A ring goes off in the room.

Louder.

And louder.

"God damn it, Saitama, why don't you make your alarm a bit quieter?" Tornado groans, wiggling her way out of his arm that was annoyingly heavy over her.

Saitama yawns, slowly sitting up, "I don't think that's my alarm...you've been getting something like that, too."

As Tatsumaki listens, she hears the faint ringing of her own phone.

But I don't even set alarms... The esper thinks, scratching the back of her head. "Who the fuck would be calling us at this hour?"

"Well, it's not Genos," Saitama answers, cracking his neck. "Hero Association."

"Ugh, what do they want now?" Tatsumaki pouts, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"No clue..." Saitama clicks his tongue. "Do we really need to answer?"

As the green-haired child-looking woman rises from the futon, she walks over to the bathroom, "Nope. Not yet. Once they give us an official alert, then I'll consider it."

A ringtone comes, this time, not incessant and annoying.

"...Was that Genos?" Tatsumaki asks, already knowing the answer.

"Nope. Apparently, they want us over to Headquarters as soon as possible."

"Yeah, no. As soon as possible is going to be in a few hours for the two of us."

"Why's that?" Saitama asks, a bit confused. "I don't think I've got anything going on today."

"Yeah, but the problem is," Tornado explains with an absentminded gesture. "I wanna hang out with you...and also, I don't really care what the Hero Association says. Besides, if it's about the Monster Association, we can just make up a crappy excuse that they'll have to take because we live here."

The Bald Cape shrugs, taking the reasoning as sound enough to go along with it, "Fine, but I feel like going out. That cool with you?"

"Where to?" She mumbles, her mouth currently occupied by a toothbrush. She could practically smell the stench of tired sleep rolling off of her in waves, and she needed to remedy that as fast as possible.

"Wherever you want," Saitama yawns, walking through the homemade hallway and turning off Tornado's ringer.

"Then I guess heading over to Tetsuya's'd be fine, you think?" She mutters after spitting out some toothpaste. "Oy, you got mouthwash or something here?"

"I have Brown Listerine," Saitama calls out from the other room. He'd decided to look through her fridge, which had practically become another storage area for foods that he got from Bargain Day.

"As if. I'm trying to clean my mouth, not burn through it with literal acid," Tornado snorts. "Anything that normal human beings can handle?"

"I mean...Genos uses Colgate. It should be under the sink," Saitama calls out, and of course, there it is.

"...It's empty."

"Then I guess you've gotta use Brown Listerine, huh?"

"Oh, screw off."


A solemn voice admits, "I genuinely thought that giant monster would tear down at least an entire city...but it was pulverized in a single blow!"

Another voice celebrated, "I'm glad King is on our side!"

Someone coughed pointedly, "As for the hero hunter..." they put a hand on their hand, resting their arm on the table as a hologram appeared in the middle of the table. "It appears that Silverfang has failed to defeat him."

"What now, Sitch? Further casualties or major injuries would cause the Hero Association as we know it to cease its function," another member spoke up, concern lacing their voice.

Sitch, adamant about his belief, firmly slammed his hands on the table, a dark expression gracing his features, "We can no longer consider Garo as human. We will mark him as a monster, label him threat level Dragon, and issue a warning."

"Should we really do that?" A bald man questions, his mustache shaking with each word. "He is merely human, correct?"

Sitch resisted the urge to scoff, thinking, Tell that to all of the injured heroes that he sent to the hospital.

"Surely, he can't stand against our S-Class services!"

Services? Is this a goddamn business?

"According to the report, Silverfang found Garou but failed to kill him due to interference from the Monster Organization, though Demon Cyborg did report that Garou seemed to resist being saved. I will admit, I was surprised, as I had great faith in his ability," Sitch explains. "However, I think it is safe to assume that Garou will not aid the Monster Association. While Silverfang failed to kill him, he did gravely injure his opponent."

The bald man spoke up, sounding like a bootleg version of what Teddy Roosevelt would sound like, "Call in Blast, I say! He's a top ranker, but he never does anything! Why is everything except his name shrouded in secrecy!"

"We cannot force Blast. He is a hero voluntarily," Sitch calmly explains. "Not even the Tornado of Terror has the ability to convince him. Do not forget, she is the one who brought him into the Hero world to begin with."

The man opens his mouth, but Sitch overrides his speech, "I doubt you wish to go against her choice."

He shuts up.

Sitch clears his throat before speaking once more, "He hates attention, so we keep his identity secret. However, there is value in his receiving special treatment. We can have faith that in an extreme crisis worse than the destruction of City A in a flash, that Blast will come to save us."

"Balderdash!"

The entire Board turns around to the source of the voice, "This is one such crisis!"

Of course, the source of the voice was without a doubt, the fat-lipped greedy asshat known as Narinki. It is unknown to most why he's hated, but it seemed like there was something external unbeknownst to him that just seemed to harbor an irrational hatred towards the man.

The feeble whispers from members of the Board were overridden by the man's annoyed cries for help, "Those monsters took my son! I give you all this money, so why haven't you raided their base yet?!"

"Do not worry yourself," a man with a robotic eye assured, seemingly coming out of nowhere. "I assure you that your son will be returned safely, and without harm."

Once it seemed that Narinki was stunned enough, the man continued, "I do not fully comprehend your distress, though I can sympathize with it. You need only wait and assist us to ensure this operation is a complete success."

"W-Who are you?" Narinki stuttered stupidly, stance clearly unstable.

"I am Sekingal, leader of the rescue operation," he succicntly stated. "I suppose I must get formalities out of the way and state that I am pleased to make your acquaintance."

Narinki grumbled under his breath, "At least there's somebody in this building who knows that business comes first and formalities are unnecessary."

"What was that?" Sekingal hummed with a furtive smile.

Narinki cleared his throat, "Don't mind that. Now, as you were saying?"

"We have gathered an elite team to work together to fight against the Monster Association, and I think you will be quite pleased. The team consists of all the S-Class heroes we could gather in addition to the highest A-Class heroes," Sekingal explained.

"How soon can you retrieve my son?" Narinki huffed, blubber wiggling slightly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"As soon as Child Emperor can learn where the location of the hostage and the hideout is," Sekingal explained. "We are certain that it is in City Z, if that may put your mind at ease."

Narinki took a deep breath, before bellowing, "Now I know you aren't letting one hero do all the work when you have a gigantic workforce! Are you even putting in any effort into this?!"

Sekingal kept a straight face, "I promise you that the Hero Association is taking everything into consideration and that we are having this as our top priority."

"If you can't do anything about it, I'll take matters into my own hands!" Narinki scoffed, speedily heading out in frustration.

Sekingal sighed, "Finally."

As he walked over to where the rescue squad was supposed to gather, he already heard a few voices bickering amongst themselves.

"Huh? What sort of operation are you talking about?!" Tornado's voice belted, annoyed. "I could just destroy the entire place!"

"Child Emperor is searching for their base," Sekingal explained. "We will attack once we are aware of all of the paths we can take."

Tatsumaki clicked her tongue, putting a hand on her hip as she waved her hand absentmindedly, "It doesn't matter. Whether or not they bring an army, it's not like I can't fling them to the moon and back."

Child Emperor, still working on his handheld device, kept his lollipop in his mouth as he lazily muttered, "I've got a ton of drones looking through the routes that Elder Centipede took, but since the search area is so huge, it'll take a little time..."

Tatsumaki sighed, holding up a finger, "The thing's in the Ghost Town of City Z. One of their executives already told us that." Pig God and Superalloy Darkshine stood behind her, the latter taking an intimidating pose while the former kept his nonchalant attitude over everything except eating.

"'Us?'" Sekingal repeated, somewhat confused.

"Oh," Saitama hummed, walking to Tornado's side. "Yeah, Gouketsu tried to attack Tats and before he died, he just told us where they were."

"The Ghost Town?" Child Emperor asked. "I can narrow my search area down, then. We should be able to find their hideout by tomorrow, and at the latest, by midnight the day after!"

"Wondrous," Sekingal hummed. "I've a question, though."

"Yeah?" Tornado scratched the back of her head.

"There are other members that are searching for their hideout. Should we ask them to meet up at a designated location?" He brought up.

As if on cue, a rough voice groaned, "God, that was so annoying. We were searching all over the place, but not a single monster in the mountains seemed to know where the Association headquarters were. Mostly random assbags, really."

"Atomic Samurai," Superalloy Darkshine nodded, the older man returning the gesture. "Nothing came up?"

Kamikaze stretched, cracking noises resembling that of a glowstick coming from him, "Yep. We even split up, but nothing popped up."

He scanned the room, "So this is our squad? What's going on?"

"They took a child hostage," Superalloy Darkshine explained, crossing his arms over his chest. "They've given us two days, but apparently Tornado and Caped Baldy have found out some information."

Atomic Samurai walked up to the two heroes, his apprentices following behind him, "And what could this be?"

"They're in the Ghost Town of City Z," Saitama yawned. "Geez, as long as the supermarket's not destroyed, I'm fine with whatever damage is caused there."

Atomic Samurai gaped, "So we did all that monster hunting for nothing?!"

Child Emperor snorted, "Well, at least we know that we won't have to worry about any threat coming up in the mountains."

Sekingal pointedly coughed, "Child Emperor...?"

Seeming like that in itself was enough to jumpstart the young prodigy, he hummed, "Oh, I should get back to monitoring and making sure that everything's good!"

He practically sped out of the room, leaving Saitama, Sekingal, Atomic Samurai and his disciples, and Tornado.

"If it's in the Ghost Town, which, you know, literally nobody lives in, can't I just destroy the entire thing before they get a chance to retaliate?" Tornado whined impatiently.

"There's a hostage, so unfortunately, a quick and easy wipe isn't going to be a possibility."

Tatsumaki huffed, crossing her arms, "Damn, they're really making it too hard." She sighed, putting a hand on her hip. "Well, I guess it'd be too easy otherwise. They really have to fear us to resort to something so boring..."

"Don't underestimate our opponent," Sekingal warned. "They're quite powerful."

"Yeah, yeah," Tornado scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Is this all you wanted to talk about? To warn us?"

Saitama yawned, joining the conversation, "Sounds like a bunch of hype, honestly, especially since most S-Class heroes can take them on pretty easily."

Sekingal sighed, leaning his head downwards. His eye lit up, quickly projecting a hologram.

"Drive Knight insisted on running recon yesterday," the man explained, showing a virtual display of Drive Knight's horse form galloping. "Despite our warnings, he went directly into the Ghost Town."

Superalloy Darkshine tilted his head, confused, "Alone? For what reason?"

Saitama groaned, "Man, I coulda gone with him. That coulda been fun."

"You an idiot, Baldy?" Tornado snorted. "We went to the mall yesterday."

"Oh, you're right," Saitama clicked his tongue, remembering what had transpired the day before.

Sekingal cleared his throat, causing the two heroes to direct their attention at him, "Simply because he hadn't lost a battle before. Arrogance, confidence, whatever you'd like to call it. However...

"Whatever the case is, his transmitter ceased functioning," Sekingal concluded. "From what we can gather...Drive Knight has been defeated."

Superalloy Darkshine took a stoic expression upon his face, Saitama kept his normal expression, Pig God stopped eating, Atomic Samurai scowled, followed by tension from his disciples, and yet, Tornado?

She looked bored.

"That's it?" She scoffed, annoyance gathering in her tone. "If he's defeated, then what are we waiting for? We need to gather the team as fast as we can! Who else are we waiting on?!"

"The Monster Association gave us a few days until something happens. We are preparing for that. The other heroes will gather when they are ready."

"Are you stupid?" Tatsumaki rolled her eyes. "I asked who we're still working on, not when."

"Namely Zombieman, Puri Puri Prisoner, and a few other heroes."

Okamataichi, Rank 3 of A Class, shrugged, his dots wrinkling up with the odd grin on his face, "Well, I suppose we must rest up until then!"

He opened the door, only to be met with a familiar face, "Oh!"

Sweet Mask met his gaze for a single moment, before his eyes became downcast, disappointment swirling around in there, "I thought that the squad was supposed to be both small and elite."

Okamataichi tilted his head, a little confused.

Sweet Mask leaned against the doorframe, staring off into space, "But you guys just aren't up to par..."

He caught their teacher's attention, "Atomic Samurai, do you think this is a picnic or something? Why couldn't you just leave these jokers behind? They're going to become liabilities."

"Oy, Sweet Mask," Darkshine tried to interrupt, his shy voice ignored.

"You on the team?" Atomic Samurai grumbled.

"Of course," he shrugged, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Saitama wondered out loud, "Who is he again?"

Tornado kicked him in the shin, "You idiot, he's the one who tried to get leverage by threatening to tell about our relationship!"

Saitama sniffed, "Oh, really?"

Tatsumaki rolled her eyes, "God, I thought you might have not been an idiot for five minutes and this is what happens, I guess."

"Of course," Sweet Mask sighed, talking to Kamikaze. "The monsters interrupted my concert. What was I supposed to do?"

"Well, I see," Atomic Samurai brusquely coughed, his straw still in his mouth. "Well, my guys are tough..." he walks up to the hero, getting close to him. "So when you're in danger, they'll be there to save your pampered little ass, got that?"

"Danger?" Sweet Mask scoffed, almost offended. "It's odd that you have the gall to doubt my combat ability like that."

He waved his hand gently, bored, "As a Class A, I am able to monitor the behaviors of all from that position. To put it simply to the point where even idiots can understand it...

"I'm stronger than you."

Atomic Samurai grit his teeth, "Oh, is that so?"

Saitama yawned, interrupting their conversation, "Yadda yadda. If their hideout's supposed to be somewhere near the Ghost Town, then I'll just head home and wait for you all to call me or something? That cool?"

Sweet Mask scoffed, "You? Walk home? You must be more of a fool than I take you for. Where do you even live?"

Tornado deadpanned, "Are you literally deaf or illiterate? Did you not hear how I moved in with him a bit back...into the Ghost Town?"

Atomic Samurai raised an eyebrow, intrigued, "I'm sorry, did I hear you correctly?"

Saitama nodded, picking at his ear, "Yeah, I live in City Z, apparently near the monsters. Turns out, the Ghost Town's a pretty cheap place to live in."

Superalloy Darkshine hummed, "Then why not inform us of their location sooner?"

The bald man shrugged, "I dunno. Most of the monsters just go down in one punch, and Genos usually burns them once they pile up."

Tornado snorted, "You know, I don't know how you toasted a marshmallow over the fire. That stuff smelled nasty."

"Hey, it's like a campfire," Saitama retorted, a coy smirk on his face.

Sekingal clicked his tongue, "Do you think it would be fine to use your home as a base?"

"A what now?" Saitama repeated, only now turning his attention to the only non-hero in the room.

"A base, Baldy," Sweet Mask scoffed, words laced with venom.

"Oy, so what if I'm bald!" Saitama furrowed his eyebrows, chopping at Sweet Mask. In an instant, the other heroes felt the impact of the force secondhand, seeing Sweet Mask fly downwards, gravity suddenly affecting him far more than any normal person would ever be able to survive.

"Oop, sorry about...that," he blinked a few seconds later, after realizing the massive hole in the ground caused by the impact. "I thought the floor would be stronger."

Sekingal sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration, "Tornado, could you retrieve him?"

"Already on it," the short woman sighed, lifting him out of the rubble. "Lemme just fix this up." With a few more waves of her hands, she mended the broken floor back together, though it was clear that it wasn't as high-quality as it used to be.

"As I was saying," Sekingal cleared his throat. "We desire to use your home as a base of operations. The heroes would gather there, and we would plan from there. Would that be okay with you?"

Saitama put a hand on his hip, waving absentmindedly, "Ask Tats. I don't really care, but it'll be a little cramped."

In response, Tornado rolled her eyes, "Why not just head downstairs? Since it's a complex, everyone can just have their own room until we all have to strike. Doesn't that make more sense?"

A nod.

"God, you guys are idiots sometimes."

As Sweet Mask got his bearings back, he scowled, "You asshole, don't think I'm going to let you get away with this. I'll ruin you as a hero."

To his surprise, Saitama hummed, "Go for it. If the rest of the heroes look good and it helps everyone in the long run, I don't see why not."

Tats kicks him in the shin again, backed with telekinetic force, "You idiot, at least tell him that you won't let him do that!"

Sweet Mask was taken aback, before lightly chuckling, "Well, Tornado, you must have yourself a...real hero of a boyfriend, I suppose."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Tornado spat, eyes sharp.

"Relax, relax," he assured, his tone disingenuous as always. "I mean no harm. Just make sure that he doesn't screw our operation up. He seems like...he's a few sandwiches short of a picnic."

"Picnic?" Saitama whispered, staring off into space. "Damn, I just realized I haven't eaten breakfast yet."

"It's lunchtime," Atomic Samurai deadpanned. "Tornado, is this guy really strong enough to be in Class S? Heard you bullied some of the poor executives to get him in here."

Tornado nodded, "Yeah, he's strong enough. The problem lies in his brain and in how fucking goddamn stupid he acts. Have you seen how many times he humiliates himself to help the weaker heroes look better?!"

Sweet Mask rolled his eyes, "I suppose that can be respectable. Are there still people who like you, though?"

Saitama scratched the back of his head, his voice unsure, "I mean, the last time I got mail with a positive message was...I think the Deep Sea King stuff. I've heard people say nice things to me on the street, but no mail. Otherwise, just a bunch of death threats from people with too much time on their hands."

"Didn't you get something written in blood?"

"Yep."

Superalloy Darkshine gulped, "But what about your confidence? I'd hate to only receive hate letters, you know?"

Saitama shrugged, indifferent, "I dunno. Now, how about some of the other heroes? How about Genos?"

Tornado clicked her tongue, "He should be done getting his repairs. He told us that he'd been trying to get used to his new abilities."

Sekingal cleared his throat, interrupting the conversation, "Child Emperor requested that Bang be taken off of the operation because of Garou being his former student, and that he is unsure about whether or not Demon Cyborg will be a liability."

Tornado snorted, "As if. He's going to come either way."

"Then I request that either of you find a way to contact him, since you seem to be the closest heroes to him."


"You think the other heroes like me?" Saitama asks, a little shocked. "Honestly, I thought they'd be annoyed by me being there since I'm bringing down the S-Class or whatever."

I quirk an eyebrow, "That's what you've been worried about this whole way back?"

He hums, "I mean, it's the only thing that really caught my mind. Sweet Mask seemed to be a bit annoyed."

I scoff, "That's 'cause we just did the exact opposite of what he wanted us to."

"And what was that?"

"The rumors, idiot," I playfully punch him in the arm. "Now, we haven't eaten anything."

Saitama points out, "Now that's cause you got salty that you had to use Brown Listerine."

I shudder, "Don't remind me."

"So, where'd you wanna eat again? I'll take you out, like a date or something," he offers.

"You're s'posed to take me out anyways, asshole," I snicker. "But I'm fine with eating anywhere. You wanna...head to the carnival?"

"There's another one?" He asks, somewhat surprised. I can't blame him. Even though carnivals don't pop up much in a place, fairs and carnivals just seem to happen on the spot, like a random mosquito that pops up out of nowhere.

"Yeah, I know. We go there a bunch, but hey, I like the corn dogs they have there," I admit.

"You said carnival food sucks," he snickers.

I shrug, "Most of them do. Corn dogs are so bad you enjoy them, though."

"Stale corn dogs."

"You buy worse," I recall. "Wait, didn't you get kompu from a monster?"

Saitama shrewdly rolls his eyes, "God, I remember that."

"How could you forget?" I smirk. "Everyone brings it up from time to time, even Genos. He still asks about hair implants for you because of it!"

"Hey, it's not my fault I found a good deal!"

"And you got it from a monster?" I snort, amused. "You could've at least grabbed some from the supermarket."

"It was free."

"And it was the most disgusting kombu I'd ever eaten," I retort, a light smile on my face. "I could've grabbed some maggot cheese from France and it'd taste better than that."

He rolls his eyes, ruffling my head to my protest, "You still ate it, didn't you?"

"And I puked," I point out. "Now, c'mon. We got a date to head on."

"Carnival?"

"...you choose."

He groans, and I try to suppress my smirk.

It's fun, honestly. Whenever he gets frustrated from me saying that, I feel like I won some sort of competition.

"Oh, there's this spicy ramen challenge nearby. You wanna lose to me there?"

I snort, "As if! I'm going to crush you, Baldy!"


Safe to say, she did not crush me.

"Oh, shut up, Baldy!" She groans, her voice echoing outside the bathroom door as I sit down on the couch. "I'm dying here!"

"Boo-hoo," I mock playfully. "Sucks to suck."

"You can't even play with Scorpion correctly!" She retorts, before being silenced by an ear-shattering groan of despair.

"Meh," I shrug. "That's in a video game. You're dying in real life."

"Quiet," she grunts.

"Didn't think this'd be the thing to do you in, Tats," I click my tongue. "Oh, I should probably call Genos, shouldn't I?"

"Do it after I'm done regretting every decision I've made in the last year," she urges as I sit down on the couch she had. Since she had a larger T.V, I decided to sell the one that I had.

"That include dating me?"

"...partially," she answers. "It is cause of you that I'm in this mess in the first place."

I roll my eyes, grabbing some pajamas from the nearby laundry basket and turning on the air conditioning, "Nah, pretty sure that that's cause you have a weak spice tolerance."

Silence after that.

"Am I wrong?"

"Shut it, asswipe."

I gaze around the room, humming a little bit.

Are the heroes really going to take base at this place?

Man, I just wanted to get a good rest in peace.

Oh, by the way. I don't think I'd ever really thought about it actively, but now that I think about it?

I should probably tell her that I am feeling something strong for her. Not certain how to say it, but there's definitely something.