CYA: What Defines A Hero: Bad Path

by lumpeistbark3

this story revolves around the Entirety of Class 1A being isekai'd into the one-punch man world. The story contains light spoilers post-season 6. The story goes up until right after the psycho sister's arc so I guess spoilers for one punch season 3 as well. the alternative path on A03 is to be uploaded later here.

33. Month 3: Week 3: The Hunters Fall

Willpower: HA heroes, Garou, Genos, Bang, Bomb, Bakugo, Todoroki, Midoriya

Garou was surprised when the kid arrived today he didn't bother to say the brat's name even though he knew it most of the time but he helped him pass the time while his body recovered from the damage he was about only at 20% but getting some physical activity while teaching the kid a thing or to has allowed him to get better in shape and not let his muscle deteriorate too much and the boy for his credit wasn't too useless he was better able to keep tabs on the outside world this way without drawing too much attention to himself, the hero association seemed to have credited him at least partially in dealing with metal bat other than that huge centipede which was at least one plus to it but more interesting he found was the news surrounding the non-killing army well he guessed that name wasn't very accurate anymore given that now there were several reports that multiple of their members have been killing monster left and right did something happened during the whole monster crisis to get them to change their minds?

Were their ideals that easily swayed to swap up so drastically, well at least for some of them others did still capture monsters earning them some not-so-flattering news in the media. Well that wouldn't be him he figured he was still determined as ever to be a monster and nothing would deter him from this path, the day of the invasion was one of the best hunts of his life not only did he destroy metal bat but he had fought watchdog man and now that he had a better idea on how the hero fought he had come up with some countermeasures to defeat him. He would be the next S-class hero he hunts once he was better and given that the dog hero was relatively easy to find he wouldn't have to spend time searching in fact if what the book told him about the hero was correct then all he would need to do is cause a ruckus in q-city somewhere and he would find him if he didn't immediately attack him already upon stepping foot back into his territory but that was for another time for now he would continue to limber up and progressively get stronger even while he's injured while this slowed down his recovery time he would come back with a new form even stronger than ever before but something was amiss once him and the kid was done eating the food he brought for him with a bonus dessert given that he arrived on an unscheduled day that they agreed upon and the kid went to happily open the door he felt it an stream of blood lust entered into the doorway and he immediately went to stop the kid from opening the door any further completely shutting it again.

"Kid, do you have that new hero catalog?" Garou asked seriously bending down to get onto his level.

"huh? ugh yeah why?" the kid asked

"I need it, hand it to me, don't worry I'm not gonna take it this time Juts gonna read a few things then give it back promise." garou remarked, holding out his hand almost impatiently and then the boy nodded his head in understanding reaching into the back of his pants where he took said book out and gave it to his teacher it was the least he could do while he had gotten his original book destroyed the man returned the favor by not only giving him a newer addition but signed copies from all of his favorite heroes and not to mention giving him some lessons in martial arts even though he could be scary sometimes it was the least he could do.

garou grabbed the book from the boy's hands and quickly moved his way towards the wall of the shred lifting his finger and puncturing a hole into the wall where he could peek out and the source of the blood lust became clear to him he saw four heroes in the front death gatling, stinger, smile man, and wild horn at least if the book was correct about them. he shifted and poked another hole and look out and saw two other figures chain'n'toad and glasses, with two more on the sides shooter and gun gun. 4 A-class heroes along with 4 B-class was that all they took him for? He was actually disappointed by the force to show up and at least throw in some bottom ranks S-class so that this could be fun or engaging for him even while injured this shouldn't be that much of a problem but even with that he didn't want to be too cocky never know if they have some sort of secrete weapons so he looked through the book and tried to find out as much information about the heroes as he could going out to face them, he still found it pretty stupid heroes would willingly jot down their secrets and techniques just for brownie points with the public but their loss was his game maybe they would learn after he crushed them he thought. Garou thoughts were immediately interrupted when the sound of gunfire emerged from outside of the cabin, the boy noticeably flinched and hid behind him as the person that fired that shot yelled out.

"Hero hunter! I know that by now you sensed us here! your likely feeling unsure since your still hiding in that hut didn't you want to hunt heroes!? we're right here!" death gatling voice boomed over the hut, the kid was too panicked to pay attention to what the voice was saying but the old guy seemed worried as he looked at his book with even more ferocity before thrusting it back into his hand and telling him to get back and stay low to the ground before stepping outside and closing the door behind him.

"Alright! I'm coming out...Just don't shoot the house." garou remarked as he stepped out into the hero's field.

"Ooh? Are you being modest, planning to surrender?" stinger quipped.

"Ha! As if, I just still need a place to sleep after I"m done hunting you all." garou taunted.

"Hunt us down?" wild horn started before being stopped by a hand held up by death gatling

"he's just trying to stir us up to cause confusion don't fall for it. Garou you are still weak from your previous hunts, aren't you? don't worry will bring you back to the association alive, your motives, and your accomplices. You will tell us everything." death gatling said holding his gatling gun up in mock threat.

"Isn't that a hero for you, telling me you won't kill me isn't that nice." garou replied.

"Don't be fooled you won't be getting away." death gattling remarked simply

"For running around playing monster there will be hell to pay." wild horn said next but again garou noticeably chuckled.

"No, you all will pay big time forever calling yourselves heroes, right now. With you eight my hunting spree will reach 100!" garou said before jumping to the top of the hut and screaming out

"your hunt ends here!" gun gun said before firing off with both of his revolvers garou noted the slow bullets and decided that he would be the first victim as he crouched down and jumped from his perch on top of the building just as the bullets touched and reached where he once was at that same moment he was now directly in front of the shooter about to lash out with a right hook but he had better reflexes than he gave him credit for as he moved out of the way but more than that his spot was completely taken up by something else garou was too hyper fixated on a singular prey and for his tunnel vision he was scored a gracing blow across the face by stinger and his bamboo stick drawing blood and forcing him to retreat as he reevaluated his play.

Garou glanced around looking for the second ranged fighter, he needed to keep an eye on them the others he could sense or hear coming but they would require more precision to know what they were doing, death gatling didn't move yet but Shooter was different he was aiming upwards but he knew what that meant from reading that book as he looked upwards and proceeded to dodge the dozen or so arrows that began to rain down from on top of him avoiding a number of them until he felt that his feet stop cold and suddenly both oh his shoulders were stabbed by two of the last arrows pointing down at him he quickly removed the arrows so more of the poison didn't get too much into his system before looking down at his feet and curiously he found them ensnared to the ground by cement?...the book didn't mention anything about this? he thought as he tried to memorize the page on Shooter he only glossed it but it should have been enough to finish it, that must have been something new he thought.

"be careful it seems that he knows some of our moves!" Shooter remarked as he was falling back.

"Likely from the hero guides. so be careful if you have put information about your techniques out there." glasses stated.

"he's been poisoned! we should press out the attack." chain'n'toad remarked

"chain'n' toad wait, this was someone that could seriously injure both tank top master and metal bat, I don't think mere poison will slow him down too much Stay in formation, and don't get greedy. remember what we talked about." Glasses told him.

"Don't underestimate him, I understand I will show no mercy. here I go!"

chain'ntoad said as he twirled the bottom of his weapon and launched it at garou glasses was correct even while his feet were impaired and he was poisoned garou was still able to dodge out of the way of the attack but that should put him off balance enough for the next attack from smile man to land, garou noticed the large shadow of smile mans weapon about to land down and crush him so he avoided it the best as he could, doing a backflip using mostly his hands to propel himself backward but they seemed to even have a contingency for that plan or this was the goal all along as directly behind him was wild horn he was still in the midst of a hand stand about to flip backward luckily wild horns attackes were extemely straight forwards and one dimensional which meant that he avoided the brunt of the attack but maybe due to the injuires or the poison he wasn't fast enough to avoid the attack completely unscaved as the pile driver scored arcoss his side slicing off some flesh as it passed but garou used the pain to contuine his attack and free his feet at the same time, using his feet to strike across the mans helmet and hopefully take him out but that unfrotnatly wasn't going to be the case as a gunshot rung out and pain seared through garou arm making his attack unsteady and reducing it's power but he still knocked wild horn away and completely freed his feetfrom the cement hold.

he flipped up on his feet and turned just in time for him to redirect a spear thrust from Stinger, again despite what death gatling said about capturing him alive their strikes seem only aimed at killing him. Was he lying, or were they smart enough to realize that fighting him while holding back was a fool's Arron? he could respect them at least a little if that was their thought process and it would signify how serious they were taking him at this moment. he dodged another attack from wild horn while redirecting another attack from Stinger but that again left him open to gun gun his revolver rang out this time striking him in the side of the knee. Garou opted to retreat but he was starting to understand a bit more about their little formation it was centered around death gatling if he drew too close then Stinger and wild horn would catch him with their lethal weapons.

As he moved away he was surprised when someone appeared in front of him in that instant when he paused he was struck in the side by the chain'n'toads weapon luckily the blunt side but it did knock the wind out of him enough to only be able to block as smile man closed in on him with his massive weapon sticking him dead center across the chest and forcing him skidding back but he was no fool he still noticed chain'n'toads weapons blade tip pass by him to a novice it would have just appeared to be a miscommunication between the attacks but no from reading that book he knew that this was one of the heroes signature techniques "ear cutter" he would launch his weapon passed his opponent to lead them into a false sense of security so they didn't expect the blade to come back and cut their head off but he ducked it just in time as the blade passed over his head.

chain'n'toad along with smile man would continuously harras him with mid-range attacks, he dodged out of the way of both and twisted his body in mid-air to avoid a bullet that was shot by gun gun, before twirling multiple times again to avoid another barrage of arrows from above by shooter, but just as he got to his feet again he put his hands over his body as another storm came this time horizontally, this was also something he didn't see in the book what was that? could he shoot arrows so fast that they all seemed to bleed together or was there some kind of trick to it? luckily those shots didn't seem to have poison in them as he didn't feel any more fatigue than he already had he felt his breath go unsteady for a moment as the poison started to ramp up. so gun gun and shooter were there for him if went too far he pondered that left the guy in green, who was busily picking up the arrows that shooter had just fired before returning them to the hero...so that's what he was a pure support type someone not to close or too far which meant he made the ideal body shield.

Thought that Garou launched off after the green track suit-wearing hero, reaching out to grab him by the neck but he was surprised by the speed he showed completely avoiding his initial charge entirely, was he slowed down that much? but regardless of that, he wouldn't let the man get away as he persisted in his pursuit the glasses-wearing hero began to throw rocks at him a child trick as he easily deflected all of the attacks it was futile resistance he thought before he felt a flash of killing intent and stopped in his tracks if he went too far he would be leaving himself open to the people behind him and speaking of which he avoided another arrow shot by shooter but before he turned around said arrow was caught by glasses before the man put a hand over his face and thrust the arrowhead directly in Garou's face and suddenly there was a sharp light that completely blinded him he felt two punches to the face before he hears what he assumed was the green track wearing hero talk.

"I'm not just battle-support, I'm the one responsible for chasing you down if you try to run, I'm confident in my stamina and will power so if you want a long drawn out battle be my guest but given your wounds and the poison it wouldn't go well for you...but now not the time for that, that's what these guys are for." glasses remarked as he jumped back by the time garou could see again he found himself surrounded.

"This is your final chance to give up, my gun is pointed right at you if you move to harm anyone one of us I'll turn you into mincemeat. what? cat got your tongue? didn't think it would end up like this? what a shame "hero hunter". everyone here is an elite-class hero that has been through death and back. They're all highly rated heroes that I respect." death gatling remarked seriously.

"You all, elite? Am I the only one put off by that statement? what about the S-class? after all the humiliation that I have shown the association they still haven't acknowledged me? you finally get to face a monster like me and all I get are some knock-off products I can't get excited off of this." garou taunted as he wiped away the blood on his cheek, feeling and testing his damaged arm and slightly bending his wounded knee he needed to know where his body stood he could feel his body tensing up and his breath was getting even heavier along with his eyesight starting to blur, he needed more time to adjust needs to keep them talking and thankfully he seemed to strike a nerve as death gatling noticeably grimaced.

"So you're only focused on the S-class too? they're very popular, and the hero association treats them completely differently from the rest of us. they also get information that we aren't even privy to as well, we're all "heroes" right so why is there a huge difference...? because of the existence of the ranking system there are a plethora of skilled heroes that aren't rated properly. the increasing disaster level of monsters only puts focus on the S-class who have specialized combat abilities in the spotlight. The world is caring less and less about the talented heroes outside of the S-class. therefore as someone who was making a name by defeating S-class heroes, you are the perfect target for us. " death gatling remarked

"So you didn't call any S-class heroes on purpose, if the kids heard that they would be pretty disappointed. what about the monster association? Can you afford to get injured here? shouldn't a hero prioritize saving the hostage?" garou stated with a smile gesturing with his arm to exemplify his point but as a secondary goal of testing its movement.

"Your first then the monster association will be next, those arrogant monsters will be annihilated by us as well, we'll deal with the fake monster now." death gatling stated

Garou said nothing but glared at the man, these guys were nothing but stepping stones for him to become a monster, he has no intention of falling here he would climb those steps one at a time. His very first step would be getting out of this entrapment he was in now, death Gatling threatened to shoot him but he hasn't shot so far in the time of their fighting as well his gun is not at precise as gun gun which meant that he needed a clear line of fire which he definty doesn't have if he moves in the direction of one of his comades but which one, he thought for a moment before decding on a target and skipping backward as he suspected while death gatling gun reved up it quickly slowed down as he drew closer to chain'n' toad to his back right, the toad laucnhed the blunt end of his weapon at him again but he avoided it, gun gun couldn't fire eaither as if he missed he would be shooting at his teamates behind him so he opted to move away where he would have a better angle but by then it would be to late or at least that's what he thought would happen but he fired sooner then he thought he would garou was able to avoid the bullet dodging out of the way allowing toad to get further away from him, garou dodged again as gun gun continued to fire at him but was surprised when he was struck in the side of his left arm with a bullet, as garou was asking how that occured he turned around just in time to see wild horn rapidly approching him did gun gun deflect off of wild horns armor he thought as he avoided his pisiton strike opting to jump backwards instead of strike as another rain of arrows landed where he once stood, intrestingly enough wild horn was uneffected by the storms the arrows clincking off his armor. Garou dodged out of the way as Stinger came for him stabbing down at his ankle that attacked missed he used the planted spear as leverage to jump further away from the group, but his flight was interrupted by the giant ball weapon of smile man the size being mostly impossible to dodge while in mid-air.

He dodged another storm of arrows from Shooter but one of them landed on him and created a cloud of smoke of some kind his eyes and lungs began to burn and he quickly attempted to exit it, was that tear gas? he thought but his quickness to leave left him open to an attack he was shot in the abdomen and then knocked back by smile man but he recovered and got back into position, this was harder than he first thought and it was in no small part to Shooter and his trick arrows who the hell gave him those? (Momo sneezes somewhere else) his mind started to drift as his blood poured down from his face and his body before and his body started to tremble, he started to think about his past and how unfair the world seemed thinking about his time in school where everyone was talking about their favorite cartoon justice man during said episode justice man was about to lose against crab man even though it was a three v one but he was struck by a random lightning bolt out of nowhere..it made no sense it was unfair he had just cause to fight humanity to save the ocean but life ensured that he lost...he didn't know why he started to remember this at first but as the memory faded he knew the reason he would not let the unfairness of life continue...this monster would win even despite the odds, he remembered his original goal from so long ago this time the monster will win!

Garou took a breath before feigning losing his footing it was a gamble one of them would get over eager and overextended formations tended to break when they felt the victory grew closer and these idiots really believed that they were going to win against him and as he expected the first one took the bait toad used his weapon to bind around his ankle "tripping" him up which prompted the other mid range suport to attack him smile man large orb launched off the weapon and chased after him and garou began to spin, and when his fsit connected with the large ball the attacke was diverted directly at chain'n'toad the benefit of spinning was also that he tangled his ankle even more with the weapon which would force the hero into a choice drop the chain giving him a weapon and mid-range option while freeing him or hold it still and get hit but hope that his teamates could get a luckly shot off while he was still tied up the answer was obvious as the ball ran the toad hero over but he kept his hold for as long as he could but it was in vain as the hersoes formation was already begining to panick from one of it's members being downed he started by pulling the rest of toads weapon to himself and used the sickle on the end to cut the string attached to smile man's weapon essnetially leaving the man weaponless just as he finished doing so he quickly raised the blade to block the bullet aimed at his head by gun gun.

Garou rolled and ducked for cover behind smile man's large orb which blocked all of the shots that gun gun was sending his way, but he couldn't stay there for long he could already see the arrows above him starting to come down so he pulled in and pushed his hands outwards sending the ball directly at the cowboy looking to strike him cold if his calculation were correct the ball would richoette off the trees and back towards him but wild horn was they're using his pile driver to destroy the large orb outright but this allowed garou to sneak into the heroes blindspot taking the hero off guard and lifting him completely deflecting the rain of arrows headed his way. The next one to attempt to try and attempt to get one over on him was glasses, he through his rocks at him like he expected he was easily able to lift wild horn with one hand which allowed him a free arm to completely grab all the rocks he threw his way and taking his advice and using that to his advantage to take out shooter and good thing to as the rocks landed across the blonde body his next shot went wide and there was a noticeable explosion that transpired off in the distance in eclipsing the trees themselves. stinger charged forwards unimpeded by the fact that half their number had already gone down it was all of the B-class but still the book was right when calling him a hothead but he wasn't the priority now, he wanted to get rid of the others first so as the hero charged with his attack he slammed wild horn down in front of him like a makeshift shield blocking his way and forcing him back now that he had room he sprinted forwards calling out a challenge to stinger which the man gladly accepted and directly getting in the way of death gatling, as a result, allowing him to reach down and pull up a tree stump ripping it upwards and roots of which stretched to the point where it nearly knocked them off their feet and garou speed up, even more, to continue his way and knock smile man out with a kick before chastising stinger about his personality.

Although he did miscalculate one part of his assignment his kick took him too far away and now death gatling had a clear shot at him the dark hero didn't miss his chance as he opened fired garou began to move out of the way avoiding the shots for the most part as he gained in on glasses, forcing death gatling to stop firing no longer under threat of future fire he continued to his assault on the green jumpsuit wearing hero with a barrage of blows, he did talk up his stamina and willpower right so might as well put it to the test as he ruthlessly pummeled the hero into submission, stinger attempted in vain to help his friend but that was just the opening he needed to completely parry his incoming gigantic stinger before launching a flurry of blows to the man stomach and abdomen before finishing both him and glasses with elbow strikes that sent them flying into the trees where they slumped over unconscious.

Death gatling was the only one left of their little group but there was a single problem with the scenario given that he knocked away two of his friends it left him capable of firing again but he was standing in front of the shed where the kid was. so he held up his hand to stop the man.

"There is a kid inside the hut, if you fire now he'll get hurt." garou remarked simply and for a moment the hero's eyes widened and garou believed that he was going to believe him but his eyes closed instantly again.

"Ha! Nice bluff we have been keeping tabs on the kid, he wouldn't be here today." death gatling started revving up his gun. garou took in a breath before getting into a stance.

"watch closely! this is where the monsters win!" garou screamed

"Only justice will win...die! death shower!" death gatling stated before he began to unload his machine overclocking it. garou saw the bullets coming and began to move his hands faster and faster pushing beyond the limits and deflecting the bullets as much as he could away from the hut behind him.

Death Gatling was completely flabbergasted none of his bullets reached him..this man he's not human...his death shower overclocked his gun and expended all of his ammo in an instant he has nothing left to give and he doubt garou would give him time to reload so that only left one thing as he brandished a knife before him, garou once again brought up the fact that if he had brought an S-class hero that situation could have been different which only served to anger him. their exist heroes below the S-class that try just as hard their existence shouldn't be ignored he yelled before garou struck him directly in the face knocking him out. garou stomped on the man's weapon breaking it before taking out two more arrows from his back he didn't even feel when those got there but his body started beginning to react as the adrenalin started to wear off, the kid had come out of the hut and said something but whatever it was must not have been important as he ran away right after... unsurprising given what just happened.. but he did work up a good appetite from all that fighting and since the kid was gone which meant, unfortunately, he had to go out and hunt again he could imagine that the animals probably ran far away, he sighed what a drag he thought before starting to move but stopping when a loud swoosh sounded behind him followed by explosions and whirling flames.

"Support request signal confirmed. that must be the source of the signal. So you're the rumored "hero hunter"? I will eliminate you. frozen-phoenix, dynamite take care of the wounded." genos remarked threatening quickly with his incineration cannon arm raised.

"don't tell me what to do robot. how about you handle the clean up huh!?" bakugo replied angrily.

"shouldn't we attempt to capture him? he is bang apprentice after all." todoroki replied stoically.

"No, it is for that reason we have to eliminate him now." genos remarked simply before taking off directly at the hunter, both bakugo and todoroki were stunned that despite the man's wounds, he was still able to move out of the way of genos initial attack dodging out of the way of an incarnation blast at close range followed up close by a kick which he blocked making him skid back and soon after the two disappeared into the forest but their battle was still ever present as the two of them continued to battle it out. todoroki and bakugo shared a glance before todoroki sent out the signal for bang to come before both teens went out to take care of the wounded heroes on the ground and attempted to ease their pain as best they could.

Garou used the trees to duck and dodge out of the way of several of the cyborg's blasts of energy and did his best to close the distance between them to enter into combat while he wasn't too confident in fighting in his condition it was still a hell of a lot better than just testing his luck of dodging his beam attacks each of which would be deadly for him. when garou was finally caught out in the open he forced the cyborg to come to him when he went directly in front of one of the downed heroes that were being helped up by one of the teens making him stop his attack cold before launching out with a barrage of punches with that same hand machine gun blows genos remarked to himself but garou at first attempted to dodge the attack wholesale by performing at most the minimum amount of movement possible to dodge but his body was likely to banged up and his attacks were to fast to do so completely as multiple of the blows landed across his face, chest, and abdomen forcing him to use the water streams rock smashing fist to parry and deflect the rest of the assult he countered with an attack but the blow was ducked by the cyborg who was going to reltialite with a rockets assited uppercut of his own but garou body contuined to progress raising his leg almost instcintlyvily to deflect the blow and using his other leg to attack directly into the cyborgs neck and putting him down to the groud for the first time in their skirmish but just as he was about to press his advantage kicking the downed cyborg he stopped himself as a orange glow began to shine brightly from the ground before erupting outwardsand luckly he just narrowly avoided having his head disentrgrated as he twisted his body backwards.

"bastard, you let yourself be planted on purpose. to lure me in." garou remarked, another burst of energy came from the cyborg before what seemed like an explosion was let off and the cyborg was up again standing on his two feet staring at him. Genos from that exchange just now understood why the other heroes would have had a bad time, while he's been focusing the majority of his time on evasion he still used any opportunity he could to launch a counter-attack all the while maintaining to barely survive his opponents attack it's a risky gamble but given that he survived thus far has been working out for him.

Saitama Apartment

Inside his apartment saitama was about to achieve the greatest victory that he's ever felt in the last months of being a hero, he had the ultimate boss on the ropes despite how much trouble he was original, beating him over and over again but now was his moment he finally had this boss on his last legs down now all he needed to do was hit him one more time and it would be finally be over but it was all just to lure him to a false sense of security as he was suddenly clobbered in that very next moment and he lost again.

saitama nearly crushed the controller he had in his hands as he watched the screen read player one victory and King begin to monologue how he was just taking it easy on him and wanting to make the match exciting for him, this marked his eighty-first loss against the man just for that day and to make matters even worst he never won once that entire time. The only thing that stopped him from actually breaking the controller outright other than it being his which he would need to replace was also a sudden sound emerging from something in King's front shirt pocket. taking the device out King remarked that he had forgotten all about it when he came and that usually, he would have just left it at home, it's a device that broadcast your current location however it was odd that this specific message didn't contain any details which meant that he guessed the situation was pretty desperate and all the hero could do was push the button. saitama filled with anger with his constant losses that he was more than eager to go out and punch a monster in the face, unfortunately, King informed him that an S-class hero had already responded to the call two of them in fact which kinda clued him in on who it was that was there but that just made him deflate right on the spot as now he had nothing to take his anger out on.

"you know speaking of monsters saitama, do you think it's all right to just leave those monster corpses outside?" King asked

"yeah, I'll get genos to burn them later, why are so many monsters showing up here anyways?" saitama questioned

"I don't know myself but it's probably got something to do with the monster association group that attacked a week ago. speaking of genos where is he?" King asked as he continued to play his game solo.

"ah..he's just going out on patrol, I'm pretty sure he was the one that answered that call." saitama replied.

"ohh, I see. do you think he'll be alright out there? monsters have been getting stronger lately along with more of them showing up in groups, I wouldn't be surprised that at this rate more uninhabitable zones start opening up similar to this one. " King said.

"Oh, in that case, I could have a chance to shop around for a new house?" saitama remarked mostly to himself thinking about it.

"and genos," King responded in a deadpanned tone.

"oh he should be fine, right?" saitama said before thinking about it again, thinking about his time when the cyborg told him that he could take care of the J-city problem which was in complete juxtaposition with his state when he arrived on the scene.

"On second thought maybe I should go. king tell me where the location is." saitama said as he started to put on his hero costume.

S-city forest

Garou and genos fight had taken a slight pause, for a moment as each of them started to size each other up, garou fully admitted that the cyborg was strong, he was just as strong as tank top master with some top-of-the-line speed and this heat blast that he wasn't shy in spamming he's quite the problem for him in his normal state but that wasn't all as his instinct screamed at him, to move he dodged out of the way just in time to avoid two explosive blasts that rained down where he was just standing, which quieted him in on the other two that were still there the teens were finishing up with scavaging the unconscious from the battlefield which meant they would turn his attention to him and he definitely couldn't take all three of them at one time. he jumped away again as he noticed ice rapidly approach him as the other teen came his way.

"Give it up already! you won't be getting away." dynamite remarked

"Garou, I'm sure your master would still want to talk to you, don't try to flee and throw away your life." todoroki remarked again but the man didn't pay them no mind, todoroki was focusing his new ability trying to freeze the man in place he was still inexperienced with his new vacuum ability so he needed to be patient with it or he would run the risk of completely freezing the man's blood killing him instantly. but the slower pace and cool air that would begin to surround the target could clue them in on his intention if they were attentive enough which seemed to be the case as his opponent began to move todoroki quickly sped the pace up but it was too late the place that the man stood was frozen but the man himself had already gone interestingly moving around the field on all fours. he began using the trees to bounce off of and move in a rather unpredictable manner well to two of them but bakugo could track him, given their similar styles he launched a few dozen C4 explosives his way but the man had been crazy enough to charge through the exploding mines directly at bakugo elbowing him in the face before retreating again dodging out of the way of genos blast, todoroki used his ice to freeze the ground hopefully tripping the man up on the slippery surface but he found no such luck but it did slow him down as he forcibly dug his hand down into the icy ground to find purchase.

Tododoroki was surprised when the man had actually uprooted a frozen tree and launched it at him, todoroki quickly switched forms and threw out a large blue flame that completely incinerated the tree itself but that was just a cover for the man who had apparently been riding on top of the thrown object, he was about to slam down with a knee strike and all todoroki could do at that moment was throw both of his hand up in an attempt to block but genos was there for him completely knocking him aside and taking the attack himself, todoroki spotted a blade emerged from the cyborg's forearm and attempted to slash the incoming leg likely bisecting it but garou body was like a bag in the wind completely twisting his body around in mid-air avoiding the strike while taking capture of the arm in question and wrenching and pulling back and pulled the limb free, this would have surprised bakugo or todoroki if they didn't already know better, bakugo even commented that he shouldn't get so cocky but by that it was to late as the arm that he had just grabbed turned on him gripping him by the throat and forcing him into the back of a frozen tree before a wire wrapped aroun his body making him stay their.

"one after another but this is just a sign of how popular I am amongst you heroes right?" garou remarked with a smile.

"the world is currently in flux, the emergence of a powerful monster association had put public order in disarray, the hero association and its heroes all need to work together to overcome this threat so we don't have time to waste on someone as insignificant as you." genos remarked holding his incinerator up to kill the man.

"So I'm insignificant huh? Is that right? well, you can help me out demon cyborg if I hunt you down will the world fear me then!?" garou remarked as he pressed his two legs into the tree bark breaking it, garou was mildly surprised when suddenly a wall of ice completely blocked genos line of sight against him blocking the shot from his inceration blast but he continued with breaking out off of the tree but he was still stuck with his upper body wrapped around the razor wire but he had at least some time to work his way out of escaping as the heroes bickered amongst each other.

"frozen-phoenix what are you doing? Are you aiding a criminal" genos demanded to know.

"He shouldn't just be put down, bang is on his way. we only need to contain him here until he arrives." todoroki commented back.

"you're simply delaying the inevitable and your insolence will lead to him getting away." genos bit back.

"no, he ain't!" bakugo roared as he charged back at garou, given that he was still attached to a tree he couldn't maneuver well but he used the eager blond's attack to his advantage to take the explosive projectiles on the tree itself which not only destroyed it but also the wire holding him to it. he quickly used his free arms to weasel out of the remaining wire before throwing the severed hand directly at the teen surprising him somewhat as he stopped his attacks and caught the hand which he uncommonly threw back towards the cyborg that reattached it to himself.

garou was busy trying to untangle himself from the metal wires surrounding him before jumping up and away from the incoming ice aimed at him but he wasn't fast enough to completely avoid the attack as the ice encroached upon his feet and up his legs but he quickly slammed both his hands down shattering it before he was fully captured by it this, however, left him open to the blonde from above as he felt multiple explosions pepper his back and the bastard grab a hold of his hair and began to spin but garou wasn't one to go along with the ride as he lashed out with a kick hitting the boy in the side and making him release his grip before the two could separate garou launched out with another kick hitting the boy in the jaw and bakugo responded in kind shooting a large AP-shot the hunter's way hitting the man in the chest and sending him crashing down in a large explosion as he sailed for a moment before crashing down through a couple of trees. garou got up through the crater with smoke pouring off his body, he was bleeding even more profusely than before but he began to rapidly wipe the stray blood pouring down his face before rubbing it through his hair turning his silver-white hair into a bloody-orange color. he gestured to himself as both todoroki and genos held out their hands threatening to attack him again.

"The monster association is nothing and you heroes are no match for me either...the strongest monsters right here!" garou remarked.

"There are no monsters here." genos replied simply about to blast garou again but a rumble next to him drew his attention noticing a similar rumble next to frozen-phenoix he called out to the teen a warning.

"Frozen phoenix to your left." genos remarked in a slightly raised voice.

todoroki quickly turned just in time to see multiple monsters appear to jump up and out of the ground, he immediately used his ice to halt them but some were more easily captured than others, as more came threw and attempted to slash at him with a weird sword-like appendage, he jumped back before using more ice to stick the monster into the ground but suddenly he felt something grab at his feet and start to pull him underground using his flames he quickly burned the would-be captor's hands forcing him to let go as todoroki flew up high into the sky to avoid any other attack while scouting over the area and taking in the new targets.

Garou was doing the same watching as the monster began attacking the two-make that three heroes before him the explosive kid emerged from the trees before fighting his own set of monsters but unlike the fire and ice kid, he didn't seem to be holding back all that much given that he saw that some of the monsters were completely obliterated by one of his explosions without a trace. garou attention to the battle in front of him was taken away from him as behind him a monster began to speak he turned and saw that it was some plant monster of some kind.

"We're here from the monster association, garou you seem to be in a bit of a bind.. allow us to help you and you can return with us we even have a monster that can treat those wounds of yours. the higher-ups have even acknowledged your accomplishments and are considering making you a cadre you should be thrilled." the flower monster persuaded.

"you guys again, as I said before I'm not interested fuck off." was garou short reply.

"Now, now don't be like that your a monster right? shouldn't monsters stick together? either way, we have our orders, you must come with us- impossi" The plant monster's voice died as his face was completely cut in half by genos passing through with his forearm blade garou feeling the killing intent had dodged in time to avoid the strike. the cyborg turned back around staring directly at the hero hunter as he cleaned his blade of blood before retracting it back into his arm.

"I didn't expect that the hero hunter would have a connection with the monster association but it should come as no surprise it starts to make sense, but I'm stronger than I was a week ago, there are many monsters that exist that are beyond my imagination so I will never let my guard down again, my master saitama told me to train my mind to reach the upper echelon of heroes. I'm beginning to understand what he meant, a surprise attack like that won't work on me. " genos began monologuing his thoughts out loud.

"Master saitama? " garou questioned someone has an S-class as an apprentice he thought.

"No monster is a match for him, he is the strongest hero." genos remarked simply before beginning to raise his arm and charge up his incinerator again while the other two dealt with the monsters behind him but before he could fire off his shot he was interrupted again this time by bang who kicked the man down and away. he was somewhat surprised by the event but remembered that Frozen-Phoenix had informed him that Bang was on the way...did he somehow contact him? he thought.

"genos can you please leave this to me?" the old man said facing down his former apprentice, genos was about to respond when another monster appeared behind the old man but he didn't have to warn him as another figure joined the fray this one being his brother bomb the monster that was trying to attack was suddenly cut down into pieces and fell to the floor causing the other monsters to halt in their attack.

"Leave the monsters to us bang, you must deal with garou." bomb responded before turning his attention to the monsters and cracking his knuckles in the other monsters' direction.

"thank you, brother. Now, it's been a long time garou. look at what you've become I'll end this now...take your stance" Bang remarked at the groveling teen, Garou's body jumped at the voice he could barely see anymore but just by the voice alone he knew who was there it was the old-geezer tch for all his luck he was the hero he wanted to encounter least but if it's come down to this he would force his body to stand up he wasn't beaten yet and he was not willing to throw in the towel just because his old teacher was there. he dragged his body up even as it wailed in agony all of his senses were burning and blood continued to pour out of his wounds but he did so standing up and moving to thrust his arms back and then forward at his master who did a similar maneuverer in their martial arts pose in combat.

there was a slight pause as both of them sizing each other up and it was garou who struck out first, diving head first towards his master only to be buffeted as a rain of blows and pain erupted across his body, the old man had stricken garou over and over again in an almost un edging barrage of punches but there was a slight pause as a monster had attempted to intervene but was completely frozen solid in its tracks but still, just that pause was enough for garou to get his feet under him again and attempt to mitigate some of the damage aimed his way but the two clashed in an epic battle of water stream rock smashing fist or some would say that but to genos the results was as clear as day while the martial itself was a perfect balance of offense and defence the difference between master of the art was the game changer garou attacks were outpaced, out parried, and out deflected none of his counters could reach bang while bangs landed on target each time the fight wouldn't last long at this rate.

garou was able to gain a partial victory when he was able to grab ahold of bang's wrist things stopping his assault cold but as his leg attempted to raise up and strike the man the old man's leg was again faster weaseling its way to not only stop his opponent's leg closed but completing what he had attempted as he struck garou jaw before finishing his attack with a snap kick that sent his former apprentice spiraling backward through several trees, bang gave him no quater as he jumped into the air after the fallen apprentice still sliding on the ground and launched a fist directly into the mans chest it was all the boy could do was put his hands their to mitigate some damage but that didn't mean much as blood still spurted from his lips as the ground around him crater inwards with every hit the whole dug down was deeper and deeper and all garou could do was hopefully wait out the the seemingly unending storm but his vision started to black near the corn of his eyes and they were fading fast he could only taste copper as blood contuine to spill from his mouth..he wasn't just loosing conciousness no this was something worse he was...dying as that thought crossed his mind his body likely out of pure survival instinct brought reknewened energy into his arms as he flung one out and griped the ground gathering dirt and swung it back hopping to blind the man but his effort was in vain as the man deflected the sand from reaching his face but that allowed garou the time to move not even bothering to stand on his two feet rembering watchdog man he began to run away on all fours.

"what are those strange movements? where did you learn that? you're just like a wild beast. " bang commented as he made to get away, garou was panicking he couldn't get away, he needed some type of distraction or at least a human shield but the other heroes were cleared away, which left him with not many great options the weakest one was that explosive one though so he had to go for that at the very least, he seemed similar enough to stinger so he called him out on being a coward and just like that the blonde eagerly charged at him garou smiled but that instantly vanished when he felt pain erupt from the side of his face, the old geezer brother bomb had kicked him knocking him directly into a frozen monster but as he connected with it the monster suddenly was cut into pieces. was the monster association already defeated? they were useless! he screamed internally.

"garou you're the only one left surrender." he heard come from the hot and cold teen remarked

"Leave this to bang, he decides garou fate..this was the reason you summoned him is it not?" Genos immediately said rebuffing the teen in question as he took a step forwards and then a couple of steps back along with the blonde one as bang and bomb approached him and they didn't give off any indication of letting him live if he just threw in the towel at that moment so he rose again and prepared to fight.

"hey bro, if that were you would you be able to stand given those wounds?" bang asked

"Maybe if I were 60 years younger I could manage, probably." bomb replied

"hmmm, anyways just a little bit more and we'll finish this before any more heroes show up!" bang yelled as both he and bombed charged and started to beat on the wounded teen. the pain was excruciating, he lost all feeling in his arms as the two greatest martial artists in the world beat him did they not feel any shame in that fact? garou could try and put on an act and beg for his life but the demon cyborg wouldn't let him get away either the two teens seemed to be different in that regard but he doubt just the two of them would be enough what seemed to be a shining beacon shown upon him when another of the teen's group showed up this one was that kid he talked to deku or whatever given his prior comments of not wanting to see him hurt he would imagine he would stop them or at least attempt to but when his eyes met the green boys he had turned his head away from the scene and it was their garou understood, he was on his own which meant he had to kill at least three of them to escape and that was impossible. he thought as he was kicked in the face bang remarked that the blow was for someone called ojiro he didn't know who that was but he guessed it was that new apprentice of his from the non-killing army group but as that kick landed all of his thoughts left him and memory began to play in his mind.

The memory was a very unpleasant one of his old elementary days, he didn't have many friends or even acquaintances at his school so he was usually the one to be picked on if he stuck his nose into things and no better example of this was from his time where he found the popular kid tachan playing "hero" with the others and he had dive kicked someone from on top of the jungle gym which he found dangerous but that simple comment drew their attention to him forcing him into the game where he would be forced to play the monster against tacchans hero and just like in the shows and society tacchan would win not by just being better either but because society wanted him to win, the others would follow him because he was cool, popular, athletic, cool with the ladies, and more, they would forcibly stop him from defending himself and allow tacchan to beat him because that's how the shows went but it was more than that it showed him that, that was how society was, to begin with. I felt that overwhelming unfairness and hated it, what is justice? what is evil? In the end, it's just the majority decision that wants him dead! I won't forgive them it's unfair! I can't figure out the reason why, but it pisses me off!

As garou felt the anger course through him, he let the anger fuel his broken body discovering even more inner strength than he didn't even think he possessed. He slammed his palms down toward the ground just as his master and his brother aimed to take his head off with their duel strike. the strike caused a large earthquake that shook them off their feet making them unsteady and allowing him to grab a tree and twirl it around backing both of them up and giving him some room to breathe but that wasn't enough he was still trapped there or so he thought as a blinding light completely took them by surprise and suddenly the heroes before him were all pushed away from him by a massive wind gust that blew away several trees and the heroes along with them but it wasn't only that the trees that were pushed away they also began to catch on fire and he doubted that was from the teen either as the fire quickly started to spread about the forest, the only thing that stopped him from being blown in the other direction was a sudden pressure on his shoulder he quickly turned and saw a monster of some kind he guessed in a unique bird costume.

"ah we meet again hero hunter, you looked pretty banged up. let me do something about that." a man in a bird costume voice remarked before a light eclipsed him and suddenly he was feeling better than ever and his wounds were seemingly healing a bit somewhat slowly.

"you are?" garou asked.

"ah given my new form you might not have recognized me, it is a new and improved phoenix man here to take you back to the association."

"thanks or whatever but as I said I'm not interested."garou remarked before attempting to move away from the monster but it had him in a vice-like grip.

"That wasn't a request." the costume-wearing man said before punching garou in the stomach his body lurched over and he found all of his newfound energy leave him before fading to black. Phoenix man hefted garou up on his shoulder and began to turn away before noticing a freezing chill tickle the back of his spine turning back around he noticed that the fire that he had started suddenly vanished and along with that a large column of ice was shot his way, he waved a hand clouded in his prominence burn and completely evaporated the ice and saw that the heroes were coming back at him but he started to levitate and fly away, the green boy launched up and at him but he held garou in his clutches prepared to crush his throat right in front of him making him pause.

"ah! Ah! ah! if you don't want anything happening you will be a good hero and let me leave besides I'm not the one you all should be worried about. Even though I would love to test my strength against an S-class hero I have an objective to complete." the man remarked before suddenly using his wings to defend himself and from a sudden energy blast rocketed past the green boy and attempted to strike the monster directly but a simple flick of his wings deflected the blast away harmlessly.

"demon cyborg as over-eager as ever, you were stronger than we had anticipated but you're still nothing to what I am now...speaking of which once again...I offer my thanks to your friend for giving this power this tsukyomi he is more than welcome to join us if he wants." phoenix man stated.

"well how about you let us kill you again and see if you get lucky a second time." bakugo yelled out in reply this was mostly out of clarification than any actual angered outburst, genos did a sharp turn to look in their direction once he said that he didn't want even more misunderstandings to happen between them and the heroes about their allegiance.

Midoriya continued his charge forward seemingly catching on to the monster's bluff as he had protected garou from the attack although he was too full hearty in his approach to save him, phoenix man costume took on a transformation into that of a penguin and before deku knew it he was suddenly completely frozen in a large chunk of ice and he began to drop like a rock, he used his black whip to start to break out immediately but the monster was already flying away.

"elder centipede I have garou! kill the rest on the ground all you like !" phoenix man yelled before laughing off as he flew away.

Todoroki immediately approached midoriya and help free him from the ice, midoriya wanted to immediately follow after the bird creature but his danger sense suddenly flared white hot in his mind staggering him for a moment as the next thing the heroes knew the hut behind rose from the ground as giant pincer rose underneath it snapping it in two and continuing to raise high into the sky completely blocking out where the phoenix man was traveling midoirya had saw elder centipede from far away before but seeing it now was something completely different his danger sense wouldn't stop pounding in his head he had a very similar feeling when he was fighting against that other monster from that other monster in C-city this could be bad even with bang and bombs help could they hope to defeat this creature?

Phoenix man left with garou in hand, he looked back over towards the hulking beast he was more than just a simple monster he was a natural disaster that swallowed everything it encounters whole, even with his newfound strength he had to admit he was still inferior to the creature but he could save his subjugation for later after he found a way to deal with orochi he could likely deal with elder centipede as well all he needed to do now was play his roll which was to get garou back to the base and to add on to that elder centipede will kill off four S-class heroes which pose the biggest obstacles to them if gyoro-gyoro's match-ups are to be believed than the creature should emerge victorious against even those three, the only heroes that held the capability of beating the monster were Toronado of terror with her overwhelming esper power, metal knight with military capabilities surpassing that of even the hero association itself, king the strongest man on earth, and blast the person who had brought elder centipede to the brink of death two years ago he has grown since then but gyoro-gyoro isn't willing to test that theory if he didn't need to but there was also that myserious individual that had defeated gokestsu so their was another one they was another one out their but this place should be desserted enough for that not to matter at least until centipede has already finshed up.

bang might be a master of martial arts but that is what are martial arts against a creature of that size, genos may have some proficient weapons but I doubt his weapons are capable of bringing down a creature of that size either. the two teens shared similar problems while he believed frozen-Pheonix wasn't that much more or less of a threat than genos the green one was interesting he was the last one that had been on the scene when fighting goketsu, while the nyan didn't think of him as anything special that to could have been the match-up difference a brawler type would have a tough time going against him and his ability and if the boy was able to stall gokestu or at least weaken him to the point where he could be taken out by someone else than he could be trouble in this scenario but that wasn't for him to decide they had people watching over the scene to dictate what happens they should be able to discern the truth of it all so he left it to them as he got out of dodge and brought garou back to the hideout.

Elder centipede began to nose dive down into the ground before pulling up and starting to skate along its surface directly at the heroes involved genos, bakugo, and todoroki all reacted instantly firing upon the creature with everything they had todoroki had swapped to his phosphorus red state and belched out a large blue flame, bakugo used his explosive cannon times 12 attack and genos unleash another ultra-spiral cannon attack but even as the three attacks landed the monster emerged through the smoke and dust unfazed it's charge barely slowed in the slightest this caused a look of confusion and surprise to dawn on each of the range fighters faces but they still stepped back as the two old men took their place ready to take the charging head on the twos arms circled around each other in each of their martial arts flowing water whirlwind roaring aura sky ripping fist the two shouted simultaneously striking the creature dead on with both of their fist and stopping it in it's tracks as a resounding cracks started to surface along it's body, the monster head and upper body reared back as the two of them contuined to lay into it but the head quickly came back around to counter strike but midoriya was their to protect the old men landing an one million percent smash! to the creatures face making the monster completely loose it's balance and crash down to the ground but it rose equally as quickly but did not immedialty come to attack them as it's body thrashed about from the shockwave of the two brothers technquie.

"The shockwave is spreading through its entire body. that monster will soon be reduced to dust." " bomb commented as he watched the monster with around.

"This move places a heavy burden on two old men like us, we can only perform it once, it is good that we were able to hit him, thank you for the help everyone." bang said.

Everyone began to look at the monster as the cracks started to become more and more visible on its outer carapace before finally the cracks began to violent fragment and vibrate befoly exploding, everyone had hopeful looks on their faces but midoirya was unconvinced as he immediately started to gather more stock for his fajin this wasn't over he remarked simply and as the dust settled everyone else could see as well the monster was completely fine no it was more than just fine it wly larger then it was before...it had molted.

"what do we do now, we can't beat this monster and if we try to flee from this park then there will be more casualties in the city." bomb remarked.

"where the hell is saitama, genos." bakugo yelled as he marched up to the android.

"I do not know, he was with Mr. King the last I've seen him." genos commented simply.

"is mineta with him then?" todoroki immediately asked implying they could reach him through the small boy but midoiriya shook his head.

"No... King and mineta had some sore of falling out he trains with golden ball now. I'll hold it off here, you guys retreat and go get saitama."midoriya said simply and the heroes were all now looking amongst themselves with hesitation.

"Young midoirya if you are saying that you are going to fight it on your own, I can not agree to that." bang said.

"stop trying to be the hero, how long do you have left with that new quirk of yours anyways? you could die due to your quirk." bakugo immediately replied and bakugo did have a point there in truth he could only hold the thing off for another 8 minutes he had increased his time limit of gearshift to 10 minutes for the moment but he still had the costly drawbacks of being exhausted but when finished with it, in this circumstance that could get him killed.

"We may not have a way of winning but that is no reason to be reckless. the future belongs to you young ones. " bomb remarked holding the conversation up. genos sat and remembered Doctor Kuseno's words of not being reckless but was that enough when in the presence of such creatures? there just wasn't a way it could be he thought as he leaped into action, surprising everyone involved as he quickly landed down and on top of the creature and shot at it with both of his incinerator cannons despite the large dust cloud it created the monster was completely unharmed but he didn't let that stop him as he continued up the creature large body firing along the way, he jumped up and into the air and the monster was about to intercept him crushing it within its pincers but the creatures attack was diverted by a large column of ice, genos looked and saw that all three of the teens had came along to join him in their assault, two of them were moving faster than they usually did and he found out the reason why when deku told him to touch his hand and that with his power he could speed him up.

the three of them all joined together to attack the monster firing blast after blast at any part that seemed to be vulnerable but none of it truthfully worked except midoirya's attacks they had a noticeable dent or at least recoil as he connected but only when he had his fa jin stocked up which took time to gather but the others kept the monster busy enough while he did so but the issue was the time limit midoriya only had five minutes left on his quirk but using the quirk to this extent also reaped a toll on his body from every attack he landed and he was taking more damage than the centipede was that's for sure.

bakugo launched into the creature facing doing his largest point-blank stun grenade he could muster he felt his arms ache from the strain but he kept it on before dodging out of the way as demon cyborg dropped down from above him both of his forearms blades fully extended plunging directly into the eyes of the monster and continuing to stab into it mercilessly. the monster didn't take it completely lying down as it managed to grab one of genos legs into its mouth and shifted its body downwards about to forcibly drag him into the ground but the monster's downward spiral was completely halted as midoriya came up with an uppercut of his own stopping the monster momentum cold and raising its head upwards and this allowed genos to escape the creatures grasp and he immediately leaped backward but was surprised when a tendril completely wrapped around him in that next moment and as the monster was recovering from the hit it had just taken and was preparing to bisect him with its massive pincers, the tendril surrounding genly froze over allowing him to burst free and escape in the nick of time.

large sheets of ice started to cover the large centipede carapace but it simply shook it off and began its charge at the offender, bakugo moved todoroki out of the way as midoriya delivered another punch this time to the creature's face but it was blocked by the monster large pincer and it returned the blow quickly shifting its head back to stab at the boy with the other one, midoirya was hit and was sent crashing into the ground below in a large collum of dirt and trees and the monster began it's charged directly towards the down teen, genos stopped the teens from going towards their downed comrade as bang and bomb called out that they would take care of deku, genos informed the other two of a plan in a similar vain to how he defeated the robot when they first met, their external attacks aren't having any effect which means they need to target it from the inside and the two teens understood and followed along although they held doubts with how risky it could be in this case in comparison to last time. Genos quickly dashed in front of the monster using his lighting eyes to briefly stun the creature before going high into the air and setting his thruster full blast behind him as he came down with his leg jet drive arrow, the attack connected along the creature's teeth and partially cracked it but he sent his thruster into overdrive shooting an even higher burst of flames that slightly rocked the creature back a bit straighter but the tooth he kicked finally gave way allowing him entrance inside of the creature proper as he slid down its throat he felt the digestive acid burning his cloths and exterio hull but that quickly came to a stop when the acid inside of the creature quickly became frozen he found purchase on the ice digging into to it with his arm blades to stop himself from going to far down before realling upwards and calling back to dynmight that he was ready and instant later both of dynmight bracers fell down creatures stomach right beside him and after attaching both of which to his arms he relaeased all of the nitrogryclrin stored inside of them along with his super spiral inceneratin cannon but that wasn't all from above him blue flames rained down also encompassing him multiple of readouts immedeidiatly shotforth in his vision telling him of damage errors and failing structural intergrity of his right arm, upper head, and lower leg which even with his extreme heat resistant began to melt away under the strain as his attack faded he was suddenly lurched away as something had wrapped around his waist and he was dragged from within the monster up again, it had been the green boy again using his black whips to pull him along with his two friends clear of the monster that was now completely trailing exhuast as heat and explosion errupted from inside it's body and to ensure that it didn't fall on them deku hit the creature one last time as he kicked it in the jaw forcing it backwards but that seemed to be the last of his strength as he fell backwards and the black tentacles surroudning them quickly disspersed leading all of them to have a somewhat hard landing.

genos looked up at the creature that was writhing in flames and explosions and was shocked that despite it all its body seemingly parted at the seems to air itself out before rejoining together and its face seemed to regenerate as well and flashed them a wide smile as if it was unbothered by the damage it just took...in the end he couldn't win, he still couldn't protect anyone he thought as he saw the large creature about to use one of its many legs to stomp on him but just as the appendage case down to stomp he was suddenly hoisted into the air along with the other three teens that lay next to him both bang and bomb had picked them up and started to run away.

the problem came when the two of them were about to escape the forest and join the city if they left the city there would be more casualties just like what had happened in the invasion so, with no other options, bang acted first he put midoirya down, and walked back towards the charging beast taking a deep breath in the awakening breath technique, he did not know if he would be able to defeat the creature but he could buy time for his brother and the others to escape he will allow himself to go all out one last time...or at least that's what he thought when suddenly a voiced boomed over a speaker.

"Hey! Elder Centipede! vermin! I brought Blast with me, the guy you've been looking for. yeah, that's right the one that kicked your ass two years ago and sent you running home to suck on your mother's teet! trash like you deserves to stay underground. if you planning on shitting yourself and running away again do all of us a favor and never show your face again! Or are you at least somewhat brave enough to come over here a die like a man!" the voice remarked and said the voice was unmistakable it was from none other than king himself. the monster had stopped its charge completely and turned to the sound of the voice before taking its provocation head and charging towards the sound of where King inevitably was.

"I lured him over here, that way no one else would get involved, you'll have to deal with it in one blow that way it doesn't escape underground again. you'll only have a small opportunity to do it.. so try your best to contain the blast radius...don't use any attacks that would push the centipede back onto the city itself, we don't need another B-city situation." King remembered being told by the association dispatcher but the only thing rushing in his mind at that very moment as the large centipede barreled at him jaw opened wide full of hate was.

"saitama! he's gonna hit!" he silently yelled as the beast drew too close for comfort but in the very next moment a resounding boom set off next to him serious series: serious punch and the creature seemingly evaporated out of thin air well not quite, the blow was strange in a way, saitama punch was like shockwaves going through and destroying the creature body as it went until it was completely gone that king finally allowed his body to relax and he finally noticed that just a couple feet away was none other than genos, bang and the rest of them.

"ah, so he was here just like you said saitama," King remarked

"yup and judging from the looks of him, it was a good idea that we came." saitama remarked.

"you seem refreshed from just moments ago, what happened?" King asked

"I just feel relieved all of a sudden, I guess I was still mad from when you were beating me in video games." saitama mentioned casually.

"I just hopped to teach you to that your way of fighting was just too predictable," King mentioned casually but the conversation was put on hold as the two of them noticed that genos was limping towards them with a stick his right leg was completely melted off and his upper left shoulder had a hole in it but other than that he seemed fine enough at least compared to how saitama found him when he was in J-city that one time.

"saitama, if I may pardon upon you a question?" genos asked as he drew closer.

"What?" saitama replied

"what do you think I'm missing?" genos asked

"huh? Isn't it power?" saitama replied confused.

"Thank you so much!" was genos immediate answer as he jotted it down into his notebook. he could tell from looking at the carnage of the monster before him his master wanted him to reach that symbol of strength as well and he would not fail him.

Hospital: Uraraka, Bakugo

The class all came rushing into the hospital room, that midoirya had found himself in once again, his arms were showing the familiar signs of being broken that had come with his power he still wasn't used to accessing one million percent he didn't think that he would have to use it so soon after the first time, were all cadres that strong or were the two he fought just exceptional individuals? midoirya was more concerned than ever but this was on top of things that were already concerning him previously about thewn world..everything just seemed to be getting worst and worst no matter what place they were in and he just didn't know what he could do to stop it.

He waved off his classmate's worries and soon they had all started to file out, bakugo and todoroki got out relatively ok even in comparison to himself, bakugo had some bruised ribs and some minor laceration on his arms, and todoroki was nearly completely fine only suffering from some of the drawbacks of his quirk. midoriya sat in contemplation even as uraraka was there only half-paying attention to the conversations they were having which the girl promptly noticed and took that as her moment to give him some space she didn't expect bakugo to be there waiting for her outside of his room he gestured to a more secluded spot before talking to her.

"what's happening with midoirya?" he asked rather suddenly surprising her with not only the question but what he meant by it.

"I don't know, does something seem wrong?" uraraka asked puzzled.

"He's starting to not care about killing monsters so I'm assuming something is up and if anyone would know I'm guessing you would." bakugo explained that while they were returning from their fight with the giant centipede, they had encountered several monsters that were "broken" to say the least, and bang wasn't the one that did it and him and todoroki didn't have the strength to perform such feats and bomb victims usually ended diced up, but what clued him in it being midoirya was that some were still alive just badly injured and with heavy internal damage, so it wasn't fair to say that midoirya was killing monster it was more like he just didn't care anymore about measuring how much he needed to hold back to not kill something.

uraraka was momentarily taken back by that fact, midoirya, her and a couple of others were among those in the class that still restrain themselves from killing the monster if they could help it and to find out that midoriya changed it she could see where he got the idea that something happened to him, but she shook her head.

"he hasn't told me anything ...but now that you mention it he did seem rather disinterested in just about everything right now so...maybe it's about something back home? I've seen that look in his eyes before when he was worried about maybe something happening again." uraraka commented mostly in thought.

"So something even worst happened again huh? I'll get him to talk." bakugo commented before starting to move past the brunette girl but he was surprised when the girl got back in front of him stopping him in his footsteps.

"He can tell us when he's ready, I don't think it would be a good idea to push him on this, he's probably still processing it all right now." uraraka said trying to persuade the angry blonde to change his course of action, the explosive blonde gave her an angered side-eye and was met with a determined stare back the two had a stare down for a brief moment before bakugo let out a sigh and relented and quickly turned around about to leave putting both of his hands in his pockets.

"tch fine, but given what's happening in this place we don't have the luxury of being distracted by something we have no control over...although if that's his attitude now it may not be so bad." bakugo said before murmuring the last bit to himself and with that, he marched off and uraraka watched him go leaving out of a doorway out of sight she let out a breath before starting to walk after him but she found herself stuck in a place she looked down and noticed that around her ankle was midoriya's black whip, it tugged at her for several moments as if asking for permission and she gave it to him in the form of using her quirk on herself making her weightless and feeling that he wrap the black tendril around her legs up her waist and carried her back to him where he landed her right next to him as he laid in bed almost just like last time but due to the equipmet he placed her down next to him instead of in his bed and also he couldn't actually move his arms very much so he had to settle with just resting his head against her thigh.

"Thank you." midoriya said suddenly which at first had the brunette confused about what he was thanking her for but remembering his training with danger sense he did have advanced hearing along as well with his powers so he was listing in on her and bakugo conversation so she guessed that her hypothesis was right as she bent down to get more on his level and kiss the top of his head.

"It's alright I'm sure you didn't feel like dealing with bakugo on top of your injuries." uraraka remarked in jest but there was again barely a response from the teen as he just nodded.

"do you want to tell me about what happened, I won't tell anyone I swear." uraraka asked and midoriya showed more signs of life as he jerked his eyes up at her before looking down and away. at first, she assumed well he wasn't going to tell her and she would be fine with that but he began to talk in a near whisper.

"there was a rescue attempt for all might back in our world... it failed and all of those people that attempted to help him died." midoriya grimly, uraraka suppressed a gasp at the news as she rubbed along the boy's hair, she had a feeling he wasn't done speaking just yet.

"to make matters worse, one of them that had attempted to rescue all might was someone all for one was interested in before, the crawlers of Naruhata or is more recently known as the sky crawler of America... had awakened previously and foiled some plan of his from years ago but now that he has his body he wants to experiment on him and figure out what happened and what triggered his awakening and if it can be replicated...which we know from drive knight it can be."

midoriya commented dryly and uraraka instantly knew where he was going and how bad news that was to be for the heroes facing them, not everyone has an awakening but any villain getting more powerful was bad news. she started to see tear stream down midoriya's face and she quickly went to wipe them off but she was halted as midoirya grabbed her hand with his black whip and used it to caress his cheek instead which he leaned into.

"That's not all but I fear either I think something else is happening as well, with overhaul, all for one, and shigaraki. " midoriya said cryptically but he didn't say anything more and she didn't really know what to say so she just stayed there with him to comfort him.

Saitama House: Fubuki, Bang, Bomb, Genos, King

Fubuki made her way into the Z-city uninhabited zone hesitant and paranoid this place was the rumored location of the monster association base and as such, there is a great chance that a great many monsters are lurking in the dark waiting to strike she had been confident in her abilities to defend herself but that confidence was knocked down a peg after having an encounter with that monster if she or others like her were to jump her, she would be hard pressed to escape unharmed but she didn't need to escape anywhere too far really, her objective was the "side branch" of the Fubuki group this branch was harder to control then the others but given that over half of her traditional group had been injured in the fighting even though half of the injuries was caused by her sister she added on bitterly that but given the side branch sub-leader, she figured that she needed to hold an emergency meeting to ensure that he was properly knowledgable about the situation.

she made her way to the base easy enough, she was a bit disturbed by the amount of blood smeared across the floor around the building but it was a simple matter of floating up and above it before and directly to the door of her group's sub-leader as she rang the doorbell however she was surprised by the quickness of it's opening traditionally it would take a few rough knocks or esper powers to get the owners attention before they allowed her ently that was likely due to security risk given the area that they were in but she had not expected bang's brother of all people to open the door for her bomb had welcomed her and gesture for her to come in and she was rather unsurprised that both bang and king was also their and she was kind of relieved that the teens weren't in the room either but she could tell just by examining all of them that something had recently transpired.

"uhm...everything still hurts." bomb remarked as he slowly made his way down to the ground next to his brother.

"oh, you came to hang out again Fubuki?" King remarked as he launched an attack on the saitama in the game completely one-shotting his monster and leaving the bald hero in complete disbelief given that he had supposedly ground that monster to a high level although the monster itself was quite weak he wasn't aware of the joke the devs had when designing the game and had made all of the traditional "cool" monster weaker on average then the "cute" monsters under the same stats. there was also the issue of him having a type advantage of him having a wind monster versus Saitama's earth-type monster as well which made the one-shot even more likely to happen.

"what do you want blizzard of hell, I have told you before that saitama is not taking on any more disciples and he has made it abundantly clear that he is not joining this fan club of yours." genos remarked seriously.

"Sorry for the crowded space in here but since you are here could you hand me that wet towel?" bang asked and Fubuki nodded turning to look before using her esper powers to hand it to the older gentlemen on the ground.

"oh you are here, why?" saitama asked finally looking up from playing his game.

"Because this is an emergency! The blizzard group all have been hospitalized! the monster association is a dangerous force. this isn't a time to be playing games.. do you even know what's going on right now?" Fubuki yelled at the obtuse hero.

"you don't have to yell, we just got back, gimme a break." saitama said laying down on his hands absently.

"don't just lie there you bum!" Fubuki yelled again.

"We have just come back from facing a powerful opponent, elder centipede you are not the only one that has faced difficulties. Fubuki's response quickly died in her throat upon hearing that, she had heard of the dragon-level monster elder centipede before and seen some videos of it during its attack on S-city so seeing genos in such a damaged state made sense along with bang and bomb both being injured as well.

"is that how you all attained your injuries?" Fubuki asked allowed to everyone one.

"Yes I kind of overdid it back there so my back is killing me." bang commented

"for me, it's my ankle, it's been a while since we performed the roaring aura sky-ripping fist." bomb commented.

"I see it must have been a hard battle ...but wait the two teens with you are they?" Fubuki questioned.

"nothing of the sort young miss they are all alive and well, well at least young bakugo and todoroki green savior deku needed to be treated at the hospital due to their injuries." bang commented waving his hand dismissing her trail of thought.

"speaking of them, did you catch what that other monster that captured garou said about how the non-killing army "helped " it attain its power, do you think they can be trusted?" genos asked bang and Bomb mostly.

"Now, now genos that's not entirely fair...they told us that he had transformed through death they had no reason to believe something like that would transpire between a monster." bang commented immediately in defense.

"you're just being paranoid genos," King commented off handily.

"but have not noticed a change in the temperament? they have begun to kill monsters now when they were so hesitant to do so before and it just so happens this occurs and a monster that can evolve from death appears before them?" genos questioned.

"you saw what the monster did a week ago it would be hard to justify defending them after something like that." bomb countered.

"Well, I'm not too sure that would be it after all, as I said a number of my men were hospitalized aly two of the non-killing army were as well however on the night of the invasion some of my men spotted a number of them leave the hospital and return nearly an hour later all with new scars and wounds than they had previously," Fubuki commented gaining the others attentions as most of them took a moment to ponder that news.

"while suspicious I don't think that is proof of anything substantial, there were monsters scattered all over the place after the invasion." bang commented.

"I can't claim to know them well but they do not seem like to type to leave their injured unsupervised especially when they have just come back from such an experience and there were no alarms or pings either to let them know of a monster assault taking place or hero needing support." Fubuki chimed in again.

"There was also a breakout in the monster containment facility one of the monsters that green savior captured seemed to be hiding its true strength and broke several other monsters out which bolstered the monster association forces even more." genos remarked and this most people to hmm in thought again as speculation a doubt began to cloud their minds but one surprising thing rang out over the silence and almost deafening everyone thoughts and it was none other than the king engine the rapid beats drew everyone attention to the man.

"Do you sense a threat king?" bang asked.

"It's just...I don't like the flow of the conversation, we shouldn't jump to conclusions, especially from nothing but speculation and rumors...why don't we just ask them ourselves." king stated, king still felt somewhat bad for lying to mineta for the time he did, when the small ball had found out he was fully convinced that the boy would just immediately tell the press or at least the hero association but the boy didn't he's visited him twice during the previous the first time was to tell him in person that he wouldn't tell anyone his secrete and the first reason he offered was that it was likely that no one would actually belive what he said and that he wasn't a person to forcibally drag king out into public and humillate him to just make a point or something like that and the second reason was that he belived that king himself should be the one to blow his own whistle as it would be a sign of him at least trying to change and make an effort to be a better person and to be the hero that people thought he was. the second time he visited him during the past week he came over to thank him for pointing golden ball his way as an actual teacher for him to improve himself, they played a couple of video games and read a couple of comics together that day and slightly rekindle that friendship they had before he revealed his secret, the purple boy remarked that he would come by from time to time to game and just hang out and king feeling somewhat grateful for the boy decision wanted to try and do better while he did try and practice what he preached to him by following along with saitama training regime he quickly gave up that struggle by the 10th jumping jack.

Instead, he would change up his style now he wouldn't just hang up or push off the hero association calls as the boy was right that could be dangerous lives were at stake and him just ignoring it was completely irresponsible on his part so now instead if he got that call he would go get saitama to come and deal with the problem and while the issue of him stealing saitama credit still remained he thought it was a good step in the direction the boy had hoped for him and saitama didn't seem to care for the credit either so it was a win-win for everyone involved. so when Fubuki had started to indirectly question the boy's intentions by attacking their group he felt a little defensive of the little guy but he was still nervous In actually voicing his thoughts he guessed that was a blessing as his rapid heartbeat completely made his point more like a demand then a suggestion that he intended it as, and their it was again his hero fame having some positive benefits for him he thought as he went to step outside and call mineta, it would be best to have at least these guys on the same page as the teens but especially if the association itself were having second thoughts about them if fubuki's rumors were to be believed.

As King left out genos gestured for saitama to give his thoughts on the matter and fittingly for the bald hero he wasn't paying attention and focused on instead practicing his game by capturing a different type of monster that would be more for a match for King's wind type monster. after having been told of the details he missed he merely shrugged although mostly uncaring of the point of the teens, he doubted that they were monsters or even traitors but he did remark that the green one was a little weird to him, he could occasionally hear whispers every time he's around him but he wasn't speaking or he didn't appear to be speaking to him or anyone so he always just blamed it on the wind. the part about the monster he was also unconcerned about much to Fubuki's astonishment given the unusual circumstances but to saitama it wasn't unusual at all monsters pop up he comes over punches them they die and everyone goes home, although Fubuki countered that the monster this time around had formed an association of their own and that could cause trouble with both bang and bomb echoing the sentiment remarking that if garou joins up with the monster than they would become even more dangerous and that the opportunity to take him alone would be unlikely, bomb even suggested for bang to stop being a hero if the monster had any other creatures on the centipede's level. saitama was a bit surprised to hear that garou was there and he had just missed him but he was even more irritated that the hero hunter still hasn't gone hunting him yet. saitama went to put on his hero costume again and headed out to leave when genos expressed if he had found out where garou was located he shook his head, he was simply going out to buy more cabbage but he expressed before leaving that if he were to find him that he was sure to kick his ass.

king returned a short time after saitama had left out and Fubuki while feeling ignored for the most part by the saitama gang still remained there to hear the teen's side of their story if she left it would likely be seen as disgraceful to king especially since it was her and genos that mostly thought that way of them, king likely new that saitama wasn't one for such conversations and allowed him to leave.

nearly 40 minutes passed and there was a knock on the door as king went to answer it he was surprised when not only mineta was on the other side but two of his friends as well, he believed the yellow hair one was called kaminari and the one with the weird elbows was called sero. he gestured for the two to come inside before heading back over to sit down at the couch as the three of them entered each received stares from the other heroes inside of the apartment already. there was a tense silence that wrung out between the two groups before king cleared his throat and started the discussions.

"ugh...well, I called you over because genos and Fubuki have some...concerns with you and your group." King remarked simply trying to ease the conversation and not sound completely accusatory which was immediately countered by genos completely blunt and accusatory question.

"Are you all and your group, involved with the monster association?" genos asked flatly and point blank.

"excuse me?" sero remarked baffled by the question, his hint of anger showed in one of his eyes flashing red for a brief moment which didn't go unnoticed by the heroes involved but none of them questioned it.

"We do not mean to accuse you all but, your group's rapid change of character and events transpiring does call some things into question," Fubuki said.

"I didn't think that conversation should be held without you guys here to defend yourselves so I called you to hear to say your piece," King said and he and mineta shared a glance between each other in a silent appreciation for the consideration.

"let me get this straight, you think were some type of double agent even after, midoriya, todoroki, and bakugo all fought by your sides not even a couple of hours ago?" kaminari asked in a defensive tone.

"you know that midoriya is still in the hospital due to his injuries right? his hands are pretty busted up saving your ass." sero commented his voice full of bitterness.

"be that as it may, they are also the reason that garou managed to escape alive I had him dead to rights but frozen-phoenix got in the way and it coincides that the monster association also wanted him alive." genos remarked

"last time I checked garou was still a human, not a monster if he was defenseless, killing him would be cruel, anyone would stop you at that point." mineta defended although he wish he hadn't he forgot that they weren't in their world so it likely that other heroes would end up killing him, and to confirm his thoughts Fubuki spoke next.

"criminals have some leeway for capture true but ultimately garou is a separate case, he has fully committed to hunting heroes putting numerous of them in the hospital and even breaking some spirits to the point they resigned from being a hero in themselves. 100 Hereos have been injured and all of that was just before the monster invasion as well so it could be seen as garou being sent to soften us with his hunt in preparation for it. he needs to be taken care of permanently." Fubuki stated. sero shifted his eye to the bang and gestured to him with his tape.

"What do you have to say to that? garou was your student, right? Did you not care about his safety?" sero asked. but Bang simply let out a heavy sigh.

"No, if he had met his end to genos, that would be that...he has hurt so many and made his motivations clear he wants to be a monster and now that we know he has connected to the monster association there isn't any doubt on what side he is on he is lost, the only thing I wish to do now ends him with my own hands before he causes any more harm." bang remarked simply with a bow of his head.

"tch, some master you are." sero commented crossing his arm over his chest.

"disregarding garou for now, during the night of the invasion some of my men who were in the hospital told me that you guys left in a hurry and returned with more injures what happened?" Fubuki asked, the three teens looked at each other for a moment and this time it was kaminari that answered.

"that one was on me, my master Votlen had called me and the other lightings out but it was a trap he had sided with the monsters and became one and he wanted me to do the same." kaminari said rubbing the back of his head.

"not just him the entire monster association wanted us to join them and they used him to lure us out we wanted to make sure that he was ok." mineta said.

"and we declined that offer by the way, which is why we came back banged up." sero added on.

"Become a monster you say?" bomb questioned

"yeah, there was this thing called a monster cell, it would allow someone to become a monster. bakugo said that one of the martial artists had taken a cell and became a dragon-level threat." kaminari added, and it was bang and bombs turn to cast a glance towards the other, trying to imagine what would happen if garou ate such a thing.

"So during this incident, this was when you all started to kill monsters?" genos questioned.

"yeah, it was kind of a kill-or-be-killed situation so we had to do what we could to survive the encounter." mineta commented rubbing the back of his head.

"and some of us realized that we were wrong the monsters of this world aren't like the people of ours, they are more dangerous and need to be put down." sero commented from the side and both of his friends shot him a disparaging glance but they didn't argue the point, all of them in some way felt responsible for what happened to not only Jackie but all of the people on that street and likely more the monsters that they imprisoned were all broken out and went on to rampage even more, kill more people, and do more damage to cities. they even joined the monster association which would guarantee that they will strike out again even going so far as to take a hostage.

Fubuki seemed to be the only one that had caught on to what the boy had said as she was the only one that seemed to have reacted to the information.

"excuse me? did you just say people from where you are from? and where would that be exactly?" Fubuki asked

"their aliens.. assume their civilizations have monsters in their ranks, think about some of their number such as the raven-headed teen and multi-armed one." genos commented and Fubuki looked around the room baffled by the news although the teens were just staring daggers at the cyborg.

"Don't compare monsters to them." sero commented a bit angrily.

"Did you already know about this to bang?" Fubuki asked the older man but he shook his head.

"No I didn't know of that but given that I was there on the day of the alien invasion I knew that the excuse they gave for their abilities was false. but I never expected something like that, me and atomic speculated them to be more of an experiment by the association instead." bang remarked

"I see well I guess that explains your group's seemingly weirdness protective nature on monsters," Fubuki commented.

"It is also good that some of you are starting to see the error of your ways, my injuries are what it means to be at war with monsters and the threat they face, are duty as heroes are to exterminate them at all cost to save the people." Genos berated them.

"yeah, I'm pretty sure we understand that now, are we done here? is that all you wanted to know?" sero questioned.

None of them had much of them else to talk to the teens about so they allowed them to leave but king ensured that both genos and Fubuki apologized for their accusations which they did so rather begrudgingly

MA headquarters: Aki, Asterius

As night fell on the monster association there had been some rumbling about another meeting that was to take place dealing with the strange disappearance of another one of the monster association's top executives this time the executive that had seemingly disappeared had been none other than elder centipede this strange dissonance struck hard in the hearts of numerous monsters believing that similar to orochi that a creature of that scope and power could never be defeated and this shockwave bore cracks in the confidence that certain monsters had on the association and the planned war between them and the hero association, these cracks sometimes even took shape in monsters abandoning the association all together however they didn't get very far as they would usually be killed by some other monsters upon Gyoro-Gyoro finding out about the dissertation or even discussion of which using royal ripper over active bloodlust as an assassin to quell the sheep.

Gyoro-Gyoro summoned most of his executives again for a meeting and dispatched all of them together for a recovery mission to resurrect elder centipede utilizing their newest member phoenix-man unfortunately for the monster leader the expedition returned with bitter news while he was successfully able to resurrect the centipede monster with his power he was unable to return it to its original size it wasn't even 1/100ths of the size it was originally only being a little larger then overgrown rover in size which while disappointing still offered insight not only on the limits on phoenix-man healing capabilities but also on the hero that was able to defeat him and while when elder centipede told him about who was the one that defeated him, he talked about hearing kings voice which said he had blast close by but he wasn't sure that the man was actually thier and king didn't seem to launch an attack towards him instead thier had been someone else but the light seemed to had reflected off something into his eyes so he couldn't see him well all he knew was that whoever it was, it was someone strong he had died before he could even recognize how it happened, in term of visuals he could only make out somone wearing yellow and that was all but even with that it was plenty enough for the advisor, who now had to take the hero assocition even more seriosuly.

Gyoro-Gyoro pondered if they could go and find out if goketsu body was still in relatively good condition then Phoenix-man would be able to resurrect him, his body seemed fine enough only missing was his head which from their experimentation could be healed without much issue but that means that they needed to get into contact with their spy on the inside, if they could get him back that would make up at least slightly for their loss and in the worse case if they can capture him and feed him to elder centipede he may be able to grow back to his full-size again, there were so many possibilities now and now that he knew that there was some sort of secrete hero that the hero association was keeping under wraps he would need all the strength that he could muster if the war was to go into their favor but there was no point on pondering the topic much further until their informant got back to them. On the brighter note garou was safely captured and brought back if his calculations were correct he would also be an invaluable asset that could rise to become another monster that rivals the power of orochi which certifies their victory no matter the secret weapon the hero association had.

The return of the elder centipede was a blessing and a curse while some monsters were relieved that his presence was back his shrunken form was a reminder of the threat the heroes posed if something as powerful as it was reduced to such a state. the food situation for the monsters was mostly going well there had been a suspicious number of monster corpses that had polluted the outer and some inner edges of the ghost town which allowed them not to risk too much when scavenging for food some monsters believed the bodies to be laced with poison or machines to help find their base but after having fed the source to the great tub they figured it was safe to eat and the robot G5 did not pick up any signs of electronics in the dead carcasses. this only led to more speculation on the side of the monsters some believed that it could be the work of monster sympathizers but others believe that the dead were likely monsters that wanted to join up with them but were attacked by heroes on their journey and died from their injures before making it there, all of the carcasses were too far beyond repair for phoenix-man powers to take effect not the Gyoro-Gyoro particularly wanted them to be resurrected in the first place he was completely satisfied with them to dying and giving them food to feed their army along with the original denizens of their base but the information was power and he wanted to know everything he could so that there were no other surprises when the final battle commenced.

Aki and torax have been just getting by with the monster association as best they knew how, Aki's adaptation to life with monsters was completely different from living with the heroes while the humans she was living with seemed like a close-knit group of individuals and unified in a way the monsters were nearly the complete opposite everyone was usually selfish and a bit jumpy. The monster did have certain groups that they would hang around and converse with but it was ultimately determined by how one looked or what type of monster they were. given their hiding status and lack of technology they didn't have much to do with their free time other than fight each other or train. there were sometimes when monsters had found some human card games and would attempt to play them but since there were only a select few monsters that had traditional hands like humans to manipulate them, it made them pretty awful to play with so that was sparse as well. there were fighting pits which were just to pass the time mostly or settle grudges amongst monsters for one reason or another, this was where asterius spent most of his time testing his strength and seeing his limitation she was only slightly stronger than the minotaur monster mostly due to her having ate torax he was still more experienced in fighting and could beat her if she was reckless but he taught her a lot of things that she would need when the time came for the fighting to truly begin. asterius main sparring partner was someone that called himself rhino wrestler he recognized aki from before and congratulated her for joining the right side but she was still uncertain of the choice, she still didn't know if she could willingly kill a human that she didn't have a grudge with yet and she was sure that she couldn't fight any of the people that had sheltered her when her father died it was aly confusing for sure. she never voiced any of her thoughts as that was a surefire way of getting herself killed so she simply sucked it up and bore through it all.

rhino wrestler was fairly happy to hear that he was a demon-level threat from the cub but she attempted to temper his expectant concerning to that by adding on that he wasn't a particularly strong one and that all of the S-class heroes would probably kill him without much difficulty if he were to face them, the rhino was confused about that since he had fought heroes before and they didn't seem to like much of anything but aki explained to him that the heroes were similar to monsters in that were placed in ranks in terms of strength so he likely fought weak ones likely that of C or B class but the A and S classes were more dangerous and could potentially take him out if he wasn't careful.

other than the rhino monster aki also would hang around some of the monsters she had visited with koda who were in jail noticeably scaledon and game-berus due to their size they were further down in base where the larger room was located but upon reaching them they expressed a very similar sentiment to her about the new home they found themselves in is not much better than their confinement within the hero association and in certain aspects, it was worse but they were at least free, which they wanted more than anything else, they talked a little bit before aki and asterius were called upon for watch duty, monsters were on royational guard for the child hostage they took just incase a breakout attempt was tried by some infiltrator but in aki's opinion it was likely to stop other monsters from eating the kid whole while they could eat just about anything monsters did have a particular fondness for human flesh given that she had never tried such a thing she didn't know how it tasted and never really wanted to find out if she could help it. the guard post was annoying since the kid wouldn't shut up, he seemed to have recognized her and sought to taunt her knowing about his importance to them but asteruis quickly such him up by slamming his sword down next to the child and nearly making him wet himself, given that they needed to keep him alive for the time being they had to feed him which they did so by feeding him monsters as well but in his case, the monsters were fried beforehand eliminating the chance of him becoming a monster too, ultimately the days seemingly tick by and boredom was a constant in her life but it was the path she chose and there was no going back.

shout out to the great and power trixie for the idea of mineta's quirk awakening.

Mina quirk awakening is pretty fucking strong when I actually started to look into states of matter and apparently, there are like much more than four.

shoji is indeed hana hana no mi, it is just the only thing that makes sense for an awakening.

Anyways the big vote coming up next chapter, is going to last until the end of the path which will likely be around the 43-44 mark. so we're closing in, 10 chps away or five months, well maybe we'll see what happens. until the 22nd adiós