Now it was time for Ryunosuke to face two people at once, while Yukino rested in the back area.
Asuna and Ryuji had no intention of holding back anymore. They planned to advance together to face Ryunosuke.
The match began, and Asuna performed the first serve.
Asuna immediately started with a Twist Serve. From the outset, she was aware that the man before her was an opponent worthy of facing at full strength.
On the other side, Ryunosuke assumed a familiar pose, none other than the Temporary Paralysis technique he'd used against Ryuji. When Asuna received the ball, she immediately sensed something was wrong.
"This...? The move used against Kanzaki-kun?"
Asuna knew how to break it. She switched the racket between her right and left hands to neutralize the temporary paralysis effect.
Seeing her use the "Nitouryuu" (two swords) technique à la Ryoma Echizen, Ryunosuke grumbled internally.
(You're really talented. If people didn't know better, they'd think you were the Prince of Tennis. Ah no, it should be Princess of Tennis.)
Seeing his technique broken, Ryunosuke switched tactics. He crossed both arms, preparing to execute Deep Force.
Asuna initially intended to chase the ball.
Ryunosuke shouted loudly, "Get out of the way!"
Instinctively, Asuna sensed danger. She immediately tilted her head and let the ball pass.
Sure enough, the wind pressure generated by the ball made her cheek sting.
She knew perfectly well—if she had actually been reckless enough to hit that ball, her racket likely wouldn't have stayed stable in her grip.
Furious, Asuna approached Ryunosuke. Without heeding the referee's warning, she jumped over the net in the middle of the court and grabbed his collar.
"Are you trying to kill me?! You bastard!"
Ryunosuke immediately waved his hand to explain.
"I didn't mean to... I just got carried away while hitting... I promise! There won't be a second time."
Asuna wasn't letting him off easy. She pulled his collar and gave a warning.
"If you dare use a dangerous move like that again, don't expect to ever eat my cooking again!!!"
Ever since Ryunosuke had helped her establish the gym club, as a token of gratitude, Asuna had invited him to eat her homemade cooking.
Since then, Ryunosuke had stuck to her, even giving her his personal points so Asuna would cook for him.
Coincidentally, Asuna was out of points from buying a gaming console, so she agreed. Eventually, their relationship became somewhat unique.
Ryunosuke transferred money to her every month, and Asuna was responsible for sending him lunch boxes.
Why not include breakfast and dinner? Because those parts had already been "monopolized" by Megumi...
Megumi currently had the key to Ryunosuke's house and could come anytime. Under the pretext that they were dating, she had forcibly entered Ryunosuke's life, coming every morning as promised to make breakfast.
Same with dinner.
It wasn't that Ryunosuke disliked Megumi's cooking to the point of asking Asuna to handle lunch—he purely just wanted to experience the sensation of having two beautiful girls cooking for him.
Seeing them continue arguing, the referee couldn't take it anymore and coughed lightly, reminding them they were still in a match. If they wanted to argue, do it after the match ended.
Asuna returned to "refined lady" mode, bowing to apologize to the referee, then glared sharply at Ryunosuke before flipping her hair and leaving...
Ryuji could only smile bitterly. "I never expected Yuuki-san to have such a fierce side in front of you, truly surprising."
After all, in most people's eyes, Asuna shone like a goddess. Who would have thought there'd be such a scene behind the curtain?
Ryuji shook his head and said no more, preparing to continue the match.
Ryunosuke also didn't want to waste any more time. He threw the ball high and started with a Big Bang Serve. The power of his hit was so great it produced a sonic boom.
Asuna held the racket with both hands and forced it back across the net.
Ryunosuke slid across the court, jumped, and unleashed B-Drive.
Asuna couldn't react in time and lost a point.
The score became 2:1.
As time passed, the score quickly reached 5:1.
Ryunosuke held nothing back, unleashing all sorts of techniques. Snake Shot, Twist Spin Shot, Super Half Volley, even Higuma Otoshi, leaving the opposing team scrambling.
Actually, with Asuna's abilities, given time she could break them, but unfortunately Ryunosuke had too many techniques—there was no time for her to breathe. She'd just broken the Snake Shot when the Twist Spin Shot immediately followed. After finishing with that, Higuma Otoshi appeared again.
Asuna was truly at her wit's end.
Her opponent was too abnormal!
(Why did you learn so many strange hitting techniques? What are you trying to become?!)
Asuna began to feel frustrated, but she still had to compete.
Ryunosuke himself felt somewhat bemused. He'd just unleashed about seven or eight techniques, and Asuna had already broken four of them. Given more time, perhaps all of them would be broken.
Ryunosuke looked at the match score and decided not to waste any more time. He would perform a serve impossible to return to quickly end the match.
He adjusted the position of glasses that weren't actually on his face, held the racket in his left hand, held the ball in his right hand, gripped it tightly, then threw it.
Asuna watched him warily, not daring to be careless for even a moment. The ball flew, and she noticed something odd about its spin, but she didn't think long. The most important thing now was to hit it back!
Asuna took her stance and prepared to hit, but her swing only met air.
"Huh? Where's the ball?"
Asuna looked left and right, searching for the ball's location. Ryunosuke kindly reminded her, "Look at your feet."
Asuna looked down and saw the ball had already rolled back toward the net.
It was the Zero Shiki Serve.
Asuna's eyes widened, as did those of the people outside the court.
They had seen it very clearly—the ball didn't bounce at all, but rather dropped and rolled back. How does one hit a ball like that?
According to tennis rules, the ball must bounce before it can be hit back for the score to be considered valid. If the ball doesn't bounce, even if the player hits it back, the point won't count. In other words, Ryunosuke's technique was truly impossible to break.