Contradict the Contrary

Karasu reaches the loose ball first and, though Kiyora challenges him at once, keeps hold of it. Hiori runs through the possibilities, guessing Charles might switch to Rin or Nanase now that Shido is locked down, then rejects the idea because Charles never thinks that plainly. When Grim closes in to double up on Karasu, Karasu is delighted to have baited another marker and swings the ball across to Charles.

As Charles moves to collect it, Ness and Kaiser converge to smother him, and Rin pulls up alongside. Charles teases Rin that he is exactly where he wanted him, then flips to a joke and instead threads the ball toward Shido, treating the ninety-nine percent sealed lane as a contrarian dare worth taking. Hiori steps into the passing lane and cuts it dead, pleased that he has finally read Charles's backwards logic and his fondness for razor-thin channels.

Hiori looks to Isagi to ignite a break, but Raichi demands a piece of the action, collects the loose ball, shrugs off Tokimitsu, and slides an outside pass over to Hiori. Karasu arrives to sneer at Hiori as a middling gamer, and Nanase and Zantetsu pile on for a triple press. Undeterred, Hiori boasts he can beat all three without even looking and delivers a no-look cross toward Isagi, trusting his teammate to be waiting in the right spot.

Karasu lures two defenders before releasing the ball to Charles. Even with the route to Shido almost fully blocked, Charles fires it anyway. Reading Charles's backwards instinct and his taste for tight lanes, Hiori snuffs out the pass and springs a counter. Hiori then breaks through a triple press to send Isagi a no-look ball.

Running twenty pages, this chapter published in issue 2024-17 on March 27, 2024 as the eighth installment of Volume 29 within the Neo Egoist League Arc. The scoreline holds at 1 to 0 in Paris X Gen's favor across the sequence.