'I'm too old for this' Agoni groaned as he heaved a tired sigh.
Technically Agoni should be retired now. He did his time starting from the bottom as the son of a pair of farmers and crawled his way to the top of the corporate ladder. He amassed a fortune and created an empire that secured his family's future for generations to come. Right now he should be lounging in his private villa, indulging in eclectic and leisurely hobbies while spoiling his grandchildren. And he would have had one of said grandchildren not been attacked by a monster.
Now Agoni would admit that he never really cared too much about security against monsters. At one time he did care but only in as much as not being caught up in a monster attack. Once he got his wealth up he was able to afford state of the art security and that settled any misgivings he may have had about the government's ability to protect the people…by making it a non issue for him.
Plus his various businesses hardly if ever encroached on that market and for someone as business minded as him if it wasn't making him any money he didn't really care. But that was business and this was personal because if it wasn't for One-Punch Man he would have ended up burying his grandson. And that fact lit a fire in him that hadn't been stoked for many decades.
How (un)fortunate that it came at a time when he was about to retire. He already left his own companies for his children to manage, written up his will and secured his literal retirement home. Now instead of leisurely hobbies he ended up delving into the security business, specifically in regards to defense against monster incursions. He wanted to know exactly how a monster was able to find itself in a position to endanger his grandson.
What he found ended up being not at all surprising yet it both angered and disappointed him. It didn't surprise him that the government didn't seem to have as much of a handle on global security as they like to portray. During his research into the topic he was able to get his hands on the actual statistics for monster attacks across the world. The ones that the government kept locked up so as not to create a panic in the masses as well as protect their reputation for election season.
What surprised him was just how badly handled it was. To make a long story short it was poor management at its finest with their budget and personnel being stretched to the point where they were only barely managing to get by. It was a headache to find this out because not only did Agoni have to read through a great deal of government bureaucratic nonsense to get the full picture but he couldn't narrow down the blame to any one person or department that was responsible for putting his grandson in danger.
As far as he was concerned it was both everyone's (the government's) fault and no one's fault because the monster that attacked his grandson was formerly a human who had transformed recently and didn't kick up a fuss until that particular incident. Said incident that was caused by his grandson provoking the creature by…drawing nipples on its chest with permanent marker while it was sleeping.
…Agoni loved all his children and their children dearly. Family was something of a 'weakness' for him and he could be quite 'unreasonable' when it came to matters involving them. The fact that he decided to look into global security with the intentions of taking matters into his own hands because of this attack says that much. However he wasn't as unreasonable as to dismiss foolishness when he saw it or in this case read it.
Agoni was someone who still retained his 'common(er) sense' from his time when he was just a normal citizen unlike the majority of his peers who were born into wealth. And unfortunately it would seem that the lack of sense plaguing the elite was passed down to his grandson despite both his and his parents efforts to foster a normal upbringing by having him live in a secure yet normal suburban home.
That was already being rectified even as his grandson was moved to somewhere more secure since the incident.
Back to the government, after days of research which involved hiring analysts and experts to give their own opinions he narrowed down the reasons for their inability to truly secure the cities against monster attacks outside of the usual bureaucratic nonsense and corruption. The most prevalent of them to him seemed to be an issue with human resource so to speak. Oh sure the government has the military and a dedicated taskforce that, in their defense, are very good at putting down monsters however their response time leaves much to be desired.
Case in point said taskforce didn't even arrive to his grandson's aid until long after One-Punch Man killed the monster and left the scene. This wasn't even a rare occurrence, incidents like this where a monster rampages and the taskforce shows up late only to find the monster was already taken care of by a vigilante.
Vigilante, the word was used in the past as a misnomer to describe individuals who display superhuman or supernatural abilities that involve themselves in matters of law enforcement. These extraordinary individuals and their place within society have always been a topic of contention for the government. You'd think with the security situation being close to dire there would be a conscientious effort by the military to recruit them.
To their credit there actually was and there were plenty of individuals in the military comparable to vigilantes. Unfortunately their attempts at recruitment have largely been met with failure. From what Agoni saw in the reports the problem lies with the government's attempts to control them. They were seemingly adamant in placing these individuals in the military and treating them like soldiers. There were benefits to such subservience however with power came pride and most of these individuals chafe under a perceived greater authority.
In any case Agoni found an avenue where he could tackle the global security issue. Vigilantes were still active yet even beyond those who took up the mantle there were extraordinary individuals who kept to themselves. He read about the large scale monster invasion incident in Z-City where dozens of individuals outside the vigilantes, government taskforce and military fought. Of the ones that survived most kept to themselves but the point still stood that clearly there was an untapped market where they are concerned he just needed to capitalize on it.
As he went about developing the foundations for this then hypothetical organization two things became apparent:
First the government or its affiliates should not be involved in any way, shape or form in this. Not only have they effectively burned any goodwill they might have had with the vigilante community but they've already proven incompetent enough that Agoni would not take kindly to any sort of oversight from them.
Second he could not do this alone. Without a government grant Agoni would need to fund everything out of pocket which while not impossible seemed unwise, especially since he no longer had the backing of his company given that he handed the reins to his children. He didn't want to involve his company in this anyway as there were already examples of the failures of corporate sponsored vigilantes.
What he needed were investors and to that end he planned to approach several of his closer acquaintances with a proposal. He knew they would lend him his support if nothing else than for the profits and power that would be granted to them. He didn't like it but it was a necessary evil and he knew that with these individuals on his side they would be able to bulldoze through whatever red tape or attempts at control the government might impose on them.
It was fortunate then that the first person he approached was Solaria Nova. He's known the younger woman for several years now and through their semi frequent dealings gleamed enough of her character to know that she would share his ideals for what he was trying to create. The woman ended up surpassing his expectations when she made her own reveal and counter proposal.
In hindsight he shouldn't have been surprised that she was aware of the issues with global security as well as the potential of vigilantes being organized under one umbrella as opposed to operating independently. She was after all at the center of the aforementioned Z-City Incident but even then it shocked him to find out that she was already doing something about it and has been for quite some time now. In a private meeting they had Solaria revealed her idea of creating a Hero Association and her attempts at getting it off ground.
It was quite surprising to see how passionate the young woman was about it and the fact that she has been harboring this dream of hers since the day she survived that monster incursion having been saved by a group of vigilantes. She was so dedicated that the real reason why she left her successful career as an idol and started her business was to gain enough resource and power to see her vision through.
Agoni was impressed for she had the passion, determination and even the capital to pursue her goals but lacked the experience and influence. At least that was the case at the beginning when she earnestly attempted several means of developing the project including but not limited to an appeal to the government. Luckily she figured out what he did about their involvement in such matters and promptly scrapped the idea not long after.
Now after so many years and her breakthrough success turning Star Enterprise into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world she was all but ready to try again. By the time Agoni came to her she had already spent a significant amount of time quietly gathering resources and setting events in motion to build the framework of her objective. And unlike Agoni Solaria's goals went beyond merely protecting cities from monster attacks.
Solaria aimed to create a new class of protectors that tackle not just monster incursions but crime in general. A private organization separate from the government aimed at recruiting skilled and powerful individuals in the defense of humanity. The name Hero Association wasn't just some clever marketing ploy but a declaration of intent that she wanted to use the organization as a means of fostering actual Heroes.
It was a noble goal and one that he could get behind as whenever he thought about the man whom protected his grandson from that monster how could that man be anything less than a Hero?
After cementing their partnership the two were able to expedite the process Solaria started and before long they were able to secure investors, infrastructure and personnel. As for the Heroes themselves a National Hero Registry was developed where registrants are given the opportunity to present their skills through a series of physical testing capped off by a standard written exam.
By all means it wasn't a foolproof method of determining the true extent of one's prowess but it wasn't meant to be. With the registry being open to the public and the tests themselves designed to be generalized the point of it all was to get a general sense of an individual's physical fitness and critical thinking skills to determine whether or not they fit in the organization.
The criteria for acceptance were rather low with failing either the physical or written tests not guaranteeing a rejection. Considering the scope they were covering and the fact that the majority of applicants are untrained civilians they could afford to be lax in this phase. Really the true test of their mettle comes after they join the association proper.
Solaria chose to use the hierarchical class system both to foster competition as well to promote self improvement. Once someone becomes part of the Hero Association it would be up to them to either remain as they are or rise up the ranks. It was a system that was both deceptively simple and seemingly ready to be exploited by those clever enough. Yet unbeknownst to the heroes there were safeguards in place that would weed out the truly undeserved and over the course of the three years since its official creation they've streamlined it even more.
Agoni would like to say that things went smoothly thanks to Solaria doing all the legwork prior to him joining the project but that would be a lie. The government naturally took umbrage with them essentially raising a private army of superhumans so to appease them they had to take on a government representative (and several spies) and put them in a position of power within the organization. Luckily they were able negotiate and chose from a short list where they appointed Sitch to the position.
Both Solaria and Agoni were fine with this as he was a man of principle who cared more for the safety of humanity than politics. He was so trustworthy and above all competent that he became the one put in charge of finding solutions to the doomsday prophecy. Plus at the time he was the only individual in any official capacity with some relationship with the enigmatic hero Blast.
Of course government spies weren't the only internal problems they took on. While the combined wealth and contacts of the shareholders/investors aided in the establishment and continued operations of the organization their presence was a double edged sword. Agoni was under no illusion of the kinds of men and women he let sponsor the organization as he and Solaria were truly the rare exceptions of elites not being driven by greed.
Corruption was always a possibility, he would even say it was inevitable and it was the primary reason why he agreed with Solaria remaining as an anonymous partner rather than going public with her involvement in the formation of the Hero Association. Frankly Agoni would rather not take the role of CEO not only because it was mainly her idea and much of the leg work was done through her preparations but Agoni was getting on in years. He wasn't as sharp as he used to be among other things and very much wanted to retire from corporate life to live out the rest of his days in a more idyllic setting.
Unfortunately they couldn't appoint someone else because none who qualified met their standards when it came to integrity and loyalty to the cause. So a compromise was made, he was willing to take up the leadership position but only temporarily until Solaria felt she was ready to take the reins herself. And yes he does mean when she felt like she was ready because for as much as she liked to make the argument for her maintaining anonymity was a means for her to discreetly keep eyes on internal affairs while not bringing a conflict of interest with her being the CEO of Star Enterprise Agoni could sense that the woman had some personal hang-ups about involving herself in the Hero Association.
As her senior he would indulge her request for a while but by no means was he willing to do it indefinitely. Solaria also understood this so when she called for a meeting with him he hoped that it would be to discuss her finally stepping in a leadership role or better yet to replace him. To a certain degree he was right but that was not the main topic for this meeting between them. He knew something was wrong when he was greeted by a tense atmosphere in the private meeting room where only Solaria sat. There aren't many people who could make Agoni tense, not even the rowdier S-Class heroes could accomplish such feats but seeing the expression on her face raised his heckles somewhat if only because it meant that she had bad news.
As he took a seat across from her she pulled out several thick folders and spoke in a curt tone.
"We have a problem."
Over An Hour Later…
Solaria watched as Agoni closed a folder and began to massage his brows with a groan. To his credit he had meticulously gone through everything she presented which amounted to a good chunk of the evidence she collected of the various illegal and questionable activities perpetrated by the Hero Association executives and employees.
"This is embarrassing" the man grunted.
"We expected as much."
"Don't try to spare my feelings Solaria I am much too old for that. This goes way beyond the pale of 'acceptable losses' we were expecting letting such elements within the association" he punctuated this by waving a folder.
Said folder contained information of the underground gambling ring where wealthy elites bet on staged fights between heroes rebranded under fake aliases and monsters previously captured and tamed.
He continued "even if you were gathering evidence of this, to let this much happen under my watch is a failure on my part" he sighed and right before her eyes he seemed to age.
Solaria agreed somewhat but wasn't going to belabor the point "neither of us expected them to be so brazen about it."
Not even Solaria did but she supposed it had to do with having a group of powerful individuals under their control. There was frighteningly little that could not be accomplished by throwing an A-Class or worse, an S-Class hero at it.
"If there was ever a time for me to step down I believe that time is now" Agoni spoke gravely.
Even though she knew it was coming his words still made a bout of discomfort flare up within her.
She quickly stamped it down and nodded "in due time but before that I want to work a little closer to the source of the issue before taking over."
"How long will that be?"
"Until year's end."
Agoni raised a brow before bridging his fingers together "the prophecy?"
Solaria nodded "I want to ensure our heroes are up to task and I can't do that with all the bureaucracy that comes with your position distracting me."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I have a few ideas that could help improve our heroes' overall performance."
"We've already tried to enact a number of programs to that end but the results have been less than ideal."
"I am aware but I think I will be able to achieve more than an overworked section chief."
"…I believe you."
"But first let's do some pest control~"
Agoni nodded and the meeting of the two co-founders to set right the path of the Hero Association began in earnest.
~O~
Several Days Later…
It took less than a week for Metal Knight's army of drones to scrap the alien spaceship, assimilate its technology and redistribute it within the Hero Association's infrastructure. The results of this could be seen in the changes in the architecture of their headquarters with the new sleek technology integrated within the very walls turning it the almost the same color as the ship itself.
The government and various private interests were already clamoring to get their hands on the technology. Coupled this with them still riding high on their overwhelming victory against the invaders with no casualties and minimum collateral and by all means this should have been a major triumph for the Hero Association. Yet within all this stream of positivity there was a stirring that went against the current and was causing ripples.
It started a few days ago with Agoni, the CEO of the Hero Association.
Agoni has been mostly hands off with its day to day operations instead focusing his attention more on securing investors, running interference with outside forces and generally making it easier for those within the organization to run it successfully. When he's not doing that he would periodically host parties to celebrate successful milestones or do inspections just to see how things were going.
Naturally after the alien invasion he hosted a party and made it mandatory for all the executives and other key members of staff to attend. It was by far the largest gathering of Hero Association personnel outside of the yearly Hero Association convention. Apart from giving accolades to the heroes and personnel who aided during the invasion attempt Agoni announced the appointment of a new Chief Operating Officer.
The news itself was surprising enough however it was who he appointed that caught everyone off guard for it was none other than Solaria Nova, the CEO of Star Enterprise who in another twist turned out to be the secret co-founder of the Hero Association. Naturally this was huge news that was met with great enthusiasm by the staff specifically the marketing and public relations departments.
Solaria Nova was a well recognized name not only as the wealthiest woman in the world and head of one of the largest multimedia conglomerate's in the world but also being a former world class idol. She was not just any idol either but was by all intents Amai Mask's predecessor whom has went on record numerous times admitting to being a fan and citing her as his inspiration. Even more than a decade after her retirement Solaria was still a popular figure with a rather rabid cult-like fanbase.
As this was the first major thing she's done in recent years the news blew up across various media platforms effectively replacing the alien invasion that had been the top trending at the time. Things were looking up, at least it seemed that way to the wider public but internally things were a bit more hectic. Outside of the public relations and marketing department Solaria's appointment was actually a contentious one that had a surprising amount of pushback from several executives.
The reason for this had nothing to do with appointing the CEO of another company to such a high position or other such technicalities. Rather it was the woman herself and the danger she presented to certain parties within the Hero Association. You see Solaria's public reputation had her come off as a kind, empathetic and understanding yet stern woman with a moral compass and a great sense of justice. It was something every businessmen and public figure had in common when it came to how they went about their public perception for the most part. Yet like all public figures Solaria held a darker side of herself she kept in private though not in the way most others in her position did.
Astute individuals would observe that events would seem to happen around her in ways that would always make a situation work out for her or her allies in the long run while her enemies took disproportionate losses all without her seeming interference. The latest example of this was the sudden departure of several executives at Star Enterprise which happened shortly before her appointment in the Hero Association.
According to reports they were all arrested on criminal charges that on the surface seemed like a clear cut case of corrupt corpo-types getting caught doing criminal activities. Rumor has it however that these former executives were involved in a conspiracy to oust Solaria from her own company. It should be noted that during all this Solaria allegedly bought up all their shares increasing her majority stake in the company by a significant amount.
You can find similar incidents that happened throughout the years with anyone who managed to make an enemy of her finding themselves no longer in a position to hinder her in one way or another. Most of them don't recover from their downfall but the few who have never crossed paths with her again opting to go out of their way to avoid crossing paths with her again.
No one could ever trace her influence in making these events happen even when it seemed obvious that she was behind it. Many have tried all have failed either dropping the matter entirely or in the worst case scenario finding themselves developing sudden inexplicable misfortune.
Yet for all that she has earned the wariness of her enemies she maintains a positive rapport with her allies and subordinates. Then there's her impeccable public image. From organizing charities and sponsoring scholarships to taking pay cuts and funding salaries out of pocket Solaria Nova was generally shown to be an altruist. It also helped that those whom she had allegedly orchestrated the downfall of weren't exactly upstanding members of society to begin with.
Throughout the years Solaria developed a reputation in the corporate world as a woman not to be trifled with. And when you combine her fearsome reputation and tendencies with her resources and influence you get an individual whose presence presents a danger to certain parties within the Hero Association. So while the public celebrated her induction into the Hero Association, within the organization itself various parties were already working to undermine her authority and the smarter ones made moves to cover their tracks and abandon ship so to speak.
Unfortunately for them their fates were sealed long before they could have done anything about it. A mere few hours after the announcement an unprecedented string of indictments across all facets of the Hero Association staff and affiliates occurred. Not even the executives and wealthy investors were spared. And while no one could say for certain how this was happening at first everyone agreed that the catalyst was Solaria's appointment. The media in particular seemed hell bent on crediting her as the one spearheading this apparent witch hunt.
As for the woman herself she kept mostly quiet on the issue for a while as she was busy visiting each Hero Association branch across the continent to do inspections and conduct interviews with members of staff. Officially the visits were made with the intention of getting a firsthand impression of how the branches operate and establishing positive relations with employees. It was a typical corporate public stunt that she was seemingly keeping all her focus on while everything went down.
Eventually after many days where many raids and many arrests were conducted with trials pending she did a press conference where she not only addressed the issue but answered other questions:
Why did she keep her involvement in the formation of the Hero Association a secret?
Because she did not want to split her time between running two companies and wanted to keep both organizations as separate as possible from each other.
Why did she reveal herself now?
She recently concluded a project she had been working on at Star Enterprise and felt confident in leaving it in the hands of her subordinates for the time being.
Will she be replacing Agoni as CEO?
She took this specific position at the behest of Agoni with the implication that she would be replacing him down the line as he will be retiring.
What about the string of convictions and raids on the Hero Association?
She denied having any involvement in them claiming that they were apparently tipped off by an anonymous source with an alleged mountain of evidence against the individuals in question. She then went on to make a brief speech about the current Hero Association losing its way and promised to cooperate with the authorities as the situation progressed to change that.
The public ate it up and the same could be said for within the Hero Association with the majority adoring her. For those who had doubts about her there was nothing they could do about it As for the minority who disliked her (but were innocent of any crimes) they were tasked with the most difficult prospect, enduring her presence and hope that they weren't also on the chopping block so to speak.
~O~
On average the Hero Association executives conduct meetings on a bi-weekly basis barring special occasions and emergencies. Despite this attendance wasn't mandatory and would begin even without everyone present. This meeting however was significantly more important as they were hoping to address the dramatic changes brought on by the mass exodus of personnel, loss of resources and investors and the damage to their public image.
It was, as the saying went, a shit show of the highest order that was starting to take its toll and no one knew what to do. Or rather they couldn't do anything without the presence of their new Chief Operating Officer. With how things have been going they had to put off the meeting until Solaria was available and it was only now that she had room in her schedule to attend…yet she was still running late.
In the meeting room there was a thick blanket of tension amongst the attendees who barely spoke a word to each other beyond the expected greetings. Eventually the automatic sliding doors opened to reveal Solaria wearing a crisp navy blue business suit with her hair tied in a professional bun. Her heels audibly clacked on the ground as she made her way to the head of round table signified by a chair that was more grandiose in design sitting before a built in touch panel.
As she walked she tapped away at a tablet which she kept her eyes on but even then she spoke addressing he gathered "apologies for the tardiness there were a few urgent matters that needed my personal attention. I didn't miss anything important did I?"
Sitch cleared his throat "we thought it best to wait for your arrival before we begin the meeting Miss Nova."
She arrived at her chair finally taking her eyes off the tablet to look around the room and upon noticing the empty seats raised a brow "I see not everyone was able to make it."
Most of the attendees looked amongst each other wondering to themselves if the woman was serious. Over the course of the last couple days three executives were arrested while four resigned for reasons that boiled down to poorly conceived excuses to separate themselves from the Hero Association and especially Solaria herself lest they get caught in her crosshairs.
"While that is disappointing I am heartened to know that some of you have integrity."
She finished by giving them a warm smile that actually worked to uplift everyone present especially the men save for one who kept his expression stoic, something she noticed.
"Oh, I'm surprised to see you here."
The person in question was none other than Amai Mask who had kept quiet up to this point. That was another aspect of this particular meeting, the attendance of the number one A-ranked hero. Amai Mask's attendance wasn't as controversial as it seemed for while he wasn't officially an executive it was more a matter of technicality.
Hero Association executives are those who hold a great amount of power through their position within the organization. Said position usually has them put in charge of a significant sector of the organization or otherwise have sway over them and thus they are included in the decision making process as an executive.
Amai Mask's official position in the Hero Association was being part of the hero evaluation staff as well as an upper management advisor. However he is also the very face of the organization and is a large source of revenue via donations through his fans and his work in the entertainment industry for which he allocates a significant amount of his salary towards the Hero Association making him a not insignificant investor as well.
The reason why he wasn't officially recognized as an executive was merely due to him not pushing the issue and putting his focus on other things. Everyone in the room knew this and it's the reason why no one really questioned his appearance beyond wondering why he chose to attend now. Even then they all could make an educated guess as to what or rather who had his interest.
"I was merely curious to know how you plan to handle the chaos currently being faced by the Hero Association and to give my input when necessary" the number one A-Class hero replied.
Solaria flashed her pearly white teeth as she grinned cheekily at him "well it's a good thing that's on the agenda today."
And with that she booted up the holographic projector to begin her presentation.
~O~
'She actually managed to do it.'
It's been a week since he last talked to Solaria and he's now seeing her plan in action. The Hero Association has been all over the news even more than usual and not for the typical reasons either. Tomoro could admit that not even in his wildest dreams would he figure this would be the method Solaria would use to address the corruption in the Hero Association. He expected subterfuge, manipulations, veiled threats, the kind of stuff you'd see in corporate dramas.
Shame on him for hinging his expectations in fiction and boy wasn't that ironic?
No she instead went for the nuclear option and damned if she wasn't being thorough about it. She was straight up culling the organization with the entire world bearing witness to literal dozens of employees, stakeholders and co-conspirators being charged and arrested. It was actually kind of entertaining to watch and part of him wanted to call and congratulate her or ask her for the details but considering the absolute shit storm she willingly walked into with her new position he thought better of it.
Even someone like her should be swamped with work and he didn't want to distract her with what amounted to glorified gossiping. Besides it's not as if Tomoro hadn't been preoccupied with his own self appointed mission of locating a certain angsty shounen anti-hero. After his failed attempts at doing it solo he started reaching out to the martial arts community again. That meant checking up on his old masters, their successors and actively fishing for information on what he might have missed while babysitting Saitama. Not that he ever stopped but there's only so much he could get done by being a passive observer as opposed to an active participant.
TLDR there was a lot he missed but most of what he learned was information that wasn't relevant to his current situation…so far. If there's anything he learned it's that anything could happen now that the 'canon' as it were was sort of derailed leaving an uncertainty that was concerning but nonetheless exciting.
It was also through catching up with the martial arts world that he got a more accurate timeline of Garou's activities although from what he gathered nothing exactly changed from what he assumed. Garou traveled the world picking fights with tough guys, illegally entered official tournaments, crash underground fighting rings, crushing dojos and generally making a nuisance of himself.
Tomoro noticed that despite him seeking out tough opponents to fight in order to become stronger and targeting dojos in particular to assimilate their techniques Garou seemed to be avoiding all the masters (Grandmasters) acquainted with Bang. The reason why became obvious after his previous conversation with Bang. Tomoro was pretty sure the 'scolding' his old master gave Garou for his actions were a lot more severe than the old master was willing to admit.
If that was the case then it made sense Garou would want to steer clear of anyone affiliated with or on the same level as Bang. Consequently it made the boy all the more harder to track since him avoiding Bang or his affiliates was tantamount to hiding away from the majority of the martial arts world itself. Bang is an icon with a lot of peers, fans and enemies who revere, revile and above all respect him. There was no guarantee how anyone who knew him personally would react to a rogue student of his showing up to challenge them but chances were information would be filtered to Bang more times than not.
It explained why he refused use Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist until he was literally backed into a corner by Tank Top Master and even then he used it on reflex. Strange as it is Tomoro could almost see the logic and the chain of events that led to him making this kind of decision too.
The constant praise and validation for being a 'genius' drove his ego up to the point where he wasn't satisfied with the training anymore and decided he learned everything he needed to. He became vindicated in his decision after beating up all his fellow disciples in a bloody free-for-all and broke into the archives to ferret out more secrets his Master might be keeping. Bang caught him in the act and being the prideful ego driven person that he is challenged his master only to get immediately humbled and kicked out like the punk he is.
He imagined that moment for a guy like Garou who had immense pride in his fighting ability to be immensely humiliating and traumatizing. And so with his bruised ego he made the decision to stop using Bang's martial art and instead found other means of becoming stronger with the goal of completing his self appointed mission without ever using it. Even better since as a hero Bang was already in his crosshairs and defeating him like that would be the perfect way to get back at him for the humiliation.
It was frankly ridiculous and consequently meant there was a drastic dip in the quality of fighters he could challenge to get stronger. He must have thought he could make diamonds out of coal but must have realized at some point that's not how it worked. You could be a genius who could master any martial art just by looking at someone else do it but what's the point if said martial arts was trash from the start?
It would explain why Garou seemingly didn't use martial arts until his battle with Tank Top Master making him seem like a well trained thug. In fact the only martial arts he used throughout the story from what he remembered came from copying Bang and Bomb's techniques as well as some from the S-Class heroes he fought up to that point.
Interestingly he only ever used techniques from people who made an impact on him in a fight. Bang and Bomb were a given but he also copied that one technique from Tank Top Master who forced him to use Bang's martial arts for the first time since he left the dojo as well as the animalistic movements of Watchdog Man who handed him his first defeat.
But as interesting as it was to analyze craft theories around him it didn't make the search for Garou any less difficult. In the end Tomoro decided it was best to wait for him to make the first move figuring it would be easier to find him while he's on the hunt.
~O~
As Tomoro made it up the stairs on his way to the apartment building a familiar presence made itself known before a pretty boy ninja stepped out of the shadows. Tomoro blinked feigning composure to mask his shock which itself was also faked because he sensed the ninja from for a while now.
"Nice trick" he commented "can I help you with something uh… I'm sorry who are you again?"
"Speed-o'-Sound Sonic" he answered "where's Saitama?"
"If I were to guess he's either at an S-Class meeting at the Hero Association HQ or wandering around in a poorly implemented disguise that always seems to work for some reason."
"Tch" Sonic clicked his tongue looking off to the side with an annoyed expression.
'Ugh, now I feel kinda bad for him' thought Tomoro as he observed the disgruntled ninja.
"I could take a message for him if you want" Tomoro spoke earning a glance from the ninja "although I think you'll have a better chance just trying tomorrow preferable before ten when he goes out on patrol in the morning. He keeps a pretty consistent schedule."
"Does he now?"
Not really but he didn't say any of that instead replying with "yeah pretty much."
Sonic said nothing for a moment as he scrutinized the other man before he gave a devious smirk.
'That doesn't bode well.'
"I have a better idea."
"Wha-?" he asked but by the first syllable the ninja had already disappeared from view and before he could finish he felt a strike to the back of his neck.
With a mental sigh and curse Tomoro allowed himself to crumple to the floor doing his best impression of an unconscious body.
'The least you could do is catch me you asshole!'
Seriously why couldn't he have done this crap on the weekend? Now he'll have to pay for a new suit since he very much doubted that it's going to survive whatever ordeal that will befall the ninja in his latest harebrained scheme.
~O~
The plan was simple, confront Saitama with a challenge and defeat him. Last time he wasn't prepared, he had just been going about his day when he happened to notice the man in his 'disguise' and took a literal shot at him. In hindsight it was a foolish move on his part considering the man managed to…incapacitate him during their first encounter when he had all his equipment and was actually prepared for a confrontation.
What he should have done was keep his distance, track him back to his home and properly prepare himself. Instead he impulsively confronted the man on the sidewalk of one of the busiest streets in the freaking commercial district in the middle of the afternoon while wearing casual clothes while only having the bare minimum equipment.
And where did his impulsiveness lead him?
Dismissed, ignored, humiliated, outmaneuvered, knocked out and thrown in jail in that order.
It was arguably more embarrassing than how their first encounter ended because at least in that situation they were alone and he managed to escape with some of his dignity intact. Even more embarrassing was the fact that he managed to escape his initial imprisonment (and quite easily in fact) but due to underestimating his captures (and the shock collar they employed) did not get far before he was immobilized and recaptured.
After that they put him in high level restraints meant to prevent any sort of movement which he would have gotten out of eventually but before he could he was sent to that maximum security prison nicknamed the Smelly Lid. The arrogant fools were so confident he wouldn't be able to escape that once he arrived they got rid of all his restraints save for the collar. After showing his dominance over the other prisoners he got rid of the collar through some clever engineering.
Afterwards he set about to make a proper escape but before he could the business with the Deep Sea King occurred. Sonic didn't expect for a hero to be imprisoned nor did he expect said hero to just break out but he didn't look a gift horse in the mouth. He followed Puri Puri Prisoner out of curiosity since the man was supposedly on the same level as Saitama being an S-Class hero and all. Needless to say Sonic was left thoroughly unimpressed by the brute's performance the latter half of which he deliberately blocked from memory.
Sonic was so unimpressed that he decided to take a crack at the monster himself just to prove a point. That point being that Saitama was the exception not the rule when it came to heroes (or people in general) who could beat him. The results of this brief skirmish were interesting to say the least as while the initial skirmish saw him dominate the creature with his superior speed things took a turn after it underwent a grotesque transformation in the rain.
Along with becoming much larger and deadlier it gained an increase in strength, speed and durability, the two former Sonic could deal with as he was still able to outmaneuver it with his superior speed and skill but the true issue revealed itself to be its durability. None of his hits seem to faze it and in the end he was forced to do a strategic retreat which was yet another hit to his pride. It angered him so much that he raided one of his nearby safehouses for a variety of weapons and went back to confront the creature only to find that Saitama had already killed it.
To add salt to the wound he wasn't able to capitalize on Saitama's appearance either because he arrived after the man had already left.
Not encountering Saitama back then might have been a blessing in disguise. He would have definitely tried to fight the man which would have likely ended with his defeat at best and another stint in prison at worst. The reason why he thought this was that the brief battle with the Deep Sea King revealed a weakness in his combat technique that was rather annoying.
See Sonic had never put too much stock onto his physical strength. He was trained as an assassin relying primarily on his stealth, speed and technique specifically with weapons. Not that he was physically weak since he could break through walls and bend steel with his bare hands with only some minor effort. His bread and butter however were definitely with weapons though. He could kill a man (or monster) with his bare hands but give him a weapon, any weapon, and he could do much more with significantly less effort.
His battle with the Deep Sea King however put him in a unique scenario where he was virtually useless against an enemy. He had no weapons and his hand-to-hand combat techniques were useless against the enemy's overall defenses.
Sure he had the speed advantage but what could he do with it?
He's sure he could have come up with something given enough time, he was creative like that but then it would just be a battle of attrition which wasn't his style. In the end the only viable option had been to retreat. Meanwhile Saitama had managed to defeat that monster with ease. Sonic had seen the Deep Sea King's corpse after the fact when he went back for a rematch and saw the moment of its defeat through various videos taken at the moment.
Like his namesake Saitama broke through its defense and killed it with a single punch. He had not only punched a literal hole in it but the effects had been enough to disperse the rain clouds across the entire city. That part he had witnessed from a distance while he was making his way back to the scene. He didn't have context for the phenomenon but now that he did it only increased Sonic's doubt in his abilities to defeat the bald hero who had kept up with his speed, easily caught his thrown weapons and destroyed his sword in both their encounters.
It might sound insane but Sonic has reason to believe that the second time he destroyed his sword the man had actually bitten through it. That raised a concern for the ninja on whether or not his weapons could even get through the man's durability. Suddenly the battle that Sonic had in his mind began to grow in scope as it wasn't just about who was the fastest between them anymore.
Saitama wasn't even known for his speed but his strength and ability to casually shrug off hits that by all accounts could flatten most others. Clearly Sonic needed more than just speed if he wanted a solid victory against The World's Strongest Man he needed higher quality weapons that could get through his durability. To that end he tracked down a noteworthy blacksmith to commission from him a strong blade which cost a good chunk of his savings but money meant little to him.
He threw himself into training with the goal of both refining his speed and technique while also enhancing his hand-to-hand combat ability by increasing his physical strength. When he wasn't training he kept privately investigating Saitama trying to track him but the man was surprisingly elusive. He only seemed to operate when large scale disasters are happening and when he was otherwise doing patrols he does so under a disguise.
It was a frustratingly effective way of keeping himself hidden and while Sonic would like to think that the man was hiding from him specifically he knew the truth that his precaution was born out of avoiding his rabid fans. Sonic made the mistake of attempting to sift through the One Punch Man forums in order to gleam some information but quickly found it to be a dead end gathering of fanboys, conspiracy theorists and degenerates.
The man was private to a fault leading the majority of the information available to be more fiction than fact. It wasn't even the kind of good fiction that could seem plausible but some of the most outlandish fantastical shit. One popular piece of fan fiction was that Saitama was the one responsible for the current state of the moon. Apparently the alien leader had kicked the man to the moon and Saitama jumped back down creating that massive visible crater that has been a feature of the celestial body ever since.
Sonic snorted as he remembered the day of the alien invasion. He'd been away training in the mountains that day and hadn't even heard about it until he went back to the city way into the evening. Still he both felt and witnessed when they used some kind of super weapon that might have caused significant damage to the earth if not outright destroyed it. The heroes managed to stop them which resulted in the very atmosphere visibly parting for miles revealing for several minutes the night sky of space during the day.
Considering that the aliens possessed weapons capable of that as well as the one purported to be capable of destroying most of A-City in a single strike but was stopped twice by the heroes it only made sense that it was the aliens that were the ones responsible for the state of the moon. Not that he cared for it much as interesting as the thought of extraterrestrials being real were.
After that he made Saitama again by pure coincidence while he shopping for groceries (yes he did that too). He didn't bother questioning it and instead tracked him back to his home which turned out to be the abandoned section of Z-City. Unexpected but the more he thought about it the more he could recognize the strategic brilliance of living in such a place. Most expected a man of Saitama's prestige to either be living in some opulent mansion, high rise apartment or a bunker. Instead he's slumming it in a seemingly abandoned apartment building in the condemned section of the city known for having dangerous monsters roaming about.
After confirming the man's resident Sonic made sure to properly prepare for his next confrontation with the man. He spent nearly a week keeping tabs on his prey learning what he could of the man, his habits and his allies. Unfortunately his reconnaissance was made harder by the presence of the man's apprentice.
Imagine Sonic's shock when he found out that other hero he briefly encountered in the pouring rain after temporarily retreating from the Deep Sea King was actually Saitama's student. Still Sonic had little interest in the cyborg though he has certainly become a thorn in the ninja's reconnaissance efforts.
If there was one thing the village did not properly train him to deal with, it was advanced technology, at least not completely. Sonic was trained to conceal himself from the human senses and while certain security measures were also covered technology has and continues to advance so much that it remains something of a blind spot. A lot of his countermeasures for advance technology came from his experience as a mercenary and a lot of it boiled down to capitalizing on his speed.
It worked in this case as he was able to stay ahead of the cyborg but it became obvious no matter what he did that if he got within a certain range the cyborg would immediately notice his presence. There were a few times this happened though Sonic was able to easily outpace his attempted pursuit and from there he determined the minimum safest distance.
His earlier blunders however made the cyborg now conscience of his presence. And to his consternation he determined the target of his scouting was Saitama and practically stayed glued to the man's hip making intelligence gathering more of a chore than it needed to be. Luckily for the ninja this only applied when they were at home as Saitama usually goes out on patrol by himself. It allowed Sonic to observe him without the annoying cyborg but unfortunately there wasn't really anything noteworthy about the man that he didn't already know.
If you take away the fact that he's the 'One-Punch Man' aka the 'Strongest Man In The World' then Saitama would fit the bill for your typical mid-twenties NEET complete with the cramped apartment, lazing around for the most part, budgeting expenses and so on. Honestly the most exciting part of his stakeouts was keeping off the cyborg's radar because at least then he was learning how to deal with advance tracking sensors.
After a week he was finally ready to settle things on his terms and so on one inconspicuous evening he, Speed-o'-Sound Sonic outfitted with his new weapons strapped to his usual tactical suit went to confront his rival. Except the man wasn't home but that was fine Sonic arrived early with the purpose of catching him before he entered the apartment. Unfortunately the ninja was kept waiting beyond the usual time he observed the hero returning home.
By the time the sun was looking to set Sonic had been waiting for over an hour and was impatient enough to confront the only other occupant of the building. The fact that the man whom Saitama was speaking to during their second encounter turned out to be his neighbor was only a mild surprise to Sonic. As far as he managed to find out there was nothing special about Tomoro Sazaki beyond the fact that he was acquainted with Saitama. The man was a non factor in his plans but ended up being the only source of information in this situation. Through him he found out that Saitama was called for an impromptu meeting with the other S-Class heroes and would be arriving late.
Sonic admittedly did not take this as well as he could but he thought he handled it well all things considered. Knocking out Tomoro wasn't a spontaneous thing but part of a contingency plan he made. This contingency was in case Saitama for whatever reason refused to fight him like last time or his apprentice got in the way. He didn't actually expect for Saitama to just not be there when he showed up and while he would never admit it he felt a bit embarrassed about that fact. Yet that embarrassment was overshadowed by his rage as it felt like another 'obstacle' was preventing him from settling the score.
'Whatever' the ninja sighed 'I can still salvage this.'
Sitting around waiting to ambush Saitama at his home was no longer an option he cared to entertain. So instead he's going to make Saitama come to him at a place of his choosing using Tomoro as bait. He chose to use his current hideout located deeper into the abandoned district as the destination for their battle. He wrote a letter outlining his demands, informed him about the neighbor hostage, made vague threats about him and gave directions. The letter was then pinned via a kunai to the door along with Tomoro's office ID.
He's pretty sure the bald hero cared too much about his neighbor to be as nonchalant as was his default emotion.
'Maybe I'll get him to take me seriously this time.'
Sonic paused at the thought of a serious Saitama. For some reason it evoked a memory of their last confrontation specifically the moment after he broke his sword after failing a decapitation strike.
"I'm pissed off right now so don't get in my way or I'll hit you."
*SHUDDER*
"…!?"
Looking down Sonic found his hands to be shaking from the memory before with gritted teeth he clenched them into firm fists. Banishing that twinge of emotion with extreme prejudice Sonic began prepping for the battle to come.
~O~
'You know, I could say I should have seen this coming but that would be ironic.'
Those were Tomoro's thoughts as he feigned unconsciousness lying on a dusty floor with hands and legs bound with rope and a gag over his mouth. While his eyes were closed his ears could pick up a particularly unique sound which he recognized as steel being scraped against a whetstone. If he were to hazard a guess then it would appear that his kidnapper was sharpening a weapon likely a sword if he were to guess.
'I think I've played the unconscious bit long enough.'
It was with careful ministration that Tomoro 'regained' consciousness with his eyes fluttering open and a muffled groan for effect.
"Hrr~" he moved only to be impeded by his restraints "hmph? HMPH!?"
Upon finally noticing his mouth was gagged he became more active, frantically looking around while wiggling his body like a demented worm. Eventually his gaze landed on Sonic who sat on the floor with a spread of ninja tools lying on a cloth. Tomoro seemed to have caught him in the middle of maintaining his weapons which, good on him actually. You can say a lot of things about Sonic but you can't say he wasn't meticulous about what he did.
Tomoro didn't let the view of a trained killer casually sharpening his weapon stop him from making increasingly loud muffled noises to get his attention.
'Yeah buddy, glare all you want but I ain't stopping.'
*Thunk*
A shuriken (of the non exploding variety) suddenly stabbed into the floor beside his face. A split second later and the rope around his mouth was revealing a thin cut that leaked a bit of blood from where the weapon grazed his cheek. Tomoro could tell that the bastard did it on purpose but didn't care much as he spat out the rope to glare at the man
"Really?"
"…" he said nothing as he placed the sword down and went to the other weapons he laid out.
Tomoro rolled his eyes glancing at the shuriken beside him and made moves to grab it with his hands currently tied behind his back. He wasn't even being subtle about it but Sonic didn't seem to care as he was more focused on his weapons.
"I don't get what kidnapping me will accomplish other than pissing Saitama off. The guy actually would take you on if you confronted him tomorrow."
"…" once again Sonic remained silent as he ignored him.
It's a good thing Sonic was maintaining his tools because the shuriken was sharp enough that it didn't take much for him to cut through the rope. He did have to nick himself a few times to sell his inexperience in handling the weapon but Tomoro eventually got his hands free before working on his legs. All the while he kept glancing at the ninja who didn't seem to care that he was freeing himself. That was good because while Tomoro had no interest in leaving he also didn't want to spend their time together tied up either.
Finally freeing his legs he stood up and stretched the kinks out of his extremities. His glasses were unfortunately lost and his suit was now thoroughly scuffed in a way that might not be fixed with a drop off at the cleaners.
'I better get something out of all this' he silently swore to himself.
Oh he will be compensated for this, maybe not now but eventually.
"You know I didn't take you for the kidnapping type."
"You should stop talking" the ninja calmly interjected while inspecting a kunai.
"Or what? You'll kill me?"
Sonic gaze went from the kunai in his hand to the other man who stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You are being very brazen for someone whose life is in my hand" he retorted with a glare that would make weaker men fall to their knees.
Tomoro mentally and physically scoffed at his attempt at intimidation "you're going to have to do more than that if you want to intimidate me pretty boy. You think I live around here because Saitama happened to be living here too? I've been living here since before he became One-Punch Man."
'If he's any good at his job then he'll know Saitama, Genos and I weren't even the only people living in the ghost town.'
"Besides" Tomoro continued "if you kill me you're not going to live long enough to regret it when Saitama gets his hands on you."
That got the man's attention like nothing else before as he outright glared at Tomoro.
"You're starting to annoy me."
As he said this he leaked some killing intent forcing Tomoro to feign its effects, shuddering audibly and staggering a few steps back.
"P-point taken" Tomoro stuttered convincingly "shutting up now."
While the ninja went back to his weapon maintenance Tomoro decided to look around. He could roughly tell where he was based on the distance Sonic carried him from the apartment building. They were still in the abandoned Z-City district but considerably deeper, far enough away that the apartment wouldn't be in any danger of being affected by a large scale battle taking place. While he doubted a fight between Saitama and Sonic would escalate to those levels it was nice to know there wouldn't be any worry for his home.
'Sun's getting real low' he thought to himself using its position to determine the time 'Saitama should be arriving home any minute now.'
And it was just as he thought this that a familiar signature entered his range causing his brows to jump. Sonic perked up a moment later then with eyes wide he snapped to his feet just before-
*CRASH*
The wall next to them exploded making both men leap away though Tomoro disguise his as being blown back by the force angling himself to land in a corner away from Sonic.
Sonic once again ignored him completely having secured his gear he grinned maliciously as he spoke out "so you've finally come Saitama!"
Through the still clearing dust a vague silhouette could be seen right before two piercing golden lights shone through the dust where its eyes were. It looked to Tomoro lingering a moment before turning towards a confused Sonic.
"Target identified" spoke the silhouette in a robotic tone that was definitely not Saitama's.
The realization had the grin melt off Sonic's face "wha-"
A moment later and Genos darted out of the partially cleared dust cloud crossing the distance towards Sonic in a literal blink startling the ninja. The blonde cyborg had his hand an inch from the ninja's face his palm already lit up in an eerie glow.
Then he spoke in a tone of finality a single word:
"Incinerate."
Speed-o'-Sound Sonic's world was enveloped in flames.
~To Be Continued~