Dinner with Friend on an Off Day Part II

“Huh? What do you mean?” Joke narrowed his eyes.

“Doesn’t matter how he fights or how well-prepared he is. In the end, he still can’t get through that wall. That belief is then hammered into him, unconsciously, that he will always lose to these people…that he’d never win. No matter how hard he tries, that thought will always pop up. That’s the wall he’s created for himself.”

Joke parted his lips. His thoughts went back to his practice duel with Lia and Merlin. At the time, his girlfriend did say something along this line as well…and now he finally understood its meaning.

“He’s probably realized it now, but even so, it’s still not easy to fix the habit. There will always be hesitation during the duel. He’ll keep worrying, thinking about how each of his attacks will get deflected by his opponent, and then his decision will be a second too late. In matches where the power gap is extremely small…a fraction of a second can mean defeat. You probably know this already.”