The deciding battle begins.
The true skill of Mikio’s ability in both engineering and boxing come face to face with what Yuri seems to acknowledge as the “real deal” when it comes to Joe’s only reliance on his guts and skill. Only one spot remains in the Final Four and there seems to be something else a foot in what we previously thought as a conditional ally.
Things already kick off with the live-coverage of Joe’s fight with Mikio entering its second round. Despite all this talk about Mikio’s skills being lacking without his Gear, he still puts up a powerful offense and defense and Joe is pushed back by Ace’s abilities. Mikio knocks Joe out multiple times as he reminisces the rather painful efforts he made to making sure that his AI Gear and his own mind were completely synchronized. As Yukiko and Yuri watch this, the latter does some reminiscing of his own when he visited Mikio training. Mikio was angered at how the company switched focus from Ace to Yuri’s Integrated Gear and demanded a match between them. Yuri declined but threw a punch half-way and asked if Mikio was the one who put up his guard or if it was his gear.
Joe continues to get knocked down but after both sides get a foul for holding and throwing, the two are put back into fight where Joe stands motionless against Mikio’s encroaching attack. Mikio is angered as to why Joe is standing still but his Gear holds back from Joe’s “pattern” and starts attacking with jabs instead of anything big to knock him out. The round ends there and Mikio contacts his team maintaining his gear’s patterns and they report back that the synchronization should be stable again. Joe is left with a badly damaged eye and after consulting with Nanbu and Sacchio, decides to stake it all on one hard read against Mikio. Joe once again is unable to move like he used to and stands completely still, waiting for Mikio’s final lunge and Mikio himself questions if his next move will be made by Ace or on his own. Mikio charges in and while Joe and Nanbu made a prediction on what Mikio would do, Joe reacts in time to Mikio’s 50/50 and counters back. While both land a hit to the other’s face, Mikio is downed and Joe is given the win. As the stadium roars for the underdog who climbed his way to the top, Mikio gets up and asks how Joe knew what hand he was going to attack him with and Joe simply says that he just felt it and Mikio leaves half begrudgingly and half satisfied as he mutters that Joe is deserving of the spot in Megalonia.
Nanbu’s whole gambler crew comes home with the winning team to celebrate the pipe-dream of getting Joe into Megalonia a reality and as the night goes on, Joe laments how he can’t sleep with all the noise. Nanbu takes an early leave to catch some fresh air but it turns out he was meeting with Fujimaki where Nanbu explains that he hasn’t hold the entire situation to either Sacchio and Joe and asks Fujimaki to come tomorrow. Fujimaki however denies to do so and reminds Nanbu that dreams are quite venomous.
Lair of the Idle 