Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The crisp sound of tennis balls being struck rang out continuously across the empty court.
‘Where am I…?’
In one corner, a boy wearing a light green short-sleeved shirt slowly opened his eyes, still dazed.
His black bangs covered most of his eyes and ears.
‘A…
tennis court?’
The black-haired boy froze when he saw a group of teenagers before him, all dressed in matching light green uniforms and holding tennis rackets.
He clearly remembered sneaking away from those self-proclaimed “sons” of his in the dorm and heading to a classroom to study for his final exams.
But memorizing all those formulas had worn him out, and he’d ended up falling asleep with his head on the desk.
And now…
he’d transmigrated?!
Buzz!
Suddenly, an enormous flood of unfamiliar information surged into the boy’s mind.
Countless scenes he had never experienced flashed before his eyes like a slideshow.
It took quite a while before he finally came back to his senses, his head splitting from absorbing all those unfamiliar memories.
‘Shibukawa Shin.’
‘Yamabuki Junior High.’
‘Tennis club…’
‘So…
I’ve transmigrated into the world of The Prince of Tennis?’
The memories in his head were a jumbled mess, and the boy hadn’t managed to fully absorb them yet.
But he quickly found the parts he recognized.
It turned out that the boy he had transmigrated into was named Shibukawa Shin.
He was thirteen years old, a second-year student at Yamabuki Junior High, and an ordinary member of the school’s tennis club.
As for why he was certain that he had transmigrated into the world of The Prince of Tennis, it wasn’t just because of the name Yamabuki.
There were also several of his teammates in the tennis club.
The team’s strongest singles player was Kiyosumi Sengoku, known as “Lucky Sengoku.” Then there was Kentaro Minami, who was in the same class as the black-haired boy and currently served as vice-captain of Yamabuki’s tennis club.
Judging by that information, this was one year before the original story’s timeline.
Sengoku, Minami, and the others were only second-year middle school students at this point.
‘I can’t believe this actually happened…’
Shibukawa murmured blankly.
Having grown up reading novels and watching anime, he had naturally fantasized about one day being transported to another world and becoming someone like the protagonists in those stories.
But now that it had actually happened to him, he was completely at a loss.
Once the initial shock faded, he sank into profound bewilderment, overwhelmed by a powerful sense of unease.
Transmigration was fine to fantasize about, but he wasn’t one of those guys from Webnovel Orphanage.
He had parents.
He had family.
He had close friends he’d grown up with.
Now that all of those bonds had suddenly been severed in one stroke, how could he possibly accept everything immediately?
But just then, a weary yet deeply gentle face surfaced in his mind.
For no apparent reason, warmth spread through Shibukawa’s heart.
‘That woman…’
Having absorbed the boy’s memories, he naturally knew who the woman in his mind was.
Shibukawa Yumi.
The mother of the boy he had transmigrated into.
After the boy’s father died in a car accident, she had raised him alone from the age of three to thirteen while running a bakery by herself.
In the original boy’s memories, he hadn’t thought much of it.
If anything, he had often resented her.
After all, growing up without a father—the person who should have provided his strongest sense of security—combined with the gossip and strange looks from other children his age, could easily leave an immature boy with an inferiority complex.
But the Shibukawa who had transmigrated into this world understood very clearly just how difficult it was, in a society like Japan, for one person to raise a three-year-old child alone for ten years.
‘Since I’m already here, I might as well make the best of it.’
‘As for the world I left behind, I’ll just have to leave things to my big brother.
I only hope Mom and Dad won’t be too heartbroken when they learn that I’m gone…’
The one thing that made Shibukawa feel a little better was that, before transmigrating, he hadn’t been an only child.
He had an older brother three years his senior.
Even if he really was gone for good, his parents would still have someone to look after them in their old age and see them through to the end.
Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down.
Since he’d already arrived in the world of The Prince of Tennis, and there was virtually no chance of transmigrating back, he might as well adapt to his new surroundings as soon as possible.
Fortunately, the school he attended was Yamabuki.
If he’d ended up at some obscure school that never appeared in The Prince of Tennis, the U-17 World Cup from the original story might have ended before he even figured out where he was.
‘Since this is a world centered around tennis…’
Shibukawa glanced down at the light blue racket beside him.
At the same time, his mind conjured up the terrifyingly gifted geniuses from the original story, those freakishly talented monsters who barely seemed human.
Shibukawa immediately lost some of his confidence.
At the lower levels, tennis still remained within the bounds of what ordinary people considered possible.
But at the higher levels, destroying courts, smashing through walls, and leaving opponents injured and bleeding were all perfectly normal occurrences.
He carefully assessed the condition of his current body and found that it wasn’t particularly strong.
His memories even included instances of being cornered by school bullies and forced to hand over money.
Clearly, he was nothing more than a background character who wouldn’t even qualify as a supporting character.
But Shibukawa had no intention of resigning himself to being one.
Although the manga hadn’t completely ended before he transmigrated, he knew the general plot almost inside and out.
Since he had the cheat of knowing what was going to happen ahead of time, he would never forgive himself if he didn’t at least give it his best shot.
With that thought, he grabbed his racket.
“Everyone, gather up!”
Just then, a medium-built boy with an afro walked to the center of the court and shouted, “First- and second-years, start your swing drills!
Third-years, split into groups and practice!”
At his words, the previously chaotic court immediately divided into two groups.
The slightly older players entered the surrounding courts and split themselves into groups.
The remaining players likewise lined up without needing to be told.
Following the memories in his head, Shibukawa walked to his assigned place.
The afro-haired boy, meanwhile, took his racket and stepped in front of everyone to personally demonstrate the drill.
“That’s just Minami’s style.”
“Yeah.
He’s already vice-captain, but he still treats himself like any other second-year and does the swing drills with us.”
Kentaro Minami, huh?
Shibukawa glanced at the afro-haired boy not far away and nodded inwardly.
Despite holding a position that set him apart from the others, he could still maintain that kind of attitude.
He truly lived up to being someone of captain-level standing at Yamabuki in the original story.
Bang!
Thwack!
Bang!
Thwack!
At that moment, the third-years began their practice on the neighboring courts.
‘The way these guys move…’
Watching the boys dart swiftly across the courts, drawing back their rackets and driving through their shots with practiced ease, Shibukawa felt his heart sink.
He knew perfectly well that although these players were a year older than him, they were still nothing more than cannon fodder in the original story.
Yet even so, he could feel the pressure from the intensity they displayed once they started playing.
And this was just cannon fodder.
Then just how powerful—and how oppressive—were those freakishly gifted, downright monstrous geniuses from the original story?
“Everyone, start your swings.”
Minami spoke from the front.
Shibukawa snapped back to attention.
With a serious expression, he carefully watched Minami’s movements, took a deep breath, and performed a single swing.
[Basic Swing completed once.]
[Swing EXP +1.]
[Current Swing Level: Lv.
2 (34/100).]
‘What is this?!’
At the sight of the text that suddenly appeared before his eyes like a video game notification, Shibukawa’s pupils abruptly contracted.