Chapter 44: Test (1)
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"Ohayo!"
"Good morning."
The woman in front of me smiled while sitting on the opposite side of the desk.
"Nice to finally meet you, Neji-kun." Her smile went soft as she greeted me.
"The pleasure is mine, and just Neji is fine." I mused. "I have heard about you a lot from Nejire, thanks for taking care of her. I know what a pain she can be sometimes."
"Hey!" Nejire yelled which I ignored.
The Dragon Hero, Ryukyu, giggled softly. "It's my duty as her superior, you don't have to thank me for that. Though I've actually been wanting to meet you for a while now, myself. So you have actually done me a favour by coming here."
After Nejire got Ryukyu's approval to let me come to her agency for a day, we left for the Dragon's Den (her Hero Agency's name). Coming here, I found that she was already interested in me since apparently, Nejire talked about my strength. Ryukyu was impressed since I have yet to go to a Hero High School.
On a side note, Nejire actually doesn't know my actual strength. I do downplay things and just act as if I am at the same level as her in our small sparring sessions. She is certainly stronger than her canon, 3rd year UA, self – that's why I like hiding the truth to not make her feel inferior to me.
But yes, knowing that I am as strong as Nejire, I can understand the dragon hero's interest in me.
Smiling at her, I looked above her head where a box of text was floating.
[Ryuko Tatsuma - Dragon Human - Tier 5]

I smiled at her while brainstorming some information. Tier 5 is a lot. Not all top 10 Heroes are Tier 5, for example, the man a rank ahead of Ryukyu, Yoroi Musha, the number 8 Hero. I have met him once before, he is Tier 4. So this is something big, for sure.
Speaking of which, the chances for a Japanese Hero to be beyond Tier 5 are low, even for Endeavour. Prime All Might was Tier 8 ([1]), so he is 3 tiers above this dragon…. This again proves what a monster Prime All Might was. That's why I don't like the fact that Mirio Togata is on hold of OFA, because I can assure Mirio would be much stronger than All Might in his prime, soon enough.
Anyway…
I ignored these distracting thoughts and focused on the woman in front of me. It hasn't even been 3 seconds while I have thought all this, so nobody was giving me weird looks.
The hero costume-wearing Nejire was on the chair beside me, pouting for some reason.
Ryukyu took a sip of her tea. "In case you aren't aware, Heroes go patrolling almost every day. But since you're here, we wouldn't be going there as bringing civilians with us would be illegal."
Oh no, sad. My main reason to come here was to go patrolling with them. What the fuck am I gonna do here then?
"You can look around the agency, I'd call someone to guide you."
Ah, well. That's a smart thing to do since she seemingly wants me in her agency after my internship starts.
"Ryukyuuuu~, it's fine! I will do it myself." Nejire stood up with her lips curled. "I am sure he'd appreciate it instead of someone else."
After a contemplating look, Ryukyu smiled and nodded. "Fine. Not that you're busy, anyway."
And so, my tour around the Dragon's Den started.
Which….
"...Erm."
Lasted 5 minutes.
"I am sorry, but there is an emergency." Ryukyu looked a little embarrassed since she had just said they wouldn't go out because of me. "A strong villain has appeared in the vicinity, the other heroes aren't able to hold him back."
In a city where a top 10 hero is present, the other heroes are usually low ranked to keep balance all over the country. So if a really strong villain appears, those other heroes let the Top hero know asap. This seems to be that type of situation.
Nejire sighed and turned to me. "Stay here, Neji, we will return soon."
Ryukyu stood up from her seat as I asked a stupid question. "Can't I come too?"
"No." Ryukyu rejected me the moment the words left my words. "I am sorry. I understand that you want to see a real Pro at work, but civilians should stay as far as possible from the villain, so taking a civilian there by myself would be unethical."
I stood there as Ryukyu walked away with Nejire who apologised to me for the last time.
Huh, I like you, Miss Ryuko Tatsuma.
Though I have to be a bad boy, miss.
Waiting two minutes for them to go far, I turned to the window of the office and rushed there. I jumped out and blasting away. This time I used weak shockwaves to not create much sound.
"Though it would be a little hard to find the villain without any lead…" Following Ryukyu might have alerted her, so I had to choose the hard way.
«—(★)—»
Boom!
Goto Imasuji punched the Pro Hero, Water Hose, in the face which threw him into the building in the distance.
"Heh, not so strong now, are ya?! Hahaha!" he laughed with his arms spread.
Water Hose is a water-type Hero, he didn't have a body that can handle the man's throw that's why he wasn't moving from his spot, proving his unconscious state. But this didn't mean the villain could celebrate yet – as he was surrounded by a bunch of Pro Heroes right here.
"S-stop, Muscular! You're surrounded!" A Pro, who's the hero sharing the same hero name as Water Hose, yelled.
The villain, Muscular, rushed towards her and took her down too.
Today has been a bad day for him. He didn't expect to come across heroes who would actually recognise him when he came to buy milk. Now, this is happening…
'Shouldn't have been so careless…'
Luckily these few Pros are a bunch of nobodies, a bunch of side characters who would be his stepping stone. Unfortunately, even some side characters can be annoying if they are grouped together, that's why he hadn't been able to escape yet.
'If only there was someone to take hostage of, this would have been easier…'
The civilians were evacuated, this city's people are more organised than the ones he's used to. But of course….
'Oh…'
Nothing is perfect, there are bound to be some variables.
'Hah, lucky me.'
A grin formed on his face as the figure of a brown haired teen reflected on his pupils. The kid was taking cover behind a building, the same building where he threw Water Hose.
"Huh?" The kid was shooting with his phone…? 'Kek, kids these days, doing so much just for some views on the internet.'
It seems the heroes had also noticed the boy. A Hero seemingly with a speed type quirk dashed towards the Kid to keep him safe, but Goto Imasuji, aka Muscular, jumped forward first, stepping on the Hero's head and crushing it to the ground as he made a run for the kid, who he easily grabbed by the neck and threatened to crack it any moment.
"Auk! F-free me!"
"Hahaha!!" Ignoring the boy's plea, he turned to the heroes, laughing as the Speed Type hero slowly got up from the street. "Ah-uh, don't try anything funny, Heroes!! Unless you want to see some innocent blood, ahaha!"
The heroes stopped in their tracks but just as Muscular had thought that he'd won, the voice of a female came by.
"Put him down."
Turning around, seeing the woman- no, the Hero, wearing a dark red traditional qipao, he cursed out loud.
"Dammit."
It was the Dragon Hero, Ryukyu.
He wouldn't have come to this city if not for the Meta Liberation Army. He recently joined this little group after some series of incidents. He didn't regret it though. They taught him how to use his quirk better. He can proudly say he's a lot stronger than before.
'Oh…'
Realising this, his fear suddenly turned into joy. Maybe today he'd get to kill a Top hero?? Killing has always been fun, more so the Pro Heroes. But he never killed a top Hero, maybe all this isn't that bad.
"Hehe…"
He suddenly released the boy from his grip and pushed him forward.
"Here, take him. He doesn't hold much value, anyway." The more time passed, the more excited he was getting.
Maybe if he killed Ryukyu, he'd be promoted within the MLA? Then maybe he'd be able to get more of those short-term Quirk enhancing drugs…
The boy he released quickly ran towards Ryukyu who walked from between the other heroes with sharp eyes.
The boy went past her as she ordered Nejire, "Nejire-chan, take him to the nearby hospital please, he looks traumatised."
"Yes." Nejire firmly nodded and took him away.
Ryukyu then glanced at the other heroes. "I'd appreciate a little space."
They nodded quickly and jumped back. It was when Ryukyu's body started to become bigger. A pair of grey wings popped up from behind her back while ash-grey scales covered her body from below her neck.
"Roarrr!"
She roared loudly while Muscular's body also started to grow up in size too. Red muscle fibres started to pop out of his whole body as they covered his body like armour.
This was something he learned in MLA. How to become a tank. Because of the materials the tank is made of, his muscles, he gains more speed instead of losing it.
As Ryukyu prepared to dash forward and stomp on Muscular, the villain instead kicked the ground and found himself in front of her face in an instant.
His fist curled up, he punched her face very hard causing a loud bam to sound out in the area just as a large tooth jumped out of Ryukyu's dragon-like mouth.
"Hahaha!" Muscular laughed. "And here I was scared! This bitch is weak as fuck!!"
Muscular stepped on Ryukyu's head and then jumped up, going above. He then plunged downwards to her head while preparing to smack her head with both his hands.
It seemed it'd be a lethal blow too, but just then, a huge tail came flying towards him and hit him in the back causing him to come crashing to the street.
Ryukyu spit out blood and looked down from her high ground. "You're a dangerous one."
She was right, and so she realised she shouldn't take any risk.
"Hah…" the villain stood up from the ground, seemingly unharmed. "You're dead, bitch."
He rushed towards her at a speed that should be illegal to belong to such a giant man. He again curled his fist as it bulked up more than the other parts of his body.
His punch connected just above Ryukyu's stomach protected by her hard skin but she could feel the impact force shattering some of her ribs inside her.
"Keuk!"
With a groan, Ryukyu scurried back while Muscular continued his assault.
Bam!
Bam!!
The intensity of the punches grew as she was rendered unable to attack back.
….
Time passed under the rumbling sound of punches.
'Haah…' Ryukyu huffed.
It hurt.
It hurt quite badly as he punched all over her body.
It's been a while since she's met such a strong opponent.
21 years ago when she first unlocked her quirk, it was very strong, clearly stronger than a certain bunny quirk. But that's what backfired. Since it was so strong already, she rarely trained it. In fact, she stopped training entirely after she could freely control her transformation. Yes, she neglected training so much that even her bunny-girl friend who's quirk is from a lower food chain was able to catch up to her.
Even then, her quirk was very strong. The times when she used her quirk at its full potential can be counted in one hand. It lessened down more after she became a hero since she didn't want to do too much collateral damage. But this was a different situation…
She has realised that she can't physically win against her opponent. While she knew she could still overpower him even being covered in that armour of muscle, he was too fast for her large body for her attacks to land on him.
'Then be it.' She groaned. No matter what, she can't lose here. She didn't care about ranking, but she did care about the people's view. If people learn that the No. 9 hero had lost to a villain, they'd start losing faith in the Top 10 heroes.
She couldn't let that happen, so she started to look around to confirm the presence of any civilians. Luckily there were none. And so she prepared that attack… her strongest attack.
First, she used her tail again to slam the villain to the ground to get a proper target. Then, as the villain again stood up, she parted her large jaws as a fiery light flashed within her throat.
'I hope this doesn't kill him.' She prayed one last time before she fired a large beam of heat from her mouth to the villain while he jumped to confront it head-on.
Zzzhhh!
But as he felt the great heat that the attack executed, his eyes widened in pure shock.
The beam hit Muscular's whole body as he was pressed against the street. He groaned and cried aloud as smoke started to rise because of his burned muscles.
….
"Huff… huff…" Ryukyu panted uncontrollably.
Quirks aren't magical. Every move will cost something in exchange. In this case, to use her «Heat Breath», a large portion of her stamina is needed. She can barely stand right now. But at least the enemy is down, right?
"...You…"
She was wrong.
The man stood up with charred skin, his muscles burned to a crisp and hanging from his body grossly.
"I… grr… I will enjoy my time playing with you." He groaned as he took out an injection from his pockets, then pressed it on his thighs. "After I beat you like noodles, you lizard bitch."
His body twisted under the effect of the drug, the quirk enhancing drug, as his body started to change. Muscles popped out of his body uncontrollably while he cried.
Ryukyu kept panting as she observed the enemy slowly transforming into a much intimidating version of himself.
She didn't know how much stronger he got since she didn't have something handy like
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[1] After debating with myself for a few days, I have decided to raise Prime All Might on Tier 8.