"A runt should learn when to flee." Boros' words were hot metal in the girl's ears. His grip on her throat was crushing. "This unfounded stubbornness will be your demise!"

The hand clamped down harder. The soft flesh of her neck gave way to the alien's iron claw. She tried to gasp but her breath was caught, unable to reach her chest. The girl raised her hands, raw instinct telling her to try and scrape at Boros' arm. When her fingers touched the alien's flesh, they screamed in pain. The creature's hand was glowing white-hot with pure energy.

Boros' grip shut closed like a bear trap.

'Wait,' the girl thought. 'Not like this. Not without—'

Crunch.

Everything went black.

.

Tatsumaki snapped awake from her bed, covered in cold sweat. She raised a hand gently to her neck, feeling her pulse beat quickly against her fingertips. Her eyes darted around the dark room, inspecting the shadows for any sort of danger.

Eventually, a deep breath escaped her lips. Slowly, the initial panic left her body. There was nothing to see. The room was as empty as it always was.

Tatsumaki shook her head, trying to dispel the thin veil of dread that still wafted around in her mind.

The girl groaned as she hauled herself out of the soft sheets, turning on a soft room lamp by her bedside table with a small 'click!'

Faint as it was, the esper's eyes didn't appreciate the sudden shift out of the darkness they had gotten so used to. She winced as her pupils strained to adjust.

Waiting until the spots stopped dancing from her eyes, she stood up to grab a drink. The feeling of cold water rushing down her throat always helped her calm down. It helped to remind her that what she'd seen wasn't real.

It hadn't been the first time she had that dream.

Of the alien that nearly killed her a month ago. Of him finishing the job he could so easily have finished. No baldy. No air.

The esper left the door half-open as she stepped outside of the bedroom. The light leaked diagonally right, pooling onto a wide kitchen wall. It was relatively empty save for a white wooden table, an empty glass and a pitcher. They each reflected the dim yellow light, casting soft reflections around the room.

The girl grabbed the pitcher of water and poured it lazily into the glass.

She took a sip. And another. Eventually, she placed the cup down. It had been emptied.

Her nerves settled a little.

Tatsumaki sighed deeply and walked back into her room. She let herself fall backwards onto the bed, hearing the soft thud in her ears as she hit the blanket. She flicked a finger and the light vanished.

"Get yourself together." Her voice echoed dully around the room.

The room didn't respond, of course. All that could be heard was the soft thrum of an air conditioner. The green-haired girl groaned.

.

It had been three weeks since she'd lived in her new home.

The esper busied herself with work.

Buying furniture for her house was a given. She had been making good use of the new stores opened in the HQ, revelling in the availability and style of many of the products being offered. It was relaxing, in a way. But it didn't last too long. After meeting Sitch around two weeks ago, she discovered that S-Class heroes were entitled to free furnishing.

"Miss Tatsumaki!" the big nosed-man had come up to her as she looked for a lamp to place beside her bed. "So the rumors were right…"

"Hm?" The esper frowned. "What rumors?"

The man waved his hand in dismissal. "None that are negative, rest assured. It's just… you were informed about the S-Class home catalogue, right?"

"The what?" she asked.

Sitch brought out a thick book and handed it to her.

"You're free to choose furniture from here," he said. "And the Association will provide it for you within the day. All the cheaper items will be paid for by us, of course."

"Ah…!" The girl ruffled through a few pages. "This is kinda useful."

"Yes," Sitch said, sighing in relief. "Now there's no need to haggle with the poor staf— I mean, uhm…!"

Thankfully, the girl hadn't heard him. She showed him a page with a plain-looking lamp.

"I want this by tonight," she said, tapping her finger on the image. "Got that?"

"Y-yes, Miss!" he said. "I'll be on my way, then!"

He jogged away, shaking his head.

'Stores here don't change their prices,' he thought. 'Haggling only works in markets!'

Remarkably, as the rumors went, she'd actually gotten a few discounts. Where could she possibly have gotten the idea from?

And so the esper quickly filled her house with items. Soon, Hero Apartment 1 started to feel a little homely. Barebones, but homely. While it saved time, she quickly got bored. Loathe the esper was to admit, she quite enjoyed wasting time just looking around in the department store. It was a sort of meaningless way of keeping herself busy, but it was relaxing.

Then there were Association meetings. Busy and stressful, the stupid things were. A couple of them were S-Class meetings for those staying at HQ. Since there were only three of them for the time being — Tank Top Master, Darkshine and herself — the meetings were manageable. The S-Class heroes present, while weak, weren't the ones she hated dealing with.

It was the other ones she hated.

The twice-a-week Hero Apartment Owners' Meetings. Where updates, questions and requests from heroes were heard and answered. It would've been fine for Tatsumaki if the people were normal. Alas, she was dealing with the lower-ranked heroes here. In her (thankfully) few encounters with them, she discovered that most A-Class heroes and below always had one or two things in their heads loose.

"I kind of got one of my wings stuck inside the toilet." Butterfly DX said this at least once every meeting. One time it had even been during one, and when he had a huge mexican breakfast to boot. Why and how? The esper didn't want to know.

"I want outdoor speakers playing songs I can vibe to," Forte said loudly, nodding his head as music blasted from his headphones. "So I don't need to bring these everywhere I go."

"When will the training track be open?" Lightning Max asked. Tatsumaki knew it was already open, but only for the S-Class.

Everyone was stupid. Eccentric. Or just Butterfly DX.

And honestly, the esper would have been fine with it if it weren't for the fact that the three S-Class heroes were required to attend, too. After the Q&A ended, many of them didn't waste the opportunity to talk.

"Can I have an autograph?"

"How do you train?"

"Can everyone become an esper? How'd you get your powers?"

Disgusting. The esper usually left without a word. She was too fed up to even insult them by the end of the horrible meetings.

Media interviews were even worse. Many, many, many channels reached out to her, and, needing to clear things up, she had to accept them all. A lot of them played out the same way.

An egregious amount of praise and applause, followed by either overly-energetic handshaking, fake laughter, or flirting.

Who did they think they were?!

And then the questions came.

"How had you destroyed the ship?" they would ask.

"There was a power sphere keeping it afloat. Breaking it made the ship crash," she would reply.

"Were you able to speak to the invaders?" they asked.

"Yes," she said. "They wanted to take over the world, so they had to be beaten."

"They must have been strong to challenge you, the Association's 'final weapon!'"

"They lost. That's all there is to it."

"In the end, who saved you?"

"I don't remember," she would always say. "Fact of the matter is that I'm back now."

A bunch of pointless things she'd answered countless times. Out of respect for the baldy, she never worded it so that the one who beat the aliens was her. They would ask more questions afterwards. Some were about the state of A-City and the H.A. Headquarters — those were reasonable enough. Some, however, were a little more nosy.

"Rumors say that you currently live with the one who saved you," they would say. "Is this true?"

"Absolutely not. After I was saved, I went to look for a place to stay and recover. Alone."

"As the only person to go aboard the ship, would you say the other S-Class failed to assist you?"

"They fought down below. In the end, the aliens were beaten."

"As a new resident of the Hero Apartments, have you met any interesting up-and-coming heroes?"

"No."

Tatsumaki always left tired and angry. Gossip would circulate about her vague answers. Conspiracy theories were raised that she had kept some aliens alive to question them secretly. Whispers went about that the person who saved her was actually someone she'd fallen in love with, and was too shy to admit publicly. Some heroes would question her during other meetings, asking why she would say she was saved if her report to the Hero Association was that she had escaped alone.

"To save your sorry behinds," she would reply. "You should be thanking me instead of asking me questions."

Honestly, the whole ordeal was bothersome. The esper barely had time to herself, even on weekends. Faces blurred in and out. Meetings and interviews were blending into one another, and everything felt like it was spiralling into a huge mess. Just like Butterfly DX's wings in the toilet.

.

The soft thrumming of the air conditioner brought Tatsumaki back to her senses.

The reason she kept up with the inane activities day in and day out was the very same thing keeping her up nearly every night.

What was putting up with a few interviews and meetings if she didn't need to go out there and face monsters like Boros?

Humiliating as it was, the Hero Association's Rank 2 Hero — the final weapon of humanity against monsters and the strongest esper in the world — didn't know if she was ready for hero work again.

The girl touched her neck.

She knew that she was strong. That wasn't the problem.

The Dominator of the Universe just showed her that there were beings that were beyond strength.

Real monsters.

The girl pulled the sheets over herself.

Of course, she knew that a hero existed that was capable of beating even those creatures. She discovered him right after meeting Boros.

The baldy was strong. Absurdly strong.

And that very same power was exactly why she didn't want to rely on him. She wouldn't just meekly depend on someone because he beat a monster for her. Nor would she expect him to want to be depended on in the first place. Genos was more than a handful already.

No. She had to face her problems by herself. She would do hero work. Tomorrow. Without the baldy.

Tatsumaki pulled the sheets down in frustration. Her eyes, having adjusted to the darkness, fell on a stack of books beneath her lamp. She hadn't returned the baldy's manga yet.

Okay. She'd do it alone, then maybe drop by his house afterwards.

Just maybe.

.

.

Here's the traditional (or so I've decided) prologue to Part 2! I want things to ramp up a little (both plot-wise and relationship-wise), but it'll take a while before I feel that I can write anything cool. Season 2 is kind of crazy, and it'll take everything for my small brain to figure it out. I just wanted to write this as a heads-up that, yes, I have plans. Not even I was satisfied with just a hug, you know?!

Stay warm y'all! (And please be patient with me ;-;)

-bb