針女 - (One Punch Man x OC)

Chapter 5: The Ultimate Master

"Yeah..." was his reply.

"Alright, Master." said Genos, bowing to him. "Goodnight." He then turned to Masami and repeated the greeting, earning him the same one before walking back to his home.

"Crap..." whispered Saitama to his neighbour. "Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to say I'd take a disciple. Especially with that guy..."

Masami laughed before placing her hand on his shoulder as they continue walking back to their apartments. "Well, think of it this way." she said teasingly. "You were my disciple three years ago."

Saitama chuckled at the memory. "Yeah, and I'm very grateful of that." he said. The two were walking along a river as he started talking about the hero ranking. "If I get to the top of Class C, then I'll get promoted to Class B. And Class A is above that, with Class S even above that. I guess Genos is actually pretty amazing."

"To me, rankings don't matter." said Masami. "This just reminds me of a school grading system. So what if one is an S-class hero if he's attitude stinks?"

"True..." he said as he stopped walking, staring at the river. "I don't know, but maybe this isn't the kind of hero I wanted to be." Masami stood next to him and stared at him with a concerned look.

Just then, they noticed a man running up towards him. "The newcomer seminar isn't over yet!" he declared, standing across Saitama with his guard up, reminding Masami of a snake. "In this business, there's a thing called rookie crushing. A lot of us heroes hate to be outranked. So we crush newbies early on... like this!" He punched Saitama in his left cheek but only to be punched back and landed on the ground with his legs up in the air.

"Do you know him?" she asked while her and Saitama continued walking back home.

"I don't know him." was his reply.

~Time skip~

The following morning, Saitama, in his hero costume, stood across Genos, who was tapping on his flip phone, at an open space. With her umbrella held on her shoulder, Masami stood next to her neighbour in a long-sleeved gray shirt, black pants, black heels and a matching gray beret with a black messenger back strapped across her.

"Hero Registry?" she repeated when Genos mentioned about it.

"Yes, I am a Class S hero and Master is a Class C hero." he explained. "We are both ranked last in our classes. Right now, we are still listed as "Genos" and "Saitama", but as we perform more heroic acts, we will acquire hero names."

"Hero names?" repeated Saitama, confused. "What are those?"

"I believe they are like nicknames that capture a hero's characteristics." replied Genos. "For example, I might be the "Blond Cyborg"."

"Wait, if that's how it works, won't I be called like "Caped Baldy"?" questioned his mentor before he looked at Masami. "No wonder you were called "Needle Lady", because it seemed you were carrying a giant needle everywhere you went."

"Aside from being ranked by ability, you can also be ranked by popularity." continued Genos, still looking at the screen. "There are some heroes that have fan clubs." This seemed to peek Saitama's interest but Genos put away his phone. "Well, no one cares about that."

"Wha-?!"

"Thank you for agreeing to my unreasonable request today." said the cyborg to Saitama, who was talking a huge distance from him as requested, while Masami stepped away from the two, sitting on top of a cliff that gave her a view of them.

"Yeah, well I did promise to make you my disciple..." he muttered, regretting his decision. "Is right here good?" he asked from where he stood, earning a "yes" from the cyborg. "So we're just having a practice bout, right? Not fighting for real?"