Chương 40: Chapter 38: The Rhythm of the Pavement (Part 3)

The afternoon sun blazed over one of Beacon Academy's secondary training yards, a wide stone courtyard bordered by ancient, ivy-draped arches and a row of glass-paneled greenhouses. The calm of the day was entirely shattered by the explosive sounds of combat. Boom! A shockwave of golden, fire-laced kinetic energy erupted across the stones as Yang Xiao Long drove a devastating, shotgun-propelled straight punch forward. The heat from her Ember Celica seared the air, leaving a trail of black smoke.

Simultaneously, a violent, pink arc of electricity tore through the residual smog as Nora Valkyrie descended from the sky like a falling meteor, bringing Magnhild down in a massive, earth-shattering overhead smash. The dust cleared instantly, revealing a massive crater in the reinforced brickwork. Standing dead center at the bottom of the crater, completely untouched and looking thoroughly unbothered, was Saitama. He hadn't even raised his arms to block.

He was standing with his hands stuffed lazily into the pockets of his green janitorial jumpsuit, his head tilting slightly to the side as he casually slipped past both attacks with a millimeter of clearance. His dotted eyes didn't even blink as the wind from their ultimate combination ruffled the fabric of his collar.

"Hah... hah..." Yang stumbled backward, her long blonde hair flaring with the residual embers of her Semblance, though the fire was rapidly dying down. Sweat poured down her face, her chest heaving violently as her gauntlets hissed with escaping steam. A few feet away, Nora collapsed onto the handle of her hammer, her tongue practically hanging out of her mouth as she panted like a exhausted puppy, her hyperactive energy completely spent.

Both girl's eyes were wide with a mixture of absolute awe and soul-crushing exasperation. Saitama let out a long, heavy sigh, shifting his weight from one bright red boot to the other.

"So... you guys done yet? Or do you want me to keep standing here while you swing those toys around?"

"How... how are you even doing that?" Yang wheezed, wiping her brow with the back of her leather gauntlet, her violet eyes tracking his perfectly relaxed posture.

"We practically threw a high-tier explosives array at you, and you didn't even take your hands out of your pockets!"

"I told you from the start, I didn't want to do this," Saitama grumbled, his voice dropping into a sharp whine as he rubbed the back of his bald head.

"You two kept cornering me in the cafeteria for three days straight, begging for private lessons. I was trying to eat my discount pudding, and you guys were practically crying on my shoes." Ever since the student body's efficiency against the Grimm had drastically improved thanks to Saitama acting as a glorified, indestructible and untouchable "training dummy" in Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch's combat classes, the academy's heavy hitters had gone completely wild. Especially Yang and Nora.

The sheer thrill of facing an opponent who literally could not be broken had ignited their competitive fires. Saitama crossed his arms, staring down at them with an annoyed, deadpan expression.

"Look, if you want to get stronger, why don't you just do my training regime like Jaune? It's way simpler than trying to hit me."

"We tried!" Nora wailed from the floor, her arms flailing dramatically.

"We did the push-ups! And the squats! But doing it every single day without air conditioning? That's not a workout, Saitama, that's a structural prison sentence!"

"Yeah, and besides," Yang added, gesturing comically toward her own voluminous, golden locks.

"You said the regime makes you lose all your hair! There is no way I am sacrificing my mane for power. I'd look like a shiny bowling ball." Nora suddenly sat up, her eyes sparkling with bizarre excitement.

"I don't know, Yang, I think I could rock the bald look! Imagine the aerodynamics! I could fly through the air like a pink cannonball!" Yang shuddered comically, her face twisting as a terrifying mental image flashed through her brain. She looked at Nora with absolute seriousness.

"Nora, trust me. Ren would absolutely lose his mind. Can you imagine his reaction? He'd probably lock himself in a silent meditation chamber for a month just trying to process a completely bald Nora." Nora gasped loudly, her hands flying to her cheeks in pure horror.

"Oh my gods, you're right! The Zen balance would be destroyed forever!" After a brief second of recovery, Yang straightened up, her expression shifting from comedic panic to a look of intense, burning curiosity. She stepped closer to the bald hero, her gauntlets folding over her chest.

"Hey, Saitama. Seriously though. Have you ever actually... lost a fight? Like, ever? Have you ever met an opponent who was so incredibly strong that you actually needed more than one punch to put them down?" Nora dragged her hammer along the floor, leaning in close with her eyes wide, hanging on his every word. Saitama paused. He looked up at the blue Remnant sky, his small, empty eyes clouding over with a rare, heavy wave of memory.

"Lost? Nah. Never lost a single time. And pretty much everyone goes down in one shot. It's usually over before I even get a chance to enjoy it." Yang and Nora exchanged a glance of profound, chilling awe. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. But before they could ask another question, Saitama raised a finger, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Well, actually... now that I think about it, there were two guys," Saitama muttered, his voice dropping into a lower, more reflective rhythm.

"First was Boros, that alien warlord guy I told you about before. He had this crazy armor and shot giant energy beams, so he managed to survive a few normal hits before I had to get serious."

"The universe dominator guy," Yang whispered, her heart skipping a beat just remembering the cosmic scale of that story.

"Yeah, him," Saitama nodded.

"But then... there was this other guy. This Garou guy."

"Garou?" Nora tilted her head, trying out the foreign name.

"Yeah. He called himself the 'Human Monster,'" Saitama said, his face maintaining its usual flat simplicity, though his thoughts seemed far away.

"He went around hunting heroes, trying to become the ultimate evil." Saitama paused again and blinking for a moment, remembering how the event went.

"But the thing is... I didn't kill him," he continued.

"I couldn't. Because underneath all that crazy monster transformation stuff, he was just a human. He was just a guy who saw the justice in my world as completely biased, where the popular heroes always win and the uncool monsters always lose no matter how hard they try. He just wanted to change the world in his own weird, messed-up way."

"He is... a human?" Yang asked curiously.

"Yeah," Saitama answered.

"He was actually a pretty good guy at heart. I haven't seen him again since that day." Saitama rubbed his chin, his expression turning slightly confused, a comical sweatdrop appearing on his temple as he strained his memory.

"Though... honestly, I have this really vague, funky memory about that fight. I feel like it escalated out into deep space or something. Like we were throwing punches on a moon or a dead planet. I feel like... I once sneezed so hard and destroyed Jupiter."

"Jupiter?" Nora tilted her head.

"What's that?"

"A planet," Saitama said.

"Remember when I told you that there were other planets aside of Earth in my world? Jupiter is the biggest in our solar system."

"Hold on," Yang got surprised.

"Are you saying that you destroyed a planet?! By sneezing?!" Saitama placed his both hands on his waist.

"Well, that's what I had in mind. But... I don't know, I don't really remember the details. It might have just been my imagination, or maybe a really long, weird dream I had while I was taking a nap." Yang and Nora stood completely frozen, their jaws practically hitting the dirt. The sheer, reality-shattering weight of what Saitama was casually tossing out as a "vague dream", a human martial artist pushing a god-like entity so hard that they fought in the vacuum of space, was completely beyond their comprehension.

"Space... Planets..." Yang whispered, her eyes trembling as she stared at the bald man.

"You... you think you fought a guy in the stars, and you're not even sure if it was a dream?"

"Man, your world sounds terrifying," Nora said, her usual boisterous tone completely vanished, replaced by genuine, wide-eyed terror.

"Eh, it's fine. It's mostly just regular cities," Saitama shrugged, instantly breaking the epic atmosphere as he checked his wrist, even though he wasn't wearing a watch.

"Alright, story time is over. I'm going back to the janitor's closet."

"Wait, wait! Just one more thing!" Yang yelled, instantly jumping in front of him, her hands raised pleadingly.

"We developed this new combination attack! We just need to test the impact trajectory. Please, Saitama! Just stand perfectly still and take the hit! Like you did in the first combat class!"

"No way, I'm tired and I want to go watch TV," Saitama groaned, turning his back on them.

"Please!" Nora begged, dropping to her knees and grabbing the hem of his green jumpsuit, pulling off the ultimate, teary-eyed puppy dog expression.

"Just one hit! It'll take two seconds! If you let us hit you, I'll give you my secret stash of syrup-flavored pancakes!" Saitama stopped dead in his tracks. His shoulders slumped in profound, comically exaggerated defeat. He let out a sigh so long it felt like it drained his entire soul.

"Fine. Fine! Just make it quick. I have to mop the west wing anyway."

"Yes!" Yang grinned, stepping back and locking arms with Nora. The two girls instantly synchronized their remaining Aura. Yang channeled every ounce of her fiery kinetic energy into Nora's hammer, while Nora absorbed the kinetic feedback, her Semblance roaring to life as electrical arcs danced across her frame. Both of them shouted.

"Here we go!!" Together, they unleashed a combined, hyper-charged strike, throwing the absolute entirety of their power into a singular, devastating blow aimed squarely at Saitama's midsection. BOOOOOOOOM! The impact was blinding. A localized explosion of gold and pink light illuminated the entire training yard. But the moment the attack connected with Saitama's stomach, it didn't push him back even a millimeter.

Instead, the absolute kinetic force of the blow hit his indestructible body, completely broke its forward trajectory, and violently ricocheted backward at a sharp, chaotic angle. A massive, compressed sphere of residual kinetic energy flew across the courtyard like a stray cannonball. CRASH!

The energy sphere slammed violently into the side of the nearest glass greenhouse, completely shattering the reinforced framework, exploding the structural supports, and sending a massive cloud of dirt, broken glass, and rare tropical leaves flying into the air. The courtyard went completely, terrifyingly silent. Saitama, Yang, and Nora stood frozen in absolute, unadulterated shock, their eyes locked onto the smoking ruin of the greenhouse.

Slowly, through the settling dust of the shattered structure, a figure emerged. Professor Thumbelina Peach stood in the doorway, her hands planted firmly on her hips, her hair covered in potting soil. In her right hand, she held the limp, mangled remains of a glowing, purple tropical fern. Her face was contorted into a mask of pure, apocalyptic fury.

"My... my rare Vacuan Fire-Ferns..." Professor Peach whispered, her voice trembling with an unholy rage that caused the ambient temperature of the yard to violently drop. She looked up, her fiery, bloodshot eyes scanning the courtyard.

"Another one of my rare plants... DESTROYED AGAIN!" Saitama's face instantly twisted into a caricature of pure, comical panic. A heavy stream of sweat poured down his bald head as his dotted eyes darted around. He hastily raised his hands, pointing his index fingers directly behind him where Yang and Nora were supposed to be standing.

"It wasn't me! It was them! They did it!" Saitama yelled frantically, his voice cracking comically. But when Saitama turned his head to look over his shoulder... the courtyard behind him was completely empty. A single tumbleweed of stray grass rolled lazily across the stones. Yang and Nora had vanished into thin air, leaving nothing but the faint scent of burnt gunpowder and absolute betrayal.

"MISTER SAITAMAAA!" Professor Peach roared, stomping forward like an enraged, mud-covered demon, her trowel raised in the air like a weapon of mass destruction.

"Aaaaaah! I swear I was just standing here! They used a hammer! A big hammer!" Saitama shrieked comically, his face twisting into an exaggerated expression of absolute, cowardly terror as he began to frantically back away from the oncoming wrath of the botany professor.