It had been three days since Shunshi's first night of professional Hero work. However, much to his concern, the new Pro Hero hadn't encountered any other criminals or monsters during his daily patrols.
Slow Hero work this week. I was hoping for... I don't know, some more people to help and wrongs to right, I guess, Shunshi thought to himself as he walked to Saitama's home.
Shunshi was dressed in his Hero armor as he walked through a neighborhood of City-Z when he was stopped by an approaching group of three teenage boys.
"Hey! You're that new Hero with the bad-ass costume!" One of the three teenagers exclaimed as he ran up to Shunshi.
Growing hopeful that he might have something to do, Shunshi replied, "Hey there. Do you guys need some help or something?"
Shaking his head, the teenager replied nervously, "Um... no. We just thought you had a pretty cool costume, is all."
Realizing that these boys didn't need any help and remembering that he was in a hurry, Shunshi politely told them, "Oh. Well, thank you for the compliment, but if you don't need anything, then I'll be on my way."
As Shunshi started stepping away, one of the boys grabbed his shoulder and yelled at him, "Wait!"
Disliking being stopped mid-stride, Shunshi turned around and asked impatiently, "What is it?!"
Suddenly, the shortest of the teenagers took out his phone, while the tallest one took out a notebook.
"Can we get a picture with you and autographs?" The boys asked.
"Huh?" Shunshi replied while tilting his head.
Noticing his confusion, one of the kids explained excitedly, "My little brother thinks your outfit is awesome, so he'd love it if I showed him a picture of you complete with an autograph."
"Oh... Well, sure. I don't mind," the A-Class Hero replied.
After a few minutes of an impromptu photoshoot and awkwardly trying to hold a pen while wearing clawed gauntlets, Shunshi had fulfilled the teenagers' requests. With that, he waved goodbye to them before continuing on his way to Saitama's.
As the armored Hero walked, he pondered, Man, I've only been in the Hero Association for a few days, and I only did any work on the first day... But I'm already semi-famous? This is so weird... Those kids wouldn't shut up about my costume... Is that all people are gonna think of me? The guy with the cool costume...? Hope I find some actual Heroics to do soon.
When Shunshi arrived at Saitama's house, he knocked on the door and was eventually let in by his Master.
Upon entering the apartment, Shunshi saw Genos quickly and efficiently doing Saitama's dishes.
As he watched his Senpai doing simple chores, Shunshi wondered internally, I wonder why Genos-Senpai thinks living with Sensei will help him with his training...
Two days prior, Shunshi had shown up at his teacher's home for his daily training and saw Genos examining Saitama's apartment while taking notes of every little thing he saw.
"Hello, Senpai. What are you up to?" Shunshi asked as he approached Genos.
Genos took his face away from his notes for a moment and replied, "Sensei has allowed me to live here with him, so I have taken this opportunity to take notes of his living habits in hopes that it will reveal the secrets to his strength."
Shunshi was shocked to hear this and thought to himself in surprise, What?! He's living with Sensei...?! I guess if it helps him with his training, then it's fine... but-. His train of thought then suddenly stopped when Saitama went to sit on his couch and watch the news.
With the slightest hint of jealousy, the younger Hero approached his teacher and asked, "So, Sensei... Why did you invite Genos-Senpai to come live with you?"
Not bothering even to look away from the television, Saitama replied emotionlessly, "I didn't invite him. He's paying me rent to stay here."
Shunshi's surprise was only magnified by this, transitioning ever so slightly into a disturbed territory. However, he had his training to focus on, so Shunshi decided just to let this go and begin his workout regiment for the day.
Back in the present day, about an hour and a half after Shunshi had arrived.
Saitama was relaxing and reading manga. Simultaneously, Shunshi had changed into civilian clothes and was training, as Genos observed Saitama while taking notes.
Just as Shunshi was about to leave to go running, he received a phone call from the Hero Association.
"Yes? Hello?" He asked as his blue eyes lit up with anticipation.
The Hero Association worker, on the other end of the phone, asked calmly, "Am I speaking to the A-Class Hero, Shunshi?"
"I'm him!" The excited young man replied.
"We have need of your assistance at Q-City's H.Q. Please be there as quickly as possible," the Worker explained before hanging up on his end.
After putting his phone away, Shunshi turned around and told his Master and Senpai, "Guys, guys! The Hero Association just called me in for some work!" The amount of excitement exploding from Shunshi was like a raging river just nearly being restrained by a fracturing dam. Despite this, the other two Heroes in the apartment were almost unphased by the black-haired man's ecstatic attitude.
"Sounds interesting. Good luck and, uh... have fun, I guess," Saitama told him with minimal interest.
Genos took his attention away from his notes for a moment so that he could say, "I hope that you get a good experience from this, my junior." The cyborg then went back to his notes.
Quickly changing back into his superhero armor, Shunshi left Saitama's apartment and ran to Q-City's Hero Association headquarters as fast as he could.
Once he arrived at the building, Shunshi was awe-struck by what he saw when he entered.
In the lobby of the headquarters, there were the A-Class Heroes, Blue Fire, Tanktop Vegetarian, Stinger, Smile Man, and Forte. Shunshi didn't know what to say in this situation. However, he was even more shocked by the man dressed in a white dog costume who was sitting on the floor in the back of the room, the S-Class Hero, Watchdog Man.
This group of highly ranked Heroes quickly took notice of Shunshi's presence, so the A-Classers decided to come over and greet him. However, Watchdog Man sat stationary, seemingly ignorant of the fact that a new Hero had arrived at all.
Stinger was the first one to walk up to Shunshi. He was a well-built man in his early to mid-twenties who seemed roughly the same height as Shunshi, with brown eyes and long black hair styled to stand straight up in spikes. He wore a tight black bodysuit that appeared to be made from bandages and carried a staff that had a large bamboo shoot as its spearhead.
"Hey there! You're the new guy in A-Class, right? Thanks for taking over for me as the biggest newbie in A-Class. Speaking of, I'm A-Class rank 12, Stinger. Nice to meet you," Stinger said with a smile while offering the awe-struck Shunshi a handshake.
Shunshi quickly accepted the greeting while replying ecstatically, "Nice to meet you too, sir! I'm Shunshi, and I'm ranked 13 in A-Class. I've heard of you before. I've actually been a bit of a fan of yours."
Stinger smiled at this and asked proudly, "Really? Thanks! I heard that you took down some monsters and criminals on your first day after registering. Nice work. I'm sure you'll keep doing fine in the Hero biz, but I'll warn you, it'll be hard to keep up with my popularity."
Stinger's friendliness surprised Shunshi, but before he could say anything else, Tanktop Vegetarian shoved Stinger out of the way and introduced himself, "Whatever. I'm A-Class rank 10, Tanktop Vegetarian. Remember this face, newbie. It's the face of your superior! You may have had a good start with your test scores, but don't let that go to your head, little man." As he spoke, Tanktop Vegetarian kept his fists rested on his waist and made sure to use his massive stature to tower over Shunshi as much as possible
Shrinking back a bit at the tanktopper's large frame, Shunshi replied meekly, "I hadn't planned on it, sir..."
Tanktop Vegetarian was a huge man, standing over seven feet tall, had short blond hair and greenish-blue eyes. He was dressed in a red, leaf-patterned tanktop that accentuated muscles that would put most bodybuilders to shame.
Smile Man was the next one to introduce himself, but all he did was emotionlessly wave his hand and say, "Hello. I'm A-Class rank 28, Smile Man."
This Hero had a very plain and emotionless face, similar to that of Saitama's, except with a few tufts of brown hair over his forehead. Most of his face was covered, though, by a black eye-mask and the hood of his red bodysuit. His bodysuit was tight enough to show off Smile Man's athletic physique.
Shunshi was confused by Smile Man's strangely expressionless demeanor but still replied politely, "Hello, sir."
Blue Fire approached Shunshi after that and explained coldly, "I'm ranked 7 in A-Class. The name's Blue Fire. Just make sure you do your job as a Hero and not allow evil to prosper."
"Of course, sir!" Shunshi replied attentively.
Blue Fire was a young man, appearing to be in his late teens to early twenties, with black hair cut above his ears and beady brown eyes. For his attire, he dressed in a dark blue kung fu outfit that was trimmed white.
The last one to introduce himself was Forte. He was a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties, who wore a white hoodie with red trim, a red beanie hat with music notes patterned on it, a pair of expensive-looking headphones, and a thick pair of glasses that seemed to consistently sheen and obscure his eyes.
Once he strolled up to Shunshi, Forte addressed him confidently, "I'm ranked 32 in A-Class, Forte... How old are you, guy?"
To this question, Shunshi replied in a respectful and meek tone, "I'm twenty years old, sir."
Smirking slightly, Forte stated somewhat aggressively, "Alright, you may outrank me, but I'm still older than you, so that makes me your superior."
Shunshi tilted his head slightly at Forte's attitude and replied, "Um... Okay, Forte, sir... But we're both Heroes, so does who is whose superior really matter, sir?"
Forte was more than a little surprised by Shunshi's mannerisms and fearfully thought, How does a guy who's as high ranked as him and who wears such a scary outfit act so... meek?
He then recomposed himself with a fake cough and answered Shunshi's question while trying to keep up his superior demeanor, "Y- you're right... That doesn't really matter. Just, uh... testing you is all."
Having been left relatively unphased by this introduction of the eccentric, Shunshi's gaze shifted over to Watchdog Man, who was still just lying on the floor and looking at a wall.
Confused and concerned, Shunshi asked the other Heroes, "Is mister Watchdog Man okay?"
Almost immediately, Smile Man gestured over to the S-Class Hero and explained, "From what I've seen of him, he's a bit anti-social, is all. A lot of the S-Class Heroes are like that."
Shunshi wracked his brain at that and replied in utter confusion, "Oh... Um, okay...? That doesn't really explain why he's just staring at a wall, though."
Having overheard the conversation with his dog-like hearing, Watchdog Man asked internally, Why is that guy in the cloak asking about me?
A few minutes later, after everyone had finished conversing amongst each other, the Worker that called them all here in the first place walked into the room.
After walking up to the Heroes, the Worker greeted them in a respectful tone, "Thank you for arriving, everyone."
Not wasting a moment, Tanktop Vegetarian stormed up to the Worker and asked aggressively, "Why have you been making high-ranking Heroes like us wait around for so long?! Especially Blue Fire, Watchdog Man, and me!"
The somewhat short Worker looked up nervously at the large and muscular Hero before adjusting his tie and calmly explaining, "You were all called in because we require a small team of highly ranked Heroes to deal with a group of monsters. Please calm down and let me explain."
Tanktop Vegetarian scoffed at this, but when he saw that the others were clearly interested in what the man had to say, he had no choice but to do as he was asked.
All of the Heroes then took seats near Watchdog Man while the Worker recomposed himself and went on, "Alright, now on to the specifics of why you were all called here. There is a nest of Tiger level monsters led by a Demon level monster, which are hiding out in an abandoned underground parking lot within this city. Mister Shunshi here actually took out a few of them himself a few days ago. They are an ogre-like species of monsters, and we believe that the Demon level threat leading them is also the one responsible for producing them. Your jobs are simple. Make your way through the nest of monsters, exterminating them as you go, and then kill the Demon producing them."
As a big smirk formed on his face, Stinger confidently told the Worker, "Sounds simple enough. Just show us the way."
"Of course. By now, a limo should have arrived outside that will take you all to the parking lot that I told you about," the Worker replied.
Knowing that they had been told everything that they needed to know, Watchdog Man stood on all fours and uttered his first sentence of the day, "Alright. Let's go, everyone. I want to get back to my shrine as soon as possible."
The A-Class Heroes walked behind Watchdog Man as he exited the building, with Forte observing the S-Class' way of walking while thinking, Huh, I've never seen Watchdog Man in person before... I never realized just how dog-like he really is.
All of the Heroes then piled into the limo that was outside of the building and quickly began enjoying the luxury ride, especially Tanktop Vegetarian. Shunshi, however, still didn't feel as if he was worthy of being gathered with such highly ranked Heroes and thus sat in awkward silence the whole way there.
When they arrived about a half-mile away from the monsters' nest, the limo driver anxiously explained to the Heroes he was escorting, "This is as close as I was ordered to take you all. Here's a map that will show you all the way to the monster nest." He, then, handed Blue Fire the map in question.
Blue Fire looked at the map for a moment before replying stoically, "Alright. Thank you. We can handle it from here. Let's go, everyone." On his command, all of the Heroes got out of the luxury car and started on foot to the monsters' nest.
On the way to the battle, Shunshi approached Smile Man and asked, "Hey, mister Smile Man. Can I ask you a question?"
"You just did, but you can ask another one if you want," Smile Man replied emotionlessly.
Shunshi laughed a bit at what he assumed was a joke on Smile Man's part and asked, "Thank you. My question is, if the Hero Association was able to call in Watchdog Man, then why did they bother to call the rest of us in as well? He's an S-Class Hero, after all. Can't he handle this on his own?"
Thinking it over quickly, Smile Man replied in a calculated tone, "I'm guessing there are a lot of those ogre things. As such, they called us A-Class Heroes in so that Watchdog Man won't tire himself out from fighting off the Tiger-Level monsters. That way, he'll be able to handle the Demon-Level monster without issue. It's admittedly simple, but it's still a sound strategy, I'd say."
Shunshi's helmet hid his increasingly puzzled look as he asked another question, "But couldn't any of you guys handle the Demo-?"
Before Shunshi could finish his sentence, Blue Fire shouted to the group, "We're here!"
In front of the group of Heroes was a tunnel leading underground. The concrete that the tunnel was made from seemed to be falling apart, but it was supported by pillars of steel and wood that not only seemed to be hastily made but also just recently added.
The group started making their way into the monster nest and saw that the whole place was lit up with makeshift torches lining the walls.
After searching around the monster den for a few minutes and finding nothing, the Heroes started wondering if the monsters had already cleared out on their own.
With no prey in sight, Forte stuck his hands into his hoodie pockets and declared, "Looks like the monsters ran off with their tails between their legs. Too bad, I was hoping to test out some new dance moves." Just as he said this, two of the ogre monsters that the Worker told them about came from around the corner.
There was an awkward moment of silence between the Heroes and the monsters for quite a while, due to neither side expecting the sudden appearance of the other.
The realization of the situation suddenly hit both groups, resulting in both sides jumping away from the other.
After landing heavily on the ground, one ogre gave the other a toothy smile and declared, "Look, brother! Some stupid humans and their dog walked into our home! Looks like we're eaten' good tonight!"
Before the ogre that spoke could try to attack the Heroes, the other one blocked it with its arm and exclaimed, "Hold on! I think these guys are from the Hero Association... and I think that dog is the S-Class Hero, Watchdog Man! We can't win this on our own. Let's go alert the others! Run!" With that, the two monsters quickly turned away, ran back around the corner, and started moving as fast as their legs would carry them while yelling about the Heroes that had shown up.
Instantly, Watchdog Man started giving chase, which quickly prompted the rest of the Heroes to begin pursuing as well.
Before the monsters got far, Blue Fire flipped his hands around each other and thrusted his arm forward. Doing this shot off a stream of blue flames from his wrist. The ray of fire hit one of the monsters and quickly immolated it, while the other one shrieked in fear, started running faster, and screaming louder.
Seeing an opportunity, Smile Man seemed to pull a large kendama out of nowhere and smashed its ball towards the monster, hitting the creature in its head and knocking it to the floor. Before the beast could get back up, Watchdog Man jumped onto its back, took out his claws, and quickly ripped its head clean off.
As the group carefully made their way over to the monsters' corpses, Smile Man pulled his ball back over to him, while Tanktop Vegetarian yelled out, "So, where's the rest of these things? I didn't even get a chance to warm up my tank top."
At that, a monstrous voice came from the dark surrounding them and answered with sadistic glee, "We're right here, meat-snacks!" Suddenly, more torches lit up, revealing over fifty more of these monsters surrounding the Heroes.
Without so much as a change in expression at being surrounded, Watchdog Man was about to go and fight these ogres.
However, Stinger put his spear in front of the S-Class before he could move, confidently telling him, "Just go find the Demon-Level monster. We'll handle these chumps! That's the whole reason we were brought here after all."
When Stinger said this, Forte thought nervously, We will?! But there's so many of them!
Without a word, Watchdog Man nodded to Stinger. The S-Class then maneuvered around him, ran up to the monsters, effortlessly jumped over them, and kept running deeper into the underground nest.
"Ya won't get away from us that easily, flea-bag!" One of the ogres turned around and shouted angrily at Watchdog Man as he ran off
As the ogre was looking away, Stinger shouted passionately, "Giga Thrust!"
Suddenly, Stinger and his bamboo spear shot forward and put a gigantic hole in that ogre, killing it instantly.
After that, Stinger spun his spear around to keep the other ogres off him while confidently exclaiming, "The rest of us are all still A-Class Heroes, ug-mugs! I suggest you focus on the task at hand! Namely, us killing all of you!"
With Stinger having made the first kill, Shunshi and the rest of the A-Class Heroes sprung into action after him. Even Forte, despite his misgivings about fighting without the help of an S-Class, sucked it up and charged at one of the monsters.
As he rushed in, Forte put his headphones on and played music so loudly that it could be heard by anyone standing close to him. The ogre he confronted tried to punch him, but Forte danced around the attack, resulting in the punch cracking through a few inches of the cement beneath them.
The dancing Hero started delivering flesh-tearing attacks to the monsters in rhythm to the song he was listening to. At the same time, he danced around most of the strikes thrown back at him by the monster. He still took a couple of nasty blows but was ultimately winning his fight. Forte's track to victory was interrupted, though, when another of the ogres jumped into the battle to help its brother.
The two monsters started overwhelming the musical Hero with sheer muscle. However, Smile Man came to Forte's aid and smashed his mallet into the back of the second ogre's head, collapsing its skull and knocking it away. Forte and Smile Man then overpowered the first ogre and continued fighting while watching each other's backs.
Tanktop Vegetarian was fighting four of these monsters at once, using a combination of tackles and punches to take them out. He quickly smashed one of the creatures' rib cages in with a powerful strike, only for another one of the ogres to jump in and take the dead one's place. This caused some frustration for the tanktopper, but he still showed very little battle damage and was managing to overpower any monsters that came his way.
Stinger was fighting six of these creatures at a time while nimbly jumping around and spinning his bamboo spear to cut and stab at the monsters. The spear-wielding Hero used what he called a Double Giga Thrust to kill two more of these creatures at once, but then three more of them rushed in and joined in on the attack. Despite his agility, a few of the monsters that Stinger was cutting up were able to land hits on him, but he seemed to be pulling through with little difficulty regardless of the pain.
Meanwhile, Blue Fire was dealing with about thirty percent of the monsters by himself. Despite the large number of opponents he was taking on, he had no stress on his face. He would shoot his blue flames at any monster that he saw, prioritizing the ones in closest proximity to him.
Any of the ogres that tried to rush Blue Fire in hopes of physically overpowering him soon learned that this was an awful mistake to make. As soon as one of them got too close for him to host with flames, Blue Fire would dispatch them with a single swift kick or punch instead. Despite not appearing to be physically menacing, Blue Fire's physical attacks disoriented the ogres enough that he was able to scorch them at his leisure afterward.
Shunshi was handling about another forty percent of these monsters and was confused as to why the other A-Class Heroes were having any trouble at all with their fights. At the same time, he wondered why these ogres were so much easier for him to beat than the ones he'd fought four days prior.
One of the tens of ogres tried to punch Shunshi in his torso, but he dodged the attack by performing a backflip. While flipping back, Shunshi kicked another of the beasts in its jaw, removing its head from its body.
After landing on his feet, six more of these monsters tried to attack Shunshi at once, but he countered this by tossing a cluster of his exploding Light Balls at the creatures. This took out all six of them, much to the young Hero's surprise, who only intended his attack to buy himself a few seconds.
Realizing what was going on, Shunshi covered himself in flames and thought out loud, "I don't think these guys are weaker... I think I'm stronger!"
One of the ogres took this moment to punch the distracted Shunshi in the back of his head, staggering him forward. Despite being taken off-guard, the actual injury Shunshi received from this attack was negligible, if not non-existent. Shunshi then turned to face the monster that had hit him, only to see that the frightened ogre's hand was burnt and broken.
While smiling behind his helmet, Shunshi postulated, Maybe Master's training really is helping me! I've never gotten this much stronger in such a short amount of time!
He then ran straight at the now terrified group of monsters and punched one of them into a wall, killing it in the process.
After a few more minutes of this monster blood bath, all but one of the ogre monsters were dead.
The lone creature looked around itself in hopes of finding aid, but all the ogre saw were the corpses of its brothers, littered around the floor of their nest.
Both Forte and Smile Man were covered in bumps, bruises, and cuts but were still cognitive enough to walk and put up a weak fight if needed. Stinger, whose pointy hair had fallen flat, and Tanktop Vegetarian, were both a little scuffed up and winded but were still uninjured enough to fight with almost everything they had if they really needed to. Shunshi and Blue Fire were both standing confidently, the two having been left practically untouched by the altercation.
Seeing that there was no hope of victory, the last ogre got onto its hands and knees and cried for forgiveness, "PLEASE! Don't kill me! I'll go with you quietly! I'll be your prisoner! Just don't kill me! Waghaha!"
At this pathetic sight, Shunshi couldn't help but pity what he would typically view as a horrifying monster.
The blue-eyed Hero was about to accept the creature's pleas for mercy but stopped himself when Blue Fire spoke up first, "You think we'd allow an evil thing like you to live!? No chance in Hell! This is where you die, monster!"
Shunshi was a bit surprised by Blue Fire's response to the ogre's cries but didn't dare to question the decisions of the highest-ranking Hero in the room.
Just as Blue Fire prepared to cremate this creature, the ground beneath the monster was broken apart by what looked like a larger, female version of the ogres. All of the debris that the female ogre had smashed up instantly crushed the monster that Blue Fire was about to attack. As such, he found the execution had been handled for him.
All of the A-Class Heroes had jumped away from the massive creature and the debris it was knocking around as soon as it popped out of the ground. Each of them got into battle stances and expected that they were about to enter a fight for their lives. However, before the monster could try to attack them, it fell to the floor, seemingly dead.
Before anyone could guess as to what happened, the mother ogre's throat suddenly exploded open, with Watchdog Man crawling out from inside of it. As he climbed out of the corpse, Watchdog Man was covered in the monster's saliva and blood and had a noticeable cut along his right cheek. In order to clean himself off, he quickly shook out his costume in the same way a real dog would shake out its fur.
Quickly taking note of the injury on Watchdog Man's face, Shunshi ran up to the S-Class Hero and asked him, "Are you okay, Watchdog Man, sir?! What were you even doing inside of that thing?"
Giving whatever pain he might be feeling no mind, Watchdog Man used his leg to scratch his head and replied emotionlessly, "We fought each other for a few minutes. I was beating it pretty easily, but it managed to get a good shot in on my face. After that, it swallowed me whole, so I started cutting it up from the inside, and I'm guessing it crashed through the floor and wound up here to try and deal with the pain... I see that you guys beat the monsters up here too. Looks like that means the mission is done. Let's leave."
The rest of the Heroes were surprised by Watchdog Man's attitude as he walked away, none of them sure of how to take it. After exchanging confused looks with one another, they decided to just follow the S-Class Hero out of the monster nest, none of them wanting to deal with any more trouble anyway.
After the Heroes all made their way back to Q-City's Hero Association H.Q., they were greeted by the Worker that had called them all over in the first place.
"Good work. That should actually deal with most of the monsters currently residing in this city," the Worker congratulated as he adjusted his shirt's collar.
He then noticed the rough conditions that Forte and Smile Man were in and commented awkwardly, "If... if any of you feel that you need a hospital stay, we have facilities not far from here. Free of cost, of course... Now, if you all feel up to it, please fill out your reports for this mission, and then you can go on your ways."
With that, the Worker walked away, and Watchdog Man grabbed a report sheet with his mouth before going to a corner of the lobby to fill out his report in private.
At the same time, all of the A-Class Heroes were sitting in a circle on the ground and were trying to figure out how many monsters each of them killed individually, in order to figure out how they should divide out the points.
As he crossed his arms, Tanktop Vegetarian stated proudly, "I beat five of them on my own! What did you wimps do?!"
Being quick to shut down the higher-ranked Hero's arrogance, Stinger replied with a grin, "I took down ten of them by myself, big guy. What do you think of that?"
Tanktop Vegetarian looked visibly offended, so he turned to Forte and Smile Man and asked them angrily, "How many did you two takedown?!"
In response, Forte rubbed some of his injuries and replied weakly, "I only got two of them..."
"I managed to get three of them, myself," Smile Man answered calmly.
Blue Fire folded his arms at Vegetarian's attitude and stated, "I got sixteen of them. I think that's something I can safely be proud of."
Stinger then looked over at Shunshi and asked him in a surprisingly supportive tone, "How many did you get, new guy?"
Shunshi was hesitant to answer Stinger's question for a moment but eventually responded in an almost confused tone of voice, "I... I killed... about twenty of them, I believe."
As he looked at the shocked expressions around him, Shunshi thought in disappointment, I guess I've been overestimating how strong A-Class Heroes actually are... This is so depressing... Well, they're still strong enough to do their jobs and protect people. They're still Heroes...! I guess.
Everyone was taken by surprise at the number of monsters Shunshi claimed to have beaten, but the tanktop Hero eventually stood up and accused the rookie, "You must have gone after the ones that I softened up! Give me the credit for the monsters you beat, cheater!"
Shunshi was confused by this for a minute but then thought in an infuriated tone, Looks like another selfish person snuck into the Hero Association. Time to take out the trash.
Stinger and Forte both glared at Tanktop Vegetarian and were about to tell him to shove off, but stopped when Shunshi suddenly stood up.
"You want the credit for my work, Vegetarian? Then beat me in a fair fight, right now," the armored newbie demanded of the veteran tanktopper. All of the others were surprised yet again to hear this challenge and said nothing due to shock.
Tanktop Vegetarian, on the other hand, just smiled in a cocky manner and responded while cracking his knuckles, "Smash your face in? No problem."
Without hesitating, the giant man who claimed to be a Hero threw a punch at Shunshi as hard and fast as he could, but his armored target easily redirected the attack past himself. In the next instant, Shunshi threw his own punch at the tanktop Hero's face, knocking out one of his teeth and causing blood to fly from his mouth as he was sent flying across the room. Vegetarian attempted to get back up from this but lost consciousness before he could even get off of his back.
While the other Heroes were surprised by Shunshi's actions, the young man said nothing else on the matter. Instead, he quickly filled out his report sheet and turned it in to the front desk.
As he was leaving the building, Shunshi, practically shaking with anger, asked the other A-Class Heroes, "Why are there so many guys like him in the Hero Association who only care about who gets the credit?! We just need to do our jobs as Heroes and help people! I bet Tanktop Master would be so disappointed if he could see Vegetarian right now!"
After taking a moment to calm down, Shunshi took off his helmet, turned around, gave off an earnest smile, and said to the real Heroes, "Thank you guys for being so kind to me. I had a lot of fun working with all of you. I hope I get to work with you guys again sometime in the future." He then put his helmet back on, bowed to them all, and left.
A few minutes after Shunshi had left, Forte and Smile Man were still speechless from the powerful rookie's display of abilities.
While taking a seat on a chair and looking at his spear, Stinger thought in shock, Holy crap! He's really strong! Maybe my popularity won't be enough to stay ahead of him... I hope I can stay on good terms with someone that scary.
At the same time, Blue Fire put his hand on his chin and thought intensely about this new Hero, I didn't really notice it until now, but it seems that his strength is in the same league as my own... Hopefully, he stays on the path of true justice.
Later that night, after making his way back to his Master's home, Shunshi was let in by Genos and carried himself into the apartment in a tired manner.
Genos quickly made himself busy by washing his and Saitama's clothes while Saitama himself was playing a handheld video game.
When Saitama noticed the exhausted-looking Shunshi trudge in, he asked his disciple with the smallest amount of interest in his voice, "Hey, Shunshi. How'd that mission of yours go?"
Shunshi looked over to his Sensei, smiled, and replied honestly, "It was pretty fun. I got some good experience and a good fight."
Saitama appeared to be even more interested when Shunshi told him this, replying, "Huh... If that's the case, I hope I get called in for... whatever you did."
While pausing his game, Saitama thought to himself in a slightly upset tone, It's been a while since I've had a good fight myself. Way too long.
While folding a shirt, Genos inquisitively asked Shunshi, "Is there anything else that you learned or gained from your mission?"
Taking a moment to think his answer over, Shunshi remembered Tanktop Vegetarian's horrible attitude and replied happily, "Well, I did get a better idea of what other A-Class Heroes are capable of... If you guys don't mind, I think I'll just head home now."
As he resumed his video game, Saitama replied emotionlessly, "Me and Genos are the ones that actually live here. You can go home whenever you want."
Shunshi smiled, bowed to Saitama, and said, "Alright. I'll be heading out then, Sensei, Senpai."
While he finished folding shirts, Genos politely responded, "Goodbye, Shunshi."
With that, Shunshi left the apartment and began on his path back to his parents' house.
As Shunshi walked back to his home, he thought in a concerned tone while looking up at one of the four crescent moons, I hope I don't run into any more of those selfish fake Heroes... Wait, did Master do any Hero work today, or did he just spend all day sitting at home? I hope not. I don't want him getting kicked out of the Hero Association in just his first week.