The Prince of Tennis: The Quincy of Rikkai University

Chapter 252 Grouping, Goodbye Zeus

32 countries and regions are divided into 8 groups, and each group plays a single round-robin tournament.

In each group's three preliminaries, there must be three junior high school students participating, and in these three preliminaries, high school students and junior high school students who have already played cannot play again.

This is the competition system for the group stage of this year's U17 World Cup. After Kurobe explained the rules, Saito Shi handed the form in his hand to the players present.

When the junior high school students gathered together to watch, they found their group without even taking a second look.

There are eight groups in total, ABCDEFG, and they are in Group B.

According to the distribution of the top eight seeded teams in the World Cup, the seeded team in Group B can only be Switzerland, which ranks second among the "big4".

The remaining two opponents, naturally, are the same as what Maya Yuuki thought, namely the tenth-ranked Greek team and the 16th-ranked host Australia team.

On paper, this draw is a death group for any weaker team.

The person who drew this "good lot" for them was undoubtedly the god-like hand from Seigaku, Shuichiro Oishi.

"Oishi...your luck is really bad. Yesterday we drew Germany, and today we drew Switzerland. Are you going to give us France or Spain after the group stage?"

Many middle school students have become numb to Oishi's luck in drawing lots.

Even Fuji Shusuke, who is also a member of Seigaku, had a helpless look on his face, as if he finally understood why Seigaku always had such bad luck in domestic competitions. It turned out that the culprit of all this was Oishi, the deputy director.

"Don't be too pessimistic. Rankings are just for reference, but don't take them too seriously."

"With our strength, we will definitely be able to easily break through the group stage."

Maya Yuuki spoke at this time to reassure the other junior high school students.

"Yuuki is right. We can beat Switzerland."

Guided by the words, Yukimura Seiichi, the captain of the junior high school students, also spoke up to encourage.

With just a few short words, the originally somewhat cold atmosphere caused by the grouping results was immediately broken.

Then, after accepting the reality of the grouping, everyone began to freely discuss the personnel composition of the three group stage games.

However, it was useless for the players alone to discuss, as the coaching staff quickly announced in person that the team should disband on the spot and return to their rooms to rest.

Afterwards, the three coaches called Yuki and Byodoin and several others and went to Mifune Nyudo's room to discuss and arrange the staffing for the three games.

The next morning, the group stage of the U17 World Cup competition went on as scheduled.

At the entrance of the hotel, the exclusive bus to the event venue has slowly driven out, and all the members of the team have boarded it and are heading to their destination.

After quickly arriving at the venue, everyone first went to the lounge prepared by the organizer to take a short rest.

“Our first opponent is the Greek team, which is ranked tenth in the world.

"For this match, I will send out the seven-member team of Team Matsu. They are Shuji Tanejima, Kazuya Tokugawa, Atsuki Tono, Gekko Ochi, Kuranosuke Shiraishi, Akaya Kirihara, and..."

At this point, Mifune Nyudo paused, and spoke again reluctantly: "And Yuuki Maya."

"Go, let the whole world know our existence—"

After Mifune Nyudo finished speaking, the seven people whose names were called walked out of the queue and gathered into a team.

"No way, are they sending this guy out to fight so early?"

Several high school students widened their eyes and looked at Mifune Nyudo with confusion.

In their minds, someone as capable as Yuki should be assigned to the match against the Swiss team.

"Don't look at me like that. He brought it up on his own initiative."

Mifune Nyudo glared back at the high school students and explained the reason helplessly.

"Let me explain, because there is an opponent in the Greek team that I really want to play against..."

Yuuki Maya told the story of how she and Zeus met and played against each other two years ago at the World Cup in France. After everyone heard it, they suddenly realized that they had never thought that such a thing could happen.

"Wait, so you were also one of the audience members at my match two years ago?!"

Byodoin Phoenix discovered the blind spot, turned around and asked with a surprised expression.

"Yes, although I missed the previous games, I was there throughout the match between Oni and you." Maya Yuuki said frankly.

As soon as he said this, the high school students' expressions suddenly froze and they were silent for a moment, because this was a somewhat taboo topic.

"Okay, if you have anything to say, let's talk after the game is over."

It was Mifunerudo who noticed that the atmosphere was not right and interrupted them immediately.

At this moment, the broadcast in the lounge sounded.

"The first round of the U17 World Cup group stage is about to begin. All national teams are requested to enter as soon as possible."

The bright voice reached the ears of everyone in the lounge, and everyone's conversation stopped immediately.

"Let's go, everyone—"

Maya Yuuki took the lead, opened the door of the lounge, and walked calmly towards the exit of the contestant passage.

Behind him, the other six members of Song's team followed closely and lined up in a row to enter the venue with him.

……

The venue was basically full with the audience who had bought tickets.

Except for some people who came to support the Greek and Japanese teams, the vast majority of people were neutral spectators.

"Look, the Greek players are entering the arena!"

"The Japanese team over there has also come out!"

“I wonder who will win today’s game?”

"Greece, after all, it's also a top-ranked team."

"It's hard to say. In yesterday's exhibition match, the Japanese team beat the champion Germany by one point!"

"..."

After coming out of the player tunnels on both sides, the players from both sides came to the center of the court to appear.

After casually greeting the spectators around and responding to the audience's enthusiastic cheers, the players of both teams quickly left the field and returned to their respective preparation areas.

When the two sides separated, Zeus looked over, and Yuuki Maya happened to meet him.

After looking at each other for a second, both turned around as if nothing had happened, but Zeus's mouth corners slightly raised.

"So, you are a member of the Japanese team..."

Everything is self-evident. After two years, Zeus finally met the person he most wanted to meet in this World Championship.

Suppressing his emotions, Zeus regained his calm expression and sat in the center seat of the Greek team.

At the same time when Zeus sat down, Maya Yuuki also slowly took her seat in the Japanese team's preparation area.

He looked across, his mind calm.

In the last brief encounter with Zeus, both sides stopped at a certain point, but this time in the World Championship, the opponent no longer has any reason to hold back.

I don’t know to what extent Zeus’s true strength can push him after two years of growth?

In Maya Yuuki's heart, she began to look forward to this fight.

(End of this chapter)