Friday . March 25, 2016
I don't own the characters mentioned in this chapter. They belong to the creator of "One-Punch Man."
Author's Note – Ever started a chapter and a few thousand words in, you have this feeling like you wanna quit or start over 'cause you feel like what you just wrote was wayway way not good enough and seemed like it just dragged on? I was like that with this upload. But then I thought.. "Oohweelz. My goal this year was to type a million words! How can I do that if I keep deleting thousands of words and redoing them?" ...So. I'm keeping whatever I have on here. Hahahah. This update has a lot of looking-back-in-the-past stuff and mindless thoughtings. Might get a bit confusing.
Warning: Many mistakes here and there. Some on purpose. Some are not.. And what else... Oh, yes. And IT's a freakin long chapter! For me anyway. The bottom half of this upload was the main point of this update.
xDxD I wrote the poem "Boredom" (originally titled "I Am Bored and Lazy") like ten years ago in ninth grade. I changed it up a little. I replaced "I Am" with "Little Tornado of Terror" xD
ENJOY!
...
Upload : Tornado of Terror (with a side of "Blizzard" and a prince from another dimension)
" What to do to Get Rid of this Boredom? "
...
Tatsumaki
10-Years-Old
"Boredom"
Little Tornado of Terror was bored and lazy.
She wondered if she would ever see a ghost.
She heard them crying and whining about their deaths.
She saw them having pale faces with blood all over their bodies.
She wanted to know how they died.
Little Tornado of Terror was so bored and lazy.
She pretended her favorite anime characters came to life.
She was surprised, shocked, and scared.
She touched things left over from the explosion.
She worried someone may have gotten hurt.
She cried because she couldn't do anything to stop it.
OMG, she hated this! Little Tornado of Terror was so bored!
She understood things don't always go the way one wants them to.
She'd say, "Life isn't always fair."
She dreamed there would someday be world peace.
She tried to be more helpful.
She hoped she has better control of things.
Argh! Really now! What can she do to get rid of this boredom?
That was always Tatsumaki's life.
Full of boredom. Full of destruction. Full of pain. Full of fear. Full of suffering.
But the wreaked havocings were rarely for reals. Most times, it was all just in the petite lady's head. Nothing was more dangerous than Tatsumaki's mind when Tatsumaki was bored.
Yes, she was dangerous. But she was even more so when she thinks.
So don't ever get her started on using her headnoodle. Her brain is a threat, not only to all of humanity, but pretty much to all earthlings. Like, for literals, she has ESP. She can have a wrecking out-of-this-Earth rock larger than life end the planet to nonexistence.
It was almost 6 P.M.
She sighed.
The S-Class lady, often mistaken for a child due to her vertically challenged height, was in her livingroom, staring at her wall. Actually, she wasn't exactly staring at her wall. She was staring at nothing in particular. She only happened to face that side of the livingroom as she daydreamed, not moving as she floated about a foot and a half off the floor. She'd been levitating there like that for nearly four hours.
The petite second ranker of Class S absent-mindedly shook her head, her upper back length curls lightly swishing from side to side, eyes unseeing. Far off. While physically safe at home, her mind was lost and elsewhere. Probably off in Lalaland.
She had nothing better to do. Nothing to clean. Tatsumaki's home was always so neat and always so spotless. With her ESP powers, tidying up was a jiffy and never a problem.
It had been strangely peaceful. No demons rising from the underworld, no monsters crawling out of hiding, no extraterrestrials from outer space wanting to invade earth.
A couple months before, evil-doers were showing up here and there, left and right each day. But lately these last couple weeks, only a handful of Wolf threats, Tiger level threats, and one threat level Demon showed up.
No Dragon level disasters though.
And no God level threat disasters too, not since that spaceship full of aliens destroyed A-City.
Yep.
A fine, ordinary, boring day. It was the same as yesterday.
Hopefully, it won't be the same boring thing tomorrow. But she doubted it.
The green haired lady blinked, her eyes coming to a focus. Swallowing, she noticed how super dry her throat was. She needed a drink.
Maybe she should try phoning the other S classers again and see what they were up to? She called them all and a few of the Heroes Association workers earlier that afternoon.
No one answered her calls except one staff member, a bespectacled man, greeting her call with a - "We don't need you," followed by a quick explanation, "A high ranking of the top class such as yourself is not necessary for taking care of a job that could be easily done by a high ranking B Class. Or a low ranking A Class." Then the dude – the freaking dude – hung up on her.
Some darn dang colorful words exploded out of her lips.
Before Tatsumaki then espered her voice, making it travel from her city, A, all the way to Z-City. Her voice reached the one open ear not covered by an earpiece of the young man she'd just spoken to, the freakin dude who dared to hang up on her.
"Jeez, not even a little goodbye?"
The guy heard her loud and clear. So did the other Superheroes Society workers in the same room. It was as if Tornado of Terror was in the same room with them. They were puzzled when she wasn't actually there.
The not literally physically four-eyed man figured he just discovered another unique and useful ability of the talented psychic. "I believe our little psychokinetic just showed us a new trick she picked up." He commented this with a straight face and a monotone voice, the minor raising of one fine eyebrow the only little change in his expression.
"I heard-"
The sudden sound of her voice again made them all jump.
"–that. Who you calling little, civvy? I found out and perfected this ability years ago. This is no new trick. I've done this once before in public. Where were you that time? There's – "
A random female worker Tatsumaki never cared to learn the name of spoke up. "Around that time, he'd been in an accident that left him in a coma for two weeks."
But it was as if Tatsumaki hadn't heard her at all. The second rank kept right on talking over her.
" – more to my powers a simpleton like you wouldn't understand. No one person knows all the things I am capable of doing. Not even my sister."
That was earlier after noon. They haven't heard from her again for the next couple of hours.
It was a useful ability. Just as she was able to send her voice to anyone she wanted by knowing their location, able to throw her verbal sayings to places where the people were that she wanted to get the message to, Tatsumaki could also throw the sounds made from that place, or any place really, back to where she was. The world's strongest ESP human was able to have conversations with anybody on earth with no help from techso gadgets. She could hear them and they were able to hear her as clear as speaking through any advanced communication device and as loud as if in the same time, same place as them.
No, it wasn't telepathy. She couldn't read minds or talk to others in their heads. This was all outside voices. Not inside.
The only reason Tornado of Terror hadn't heard the lady was because she didn't think to simultaneously send the voices in that one room in the headquarters back to her while she was in the middle of talking.
Tornado of Terror hated being interrupted. They were free to choose not to hear her out if they so wanted. They could have had their ears covered for however long she was yapping. They could speak to someone with their headset. Or they could blast music using earphones. But when she was talking, they best let her finish talking. Because only when she was done talking would she hear them out.
Back in her early teens, she pranked her relatives every now and then. Not all the time because even that got tiring and doing it so often would have none of the startled surprise she always tried to aim for with their reactions.
She'd pranked total strangers from random cities too.
While most strangers freaked out on her, there were these two dudes she tried pranking last year, both pranks months apart, where she ended up enjoying the talks she had with them. Both men were a few years younger than her and they claimed to be heroes just like her.
One man said he had the ability to defeat any monster with a single punch and how he hated it because it made fighting boring.
At first, Tatsumaki had to roll her eyes at that. She thought he was just another egotistical man who overestimated his strength like most men had the tendency to do. She pictured him as a head-to-toe hairy guy with scars from battles won. She thought he was at least seven to eight feet tall with a heavily muscled body that could wreck wrecking balls without the need to dodge out of the way, or tighten and flex his muscles, as the ball that was known to cause wreckage would shatter upon impact on his person.
Though, even if the guy was nowhere near her level of power, she understood the annoyance of how being so strong could be. How exasperating it was not able to meet anyone who could challenge her.
They had that in common.
But that was where their alikeness ended.
It turned out the man, who Tatsumaki couldn't remember the name of or his superhero name, was unknown. When she talked to him, he had just joined the National Hero Registry and hadn't gotten his superhero name yet. He was bald, was only a hero for fun, and he lived in a small apartment he sometimes couldn't even afford to pay rent on time. He spoke about free food. The monsters he wiped out sometimes become the main ingredient of his home cooked meals.
Tatsumaki was the opposite of all those. She was not bald. People knew her. 'Cause, ya'know, since she was an S Class superhero and all. She felt that being a superhero was an obligation. And she had money! She had a big place. There was never a need to take home the monsters and demons she took out just to feed herself.
Besides, why eat filthy monsters when she could fly her favorite good mood food from all over the world to her using her powers? (Sometimes) she payed for them. When she remembered to, that was. She'd send money, usually double the amount than what was the total price she took, to those places with a short and to the point explanation to the owners that she- "Robbed them the other day, so here's some payment."
She could buy all the food she wanted and, unlike her younger sister, she never felt the need to watch what she ate. It was hard for Tatsumaki to gain weight. She ate as much energy as her mind powers burned energy each day. Flying about and moving things around was like working out. It was exercise for her mind. It made her powers stronger and last longer.
Her sister didn't use her powers as much. Sometimes her sister, Fubuki, let her underlings do all the dirty work before lifting a finger to help when they were unable to take care of the problem. That's why Tatsumaki's sister had to watch what she ate. She didn't burn as much energy.
The single-hit guy also mentioned he was into anime and manga and video games. Tornado of Terror was a fan of manga and anime. But she wasn't that into video games. She didn't understand them. She'd rather daydream.
The other guy - whose real name, nickname, and superhero name she also forgot - was a bit more weird. He told her the story of his life, how he was in fact a prince from another dimension. He appeared in this world at the age of 12, and at 14, decided to become a hero after seeing a hero show on television.
She's not gonna lie. The whole time she was talking to him, she thought he was delusional. She thought he was one of those losers who was constantly living a fantasy life in their head and couldn't tell what was reality and what wasn't anymore. She had imagined him slightly chubby with a bowl cut hair and average height.
Tatsumaki thought the guy was about as somewhat interesting as the other dude. This guy had a strong sense of justice. She kind of liked that about him. But all of his justice-speeching had made her feel simultaneously awed and annoyed.
She tried to contact them both again. But Tornado of Terror didn't remember the locations she sent her voice to and threw their voices from. Not that she tried her hardest to remember. She moved on from them after nearly a full minute of failing to remember where they were when she'd esper-spoken to them.
And yes, the "same time, same place" bit about her espered voice did imply she could even send her voice, not only through space, but through time as well.
Every morning, since she turned nine years old, she would use her own ESP voice jumper as an alarm clock, and – or, a schedule planner reminder.
Like, only the night before she loudly spoke, "Wake up." She ESP-ed her voice not to echo repeat back the words until it was 7 AM. So, early in the a.m., she was woken at 7 o'clock by her own say.
And not only that. The lady could also psychokinesis her motion force. Through time and space, she was able to make people and objects move. Along with the voice of hers telling herself to wake up, Tatsumaki was forcefully shoved out of her own bed, too. By a force she forced.
Tatsumaki let out a grunt.
It was time to bother some people. The little lady patted all of the pocket areas she had. She was about to reach for her phone –
PAT. Nope, no phone there.
PATPAT. No phone.
PAT. PAT. "Gah!"
-which was currently not in any of her pockets at that moment.
For a split second, a memory back to when she last had her phone flashed in her mind.
She blinked.
Eyes rolling and a sigh escaping her lips, she threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "My phone fell in the toilet." Tatsumaki leaned back. She interlaced her hands behind her head and went horizontal in the air as if lying on an invisible bed.
Oh, well. She didn't need her phone.
She would see what Silver Fang was up to. He was probably back in his dojo. Earlier, when she called the number there, his one and currently only student answered, telling her, "Master was hanging out playing games with Genos, a bald caped B Class nobody, King, and your sister with every one of her lackeys."
Closing her eyes – no, she didn't have to do this to talk to someone long distant away – the 28-year-old threw her voice.
"S Class, Rank 3, are you there?"
The question was heard inside Bang's gym dojo in Z City.
Tornado of Terror was in A City.
The questioning voice then reached the front yard outside of the dojo.
"S Class-"
In
"–Rank 3-"
each
"–are-"
flights
"–you-"
of
"–there?"
..stairs before the dojo, her voice descending the many steps.
"S Class, Rank 3!"
In the area between the bottom steps and the small forest within Z City.
Tatsumaki puffed. She pulled her interlocked fingers from behind her head and crossed her arms, growling. Opening her eyes, she glared and grumbled at her high livingroom ceiling. "How bothersome."
Not only could the S Class, Rank 2 Esper send her voice to one tiny spot anywhere, she could also have her voice heard all around a much larger area.
Or multiple places at the same time, large or small.
On the second day of being a superhero, she quickly grew tired of civvy people questioning who she was. It was in the middle of that day, when the then fifth ranker of S Class had the whole country, cities A through Z, hear Tiny Tornado of Terror's voice.
Back then, Silver Fang, Atomic Samurai, and Metal Knight were still ahead of her in rank.
Only those with fine hearing heard her that day. Tatsumaki's powers didn't involve talking to people telepathically. So deaf people that had family and friends nearby were informed soon after the message was heard.
"Listen up, civvies! This is S Class, Rank 5, Tornado of Terror. No, there is no "tiny" in my superhero name. Best understand this, got it? Good. Carry on!"
Those in their homes doing their own thing were startled by the random out-of-the-blue message by an out-of-nowhere voice. People at the malls hanging out heard. Peeps taking care of business in the office- or taking care of their business in the bathroom heard. Those in school, out on the streets, the beach, at the parks, inside the hospitals– had jumped in surprise. The ones lightly dosing woke..
But those in deep heavy sleep, unconscious, or in a coma, in headphones, stuck in delusions – etcetera – did not hear the message.
People held captive screamed to her alter ego identity for help.
If Tatsumaki then had let herself hear the voices of the whole country, she could have heard and save those that were in accidents that day, beaten that day, kidnapped that day. She could have helped the ones that had medical issues and were hurt or injured with no phone on them to call an ambulance at that time.. She could have prevented the deaths of several who were killed that day.
At least some of them.
But nope. She hadn't. She'd only voiced her message throughout the country.
Didn't care to hear anyone's reaction or cries for help then.
Tatsumaki just saw in the news the following day what people thought of her then. She read some of the "comments" in the Heroes Association site by friends and family of the victims and survivors. Too terrified of her were they, of what she could do to them if they dared complain or demand she get fired, they only let their experiences the day before known online, indirectly talking to the Superheroes Society while hiding behind their computer screens.
Tatsumaki tried not to let it get to her. But. It did.
She cried then. She didn't cry often. She was a "tough, mini-sized woman" according to her younger sister, Fubuki.
So it was quite a shock to Fubuki, Miss Blizzard, seeing her sister sprawled on the floor, bawling her eyes out like that on the third day of being a superhero. The lady Blizzard of Hell, a then eighth ranker of Class B, knew what had her big older little sis sobbing. She read comments in the internet about her sibling all morning.
Before that day, Tatsumaki joined the Superhero Society for the money and fame. But starting that day years ago, she began to feel her job as a hero to be a duty.
In and out of Silver Fang's dojo property,
the little forest between his dojo and the seemably deserted part of Z City,
the dojo of his older brother, Bomb,
the stores Silver Fang often went to,
the food places, fast or fancy, the old fart visits often,
the rooms the old man's usually in at the Heroes Organization Headquarters in A City,
the rooms the old man's usually in at the Heroes Organization Headquarters in Z City,
in the parts of Z Park Silver Fang preferred to hang out in..
...reached Tornado of Terror's growl.
Her voice hit all those places except Bang's home. The petite lady had no clue where he actually lived.
At Z Park, Bang was showing young Miss Blizzard and her Blizzard Group of ladies and not so gentlemen some of the training he had his students do.
Would have had his student(s) do. He currently only had one student.
But that was about to change. Soon. Fingers crossed!
While his only student (for now) was running this way and that, back-and-forth and around in circles, Bang was chasing the young man.
While freaking backwards.
And upside down.
On one hand with his other hand tied behind his back.
Blindfolded.
And with his ears plugged.
And Bang was keeping up with the guy more than four times younger than him. Who was unimpressively right-side-up running on his own two feet, facing forward, his eyes and ears not covered. Truthfully, the student was supposed to do what the teacher was doing. The young man was supposed to chase the grandpa-aged teacher around while his sight and hearing was blocked.
Ha! No way was the dude at that level yet.
Hours before, the Blizzard Group were pestering Saitama the "Caped Baldy" again. They were never going to quit trying to recruit the B Class.
The Blizzards were all in Class B. With Saitama joining them, other than the S Classers and the top ranking Class A's, the Blizzards would be the strongest group. Maybe even stronger than the lower ranking half of the Class A-ers put together with the Blizzard Group's combined strengths and strength in numbers.
Class B, Rank 1, Miss Blizzard of Hell, once tried and failed to defeat the bald guy in a silly cape on her own. Since her power level was comparable to a high ranking A Classer, if the Superheroes Society actually saw Caped Baldy in action, they probably would have bumped him up to a top rank in Class A.
But the lady Blizzard was pretty certain the dude was not yet in the same level as Class A, Rank 1, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask.
How utteringlied inaccurate of Miss Blizzard and millions of others in the city and neighboring cities.
They had no idea that a single punch from Saitama could have Sweet Mask shattering into trillions of microscopic pieces of unrecognizable skin, muscle, bones, guts, and other innardly stuff.
Around noon that day, Saitama's team was once more challenged by the Blizzard Group to another random competition. The past challenges have all been different. Luckily, Saitama's team have always won so far. This last competition was an eating challenge.
Loser team had to do whatever the winning team said. As always.
Saitama and S Classed Silver Fang and King lost to a big guy in the Blizzard Group.
But that big guy was no match for S Class Genos's appetite.
Even though the Blizzards were defeated again for the seventh time, they didn't lose hope that one of these days, sooner or later, they would win and have Caped Baldy, Bang, Genos, and King join the Blizzards of Hell.
The main person they really wanted to recruit was Saitama. It made more sense for him to join them than the S Classers. He was in B Class, same as all of the members.
Foh sho, they could not force the three Class S's to join. Even with Miss Blizzard and her flunkies combined capabilities, it was still not enough to force at least even the last ranking S Class, rank 17, to do anything.
But it would be pretty awesome if every person in Caped Baldy's team held up their end of the deal and joined the Blizzard Group when the Blizzards do eventually come out the victor in a competition.
As the winning side, Saitama and Genos told Fubuki no more challenges for at least the rest of that year.
It was only February 14.
Ten months–
Ten and a half months before her and her underlings could ask for another challenge.
That wouldn't do.
She would just have to find another way to trick Saitama into another competition.
The other two men on the winning team didn't mind the challenges that much. They knew it was Saitama the Blizzard Group were really after. If and when Saitama's team did eventually lost to them, the Class S's knew they did not have to join.
But Caped Baldy was their friend.
They're always going to do their best to win. Not only just to win for Baldy's sake. They all wanted to win for the sake of winning.
A competition was a competition.
They were men.
They were superheroes.
They'll never back down.
Besides, while their straight victories were more than satisfactory, having the loser competition do what they want was hecka awesome, too. It was like icing on a cake– or a cherry on top of the icing cake... Whatever the saying goes.. Bottom line. It was a bonus.
That day, King, the Strongest Man on Earth - Ha! Lie! - asked for five new video games. He did the same the other five wins previous because during the first time Saitama's group won, King and his friends were treated at a restaurant by Fubuki.
Thirty freakin expensive new games in a few months. The games King had been saving up for. He had no need to spend the money now.
Snort.
Wow.
Life was good.
The only thing the old dojo master Bang had asked for in past winnings was to have them all to eat out at his favorite restaurant. With karaoke and drinks, having a great time, and y'know, having the losers pay for everything.
Hee! Hee!
But nah. Not this time. This time he asked that all of the Blizzard Group from Hell either join his dojo, or help him find students to join his dojo.
Most of the men and women didn't want to join so for a couple hours now they tried helping the grey haired and wrinkled senior.
Some said they would think about it.
Only two, both females, a girl in her late teens and a lady in her early 30s, made the decision to join. They were brave. Go women power to them..
Bak-bak. The rest of the Blizzards were big fat chickens.
More of them might have thought of joining. But then they remembered hearing the rumors about how one of Bang's student went berserk injuring the master's other students.
That student was long gone, banished by Bang.
But the B Class dudes and dudines were afraid at the likelihood of the mad man showing up again after if-when they joined to cripple them all in the same way.
Truthfully, the two ladies, who made up their minds to join Bang's dojo, hadn't heard of any of this. So it wasn't exactly that they were brave so much as unknowing of the dangerous not-so-long-ago history of the dojo.
6 o'clock P.M.
While watching the master and student, The Blizzards were handing out fliers to random park goers.
It was now dark, yet there were still people in the park. Usually, they would have already locked themselves inside their homes before the sun even set. But with a third ranking S Class superhero there and a whole group of Class B heroes, people felt it was safe to stay. At best within eyesight of them.
Young grownup park joggers, park hanger-outter teens, adults watching park playing children, and the park playing kids were each given fliers.
Bang thought maybe he should open the dojo to anyone five years and up.
"S Class, Rank 3, Silver Fart. Are you there?"
Silver Fart- uh?
Yeah, okiedokes. Whatevs..
The old fart didn't hear Tornado of Terror's voice call for him. He didn't see his student, Fubuki, and all the members of her group jump, startled by the sudden sound of the group's leader's older, shorter sister's voice.
But Bang did know when his student stopped running.
How did the old man know that?
He just did.
He felt it and so halted a split of a split moment after the young man stopped, stopping about an inch behind the dude. And thinking the guy was only taking a quick break to catch his breath, Bang, still upsidedown on one hand, handhopped around his student and kept on handrunhopping until he was no longer seeable to the man and the Blizzard Group.
Uponeded seeing superhero Silver Fang leave, civilians started making their way home. They didn't feel as safe at the park in the dark now that the S Class left. But it wasn't because they didn't think the strongest group in the Hero's Association couldn't keep them safe. They were just a little afraid of the group of B Class themselves.
The Class B heroes felt a little insulted.
Fubuki gulped. "Sister?" She looked around. Her older sister was not there.
This must be the same thing as that fancy power show off trick her older sis did back when they were still new to being superheroes. Fubuki never knew her sister had this power back then. It surprised her. A cool power big -ahem- "shorter big sis" had that Fubuki didn't. Another way her sister was better than her.
Sigh.
At first, Fubuki wasn't sure if she was jealous. She was sure she would have been.
But this strange power of sis's was like talking on the phone. And who doesn't have a phone nowadays?
But at least with a phone both could hear both sides at the same time.
Last time Fubuki remembered Tatsumaki using this power, Tatsumaki didn't hear the people calling to her.
Maybe because the people didn't have the power to talk back to her sis? One would think her older sibling had the power to hear them if she wanted to.. Or it could have just been because her sis then wasn't talking to anyone in particular and so didn't hear them?
Her sister never used this power again after that. Not that Miss Blizzard knew of. This would be the second time Fubuki witnessed this strange power of Tatsumaki's.
"Fubuki."
"Sis, you can hear me?"
"Duh."
There was a pause before..
"...Hold on. There are like over a hundred people trying to talk to me at once."
Miss Blizzard frowned. Oh. So it appeared the petite green haired woman can hear others. Had her sister always been able to hear others? Did she ignore the cries for help of the towns and neighboring towns people? Or did the older esper gained this ability only recently? Or was there a different reason why her sibling didn't hear them then but is hearing them now? Combing a hand through her hair, Fubuki advised, "Don't ignore them. What happened last time might happen again."
Tatsumaki snorted.
"Don't worry. The whole country isn't hearing me right now. Only people currently in the places Rank 3's usually around heard me. Not at this moment though. I'm speaking to only you now. No, nobody sounds hurt or is calling for me. They're all just saying HI right now."
The stronger ESP user sighed.
"A couple dudes here and there are asking me to marry them. And a lady just yelled out her son was of legal age to marry. She doesn't care if her son is gay. She wants him to marry me."
She let out another sigh.
"And a couple just asked me to autograph their child."
She scoffed.
"A man, who may or may not be a man, he sounds like a talking chipmunk, just asked me to bare him a kid."
Sighing once more, she grumbled,
"And all the students in Bomb's dojo were chanting, TINY Tornado of Terror. TINY Tornado of Terror!"
"That sucks."
Tatsumaki cackled.
"Eh. My screams will be heard throughout Bomb's dojo all month. Over and over, day and night and over again they'll hear, "TORNADO OF TERROR! Get it right! TORNADO OF TERROR! Get it right!" inside the dojo and about a two hundred feet radius outside of the dojo."
Tatsumaki let out an unladylike snort.
Fubuki could hear the smirk in her sister's voice.
"See if they ever dare call me tiny again.."
Laughing nervously, Miss Blizzard of Hell shuddered. "Sis. You are scary."
"I know– wait."
"What?"
"Have you seen Rank 3? I've been calling him in places I know he's usually in. He hasn't answered me."
"Why, is it important?"
"No."
"Ooh.. 'kay..." That confused Fubuki.
"I was bored again. Decided to call someone. He was randomly my first choice. It's not important, but him not answering me is annoying."
"Ooh." Fubuki shrugged. "Well, I just saw him handrun away. Blindfolded and ears plugged."
"That would explain it. But enough about the old fart. What you up to?"
"You know, the usual."
Tatsumaki took a shot at guessing.
"Trying not to eat?"
"Well, I'm not not trying to eat. I've actually been busy."
"Trying to look intimidating with all your lackeys at the park,"
Tatsumaki tried guessing again.
Eyes rolling at that, Fubuki looked over to her underlings, a hand drumming her other forearm. "Guessing isn't your thing, sibling. In fact, we've been trying to look as approachable as we're physically able to in black suits and shades."
"Wear white. Or rainbow. Or maybe have free food with you. People normally come for the free food."
"White, never. Rainbow? Ew, no thank you. Free food? Maybe tomorrow. We're almost done for today. It's getting late."
"You know, people might think you're trying to poison them. Wear something else other than black."
"No."
Tatsumaki blew a raspberry.
"Very mature."
"I apologize. That was not my intention. I meant to act immature. But if you couldn't tell that, sis, well... Uh.."
Tatsumaki laughed.
"Nevermind. I have no idea where I'm going with this."
Bang's one and only stupid –no, sorry - Bang's one and only student (for now) grumbled. "Boring," whined the stupi- the student. He shook his head and ran off to go find Master Bang.
"So,"
Tatsumaki started.
"If you're not doing your usual of trying to look all scary and starving yourself,"
she coughed,
"then what is it exactly you are trying to do, hmm?"
"Recruiting Caped Baldy. You know. Like usual."
"That loser again? What's so great about him?"
"Ask Silver Fang, King, and Genos. They're friends with the guy. The man's strong. I want him on my team."
Tatsumaki didn't understand why three S Classers and her sister wanted to do anything with a boring looking bald boy. Her sister even told her how a Class S level ninja assassin by the name Speed-O' Sound Sonic was obsessed with trying to defeat the B Class nobody.
A Class B nobody.
Seriously.
"Whatever,"
humphed the older lady.
"See you later."
Miss Blizzard waved a hand to dismiss Tornado of Terror. Then she paused mid swing of her hand. Could her sister even see her? Could Tatsumaki also see her if she wanted to?
8:something P.M.
After about another two more hours of aimlessly air swimming around in her home and daydreaming about random things, ahem - yaoi - cough, Tatsumaki's stomach growled like a cray-cray hungry wild animal. She hadn't had anything to eat since noon. All the flying around made her hungry. "I think I'll go to where all the best desserts and treats are.
And with that, up, up, and away she wooshed, all the way from A-City to Z-City because that's where..
..a three-story Mouth Watering Mansion was at where she appeared a few minutes later.
Cookies, muffins, cakes, cupcakes, donuts, ice-creams, candies of all sizes, shapes, brands, and range of sweetness. All. There.
...
Mumen "Chosen" Rider was paying for a dozen Tooth Decaying Donuts when he saw the freezer opening behind the woman standing in front of the cash register by an invisible force. Two whole gallon tubs of ice cream flew out.
"Will that be all," the lady asked.
"Uh." Quick! He had to think fast. Sighing casually, he shrugged. "Maybe a popsicle or something. Any flavor," came his nonchalant reply.
The lady turned as the two tubs of Body Ruining ice cream went flying over her head, missing them.
The miss, or missus, judging by the wedding ring on her finger, rolled her eyes at the wide open freezer door. "Seriously? Who left this open? The jerks." As she went to grab a random popsicle in the opened freezer, a drawer opened itself up beside her. An ice cream scooper levitated out. The drawer closed right when she stood and the ice cream scooper was out of sight the moment she turned back to face the check out register. She held out the popsicle for him.
He didn't take it. But handed her the cash that covered the cost of a dozen cupcakes, plus the two tubs of ice cream, and what the cost of an average ice cream scooper might've been. "You know what," he gently pushed at the outstretched hand that held the popsicle. "I change my mind." He pointed to the money he gave her. "But go ahead and keep the change," he nodded.
Then left.
There actually was no change. He gave an exact amount. Almost exact amount. Okay, he gave an almost-amount. But the lady didn't know two gallon tubs of Body Ruinings and an ice cream scooper just went missing. So to her, it was as if he'd just given her a big tip.
When Mumen Rider, the ex-bicyclist hero who now went by his middle name "Chosen" found a person sitting in front of two gallons of ice cream with an ice cream scooper, he walked right up to her. "Miss Tornado of Terror, I believe?" He set the dozen donuts down on the table.
Tatsumaki lifted her head slightly and looked at him from the corner of her eye. "Whyuyouwah," asked the esper, both of her cheeks bulging like two shapely butts from the two scoops of Body Ruining she had shoved in each. In one gulp, she swallowed the four scoops of ice cream in her mouth. "Do not assume you can just freely converse with me as you please, civvie lowlife."
He stared at her.
She stared at him. He doesn't move like she wanted him to. No, she did not try her ESP powers on him. She was focusing wholey on stuffing her face with her second favorite ice cream flavor in the world. She wasn't even levitationing herself. She was uber muchly for reals on her little bottom, giving a hundred percent of her attention to chowing down the tubs. But this man here was keeping her from doing just that.
Might as well that Tornado of Terror didn't try to esper at him. She would be more disappointed she literal-truly could not have him ESP-ed no matter how hard she focused on moving him.
Being gone for four months… His kidnappers.. They did something to him. Because powers don't work on him. Powers couldn't hurt him. Powers can't make him do anything.
But magic could. And as far as he knew, magic didn't exist in this world. But where he was taken to by his kidnappers, that world was full of magic.
He got hurt there.
A lot.
His kidnappers were also the reason he first came to this world over a decade ago. They were the reason he was blind. And because of them, he wore goggles that allowed him to see outlines of things and people in his surroundings. It was like watching a black and white animation without the shades of gray. Everything was black. A half detailed drawing of beings and things were in white. No shades. No shadows.
He couldn't see clouds or smoke, but he could see the outline of the sun. He had no way of knowing if he was looking at the sun or moon if he didn't sleep at night, it was the days of a full or almost full moon, and there was no clock to tell him if it was A.M. or P.M.. He couldn't see the reflections on reflective surfaces, the light of the sun, or the light of any lightbulb. But he was able to see the shapes of lightbulbs and the shape of the sun.
Since appearing in this world, "Chosen" had never seen the stars. They have no outline in his vision through the goggles. If stars weren't several light years away, he might be able to see their outlines like he could with the sun. But since they were so far, they were now just traveling light to him. And "Chosen" can't see the light.
By the way, the air quotes around "Chosen" is part of the spelling of his middle name.
She stared at him.
He stared at her.
She jerked his way, growling at him.
He flinched back, hands shooting up and out in front of his chest as if ready to karate chop at something. He threw her a jokingly serious facial expression, hands and body doing a comical attempt at a karate movement and stance. "Please spare the guy who just payed for your Body Ruins and ice cream scooper." He glanced down at the dozen Tooth Decaying donuts he bought. "At least until these are all gone." He picked up two Tooth Decaying tooth decayers and bit big chomps from each. With each hands full, he used his forearm to push the box of donuts an inch closer to her. "Want some," he offered.
She stared at him. After a lengthly pause, she sighed, rollering her eyeballs at the oh-so kind dude. "Whatever," Tornado of Terror mumbled as she grabbed a donut and threw it to her open mouth. She pretty much inhaled it. She skipped the chewing and unnaturally swallowed it whole.
The single word reply of hers was meant to be short for something.
Translation: Thank you for the donuts. Please, have a seat. Let's be friends. I don't mind being friends with a weakling nobody.
Tornado of Terror's younger sister was the only one she knew to have closestlierly understood that.
"Chosen" planted his butt on the seat next to the S Class. He shoved both donuts into his speaky-eater hole and with a mouth full of Tooth Decay, replied, "No biggie. You are welcome, my new friend."
It seemed the guy understood the real meaning she meant behind the one word answer too, and understood it probably even better than her sister did.
Licking his lips, the dude slowly brought another donut to his lips that couldn't get enough. A somewhat metaphoric talk. Because he had enough. His tummy had enough. The foodway tube in his throat was getting sick of swallowing the sweets. It was only his tongue that was still looking for more.
Body Ruining.
Tooth Decaying.
Alternatingly, simultaneously, or at random until Tatsumaki finished one tub of ice cream. She peeked inside the donut box and saw there was one left.
The man pushed the box to her. "Take it," he offered.
She took it.
"So," he grinned. "I remember hearing somewhere, I'm not sure where, maybe someone quoting you online, that you're a fan of the Realm Hopping book series?" He waved at her excitedly with both hands before pointing his thumbs to his chest. "I'm a fan, too."
Tatsumaki blinked. She couldn't get Fubuki or the other Class S'es to read the books. She got three workers from the Hero Association Society to try the first book. None of them liked it. And she would always argue with other Realm Hopping fans she met online because they liked all the wrong characters and had unforgivable One True Pairing ships. So she bet, whatever this dude's name was, that he was just like the rest of them.
"Don't you just hate it when nobody else likes the K2 and QX ship? MN and UW also totally go together."
Ha! She sure lost that bet.. with herself.
As the no-name kept blabbering about the Realm Hopping, a strong epiphany smacked Tatsumaki right in the face, upside the head, and blew-up like fireworks in her mind.
She was going to be bestfriends with this man.
He yapped on.
She listened and agreed to most everything he had to say.
The past hour was the most she'd ever nodded in her life. It was actually quite nice being this agreeable for once.
She had the deep gut feeling she would never ever nod like this ever again if anything were to happen to him. Foh sho, it would have had to be him that something happened to and not her. It was going to be him because nothing would ever happen to her, duh.
Not everything lost is a loss. No lie, she'd gladly lose the bet again with herself (Haha. Toink.) if it meant being hit with an intense realisensation like this that she had just found her very first bestfriend.
If she ever felt the need to squee, it was now and it'll be the first time ever. SQUEE! Even if it was just mentally. Her favorite books, shows, and food never made her want to squee like this. They put a smile on her face, yeah, but not once did she remember ever wanting to squee like this.
Normally, she would never share her food. To her, a single piece and one scoop shared, was a single piece and one scoop too many. She felt she was already oversharing with just that one while others would call her selfish. Every shared pieces and scoops, or whatever, was the pieces and scoops she could have had for herself- lost. Lost! That made it a loss. Having a loss was a gigantihuge "NO" to the tiny Tornado of Terror.
Gaining a friend wasn't normal, though.
What was a lost scoop if she gained a friend? It was like an exchange. So really, it wasn't even a loss since it made things even. Right?
She couldn't believe she was about to do this.
Abnormally, she scooped up a scoop of Body Ruining ice cream and held out the ice cream scooper to her new bestest friend. A scoop was all she was willing to share with him. He was not yet worth more than a scoop of her second favorite ice cream. The thought of losing - "sharing" really, because to Tatsumaki, those two different words might as well be the same exact one - the thought of losing more scoops of ice cream to him in the future strangely did not make her face want to frown. In fact, she would say she couldn't wait. Because it only meant they were way deep in this bestfriendship and there was no turning back! He was stuck with her now! Forever and ever- Bwhahahah!
A mental image and surround soundings of thunder and lightning boomed, cracked, and flashed all around her-
No. Wait.
It was real.
The sound of heavy rain followed a moment after.
With a slight twitch of her eyebrows, terrifying Tornado of Terror had the storm clouds flying away from Z City.
The big bright crescent moon beamed down on the towns people.
The people of Z City beamed back.
They celebrated. Those that had plans that night but had to cancel because they were expecting a storm, decanceled their plans. Everyone's plans were back in action. Those that didn't make plans that night because they were expecting a storm, suddenly found themselves having plans. What most of their plans involved was staying in crowded places and using cars or buses instead of on foot in case they had to flee from monsters. After all, it was night time.
But the lack of Demon level threats and the fewer and fewerenings of Tiger and Wolf level threats these few weeks made the towns people more daring. In a still slightly cautious way. Some had plans to stay in crowded indoors like the malls and movie theaters. Others with outdoorsy plans were going to the nightly party at Perpetual Pawr Tay street in 36th Avenue. A young multi billionaire, who renamed the street, owned all the houses in that street. There were parties every night the sky was clear. Anyone who wanted to go were welcome. Complete random strangers too drunk to go home were welcome to sleep in one of the homes.
Several homeless people actually stay in some of those homes. It was fine as long as they cleaned up every morning after the parties. Sometimes it took them all day but just in time for another party later that night.
The grateful people of Z City knew who to thank. In unison, as if rehearsed, a loud "Thank you, Tornado of Terror" was shouted by more than half the people in town that the neighboring cities heard.
Her mind was a bit clearer now that the hunger pangs was gone. She realized after stuffering her food tube a full gallon tub of ice cream, the nice guy did just let her eat eight of his donuts.
Alrighty then! Maybe he was worth losing - sharing - two scoops of ice cream, after all! The scoop in the scooper she had held out for him, she threw in his direction, the melting glob stopping mid air inches from his face.
"Chosen" licked the slimy, silky, honest to goodness. He saw Tornado of Terror was about to throw another scoop his way when he help up a hand. "That's okay," he politely turned down. "I'm good with just this. Thank you." Before buying the dozen Tooth Decaying donuts, he bought and finished a dozen Gum Rotting cupcakes by himself.
"What the-" Tatsumaki jerked back, mid gasped, and frowned. She paused. Then shrugged, face blank once more. Oh, well. She tried to be nice... "More for me then."
A ringtone sounded. It was an anime theme song and the anime was her most watched one.
"Chosen" took out his phone. "Yes," he answered, slurping the flying melted goo before him. A second later, he held out the phone to a gawk faced S Class superhero.
"Tornado of Terror."
"Huh," questioned the world's best esper.
"Thanks a lot for the rain." The person didn't sound thankful. The tone of voice was too flat. "That was sarcasm." Again. Monotone.
"Uh-huh."
The worker from Superhero Society Headquarters in A City, the man who hung up on her earlier that afternoon, hung up on her a second time that day.
"Chosen" had asked the National Superhero Registry to take his name off of the database. The phone they called him on was the same one he had before he was kidnapped. He kept his old number. In case they needed him for anything. He was happy to help. But he didn't want to be known as a hero while he was even weaker than he was before. He'll think about signing up again once he was confident he was strong enough to pass the fitness test in the Super Hero Entrance Exam. Along with his phone, all of his belongings were taken with him four months ago. Now that he's back, all of his things were brought back with him as well. His kidnappers weren't thieves.
"Chosen" shook his head, chuckling. "You sent the storm to A City? Weren't they going to do their nightly solar system checks tonight? It's important they see oncoming spaceships to prevent what happened to A-City from ever happening again to any city."
"Don't worry. As soon as an Unidentified Flying Object enter our solar system, my freezing force field will halt it in its place - or at least slow it down if it's not strong enough - and while that's going on, my voice will sound throughout the world, saying "UFO Alert" repeatedly until everyone in the country are safe underground in one of the Unyuu MANSIONs."
The Unyuu family were friends with the founder of the Superhero Association founder, Agoni. They were even richer than him. MULTI-QUINTILLIONAIRES. They had MANSIONs throughout the country. One in each city. The entrance to each Unyuu MANSION were the size of the Tokyo Dome, each of the underground living spaces were the size of the city it was under.
"Chosen" stared at her. She was still gaping at him. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"
She lied. She thought she never mentally squeeded before meeting him. She had, actually. That anime theme song he had as a ringtone was the song that made her squee once before. That song was her life.
...
Fubuki snorted. "Jee, sis. If you love the song so much, why don't you go and marry it?"
"I just might," humphed Tatsumaki. Sighing, she slumped. "No.. It's impossible."
"Annoying little..." Fubuki scratched her head, irritated.
Tatsumaki wondered out loud. "Maybe I'll marry whoever wrote the song?"
"Why not marry the next freakin dude you meet who has this as a ringtone or something? Whatever. Just quit listening to the song for a bit, will you?"
...
So twice now. Twice, she'd squeed and both times were because of him. Even if it was only mentally. "I like your ringtone," the comment slipped right out of her lips very approvinglike.
Smiling, "Chosen" gave her an appreciative bow. "Why, thank you." He tried and failed to stifle a giddy muffled giggle. "I actually wrote and sang it when I was 17. It's an anime theme song," he explained as if she didn't already know. Looking around before leaning in, in a hushed voice, he spilled a secret. "Fans of the Realm Hopping books don't know this yet. In a few years, the book series will be made into an anime and my friend, who I sometimes give ideas for the story for, told me he wants me to compose a soundtrack for the show."
He freakin wrote the song?! Tatsumaki squee-ed.
Only this time, it wasn't in her head.
He threw his head back and let out a laugh.
Forget about a bestfriendship with this man. She wanted way more than a boring simple bestfriendship. She turned her head away from him abruptly, her cheeks bright and burning and embarrassed by her own thought. Clearing her throat after a moment, she questioned, "You're a musician?"
He nodded. Somewhat unsuredly. "Yeah.. ish." He scratched the back of his neck. "I wasn't from here. Came here when I was 12. I got into music. There were no computers and internet where I came from. You can bet I was on the computer day and night here. I searched all about music. Taught myself how to play guitar, violin, keyboard, how to read notes. Online videos really helped. I'm a drummer, too."
Tatsumaki couldn't help but think she'd heard this story before. "Where were you from?"
Lips pursed, he blinked. Wait a sec. "Chosen" rested his chin on his palms and drummed his fingers against his cheeks, squinting his eyes at her. A memory came to him. "Yeah, that's right. I've told you all this before."
"We've never met before now," she said out loud. On the inside, her feels were being hit with deja vu.
"Last year, remember?"
Nothing was coming to mind. But she believed him.
"I'm a prince from another dimension."
She sucked in her lips, eyes widening, hair rising. She froze. Oh.. "It's a small world." Nothing was impossible. The guy could for reals be telling the truth. The skeptic in her was just being too stubborn to fully believe him.
"When I was 14, I got into hero stuff. When not playing music or making music, I was trying to save people. It didn't matter if I had a chance or not." He snorted. "That went on for about eight years until the Superhero Society started a couple years ago. Became a full time hero until I disappeared four months ago."
Tornado of Terror raised an eyebrow at that. "Full time?" What did that mean? She was a superhero, but she mostly spent it at home, uber bored. Whenever she would go and try to take care of a demon, monster, out of control science experiment, or a self proclaimed god, she'd get a call by one of the staff members in one of the Hero Association headquarters telling her to go home.
The S Class, Rank 2 wasn't a full time superhero. The esper was only a superhero when they wanted her to be. That was the way for top rankers in Class S.
Oh, yeah. Right. She remembered him saying back then he was a C-Class hero. Those in Class C, whether they were a low ranking or a high ranking C-er, were required to do weekly heroic acts to stay in the Hero's Association. This guy disappeared for months, he said. So his name was probably out of the Heroes Registration now.
Why did he disappear, she didn't know. And she would stay not knowing because she didn't ask.
She watched him frown at his phone.
"Chosen" shook his head and sighed. "I'm sorry. I have to go." He started to get up, but paused when he glanced at her. Suddenly, he was inches from her face, his brows furrowing as he stared hard into her heart-shaped pupils. "You've got heart shaped pupils," he said. He looked at the bottom ends of her hair. "And the bottom of your hair curls are curled into heart shapes all of a sudden."
Oh, no! What if he realized her sudden attraction to him? Tatsumaki's face was on fire.
But for reals, though? She took a peep down at the corner of her eye and sure enough, in front of her shoulder were messy strands of her green hair, the ends curled into little heart shapes. How embarrassing! And he was so close... Her heartbeat quickened.
"Chosen" happened to look down on the table. He did a double take. "Woaw. That wasn't there before. Where did these come from?" In front of him was a chocolate cake decorated with chocolate chibi heads of Realm Hopping characters. In the center of the cake were the words -
Happy Valentines Day,
bestfriendship
"It's for you," was her shy answer.
"You got this from here?"
"I didn't take it, I made it."
"When," he drawled in the most obvious fake doubt he could muster.
The older lady rolled her heart-shaped pupil eyes. I'm not lying, she wanted to say. Instead, she replied, "It's Valentines Day. You're my new bestfriend and so I decided to make you cake with my powers. I had my powers made this at home while you were talking about the book."
His brows rose, mouth open. It was really for him? That was so cool of her. Wow. "Thank you for this." It was the only chocolates he received that day. Last year, he'd gotten plenty of chocolates from fans on Valentines Day.
I'm not lying, she wanted to say. "I'm not lying," she said for real.
"I believe you, friendship." He gave her a hug, checked his phone one more time, and picked up the cake she made for him.
Then left.
She watched him leave until he was out of sight. Even her lips, as she pouted, was shaped like a heart. All around her were flying heart shaped sweets from the Mouth Watering Mansion store.
Realizing something, her smile turned upside-down. "Friendship? Was that what he called me? But I called him bestfriendship! How could he only be calling me friendship?!"
Realizing something else, her frown became a shocked and exasperated one.
She threw her hands in the air. "Freaking-"
She freakin forgot to ask him his name! Real name! Nickname! Superhero name!
Nothing! Nada!
She didn't even at least remember to ask him for his phone number.
Gah!
What to do to Get Rid of this Boredom?
Answer: Fall in Love
...
ME AGAIN
xDxD Thank You for reading.
Hahahah. Looky who got Friendship zoned? She wanted more than a bestfriendship with the guy. But bestfriendship was the next best thing. And he flat out calls her Friendship only?! LOL
Next Update: Let's see what Single-Strike Guy is up to! AKA "One-Punch Man" or Caped Baldy.
snicker, snicker, snort
