It’s normal to have skills in Wangwang, right?

Chapter 415: Fulfilled Promise, A Slip-Up

Genichiro Sanada strode over, his steps steady and powerful, each one seemingly striking a chord in one's heart. His usually stern face was now covered in ice, his eyes sharp enough to pierce steel.

Liu Lianji followed closely beside him, his expression calm, his narrowed eyes quickly scanning the entire scene, collecting data on the cause of the conflict, the participants, and the current situation.

"Vice-Captain Sanada! Senior Yanagi!" Upon seeing the two, Kirihara stood up obediently, like a child caught doing something wrong by their parents.

"Shut up." Sanada interrupted him, his voice not loud, but carrying an unyielding sense of pressure.

His gaze first fell on Kirihara, confirming that he had no obvious external injuries, then turned to Kamio Akira, his eyes even colder, "Kamio-kun, please explain."

Kamio was intimidated by Sanada's imposing presence and calmed down, but the anger on his face remained: "He insulted our captain!"

"I didn't!" Kirihara immediately retorted.

"You—" Kamio roared in fury once more.

Oishi tugged at him and whispered reassuringly, "Kamio, calm down."

Sanada's gaze swept back and forth between Kirihara and Kamio before he finally said in a deep voice, "In any case, it is extremely inappropriate to have a dispute or even a fight during the training camp. Kamio-kun, your reaction was too extreme."

Oishi nodded quickly: "Yes! Kamio, calm down first."

After Sanada's stern gaze swept over Kamio and Kirihara, Captain Kirihara Akaya said, "Akaya, you tell us what happened?"

After concealing the sarcasm in his question, Kirihara Akaya simply said, "I was just asking how Tachibana is doing, and I wanted him to tell me. If he doesn't want to tell me, fine, why are you getting angry! What happened next is what you'll see."

Kamio, with his easily triggered temper, became agitated again, "You—"

Why didn't you include the tone of your voice when you spoke?

Just as he was about to erupt again, he was stopped by Sanada's questioning voice.

"Kamio-kun, is what Kirihara said true?"

Kamio was furious and frustrated. "Yes."

Renji Yanagi concluded: "Then, please apologize to Kirihara for pinning him to the ground. Let's leave it at that. Otherwise, we'll have to leave it to the coaches to decide. After all, you were the only one who made the move, and we don't know how the coaches will punish you."

Kamio's angry expression froze, and with an extremely unwilling look on his face, he squeezed out through clenched teeth, "I'm sorry!"

Then he shook off the person restraining him and rushed out angrily.

The conflict was temporarily suppressed by Sanada and Renji Yanagi with their strong yet rational approach. Kirihara was also pinned to the spot by a single glance from Sanada, and he lowered his head, not daring to utter another word.

The cafeteria gradually returned to its normal bustling state, but the atmosphere in that small area remained somewhat stagnant.

Sanada and Renji Yanagi led Kirihara to get more food and sat him in a relatively quiet corner. Sanada didn't immediately begin the planned safety education, but instead let Kirihara eat first.

But his expression remained somber, and Yanagi Renji ate in silence, occasionally observing Kirihara and his surroundings with a calm gaze.

An alarm bell rang in their minds—Liu Lingyin's warning, the first one about a "cafeteria conflict," had come true. Although it was stopped in time, it was a clear signal.

Dinner ended in a subdued silence. Sanada sternly instructed Kirihara not to wander around after dinner and to be careful, especially not to run or linger on the stairs, giving him repeated instructions and a lecture.

Although Kirihara didn't care much, he had no choice but to obediently agree in front of Sanada's stern face.

The two originally intended to follow Kirihara as much as possible in the future, but plans can't keep up with changes.

Just as they were about to leave the cafeteria, a staff member came to announce: "Coach Sakaki and the players from Coach Hanamura's team, please assemble in Meeting Room 1 at 6:30 tonight. Players who are not yet present, please inform each other."

Six-thirty? Then there won't be time to keep an eye on this kid.

Sanada and Yanagi Renji were both taken aback. They looked at Kirihara.

Kirihara asked in confusion, "Vice Minister, Senior Liu, why are you looking at me?"

He reached up and touched his face; it was clean, without a single grain of rice on it!

Sanada frowned. The concern Liu Lingyin had expressed about "you might have a meeting" had become a reality so quickly. He glanced at Liu Renji, who nodded slightly and whispered, "The data shows that Akaya's route back to the dormitory alone is safe, and he was just warned; the probability of him complying is 85%."

Sanada pondered for a moment, having no better solution at the moment. He could only sternly warn Kirihara again: "Go straight to your room later, and don't wander around, especially on the stairs, understand?"

"Yes, Vice Minister!" Kirihara answered, standing at attention.

Watching Sanada and Yanagi Renji's departing figures, Kirihara breathed a sigh of relief, touched his still slightly tight collar, and muttered to himself, "Seriously... going back to the room is so boring! There's no game console to play."

He kicked at the pebbles on the ground listlessly and slowly walked toward the dormitory building.

***

Inside Atobe's room at the training camp.

"Huh? A conflict in the cafeteria? Kirihara Akaya and Fudomine's Kamio Akira?"

Keigo Atobe ate the lavish dinner brought by his butler while listening to the news brought by Yuushi Oshitari. He paused slightly, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

"Ah, but it's nothing serious. Sanada and Yanagi from Rikkai University stopped it in time." Oshitari pushed up his glasses. "The atmosphere was indeed very tense. It seems that the 'rivalry' between Rikkai's 'little seaweed' and Fudomine's 'speed maniac' from the Kanto Tournament hasn't been resolved yet."

Atobe didn't reply. He remembered the note: "If you hear that Kirihara Akaya got into a fight with someone in the cafeteria..."

Liu Lingyin's warning was absolutely accurate.

He put down the tableware, walked to the window, and looked out at the already deep night and the brightly lit dormitory building in the distance. After a moment of contemplation, he turned around and said to Kabaji Takahiro, who had been standing silently in the corner of the room, "Kabaji, bring 'Little Purple' over here, and remember to keep her away from me."

"What, Little Purple?" Shinobu asked, puzzled.

"Ah! Curious? I wouldn't mind if you and Kabaji went to take a look together."

As expected of someone known as the 'strategist', Oshitari was not only intelligent but also had an extremely strong ability to observe. Upon hearing the change in Atobe's tone, he instantly suppressed his curiosity.

Shinobu shook his head: "No need, Kabaji will bring it over later, and I'll be able to see it too."

Hua nodded and walked to the desk. The dark blue gift box was still there. He opened the lid, and the purple spider inside was still sprawled out like a pancake, as if it were fast asleep.

Kabaji extended his broad, calloused hand, placing it steadily beside the purple spider. As if sensing something, the spider, known as "Little Purple," slowly and lazily raised its two front legs, placing them on Kabaji's fingertips. Then, it slowly moved its eight legs, climbing onto Kabaji's palm. In Kabaji's bronze palm, its dark purple carapace appeared even more mysterious.

When Kabaji turned around, Shinobu saw the strange purple spider in his broad palm and couldn't help but shudder.

Fortunately, Kabaji was far away and didn't get close to him, otherwise his elegant and noble image would have been ruined.

"Atobe, I'm leaving now." Without saying anything more, Oshitari quickly finished speaking in a Kansai accent, and then he was already at the door. As soon as he finished speaking, he opened the door and left, all in one smooth motion.

"Hmph! Such a coward."

If Liu Lingyin were here, she would definitely complain about Atobe: "Why don't you get a little closer to Komurasaki? Don't let Kabaji take it far away! You're just as bad as me and you still dare to mock me."

“Take it to the stairwell of our building,” Atobe instructed Kabaji remotely after watching Oshitari leave. “Place it in a corner, somewhere that won’t get stepped on, but where you can still see the stairs. Then come back.”

“Usu.” Kabaji responded in a low voice, carefully cupping the spider in his palm with his other hand, then turned and quietly left the room.

Atobe walked to the table, picked up the bottle of red perfume, and twirled it between his fingers. The crystal refracted the light, flowing with an alluring luster.

"Liu Lingyin..." he murmured to himself, "What exactly do you want to do? Or rather, what do you want to stop?"

He had a feeling that tonight might not be peaceful.

***

Kirihara returned to his room at the training camp, but he was incredibly bored. He remembered that he hadn't handled a few balls well during training that day, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt he should go practice against the wall to get a feel for the ball.

Without thinking, Kirihara couldn't sit still any longer. He went straight out the door and downstairs to the tennis court.

After Kirihara Akaya finished training, he walked alone down the corridor back to his room. At the bottom of the stairs in his building, in an inconspicuous corner, a purple spider was quietly lying in the shadows of the roof.

Its small, almost invisible eyes seemed to be facing the direction of the stairs, until they saw the boy with seaweed-like hair, and then they lit up eerily.

Above him, out of sight, a spider lurked in the shadows, following him at a leisurely pace.

The corridor leading to the dormitory building was long, and the lighting, designed to save energy, consisted only of safety indicator lights, making it somewhat dim and spaced far apart, casting deep shadows in some sections. A figure emerged from the shadows opposite, and both of them stopped simultaneously.

By the faint moonlight filtering through the distant window and the dim light at the end of the corridor, Kirihara recognized the other person—Tachibana An. The younger sister of Fudomine's Tachibana Kippei, she seemed to have just returned from outside, still carrying the chill of the night, her complexion somewhat pale in the dim light.

As soon as Ju Xing saw him, her brows furrowed, her eyes filled with undisguised scrutiny and a hint of lingering anger.

"Where did you run off to?" she asked, her voice sounding abrupt in the quiet corridor, her tone a direct interrogation.

"Ha! It's you again."

Kirihara walked straight ahead, brushing past Tachibana An as he said rudely, "Heh! It's you again. Are you planning to spy on me 24/7?"

Tachibana An turned around and stopped her, saying, "Wait, you haven't answered me yet!"

Kirihara stopped, turned his back to her, and said curtly, "I'm doing self-study." That was the truth.

“During this training camp,” Tachibana An’s voice came from behind him, carrying a deliberately calm tone, yet unable to conceal the accusatory undertone, “please, you and your senior, do not interfere with the training of the other athletes.”

Kirihara whirled around, his seaweed-like hair swaying with the movement, his face filled with confusion and displeasure at being disturbed: "What do you mean by this? Which upperclassman?" He didn't react for a moment.

"You don't know?" Ju Xing met his gaze, her voice rising slightly.

"It's that girl who said something really hurtful last time. She's not even part of the training camp, and she just comes here randomly, which really affects the mood and concentration of other people practicing."

She recalled Liu Lingyin's calm yet all-seeing eyes, and those words that embarrassed her and left her speechless. Old grievances and new troubles surged into her heart.

Kirihara Akaya's anger flared up instantly. If he was just annoyed before, he was truly angry now. He could be called bad-tempered, impulsive, and a nuisance to others, and he admitted that himself. But when it came to Yanagi Suzune-senpai—the one senior in his heart who patiently tutored him in English, made him delicious snacks, and even defended him in public—absolutely not.

"Have you said enough?" Kirihara's voice turned cold, and his eyes sharpened. "If you're saying I have a bad temper and it affects others, I don't care, but you can't talk about my senior."

He stepped forward; although he wasn't much taller than Tachibana An, his athletic aura was incredibly imposing.

"You want to cause trouble for me on behalf of your brother? Fine, go ahead. But there should be a limit. My senior must have been allowed in. So don't drag her into this or talk about negative influences, otherwise—"

He paused, making no attempt to hide his disgust, "It's disgusting."

Ju Xing's face turned pale at his words, especially the last two words, which pierced her heart like needles. The pressure of the past few days, the worry about her brother's injury, the resentment of not being selected for the training camp, the shame of being "taught a lesson" by Liu Lingyin, and now the disgust... all the emotions mixed and fermented at this moment, breaking down the dam of rationality she had been trying to maintain.

"It's all because of you!" she suddenly raised her voice, her voice trembling with a hint of collapse. "If it weren't for you, my brother would be here right now! If it weren't for your senior, I wouldn't have lost face so badly that day!"

Her accusations infuriated and irritated Kirihara. He scoffed, his pride as one of Rikkai's top aces and his inherent sharpness revealed without restraint:

"Hmph! Well, I'm really sorry! We didn't expect you to be so fragile!"

He deliberately used a dismissive tone, "Isn't your brother supposed to be one of the 'Twin Heroes of Kyushu'? He turned out to be so pathetic, yet he still dared to call himself a hero. And you, your senior was just telling the truth, and you can't stand it? You two siblings are really—" He deliberately dragged out the last four words, "It's hilarious."

After saying that, he stopped looking at Ju Xing's face, which had turned pale and then flushed red, and turned around again, intending to leave this unpleasant encounter.

However, he underestimated the power that a person could unleash when pushed to the brink and driven to the extreme of shame and anger.

Tachibana, left behind, trembled slightly. Shame, anger, resentment, and her protectiveness towards her brother... all coalesced into an extreme, almost insane rage. Her usually bright and lively eyes were now bloodshot and filled with an uncontrollable resolve.

Her gaze was fixed on Kirihara Akaya's departing figure. Suddenly, a glint flashed in her eyes, and an impulse took hold of her body.

She lifted her foot and rushed forward with all her might, closing the distance to Kirihara's side in just a few steps. At the same time, she raised her right hand high, fingers together, and with a whoosh, slapped Kirihara hard across the face—she didn't care about anything else anymore, she just wanted to shut this nasty guy who had spoken such foul language up and make him pay the price!

Kirihara heard hurried footsteps behind him and instinctively felt something was wrong, so he turned around in confusion.

In the dim light, he saw Tachibana An's face, contorted with rage, so close to his, and the swiftly swinging hand aimed at him. He instinctively gave a mocking smile, his body reacting with lightning speed as he leaned back, trying to dodge what he saw as a chaotic attack that he could easily avoid.

However, as his retreating foot landed—

I stepped into an empty space.