Recognized Hero

Chapter 5: Hero Exam

A few days passed after Genos officially became Saitama's roommate, and as usual, Genos cleaned the whole apartment, did the chores, and bought the groceries. Genos did not find these things a hassle and in fact, enjoyed them actually. 

[A/N: Genos is waifu material.(no homo)]

The disciple watched as his master read a manga, he carefully observed each and every movement his master made. Genos watched him cook and sometimes watched him eat to see any irregularities that may give hint to Saitama's power in his routine. Though, after a few days of doing so, Saitama finally got fed up with Genos's antics and called him out for it.

"Will you stop doing that already?!" Saitama was irritated, he didn't have the mood to read any more after glancing at Genos a few times, who was writing diligently in his notebook that he could magically pull out from anywhere anytime. "Master! But I am writing about your daily training! I must not miss out on the key to your unimaginable strength!" Saitama was lost for words.

"Dude, this isn't even training." Saitama blurted out plainly, his voice monotone. Genos seems to have come to a realization as he wrote even more vigorously in his notebook.

'I see! So master Saitama is telling me that, no matter the difficulty, I must always be ready for a challenge!' He thought eagerly. "Such wise words! I am truly speechless at your wisdom, master!"

Saitama was confused, how did this guy come to that conclusion?

"Whatever, dude." He went back to reading, a different book this time.

...

"Have there been any updates on Caped Baldy?" Sitch questioned.

"None sir... It seems that finding that fellow is way harder than we thought." A worker answered. "Sigh, at this point, it would take us at least a year for a clue on him." At this time, the room's door suddenly opened then a distressed personnel came trying to stop a certain esper. 

"M, miss Tatsumaki! You must not enter this room!" He nervously said, afraid for his life. "Tch, get out of my way! Else you wanna find yourself six feet under!"

"Eek!"

"Senritsu no Tatsumaki, please stop scaring our new recruits," Sitch said, he knew that he was the only one in this room capable of talking with the tornado of terror without feeling her wrath, at least for now that is.

The esper floated over a chair and slumped on it. "Anyway, what is the number two hero doing here? I don't remember arranging a meeting."

"Am I not allowed here? I'm basically the only reason the association is still standing to this day, does hero wannabes are just useless bunch of idiots." She rummaged through the mountains of papers stacked on the table and found something that piqued her interest.

"Oh? Isn't this our rising star?" She was very interested in this topic, these days, she could not get a single fight that would last longer than a second. All of the monsters die within seconds. "Yes... Though, we still haven't had a single clue of his whereabouts."

"You guys are useless. Leave this to me, I'll find him." She decided, after all, the young esper did not have much to do. After saying those words, she immediately headed out of the headquarters and flew straight to City-Z, where he was last sighted in.

...

"hmm... ugh..!" Saitama tapped on the small table and contemplated something hard on his head. Lately... He's been feeling strangely down, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the more time passed, the more unbearable this feeling became.

"Sensei... Is something bothering you? If you think that you missed a market sale, then I shall compensate for this loss and bring you four—no eight coupons!" Genos quickly pulled out eight coupons from who knows where and presented them before Saitama.

"No, I never miss a sale. It's a different matter this time..." Saitama said, oddly serious. Genos felt like he saw a new side of his master, he had never rejected such an opportunity once. "Then sensei, if it is a must. Please tell me what is troubling you." Genos sat gracefully on the other side of the table, directly in front of Saitama.

"Well, you know I've been a hero for three years now, right? Lately, I've been feeling different... I don't really care what anyone thinks of me or what they do after I save them, but I little thank you wouldn't hurt, right?"

"To get straight to the point, even though I've been a hero for three years... Nobody still recognizes me." He said, his face grim. Genos thought hard about this matter. Indeed, his master has yet to be recognized for his heroic deeds, not once has he seen a person give a simple act of gratitude towards their savior. This infuriated Genos, but he thought of something.

"Sensei... I've been researching for a while and it seems that there is this organization called the 'Hero Association' that recruits strong people, who wish to become a part of their organization that mainly deals with monsters..." Genos continued his explanation, yet none of it actually came through Saitama's brain.

"Didn't I say already?! Shorten it to twenty words or less!" He slammed his fist on the table that miraculously survived. "I am deeply sorry sensei!" Genos bowed. "In short, the Hero Association is a way to gain the popularity and the trust of the citizens," Genos said, shortening everything he said to eighteen words.

"Then, what are we waiting for? Let's go, Genos!" Saitama eagerly said as he wore his costume hurriedly. "Hai, sensei!" Genos followed suit.

...

"Ugh! I've been searching for three hours yet I still haven't found that bald bastard..! Just where is he hiding?!" Tatsumaki, the Tornado of Terror said. At this point, she was already furious that she still haven't found him, she was considering pulling everything on City-Z above with her telekinetic ability to uncover his hiding place.

Though, that would probably leave a huge blow on her savings considering many families still live in these areas. Actually, she was already preparing on following up on her plan but was soon interrupted by a blur she saw in the corner of her vision.

It was a yellowish figure, with a hint of red in four spots, and wore a white cloth on his back. This matched the description on the file she read earlier so she quickly flew over in that direction but alas, the man had already disappeared. 'How could someone be this fast?!'

Tatsumaki never had the chance to look at the figure again as they disappeared from her sight. "Ugh! this damn..." She did not finish her sentence when she noticed another blur, when Tatsumaki looked closer, the blur looked like a teenager, but he almost matched the speed from earlier.