Drip. Drip. Drip. The murky darkness of the sewer was reminiscent of a swamp, the vast space seemingly too large for an ordinary sewer system. The moss growing was palpable, a rancid stench in the air that Saitama never really addressed all the time he'd lived here.
As they took another step, they could feel the sloshing beneath them, and it'd turned out that it was disgusting enough for Tornado to force her boyfriend to let her onto his shoulders so that her feet wouldn't somehow contract an unbelievable amount of plague.
The water beneath them was a vomit-like green, exactly what you'd expect from a third grader who couldn't mix their paint properly. The viscosity of the liquid beneath them didn't even fully resemble water, but a mixture between mud and oobleck. Safe to say, it was a mess.
There held a certain quietness and tranquility in the steps that Saitama took. They weren't silent by any means, but they held a rhythm that added...life to the party. Vitality to the dark, rank, dank area they were in.
He heard a crack beneath him, looking down only to be met with the sight of one of the Subterraneans. He hummed, a confused expression coming upon him. From what he knew, the group probably disbanded after he took care of them after the dream that he'd had.
He, making sure that he didn't shake Tatsumaki off balance or annoy her, carefully crouched down to take a look at the corpse, realizing that its protective shell on its face had been cracked. His eyes widened a little bit, seeing its eyes.
"Tats...this thing's alive," he remarked. "You remember the psychic eye dude?"
Tornado deadpanned, "I've fought like...a ton of psychics before. Which one are you talking about? The one that I literally just fought?"
Saitama nodded, "Yeah, the rag that insulted Fubuki."
She nodded, crossing her arms, annoyance clear in her voice from just thinking about him, "Yeah...what's the point you're trying to get at here?" Saitama couldn't help but recognize that tone of voice from when he first met her.
"I'm pretty sure that the Monster Association's been getting rid of any monster that just lived here before," he darkly informed her. "Look." He pointed at the one eye that the monster had, though the other one had been ripped out rather gruesomely.
As she lifted herself up in the air with her telekinetic power, she nodded at him, signaling that she was going to lift the monster up into the air. However, as she did, her breath hitched, feeling the pulse in the monster still beating. Its heart was still beating.
"They have been..." Tornado's voice faded off as she realized that the accusation was true. "Do you think they've done with...other sorts of species that might have lived here? Because...that's not the only one that's here."
She gestured to a few feet in front of them, pointing at yet another Subterranean, face in the ground. It seemed to be struggling to move, hanging onto the last thread of life. As Saitama and Tornado approached it, they realized that it was probably the last one that was alive other than the others.
"Wait, Tats, you can sense others' presence from heartbeats?" Saitama questioned, slightly confused. He'd never heard of her using that power before. He turned to face her as he walked through the sticky substance that had even coated the wall lightly.
There were a few bits of light that came in through the sewer grates from the overworld that afforded them vision, but otherwise, they were relying on their other senses as they navigated through the sewer, taking care not to step on any more Subterraneans.
"Yeah, but I have to actively pay attention to the thing that I use my psychic power on," she calmly explained, biting the inside of her cheek to hide the fact that she was just as freaked out as the normal person, seeing these almost-corpses just lying, unable to do anything about their predicament.
"You..." the withered soul whimpered pathetically, feebly grabbing onto Saitama's ankle. "You're the one...who was strong enough...to take down...our king...correct?"
Saitama furrowed his eyebrows, only quietly nodding. He didn't know how else to respond to the Subterranean, whose voice sounded so weak and resigned that he couldn't speak.
"Then please...avenge our civilization for us...we will not survive much longer...because the Monsters...they wiped us all out...we cannot take them on..." it begged, its hostility that they'd shown before wiped away, replaced by pain.
Tornado stayed silent, watching the scene in front of her. She wasn't there when he'd taken care of the Subterranean species, and she didn't really know how to feel involved. She excused herself to the side, satisfied to just watch Saitama interact with the monster.
"I guess I can do that," he awkwardly shrugged. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"
It whimpered, its arm cracking as its grip weakened, too fatigued to continue, "I don't need to...be okay...I just want to know...that the Monster Association...can't harm anyone else..."
Saitama sighed, putting a hand on his hip while scratching the back of his head, "And what happened to the time that you guys tried to invade us?"
"We learned...what happens when you try...to fight against...absolute power...you spared us...but they...were..." its voice struggled to keep going, and by the time it'd said the last part of its sentence, it had faded off into obscurity, before Tornado blinked very slowly.
"It's dead," she declared calmly. "That...was not what I expected to see today."
Saitama awkwardly smiled, "Yeah, I get what you mean...I think I took down their king only a few days after I met you..."
"It's already been that long?" Tatsumaki gawked. "These guys must've really tried to survive..."
"Can you really call them monsters?" Saitama sighed, deciding only to walk forward. "I guess they were just another species that were trying to survive."
She scoffed, "You could say that about the Deep Sea guys also. And the Air King that got killed by the aliens." As she floated in the air, they continued progressing through the sewage system. There wasn't much else to it, but it was something...odd. It felt more like a burial ground, the presences of the destroyed Subterranean civilization underneath their feet adding a little...impurity to the whole situation.
"Yeah, but they were wiped out after they terrorized people. They didn't become weak or be crushed because their leader died. These guys?" Saitama pointed a thumb towards the Subterranean corpses behind them. "They were helpless against the Monster Assocation, apparently."
Tatsumaki harrumphed, pouting as she crossed her arms, "That just means that the Monster Association might not be super weak after all."
"You just don't wanna admit that you're also going to be fighting for monsters, don't you?" Saitama let out a soft smirk at that, teasing Tornado, who promptly smacked his arm.
"I'm not fighting just for the monsters, idiot. I just...feel weird, fighting for both people and monsters now," she sighed as she blew a few strands of hair out of her face.
Saitama scrunched up his face, "It does, doesn't it?" He coughed into his elbow, furrowing his eyebrows, before sniffing the air.
Tornado scoffed, "What is it now, guard dog? You smell danger afoot or something?" She had a light tone to her words, and a soft smile as well.
"Mhm," Saitama nodded, squinting his eyes a little. "You see that over there?" As Tornado squinted in turn, she shook her head, not seeing anything in the murky darkness. She knew at that point that the very dim light from the sewage system wasn't going to be enough, especially in the middle of Monster Association territory.
Even though she couldn't see it, she could definitely hear it. It wasn't loud; the subtleness in the noise would've been completely avoided if they'd continued talking to each other the entire time, with no breaks in between.
The breaths. Near rabid, yet soft. It was a sort of controlled chaos, and she could feel the animosity in the air. It was like something was restraining itself from moving, but it was clear.
"Monster, right?" Tornado nodded at Saitama, narrowing her eyes lightly. "Seems like it's got some sort of control, but not much."
"Seems to be a bit strong," Saitama yawned, peering at the monster. "You think it-" In an instant, a bright flash came from where the monster was, still in the dark.
Quickly, that flash came to be a gigantic ball of energy, illuminating the entire room, to the point where it was almost impossible to see. However, right before destruction occurred, Saitama could see a glimpse of the monster behind the attack.
A gigantic tuft of black fur popped out from the shadows in addition to six glowing ruby eyes. A growl came, echoing throughout the cylindrical encasing of the sewer, its legs already in a stance to attack. The most monstrous dog that could've been imagined was right in front of them, about to blast the entire sewer to shreds.
"Hm?" Saitama clicked his tongue as the energy ball came towards him, quickly making contact while Tornado protected herself with a barrier, not even bothering to shield Saitama from the blow at the moment.
"Wow, thanks a lot, Tats," he rolled his eyes without any annoyance in his voice as he brushed off a bunch of the debris that'd fallen on him from the explosion of the ball.
"You're very welcome," she playfully curtsied. "Now, what do we do about that mutt?" It growled in front of them, even as the debris continued to fall, taking the blows from the concrete falling on it as if it wasn't even there.
"Oh, this one should be easy," Saitama assured as he grabbed his belt, loosening it a bit.
Tornado raised her eyebrow, completely confused as to how his words connected to his actions, "What are you doing, Baldy? Are you taking off your pants or something?"
"No, some dirt just got in my belt," he explained as he wiped out whatever dust had accumulated there. "Jeez, why can't it just stay out like the rest of my-"
Before he could finish his sentence, he was blasted with another energy ball, causing even more debris to fall on him.
Once the flash died down, Saitama stood there, unscathed as always, but with an annoyed expression on his face, "Man, I hate hitting animals."
"That's not even a normal animal, Baldy," Tornado deadpanned. "That's a goddamn monster dog."
"Still a dog."
"Wrong."
"Just..." Tatsumaki sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just take care of it, would you?"
"Fine, fine," Saitama rolled his eyes, walking towards Overgrown Rover with a blank expression on his face. "I don't wanna do this to you, but I gotta. Kinda in our way, you know."
The monster growled, barking furiously as Saitama approached, getting in closer to bite at him. Its teeth snapped shut like a vice at light speed, making a sound similar to a guillotine.
"You think some of the other heroes could handle this thing? Nah, right?" Saitama mumbled to himself more than Tatsumaki, who'd decided to just casually stroll by the monster. "Well, sorry about this."
He jumped up, and delivered a mighty blow to the top of the monster's head that sent it plummeting through multiple floors.
"Ope," he clicked his tongue. "Think I found a way to look through their hideout faster."
I didn't kill the thing, did I? Nah, I couldn't have.
"Mm," Tornado clicked her tongue. "I don't think we'll find it that way, honestly. It seems faster to explore like that." She pointed in front of them.
With as much damage as Overgrown Rover had caused right above them, light was flowing in plentifully, letting the two of them see where everything was easily.
In front of them was a fork in the road, two pathways that led to different areas that neither of them really felt like using their brains to find out where they led. Plus, how could they do that anyways?
It was clear that they weren't made by humanity, these tunnels. There was something else to it, something...inhuman. It looked shabby, yet stable. There were multiple pillars covered in blood, presumably from infighting due to the monster's instinct to hunt for blood. The foul smell of the sewer slowly fused with the metallic feel of blood in the air, stale and miserable.
"We got all the time in the world, I guess," Saitama yawned. "Which one are you going to take?" He hopped over the hole that Overgrown Rover had been launched into, peering into the different pathways.
Considering how his superhuman abilities were only limited to what the normal person could do, he could peer extremely far into the darkness and saw...literally that could be useful.
"Baldy, are you stupid? I can literally...make stuff glow with my mind. As in, I could make a light source to look into if I wanted." Tatsumaki made an example on the spot, doing some weird hand movements to go along with it to display the incredulity of the entire thing, despite the world that they lived in.
Saitama shot back, "Then why didn't you make a light source to see that huge ass dog that was shooting at me?" He smirked in victory, witnessing her open her mouth to retort once more, only to close her mouth in reluctant defeat.
"Fine, don't have that extra light source," Tornado pouted. She crossed her arms, landing on a platform that she suspected wasn't as absolutely filthy as the rest of the area around her. Plus, it was covered in a layer of concrete powder.
"They probably have torches set up or something. Not every monster's going to have that sort of night vision stuff, I don't think. At least, that's what's most likely, right?" Saitama deduced, a thoughtful expression on his face that seemed way too unlike Saitama for Tatsumaki to really accept it.
"What happened to you being an idiot and me being the right one? Can't we go back to that yet?" Tornado groaned, putting her hands on her hips as she started floating again. "You know what, let's get back to this later. I wanna get back to you with a good enough response to beat you with."
As she flew off into the tunnel on the right, which she didn't corroborate with Saitama beforehand, he couldn't help but feel a satisfied, smug ass smirk make its way onto his face.
Thank fuck King lent me some of his manga. I read a ton out of some of them.
Saitama, of course, had stolen, word-for-word, some of the phrases that he'd seen in an action manga that he really liked where the main character was in a similar situation in a similar setting, and he'd called upon that knowledge like a goddamn supercomputer.
If only he'd decided to use that sort of brainpower in any other activity on the planet, but he'd decided to use it to surprise his girlfriend in a way she wouldn't exactly approve of, nor ever find out about.
Yep. 100% worth it.
Once Tats and I split up, I've just been roaming around here without a lot of stuff going on. I mean, I met a monster that tried to kill me, but ended up just latching onto my arm with its fangs. It didn't seem to tear into my outfit, so now it's just on my arm, waiting, as if trying to keep biting through's going to do anything.
Well, I gotta respect him for trying, at least.
It doesn't take long for me to clear out an entire hallway. Eventually, the tunnels turn from something that looks like it was made by goblins to an actually organized, fancily sharpened hallway. Y'know, like something you'd see walking down an office or school hallway. Either of those.
Luckily, I turn my brain on after walking around like a zombie, but only after I see a few corpses that I just left there. What, am I gonna clean it? I'm not this place's janitor, anyways. I wonder how good janitors would get paid to work here.
Anyways, when I saw one of the holes from the dog that I bashed into here, I realized that marking wherever I went would be pretty convenient.
Unfortunately, sometimes I just make it so that the entire area can't be explored again. That's 'cause eI decided to make the markings just punches in the walls, and when I punch one wall too many times, the place behind me just sort of collapses in on itself. I wonder how much damage that's causing to the surface, but who am I to pay for all that stuff?
So, I'm narrowing all of this stuff down, when I come across something that seems a little weird. It's...a weird blob. It's like that...what was that stuff called...Malice. Yeah, malice from that game King lent me. I think it was called Breath of the Wild.
Anyways, it's like a purple blob that's latched itself onto one of the dull walls in here, and it seems to be pulsing. It looks like it has veins, that all trace sort of ride along the wall and have their own little pathway.
Well, I guess my job of searching for a monster is done for me. I think this might lead to something cool. Maybe a treasure chest?
I decide to finally shake the monster off of my arm as I walk along the path that lies on the purple veins along the wall. It looks like it's feeding off of something, but I don't know what. It's probably not the best decision to ask in the first place.
Suddenly, a tentacle reaches out at me, and tries to bite onto my face. Its teeth shatter, and it seriously looks like some of the diagrams you'd see from a penis in an anatomy book. It's just...gross. It looks like Thanos was a shower, and not a grower.
Regardless of that...the tentacle just sort of flinches, wailing around as it just waves around pathetically, but like one of those waving arm things at car dealerships. You know, the ones that can have that really weird rise at times and also knock somebody out with a strong enough breeze.
It retracts again, and I find that it just sort of...snatched back like a tape measure. It smacks the ground before rising unsteadily, and goes probably...50 meters before it turns to the hallway on the left.
I guess I should follow it, right? Maybe it'll lead me to the big bad in the entire thing before we even find the actual kid. That was the mission, right? Find the kid? Or was it just to wipe out the Monster Association.
I honestly can't remember.
Well, whatever the case is, the tentacle doesn't seem to be waiting up for me, soo I'll just follow it and punch whatever I come across when it tries to attack me. Shouldn't be too hard, right?
Just your ordinary day of hunting monsters and one-punching any enemy. The normal.
Isn't that Hero Hunter guy supposed to be with the Monster Association now, or did I mishear that as well?
Honestly, it probably doesn't even matter. He's a human, really. Not like anything's going to really happen to him other than a lecturing from Tats if she's the one who catches him. If I fight him? I'll probably let him go again. Not like he's killed anyone.
I yawn. It's literally just walking through a maze, but the maze is something that I could literally escape from in half a second.
I don't even know why they needed to bring me and Saitama along for the mission. This thing is literally the easiest mission on fucking Earth, and nothing could possibly change my mind. I've been walking around, murdering every single monster that I've seen so far, and nothing interesting's happened. I could've ordered Uber Eats and they would've gotten to where I was without a problem.
I guess it shouldn't be too hard. Child Emperor made these little communicators for us to request for help if we needed it, but if they needed help, they literally deserve to be killed off anyways.
Okay, okay, that sounded a little fucked up, and honestly, it was.
God damn Saitama with his being kind stuff and not resorting to murder instantly. I liked that about me. It was easy not having to think about not wanting to kill somebody for the smallest of things, but apparently, it isn't good to want to get rid of weaklings.
Well, Mumen Rider isn't included in that. I still respect him, even if he is in C-Class.
There's literally nothing going on, honestly. I feel a psychic presence about half a mile away, but it's pretty weak. There's not much to the thing in general, and I could probably wipe it out from here.
The issue comes in the fact that...it's not really doing much. It's projected itself into a physical form, but there's nothing else to it. It's doing nothing. There's no motion, no action, no effort put into it.
Plus, the psychic thought they were being clever and made it so there were multiple points to confuse other people with powers like mine. Isn't it just obvious? You could either use brute force or just find where they all overlap. It's really, really obvious, and unless they set up extra points for overlap, it doesn't end up working.
Simple explanation. If you have all these things that connect to an original source, it's easy to follow one strand to get to that point. If there are multiple points that can overlap, you just keep following until you get past all those extra points. That just depends on how sensitive somebody is to other telekinetic users.
Meaning...unless the user is unbelievably stronger than me, it'll be absolutely useless. And considering how that'd literally mean I'd have to meet Blast again, which is looking more unlikely by the minute...it's probably not going to happen.
Honestly, whatever's trying to have that as its output is probably doing it to both counter me, and using most of its energy to constantly support that. Especially with how long those monsters were probably in wait for us? It's been like this for a while.
I sigh quietly. I thought they had some...actual thought and preparation going into this. What do they even have that can counter me, anyways? Their strongest psychic is probably this thing, they can't attack me in numbers, they'd need something that's literally immune to psychic power. Which, again, is dependent on something's willpower.
And I can lift Saitama if I put in enough effort. So, I should be fine.
Now...all I can think about that's not absolutely certain is whether or not some of the other S-Class heroes have survived. I've met a few of the monsters who call themselves Demon or Dragon level threats, the ones that Child Emperor showed us at the table.
So far, they've all been...really annoying. Not annoying like buzzing in your ear or just a hindrance. It's annoying in how it's so...disappointing. This is...the Monster Association? This is it? A few demon level monsters, a psychic that I can pick apart without even using my powers, and probably one strong thing in total to back it all up? Where's that, then?
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if my luck goes to shit and I can't find a single thing that even resembles the monster. If anything, one of the other S-Class heroes are gonna find it and shit the bed. And if anything, the worst-case scenario would be Saitama finding it and beating it up in my place, which'd suck because this entire mission would be a goddamn bore-fest.
Plus, that'd be one more monster added to his bet, and I can't have that happening, can I?