Chapter One- The Woman with the Scarlet Bang
It was a nice day in H-City. It was always a nice day in H-City. The citizens lived rather stress-free lives under the protection of the heroes Mushroom and Horse-Bone. For some reason, H-City had never been threatened by any particularly strong Mysterious Beings. There was once a Tiger level threat, but fortunately the A-class Hero, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask, had been around for a photo-shoot at the time and handily dealt with it before it could cause too much damage.
Unfortunately for the citizens in H-City, there was no A-class heroes in sight when Mummy Scarf attacked.
"Oh ho ho ho!" Mummy Scarf laughed as her scarves grabbed anything in sight and flung them at the buildings around her. She had the appearance of a well-endowed woman wrapped up in an uncountable number of scarves. All that was visible off her was her bright red eyes, peaking out under the scarves on her face. Some of the scarves were moving around while extended from her body. "Witness the undeniable might of scarves! Oh ho ho ho!"
Where were Mushroom and Horse-Bone, you ask? The answer is that they had been instantly on the scene to combat the threat in their city. However, with a single swipe from her scarves, the B and C-class Heroes were flung into nearby skyscrapers, which they hung from in a state of unconsciousness. Seeing this, civilians ran in the dozens, desperate to get away from the monster. Despite their best efforts, some citizens were crushed by debris that Mummy Scarf threw. Those not in the immediate area started to panic once the evacuation notice came through the loud speakers.
"This is an emergency evacuation warning. A Mysterious Being has appeared in City-H and incapacitated Mushroom and Horse-Bone. All residents of the area, please evacuate immediately."
"It's no use!" Scarf Mummy declared, preparing her scarves to attack. "There's no escaping the wonderful, encasing warmth of scarves!" As soon as she finished speaking, seven scarves flew out from her body, easily piercing through several buildings each. "Oh ho ho!" She then spun, instantly cutting several dozen buildings in half.
Hundreds of civilians cried out in fear as they were either cut down by the scarves or crushed by the falling buildings. Mummy Scarf laughed, enjoying the schadenfreude her actions arose. "Now I can show the world just how amazing scarves truly are!" She recalled the scarves to her body. "Now, to move on to- huh?!" She paused when she realised that one of her scarves were still extended. "What's this? Could one of my beautiful scarves be stuck? Impossible!"
She tried once more to recall it, but whatever had its hold on the scarf refused to be budged. Gritting her teeth in rage, Mummy Scarf grabbed onto the scarf and pulled as hard as she could. "Get over here!" Soon enough, what was holding the other end of the scarf came into view. "I've got you!" She sent her other scarves flying towards the figure in the air, instantly skewering them in several places. "Hah!" She then slammed the person down, creating a large crack in the ground. She repeated this several times, causing the crack to grow larger and larger. After the ninth strike, she stopped.
"Let that be a lesson to you, worm! Never touch one of my precious scarves! Listen up! I was once a human who loved scarves so much that I became a beautiful scarf monster! So, to have a filthy plebeian like you touching my scarves," she flung the figure into the air once more, before slamming them back down harder than the other nine times combined "IS UNNNACEPTABLE!" The crack extended, causing an untouched building to collapse alongside the rest. Mummy Scarf, satisfied with the beat down, removed the scarves from the figure and recalled them.
But once again, the scarf held in the figure's hand did not return.
"Impossible! You should have been slaughtered by my fantastical scarves!"
"Do you ever shut up?"
"What?!"
The bloodied and beaten figure let out a dark chuckle as it pushed itself to its feet. Only then, standing in the sunlight, was their appearance visible to Mummy Scarf. A young woman, with black hair with a single red streak in her left-side bangs. Her clothing was bloody and covered in holes, but the grip on the scarf was as tight as ever. "You've got some nerve, you damn monster. Going on a freaking slaughter spree like this." The young woman gave the monster an enraged glare, blue eyes aflame. "You're asking for the ass-kicking of a life time!"
Mummy Scarf stared. Then laughed. "Oh ho ho! Are you one of those Hero Association goons? It would explain your endurance as well as the crap you're spewing right now." She raised her scarves behind her, like a gang of snakes ready to strike. "Are you going to rant about justice to this evil monster? Because the only justice I care about," the scarves flew forward, intent on piercing the woman once more, "IS THE JUSTICE THAT IS SCARVES!"
"SHUT UP ABOUT SCARVES ALREADY!" The woman roared, yanking on the scarf in her grip as hard as possible. The sudden force ripped Mummy Scarf off her feet, cancelling her attack mid-execution. "SO YOU BECAME SCARVES HUH? YOU THINK YOU'RE CLOTHING NOW, OR SOMETHING? THINK YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU LIKE TO HUMANS BECAUSE YOU AREN'T ONE?!" The woman smashed Mummy Scarf into a ruined building. "WELL LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING! HUMANS ARE HUMANS!" She then slammed Mummy Scarf into another building. "CLOTHING IS CLOTHING!"
Pulling hard once more, she began spinning the screaming Mummy Scarf in circles in the air. "SCARVES ARE SCARVES! MONSTERS ARE MONSTERS AND ASSHOLES ARE ASSHOLES! AND RIGHT NOW, YOU'RE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE MONSTER OF ALL! AND YOU KNOW WHAT I DO TO ASSHOLES?" With a fierce cry, she yanked down on the scarf and brought Mummy Scarf flying down back to earth.
"I PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE!" And as Mummy Scarf approached her, the young-looking woman with the scarlet highlight in her bang, decked the monster right in the middle of its face. "GO FUCK YOURSELF!" Mummy Scarf's head exploded, coating the woman and the surrounding debris in blood and brain matter. Ryūko Matoi spat out a mouthful of blood as Mummy Scarf's corpse fell at her feet. "Gah! It got in my mouth!"
As she was hacking up the blood in her throat, something caught her eyes. Something that caused her to freeze in place, and stare in horror. From Mummy Scarf's corpse rose a single, glowing red fibre. It flew from the headless body and was absorbed by Ryūko's own. Ryūko stood in silence for minutes, trying to take in what she just saw.
The sound of a helicopter overhead finally registered to her ears. She was knocked out of her stupor, and slowly tilted her head upwards. To her annoyance, several news helicopters were in the sky, and had likely seen everything.
"Shit."
"What happened here?!"
"Eh?" Ryūko turned around to see a young man with wild black hair and a huge scar on his face. "Who the hell are you?"
The man glared and pointed his weapon at her, which Ryūko only just noticed was a fuck off big Gatling gun where his left arm should be. "That's should be my question! Who are you, and where is the Demon level threat that was reported?"
Ryūko frowned. "Oi, shitty-brat, don't you know it's rude to point your weapon at someone while demanding something?" She felt a little hypocritical, but she had been young back then, damn it!
"Just answer the question!" He yelled, spinning his gun barrel a few times to intimidate her. Before she could tell him to get bent, a voice came over the somehow still standing loudspeaker nearby.
"Stand down, Death Gatling. That woman is the one who defeated the Demon level threat, Mummy Scarf."
"Shit. They did see that." Ryūko muttered, glaring at the overhead news-copters. "Also, what kind of shitty name is Mummy Scarf?"
"What?! This woman defeated a Demon level threat?!" Death Gatling cried. He looked back at a decidedly unamused Ryūko, then down the monster at her feet, then back to the blood on her rather damaged clothing. Despite the wear and tear of her outfit, she had no visible injuries. "No way."
"Oi, what's that supposed to mean, asshole?" Ryūko growled. "You want me to kick your ass too, Depth Gambling?"
"It's Death Gatling!" He snapped. "And I'm the 14th ranked A-class Hero! Show some respect!"
"You come up with that name by yourself, you freaking chuunibyou?"
"The Hero Association chose it! And I'm a real Hero, you moron!"
Ryūko went to reply, but paused. "Oh yeah, that's that group that came about a couple of years ago, calling themselves Heroes." She scratched the side of her head. "I don't really keep up with the news anymore, so I forgot you guys existed."
"You bitch." He growled, his brow twitching furiously.
Ryūko grinned. "So tell me, does that arm get in the way of your private ti-"
"GARGH!" The A-class Hero opened fire, yelling his fury. He stopped shooting when Ryūko vanished from his sight. "What?!"
"Don't just randomly start firing, you ass!" Ryūko snapped as she appeared behind him, punching him in the back of the head. Death Gatling's eyes went white as he was slammed face first into the ground, cracking it slightly. "My clothes are ruined enough as it is!" She picked at her shirt, which was half hanging from her torso revealing her stripped, blood-splattered bra. "Damn it, this was a nice top!"
"Erm…miss?"
"Huh?" Ryūko looked up to the loudspeaker, raising a brow. "What?"
"Er, I've been told to invite you to the local Hero Association branch." Ryūko narrowed her eyes. "T-Tomorrow, that is." Ryūko crossed her arms. "At 10 o'clock!" The voice squeaked.
Ryūko glared up at the helicopters, which still hadn't buggered off to mind their own business. 'So much for staying out of the public eye.' She looked back to the loud speaker. 'They probably want to ask me to be a Hero. I laid extra low ever since the Association started to avoid exactly this! Still…' She once again glared at the helicopters. 'Now that the freaking news has got me on live TV, laying low ain't exactly an option.'
"Miss?"
Ryūko released an aggravated sigh. "Alright fine, fine. I'll be there." Ignoring the response from the loud speaker, she looked up. "Hey! Don't you assholes have anything better to gawk at?!" As if they heard her—unlikely what with all the helicopter blades up there—they started to fly away.
She looked back down at her tattered clothes and sighed. "Urgh, better go home and change. My Nudist days are long behind me." She started her journey home, casually stepping on the unconscious Death Gatling on the way.
'It probably won't be a bad idea, actually, to become a Hero. It could give me some much-needed allies in the future, especially if what happened earlier means anything. They just better not give me a stupid name like the One Arm Bandit back there.'
A few days later, the S-class Hero known as Scarlet Bang joined the Hero Association.
I started reading the One Punch Man manga from where the anime left off, and I realised that I really wanted to see Ryūko—one of my favourite anime characters—in One Punch Man. She'd fit right in with those Heroes, or so I reckon. Even without Senketsu, I put her at S-class. If she had Senketsu then she'd be more than a match for almost anyone in One Punch Man. (Except Saitama, Lord Boros, and Monster Garou, of course.)
Honestly I'm basing that off the Top Strongest wiki, but of course you're free to disagree. This is just for fun anyway, so I don't really see how it matters too much. I'm just writing this since it's something easy to write during my free time to keep my writing muscles flexed. I hope you guys have fun with this story, however far it goes. I know I will.