Chapter 232: Rock–Paper–Scissors?
Black and White Duo!
Ness quickly carried the ball past the halfway line.
No one dared to rush forward and attempt a risky tackle, and that allowed his advance to feel almost effortless. But the moment he tried to loft the ball deeper into the attacking half, he was met with fierce resistance.
Led by Noa himself, the defensive wall stood impenetrable.
Not just Noa's all-around excellence—but also Barou's defensive instincts forged in Ubers, Hiragi's numerical precision, Raichi's growing physicality, and the dependable U-20 fullback Niou.
Together, they formed a towering, iron fortress.
They weren't parking the bus, but the pressure was suffocating.
"Alright then… If the usual method doesn't work—
let's go with a little Fast & Furious showcase."
Even after two failed probing passes, Ness didn't get discouraged.
He glanced toward Shinichi's position, and then—
suddenly leaned his body in a certain direction.
In that instant—
Shinichi exploded forward.
Noa reflexively raised an arm to impede him, but the overwhelming burst of power made it pointless.
Shinichi tore himself free in a single motion and rocketed toward the opposite flank like lightning.
Noa immediately accelerated after him—
But he couldn't keep up.
Even with Noa's impressive top speed and his elite game-reading ability—in a pure 100-meter sprint with no interference, Shinichi was objectively faster.
And because Noa's reaction time was a split-second late, Shinichi opened a two-body lead… and kept widening it.
With Bastard München fully dropping back to form a compact block, and Noa left behind—
no one could stop Shinichi at full speed.
Ness, the freshly-minted "magician," did it all with a single disguised body feint and a perfectly angled side-pass—laying down a runway for Shinichi to take off, using his own posture as the finish line.
Shinichi crossed it first, and his prize—
a perfectly weighted ball that rolled to his foot without any extra spin—arrived right on cue.
He didn't slow down.
In fact—he refused to.
While still sprinting at top speed, Shinichi shifted into a dangerous drifting angle, twisting his torso, and lifted his right leg high—
"Is he SHOOTING from there?! This can't be real!!"
Both commentators clutched their heads in disbelief.
Shinichi was at least 35 meters away, with multiple defenders collapsing toward him.
Not quite a human wall, but definitely enough bodies to choke any shooting lane.
Everyone expected Shinichi to cut inside with a Kaiser-level feint, bulldoze through the compressed defense using his insane physique, and then either shoot or assist however he pleased.
But instead—
He went for the direct shot.
From that impossible drifting posture.
At full speed.
"The ball won't go in—there's no way!!"
But Shinichi had already struck.
His plant foot tightened.
His body leaned so hard it seemed his ankle would snap.
But Shinichi felt lighter than ever—adrenaline, Noa's pressure, and the suffocating defense all sharpening his instincts to a razor's edge.
Then—
The frame froze.
His kicking motion vanished like a dropped frame in an animation.
Players in front of him could only jump, stretch, or throw themselves randomly—trying to guess when he would reveal his "rock-paper-scissors" choice.
"There are three defenders plus a keeper—
even with his guessing game, the numbers favor us!"
That was what Bastard München thought.
But reality—
reduced them to dust.
The ball tore across the field as a barely visible blur,
splitting their defensive line like a hot knife through butter.
Only after the net rippled did the explosive boom finally hit their eardrums.
GOOOOOAAAAAAL!!
"A WORLD-CLASS STRIKE!! From over 35 meters out—Shinichi fires a devastating ground-skimming shot in the very first match of New Hero League Stage Two!!"
"This is unbelievable! From that distance—and in a drifting motion—he deceived three defenders at once!"
"And this only worked because of his reputation!" the other commentator added breathlessly.
"Everyone expected his usual aerial heavy artillery—so they all jumped early! Who could've predicted he'd go for a low, lightning-fast ground cutter?! He completely toyed with their expectations!"
The commentator almost pitied the players on the field.
"His ability to play rock-paper-scissors at any moment and force an instant loss on anyone who doesn't match him is already outrageous. So Bastard's players gathered numbers, thinking with enough people, someone will guess right, right?
And then Shinichi smirks and says—
'I'm not playing rock-paper-scissors today. I'm playing black and white—miss once and you die.'"
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