Chapter 2: The Strongest Meeting
Turning around, King picked up his cap, dusting it off once more. Looking up, he noticed someone.
"S-Class Hero, Genos?"
From the crowd, Genos walked out.
"S-Class Hero, King. I see you've dealt with the threat." Genos looked over at the remains of G4. Aside from its crushed head and malformed armor, it seemed to still be salvageable. "If you don't mind, could I salvage the remains of the battle robot?"
"The remains? Yeah, sure. I don't have a use for them anyway, and they'd probably just be removed by the cleanup crew after this. You can take them to improve your own parts, or whatever it is you'll use it for."
"You have my gratitude, King." Genos nodded.
"Hey, uh..." From beside Genos, Saitama was holding the large crown that King threw behind him earlier.
"You threw this earlier, do you still..." Saitama looked at the large crown, his eyes practically flashing yen signs. "...Want this?"
"Hm?" King looked at the crown. "No, not really. You can keep it if you'd like."
"Wait, for real?!" Saitama looked up at King.
"Yeah, sure. I don't need it, neither does it fit me, anyway." King said. "Sell it, keep it, do whatever you want with it."
"T-Thanks," Saitama said, his eyes practically glued to the crown. "I can do whatever I want with it... whatever I want..."
"Anyway, I'll be going now."
"Wait," Genos said suddenly. "The chassis of the robot still seems to be emitting a powerful energy signature."
As Genos said that, the torso of the robot erupted, a smaller humanoid robot exiting from the larger robot.
"The pilot? Or... its real form?" Genos wondered aloud.
The smaller robot's parts then split open, revealing a multitude of laser weaponry.
"Everyone, get back!" Genos warned the civilians.
"No need." Before Genos even noticed that King had moved, the smaller robot suddenly stopped moving, as it was suddenly bisected at the torso and the head. King was behind it, dusting his hands off.
"Woah, that's amazing!" "King defeated the robot before it even did anything!" "When did he move? That was so fast!"
"I kept the damage to a minimum, this time. I hope that won't affect the usability of its parts?"
"It won't. That was spectacular, King." Genos said. "Even with the high-tech sensors that Dr. Kuseno had installed for me... I couldn't see him move at all."
"His speed... it's almost comparable to Master Saitama's..."
Genos looked at the smaller robot's remains. "The cut is clean, as though he used a blade of some kind, but King is clearly unarmed right now... does he have hidden weapons on him?"
"Well, if that's everything, I'll be going, now." As King said that, he turned around to leave.
"That was so cool!" "King didn't even look fazed when he fought the robot!" "Fought? It was more like a petty distraction for him! He barely needed to do anything to defeat it, at all!"
Slowly, the crowd dispersed, getting back to their business, though they were clearly chatting about King as they left.
Genos approached the remains of the large robot, scanning it. After a while, Genos shook his head disappointedly. "The larger robot seems to just be a chassis for the smaller unit inside it to pilot. They're powerful, but nothing impressive. Its parts are of no use to me."
Turning to look at the smaller unit, Genos scanned it. "The smaller unit's parts seem more promising... they might prove useful for upgrading myself."
"I apologize for this, master, but I'll take these robot parts to Dr. Kuseno's lab. I'll drop off your groceries first, master." Genos bowed towards his bald master.
"Alright, that's fine," Saitama said, still looking at the large crown in his hands. Genos opened a compartment on his arm, which opened up to reveal the rubbish bag compartment he requested Dr. Kuseno install for him to help Master Saitama deal with his daily chores. Taking one out, he stored the important parts of the smaller robot in a rubbish bag, with his other hand carrying Saitama's groceries, and ran off.
"Well then..." Saitama then looked at the large crown in his hands, his face reflecting off its surface.
[King's Apartment...]
"Tsk. That damn robot ruined my mood." King said, sighing. Looking at his messy apartment, King snapped his fingers.
As he did that, King's once-messy apartment cleaned itself up, everything going back to its original place.
"Now then..." King looked at his TV. Opening the new Doki-Doki Sisters limited-edition release, King placed it in his console, and the opening started.
"Romance games are my oasis. No need to bother with the annoying monsters." Listening to the opening, King's mood was lifted. "They sure put a lot of effort into the opening..."
"I'm so excited!"
"Wake up, big boy, it's morning!"
"What's with that voice actress? What stiff acting!" King complained.
The naming screen popped up. "I need to name the player character? Hmm, my real name would be embarrassing... after all, I'm 29!" King said to himself. "Hmm... Let's see..."
"Just use King." A voice suddenly popped up from behind.
"No, not a hero name... If someone called me 'Big Boy King', I would die from-"
Huh?
"Uh, um... whuh? What's this guy... doing here?" King was puzzled at the sudden appearance of this man. Wasn't this the guy that took the crown he threw behind him when he was fighting that robot? How did he even get in here?
"Your window was open." As if hearing King's mental question, Saitama answered how he got in.
"This is the 22nd floor." King deadpanned.
"...Um, did you need something?" King asked Saitama.
"No, I just wanted to thank you for giving me that crown," Saitama said. "I took it to a nearby pawnshop, and the guy said it was worth about 8 million yen."
"He then tried to haggle it down, so I ended up selling it to him for 7.2 million yen, instead."
"He paid me in cash, so here's half," Saitama said, taking out a large wad of cash. "I know you gave me that crown and all, but still, for that much money, I can't exactly take all of it." Despite being the one to hand him the cash, Saitama's face was the epitome of reluctance, as he stared at the cash in his hands.
"Oh, that. Just keep it, I don't need it. I already gave you the crown, anyway. I expected you to have kept all the money to yourself in the first place." King waved the wads of cash away. With his S-Class Hero status, he was basically given a king's ransom every month to do nothing. And if he happened to defeat a slightly more powerful monster, he'd get a bonus. Money was of no object to him.
"S-seriously? You don't want the money?!" Saitama looked up once more, his eyes gleaming with hope and greed (mostly greed).
"Yeah, just keep it."
"Thanks!" Saitama then pocketed the money, his face beaming with happiness. "I'm splurging on hotpot tonight."
"Well, even if you don't want the money, I figured I should give you something in return for that crown." Saitama then took out a banana from his grocery bag. "Here, have a banana."
"Err... Thanks, I guess?" King said, taking the banana from Saitama. "Also, how did you even get in here?"
"I just said; your window was open."
"...Let me get this straight. You got into my apartment on the 22nd floor, through... my window?"
"Yeah."
"Did he... jump all the way up here from the bottom floor or something?" King thought. "Who is this guy? Also, he seems a little familiar. He was beside Genos just now, right?"
"Hey, wait, this is that B-Class hero at that Class-S meeting!" King then realized who this fellow was. "He was also with Genos at the time, wasn't he? Is he friends with Genos?"
"...I'm surprised you play games like this." Saitama stared at the TV screen.
"Hey, big boy, choose a name!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAH!" King screamed, realizing that the one secret he kept from everyone he knew, was now open bare to this fellow.
"Hmm? What's this game? It looks fun." Saitama said, picking up another game from the floor.
"No, please- huh?! That's an action game!" King realized what game he was holding. It was a side-scroller shooter game, where he controlled a mecha.
"Robots and stuff?" Saitama asked.
"Yes, yes!" King nodded vigorously, finding a way to change the subject. "I love action games, after all! RPG games, Adventure, FPS, I love all kinds of action-type games!" King said frantically.
"But you like dating games as well?" Saitama questioned, pointing at the TV screen which showed an... action game? "Huh, where'd that dating simulator go?"
"Huh? What dating simulator?" King tried to act dumb. "It must be your imagination!"
"Strange, I could've sworn it was a dating game..." Saitama placed his hand on his chin in contemplation, before deciding not to think too much about it. "Meh, maybe I was just seeing things. Let's play that one, instead."
"Good idea, let's play this one!" King said in relief, his secret was hidden. Then something else hit him.
"Huh? You wanna play this?"
"Hmm? Can't I? You've got time, right?"
"Well... I mean..."
"What's with this guy? I let him keep that crown from the robot earlier, and he came into my apartment to give me half of the money he sold it for, and after I refused it, he just offered me a banana! Why's he being so pushy and casual?! Doesn't he know he's trespassing right now?!" King thought.
After a few seconds, King sighed. "Yeah, sure. Why not?"
[Dr. Kuseno's laboratory...]
"Dr. Kuseno, these are the remains of a powerful robot named G4. It was incredibly intelligent, and extremely powerful, as well." Genos said, opening the rubbish bag, pouring out the parts he took from G4.
"T-These parts... Genos, where did you them from?"
"It claimed to have come from the Organization and wanted to assess its battle strength by fighting another S-Class Hero, King. However, it was quickly taken care of by him." Genos answered.
"King, The Strongest Man On Earth..." Dr. Kuseno said, deep in thought. "Very well, I'll use these parts to upgrade you. You still have room for improvement!"
"Still, even though you didn't actually fight it, you shouldn't push yourself too hard to get stronger." Dr. Kuseno remarked. "If you had to fight it instead of King, who knows what kind of damage you would have sustained."
"No, I would have preferred to fight it instead of King. It would've been necessary. I have to rank in the top ten S-Class heroes." Genos answered determinedly.
"I thought you would say that." Dr. Kuseno sighed, knowing where this was coming from. "Your master assigned you a reckless task."
"You mention him a lot, so I want to meet him. Bring him here if possible." Dr. Kuseno said.
"To the laboratory? Is that okay?" Genos asked.
"Of course. If he's your master, he shouldn't be hostile towards us."
"But more importantly... Genos, have you found any leads to the cyborg that destroyed your home?" Dr. Kuseno asked out of the blue. "You've been focusing on your hero activities."
"...I have been unable to track it."
"I see."
"But, whatever happens, I will find that cyborg... and destroy it with my own hands!"
"...Even after finding a master and becoming a hero, his hatred has not faded." Dr. Kuseno said mentally. "Genos, I'm worried."
"I've pursued that cyborg longer than you... and I know how dangerous it is."
"If you find it, do not be rash. Instead, report to me." Dr. Kuseno advised. "You are calm and intelligent, but youth can invite disaster. Do not fight it alone."
"Dr. Kuseno... I understand that this is our fight."
"This cyborg has taken many lives. We will not let it live."
[King's Apartment...]
"Wow, you're good at video games!" Saitama said, looking at King's gameplay, impressed.
"Yeah... I won a lot of game tournaments in the past." King said, sipping from a juice box. "...How long is he going to stay?"
"You're strong in real life, and take first place in games, too!"
"By the way, what was that you did to the robot, by the way?" Saitama asked. "When you just told it to kneel and it ended up kneeling? It even destroyed the roads it was under."
"Oh, that? It's just an ability I had since I was young. To me, it was as instinctual as breathing or blinking. Heck, I knew how to use it before I learned how to walk."
"Woah, that must've been pretty awesome as a kid, you didn't even need to get up to get the remote." Saitama joked.
"Yeah, speaking of, I didn't even need to use the remote at all, once I found out I could just change the channels with my ability." King reminisced, smiling. "Man, that sure brings back memories."
"I don't even need to voice it out to make things happen. Look." King open a free hand, and his fridge opened by itself, another juice box floating towards his hand. "I just need to think it, and it'll happen."
"Huh, that's pretty convenient," Saitama remarked. "Must be nice, not needing to move to get things."
"Well, it's not all-powerful. It has a limited range, but within that range, I can essentially do whatever I want," King said. "Like that juice box floating towards me, stopping a car in its tracks so it doesn't hit another car..."
"...Or kill a monster."
"Wow. Is that your only ability, though?" Saitama asked. "Seems like a useful power, but as you're known as 'The Strongest Man On Earth', I thought you would've been able to shoot lasers or something."
"Well, I could do that if I wanted to. I have some other powers and skills at my disposal, but I use this power because it's the easiest for me to deal with monsters. I literally don't have to lift a finger." King remarked. "Not to mention, shooting lasers or energy beams sounds cool and all, but the novelty wears off after a while. Also, it's more efficient to just punch something rather than shoot a beam of energy at it."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. A beam of energy loses more heat to the surroundings compared to just punching something. Say, about less than 1% of the energy of a punch gets lost to the surroundings in the form of heat from the friction between your arm and the air, beam attacks would lose a good 5-10% of the energy to the surroundings in the form of heat alone."
"If you had to use energy attacks, the most efficient method of attack would be using spheres of energy, as they don't lose as much energy compared to beam attacks as they have less surface area to lose energy. Even then, just punching and kicking the enemy is a lot easier, and a lot more effective, as well."
"The only time using energy attacks would be useful is if you want to be surgically precise with your attacks, like in an all-out brawl between some heroes and monsters, I can accurately control the energy attacks to only kill the monsters without harming the heroes nearby."
"Hey, wait a minute." King thought.
"I've been talking to this guy for a while now, and I revealed quite a few things I wouldn't usually reveal, even to other heroes! Why did I just outright tell this guy my ability? I've even been going on and on about the inefficiency of energy attacks and their limited uses to him! And not to mention... how much longer is he going to stay?!"
"Oh, okay. Anyway, I've been here for a while now, so I'm leaving." Saitama said.
"Finally! He's leaving..." King was elated at the thought of the sudden visitor leaving, so he could finally enjoy his Doki-Doki Sisters in peace-
King got up all of a sudden, extended his arm, and-
"Stop."
Glancing outside to see what King was aiming for, Saitama saw-
"Whoa. It flew straight for your place, huh?" Looking at the massive bird just outside of King's apartment, the interesting thing was how the bird was literally frozen in place. It wasn't hovering or anything, no. It was literally frozen in place like if someone pressed pause on it. Though, if you looked closely, you could see it slightly trembling as it was held in place via unseen forces.
"Huh, it's like you attract monsters or something," Saitama said, impressed. "Even I don't see this many monsters on a daily basis."
Though as he took a closer look, Saitama noticed that King looked a little different from earlier. If he had to put his finger on it, he had to say...
King looked pissed.
"...I know damn well how all the monsters seem to be attracted to me..." King said, staring at the bird, his expression the epitome of annoyance. The King Engine was beating. He was out for blood.
"But still..."
"I really want to..."
"QUIT BEING A HERO!" King yelled out, and with a snap of his fingers, the massive bird outside suddenly started flaking away, disappearing into nothingness.
"Woah, that's pretty cool. Why didn't you do that for the robot-" Saitama asked, then noticed King kneeling on the floor.
"It's the third time today, the fifteenth time this week... I just want to play my games and live my life in peace... I didn't even ask for my hero position..." King said, depressed. "Even if I don't do anything, monsters pop up and I have to kill them..."
"Most of the time, I didn't even need to be there! Someone else always got to them before me!"
"Why can't someone else just take my position...?" King said, crocodile tears leaking from his eyes.
"You're so strong you just see monsters as another everyday nuisance, huh..." Saitama said, a look of understanding in his eyes. "I can relate. I even knew one guy that had the same problems, as well. He kinda looked like you, now that I think about it."
"Huh? What do you mean?" King said before something else clicked in his brain. "Hold on, his voice is... kind of familiar..."
[Flashback, 1 and a half years ago...]
"Ahhhh! A monster!"
"Run! Ruuuun!"
"It's threat-level is Tiger! It's Octoclaw Man!" The civilians ran away in terror, the Tiger-level threat chasing them down.
"Tsk, what a pain..." A younger King looked up from his manga. "Just when it was getting good, too..."
Watching the monster get closer to him without a hint of fear, King simply looked at it with boredom. "Well, then. Dis-" King raised his hand to erase the creature from existence, but suddenly, someone wearing a tracksuit jumped into the fray, punching the monster.
The monster roared in pain, swiping at the unknown assailant, wounding him.
King watched the fight continue with that fellow's overwhelming victory, the last punch striking the monster into the ground, causing a large crater.
"Huff...Puff... Heh, I beat it." The man in the blue tracksuit said with a smile on his face.
"Hey, that was a pretty good fight," King said, walking towards the man wearing the blue tracksuit. "Looks like you took quite the beating, though."
"Oh, hey, you didn't evacuate?" The man in the blue tracksuit said, surprised that someone was still here after it was announced that there was a monster in the area... just a few meters away from him, as well.
"Nope. Anyway, why'd you go and pick a fight with it? Are you a hero?" King asked. He didn't look like any hero he recognized in the Hero Registry...
"Yep, an up-and-coming one. If you see a hero rising, that'd probably be me." He said confidently.
"I see. Do you need some medical attention? Those cuts look pretty deep." King said, preparing to heal this man if need be. He looked like he was about to bleed out at any moment, judging by the amount of blood he was losing.
"These? They're just mere scratches." The man smiled again. "Today was a great victory!"
"Hmm..." King didn't heal him in the end. If he said it was fine, then he wasn't going to bother. Still, to need to struggle for victory, to need to work through the pain and fight tooth and nail in order to win...
...It was something he'd never felt before.
A stray claw flew towards King while he was distracted, cutting him, barely missing his eye. Octoclaw Man wasn't dead yet.
"Shit, this bastard's not dead yet! Stay down already, you-"
"Wait, there's no need for you to exert yourself. Disappear." King said, making Octoclaw Man simply flake away into nothingness.
"Whoa, you could do that from the start? Why didn't you do that?" The man wearing the tracksuit said, not expecting King to have that power.
"Well, I was about to, but then you stepped in to fight it, so I didn't bother."
"Also, it's just another nuisance. Whether it died from me or you, it doesn't matter to me anyway. If it's dead, it's dead." King said, moving his hand up to his eye to heal the scar... but stopped.
"Hey, you should get that looked at. It didn't cut your eye, but still..."
"It's fine. I can heal it any time I want. I'll keep it as a lesson so I'm not as careless next time." King said, shrugging off the wound on his left eye. "Still, you're a pretty interesting guy. What's your name?"
"Oh, me? I'm-"
[Flashback End...]
"...Saitama?"
"Huh? How do you know my name? I never introduced myself, though?"
...
...
...
"Oh, so you actually WERE that guy from back then... Makes sense, I guess. You didn't really change all that much. I guess you really kept that scar, huh?" Saitama asked.
"Yeah. I didn't recognize you at first, since you lost all your hair since then..." Saitama visibly flinched from that statement, but King continued. "...but anyway, how are you still a B-Class hero? Shouldn't you have ranked up a little more since then?"
"Well, this is embarrassing, but I only joined the Heroes Association recently... I wasn't registered beforehand."
"Ah, so that's why..." King said, now realizing that he didn't state his rank and hero name at the time. He would've gotten points for defeating the monster if he had declared who he was so the public could list him as the one that saved them, after all. Thinking about it, he did act more like an unregistered hero instead of the other fame-seeking ranked heroes of the time, as well.
"Anyway, I need to get going. I have to prepare lunch." Saitama said, preparing to hop out the balcony of King's apartment.
"Wait, from what I remember, your strength is deserving of at least A-Class if not higher way back then, you should've grown a lot stronger from then. If you'd like, I can talk to the Heroes Association officials and have them re-rank you if you want. You're wasting away your strength if you just stay in B-Class."
"Nah, there's no need. I'll climb up naturally on my own." Saitama said, grabbing his groceries and jumped off the balcony. "I'll come back to visit sometime to play video games."
Watching Saitama jump off the ledge of his balcony with ease got King thinking. "The last time I saw him, he was strong enough to take down a Tiger-level threat on his own. That would be enough to place him in A-Class already. What about now? He got in through the window of a 22nd-floor apartment, and he just jumped off the building without a single worry..."
"I wonder... how strong is he now?"