If it were anyone else, Tatsumaki would've just dismissed the guy as arrogant and clueless. But even if she refused to admit it out loud, deep down she had acknowledged that Kizaru actually was qualified to pursue her.
But when she compared the situation, it really felt like in Kizaru's eyes… she was somehow less desirable than her younger sister, Fubuki!
Kizaru casually gave her flat figure a once-over, then turned to glance at Fubuki's curvy, hourglass silhouette. After that, he silently locked eyes with Tatsumaki—saying nothing, but the message was crystal clear.
"You! You... I...!"
Tatsumaki was so angry she couldn't even form words. Her raging psychic energy surged around her, looking like it might crush this infuriating man into dust at any moment.
"Big Sis, come have some cake—wait, what's going on here?"
Fubuki stepped in at just the right time, holding a plate of sliced cake. The violent surge of energy from Tatsumaki instantly vanished, as if nothing had happened at all.
With Tatsumaki's prideful personality, if Fubuki hadn't shown up, she might've actually gotten into a full-blown fight with Kizaru.
"Hmph! This guy's no good. Stay away from him!"
Tatsumaki plopped back onto the sofa, cheeks puffed with irritation. If she hadn't already witnessed a glimpse of Kizaru's terrifying strength back at the restaurant, she wouldn't have let this go so easily.
"Happy birthday, Fubuki."
Kizaru raised his glass with a smile. With his years of experience as a top-tier womanizer, getting both sisters was only a matter of time.
Since he'd be staying in the One Punch Man world for a while, there was no need to rush. He could take his sweet time enjoying the pursuit of these two gorgeous siblings.
"Thanks."
Fubuki had a lot she wanted to say to Kizaru, but with Tatsumaki right there, all she could do was blink at him meaningfully.
Unbeknownst to her, that only made things worse. Tatsumaki had originally come just to celebrate Fubuki's birthday, but now? Just to keep Kizaru in check, there was no way she could leave early.
---
The next day, at the training grounds, the heroes—who had barely recovered from the previous day's session—were looking forward to the new round of training.
Then they saw Kizaru walking in with both Tatsumaki and Fubuki.
"That can't be..."
"S-Class... number two..."
"T-Tatsumaki the Terrible Tornado?!"
The heroes could hardly believe their eyes. Lily, who hadn't attended the party the night before, even rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was hallucinating from training too hard yesterday.
"You've got to be kidding. The S-Class #2 hero is here for training camp?!"
Magic Trickster suddenly felt a little panicked. Including Flashy Flash—who came to crash the place yesterday but ended up joining the training—Tatsumaki would now be the third S-Class hero to appear here.
Magic Trickster, who hadn't had much confidence in the camp originally, was now worried he might actually lose his spot.
"S-Class #2 is a psychic…"
Blue Flame, ranked just above Magic Trickster, spoke coolly. He had once witnessed Tatsumaki unleashing her power firsthand. That was how he knew: Tatsumaki didn't come here for training.
Someone of her strength didn't need training. Tatsumaki was the Hero Association's ultimate trump card—its strongest, most perfect weapon.
"A psychic, so what?"
Magic Trickster didn't follow, adjusting his hat as he asked.
"...Nothing."
Blue Flame had considered describing what he'd seen of Tatsumaki's powers, but then thought better of it.
Once Magic Trickster saw her in action with his own eyes, he'd understand why Tatsumaki didn't need to train at all.
"She's amazing! That's the S-Class #2 hero, Tatsumaki the Terrible Tornado!"
The ever-energetic Team Captain Mizuki, sporting her usual high ponytail, looked thrilled.
Despite returning to the hotel completely exhausted the night before—too tired to even speak—just one night later, Mizuki was back to her full-powered, chipper self.
Even Blue Flame, an A-Class hero, still looked worn out. But B-Class Rank 71 Mizuki? She was acting like nothing had happened.
If the others hadn't stopped her, she probably would've rushed over to ask Tatsumaki for an autograph already.
"Whoa, whoa, don't get carried away. Those S-Class heroes aren't nearly as easygoing as you think…"
A-Class Rank 25 hero Crescent Eyebroll gave a friendly warning.
It was mostly the B and C-Class heroes who still admired the S-Class. Once you reached A-Class, most had experienced just how cold and distant S-Class heroes could be.
Even Metal Bat—who rose all the way from C-Class to S-Class—was a lone-wolf type who only cared about fighting people he considered hot-blooded enough.
"Ugh… That damn Kizaru even knows S-Class #2...?! Dammit. Not even Big Bro Tanktop Master could do anything about him now…"
The A-Class Rank 9 hero, Tanktop Vegetarian, was feeling extremely conflicted.
He'd originally come to the training camp behind Tanktop Master's back just to cause trouble for Swift Flash—the guy who parachuted into S-Class Rank 9 and shoved his big bro down to Rank 15.
But after seeing what happened to both Sweet Mask and Flashy Flash, even with Tanktop Master backing him up, Tanktop Vegetarian didn't dare to act rashly.
After all, he had come without Tanktop Master's permission. And now, with the S-Class Rank 2 hero, Tatsumaki the Terrible Tornado, stationed here…?
Even Tanktop Master wouldn't dare to mess with that petite but terrifying esper. Left with no choice, Tanktop Vegetarian had to bury his original plans and quietly wait for the training camp to end.
---
"Tatsumaki… What are you doing here?"
Unlike the other heroes who didn't even dare make eye contact with her, Flashy Flash—also an S-Class hero—walked straight up to Tatsumaki.
After witnessing Kizaru's superhuman speed, Flashy Flash had joined the training camp in hopes of uncovering his secrets. The unexpected presence of Tatsumaki, however, was a huge wrench in that plan.
"That's what I should be asking you. Who even are you again? And why are you here?"
Tatsumaki floated in mid-air with her arms crossed, looking down at Flashy Flash from above.
Normally, she hovered just a little above average head height, but ever since she saw Kizaru's towering three-meter height, she'd subconsciously started floating a little higher—just enough that now she had to look down to speak with Flashy Flash.
Not that she intended to lower herself. No way was she going to look up to speak to that flashy bastard.
"I'm here to participate in the training camp."
Flashy Flash didn't take the bait. Even among the notoriously eccentric S-Class heroes, Tatsumaki ranked high on the "difficult to deal with" list.
But with strength that dominated the entire Hero Association, even someone as confident in his own power as Flashy Flash wouldn't go picking a fight with her without good reason.
"You've gotta be kidding me! You're S-Class, for crying out loud—what are you doing playing around in some B-Class kiddie training game?"
Tatsumaki raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Ever since she'd learned of Kizaru's "ambitious intentions," she had become hyper-alert to any man who got close to her sister.
Especially guys like Flashy Flash, who were not only strong but also halfway decent-looking—just a notch below that smug bastard Kizaru in threat level.
If it weren't for the fact that they were both S-Class, she probably would've told him to get lost already.
"Playing games? Don't be so arrogant, Tatsumaki. If you keep up that attitude, someone's going to surpass you one day."
Flashy Flash shook his head. Tatsumaki's biggest weakness was her pride. Sure, right now she could bulldoze through anything with her unrivaled psychic powers, but eventually she'd lose because of that same pride.
"Tch. You look like you've got a problem with me."
Tatsumaki narrowed her eyes dangerously.
She wasn't sure if she could beat Kizaru, but Flashy Flash? That'd be easy.
And since their hero names were so damn similar, maybe roughing him up first would help her vent some of her frustration.
"What's today's training agenda?"
Flashy Flash completely ignored Tatsumaki and turned to Kizaru instead.
He had great confidence in his own strength—and he also knew his limits.
Whether it was Kizaru, who had surpassed the limits of human speed, or Tatsumaki, the strongest esper in history, neither was someone he could beat right now.
All he could do was train, and hopefully uncover the secret behind Kizaru's beyond-human abilities.
"Today is hand-to-hand combat reinforcement training... Hmm, in your case it's probably unnecessary. But I don't feel like explaining it twice, so just join the others anyway."
Kizaru gave Flashy Flash a sideways glance. The Navy's Six Powers weren't going to help an S-Class hero like him that much—but if he wanted to learn, Kizaru wasn't going to stop him.
Flashy Flash frowned slightly.
But he couldn't just tell Kizaru to ignore everyone else either.
Among the highly individualistic S-Class heroes, Flashy Flash, despite his arrogance, was still relatively considerate. And starting his own training a day later wasn't a big deal, so he simply nodded and quietly returned to the training grounds.
Most of the heroes present had physical strength that, when converted into power metrics, already surpassed that of Naval Academy graduates. Some of them were even stronger than many CP agents.
But mastering the Six Powers required targeted reinforcement training—especially techniques like Tempest Kick, Moon Step, and Shave, which all demanded immense lower-body strength.
"No gimmicks. Put these on and give me five laps of frog jumps for warm-up."
With a snap of Kizaru's fingers, two members of the Blizzard Group came over carrying a whole crate of chakra-weighted wristbands.
To meet Kizaru's request, Orochimaru had mobilized the entire Sealing Corps of the Hidden Leaf Village to work through the night, finally completing a hundred sets of chakra-weighted wristbands just in time.
The total cost: 2,000 dimensional credits—equivalent to 200 kilograms of gold. Unsurprisingly, this was probably the biggest single mission payout in the Hidden Leaf's history.
And with Kizaru promising to place more orders if the results were good—though at a much more reasonable price—the village now had a promising new revenue stream.
Of course, during all this, Fourth Hokage Orochimaru had quietly allocated a hefty budget to his own lab. A minor detail, but one the Leaf's shinobi were likely to overlook.
---
"We… we have to wear those too?"
When the Blizzard Group began distributing the wristbands, A-Class Rank 7 hero Magic Hands couldn't help blurting it out. The expressions on the surrounding heroes weren't any better.
They hadn't worn the wristbands yet, but they'd seen what happened yesterday when Flashy Flash put his on—how easy drills suddenly became exhausting.
He'd nearly collapsed from fatigue after the session. Considering Flashy Flash's S-Class strength and physical prowess, it was easy to imagine just how intense those wristbands really were.
"Don't worry—Lord Kiz… uh, I mean, Sir Swift Flash's personally calibrated these. They won't exceed your max load," Lily from the Blizzard Group explained calmly.
As she spoke, she slipped on a pair of wristbands herself, looking completely unaffected.
"Yeah, it's only rough the first time! Look—I'm fine now!" chirped their ever-energetic squad leader Mizuki, raising her arm to show off her own set.
Though she'd been just as wrecked last night, she'd bounced back quickly—actually in better shape than Flashy Flash himself.
The Hero Association and Kizaru had clearly made the right call in evaluating Mizuki's potential.
Even without Kizaru's training camp, Mizuki had the potential to become an S-Class hero someday.
But in that scenario, she'd likely be stuck at the bottom of the S-Class rankings, and might even burn through all her future potential.
---
While some heroes still hesitated, Flashy Flash silently grabbed a second pair of wristbands and strapped them on without a word. Then he headed straight for the track.
The double weight was so heavy it left deep footprints with every step, but his control over his body was exceptional. He quickly adapted and moved as smoothly as before.
The remaining heroes, seeing this, gritted their teeth and followed suit—each grabbing their own set of chakra wristbands and heading after him.
Five laps of frog jumps didn't sound like much compared to yesterday's training load—but with the added weights, it was anything but easy.
Especially since Kizaru had already warned them: this was just the warm-up. Even Flashy Flash and Mizuki were doing their best to conserve energy.
°°°
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