At this point, the list of the top eight teams was quickly announced.
As expected, Aoba Johsai was matched against Fukurōdani Academy, who were in the same bracket.
Whichever team defeated the other would directly advance to the semifinals and compete for the final match.
But from the current perspective, the two teams were actually fairly close in strength.
Although Aoba Johsai had successfully defeated Inarizaki, there were basically not many people who believed Aoba Johsai could successfully defeat Fukurōdani Academy next.
After all, judging from the current results, Aoba Johsai had only managed to enter Spring High after a difficult road.
They could not compare to Fukurōdani Academy, which had such a deep foundation.
That alone was enough to explain many things.
Right now, the only way to see anything clearly would be through the upcoming match between the two teams.
Other than that, there was no other way to decide which team would obtain the final victory.
...
"Fukurōdani Academy… I didn't expect we'd still end up running into them."
"I thought we might get to rest for a while and head straight to the finals."
Hank and all the players of Aoba Johsai arrived as scheduled at the Spring High quarterfinal venue.
The surrounding court was filled with a large number of ultra-high-definition cameras prepared for the upcoming live broadcast.
The footage of this match would be broadcast across the entire nation.
As long as households in Japan turned on the sports channel, they would be able to see their match.
It could be said that Spring High was absolutely Japan's volleyball mecca.
Only by standing out from here could someone truly be called a genius and take the first step toward the world stage.
And right now, this was only the beginning.
Only by truly making it through Spring High could someone be said to have stood out from this place.
There was no other way.
Originally, Hank had thought that after defeating Inarizaki, the teams he encountered next might be a little easier to handle.
There might even be some unknown minor team.
But now, it seemed he had been thinking too much.
He had not expected them to be given Fukurōdani Academy directly.
Although they could not compare to Inarizaki, they were still far stronger than the ordinary unknown teams that usually filled the earlier rounds.
So, Hank still needed to take the upcoming match seriously.
Otherwise, something could go wrong.
"Fukurōdani is a strong team too. I can't believe we're now competing against the strongest teams from every region. They even have their own volleyball training network."
Before the official match against Fukurōdani Academy, Kindaichi had already looked through the other team's information, so he was very clear about the team in front of them.
To put it simply, the depth of the other team was absolutely far stronger than Aoba Johsai's.
There was not even much need to compare the two teams side by side.
After all, judging by the current results, even though they had just defeated Inarizaki, their actual performance still had many gaps.
Thinking of this, Kindaichi and Kunimi immediately became worried.
They were afraid that after finally reaching the top eight of Spring High, their run would stop here.
Even more than that, they were afraid that they would drag Hank down next.
After all, every single person in Aoba Johsai knew that the reason they had been able to make it this far was definitely because of Hank.
(End of Chapter)
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