She didn't think stubbing her toe would make the rest of her morning a miserable, unrelenting mess. But it did and with an unquenchable vengeance that would make most adversaries quake in their white knee-high socks. At least, that was what she liked to imagine in her otherwise dull morning most called a daily-morning-routine that, for whatever reason, humans liked to subjugate themselves to. Who needs hygiene, right? Oh, wait, she did… Or more like she preferred to have good hygiene.
It all started at the crack of dawn when she'd woken up and couldn't find her glasses on her nightstand, leaving her blind to navigate her way to the bathroom so she could properly put in her contacts. But, on her way to the bathroom, she'd stubbed her toe on her hardwood sliding door, forcing her to jump up and down in the bathroom and, with much efficiency and great pleasure to her enemy the floor mat, slid on her bathroom floor mat and ended up landing in the tub with a loud thud. Her small face contorted, scrunching up in pain as she'd slowly sat up, her delicate hand sliding down her back until it had reached her bottom where she'd tried, with little success, to rub the pain away.
Her morning continued with small mishaps: no more toothpaste when she'd tried to brush her teeth, her shower didn't work - at all, her iron wouldn't heat up fast enough to steam her clothes straight and to her high predilection of perfection, she had a rip in her favorite skirt, and the sole of her shoe had decided it wanted to fall off with no indication of past trauma when walking in them yesterday when she'd took a stroll around her dojo, but the sole just - flopped when she slipped her delicate foot into the dark crevice of her white shoes…
How was the even possible that she didn't even notice they were falling apart in the first place? She could only wonder...
When she stood up from her seat after putting her white sneakers on, she stood there and stared at the sole that was flapping underneath her lifted foot. Slowly, she slipped off the shoes and grabbed her flip flops, slipping them on and grabbing her favorite shoes in her hands where she placed them on top of a small table next to the entrance of her too large of a dojo.
She sighed, eyeing her favorite pair of shoes before looking up over the table and into the fancy, decorative mirror she had above it. She eyed her normally brown eyes, finding them to already be looking a tad droopy, like she was tired, and then she allowed her eyes to skate up to her dark brown hair that she oh-so precariously thrown up into a bun. She looked back down, past her slight upturned nose and back to her dull brown eyes.
She smiled, her mouth curving up into a simple but cute wisp of a grin, then laughed, her head falling back as her bun bounced along with her carefree chuckle. No. She wouldn't let a small mishap in the morning ruin her day. She was better than that. She was spectacular. When she looked back into the mirror, her eyes shined with a light she was used to seeing almost every day of her life, finding her friendly and bright personality back where it belonged inside her sparkling irises.
She was going to make today a perfect day and to start off her perfect day, she was going to go to the supermarket and buy some freshly made mochi and maybe some mochi ice cream, too. Her two favorites.
Smoothing down her dark blue skirt and making sure all her buttons were buttoned on her white blouse, she walked out of her large family owned dojo with a smile on her face and a hop in her step.
Mochi that was made that day was wrapped in a small delicate cloth in her shopping basket along with some ice cream as she walked down the aisle and towards the register. Setting her items down for the cashier, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her small coin purse, fingering the four-hundred and twenty yen and handing it to the nice cashier with a smile.
Walking outside with her paper bag in tow, she stopped and closed her eyes, feeling as the wind passed through her in greeting; taking a deep breath of the fresh air before opening her eyes again to continue on her journey. She walked down the sidewalk, ignoring, or just not seeing, the strange stares she was receiving from a couple of men she passed as she made her way to her favorite park. She couldn't wait to read the next chapter in her book. She was finally going to figure out the identity behind the mask of Mr. Bravo in the upcoming chapter and she'd been waiting for four novels now to finally read the answers she'd been seeking in this series of books. Then maybe Angela will accept him into her life, no longer running...
A gust of wind made her almost topple over but she managed to grab onto a light post before she could lose her footing. She held onto her bag as tightly as she could until the wind finally stopped, letting her open her big brown eyes, but it was short lived when explosions behind her suddenly erupted, forcing a scream out of her pink lips.
She was thrown to and fro, her screams muffled in the onslaught of explosions. She didn't have time to think, to understand what was happening to her until, just as suddenly, it all stopped. When her brain finally calmed down, she realized she was now lying on the ground, a slight throbbing pain in her side made her open her eyes to see the rubble and destruction around her. Slowly, her head turned to look at her side, and to her relief, she didn't see any blood. She placed both hands on the ground and pushed up, finding the throbbing in her side was not, surprisingly, getting any worse as she put her feet under her and made the rest of her ascent up with little effort on her part. She lightly grabbed her throbbing, tingling side and looked around her. The buildings in her area were decimated, the streets, the cars, nothing was distinguishable, the area looking completely different than what it did a couple of seconds prior.
She looked around her in awe, still not understanding what exactly happened until someone, or something, landed in front of her. She turned her head ahead, then craned her head up, way up, to see a tall purple monster with antennas sticking out of his head, his dark eyes staring down at her with slight amusement.
"You survived," it remarked, his mouth turning upright and into a terrifying smile. "But that won't be for long, child."
She felt her eye twitch. "I'm not a child," she spoke softly, but confidently.
"Oh? You're a brave one. Do you have any idea…" he babbled and babbled and so on, telling his story of his supposed origin. The girl blinked up at him, in her peripheral vision, however , she noticed something. Something rather important. Turning her head she let out a small gasp before running over to said object, looking down at it with tears in her eyes.
"My Mochi…" she whispered in defeat, finding that her bag was smashed and her mochi and ice cream leaking out of it and all over the rubble.
The purple monster balked at her, then a large vein popped on his forehead, his right eye ticking. In a matter of seconds, the monster was behind her, making the girl turn her head in wonder only to see a hand swiping at her with a speed she didn't, couldn't, understand. She literally felt her heart freeze, fear instantly encompassing her fragile body.
But before the monster could make contact with her body while he spewed out nonsequel nonsense of teaching her a lesson for ignoring him, her vision blurred, her stomach did a flip, and she found herself many feet away from the purple monster, her slim body held tightly in the arms of another.
She let out a squeal, finding that her mind was spinning from the sudden shift in what felt like the destruction of reality to her. The man let her down from his arms, her feet connecting to the ground but, from her sudden fear she wrapped her arms around his neck, not wanting to let go as she looked behind the person who saved her and to see the monster staring at the spot they were just in with bafflement - his confusion evident, matching her own.
"You can let me go now," a monotone of a voice said in her ear. She pulled back her wide teary eyes to see plain, simple, distant round eyes looking at her with complete detachment for the whole situation, much to her chagrin. Her face heated up when she realized how close she was to him, her breasts pressed against his hard flat chest. "You're safe," he continued when she finally let the bald guy go, his shine on his head glistening from the sun high in the sky. He didn't seem to notice, or even care, how close she was to him.
She opened her mouth to speak, blinking the tears from her eyes as he regarded her before turning around and staring down the monster, his face suddenly beaming with a sharp flare. She watched, eyes wide as the monster spewed, even more, nonsense from his mouth while he prepared to attack the bald guy and all she could do was watch, helpless and alone.
He was going to die!
"W-wait…" the girl tried to plead, but when the monster attacked and the bald-capped man (was that a tablecloth!?) moved his arm forward at an impossible speed…
...the monster exploded into a million little pieces, leaving the girl looking at the scene before her with her mouth wide open in complete and utter disbelief.
But how!? How could he do that? He looked too...plain, simple, non-threatening, but how somehow, someway, destroyed that monster with one, single, punch.
It was...amazing to see, she had to admit.
He looked at his fist, staring at it as a look crossed his features before he turned his attention back to her like he just remembered she was standing there. In which she was, staring at him in bewitched amazement. His face was no longer…sharp, she noted.
"Wow," she breathed, blinking her eyes a couple of times while he walked over to her. He stopped suddenly and looked off to the right, she followed his gaze until her eyes fell on her destroyed grocery bag. He walked over to it and picked it up and she watched, with much emotion shining in her brown eyes, as the mochi fell out and onto the ground with a couple globs of ice cream.
"Is this yours?" he asked, turning back to her. She nodded her head. He'd made a weird grunting noise before saying, "Sorry about that."
She blinked again. "That isn't your fault." Then her face broke out into a smile as she closed the distance between them, her dirty fingers laced in front of her as a dusty pink shade shadowed her cheeks. "I'll go and buy some more in the town over." Her smile was genuine as she observed him. "Thank you for saving me." She bowed, showing her gratitude before standing back up, straight and erect. "What's your name?" she asked, her head slightly slanted to the left.
"Saitama," was his simple reply.
"Saitama," she repeated, smiling warmly again. "I'm Ten." She gave her name freely, his head now cocking to the side as he regarded her.
"Ten?" he started. "That's...a weird name."
Ten blinked at him, her long eyelashes fluttering as she recounted his words. Her mouth curved up in a small smile, her eyes sparkling as she started to giggle, and then she started to laugh. "I know, right?" She giggled outright, making Saitama cock his head with his barefaced confusion.
And then, he smiled a small, almost undetectable smile as he watched her giggle, her eyes now closed but her cheeks reddening from the small exertion she was willingly giving for him.
So much for having that good day. But, she couldn't complain. After all, she did end up meeting her hero...