Wierdo and Wierdo

Threat Level Tiger

City B was in peril. If the giant had not been spotted by chance from a tour company helicopter, there would have been almost no warning. Three A-class heroes had been brushed aside as the titan strode through the suburbs, and only the insane ramblings of the monster's companion kept it from being an immediate defeat.

Instead, it took a few minutes of monologuing first.

Hundreds of thousands were in immediate danger. The whole city might be destroyed.

In the end, the Hero Association had no one powerful enough nearby. There was a whole world to safeguard after all, with a hundred crises a day to solve, and very few heroes had even a hope of matching this threat. In City A the Association's leadership, lacking options, decided to play their trump card.

Fortunately for them, the trump card in question happened to be on site harassing the staff about her last assignment. It took only a moment to bring up live video of the incident. The hero watched as a whole swathe of the city was torn apart by a single blow of the monster's fist, and missiles fired from military aircraft caused no damage even with direct hits.

As the control room staff looked on, horrified by the spectacle, the hero's eyes showed a glimmer of interest, and maybe a little bit of excitement. No one noticed, though, as the hero's next words were almost reassuring, being precisely what they expected to hear.

"This had better be worth my time."

....

Thirty-eight thousand feet up, the S-class rank 2 hero, Senritsu no Tatsumaki, was feeling cautiously optimistic. This stupid looking giant might actually be worth fighting! It wasn't that she didn't like saving people, or was totally selfish, or anything like that.

She was just bored.

There had been a time when opponents were challenging, and she had had to use all her cunning and strength to defeat them. She understood how cruel the world could be, and she was determined to make sure that she could fight back. Tatsumaki knew the truth: no one was coming to save her. Thus, she learned to save herself.

It was an amazing feeling.

Or it had been, anyway. These days she was basically untouchable. She hadn't actually been harmed by a demon level threat in... well... long enough that she couldn't remember. Even the rare dragon level threats weren't a substantial challenge. She just crushed them.

Although half the time she thought the Association fools were just kicking up the threat level to get her hopes up.

Pride in herself had now become scorn for others.

These days Tatsumaki was either frustrated, bored, or disappointed. Her sister made her angry, the Association made her angry, the other S-class heroes made her angry, and the lower ranks made her furious. Even civilians got on her nerves, alternately complaining that there was too much damage or fawning all over her.

It was getting to the point that the only strong emotion she felt was anger. Even the self-satisfaction of being powerful was losing its luster. Everything else was... fading away.

Have I lost something essential? Tatsumaki reflected as she flew. She shook her head in resignation. So what if I have? I'm strong, strong enough to never lose again. There's nothing I can do to change things now. Just have to wait and hope for something good to come along.

She did not expect that it would.

Nearing her target area, the Esper let herself enter free fall and watched idly as she broke the cloud layer. Beneath her was the metropolis of City B, in worse shape than she had seen it from the Association control room, with a new crater about the size of a stadium. The giant was ludicrously tall, still standing, and appeared to be enraged.