Thunder VS Shadow (Part 3)

"There is still one more thing"

"This is my last bet. Now, we will leave this all to chance!"

Chills when down his spine when Mité saw that smile.

He had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

'No, he must be trying to trick me! I know how his pace and rhythm goes so it will be fine!', Mité tried to reassure himself.

Suddenly, Kyotaro made his move!

However, when Mité saw Kyotaro's moves, he was instantly relieved.

It was the exact same move with his usual rhythm and pace to it.

It seemed that he was just overthinking it.

However, what he didn't know was that Kyotaro was having an internal battle with himself as well.

'Should I do it or should I not? If it works out, it will be fine but if it doesn't....', Kyotaro questioned himself internally.

There was something that he had been practicing for a while to take down those monsters at the Nationals but it wasn't really perfected yet.

If he loses the ball now, it could be game over for him.

However, the score of 9-8 was making him question his decisions. He was just a point away from losing this and if he didn't show something new, Mité would probably read his moves again and counter-score.

So, after thinking about it over and over, Kyotaro finally decided to give it a go.

Suddenly, his dribbling sped up all of a sudden to nearly double it's previous pace as it went in between the legs and behind the back.

Mité who was watching this, felt his entire body freeze in shock.

'What was this?! What was with this pacing?!

This speed....It shouldn't be something capable of a normal high school student!'

"Woah!!!", the crowd cheered in excitement as their eyes bulged out.

This speed....It was just too fast for them to keep up!

For some of those with slower reactions, they could hardly even keep their eyes on the ball.

The same could be said for Mité as he felt his head spinning just from looking at the ball. At the same time, he couldn't help but feel cold sweat dripping down his back.

It turns out that his bad feeling had come true!

Noticing Mité shock, Kyotaro couldn't help but take advantage of it as he quickly dribbled past Mité while maintaining the same pace.

'This is it!', Kyotaro thought.

He was going to score and win this challenge.

But then....

Boing! Boing!

'Ah?', Kyotaro looked at his hands and found that the ball disappeared.

Instead, it was bouncing on the ground in front of Mité who had a blank look on his face.

"....", Mité.

"....", Kyotaro.

"....", everyone.

At that moment, everyone only had one thought in mind.

'What the f*ck?!'

However, Mité soon came to his senses and made a quick double tap on the ball to keep it from becoming a deadball.

Then, he immediately started dribbling out of the 3-point line to make his score eligible.

In these type of one vs one matches, when a ball turns over to their opponent's possession, they would have to exit the 3-point line and reenter it again to make their next score eligible.

So, as soon as Mité stepped foot outside the 3-point line, he immediately dashed back in to make a surprise counter.

Kyotaro was still a bit dazed from loosing the ball but the sight of Mité dashing towards him, set him straight.

While he did try to make the block, Mité had already gained too much momentum to be stopped by a last minute block and with that, Mité blasted past him.

In fact, Mité was so full of energy at the moment that he actually jumped early and tried to make a dunk!

The energy of thinking that the 14000 yen would finally be his, made him feel invigorated. So much so, that it made him do crazy things.

He would finally earn the money from the Street Ball Rumble for his family but most of all, he could win!

After losing for two consecutive challenges, he would finally end his losing streak.

As someone who had frequently competed in basketball for a good number of years, he had immense love for the game and now that he could accomplish winning in the game along with his current responsibilities, he was just ecstatic.

However, reality showed him his limitations.

He was ultimately too short to dunk!

His jumping ability was not that impressive to begin with so for him to attempt a dunk was just nonsensical.

However, he was still lucky enough to change his dunk to a last minute layup which finally ended the game.

Landing on the ground, Mité couldn't help but hold onto his knees as he panted heavily.

The was only thing going through his mind at this moment.

'I did it! I finally did it! I won!'

Feeling the pent up happiness and anxiousness that he had bottled up all this while, Mité couldn't help but let it all out.

"Uwoahh!!!", Mité roared out as he raised his fist high into the air.

The crowd soon joined Mité in his cheer as they celebrated his victory.

Everyone cheered and whistled as they celebrated together with Mité.

This was his big moment after all.

However, among the crowd of people, there was one person who was not cheering at all.

Instead, he was looking at Kyotaro in shock. That person was Belial.