"Oh man, what a drag..." the bald young man muttered, yawning widely.
If he had been wearing his "going-out" outfit—yellow tights with red gloves and boots, plus a white cape—plenty of people would have recognized him as the Class B hero known as Caped Baldy.
But today, the one-punch master wasn't out monster-slaying or villain-bashing; he was shopping at the supermarket in the city center, so he'd left his superhero costume at home.
There hadn't been a peep from monsters in about a week. Even the small-time thugs seemed to be taking a break. Genos had vanished too. Taking advantage of the lull, the cyborg had headed to Dr. Kuseno's lab for some advanced upgrades. Judging by his three-day absence, the bald hero suspected that next time around, Demon Cyborg would really give the monsters hell. So Saitama's help might not even be needed anymore (though that wasn't certain).
Heading back from the supermarket with a bag full of assorted grub, the hero was enjoying a fine sunny day. For Saitama, it was twice as great because it was Saturday—discount day!
Days like that generally boosted his mood, but sometimes a wave of boredom and tedium still washed over him, just like now. The problem was he'd barely done any hero work in almost a week because of this "lull." Saitama had started begging the higher powers to spice up his gray routine somehow, but then he remembered he didn't believe in gods. After all, the past monsters who'd claimed that title had all gone down with one punch—or one Serious Punch Series at most.
"Maybe crash at King's place...? Damn!" For a second, he recalled all his defeats in battles against that blond guy with the scar. When it came to games, the guy had no equal.
"Not a single win against him yet! Though, if I tried cheats..."
His musings were interrupted by distant sounds of combat. Saitama scratched his gleaming bald head in the sunlight and grinned in anticipation.
He wasn't expecting a serious fight—opponents on Boros's level didn't grow on trees—but even a quick skirmish could shake up his somewhat sedate life as a young hero.
So without a second thought, Saitama dashed toward the source of the explosions.
A few moments later, arriving on the scene, he spotted a familiar cyborg battling a bizarre transparent monster with everything he had. In the air, only faint outlines of a three-meter anthropomorphic figure were visible, flickering in and out of sight periodically.
"Master Saitama?" the cyborg said in surprise, glancing briefly at the man he considered his teacher.
"Genos..."
"Please don't interfere!" the young man warned. "I have to beat this monster on my own. Otherwise, I'll never get stronger."
"Fine by me," Saitama said, setting down his bag and plopping onto the curb. His bald head gleamed in the sun again as his bored gaze studied his "disciple's" fight with some invisible opponent—demon class, by the looks of it.
Thanks to his special sensors, Genos could clearly "see" all the monster's movements. And with his cybernetic repulsors and Boost mode, he could hit supersonic speeds and dodge the creature's strikes, which had spatial teleportation abilities.
Their battle raged in the air, with neither gaining a clear edge yet. Under acceleration, Genos unleashed jet punches and lasers; he often switched to titanium blades for close combat, but it was all for naught. The unknown creature kept slipping away, though it wasn't pressing any serious counterattacks.
Slipping behind the young man, the monster slashed with an invisible blade. The cyborg dodged, spun around, and fired a heat beam straight into the invisible foe's face. But at the last second, the monster vanished again, and Genos's sensors picked up its reappearance a hundred meters away—right next to his teacher.
"Master!" the young man cried out in alarm.
Teleporting beside the bald man, the monster immediately slashed sharply at his scalp with its blade.
Boom
The impact was probably audible in another city; it had sheared off a chunk of a multistory building.
The transparent silhouette, which had barely escaped the blast zone, became visible. The humanoid figure's eyes burned with silvery light. Its skin had a bluish tint, and instead of a left hand, a curved sword blade protruded. The creature's right arm was completely gone. Silver blood spurted from the shoulder. It had barely teleported out of range of Saitama's "normal punch," but even the shockwave's aftermath had cost it an arm.
The monster began to growl, and the space around it trembled.
Genos's firm voice rang out:
"Incineration!"
The firepower of the shot, boosted by the Demon Cyborg core, was devastating. It was his most powerful attack with his current arsenal. But suddenly, the explosion that should have wiped the thing off the face of the earth was swallowed by the warped space around the monster's body. Then his own attack came crashing down on Genos from above.
The cyborg was lucky that Dr. Kuseno's latest mods hadn't just added cold weapons and boosted firepower—they'd reinforced the exoskeleton too. Otherwise, his own blast might have nearly melted his body. But Genos was extremely fortunate, so now he lay on the ground without his synthetic hair, with heat-cracked pseudo-skin on his face, and mobility and flight systems offline. In that state, he probably couldn't fight anymore.
"You still wanna handle this solo, Genos?" Saitama asked, picking at his ear.
"Sorry, Master," the cyborg said despondently. "I'm still too weak."
In the next instant came the sound of a mighty blow.
This time, the monster apparently couldn't dodge, and chunks of its body were smeared across the street and nearby houses. Not a drop of silver blood stained Saitama's shorts or Hawaiian shirt.
"Sigh, this one went down with one punch too," Caped Baldy thought glumly.
Saitama turned to grab his bag, but space nearby rippled and spat out what was left of the teleporting creature.
The heroes were greeted by a pitiful sight: a head and upper torso chunk, with the monster's silver innards spilling out. It still showed signs of life, but it clearly didn't have long.
"Pretty quick on its feet," Saitama muttered, puzzled. "And tough as hell..."
The monster bared two rows of razor-sharp fangs. Its maw moved, uttering syllables of some alien tongue, and the surrounding space began to tremble noticeably. With each moment, the shaking grew stronger and stronger. Genos suddenly noticed a spatial anomaly forming around Saitama.
"Master, run!" he shouted.
"Eh?"
But it was too late. The fabric of space shattered into shards, and a vortex yawned open behind his teacher, instantly sucking in the bald young man. A few seconds later, the vortex closed, space stabilized, and the monster lying on the road expired.
Today was the day the world of heroes and monsters lost the strongest man on Earth.
Saitama looked around curiously. After being vacuumed in like into a Hoover, he'd felt an incomparable, incredibly wonderful sensation of flight. Grinning foolishly, he was glad on one hand but baffled on the other. Because he definitely wasn't on Earth anymore.
Once the spinning through spatial tunnels stopped, he finally felt solid ground underfoot. Or rather, not ground—a silvery haze that felt soft to the touch yet incredibly springy.
Looking around, Saitama saw he was surrounded by a suspension of rainbow mist, shimmering with colors. Taking a few steps, he realized there was no normal air here, so he clamped his nose shut with his hand and held his breath.
A thought flashed through his bald head:
"Pretty, but gotta get outta here..."
In the next instant, he bolted forward in search of an exit from this weird place.
With each heartbeat, Saitama ramped up his speed more and more. But he still found no way out. Instead, strange distortions like whirlpools flickered here and there in the space—silvery-golden gleams instead of water.
Without a second thought, Saitama charged the nearest one and plunged in at full tilt.
Not slowing down, he raced through the shimmering tunnel until he hit a ghostly barrier like frosted glass. On the run, he threw his standard fist to smash the strange "window."
To his surprise, though, the obstacle didn't give; it just flexed slightly and snapped back.
Scratching his bald head in confusion, Saitama let go of his nose and stared at the springy "glass" with interest. He'd even forgotten he wasn't in Earth's atmosphere and there was no air here.
"First time I've seen a window this tough... Guess I gotta get a little serious."
The dopey expression he'd worn the whole time switched to a predator's grimace:
"Serious Punch Series!"
A barrage of insanely powerful punches rained down on the world gate. Fist shadows blurred at unimaginable speed. The barrier quaked, blows overlapping, but after a dozen breaths, the membrane showed only a tiny crack that sealed right up.
Saitama stopped and scratched his head in bewilderment again.
If any God or higher entity had seen some guy trying to break the gate to another world, they'd have laughed heartily at the fool. Only the mightiest space mages or innate spatial wanderers could open gates at will. But piercing the membrane separating a world from the interworld with plain physical attacks? Impossible.
Our hero didn't know that. He just wanted to open the "door" that wouldn't let him through. Saitama racked his brains for a way out, drawing on his life experience.
"Got it!" inspiration finally struck Saitama. "When cops in movies bust down a criminal's door, they don't do it with fists..."
An anticipatory grin lit the hero's face, and he made his next move:
"Deadly series: Super Serious..." The surrounding space trembled from the power released by the bald master. "Kick!"
The world gate blocking his path was pulverized to dust, and Saitama strode confidently into the unknown.