"Fist of Flowing Water, Crushed Rock!"
Silverfang's hands were water, flowing around his body like a river, trailing blue wisps of light. He moved intricately, weaving a fluid net around his body, displaying his martial arts prowess and skill to the small audience before him.
Reactions varied from person to person. Charanko, Silverfang's disciple, was watching in pure wonder at his master's S class-level fighting ability. Holocho was looking on in interest, trying to figure out where the blue streaks of light were coming from. However, Genos and Saitama were bored.
The martial arts master finished his demonstration and reverted back to his usual slouched position, arms folded behind his back.
"It goes like that," he said, turning to the audience. "Well? Gonna give it a try? You all have good instincts. I'm sure you'll master it straight away."
Saitama frowned. "I thought you were going to show us something cool, gramps, not try and recruit us. Also, where's the food?"
Genos agreed. "Yes. Instead of self defence, I seek absolute destructive strength."
Charanko shot to his feet. "Do not insult the fist of Flowing Water, Crushed Rock! I am Charanko, Bang Sensei's best disciple-!"
Genos's grabbed and held the young man up in the air by the neck.
"Ugh! I give!" Charanko shouted painfully.
Genos let the disciple go and swiftly sat back down.
Holocho winced. "A bit uncalled for there, Genos!"
"He wished to challenge me, and I won in the fastest way possible. I see little wrong with my actions," Genos responded cooly.
"Still…" Holocho said, trailing off as he glanced at a still-recovering Charanko on the floor. "Bang, Charanko said he was your strongest disciple. Is that really true?"
The sensei, who had been observing them, answered in a dark voice. "Well… there is one who stands unchecked. He has incapicated so many talented disciples that all the others quit in fear."
Holocho and Saitama stood, their interest piqued.
"What was his name?" Holocho asked.
"Was he strong?" Saitama added.
Silverfang turned away from them. "His name is Garo. He was once my finest disciple… but I beat him up and drove him out."
Holocho grinned. "Nice going, Bang!"
Charanko shot back to his feet, raising his fist in fury. "Haven't you heard of the hero named Silverfang?!"
He drew in a deep breath. "Class S! Rank 3! Silverfang! With moves like flowing water, toys with his opponents! He is the master of martial arts-"
Holocho smacked him gently with a shockwave, sending the over-enthusiastic disciple spinning. "I'm not trying to insult you, Bang, but that was annoying."
Charanko shook his head to clear himself of the dizziness. His face was now red with anger. "What do you think you're doing? You may be class A, but that doesn't mean you're strong-"
"Charanko! Do not disgrace me!" Bang's voice thundered. "Holocho is much stronger than I! Do you wish to get beaten down again?!"
Charanko's bluster disappeared. "M-master… Surely you're kidding…"
Holocho smirked, lowering fists that were about to pummel Charanko into a pulp.
"Hey, Bang… does your technique help you fight against someone who has… overwhelming strength?" Holocho asked, glancing at Saitama.
Silverfang frowned. "Yes. The fist of Flowing Water Crushed Rock is effective in defence and countering attacks. With enough practice, a common man could deflect a blow from even Tank Top Master."
He leaned in close, lowering his voice. "I see why you want to learn it."
The boy grinned. "So I put my hands like this…"
Under Bang's guidance, Holocho spent the next five minutes trying to match the martial arts master's technique stance by stance, much to the boredom of Genos and Saitama.
"Flowing River Crushed Rock!" Holocho and Bang shouted. They moved in synchrony, Holocho mirroring Bang's movements almost perfectly.
However, something was missing.
"Bang, why don't I have that blue light when I wave my hands around?"
"You do not simply 'wave your hands around'. What you are learning is a highly refined martial arts technique, your hands are precision tools that strike like the claws of a praying mantis. The light you see is a result from many years of practice of channelling one's inner energy through your hands."
"Oh! So like this…?"
Holocho crouched down, holding his clenched fists in front of him. He closed his eyes, concentrating hard.
Bang's eyes widened. "Is he going to…?"
He relaxed. Holocho's stance just made him look constipated.
As Holocho gave up, Charanko let out a slow breath. He was getting worried that the boy was actually going to master the technique within merely five minutes, but it seemed like he lacked the sharp concentration that was required to fully utilise it.
"Dammit!" Holocho groaned. "It's a bit harder than I thought."
Bang chuckled. "You'll need a little more than just five minutes to be able to use my martial arts technique."
"Well, too bad." Holocho perked up. "What about that food you promised us?"
"Well…" said the old hero. "I-"
"Sensei! I will get it immediately!" Charanko shouted eagerly, springing to his feet and running out the room.
Saitama smiled in anticipation and rubbed his gloved hands together. "Finally, what I came here for. It's the right time as well."
Charanko came barrelling back into the main hall of the dojo. He was holding a large assortment of meat and vegetables.
"The food, sensei!"
"Huh? I thought you'd prepared some dishes?"
Bang started to sweat nervously. "Not quite…"
"Wait, so you said that just to get us to come here?"
"..."
The atmosphere instantly grew frigid. Holocho groaned audibly.
Genos loomed menacingly over Silverfang. "We trusted you. But now you've crossed a forbidden line."
He started to glow orange. "You have lied to master. For that, you deserve to be punished."
Charanko darted in front of his master. Crossing his arms, he retorted, "Sensei didn't lie to anyone. You were just foolish enough to believe what hasn't been said!"
Genos and Charanko stared at each other, daring one another to make a move.
Saitama's disappointed face turned into one of sheepishness. "Genos! Don't blast him!"
The cyborg powered down his whirring incineration cannon and turned to face his master.
"Master, are you sure?"
Holocho laughed and face-palmed. "Sly old Bang just said he had food here! He's not lying at all!"
The tension dissolved as they realised their foolishness.
Bang let out a sigh of relief. They had come close to an all-out fight he wasn't sure he could win. But now that his dojo had been saved from destruction, he had to work out how to make amends.
But before he could start apologising, he was interrupted by a yell.
"Silverfang! I'm from the Hero association! There's an emergency summons of S class heroes! Please! You must come to headquarters!"
The source of the shouting was a dishevelled young man in a black suit. He was leaning heavily against the door frame, out of breath from his long climb up the stairs to Bang's dojo.
"Oh! Genos is here! You're S class, so you should come too!"
The S class heroes strode towards the door, much to the appreciation of the exhausted lackey.
"Should we come too?" Holocho asked, gesturing to himself and Saitama.
"Yes. We may need your power," Genos replied.
"Charanko, watch the dojo for me," Bang said.
"Be careful!"
"What do you mean I can't go in!?" Holocho asked adamantly.
"What do you mean, what do you mean? Isn't it obvious!?"
Holocho was standing in the doorway of the Hero Association headquarters in City A. Floating in front of him was a small woman, arms crossed against her chest. For some reason, she wasn't letting him enter the headquarters.
"What?!"
"Listen, kid! I won't let a bunch of A class losers stroll in here just because they're invited! One's already too much, you're lucky I'm not crushing you against the ceiling!"
Saitama frowned. He'd entered the building with the S class heroes without much hassle, but once Holocho stepped through the door, the floating lady showed up and started spewing sass.
"So you better stay outside or I'll make sure you're never a hero again! Get lost, under-grown brat! Shorty! Imp!"
Holocho felt like smoke was coming out of his ears. "But- what-?"
Silverfang sighed. "It's better if you stay outside, Holocho. We don't want a fight breaking out inside the headquarters."
"Are you serious? Who even is she? A lost child?"
"She is Tatsumaki, an esper," Genos said.
"Oh, that one!" Holocho said, remembering Genos showing her to them some weeks back.
"I'm not a thing!" Tatsumaki said, her sharp voice cutting into Holocho's ears. "You heard the old man, piss off! Shoo!"
Holocho huffed. "Fine. But when I get to S class rank 1, I'll tell you what to do!"
He disappeared from view before Tatsumaki could respond.
"Almost everyone has gathered. Let's go and sit." Genos stated as soon as the shenanigans were over.
"She's so sassy…" Saitama thought.
Holocho was bored. He'd been waiting for ages, long enough for him to miss his 3DS. Now, with nothing to do, he was lying on his back on the roof of the Hero Association headquarters with nothing to do.
"What are they doing in there?" he thought, his mind wandering. "Maybe there's a party going on. Or they're getting told off for being so lazy. I know! They're in trouble for… spending too much money on food!"
His stomach rumbled at the thought of a bowl or two of freshly prepared ramen.
"What I'd do for something to eat… If only that old guy hadn't tricked us…"
He was jerked from his daydreaming by a series of explosions nearby.
"Woah! Flying hippies!"
Bursts of energy were shooting out of several monsters' mouths, exploding against the tough metal of the headquarters.
With a few well-placed wave punches, the attackers were no more. Holocho sat back down, but before he could lie down again, he was plunged into shadow.
Holocho rubbed his eyes, but the darkness didn't go away. Then he noticed the massive spaceship that was looming above him.
"When did that thing get here?"
It was a truly humongous spacecraft. Deep purple in colour, it dwarfed everything in view, the jagged and crude hull stretching out as far as he could see. The spacecraft just seemed to hang effortlessly in the air, how it did so Holocho could not even begin to comprehend.
As Holocho gawked at the spaceship, mouth hanging open, he noticed several flashing pinpricks of light flashing on the underside of the hull and little bullet-shaped objects falling from such points of light.
His mouth grew dry as he realised the little bullet-like objects weren't small at all, and they were all falling towards the city below with increasing speed. Holocho burst into action, shooting to his feet. The bullet-like objects were getting quite close now, and he only had a few seconds to prevent them from impacting the city.
"Craaaap!" Holocho cried. The world around him slowed to a crawl, his arms becoming blurs. He sent shockwaves after shockwaves at the incoming shells as fast as he could, his brain working as fast as it could to locate targets. The area around him lit up with explosions, the closest of the shells detonating as soon as a shockwave penetrated them.
It wasn't going to be enough. Holocho could see that the wave of shells was going to overwhelm his frantic defence.
Then an idea sprang into his mind. If the shells detonated as soon as they were penetrated, perhaps he didn't need such a wide and powerful shockwave for each shell. If so, he could reduce the force behind each of his wave punches and increase the frequency of them instead.
He quickly switched from full-on wave punches to weaker jabs with his finger, increasing his speed tenfold. His idea worked perfectly, demolishing the shells in front of him before they were even halfway to the ground.
"Now for the rest of them…"
With a flurry of wave punches, the other shells were disposed of before they could do any significant damage. However, a few shells came a little too close, the shockwave from their explosions shattering glass and rocking a few buildings. But City A had been saved, at least for now.
Holocho let out a long sigh of relief. He'd worked up a small sweat, but destroying the debris from the giant meteor a few weeks ago had been quite a bit harder, probably because it was closer down when it blew up. Also, Holocho had become at least a bit stronger since then as well.
Unfortunately for him, the spacecraft also seemed to notice the flaws in its attack and began lowering in altitude. Another series of flashes signified more shells on their way down, but this time they seemed… angled.
Holocho grumbled. It looked like the barrage was heading right towards him. Whoever was driving this ship was annoying.
With another volley of narrowed wave punches (or jabs), the shells had been destroyed. It had been easier this time, the shells being lined up in nice columns for him to shoot down.
"What's happening?"
Saitama had burst through the roof during the spaceship's last attack and had been sitting behind Holocho, watching him play Space Invaders with the incoming shells.
"Baldy! Didn't notice you there! I've been saving everyone's lives! What about you?"
"Where'd that thing come from?" Saitama said, deciding to ignore Holocho's friendly jab.
"No idea, it just appeared."
"Okay."
Saitama walked to the edge of the rooftop.
"Where are you going?"
Saitama pointed at the spaceship.
"There."
Before Holocho could say anything, he leapt into the air, heading into the spaceship like an arrow, batting away shells that fired at him in response.
"That's annoying… He left me behind…"
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood. Something menacing was behind him.
But Holocho didn't really care. The chances of it actually being able to harm him were next to none. And he was right. A large lumpy hammer struck the side of his head with no effect. It was more like a love tap than anything.
"What's this?" a distorted voice said. "A life form resistant to our attack?"
Holocho turned and uppercut the alien, sending it hurtling high into the air.
"Shoo. I'm busy."
The boy turned back to face the giant spaceship.
"Wait up, baldy!"
A/N: Damn, things are hectic for me right now. This chapter will have to be a normal length one, but I promise an extended chapter will be coming out next. The big fight's coming up.
Reviews:
Guest: Yeah lol, Silverfang can be a sly one sometimes.
rmarcano321: Yeah, I've finished all the OPM anime including season 2. Can't wait for season 3 especially now that I've read all the manga.
iHateFridays: Indeed, the big battle will start! Sorry if you thought it would be in this chapter, but I really haven't had the time...