Chapter 118: The Terror of the Colored Cubes! Frappés, Telepathic Betrayals, and a Noise in the Dark!

The cabin's dining room was full of steam, rice, and way too much noise for anyone with a headache to appreciate. Ren had spent the last half hour at the table trying to recover every gram of energy the mountain had stolen from him, and judging by the tower of empty plates growing in front of him, he still had a long way to go.

"Hey, Ren, if you keep eating like that, you're gonna drain the whole agency's pantry dry," Mina commented with her mouth half full, with zero moral authority to talk, because her own mountain of plates was even taller than his.

"Look who's talking, queen of the empty bowls," Ren shot back, snatching a croquette off her plate with his telekinesis. "At least I chew before I swallow."

"Huuuh?! My croqueeeette!" Mina flung her chopsticks in the air trying to catch it but missed completely. "Cheater! Using your Quirk to steal food should be illegal!"

"Actually, it is... uhm, at least I think so, but anything goes in the name of training."

At the other end of the table, sitting as far from everyone as possible, a little boy was pushing his food back and forth across his plate without any interest in eating it.

"Kotaaa!" Mina stretched across the table with the brightest smile in her arsenal. "Want some of my curry? It's super tasty! I love it!"

"I don't want anything from you," Kota muttered without looking up, stabbing a piece of vegetable. "And stop yelling, you're giving me a headache."

"Whaaat?! That's so mean, Kota!" Mina brought a hand to her chest as if her heart had just been pierced and flopped onto the bench with an exaggerated pout. "I just wanted to share! I promise I don't bite! Well, almost never. Heh, heh!"

She leaned toward him a little with a smile, resting her chin on her hands.

"Come on, give me a chance. Being friends with Mina Ashido is a blast. I've even got references!"

Kota didn't answer, determined to ignore her.

Ren set his chopsticks down on the table before jumping in.

"Don't be so rude to Mina. Sure, she's loud, and she isn't even that great of a hero yet, but she's got a good heart."

"Excuse me?!" Mina almost spit out her rice. "Since when am I sitting at a table full of traitors?!"

She pointed her chopsticks at Ren.

"I'm right here, you inconsiderate baldy!"

Kota didn't say anything, though his expression softened a little before he went back to his plate.

Mandalay, sitting beside the boy, hid a small smile behind her cup of tea.

"Kota, if you're done, you can go brush your teeth," she said gently. "I'll come tuck you in later."

Kota got up without saying goodbye, left his plate half-eaten, and shuffled off down the hallway, dragging his feet, not without shooting Mina one last warning glare in case she got any ideas about following him.

Mina put her hands on her hips and smiled with total confidence.

"You'll see! One of these days that little grump's gonna admit I'm his favorite person..."

"You've tried plenty, and all you've done is make him scared of you," Ren replied.

"That's because I'm going too fast!" Mina protested, puffing out her cheeks. "With kids like him you gotta take it slow! First tolerance, then friendship, and then he'll surrender to the power of Mina Ashido!"

She raised a fist with a radiant smile.

"I've got tons of patience, and I'm not giving up!"

"Yep, better start looking for a lawyer, just in case."

Ragdoll, who had been watching the exchange, took advantage of the pause to lean toward Ren from the other side.

"That's it, kitten! Now that your belly's full and you're looking nice and relaxed, it's the perfect time to talk business!"

"When a pretty woman smiles and says 'business,' my survival instinct fires up right away." Ren gave her a wary look. "What kind of business?"

"Telekinesis," Mandalay chimed in calmly, setting her cup down on the table. "Ragdoll and I have been talking, and we think we've found the ideal training for you."

Ren froze for a second, a chopstick suspended halfway to his mouth.

"Are you serious?!"

He set the chopsticks on his plate and nodded enthusiastically.

"Ragdoll-sensei! Mandalay-sensei! Thank you so much! Please, I'd love your help!"

"Meoooow! That's it! One hundred percent motivation!" Ragdoll clapped so fast she seemed to vibrate in place. "I promise we'll turn your telekinesis into a work of art! And if something explodes, we'll do our best to make sure it isn't you!"

"...H-how reassuring to hear that from the professional in charge of my mental health," Ren muttered.

\ \ \*

By the time they polished off the last plates, Mina had already stood up with a yawn.

"Uwaaah! My battery's officially dead!" she declared between laughs. "This hero needs a bed, stat! You have fun training that little brain of yours, Ren! Don't overheat it, okay?!"

Ren raised a hand in farewell.

"Get some rest, Mina, and try not to shake the mountain with your snoring."

"Whaaat?! I do not snore! That's slander, defamation, and an attack on my reputation!"

She wandered off down the hallway, still griping.

"Ask... uhmm! Well, whatever! I don't snore!"

They said their goodnights between laughs, and Ren was surprised at how natural that kind of banter with her had become. Things had come a long way since the start, when they barely tolerated each other; of course, giving her a telekinetic orgasm on live national television during the Sports Festival hadn't exactly been the best calling card for a lasting friendship.

Yep, seems there's no etiquette manual that starts with "hey, quite the orgasm I gave you, huh? Nice to meet you, wanna be my friend?" So I definitely screwed the pooch on that one. Honestly, it's kind of a miracle we can eat at the same table now without her chucking curry in my face.

Ren shook his head to chase off the memory and set off toward the wing where the two heroines had gone ahead.

\ \ \*

Finding the place turned out to be an adventure in itself. The cabin had way more hallways than its modest shape promised from the outside, and Ren took several wrong turns before admitting he was officially lost inside his own teachers' house.

What a way to kick off training.

When he finally found the right door and stepped into a wide tatami room, he couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief.

"You finally made it, kitten!" Ragdoll greeted him with open arms, standing next to Mandalay in the middle of the room. "We were starting to think Pixie-Bob had kidnapped you along the way."

"Nonono, a small apology, I just... got lost? Hold on, w-what is that?"

In front of him, lined up with ridiculous care, sat a collection of colorful boxes, the baby kind, with holes cut in the shape of triangles, circles, and squares. Off to one side, a pile of plastic pieces waited to be slotted into its matching hole. It was, without a doubt, a toy designed for kids who were barely learning to walk.

"Your training material," Mandalay answered.

"...You've gotta be kidding me." Ren looked at the boxes and then at the two women. "I'm a young adult with telekinetic powers strong enough to shatter golems, and you're gonna make me play with daycare toys?"

"Exactly!" Ragdoll clapped, delighted.

Wonderful. Well, I'll take the humiliation of the colored cubes a thousand times over the newspaper headline "Bald Hero in Banana-Yellow Suit Tragically Explodes While Trying to Foil a Convenience Store Robbery." No thanks, I've got way too much imagination for my own tragedies.

"Alright, where do I start my glorious career in preschool education?" he sighed, sitting down on the tatami in front of the boxes.

Mandalay crouched down beside him and calmly walked him through the drill. The first test was simple: he had to slot the squares into their holes using only telekinesis, without touching them with his hands.

Ren held out a palm, and the first cube lifted off the floor, spun in the air, and slid cleanly into the box. The second followed, then the third, and before he knew it he had half a dozen pieces floating in a line, snapping into place one after another with no effort at all.

"Meow! Not bad for a start," Ragdoll whistled, impressed.

"This is way too easy." Ren lifted every remaining square at once and sent them all inside in a single motion. "Seriously, is this what you're teaching the heroes of tomorrow?"

"Too easy?" Mandalay smiled as she picked up the pieces and calmly mixed them together. "I'm glad to hear it."

She set the pieces back down in front of Ren.

"Then let's raise the difficulty a bit. I want you to move every shape at the same time: squares, circles, and triangles. Each one has to go into its corresponding opening, without a single mistake."

She paused briefly before adding with a calm smile.

"On a rescue mission, a single mistake can cost a life. Let's see if your precision matches your confidence."

Me and my big mouth.

Ren focused. Lifting three different shapes and guiding each one to a different slot at the same time was a whole other story. On the first try, a triangle wedged itself against the wrong edge and every piece clattered to the floor in an embarrassing racket; on the second, a circle ended up bouncing away like a runaway coin.

Mandalay waited for the noise to die down before speaking.

"Don't try to control three separate objects. That only splits your attention."

Ren looked at her, confused.

"Imagine that it's all part of a single motion. Once you stop separating them in your head, your telekinesis will start moving much more naturally."

Ren took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and on the third try the three shapes lifted together, aligned themselves in the air, and dropped into their spots with a satisfying triple click.

"Did you see that, meow?! He did it!" Ragdoll jumped so high she almost tipped her chair over. "I knew you could do it! Fufufu! That's my star student!"

"Okay, I'll admit that felt good," Ren conceded with a smile. "Now are you gonna give me a toy that fits my age?"

Mandalay let out a small smile.

"Not yet."

She reached into a training bag and pulled out a dark cloth blindfold, which she held out to him with complete calm.

"Now you're going to repeat the exercise... blindfolded."

Haaaaa, this is gonna go badly. I can feel it in every cell of my bald body.

And he was right.

With the blindfold over his eyes, Ren lost every visual reference and had to rely entirely on his telekinetic perception, which turned out to be quite a bit rustier than he thought. The first shape shot off in a completely wrong direction.

THWACK!

"Meeeeow! My forehead!" Ragdoll cried, bringing both hands to her head.

"What was that?" Ren turned his head toward the sound, still blindfolded. "Did I hit something?"

Ragdoll puffed her cheeks out a little and rubbed her forehead with teary eyes.

"Me, kitten! You nailed me right in the forehead with a square! What great aim... for hitting your teacher!" she whined dramatically before smiling right away. "But it's fine, don't worry about me! Focus and try again! Mistakes are part of training too!"

It was at that moment that Ren, without seeing it, sensed movement beside him. Mandalay was quietly standing up, clearly intending to leave Ragdoll to handle the rest of the training.

Ragdoll, I'm going for some snacks. Be right back. All yours.

Mandalay's calm voice echoed straight into Ragdoll's mind, and she whipped her face toward her partner with a look of betrayal as another cube sailed across the room.

BONK!

"Shino?!" Ragdoll's hands flew to her rear end, where the second piece had landed without mercy. "You're really gonna leave me alone?! I'm reporting you to Tiger!"

"Should I keep going or not?" Ren asked, a little confused under the blindfold.

"K-Keep going, keep going!" Ragdoll insisted with a trembling voice, dodging a third cube with a jump.

\ \ \*

A good while later, and with Ragdoll miraculously in one piece, the three of them took a well-deserved break.

Mandalay kept her word and came back with a tray loaded with frappés and a bowl of apple salad with chili and lime that she'd made herself. The cold of the drink was a blessing for Ren's dry throat, and they ate sitting in a circle on the tatami, with Ragdoll still complaining between sips.

"Just look at me!" Ragdoll lamented, pointing at her hair, now completely wild and sticking out in every direction thanks to the shower of projectiles. "I look like a cat that just got out of the washing machine! And it's all your fault, Shino, you traitor."

"A warrior fallen in the line of duty," Ren commented, and without thinking too much about it he reached out and ruffled her hair, trying to smooth down the more rebellious strands. "There, there. Thanks for your sacrifice, brave human shield. The agency thanks you for your service."

Ragdoll froze for a second under the gesture, a little surprised, before laughing and letting him do it without pulling away. Beside them, Mandalay enjoyed her frappé with a thoroughly satisfied smile.

"I went for snacks. Professional heroines know how to set priorities."

She paused briefly and smiled with innocence.

"Besides, you were doing an excellent job. I saw no reason to interrupt you."

"Excellent job?!" Ragdoll puffed out her cheeks. "I was being used as target practice! That sacrifice was your turn, not my forehead's!"

Ren let the two of them keep bickering while he finished the salad, relaxed for the first time all day.

It was Mandalay who eventually broke the exchange with a calm smile.

"I know this training might look like a game, Ren, but it has a purpose."

She waited for the boy to look up before continuing.

"When my Quirk first awakened, I couldn't control it either. There were times when I wanted to speak to just one person, and I ended up sending the message to everyone within my range."

Ren raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

Mandalay nodded with a soft smile.

"My first practice at the academy was a disaster. My instructor was giving directions, and without meaning to, I interrupted everyone at the same time. Nobody could figure out where the voice was coming from, and it was... rather embarrassing."

Ragdoll let out a little giggle.

"She turned as red as a tomato! I was there!"

Mandalay sighed with resignation.

"Thank you for that contribution, Tomoko."

Ragdoll answered with a wide smile, completely proud of herself.

Mandalay turned her attention back to Ren.

"What I'm trying to say is that control doesn't appear overnight. It's built through practice, and by accepting that at first, you're going to make mistakes. These cubes aren't the training itself. They're just the safest way to teach your body and your mind to coordinate."

Her smile grew a little warmer.

"Every hero starts out stumbling. The difference is who keeps getting back up until they stop stumbling."

Wow... this is way too heartwarming.

"What about you, Ragdoll?" Ren asked, turning toward her. "Any embarrassing stories from when you couldn't control your Quirk?"

Ragdoll blinked several times before bringing a finger to her chin.

"Hmm... I don't think there are many. My Quirk is Search, remember? It's pretty chill. It just tells me where people are and their weak spots, and it doesn't go shooting things off or moving objects all over the place."

She leaned toward Ren with a feline smile.

"But yours is a teeny bit scary, kitten! If you lose focus for even one second..."

She opened her eyes wide and waved her hands dramatically.

"You could send the whole table's food flying! Or launch Tiger into the air while he's taking a nap! Or worse, my plushie collection!"

She hugged herself with an exaggeratedly horrified expression.

"Promise me the plushies will be safe!"

Ren kept a perfectly innocent expression as he chewed.

If you knew how many not-so-heroic uses I've put this Quirk to, accidentally lifting skirts would be the most innocent thing on a very, very long list.

"I would never do such a thing," he declared out loud, bringing a hand to his chest with solemnity. "I'm a hero of impeccable conduct."

Mandalay took a calm sip of her frappé before looking at him over the top of the glass.

"How curious."

She set the glass down on the table with a small smile.

"Pixie-Bob said exactly the opposite after the hot springs incident."

"..."

Ragdoll burst out laughing.

"It's true! I've never seen Ryuko stay quiet for that long!"

\ \ \*

The session ended past midnight, and Ren offered to walk each of them to her room, more out of habit than anything else. He left Ragdoll at her door, still fighting with her messy hair, and then Mandalay, who said goodnight with a reminder that the second phase of Pixie-Bob's torture was waiting for him the next day.

"Get some rest, Ren. You made more progress today than you realize."

"Did I really make progress?" Ren scratched his head as he walked back down the hallway, muttering to himself. "Because from where I'm standing, I spent the night stuffing little cubes into baby boxes and pelting a professional hero in the forehead."

What a weird training regimen, sticking colored shapes into plastic boxes so I don't die of a brain aneurysm. Oh well, they're the experts, so I've got no choice but to trust the process and hope I don't wake up as a vegetable.

The hallway brought him back to the wing where his room was, and Ren stopped in front of his door. The layout of that cabin was still a mystery to him, because for some reason he couldn't quite figure out, Mina's room had ended up right next to his, wall to wall.

Now that I think about it, why'd they stick the two rowdy kids side by side? Nah, way too tedious to think about.

He put his hand on the door of his room, ready to collapse onto the futon and sleep for twelve hours straight, when a sound stopped him: a muffled moan slipped through the wall and left him frozen with his hand halfway through turning the knob.

He stood petrified where he was, sure that his incorrigible pervert's imagination was playing a cruel joke on him after such a long day.

Great, I'm already hallucinating. Exactly what Recovery Girl warned me about.

He shook his head and tried to open the door again, and then he heard it a second time, impossible to mistake, coming through loud and clear from the other side of the wall he shared with the room next door.

Nope, that wasn't my brain. That came straight from Mina's room.

Against all his better judgment, and betrayed by every un-heroic instinct in his body, Ren tiptoed over to Mina's door and pressed his ear against the wood.

"Ah... ahh... mmm... nghhh..."

Every drop of blood in his body seemed to decide to take two opposite routes at the same time, and neither one was headed toward his brain.

Okay, okay, this is a test. It h-has to be a test, right?

Ren swallowed hard, ear still glued to the door, his brain torn between what decency he had left and the curiosity he'd never had in short supply, while on the other side Mina let out a trembling sigh that wiped out any chance he had of sleeping peacefully that night.

"Hahhh... hha... mmm... yes..."

...Recovery Girl never prepared me for this kind of crisis.

*********