Good early afternoon, my readers! So, last Sunday i didn't get to write anything because of last-minute school work, but the more complicated part is writing the chapter itself, which is not only probably the most complex thing i have ever written, but also the takes place in the Tournament arc (which i absolutely cannot give a damn about). Also Mangadex got taken out (One Punch Man cannot be read there anymore) so we have all of this...
...but i will find a way to fix this!
Anyway, let's get to the response!
To Exodus12345:well, about that...personally, i often consider the Garou arc and the Monster Association arc to be intertwined, as for the Tournament arc i already have explained my feelings towards it. Also, about the last part...i'm going to follow the webcomic for that part. No way i'm writing that fight.
With that done, let's go with this chapter!
It was another normal day at E city, or not (you get do decide whichever you like).
Two months had passed since Caroline met Belphomet.
While the latter was watching Shinko train in the outskirts, the former was walking down the road to her home, feeling crestfallen:she had been beated again at school, mom wouldn't be at home right now (since she always worked a lot) and when big brother would return and see the bruise on her cheek...
...he would get angry.
Not at her, of course, but at Kiara and the teachers:her older brother was nice and cuddly, but when he would get angry...it was like being face to face with a powerful monster. A dragon level, if Caroline remembered correctly.
She started sobbing quietly when a step was heard in the nearby alley.
She looked up and saw the siluette of a man with a costume, one that almost reminded her of...
"...Birbrain!" Caroline shoited happily as she approached the startled figure in the alleyway.
X X X
Phoenix Man was on his last nerves today:he couldn't recruit even a single monster, all because of a so called 'Fighter of the outskirts' who protected them or whatever.
He couldn't waste time on them, so he moved to a more promising candidate, Sandscale Dragon, a resourceful demon level monster who managed to beat Atomic Samurai's three disciples without any real trouble.
And, hold behold, he refused! All because he was not interested since he was training to defeat the 'Fighter of the outskirts'! He didn't even hear anything Phoenix Man had to say! He just rudely told him off without the slightest interest!
Phoenix Man was so frustrated that he did not notice the small girl running towards him.
When he did...he felt weird, not having noticed her fully.
And then, when his senses caught up with his attention, he was alarmed.
"Birdbrain! I missed you so much!" the girl said as she hugged his leg.
If the situation wasn't confusing enough before, now Phoenix Man's mind was a complete mess:She called him Birdbrain, and this meant that she was a fan of his! He actually had a fan!...
...Not that he doubted about that or anything.
His returned to clarity and pondered of what he could do:in this situation he would have to run away immediately in order to not be found out by the heroes, but the fact that she showed him this act of kindness (when his own manager spilled wine on his head) made him throw any of that out of the imaginary window of his mind.
"Yes, it is i, Birdbrain! What can i do for you, my little fan?" Phoenix Man asked gently, also noticing the bruise on her cheek.
"Can i ride on you?" Caroline asked with a finger pointed on her chin.
"Sure!" Phoenix Man said and, after helping her mount on him, they soared through the alleys, while Caroline was laughing excitedly.
Meanwhile Phoenix Man was at a loss:while he indulged her childish antics and requests, he was feeling something he almost never felt.
Happiness.
Not the bad kind, like the sadistic enjoyment he saw Royal Ripper feel (which he regretted seeing), but the good kind...
...Perhaps turning in a monster was a mistake...
...It was not one he could back down from, of course, but maybe, just maybe, this was a good start to think about what he could do next.
X X X
4 months passed since that first encounter and from that Caroline visited Phoenix Man on a weekly basis.
Now the latter was in an alley, eating a dead monster, when he heard another one approach someone.
Not wanting to be discovered by some passing citizens, he went straight for the kill.
The monster was easily skewed by his beak, but he emerged from the alley...
...and stared at a terrified woman.
Gloria had gone to buy groceries for the second time this week.
In her bag there were various kinds of food (including bananas, Shinko's request) and some tools to clean the bathroom.
Of course she didn't expect a monster to attack her on the way home.
She also didn't expect to be 'saved' by another monster, this one bigger (and scarier) than the one before.
As blood was splattered on its beak and chest, she looked terrified at the fiend.
The monster then coughed twice and said, with a powerful voice "Don't worry, lawful citizen, for Birdbrain has saved the day!"
Gloria remained petrified by the remark, since Caroline had been telling both her and Shinko that she was playing with Birdbrain and how much of a nice guy he was.
She had an idea in mind, but it was quite stupid and nobody in their (sane, of course) minds would try that. Experience, however, made her remember that her entire family was famous for their stupid ideas, so she would just roll with it.
X X X
"So, you're a vigilante?" Gloria asked as she sat on the table, sipping her tea.
"Yes ma'am. After my career as a cartoon character ended, i became a vigilante" Phoenix Man said as he too sipped some tea, now cleaned from the blood.
Getting invited at her home was something he wasn't expecting, but he wouldn't reject her hospitality so rudely (especially since, from what she told him, she was Caroline's mother).
"But why did you not apply to the Hero Association?" Gloria asked him.
At that, Phoenix Man at a loss, but he could very well save it. "Because the environment there is too toxic there:rookie crushing, various scandals, toxic relationships, brutal competition...i don't want to deal with any of that, especially when all i want is to help people" Phoenix Man said honestly, his studies on the HA coming to his mind.
Of course the irony of his last statement was something to behold, but whatever.
"Oh, ok then. I invited you here because i wanted to say...thank you for taking care of my daughter. Ever since i have to work much more to make the ends meet, i couldn't put the needed care for her. Normally my older son would handle her, but he has enough problems by himself" Gloria said softly.
Phoenix Man didn't expect to be thanked like this, but the feeling...was making his chest feel a bit fuzzy inside.
'She must not know the truth' Phoenix Man thought seriously. Oh, the things that would happen if they knew about his other identity.
"Thank you for your hospitality, madame, but know i must go. There could be other people in need around here, you know?" Phoenix Man said as he went to the door.
"I understand. Goodbye Birdbrain" Gloria said as the man in costume exited the door. And then she rested on the table, thinking about Shinko.
She knew their children were always bullied and no matter how many times she denounced this behavior, not only she wouldn't get a clear answer, but the issue was treated as something trivial.
That was probably the reason Shinko started his crazy training regimen.
She certainly welcomed his choice of eating a banana every meal, but she was astonished when he would not use neither heater nor air conditioner during winter and summer. Then there were the bruises, the groans of pain, his aches that could not make sleep at night and the blurry vision that would assault him every now and then.
Because of this she would have stopped him immediately, to prevent him from destroying himself.
But then she stopped, because the training was (surprisingly enough) turning Shinko in a better person:he was getting more confident, he would speak out his mind more and more and his body was truly becoming really good-looking (she knew he would pass hours flexing in front of the mirror).
So she let him continue with this training, and in doing so Gloria could focus more on Caroline.
Now that Birdbrain was here too for her daughter, she felt that everything was going to be okay...
X X X
"So big brother has to fight a really dangerous monster today!?" Caroline said half-worried and half-excited as she kept petting Belphomet on the neck.
"Yes, he does have a match against Sandscale Dragon today, but i doubt that he will do any damage to Shinko" Belphomet said as her petting stopped. At the mention of the monster's name, Caroline whimpered because that monster was really, really strong.
Could big brother beat it?
"Really Belphomet?" Shinko said as he facepalmed, while Caroline was bouncing around Shinko's room, laughing excitedly.
"She was really pressing me about watching you train and it slipped!" Belphomet defended himself and Shinko sighed.
"Don't worry, it seems Sandscale doesn't attack the defenseless, so she can come" Shinko said calmly as Caroline jumped in victory "But you'll have to watch her while i fight"
Belphomet nodded and they hurried to the backdoor, which led to the backyard.
There they found another small monster:it had a dog-like appearance and its fur was dark-orange with purple dots.
"Ah, Shinko! Sandscale Dragon is waiting you for the match. We better not making him wait too much" the monster said as Caroline got awfully close to it.
"Oh, a doggie!" she shouted with excitement as she started petting her, making the monster's tale wag.
"Now Caroline, don't bother Lamia..." Shinko said sheepishly, but the aforementioned monster raised.
"Oh, don't! She's really good at this!" Lamia said and asked Caroline "Would you like to ride me?"
The small girl nodded proudly.
"Ok, but be careful" Shinko said to the both of them.
X X X
They arrived at the same place where Shinko trains every day. There were a lot of wolf levels gathering around and hiping the battle, while Sandscale Dragon sat in wait.
He was a 6m tall mix between a turtle and a dragon, his scales bright yellow in color and his shell dark green (almost black) with red outlines. He also had a samutai hat on his head and a sharp, 3m long blade on the last segment of his tale.
"You've finally come, i honestly expected someone taller..." said Sandscale Dragon, eyeing Shinko closely, interest shining in his eyes.
"If that was really your expectation, then you've got another thing coming!" Shinko said as he got into a battle stance.
"I was just kidding!" Sandscale laughed and they charged each other.
Caroline was seeing the battle from a safe spot, in fact she was between Belphomet and Lamia, with adequate space between her and the rest of the crowd.
She didn't know big brother was that strong:Sandscale managed to score some hits on Shinko, destroying his shirt with his claws, but totally failing to harm him.
"Well then, that's something, alright. Now prepare for the technique that defeated the three swordsmen at the same time! Blade Storm!" Sandscale shouted.
With speed surpassing sound, he drawed and slashed Shinko with every one of the blades in his scales.
While the entire crowd could see only blurs, Shinko counted exactly 80 swords.
With echoing crashes, countless broken pieces began falling around the two battlers, not even a minuscule scratch on Shinko's relaxed muscles.
Sandscale Dragon could not believe it and so used the last blade he had. "Horizontal cut!" he said, slashing the blade on his tail at Shinko.
The boy turned to blade as it crashed on his abdominals...and broke on impact.
Then Shinko grabbed his tail with one hand and threw the monster into the air.
Sandscale Dragon then retreated in his shell, which sprung spikes all over and plummeted on Shinko.
The boy, with the same hand, grabbed it as it came down and threw it like a bowling ball.
The action was so fast that no one could see it.
X X X
Mizuki was jogging around the city, looking for some monsters to fight.
If she wanted to prepare for this event, the one that would get her hero career started, she had to kill the very beings she would be then tasked to fight aganist.
She was out on the city's outskirts, where a lot of monsters were rumored to assemble around a so called 'Fighter of the outskirts'
Because of this figure, wolf level monsters would cause little to no trouble, but tiger level monsters would cause even more trouble.
Nobody knew who this guy was, his intentions or even if he was a human or a monster. So she wanted to get to the bottom of this situation, with any means necessary.
But suddenly, a spiked rotound object crashed through the hillside, creating a clean hole in it and smashing into a boulder.
Upon closer inspection, the boulder was a shell, from which extended four limbs and a head.
"You're the monster who defeated Atomic Samurai's disciples!" Mizuki said astonished, taking a step back for precaution. Out of all the monsters she could have encountered, an ominous demon level decided to pay her a visit.
Cold sweat runned down her body since she knew she wouldn't survive an encounter like this.
But she couldn't let him feel her fear, so Mizuki took a defensive stance (albeit shaking a little bit).
Sandscale Dragon, however, raised a claw and said "Out of the way, i have another opponent far stronger than you who is waiting for me" he said as he rushed away.
Mizuki would have followed him, but she heard a shriek behind her.
It was a bird-like monster, who seemingly came from nowhere, and was looking for a meal.
The two eyed each other for a minute, then the monster shrieked again and advanced menacingly.
"A perfect warm-up" Mizuki said far more confidently.
X X X
"It was a good match, your strength was definitely not the stuff of rumors" Sandscale Dragon said to Shinko "I'll return to the underground in order to regrow my swords and train even further then!" he confidently proclaimed.
"Take care then!" Shinko said and waved as the demon level went away. So he turned to her giggling little sister.
"Big brother, you're far stronger than anyone, even Mizuki!" Caroline excitedly said, now having witnessed her brother's strength.
"Don't say that, then you wouldn't appreciate how awesome the other heroes look!" Shinko said as he started petting her head.
He then looked at the darkening sky as him, Caroline, Belphomet and Lamia returned home.
On the way there, they heard a thunder and it started to rain heavily.
'Shit, i forgot to bring an umbrella!' Shinko thought as he brought everyone to a nearby bus station where the rain couldn't get them.
Shinko wouldn't mind the rain if he was alone because if felt good aganist his bare muscles, but with Caroline around that was definitely the worst that could happen, since she could catch a cold.
So Shinko stepped out of the temporary shelter and punched in the air.
The attack created a shockwave which blew the cloudy rains far away.
Caroline and the others didn't even say anything this time, the monsters being used to it and his little sister being awestruck.
Shinko smiled as he put on a shirt and got into town with Caroline, while the two monsters bid farewell to him.
X X X
Phoenix Man looked astonished by the feat of power of the boy.
'He's definitely the' Fighter of the outskirts' those monsters were talking about...but how did he get so strong?" he asked to himself.
Phoenix Man pondered on this dilemma from the top of a skyscraper, but quickly abandoned that train of thoughts.
"The Monster Association must not know of him" he finally said.
If they knew about him, they would either send a party to lure him out, and the chance of his family being a possible target couldn't be overlooked. He would never let that happen, not that he now found out again about the other human emotions he lost.
So he flew away to G city, where he had another assignment to get to.
So, before anyone says anything about the chapter, let me explain Phoenix Man's change of mind:right now the actions and decisions he's going to take will be exclusively to make sure Gloria and Caroline are okay and, well, not dead. He's not going to fight for the greater good or anything (even if sometimes it will seem that way).
Also, humans regretting their decisions of becoming monsters will be an underlying theme. Anyway, see you next time!