"Oh? You're still able to stand? Or is it that you've already seen the gates of hell?" Byoudouin turned back to look at Keith, blood trailing from the boy's lips, his tone unusually calm.
Keith didn't respond. He swayed a little, then slowly walked back to the baseline. He picked up a tennis ball, took a few deep breaths, and tossed it into the air once more.
"Hmph! With that broken-down body of yours, what do you think you can do?" Byoudouin sneered coldly at Keith's movements.
The next moment, a dazzling blue glow burst from Keith's side of the court. A massive ball of qi rapidly gathered at his racket. As the sound of a powerful hit rang out, the ball cut across Byoudouin's vision like a flash.
"Ace! 15–15!"
"Universal Gravity… no, that's…" Ling Xiu, seated in England's bench, stared at Keith in shock, completely speechless.
"I see. So you're using qi to boost the speed of the tennis ball? How boring." Byoudouin quickly saw through the essence of the shot. Unlike regular Universal Gravity, Keith had hit the ball first, then released qi afterward—essentially strapping a rocket booster to the ball.
In the movie version, Ryōma used this trick against Keith. But that didn't mean Keith couldn't use it too—he simply preferred attacking directly with qi. While Ling Xiu's control of qi was near flawless, in terms of tennis talent, he was still a bit behind Keith.
Keith didn't hesitate after scoring. Knowing his condition was far from good, he quickly served again, once more using qi to accelerate the ball's speed.
But just as the ball was about to bounce out of bounds, Byoudouin's figure suddenly appeared behind the baseline. The ball slammed into his racket, and the next second, he flicked it upward—sending it soaring high into the air toward Keith's side.
"Compared to that guy Ochi, your serve is like a turtle crawl," Byoudouin said with a mocking laugh.
Keith ignored him. He was just about to rush to the net for a smash when he suddenly froze—countless tennis balls were raining down from above.
"Libya's Gargantual Hail!"
"15–30!"
Still unwilling to give in, Keith again fired off a super-speed serve with the aid of qi. But once more, Byoudouin returned it with ease. This time, however, Keith seized the opportunity, rushing forward. A swirling ball of blue qi condensed rapidly onto his racket.
He smashed the incoming ball with everything he had. A blue streak zipped past the net, flying toward the back left corner of Byoudouin's court. But behind Byoudouin, a chain of afterimages suddenly appeared—he had already reached the spot just as the ball landed.
A brilliant golden light gathered in Byoudouin's left hand. With a booming sound, a massive glowing orb was launched straight at Keith—Byoudouin had once again unleashed Glowing Shot—Destruction with full power.
"This boring match ends now! I'll crush it—along with your life! Destruction!" Byoudouin clearly had no intention of wasting any more time.
He delivered Keith the final blow.
The glowing orb slammed directly into the ground in front of Keith. A fiery explosion shot skyward, and Keith was flung out of bounds along with a shower of shattered debris. A crater nearly two meters wide marked the place where he had stood.
"15–40! Match paused!" The umpire halted play on the spot. The court had suffered major damage and needed to be assessed for impact on the remainder of the match.
Everyone in the audience stared in disbelief at the ruined court. Some even rubbed their eyes, wondering if they were hallucinating. At that moment, Ling Xiu and Peter, ignoring Leon and the others trying to stop them, dashed toward Keith's crumpled body.
When Ling Xiu reached him, he found Keith completely unconscious. He and Peter immediately lifted him up together. But England's support staff acted as if they hadn't seen anything—they didn't come forward, nor did they make any move to administer emergency care.
As Ling Xiu and Peter stood helpless, Inui Sadaharu and Yanagi Renji arrived with the Japan team's medical staff. Toono and Oishi stepped forward to take Keith off their hands.
"Looks like you guys aren't exactly popular with the England team~ Don't worry! That Byoudouin guy may be dangerous, but he knows his limits. We'll handle emergency treatment first, then send him to the hospital—he'll be fine." Danji Date's tone was playfully sarcastic as he addressed Ling Xiu and Peter.
"But that doesn't mean we've forgiven you for what you did to Tokugawa!" Oishi suddenly shot Peter a fierce glare and spoke with open hostility.
At that moment, both Ling Xiu and Peter felt an overwhelming mix of emotions—especially Peter. He never imagined that, when Keith needed help the most, it would be the Japan team, technically their enemies, who stepped in.
"Since the England team's player is unable to continue, the winner of this match is Japan! Final score: 4–1!" The umpire, having witnessed everything from the sideline, immediately announced the result.
With that, the group stage match between Japan and England was complete. Japan swept England with a clean 3–0, becoming the only undefeated team in Group B. The Japanese junior high students in the stands erupted in loud celebration.
"Those guys stepping in to help—was that your arrangement?" Back at the bench, Byoudouin looked calmly at Atobe and asked.
"Heh~ Those idiots wrecked my vacation villa in England! So of course, I'm now their creditor. Naturally, I had to bring them back to Japan." Atobe replied in a matter-of-fact tone, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Hmph. Do whatever you want—just don't let it interfere with the tournament." Byoudouin snorted and dropped the subject.
Hearing Atobe's explanation, Mifune's eyes gleamed with thought, as if something had just occurred to him. But before long, the Japan team wrapped up their post-match greetings with the remaining England players, gathered their gear, and began heading out of the venue.
On their way back to the hotel, the group suddenly spotted two familiar figures. One was wearing the uniform of the U.S. team, and the other was dressed in a typical Japanese junior high sailor uniform—it was Echizen Ryōma and Ryūzaki Sakuno!
The two of them appeared to be in some sort of standoff with a young man on a white horse. The scene was strange, almost surreal, but when Akashi saw it, he instantly grasped what was happening.
"Let's settle this with a tennis match! I'll show you who's more worthy of being Sakuno-san's boyfriend!" The white-horse youth declared proudly as the Japan team pulled up and walked over.
"How the hell did it turn into this? This is beyond stupid." Ryōma muttered, looking completely done with the situation.
"Oh? So you're afraid of losing, huh~ Then step away from Sakuno-san while you still can!" the white-horse youth said with a smirk.
"You think I'd lose to some circus act on a horse?" Ryōma's competitive streak flared up.
"Circus act? If that's how it is, then how about we settle it with horseback tennis?" The white-horse youth's eyes suddenly turned sharp.
"Horseback tennis? Heh~~~ sounds kinda fun. But… I don't have a horse!" Ryōma seemed intrigued but then remembered he was lacking a crucial element.
"A horse? I've got you covered!" came the voice of Coach Mifune from behind.
Ryōma turned around—and there they all were. The Japan team was watching him like he was a walking soap opera. Tanegashima and Ōmagari in particular were grinning like devils, their usual lazy postures completely forgotten in the face of juicy gossip.
Not long after, Mifune led over a pure black stallion from who-knows-where. The group looked stunned. Mifune explained that the horse belonged to an old friend from his horseback riding days, who just happened to be in Australia. So, he borrowed it.
The horse's name was Sumire, which made both Ryōma and Sakuno awkwardly glance at each other—clearly thinking of Ryūzaki Sumire. Then, the horseback tennis match between Ryōma and the white-horse youth began.
Akashi didn't care one bit. He could already feel the romantic drama building, and he wasn't about to stick around to get dragged into it. Without hesitation, he led Krauser, Akutsu, and Tezuka back to the hotel.
That same night, the U-17 World Cup event staff completed the tabulation of all group stage results. Using a random draw, they finalized the knockout stage brackets for the top 16 nations. This time, Akutsu was the one chosen to represent Japan for the draw—but it seemed Atobe's bad luck had rubbed off on him. He pulled the absolute worst matchup possible!