"Sometimes, it's just great to bring new people into the mix." - John Oates
"I still can't believe you waited four days, and then brought in a normal french fry for me and the doctor to analyze," I griped with a hand over my head, and the other carrying my suitcase on the way to Genos's new sensei's place. What was his name again? Saitama or something?
It was honestly kind of creepy how Genos was trying to work around Saitama. He spent four days observing him to try and find the secret to his power. It wasn't like I really knew what Genos was talking about, but I followed him anyway under the falsehood that I still needed to observe how his arms were working. And then he brought a french fry, a normal french fry, to analyze in the lab.
Those four days were probably the worst of my life. I could have used them to actually work on the creation of a prototype; not the one I was working on recently, but the doctor actually wanted me to create a new pair of arms from one of my old concepts, something I was extremely happy about. And as it was, Genos wanted to observe his sensei, so the doctor redirected his request of new arms to trailing the cyborg.
"I believed the secret to his power laid in his dietary supplements," Genos insisted. "He must be a cyborg like me, there's no other possible explanation for his power."
I shrugged. "Sure, sure. Why don't you ask him what kind of parts he uses to be so strong?" I scoffed sarcastically. Only Genos seemed to take me seriously.
"That's a great idea!" He exclaimed, tapping his palm with a fist.
I dragged my hand down my face. He seriously couldn't be serious. "Well," I sighed, exasperated already, "time for me to find out what your sensei's really like huh? Tell me again, what should I expect?"
Genos sobered up, looking at me in the eye with the utmost intensity. "A man of unparalleled strength. Even from our short encounter and four days worth of investigations, I can tell, he's the strongest being I've ever come across. Be wary of how you conduct yourself around him." He warned. It was honestly kind of intimidating.
I had never actually seen Saitama even though I had been tailing him with Genos. Everytime I tried to look at him, something was obstructing my view. If Genos said this guy was super strong, then I had to prepare myself for the guy looking like anything. Maybe he really was like a demon; a really tall guy, maybe seven feet, with really huge muscles, each one probably being the size of my head…. Or maybe he was really handsome! A nice 5"10, with short fluffy hair, and very nicely toned muscles! He could be anything, from a complete monster to my complete dream guy! I was drooling before I knew it, something which Genos so thankfully pointed out.
"I was not!" I denied, wiping my mouth on my sleeve. "It's probably leftovers from lunch!"
I saw Genos's irises shift the tiniest bit. "Sensors indicate a previous buildup of water, electrolytes, mucus, antibacterial compounds and various enzymes," his irises shifted back. "Are you certain the buildup near the corners your mouth wasn't human saliva?"
"This is exactly what I have Haf for, don't go stealing their job," I muttered contemptuously. Genos shut up at the mention of Haf, and while it may have been a low blow, I really wanted to get meeting with his self proclaimed sensei over with. Attractive or not, I had work to get back to.
"That's his apartment building, isn't it?" I asked after a few more minutes of walking, pointing to an ordinary looking building. The sights around the building however, were quite unordinary. There was a car flipped upside down with the glass of the windows in pieces, and almost everywhere I glanced, buildings were in more than one piece. There was a giant piece of rubble stuck in the pavement, and hell, there was a giant blood stain on the side of the building!
My face went blank. It wasn't too late to have second thoughts, was it?
"Yes, it is." Which question was he answering to? Genos muttered, "after four days of investigations and no concrete results, it's time I use the direct method." Once we reached the front door of what I assumed to be Saitama's apartment, Genos let out a sigh and clenched his fists. "Sensei!" He shouted to the closed door.
From behind it, I could hear someone shifting. My heart beat rose steadily. So this was the moment of truth then? Ugly or gorgeous, I was about to see what he really looked like. Almost hesitantly, the door opened a crack.
"You really showed up." A bald man said sounding indecisive.
...
...I wasn't crying as hard as I thought I would. Was that a good thing then...? He wasn't good looking or bad looking, he was just average! Why did I have to get my hopes up…? I wanted to drop to the ground and hit it with my fist for all it was worth. For dignity's sake I didn't, but I still felt tears build up in my eyes. Damn it, why couldn't I find just one guy?!
"Uh," Saitama paused, looking over both Genos and me with a confused expression. I could hardly blame the guy, we weren't exactly the most normal of people one would normally expect. I wiped a stray tear before it fell.
"It's Genos, Saitama-sensei,"
"Ah, no, who is she?" He jerked his head in my direction. Yeah, I had been expecting that.
I moved to bow and properly introduce myself without embarrassing myself, but Genos moved in front of me. "This is one of my mechanics, Saitama-sensei, she's here to observe my status." Even if I had been emotionally distraught, could I not introduce myself? Genos seemed to decide for me instead, which I didn't know how I felt about.
"Can you not call me sensei?" Saitama asked. He looked kind of awkward about it, which again, I didn't blame him for.
"Master!"
"Not master either!"
Despite what hesitance he obviously had about us entering his home, Saitama let the both of us in, and set us at his table with tea. I sipped at the cup thoughtfully, tasting refreshing green tea. "This is really nice tea, did you brew it yourself?" I asked for politeness' sake.
Saitama tilted his head at me and stared with blank eyes. "No, this is the cheap stuff at the supermarket."
"Oh." Abashed because I knew almost nothing between cheap or expensive tea, I rubbed the back of my head, my stupid laugh the only thing filling up the small room. I looked at Genos for him to back me up, who was staring straight at Saitama. Backup was definitely not going to happen, then. I sighed quietly, waiting for someone to break the silence.
"Once you're done with your drink, go home," Saitama said bluntly, "I'm not looking for disciples." He tilted his head again, looking at Genos's arms. "Wait-you're back in one piece?"
"Yes," Genos's head shot up. "My body is mostly mechanical, so as long as there are parts, repairs are quick." As quick as they could be anyway. The amount of days and nights I stood up making repairs and modifications were countless. The latest I hadn't slept for while working on Genos's arms was probably 120 hours; five days.
"You're an odd one," Saitama said. I scoffed to myself. Odd didn't even manage to cover Genos. "And you said she's your mechanic?" He jerked his thumb my way and I jumped up realizing the attention was on me.
I answered before Genos could for me, and bowed. "Ah, yes, I'm Jade Valles. I work with another scientist who's been teaching me for sometime now. We usually have Genos's parts in healthy supply." There wasn't any change in Saitama's expression, though it felt as if he wasn't interested at all. The fact there wasn't any change made me a bit unnerved. Usually, I was able to pick up on people easily, but his poker face was unbelievably strong, as though it had layers; like his poker face had a poker face.
"Speaking of," Genos said, "what kind of parts do you use, Sensei? Who are your mechanics?" Was he still thinking that the bald guy was a cyborg, especially after the french fry results? And did he really have to ask that question?
"Don't have any," Saitama said. Then he really was a human, but what did that mean for the whole, "one punch," part of the equation?
Genos looked as if it were some great conundrum, then pointed to the top of Saitama's head. "Then what about that skin coloured armour on your head?"
"Yeah, that's my skin." Saitama frowned.
"But that would mean you're bald despite being so young," Genos murmured, holding a hand to his mouth.
Saitama's face scrunched up into a dangerous expression. "So I'm bald-what's your problem?!" I flinched, his yell shocking me. Being bald was a sore spot, huh? I supposed it would be for anybody if they… Actually, I didn't know what caused him to be bald.
"Me?" Genos asked, "you'll listen to my problem's?"
"Oh jeeze," I muttered, pinching the bridge of my nose. Saitama really didn't know what he got himself into.
I heard a monotonous, "No thanks," but Genos went on anyway like he hadn't heard it.
"It all started four years ago…" My eyes softened as I looked down at my hands. Had it really been four years already? It felt like so much less. It would have been easy to say it felt like it all happened yesterday, it would have been cliché, and yet…
Ever since I had been traveling around with Doctor Kuseno, I found that I had learned more than I ever did than in any school course. In fact, my schools actually taught some theories and mechanics incorrectly, so I had to relearn many concepts for me to properly understand the doctor and how he worked. It was hard with how many concepts I had to relearn because the ones that were originally taught were ingrained in my mind. It was many an occasion that the doctor had to correct me, or take over a small project in fear of me getting hurt.
Of course, it hadn't always been like that. There was a part of me that always said that Doctor Kuseno looked down on me, even though I knew it wasn't true. Doctor Kuseno was a sweet old man, if not frank. He was generous, he was grandfatherly, and he had the smile to prove it. Unfortunately, my insecurities outweighed my logic and knowledge.
I was a burden. I was only supposed to help him locate the cyborg as soon as possible, and here I was wanting to learn from him. Of course, Doctor Kuseno had always been apart of my childhood, even if he didn't know it. As soon as I'd been able to walk, I remembered reading his dissertations and essays about the science of kinesthetics, or the robotic sciences. With the man right in front of me, there was no way I was going to pass up any chance of being his apprentice.
I felt selfish for wanting it. The mad cyborg was still out there, and I hadn't used any form of my tracking skills whatsoever. I was getting impatient. The doctor was getting impatient. Then he asked me a question: "Why are you chasing this cyborg?" I thought it was obvious at first. The cyborg killed my parents, why wouldn't I want to chase it down?! He hadn't seemed satisfied with the answer even though he didn't press any further on it. As I dug deep down into what other answers I could have given, I realized, I just didn't want to be alone, and who else better to be with than my childhood icon?
I wasn't doing what I said I would to help. I felt useless, so I finally decided to kick my ass into gear. Doctor Kuseno must have been so confused too, when I asked, "Do you have any remaining technological sample of the cyborg left?" He handed one to me without a word and watched. The sample he gave me wasn't anything close to a tracking device, but it was still active despite the distance made between it and its owner. It was a piece of the malfunctioning nerve piece, I realized, an active neurological chip. Seeing how precious the sample was, I reverse engineered it, making an identical copy first to be certain I wouldn't waste it. It wouldn't be exactly the same though, more like a fallback if the original was somehow wasted. Then, I connected the original to the lab computers, coding it into the proper software and, from there, had Haf move in. We were connected to the cyborg. Haf set up the map grid of every country in the world, pinpointing the country the cyborg was in, and the town it was nearing.
The entire process was long, and it wasn't easy. Setting it up myself took at least two hours, while Haf's portion took only two minutes, tops.
On the map, a red dot beeped, the sound like a sonar repeating in the lab's speaker system. "Doctor," I called out happily, satisfied with my work, "I think we've found him!"
"Well, I'll be!" He exclaimed, rubbing his eyes like it were too good to be true. That was the first moment he looked truly proud of me, his eyes ablaze with passion and his mouth smiling that grandfather smile. "Where is he headed next?"
I pointed to the small landmass on screen and the red dot. "The town here is where he was last, and by the course he's following, he'll hit this town next."
Doctor Kuseno frowned. "That's several towns over from our current location," we'd never get there in time, was unspoken yet in the air.
It seemed bleak. I smiled. This was the perfect opportunity for me to show off how far my prototype had come after being with the doctor. My boots became much more advanced in our little time together. Perhaps not as advanced as I'd hoped, but they were certainly faster, reaching a maximum of 300mph. I discovered the compartment that converted atmospheric vapour into steam needed many adjustments. The fact of the matter was that it stored too much vapour, so when the vapour went through conversion, the excess that hadn't been converted was wasted. Too little output to the intake; my boots weren't efficient enough.
Now, with the adjustments made to efficiency and speed, I needed to do another test. I shot up and grabbed a large satchel holding equipment ranging from scientific, to a full on first aid kit. The rate of survivors after every town the cyborg visited was low, but I always held a little hope.
"Jade, what are you doing?" The doctor's voice was grave, his hands held out to stop me.
I pushed past him and slipped my boots on quickly. "What does it look like? Getting there normally won't be nearly as fast as me using my boots, so I'll go warn the townspeople as soon as possible." My head turned upwards to the lab's ceiling. "Haf, download the tracking software onto my phone with the map, and add my location following my phone!"
He shook his head. "You can't expect me to let you out there if you're heading to the same destination as him." His concern was touching for only knowing me for three weeks. Even so, I had other plans.
"At the speed I'll be going, I'll be there before him!" I argued. I was close to snapping, and that was something I didn't want Doctor Kuseno to hear.
"You don't know if your body can physically handle that speed!"
"Then all the more reason I test it!" I sighed, "Doctor, I know you want to keep me out of trouble, but if I don't at least try to warn those townspeople, then all of them will be dead with me knowing I could have at least saved one," I tapped the tip of my boot on the ground. "This isn't about my safety anymore, this is about people dying." I'd be damned if another town got annihilated. I wasn't about to let someone else's parents or loved ones be killed.
Defiantly I stood, the doctor's eyes narrowed on me. We were at an impasse, and it felt like an eternity until he finally gave in with advisory that I only fly over to the town to warn the people to evacuate. I nodded impatiently, saying, "I know," like the doctor was my mother. ...In a way, I supposed Doctor Kuseno was really all I had left as a paternal figure… Fitting for him to have nagged me then…
I shot off into the sky like a rocket, still unstable because the doctor was right, I wasn't used to this speed, but gradually managed to steady myself because I flew more than once before testing the new updated version of my boots. I t was more difficult than first thought, and I shouldn't have been as cocky as I was, however I was still faster than the cyborg. Thanks to Haf, I was able to know where I was and where the cyborg was. After about half an hour, I was ahead. Granted, not by very much, although the lead I had was encouraging.
"Come on," I muttered, "let's get there now." I sped up, going from my original 200mph to 300mph. It was harder to keep my eyes open, and my hair was flying everywhere; I couldn't see. I moved my hair out of the way briskly, closing my eyes for a few seconds and opening them again. I should have had the foresight for the need of goggles, unfortunately I didn't.
Suddenly, I heard a horrible spewing sound. My jaw dropped, looking at the black smog my boots were creating. "Haf, what the hell's happening?!" I yelled from my earpiece. I almost choked from all the wind entering my mouth.
"You are losing altitude, ma'am. I advise landing as soon as possible."
"How close am I to the town?!"
"Approximately 12.874752 kilometers away, ma'am."
I shuddered out a shaky breath. "...I'm going to keep going… I'm going to keep going…" I repeated like a mantra. "Haf, be real with me, how much longer can my boots go...?" There wasn't a response. "...Haf?" I asked uncertainly. "I'm gonna need an answer soon, bud!"
"Ten minutes, ma'am."
I cursed under my breath. Then those modification hadn't helped at all, they made my boots worse. I wasn't going to be able to use my boots after either. If something was smoking, then something was fried, and was therefore, unsalvageable. I'd have to work on a new pair, that was, if I survived.
I was also going to have to do some quick math if I wanted an estimate of if I could really make twelve kilometers in ten minutes. In the back of my mind, I knew it was more than enough time. The only difference was that was under immense distress. "Okay, okay," I breathed. Three hundred miles per hour. I had been out for half an hour, which meant in half an hour I'd gone 150 miles. Converted to kilometers, it was 241. And I had about twelve to thirteen more kilometers to go. Three hundred miles per hour converted to miles per minute was five. Five mile converted to kilometers was a little bit over eight. Therefore, I'd gone 241 kilometers, and could easily make it to the town.
I grimaced. How would I get back to the lab? I'd have to worry about it after. I lowered myself in the air, and found the town's buildings. I landed on the ground and checked my phone. The cyborg was going to be here in about fifteen minutes. That wasn't enough time to evacuate. Maybe if I spread the word that everyone was going to be killed, panic would set in and get them out faster.
I proceeded to do anything I could to warn the townspeople, but they refused to believe me, making me frustrated. It was a matter of life or death, even if they didn't know it and they chose death. I cried out to the people, "you need to escape now," and they gave no inclination to leaving. Was it because I was still considered a kid? Did they think I was pulling a stupid little prank?! Were they so deluded by peace that they didn't know when a war was on the horizon?!
I rose up in the sky once again and screamed. Why were they so stupid?! Haf chimed in on my earpiece, sounding urgent. "Ma'am, there is a high energy reading approaching the town at an extremely fast pace!"
Shit. Without an inch of reaction time, there was a large silhouette of what I assumed to be the cyborg, who blasted the town to smithereens. I felt sick to my stomach. "No!" I was still up in the air, but the blast radius blew gales and stones in my direction. I lost balance, and my boots failed to keep me up.
In the middle of a free fall, the shock of it all just came to me; I was going to die.
I lost consciousness.
"Enough, you idiot! Shorten it to 20 words or less!"
I jumped, the table in front of me slamming on top of my knees and the cups clanging. Feeling both Genos's and Saitama's eyes on me, I flushed and grinned. I rubbed the back of my head, muttering, "sorry," over and over. They were talking like I didn't exist anyway, it wasn't like they couldn't ignore me anymore, right? Because I desperately wanted to disappear at the very moment.
Genos released a breath and looked back at Saitama with hard eyes. "Here's the short version sensei: please teach me how to become strong like you."
I glanced at Saitama and was surprised at how much his face had seemed to change. From annoyed and blank to determine and serious. The change in demeanour was almost astounding. This was the kind of face I had first expected when hearing Genos acquired a sensei, and I still wasn't attracted to it. I was actually terrified of it. I could see it now, this man was powerful, no doubt about it.
"Genos," Saitama said in such a tone, I straightened my back, and he wasn't even calling my name.
"Yes!" Genos exclaimed. Even he could tell Saitama was doing something.
"How old are you?"
"I'm ninteen, sir!"
Saitama's head lowered. "So young…" He murmured. "I'm sure you'll surpass me in no time."
"Do you mean that?" Genos was astonished. I was gaping.
Saitama's eyes were closed in concentration. "I'm twenty five now, but I was twenty two when I started training in the summer." Surprise was etched into both Genos's and my face. Three years? Three years was all it took. His training must have been actual hell. "Sure, I'll teach you." His face took on a darker expression. "But it won't be easy. Can you handle it?"
This was the moment Genos was waiting for wasn't it? Genos's whole presence felt resolved and thrilled. "Yes, sir!" He bellowed.
His irises shifted at the same time that Haf notified me. "Ma'am, there is a high energy reading coming your way." My eyes widened and I rolled out of the way just in time for something to crash through the wall.
It was a disgusting green human-praying mantis hybrid, with a screechy voice and… It was defeated in one punch… "Pay for my ceiling!"
I clicked my tongue. Suddenly, Genos leapt off the balcony, and when I turned around Saitama was nowhere in sight. My head dropped. I was left alone, huh? It sounded like a thrashing outside, so I didn't bother checking. I probably was better off not knowing.
"Even if it is cheap," I muttered into the cup, "this is still really good tea." I took a loud sip and enjoyed the fact it was still warm.
"Jade!" I heard my name coming from the outside, so I went over the balcony and saw Genos cupping his hands around his mouth. "Sensei and I are going to be gone for awhile. Please take care of Sensei's apartment!"
"Fix my ceiling!" Saitama added. He must have thought since Genos called me his mechanic, that I could fix anything, including his ceiling.
I gave a lazy thumbs up, and they ran off so fast, my eyes barely kept up. Well, I thought, I might as well get started. I couldn't believe I was actually about to fix his apartment. I did have my tool, considering I brought my suitcase, but did I have the proper materials? Sifting through the broken ceiling rubble, I thought vaguely I could work with it. It would probably look extremely patched. I sighed. Well, I had a big paycheck, might as well spend it, right?
I left Saitama's apartment and closed the door with a rock to keep it from fully closing, and walked to the department store. I bought the proper materials, a lot of drywall, plaster, wooden beams, and studs. I looked in my bags as I walked back. Yeah, that all sounded good.
I went to work and started rebuilding the wall. It wasn't necessarily the ceiling that was broken through, but a high part of the back wall that connected to the ceiling. I opened my suitcase filled with hammers, wrenches, drills, etc; any tool you could name was in there.
As I started laying my foundations, I began to think. Was Saitama the ideal choice as a person to have Genos's back? Sure, he was strong, hell, extremely strong, but could I trust him to have Genos covered?
I wasn't able to come up with a certain answer, I even thought about it when I finished fixing his ceiling. Saitama didn't look like the kind of guy who would abandon someone else selfishly, he looked like the kind of guy who would only get in the action if he had to. I snorted. And Genos was the person who would always run in headstrong. Would Saitama get rid of Genos's bad habit of letting his guard down? Probably not. Saitama seemed to casual of a guy to notice. He didn't seem like the teaching type either, but if Genos was happy, then I should have at least been happy too.
I finished my tea hastily, looking for the tea bags it was made with. Would Saitama mind me snooping through his kitchen? Probably. Did I really care? Not really. Looking through his fridge, I noticed he lacked some food. Seemed like someone needed to go shopping. It was Saturday, wasn't it? There would be a special sale. I hoped for his sake, he didn't miss it, but he was somewhere else at the moment. It would end in about two hours or so.
The door slammed open and I slammed the fridge door closed, pressing my body against it in shock. "I didn't look through your food!" I exclaimed, very convincingly.
There wasn't a reaction. I looked into the room and saw Saitama tripping over my tools, latching for his wallet like a madman. "Who cares?! There's a special sale and I'm missing it!"
"There are two and a half hours left, Sensei!" Looking over I saw Genos with his hair in an afro and him missing an eye. The other one this time.
I gaped. How the hell did he manage to do that?! Saitama finally found his wallet, and exclaimed a hearty, "Let's go Genos!" While Genos responded with a happy, "yes, Sensei!" And they both rushed out the door, again. Leaving me alone again.
My eyebrow twitched, and I thought I burst a blood vessel from how much I was restraining myself to not scream. Whatever, Genos would feel my wrath when he came back for repairs.
I hate rehashing as much as the next person, but I'm going to try and keep things interesting with the original stuff I'm planning and with, you know, having events told through a different perspective. And that part where Jade says, "I can't believe you brought a french fry," is referencing the newest Onepunch Man OVA. It's hysterical and if you haven't seen it, fix that problem immediately! I hope this chapter was to your expectations! If not, please do leave some criticism in the reviews, I would love to know your thoughts, good or bad! I also have a pretty dry sense of humour, so I would definitely enjoy advice on that! Also, when I said I would do original stuff soon, I meant like, right after this chapter. So, the next one or two chapters should be original, then we head back into canon, and original, and so on, so forth.
I hope you guys have had a very Happy New Years!
Reviews are love and motivation!
