EFB Chapter 67 He won't let Sanada and Yanagi get away with this.
Chapter 67 He won't let Sanada and Yanagi get away with this.
Mochizuki Ryo heard the laughter in Yukimura's words, but he also realized that the other party was seriously waiting for his reply.
He put his legs down, clasped his hands back on his knees, and tapped the back of his hands lightly with his fingertips.
"Seishi, the problems that Hyotei had before, Rikkai has the same ones." His voice wasn't loud, but he enunciated each word clearly, "and they're even more serious."
Yukimura's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and the smile on his face faded a bit.
"I would like to hear the details."
Wang Yueling did not answer immediately.
He leaned back in his chair, his gaze slowly sweeping around the ward, as if he were refining his words.
The sunlight outside the window was half-hidden by clouds, and the edges of the patch of light falling on the bedside table became somewhat blurred, burying half of his face in shadow.
"Rikkai University has dominated the Kanto region for fifteen consecutive years. They've won the national championship twice in a row. All their opponents are like paper in front of them."
"After winning for so long, what do you think your team members are thinking?"
He turned his gaze back to Yukimura's face.
"You can win easily."
He spoke their minds clearly, word by word: "Is the training intensity sufficient? Is the focus sufficient? Is the tactical preparation for each opponent sufficient? Of course we will do it, after all, you are the champion Rikkai University, the rules and discipline are there for you."
"But doing something and doing it well are two different things."
Yukimura didn't reply immediately. He tapped his fingers lightly on the blanket, a thoughtful look flashing in his violet-blue eyes.
Then, he shook his head slightly.
"I acknowledge that the phenomena you described may indeed exist."
His voice was calm, but his tone was serious and unwavering. "But Rikkai's pride as a champion doesn't come from nowhere. Our team members have the ability to uphold that pride. As long as the strength remains, a little pride is fine."
“Arrogance is fine, of course.” Wang Yueling smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “The problem is that you’ve mistaken arrogance for confidence. That makes all the difference.”
He stood up, walked to the window, turned his back to Yukimura, and looked at the sun outside, which was half-hidden by clouds.
Yukimura frowned, waiting for him to continue.
Just then, very faint footsteps came from outside the ward door. Not the kind that just passed by, but the kind that stopped at the door and then didn't move again.
Immediately afterwards, another, heavier set of footsteps stopped outside the same door.
Wang Yueling's ear twitched slightly.
He didn't turn around, nor did he even glance towards the door.
But the corners of his mouth curved into a very subtle arc, and what was hidden in that arc was deeper than all the jokes he had just made combined.
They've arrived just in time.
That way he won't have to find another opportunity to say it again.
"Seiichi, tell me. If right now... I mean if... you were lying in the hospital, and Rikkai University had met an opponent in the Kanto Tournament finals."
"The opponent wasn't a traditional powerhouse; they were a completely unexpected dark horse. Your players stood on the field and found that no matter how they attacked, they couldn't be defeated, and no matter how they suppressed them, they couldn't be suppressed. Their usual confidence that they could win easily began to crumble."
"What should we do now?"
He did not wait for Yukimura's reply.
"Everyone at Rikkai University is very strong. But being strong and being stable are two different things."
He put his hands in his pockets, turned around and leaned against the windowsill, his expression obscured by the backlight.
"With your strongest leader in the hospital, the team has gone from a 'legion with a soul' to a disorganized mess. Your players are used to you sitting on the sidelines, used to you arranging everything perfectly. When you're not around, who will be the anchor? Who will say 'Don't panic, I'm here' when everyone starts to panic?"
His voice wasn't loud, but every word was clearly audible through the crack in the door.
"The most critical issue is that your players simply don't have the mindset that 'every game must be fought to the death'."
Mochizuki Ryo paused for a moment, tilted her head to look at Yukimura, and spoke very softly, as if she were talking about a secret that everyone knew but no one was willing to admit.
"Seiichi, I ask you, does a true king leave himself a way out?"
Yukimura did not answer. His fingers unconsciously tightened on the blanket.
Outside.
Genichiro Sanada stood firmly at the door of the ward, clutching a training plan sheet, the edges of which were already crumpled.
Liu Lian'er stood half a step to his side, and slowly opened her eyes, which had been half-closed.
They had just arrived at the hospital, intending to deliver the training materials to Yukimura. As they reached the door, they heard Mochizuki Ryo's voice coming from the ward; he spoke slowly, every sentence referring to Rikkai University.
Sanada instinctively reached out to knock on the door, but Yanagi pressed down on his wrist and shook his head slightly.
But the meaning is clear: don't move, listen again.
Sanada's brow furrowed even deeper, his lips twitched slightly, but he ultimately did not push the door open.
……
Mochizuki Ryo sighed, walked back to the bedside, pulled the chair forward a little, and sat down again. He sat very close, his knees almost touching the edge of the bed, his azure eyes staring directly at Yukimura.
"Your vice-captain, Genichiro Sanada, everyone calls him 'The Emperor.' One of the strongest singles players in junior high, the invincible Fuu-Rin-Kazan, he's incredibly handsome."
His tone suddenly became very light, as if he were gossiping, but every word he said was precisely aimed in a certain direction. "But there's something I just can't figure out."
He tilted his head and looked into Yukimura's eyes.
"In your heart, do you really think Seishi deserves the title of 'best'?"
"What I mean is... in that most crucial match, on the last ball, can your vice minister really hold the team together reliably for you?"
Without waiting for Yukimura to speak up for Sanada, he reached out and pulled a Sacred Heart Lily from the vase, twirling it between his fingers, the stem swaying gently.
He answered for him: "I think it needs to be questioned."
Sanada stood outside the door, his brows furrowing deeply.
Wang Yueling twirled the Sacred Heart Lily in her hand and continued speaking. Her voice was not loud, but every word was like a sharp blade.
"Sanada's problem isn't that he's not strong enough; of course he's strong. The problem lies here."
He tapped his temple with the flower stem. "His mindset is fixed: 'I'm strong anyway, I can win no matter what I play.' Do you think he does any targeted training for different opponents before a match? No. He thinks it's unnecessary."
"Because he never took any opponent seriously."
Mochizuki Ryou handed the Sacred Lily to Yukimura with a very gentle touch, but her tone was anything but gentle: "A person who doesn't even respect his opponent will eventually be slapped in the face by his opponent at the most crucial moment. Not by someone stronger than him, but by someone he completely despises."
"Because the other party was studying him with all their might, but he couldn't even be bothered to remember the other party's name."
He was stating a fact, the core reason why Sanada lost to Echizen Ryoma in the previous anime.
To Sanada, these words were undoubtedly the greatest provocation.
Sanada stood outside the door, his lips pressed into a sharp line, his jaw muscles taut, and his fingers hanging at his sides slowly clenched into fists.
He never underestimates his opponents, much less takes a match lightly! Mochizuki Ryo has no idea what's going on, so why is she slandering him like this!
He also said he would lose to an opponent he looked down on.
His pride wouldn't allow him to admit it, but deep down, a very subtle wavering lingered, one he himself was unwilling to acknowledge. Because what Mochizuki Ryo said was a hypothesis, a deduction, laying bare a possibility he least wanted to face in the light of day.
However, no assumptions hold true in the face of absolute overwhelming power.
He can't possibly lose, he won't lose, absolutely not.
He raised his hand to push the door open, but Liu held his arm firmly down.
"Wait a little longer," Liu said in a breathy voice, her eyes fully open, her brown pupils devoid of their usual composure.
Mochizuki Ryo leaned back in her chair, handed the flowers to Yukimura, and then, with her hands empty, crossed her fingers and rested them on her knees, adopting an even more relaxed sitting posture.
"Seiichi, while you were in the hospital, did Sanada and the others promise you that they would definitely win the Kanto Tournament championship for the team?"
Yukimura's fingertips curled slightly.
Of course there is.
Whether it was sixteen consecutive Kanto championships or three consecutive national championships, these were goals that Rikkai would never give up.
They say these things every time they come.
"That idea is certainly heartwarming." Mochizuki Ryou's voice was very soft, but the weight of each word was not diminished at all.
"But have you ever considered whether Sanada was fighting to 'win' or to 'avoid losing face and letting Yukimura down' when he stood on the field?"
"The difference between the two is not small."
"That kind of mentality is already off track. His playing style will become conservative, his decision-making will be hesitant, and his judgment will be distorted."
"He might...lose."
He paused, his gaze calm yet heavy.
"As the vice minister, he is the core of this team when you are not around. If he can't stand up, Rikkai University will be your team all by yourself. If you fall, the whole team will fall apart."
Outside the door, Sanada's chest heaved.
He could feel the fire rising from his chest, burning down his neck to his ears. He heard every single word Wang Yueling said clearly.
Arrogant, perfunctory, unfit to be a vice minister, incapable of standing up.
He wanted to just push the door open and go in, to tell this person face to face that he, Genichiro Sanada, was never like that.
But he couldn't move.
It wasn't because Liu was holding him down, but because he could hear his own heartbeat.
That rhythm wasn't anger, but a kind of panic mixed with humiliation and unease that he had rarely experienced.
Because he vaguely felt that some of the things Mochizuki Ryo said overlapped with the doubts that occasionally surfaced in his own heart but were forcibly suppressed.
Renji Yanagi gently patted Sanada's arm with his fingers, then stood quietly beside him, his eyes open, his gaze fixed on the door panel.
Sanada swallowed the breath that was rising in his throat, his fist loosening and then clenching again.
In the ward.
Yukimura remained silent.
I wasn't convinced, I was told the truth.
He hadn't completely ignored these thoughts, but as someone lying in a hospital bed, he couldn't verify them. Now, Wang Yueling was laying them out in front of him one by one, each reason irrefutable.
Wang Yueling did not ask any further questions.
He reached for a dessert on the table, took a bite, chewed it a couple of times, and then suddenly changed the subject, his tone revealing a barely perceptible hint of disdain.
"Oh, right, there's something else I have to complain about regarding Sanada."
Yukimura looked up.
"It's him again, still hitting his juniors on the head all the time. That's serious."
Wang Yueling pointed to her head, her brows furrowing. "That's not education, that's violence. Little Seaweed is already stupid; if you beat him too much, he'll become stupid even if he's not."
Yukimura paused for a moment, then chuckled softly, his shoulders twitching slightly.
He leaned against the headboard, his gaze fixed on Wang Yueling's face, neither angry nor intending to refute.
"Ling, what you're saying isn't something you just came up with on the spur of the moment, is it?"
Wang Yueling raised an eyebrow slightly, neither denying nor admitting it.
"You've been eyeing Rikkai University for a long time."
"It's alright, I'm just thinking about it when I have nothing else to do."
Yukimura didn't press him about why he was scheming about Rikkai University. Asking too many questions was pointless, and besides, he already knew the answer.
This person wasn't thinking about Rikkai University; he was thinking about helping him.
Seeing that he had thought it through, Wang Yueling tried to steer the conversation in another direction.
Ryo Mochizuki was also quite annoyed with Renji Yanagi, but Sanada was there to block the main fire.
However, he had no intention of letting anyone off the hook.
He was determined to deal with those two.
In the Kanto finals, Renji Yanagi prioritized personal feelings over Rikkai's honor because Inui Sadatoshi was his childhood friend. He held back his strength, concealed his moves, and didn't go all out, turning the match into a "playing house with his childhood friend."
Rather than the decisive battle to determine the Kanto champion.
As one of the three giants, it does not bear the responsibility of "must win".
Before the match, they arrogantly believed that Rikkai would definitely win, and that throwing the game would not affect the result and would also make up for their guilt towards Inui, achieving the best of both worlds.
Ha ha……
Unfortunately, he trusted the wrong person.
Yanagi deliberately lost, resulting in Sanada's shock defeat.
This directly ended Rikkai's 16-year winning streak.
The main characters have a strong "protagonist halo," but they aren't exactly innocent either.
Wang Yueling tilted her head, then changed the subject, her tone becoming lighter: "By the way, your staff officer, Liu Lian'er..."