City B was thrown into a panic. Disaster alarms were blaring, people ran screaming, and buildings were collapsing with each footstep of a gargantuan creature. The tallest skyscrapers in the city were absolutely dwarfed by this monster, who itself was tall enough to graze the clouds with its head. Its appearance was that of some unholy amalgamation of man and beast; a humanoid, muscular upper body that hosted massive bat-like wings on its back and thousands of snakeheads upon its back. Its skin, while also human-like, featured patches of scales and shaggy fur scattered around its upper body. It stomped forward on two serpentine tails that rose and fell like legs, shaking the very earth with each step. And its eyes and mouth flashed and flickered with fire and smoke.

Another, far smaller being stood on the monster's shoulder. It looked similar to the larger creature, though its upper body more resembled a human woman. She let out a wicked cackle as the larger monster lay waste to all in its path. "That's it, Typhon, my love!" the female monster shouted out. "All the humans are fleeing in terror!"

The larger monster growled, with a plume of black ash blasting out of its mouth. "Yes, Echidna," he boomed. "They are all so weak."

"The gods were fools to think that some mountain would keep you trapped forever! We shall ravage the mortal world and rule its wastes atop a destroyed Olympus!" screamed Echidna.

"Olympus… " Typhon growled as he began to recollect.

"I was born for one purpose: to punish the overzealous gods for their sins against Gaia and her kin. Against my power, none of them were stupid enough to challenge, save for one. The bastard 'king of the gods'..."

"Zeus," The titanic being growled in hate.

"I would have killed him in our battle. But instead, that coward chose to flee and he led me into a trap, imprisoning me within the earth for a millennium."

Typhon raised his gargantuan arm over his head, blowing away some of the clouds. Grimacing at the humans below, the monster swung downwards at full force, destroying all that stood in his path. Countless lives were extinguished as roads, vehicles, and skyscrapers were reduced to mere dust. "Yet my spirit remains unperturbed!" Typhon proclaimed internally.

Echidna let out a wicked cackle. "Excellent, darling. Thousands of humans have perished!" She pointed towards the city adjacent to them. "To the next human city! Olympus stands no chance!"

"Rulers of Earth. Conquerors of Gods," Typhon repeated as he trudged forward on their path of destruction. No force among men or gods could oppose them. Their victory, it seemed, was assured.

"I don't think so."

But of course, it wasn't.

"What?" Echidna looked at Typhon's left shoulder, and to her utter bewilderment, saw a bald man and a familiar-looking young woman just standing there. "T-Typhon! There are people on your shoulder!"

"Put some pants on," said the bald man to Typhon.

"Alright," the young woman said as she drew her sword, pointing it at Echidna. "I'll take the snake lady. Saitama, you take the- woah!"

FWOOOM!

Saitama was sent flying into the horizon by one of Typhon's serpentine heads. Mayari just barely managed to jump over it, having seen it coming towards them. But before she could land again, Echidna tackled her out of the air and sent the two tumbling downwards. Typhon held up his hand to catch them, where they rolled upon landing, with Echidna pinning down Mayari. "Mayari. The foolish, childish half-breed," she hissed. "Are you truly stupid enough to challenge us?!"

"Why does everyone keep calling me 'half-breed'?" Mayari muttered under her breath. "It's Weird!"

Struggling for just a moment, Mayari forced Echidna off of her with a mighty kick. Echidna flew through the air, only to land perfectly on her tail. She outstretched her arms in a primal battle stance; bearing her long wolverine claws. Mayari, in turn, assumed a proper battle stance with her kampilan, and the two lunged at each other in full combat.

Mayari jumped into the air and came down upon her opponent with a mighty swing of her weapon. But Echidna merely blocked the attack with her claws and countered with a swing of her tail, knocking the goddess back. Mayari recovered on her feet and charged once more at the monstrous matriarch. She cut and thrust at Echidna with increased speed and ferocity. At first, Echidna was able to guard against the onslaught and even landed a few counter-strikes of her own. But Mayari's attacks gradually became faster and faster, and Echidna could only intercept so many strikes before finally…

SHING!

Mayari cuts off Echidna's left arm at the elbow with a swift slash. The monster woman screeched in pain, cradling her bleeding stump. Mayari jumped at Echidna to finish her off, but suddenly she was jerked back and pulled back down by her arms. Several strands of dark red hair sprouted from Typhon's skin and wrapped around her waist and arms, forcing the goddess to her knees. As she struggled to break free, Echidna was enveloped in a gargantuan hand and was carried away by her colossal mate and placed back on his shoulder.

"Enough," Typhon boomed. "You will delay us for no longer."

Mayari felt herself rising higher and higher into the sky before coming abruptly to a halt. The lunar goddess then found herself gazing into the eyes of the mighty Typhon; the two great spheres lit ablaze with both figurative rage and literal fire. The enormous monster unhinged his jaw and opened it wide, to reveal yet another sea of searing red flames. Typhon was ready to reduce the young deity to ash. Echidna, while still in pain, let out a sadistic cackle as she saw Mayari struggle even more to escape her fate.

But death would not claim Mayari today. Past the horizon, a bright glint in the distance caught Typhon's eye. Distracted, all three of them turned their gaze towards the sparkle which rapidly grew brighter and brighter. And then, in one, fatal instant…

BOOOM!

Typhon's head exploded; reduced by some inconceivable force to nothing but a hail of blood, bone, and seared flesh. Echidna could only look on in shock, confusion, and horror. But only Mayari could plainly see Saitama, with his fist held out in front of him amidst the eruption of gore. Mayari suddenly could feel her bonds loosening, and she burst free with one big push. She wasted no time and jumped between the falling pieces of flesh towards the paralyzed Echidna. Once she made it to about three meters away from her target, she spun her body at incredible speeds while holding her kampilan across her back. She flew straight at Echidna, who only noticed Mayari when it was too late.

With a heavy strike and a mighty battle cry, Mayari cleaved Echidna's head from her shoulders and sent it flying away. The goddess landed on Typhon's shoulder and sheathed her blade breathing out a sigh of relief.

Saitama landed next to Mayari, his fist still smoking from his attack. "You good?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mayari responded between breaths.

The two heroes looked down to bear witness to the devastation below them. Had one not scene the monster they were standing on, they could assume that a meteor or hurricane had just struck the city. "Yeesh. They really trashed the place," Saitama commented.

"You're telling me!" Mayari concurred. "But at least we… well, you… were able to put a stop to it."

Saitama only let out a forlorn sigh in response.

But suddenly, Typhon's body began to quake and tremble violently. The massive carcass had just begun to fall. The shaking was so great that Mayari nearly lost her balance and fell with it, but Saitama had grabbed her in a nick of time. He held her close and jumped, soaring leagues faster than a bullet into the sky. As their descent began, the duo watched as the great father of monsters collapsed limp and lifeless onto the city below. Mayari could only wince as they watched it completely flatten the remainder of City B; disappearing beneath its massive, dead bulk.

"Oh shit," The lunar goddess cursed.

"Oops," Saitama said, flatly.

"That's the one catch to this whole 'hero' thing, I guess," Mayari mused as she slowly walked down a quiet street. "You just can't save everyone."

Her thoughts drifted back on the previous events of the day; the people they had saved, the monsters they killed, the thousands of lives lost…

They definitely should have handled the situation much better than they did. So many deaths could have been prevented had they been more careful. It was tragic and troubling… but not very saddening. As cold and callous as it sounds, the two weren't particularly bothered by it. They hadn't gone completely numb to it, no, nor did they simply not care. They had just accepted it as an unfortunate part of their hobby. Mayari herself was also a goddess of war, so she was already familiar with the grim reality of mass death.

Just then, a small crowd of people came frantically running past Mayari. The young goddess paid them no mind and continued her stroll. But an imposing shadow appeared in her path, forcing her to stop. She looked up slowly and uninterested, and was met with the sight of a horrible monster… which just looked like an old-timey car with muscular human limbs replacing its wheels.

"It's too late to run now! I'm the Car-ropractor; breaker of spines and hijacker of vintage cars!" The creature proclaimed, before letting out a resonant chortle. "I once worked as a moderately successful chiropractor for several years, but my obsession with old cars led me to… "

The monster trailed on about his absurd origin and even more absurd passions, but Mayari had already stopped listening. Instead, she took notice of the Monster's bloodied hands and engine hood. "This thing's killed a lot of humans…" she observed. "And so have many others before it. But I really don't feel bad about it. Death is a natural part of life, even for us gods. So it's not like some sort of grand metaphysical plague on existence… "

" … and I'll scrap any dumbass who gets in my way," the Car-ropractor finished as its headlights flashed a blood-red glow. "That includes you!"

The monster reared up on its hind legs, preparing to lunge at Mayari. The lunar goddess prepared to draw her kampilan and casually shifted into a battle stance. The vehicular being roared with fury and charged… only to explode in a bloody fireball. Oil, blood, and flaming car components were launched into the air and splattered onto the surrounding buildings. Unfortunately, Mayari received the full brunt of this blast, leaving her nearly completely covered in monster giblets.

"Ugh! What the hell?!" Mayari yelled, wiping the blood out of her face.

Once her vision cleared, she saw Saitama standing there. His face had an annoyed expression (well, as annoyed as Saitama was capable of) as he looked down at his bag of groceries.

"Oh, sorry," Saitama apologized in his usual deadpan. "Didn't see you there."

That was another point! As dangerous as the earth can be, humans are perfectly capable of defending themselves. After the pantheons decided to let the mortals rule over themselves, or hell, even before that, humanity has proven time and time again that it can (mostly) handle itself. A fact that's made only more apparent by the overabundance of powerful humans in the recent decade. Saitama alone was all the human race could ever need.

"So what am I doing here?" Mayari asked herself.

Saitama shrugged at his ruined groceries and began to walk back to his apartment, with Mayari following close behind.

"What are you doing?" Saitama asked.

"I'm gonna take a bath at your house," Mayari answered, frankly.

"What!? No!" Saitama asked, incredulous. "My bathroom still has stains from the last time."

"Hey, come on," she urged. "We're best friends, aren't we?"

"Not really," he corrected.

Mayari raised her hand, wanting to refute that, but instead she remained silent for a few seconds in consideration of those words. Ultimately, she responded with a simple "Yeah…"

Saitama did end up letting Mayari use his bathtub. He supposed that he would feel bad to just leave her so filthy, especially since he was directly responsible for it. Unfortunately, he'd have to spend another weekend trying to scrub out every spot of blood and god knows what from the walls. But he didn't have any plans for the next few days, so he at least had time.

After nearly an hour, Mayari exited his steaming bathroom and well… Saitama wasn't one to judge a person by their appearance. I mean, look at him. It would be the pot calling the kettle black. But right now, in all honesty, Mayari looked ridiculous

Her long mane of dark hair, which was normally tied back, now dropped freely from her shoulders. Since she had no shampoo to wash them out (for reasons painfully clear to Saitama), she had patches of damp, clotted blood scattered about her mane. Her garments, which were confined to a garbage bag, were temporarily replaced with whatever spare clothes he had lying around; his "Oppai" shirt is one of them. She was not enthusiastic about it, but it was between that and a revealing tank-top.

She almost looked like a stereotypical otaku girl that you'd see in some cheesy romance anime. All she needed was a pair of comically large glasses and she'd be set.

"You're gonna wash your own clothes yourself, right?" Saitama asked, to which Mayari answered with a slow, tired nod. She shuffled over to Saitama's table and plopped down on the rug next to him while Saitama continued to surf the Television. As he skimmed through the various channels, his thoughts drifted back to his early days of hero work.

"I never feel like I used to whenever I'm out fighting monsters," Saitama mused. "I always come home unharmed, wash my costume, go to bed, and do the whole thing over again."

The mundane and monotonous office work the bald hero had worked so hard to run from was not too dissimilar to the boredom and repetition that plagued him today, and he was well aware of this. It. It was even thankless; just like his time as a part-time convenience store clerk. Not once did he receive any genuine sign of gratitude or even a simple 'thank you' from the people he saved.

"But it's not like I care that much. As long as I get a kick out of it, I'll be satisfied," the bald hero clarified to himself.

A soft snore snapped Saitama out of his thoughts. He looked to his left to see a goddess, who looked like anything but, sleeping with her head on his table. Saitama let out a slightly annoyed grunt as he walked over to his closet, fished out his "Oppai" hoodie, and draped it over his guest.

"Not sure about her, though," he pondered internally as he set up his futon. "She knows by now that I don't need help fighting monsters, yet she's always following me around. I mean, we're not close friends or anything."

Saitama finished his task, and he continued to dwell on these thoughts as he drifted off to sleep; his final thought being one last mental note.

"Might wanna get a spare futon."