Shadow Mirage (Part 3)

The same could be said about Mité as his excellent performance was kept consistent throughout the entire challenge.

"Wow, they're really looking good this week! I haven't seen them so hyped like this in a while!", Shirou couldn't help but comment.

Belial looked at him in astonishment.

'They looked good this week?! Then, what about Kyotaro's first game?!'

If that was his good day then he really didn't want to see his bad day.

Then, Belial asked, "Umm...Shirou-san, do you mean that their performance is not always consistent?".

"Hmm?", Shirou looked around before noticing that Belial was talking to him. And talked in a mocking tone.

"Oh, geez. What an Ignorant Loser....Is this really your first time coming to the Street Ball Rumble?"

Belial nodded his head and asked in a childish voice, "Yes, Shirou-san! And I'm not an Ignorant Loser, there is a saying "A fool is a fool—not because of ignorance, but because of his own lack of knowledge."

"Huh? What?"

"You said that their performance is really good this time around. Does that mean that they have bad days as well?". Belial continued asking but was interrupted instead.

"What do you mean Ignorant Loser? You Brat! Don't you dare insult Bel-kun like that, is that clear!? He's just a kid who's naive and lazy to study." Rio glared at Shirou, which made the boy blush, because he found her glare very adorable.

"..."

"O-Okay!!" but seeing the dangerous glint emitting from Rio's eyes, Shirou unconsciously blurted out confirmation.

'Rio-chan, that's not helpful at all. I don't know if you are defending me or you're complaining and insulting me at the same time, but she's right I don't have any refute at all, so that's why I have this trashy body and stupid mind.'

'I see, its not just money I need to solve I also need to solve so many things including my lazy habits *sigh* I can already foresee the thorny path it must be a difficulty, full of grinding stats and skills.'

Rio then placed her hands on her hips and then turned her head to look up at Belial, who was struggling to keep himself from chuckling over Shirou's submissive attitude.

Rio was very annoyed hearing him mocked her friend beside her and she's even more annoyed because Belial is just letting it pass.

"Bel-kun, you know, neglecting your studies is actually pretty lame. If you really don't know about it, you should have just asked us," Rio tried to tell Belial up, so he would chase away this kid. "We'll tell you about on those things."

"Maa...maa, Rio-chan we can just talk about that later, he finally got interested in these things we can just slowly teach him....Or, are you worried about him?."

"W-Whaa...wha, No— I'm not, I'm just irritated he's being insulted by....somebody*Psssh*" Rio slowly said and her face had turned red like a tomato after she realize what she said.

"*Giggle*, this is the first time I've seen Rio-chan like this, I've never thought going here would be so interesting." Aria said, she was amused this is the first time she saw Rio being upset.

"Uh...anyway, back to the question, you said that their performance is really good this time around." Belial frowned. "Does that mean that they have bad days as well?".

Shirou thought that this was a weird question but still proceeded to answer Belial's question. Besides, maybe answering his questions will be advantageous for him, He can also flex his knowledge to these girls except he don't really want Belial to hear about his researches and to this Ignorant Country Bumpkin Brat.

"Tsk! I can tell that you're not really an athlete by asking that type of question," Shirou who was just listening to the side crossed his arms over his chest, Once again found his courage and decided to vent his frustration on the person whom he had labeled as his rival.

"Every athlete have their ups and down days, you know? Like when an athlete breaks a world record, you can't expect him to have that record speed consistently, right?"

"The same goes for basketball players. Their gameplay can be affected by various things such as environment, mental health and so on. As such, you can't really expect them to have such consistent gameplay all the time"

"Look at Kyotaro, he was playing so badly in his first game but now that he's taken the game seriously, he is in one of his best forms this month."

Belial nodded in understanding and thought about his own question.

It did seem quite weird to ask such a question. From a logical point of view, one should know that not always will a person be in peak condition as there were many factors that could affect them.

"What? Don't tell me you're really ignorant about these things too, Are you a Baby Chick?"

Thinking that Belial might have not really get about these things after all the explanation, Shirou tried to provoke him again.

Shirou "You don't know about these things, are you? From where did a country bumpkin like you, come from."

"Shut up, Shirou-san! Don't tease Bel-kun!"

Rio said as she glared at the boy. He instantly folded and immediately shut his trap.

"..."

In the end, he decided to agree to Rio's request.

"Okay," Shirou replied before glaring at Belial.

'Tsk, this kid, when I was the one that was asking, you got antsy. But, when the one you like is asking, you turn a blind eye and become meek. What's this? Discrimination much? Double standards!'

'Tsk, tsk, I should probably raise my guard to this two-faced brat'

Belial almost snickered internally at the henpecked simp tanned boy who wouldn't dare defy Rio's wishes.

"There,there. Shirou-san probably doesn't mean any harm." Aria patted Rio's shoulder.

He was also curious now to know about what happened in the game.

Thinking about this, Belial turned back to the game as he mainly focused on Kyotaro's and Mité's matches.

Soon, each round passed at astonishing speed and before everyone knew it, the finals had soon come into play.

As expected, it was a faceoff between the two greatest stars of the challenge.

The Thunder Demon vs The Shadow Mirage