t.
Big first thing: I practically just was saved by someone who read this story and instead of losing almost all of this chapter, I only lost like 50 words and by god I want to thank AS04 and CaptainJack04 (May be the same person due to the message content but I don't know) because their suggestion and help was so vital and crucial and helped me recover from the emotional pain from almost giving up on retaining the chapter.
I apologize for making such a big deal out of it because of how quickly it resolved itself, but I do hope you enjoy this!
Initial Release Date: June 3, 2020
"Did you just burp, Baldy?" Tats asks, indignant, and I roll my eyes a bit.
"What, the food was good!" I indignantly retort, though playfully. The two of us are smiling goofily, and I don't know why this place feels so natural for us. Maybe it's the food, but Tetsuya really did a good job making this place great.
Anyways, I ask her, "Well, wasn't it?"
"Of course it was, but you don't have to burp louder than a megaphone!" She lectures me. Now that I think about it, our age disparity is a bit weird but not too weird for our age. She's three years older than me but I still feel like we're on equal footing, unless you were talking about height. She really doesn't like people bringing that up in public.
I laugh a bit more before standing up, "I'm gonna go toss this stuff in the trash. Wanna go somewhere else after this or just head to City Z to kill off some monsters?" Tats shrugs at this and I just know that she's gonna probably make her decision or say that she doesn't care about it.
Really, I don't know if I changed or if she changed me, but for some reason...
I feel like I found what I wanted. I know that for the past few years that I've just been looking for the best fight I could, something that could make my heart race and adrenaline pump.
But at the same time?
Maybe Tats is what'll do that.
Not the fight part.
But I still want that fight. I still wanna find someone who I can still fight at my strongest.
"Hey!" Huh? "Hey, Baldy!" Ope, she's probably annoyed. Well, can't help it.
"Yeah?"
"You've been standing here for the past forever! What, are you a scarecrow?" She has her hands on her hips again and her eyes are sharp like usual. I smile, and it only makes her more annoyed.
"Oh, I see," she crosses her arms, but fails to hide the small smile tugging at her lips. "Well, whatever you think, you better not say I'm cute or whatever, Egghead."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," I mumble to myself. Did I think of her as cute? I have no idea.
I mean, she may be short but that's not an immediate cute signal. She's more fierce than cute, but still really strong.
"Oh, by the way, Egghead, I wanted to tell you that I'm cool just going to hunt monsters if that's fine with you," Tats explains. I nod in response, honestly not sure what I feel about it.
I remember hearing those really annoying couples in school argue about where they wanted to go out for a date. It was always those couples who would get together because they were popular and then just break up ten minutes later. Those ones.
Personally, I don't really care where I'd go on a date; I'd never even been on one. But I don't really care where I'd be on a date. Isn't it supposed to be to enjoy the people you're on a date with? I thought it was like that, really.
"Sure," is all I end up saying, and she's fine with that.
I really like talking to her, but at the same time? I think not saying a lot's fine, too.
-After half an hour-
"Of all the things, Egghead, I didn't think I'd ever go on a date, but I especially didn't think I'd be hunting monsters in this outfit!" Tats yells, but more to nobody than to me. I don't think she was really angry at me, so that's a plus.
"God, if this outfit gets dirty when we hunt monsters, I'm going to kill you." I raise my eyebrow at that, but don't say anything else. "Are you even listening to me?!"
I nod, but it sort of zones out for me. I think about whatever I missed, but I don't think I missed anything. She looks skeptical, but all of that is just in my peripherals and I can't completely tell what sort of expression she's wearing. I'm just sort of staring off into space.
"Hey, Tats?"
"Yeah?"
"What day is today?"
"Uhh...lemme check," she answers, pulling out her phone from the purse that she brought. I didn't even know Tats owned a purse, but I guess she did. "Saturday."
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday...what's Saturday again?
"Hey, Egghead!" Tats calls my attention and I stop wondering what Saturday was for a few moments. "Well, are we gonna go hunting monsters?"
"Yeah, yeah," I answer. "Lemme just call Genos real quick. I feel like I'm forgetting something." Yet, as I pull out my phone, I see a raised eyebrow from Tats and put my phone away. She's tapping her foot again, and I can tell she's getting slightly impatient.
"Are we gonna go hero hunting, or are you forgetting that today's the bargain day at your favorite supermarket?" She has a smirk on her face, and doesn't seem to be against the idea of going to the supermarket in the first place.
She snickers at me and I blink, a bit in embarrassment and trying to remain impassive, as she says, "Jesus, Baldy, if you wanted to go to the supermarker, you could've just said so instead of having this almighty enlightened expression like you just met God or something!"
"Fine, then can we go?" I ask with a sort of lighthearted tone. "I've got a bunch of stuff that I wanted to buy anyways."
"Okay, okay, let's go, then," she goes along with me as I break out into a sprint, catching her by surprise before she catches up by flying next to me. I run through like three different cities in a few seconds before skidding to a stop in front of my favorite supermarket.
"Huh? What's this?" I ask out loud as I see a sign on the front door. It's a huge red sign, and I notice that all the lights inside are all off.
Is it closed? No, it can't be! Not on bargain day!
"Shit, shit, shit," I curse, feeling disdain, pain, and misery fill my heart and soul. "It's closed!" I almost break the door open with a punch before I feel Tats tap my shoulder.
"Baldy, did you even read the rest of the sign?" She lectures, pointing at the lower portion of the sign. "It says that a monster's been terrorizing this area and that if we take care of it, the shop'll open up soon enough."
My mind stops. The world around me stops spinning. It feels as if time itself is frozen.
I remember reading this one manga, it was about basketball. The players were prodigies, and they could access this thing called 'the zone.' It was somewhere where, while it would take up more stamina and energy than usual, would allow them to play at full power.
That's what I feel.
A pure, unadulterated drive.
It's weird.
Not that I have that drive.
But that I feel an inkling of that sort of drive with Tats.
Especially if I feel the same thing for her that I do for Bargain Day.
And I hope that she's happy to spend time with me.
"We're a weird couple, aren't we?" I ask, and she laughs a bit along with me.
"Yeah. Yeah, we are," she agrees, before we're interrupted by a stomping sound that shakes the ground. "Well, I guess we better take care of the monster first before anything else."
Hopefully this monster's a bit tougher than I thought. I sure hope it isn't a snoozefest.
Well, here we are. We come across the monster and it turns out to be something weird. It's this sort of cyborg instead of a monster.
"Well, Baldy, I think I found the thing behind all of this," I sigh, and we happen to catch its attention. It looks like it only has one eye, but reminds me of Genos in a weird way. Looks like it's on a rampage, though, instead of trying to protect people. It's incredibly humanoid, and its face looks realistically human.
"Ah, I've attracted strong heroes now!" It declares, and its voice is robotic and deep. "Allow me to introduce myself."
"Shut up," I groan. These villain introductions are starting to get boring, and actually pretty annoying. It's like when those Power Rangers morph but it takes actual eons.
"I am G-3, and I am from the Monster Association," I narrow my eyes and immediately smash it into the nearest building.
"Uh, Tats, what was all that about?" Saitama asks.
"The Monster Association's been hidden from us by the Hero Association. I gotta take care of it," I explain. "Hey, Saitama, I'm really sorry, but is it okay if we cut this date a bit short?" He looks a bit hurt, and I feel bad about it, to the point where I feel a slight pang in my chest, but I also know that it needs to be done in the first place.
"Yeah, yeah," his voice wanders off, and he tries to seem apathetic. Oh, god damn it, my emotions are getting the better of me.
"Is it okay if I meet you at your place after I get this done? I still really wanna spend time with you," I try to offer, my tone getting a bit higher and sort of questioning, and he seems to contemplate the thought of it.
"Could I just join you?" He suggests, shrugging. "I mean, it's not like I have a lot of stuff to do, anyways."
Honestly, it doesn't sound like a bad idea. As I nod, I ask, "You sure? It's not like you really have to come along."
"Yep," he responds, popping the end of it. "Lead the way, I guess."
As the two of us start moving quickly towards the Hero Association Headquarters, I start explaining, "So I know I just told you about the Monster Association. But I've been looking a bit into it ever since that alien dude invaded us."
"Oh, Boros? I remember him. He was pretty strong."
"Anyways, Genos actually was the one to tell me about it. I looked into it a bit more, and I think they're behind why there's so many monsters in City Z."
"So that's why my rent's so cheap!" He cheers, and I can tell he's silently thanking the monsters. "What?"
"I don't think all those monsters are something to cheer about. What if they get out to the public?" I lecture temporarily, turning to face where I'm going again. From what I see, we're about a minute or two from the Headquarters at max.
"Then that's our job to take care of," he points out. "Besides, if they're as dangerous as you say they are, then maybe we could just tell the Hero Association about it."
"Have you even been keeping up with the news coming out about Garou?!"
"Who's that?" He asks, and I see him scratch his head for a moment. "I mean, his name sounds familiar...wasn't he that guy from that video game?"
"Oh my god, how did I fall for you," I mutter under my breath before clearing my throat. "No, that's Goro. I'm talking about Garou. You remember Bang?"
"Yep," he hums, as he leaps and bounds across the top of buildings. It's a damn miracle he isn't causing the buildings to shatter by the sheer force he's probably exerting.
"Anyways, he used to be Bang's top disciple until there was an...incident that happened," I choose my words carefully. "Long story short, he's why Charanko's the only guy left there. He's become super strong with the martial arts style that Bang uses, and he's using it to hunt down heroes."
"Is he stronger than Bang?" Saitama asks. "That'd be pretty cool. Maybe it'd be a pretty good fight."
"Yeah, but he's already taken down 3 A-Class heroes. I think they were only rank 7 to 5 or something, so not something monstrous,"' I point out, slowing down as we near the Hero Association building. "So, it's been speculated that he's been conspiring with the Monster Association, but I've only seen strands and pieces."
"Okay, so there's a bit of stuff connecting him to them. What's the Monster Association itself?" Saitama asks, bringing up what's an actually valid point. Who knows, maybe he is paying attention. I doubt it, though.
"That's what I'm getting to. You know how there are apparently more strong monsters coming from City Z?" I realize how stupid that is, saying it to him. "Well, obviously not to you or me. It's not like they'll land a hit on us."
"I have been hearing more Demon and Dragon-level threats," he admits. As the two of us walk into the Hero Association, eyes are instantly on us. God damn it, is this always going to happen?
"That's the thing. They're apparently all from the Monster Association. I asked Zombieman to do some research after we got back from the resort, and he's been texting me things about it," I pull out my phone and show the text thread that the two of us had. It's pretty bland, though. Most of it's just pdf's that he's sent me of documents and eyewitness testimonies that he's collected.
"He's an S-Class hero too, right?"
"Yeah, he's supposedly immortal. Did a little bit of research on him, and by that, Genos hounded me over it until I just got him to flat-out tell me, and he came from the House of Evolution?"
"The house of what?" Saitama asks, and I roll my eyes.
"That thing with the beetle guy that messed up Genos' hair," I remind, before walking up to the front desk. "Gimme a moment."
"Hey," I address the employee in front of me. I don't have to describe how they react and straighten up like they always do.
"H-Hi, Miss Tornado!"
Blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. It's sort of jaded me. Hearing it, the same sort of worshipping tone and fear in their voice? It's gotten old, honestly. It's a bit tough, having to be treated like I'm a goddess when I'm literally just trying to get my stuff done.
"Can you help me meet up with the Board?" I request, leaning a bit on the table. "Preferably soon. I've got some stuff I need to bring up with them."
"And w-what about the B-Bald Cape?" The employee brings up, and I turn to where he is...or where he was. He had gone to sit on one of the couches in the lobby.
"I'll bring him with me, if that's fine."
"Sitch! Miss Tornado's asking to see you!" I hear the secretary's voice come from the phone mic. I feel skeptical of this. It's not like her to make such direct contact unless something really bothered her, which was only once before, and that was mainly for something other than hero matters.
"Please let her in. Thank you," I speak succinctly. I try to sort out my papers quickly before she comes. Besides, having that sort of alert helped me realize how deeply I had fallen into my work.
Just as I finish putting my papers into different cabinets, albeit poorly organized, I notice her and the Bald Cape walk towards my office, "Miss Tornado. Bald Cape."
"Please, call me Saitama," the bald man speaks in a slightly formal manner but I can hear the exasperation in his voice, as if tired of something. I wonder what could be plaguing him.
"Okay...Saitama," I clear my throat. "Anyways, what did you two come in here to discuss?"
"It has to do with this," Tornado explains as she holds up a chip. Setting it on my table, I carefully pick it up and examine it.
It's a micro-chip of sorts, though much more sophisticated than what I've seen in the past. I slightly recall Drive Knight bringing in a similar fashioned-chip, but was far less sophisticated or seemingly complex. That being said, I am not all too familiar on cybernetics or complex technology in the first place.
"Saitama and I were hunting down monsters in the City Y range, and we came across this cyborg. It called itself G-3, supposedly from the Monster Association," she explains. "I texted you about the Monster Association a week or two back, if I remember."
Her manner is concise and straight to the point. She doesn't hold back her words, and her details are summarized. I wonder what she's done to get to this point, and how she manages this stuff in her own time.
"And you bring this up to me because?" I prompt, setting the chip down.
"As you may recall," she crosses her arms. "I've been looking into the Monster Association with the help of Genos, the Demon Cyborg, Zombieman, and Saitama here. I'd like to ask you to bring this up with the rest of the Board and see if you can do anything about it."
"Precisely what, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Just...whatever you can glean from it, and preferably something that can be prioritized. Maybe it's just a hunch, but I feel like something's going to go awry."
That was enough to make me wary.
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention."
First, Garou, now this. I feel like this isn't shaping up to be a very safe chain of events, is it...
"Geez, Tats, I didn't expect you to act so...formal in there," I admit. "It was like you were a businesswoman or something."
"God, Baldy, that's suuuch an insult," she groans, and a small smile tugs on my lips; that's the Tats I know. Super informal, vulgar, and just generally doesn't care too much about manners.
"Fine, fine. But I feel like you didn't tell him everything," I speculate. And she nods. It sort of sounded like she was on guard the entire time, like something was off about the meeting as a whole.
"That's cause I didn't," she rolls her eyes. "I trust Sitch, but as much as I want it, the Board won't use the rest of the knowledge I have well. They'll make it a public panic, cause a ruckus, and just mess up in general."
"And what did you know?"
She shrugs, "Not much more...it mainly concerns how Garou might hunt down other heroes, but unless he becomes more powerful, I don't think that's a huge threat."
"Mhm," I nod. "You wanna head to my place? It's getting a bit late."
"Sure."
After a pretty short run back to my apartment, which was only filled with like 30 seconds of talking because of the wind, I skid to a stop.
"You know, I'm pretty surprised that you didn't just head back to your own place," I absentmindedly speak.
"I'm just...really tired."
"Your place is closer, though."
"You're warm, Baldy. That's it."
I nod. If it's simple, I won't really look into it too hard.
"Hey, Tats?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for coming with me on this date," I smile lightly, and she flushes a bit. I wonder why. She nods, but stays quiet.
When the two of us walk in, the first thing I notice is a note on the table. It's from Genos. Apparently, he's going to be with Fubuki tonight. Well, I guess that just leaves me and Tats. Well, guess I'm going to have to...talk, I guess. Not like there's much more of an option.
"Hey, Baldy? I wanted to...apologize." The random quiet tone from Tats catches me off guard, and I wonder why. My eyebrows furrow, and my attention totally turns to her.
"What for, Tats? You literally have nothing to apologize for, if I remember correctly," I scratch the back of my head. "Actually, c'mere. If you wanna talk, I'll make you a cup of tea or something."
"N-No, it's fine..." This is the first time I've heard her...stutter like this. It makes it sound like she's...vulnerable. "I-I'm trying to open up to you better, and I suck at it right now...but I did wanna talk about something."
"Okay," my voice traces off; I'm not really sure where this is going, honestly.
She takes a deep breath, "Look. I know...that I'm not really the greatest person to date. I told you about my past, but unwillingly. And I don't know what I'm doing. At all."
I listen to her as she keeps going, "I just...wanted to apologize for not being...the best girlfriend, I guess? I don't really know how to put it."
I deadpan. That's what she's worrying about? It literally makes...no sense.
"Uhh..." I try to come up with words that aren't 'what,' "What?" That went well.
"I'm sorry, is all I'm trying to say. I'm trying to get the hang of this relationship thing, and I'm not the best at it."
I blink, "Tats. Neither am I."
"So? That doesn't excuse me!" She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, a bit of her worry transforming to annoyance. "Why won't you accept my apology, Baldy?!"
Oh, that's what she's annoyed about. Is it both? Or just one? I'm not really sure, honestly.
"Because you have nothing to apologize for," I shrug. Look, I really do want to take this more seriously. But it isn't that I don't care that's stopping me. It's more that...I don't think Tats would be worrying about something like this, and I think that she's not really being herself right now. Is that wrong to say?
Surprisingly enough, it works for a bit. She stops, but her breathing is still a bit ragged. There's a thick silence between us. I scoot a bit closer to her.
"Look, Tats," I try to start - I hope that words just sort of spill out of my mouth - luckily, they do, as I speak. "I...don't really know how to comfort you, in all honesty. The only sort of thing I've got with you being really emotional was when you were drunk, and that wasn't what you wanted to show me, probably."
"Duh," she dryly remarks, but no malevolence in her voice.
I continue, "Anyways...I told you, no matter what, I'd be here for you. Even if we're both awkward right now, that's okay."
"Heard that from Fubuki?" I blink.
She must've taken my silence as a sign to keep going, because she explains, "She told me that same stuff when I first had a crush on you. Don't ask."
I hesitantly glance at her, and she seems to have calmed down a little bit.
"You know what? I'll be completely truthful with you," she interrupts as she sees me try to talk for a little bit. "I'm not good at opening up to people, and I'm trying to rush it right now. I don't want to admit it, but it's goddamn true and I can't do a goddamn thing about it."
I raise my eyebrow, "Wow. So strong."
"Hey!"
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," I chuckle a bit. "Neither am I. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"..."
"Well?"
"Yeah."
"God, I'm so tired," I complain. "Baldy, is it fine if I just sleep here for tonight?"
"Sure, I don't see why not."
"Cool. Lemme clean up. Wait, don't you have any sort of soap?" I ask, incredulous. Even though it was pretty clean, I had no idea where he stored anything. Genos was always pretty neat and everything would be where you'd expect it to be, but it's not like he ever had to use the bathroom.
So I had no idea at all what I was looking for, nor what I was expecting in the first place.
"In the shower!" I hear him call out, and I can just hear in his tone that he's moving on to his futon. Why didn't he get a bed, for god's sake?
Oh, there it is.
Anyways, after a minute or two, I come out of the bathroom wearing extremely gigantic clothes. I have no idea how tall people wear this sort of stuff. It's so heavy! And it's so warm, too! Why does it have to be so thick? Even the stuff I wear, which is unfortunately but fortunately either Youth Large or Adult Small, is far less thick unless talking about winter gear or stuff like that.
"Tats. Are you sure you wanna wear that to bed? I have some like short-sleeve shirts if you want. Besides, I have a blanket here if you need," Saitama explains. I think over the offer for a little bit.
"I'll take a short-sleeve, but if it's fine with you, no blanket. I'll just sleep next to you," I answer.
"Fine," he shrugs. "But if it gets too warm, I'm turning on the air conditioning." I nod, and as I quickly put on the shirt as Saitama looks away, I lie down to him. I notice instantly that he's oddly warm. Usually when he does this sort of physical stuff I'm a bit too focused on other stuff to realize how comfortingly warm he is. Ew. Comfortingly warm is weird. Sleepy warm sort of, like when you're in a blanket.
"Oy, Baldy. You're too warm," I complain a bit. "Can you cool down a bit?"
"I'm not Genos, what do you expect?" He rolls his eyes.
Honestly, I like this sort of weird banter we have.
"Fine. Just come over here and I'll turn on the air conditioning," I mutter, closing my eyes and just pushing the button from where I remember. A small crash.
"Tats, that was the shelf."
Whoops.
"There it is."
Nice.
As he leans over, I just lean into him so that I'm both warm but not super warm because of the air conditioning.
I usually just lean into a pillow because it helps with my arms, but Saitama's actually the right sort of shape to replicate that sort of effect.
It's nice, honestly.
"Night, Baldy."
"Night, Tats."
First off: I want to say a gigantic thanks to the two people I mentioned at the beginning who helped me resolve my problem! I'm not the best with technology so I was able to recover a bunch of my chapter through the link that they sent me! I think they saved me from like a bunch of emotional sad from that.
And I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! I decided to rewrite the last section a few times because I did want a sort of decent ending and I hope you guys liked it.
And lastly, if there's anything that you want me to fix or if there's any sort of error, whether it be from a grammatical standpoint, plot-wise, or contradictions from here to other chapters, please let me know!
Sincerely,
SpiritBloodDragon
P.S: God my heart and soul felt such pain when the chapter got deleted and I went through the next ten hours in sheer despair