Maiko Plasma, Venus Mantrap, and Phoenix Man were discussing what they had learned from the House of Evolution. The three of them were still confused about some things, however.
"So we can confirm, this is just a human. Some nobody human named Caped Baldy by the Hero Association, strong enough to defeat the House of Evolution single-handedly, with the ability to strike down just about anything in one shot." Phoenix Man summarized. It seemed ridiculous, but all the information they had observed and taken note of, along with the description by the House of Evolution's leader, meant that this seemed as true as it could be.
"Yes. Perhaps the video gotten by Electric Catfish Man and Senior Centipede will teach us more about this man." Maiko Plasma suggested. "We should be on guard, however. If this man is a vengeful one, we need to make sure to watch out for him should he come after us."
"What we've learned from the House of Evolution," started Venus Mantrap, "Is that this man can be dissuaded to back down from a fight despite his immense strength. He doesn't actively go after all his enemies, it seems, to kill them. The cyborg employed by the House of Evolution and their creator, the Doctor named Genus, are still alive. This benevolence demonstrated by the man might be our key to getting to him."
"What could we do with that?" Maiko said. "If we want to attack him, demonstrating kindness won't be enough to overpower him. We need to learn how he fights in order to know how to take him…"
"Maiko! I've got the recording!" Electric Catfish Man came bursting out of the ground nearby, camera rig still attached. "Oh, Phoenix Man, Venus Mantrap, you're here too, good."
"Fantastic!" Maiko told Catfish. "Will Senior Centipede be coming in to give his account of the events as well? We want as much information as we can get."
"Well… please watch the video before we go… talk to Senior Centipede." Electric Catfish Man said, hesitant to break the news.
Soon, Maiko had the camera's recorded information in the computer, and everyone gathered around to watch. All except Electric Catfish Man.
"Hey, maybe now we'll finally be able to see how this man fights!" Venus Mantrap said. "Let's roll the video out, Maiko!"
"Yes, of course!" Maiko said excitedly, starting the video recording on the computer. Together, they excitedly watched the Senior Centipede battling with a cyborg. A guard of the man, maybe? He claimed to have a master, most likely the man they were after, considering the barren city had few living beings in it otherwise.
"Oh yes, Senior Centipede's famed Centipede Parade! That junk heap's got it coming to him, challenging one of our strongest…" Venus Mantrap started. They cut themselves off when they noticed the Centipede Parade had stopped without warning. None of them had seen what happened. They suddenly got very somber. They noticed what was standing next to their fallen comrade now; the bald head was recognizable anywhere.
"What happened?" Phoenix Man questioned. "Maiko, give us a frame-by-frame playback of the attack. We need to see what he even did."
Maiko shakily agreed, and started preparing the correct time in the video for a frame analysis. Even going by each individual frames didn't give them full information. This man seemed to move faster than they could even keep track of with their frame-by-frame software. The man, this nobody, had his fist touching the Centipede's head in one frame, and in the next frame seemed to have teleported forward, picking up the cyborg in the process from the center of the Centipede Parade. Even going just by frames, nothing they looked toward in the video told him the power of this man. He seemed to destroy Senior Centipede's life force with a tap of his fist. It was… unreal.
"…Perhaps trying to find ways to attack this man directly is incorrect, at least for now." Maiko said, clearly shaken. "We need to… need to send monsters to talk with this man. Calmly. We must go the benevolence route, clearly there is no other choice at the moment. See if we can't… can't persuade him with kindness."
Everyone in the room was scared, shaken, felt ready to run in fear from a being so many cities away. Phoenix Man and Venus Mantrap had been in this thing's vicinity not too long ago. They suddenly felt very lucky to not be dead. And yet they knew, if they didn't do something about this man, who pushed aside some of the strongest monsters they knew like they were nothing and could move as though by instant teleportation, they feared they would all die. And so after a pause, it was Phoenix Man who made the first move.
"…I'll go and talk to this man." Phoenix Man said. "We need someone to, and I feel that I will be one of the best candidates to do so. I will try and reason with him, and maybe get more information by conversation. We need to try and target the same kind of kindness that he gave the House of Evolution. It is our only form of defense left that doesn't require sending tons of monsters to their deaths."
"Then I shall go as well." Maiko Plasma said. "Should we be in danger, I can send the information we learn out back to our database of information quickly, hopefully before we are destroyed. If there is any way that we might… might die out there, we need someone who can ensure our deaths aren't in vain."
And so it was decided. Maiko and Phoenix would be going to the ghost town. Catfish and Mantrap were both greatly inspired by the act of sacrifice for the greater good. Most monsters were self-serving, self-important characters of their own story, so to see two monsters that were willing to let themselves go into such great danger for the betterment of their lives was an inspiration to the two monsters who had not seen such an act before. Before anyone knew it, Phoenix Man and Maiko Plasma were on their way.
Opening the door to his apartment, Saitama was greeted by a strange sight. A red bird person and a maiko had come to his door. He briefly wondered what kind of ritual they were here to perform. Then, one of them began to speak.
"Yes, hello. My name is Phoenix Man. We are not here to harm you, we just want to talk. We mean you no ill will, we just wanted to talk to you." Phoenix Man said nervously. Maiko Plasma just nodded along, waiting to see what the man would do.
"I'm not interested in buying any insurance policies. Are you with that insurance company again?" Saitama asked. When they shook their heads, he said, "Alright then. Come in, I guess. I don't have snacks or anything really to feed you, so don't expect food handouts here either."
Phoenix Man and Maiko Plasma walked in, not sure what to expect. What they didn't expect, anyway, was how normal, if cheap looking, the place was.
Sitting down at a table and motioning for the two monsters to do the same, Saitama asked them, "What do you want then?"
Maiko Plasma started. "We noticed a lot of monsters have been coming here and being killed."
"Huh? Yeah, a lot of monsters have been appearing." Saitama said. "It gets kind of annoying when they drone on and on while attacking everything. It's become so hard to find stores with good sales, most of them seem to have gone away somewhere. I've had to travel farther to find the good deals."
"So you've been killing monsters that have been coming here?" Phoenix Man asked.
"I guess." Saitama sighed. "These monsters keep coming in for one reason or another just to destroy stuff, so I punch them. No matter what, though, they keep coming. They don't even seem to have a motive anymore. Recently, some big worm thing came for no reason and attacked, so I had to punch him."
Maiko Plasma was shocked at such a casual mention of their dead comrade, but kept prying. "So, you don't actively go out and kill monsters? You just kill the ones that are attacking people? Like, you don't try and hunt down monsters?"
"If I hear that there is some monster causing trouble, I'll go help people." Saitama said. "It just seems like all these monsters want to do is kill people and cause trouble. They need a job or something. They're like those bald people on the news that wanted to stop working. Maybe they'd find better jobs doing something constructive, like not killing people."
Deep beneath the earth, Elder Centipede was pushing furiously ahead. How could some lowly human creature kill one of his kind, one of the line of Centipede monsters? The great and powerful line of Centipede monsters, having their history stained with death by some common human? No, this human would not live, Elder Centipede told himself. He wasn't going to take this murder lightly.