One Punch Man: Polar Opposites
Chapter Four: Flexing the Muscles
After leaving the city, Kazenikura made his way to City Z, thanks to his good memory of remembering the layouts of all the cities, well, most of them, and after walking such long distances, he eventually found himself in one of the abandoned districts. Stopping in the middle of the desolate road, the former hero simply stood and waited…and waited… And then he heard it.
When one trains as long as the eldest esper has, they learn to sharpen their senses to a massive degree. Almost as soon as he closed his eyes, he could see the entire layout of the district. And not too long, he sensed movement; something massive was coming his way, underground.
He opened his eyes in time to see a massive worm emerge from the ground in front of him, roaring loudly as it craned its head at the esper, Kaze simply looking up at it with a blank expression and crossed arms, before it launched at him, aiming to swallow him whole, only to hit what seemed like a psychic barrier, disintegrating it inch by inch until there was nothing but ash scattered about.
Kaze remained unmoving, even as several more monsters emerged from the ground, some brandishing weapons, others claws or tendrils, and all seemed to jump at him all at once.
The esper only looked on…and sighed.
The first few monsters attacks didn't connected as soon as Kaze looked their way, all seeming to be hitting some invisible force, unable to break through, before Kaze waved a hand, a fierce and mighty wind slicing and dicing the unfortunate beings into pieces.
The next set of monsters fared no better, for as soon as Kaze's eyes looked in their general direction, the fiends were met with a barrier of burning inferno. Unable to put out the flames, it was only a matter of time before the beasts eventually burned to death.
Another set tried to jump him from behind, only be crushed by a rather large slab of concrete ripped from the sidewalk.
The final group of monsters in front of him charged, roaring and aiming to maul the former hero, only to be soaked with water the burned like acid, melting them.
And yet, Kaze did not relax, as he was greeted with a much greater challenge; a massive leviathan roared as it descended from the sky, flying straight for the esper, aiming to swallow him whole.
Showing no emotion, Kaze charged his fist with the elemental properties he was utilizing; earth, air, fire and water, and the four elements swirled around his fist as he reared it back. As the massive beast got close, Kaze threw the elemental powered fist, sending a swirling elemental blast right into its mouth, completely obliterating it.
As the beasts carcass, or what's left of it, fell around him, Kaze simply let out a disappointed sigh.
"Wasn't even using my full strength." He said allowed in a disappointed tone. "I need a more worthy opponent."
He opponents completely obliterated, Kaze left the scene, leaving the remains of splattered corpse's lying about.
Just after the carnage, Saitama walked down the streets, humming blissfully, before turning a corner, and he was surprised to said carnage before him, the various dead bodies of the monsters lying about and the massive leviathan amidst the corpse's.
Simply looking at the mess, Saitama wasn't too sure what to make of it.
"Looks like someone beat me to it." He said aloud, before shrugging uncaringly. "Oh well. Guess I'll just head home, but first!" He turned on his heal. "Groceries."
Not too long ago, Kazenikura walked down the sidewalk of one of the cities he had entered, his hood pulled over his head and his eyes glued to the sidewalk as he passed by the oblivious people who didn't seem to recognize him of his trademark dark attire.
'Sometimes, I question the intelligence of these people.' He thought to himself.
"Oh, hey!"
Snapping out of his trance, he turned to the sound of the voice to see none other than Mizuki jogging up to him, wearing her usual attire.
"Fancy seeing you here, Gakura!" She said with a big smile. "Whatcha been up to?"
Kaze wasn't sure if he was supposed to be happy or annoyed to see her again. On one hand, he's annoyed by her upbeat, bubbly personality, but on the other, he finds it cute and lively. Sometimes, he can't decide whether he likes someone or not.
"I was out stretching my limbs." The esper shrugged. "Figured I'd try to get back in shape by fighting monsters."
"Wow, sounds exciting!" Mizuki said with a grin. "Must've been tough!"
"It was pretty easy, actually." Kaze shrugged. "Wasn't even worth my time and I wasn't even using my full strength."
"Oh, I see." Mizuki frowned, before her expression brightened at an idea. "I know! Why don't you come train with me?"
"Beg pardon?" Kaze raised a brow.
"It might not meet your standards, but it could work!" Mizuki declared. "Trust me, you won't regret it!"
Kaze seemed apprehensive of the idea of training with some one he just met and doesn't know. Given his escape, he'd rather keep a low profile and not attract too much attention, although his meeting with Fubuki and his attempted warm up session in City Z seemed contradictory.
But on the other hand, he seemed interested in spending more time with this woman, and getting to know her better. Perhaps it could even give him some intel on what the Hero Association is doing nowadays.
"Very well, I accept." Kaze decided.
"Awesome!" Mizuki whooped, before frowning as she eyed him up and down. "Wait, where are your gym clothes?"
"My gym clothes?" Kaze repeated with a raised brow.
"You can't go work out in your normal clothes!" Mizuki scolded with fists on her hips. "Then they'll get all sweaty and damp! We need to get you some fresh gym clothes!"
And so she grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him along, the esper simply allowing the tall woman to drag him.
Walking back into his apartment with an arm full of groceries, Saitama switched back into his casual clothes before turning on the television and switching over to the cartoon channel.
"Say, I wonder where Genos went off to." He said aloud. "I haven't seen him since he went out this morning."
As if on cue, the teenage cyborg swung the door open and stepped in through the threshold.
"Good afternoon, Master!" Genos greeted.
"Oh, hey Genos." The bald man replied. "Where'd you go?"
"I was called in by the Association." The teenage cyborg declared. "What about you?"
"Went out to find monsters." Saitama shrugged. "Found a bloody mess instead."
"What happened?" Genos asked with a raised brow.
"Not sure, but it was messy." Saitama shrugged once again. "I just decided to get groceries instead."
"I see." Genos mused.
As Saitama turned his attention to the television, Genos seemed suspicious. Leaving the bald man to his show, Genos left the apartment complex and went off to the scene to investigate.
Meanwhile, after a shopping spree, Mizuki had dragged Kazenikura to a nearby gym, with Kaze's outfit being different; he was dressed in the usual black but with white stripes down the legs of the track pants, a pair of black and white sneakers, a grey T-shirt and a black track jacket.
"You sure like to wear black a lot, huh?" Mizuki remarked.
"I look good in black." The esper shrugged uncaringly. "So, where do we start?"
"We'll start you off with the basics." Mizuki declared with an enthusiastic smile. "Let's head over to the dumbells over here to get you started!"
Following along, Kaze did the workouts with Mizuki, as asked, and the two went over to the deadlifts, he noticed that while doing it, he saw Mizuki's butt jut out of her tight spandex a bit, only showing the crack, making him blush a bit.
'Come one, snap out of it.' Kaze shooked his head furiously. 'She's not some sort of eye-candy, dammit!'
After the dead weights, the two decided to take turns spotting each other on the benchpress. For Kaze, it wasn't that much of a problem, easily lifting well over a thousand pounds, which greatly impressed Mizuki. While Mizuki took her turn, Kaze watched in case she needed help, while the heroine easily bench at least a hundred pounds, grunting with each lift. As he watched, he noticed how the bar pressed against her breasts, causing them to jiggle a bit.
Once again, Kaze shook his head furiously, reminding himself that now wasn't the best time to admire the athlete's assets, before the two moved on to other exercises. It went about as well as one would expect; Kaze tried to concentrate as best he could, but he kept getting distracted by Mizuki's assets, like how her breasts bounced up and down as she ran on the treadmill, the way her assets sort of jutted out a bit whenever she did kettlebell sumo lifting and whenever she did her finishing stretches.
By the end of it, Kaze and Mizuki finished their workouts before taking separate showers before leaving.
"Whew, that felt good!" Mizuki said. "Well, what do you think?!"
"It was…different," Kaze shrugged. "Not like a fight, but it does help, I suppose."
"You sound like you've had plenty of fights." Mizuki remarked. "Are you a hero, by any chance?"
"Used to be, but not anymore." Kaze answered.
"How come?" Mizuki frowned, curious.
Kaze gave her a plain look, the woman genuinely curious, but he was unsure of how much he should tell her or if telling her anything at all would be a good idea.
Figuring out what to say, Kaze sighed.
"I just got tired of the way things were being treated." He explained. "The heroes that were supposed to protect the people were treating it more like a job rather than actually caring about those who need help. They care more about rank and how much money they can make trying to be big shots and it angered me."
"I had no idea." Mizuki said.
"I joined to help the people." Kaze went on. "Not for money or fame, but for what was right. Over time, I grew sick of it and left, not wanting to be associated with selfish fools."
"I think I understand." Mizuki nodded. "But there are heroes that aren't like that. Heroes that do care about helping others; like me!"
"You have such faith in them, huh?" Kaze remarked.
"I was inspired by Superalloy Darkshine to become a hero!" Mizuki declared. "He's always been a role model for me and I want to become a hero just like him and protect the weak!"
Kaze couldn't help but crack a smile, "I wish there were more heroes like you back then, then perhaps I would have stayed."
"You still can." Mizuki said. "The Association isn't all bad. You must've made some friends!"
"You're right about that." Kaze admitted. "But they were few and I had more jealous rivals who despised me."
"But you can still try again!" Mizuki said optimistically. "I can help!"
Kaze simply gave her a blank look before sighing.
"I will think on it." He said. "It will take time."
"I understand." Mizuki nodded. "Well, I'd better go. Hang later?"
Kaze nodded, then shook her hand and watched Mizuki leave, before his smile turned to a frown.
'So naïve.' He thought to himself as he turned away. 'She knows nothing of the ugly truth of reality. Nothing of society's two-faced nature.' He then grew a small smile on his face. 'Still, it's nice to hang out with her. Especially with a body like that-'
Bam!
The side of his face was steaming red after a charged up slap from his own hand.
'Stop thinking like that!' He angrily berated himself. 'She's not some eye candy, God damnit!' He then sighed. 'Still, no reason to not look forward to seeing her again, right? No harm in that.'
And with that, Kaze walked on, simply wandering with no destination for now.
Later, back at the sight of the dead monsters, Genos was surveying the mess of bodies and ashes of the fallen monsters, carefully analyzing the scene.
"Some of the monsters were incinerated, melted, crushed, and even sliced to pieces." He said to himself. "But what could have caused this…"
After some thinking, he analyzed the area once more.
"From the looks of it, there's some residual of psychic energy." He mumbled. "There are only a few possibilities; the Tornado got bored, the Blizzard wanted to train, or…"
His eyes widened in realization, "the Hurricane is on the prowl!"
With this, he dashed off, hoping to find the criminal before any innocent people are harmed.
And there's the new chapter! I hope you guys are still around for more! So, we see Kaze hanging out with Mizuki and slowly starting to warm up to her and Genos is on his trail! I hope you guys are okay with the pacing here, I'm still gonna try to take my time to flesh Kaze out as a character before he faces Saitama.
So, with that, I hope you guys are enjoying the story! Be sure to look forward to more and remember to review!