The title is provisional. I haven't thought of anything better yet.
Blurb:
"Niou, become the pillar of Rikkai!"
After their former captain's impassioned shout, Masaharu Niou, inwardly grumbling that even their chuunibyou lines had to be copied from Seigaku, was practically shoved onto the stage and made the new captain of Rikkai's tennis club.
A new captain naturally had to take stock of the club's roster.
Niou looked at his upperclassmen. The only ones with decent skills were a doubles pair, but neither of them had their heart set on tennis. Their dream was to become a ping-pong doubles team. Unfortunately, the school didn't have a table tennis club, so they had to settle for flipping the table and playing tennis instead.
Then he looked at his classmates. The only one worth mentioning was Juzaburo Mouri, who was every bit his equal at skipping training. But since their former captain had handed the position over to him, apparently, in his eyes, Niou's knack for causing trouble was still a little inferior to Mouri's. He'd have to work harder... No, wait!
Niou came to his senses and remembered that he was now the tennis club captain. Even if he'd been appointed without anyone asking what he wanted, he was still the captain. He couldn't be as unmotivated as Mouri. He had to do better than the previous captain.
After hearing Niou's grand ambitions, Mouri yawned. "We were already national runners-up last year. The only way to do better is to win the national championship."
"Puri~ Then my goal is to win the national championship!"
Mouri: "...Just the few of us?"
They couldn't do it with just this handful of players. If his upperclassmen and classmates weren't up to the task, then it was up to the juniors. Niou looked forward to the new school year, when he could draw a few more cards from the first-year pool and train them properly.
After the new school year began, Niou looked at his juniors with satisfaction. "Mouri, my goal has changed."
Mouri looked at Yukimura and the others. "Hm? Why? I think we've got a good chance of winning this year."
Niou shook his head, his gaze resolute. "I don't just want this year's championship. I want next year's and the year after that, too. With Yukimura and the others on the team, I believe Rikkai can achieve an unprecedented three-peat!"
Blurb posted August 4, 2026
The characters' ages are adjusted: Masaharu Niou and Juzaburo Mouri are in the same year.
Also known as The Unreliable Upperclassman and His Reliable Juniors' Road to the Championship
I thought I'd never write another tennis match, but after reading a sports story, I found myself eager to write matches again. As things stand, I plan for this story to cover: 1. Rikkai's road to two consecutive national championships; 2. Masaharu Niou's first year in U17 and Rikkai's third championship; 3. Masaharu Niou and the junior high players' journey through the U17 World Cup.
Theme: The ambitious press forward without hesitation.
