piercing straight through the pirate's body and shattering his skeletal frame completely.
In reality, when faced with Byoudouin's Chinese Red Dragon Claw, Akashi calmly blocked the fiery dragon and dispersed all of its force. His counterattack turned into a beam of light, streaking across the net and striking Byoudouin's swing blind spot, bouncing out of bounds.
"Gate of Babylon—Durandal!"
"0-30!"
"I told you already, Byoudouin! You have no chance of winning this match! My victory is absolute!" Akashi pressed on with his calm, cold words.
But Byoudouin, consumed only by obsession with victory, gave no reply. He immediately blasted another high-speed serve. With the boost from his second-stage alternate dimension, its power nearly rivaled that of an ordinary Glowing Shot.
Unfortunately, when it came to mental strength, Akashi feared no one. His alternate dimension had no such limits as second or third stage—so long as his mental force was sufficient, any form Gilgamesh took could match the strength of a third-stage alternate dimension.
"Gate of Babylon—Dawn of Ruin!"
"0-40!"
"I want to see—when faced with a natural disaster, what will a pirate do?" After taking another point, Akashi suddenly spoke these cryptic words. In the stands, Tokugawa's pupils contracted sharply.