THIS FIC IS NOW ON PATREON, CHECK IT OUT AND IF YOU LIKE IT, I'D APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
[Start of the chapter]
"Block!"
Even though Kageyama was furious, he still had to keep playing. There was no way he could believe such an openly declared attack would still score. From the way things looked now, Aoba Johsai was clearly preparing to let Hank attack.
"I've got him!"
Daichi shouted, then he, Kageyama, and Tsukishima all went up for the block at the same time. With three people blocking together, and with all of them already knowing that Hank was going to be the one attacking, it practically meant only one thing—
This ball should have been stuffed completely.
"Three people are blocking at once, and they even know in advance who Aoba Johsai is setting to."
"They should be able to stop it, right?"
Takeda was extremely tense. If Aoba Johsai scored again, they would hit twenty points ahead of schedule, and after that, winning would become incredibly difficult for Karasuno. They absolutely had to take this rally.
Screech—
A sharp squeal of rubber shoes scraping across the floor rang out as Hank exploded into motion from position four on the left side and went into his approach and jump. Because he and Oikawa had spent more time practicing together, Oikawa's set fit him even better.
It was almost exactly at the height Hank reached when he jumped with everything he had.
That meant all he needed to do was give it his all on the jump and swing with full force.
With his top-tier vertical jump, hardly anyone could stop him at the net. The moment Hank went all out on his leap, he rose to the tape in an instant. Since his height off a full approach far exceeded a standing jump, he now looked as if half his body was already above the net.
And even so, Oikawa's set was still flawless, placed exactly at Hank's ideal contact point.
Without the slightest hesitation, once Hank reached the peak of his jump, he used a posture that left everyone stunned. His arm stretched completely straight, and he struck the volleyball from as high above as possible.
Although hitting it that way greatly reduced the power behind the ball, this was the attacking method he and Oikawa had worked out together—the one that let him make the most of his jumping ability.
With Oikawa's set and his own natural jumping talent—
they had pushed his height ceiling to the absolute limit. At this moment, Hank's potential had been fully drawn out. As long as this kind of attack was launched, then under normal circumstances, blocking was basically useless against him.
"How is that possible?!"
The instant Kageyama and the other two saw Hank go up, they were met with a horrifying sight.
His contact point had actually gone right over the tops of their fingers.
He wasn't breaking through the block with some special technique, nor was he overpowering it through sheer force.
He had simply used height alone to hit clean over their block.
The moment someone could do that, it practically announced that, for this match, Karasuno's blocking was completely meaningless against Hank.
At that point, this game could basically be declared over.
"What was that just now…? The ball actually landed above their fingertips. How could Hank hit a spike from that high up?!"
"That wasn't getting around the block… he hit it straight over it!"
"To spike like that… is Hank some kind of monster?!"
When they saw Hank's spike drop straight into the middle of the court, the three Karasuno players who had just gone up for the block felt their hearts sink on the spot, their minds going blank.
That exchange alone was enough to prove one thing:
Even if Aoba Johsai openly revealed what they were about to do next, and even if Karasuno was given enough time to form the block, they still couldn't stop the attack.
That alone showed just how enormous the gap in strength between the two sides really was.
"How can anyone do that kind of spike?!"
After seeing Hank hit the ball onto Karasuno's side from such an absurd height, Kageyama couldn't help but shout.
At this point, he was starting to suspect Hank wasn't even human, but something more like an alien.
Why was there someone who had both talent and effort?
Before, Hank had already been able to stand against Kageyama's entire team through his own hard work alone. But now that Oikawa had been added to the equation, there was no longer any way to stop the pressure of their offense.
It had already reached the point where it couldn't be contained.
"So you're allowed to develop the Freak Quick with Hinata…"
"But Hank and I aren't allowed to develop an attack that can clear almost any block?"
"..."
Oikawa wore a smile on his face.
This was exactly the result he wanted.
Reveal the team's plan in the open. Organize the offense right in front of everyone. And as long as they still scored, that would be enough to crush Karasuno completely.
And that, more than anything else, was the easiest way to kill this match.
(End of Chapter)
If I see that this fanfic has support, I will upload 20+ chapters to Patreon!!
[[email protected]/Zukooo]
[Thanks for your support!]