Thud!
Amid the stunned gazes of Jin Akutsu and the surrounding crowd, the tennis ball rolled off Akutsu's racket.
That shot—he didn't return it!
After it landed, Akutsu had no chance to swing again.
Thud!
The ball hit the ground, echoing like the pounding hearts of the spectators.
What just happened?
This guy copied his opponent's shot, but in the end, he couldn't even hit it back!?
"Break point! Game, Rin Matsuoka wins, 1-0!"
"Switch serving rights and sides!"
The referee's voice rang out instantly.
Akutsu's face darkened, a mix of disbelief and shock. 0-1!
He'd been broken!
In a tennis match, if you fail to hold your serve and your opponent takes the game, it's called a break.
And throughout the entire game, aside from his own serve, Akutsu hadn't touched the ball.
No, wait—he had touched it.
But the one time he did, the searing pain in his arm forced him to abandon the return.
Humiliation, confusion, disbelief… and excitement!
Since he started playing tennis, he'd never experienced anything like this.
Across the net, Rin Matsuoka paid no attention to Akutsu's emotions.
Yes, Jin Akutsu.
By now, Matsuoka had a rough guess about his opponent's identity.
At first, the brown hair threw him off—he'd expected white hair—but now, he was fairly certain it was Jin Akutsu.
In the world of Prince of Tennis, sudden geniuses usually left traces.
Especially someone who could replicate the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot after seeing it just once.
Well… even if the replication failed.
Still, every move Akutsu made was correct.
The only thing he couldn't handle was the pain shooting through his arm afterward.
Having coached Ryo Shishido, Matsuoka still couldn't fully grasp why some couldn't neutralize that force.
So far, only he—and Kunimitsu Tezuka, to an extent—had managed it.
Even Tezuka's version wasn't perfect; it still damaged his arm, though not enough to make it unusable.
But regardless, Akutsu's movements and analysis were spot-on, and he'd only seen the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot twice.
That alone proved Jin Akutsu's talent!
Though it didn't matter much—he still couldn't use the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot.
And aside from a few others, the only person left in Matsuoka's memory was Jin Akutsu!
"Jin Akutsu, huh… They say his talent is off the charts. A true athletic genius—no, a prodigy!"
Matsuoka racked his brain, recalling what he knew. If this really was Akutsu, things were about to get interesting.
"If it's really him, I can test just how much of a genius he is…"
With that thought, Matsuoka and Akutsu switched sides and serving rights.
It was Matsuoka's turn to serve.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The rhythmic sound of the ball echoed.
In the next moment, an eerily familiar serving motion appeared on Matsuoka.
He bent his knees, leaped swiftly, tossed the ball, and reached the peak of his serve.
"This guy!"
Akutsu's pupils shrank, a strange chill running down his spine.
His own serving point was already high—his flat-ground jumping ability was unreal, and he'd never seen anyone else match it.
Until now.
"He's even higher than me—!"
"Wait, is he copying me!?"
Akutsu's eyes widened, but in that moment of shock, the ball soared over the net, rocketing toward his side of the court.
"It's my serve!"
Akutsu's brows twitched. As someone who hit that kind of serve regularly, he could predict its landing spot.
His gaze locked onto a specific point.
Sure enough, the ball landed exactly there!
The instant it hit the ground, Akutsu sprang into action.
Bang!
He returned the ball cleanly, his eyes fixed on Matsuoka's every move.
"Will it be that Zero-Shiki Drop Shot again?"
Akutsu muttered to himself. If it was, should he try copying it again?
But the memory of that excruciating pain made his face pale.
Swish!
While he hesitated, the ball came spinning back, trailing a wisp of smoke.
"As expected!"
Akutsu's leg muscles tensed, and he shot forward like a cheetah.
Before the ball even landed, he tracked its path.
After a half-second's pause, he swung without hesitation.
Swish!
The ball exploded with spin, and Matsuoka's eyes shifted slightly.
A spinning drop shot!
But not the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot!
"The downward arc isn't sharp enough, but… this shot reduces the ball's bounce height. Interesting."
Matsuoka was now certain of Akutsu's identity.
Though he couldn't pull off the Zero-Shiki Drop Shot, he'd grasped its principle.
By using spin, he made the ball bounce much lower.
"He figured it out that fast!?"
Akutsu's eyelids twitched. This monster!
Yes, a monster!
For the first time, Akutsu applied the label others used for him to someone else.
And he genuinely thought this guy was a monster!
For the first time, he also understood how others felt when they called him a monster.
Utterly unstoppable!
"But… so what if he knows!?"
Akutsu had confidence in his shot, but—
Across the court, Matsuoka spread his arms.
Standing at midcourt, he began spinning his racket.
As he did, a strange pulling force emerged.
Akutsu's brows jumped. "No way!"
In his line of sight, the ball bounced just as he'd predicted—less than 3 cm off the ground.
But it didn't matter!
That bizarre pulling force somehow caught the ball.
As Matsuoka's racket slid downward, the ball landed perfectly in its strings.
Then he swung.
Thud!
With powerful spin, the ball hit the ground and rolled silently, too fast for Akutsu to react.
The court fell deathly quiet.
"Nanjiro Domain!!"
A low murmur, filled with disbelief, broke the silence.
Among the crowd, two figures—Mikiya Banda and another—stood dazed and bewildered.
"It's the Nanjiro Domain… Does this Rin Matsuoka know that guy!?"
"And… Akutsu lost!"
Banda sighed, suppressing his shock as he glanced at Akutsu.
"Even among geniuses, there's a gap. He… lost!"
Banda stared at Matsuoka, a bit lost.
This guy seemed even more talented than he'd imagined.
At least for now, Akutsu couldn't keep up with his pace.
But why Rin Matsuoka??
Banda's mind was a mess.
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