It was roughly an hour later when the news came that Neutral Grounds was getting ready to close. Saitama had one of the sheets in the cart covering over him and Mitsumi easily. They had both fallen asleep rather deeply after their intense need for each other was done.
"Hey," he smiled when he opened his eyes to look at her. "Feeling better?"
"I should be asking you that," she chuckled and got pulled close to get kissed and cuddled lovingly. "I love you, Saitama. I can't say it enough."
"And the same goes for me," he smiled and hugged her tight. "I love you, Mitsumi. You're my wife. My amazing, wonderful wife. You've been through so much. Seen so much. You've done so much. It's like I said that first night we started to sleep in the same bed together. Like hell am I letting you go."
"Saitama," she whispered and snuggled into him. "I will admit something."
"What?" he asked.
"I really want a pet," she frowned.
"Eh…" Saitama sighed. Then he blinked. "Wait…"
"What?" she asked.
"I…I think…oh! I forgot! Crap!" he grimaced. "I do have pets! And a plant! I left them in my old apartment!"
"What?! Oh! I hope they're okay!" Mitsumi gasped. "Wasn't it destroyed, though?! I mean…oh, dear…"
"The plant is a cactus. It's fine. And my pets are…um…monsters. I think. So, they might be okay…" Saitama muttered and quickly dressed with her.
"Pet monsters?! And you never told me?!" she asked.
"I forgot, okay! We had so much going on…and then I met you…" he said and tossed her shirt at her after she got her bra back on. "Crap! They should be okay. Yeah. They should be. I told them I was gonna look for a new place. To stay put. I never went back for them."
"Where are they? You said your old apartment? But…didn't you say your old place was destroyed?" she asked again. "I really hope they're okay."
"They should be fine," he said and opened up the curtains. "Hey! Zenchu! I need you! It's serious!"
"What?" Zenchu asked and shadow phased over.
"My old apartment. I have…pets there. Monster pets. I forgot about them. With so much going on…ugh. I have a plant, too. Um…find them. Now," Saitama said. "I hope they're not pissed at me…"
"Ah…okay…" Zenchu blinked at this. "Good thing monsters can go without food for a long time…"
"I'll prepare meals now. Do we know what they eat?" Anno asked on hearing of the issue.
"Anything," Saitama called out and was soon helping Mitsumi out of the push cart to get ready to greet them.
"I can help," Rendor said.
"How many did you have?" Mitsumi asked.
"Two of them. I, eh…got them after the Monster Association was done. One of them is like a giant puppy dog. The other kinda reminds me of a monkey. Something like that. They just…stayed with me. Genos was fine with them when he saw they just wanted to help me. I told them to stay home when I went out. But…with my apartment getting destroyed…well…" Saitama sighed.
"What's this?" Kamikaze asked. "You got monster pets from that association? Wait. You said one that looks like a giant dog…that one?! The black one with those red eyes?!"
"Yeah," Saitama nodded.
"You did not!" Garou gaped at him.
"Yeah," Saitama nodded again.
"And a little monkey man?" King frowned.
"Like a shadow with a white face. Has something on top of the head like Inichi does," Saitama said. "It's pretty neat. It can clone itself. I think."
"You got that thing as a pet?!" Kamikaze grimaced. "That thing almost kicked my ass! Now it listens to you?!"
"Yep," Saitama nodded neutrally.
"If it can clone itself…hmm. It may want to help guard our home!" Mitsumi beamed. "I'll gladly welcome both of them into the family."
With them preparing a welcoming meal now, Zenchu, Rendor and Tatsumaki made their way to the original wreckage of Saitama's old apartment. Inichi found himself going with them to listen for thoughts before focusing in on where he heard them. He pointed up at a pile of rubble. "There. They are in there. They have intense patience! Just go in and show no harm."
"Right!" Zenchu said and shadow phased to find himself standing in a cleared space that looked like a bathroom. A black, shaggy dog-like monster with six, lightly glowing, ruby-red eyes was watching him. Some of the fur even looked like it was falling off to reveal more muscle than under-fur. It looked at him curiously, but it remained sitting from when it was last told by Saitama.
Another figure resembling a small man in a black suit with a white mask and a limp antennae on the top of its head was sitting on the ground next to the dog. It looked up at him with a bit of curiosity. Behind them was an untouched cactus in a small pot. Neither of them looked truly bored. Zenchu seemed to muse at this. It was almost as if they were used to this form of treatment. The only existing light was a bulb hanging from the ceiling with a pull string. "Hey. I'm with Saitama. He's sorry he forgot about you both. He hopes you're not mad at him. I'm bringing you both to him now. Others will be here to help get you out."
The small humanoid jumped up with a happy face. The dog-like monster yawned to expose the inside of its mouth to reveal extremely large fangs. On stretching, it had four toes on each paw and wagged its little stump tail. There were no other distinguishing marks of a dog, much less seeing if it had ears or a nose. It could clearly hear, though.
"So…can either of you talk?" Zenchu asked.
"I can…" the humanoid said. "I just…don't…around the one I choose to serve now. He's…too strong. Makes me wary."
"Ah. I can respect that," Zenchu nodded. "He kicked my ass, too, in a way. Not by choice. I was a little out of my mind. He only slapped me, though. I won't let him punch me. Also, you can talk to him. He won't mind at all. I serve Lady Mitsumi. His wife now. Yes, he knows of me. As for her, she's a human and has gone through her own fair share of hell until he stepped in to save her from it all. She's…possibly pregnant by him. We still aren't sure, but…yeah."
"What?!" the monster said with surprise.
"Inichi is my monster brother. Yours, too, if you serve Saitama. He can fill you in on everything with visions. A lot happened in two weeks," Zenchu nodded. "Oh. Um…you have a name? Maybe? I am Zenchu."
"I am Black Sperm," the humanoid said. "This is Overgrown Rover. We were very high up on the Monster Association panel. Until the one we serve now ended it. So…it's just…better to follow him."
"Black Sperm? Ah…okay…maybe you can tell me why you call yourself that later. Anyways, considering what he can do with Lady Mitsumi now with attacks, eh…yeah. That's a very good idea to follow him," Zenchu chuckled and looked up at the green glow that now filtered over the ceiling. It was lifted away to reveal them all, and Inichi was quick to greet the newly found monster pets. Rendor was set down to let Tatsumaki snuggle into him and ignore the monsters there. It showed that she was fully tolerating the other monsters.
"Greetings! I am Inichi. I am going to give you both a series of visions so you are brought up to speed. Ready?" Inichi asked.
"Visions?!" Black Sperm blinked. Inichi nodded and focused slightly. Overgrown Rover paused and tilted its head on getting them. It took ten minutes for them to receive everything, learn about Mitsumi and all of the current events they missed. Questions were silently given and answered. Only after Inichi was sure they knew everything did they show they were ready to go.
"Let us go home," Inichi chuckled and lifted them up in a bubble.
"I have the cactus," Zenchu said and got transported with the others out. On getting set down, he gave the cactus to Tacki to let her see about examining it and getting it into a better pot. Overgrown Rover looked over at Saitama and scuttled right over to jump up on him.
"Hey!" Saitama chuckled and picked up the large, dog-like monster to get his face licked. "Such a good doggy! I missed you, too!"
"So cute!" Mitsumi beamed and got a huffing lick to her cheek next.
"I informed them both of the events leading up to us. They know everything, Lady Mitsumi," Inichi nodded.
"Thank you," Mitsumi smiled and looked over at Black Sperm. "Hello! I'm so glad that we got to you! Are you hungry? We have food ready for you."
Black Sperm looked at her and walked over to sit in front of her with a small smile on its white face. She reached down to lightly pat on the top of its head. It blinked at it and found itself completely calmed unlike anything it ever felt before. Zenchu gave a small chuckle and a nod of understanding at that. Saitama set down Overgrown Rover and sighed with a form of relief. "Okay. They're not mad at me. That's good. We have them now. Um…now what? I mean…"
"Master…" Black Sperm finally said and looked up at him.
"Oh. You can talk?" Saitama asked.
"Um…yes…sort of…" the monster shrugged.
"Cool. Just be good. Protect the home. Be nice to my wife and family here. Anyone else that's not expected, eh…you can kick them around," Saitama nodded. "Grigos is at the main entrance of this place. You can work with him. As for the puppy, I think it just protects. So…"
"It can protect our room and the apartment," Mitsumi smiled and gave the black dog-like monster a good head scratching around where the ears should be for a normal dog. All six eyes looked at her and it got her laughing at the hand licks. "Such a good puppy!"
"That thing creeps me out," Garou muttered at Overgrown Rover.
"Did you know this one?" Mitsumi frowned.
"I hit it and it didn't get hurt. Like Saitama. It makes me cringe," Garou grumbled. Lily now looked at him and whispered softly. "Ah. Okay. It's different if you do things to me. Not anything else."
"Thought so," she grinned.
"What are your names?" Mitsumi asked and got pulled into Saitama's lap. Zenchu brought over a chair for him to recline in. She found herself laughing when Overgrown Rover climbed up into her lap now and reclined on both her and Saitama. Saitama was not amused, but he left it alone from how happy Mitsumi was from it all.
"The human-like one is known as Black Sperm. The dog-like one is called Overgrown Rover," Zenchu said.
"Black Sperm?!" Garou cracked a grin.
"Be nice, Garou," Mitsumi warned. "This one is now family and needs to fit in. Please be gentle for now."
"Ah…sorry…Lady Mitsumi…" Garou cleared his throat. Now Black Sperm looked over at him with surprise. "Yeah. I vowed to serve her. Mainly a protector and big brother figure. I'm sure you learned everything, too?"
"Yes…" Black Sperm said lightly and sighed. Then it paused on getting a plate of fresh fish to start enjoying. Even Overgrown Rover was given a bowl of minced fish to enjoy. Zenchu was able to hold the bowl for the dog-like monster to eat out of without needing to move from Mitsumi's lap. After the dishes were cleaned off and taken away, both monsters had their current hunger appeased at last to give semi-peaceful thoughts.
"Mom? Dad?" Fumio said when he strode over. "Oh! Do we have new family now?"
"They're my pets," Saitama said. "I just remembered them. They just ate."
"What?! So cool!" Fumio grinned and now laughed at the happy licks that Overgrown Rover gave him. Then he moved to sit down and talk to Black Sperm before showing it a portable video game.
"You got a game?" Saitama asked.
"Yeah. King got it for me. No, Dad. I don't want you to play on it. You might save over me," Fumio said. That got King laughing like crazy with the others at the comment. "We can get you your own."
"Come on! That only happened one time!" Saitama argued to get the others laughing hard at it. Mitsumi sighed and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I don't get it. I did that once. Just once! So stupid…"
"Inichi…" Mitsumi smiled and chuckled softly.
"Ah. Of course. One shall be received. Actually, he needs one for tomorrow's event. I shall procure one post-haste," Inichi agreed. "Maybe a couple in case he gets mad and breaks it…"
"What?" Saitama asked to get King and Kamikaze snickering hard.
"Please…" Mitsumi sighed and snuggled into Saitama's neck.
"I gotta say, though. I thought that dog was bigger. Like…as big as Wind Crane. Wasn't it?" Kamikaze thought back and chewed on the stick.
"You're right," Bane said from where he was sitting. "Much larger."
"Huh. Maybe it should be called Undergrown Rover…" Zenchu mused.
"Zenchu!" Mitsumi warned.
"Bless you," Garou said before grinning at his brother.
"Don't. Call. Me. A. Sneeze," Zenchu hissed out through his teeth.
"Careful! It looks like you need a tissue from all that spraying," Garou goaded and quickly blocked a swipe. "Hey! I got Lily in my lap! Stop that!"
"Can I slap them both?" Saitama asked Mitsumi to get both monsters to look at him with shock. Mitsumi rose a brow to look at them with amusement.
"Sorry!" they both said together to each other. Black Sperm found itself snickering with a form of joy at all of it. Overgrown Rover snorted and rested its head on Mitsumi's shoulder now. It was clearly content. It even let out a growling sound of affection when she ran her hand over its back.
"Would you like something else that's yummy to eat?" Mitsumi crooned softly to the monster and scratched along its back. It heard 'yummy to eat' and perked up with a form of excitement. She couldn't really see ears or a nose, but she was sure it heard her easily just by the offer of more food.
"Lady Mitsumi, I think it may be trainable!" Kianna said and walked over with a small piece of cooked chicken from a small bag she now received from Anno. "Can I try something? While I worked with wolves, some of them were a bit responsive. I also trained dogs long ago before moving to study wolves."
"Sure," Mitsumi smiled and let Overgrown Rover jump down with eagerness at the chicken treat.
"Sit," Kianna said. It didn't move.
"Sit down," Saitama said. Now it sat down.
"Hmm. It only obeys those with intense power…" Inichi frowned.
"Stand up," Kianna said and held the piece of chicken. It looked at her before slowly standing up. Inichi mentally told it to obey her for treats. When it got the meaty treat as a reward for listening to her, it began to understand that those with yummy treats were good to listen to. Saitama would be instinctive. Even Mitsumi on being so close to Saitama, but his orders would overrule any others. Now with Kianna slowly teaching it small things, and with Inichi mentally guiding with what she wanted it to do, the training appeared to be successful.
"This one used to be a guard dog of sorts. We can easily utilize it for our apartment," Inichi chuckled. "It will be very easy to train."
"What game?" Black Sperm asked on watching the portable game. It was completely fascinated with the colors.
"It's like…Puzzles and Warzones. You solve tile puzzles to help attack. Then you can use things to unlock heroes. Each hero has special powers to use to help fight. If you don't need the heroes, like weaker ones, you can feed them to other heroes to make them stronger. See?" Fumio grinned.
"Huh!" Black Sperm said with intense curiosity.
"There's another game we all play together at times. It's really fun!" Fumio grinned. "I'll show that to you later."
"Yes! I see it!" Black Sperm nodded with a grin.
"I wonder how Genos would react to the sight of you. Didn't you nearly kick his ass, too?" Kamikaze mused. Black Sperm looked over with a shrug. "He was the robot. The cyborg."
"Oh. He lives?" it asked.
"He does. He's family to me. A brother. His girlfriend, Kamiko, was also a monster before. She and I are sisters. Please be nice to him?" Mitsumi asked softly and pat Black Sperm's shoulder with appreciation.
"Okay," it nodded with a smile.
"Are the others coming back yet?" Saitama asked.
"Hmm…" Inichi focused. "They are closing up now."
"Good. Eh…puppy!" Saitama said to get Overgrown Rover turning to his voice and ignoring everyone else. "My disciple. Suiryu. Fetch him."
"Oh, shit…" Zenchu found himself sniggering. Inichi sent the image of the human to carefully bring over, and the dog-like monster huffed before bolting off.
"This will be fun," Grigos snickered from where he was in the entry point to the main grounds.
"Seriously?" Mitsumi mused.
"Well…I want to see how fast he can run now…" Saitama said with a small grin. "Oh. Alert any others to not attack my dog. But not Suiryu."
"Of course," Inichi chuckled and sent out the alarm. Genos was in shock at this, but he was told it was a direct order from Saitama. He warned Kamiko that he may be helping to protect Suiryu just in case.
"I want their photos on the wall of Neutral Grounds later," Mitsumi nodded.
"It shall be done," Inichi nodded.
"Did he really sic a monster on his own student?" Fubuki asked.
"That he did," Inichi chuckled. "Ah. I will check on the metal structure in the arena yard for Iwasaki to test her attack on."
"I wouldn't mind a guard dog for our home," Okada mused.
"What? We can just call our son over," Kodama said. "Pets are too much work. Kids are meant for that."
"Thanks, Dad…" Saitama muttered to get Mitsumi laughing at him. As they continued to converse lightly, Suiryu was finally leaving the back of the kitchen to dump the garbage out. When he turned, he saw the dog-like monster staring at him. He was in complete shock.
"Um…hi. Ah…good boy?" Suiryu said with a small grimace. Overgrown Rover growled and took a step forward. Suiryu's jaw dropped and he took a step back. When the monster lunged, Suiryu was able to quickly side-step and bolt away. Now he was being chased back to the apartment grounds, and he focused all of his strength on out-pacing the monster dog. All others were ignored from the monster, and Genos soon found himself running with Suiryu.
"I see you are being brought home?" Genos said casually.
"What?!" Suiryu asked and jumped over a street curb.
"Yes. That's Master Saitama's dog. A massive monster when we first met it, and it has shrunk down. I think there was another, too, that he considers a pet. I thought he left them at the other apartment. Ah. This means he remembered and was able to bring them to him. That's good. That must mean the other is with him now, too. You won't be hurt, but Master Saitama wanted to fully test your running stamina this way," Genos explained. "You're doing very well!"
"Um…thanks!" Suiryu grimaced and ran straight past Grigos with Overgrown Rover hot on his heels. When Saitama was in sight, though, the monster dog ignored Suiryu and ran right up to him to leap into his arms with Mitsumi in the chair.
"Hey! Good doggy! Such a good doggy!" Saitama grinned and laughed at the happy face licks he got in return. "I won't ever leave you alone again!"
"It's so cute!" Mitsumi beamed and got her face licked next. "You deserve a treat for being so good!"
Overgrown Rover seemed to whine with excitement at the food promise, and Kianna was there to give over a whole fish for it. Yawning now, it moved to climb back up into the chair to snuggle down with them again and rest its head in Mitsumi's arms with complete comfort.
"I'm getting jealous," Saitama frowned to get Mitsumi giggling.
"Master Saitama, what is our next course of action?" Genos asked. He looked over when Kamiko was brought to him by Inichi's blue bubble to get hugged. Then Inichi filled him on the day's events. "There was a water monster I missed?! Master! I must meet with that one!"
"You will, Genos. Don't worry. Maybe you can visit him after I head to bed. Inichi can get you to him," Saitama nodded.
"All this time I could have been snuggling a puppy!" Mitsumi sighed and kept getting growling huffs of affection back. "And to think he forgot about you! Such a bad man!"
"Hey!" Saitama said to get her sticking her tongue out at him.
"Maybe you should sleep at the foot of our bed tonight," she mused.
"Ah…no…" Saitama said now.
"Well, this wonderful puppy is not being left behind anymore! Neither will the other one. We'll have extra seats at our restaurant table put up to ensure they are with us," she said to get him groaning. "What? We'd do the same for our kids. This would be considered a bit of a practice run."
"Kids are different! I mean…" he started and paused at Overgrown Rover's sudden look at him with a slow blink of all six eyes. Then it whined and licked his cheek. That got him to let out a slow breath of air for control before saying, "Fine. You're too darned cute to turn away. Just behave."
"This is epic," Zenchu grinned while watching the whole thing with Garou. His brother could only agree with him.
"Ah. You set up an outdoor kitchen. Splendid!" Orotsu praised and moved to help Anno set up more pans for cooking. "Suiryu! Finish catching your breath and please come here. There is much we need to prepare."
"Yeah," Suiryu sighed and found himself sitting down with relief. "That was one of the hardest runs I've done in a while!"
"Good. Expect more," Saitama nodded to get his disciple glancing over with shock. Tsuruga soon showed up with Tanktop Girl on his shoulders and moving to sit down. She climbed down into his lap to stretch and got a plate of grilled fish to share with him. Saitama watched the others come back and settle around to see what was going to happen next. Then he looked at his monster dog. "Greet them. Be nice. They are family."
Overgrown Rover huffed, licked his cheek again and jumped down to get familiar with the family group. Now it got played with, pet and appreciated even more to cement a strong bond with those there. Even Black Sperm found itself comforted and greeted as new family.
"Our little family keeps getting bigger," Mitsumi chuckled.
"Yeah. I wouldn't change this for the world," Saitama smiled and kissed her softly before looking over at Iwasaki's nervous form. "Okay. Let's see what you can do while dinner cooks."
"Okay," Iwasaki nodded and soon walked off with Flashy Flash. He had a felt bag to hold her skin, and she had a form of anxious nervousness. Even if I don't have light in my attack, I do want to know what I'm capable of. I hope I do amazing! If I do well…maybe I don't have to cure myself right away…
*Authors Note - The game mentioned is actually Empires and Puzzles. And I play it quite a bit!*