One Punch Man: Hero's Harem

Chapter 27: Ghost Town Brawl!

A/N: Brace yourselves everyone. We're all in for a bumpy ride here!

Swim was nervously eyeing the empty streets of the abandoned district as she continued her trek to meet Saitama. She had put on a brave face in front of the Class-A heroes, but now her confidence had waned considerably.

"Maybe I should've just hung back and followed the others from a safe distance." she muttered to herself as wrung her trident in her hands. "I don't even know where the guy lives. And there's also that Vaccine Woman that lives around here." She stopped walking and began to tremble in place. "I wanted to get stronger, but this is sounding like too big of a leap for me." She stopped at a corner and looked around before pulling out her phone. "Maybe the Hero Association knows where he-"

She stopped when she heard voices from around the corner. She fumbled with her phone a bit before putting it away and gripping her trident.

'Who is it? Saitama? Or could it be the monsters?!' she thought in a panic. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before peering around the corner, all while keeping her ears open. She saw two large figures sitting on some rubble, with one looking to be consoling the other. Her eyes widened in horror as she recognized the one doing the consoling. 'It's the Deep Sea Queen! I gotta call for back-up, quick!' She managed to get her phone back out and was about to hit the button to speed dial the Hero Association, only to freeze as a tendril of red kombu firmly gripped her hands, keeping her from calling. Another strand wrapped around her mouth to silence as she began to thrash in place before she felt herself being thrust about.

"Sorry about the rough treatment, but can you shut up for a moment?" a voice whispered. Swim turned her terror filled gaze towards Nori, who was holding a finger to her lips in a shushing manner. "They'll hear us, and I want to know what's going on with one of them."

Although terrified, Swim complied and stopped trying to scream as Nori leaned against the wall to listen to the two of them talk.

"Do you plan to tell the others?" Deep Sea Queen asked.

"I...I don't know." Sub Queen sighed while hugging herself. "I mean, what do I say?"

"From what I've seen, they're your friends. We're friends, and we used to tell each other lots of things when we were still just princesses." Deep Sea Queen said with a smile.

"I know." she nodded while rubbing her eyes. "But it's still hard to talk about it. I mean, my people. They're...they're..." Subterranean Queen broke down as she tried to speak, her four hands covering her sobbing face. "They're all dead!"

"They're dead?!" Nori whispered in shock. "No wonder she's been so down lately." She turned again to see the Deep Sea Queen hugging her, letting her sob onto her shoulder.

"It's not fair!" Sub Queen cried. "We gave up our invasion plans! We were slowly changing! My people cheered that they were given mercy from being wiped out!" Nori could see a smile on her lips from the angle they were sitting at. "I was even getting through to them...about coexistence with humans. We could've had peace." Her smiled fell into a scowl as she continued. "But now they're gone. Slaughtered! They weren't even given a chance to surrender!"

Nori was silent as she listened to the Subterranean Queen spill her grief and sorrow to the Deep Sea Queen, her eyes starting to get a little misty. She was also so caught up in being sad that she hadn't noticed the look in Swim's eyes as she too listened.

"I couldn't even find their bodies to bury!" Sub Queen sobbed in misery.

"I know." DSQ nodded, remembering how those responsible said that they merely dumped them somewhere. "Well, they at least let you place that plaque."