One Punch Man: Heroics Start with Dual Kamui

Chapter 142: Tsundere Tatsumaki

Yet Machine God G4 remained unshaken. He drew a massive greatsword from his back and announced, "The one I'm here to kill is you. At the same time, I'll use this battle to test my combat AI's capabilities. But right now, your entire body is riddled with openings. Taking you down like this would give me no valuable insights. Come, fight me head-to-head!"

The greatsword's tip aimed straight at King's head. With a slicing sound, the wind pressure blew his hat away once more.

King still stood firm, adopting a posture of "fighting to the death without retreat."

But can you guess why he refused to retreat?

Plop.

As the sound of the hat hitting the ground echoed, King finally spoke.

"...Fine. But I need to use the restroom first. If I fight while holding it in, my strength will be cut in half. In that case, you won't get any reliable combat data."

His expression remained calm and composed.

"..."

Machine God G4 fell silent for a moment. Then he replied, "Ten minutes. I will wait right here for ten minutes. For every minute you are late, I will slaughter ten random people. Think carefully."

King quickly slipped into the restroom.

The moment he locked the stall door, his legs gave out and he collapsed against the wall, all his earlier composure gone.

"He... he's here to kill me..."

"Hah... haha..."

King let out a foolish laugh, sweat pouring down his face.

Inside this isolated bathroom stall where no one could see him, he no longer controlled his expressions. His fear twisted his features beyond recognition.

'How did things end up like this...? I'm not the strongest man alive! I'm just a 29-year-old shut-in! Who came up with this whole 'King Engine' nonsense?! That's just the sound of my terrified heartbeat, so loud that others can hear it!'

Clutching at his chest, he felt as though his heart might burst from fear. Memories of the past rushed back.

Every time a Demon-level or even Dragon-level monster appeared before him, whenever he squeezed his eyes shut in terror, the monster would be annihilated in an instant, by someone he never even saw.

Afterward, the Hero Association had awarded him an S-Class Hero certificate without his consent. He had denied it at the time, but the Association refused to believe him. And honestly, he thought it was nice, so he hadn't been firm enough in rejecting it. That was his mistake... but he never expected things would escalate to the point of threatening his life!

"Ugh, blegh!"

King retched in terror, his beloved dating sim game falling out of his pocket.

'I don't want to die! I don't want to be a hero anymore! What should I do?!'

King's entire body trembled as he lifted his wristwatch. The ten minutes were nearly up.

"Aaaahhhh!"

His legs gave out, and he crouched down, both hands shaking as they pressed against the wall. Even his brain seemed to quake.

BOOM!!

Suddenly, a thunderous explosion echoed from afar, making King jolt.

"Eeeek! Has the slaughter already begun?!" KING gritted his teeth in terror, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... sob..."

When disaster struck, the strongest hero was supposed to appear gracefully, defeat the enemy with a single strike, and then leave in silence, hiding his name and merit.

'But that hero... was never me!'

As the noises in the distance grew more violent, King's heart was consumed by both terror and guilt. Because many people would die because of him... And yet, there was nothing he could do. He was just an ordinary, unemployed shut-in. Facing that robot meant certain death.

"..."

After an agonizing struggle, King pulled his hood back on, picked up his video game, and dashed out of the restroom.

Without looking back, he sprinted home at full speed.

'I'm sorry! I really can't do anything!'

.....

At the same time, Shinji had sent Loris off alone to buy manga.

He remained among the crowd, watching King's exchange with Machine God G4.

Ten minutes quickly passed. Just as Machine God G4 was about to begin his slaughter, Shinji knew he could not stand idly by.

"Why hasn't King shown up yet? Isn't he supposed to be the strongest hero?" Saitama, standing nearby, asked in puzzlement. "I was hoping to ask for a quick spar, but I guess a bad stomach is a greater enemy. Tacobells for me."

To the public, King was the strongest hero. To the Hero Association itself, however, [Blast] was the strongest. But Blast was so mysterious, with so few records of his feats, that King held the public's imagination instead.

"Go take a look and you'll understand..." Shinji answered calmly.

He had just summoned Saitama here through "channeling," so that Saitama could witness the King and G4 situation firsthand.

"Alright, I'll go. You guys can handle things here, right?" Saitama immediately ran off to search for King.

"No problem. Then..."

At that moment, Machine God G4 swung his blade toward the civilians. Seeing this, Shinji turned to Genos beside him.

"This one's yours. It'll be a great trial for you."

"Understood." Genos nodded firmly.

Without hesitation, he rushed forward. With a single crushing elbow strike, he shattered the greatsword in G4's hands.

CRACK!

The front half of the massive blade splintered apart, a testament to the force of Genos' strike.

In Shinji's view, King's problem should be left to Saitama, while Machine God G4 was Genos's to defeat. That left nothing else for him to do.

Just as he was preparing to watch quietly, he suddenly sensed a familiar aura racing toward them.

A tall figure landed beside him the next moment.

"I heard a robotic weapon was rampaging nearby, so I rushed over. But it seems there's nothing left for me to do?" The voice came from Boros.

"Yeah. That robot is Genos' fight. He needs this battle experience more." Shinji smiled faintly.

"In that case, I'll stay out of it." Boros nodded.

"Shinji! I got them!" At that moment, Loris returned, holding the manga she had just bought.

And coincidentally, she ran right into Boros, who had just arrived at the scene...

"..." Shinji was speechless.

He should have told Loris to wander around for half an hour first... Still, given Boros' current situation, even if Loris ran into him, it would not really matter.

"Ah..." Loris also noticed the familiar figure standing beside Shinji. She froze on the spot.

Hearing the strangely familiar voice and sensing the familiar aura, Boros instinctively turned his head.

Their eyes met, well, one large eye and three smaller ones, and the air itself seemed to freeze.

"...Loris?" Seeing her with his own eyes, Boros could not possibly mistake her.

"Brother... you... why are you here?" Loris looked utterly panicked.

"I should be asking you. Why are you on this planet... It's been twenty years since we last met..." Boros' reaction was calmer, but his tone clearly carried surprise.

No wonder he had been sensing a familiar aura. It was Loris all along...

"Oh dear."

Shinji, watching, realized that Boros and Loris had not met in twenty years. He could not even imagine how old these two really were.

"I..."

Loris' posture was stiff, her expression restrained. It was obvious she still felt a mix of awe and fear toward her brother.

"I came to this planet by accident. After discovering this was the world you had been searching for all these years, I grew curious and came to take a look. But then I was captured by him... and forced..."

As she spoke, she raised her hand and pointed straight at Shinji.

"...?"

A question mark practically popped over Shinji's head. Her words were all correct on their own, but strung together, they sounded terribly misleading.

"Forced...?" Boros turned his gaze toward Shinji. He had clearly misunderstood.

Closing his eyes, Boros said slowly, "...So be it. The victor reigns supreme, the defeated are at the mercy of others. Even if she is my sister, she can only be left to your whims."

On their homeworld and across the universe, it was common for defeated races to be plundered and enslaved. A queen one day could become a prisoner's plaything overnight. War was always this cruel.

Boros had long been hardened to this reality. Even if it was his sister, he could not change such cruelty.

At most, he could only hope that if Shinji truly considered him a friend, he might treat Loris a little more gently for his sake.

But he did not put much faith in that. After all, Boros himself had always believed in the supremacy of strength. The weak existed only to be dominated by the strong. Friendship, equality... those were nothing more than the strong showing mercy to the weak.

"Hold it, big guy. I knew you would misunderstand her words." Shinji immediately interrupted, explaining everything that had happened.

He told Boros how Loris had warned him of Boros' impending arrival, so Shinji had temporarily kept her on Earth. And how, later, Loris herself had refused to leave.

All of it was laid out plainly.

"I see..." Boros nodded slightly.

Now Loris panicked, unable to meet her brother's eyes.

After all, her actions were no different from leaking intelligence to an enemy. Because of her, Boros had failed to defeat Shinji...

Reading her thoughts, Boros said, "Why that expression? If you're worried I'll blame you, don't. Even if you hadn't warned him beforehand, I still couldn't have defeated Shinji."

Boros then sighed, "These past twenty years, I've often reflected on you. I realized I may have kept you too tightly bound. My obsession with battle left no room for your feelings. None of that will ever happen again. Because now, I've decided to stay on Earth. I don't know why you're still here, but if you ever want to leave, you're free to go. I won't interfere anymore."

He spoke more openly than ever before. To him, Earth had more appeal than the vastness of space. The planet's warriors had exceeded his expectations in a way that made him see the world in a new light.

Not only Shinji, but also that inexplicably bald man...

And the yet-unseen S-Class Rank 1 [Blast], and the so-called "strongest man alive," [King]. Each was a formidable opponent worth his interest.

Compared to wandering the galaxy in search of enemies, staying here was far more meaningful.

"Brother..." Hearing this, Loris' eyes welled with emotion.

"I want to stay too. I've found so many fascinating things on this planet." She smiled brightly.

Still, Shinji noticed that one of her hands remained hidden behind her back. She was clearly trying to keep the newly bought manga out of Boros's sight. Was that a BL?

"Is that so? That's fine too." Boros nodded.

...

Later, Machine God G4 was defeated by Genos. Though injured, Genos returned to Dr. Kuseno for repairs, using the opportunity to further strengthen his parts.

Meanwhile, Saitama and King cleared up the misunderstanding. It turned out that all the credit for defeating powerful monsters had fallen onto King by mistake. But Saitama did not care at all, and the two became friends.

Saitama also discovered that King loved video games, the very same genre he enjoyed. From then on, he entered a path of constant and crushing defeat at King's hands.

But the King incident was only a small side story.

Next came the Hero Association's "team-building," or rather, their victory banquet.

After the greatest disaster in history, the God-level threat of the Dark Matter Thieves, heroes who had helped protect Earth were invited by the Association.

This included A-Class Rank 2 Kamui, and even Boros himself was invited.

Though Boros had led the God-level disaster, since he had surrendered to the Association and contributed vast cosmic treasures to their funds, he was considered to have made up for it.

Even heroes like Pig God and Watchdog Man, who had run away during the battle, were invited. It seemed every S-Class hero had received an invitation, though some simply refused to attend. Heroes like Blast, Metal Knight, and Drive Knight never came.

The day before the banquet, Shinji received a call from Tatsumaki.

"I heard there's some victory celebration tomorrow. Supposedly a hot spring trip. Are you going?" She got straight to the point.

"It's rare to have a chance to travel. Of course I'll go have some fun." Shinji replied.

"I see? Then I suppose I'll reluctantly accompany you."

"You really don't have to force yourself..." Shinji said honestly.

There we go gain.

"Idiot!"

He was scolded again, and then Tatsumaki promptly hung up.