"Ahh, so boring..." muttered the bald young man, letting out a wide yawn.
Had he been wearing his "going out" outfit — a yellow jumpsuit with red gloves and boots, along with a white cape — many would have recognized him as the Class B hero known as Caped Baldy.
But today, the one-punch master had not gone out to destroy monsters or beat up villains. He had gone grocery shopping at the supermarket in the city center, and so he had left his superhero costume at home.
There had been no sign of monsters for about a week. Even petty criminals seemed to have taken time off. Genos had also disappeared for the time being. Taking advantage of the temporary lull, the cyborg had decided to visit Dr. Kuseno's laboratory for advanced upgrades. And judging by his three-day absence, the bald hero suspected that next time, the Cyber Demon would really give the monsters hell. So Saitama's help might no longer be needed — though that wasn't certain.
Returning from the supermarket with a bag full of groceries, the hero was enjoying a wonderful sunny day. For Saitama, this day felt doubly wonderful, because today was Saturday — discount day!
Days like this generally lifted his spirits, but every now and then a feeling of gloom and boredom crept over him, just like right now. The reason was simple: he hadn't done any heroing for nearly a week because of this "lull." Saitama had already begun praying to higher powers to brighten up his dull routine, but then remembered he didn't believe in gods. After all, the past monsters that had claimed such titles had also been taken down with a single punch — or at most, a single combo.
"Maybe I should drop by King's place?.. Damn!" For a moment he recalled every one of his crushing defeats against the scarred blond man. When it came to video games, no one could touch him.
Not once have I ever beaten him! Though, if I tried using cheats…
His thoughts were interrupted by distant sounds of battle. Saitama scratched his gleaming bald head and smiled in anticipation.
He wasn't expecting a serious fight — opponents on Boros's level didn't grow on trees — but even a brief skirmish could shake things up a little in the relatively uneventful life of a young hero.
So, without thinking twice, Saitama quickly ran toward the source of the explosions.
A few moments later, arriving at the scene, he spotted the familiar cyborg fighting with all his might against a strange transparent monster. In the air, only faint outlines of a three-meter anthropomorphic figure were visible, periodically appearing and disappearing.
"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 defeat this monster on my own. Otherwise, I'll never get stronger."
"Okay, sure," said Saitama, setting down his bag and settling onto a curb. His bald head gleamed in the sun again, and his bored gaze began studying his "student's" battle against what appeared, by all accounts, to be a Demon-class invisible opponent.
Thanks to his special sensors, Genos could clearly "see" all of the monster's movements. And thanks to his cybernetic repulsors and "Boost" mode, he could reach supersonic speeds and dodge the lunges of the creature, which possessed the ability to spatially displace itself.
Their battle took place in the air, and for the moment neither side had a visible advantage in the fight. Under acceleration, Genos used rocket fists and lasers, and frequently employed titanium blades in close combat — but all to no avail. The unknown creature kept slipping away, though it was in no hurry to strike back seriously.
Appearing behind the young man, the monster struck with an invisible blade. The cyborg managed to dodge, spun around, and fired a heat ray straight into the invisible creature's face. But at the last instant the monster vanished again, and Genos's sensors detected its reappearance a hundred meters away — right next to his teacher.
"Master!" the young man cried out in alarm.
Teleporting to the bald man, the monster immediately landed a sharp blade strike directly on his bald head.
Boom.
The blow was probably heard in the next city over; it swept away an entire chunk of a multi-story building.
The transparent silhouette, which had barely managed to get out of the blast zone, became visible. The humanoid figure's eyes burned with a silvery light. Its skin had a bluish tint, and from its left arm, instead of a hand, grew the blade of a curved sword. The creature's right arm was completely gone. Silver blood pumped in spurts from the shoulder. It had barely leaped clear of Saitama's "casual punch"; but even the shockwave's remnants were enough to cost the creature its arm.
The monster began to growl, and the space around it trembled.
Genos's firm voice rang out:
"Incinerate!.."
The firepower of the shot, amplified by the Cyber Demon's core, was staggering. It was his most powerful attack with his current armament. However, the explosion that should have wiped the creature off the face of the earth was suddenly absorbed by the warped space around the monster's body. After which his own attack came crashing down on Genos from above.
The cyborg was fortunate that Dr. Kuseno's latest modifications had included not only the installation of melee weapons and a boost to firing power, but also reinforcement of the exoskeleton. Otherwise, his own attack might have nearly completely melted the cyborg's body. But Genos was extraordinarily lucky, and so at this moment he lay on the ground without his artificial hair, with pseudo-skin cracked from the heat, and his movement and flight systems knocked out. In that state, he was hardly in any shape to fight.
"Do you still want to handle this yourself, Genos?" asked Saitama, picking at his ear.
"Forgive me, Master," the cyborg said with resignation. "I'm still far too weak."
In the next instant, the sound of a powerful blow rang out.
This time the monster apparently couldn't dodge, and chunks of its body were splattered across the street and the nearby buildings. Not a drop of silver blood landed on Saitama's shorts and Hawaiian shirt.
Geez, this one went down in one punch too, Caped Baldy thought with disappointment.
Saitama turned around and was about to go retrieve his bag, when the space nearby trembled and spat out what was left of the creature with teleportation abilities.
What met the heroes' eyes was a pitiful sight: a head and the upper portion of a torso, from which the monster's silver entrails were spilling out. It still showed signs of life, but by all appearances, not for much longer.
"Tough little thing," Saitama muttered, puzzled. "And surprisingly durable…"
The monster bared its teeth, revealing two rows of razor-sharp fangs. Its jaws moved, producing syllables of an unknown language, and the surrounding space began to noticeably shudder. With each passing moment the trembling grew stronger and stronger. Genos suddenly noticed that a spatial anomaly had formed near Saitama.
"Master, run!" he shouted.
"Huh?"
But it was already too late. The fabric of space shattered into fragments, and a vortex tore open behind his teacher, instantly sucking the bald man in. A few seconds later the vortex closed, space stabilized, and the monster lying on the road breathed its last.
Today was the day the world of heroes and monsters lost the strongest man on Earth.
Saitama looked around with curiosity. After being sucked in like by a vacuum cleaner, he had felt an incomparable and incredibly wonderful sensation of flight. Grinning stupidly, he was, on one hand, glad — and on the other, completely bewildered. Because he was definitely not on Earth right now.
When the spinning through spatial tunnels finally stopped, he at last felt solid ground beneath his feet. Or rather, not ground — some kind of silvery haze that was soft to the touch, yet at the same time incredibly elastic.
Looking around, Saitama noticed he was surrounded by a suspension of rainbow-colored fog, shimmering with colorful glints. Taking a few steps, he realized there was no familiar air here, and immediately covered his nose with his hand and held his breath.
A thought flashed through his bald head:
It's beautiful, but I need to get out of here…
The next moment he darted forward, searching for an exit from this strange place.
With each heartbeat Saitama kept increasing his speed. But he found no exit. Instead, strange offshoot-distortions kept flickering here and there throughout the space, resembling whirlpools — except that instead of water, they contained silvery-golden glints.
Without much thought, Saitama rushed toward the nearest one and flew straight into it at full speed.
Without slowing down, he ran along the shimmering tunnel until he reached a phantom barrier that looked like frosted glass. Using his momentum, he threw a casual punch to shatter this strange "window."
To his surprise, however, the barrier didn't give — it merely bent slightly and returned to its original state.
Scratching his bald head in confusion, Saitama released the nose he had been holding and stared with interest at the elastic "glass." The young man had even forgotten that he was not in Earth's atmosphere and that there was no air here.
"First time I've ever seen such a sturdy window… Guess I need to get a little more serious."
The blank expression he had been wearing this whole time immediately shifted to a predator's grin:
"Consecutive Normal Punches!"
A barrage of inconceivably powerful blows rained down on the World Gate. The silhouettes of his fists flickered at unimaginable speed. The barrier shook, the blows piling on top of one another — but after a dozen breaths, only a small crack was visible on the membrane, and it sealed itself right back up.
Saitama stopped and scratched his head in bewilderment once more.
If any God or other Higher Being had learned that some guy was trying to break down the gates to another world, they would have laughed heartily at the poor fellow. For only the most powerful spatial mages or wanderer-beings with innate spatial abilities can open such gates at will. Breaking through the membrane that separates a world from the inter-world void with ordinary physical attacks is simply impossible.
Our hero didn't know that. He just wanted to open a "door" that refused to let him through. Saitama tried to think of a way out of the situation, but nothing useful came to mind. Drawing on his life experience, he sifted hard through the information in his bald head.
"Got it!" Enlightenment finally descended upon Saitama. "When cops in movies kick down a criminal's apartment door, they don't use their fists to do it…"
An anticipatory smile lit up the hero's face, and he decided on his next move:
"Killer Move: Super Serious…" — the surrounding space began to tremble from the power the bald master was releasing — "Kick!.."
The World Gate that had been blocking his path was reduced to dust, and Saitama stepped boldly into the unknown.