Chapter 3: A barrier between the two
He has just returned from patrolling the city. No important fact. A brief confrontation with the subject ninja, some disturbance caused by minor kainjis, nothing remarkable. He goes back to his home loaded with shopping bags. He walks the silent streets of his district and enters the gloom of his home.
The small apartment is bigger, lately.
He has discovered a new manga that keeps him entertained before going to sleep. A story of aliens seeking to invade the earth. The characters are mediocre but pleasant to look at. Some arcs are good. He is silently grateful, because when he gets lost in its pages he avoids thinking, he avoids remembering ... but above all, he avoids the questions.
Is it because of something I did?
He wakes up startled. His heart is beating furiously and his breathing is agitated. The manga has slipped from his hands to fall on his face. With annoyance, he sees that he has drooled some sheets. He stands up to go to the bathroom. There, he washes his face and observes his reflection.
Is it because of something I did?
Genos' question comes back again and again. It interrogates him, assails him in his dreams, demanding an answer that he could not give in the wake. He hates himself because he also asks the same question to himself and can not answer it.
He knows that he should not have gone, that it was sure to find him in that place. A Dragon class threat. Of course, the S rank heroes were going to be there. At least, he was going to be.
He sees Genos fights the massive beast that has no qualms about destroying a good part of the city. He watches him go from one place to another using his weapons in an impressive visual display. His movements have become more refined and at times he almost seems to dance around the creature. Undoubtedly, his stay with Bang has yielded its results.
Other S-class heroes are around but he only has eyes for the cyborg. He is so distracted, that he doesn´t notice that a great debris product of the destruction caused by the Kaijin, flies in his direction. He realizes just in time. He is about to hit it with his fist when the rubble is pulverized in front of his eyes.
Genos looks at him surprised.
"Sen..Saitama! Are you okay ?!"
Saitama looks at his ex disciple and can not help but feel a certain nostalgia for the young man's words. He stopped just in time, but was about to call him "Sensei." Before, the title bothered him. Before..
He could not honor its meaning. Too much weight, too much responsibility ..
That's what he used to said to himself. However, now that he has had occasion to think about it, he can understand it better. The word is still a weight, but it is not for the reasons that he judged.
The honorific pronounced from the lips of Genos always meant a barrier between the two. A wall, a space that the cyborg filled with expectations, illusions and fantasies that did not allow him to see the true Saitama. Not the invincible hero, but the human. The guy who could not get a job, who was kind to cats and had a dubious taste in movies ..
Maybe, if he was able to see all that, not just a partial truth but reality, maybe then ..
But no. Because Genos didn´t want a friend. He wanted a Sensei, a being to admire, adore and even love. A being that was not him. That it could not be him ..
Is it because of something I did?
Yes.
He returns to reality. The cyborg is in front of him and looks at him strangely.
"Ah Genos, yes. I'm fine."
Lie. He has not been fine for days. More punctually, from the moment he removed him from his life. He does not say it, of course. It would only confuse him. He is already confused enough.
The cyborg smiles pleased and approaches a few steps. For a second, Saitama feels transported in time. At a time when after a fight, they walked together to the nearest store for supplies in a comfortable routine. Genos approaches and he feels some expectation. Curious, he had never felt that before.
Maybe..
A paper. The boy wants to give him a paper. Why a paper? He expected something else ...
What did he expect?
"I found it in a magazine and I thought in you. There is time until next Saturday so you can go after going to the laundry, the store is not far from ..
The discount coupon remains extended between the two while Genos continues talking. A coupon. The boy is giving him a coupon. He is no longer his sensei, he is nothing to him anymore, but still ...
"Come back."
The cyborg stops talking abruptly. He looks at him without understanding. Has he heard wrong?
"Come back." Saitama repeats. This time, with more conviction. He feels like an idiot, the first time he has spoken without thinking. But it's too late to take it out and honestly ...he doesn´t know if he wants to do it.
The confusion is evident in the young man's face and Saitama reproaches himself for his own contradiction. He knows that he is not doing well, that his actions have no meaning, that he is imperfect, fallible. The cyborg is about to speak but a voice stops him.
"Genos! What are you doing, boy ?! The kaijin is not dead yet!" Bang yells from the top of a building while dodging more debris.
"Yes, Sensei!" Genos gives him an apologetic look, before using his thrusters to get away and finish the threat.
Saitama remains standing in the place. For a long time, he is not able to move. He doesn´t hear the screams, nor sees the fire around him, or the debris that pass dangerously close. His mind is in another place.
Is it because of something I did?
No.
In his mind, Genos' voice interrogates him again.
He moves away from the conflict zone. He has been a fool.
As if it was a real version of his consciousness, Bang's gaze follows him from above.
To be continue..