Shin nodded happily: "Thanks to Sakura this year! If she hadn't taken two points cleanly in the fourth round, no one would have known who would lose or win with the Seitaka Girls' School in the end. As long as we can win the next round, we are qualified to enter the national competition this year."
Yuma touched his chin, "I didn't expect that that little dwarf to be so strong. I thought she was quite weak because she was beaten by Matsuoka..."
Shin shook his head slightly: "Sakura is indeed very strong among the girls. She is also a good player in the men's group. Her skills and fighting spirit are all top-notch. The reason she lost to Kazuya before is that he is stronger than heris. It's a pity that Kazuya is not interested in club activities, otherwise he can also definitely get a ticket to enter the national competition."
Now that the fact were here and Yuma couldn't spread rumors about Haruka casually. He had to admit somewhat bitterly: "She is really famous recently. I heard she has a nickname..."
Then he turned to Kazuya and asked: "Matsuoka, you are working part-time in her store. Has she ever mentioned it? It's so funny!"
Kazuya didn't participate in their chat. He had already returned to his seat to read a book. He responded casually: "I only know that she has always won, but I haven't heard anything else from her."
However, he became curious and asked, "What's her nickname?"
Could it be the little radish swordswoman?
"Short-legged tiger!" Yuma laughed loudly, "I heard from Junko..others. Their kendo club had not met our school's, but she've watched her competition and was very impressed by her. Many people on the game courtside call her that."
Kazuya was speechless. Haruka's little radish figure was very conspicuous among other students in high school. She was quite aggressive and very strong when she went on the field. She roared like a little tiger so it was not strange for nicknames to have the word "tiger" in them. But this "short-legged tiger" was a bit too much...Just call her like "cute tiger" or "little tiger" were better than "short-legged tiger". Was this nickname a deliberate attempt by the people she defeated to disgust her?
It was possible that she was out there all day long with a bad face and a bad temper, so she wasn't popular for other players.
No wonder she competeed every two or three days but came back with a bad face after winning. She never mentioned the competition at home. She was probably so angry that she had already made a new list of her enemies after one competition is over.
After sympathying three seconds of silence for her, he no longer cared about it and continued reading. The chores were over, his home became comfortable, his sister was cute, his income was stable and he had enough money to spend, so his mind returned to his studies. He thought of Saori Hayami again. Now that the first-semester final exam was approaching, he was ready to work harder and sure to squeeze her into the second position.
He didn't believe that the sick girl could get perfect marks every time. It was not scientific and reasonable at all to get perfect marks in the high school exams!
Japan has a mixture of national, public and private schools, and the terrain is also a long island chain from Ryukyu to Hokkaido, so the holiday times for schools in various places are different. If it is placed in the Chubu area, school usually starts in early April and the summer vacation begins in late July and lasts until early September.
The next term lasts from early September until before Christmas, and then takes vacation, which is usually close to two weeks. School starts again in early January and then takes spring break until mid-March. Then this school year is considered to be over.
Among them, August is the "bloody month" in Japanese schools. Not only are there large-scale competitions such as national competitions, Koshien, and the Three Major Banners, but there are also various kinds of competitions like championships. The battles between clubs are quite fierce, and they try their best to compete for pennants, trophies and awards, which are especially important for sports students. Their results can even determine which university they will go to in the future. Of course, students like Yuma and Shin who failed to pass the regional qualifiers will have nothing to do with them in August. They can just watch TV at home.
Kazuya also has nothing to do. He planed to use the August summer vacation to make more money so as not to have to raise money in the future. He wasn't interested in being the judge in the "Paradise Coast Bikini Awards" planned by Yuma. Everyone knows he was going to watch the girls in swimsuits actually.
...
During the lunch break, Haruka yawned and came back from the cafeteria to get a bowl of free miso soup. Many people in the classroom were gathering around to have lunch, chatting and laughing.
She returned to her seat alone. No one paid any attention to her and she didn't care. Apart from being taller, how could these guys be better than her? It's just fine that you don't like me because I don't like you too. I am happy alone!
She soaked the rice she brought in the soup, then opened another small lunch box and found that the dishes Akiho had prepared in the morning were good and rich in variety. The family's financial situation had indeed improved a lot because of that guy, at least they didn't have to care about the food expenses and can eat whatever they like.
She first took a sip of the hot soup to warm her stomach, but she couldn't help but frown slightly.
It tastes terrible and smells strange! She ate the rice and tasted the egg roll made by Akiho, and frowned even more. Akiho's cooking skills had improved significantly, but compared with that guy, she always felt that she was still far behind. The mouth was so addicated to the dishes what that guy cooked that she could no longer enjoy eating other's.
That guy never does anything good and always shows off his bad skills! I've been holding it in for a long time and really want to scold him!
But no matter if it tasted good or not, she had to eat lunch! She half-eated and half-drank like a little old lady, and then stopped eating after finally being filled her stomach to about 70% full. After eating , she wanted to sleep even more.
She felt very tired recently. She needed to treat diners until 11 or 12 o'clock at night. She also had to get up early to prepare ingredients. During the day, she had to listen to the lectures and was afraid of missing her study. In the afternoon, she had to do kendo exercises to stay her condition for the competition. Anyway, she was super tired.
She put away her lunch box and patted her face vigorously to cheer up. Then she took out a thin mimeographed booklet and started reading it, which was the opponent's information in her fifth round given to her by Kanae.
This was the last round. If they could pass it, they could participate in the national competition in the summer vacation! As long as she got through this little time, she would feel more relaxed!
She flipped through the information carefully and found out that her opponent in the team competition was the seed team Private Kinsei Academy, a strong veteran team in the past three years that had occupied a qualifying spot every year. Although they hadn't won the championship in the national competition, they had won the Excellence Award (4-10 persons), which should not be underestimated.
Since she was the forward, her opponent would be the third-year Asako Kikuchi. Huh? Is she left-handed and still 180 cms tall? Are you kidding me? Why is she so tall?
She looked at her opponent's award-winning resume again. Asako Kikuchi had won the Regional Competition Winner Award and the National Competition Encouragement Award. A strong rival!
She quickly went through other members and found that the whole team was very strong and had almost no weak players. In the individual competition, the Aichi area women's team had eight qualifying places. Among the players to compete for these spots, the Private Kinsei Academy had four players to struggle for them, while there were only herself and Kanae on behalf of the Hope Peak Academy. But Kanae was just luck in the draw and had not encountered any strong opponents along the way, so she could win consecutively and finally entered the sixteen-man roster.
Isn't it possible that the opponent in her individual battle was also from this school? Haruka checked it again and sure enough it was!
She read the information carefully again and knew it well there was no other black horse this year. Players who could enter the final individual and team battles were all third-year veterans, even the second-year veterans were rare. In other words, the biggest dark horse this year was her and Hope Peak Academy.
There may be a fierce fight tomorrow! But no matter what, you must win and never accept failure!