Chapter 49 - Illusory Purple Balls

A few minutes later.

"Nice to meet ya'." Ryuji stretched out his hand for a handshake.

Opposite to Ryuji, a tiny little goblin with strange purple, grape-like hair stood nervously. He tried to avert his eyes at the handsome young man's face and awkwardly shifted his feet around.

"I-It's nice to meet you too." Mineta stammered. Ryuji's presence was simply too overwhelming for the poor perverted boy with a huge lack of self-esteem. If he were to compare himself to his teammate, it would be comparing an ant to a divine deity.

Ryuji can be considered the Dragon Paradigm of beauty, with sharp eyes that can gaze through the soul, a chiseled jawline, an aesthetic body full of vigor, and thick luscious black hair that spiked up to the sky. Mineta was just way too incompetent to even consider himself a worthy teammate.

"You nervous facing off that ice guy?" Ryuji chuckled and patted Mineta on the back.

Ryuji warmly grabbed the young boy's back and gave a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about it, even you could destroy that guy if you wanted to, right?"

His smile turned a bit mysterious for a split second, and a flash of teasing joy flashed in his golden eyes. Mineta gulped and stiffened his back, "Y-Yeah! I could beat that guy no sweat!"

"That's the spirit." Ryuji grabbed his mask from the side and put it on his face. With his face covered, his golden eyes became a prominent, eye-catching detail that one couldn't help but look at. It's like they suddenly became magnetic, with a gravitational pull that could capture the attention of anyone who dared to look in his general direction.

"Oh, look, it's going to start!" Izuku said. He pointed at the screen with stars in his eyes, excited for what would come next.

All Might pressed a button on the table in front of him and turned on his mic, with a wide grin on his face, he said loudly and full of enthusiasm, "Now, let's start the indoor person-to-person combat training!"

"Let's do this!" Ryuji chuckled and pressed both of his fists together.

The combat training they were doing today consisted of two teams going against one another, with one being the hero team while the other was the villain team. The villains' goal is to protect the nuclear bomb planted inside the building within the allotted time, while the heroes' goal is to stop the bomb by either getting it back or capturing the villains before the time runs out.

It was designed to allow the students to get an idea of the mindset of a villain and understand their thought process, while also allowing them to get practical experience with situations that heroes would randomly face in their careers.

Ryuji and Mineta set off, their eyes ablaze with the spirit to win, well it was mostly Ryuji with Mineta a bit scared and hiding behind Ryuji.

…

Shoto and Momo stood on the highest floor of the labyrinth-like building with numerous floors, rooms, and hallways that interconnect with one another.

Momo activated her quirk and finally finished their preparations. The nuclear bomb was hidden behind a fake wall created by Momo, and by carefully placing it in a shadowy area that is hard to notice, they safely hid the nuclear bomb from prying eyes.

"H-How shameless!" Tenya Ida exclaimed, unable to believe that his fellow classmates would do such a cowardly tactic.

"Shame has no place in the path to success, Ida-shounen." All Might looked back at Tenya Ida with wise eyes. "While you might feel that what they're doing is wrong, villains wouldn't care about that and would do everything to succeed."

"Villains wouldn't be chivalrous and follow rules, they'll break them instead to their own favor." All Might added with a warning tone.

"I see…" Tenya ida rubbed his chin. "This training must be for us to not just gain combat experience, but also allow us to understand the minds of villains and what to expect from their plans!"

As he started to deeply think about what kind of ingenious and devious plans Shoto and Momo could make, Izuku and Katsuki watched with curious eyes.

"I wonder how Ryuji-san would win this," Izuku muttered. He was analyzing all of the details he could gather with his two eyes, but the two parties were still from one another, so there were still no conflicts that popped up.

"He'll probably just brute force it." Katsuki yawned. He knew all too well how strong Ryuji was and how he liked to tackle things as efficiently as he could, a habit he said to have gained from grinding 24/7.

"Maybe he'll use his quirk?" Izuku couldn't help but think so. He himself hasn't witnessed Ryuji utilizing his quirk other than the occasional pranks and therapy sessions. He still hasn't witnessed Ryuji using his quirk for something like combat and scenarios like this because his raw power was more than enough to solve most problems that came his way.

Ryuji walked through the hallways with Mineta following behind him. Then, Mineta seemed to have been shocked by something before quickly calming down. He slowly grabbed his head and pulled out a handful of purple balls and threw them all over the silent hallways.

"Hmm?" Katsuki immediately noticed the strange shift between the two heroes and looked closer. "Is he using telepathy?"

"Probably," said Izuku as Mineta continued to haphazardly throw more and more of his balls onto the empty hallways.

On the other hand, Shoto and Momo slowly made their moves. They wore a black cloak over their bodies and hid within the shadowy corners of the dimly lit hallways. Slowly, the whole building started to turn cold as Ryuji's and Mineta's breathing turned foggy.

Ryuji touched a nearby wall and felt it ice-cold. He wore an indifferent grin underneath his mask and turned to look at Mineta, "You ready?"

"A-Are you sure I can do it?" Mineta gulped. He was scared and anxious. Even if Ryuji was the top-ranked person on their practical exam and showed genuine skill, he still can't trust what he just heard from the mysterious masked man.

"Just believe in me," Ryuji said with a chuckle. Then, without any change in his facial expression, he pushed Mineta forward to the front.

Mineta nervously walked forward through the freezing cold hallways, his breath forming crystalline fog with each huff and puff. But he kept himself calm and collected, he felt reassured of his success with the powerhouse behind him, the powerhouse that believed in him.

A person would have a hard time believing in themselves, but they can easily believe someone of a higher standing than them, and Ryuji used that as a simple anchor to boost Mineta's self-esteem and confidence.

…

Shoto and Momo walked through the freezing hallways, with Shoto in front. As they walked through the maze-like corridors, Shoto suddenly paused and Momo quickly reacted and paused as well.

Then, they heard the sound of footsteps echo nearby just beyond the turn in front of them. Shoto silently planted his palms on the ground while Momo grabbed an arrow from the quiver hanging on her waist and placed it on the string of her bow.

As soon as Mineta appeared on the opposite end of the hallway, Shoto unceremoniously activated his quirk and froze the ground, and Momo shot her arrows without hesitation. A tandem of attacks shot straight toward Mineta, but like a ghost, they passed through his body without giving as much as a single scratch!

In the next moment, Shoto felt his intuition for danger and he grabbed Momo by the shoulder and covered the area around them in spiky ice.

Mineta swiftly appeared right behind the two, his face showing surprise and also excitement.

"It worked!" He shouted excitedly before swiftly disappearing once again like a phantom.

On the other hand, to the eyes of Class 1-A watching the fight through the cameras, saw something completely different.

Rewinding a few seconds back, Shoto and Momos suddenly paused and focused on the hallway in front of them, and didn't sense Mineta's presence from behind at all. Then, as Mineta got closer to them from behind, the two villains launched an attack in the opposite direction as to where Mineta is, allowing him to get closer to them, and just as he was about to throw the strange rope with two purple balls on the rope's two ends, Shoto grabbed Momo by the shoulder and covered the area around him with ice spikes.

"W-What just happened?" Ochako shouted out her surprise and confusion.

"Wait, where is Ryuji?" Izuku widened his eyes and pointed out another strange detail.

"He's actually using his quirk," Katsuki mumbled, surprised yet unsurprised at the same time.

"Interesting." All Might wasn't surprised by the situation and instead went on to enlighten his students. "You all know Ryuji-shounen's quirk, right?"

"His quirk?"

"You mean his Dragon quirk?"

"Wait, wasn't it Dragon of Illusion?"

Everyone immediately understood why the two villains were acting that way, but no one could still explain why Mineta was alone in the cameras and Ryuji was completely missing.

All Might knew where Ryuji was, and he pointed it out with an impressed tone, "Over there."

He pointed at an upper right monitor, and in the next instance, they saw a slithery shadow swiftly pass through doors and opened them one by one.

"No way! He's using his quirk at such a remote distance?!"

"Isn't that completely broken?!"

Izuku knew details about Ryuji's quirk, so he knew the way it worked was more so influencing the mind rather than creating an actual illusion that everyone can see, so rather than saying that Ryuji could cast illusions from a remote distance, through walls and floors, Izuku believed that Ryuji somehow created a special condition where he could influence their minds without his active input.

As he was deeply contemplating this mystery, Izuku watched the live footage and saw Shoto and Momo turn a corner and were greeted by a small purple ball right at the opposite end of the hallway.

What they didn't notice, however, was Mineta hanging right on the ceiling above them.

'Wait, that's it!' Izuku widened his eyes. "He's using Mineta-san's Quirk, his hair, as the trigger to start his illusion, but how did he set it up in the first place?"

"It should be similar to the coin trick when he does Quirkless therapy, but exaggerated considering he used his Quirk right here." Izuku rubbed his head in confusion. 'Argh, I can't even begin to imagine what he did to do this.'

…

Shoto and Momo looked around the empty hallway, surprised to see that Mineta was once again gone like the wind. Shoto was relying on brute force to forcefully defend themselves from any possible surprise attacks, but Mineta just keeps disappearing like an annoying pest.

Mineta slowly dropped down from the ground, his eyes quivering with anticipation. A few inches more and he could throw his make-shift capture-rope to catch the two with his unmovable and sticky purple balls.

But, in the next moment, he heard a voice inside his head warn, "Brace yourself, I'm gonna blow this building from the top floor! Be sure to capture them in three!"

'W-What?!' Mineta widened his eyes and hastily look to the ceiling.

"Two!" The voice boomed and he braced himself for what would come next.

"One!" Ryuji, on the highest floor of the building, raised his arm to the sky.

"Dragon Paradigm Fist Style: Ground Breaker!"

He punched down to the ground, and as the entire building shook and rumbled, Ryuji saw a part of the wall beside him break off and the fake nuclear bomb finally revealed itself in all its glory.

"Haha!" Ryuji laughed, and as the entire building went to collapse in itself, he hastily appeared right in front of the bomb in the next moment.

…

"Sigh…" All Might slumped his shoulders and stared at the broken-down building.

Fortunately for Shoto, Momo, and Mineta, the ice guy quickly reacted to the sudden boom and covered the area around them in a sphere of ice. And, just like a shameless villain, Mineta unhesitatingly threw out the capture rope and captured the two villains in one fall swoop, giving the two heroes a perfect victory.

AN: This chapter has 2063 words.

Okay, fuck, this publish timer shit is just too wack. So yeah, sornot for the late upload you goddamn leeches.

Anyways, demiromanticism, am I right? Fuck, I really hope I'm not on the aromantic spectrum because my love life would practically be nonexistent at this point. Sigh, at least I know what it's like to get rejected already, leaving acceptance as the next box to tick in my bucket list for life.

(June 2, 2023 - 554th day of writing)