The New Prince of Tennis: That Kid’s Mouth Is Crooked Again

System + pretending to be weak while secretly being strong + multiple heroines + tennis

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When Echizen Nanjirō's eldest son stepped onto the Seigaku courts with an old tennis racket in hand, dragging it behind him, no one could have guessed what kind of storm the boy mocked as “the disgrace of the Echizen family” would one day unleash. He was a “good-for-nothing substitute” deliberately hiding his talent, holding his racket loosely and sending return after return out of bounds. Yet whenever he was pushed into a desperate situation by those who underestimated him, he would shatter every doubt with a godlike volley.

From his astonishing comeback in the regional preliminaries, to sweeping Yukimura Seiichi's “Annihilation of the Five Senses” at the Kanto Tournament, to his godlike rally against Kintaro in the national finals, every appearance by Echizen Kaito came with his trademark crooked smirk. He was “the most interesting prey” in Atobe Keigo's eyes, a mystery Tezuka Kunimitsu watched in secret, and the older brother Ryoma both resented and longed to surpass.

The secret of his grip was tucked away in Ryuzaki Sakuno's notebook; Orange's concern concealed an unconscious dependence on him; and in Mizuno Nana's camera lens was a tenderness he had never voiced. When threats from antis came, these girls stood before him in their own ways. Only then did the boy who was used to being alone realize that strength meant more than crushing one's opponents.

From Seigaku's tennis courts to the U-17 training camp, from the courts of Japan's Kanto region to the grass courts of Wimbledon, he carried an old injury in his arm and shackles in his heart as he tore open the sky screen of professional tennis, one step at a time. The days and nights he had been mocked would eventually become the foundation beneath his feet as he reached the summit; the restraint hidden behind his crooked smile would eventually become a thunderclap that rewrote the era of tennis.