A Smattering Of Years Later

'You know, when I think about it my Outsider abilities have given me just as much misery as triumph.' That was the stray thought that went through my head as a three toed metallic foot broke straight through my Shun Shun Rika immediately latching onto my face and tossing me through a nearby tree that felt like it was made out of iron for the brief moment before I went straight through it with all the momentum of a bullet train.

Still the more that I revisit that stray thought the more I am certain that my initial assumption was not wrong. The aforementioned Shun Shun Rika has the tendency to let me down and I was almost certain at this point it was due to Gamer's screwing up my emotions. I'm actually quite lucky that my first Outsider ability wasn't something like Spiral Power because that probably wouldn't have worked at all with that emotion dampening. Although I'm afraid without the calming influence of Gamer's Mind I might end up closer to Shinji than Simon.

I scrabbled for purchase on a nearby trunk, digging the tips of my fingers into the bark and yanked myself off course a moment before a giant metallic wing cut through the steel trees, tearing through the eight metre thick trunk as if it was paper. I caught one of the rigid branches on the tree and launched myself at the birdlike Mech that had started dominating my inner monologue throwing forward a Spin infused fist as I did so. A metallic wing was blocked my path and I watched as hundreds of iron feather vibrated at subtly different frequencies sending out thousands of longitudinal waves that met my fist head on creating an explosion that sent both of us flying backwards.

While Spin had fantastic power it had taken me years of training to use it effectively and it still required a great portion of my concentration to use. The lack of a horse or a stand to use it with had really hampered me but it was still my least screwy over of my powers. I landed on the side of the tree before pulling out two golf balls from my pocket and Spinning them towards the robotic suit. It tried to fly out of the way using the jets in the feet but it was a few seconds too slow to react and it was forced to redirect his wings from mobility to defence clanging the appendages together releasing a wave of sonic force that met the nigh-infinite energy of Spin for about two seconds before the melting husks of the golf balls pierced through the chest of the robot.

I didn't have any time to initiate the coup de grâce as a seconds prescience allowed me to avoid the next blow, well almost. A thin beam of pure white light impacted my forearm causing a chunk to be blown out of it and I watched dispassionately as a cluster of red threads darted out of the wound grabbing the pieces of skin and muscle and dragging it back into the wound allowing it to recombine with my arm. Those laser beams were severely hard to deal with and one of the weapons in my enemy's arsenal that could still harm me quite a bit. Well strictly speaking they were not laser beams but superheated carbon that had then been accelerated to the speed of light.

The Kamui had proved the second most troublesome of all my powers as the clothes made out of the corpse of an alien had first proven themselves unusable due to the sheer embarrassment they posed and then later when I allowed them to rest beneath my skin tried to nearly kill my nervous system and drain me of all life energy. Still after a lot of time and a greater than moderate amount of pain we had come to a mutual understanding. The thread life form was at least semi-sentient but extremely anti-social and had a weird form of honour about it drinking my blood as payment and then lending strength whenever I asked for it in return. While the creature was normally silent it could become incredibly active in battle and I got the feeling that it saw any breathing enemy as an affront to its contract.

I stretched out my arm aiming at the closest bird robot and two dozen red threads shot tore out from my fingertips latching onto the mechanical supplement and dragging it in front of me in time to block a few more of those lasers.

Screams resounded from the cockpit and I could smell the blood as one of my opponents was ruthlessly destroyed by the others' laser beams. I sneered in irritation and with my psychic powers I ripped the rest of his broken mech apart before hurling it's components at other other birds, allowing the Mysterious Being inside to plummet unceremoniously to the ground. They were a weird birdlike race called Stymphalians that were apparently descended from dinosaurs and the supposed true inheritors of the earth. Even a new-born Stymphalian was about as strong as an adult man and when fully grown you wouldn't find one that couldn't be called a demon in strength. Worse than that was that their civilisation was comparatively highly advanced and they employed powerful mechanical exosuits that could increase their strength further allowing them to spread throughout their entire continent.

Their xenophobia made them a pain to deal with at the best of times but unfortunately in this situation I had no choice, or to be more specific they allowed me no choice. I was at the fringes of their territory facing down a Mysterious Being that I had been interested in for a long time, called the Black-Mouthed Godsnake. This supposedly legendary creature had terrorised Dragons throughout the area for as long as they remembered and so I had expended a lot of effort in tracking it down, setting up an ambush, getting supplies and lying in wait. It had taken two weeks of camping outside the hole of its burrows but I was finally rewarded when it slithered out and into my trap and then those feathery bastards attacked just as soon as I had lured him away from the cave.

An omnipresent hissed pealed throughout the surroundings penetrating into through the ears and into the folds of my brain, the sound was backed by a massive amount of psychic power that directly attacked the grey matter freezing all life in its tracks as the mind would refuse to command the body. From about a mile off a massive grey pillar arose high above the skyline blocking out the sun as it surveyed all of the lowly creatures that dared to disturb it from its rest. It opened its mouth wide and for a moment I saw a blackness that rivalled the abyss before the sound barrier shattered as dozens of jets of liquid emerged from a pair of luminescent fangs targeting all with impunity.

I wasn't an exception and I leapt to the side avoiding a jet of liquid, my own precognitive abilities allowing me to see the trajectory even when the Stymphalians supercomputers proved unable to. That perfect dodge however was not enough and I watched as my skin started to bubble and blacken. Venom normally required direct injection into the skin and even the spitting abilities of certain snakes would only affect the target if it landed in their eyes or they had certain allergies but venom from the Black-Mouthed Godsnake had extremely corrosive properties that ate into flesh and steel.

I watched idly as my arm started to heal and black flesh flaked off and was replaced with pink while dozens of robotic suits crashed to the ground, corroding even as their wielders choked to death. Out of all the troublesome Outsider abilities that I had my fourth one took every single cake. Worse than the inconsistency of Shun Shun Rika, the insane precision required of Spin and the humiliating nature of Kamui, my fourth Outsider power had actually broken my Gamer's Body.

The skill was greyed out, unusable and ruined, never to be used again but it actually taken me far too long to figure it out. I had assumed that the wounds I had previously taken were due to the creatures from the Abandoned World simply being a few notches higher than those on the Supercontinent but eventually I had noticed it when I looked at a part of my Stats that I hadn't examined in a while with the guilty party sitting a few dozen lines below looking innocent.

Gourmet Cells (LV 216) – Active
Strange cells that are the embodiment of life energy, savouriness and desire for sustenance that are injected into the body. Increases host regeneration and strength of body but there is chance for mutation or death if cells are unable to adapt. These Gourmet Cells were generated by a special ingredient.

As I was reflecting on my failures, one of the missiles from those mechs was sent flying towards me and I reflexively tapped it transporting it into my inventory. A couple of those missiles could flatten a small city and I would rather not be hit by one if I could help it. It would mess up my shirt and I couldn't afford to go on losing new shirts in this accursed land. That was my primary reason for returning in my past few trips apart from generally catching up on the news. I opened up my inventory and returned the missile to my opponent Gate of Babylon style, watching the detonation that tore his machine to shreds and dumped him unceremoniously onto the deadly forest floor.

While the Stymphalians were superior to humans in almost every way there was one indisputable advantage that they lacked and that was location. Despite their strength the ground was littered with dozens of the xenophobic bastards as the Black-Mouthed Godsnake made corpses of them with the efficiency of a natural disaster. I had travelled to each of the major continents outside the Supercontinent and found very few places that would be safe for humans to live. Dragons were not that rare out here; demons roamed everywhere eating the weaker and fleeing from those stronger; tigers were at the bottom of the food chain and as for wolves, they were grass to be grazed upon at the leisure of all others.

An unarmoured Stymphalian stealthily approached my blind side and I plucked a knife from my inventory before I turned and filleted him, carving flesh from bones, feather from skin and guts from frame before decapitating him in less time than it took him to notice causing the bird to die in confusion and pieces. Despite my preparing skills I wouldn't eat him; I wasn't Pig God and the thought of eating thinking beings made me feel the blankness that indicates Gamers Mind was still working. As he dropped to the floor I hopped onto one of the tallest trees that were made small by the presence of the Godsnake staring at him as an ant would examine an elephant.

Still size mattered not in this situation as rivers of blood flowed down from a canyon that was carved into its side from round one of our fight before the whole thing was interrupted. Now the interrupters all lay dead or dying on the ground and only the two strongest remained; a perfect summation of the Abandoned World right there. The seconds dragged on as I stood facing against the massive reptile and its gaze put a heavy psychic pressure on me; the creature stood as an exception to the rule that only intelligent beings could possess psychic powers, but the Abandoned World was full of exceptions. Still remembering the past was a distraction and I couldn't handle distractions at this moment. The Godsnake strike was unbelievably, incredibly fast and a slight lapse in concentration and those pillars disguised as teeth would sink into me. Seconds stretched by and I watched in anticipation for the instantaneous strike, my neurons firing to their full extent and anticipation burning within my soul as the creature reared back and…

The snake convulsed in pain flattening miles and miles of trees as it writhed around its body torn into two halves for twice the damage. I frowned in slight annoyance as I saw the reason and jumped off my tree a second before it was obliterated along with all the other arboreal inhabitants within the vicinity. If that was the extent of its injuries than the creature would likely recover with some time but that would never happen and I idly watched as a familiar figure quickly destroyed the head of the beast and I swiftly moved towards that location.

"Hey Blast," I said as I spoke to the familiar looking man, clad in his hero suit and flicking the blood off the gloves. "I haven't seen you around for a long time. How's the family?"

"They are doing very well," Blast said calmly. "My son is appearing to be more of a chip off the old block each day. I came here because I wanted to speak to you." The man was never particularly verbose unless the topic was important to him and he would often impart a few words at most. "I recently fought a large insectile Mysterious Being and while I managed to kill it, the fight upset my wife badly and she gave me an ultimatum. I will be retiring from hero work unless absolutely necessary."

"Large insectile creature," I muttered. Could that be Elder Centipede. The timeline would be one or two years early and Blast didn't kill it. "You aren't the sort of person who would make the effort of travelling all the way here to meet me just to tell me that." Blast shrugged at that and gave a longing look at the Black-Mouthed Godsnake and I suddenly understood. The reason for coming here was not only to announce his retirement but as one last hurrah. He was probably having fun fighting in the Abandoned World for the last time.

"Did you go see the Tornado?" I asked and Blast snorted.

"I figured you would find out about that," he said. "I just saved the girl a few years ago and gave her a few pointers. I haven't seen her since that day and I would feel awkward meeting up with her now." His words were uncaring but there was a faint note of pride in his voice that the person who he rescued was doing so well for themselves. "Where is your dog by the way," he said changing the subject suddenly. "I meant to ask you last time but it slipped my mind."

"He's with the rest of his pack," I said with a smile thinking back to those absolute monstrous hounds that I had met. They were uncharacteristically friendly when they saw the pup with me and after a brief farewell they adopted my former foe/pet. This had happened over four months ago and since then I had been wandering the Abandoned World alone. Maybe it was time to finally go back to the Supercontinent. It had been a long time since I saw other humans.

"As long as he doesn't travel to the Supercontinent chasing after you that's fine," Blast said indifferently. "Just one of these creatures could cause a lot of problem outside of their environment."

That was a sentiment I agreed with. Even the majority of the S-Class would be unable to survive out here for a length of time. Tornado would definitely and Silver Fang stood a good chance but I wouldn't even trust in Flashy Flash, Darkshine or Atomic Samurai let alone Metal Knight. The monsters were one thing but the world also had Grand Line level weather and superbugs that could cause me even to feel ill. Those were the simplest threats and the full list included psychic rocks, self-replicating robotic bees, sentient emotions that possessed dead bodies and even what appeared to be a race of humanoid magic-wielding goats. One skill that you couldn't lack when exploring the Abandoned World was adaptability. If you were unable to judge the situation and adapt to it than you would likely end up like those unfortunate Stymphalians.

"Would you like to have a fight," I said suddenly as I turned towards the soon-to-be-retiree. We had fought before but while I was able to inflict wounds I had yet to win even a single time.

Blast

Near Future Number One Hero

Species - Human

Health- 46 419 145/46 419 145

Mana – 0/0

STR – 18 091 562

VIT – 19 452 777

DEX – 16 917 564

INT – 305 651

WIS – 502 122

LUK – 78 451

Martial Arts Style: Humans Explosive Potential

After years and years of training his stats were still higher than mine and even that brief breakdown from Observe did no justice to how truly immensely skilled the man was. The man moved like lightning and like me he had even stronger forms as well. But I had grown much stronger while exploring the wonders of the Abandoned World and this was an obstacle that I would have to undertake if I was to ever be the strongest man in the world.

"So you can lose again," Blast said indifferently but I saw the faint signs of interest in his eyes. The man did really enjoy a challenge and while I had yet to defeat him I had provided enough of a challenge. I could practically read his thoughts even without telepathy. 'My wife would really dislike it if I was to fight, but she did give permission for me to be here so she must know that I would engage in some fights. Still this is an avoidable battle so it would be taking advantage of her allowance, but still this is going to be my last outing for a long time so she wouldn't be upset with me getting into a relatively safe fight with an old acquaintance. Still maybe he needed one last push.

"Tiger King Mode," I said and immediately felt my hearts explode as thousands of scarlet microscopic fibers invaded the cells and forcibly stimulated the mitochondria causing my blood to mitochondria causing my blood to erupt throughout my veins and even soak through the pores in my skin giving me a bloody look before it evaporated under the sheer heat my body was giving off. This mode was easily a dozen times harder to maintain than my Wolf King Mode but Blast deserved nothing less. Every cell in my body was stimulated past its natural limit and I could feel thousands of calories burn away that in the furnace that was my cells.

I stepped forward looking at the sheer surprise on Blast's face that swiftly morphed to a look of exasperation that barely hid his massive anticipation. Cries of birds sounded as the treetops were evacuated and every land creature in a hundred miles turned and ran in a futile attempt to escape the imminent collision. I watched out of the corner of my eye as minor fires started on the trees around me and I could hear the bubbling of the sap as the exceedingly high temperatures caused it to expand rapidly and a tacit agreement was set up between Blast and I. Thirty seconds later with an astonishing amount of coordination all the trees around us exploded. I stepped forward. Our fight began.

xxx

A Couple Of Weeks After A Seriously Good Fight

"Would you pass the potatoes Dear," my mother said to me and I acquiesced immediately picking up the bowl and sliding it over only to get a disapproving look from my mother because I couldn't be bothered to carry it. We were having a family gathering for literally no reason. 'Shit', unless of course it was somebody's birthday and I've just forgotten it. I glanced at the extended family looking for any signs of merriment that might indicate that my relation had evaded the reaper for another year, but nobody came forward instead meeting my gaze and a dawning feeling came across me.

'Could it be my birthday," I thought. 'No, no that's wrong,' I reconsidered. 'My birthday is in June. Wait what date is it,' I thought trying to recalculate from the last time I bothered to look at a calendar. 'It was still May last time I looked,' I thought with a bit of relief. 'Wait that was eighteen days ago. Fuck its June now.'

My face grew tighter as I saw my younger sister approach the table holding a two storey cake and I knew what was going to happen at this point. 'For god's sake, I can see the future. How in the hell can I not see this coming.' In front of me the cake was placed and 26 candles were lit up.

"Happy Birthday to you," the chorus started and I put on that awkward expression that everybody who had been the subject of a birthday party would experience. I was 26 and yet my family still insisted on doing this every year. Not to mention there was at least somebody else's birthday every month and I was 'encouraged' to attend them all, not that I did. I nodded along to the off-tune singing and blew out the candles nodding along at the repeated request to make a wish. I partook in the final ritual of the birthday and cut the cake before taking a slice and hereby allowing my other relatives the opportunity to tuck in.

The cake was… average at best and I contemplated whether my special diet had perhaps ruined normal food for me. Still birthday cake as a whole never really tasted amazing. Cake was generally served at kid's birthdays and anybody who has ever spent considerable time around the creatures will inform you that children have no taste.

Then the congratulations came, thick and fast and not for the last time I lamented the fact that my family in this life was just so big. My inner introvert just wanted to crawl into a hole and turn off the lights and I felt myself more mentally drained in half an hour of small talk then several battles with my life on the line. Tired I eventually managed to sneak out and collapsed on the couch next to my Uncle Duke who was just quietly watching the news. He looked up as I sat down and gave me a quick nod of acknowledgement which I returned. We sat in silence for a few minutes in front of the television although I wasn't really watching it; until my uncle interrupted my thoughts.

"Hey, that monster on the TV," he said. "Are you going to get it?"

"Contrary to what people think," I said opening my eyes from the doze I had slid into. "I don't hunt down every monster that appears. Only if the…" I started only to blink. The monster that was on the screen was one I had seen before. A grin overtook my face as I saw an overgrown humanoid crab monster in white briefs with drawn on nipples rampage around the streets crashing through cars and causing crowds to flee from him.

"I'm heading out," I said as I stood up from the couch. "Save a piece of cake for me," I said knowing that it was a futile effort. I walked towards the front door of my parent's apartment, whispering hurried excuses to those who wanted to speak to me as anticipation drums of anticipation beat within my hearts. Gently, I rebuffed attempts to draw me into a conversation and I swiftly extricated myself from the pit that was any and every family reunion that I've been to.

Not even a second after closing the door I had leapt off the ledge, getting some distance before I kicked off the air and sidled through the sound barrier without even a hint of a sonic boom. Once I had crossed that obstacle I accelerated towards Z-city surpassing hypersonic speeds as I blurred towards the location that the creature was last spotted. In less than ten minutes I had arrived at the city and I blurred to a stop in the middle of the sky summoning Life Fibers to hold together my scorched and torn clothes that were unable to inadequately withstand the friction leaving my clothes with a distinctly more reddish hue.

'Office block, park, restaurants, shelter,' I inwardly muttered as I looked down over the city trying to triangulate the block where the crab monster was last. 'Wait,' I thought as my eyes caught on one specific building. It was Bang's dojo. I hadn't met the old man since the time when he kicked my butt almost twenty years ago. I guess I never did really learn professional martial arts outside of my Spin style; I should probably go down and check it out once I'm done. Maybe I could learn something from watching how a real martial arts master did things.

Even while I was contemplating this I didn't stop searching and I quickly saw an area of some disturbance. A few overturned cars, a couple of bodies, crushed concrete and glass and devoid of people. I landed gently on the ground and then swiftly jogged through the slightly damaged yet incredibly quiet streets noticing a few heads poking out of shop windows as I moved. A few people beckoned me inside and I think one of the younger adults recognized me and cheered at me as I jogged past.

Less than a few second later I gawked at the sight that was before me. The aforementioned crab monster was standing there in front of me; or at least the bottom half of him was. The top half was splattered everywhere leaving the whole thing looking like a crab buffet designed by a blind man. I didn't need a degree in ballistics to know what had happened and I felt my lips curl up as I revelled in the implications. The Mysterious Being had been destroyed, his entire upper half vaporised in an instant by one cataclysmic blow. The realisation that I had absolutely fucked up the timeline by this point dawned on me as slowly and inevitably as the dawning sun and I was left standing in front of the decaying corpse of a monster revelling in the implications.

"It's King," suddenly a lone voice cried out and I heard the patter of feet and the sound of doors slamming open as people rushed up to me, thankfully keeping a respectful distance and started cheering. A few people started asking for my autograph and there were more than a few flashes of the camera.

"Oh shit, did I steal the credit," I mumbled to myself. I thought briefly about pointing out the real victor but it was such a pathetic hazard in the first place and I… honestly I just really hate talking to crowds. It always becomes more a contest to speak and people are awful at listening. So after a few attempts at clarifying the situation, in which nobody fucking listened I gave up and walked away. I didn't see the brat with a soccer ball but then again I don't think this was the place the crab was killed last time and I wondered nervously if I had accidentally erased the formation of the Hero Association.

Shaking off my pursuers I quickly stepped into a side street and changed my face, slipping out in the form of a new man who was considerably shorter and more unobtrusive. With black hair and brown eyes and a skinny hunched over posture it was unlikely that anybody would associate him with the man named King. I moved into the nearest clothing shop, a small unbranded family-run business, before changing swiftly and leaving the money on the counter and exiting a new man entirely.

So, judging from that scene earlier it was likely then that Saitama had started training to be a hero before today and acquired at least some of his titular strength. I briefly wondered if this whole thing was my fault or if I was in an alternate universe to start off with. The easiest way was to go and see how things stood with a canon character and the closest side character to this location was Bang. In fact I could I see his dojo from my current location, or at least the mountain on which his dojo was parked upon as well as the hundreds of stairs that led up to it.

I bought two meat skewers from one of the shops on the side and ate them as I took a leisurely stroll. I was in no particular hurry to quicken my pace and get back to the family gathering and so I slowly digested my food as I walked up the dojo steps the mundane way. Step by step I walked up the hundreds of stairs, finishing the roadside skewers and then pulling out some snake fillet from my inventory. The rich and crispy meat from the defeated Mysterious Being was far more savoury then anything I've eaten since I returned to the Supercontinent. I was still in the process of transforming one of my Instant Dungeons into a Gourmet World; I had already trapped many of the creatures from the Abandoned World and infused some of them with my own Gourmet Cells and I hoped that they would soon multiply and become the dominant yet tasty force in that particular Instant Dungeon.

At a brisk walk it took over five minutes to reach the top, and I had plenty of thoughts on how to approach this as I walked past struggling people who had apparently forgot to get their daily exercise. While the dojo was a serious enterprise it did attract a lot of tourism and occasionally people would attempt the long trek up to experience the historical legacy. In the end I decided to go for the simplest and most effective way and challenge Bang to a fight.

I finally made it to the top of the stairs and found the door to the dojo left unguarded. In retrospect that wasn't surprising considering the fact that it was a dojo not a bank and guarded by one of the strongest people on the planet to be fair. Unfortunately that made things a bit awkward and after a moment of hesitation I went and knocked on the door. No sound was made for almost half a minute and so I rapped once more on the door. A mild scuffling was heard outside the door and a man dressed in the typical outfit of one of Bang's pupil's appeared at the door.

"What do you want," the man said and I realised that I had seen him before in the anime although his name eluded me. He was the one who spoke with Saitama during the Super Fight when he was the one who was disguised as Charanko. He was the one with the massive chin who always looked like he smelt something horrendous.

"I've come to challenge Bang," I stated calmly. I knew, I just knew that this is going to turn into a whole massive thing. People seem immensely unable to just let a person in and show them some common courtesy. No, there was going to be posturing… fucking posturing.

"Who the hell do you think you are to take on Master Bang," he said, his attitude going from unpleasant to downright provoking. "Master Bang is the greatest expert on Martial Arts in the world and his Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist is the pinnacle of fighting techniques."

"Of course he is," I replied. "That's why I want to challenge him. I don't go around challenging every person on the streets. That would be pointless and stupid." The man really didn't like my response and he made to close the door but I stepped forward slipping into the room before he could do so. He reached out to grab at me but I simply sidestepped. I wouldn't actively attack him. That would be rude considering that I was in somebody else's dojo unannounced. Still with the difference in ability and my own Supreme Awareness of the Natural World it was impossible for him to hit me and so I casually walked forward just out of range of his grabs.

There were a few other people practicing in the dojo although there was no sign of Bang and all eyes locked on me as I walked forward. Apparently many people were making their daily offer to the deity of blind stupidity because at least half a dozen of the morons leapt in and started attacking me and I was left in a dilemma. Contrary to how most media depicts it, knocking somebody unconscious is not as easy as it looks. Every time somebody loses consciousness it means that something has gone seriously wrong to the point of hospitalisation. Still I didn't have any other form of restraining them… or did I?

I chuckled inwardly as a thought came to my head and I put it off for the moment. Restraining them in that particular way would get me no respect, instead I would play with them and show them to truly lead enemies around by the nose. I grinned as I stepped to the side and grasped my opponent's wrist gently tugging him off balance and causing him to overbalance and go crashing into another one of the people around me. A the same time I stepped forward quickly causing another one of Bang's disciples to become alarmed and send out a hastily thrown punch towards me that I Spun towards the person next to him. Another two on either side came for me and it was clear they were no longer looking to restrain and instead actually attacking, even if it was done poorly.

I stepped backwards a bit tapping the wrist of one that struck a fraction of a second ago and redirected his blow downwards and at the same time I tapped the elbow of the second one and readdressed the punch from my face to the face of his comrade. Spin style was unsurprisingly good at redirecting forces and a single touch was enough to allow me to lever the force behind their blows to a much more pleasant location; for me at least. Annoyingly enough I had never really got to part 7 of the series and thus while I had some idea of what the ability could do I found myself wondering if there was something more than just attempting to use Spin to magnify or redirect energy. I vaguely recall that it can be used for healing but I have Orihime's power; the ability to reverse damage is not something that I find myself lacking in.

These thoughts went through my head as I idly dodged, or redirected my foes attacks causing them to land on their own allies bodies. No serious injuries would be done of course, I would make sure of it, but hopefully this little display of strength would teach them a valuable lesson. What the lesson was I couldn't tell but a lesson was sure to be learnt here. A sudden burst of killing intent, far sharper than the other pupils in the dojo, roused me from my lethargic deflections.

I twisted my neck slightly to pinpoint the source of this intent and I was a bit surprised to see a very familiar face, if quite a bit younger. With an unwarranted sense of shock I realised that I was staring at the slightly younger form of the Hero Hunter Garou. It should have been obvious considering that Bang trained him and he must have already spent a couple of years at the dojo already. His attack was also perfectly timed and directed towards my blind spot and would have caught off guard any normal human. Unfortunately for him he would soon discover that the waters of this world ran deep and below the surface it was a land of monsters. His perfect surprise attack was effortlessly picked up and I gave a thought of how I was going to deal with him.

At first I thought of and disregarded simply treating him normally. His strength exceeded the majority… no he exceeded all of the other students here, but the difference was comparatively negligible and I could try that strategy. Still it seemed a bit disrespectful, if not to his current state, then to the person that he would become and so I decided to give him the gift of my full attention. I let his blow land, a relatively accurate one directed towards the place between the shoulder blades right on the spine and I smiled at the good attempt even as it was utterly ineffective. I turned around with incredible swiftness before I gently reciprocated the gift with my own of a single punch into his cheek.

Even as I moderated the power I saw flecks of blood exit his mouth and in the next second he hit the floor hard. He wasn't unconscious, I wasn't cruel enough for that but I could tell that the air had left his lungs and he weakly tried to struggle to his feet. Suddenly the hall went quiet and the attacks stopped. I turned my head to see Bang standing there a stern yet calm, very little could be read from his face and I couldn't quite tell whether he was angry or not.

"Why did you only hurt the one," he said stoically and slid my hands into my pockets before I took a moment to reply. If I was not careful with my words then I could have a real fight on my hands which was different from the duel I wanted.

"Motivation," I said after a short pause, wondering whether he would get the meaning. I actually really liked Garou as a character and I was beginning to like him as a person as well. If that punch could motivate him to improve himself or show him the strength of the strongest then I would consider it a worthy trade for the temporary pain if I was in his shoes. Still others might not see it that way.

"Okay," Bang said, never losing his aura of calm. "Then let me in turn repay you by offering you motivation." His words clearly showed his attempt and I repaid his warning by taking a loosely defensive stance. No further words were needed and so was no further time. Students scattered forming a circle indicating their respect and unwillingness to be caught up in our fight.

A silent few fractions of a second passed as both Bang and I waited for his pupils to clear the proverbial blast range. But after those scarce fractions Bang advanced and I was momentarily impressed at how smooth his movements were. I caught his first strike with my forearm and felt my bones shudder at the sheer force behind his blow. I was unable to keep stationary as a dozen more blows fired odd curves smashing against my defences and I was forced into motion to defend myself from those sledgehammer-like blows.

For the first time in a long, long while I felt clumsy compared to the man in front of me. My Spin style relied on specific movements to tap into an esoteric force to increase power and imbue motion into matter. In so doing it led to the one flaw of this style, there was too much extraneous movement. Many of my motions that I used were specifically undertaken to generate the mystical force known as Spin and not to simply hit in a manner that was harder, faster or more precise. Thus I quickly determined that without the additional benefit of the Spin my martial arts style… was impractical.

A dozen more blows blitzed towards me and I took blocked them before firing off a few of my own that were similarly deflected. To any onlooker we were barely visible, likely only consisting of a whirl of fists that smashed against each other forming shockwaves. A lull in the combat allowed me to take a quick glance at his stats and I gasped at what I saw.

Bang

Martial Arts Master

Title: Silver Fang

Species - Human

Health- 1 930 425/1 932 818

Mana – 0/0

STR – 1 568 951

VIT – 995 777

DEX – 3 689 145

INT – 868 201

WIS – 1 547 966

LUK – 5 960

Martial Arts Style: Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist

His health had increased by over one million since I had last seen him. While his health was still low, that was generally a feature that came with being human and it would take a real freak to have the same health as some of the creatures the size of a building. Even then his stats were immense for a human. If this was the 'me' of ten or even five years ago I would have a serious problem in trying to beat him. I stepped backwards from the barrage of blows leaning backwards on my heel and let loose with a kick that shattered the sound barrier and sent a wave of pressurised air towards the older man. To his credit he managed to block most of it but he was cleanly forced back leaving a good five metres of distance between us.

"I'm afraid you seem to be the person offering me motivation," he said and I chuckled at the implications that either one of us were going anywhere near close to all out. If we were to have fought seriously then it was likely that the dojo or even the mountain would be reduced to rubble. "I'm glad you've found a Martial Art of your own even if I do think that Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist is technically better."

"That's actually pretty impressive old man," I said somewhat surprised that he apparently recognized me after all these years even through my disguise. Wait, I was wearing a disguise then as well. I raised my hand to my face and quickly changed back with a flourish revealing my magnificent visage in the manner of a stage magician. From Bang's widened eyes it appeared I was mistaken and that he hadn't recognized me. In the next second he actually leant his head back and laughed.

"The Cloaked King," he said regaining his temperament rather quickly. "I honestly should have seen that coming. Why did you take so long to return and challenge me anyway? Were you making sure you would win?"

"I forgot to be honest," I admitted easily. "It was only since I was in the neighbourhood that I decided to take a look into your dojo."

"The monsters," Bang said nodding in understanding. "I've heard that you have been clearing them."

"When I'm around sometimes," I admitted. "Today a good Samaritan beat me to it though. I have spent most of my recent years in the Abandoned World." The very name drew a breath from the nearby apprentices and even Bang looked a bit disconcerted.

"I would warn you to be careful of that place," he started. "But I suppose you know a lot more about it than me. You probably shouldn't announce it out loud since it is actually illegal."

"And as soon as they provide a witness to me being there I will be in trouble," I said slightly sarcastically. "That law isn't even exercised considering the fact that travelling to that land is a death sentence in the first place."

"Well I'm certainly not going to head there at my age," he said placing a hand on his lower back. I nodded but inwardly I was pretty sure that he was one of the few people that could survive there.

"Do you want to continue this somewhere less fragile," I said. "Help me avenge my previous loss."

"I would but I had just ordered pizza for everybody and we were about to sit down for the Beginning of Month Martial Arts Movie Marathon," Bang said and now I just felt like shit. "You are welcome to join us actually."

That sounded a hell of a lot of fun actually. I took a quick look around the room to see that most of Bang's disciples had sustained no injuries from my minor tussle with them. The exception was Garou who sported a massive bruise on the side of his face. He was looking positively murderously at me and I briefly wondered whether it was because he associated me with 'heroes' or due to the fact that I properly cleaned his clock. It would be interesting to see how this affects the process in a few years' time and so and I simply smiled back at him before I turned to Bang.

"I'd quite like that," I said and I received a nod in reply before I and the rest of the disciples retired to a room with a surprisingly large plasma TV to watch a huge variety of corny Martial Arts flicks.

Later when I returned home I was scolded for never returning to my own birthday party.

xxx

Half a year after my 26th Birthday

"So in summation Mr. King," a short glasses wearing girl in a stuffy looking dark suit said. "We are willing to pay top salary for your presence in the Hero Association as well as allow you direct entry into the newest class of Heros, the S-Class." She paused for a while and then continued. "In addition we will provide security for your family members as well as a generous retirement and medical plan. Furthermore we will provide training facilities as well as world-renowned nutritionists if you so desire."

That caught my attention, if only in a negative way and I almost missed the last arrow scrolling down the screen. I glanced at the screen before once more entering KIN into the Dance Dance Revolution machine before I nodded to my competitor, a short bookish-looking brunette girl, who blushed and then ran towards her friends who did that whole huddle thing. I then vaulted over the rail and landed in front of the women and her male companion.

The Hero Association sprang up in a manner similar to canon over the past few months and Silver Fang had even mentioned it the last time that I was there, subtly mentioning that he was doing his part and also extending an invitation towards me. I had slowed down the training over these few months, ever since I've finally mastered the Golden Spiral, and received my long awaited helper. All of my Outsider abilities had been mastered by this point and there was no Mysterious Being that was a match for me. I was spending more time in the restaurant lately; some days I even had it open for a whole week. That lax work ethic would make most people feel infuriated with me but I had spent so much of my life training and now that I've slowed down I felt torpor fill me.

"Where do I sign," I asked the pair in front of me who, after a moment of freezing, jolted into action. The man pulled out a clipboard and explained the contents of the contract to me and the women pulled out a seriously fancy-looking pen from some form of metal container that looked to be specifically designed for that pen. This was probably a pen worth more than my current apartment and I signed through the documents while trying to recall if I had seen the brand before. I hadn't, indicating it was probably one of those types that went beyond the popular expensive and into the mind-bogglingly stupid expensive; a Patek Phillipe watch compared to a Rolex, and I hate the fact that I know actually even know anything about horology.

I quickly signed off the things with one hand while I grabbed my slush with another, sipping the remains of an icy drink through a straw and casually flinging the empty cup into a bin on the other side of the room that was out of my line of sight causing both of the employees of the Hero Association to gasp in amazement.

"What is the procedure for defeating Mysterious Beings," I asked as I penned my signature on the final page. "I'm not referring to tactics or remuneration or anything of that sort. Should I leave them disabled but alive; is it okay to kill them and if so how would you prefer me to leave the corpse; relatively intact or would you mind if there was a slight mess. I have not done this professionally before."

"Er no," the male started. "You don't have to worry about that. As long as you defeat the monster the Hero Association will handle the clean-up. We wouldn't want to do anything that might impair your thoughts in battle," the man said sounding enthusiastic as he once more reiterated the benefits that the Hero Association can bring me. He laughed as he retrieved the clipboard from my hands. "Of course if you can keep everything in the same location then I suppose the cleaning crew will be happy," he said giving off a noticeably fake chuckle.

"Noted," I said walking past them and stepping out of the arcade door leaving question marks standing above their heads as I ended the conversation. But I didn't have a choice; there was a steadily growing presence in the future that was going to be some trouble in the next few seconds and if I didn't move then people would die and my illustrious hero career would be off to a sour start. There were isolated smatterings of people around, clad in jackets, taking refuge from the chill air.

"I am the great Granzeli," the creature said as it landed on the street causing concrete to crack. At five stories tall this pear-shaped abomination wore a black jacket with coat-tails and a bow tie the kind that a stage magician or something would wear. Five human heads poked out from the neck and they glared malevolently at nearby people.

"All you humans will pay the price for your crass enjoyment of modern music," another one of the heads spoke up. "There is no depth, no soul in that mass-produced refuse. We the remaining members of the Shingeku Orchestra were granted the power to…"

Normally I would listen to the Mysterious Being's speech. They tended to be self-absorbed and slightly rambling but they were sincere and honest which gave them a timeless beauty. They also doubled as eulogies and often became the thing that I remembered most about my opponents. This time I was on the clock however and so I decided to cut him off half way in a very literal sense. Life Fibers sucked vitality from my body and in an instant these miniscule threads wrapped around his body. For a brief tick of time the threads flashed orange, the only indication of the powers of Shun Shun Rika working on the threads and then the places where the threads touched rejected the inherent binding of the flesh.

The two employees of the Hero Association exited the building less than a minute after me it was to the sight of a diced corpse and slowly gathering crowd. For a good few seconds they just hung there opened mouth before the guy very carefully put away the contract I had just signed.

"Congratulations," the woman said after a while. "You've saved a lot of human life today. I'll just call the cleaning crew."

"I did not really," I admitted not really looking at them. "Even if I had done nothing then nobody here would have been hurt. Isn't that correct Tornado?" The last few words were directed towards the petite woman who hovered about a hundred metres above me. She had showed up at the same time as the employees of the Hero Association and had just hovered above the building. I was vaguely aware of her presence the entire time that she was there but she surprised me slightly by not coming into the building; maybe she didn't like video games or thought it was beneath her or something.

"Hmph," the young woman said as she easily descended to the ground looking the supernatural movement appearing natural as she executed it without any strain. "I suppose you did an okay job at killing that thing. What were those red strings you threw at it?"

"Hmm, you actually saw the Life Fibers," I said quite impressed. With my own immense strength recently I had almost forgotten what a monster the shorter esper was. I had gotten used to executing any attacks with the Life Fibers as quickly as possible to the extent most people wouldn't actually be able to perceive them; simply so I wouldn't have to explain what they were. "It's a symbiotic relationship with an organism that doesn't normally exist on this continent." I had no desire to speak overmuch.

"To rely on a symbiont like that," Tatsumaki said and there was a vaguely disappointed look on her face. "You shouldn't depend on things like that to save you."

"Heh," I smirked at the thought. It was easy to see where the petite woman drew her inspiration from. "You're sounding quite a lot like Blast now." The last part involuntarily slipped out but I didn't regret it as the immediate effects were interesting. First the small espers eyes widened considerably and then she narrowed them but there was a faint dusting of red on her cheeks that gave me some fascinating insights. It seems the Tornado's womanly passions were directed towards the man who once saved her life. That was so…cute. For a person who was only one year younger than me to partake in such a childish romance; I guess it takes all types to make a world.

"Have you met Blast," she said with a sense of surprise and excitement that was quickly curtailed. "When was the last time you saw him," she said putting on a façade of aloofness. "Blast is the number one hero of the Hero Association and I would like to pay my respects."

So he still became the number one hero in this timeline. That was quite an accomplishment for a retired man. Still despite how much the esper wanted to know I was not going to rat out his location and earn the ire of both him and his wife. Shaking my head I turned around and started to walk away only to find psychic shackles tie themselves around my body.

"Childish," I said as I turned around with little resistance. I shackled myself with my own psychokinesis just so that I can train. Wasn't this taking me a bit too lightly?

Tatsumaki

Expert Esper

Title: Tornado of Terror

Species – Human/esper

Health- 287 254/287 254

Mana – 84 969 541/85 011 252

STR – 23 546

VIT – 83 451

DEX – 1 254 183

INT – 21 541 154

WIS – 18 468 365

LUK – 83 656

Special Ability: Immense Psychic Powers

That was a heck of a lot of mana and I felt my mouth contract into a rictus as I saw her stats. I flared my own psychokinesis shattering the shackles in an instant and allowing my body to move unrestrained. Little crackings of air broke as my every minor motion caused a mini shockwave and I watched with some amusement as my opponents eyes widened in sheer surprise. I could see why Saitama thought she looked like a child; namely because her overall attitude was childish to the extreme but in terms of looks she was a grown woman albeit an extremely petite one. That was good; I would have felt like a heel for fighting a child. Even as I had my resolution I watched as her eyes hardened in turn and the very air glowed thick with psychic power.

"Please stop!" the voice came from the side of the road jolting me out of my thoughts and I turned towards the woman who was employed by the Hero Association who was standing there in a clear state of panic.

"If the two of you fight out here you might destroy the whole street," the man backed up her words and I noticed that despite how the coldness of the day he was profusely sweating. His words were nowhere near accurate however. If Tatsumaki and I fought it was likely the entire city would be reduced to rubble.

"We were not going to," I said truthfully. While I couldn't speak for Tatsumaki I would have certainly taken the fight away from this location before things got to serious. If I was absolutely forced to then I would drag her into one of my Instant Dungeons before the fight heated up.

"Yes of course," Tatsumaki responded immediately. "There was no way we would fight in the middle of a city. You think we would be so irresponsible as to fight over here, idiots."

"While I admire your sense of responsibility," I said. "It would be remiss of me to remind you that neither of us to me knowledge have ever caused lives to be lost." I looked at Tatsumaki who nodded while giving the employees a scornful glance. "I do still wish to spar with you," I admitted to the esper. "How about we pick another day when we are both free. I believe I have to attend an orientation now. The fourth document that I signed I believe."

"Oh, that's correct," the male from the Hero Association said. "We have a specialised orientation with a welcome pack and an address from the executives…" As he spoke the man lead me towards a car that was far more luxurious than necessary. It didn't really matter anyway; driving loses a lot of its appeal anyway when you can move faster than the speed of sound.

"Until next time," I said giving her a half-hearted wave before I slipped into the backseat and allowed the two recruiters to drive me away. The last sight I saw was the tiny esper hanging in the air watching me leave.

xxx

Literally the next day

"You know when I suggested a spar I didn't expect it to be literally the next day," I said holding the door open while the Tornado of Terror stood in front of me in her hero costume. I was at this moment still wearing just shorts and a bathrobe and I had previously no intention to even leave the house today. "You do know you are supposed to call ahead before you arrive here unannounced; or at least bring a bottle of wine." I stepped backwards allowing her into the room regardless of my words.

"I don't have your phone number, idiot," Tatsumaki harshly replied. "You didn't even put on a cell phone number when you registered for the Hero Association."

"That's true," I admitted as I showed Tatsumaki to a spot on the couch. "I needed to get a new phone number and phone. I don't want to get my personal and hero calls mixed up. Would you like tea or coffee," I said as I stepped into the kitchen."

"Tea, with six sugars," Tatsumaki called in a voice that dared me to make fun of her dining habits.

"I'll lower the sugar but put in some lemon and cinnamon," I said as I took various ingredients and soaked them in the water of the kettle before boiling the water. "Trust me, I do run a restaurant. I even had that guy Pig God pop over to my restaurant a few times and he's always been satisfied."

"That pig would be satisfied with any swill," Tatsumaki said as I walked out of the kitchen. "Wait, how do you change so quickly?" That question was given due to the fact that I was in my hero costume. I actually had a surprising amount of clothes that I had gotten from dungeons but in the end nothing could quite compare to the fit of pure Life Fibers. Besides I think the parasite had an innate sense of fashion that was far greater than my own.

In the end my hero costume ended up being a pair of blue slacks and a white t-shirt with a black jacket that extended all the way to the thigh. This look was finished by a pair of black sneakers and blue gloves. I'm not normally one to care much about what a person wears but I was really very fond of what the Life Fibers had done.

"It looks like you dove into a goodwill and picked whatever stuck to you," Tatsumaki said and my smile froze before I chuckled.

"I can't tell me if you're deliberately trying to provoke me or if this is just your normal disposition but I will gladly take you on regardless."

"We will fight, but first I want to ask you something," Tatsumaki said seriously and I nodded before sitting down on the couch opposite her. "I noticed you are an esper. That you have psychic powers."

"All humans have psychic powers," I pointed out. "Most just don't bother to train or use them."

"That is true, but don't interrupt me," Tatsumaki snapped back. "Were you ever held in a facility for testing Psychic powers when you were younger?"

"I was not," I stated. "I had a perfectly normal childhood. There was a lot of training involved but it was entirely of my own volition. My parents don't really approve of my hero activities."

"I see," Tatsumaki said quietly. "You are a strong esper but if you keep it as your secret trump card then it will never develop. You should use it more."

"Most of the beings I fight are ultimately unworthy of my exertions in the first place," I said. "Defeating them with psychokinesis puts no more strain on the muscle then using it to make a cup of tea." My point was made as two teacups floated into the room and landed in front of their owners. "Tell me when the last time you exerted yourself fighting anything was."

"It has been almost sixteen years since I have had a difficult fight," Tatsumaki admitted with a boastful expression. It was only at that very moment that I comprehended the difference between both of us. She didn't feel urges for a good fight. She wanted to crush the monsters and feel powerful in her abilities. She trained so that she could become the strongest, all without feeling lethargy from a lack of challenge. In that manner she surpassed both Saitama and myself. She honestly saw this sparring match as a way to prove her superiority over me.

"This tea… is actually incredibly good," the short esper said breaking me out of my contemplation. "Does all your food taste like this?"

"I do own a restaurant," I said. "It mostly runs without my intervention but I show up and cook some days. There's even a web page dedicated to when I show up for work and that's when queues start to form outside."

"Now if your fighting is anything like your tea-making then you might actually be worthy of the title of S-Class," Tatsumaki replied with a sniff.

"And who do you think is worthy of S-Class so far," I responded. "Let me guess; just you and Blast." I stood up from my chair draining my tea before telekinetically moving both cups to the sink and washing them. I shook my fist a bit before I struck the air and in the same instant I activated one of my oldest abilities; Create Instant Dungeon.

A glowing convergence of cracks appeared in the air before they burst open revealing a door of orange light. If one was able to look through the orange light (and we both were able to some degree) one would be able to see a desolate landscape devoid of life. This Instant Dungeon was called The Barrens and was my go to when practicing destructive techniques.

"What… wait, what," Tatsumaki started to say but it didn't look like she could quite get the words out. Her eyes were wide and this was clearly something she had never seen before. Her actions seemed slightly naïve after my time in the Abandoned World. If you spotted a weird or unknown ability in that place then any moment of hesitation would likely spell your doom, or at least result in a lost limb.

"I'm heading inside," I started. "To a place away from any possible voyeurs who wish to spy on our battle." I didn't use the word spar. Judging from both of our personalities that word would be too light to describe the carnage that would soon result. "If you still want to fight me then simply follow me and step through the door."

At that moment I didn't wait for any more debates and I instead stepped into my Instant Dungeon. The temperature dropped by nearly ten degrees and the smell of my living room was replaced by rocks and dirt. I walked up to one of the bigger rocks and sat down and waited.

Oh Wow. This is my second most popular story in just two chapters. This chapter properly kicked my ass or maybe it was life that made an assault on my rear end and I'm merely passing the blame to this chapter. I wonder.