"Fifteen all!" (The actual score is 30:15).
"Score for Akasaka Ryunosuke, 30:15!"
Across the net, Asuna was briefly stunned before finally becoming calm again. Earlier she was just careless, next time that wouldn't happen again.
Ryuji walked closer, intending to switch positions with Asuna.
"Leave the rest to me, rest for a moment, Yuuki-san."
"But..." Asuna felt somewhat uneasy relinquishing control to Ryuji.
After all, the B-Drive technique earlier proved that their opponent wasn't that simple; she was afraid Ryuji wouldn't be able to face him.
Ryuji, realizing that worry, reminded her.
"You should rest first. You've been competing alone for half an hour, recover your stamina first."
Asuna wiped the thin sweat on her forehead and felt that made sense.
"Then I'll follow Kanzaki-kun's advice, I'll rest for a bit..."
Asuna went down and was replaced by Ryuji.
This match that should have been mixed doubles was truly forced by them into singles one and singles two format.
Earlier was Yukinoshita Yukino VS Yuuki Asuna. Now was Kanzaki Ryuji VS Akasaka Ryunosuke.
Asuna sat on a long bench at the edge of the court with a towel on her head, preparing to rest. Although her stamina was still quite abundant, the consumption was still large, so she chose to recover energy first.
On the other side, Ryunosuke looked at Yukino who already looked very tired and also reminded her.
"Go down and rest for a moment, leave the rest to me."
Yukino was stubborn and refused to leave; she insisted on wanting to finish this match.
Ryunosuke, who had no other choice, placed a towel on top of her head. Yukino wanted to rebel, but at the same time Ryunosuke immediately released his hand without touching her head directly.
As if he had already guessed that Yukino hated being touched by men, so he deliberately avoided it.
Yukino was silent for a moment, then began wiping her own sweat.
Ryunosuke only placed that towel on her head without touching her skin; he understood Yukino's character very well. Ambitious, didn't want to lose, plus a bit tsundere.
However, he still gave a warning with good intentions.
"If you don't want to leave that's fine too, but don't interfere yet. Stay quiet here and recover your stamina."
"Leave Kanzaki to me. When both our opponents advance together later, then you can advance again. So the most important thing for you now is to recover energy as quickly as possible, understand?"
Yukino only nodded slightly as a response. She truly no longer had energy left to speak. Her stamina indeed wasn't good, and that half hour earlier had truly reached her limit.
Ryunosuke gave a bottle of mineral water to her, but Yukino didn't move. He, feeling he had no other choice, finally forced that bottle into her hand and gave a warning.
"Go sit and rest! Don't obstruct my match here."
Yukino's body trembled slightly, but quickly returned to normal. This time she obeyed and walked to the side to rest. After all, what Ryunosuke said was right; she needed to recover energy so that man wouldn't need to face a one versus two situation later.
Yukino sat on the long bench in very tired condition, her head bowed, even the ahoge (antenna hair) on her head wilted, looking like someone who truly had their energy completely burned out.
On the court, Ryunosuke was already facing Ryuji.
The serve remained with Ryunosuke's side. Although the earlier match went on for half an hour, in reality that was only one point.
Those two girls really played intensely... one point alone was contested for more than half an hour.
Ryunosuke threw the tennis ball high, jumped as high as two meters, and made a strong Vertical Smash.
Ryuji stepped forward to the front area, held the racket with both hands, and hit the ball back right at its landing point before the ball bounced completely. At that moment the ball's force was at its smallest point, making it the easiest time to return.
Ryunosuke wasn't surprised. This school was a gathering place for talents, so it was natural if there were one or two great tennis players.
Except for Asuna, she was a small monster on her own.
Ryunosuke lowered his body position, continuously using combinations of topspin and backspin to attack Ryuji.
Ryuji began to realize something was wrong.
(Since earlier, Akasaka keeps alternating between topspin and backspin, what does he want to do?)
Right when Ryuji prepared to hit back, suddenly his arm experienced temporary paralysis. His pupils widened, the ball shot past behind him while his hand hung in the air, wouldn't obey.
"Fifteen all!" (Score becomes 40:15).
"Point for Akasaka Ryunosuke, 40:15!"
Outside the court, Honami showed a confused expression and looked at her advisor and right hand, Hachiman.
"What happened to Kanzaki-kun?"
Hachiman was analyzing the situation on the court and seemed to begin understanding something. Dense beads of sweat began appearing on his forehead. If his guess was correct, then this Ryunosuke was truly extraordinary.
Responding to Honami's question, Hachiman gave his analysis.
"Through continuous alternation of topspin and backspin rotations, he made the opponent's arm go numb. This is known as Temporary Paralysis."
"This is a high-level technique that can only be done by tennis players at national tournament level."
Honami showed a shocked face. "Eh? Is Akasaka-kun that amazing?"
On the court, Ryuji looked at his paralyzed arm which was still slightly trembling so he couldn't grip the racket properly. He began to realize how serious this situation was and looked at him with full vigilance.
Ryunosuke looked calmly while bouncing the ball to the ground, then threw it strongly and jumped.
Twist Serve.
Ryuji without further ado immediately chased it. Hitting the ball before it bounced was the best solution, because Twist Serve was easiest to break when it hadn't bounced yet.
He moved the racket to his left hand.
What could he do, his right hand was still affected by temporary paralysis and couldn't grip the racket tightly, so he was forced to use his left hand which wasn't his main hand.
Even so, Ryuji could still return the ball. However the next second, Ryunosuke had already appeared in front of the net with a strange position. That was Akutsu's starting crouch position (from Prince of Tennis).
Ryunosuke made a beautiful drive shot with that strange position. Ryuji didn't have time to react, failed to chase the ball, and lost one point.
"Point for Akasaka Ryunosuke, score 1:0."