The construction site where Mineta and his father had previously trained the Mineta Bounce was unusually quiet.
The skeletal structure of the unfinished building stood around them, with concrete pillars and exposed beams casting long shadows across the open training area.
In the middle of that empty space, father and son stood facing each other, both preparing for another round of training.
Manami casually reached up and removed his tie, slipping it into his pocket before unbuttoning the first two buttons of his shirt.
His long blueberry-shaped hair swayed slightly behind him as he loosened his shoulders and gave Mineta a confident smirk.
He raised one hand and made a simple "Bring it on" motion with his fingers. "Come on, Minoru. Show me how much you've improved."
Mineta took a deep breath and lowered his stance. His eyes sharpened as he looked at his father, determination filling his expression. "All right, Dad. I'm coming!"
Without wasting another second, he reached toward the purple balls on his head and threw several of them onto the ground.
The moment they stuck to the surface, Mineta jumped onto one and used its elasticity to propel himself forward like a spring-loaded projectile, shooting directly toward Manami.
Manami merely smirked and tilted his neck slightly to the side. Mineta flew right past him, his fist cutting through empty air where his father's face had been only a moment earlier.
"What?!" Mineta exclaimed in surprise, but he didn't stop. He immediately plucked two more balls from his head and threw them toward the nearby walls, using their bounce to change his trajectory.
He shot from one wall toward another, then launched himself back toward Manami with another attack.
Yet Manami continued to dodge him with almost insulting casualness. Every time Mineta came close, his father simply stepped aside, leaned backward, ducked, or shifted his body by the smallest possible amount.
Mineta bounced around the room repeatedly, desperately trying to predict his father's movements while Manami seemed to already know where he was going to appear.
"Your speed has improved well, Minoru," Manami said calmly as he casually jumped in place, allowing Mineta's leg to pass harmlessly underneath him. "But your coordination needs more work."
"Easy for you to say!" Mineta shouted while bouncing toward him again. "You're practically reading my movements!"
Manami's smirk widened. "Then perhaps you should make your movements harder to read."
Before Mineta could understand what his father meant, Manami casually reached up and plucked a single blue ball from his long blueberry-shaped hairstyle.
He held the ball in his hand while Mineta continued bouncing around the room, trying to find an opening.
"Wait... Dad, what are you—" The blue ball suddenly stretched beneath Manami's grip. Its round shape elongated, becoming longer and flatter until it resembled a baseball bat.
Mineta's eyes widened dramatically as he stared at the impossible transformation. "Huh?!"
Manami casually swung the newly formed blue baseball bat.
WHACK!
The bat connected directly with Mineta's head.
"OWWW!" Mineta cried out as he tumbled through the air before crashing onto the ground. He clutched his head with both hands, tears appearing in the corners of his eyes as he groaned. "Dad! You didn't have to actually hit me!"
Manami looked down at him with a completely calm expression before casually lowering the strange blue bat. "Your durability still needs work."
Mineta slowly sat up, rubbing his aching head while listening carefully.
"Our Quirk, Pop Off, has its Quirk Factor in our head," Manami explained, rotating the blue baseball bat in his hand. "But Pop Off also has a secondary effect. It gives our bodies greater durability and impact absorption, almost like rubber. So you can try increasing your durability by taking hits during training. Your body will gradually adapt to impacts and become better at absorbing them, which will lessen the damage from physical attacks."
Mineta's eyes immediately sharpened with interest despite the throbbing pain in his head. He quickly stored the information away in his mind. 'So Pop Off isn't just about the sticky balls. The Quirk itself also strengthens our body.'
His gaze then shifted toward the blue baseball bat in his father's hand. "Dad, how did you do that?"
Manami looked at the bat and chuckled. "That's another aspect of Pop Off. You have to stretch the balls into whatever shape you want."
He gave the bat another casual twist. "But remember, they have extremely strong elasticity. If your grip becomes loose while you're holding one in an altered shape, you won't be the one controlling the ball anymore. Instead, the ball will snap back and hit you in the face with the force of a bowling ball thrown by All Might."
Mineta's expression immediately became nervous. "That's... incredibly specific."
"I'm speaking from experience," Manami replied with a completely serious face before his mouth curled into a joking grin. "My face remembers."
Mineta stared at him for a moment before imagining himself accidentally stretching one of his own balls into a weapon only for it to snap back into his face. He shuddered. "Yeah, I'm definitely going to be careful."
"There's another catch," Manami continued. "For the ball to maintain whatever shape you give it, you'll have to train the Quirk Factor of Pop Off."
"Quirk Factor?" Mineta muttered, his curiosity immediately returning.
Manami nodded and plucked another blue ball from his head. He stretched it into the shape of a stick and then released it. The moment he let go, the stick snapped back into its original ball-like shape.
"See?" Manami said before stretching it into a stick again. This time, however, he didn't immediately release its altered property. After a moment, he let go, and the object remained in the shape of a stick.
Mineta's eyes widened as he stared at it.
"Pop Off's Quirk Factor is located in our brain," Manami explained. "Everything you want to do with the balls of Pop Off can be done, but it requires creativity and imagination. The more you train your Quirk Factor, the more control you'll have over those properties. Eventually, you'll be able to turn the elasticity and sticky properties on and off whenever you want."
He lightly tapped the stick with his finger. "You can also make them hard. As hard as steel."
"Steel?!" Mineta exclaimed, his eyes practically sparkling.
Manami nodded. "Exactly. Imagine what you could do if your balls weren't limited to simply being sticky and elastic. You could make them hard enough to act like weapons, reshape them into different tools, use their elasticity for movement, and switch their properties depending on what the situation demands."
Mineta's imagination immediately went wild. 'Weapons... shields... platforms... traps... projectiles... movement... There are so many possibilities!'
Manami pressed the stick with his fingers, causing it to return to its normal ball-like form before disintegrating into dust.
"Though there is one side effect," Manami added. "After you remove the hardness property and give the ball its sticky properties back, it will disintegrate."
Mineta nodded slowly as he absorbed every word. "So the balls can become incredibly versatile, but there is a limit to how long they can survive after changing their properties."
"That's right."
Mineta suddenly grabbed his father's hand with both of his own, his eyes shining with excitement. "Dad! How can I train my Quirk Factor?"
Manami chuckled at his son's enthusiasm. "There are three ways." He raised one finger.
"First, repeatedly pluck the balls from your head and allow them to regrow. Doing this over and over will not only increase the rate at which your balls regenerate, but it will also gradually increase the number of balls you can safely pluck before you start bleeding. As your body adapts to the process, the strength of your Quirk Factor will increase."
Mineta immediately imagined himself plucking balls from his head over and over again. He wasn't particularly thrilled about the bleeding part, but the potential benefits made him determined to remember it. Plus, he had already done it in the anime.
Manami raised a second finger. "Second, study and learn as many things as possible while keeping your body healthy. The health of your body, as well as the sharpness and activity of your brain, affects the Quirk Factor. You should already know this. When our health is poor, the sticky properties of our balls decrease."
Mineta nodded seriously. "Right. So physical health and mental activity both matter."
"Exactly." Manami raised his third finger. "And finally, think outside the box."
Mineta tilted his head in confusion. "Think outside the box?"
Manami nodded. "Your Quirk grows stronger the more creatively you use it. Don't simply think about what Pop Off was designed to do. Think about what it could do. If you keep using the same techniques over and over again, you'll eventually hit a wall. But if you constantly find new applications for your Quirk, your abilities will continue to develop."
Mineta stared at his father for a moment before slowly nodding. "Creativity, imagination, knowledge, physical health, and constant experimentation..."
His eyes sparkled again as he clenched his fists. "I've got it!"
Before he could continue his enthusiastic declaration, however, his stomach suddenly growled loudly.
GRRRRRRR
The sound echoed through the unfinished building.
Mineta froze.
Manami froze.
For several seconds, the two simply stared at each other.
Mineta's face gradually turned red with embarrassment as he placed a hand over his stomach. "I... might be hungry."
Manami burst out laughing. "All right, Minoru. That's enough training for today. Let's go back home. Umeko and Himiko must have already finished making dinner."
Mineta nodded quickly, suddenly much more interested in dinner than additional Quirk training. "Yeah, let's go!"
Father and son began walking side by side toward the exit of the construction site. Their conversation soon shifted from training to random things, with Manami joking about various topics while Mineta laughed along with him.
After a few moments, Manami suddenly gave his son a mischievous sideways glance. "So, Minoru..."
Mineta looked at him suspiciously. "What?"
Manami's grin widened. "How far have you gotten with Mission Harem?"
Mineta immediately stopped walking as his face turned bright red.
"D-DAD!"
Manami laughed loudly as Mineta hurried after him, protesting while his father continued teasing him.
The two continued their walk home together, their voices carrying through the construction site as the evening slowly settled over the city.