An hour after the three free-lance Heroes had made up their minds, Saitama, Genos, and Shunshi had all arrived at the Hero Association's testing facility.
While walking up to the stadium-style testing building, Shunshi couldn't stop thinking to himself, Am I ready for this?! Am I ready for this?! Am I ready for this!? Oh God, I'm so not ready for this!
As Saitama, Genos, and Shunshi were walking up to the building, people all around them were frightened by the intimidating appearances of the cyborg with black and yellow eyes, and the man dressed in the monster-like gray and black full body armor and draped in a black cloak.
When the trio of unregistered Heroes walked into the testing facility, they were all directed to different testing halls by the Hero Association staff working there, alongside countless others who had come to register.
After separating, each of them entered rooms resembling high school classrooms, complete with desks. After being seated, everyone was given their first trial, the written test.
While filling out his test papers, Shunshi was effortlessly breezing through all of the questions.
The realization of how easy the written test was, caused Shunshi to think vehemently, I... Really?! Were there seriously no updates made to this test in the past three years...? I can't believe I spent all those sleepless nights studying for this thing...
After he had quickly finished the written test, Shunshi was directed to a changing room and given a speedo to change into for the physical exam part of the test.
When Shunshi walked out into the physical testing area, he was surrounded by various colorful individuals. There were insanely well-built men and women, people who were wearing headgear that seemed to be part of their superhero costumes, other people were obviously martial artists of some kind, and many others were simply far too odd to describe just what their gimmick was supposed to be.
Despite his embarrassment at having to wear a speedo in the middle of a large crowd, Shunshi couldn't help but think in excitement at the sight of all these impressive individuals who were going to take the test as well, Holy crap! There are a lot of really strong-looking people here! The Hero Association is gonna double, maybe even triple in size after this!
A few of the more muscular men and women in the same testing chamber as Shunshi laughed at him behind his back for the blatant, child-like excitement he was displaying. Their laughter was soon to be interrupted with stunned silence by what they would see next from this young man.
The first test that was given to the applicants was to do side-hops for thirty seconds. Shunshi performed six hundred twenty jumps in the time given. The next test was to see the limit of the applicants' vertical jumping skills, where the young man with shoulder-length hair displayed he jump thirty-eight feet into the air. Weight-lifting was up next, and Shunshi, by pushing himself to his physical limits, managed to lift ten tons over his head. Shot put was the next test, and Shunshi threw the sixteen-pound metal ball a distance of a hundred and fifty feet away, causing it to land next to a very startled applicant in the next testing hall over. A fifteen hundred meter run was the next test, and Shunshi completed it in twenty seconds. After that, there was a game of whack-a-mole, which was meant to be a test of reflexes. Even with his superhuman abilities, Shunshi just barely managed to get the third highest score out of all the test participants on this, having never been particularly good at the game. Finally, the last test was simply hitting a punching machine. Shunshi, by combining his superhuman strength with his martial arts techniques, earned himself a perfect score on it. This perfect score would end up stuck on the machine for quite some time, as Shunshi had accidentally dented its sensor mechanism in on itself.
During every single one of these tests, Shunshi was completely and utterly confused as to why practically no one else was able to perform at the same level as him in any of these events.
While being directed out of the testing halls, the young man with shoulder-length hair mused in disappointment, Wow, I can't believe no one was able to keep up with me. I guess only Saitama-Sensei and Genos-Senpai are making it into any spot higher than B-Class...
As he was sent back to the locker rooms to get changed, Shunshi was given an envelope by the testing personnel that contained his final score. Deciding that he'd want to find out his results alongside his new friends, Shunshi hurried to the locker room and quickly found Saitama and Genos. As such, he went to speak with them.
Saitama noticed Shunshi walking up to himself and Genos, and gave a small smile while saying, "Hey, Shunshi. Me and Genos were just talking about how easy this whole testing thing was."
In turn, Genos smiled while shaking his head confidently, before commenting, "The written part of the test was far too easy in my opinion."
Shunshi giggled at how casual his superiors were being, before bowing to them and requesting, "I'm sure you both did wonderfully... If you guys don't mind, I'd like it if we reviewed my test scores first. I'm anxious to see how I did, compared to my first time."
Saitama waved his hand uncaringly at this request, and responded, "Go for it."
Nodding his head to Saitama, Shunshi nervously opened his envelope while thinking, Please don't be too horrible this time! Please, at least let me pass!?
Looking at his test results, the young man was disappointed when he saw that he had only earned a small score of ninety-seven out of the one-hundred possible points.
The black-haired Hero then sighed in self-deprivation before exclaiming, "Oh well. Guess I shouldn't have expected any more than a low score like tha-... WAIT A SECOND! Ninety-seven out of a hundred?! What the Hell?! This can't be right! This would nearly put me in the top ten of A-Class!"
Seeing Shunshi doubting himself, Genos explained his opinion in a supportive tone, "I do not think that you are giving yourself enough credit. Based on what I have seen from you, I think that you should have gotten an even higher score than that... Although I am not sure what this whole class system even is."
Even with Genos' words of encouragement, Shunshi still had a doubtful look on his face as he muttered, "I, well... Thank you, Senpai... but..."
Having no real interest in Shunshi's response, Genos cut him off by calmly and quickly stating, "I think I will check my own score now."
"Oh, right. Sorry, Senpai," Shunshi apologized in an embarrassed tone.
Shunshi then looked at his sheet and thought in a depressed and confused tone, I'm gonna have to ask someone to correct this.
Without any fanfare, Genos pulled out his score sheet, quickly looked it over, and calmly explained, "I got a perfect score of one-hundred out of one-hundred points. This says I am in something called S-Class now." At this revalation, Shunshi was shocked speechless.
"A-Class? S-Class? Why do Heroes need classes? Whatever. Guess I'll see what my own score is," Saitama postulated.
As Saitama was opening his envelope, Shunshi began to sweat as he internally panicked, S... S-CLASS!? How did Genos make it into S-Class?! I know that he's really strong and all, but isn't his strength just the average kind of power for a high-ranking A-Class Hero?!
Oblivious to Shunshi's panicked expressions, Saitama finished opening his envelope and took out the first half of his test score, showing the top half of an even larger S than the S that was on Genos' score sheet.
Seeing the bigger letter, Shunshi thought, Okay. There must be some sort of super S-Class that's kept in secret for Heroes as powerful as Sensei... That has to be it!
Genos saw the top half of Saitama's larger S, smiled, and proudly said, "An even larger S than my own. As expected of Sensei."
Saitama, then, turned his back to his two admirers and looked over the rest of his score sheet in private before flinching. Recognizing the shocked mannerism that Saitama's body took after taking out his score sheet, Genos and Shunshi became a bit concerned.
The bald Hero turned back around with a demoralized face and explained to his students in a tone of fake happiness, "Looks like I did pass... but only with seventy-one out of one-hundred points, putting me at C-Class..."
Seeing this, Genos started to frantically scan Saitama's score sheet, while Shunshi exclaimed in exasperation, "Okay, now I know something is screwed up with the scores here!"
While he continued to scan the score sheet, Genos spoke up passive-aggressively, "Now I see... We mistook the top half of the C for a large S."
Not wanting to hear about it further, Saitama shouted angrily at Genos, "Stop scanning it already!"
After they both gained bloodthirsty expressions on their faces, Genos and Shunshi declared in unison, "We will go have a talk with the people in charge about this. Just wait here, Master!"
Saitama quickly stopped the two of them from doing anything crazy by exclaiming, "Please don't! I'd die of embarrassment! All that matters is that we passed."
Before things could escalate any further, a voice came over the PA system and spoke, "Mr. Genos. Mr. Shunshi. Mr. Saitama. There will be a seminar for successful candidates at four PM. Please come to lecture hall number three."
Having calmed his followers down, Saitama set his score sheet down and calmly gave an order, "Alright, let's go. Let's get this over with and go home." Following Saitama's instructions, Genos and Shunshi got changed back into their civilian clothing alongside their Master and accompanied him to lecture hall number three.
When the three of them walked into the room, Shunshi was amazed to see Biting Fist Sneck, the lowest-ranked A-Class Hero, was there to speak with them.
After they had all taken a seat, Sneck straightened his tie and greeted them all in an impatient yet somehow friendly tone, "First off, congrats on passing," Sneck, then, looked at Saitama, who was chewing some gum, and continued condescendingly, "Now, one of you only made it on a fluke, so unless you want your good luck to go to waste, I'd better see you giving it your all!" The A-Class Hero then shifted to a much more aggressive tone and continued, "So you'd better keep your egos in check! From here on out, keep your Hero status in mind and act modestly! After all, your faces will be placed on the Hero Association website."
Throughout this whole orientation, Genos had a completely stoical expression, while Shunshi had a look that was a combination of respect and admiration. Saitama, however, was blowing a bubble.
Saitama's attitude caused Sneck's annoyance to grow, as the Hero abruptly asked, "Didn't you hear me?! That bald goofball face of yours is gonna be shown to the whole world! If you don't want to humiliate yourself..." Before he finished his sentence, the A-Class Hero jumped on top of the desk he was sitting at and proceeded to perform a series of martial arts techniques. Once Sneck finished his demonstration by striking a snake-like pose, he exclaimed, "Then aspire to be a fine Hero like me!"
Without warning, Saitama's gum bubble, which had grown larger than his head, suddenly popped, covering his face in the sticky substance. This caused Genos to shout in concern, "Sensei!" While Shunshi forced himself to hold back his laughter at his Master's screw-up.
After witnessing Saitama's carefree attitude towards becoming a Pro Hero, Sneck grew furious and stated in an almost bloodthirsty tone, "As an A-Class Hero, I have some influence over the Hero Association's inner-workings. I'll make sure that those who slack off or screw up... lose points and get demoted! Don't you forget it!"
Not understanding that this threat was explicitly aimed at him, Saitama pulled the last piece of gum from his face and thought to himself, I wonder what I'll have for dinner tonight.
After this, Sneck dismissed the three newly registered Heroes, sending them on their way.
As the three were leaving the Hero Association's testing facility, Shunshi noticed one of the chairmen of the Hero Association walking past them. He was a blond man wearing glasses and a formal business suit, who was keeping himself preoccupied by reading a book as he walked.
Deciding he should bring up his concerns to this man, Shunshi excused himself from Saitama and Genos, "Uh... I'll catch up with you guys in just a second. I need to speak with someone here about something important."
Unconcerned, Saitama waved his hand at Shunshi and responded, "Do what ya want, man."
After bowing to Saitama and Genos, the two walked off as Shunshi quickly approached the Hero Association head and introduced himself, "Hello, sir. I'm one of the people who passed the Hero exam."
Hearing a young man's voice, the worker looked up from his book, saw Shunshi, smiled, and asked him, "Oh, hello there, new recruit. Is there something I can help you with?"
Nodding, Shunshi took out his score sheet, showed it to the worker, and explained his concern, "Well, I scored high enough to be put into A-Class. There must be some kind of mistake. There's no way that someone like me is that strong. I just thought I should tell someone so that... you know... I could be put down at the rank I'm supposed to be at."
The worker looked at Shunshi in confusion for a moment, blinked a few times, and then asked, "You... you want to be ranked lower...?! Kid, your scores were the highest out of your entire testing group by a large margin. You're definitely A-Class material. Trust me, it's fine."
Despite the encouragement, Shunshi still looked unsure about this, staring at his score sheet with apprehension.
Eventually, though, the young man put away his paper and replied hesitantly, "Well... Okay, if you say so. I'm still not so sure, though. But thank you for hearing me out." With that, the two bowed to one another, and Shunshi headed out.
After leaving the testing facility in confusion, Shunshi ran for a few minutes in order to catch up to Saitama and Genos.
As he caught up to his Sensei and Senpai in the city streets, he let them know he was there, by yelling out, "Hey, guys! Did I miss anything interesting?"
Looking behind himself, Saitama saw his black-haired student and replied nonchalantly, "Nah, Genos just finished telling me about how the Hero Company was formed."
"Hero Association, Master," Genos respectfully corrected.
Saitama looked confused by this for a split second, before responding, "Oh right, thanks."
Despite his uncertainties, the realization that he had actually passed his Hero exam finally seemed to sink in for Shunshi once he had regrouped with his Sensei and Senpai.
Shunshi was overcome with an incredible sense of excitement as he put his hands together and blurted out, "Wow, the Hero Association. Now that we're all officially registered, we'll be known around the world and even get paid to save people from monsters...! Not that I need to get paid to do that or anything!"
Agreeing with his sentiment, Genos responded to Shunshi's statement in an almost happy tone, "Yes, now we can work with our heads held high."
The blond cyborg, then, turned to Saitama and said in as close to a gleeful tone as he would get, "Sensei, I guess this now means that Shunshi and I are officially your disciples."
Upon hearing Genos' reminder, Shunshi chimed in excitedly, "Oh yeah! That's right! Awesome! Thank you so much, Master Saitama!"
As these two expressed their excitement and appreciation, a drop of sweat slid down from the bald Hero's head.
Continuing with his sentence, Genos expressed, "Please continue doing the same excellent job you have been doing so far in being our mentor, Saitama-Sensei!"
Doing his best not to sound nervous, Saitama replied in a hesitant tone, "Uh... Yeah."
Afterward, both of Saitama's new disciples bowed to him and bid him farewell simultaneously, "Goodnight, Sensei."
"Yeah, see you guys," Saitama replied calmly.
As the two disciples of the world's strongest Hero began heading back to their homes, the man himself thought out loud, "Crap. Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to say I'd take disciples... Especially guys like them."
Back at the testing facility, Sneck and the worker with blond hair and glasses were sitting in an office together.
While drinking a cup of coffee, Sneck angrily addressed the blond-haired worker, "Those three newcomers today... Did they really pass the exam? Their attitudes were awful! I'm ranked thirty-eighth in A-Class, and only one of them seemed to know who I was! Plus, they had no idea how hard the world can be. Damn Amateurs! They'll be dirt-napping in no time!"
While looking out the window of the office, the worker responded calmly, "No. Shunshi was only two points off from a perfect score on the written exam, and only one point off on the physical exam. He nearly broke into the top ten of A-Class right off the bat. That being said, based on his results from the physical exam, I expect him to climb up even higher in ranks fairly quickly. Genos got a perfect score on both the physical and written exams. He's a phenomenal rookie that was given S-Class status immediately. The final one, Saitama, got horrible scores on the written test but got a perfect fifty on the physical test. That's the only reason he passed at all. But in practically all the physical tests, he shattered all of the Hero Association's records by inconceivable margins. It's as if there's a god residing inside his body."
Sneck had a completely baffled look on his face before the worker continued, "Sneck, you've already been outranked by both Genos and Shunshi. And Saitama may outrank you very soon as well."
Bringing an image of Saitama chewing gum into his mind, Sneck thought in disbelief, That jackass?!
Later that day, as the sun was setting, Saitama was walking back home.
As he strolled past some flood planes, the world's strongest Hero to himself, "So, I'm currently ranked in C-Class, but if I get to the top of C-Class I can move up to B-Class with S-Class above even A-Class... I guess Genos and Shunshi are actually pretty amazing... Although, I'm not sure this is the kind of Hero I wanted to be."
Before Saitama could continue thinking, Sneck appeared before him, having jumped out from seemingly nowhere.
While back-flipping over the bald man, Sneck shouted, "The newcomer seminar isn't over yet!"
After landing in front of the new C-Class Hero, Sneck took an offensive stance while declaring, "In this business, there's a thing called rookie crushing. A lot of us pro Heroes hate to be outranked, so we crush promising newbies early on... Like this!"
Sneck then threw his Snake Fist at Saitama's face, making contact and squishing his cheek. In response, Saitama lightly slapped Sneck's face, planting the A-Class Hero into the ground and knocking him out cold.
Without even the least bit of concern over the fact that he was just assaulted by another Hero, Saitama continued on his walk back home.
Meanwhile, Shunshi had made his way back to his parents' house.
As he walked up the driveway of his home, the black-haired man used his phone to look up the updated information on the Hero Association website. Aside from himself, Genos, and Saitama, only five others out of the thousands of people that took part in the Hero tests that day had actually passed. Four of them made it into C-Class, and one other guy made it into B-Class. Saitama was ranked as number 388 in C-Class, Genos was ranked as number 17 in S-Class, and Shunshi himself was ranked as number 13 in A-Class.
After reading this information, Shunshi did his best to piece this puzzle together, Genos-Senpai is an S-Class Hero now... Is he actually powerful enough to stand alongside Heroes like Metal Bat, Tanktop Master, and Lightspeed Flash...? What the Hell was up with Sensei's score, though? He's definitely as strong as any S-Class, but he was put into C-Class. What on Earth happened?!
Having reached his home's front door, Shunshi decided to think more about this topic later. At the moment, he had more immediate issues to handle.
When he opened the front door and walked into his parents' house, Shunshi was greeted by his father, who had just recently gotten home himself.
Noticing the tired and confused look on his son's face, Shunshi's father asked him in a superior, yet concerned tone, "You sure took more time than usual to get back home today. Any reason for that?"
Having been taken slightly off-guard by his dad's sudden questioning, Shunshi took a moment to give a hesitant answer, "Oh, uh... My new teacher had me take the Hero test early... So, I was busy with that."
The face of Shunshi's father lit up a bit when he heard his son say this, prompting him to ask, "So, how bad was your score this time around?"
Without wasting a second, Shunshi took out his score sheet and answered with disbelieving happiness, "I'm... I'm actually ranked as number 13 in A-class now."
The new Hero's father was completely shocked to hear this, quickly rushed toward his son, and swiped the score sheet from his son's hands.
After closely examining the sheet of paper, he asked Shunshi with a hint of anger, "Did you cheat, boy?!"
Visibly offended by this question, Shunshi responded to his dad defensively, "I'd never cheat on something like this. Getting into the Hero Association has been a nearly sacred thing for me!"
Having mostly ignored what was just said, the young man's father turned away and shouted across his home, "Hanja! Come here, right now! This is urgent!"
The two men of the house waited for a moment until Shunshi's mother came into the room and asked her husband patiently, "What is it, Otkan?"
Answering her, Otkan showed Shunshi's score sheet to his wife and stated fearfully, "Shunshi took the Hero test and got into A-Class!"
Not sharing her husband's concern, Hanja instead looked incredibly happy.
"Great job, son! You did even better than I thought you could," Hanja congratulated as she grabbed Shunshi's hands.
Although he was initially surprised by his mother's praise, Shunshi smiled and replied to her in a happy, yet confused tone, "Thanks, mom... I think?"
Hanja then turned to Otkan and excitedly exclaimed, "Let's go out to eat to celebrate our son's accomplishment!"
Otkan didn't respond, having been shocked silent by Hanja's attitude towards their son becoming a pro Hero. Instead, the poor man was wrapped deeply into his fearful thoughts.
Oh, God! How did he get all the way to A-Class?! Now the Hero Association is probably gonna call on my son to fight Demon Level Threats! He's gonna die!
Hanja noticed Otkan's lack of response, so she repeated herself in a slightly more stern, yet still friendly tone, "Otkan. Let's go out and celebrate Shunshi's accomplishment."
Otkan took notice of his wife's almost hostile voice and replied hesitantly, "I... I suppose we should."
While his parents were talking, Shunshi grabbed the backpack that held his armor and stated happily, "That sounds wonderful, guys! Thank you both so much!"
With that seemingly settled, Shunshi's family went out for dinner.
About an hour and a half later, Shunshi and his parents were enjoying a meal in one of the corner booths of a reasonably fancy restaurant.
As they were enjoying their meals, they noticed a commotion coming from the front of the establishment. Looking more closely at the crowd of people who had gathered at the front door, Shunshi quickly realized what was causing the disturbance. The A-Class Hero, the Great Philosopher, ranked as number 13, or rather 14 now, had walked into the restaurant.
The Great Philosopher politely made his way through the crowd of admirers, shaking hands as he went before he approached Shunshi at his table.
"Hello there. I understand that you are the new A-Class Hero, Shunshi. Correct?" He asked while simultaneously reading from his large book.
Almost overcome with admiration, Shunshi smiled at the A-Class Hero in front of him and answered, "Yes, sir. That's me!"
Turning a page in his book the Great Philosopher asked Shunshi another question, "May I speak with you outside?"
Without a second of hesitation, Shunshi replied, "Of course, sir!"
After Shunshi excused himself from the table, the two registered Heroes went out to the parking lot of the restaurant in order to talk.
The Great Philosopher looked at Shunshi for a moment, who was just standing at attention and smiling with genuine innocence on his face.
"May I see what you look like in your costume?" The veteran Hero inquired.
Nodding his head at the Philosopher, Shunshi responded, "No problem. Just hold on a second." The young man then went behind the restaurant with his backpack. Quickly, he came back from behind the building and was now wearing his intimating superhero armor.
Desperately wanting to hear pro-Hero's opinion of his costume, Shunshi eagerly asked, "What do you think, sir? Pretty cool, right?!"
After examining Shunshi for a few seconds, the Great Philosopher's formerly stoic face twisted into a visibly upset expression, closing his heavy book with an audible thud.
"You look evil," the Great Philosopher growled out.
Unable to comprehend what he had just been told, Shunshi tilted his head and asked somberly, "I'm sorry... What?"
All of a sudden, the Great Philosopher exclaimed, "Someone like you doesn't deserve my rank! It's time for some newbie crushing! Three Ton Philosophy!"
The lower-ranked Hero quickly swung his closed book down at Shunshi, smashing him across his armored face. However, this attack only dealt enough damage to the younger Hero to slightly dent his helmet and draw a drop of blood from his forehead, not that the Philosopher could even tell that he'd done that much through the still intact armor.
After stumbling backward a foot or two, Shunshi recomposed himself and asked in utter shock, "What are you doing?! We're both superheroes!"
The veteran Hero, ignoring the words of his target, threw a punch into Shunshi's stomach, causing him to stumble backward a little more. However, this still only caused Shunshi some very minor damage.
Beginning to feel insulted by all this, Shunshi shouted angrily, "Stop that! If you really are trying to take me out, then stop holding back so much! I know I'm weak, but you don't need to take it so easy against me."
The Great Philosopher's expression shifted to that of near-horror at these words, as he came to understand how ineffective his attacks had been so far.
"I... You need to quit being a Hero or else I'll break every bone in your body!" Great Philosopher shouted in an attempt at intimidation.
Shunshi was completely and utterly baffled by all of this. If a pro Hero had made a request of him beforehand, he wouldn't have hesitated to comply, but such a demand was far beyond reasonable to a man like Shunshi.
Striking up an offensive stance, the young Hero yelled back defiantly, "You'd have to kill me if you want me to stop being a Hero! Being a superhero and getting to save lives is all I've ever wanted in my life, all I ever cared about accomplishing. I know what I want, and I want to be a Hero!"
When the newbie Hero made his stance clear, the now frightened Great Philosopher tried to throw another punch at him. However, the dark-clad Hero countered the attack by swiftly deflecting the blow and throwing his own punch into the A-Class Hero's torso. The spiked knuckles of the counter-attack drew a fair amount of blood from Great Philosopher's chest, as he was sent flying into the building across the street, knocking him out cold in the process.
Having been attacked for selfish reasons by one of the Heroes that he admired so much, Shunshi's sense of right and wrong was completely thrown out of wack. As he tried to process what had just happened, Shunshi felt as if the world was spinning around him.
Eventually, in order to calm himself down, the blue-eyed Hero forced himself to conclude, "He... He must have just been a selfish person that joined the Hero Association for fame... I'm sure that most of the professional Heroes aren't like this."
With that, Shunshi took off his dented helmet and blood-smeared gauntlets, and looked at them with discomfort in his eyes. He then put them back into his backpack before calling an ambulance for The Great Philosopher. After that was taken care of, he walked back into the restaurant and went back to his family's table.
Once her son had re-entered the restaurant, Hanja saw that Shunshi was wearing most of his costume, so she asked her boy, "Why are you wearing your crime-fighting suit, dear? Did something happen?"
Not wanting to upset his family, Shunshi thought his answer over for a moment before replying happily, "The Great Philosopher just wanted to see what I looked like in my costume. You know, just to make sure that I looked the part of a true Hero."
Cocking an eyebrow at this, Otkan asked Shunshi, "Well, what did he think?"
Exercising his acting chops further, Shunshi put on a convincing smile and answered, "He thought I looked awesome!"
Happy to hear this, Shunshi's father continued eating alongside his family. Without any other interruptions, the family continued to enjoy the rest of their evening, as ambulance sirens could be heard arriving across the street.
The next day, Shunshi had come back to Saitama's house and saw that he and Genos were already leaving.
Curious as to the situation, Shunshi walked up to them and asked, "Hello, Sensei. Senpai. Where are you guys going today?"
Almost looking bothered by Shunshi's sudden arrival, Genos replied calmly, "Master and I are heading off to have a sparring match. You can come along as well if you would like."
Initially, Shunshi was stunned to hear that Genos would even consider this. However, the black-haired man wanted to prove to his blond Senpai and bald Sensei that he could handle training with them.
"Sure... Sounds good to me, Senpai..." Shunshi responded with a nervous smile and shaky voice as he forced himself to calm down.
Is Shunshi gonna try and play-fight too? Saitama pondered as he glanced at his second student.
Since they were all in agreement to head out together, the three Heroes went on their way.
As they jogged towards their destination, Shunshi fearfully exclaimed in his mind, What's wrong with you, Genos-Senpai? I know that he's stronger than me, and he did make it into S-Class and everything, but he's not nearly as strong as the actual S-Classes like Master is. Do you think you'll even survive a sparring match with Saitama-Sensei, Genos-Senpai?
After having traveled a long distance, the trio eventually reached a barren canyon in the middle of a valley for their match.
As he stretched his arms out, Saitama asked Shunshi, "So, before we get started, there's some things I want to know. Shunshi, you seem to know a lot about this whole Hero Association group. I'm curious, so tell me what the whole Hero registry thing is about and what exactly do our ranks mean?"
Nodding his head, Shunshi replied respectfully, "Yes, Sensei. You are currently a C-Class Hero. These Heroes are considered to be the weakest of all Heroes, so you were clearly ranked incorrectly, but this is where most new Heroes start out at. The rank after C-Class is B-Class, obviously. B-Class Heroes have intermediate strength among those in the Hero world and it's where you'll start to find people who are more noticeably superhuman. Above the B-Class Heroes is what I am, an A-Class Hero. They are usually amongst the stronger Heroes and are usually the most popular as well. And Genos-Senpai is an S-Class Hero, the absolute most powerful rank for a Hero to receive. Even the weakest S-Class Heroes are said to be about as powerful as an emergency military response force. Genos-Senpai is at the bottom of S-Class right now, I am towards the top of A-Class and you are almost at the bottom of C-Class. For now, we are all still listed as Saitama, Genos, and Shunshi, respectively, but we'll eventually be given our own Hero names."
Puzzled by that last statement, Saitama asked emotionlessly, "Hero names? What are those?"
Although he was confused by how his Master couldn't understand what a Hero name was, Shunshi still did his best to give an explanation, "Based upon what we accomplish, what we look like, what we're capable of doing, and what we stand for, we will be given code names that reflect who we are. For example, I might be called 'The Dark Blaster', Genos may be called 'The Fire Cyborg', and, since you always win your fights so easily, you might be called 'One Strike Man,' Sensei."
"That name sounds kind of boring," Saitama commented with annoyance as he folded his arms.
Shunshi was disheartened that his Master disliked his suggestion, but continued to talk regardless, "There's something else you may find interesting, Master. Aside from getting rank promotions for our accomplishments, we can also get promoted due to popularity. There are a lot of Heroes that even have fan clubs."
Saitama's interest was peaked by this, but Genos quickly shut this topic down by stating, "It's not like any true Heroes actually care about that."
Hearing his Senpai say this, Shunshi looked a little ashamed for having even brought the subject up, but Saitama seemed more disappointed that Genos shot this topic down so quickly.
Recognizing that the conversation about the Hero Association had finished, Genos smiled at Saitama and said, "Now then. Thank you for agreeing to my unreasonable request today, Sensei."
Realizing that the match was about to begin, Saitama got some distance between himself and his students and replied, "Yeah, well, I did promise to make you guys my disciples... Is here good?"
"Yes!" Genos answered.
"So we're just having a practice bout, right? Not real fighting?" Saitama questioned.
At this inquiry, Genos responded coldly, "That is what I had in mind, but now that we are actually here, I want to go all out. So I will fight for real. Now here are the rules. Dodge any attacks that you are able to dodge. Take it seriously, no fooling around. Do not hold back and keep going until one of us cannot keep fighting anymore... Shunshi, if you feel the desire to participate at any moment during the bout, then feel free to join in as well."
Initially taken off guard by this invitation, Shunshi made sure his posture reflected a soldier standing at attention before replying, "Yes, Senpai. Thank you, Senpai!"
Should I even try joining in on something like this? Shunshi thought as he began to sweat with fear.
Genos then turned to face his teacher. As he did this, his mechanical joints lit up, the flames burning just beneath the surface.
The young cyborg then took a combative stance and exclaimed to Saitama, "Please grant my request, Master!"
Deciding to make the first move, Genos' shoulders opened up and let out what looked like miniature jets. The small jets quickly propelled their owner towards Saitama so as to launch a jump kick at the hairless Hero. However, the baldy easily dodged the attack by bending backward, as if limboing. In response to his initial attack missing, Genos used small bursts of fire from his palms to turn himself around and throw a spin kick at Saitama. Once again, though, Saitama dodged the attack, this time by bending forward. The blond cyborg followed this up by shooting bursts of fire from his back to propel himself into the air.
Saitama just gave a very silly smile at how enthusiastic his student was, as Genos used his shoulder jets to launch himself at the ground to deliver an ax-kick as fast as he possibly could. All of a sudden, Saitama moved so fast that he had vanished from Genos' sight, causing the cyborg's kick to hit the ground instead, resulting in a wave of boulders to form. The debris came for Shunshi, who just barely evaded getting hit by jumping on top of a boulder and riding the wave for a moment.
After just barely avoiding this wave of destruction, Shunshi thought in a fearful and awe-struck tone, Holy crap! I guess Senpai got upgraded... Oh, screw it! If I don't train with them, then I'll never get any stronger!
Once he filled himself with determination, Shunshi shouted out, "I'm gonna join in the fight too!"
Despite his shouting, Shunshi went unnoticed as Genos shot off a huge beam of fire at Saitama, who was falling through the sky. Having seen the attack coming, Saitama swiftly grabbed onto a boulder that was falling next to him and launched himself from it so that he could land on the ground and dodge the ray of fire.
Saitama's movements were far too fast for Genos to notice, resulting in his blast putting a hole in the top of the nearby cliff face.
Seeing the level of destruction that Genos was dishing out, Shunshi nervously thought, Oh my God... Get your head in the game, man!
However, Saitama's reaction to this display of power was a relieved statement, "That was close, I almost burned my costume again."
All of a sudden, Saitama saw dozens of Shunshi's Light Balls quickly flying towards him. In response, he casually and speedily moved his body whenever he was in danger of connecting with one. This resulted in a volley of explosions going off behind Saitama, dotting the landscape behind him with dozens of small craters.
Before the dust could settle, a flame-covered Shunshi rushed at Saitama and threw a flurry of punches with a few kicks expertly mixed into the combo. If Saitama had been an average Human, the speed at which Shunshi attacked would have left him dead, but as was to be expected, the world's strongest person effortlessly dodged all of this with minimal movement.
As he saw Saitama effortlessly dodging all of Shunshi's attacks, Genos angrily yelled, "I need more speed!" The blond cyborg then slammed his fists on the ground, causing electricity to cover his arms, as rings of energy went down them.
Genos now seemed to be floating in the air, as his shoulder jets were blasting out three times the amount of flames as before. The cyborg then vanished by using his speed and rushed towards Saitama. Saitama took notice of this and easily leaped away from Shunshi with a speed that matched Genos'. As a result, Shunshi got knocked away, the shockwaves of his seniors' movements being too much for him.
Saitama and Genos started colliding in the air with lightning-fast movements, before crashing back onto the ground and rushing towards one of the canyon walls, repeatedly crashing into each other on the way there.
The One Strike Man was rushing backwards up the rock face, while Genos chased after him and used a Machine-Gun Blow in an attempt to hit him. This pursuit tore up the rockface as a result, making it seem as if some giant had come and carved outlines in the side of the canyon.
After a couple of seconds of this, Genos lost sight of Saitama and thought, What the...? Have I just been chasing his afterimage this whole time?!
In order to relocate his Master to continue fighting, Genos quickly scanned the area and saw that Saitama was back in the canyon below. He was effortlessly blocking Shunshi's Light Kie Machine-Gun with one finger, all while still keeping up his emotionless expression. Quickly, though, Shunshi gave up on this attack and decided to drop and sweep at Saitama's feet in an attempt to trip him. However, his Sensei just jumped above his student's leg with a very awkward but fast hop.
Genos recognized this as an opportunity to try and rush Saitama as he was air-born. As such, he raced over and threw a punch into his teacher's bald face, but Saitama saw him coming and swiftly placed his palm on Genos' wrist, redirected him at Shunshi, and sent the young cyborg and the armored individual crashing along the ground.
Genos managed to recover from this fairly easily and land on his feet, as Shunshi was sent tumbling away. The Fire Cyborg then turned towards Saitama and pointed his palms at his Sensei.
Suddenly, dozens of guns unfolded out of Genos' arms as he shouted, "Incinerate!" All of the smaller guns shot out tinier fire beams that combined together with Genos' main arm cannons in order to make a blast of flames more than ten times the size of the shot he'd damaged the canyon with earlier.
As Saitama seemingly got caught in the blast, Genos thought confidently, I got him this time. Sensei will have to take me more seriously now that-!
Saitama then appeared behind Genos and tapped on his student's shoulder.
Once Genos had turned to face his teacher, Saitama poked his finger into the cyborg's face and exclaimed with a smile, "Got you. Now I just need to get Shun-."
Without a word, Genos quickly turned off his fire blast, spun around, and took another swing at Saitama, which he dodged. This punch had enough power behind it that the wind force it generated launched a small boulder, dozens of feet through the air.
While Saitama was getting his balance back after having moved a few feet behind Genos, Shunshi surprised his Senpai by seemingly appearing from nowhere and jumping over his head. As Shunshi jumped over him, Genos noticed he was holding a Light Ball that was a size larger than the one he used on Kabuto.
"MINIATURE WHITE SUN!" Shunshi roared as he threw the massive orb of light.
Before the ball came anywhere near Saitama, however, he had vanished once again, causing it to collide with the ground. When the explosion went off, it created a crater that was big enough to fit a school bus inside of it.
Before Shunshi could process that his attack had missed, Saitama jumped at him from behind, grabbed his student's cloak with two fingers, and threw him at Genos by lightly tugging on the cape and immediately releasing his grip. This collision knocked them both on their asses as they nearly collided with the canyon wall.
Saitama's students quickly got back on their feet, with Genos shoving Shunshi off of him as he angrily asked, "Sensei, have you forgotten about the rules of the bout?! Dodge any attacks you are able to dodge. Take it seriously, no fooling around. Do not hold back and keep going until one of us cannot keep fighting anymore."
Even master Saitama doesn't know the secret to his own power. This fight may give me some insight into it... Maybe? Genos thought in desperate confusion.
Having had enough of Saitama's casual nature, Genos spoke out as his robotic body radiated more flames, "Show me no mercy!"
Shunshi saw the determined look on his Senpai's face, stood at his side, and took a combative stance. He then turned his aura of white flames back on and declared, "That goes for me too! We want everything you can throw at us! Bring it on, Master!"
Despite his students' words, Saitama just continued to show his emotionless stare at the two of them. However, there was the smallest tint of pondering mixed in with it.
All of a sudden, the bald Hero moved right into his students' faces so quickly that neither of them were even able to realize that he'd moved at all. After about a split second, the vision of the two younger Heroes processed that Saitama was standing in front of them, so Genos threw out a side thrust kick while Shunshi threw a front stance punch. Just as before, though, Saitama dodged their combined attack with his unfathomable speed. He then reappeared behind his disciples.
With neither of them understanding what was happening, both Genos and Shunshi asked aloud, "What the-?"
Before either of them could react to their teacher's new position, Saitama, who had a far more serious expression on his face, threw a real punch at the two of them.
The aura coming off of Saitama as he threw this punch made it so that his students could only think of one word as the red gloved fist moved ever closer to them, Death.
Saitama stopped his fist just short of actually hitting his pupils, but the wind force from the attack picked up a cloud of rocks and dirt, blew back Genos' hair, and forced Shunshi onto his butt once more.
Once he had properly displayed his power to them, Saitama lightly tapped Genos's face and expressed in a friendly tone, "I'm starving. Time for lunch. Let's go have udon noodles, guys."
Not knowing what else to say, Genos replied to his Master in a mix of fear and awe, "... Yeah."
After looking over his shoulder, Saitama rolled his eyes and ordered Genos, "Go help Shunshi stand up. The guy won't stop shaking."
Sure enough, Shunshi was too shocked by what had just transpired to climb back to his feet with his own power. As Genos walked over to assist his junior up, he initially only looked at Shunshi. However, once he started paying attention to his peripheral vision, Genos noticed what was behind his older junior, his jaw dropping at the sight.
Shunshi was confused by the face Genos was making, so he looked behind himself to see what his Senpai was so frightened of. Once he turned around, Shunshi's eyes turned into dinner plates when he saw that the hole that Genos had blasted into the top of the mountain moments earlier had been overtaken by a new, much larger hole. This hole had been made from the wind force of Saitama's punch and had completely torn that section of the canyon in half.
With his mind almost unable to accept what he was looking at, Genos thought, I will do whatever it takes to get stronger, but I do not think I could ever see myself approaching Sensei's power... Not in this lifetime, anyway.
After walking for a bit, Saitama realized that neither of his students were following him, so he turned around and asked them, "Do you guys not like udon or something?"
Not wanting Saitama to leave without him, Genos quickly finished helping Shunshi stand back up and answered attentively, "No. I am coming, Sensei."
Without bothering to answer, Shunshi was about to follow along as well, but a realization quickly hit him that stopped the young man dead in his tracks.
Piecing together a sentence in his head as fast as he could, Shunshi stated in a respectful tone, "Uh... I do like udon, Saitama-Sensei, but I just realized that I haven't gone out for my daily crime patrol in a while, and now that I'm officially registered... What I mean to say is... May I go do that instead?"
Saitama waved his hand in an unconcerned manner and replied, "Do whatever, dude. I'll just see ya tomorrow, I guess."
Happy that he'd been given permission to go off on his own, Shunshi bowed to his Master and quickly ran off as Saitama and Genos went out for udon.
Later that night, Saitama and Genos were sitting at a cheap-looking udon shop.
While they were eating, Saitama said to Genos, "I'm glad you like udon."
"Yes, I am not very picky," Genos replied.
"Well, I'm kinda low on funds right now... Guess it's a good thing that I didn't have to pay for Shunshi's meal too," Saitama commented while resting his head on his hand.
The bald Hero's gaze then shifted towards the menu at the front of the restaurant, making him smirk and ask, "Hey, Genos, how about another match?"
Clarifying his suggestion, Saitama pointed at the menu. Above the menu was a contest sign that said if you could finish a massive bowl of spicy udon, then you would win fifty thousand yen.
Once Genos agreed to this match, the two told the chef that they wanted to take the challenge and began waiting for their dishes to be prepared.
Meanwhile, In City-C, Shunshi had just finished a heated battle with a group of three ogre-like creatures, each of which had stood at eight and a half feet.
Due to all the fighting, Shunshi's cape had been torn down the middle, the jaw-piece of his helmet had been ripped off, and part of his suit's chest-piece had been destroyed. Fortunately, though, the three monsters had all been beaten and blasted to death by the armored Hero's martial arts and Kie.
As soon as he had finished catching his breath, Shunshi looked around at the dead monster and thought out loud, "So... Am I supposed to report this now? That's how I get points to move up in the ranks, right?"
Wanting to make sure he had his facts straight, Shunshi took out his phone and looked through the Hero Association website until he found out how he was supposed to report his heroic actions. The instructions stated that if the fight wasn't public knowledge, then all a Hero had to do was report the encounter to the nearest Hero Association facility.
Shunshi quickly looked through all of the known monsters on the website, and it turned out that these creatures were all known Tiger Level threats. He then put his phone away, tossed all three of the monsters onto his super-strong back, and started heading towards the nearest Hero Association facility that he knew of.
On his way to the Hero Association headquarters, Shunshi happened to be passing by a pawn shop as a burglar busted out through the building's window.
As climbed out of the window, the burglar stopped dead in his tracks. The sight of the man dressed in frightening gray and black full body armor, who also just happened to be carrying three large, dead monsters on his back left him stunned momentarily. Once his senses came back to him, the thief quickly started running away from this horrific scene but was hit in the back of the head by a small stone and rendered unconscious. This was courtesy of a flick of the wrist from Shunshi.
The armored Hero then picked back up the monsters he had dropped in order to throw the stone, walked over to the criminal, and picked him up by his shirt with his teeth. With that taken care of, Shunshi continued on his way to the Hero Association headquarters.
Back with Saitama and Genos, the bald Master had given up trying to eat his bucket of spicy udon, while the cyborg pupil easily scarfed it all down. As Genos ate, excess heat blew out of his shoulder jets in order to burn up the food before it could fill him up.
Once he had finished eating, Genos turned to the cook, who'd been watching in awe, and asked, "Is that all?"
The appetite of this young cyborg left the cook and the other patrons of the restaurant in shock as they all stared at him, unable to speak.
Realizing what his student had just accomplished, a somewhat disappointed Saitama stated, "Man, you're awesome. I guess that makes one win for each of us... But now Shunshi's lagging behind, huh?"
"I suppose so... Hm?" Genos answered as he overheard a commotion.
The next moment, much to the even greater shock of everyone at the restaurant, excluding Saitama and Genos, the most popular Hero in the world, Sweet Mask, casually walked into the establishment.
Sweet Mask was an unbelievably handsome man with long blue hair and yellow eyes. He was dressed in an elegant white jacket, a gray shirt, black pants, and wore a circular pendant around his neck. On top of all this, Sweet Mask stood as the number one ranked A-Class Hero in the Hero Association.
The top A-Class Hero made his way towards Genos and Saitama's table, smiling at the cyborg as he approached.
"You must be Genos," Sweet Mask stated.
Saitama and Genos hadn't really been paying attention to this blue-haired man up until this point but turned their heads out of curiosity when he addressed the younger of the two.
"I'm Sweet Mask, the top-ranked A-Class Hero. I'd like to talk to you outside," A-Class' gold medal suavely explained.
Saitama looked somewhat concerned and curious when Sweet Mask introduced himself, whilst all the female patrons started swooning over him.
Not being one to be easily impressed, Genos thought to himself, "Talk? About what?"
Out of genuine concern for his safety, Saitama whispered to his cyborg student, "He might be a rookie crusher. Be careful, Genos."
When Saitama told him this, Genos replied, "I see. Please wait here, Master."
The young cyborg quickly stood up and responded to Sweet Mask, "Very well. I was just thinking about taking a walk to digest my lunch." The blue-haired man smiled at this and stepped aside to allow Genos to get up and lead the way.
After the two high-ranking Heroes walk outside to stand next to the restaurant, Sweet Mask charismatically asked Genos, "I understand an exception was made for you to be given S-Class status right off the bat."
As he started scowling, Genos replied with hostility, "What of it?!"
Grinning slyly, Sweet Mask answered, "A Hero must always be a beautiful symbol of justice. That is my philosophy. This is especially true if you're an S-Class Hero."
Instead of responding to this statement, Genos stared down his fellow yellow-eyed Hero for a moment.
Sweet mask let out a small giggle at this attitude, before telling Genos, "Come on. There's no need to glare at me. I came all the way here just to see you. Tell me, how was the Hero exam?"
Not wasting time on formalities, Genos replied bluntly, "It was nothing but rubbish. An exam like that is a waste of time."
Sweet Mask looked a little surprised by this response, at least for a moment, before he switched back over to a grin.
Being one who's as quick to violence as he is, Genos angrily exclaimed, "If you came here to fight, then let us get on with it. This, too, is a waste of time." The S-Class cyborg then started aggressively walking towards the A-Class idol, but the star put his hand out, prompting the Cyborg to stop in his tracks.
"Being hot-blooded is fine, but if you take it too far... you'll get burnt," Sweet Mask explained, causing a moment of silence between the two of them. "I'll forgive your criticism of the Association. Thank you for your time."
Sweet Mask then walked past the younger man, placed his hand on his shoulder, and casually expressed, "I welcome you to the team. We expect great things from you... Genos."
A minute later, Genos walked back into the restaurant.
As he sat back down at his table, he was greeted by Saitama, "Man, the top-ranking A-Class Hero personally came to crush you. You really are deserving of S-Class!"
Making sure his Master had all the facts straight, Genos corrected him, "That is not it. He just came here... to welcome me."
"Huh? What's that mean?" Saitama asked.
Before Genos could answer his Sensei, three of the woman at the restaurant came up to Genos and asked him nervously, "Excuse me? You're friends with Sweet Mask, right...? May I shake your hand?!"
When Genos agreed to this, it caused a minimal amount of confusion and jealousy to form on Saitama's face, leaving him with nothing to do but mope in his seat.
After they had paid for their meals, the student and teacher walked back to their homes from the restaurant.
"Man. S-Class and C-Class Heroes sure get treated differently," Saitama commented.
The bald Hero then looked at fifty thousand yen worth of coupons that were Genos' prize and postulated, "If you think about it, that stuff is sort of like fake money."
Money hadn't been an issue for Genos ever since he met Dr. Stench. As a result, he just looked at his coupons for a moment, not sure what to say.
Saitama shrugged, ultimately unconcerned, and said, "Whatever. Like I said before, now we're even with a win and a loss each. And now we're both professional Heroes too. Let's do our best, okay?"
"Yes," Genos replied as he put his winnings into his pocket.
As the two walked along a bridge, Genos stopped underneath a street lamp, as he thought about his strange encounter with Sweet Mask.
"Sensei," Genos exclaimed.
"What's up?" Saitama asked while turning around.
"I will be back later," the young cyborg answered.
The Master just gave a small smile to his disciple, waved goodbye, and told him, "Oh, okay. See ya later."
"Yes. Goodbye," Genos said while bowing.
With that, the two went their separate ways for the time being.
Meanwhile, at City-C's Hero Association headquarters, Shunshi walked into the front lobby.
As he walked in, Shunshi had a fourth dead ogre on his back, as well as a second burglar clenched in between his teeth. After walking into the middle of the lobby, Shunshi dropped all of the criminals and monsters he had taken down onto the floor.
Seemingly oblivious to the terrified faces of the workers at the front desk, Shunshi greeted them with a smile, "Hello, I'm a registered Hero. The name's Shunshi, and I am here to report my Hero work! I took down four Tiger Level threats and caught two C-Class criminals on the way here. Anything else I need to do now?"
One woman at the front desk, after a moment of stunned silence, replied, "You... You didn't need to bring them directly here... You just needed to leave the corpses of the monsters where you killed them for the city's cleanup crews to take care of. After that, you just had to take the criminals to jail... Then you just fill out a report here, and you're given points... Are you new to this or something, sir?"
As humiliation overcame him, Shunshi replied nervously, "Uh... Sort of... Sorry. After I fill out the report, I'll just take these crooks to jail and dispose of the monsters' bodies myself."
Having grown frustrated with the cluelessness of the young man, the front desk woman forced a smile onto her face and explained, "Just place their bodies outside and we'll call over the cleanup crews... Sir. Now, since you're already here, please fill out your report before you go."
Nodding his head in shame, Shunshi quickly did as he was asked. Just as he was about to pick up the dead monsters' bodies to remove them from the premises, suddenly, Sweet Mask walked into the building, shocking everyone in the lobby, including Shunshi.
Sweet Mask approached the awe-struck newbie, smiled, and explained to him, "I heard that you were seen heading to this city's base of operations. Shunshi, right? You're the first new A-Class Hero in six months. I came here to welcome you to the Hero Association. I'm entrusted to help oversee all matters of A and S-Class promotions and recruitment, you see? I can see that you've already started putting forth a good deal of effort into your work."
A-Class' number one then offered Shunshi a handshake, which he eagerly excepted while responding, "Th- thank you for the honor, sir! It's great to meet you in person, Sweet Mask, sir!"
Pleased by Shunshi's attitude, Sweet Mask thought to himself in a pleased tone, He seems to understand how the Hero world works much better than Genos.
Breaking off the handshake, the idol Hero told Shunshi in a friendly, yet commanding tone, "I came here to make sure that you understand my philosophy on heroism. A Hero must always be a beautiful symbol of justice. Since you're A-Class, you need to be a fine example of this!"
Overcome with excitement, Shunshi bowed to the highest-ranked A-Class Hero and happily exclaimed, "I'll do my best, Sweet Mask, sir!"
While he was bowing, Sweet Mask put his hand on Shunshi's head and told him in an almost parental tone, "I expect nothing less of you. Good luck in your future endeavors, Hero." The A-Class then left as quickly as he came, with a cool and casual strut.
As he watched Sweet Mask leave, Shunshi felt his head where Sweet Mask had placed his hand, before thinking giddily, I know I was given A-Class by mistake, but I'm glad that it gave me the chance to meet Sweet Mask!
Annoyed that Shunshi wasn't doing anything, the woman at the front desk asked him impatiently, "Can you take care of all these monsters and crooks already?!"
Flinching, Shunshi turned around and apologized, "Oh, sorry about that. I'll get right on it."
