At eighteen, Garou had already become the acknowledged chief disciple of the dojo.
His Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist surpassed even Bang's in raw power—only lacking the effortless refinement that came with age and decades of practice.
"Master," Garou asked one afternoon after training, "why does martial arts emphasize benevolence?"
Bang paused mid-motion, the towel in his hand stilling.
"The essence of martial arts is to protect," he said softly. "Not to harm."
"But shouldn't the strongest martial art be about defeating opponents?"
Bang looked at him with a depth Garou couldn't decipher.
"You will understand when you grasp what 'strength' truly means."
Garou said nothing.
He wasn't convinced.
That night, he quietly slipped into the forbidden room and found the scroll Bang guarded most fiercely—
the *Violent Heart Liberation Fist*.
The moment he touched it—
The consciousness space quaked.
Garou jolted awake.
He was standing in the courtyard of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist dojo, cherry blossoms drifting through warm sunlight.
It was beautiful—too beautiful.
"Is this… my memory?"
"Not entirely."
A hoarse voice echoed behind him.
Garou spun around—and his pupils shrank.
A monster stood several meters away.
A humanoid giant covered in black scales, dozens of snake heads writhing behind its torso, six crimson eyes burning with malice.
"Monster King… Orochi?!"
The creature grinned wide, jaws splitting unnaturally.
"Thanks to your body and martial arts memories, I can be reborn.
And to defeat that bald man… I must devour you completely."
Garou dropped into his Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist stance.
"Just you?"
Great Snake vanished.
Then reappeared directly in front of him—fist crashing down like a meteor.
Garou dodged—only for three snake heads to jab from impossible angles.
Bang!
He was launched backward, smashing through several cherry trees before hitting the ground.
Blood filled his mouth.
His technique—his pride—did nothing.
"I understand every move you've learned," Great Snake said as it advanced, "and I use them better. Every memory of yours belongs to me now."
"Bullshit!"
Garou roared and unleashed Whirlwind Iron Slash Fist and Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist simultaneously.
Two different qi flows spiraled around each other—raw, wild, desperate.
Great Snake mirrored him perfectly.
Their fists collided—
Garou was hurled away again.
His right arm bent at a grotesque angle.
"Why… persist?"
Great Snake stomped on his chest, scales grinding against bone.
"Bang replaced you with Charanko. The Hero Association treats you as a threat. Even that bald man couldn't bother finishing you off."
Garou's vision blurred.
He remembered Bang's disappointed eyes the day he left.
He remembered being forced to play the monster as a child, beaten by the "heroes," then mocked until he broke.
He remembered choosing to become the "ultimate evil" so the world would finally look at him.
"Because…"
Garou suddenly seized Great Snake's tail, flipped his body, and slammed the monster to the ground.
"This… is my martial path!"
His mangled arm began to mend before his eyes.
His aura surged wildly, shaking the courtyard.
Great Snake's eyes widened.
Garou's technique was changing.
It wasn't imitation anymore—
It was creation.
Boom!
A heavy punch forced Great Snake back several steps.
Garou pressed in, fists raining down like a storm.
Each strike blended power, fluidity, and ferocity—an evolving style all his own.
But Great Snake adapted fast.
Its snake heads shot forward, elongating and coiling around Garou's limbs.
"Impressive," it hissed. "But still not enough."
The coils tightened.
Crack.
Bone snapped.
Pain drowned his senses.
His vision turned red.
And once more, the world shifted—
"Garou, why must you walk this path…?"
The former chief disciple stood at the dojo entrance, eyes filled with sorrow.
He had once been Garou's rival—
and eventually, his friend.
Garou tightened his backpack without turning around.
"I want to prove that real strength doesn't need those hypocritical virtues."
"Master will be heartbroken… If you insist on leaving—step over our bodies first!"
Garou stopped.
"Alright."
And on the day he left Bang's dojo, he fulfilled that vow—
defeating every fellow disciple, one after another.
All except the absent Charanko.
"One day, I'll use the fist techniques *I* created to defeat every so-called hero."
Garou walked nearly a hundred meters before he stopped and glanced back.
Bang stood alone at the dojo's entrance, watching him go.
The expression on his master's face was one Garou would never forget.
Not anger.
Not disappointment.
But worry—deep, quiet worry.
That hurt more than any scolding could.
---
"Ugh!"
Garou snapped awake.
He was nailed to the dojo's plaque like a crucified beast, six bone spikes driven through his limbs and torso.
Below him, Great Snake waited, dozens of snake heads coiled, ready to strike.
"Your will is remarkable," the monster said with a note of genuine admiration. "But this is the end."
Garou spat blood down at him—then laughed.
"You know… I always wondered why Bang's Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist was stronger than mine."
Great Snake hesitated.
"It's not because he trained longer," Garou continued—and suddenly wrenched himself free.
Blood sprayed in crimson arcs as he dropped from the plaque.
"It's because he has his own Dao!"
The instant his feet touched the ground, Garou's aura erupted.
Every technique he had ever absorbed—Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, Whirlwind Iron Slash Fist, Violent Heart Liberation Fist, Underworld Body Trembling Tiger Fist—
twisted, fused, and evolved.
A martial concept that had never existed before took form.
"This punch… was created for me."
Garou lowered into a stance no textbook had ever recorded, his muscles vibrating at a subtle, terrifying rhythm.
"*Monster Calamity God-Slaying Fist · First Form—*"
Great Snake's pupils contracted.
He couldn't move.
The "momentum" locking him down wasn't martial arts anymore.
It was something beyond.
"*King's Demise.*"
The punch was simple—almost lazy.
But all the light in the courtyard seemed to drain away as it struck.
Great Snake's scales shattered.
His snake heads burst one after another like overripe fruit.
He let out a ragged, disbelieving roar.
"No… this—this can't—!"
The fist force passed through him, pulverizing his spirit core.
And the monster collapsed.
---
*In the real world.*
The massive writhing shell that was Great Snake's body suddenly stilled—then began to rot at incredible speed.
"Huh?"
Saitama looked up from where he was crouched, counting ants on the ground.
"Why'd it suddenly die?"
The answer came a heartbeat later.
PFFT!
An arm—dark red, covered in hardened keratin, dripping with blackened blood—burst out of the corpse's chest cavity.
Then another.
"Haa… haa…"
With wet, sickening squelches, a figure clawed his way out of the decaying mountain of flesh.
His new armored body writhed with shifting, eerie patterns.
His aura—no longer human in the slightest—was sharper, purer, and far more malevolent.
Garou had been reborn.
Not as a martial artist.
Not as a hero hunter.
But as a monster—an embodiment of the "absolute evil" he had chased his entire life.
Garou lifted his head.
His ferocity had cooled into something worse: a calm forged from clarity.
His gaze shifted from Saitama…
to the towering, hundred-meter golden armored giant standing nearby.
A faint smirk tugged at his lips.
"Heh… looks like I missed one hell of a show."
Patreon Rene_chan