章 48: Chapter 48 - It’s Not Like I Care for You, B-Baka!

"Back at the mountains of Dragon Paradigm Sect once more," Ryuji said with a jubilant smile.

Katsuki dropped his bag on a nearby tree and took out a set of white martial robes. It was a habit by this point to wear this robe because of Ryuji's weird eccentricities when it came to practice. If they didn't wear their martial robes, Ryuji would start to go on a long tangent that he frankly didn't want to deal with.

Izuku followed and put on the same set of white martial robes.

On the other hand, Ryuji wore his set of golden martial robes with dragons drawn on the robe's fabric. It glimmered lightly under the illumination of the sound, a sign of its metallic legitimacy.

"Why are we training all of a sudden anyways?" asked Katsuki. He tapped the soles of his shoes on the ground and stretched his arms.

"Well, my dear junior disciple, we are here to prepare for tomorrow!" Ryuji grinned.

"Tomorrow?" Izuku muttered. Based on what he knew, there shouldn't be any event that would happen tomorrow.

"Sigh, you kids sure are dumb." Ryuji shook his head, disappointed at their lacking mental prowess. "Remember when we designed our hero costumes? Those costumes are gonna arrive tomorrow, and we're most likely, and this is still only a possibility, gonna use them in a fun little test."

"A test?" Izuku looked back, curious to the point his eyes were shining.

"Yep," said Ryuji.

"Well, what kind of test would it be then, smartass?" Katsuki asked. He was also curious as to what the test would be about, especially when it concerned their hero costumes if what Ryuji said is true.

"I don't know, probably a fight or something." Ryuji shrugged his shoulders and finished tying his belt.

"Oh, so you want us to spar here?" Izuku immediately understood Ryuji's reason for coming to this mountainous forest.

"What else would we be doing here, have a picnic?" Ryuji chuckled. "Now, let's do something a little interesting."

"A free for all, no rules, last man standing wins." Ryuji grinned with a glint in his eyes.

"A free for all?" Izuku widened his eyes.

"A free for all…" Excitement flashed in Katsuki's eyes.

"Hehehe, you two better thank me in advance. I'm giving you the opportunity to go all out without any worries since I'm here to do damage control." Ryuji laughed, lifted up his hand, and with a flick of his finger, the wind accurately whipped toward his bag and a golden blade flew out.

He grabbed it with ease and hung it on his waist. Ryuji grinned and entered a pose ready to attack and defend at the same time.

"Bring it on!" Katsuki tensed up the muscles around his arm and firmly planted his legs on the ground, his fighting spirit soaring to the max. He turned his hands into claws, and sweat accumulated underneath his skin.

Izuku nervously but habitually entered his own stance. After acquiring One for All, he started to favor kicks more than his fists as they could bring out more power, hence, he focused more on Dragon Paradigm Kick Style ever since the UA entrance exam ended.

"On the count of three!" Ryuji shouted. "THREE!"

He flew off, swinging his blade with a flash of golden sword light.

…

A day later.

"Uwah, there is so much fucking protein for such a steal!" Ryuji finished his third plate and stacked it with his other finished plates beside him. He patted his belly and burped, satisfied with the bountiful meal he ate.

"Sigh, now this is the comfort of money and studying at UA. Thank you very much, Lunch Rush-san." Ryuji clasped his hands and bowed, grateful for his meal.

"Lunch Rush is so cool, right?" Izuku added from the side, his eyes shining brightly as he stared at the hero—Lunch Rush from a distance.

"You said it!" Ryuji gave a thumbs up.

Katsuki silently ate his meal, his eyes furrowed.

'Yesterday was definitely a wake-up call for me.' Katsuki munched. 'If I haven't unlocked Cluster beforehand, I would have gotten my ass beat by Deku without him breaking as much as a sweat. He's just too damn fast in general while I would be way too fast with cluster to the point my maneuvering took a massive toll from the increased power.'

'Tsk, that bastard really hides his motives behind light-hearted lies. He wants me to understand that my finesse is dampened because of an increase in raw power which I didn't manage to notice because I haven't gone all out since the entrance exam. If only I have someplace where I can train without worrying about damage to the environment, then I would have seen this flaw earlier rather than just yesterday.'

Katsuki closed his eyes, formulating all kinds of ideas on what he should do to solve this issue and gain more control over his full power. He understood that only by going all-out would he challenge himself continuously and grow his strength.

After a while, they finished eating lunch and returned to their classroom.

It was time for Basic Hero Training.

The door opened with a loud bang, a large muscular hand grabbed the door from the side, and a tall, imposing man walked in with two pointy tufts of blond hair sticking up into the air. Everyone immediately recognized who the man is, how couldn't they?

He singlehandedly gave rise to the era of peace they lived in today where villain activity dropped to its all-time low. He was known as the Symbol of Peace who pushed forward the golden age for heroes! He was All Might, the number one hero to ever exist!

"Wow, he really is a teacher!" Kirishima exclaimed with shining eyes.

"That's a costume from the Silver Age, isn't it?" Tsuyu pointed out as her inner fangirl squealed.

You don't get to meet a living legend like this even once in your life, so for them to have All Might as their teacher is like having the president as your tutor in politics.

All Might arrived in front of the class behind the table and widened his already wide smile, he then said loudly, "Good afternoon, everyone!"

He lifted his chin and pointed at the blackboard beside him. "Starting now, I would be your Hero Basic Training teacher! It is a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero."

"You'll take the most units of this subject in this school year!" All Might added with a raised finger.

"Now, let's get right into it!" All Might twisted his body and grabbed something from his pocket with a mysterious grin. "This is what we'll do today!"

He turned back to the class and showed a card with the words 'Battle' written out in a bold red color, the same color as his outfit.

"Combat training!"

Ryuji was the first to react, he widened his eyes and gasped audibly to Izuku and Katsuki, "N-Nani?! This is so unexpected! It's impossible someone could have predicted this."

He spoke with a sarcastic exaggeration and had a flash of fake joy in his eyes.

"Wow…" Izuku's eyes flashed with awe and surprise.

"Lucky guess." Katsuki snorted, but there was an excited grin on his face as soon as he heard it was combat training. Even if he now looked like a prince charming straight out of an Otome Game who's also a war hero archetype in terms of looks, he was still a bloodthirsty warmonger who loves the thrill of battle.

"And to go with that are these!" All Might flared out his hand to the side, and from the walls, numbered boxes sealed within glass casings popped out.

"Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before school started," All Might explained with an excited tone.

The entire class gasped at the same time. Finally, their costumes were here! It was nerve-wracking, anxiety-inducing, but most of all, it was exciting!

"Hehehe…" Ryuji laughed ominously. Only the two beside him heard his laugh, and a shiver crawled down their spines as soon as they heard it.

"After you change, gather in Ground Beta!"

"Yes, sir!"

…

All Might stood in front of a tunnel, his eyes brimming with excitement as to what creative costumes his students have created with their passion and soul. He still remembered when he first designed his first hero costume when he was also a student at UA, and all he could say was that he definitely lacked a bit on the creative and artistic side of things.

Then, his ears twitched as he heard loud footsteps come from the tunnel. In fact, the footsteps that he heard came from three different people.

'Hmm, they changed quite fast.' All Might rubbed his chin.

"I'm gonna report you to All Might, you bastard!"

"Report all you want, it ain't gonna change a thing, my dear junior disciple!"

"I-I think it's not bad, Kacchan. I think it even looks cool!"

"Shut up, Deku! He changed our costumes without our permission!"

"What do you mean I changed your costumes?! You guys designed it yourself!"

"Yeah, we designed it when you fucking put us in an illusion!"

All Might could already guess whose voices they belonged to.

Ryuji was the first to step out, and as All Might predicted, he still wore a martial robe, albeit this time, there were some minor changes to the design. Instead of being predominantly gold, the main color instead switched to black with the golden dragons now popping out more compared to before. There's now also a mask that hung on the side of Ryuji's face, and the mask was quite simple in design, with it being black in color and having two eyeholes that allowed his eyes to look through.

It was what he expected, but when he saw Izuku walk out, he finally understood what the problem was.

Izuku also wore a martial robe with the color with the most surface area being black. There are also verdant green mountains and serene valleys sewn into the fabric of the robe. He also wore green gauntlets and boots seemingly made out of dragon scales, which is just another connection to their sect, Dragon Paradigm Sect.

Lastly, Katsuki walked out with the same black robe and a big orange explosion placed in the middle of his chest along with scattered orange stars all around. Wrapped around both of his arms were two orange dragon-shaped gauntlets with the mouth of the dragon right at his palm.

'I must say, they look good. Ryuji sure is quite an artistic child.' That was the first thought that came to All Might's mind. Even he could tell that the costume Ryuji supposedly designed was great, although the ninja/samurai vibes it gave were quite out of touch with the current modern era.

"Is there a problem, Bakugo-shounen?" All Might asked calmly.

"There is!" Katsuki stomped forward with heavy steps. "Look at this! This isn't what I designed!"

"And before you ask, I know why it is like this! It's because of that bastard over there!" Katsuki pointed at Ryuji with a glare.

Ryuji waved at All Might with a coy smile. "Good morning, All Might-sensei!"

"He changed our hero costume design!" Katsuki gnashed his teeth.

"Is that true, Anwir-shounen?" All Might. He was already used to Ryuji's pranks and teases, but it is a serious problem if he did change their costume forcefully.

"Me? Doing a crime as bad as that? No way!" Ryuji reacted in an exaggerated manner. "In fact, I even have video proof of them designing their costumes!"

"It's because you used your goddamn Quirk on us!" Katsuki yelled loudly.

"Why would I do that?! That's simply something a bad guy would do, and I'm in no way a bad guy! I'm the goodest of boys to ever grace these lands!" Ryuji exclaimed with a hurt tone.

"Argh!"

…

Katsuki finally relented in the end. Ryuji once again gave him a harsh slap to the face that one must need evidence, and without it, they are helpless in situations that he just experienced today.

"I think your costume looks cool, Kacchan." Izuku attempted to cheer up Katsuki.

"Of course, it would look cool! It's because I- I mean it's because Katsuki designed it himself!" Ryuji laughed with bravado.

"Yeah, yeah." Katsuki rolled his eyes and looked at the costumes of his other classmates with blank eyes. "You just don't want to admit you secretly care about our safety deeply so you modified our hero costumes to better suit us, am I right?"

Katsuki looked at Ryuji with a knowing grin.

"W-What do you mean!" Ryuji looked away, his eyes widening in surprise.

'Huh? D-Did Ryuji-san just blushed?' Izuku stood in the middle, shocked.

AN: This chapter has 2146 words.

Ryuji is becoming a huge influence to Katsuki and Izuku fr fr! I fucking hate developing characters dude, it's so annoying to write so much for their stupid character development, but I need to do that because it's out of my comfort zone. Anywho, you now finally realize Ryuji is a tsundere.

Unlike a tsundere, I genuinely hate you leeches, and my stockpile is down to 3 chapters. Where the fuck did my glorious 20 chapter stockpile go to, hah?!

(May 31, 2023 - 552nd day of writing)