Breaking the Barrier (Saitama x Tatsumaki)

Haze

Howdy, it's another chapter. I'm probably gonna be a day late, but I promise I'll do everything that I can.

Anyways, school's going well, math's doing fine, and I'm having fun. I hope your school days are going well too!

So, before I keep ranting and ranting, let's begin.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Punch Man. It's not happening, unfortunately.

Initial planned release date: October 1st, 2019 (Small edit on April 11, 2020 (thanks MetalBatt)

~~~~~

"Baldy! Over here!" Tornado shouted, calling out to the bald man who was still on the ground in apparent misery and clearly distraught. No response came from him, and she sighed in response. She walked over to the bald man with her hands on her hips, shaking her head in slight disappointment.

"God, Baldy, get up. It's not like ALL the supermarkets in the world are gone!" She threw her hands, exaggerating very clearly. She could almost feel the misery emanating from the bald man, the groan of sadness, the roll over to reveal the mourning he had gone through silently. She raised her eyebrow, and considered speaking again before closing her mouth.

"There's another one under this rubble!" Genos announced, starting to shift through the debris, piles of dust and ash rising from it. Coughing blasted from the remains, and a single civilian crawled out, looking almost corpse-like. Their entire body was either covered in dust, or bleeding. Genos carefully extracted the person, and carried them over to a stable rock that was relatively undamaged.

Pulling out his phone, Genos sat down next to the civilian to call for an ambulance. His voice became background noise for the lonely, poor, miserable Saitama. He slowly pried himself off the ground, and the small consolation of his rest left him, as did his precious bargain prices for the week.

His face contorted into something Bang couldn't even interpret, something confusing, a mix between pain and emptiness, a mix between anger and apathy, a mix between contempt and jealousy, a mix between envy and sloth, and so much more all contained within his expression that nobody could even get a read on him.

"Um...Saitama?" Fubuki questioned, slightly concerned as she waved a hand in front of his face, only to receive no response.

"...huh?" A weak response came in a raspy, old, depressed tone. There was no helping the bald man at the moment, and it seemed as if he gained the power to travel across alternate dimensions with how zoned out he seemed to be. Fubuki could clearly tell that the bald man hadn't even understood what she had said.

"Try again later, sis," Tornado sighed, used to the bald man's antics. To the short telekinetic, there was nothing that mattered more to him that way andtriggered annoyance, disappointment, confusion, and perhaps a twinge of jealousy-frustration...no, couldn't be. Not at all.

"Hm. I think we've sifted through it all. Shall we leave the rest to the emergency workers? I assume they would do better than we would for repairing this city," Bang announced, with his normal posture. His eyes were slightly calmer than before, with a hint of relief within them. As the rest of them nodded, it took the combined force of everyone there to move the seemingly broken Saitama.

As they grunted in frustration, Tornado managed to speak despite her strain of her powers, "So, where are we gonna eat?"

~~~

As the group of five entered the popular ramen place in City Y, eyes were fully on them, and for good reason. At the mere sight of the powerful heroes, 4 of them being in S-Class, most of the employees nearly fainted in shock, and those who were capable of an attempt to stay calm immediately began showering them in praise.