Prince of Tennis: Shocking! Hyotei's Demon King is a Yukimura fangirl!

Chapter 82 Sanada's Enrage

The surrounding temperature plummeted, and even the wind seemed to have stopped in mid-air.

Wang Yueling's gaze swept over the various expressions on the faces of the Rikkai members, then she finished speaking, her tone as light as the wind, yet sharp and ruthless.

"With your perfect solo performance, even if you were to perform in the preliminary rounds, your opponents would be laughing so hard they wouldn't be able to stand up straight."

Oshitari put the sports drink down from his lips and adjusted his glasses. Niou straightened up, his eyes narrowed, and the expression on his lips was inscrutable. Yagyu adjusted his round, flat glasses, his fingers pausing on the frame.

The Rikkai University members looked at each other in bewilderment, and some of them gasped quietly.

With his hands in the pockets of his sports jacket, Mochizuki Ryo tilted his head, his azure eyes scanning Sanada from head to toe, his tone languid.

"Vice-Captain Sanada, your doubles match reminded me of a children's story."

Sanada lowered his brow, waiting for him to continue.

"An eagle insists on carrying a sparrow with it."

Wang Yueling pulled her right hand out of her pocket, spread her fingers in a flying gesture, and then clenched it into a fist.

"The eagle thought the sparrow was too slow, so it simply flapped its wing and knocked the sparrow onto a tree branch, then swooped down to catch its prey. In the end, it didn't catch the prey, and the sparrow broke its leg in the process."

He loosened his fist and shrugged.

"What do you think that eagle is after? Just because it looks cool flying?"

Someone nearby twitched their lips.

Oshitari pushed up his glasses and turned his face away, suppressing a laugh. Niou lifted his head from Yagyu's shoulder, a glint of anticipation flashing in his fox-like eyes.

Sanada's face darkened, and his eyes under the brim of his hat stared straight at Mochizuki Ryo.

"You mean I've dragged Aoyama down?"

"No, no, no."

Wang Yueling shook her head, took half a step forward, and the smile on her lips looked incredibly irritating.

"What I mean is, you weren't even a drag. You practically wiped Aoyama-kun out of this doubles match. He played six games, and I can count the number of times he touched the ball on one hand."

"You're not coaching a first-grader in doubles, you're bringing a spectator onto the court, and one who's paying for it himself."

"Pfft." Niou let out a soft whistle next to Yagyu.

Liu Sheng pushed up his glasses, the reflection from the lenses obscuring his expression, but the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned than usual.

Everyone knows how sharp Mochizuki Ryo's tongue is, but these words still made Sanada's heart skip a beat.

Sanada's face was so dark it could be wrung out, and he ignored the sounds around him.

He placed his racket on the bench, turned around, and took a few steps toward Wang Yueling, until the two were less than five steps apart.

He had broad shoulders, and his imposing presence was like a wall as he stood there, his eyes beneath the brim of his hat looking straight ahead.

"I didn't play well in this match... but my doubles performance wasn't as bad as you say."

He spoke with conviction, his chest slightly puffed out, but the barely perceptible wavering in his voice betrayed his underlying lack of confidence. "This is the first time Qingshan and I have partnered up, and the venue is an unfamiliar grassy field. It's normal for our coordination to falter."

He paused for a moment, then slightly raised his chin.

"In team competitions, the division of labor is inherently about each player having their own role. Doubles is the responsibility of the doubles players, while singles players are responsible for winning their own points in singles. This is how a team should operate."

My singles skills are enough to win crucial matches for the team, and that's what matters most to me.

"So even if doubles isn't my strong suit, it doesn't really matter."

After those words were spoken, an eerie silence fell over the sidelines.

Oshitari frowned, took half a step forward, and his eyes bulged with annoyance. Sanada's words, "The doubles is the responsibility of the doubles players," made him very uncomfortable.

This idea...

That's an insult to team tennis.

Xiang Ri bristled, crunching loudly as he chewed on the apricot pit in his mouth. The playful look on Niou's face vanished completely, his silver hair falling to his shoulders, his thin lips pressed into a thin line.

Yagyu glanced at him sideways and saw his partner's Adam's apple move slightly, but he didn't say anything.

Marui, who had just come down from the singles court to get a drink of water but had actually come to eavesdrop, also heard it. His water bottle stopped three inches from his mouth. Kuwabara stood next to him, looking intently at Sanada, then at Mochizuki Ryo, his brows furrowing slightly.

They are all people who gave up the glory of singles and devoted themselves to doubles for the sake of the team.

Oshitari possessed the ability to reach the top tier of Hyotei's singles team, but he often played doubles for the sake of team coordination. Niou, on the other hand, was exceptionally talented, yet he painstakingly formed a well-coordinated partnership with Yagyu, hiding his individual brilliance behind the team.

And Marui and Kuwahara...

Sanada's words, "Clear division of labor, singles finale," were like a sharp blade, cutting away all their sacrifices and perseverance.

Shinobu pushed his glasses up, about to step forward to argue.

A laugh stopped his step.

It wasn't a gentle laugh; it was a loud laugh that drew everyone's attention to Wang Yueling.

The team members gathered around the field craned their necks and even held their breath.

Mochizuki Ryo didn't reply immediately. He stared at Sanada for several seconds, then pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth and let out a hissing sound of anger.

It's that kind of sneer that says, "How dare you say that?"

"Each person has their own role? Doesn't really matter?"

Wang Yueling took her hand out of her pocket, interlaced her fingers in front of her, and sat down with an elegant posture like a gentleman chatting at a tea party, her smile gentle and proper.

"Sanada 'senpai' is absolutely right. Doubles should be left to doubles, and singles to singles. Everyone should take care of their own responsibilities and no one should overstep their bounds."

"This...sounds like a factory assembly line."

He tilted his head slightly, and suddenly changed the subject.

"Unfortunately... tennis isn't a factory assembly line, and you're not the supervisor on that line."

"You are the...vice captain of Rikkai University's tennis club."

He pronounced the words "vice minister" very slowly, making each syllable clear and distinct to everyone present.

"Your poor doubles performance wasn't the worst part; you weren't playing doubles at all throughout the entire match."

"Throughout the six games, you were always in the singles position, and all your shot choices were based on singles logic. When Aoyama was on the court, he barely had any chance to touch the ball. You were only focused on your own aggressive attacks and didn't even bother to adjust your most basic positioning."

"You only ever had the ball and your opponent in your eyes."

He raised his hand to straighten his collar, the movement elegant, but his words were as sharp as knives.

"Losing a practice match isn't laughable. What's laughable is that you never treated the juniors next to you as teammates from beginning to end."

Sanada's jaw muscles tensed.

"You think he's just a filler for you? You're wrong. He's not even a filler. At least a filler is useful, but he's just a decoration for you. You inherently feel that he's just there to fill in doubles, or rather, you think your partner is just there to fill in."

He smiled, but there was no smile in his eyes. "Anyway, you're strong enough to take down both of them by yourself, right?"

Wang Yueling chuckled at her own words and let out a soft snort.

"It's not that you can't cooperate, it's that you simply don't want to cooperate. You despise the competition, which requires teamwork, from the bottom of your heart."

He took a step to Sanada's side, his languid aura completely dissipating, replaced by an overwhelming sense of pressure.

Aoyama, standing behind Sanada, instinctively shrank back, and even Niou and Yagyu unconsciously took a half-step back.

"Cooperation means you have to lower your stance, accommodate your partner's pace, and cover their weaknesses. Trust someone who is less capable than you, and give them half of yourself."

"This is too difficult for you; you can't let go of this attitude in your bones."

"Put the blame for the defeat on the grass, on the new partner, on all external factors." He raised his chin, his tone sarcastic.

"Sanada, is this what you're supposed to be doing as Rikkai University's 'Vice-Captain'?"

Sanada suddenly looked up, his gaze from under the brim of his hat like a sharpened knife.

"I'm not shirking responsibility; you're taking my words out of context."

"What makes you so sure I don't want to cooperate? I've been fighting for every point in this match. I've taken the shots that Aoyama couldn't return, and I've covered for him when he wasn't in a good position. If I really didn't want to cooperate, I wouldn't be standing on this doubles court at all."

His voice rose, each word carrying the weight of suppressed emotion.

"You said I treated Qingshan as a tool and looked down on doubles deep down. These are all your own speculations, not facts."

The teamwork was indeed clumsy, but clumsiness doesn't equate to perfunctory work or disrespect. I won't deny that I didn't do a good enough job, but I absolutely didn't have the kind of thinking you're suggesting.

His chest heaved violently, and the veins on his forehead throbbed slightly.

Wang Yueling tilted her head, looking at Sanada's trembling expression, and suddenly loosened her hands, putting them into her pockets.

The gentle smile returned to his face, and he said in French, "Je n'en crois rien. (I have my doubts.)"

"Sanada 'senpai,' don't get agitated. Getting agitated won't solve the problem, just like you can't solve a doubles match with a singles mindset."

Sanada's face darkened even further.

"You said you were covering for the ball, that you were receiving the ball. But what I saw was that every time Aoyama got into position, you would rush over from the side to steal the ball, almost making him fall over."

He reaches out to hit the ball, but your racket arrives before his. As he retreats to cover, your elbow bumps into his shoulder.

"That's not filling in, that's stealing the spot."

"You're in a doubles court, but you're still playing singles... it just so happens that there's someone standing there wearing the same color team uniform as you."

He walked back to Sanada, half a head taller than Sanada. When he looked down at people, his azure eyes were devoid of any warmth, like a lake surface covered with thin ice.

"That's not doubles, that's one against two. You think you're so strong that you can take on two opponents single-handedly? Then why did you lose? If you're so strong, why is the score six to two?"

Sanada's lips were pursed under the brim of his hat.

"As for your claim that I'm speculating about your thoughts..."

Wang Yueling continued, "Then you explain it yourself. In your explanation just now, the first sentence said that Qingshan was a novice, Caodi was on the field for the first time, and the two of you were working together for the first time."

He paused for a moment.

"Isn't this basically saying, 'It's not my problem, it's just that the objective conditions are bad'?"

"Have you ever said even a single word, 'My positioning is too far back,' 'My ball-grabbing prevents Aoyama from playing normally,' or 'I should communicate more with my partner'? You push all the problems onto your partner, the field, and unfamiliar objective factors."

He raised his hand and pointed to Yota Aoyama, who was standing behind Sanada with his shoulders hunched.