Whew. I'm really sorry for the slow update this time. I had a lot of things to do, so this chapter ended up taking a little longer than I expected. Anyways, enjoy!

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Saitama jumped in surprise as Tatsumaki sat up in front of him, almost dropping the manga he was reading. It was a classic horror story — he'd gotten very invested — and the esper's sudden movement caused his heart to skip a beat.

As the esper in question slowly looked around — clearly not a threat — Saitama calmed down and picked up where he left off. He wanted nothing to do with the spiral-haired girl at the moment. Based on his manga, spirals weren't to be trusted.

Tatsumaki scanned the room groggily. It seemed she was currently in an apartment. A tiny one, even for her standards. The room she was currently in was around five-by-five meters large, and was filled all around with shelves, mats, and tables — all cramped and small. A single glass window-slash-door was providing the lighting for the room. At least that was big.

Judging from the light streaming from the window, it appeared to be around seven in the evening — the orange hues of the setting sun bathed the room in a bright glow.

The thin mat under the esper felt quite warm, too — she guessed that she'd been asleep for quite a while. Something was odd, though. Her body felt heavier than usual.

Looking down, Tatsumaki realized her legs and arms were wrapped tightly in bandages. A new piece of cloth was on her head, too.

Still quite lethargic, the esper frowned. She didn't know where the hell she was.

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'You can stay with us for a bit.'

Tatsumaki's eyes widened.

"You… I…" the girl sputtered, facing the bald man. She felt lightheaded again, and the way she spoke definitely showed it. "I told you… I didn't need you to… coddle me."

Saitama was still reading. He'd changed from his hero outfit to a plain white t-shirt and black shorts. "You were bleeding all over. I had to replace your headband on the way here."

"I was fine," the girl insisted.

"And now you're better than fine," the bald man said.

"… Geh."

Tatsumaki dropped the matter and laid back down. She didn't want to admit that was relieved to have her injuries tended to. Keeping an upright sitting position was also embarrassingly difficult for the esper at the moment.

"I suppose you want me to report your victory against the alien in exchange for me staying here," Tatsumaki blurted.

The bald man looked up over his manga. Was that her way of making small talk?

"You mean Boros? Not really," he started. "It's kinda embarrassing how late I was. I'd feel bad if I took credit when you fought him first."

"Mmm. So… you're looking for money, then?" Tatsumaki raised an eyebrow. Saitama put the book down.

"About that," Saitama said, pulling his collar. "Rent's already kinda being paid for — and then some — by Genos. There's really no need. I told you earlier, but you fell asleep, I think."

The esper's eyes narrowed. What did the man want, then? Not money, not recognition… maybe — no… he couldn't, right? Tatsumaki turned over to look at him.

"Are you a lolicon…?"

"Hu—gbh!" Saitama almost choked on his own spit. "A kid like you isn't supposed to know that word!"

"I'm not a kid, answer my question!"

"Like hell you aren't — look how small you are!"

Tatsumaki's left eye twitched.

"How old are you then, baldy?!" she asked him.

"Twenty-five, why?"

"I'm older than you!"

"Pfft, no way!" Saitama stood up, quickly stepped around the esper, and started up his laptop. There was a hero registry website, he remembered. There was no way the esper would be able to lie about her legal information there, right?

"Dig… dig your own grave," Tatsumaki said, breathing heavily as she turned over to face him. The esper had already tired herself out.

A few seconds, a few mouse clicks, and a few scrolled pages later, and Saitama looked over to her in disbelief. Her face was smug. As smug as an injured esper could be, that is.

"You're twenty-eight?! But you're a midget!"

"Exact—" The esper sat up, pain seemingly not a problem anymore. "HEY!"

Before the two could escalate into another full-blown argument, the door swung open with a bang.

"Sensei, I heard a—!" Genos said, eyes scanning the room for danger. They landed on the green-haired girl and he sighed in relief.

"Oh, it's just you," he said. The cyborg had almost forgotten the esper was there. He walked inside, carefully putting his shoes near the doorway. It was quite difficult, since he was carrying a paper bag in his arms.

"What do you mean… 'just me?'" the esper frowned, turning to look at the cyborg.

Genos walked into the kitchen and spoke to the esper through the kitchen pass-through, bringing out two cartons of eggs inside the paper bag. "Since you obviously cannot use your psychic abilities at the moment," the cyborg said, taking an egg and inspecting it. "You are unable to harm sensei."

"Tch." The green-haired girl clicked her tongue. First, a B-Class nobody had somehow saved her, and now a rookie S-Class was calling her powerless? She couldn't say anything since it was true at the moment, but it pissed her off, either way. "I'd crush you in two seconds by tomorrow."

"Just try it, brat," growled Genos. Saitama quickly stood up in between the esper and cyborg.

"Hey, hey, hey — you know what? We should all just stop fighting," Saitama said, walking over to Genos. His disciple had just discarded three 'flawed' eggs and was now inspecting a fourth one closely.

"Tatsu-whatsit, you should thank Genos!" Saitama said. "He patched you up pretty well — and bought us eggs right after, too." Saitama picked one up and showed it to the esper. He handed it to the cyborg afterwards.

"Eh?" Tatsumaki said. Still leaning on one arm, the esper looked down at her bandages. They certainly were more well-done than what the baldy seemed to be capable of. But she couldn't bring herself to thank the cyborg. "Good job, I guess."

"It was not for your sake," Genos said, cracking the egg his sensei gave him into a bowl. "You're lucky master is as thoughtful as he is."

"Whatever," Tatsumaki said, lying back down. "I won't be here for long."

As the two began to prepare a meal, the esper closed her eyes. Z-City was admittedly a very lucky place to be staying in for the time being. Her sister probably wouldn't think to look for her in such a remote town — and that was already enough to make it excellent in the green-haired esper's eyes.

Z-City was also perfect when it came to avoiding the Hero Association.

The girl knew that the H.A. was still hesitant to send heroes to Z-City due to the rumors about its dangerous ghost town. Even if they planned to search around, they would probably need a few weeks to prepare since the press was nosing about in every single action they made. All in all, Tatsumaki concluded, the city was not a bad spot to be alone and recover.

That is, if one didn't consider the two very odd heroes looking after her.

Despite his attitude, the cyborg Genos was the least difficult to pin down. His goals were so simple it was almost funny: follow master, obey master, blah, blah, blah. His single-minded ideals were annoying, but not enough to make the esper want to leave.

Then there was him. She didn't quite remember his name — 'something to do with 'tama,' maybe?' — but the bald hero seemed off, somehow. There was no way he didn't want anything in exchange for her staying there, try as he might to hide it.

Tatsumaki decided, one way or another, she would find out.

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"Dinner," Saitama announced dramatically. "Is served!"

He placed three bowls of scrambled eggs on rice, still steaming from the pan. Genos soon followed, bringing out a shredded seaweed shaker and Japanese mayonnaise from the fridge. The baldy spread the bowls around on the apartment's small center table and handed out a pair of chopsticks to each of them, and the cyborg placed the condiments at the center of the table.

Tatsumaki sat herself up, smelling the newly cooked food.

She sprinkled some nori and mayo on the piping-hot bowl and dug in.

It was… quite good. The rice paired perfectly with the nori, and the scrambled eggs practically melted in her mouth — the added flavors of the mayo enhanced the flavor even further. It was a simple meal, but she couldn't stop herself from eating bite after bite.

The esper didn't realize how hungry she was.

It had been almost half a day since her last meal, not to mention she'd just strained herself more in that half a day than she had in most of her life. She half-wanted to just pick the bowl up, raise it over her mouth and let gravity do the work.

Saitama looked at her smugly.

"You like it, huh?" he asked.

"Huh? Of course not!" Tatsumaki was naturally inclined to deny anything anyone assumed of her. "I'm just hungry."

"But you're smiling."

The esper quickly covered her mouth.

"I am not!" the esper huffed. "The food was so hot — my mouth did that by itself."

The bald man wasn't convinced, but didn't bother to push the esper further. She wasn't the only hungry one in that apartment, after all. Carrying an esper for miles was busy work.

The three heroes ate on in silence, speaking only to ask for the condiments to be passed around. Eventually, the sun dipped below the horizon, and Genos promptly stood to turn on the lights. As he sat back down and continued his bowl, Tatsumaki absentmindedly wondered why a cyborg needed to eat.

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A few minutes and a little condiment-sharing later, and the three heroes were left with empty plates and full stomachs. Saitama stretched and burped loudly.

"Ahh," the bald man said, patting his belly. He gave Genos a thumbs-up. "That. Was good."

"I'm glad my performance was adequate, sensei," Genos said. He picked up the three empty bowls and brought them into the kitchen to wash.

Tatsumaki laid back down on her futon, watching as the young cyborg dutifully rinsed their dinner glassware. She turned her head, wondering if the baldy would also help out.

Nope. Saitama was sitting in the corner. He had begun to read his manga again.

Tatsumaki shrugged to herself. If the cyborg was really the baldy's disciple, then it was no surprise who did the work at home. It was odd, though, now that she thought about it. A B-Class being the master of an S-Class.

'Hmm…'

Something didn't sit right with the esper — and it definitely wasn't the eggs she just had

There was something really off-putting about the baldy, and Tatsumaki tried to put the pieces together as to why. She saw him being all chummy with Silverfang just the day before. He had attended an S-Class meeting unannounced — and was apparently having his rent paid for by a famous rookie hero to boot. The man was a walking S-Class hero magnet — a huge outlier in the hero world — and it felt much too devious for the girl's liking. There was something there that the esper was just not seeing.

"Hey, baldy," Tatsumaki began, managing to prop herself up. The baldy in question looked up from his manga, staring dubiously at the esper's hair again. The esper couldn't help but wonder what he was reading.

"The name's Saitama," he said, cutting her train of thought. "What do you want?"

"What's the deal here?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, the deal." Tatsumaki said. "Why the cyborg's your disciple. Why Silverfang likes you. What did you do to get them to like you?"

"Uhh, nothing?"

Tatsumaki didn't buy it.

"Did you… save them or something?" she asked, slowly realizing what was happening.

"Hmm," Saitama placed a finger on his chin. The name Silverfang didn't ring a bell. Maybe he was one of the heroes that fought the Deep Sea whatchamacallit. "I think so, why?"

"If you're thinking of getting me to follow you around just because you… urgh… 'saved' me, you can just drop it right now." the esper said accusingly.

"What're you talking about?" the baldy said, putting his manga down. "I'm not asking you to do anything."

"You don't need to keep up the 'I'm so honorable' charade, baldy," Tatsumaki was sick and tired of hearing it. "You're a B-Class nobody, and I'm Class S rank 2. I have connections. I have money. You brought me here, injured. What do you want?"

Of course, no matter what the B-Class asked for, she wouldn't give it to him. Tatsumaki simply loathed talking to fakes. The sooner the esper was able to ascertain his desires, the sooner she would have peace of mind. And the sooner she could remove the nagging feeling in her head that she could actually trust him.

Waiting for an answer, the esper turned her emerald eyes to Genos. The cyborg's dish-washing had considerably slowed as the conversation continued, Tatsumaki noticed. Genos' head was turned up, listening intently. The kid seemed to really trust his sensei. Maybe the bald man's answer would change that.

"What do I want, huh?" Saitama said, eyes turned to the ceiling.

Soon, all ears were on the baldy. Thinking for a moment, he rubbed his chin with his pointer and thumb.

"Ah!" He nodded, smacking the side of his fist on his palm. "I have it!"

"What?" Tatsumaki asked.

"Hmm… You have psychic powers right?" the bald man asked. There was an ominous glint in his eyes.

The esper nodded tiredly

'Tch. How typical.'

"Then," he said, standing up. He walked over to the desk, rummaging around through some neatly stacked papers. As he stumbled around, Tatsumaki caught a glimpse of his Association papers, some receipts, and a very harshly-worded hate letter written in red ink. His hand lingered over the letter for longer than usual. Was he targeting someone?

A few moments passed as Saitama searched about.

"Ah, found it!" he exclaimed. "Okay hear me out…"

'Here it comes.' Tatsumaki rolled her eyes.

"Come grocery shopping with me tomorrow!"

Saitama proudly held out a flyer for a sale — "This Weekend Only! 40% off on Vegetables and Dairy!"

Huh?

The green-eyed esper tried her best not to laugh.

"G-grocery shopping?! Pfft—!" She managed to contain herself, half out of stubbornness and half out of care for her injured ribs. It came off as a very soft-sounding scoff. "That's it?!"

"Hey, it's not just normal shopping!" Saitama said defensively. "Forty percent is basically half-off! We'd make a steal here!"

"That's so stupid!" Tatsumaki said, lying back down. Even if she hadn't laughed, her chest still hurt trying to stifle it. "I can't even lift that stupid flier you're holding right now! What, were you gonna make me float a bunch of veggies into your shopping basket?"

"I was, uhh, thinking more on milk," the baldy looked disappointed.

On the contrary, the esper's dark mood had completely vanished.

"Sensei, I will go with you!" The cyborg volunteered, splashing soap-water around the kitchen. Saitama waved his hand.

"Nah, don't worry about it," he said, sitting down and picking his manga back up. "It was just a dumb idea."

As the baldy started reading and the cyborg finished up the dishes, the esper stared at the ceiling, thinking.

Soon the apartment was dipped in a comfortable silence; the buzz of an electric fan was the only sound in the house. Once in a while, a page flipped and Saitama muttered under his breath.

Tatsumaki usually hated sleeping in new places. She found foreign beds horrible — and sleeping with company was even worse.

But in that cramped apartment, on the thinnest futon she'd ever seen, and in the presence of two almost complete strangers, the green-haired esper slept soundly..