針女 - (One Punch Man x OC)

Chapter 1: The Strongest Man

"762 yen, please." she said.

"Here." said the man as he placed 1000 yen on the counter before he continued rummaging through his pouch. "Oh, hang on." Suddenly, the ground began to tremble and the lights flickered, which were enough to cause panic among the people in the supermarket. The hero held out some coins towards the cashier and said, "I have 62 yen." But he was speaking to thin air, and that he was only one in the building.

As if on cue, half of the supermarket was destroyed, and the man calmly walked out to see what the ruckus was all about. It was all caused by a colossal man with a white, bone-like armor covering his enormous muscles walking from town to town. Most of his skeleton and muscle tissue were visible, including his tendons. He also had two tubes protruding from his chest and running over his shoulders to his back.

"Incredible..." praised a scientist, who was holding a test tube with some substance inside, that was standing on the giant's right shoulder. "This is incredible, little brother! I never thought it would work so well."

'Yes, it's more than I ever imagined, nii-san.' thought the giant, agreeing with the scientist. Before he became a giant, he had spent years of training to achieve his goal - to be the strongest man in the world. His older brother created a steroid called the "Biceps Branchii King", and he drank it, being told that it would give him the power he always wanted. Instantly, the man's body grew in size dramatically, transforming him into the mutated giant he was now.

"My brains and your brawn!" praised the scientist. "By combining the greatest of minds and the strongest of bodies, we brothers will conquer everything on earth and rule as kings!" With just one swing of his hand, the younger brother destroyed D-City, leaving his brother stare at the casualties in awe. "I-Incredible! Well done, little brother. Thousands have perished! Now, on to the next town to destroy it as well!"

"Yeah!" said the giant as he made his way towards B-City. "This is it, nii-san. This is what I was looking for - To be the strongest man."

It didn't take long for the citizens to escape as soon as the announcement on the giant's arrival was made, to which the scientist watch with glee. "Yes, that's right! Scatter like rats! Get them!"

"I'm the strongest man, I'm the strongest man, I'm the strongest man." chanted the giant with pride.

"What do you think, brother?" asked the older sibling.

"Yeah, how's it feel being the strongest?" questioned a voice all of a sudden.

The scientist looked for the source and found the hero standing on the giant's left shoulder. "What?! There's someone on your shoulder!"

"Put some pants on." remarked the hero.

The scientist clicked his tongue before looking at his brother. "That guy on your shoulder! Kill him!"

Instead, the giant accidentally hit his right shoulder, which he then remembered that his brother was on that shoulder. He quickly looked at his bloody palm, and to his horror, he had killed his own brother. "NII-SAN!" The hero used his fingers to shut his ears, protecting them from the loud voice. "How did this happen?! I just wanted to be strong! And I finally am the strongest man, but...!" Just staring at the hero's bored expression made him madder, which resulted the giant to grab him and began to attack him by throwing him to the ground. "I don't know who you are, but it's your fault my brother is dead!" As soon as the hero blinked, the giant jumped onto him and started to punch him repeatedly, leaving a very large hole in the ground.

'I'm the strongest.' he thought before opening his hand to reveal the smear of his brother's blood on his palm as he shed some tears. 'So what if I am? I feel empty.'

"Right?" questioned the hero who was seemingly unharmed as he flew out from the hole, as if he could read his mind. "Having overwhelming strength is pretty boring." His fist then contacted with the giant's cheek, not only swiftly killing him, but sending him flying backwards, accidentally destroying B-City. "Oops."

~Time skip~

'This hasn't changed since before I became a hero.' thought the hero as he walked back home with his groceries during late evening. 'In other words, you say that I haven't made any impact. I'm not necessarily sad about that. But there's something bothering me lately.' He noticed a stray cat sitting next to a car, and walked towards it before crouching down to pat it but it ran away. 'As the days pass, my emotions grow more distant. Fear, tension, joy, anger... I feel none of them anymore. In exchange for power, maybe I've lost something that's essential for a human being?'

All of a sudden, he noticed the cat running the opposite direction, to which he looked at the source of the flying car spares and replacement parts. "Vroom, vroom?" said a monster with a car-shaped upper body when he noticed the hero, to which he laughed evilly as he stood in front of the man. "No sense hiding if you saw me. I'm Super Custom YO649Z Mk. II! I love building custom cars so much I decked myself out. I'm a custom-car loving monster!"

'I used to feel all kinds of emotions whirling inside me when I fought.' thought the man. 'Fear. Panic. Anger.'

The monster took a step forward as he continued to brag. "If you're thinking of getting in my way, I'll put a shine on that big headlight of yours!" As soon as he said that, the hero striked him with a single punch, killing the monster.

'But now, all I need is one punch to end it.' he thought as he continued his way back home. In his apartment, he did his laundry, took a bath, ate his dinner and watched TV as thoughts ran through his head. 'Each day, I come home uninjured and wash my gloves. When I'm out fighting monsters, I never feel as if my heart's really in it. I mean, I just do the hero thing as a hobby. In other words, as long as I get a kick out of it, that's all I really care.' With that, he switched off the lights and called it a day.

~Time skip~

The next morning, he was woken up by an invasion of the overpopulated Subterranean People, who have already exterminated 70% of humanity. Surprised by their strength, he deemed them worthy opponents and engaged in a mighty battle. At the moment where he had defeated a great number of them and was about to fight the Subterranean King, he woke up to discover that it was only a dream. When he found an actual invasion by the Subterraneans outside, he was disappointed when they quickly surrendered as soon as he easily defeated their king, showing a white flag that said, "Sorry About That".

The hero stared with a bored expression and scratched his cheek. 'I've become too strong.' he thought.

"Saitama-kun!" called an alluring voice from above. The said man looked up to see his neighbour smiling warmly at him, which somehow sped up his heart rate, and that was surprising to him, considering the fact that he thought he had became emotionally dull for so long.

"Masami-chan?" he called, blinking a few times at her.

Masami was a fair-skinned young lady with icy-blue eyes and long, ash-brown hair tied up in a messy bun with long curtain fringe framing her oval shaped face. She was wearing a simple white dress that hugged her curves nicely. To Saitama, she was the only woman, despite her being so young, whom he found beautiful.

"Did you get the tofu I asked for yesterday?" she questioned, so which he nodded while saying, "Yes". "Great! Could you bring them when you come over tonight? We'll have nabemono for dinner."

Upon hearing the invitation, Saitama quickly replied, "Yeah, see you tonight." He watched the young lady went back into her apartment. 'Though my emotions were exchanged for strength, I'm not alone. Not when she was the one who taught a lot of things.' With a small smile, he made his way back to his apartment, getting ready to save the day before going over to his neighbour for dinner.