Jesus, it's been a while. Yet, my story has so many favorites and follows. I feel sort of like a betrayer for not posting for nearly a whole year, but...I think it's safe to say that I'm back. I'll hopefully have more to say at the bottom and in the next chapter, so enjoy reading!

Actions/Misc

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

Saitama scratched at his scalp, giving out a short yawn. He was watching the television, staring at the flashing colours passing by with a bored expression. He leaned back against the wall. "Say," He looked out of the living room towards the kitchen, where there was visible steam floating out. The distinct smell of eggs was in the air. "When's that food gonna be ready?"

"Soon enough. And, couldn't you just try to sound the tiniest bit enthusiastic? I bet all you eat is super-simple dishes, so be grateful I'm even making something for you!" Mu's trademark overconfident tone echoed through the small apartment in response. This left Saitama scratching at his shirt this time.

'She's pretty amped up for something as simple as scrambled eggs…' Saitama thought, with another yawn escaping his lips.

"Can't blame me for being hungry." Came Saitama's reply. He promptly turned his attention back to the television. The channel changed from the continuously running cartoons to the news, causing Saitama to hum. He was about to change the channel before Mu came in with two plates of food, both scrambled eggs with some sort of fancy seasoning and pieces of a pretty delicious looking meat mixed in. "Oh. Thanks, I guess." He took the plate and began to eat, turning attention away from Mu to stare straight at the television again. Mu just huffed in response before going to eating her own plate.

"I was thinking…" Saitama looked up and over to the short-haired girl. "We'll start the whole training thing tomorrow. After fighting that Carnage Kabuto guy, I'm kinda done with monsters for a while, so I might as well find something else to do." These words brought a smile to Mu's face, but she couldn't help but feel annoyed that the beginning of her training was just an afterthought to him.

"Great! This means I get a chance to show you just what this form is made of." Her ominous words and stare were completely missed by the bald man, who gave a small,

"Hm." Before going back to what he was originally doing. She watched him closely as he moved his gaze away from her to look on the news that was on.

'Saitama always looks so unmotivated…' She was now back to her plate, finally meditating on the one thought that had been bugging her most about the bald man. 'I've seen him look serious, maybe get angry, a little impatient, but never anything more than that. Not unless he's talking about fighting a potentially strong opponent. I wonder if he was always like this…' Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of cracking that suddenly erupted, Mu's eyes immediately tracking the source – Saitama's hands. His chopsticks were cracked in half, held tightly in his fingers.

"What's wrong, now? Another random vision of the future about ass pains? You're not going to jail any time soon, you know?" She reminded with an exasperated voice. Instead of giving a reply, Saitama simply stood and walked towards the apartment door with his plate already empty.

"I'm going out for a while. Watch the apartment." Was all that she was would get out of him, before Saitama just left.

'The heck happened to him…?' Her head turned towards the television. What she saw made her eyes widen – and made a large laugh escape from her lips. 'He got pissed over something as small as this? He's still a little bit human, after all.'

On the television were artist renditions of a group of bald criminals, all wearing stupid looking black suits that had a flame symbol on them. There was large text at the top of the screen that read:

"If you see any of these men while at large, please do not approach them, and call your local authorities."

Mu looked down at the floor, her laugh slowly dying out and turning into a sigh. "More human than me, at least…" Her hands fell from the table and instead took up the space in her lap.

While she wasn't a monster anymore, not in form, anyways, Mu still clearly felt it some nights. The innocent blood she had shed during her short reign as a monster in the outside world. Screams of people, and buildings destroyed. If Saitama hadn't been there to stop her, she might've gone further – crossed a line that should never have been crossed. A line that she never set out to cross. Just because Genus had erased her mind and sent her out with orders to go wild – could she really be innocent? Even if it wasn't her mind, it was her body, and her abilities that had gone wild. Maybe if she had just died from Carnage Kabuto's first rampage, or if Saitama had chosen to kill her just then…

With a final sigh, she got up from the table and headed for the door. She had to get her mind off of those thoughts. There was something more important to do in Saitama's absence.

It was time for a visit to the doctor.

"Can't believe that guy was trying to play rock paper scissors with a booger on his finger. First the subterranean dream, and then that…? It's like my own mind's out to get me. More successfully than anything else can do it, too." Saitama mumbled, while walking through the empty inner limits of City F and into the forest that melded into the cityscape. It was quiet, much quieter than when he had initially come speeding (speedwalking) in and gotten called a terrorist by every person that saw him.

Lost in his thoughts as usual, Saitama didn't notice when a giant figure was looming over him, until he bumped right into it. This prompted him to look up, finding a large, armoured bald man standing there. He had, like…some sort of knife thing sticking out the back of his head, and was wearing one of the suits Saitama saw on TV. This led the caped hero to recognize him. The leader of the Paradisers, Hammerhead.

Saitama's expression became completely serious.

"So you're one of those paradiser guys the TV was talking about, huh? Sorry to say, but I have to take you out right here and now. 'Cause if I don't, then-"

"DIE!" The paradiser yelled, bringing his right fist forward with tremendous power behind it. A shockwave boomed across the entirety of the forest, the power taking a second to even hit Saitama. Massive clouds of dust flew through the area, obscuring everything from sight for miles. Mountains of dirt flew up even further behind the collision, trailing high into the clouds.

Hammerhead pulled back his fist, with some red flames on his outfit slowly dulling in their colour, his battle armour powering down with a weak whir. "That was too close. First that ninja wannabe, then the cyborg dude, and now-"

"Ah…for a second there, I got a little too serious." Saitama sighed, and when the dust cleared – there he was, standing perfectly unharmed. "Looks like I was sorta worried about nothing, though." The caped baldy slowly raised a fist, causing the armoured man to take a quick step back, eyes widened.

"S-So you actually survived that, huh? Well, lucky for you, I was actually waiting for this…a chance to test out the full power of this suit!" The flames along the outer armour of the suit began to flare, and the man within buffed up to unimaginable levels, his buff form far exceeding the limits of a human, reaching into the territory of the supernatural…into the territory of a monster. All the while, he kept yelling straight into the sky, arms held out for what had to be an ultimate attack.

Saitama looked on with a blank face, completely unimpressed.

"SPIN ATT-h…huh? " Hammerhead, in the middle of some big wind-up attack hadn't even noticed when his armour had been broken off of him. He slowly looked down, only to see Saitama standing there with a bored expression and an outstretched elbow. He'd just shattered this over-expensive battle suit he'd stolen, which took months to figure out how to steal, and apparently costed millions of dollars to make, in just a single…elbow hit? Even left naked, all the giant of a man could do was slump his shoulders and sigh, completely depressed at the uselessness of all of his plans. There really was no space for slackers in society.

"Don't be bad anymore, ok." Saitama walked away into the forest, from the same spot he'd come from. As the emotionless figure of Saitama disappeared into the tree line ahead, all the now-naked Hammerhead could do was watch as the hero faded away, cape fluttering in the faint breeze.

"Heh…how the hell can I keep doing this if monsters like him, that robot guy, and the wannabe ninja are out here? I should just get a job after all…" Hammerhead sighed, and ran his way in the opposite direction of Saitama.

'Robot guy…?' Saitama just barely managed to pick up on Hammerhead's words, and instinctively turned his head to the sky. Somewhere, far, far away, he could easily pick up the sight of two figures engaged in battle. One was a blonde looking cyborg, and was some sort of girly looking dude in a skin-tight suit, both suspended in the air and trading blows quicker than any eye could see…well, to regular people, at least. To Saitama, they looked like they were in slow motion. Neither were monsters, too…and nobody was in the immediate area that could get hurt, seeing as that weaker Hammerguy had left. Plus, they were evenly matched, so it'd definitely be a draw between the two fighters.

'Not interested…' He shook his head after his quick assessment and skulked off, completely ignoring the seemingly intense man-vs-machine battle occurring in the background.

Besides…he'd already gotten rid of the leader of the fakers stealing his look anyways, so it was time to go home. He'd probably do his daily exercises first, though...

In a small portion of the cities somewhere, a very simple, but respectably sized takoyaki shop stood, tucked away neatly into one of the buildings alongside the road. Within, two were working at their newly acquired craft. The former mad-scientist genius, Dr. Genus, alongside with one of his only remaining creations, Armoured Gorilla. Both seemed to be on break, as absolutely no customers were coming in to their shop. Genus sat, bored, in one of the booths, with Armoured Gorilla leaning against the counter. The Gorilla let out a deep sigh.

"No customers again today…I guess people are having a hard time adjusting to a shop opening up out of nowhere. I mean…and we have so much ingredients to use, too. Let's try some advertising tomorrow." The Gorilla spoke, even suggesting his own idea at the end

'Compared to science, this is challenging in its' own way…' Genus muttered, tilting his head to the side, bringing a set of folded arms onto his table.

Disrupting the men's boredom, however, a small jingle rang throughout the shop, as someone walked in. Both Genus and Gorilla stood up straight, slowly turning to look and greet what was hopefully the day's first customer. It was a girl, clearly young, wearing a red shirt and black jeans, shoulder-length black hair swaying behind her.

"Ah…" Genus hadn't expected today, of all the things to happen, to be greeted with one of his oldest experiments – the mosquito girl. Or, as she called herself now…

"Mu, eh?" Genus sighed and slowly walked back over to the table he had been sitting at. "A disappointment. I thought we'd finally gotten a chance to maybe get some word-of-mouth advertising from today's customer, but it was just you, huh?"

The usually sassy mosquito girl turned human simply quietly walked her way through the seating hall, making her way towards Gorilla and Genus without a single word. The doctor couldn't help but break out into an involuntary cold sweat, with Gorilla gulping and looking ready to flee, remembering their past battle.

Genus couldn't leave, though. He had already made up his mind – he'd messed with so many people's lives in the selfish pursuit of his experimentation, so if one of his creations actually did decide to pursue him for revenge…he had no right to beg for his life over the one he'd stolen from them.

As usual, Mu looked at the two with completely cold eyes, now standing literally beside Genus' table. She slid in the chair opposite of him, and looked the man straight into his eyes, unflinching. Before, when she'd have mere nervous breakdowns thinking of the institute, she couldn't feel scared anymore, backed up by Saitama's reassuring, silent strength.

"Doctor…" She spoke slowly, with her hands raising up from below the table, the atmosphere suddenly darkening all around. Genus gave his final prayer to whatever deities were out there, and Gorilla got ready to hike it for his life…until Mu sighed, releasing all the tension in her shoulders with her hands finally resting on the table.

"Listen, I don't trust you one bit. Not after what you've done to my life, my family, my friends, and to me. "Her hands gripped hard against the table's edge, shaking in the strength of their grip. "But, even if you've done some more than shitty things in the past, that's in the past. And right now, I don't need to be stuck in the past. I need…I need to become stronger. Not for revenge this time, but to stand by the side of my new friend, and to pave my own path. If I can become a hero that's just like Saitama, maybe even better, then, I feel like…like I can make up for everything I've ever did. Everything that we ever did, at the House." Her eyes closed shut tightly.

'I…I need to say it now, or nothing will ever change!' Her mind shouted out desperately, as her hatred and fear threatened to override her request.

"You're the only person I know that can help me get stronger. Even if I can never bring myself to fully forgive you, and that might never really change, I need to ask just one thing. The only thing I'll ever ask from you." She slowly bowed her head, sending both Genus and Gorilla reeling with shocked faces. Desperation and nervousness wracked the girl's voice, as she summoned all of her willpower and determination to form her next words.

"Can…can you help me?" She asked, eyes shaking with nothing but complete and utter desperation.

'This girl…' Genus was unable to form thoughts for a while after that.

This girl, knowing how she'd been betrayed, would be handing him, the man who ruined her life, the ability to make or break the second chance she'd been miraculously handed, even with all of those factors in play. That's how desperate she was to change – that's how much she wanted to accomplish her new goal. He could see no hatred or want for revenge in her eyes, like he had seen before, and used against her. Now…her eyes looked clearer than ever.

'Good grief, the speed of change in this girl…like I thought, evolution is just too interesting to look away from.' That was all the doctor could think of.

Genus was left completely stunned by the woman's speech, looking completely confused, while sitting in his seat. His eyes then took on a serious look, and he motioned to Gorilla with a nod. The monster shuffled over to the door and closed it, along with any windows in the establishment, turning the 'open' sign to 'closed'.

"Mu. I gave up on evolutionary science, because I thought that it was trapping me in the past and warping me. No, I knew. Deep down, I always did know. But I was too condescending to realize it."

The doctor stood up, making his way from the booth and heading straight for the back room of the restaurant. Mu and Gorilla slowly but surely followed, with the trio taking a discreet staircase down below the shop that led up to a regular looking door, with a whole heap of dust on it. There was only irregularity: that being a keypad placed beside the knob. Genus entered in a series of numbers, before it opened, allowing all three entrance inside. The dust wafted away from the door, opening into a seemingly empty room.

"This time, instead of using you to fulfil my dreams, I'll allow myself to be used to fulfil yours. At the very least, this is all I can do for you, Mu." Genus flipped on the switch and walked into the room, turning only to look back at the two monst…no, former monsters. Within was all the futuristic technology needed for research from the House built in, minus the ominous security systems and torture devices and documents. Scanners, DNA Injectors, Quantum Supercomputers, only the best of the best for one of the smartest and well-funded doctors around.

Mu and Gorilla looked absolutely astounded. Even the gorilla hadn't known that all this was under here when he moved in. Dr. Genus hadn't even touched downstairs.

"Perhaps I should allow myself a short renaming…no longer will we be the House of Evolution. No, we will be the Home of Revolution!" He exclaimed, holding up a fist to the air. Gorilla smiled, looking pleased at the revival of the doctor, and in the same good way that he had intended to be. Mu, however, broken out of her awe now, was just snickering away at the new name, causing both Genus and Gorilla to look at her in utter confusion.

"W-What's wrong? Is it not to your liking?" Genus asked, worriedly. Still not used to the whole thing about 'opinions', and such.

"Maybe she finds the situation ironic?" Gorilla spoke, scratching the top of his head with a comically oversized figure. This action only caused Mu's laughing to sustain longer, and, without even knowing why she was laughing, both Gorilla and Genus could help at least joining in on the laughter, with the trio now having a short laugh break, Mu only spoke up after a few good seconds of chuckling.

"No, it's just…Saitama's first name for you guys totally ended up coming true." She wiped a tear from her eye, and was left with a small smile. "Well, I'm going to be using these facilities all I want, doc! And you get absolutely nothing in exchange!" Mu made her way to the center of the room, ready to finally become a fully new, improved her.

"Ah-choo!" Saitama rubbed his nose, giving a disgruntled groan. "Feels like somebody's talking behind my back." He couldn't help but think of his new annoying roommate, the monster turned human, Mu. Frankly, Saitama didn't even know that it was possible for monsters to do that. Did all humans-turned-monsters have that chance?

Saitama simply sighed and shook his head, dismissing his wandering thoughts. Now out of the forest, he was already pretty much deeply on his way home…only to spot the same supermarket from before, when he had fought the giant beefed-up monster. He perked up a little bit, noticing that it was now repaired.

"Cool. Might go and buy something different for dinner tonight." He spoke, while approaching the store, slowly entering in and looking around. It was surprisingly quiet inside, with only a few customers shuffling in and out. He hummed, grabbing himself a basket and entering through the aisles to get straight to the back, where the freezers were. Of course, he went straight for the meat section. With another disappointment like today to add to his pile, he needed something to cheer himself up.

Plus, there was cheap meat on sale. Sales were always good.

"Ah man, this is more relaxing than usual." Saitama was now immersed in the world of peaceful sales, different from the cutthroat stampeding ones that he was used to…not that he wasn't confident in the battlefield of sale-getting. He was still a step behind the competitive grandmas that occasionally rushed to stores like these, though. With his thoughts wandering, he hadn't even noticed that both he and another person had reached for a container of meat at the same time. He looked up only to see a woman in some sort of form-fitting dress, floating in the air as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and a bunch of suited guys behind her. All of them were giving him a pretty mean look, as if he'd just committed the world's worst crime.

"Excuse me, I believe that I got to this first." The floating lady spoke up first, slowly pulling it away from him.

"…eh? Uhhhhh…" He slowly looked to the guys behind her, and then back to the woman, and then down to the meat, and sighed. "Well, whatever. You can have it, lady." Saitama shrugged, immediately going to pick up another cheap piece on sale and completely ignoring the spark of conflict. "I wonder what Mu can make with this stuff…" He muttered, and stowed the meat away into his grocery basket. He turned around from the freezer, only to see the group of suited men surrounding him, holding out things like a staff – oh, there was a girl holding the staff – and the usual bare fists, and…eyelash curlers?" Saitama had to tilt his head on seeing that.

"Hold it there, you!" The big, bare-fisted one spoke up. "You dare to treat the Blizzard of Hell, Lady Fubuki, the Rank 1 B-Class hero, with such insolence?!" He yelled, drawing the attention of the few people in the store. Saitama sighed once more, and gave a dismissive wave to the guy's face.

"I didn't even ask about all that stuff…anyways, I don't even know about all that. Blizzard of Hell? Are you guys some sort of group of working men or something trying to get some stress out?" He asked, completely clueless at the holdup going on.

"So, you fancy yourself a comedian, do you?" A smooth, silky voice came from behind the surrounding circle of the two men and single woman, all three of which parted to allow the figure to show herself again. The same girl from before, the one wearing the super tight dress and…wow, was that a whole fur coat on her? He didn't remember seeing that before.

"Sorry, but, I really have to get going. Not sure what you guys are trying to do here, but I'm hungry, bored, and trying to check out before the store closes." Saitama spoke blankly, again ignoring the identified Fubuki to try and make his way to the front of the store. He was only a few steps out of the circle, before Saitama could hear rushing footsteps behind him, with each of the bodyguards approaching from three different directions.

"A low-class ridiculous outfit-wearing baldie like you ignore me?! I'll have my men teach you a lesson!" She pointed a finger at the suited hero, who was only left with his mouth very slightly agape as the three approached him, all attacking at once….and Saitama not budging one bit.

"Come on, guys. We're in a store. Try to be a little bit more reasonable about this, okay? Adults don't go around in those old style yakuza-type groups, calling people baldies." Saitama spoke, simply shrugging off all three of the members, leaving Fubuki wide-eyed. Before she could respond, Saitama was already walking off, approaching the cash register and leaving the three suited people behind, all splayed out on the ground and dazed.

'Got a little pissed for a second there.' Saitama mentally noted, with the baldie comment having gotten right to him in particular. Getting insulted and attacked by strangers, even good-looking ones, was not an enjoyable experience. Not for Saitama, anyways. Maybe there was some person out there who'd actually like that sort of thing.

Saitama approached the register, slowly placing the grocery basket down on the register and putting down his things on the register, ignoring the hushed whisperings and stares of the people in the store. He was used to things like this by now. He affixed the cashier with what could've been seen as an apologetic look, and gave a small bow of his head.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to cause too much trouble. Ah…Naomi, is it? " He spoke, completely missing the fact that the woman at the register was one he'd seen before – the girl who'd made fun of his bald head just before he'd fought that giant beefcake of a monster. He managed to pick up her name from her employee name card, though. "How much is it?" He asked, looking up to her from his yen purse.

The girl – Naomi – couldn't help but stare at Saitama for a few seconds. He'd completely shrugged off attacks from the second and third B-Ranked heroes, Eyelashes and Mountain Ape, along with Lily, not as powerful as the previous two, but still strong in her own right. Yet, he didn't even have an idea about that Blizzard of Hell, Fubuki? Still, if she was actually right about him being the real one to take down the muscle monster from that day, then it was no surprise. In that case, maybe he was connected to the Tornado of Terror's sudden request for footage…? She wanted to think about this some more, but, there was still a line piling up behind him, and Naomi was still on her job, curiosity or not. And if there's anything she wasn't, it was an irresponsible worker!

"T-That'll be 1,000 yen!" She managed to get out, and accepted the money that he handed her, putting it right into the register. "Um, sir…if you don't mind, maybe you might be interested in this?" Along with her receipt, she handed him a very small flyer, with the emblem of the Hero Association shown on the front. "I believe that something like this would appeal to you very much. Ask for me if you do decide that you're interested!" She said quickly, and then gave a small bow of his head. "Well, thank you for your purchase with us. Please have a good night." The woman then turned her attention to other customers, as Saitama slowly walked his way out into the night sky.

"The Hero Association. Make the most of your talents for humanity, and get paid for doing it."

'Huh…this could be a little interesting. Didn't even know something like that existed.' Saitama thought. He couldn't help himself from thinking back to the armoured guy he'd beaten. He was unemployed too, just like Saitama. And they looked so similar, too… 'I wonder if that's where I could've been if I'd chosen not to be a hero.' He couldn't help but ponder this possibility for a second, before humming and stowing away the flyer into his shopping bags. He took a moment and went about planting his feet firmly into the ground before inhaling and then blasting off into the air.

"Maybe a change of pace is just what I need."

Soon after, Fubuki slowly emerged from the shop on her own afterwards, watching the hero's silhouette disappear into the night sky. She'd thought of using her psychic powers to pull him down and show him a lesson…but she couldn't even feel her powers budging him, not even while his guard was down and he was so easily sailing through the air. Whoever that man…or thing, was…she absolutely needed him on her side. Especially before her sister could get to him. He had to be the one…

The man who had single-handedly destroyed that House of Evolution. What she was more interested in though, was just why…

'How could a man so powerful look so...bored?' The Blizzard of Hell was left at a loss, as the night chill began to settle in. This man would be more than just an asset, but a veritable enigma to disassemble. That was for later, though. With a sigh, she returned back to the inside of the store to pick up her underlings. Beaten or not, they were still members of the respectable Fubuki group, and it wouldn't do to have them lying around on the floor of a supermarket all night. Soon enough, though, if all went well, her group might not have to shop at such cheap stores unbefitting of her status…

"Just you wait, sister. I'll finally shut your pompous mouth up once and for all."

A vicious line from Fubuki. I guess this is where you could say the story really begins to diverge. Sonic instead meets Genos within the forest, Hammerhead is beaten without an ounce of consideration, and Saitama is slowly coming to be known. As the ultimate supermarket man, that is.

Again, sorry for the length of time it took to push this out, but thank you for sticking in there, anyone still reading this. I'm a really bad writer when it comes to deadlines and consistency, haha. I hope to improve this more in the future, though. Slipping is officially back on the hanger! Although twelfth grade work might get in the way.

Review Question of the Day: If you were in Saitama's position, how do you think you would handle it?

Personally, I'd feel the same way. I've kind of always liked escaping from reality, so the thought that I'd be as cool and strong as Saitama would be awesome...until it's basically the same outlook every day. If I could choose, I'd rather be like tracksuit/training Saitama forever, instead of superhero costume/present Saitama. I'd love to see how challenging of a fight Boros would be for Saitama before his hair fell out.