D-City was slowly falling asleep as a fine layer of snow started covering everything. The peaceful streets were perfectly quiet, aside from the steps of a lone passerby. Wearing a plain black hoodie with a pair of jeans and white baskets, his raised hood hiding his face, the man looked unaffected by the freezing air of this night of December, slowly making his way towards a neon sign projecting its red light on the whitened pavement. Once he reached the sign, he pushed the door and took a step inside.
Bar "The Broken Shillelagh", 11:30 p.m
Ding the door opens, letting the man enter. He takes his hood off, revealing a bald head.
Taking a seat on a comfy stool at the counter, he takes a look around, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere created by the jazz music and the warm light. A couple shares a meal, a group of friends quietly chats around a few drinks.
After a moment he is cut in his contemplation when a familiar voice sounded behind him.
"Good evening, Saitama." The one who talked was no other than the bartender, an old but still tall chubby man who always had a friendly smile. "How are you doing, my friend?"
The man you recognized to be Saitama turned to face him and smiled back "Good, thank you Tetsu."
"So, same as usual?" the barman was already reaching for a bottle on a shelf.
"No, today is a special day." the bald man's smile grew larger. "This day, half a century ago, I started to be a hero for fun!"
After a second of realization, Tetsu closed his mouth and winked at Saitama "I've been saving it for this kind of occasion." the old man turned around and kneeled, going through the bottles stored in a closet. He finally stood up, a blue porcelain bottle in his hand. He pulled out two shot glasses from under the bar and started filling them with alcohol. "Daiginjo sake, the finest I have." noticing the glint of fear in his friend's eyes, he smiled to himself as he took note once again of his friend's aversion for expensive things and added "Don't worry, it's on the house"
With that, the two men raised their glasses "To fifty years of fun, cheers!" "Cheers!"
The sake was delicious, and they couldn't hold back a sigh of content when they put the now empty shots back on the table.
As Saitama was going to speak up, he was interrupted by a shout coming from the other side of the room "Everyone, look at the TV!"
Turning around, the hero focused on the television post sitting in the corner, which was broadcasting a news channel.
"I repeat, the group of monsters wreaking havoc in F-city is a level demon threat, every citizen is advised to stay inside their house. If you are currently outside, please head to the closest Hero Association shelter as fast as possible, or hide in…"
The discussions began to rise between the frightened clients, drowning the presenter's voice as Tetsu turned to face his friend "You're going aren't you, Sai…" realizing he was talking to an empty seat, the bartender smiled "I should have known! Looks like he isn't even close to retiring even after all these years..."
Streets, a few moments later
'Sigh I hate fighting in my casual attire, cleaning is such a hassle! Maybe I should go home and change..." Pondering whether it was worth to make such a detour, Saitama was sprinting towards the monsters' location at inhumane speeds, leaving a cloud of snow in his trail.
Having decided he was just going to watch out in order to not make any stain on his brand new sweater, the hero arrived at F-city, ready to beat some villains to the pulp.
"Let's find those guys." Jumping a few dozens of meters in the air, he looked around until he spotted three creatures walking a few blocks away from his position "There you are".
Jumping from building to building, our hero was soon near enough to see what the monsters looked like more precisely. One of them looked like a giant Magikarp that somehow grew bare legs and arms, gaining the ability to talk in the process. he was dragging some metallic junk behind him. The second was a woman who had wasp-like stripes on her body, thirty centimeters sting where her hands should have been and wings in her back, allowing her to fly a few centimeters above the ground. The two were following a brawny, three meters tall werewolf.
"Ravaging the city at night is lame," the first one raised his voice as he kicked a public trash can that had the misfortune to be in his way "the only hero who came to fight didn't even last ten minutes against our combined attacks!"
"Shut up Sakana, I didn't choose to make the trip at night for nothing; we're supposed to go unnoticed! And remember, you're the one who talked about that almighty human being in Z-City's abandoned sector, so you can't complain" grunted the other, silencing his companion "He should be enough to entertain us, at least for a few minutes." a cocky grin revealed the beast's razor-sharp fangs
At this moment, Saitama decided to step in. "Oi, don't you know what time it is? Some people are trying to sleep right now!"
The three creatures looked at the man who just appeared before them out of thin air for a few seconds, dumbfounded. However, the leader quickly pulled himself together and ordered his acolytes to attack the newcomer who dared to talk to him with such disrespect.
The fish one reacted first, launching himself towards the hero as he left his load in the middle of the street. When he was only a meter away from his target, he pulled his right fist back to gather strength and swung it as hard as he could, confident to be powerful enough to kill a random passerby like this one in a single blow…. But Saitama is nothing like a random passerby.
The two remaining monsters could only watch as a beautiful firework of blood caused by the hero's still raised fist sent their acolyte's inner parts to their feet.
After a short moment of understandable doubt, the boss pushed his minion out of the way and roared "Ok human, you're strong enough to kill one of my minions. Now let's see if you're really worth a fight!". In a swift motion, the werewolf lowered his center of gravity and aimed his clawed paw at his prey torso, planning to sever it.
It goes without saying that it didn't work. A light punch behind the wolf's furry head later, the wasp girl was watching the man she thought to be a simple human not even worth a fight mumble something about how this brand new hoodie now was wasted because of two stupid monsters before he pointed an accusative finger at her.
"You! You better pay for this! Seriously that kind of bargain won't happen again until next month, you know that?!"
"Fuck my life… The strongest weirdo of the whole fucking town had to take a stroll at the middle of the night just as we're leaving…" The monster thought to herself as she raised her trembling hands towards Saitama to show she was surrendering "Listen, I'm sure we can find an arrang-"
She would have finished her sentence if Saitama hadn't finished her off in an exasperated manner.
"Nevermind, you're going to use way too many words anyway."
As he was about to head back home to wash his hoodie, a movement caught the hero's attention. A little further down the street, the metallic junk was moving. When he got closer, Saitama noticed it wasn't just a piece of scrap but a humanoid robot looking like a blonde teen, well what was left of it, anyway…
"I probably shouldn't leave this poor guy here, he looks pretty fucked up…" the hero looked at the cyborg comically trying to open his mouth in an attempt to say something before collapsing "Yup, I'm taking him to my place…"
Hey guys, yup I'm still alive.
So I have quite a lot of things to say right now.
First, I'm sorry this is not a new chapter, but I was really not satisfied with the two first chapters as they were, so I decided to rewrite them in order to write the third. This is the new first chapter, the new second is on the way.
Second, thanks a lot to everyone who followed and all, that's really cool. Never expected anyone to actually like the story!
I've had some issues with the editing, the site won't save the words I put in bold... So, yeah, sorry if it's less pleasant to read...
Now I'll just repeat what I wrote in the former A/N for anyone new to this story: This story is my first writing experience, I'm doing this mostly to have fun and improve. I've been learning English for four years now but I still make a lot of mistakes, sorry for that.
This story starts at the same time as the original, except for some reason it's winter.
This A/N is getting way too long, so I'll see you for the new second chapter probably pretty soon. Bye!