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Chapter 45: Test (2)
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That part of the city was burning, the reason she didn't like using that fiery attack. The sound of people screaming from outside the fire surrounding this area was riddling her heart to pump faster and faster.
This… can't be real.
She lost to a villain…. A criminal.
"Huff…"
Down on her four limbs, she looked behind her, still panting. The other heroes had tried to intervene but the villain took them down in a matter of seconds. It was kind of a good thing they didn't have to see her fall, but...
It hasn't even been 50 seconds since he took that medicine, yet everyone was down?!
She couldn't be the one to complain as her transformation had come off too, now she was back to her human form. But this was a bit disappointing too… So Japan's heroes are this weak?
"Hahahahaha!" The villain abruptly stomped on her head causing her to hit the asphalt road. "Number 9 Hero, seriously? This easy? Hahaha!! I can even take All Might like this!!"
'Heh, wishful thinking.' Ryukyu scoffed.
The villain's whole body except for the head was covered in a much bigger and sturdier armour of muscles than before, but to match All Might he'd need to go beyond this.
"Huh? What's up with that gaze, ya bitch?!"
His other leg hit her in the stomach. "Even after losing, you dare look down on me?!?!" He raised his feet and thumped on her wrist causing Ryukyu to cry out along with the sound of bones breaking. "Yes, scream, show me that desperate face!!"
He laughed and laughed while her face rested on her own blood. Her breathing started to slow as her eyes started to close by themselves, just then in the pool of blood spattered on the street, she saw the reflection of a teen as her eyelids sprung up.
She turned her head under the foot of the villain and yelled, "What are you doing here!? RUN!!"
She started to yell, the world slowing down for her while the boy simply walked to her and crouched down just beside the villain who stared at the scene with doubt-filled eyes.
"Sleep."
The boy's hand simply pressed her neck as she felt her vision distorting and going… dark.
The last thing she saw was the villain throwing a punch at her sidekick's little brother.
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It took him 10 minutes to reach here, so he wasn't expecting the fight to even begin by now, let alone end. But apparently, Ryukyu is weaker than he had expected.
Neji watched Ryukyu close her eyes just as he felt a punch coming towards him. His eyes drifted to his left, the attack suddenly slowed down as he stared at the fist silently, multiple choices appearing in his head.
>Move your head 2.5 cm to the right<
>Move your shoulder 4 cm to the left<
>Kick the ground and jump back 2 meters <
.
.
.
Two bright red Octagram signs had appeared on both his blue eyes.
Just looking at the punch, multiple ways to dodge the attack popped in his head. His body also knew exactly where to move if he wanted to dodge the punch. He could also calculate the distance of the punch from his face.
He felt the moment he'd move the time would return to normal. So he immediately kicked the ground and jumped back exactly 2 meters back.
The punch then hit the ground just beside Ryukyu's head causing her body to leap up in the air.
Neji raised his hand as a telekinetic force surrounded it, his Earring's power, using which he yanked his fingers backwards as Ryukyu's body flew at him, who he directed towards the other knocked out heroes.
"Ghhrh…"
The villain groaned and turned to him.
"A dodgy brat. I'd have fun with you too."
But Neji simply stared at him with unmoving eyes.
[Goto Imasuji - Tier 6]
It took him some time to recognise Muscular because of his armour as he released a relieved sigh.
'And here I was brainstorming how Armoured Titan came to the MHA verse, phew.' Neji crackled to himself. 'Though Muscular was this strong? Tier 6 should be a bit too much, no? Is this another butterfly effect?'
Either way, Tier 6 wasn't someone he should take lightly. He came here to test his eyes beyond the small tests he did with Kimi who refused to use her full power, but this might be dangerous to do so. Testing an ability he lacks knowledge on might be dangerous...
Suddenly his enemy moved at him fast, faster than he should be able to see, but for some reason, he could not only follow his path, he could even see each of his muscles down to their micro-movements. So while he didn't want to 'test' his Eyes here, he didn't have any choice since otherwise he wouldn't even be able to follow his attack.
"Die!"
The huge Muscular punched at his face with his fist that was double the size of Neji's head. But Neji seemed completely calm. Why won't he be? Besides his Gamer's Mind, he could see all the ways he could dodge the attack. It was just taking a step to the right for him.
He stepped to the left as the punch simply went past him.
Muscular growled at this and swung his fist again, the only move he was using which caused Neji to be disappointed. Why wasn't he using his legs?
As if Muscular could hear his thoughts, just as Neji dodged his other punch too, he bent his waist and kicked at Neji's head.
The world in Neji's eyes went slow again while multiple possible ways to dodge the attack appeared in his head.
Obviously, just because there were ways to dodge didn't mean he would be able to dodge. In RoR, Adam was able to dodge all of Zeus' attacks because he could copy Zeus' strength and speed, too. But this wasn't the case for Neji's LVL 1 skill. So he had to rely solely on his own stats.
Can he dodge a Tier 6 strength-speed type of guy's attacks?
"AAAAH!!"
The answer is yes.
Seeing Neji dodge his attack by taking a step back, Muscular yelled in anger. Why was this slimy bastard dodging all his attacks!? No, how was he doing that!?
"Die! Die! Die!!"
His eyes were red in anger while he kept attacking, non-stop.
Neji was getting in the mood for fun, a smile was slowly creeping on his face.
A punch at his head.
Dodged.
A kick at his waist.
Dodged.
A karate chop at his shoulder.
Dodged.
'Hehe.' This was a mini Ultra Instinct. He didn't even have to attack a guy like the current Muscular. Not that he really wouldn't. He should start attacking right now, he got a general idea of his ability by this already.
Just as he prepared to channel his quirk...
Pccht-!
[-300 HP!]
A string of blood jumped up from his nostrils.
"Wha?"
Muscular stopped momentarily to see what the hell just happened. His attacks clearly didn't connect with the kid, so why was he bleeding?
[Overuse of Eyes of the Lord is causing the Master to bleed!]
"What the fuck!? It's only been a couple of minutes!!!" Neji growled and sighed. "Goddammit."
The time when he tested with Kimi, he could go on for around 30 minutes, but it seems that's only because she held back. Meaning, the stronger and faster the attack, the harder it is for the attack to see through, thus the more pressure falls on his eyes.
Neji had blood vessels popped up around his eyes like Byakugan but it looked much uglier.
Knowing what happened to Adam when he forced his way through, Neji turned off his Quirk as the Octagram vanished from his eyes.
Muscular didn't know why, but he knew this was the end for the kid.
Muscular punched again, this time, it was discharging wind pressure as it came just at Neji's face.
Neji was caught off guard since the world didn't slow down for him. The punch simply hit him in the face and threw him crashing into a burning car.
[-800 HP!]
Along with the Nosebleed, 1100 of his HP just depleted. He groaned and got up from the ground just as he found Muscular's Titan-like feet in front of his face.
Neji froze. 'Oh fuck.'
He didn't necessarily underestimate him, nor did he overestimate himself, rather he was just taking this a little too easily. He should have experimented with his quirk against someone weaker.
Just then <Gamer's Mind> stopped him from freaking out any longer giving Neji the time to think rationally. He then stopped caring about the bleeding effect and immediately activated <Eyes of the Lord> again.
Multiple choices came to his mind.
>Move your head to the right<
>Move your legs to the left<
>Duck down<
.
.
.
He ducked down as the leg went above his head, but he didn't stop there. Neji saw an opportunity so he swiftly raised both his hands and grabbed Muscular's legs.
<Taekwondo>
He twisted his body, feeling the weight of all the muscle Muscular was wearing and slammed him on the asphalt with his full power causing a loud thud to sound out in the area and a crater to form in the street.
"Keuk!"
Muscular spat out blood as his body simply slumped down on the street.
"..."
Neji frowned. Did he one-shot him?
Proving him wrong, he saw a yellow piss-like liquid dripping down from Muscular's mouth that seemed to be a [Temporary Quirk Enhancement Drug], according to <Observe>. The effect seemed to have worn off which caused Muscular's body to betray himself and lose consciousness just by such a weak attack.
Neji watched Muscular's Tier coming down to 5. He was still a little surprised by how high it was.
He phewed while releasing one thing. He could have died. It was very reckless of him to start experimenting with <EL> in front of such a strong enemy. "Tier 6 is too much for me. At least the Strength type ones are, I don't know about others."
The thing is, he did have ways to damage Muscular severely if he went full power on his Quirk. Just that, he wasn't getting any chance to attack because of his speed.
It was then-
[Sudden quest has been completed!!]
[Reward: 5,000,000,000 exp!]
Oh yeah, he got a quest notification just when Muscular first attacked him. It seems sudden quests don't give anything other than XP.
[You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have levelled up!]
[You have reached level 99!]
"..." Neji chucked. "Or should I say Tier 6 'was' too much for me?"
The rich get richer.
«—(★)—»
A few hours later,
Ryukyu's eyelids jumped up as she groaned at the sudden headache.
"Where is this…?" She mumbled while sitting up and looked around the room just as her eyes landed on Nejire's eyes who was cutting an apple on the chair beside her hospital bed.
Nejire froze.
"R-ryukyu!"
Then she threw the knife away and hugged Ryukyu.
"Oh, I was so worried!!"
Ryukyu blinked with a surprised face before she sighed and hugged her back.
"I am fine, sweetie."
"Ummu… the Doctor said your Quirk helps you heal faster." Nejire sobbed in her hug while she sighed again.
Why was his girl so attached to her? She was nothing but a mentor. 'Hah…' Not that she disliked it.
"Where is your brother, Nejire?"
Nejire raised her head and looked at her with teary eyes. "Neji? He's out to buy Milkshake. Why do you need him?" She pouted. "Is one Hado not enough for you?"
"Haha…"
Just as she said, "I am back.", Neji opened the door and walked in while sipping a milkshake from a straw. "Oh, Miss Ryukyu is up."
"Ryukyu is fine, it's just a hero name anyway." Ryukyu simply nodded. "Glad to see you're okay, but I must say it was reckless of you to fight him. Muscular was a strong opponent."
Nejire abruptly froze and looked at Neji with a frown.
"Wait, I am missing something." Neji got up. "What is Ryukyu talking about? You fought that villain?" She jumped at him and shook his shoulders with a cute frown on her face. "But you said Ryukyu defeated that villain and she was simply tired. That's why she was knocked out… so you actually fought a villain who even Ryukyu could not take down?! You dumbass."
"Chill out-"
"I can't." Nejire glared at him with a sweaty face, causing him to shut his mouth. "You could have died."
"It's fine, Nejire." Ryukyu sighed from the side. "
"He is stronger than you think, I can guarantee. From what I can see, it seems even you didn't know his true power, huh."
Nejire blinked this time. Despite her airhead personality, she was a fairly smart girl. This world is weird since even a girl like Momo can lack common sense, so it wasn't that weird that Nejire reached new conclusions without hearing much explanation. She easily understood that her little bro must have handled Muscular's case very well for such a serious Pro like Ryukyu to be this calm.
She narrowed her eyes at Neji and took her hands off his shoulder. She trusted Ryukyu enough. But she would need to have a long talk with this brat about his 'hidden strength'. How dare he hold back in their spars!?
Neji shrugged while looking at Ryukyu. "Good evening, it's only been a few hours since the fight. I contacted the police and they took Muscular away, though I had to lie that you were the one who defeated him since I didn't want to get involved in quirk laws and stuff. Hope you don't mind me borrowing your name."
Ryukyu shook her head. "Not at all. While I don't deserve the credit, I don't mind it if it's to keep you away from legal problems. I don't want to cause trouble for your future career, after all."
Neji thanked her and then asked a question he was interested in. "Though how do you know about me fighting Muscular? I thought you were unconscious."
"I gained my consciousness mid-battle. You are quite a good dodger, I must say." Ryukyu acknowledged him. "On a serious note, it might not be enough to acknowledge how you risked your life but I would like to thank you on behalf of the whole hero community, you have just saved millions of people's belief in heroes. Though on a personal note, you have saved my life back there along with my reputation, so you have my thanks there too."
Neji simply brushed it off. "It's fine, I didn't do much. Just happened to be at the right place at the right time. In fact, I violated your words by going out to the villain instead of staying in the agency."
Ryukyu laughed it off. "It's fine, I believe I shouldn't be so keen on those things against my saviour. What do you think about meeting up next Sunday? I heard you're going to the U.A and become a Hero, I believe I'd be able to teach you quite a few things beforehand. We can also have dinner at the end, of course, considering you'd be fine with it."
Neji stilled briefly before looking at Nejire who simply turned her head around while mumbling, 'Do whatever you want.'
Sighing, Neji shook his head at Ryukyu. "It's fine, I am a bit busy next sunday."
Nejire suppressed a smile.
But, "Then how about the Sunday after that?" Ryukyu pressed. "If not, maybe the Sunday after that Sunday?"
"..."
Neji was not expecting someone like Ryukyu to press on this so much… Was she perhaps interested in him? Is this one of those kids fairy tale stories where the prince charming saves the day and gets the girl?
'No way, she's a grown-up woman. She wouldn't think like that.'
'...Probably.'
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Author's Note: Am late because of the event in ma discord server 🤣.
Discord Link: discord.gg/pkGvcYpTbJ