Z City Neighbors

The sun had gone down an hour ago casting the city into darkness. Tomoro stood on the sidewalk wearing a black suit and pants combo with dark dress shoes and a dark purple tie. His hair was slicked back, and his glasses were clean. He cut a very sharp figure with an appearance that was distinct even from one he used for his job, going from a typical salary man to someone more high profile. Despite this he didn't feel very high profile, not when he felt a spike of apprehension take root while staring at his destination across the street.

This wasn't the first time he's felt such apprehension and he absolutely hated it.

'This is stupid. I've fought S-ranked criminals, Dragon-level monsters, and martial arts Grandmasters. I shouldn't be scared of a fucking meeting.'

The very idea would make anyone who knew him scoff.

Once again he looked at his destination and voiced a question that once again popped into his head.

"Why did it have to be here of all places?" he groaned while looking at the high class restaurant Solaria invited him to.

Apparently it was very popular among the social elites so naturally Tomoro wasn't at all familiar with it until earlier that day when he did his research upon receiving the address from Solaria. Fun fact: among the most notable peculiarities about the restaurant was that it was frequently utilized by couples.

"…"

If he were a younger, less experienced and arrogant man he might have entertained certain ideas about such knowledge and this meeting especially with the context of what their relationship had been like. Luckily he wasn't so he dismissed such notions almost immediately and went with the plausible reason. On paper the restaurant was a subsidiary of Star Enterprise meaning that Solaria technically owned the place and thus their privacy is secured.

"She could have still chosen a more inconspicuous place to have a private meeting" he grumbled to himself.

There was no way this was the most secure place to have the kind of conversation they were likely to have and that distinction made it obvious to him that she had something else in mind.

'Or maybe she's just messing with me' another thought occurred.

It irked him that such an outcome was not only plausible but also very likely.

"Fuck."

Part of him didn't want to go through with this, to simple turn around, forget about the invitation and just not engage with her.

'A little too late for that now' he internally groused.

If he wanted to go down that route he would have abstained from participating in that farce earlier that day.

He sighed "well there's no use crying about it now" he determined before crossing the street and venture into the restaurant to speak with the host.

After noting his name on the reservation Tomoro wasn't surprised when shock colored the man's expression before he called up another staff member to man the front while he personally escorted him via a private elevator to the upper floors where the VIPs were situated. Unlike downstairs where there were tables and private booths upstairs they had entire rooms and judging by the traffic of waiters using a separate more spacious elevator they weren't empty either.

Eventually they came to a varnished door which the host opened allowing him inside first. The room like he expected was spacious and filled with opulence with a view of the city skyline as a backdrop. Surprisingly the room not only held the customary dinner chair and table he expected. There was also a custom home bar setup on one side complete with barstools, a lounge in another section complete with sofas, coffee table and a wide screen TV playing the news taking up a chunk of the wall.

All of this came secondary however to the woman standing by the glass window seemingly looking over the city. Once he entered she turned around and-

'Damn…'

Solaria wore a golden bodycon dress reaching just above her knees with cups that held up her chest and a small plunge to show some cleavage. There was a slit on the left side allowing for her pale leg wearing gold stiletto heels. Her hair was done up in a formal bun with two curled locks framing her face. She wore crystal tear drop earrings, a pearl necklace along with minimal makeup consisting of eye shadow and red lipstick.

'Now I feel underdressed,' he thought wryly despite wearing his best suit.

The moment she saw them Solaria gave a genial yet dazzling smile before making her way towards the table. It's a good thing he had such control of himself otherwise he would have been caught staring at the way her hips moved as she walked with that damn dress basically like a second skin the way it was so form fitting.

…yeah she was definitely messing with him but he refused to even so much as acknowledge it.

The host pulled out the chair for her for which she thanked him and Tomoro almost rolled his eyes.

'Freaking simp.'

After they are both seated the host discreetly pressed the button of some contraption and the doors opened allowing for a sharply dressed young man to enter. The man turned out to be their waiter for the evening and gave them menus while rattling off the night's special as well as other suggestions and told them how to contact him (via a call button) if they needed anything.

Throughout the waiter's spiel that must have been more for his benefit than hers, Solaria kept up her genial smile.

As he finished she addressed the man "thank you, we will call once we're ready to place out order."

With a bow the waiter left them alone and once the door closed Tomoro got right down to business.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Tomoro questioned wanting to get down to business to which the woman across from him raised a brow "what?"

"It's been over a decade since we last talked to each other in private and you want to get right to it? Why are you in such a hurry?"

"I think we both have a lot to do and not enough time to do it."

"Are you sure you're not just looking for an excuse to avoid me?"

Tomoro didn't say anything for the longest while. Then he took off his glasses and looked Solaria directly in the eye.

"Look, clearly you're still upset about what happened between us back then. I can accept that, but if this meeting is just going to be us talking in circles while we take passive aggressive shots at each other, then I'll walk out that door."

Solaria held his gaze for a moment before she spoke "this isn't about us or what happened in the past Tomoro. This is about the future."

Tomoro didn't bother putting back on his glasses he set in his coat pocket and asked "alright, what's up?"

"Shibabawa gave her final prophecy."

Tomoro clicked his tongue 'figures.'

On the outside he asked "what did she say?"

"She said that the world is headed for catastrophe," and at his mildly surprised look, she continued, "I'm guessing that's not what she said in the story."

"In the story she used the word trouble."

Solaria furrowed her brows "did she also die soon afterwards?"

"Yeah, choked on a cough drop," he shook his head at the nonsensicalness of it "was it different this time?"

"She died of a heart attack."

"Oh."

"According to the coroner, it came as a result of extreme fear and panic. As if whatever she saw literally scared her to death."

Tomoro's eyes widened "that... is significantly worse than in the story" he sighed "I guess our presence did change things in that regard."

"By making things worse apparently?" Solaria obviously was not a fan of the implications.

"It is what it is" he shrugged having learned to accept the things he could not control "we both knew this to be a possibility."

At this Solaria nodded with a tinge of begrudging "I suppose things have been relatively peaceful lately."

Tomoro agreed with a nod and grunt "yeah I noticed too but I was never lulled into a false sense of security. "

"What do you mean?"

"For the past couple of months, starting with that attack on A-City by that Dragon Level monster events have been occurring almost exactly as the first couple episodes of the One Punch Man anime. I can't tell if it's a good thing or not because, on the one hand, it makes my knowledge viable, but on the other hand…"

"Certain events might transpire one way or another regardless of our interference," she interjected with a grim expression.

Tomoro replied with an equally grim expression "I'd like to think that we control our own destiny here, but we might need to consider the idea that He might not be the only major supernatural force we're fighting against."

"How are you so sure He isn't pulling the strings of fate?"

'Good question'

"I'm not," he admitted, "but this doesn't feel like Him."

Solaria didn't look convinced "how so?"

"I'd be able to tell if He was meddling in such a way," he said, turning his gaze to the side. "Besides, even if he did have that kind of power, I don't think he can exert it where he's currently residing."

Solaria followed his gaze and found herself peering at the visibly cracked surface of the moon. She narrowed her gaze as Tomoro's words replayed in her head before she looked to the man with wide eyes.

"Wait, you can't mean-"

"We know He's sealed, and in the story, He was shown sitting somewhere reminiscent of some dark hole. Some speculated it might be at the center of the earth, but there were enough dropped hints in the story that He is connected in some way to the moon. Whether he's actually sitting in it or is using it as a conduit, I don't know, but you can't tell me that it doesn't look ominous as hell right now."

In response Solaria looked back at the moon, which was in the waning gibbous phase. It didn't have much impact on her impressions. Sure the cracked surface from where One-Punch Man apparently jumped off to return to earth after being sent there by the alien invader gave it a rather sinister appearance but that was all. Out of curiosity she used her telepathy to reach out and immediately felt disconcerted.

"What does it feel like?" Tomoro questioned having sensed her powers activate.

Despite his voice interrupting her thoughts, Solaria continued to gaze at the scarred moon her powers reaching out the vast distance towards the moon. She didn't even know exactly what she was searching for but as if to validate her curiosity she began to pick up something.

So in answering his question, she spoke slowly, "it feels like..."

She continued to stare at the moon; her eyes narrowed in concentration until...

"…!"

Suddenly the moon's visage was interposed with another. A gigantic eyeball was staring directly at her and for a fleeting moment she vaguely felt something making an attempt to form a mental connection with her. In response Solaria recoiled and slammed her mental defenses in the face of the entity with extreme prejudice while ignoring the memory flashes. The entire room gave a slight tremble, causing a flicker of worry to appear in Tomoro's eye.

He waited until the woman composed herself before asking "are you okay?"

"I need details on what happened in the story," she said, ignoring his question and worry.

In response, he reached into his coat pocket and took out a flash drive. "I put everything that I remembered about the story on here as well as a few possible theories on the future of people and events beyond it."

Solaria perked up as she beheld the innocuous piece of technology "just to clarify, that flash drive essentially holds all of your meta-knowledge."

"Most of it and only on One Punch Man," he clarified.

"Fair enough and I suppose you won't be parting with it for free."

Tomoro rolled his eyes before gently flicking the device towards her, much to her mild surprise. Though she wasn't so surprised that she didn't psychokinetically 'catch' the flash drive, having it gently float into her hand.

She looked at the flash drive then at the man, "Why?"

He rolled his eyes "I'm not looking to extort you, Solaria."

"I'm surprised you're willing to trust me after..." She trailed off.

"Let's not get it twisted," she said somewhat sharply, "trusting you wasn't a mistake I made Solaria. You not trusting me was a mistake you made. I think you're smart enough not to make that mistake again."

Solaria clenched her fist and for a brief moment something flashed across her expression but it was so fast that not even Tomoro could identify it before it was gone.

"Before, you said that it was unlikely He could be manipulating events behind the scenes to make certain events occur regardless. How does He normally operate?"

"From what I've seen there are two ways He acted in the story. The first is that He influences the creation of monsters and sets them loose on the world. That's where you get monsters who declare themselves harbingers of Mother Nature or some other 'great cause' that demands humanity's destruction. The second is where he gets himself a minion to act in his direct interest via those cubes."

Solaria nodded, already knowing how those work.

"I think it's about time we ordered. This is a restaurant after all."

Tomoro mulled it over for a bit before nodding "as long as you're paying."

Solaria scoffed and called the waiter to the room "unlike you I am not so cheap."

He chose not to comment on that as the waiter arrived within moments having actually been outside on standby for this very moment. When he came Solaria started rattling off her order. It wasn't a simple or vague order either but a litany of varied and specific items across three courses. She did this without so much as a look at the menu with a familiarity that proved her frequenting the establishment.

Unlike her he would have most certainly fumbled his order had he actually chose to order from the menu. Luckily he already had a gut feeling his lack of knowledge on fine dining etiquette might be exploited during this meeting so he took a crash course on it earlier that day. So he knew there wasn't a price tag attached to the items in the menu not only because this was the kind of restaurant whose clientele aren't concerned with such things but also because it's apparently something of a faux pas to ask for prices in the first place.

Fucking rich people and their weird ass culture.

Luckily for him during his research into the restaurant he discovered that they post daily menus on their website. After studying the day's menu hours beforehand (which also included its prices just in case Solaria turned out to be petty enough to make him pay for his own share), Tomoro knew exactly what he would order before coming here. So following Solaria's example, he rattled off his order without taking a single glance at the provided menu.

If Solaria was fazed by this she did not let it show beyond the vague impression of approval in her expression. Eventually the waiter went to fulfill their order leaving the two of them alone.

"Someone did their research."

"I was hoping there was some other reason why you chose to meet here but it looks like messing with me played a part in your decision.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about" she responded neutrally.

"Uh-huh" he hummed not at all believing her.

"As for why I chose here specifically, I happen to like this restaurant and figured you would appreciate some high-class cuisine for the first time in your life."

"You shouldn't have."

'No seriously.'

Before anymore could be said, the waiter came and delivered the appetizers. Tomoro ordered the harumaki while Solaria went with a garden salad. After the waiter left them and seeing the tension, Tomoro, in contradiction to his early insistence, decided to engage in a bit of tangent small talk to ease the tension.

"You didn't have to set up that whole thing with the company finances just to see me. A phone call or e-mail would have been fine."

Solaria swallowed a bit of her salad and dabbed her mouth lightly "it wasn't a set up believe it or not. I really was in need of the services of a qualified accounting firm that wasn't liable to report this to any of the corrupt executives. It was a coincidence that yours happened to meet the criteria."

"And you went with my firm anyway?"

"Regardless of my personal grievances with you, I won't self-sabotage because of it. I wanted the best and I got it."

"Well thanks for the vote of confidence."

They finished the appetizers and the waiter came back with the main course which they ate in silence that was eventually broken by Solaria.

"How is the food?"

Tomoro paused, hiding his mild shock and replying "it's good."

Despite the tension between the two, Tomoro did enjoy the food.

"The best I've eaten in a long while," he said honestly.

Sure he could cook and Saitama, for all his faults, was decent enough when he tried plus Genos was a literal machine. Still there's just no bridging the gap with a trained and experienced chef at a high-class restaurant.

"It should be otherwise I wouldn't frequent the place."

"I thought it was because you owned it."

"And why do you think I bought it?"

"Point," he conceded.

The two shared a chuckle before Solaria spoke, "so One-Punch Man. Was that you, or did he call himself that?"

"That was me…sort of," he added.

"Figures, you couldn't help yourself could you?"

"I called him that as a joke; it's not my fault he chose to adopt it. Though if you ask me it's a lot better than what those idiots in the association came up with. I mean seriously, Tracksuit Man?"

Solaria made a face "that's bad."

"In the story it was Caped Baldy."

"That's worse."

"It's embarrassing."

"Not that One-Punch Man is any better."

"What are you talking about? It's way cooler and has the added benefit of being accurate for the most part."

Solaria shook her head with clear amusement in her eyes "I thought you were taking a hands-off approach."

"I am."

"Then why does it seem as if you've adopted the 'protagonist' as your apprentice?"

Tomoro barked out a laugh of amused disbelief as he imagined Saitama learning advanced martial arts.

'As if the man wasn't already bad enough as an invincible fighting savant with way too much power. The world-no, the universe wasn't ready for a Saitama with martial arts knowledge and technical fighting expertise.'

Getting over his amusement, he spoke, "Saitama is not my apprentice."

"Isn't he though?"

"You know he's not."

"But you see how this looks right? You both conspicuously move into the same apartment in the abandoned section of Z-City around the same time. Two years later, he went from an ordinary salaryman to an S-Class hero. You mean to tell me you had no hand in his training despite your close proximity and clear close personal relationship with each other?"

The more she spoke, the more Tomoro almost found himself a little lost for words.

"You've been keeping tabs on me."

"Of course I have. You're still an S-Ranked threat Mr. Shiva the Destroyer" she teased.

Tomoro almost groaned, "whatever."

"I don't know why you hate it so much. There are worse names out there, and you managed to make it your own anyway."

His eyes narrowed a bit before responding, "I guess you have a point. I mean, it could be worse. At least it's better than being a Sentai...or Magical Girl."

Now it was Solaria's turn to narrow her gaze at him "oh please; I'm an icon," she scoffed with a flick of her hair.

Tomoro could only shake his head at that bit of arrogant narcissism before getting back to the earlier point.

"In any case, I can't take credit for Saitama's strength. He got to where he is through sheer will and stubborn recklessness."

Solaria looked dubious at that explanation "does that mean the ridiculous strength exercise he spouted in those interviews actually worked?"

"Yep."

"I don't believe you."

"Well obviously there's more at play; otherwise, we'd have a significant portion of the population running around as invincible supermen."

Saitama is one of the most popular heroes, and his revealing the 'secret' to his strength started a revival of the fitness culture that was not too dissimilar to what Darkshine did for gym rats.

"Is he truly invincible?"

"He'll seem that way to almost anyone."

"Even you?"

'Now there's a question I haven't thought about in a while.'

Could he beat Saitama?

Short answer?

He folded his arms and leaned back in the chair "It depends, if we're talking in the short term then I'd be able to beat him but a protracted battle is where things get iffy."

"Not confident in your stamina?"

"Cute" he retorted unimpressed "the thing you have to understand with Saitama is that he doesn't have any limits, literally."

Solaria's brows furrowed as she tried to contemplate this information before her eyes widened "you're exaggerating."

He actually observed the process with keen interest. It's how he always managed to stumble across Saitama multiple times after he overdid it in his exercises or fights and wound up collapsed.

"I'm really not. If he meets an opponent that can get him to exert effort he'll become stronger and his rate of growth in conjunction with said effort is so ridiculous that you'll whether he even tried in the first place. And without any limits to speak of his strength will grow without end."

Solaria seemed to understand what he meant and so her next question was naturally, "can it be replicated?"

"Before I answer I should explain a few things."

He then went on to explain that the training method worked for Saitama because it was construed and applied in a way that enabled a young man in his physical condition back then to consistently stress the limits of his physical body and mental fortitude without proper adaptation. Yes even the yarn about no air conditioning and eating a single banana for a meal had merit and wasn't just him being cheap (even though it totally was).

This method was crucial towards Saitama breaking his limits. Belatedly Tomoro realized that his offering to aid him in the form of proper meals and carrying him home for him to get extra rest only served to hamper Saitama's overall progress in this aspect. Luckily Tomoro recognized his folly soon enough and held back on his aid. It was not an easy thing to do since it meant watching his friend willingly go through what was essentially a form of torture.

"The haphazardness of the application and his sticking to it didn't allow Saitama's body to properly adapt" he explained.

Then he started picking fights with monsters which put him through a whole new level of mental and physical stress. It was ultimately through a combination of all these factored that forced the final straw. His body wasn't able to properly adapt, and so instead of raising the bar on his limits, his limitation was instead broken.

"In conclusion," Tomoro began, "could it be replicated? Technically yes, but it would take a lot of careful planning to recreate the same environment that facilitated Saitama's growth. Then you have to take into consideration the individual. Saitama may have been a normal person with no exceptional physical talent and a propensity for violence when push comes to shove but he has more willpower than most."

The fact that he stuck to that damn routine for two and a half years was testament to this. Looking at his strength now people tend to forget that Saitama literally worked himself until his hair fell out to achieve it. You don't appreciate a feat like that until you actually see the process for yourself and as someone who went through his own hardships in the past Saitama has earned Tomoro's respect.

And that's the crux really because for all that he says Saitama was normal that's actually subject to interpretation. Outside the fact that no normal person would put their life on the line challenging a monster to protect some random kid Saitama picked a fight with another monster while in middle school then he killed one as an untrained civilian adult. It's not even necessarily about genetics; you need to have a certain frame of mind to just do shit like that.

"So what you are saying is that he unwittingly developed the perfect recipe for attaining ultimate power," Solaria surmised with a thoroughly flummoxed expression.

"Basically yes."

"That's a shame," Solaria shook her head at the missed opportunity, "but you know it will take more than just physical strength to defeat him."

"I'm not worried about it. The thing is, I think it was more than just Saitama's physical limits that were broken. His strength literally defies logic and I'm pretty sure it has reality-altering effects in practice."

That claim threw the woman for a loop "and you've seen this?"

'I have.'

It's not anything so overt you'd be able to catch it at first glance but Tomoro was looking for it to confirm one of many theories behind Saitama's strength. Before Solaria could press him further the waiter arrived to take away their empty plates. After the waiter left, Tomoro decided to change the subject to something else.

"As much as I'm enjoying this high-class experience and conversation, we should hash out what we're going to be doing for the upcoming conflict."

"What are we dealing with?"

"Originally we'd be dealing with two things that coincide to create a major problem for the Hero Association and humanity at large. First is the 'Hero Hunter' Garou, and second is the Monster Association."

"I remember you telling me something about that" Solaria repeated with a slight edge in her tone.

"Yep and it's exactly what you think it is, or rather was since at this point in the story there should have been a large gathering of monsters operating underneath the abandoned section of Z-City but so far I've not sensed any monsters beyond the usual rabble hiding out in the Ghost Town."

He even went to check for their presence just in case they have a means of shielding themselves from his senses. He found nothing to suggest that the Monster Association had set up anywhere there.

It was actually kind of disconcerting.

"So what you're saying is that the Monster Association doesn't exist anymore?"

He shook his head "no, considering recent events and the probability of some unseen force steering events in a certain way, it could be that the Monster Association will appear in a way that's different than in the story. I don't need to explain the kind of damage a collective of a dozen or so Dragon-level monsters, twice that amount of Demon-level monsters, and hundreds of lower-level monsters can do even while loosely organized."

Solaria frowned "you have the names of these powerful monsters on the flash drive," she gestured to the flash drive.

"Names, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, a bit of background for a few of them, and what happened to them by the end of the arc, among other anecdotes."

"Did you check the monster registry for any sightings of these monsters?"

"As a matter of fact I did but most of those monsters were unknowns which given their strength and animosity towards humanity was-should- be impossible."

They are not the kind of monsters who would just lay low.

'Unless they were forced to by an organization that needed them to remain anonymous until the right time' he thought to himself.

There was a reason why of all the Cadres it was Elder Centipede, Gyokoro and Nyan made public appearances during the first attack. In the case of the former two they were known quantities (due to his conflict with Blast) and a relatively famous martial artist. As for Nyan he's arguably the fastest Cadre in pure speed (at the moment) with the ability to slip through cracks and a disposition that would see him retreat at the sight of trouble.

It also wasn't lost on him that their abilities wouldn't have been taken as being a direct counter to any of the S-Class heroes. One's really big, the other is really skilled and the last was really fast.

He relayed his thoughts to Solaria whose lips pursed "Elder Centipede hasn't been seen since his battle with Blast."

And wasn't that a surprise? Not the battle itself since he knew the two would meet but the fact that He made an appearance allowing the monster to escape. And all this time he thought Blast was just careless given that this was one of two instances where he didn't finish off a powerful monster. The other being the ninja village leader.

"Do you know what elicited such a change?" she asked, moving on.

"I do" he spoke but didn't elaborate.

Solaria waited for him to continue but when he remained silent with a pensive expression her brows furrowed "I hope you're not thinking about leaving it at that."

'Whelp this was bound to come up anyway.'

"Psykos," he began causing her to still "she was supposed to be the one to create the Monster Association and the mastermind driving force behind the majority of the arc."

Of course that is no longer the case because last he checked Psykos is currently an A-Class hero, second in command of the Blizzard Group and the right hand woman of Fubuki.

Why was this information shocking to Solaria?

Because the leader of the Blizzard Group, Fubuki, aka the Blizzard of Hell, is secretly Solaria's ward along with her sister Tatsumaki, aka the Tornado of Terror.

"I see," Solaria spoke after a prolonged silence, "and how did she end up doing that?"

"Apparently she's a clairvoyant like Shibabawa and saw into the future. It's implied she saw a future with Him and was driven insane. From there she dedicated her life to ending humanity and propagating monsters as the dominant species."

"So that's what would have happened..." the woman muttered, trailing off.

"Did she actually have a vision of Him?"

"She did, but I was able to bring her back from the brink. I've kept an eye on her ever since and I've not sensed His presence once nor has she displayed any psychotic tendencies."

"…I'll take your word for it."

Of course he did his own investigation into the woman, not as in depth as he could but he did observe her from a distance long enough to determine that she wasn't compromised.

"Was that all there is to know about the immediate threat posed by the Monster Association?"

"It'll take longer than necessary to explain everything now. Better you go over the information first so we're on the same page next time we meet. But without Psykos whatever iteration of the Monster Association that pops up won't be nearly as dangerous."

"Alright then, so now we can move on to the other one, a Hero Hunter was it?"

"Garou," he sighed, "honestly, he's arguably a bigger problem than the Monster Association."

"He's that much of a threat?"

"If left to his own devices," he clarified.

"Who is he?"

"He's one of Bang's former disciples. When he figured he learned everything he could from Bang he decided to test his strength by attacking his fellow disciples. He beat all of them and they were so traumatized that all of them ended up quitting the dojo and even martial arts in general."

"Let me guess, he's some kind of prodigy."

"Worse, he's a protagonist archetype," he revealed with the utmost seriousness.

"Going to have to be more specific?"

"Martial arts prodigy with an iron will and stubborn conviction goes through a gauntlet of heroes and monsters all the while becoming more powerful and skilled after each encounter to the point where, by the end of the Arc, he's strong enough to make Saitama actually try and he still survived the experience."

"I can see how he would be a problem in the future but what about now?"

"S-Ranked definitely" Tomoro immediately answered "once he stops acting like some brawler thug and uses martial arts he can defeat the weaker S-Class heroes with little to no difficulty. In the story he only got defeated by Watchdog Man."

"Ah, makes sense" Solaria nodded.

To put it simply, Watchdog Man is a freak and not because he's a weirdo in a mascot costume. There's a reason why his city Q-City despite being labeled as the most dangerous city with its rate of monster attacks is relatively low in terms of casualties and collateral. There are 13 heroes operating in the city but there is no doubt that the majority of the peace is kept by Watchdog Man whose made it his mission to be his namesake for the place.

"Are you going to handle him?"

"I'll have to."

"You don't seem very enthusiastic about it."

"It's not that, it's this divergence I don't like it and it's not because it makes my meta-knowledge obsolete. A lot of things happened as a result of that, Arc Solaria," he informed with a grim countenance.

At a time when the Hero Association (specifically the executives and S-Class) have become arrogant and complacent, Garou and especially the Monster Association served to shake things up and change the status quo established in a way that had far-reaching ramifications for the people and the world itself.

For one, the heroes were tested in ways that literally made or break them. For those with the physical strength and mental fortitude, they came out stronger than before, with some seeking ways to better themselves still. On the other hand those who lacked such qualities were forced to give up being heroes. Then there's the Hero Association whose monumental failure gave rise to harsh scrutiny and an eventual reveal of the roots of its corruption.

Solaria remained silent as he gave an abridged version of his grievances as well as the worry that missing such a pivotal encounter would negatively affect the growth prospects of the heroes. Not to mention the corruption in the Hero Association would continue to fester and ultimately hamper the progress of its heroes.

The Hero Association, like any corporation, cares more about their bottom line than their employees. So long as their shareholders are happy and the public (who donate to them) is blissfully ignorant, then they won't ask much of their heroes other than what's expected of them from most organizations. That's not the kind of thing you want of the organization supporting and nurturing the main line of defense against a malicious cosmic entity bent on committing mass genocide on humans.

"I see your point but you don't have to worry about the Hero Association," Solaria assured. "I'll take care of it."

Tomoro blinked as he took a moment to digest her words before replying, "I'd ask how you intend to do that but wit you I'll make an educated guess that you're some kind of secret executive."

Solaria smiled, "co-founder actually."

"… I don't know why I'm even surprised," he commented with a shake of his head "frankly, I thought you'd try to create the Hero Association sooner."

In response, Solaria scowled, "I did."

The terseness in her measured response could have cut steel bars.

"Should I ask?"

"The government rejected my proposal."

"You petitioned the government?"

"I know it was stupid. I was young, optimistic, and naïve enough to believe that the various threats within and without human society would overwrite human greed and political ambitions."

"They wanted to have total control didn't they?"

"Among other things," she confirmed, "I gave up once it became clear that the government was more interested in having super powered underlings at their disposal than a dedicated defense force. Not that they don't already have that."

Of course the government has its own superhuman agents, some of which are S-ranked, but they aren't heroes or even vigilantes; they belong to a military black ops unit. It would defeat the purpose if their identities were made public, and back in the day they went by the moniker of being a 'government task force.'

'Not that things are that different with the current Hero Association and how the executives operate.'

He didn't mention that though and instead asked, "So what changed?"

"The Z-City monster invasion."

"Ah, yeah, that'll do it."

Tomoro hadn't actually been present for that event, something he secretly regretted. There was nothing he could have done since, at the time, he was on his own personal journey far enough away from civilization that he wasn't even able to sense the conflict. He only heard about it well after the fact, and only because it was such a significant event at the time with the aftermath vividly burned into his mind. It was one of the few worldly events that he actively looked into.

In short, what happened was its namesake, a monster invasion in Z-City that happened with no rhyme or reason. It was so sudden that it caught everyone off guard because while Z-City had always had a problem with monsters, it was a manageable thing with the number of monsters being countered by the rise of vigilantes and the government task force keeping an active presence in the city.

Of course through his own investigations using his contacts Tomoro found out the truth behind the whole ordeal, and well, he really regretted not being there to participate. What's the point of undergoing a training arc when you end up missing the fight you were training for? Granted it wasn't the fight he was training for but fuck if he didn't feel cheated out of the experience.

In any case the whole thing was a shit show for those in the government at the time with most of the blame for it being tossed their way. It was kind of unfair, but he would never actually say that out loud. Still, he held no remorse for them being the scapegoats for a catastrophe for once. It wasn't even without merit either as between the vigilantes and the task force the latter had the fewer contributions against the invasion force.

It didn't help that the literal army got involved which contrary to expectations actually worked to the overall detriment of the defenders. Conventional weapons didn't work on most monsters above Tiger level and even then some monsters were weird enough that you'd need more than typical military training to nail them with said weaponry. You'd think since monsters have been an enemy against humanity since the founding of this civilization that the world's military would all be monster hunter specialists, if not in their training, then in their equipment, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The only thing the military was able to do was provide a distraction for the vigilantes who had to divert their attention from fighting monsters to protecting soldiers ill equipped to deal with them. He wasn't an expert on the military industrial complex, and he's aware that his thoughts regarding it are rather simple and devoid of context but it came off as really stupid.

The point was that it wasn't the government agents or authorities that provided the bulwark against the monsters but vigilantes like Solaria and Blast the latter of whom made his debut at that same conflict. In the end following the conclusion of the Z-City invasion, the government at the time underwent a near-complete restructure. Not necessarily from the fallout of that particular mess but the invasion seemed to have been a prelude.

In the months evidence of corruption and general mismanagement of the sitting politicians were steadily revealed. It was kind of suspicious, actually, and from an unconventional angle, it almost appears as if someone got sick and tired of their bullshit following this major tragedy and decided to get rid of them. In the end a lot of careers were ended and more than a few government types were exiled, never to be seen in public again.

'And I happen to be sitting across from a telepath with a strong moral compass that was directly involved in the incident and was less than impressed with the government at the time.'

Funny that.

"So I'm guessing the new political landscape was more favorable to the presence of an independent Hero Association?"

"You'd be right, though I can't take credit for everything. A friend and business partner of mine actually helped to provide the blueprint for the concept."

"Agoni," he stated.

"That's right, and I suppose you know the rest of the story."

He did, but it wasn't even meta-knowledge since the story was a well-known piece of Hero Association lore known to the public. Agoni made it known his inspiration for starting the Hero Association was the incident where his grandson was saved from a monster by a mysterious passerby. A mystery that was solved after Saitama became S-class (back when he still had hair) and was forced to attend a company party to celebrate the achievement. Amongst the guests were Agoni and his grandson, the latter of whom recognized Saitama.

That was the first time Saitama gained public recognition for an act of heroism (his literal first), as the Hero Association PR team made sure to let it be known far and wide. Now Saitama was credited as the hero who was technically responsible for the creation of the Hero Association.

'Except not really,' he thought to himself as he asked another question.

"Why didn't you attach your name to it?"

"Which one?"

"Either or," he shrugged.

Whether as Sailor Star or Solaria Nova, it would have only added to the Hero Association's popularity and even added some legitimacy to it as an organization. Sailor Star is still revered as a legend in the hero community and an icon to the public. Meanwhile Solaria Nova is similarly revered as a former idol, shrewd businesswoman, and the wealthiest self-made woman in the world.

"I retired Sailor Star and intend to keep it that way until I have to face Him again."

"Fair enough."

"As for putting my name on it, to be honest, I'm a bit leery with involving myself in heroics again."

"You are?"

"Contrary to your belief, I never intended to dedicate my life to the cause, so to speak. Being a hero was always meant to be temporary. I couldn't imagine myself as Sailor Star after high school but I ended up going the distance for a few more years because no one else was stepping up."

That's a bit misleading since around the time she was operating as Sailor Star there were plenty of vigilante types as well as an actual Sentai team that was already established and beloved as icons of the era before. He still understood what she meant though, because apart from the aforementioned Sentai team, there weren't many others who operated like she did, like a 'classic' hero.

Unbeknownst to his guarded thoughts, she continued, "at least that's what I thought until that whole incident in Z-City showed me that maybe I underestimated the amount of people willing to come to humanity's defense when things get dire."

"You know it was never about numbers, Solaria. There are plenty of strong people in this world, but most of them aren't heroes."

By 'hero' he meant people who aspired to be or had a disposition towards being heroic.

They didn't call themselves 'heroes' for fun and treated it like some hobby.

They weren't mercenaries looking to cash in.

They didn't act out of convenience.

They were people who went the distance to keep others safe.

They had a strong moral compass and acted with a code of ethics.

They were people whose sheer presence made the average civilian feel hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.

They inspire others to be the best that they can be.

Sailor Star was undoubtedly a hero and the day she retired was the day the world lost something special. Tomoro wasn't just being sentimental because she was his friend either. There was a stark difference in the atmosphere after she announced her retirement, especially in Z-City. It was the end of an era and a vacuum had undoubtedly been formed due to her absence.

People had looked to Blast to fill that vacuum but unlike in the story where he came first his 'Hero as a hobby' attitude and later his primary focus on Him did not endear him as much to the public this time around. He's still a popular and respected hero but he's not the legendary figure he was in the story. That mantle was firmly in Sailor Star's hand and it was only in recent years with the formation of the Hero Association that the vacuum she left had been filled.

"Be that as it may, I realized that maybe the world didn't need Sailor Star as much as I thought it did."

Tomoro would beg to differ, but he wasn't about to be that guy right now. Clearly this meant a lot to her because he knew that for all that she became Sailor Star due to wanting to act out a power fantasy; it eventually came to represent more for her. He imagined that giving up that must have been incredibly difficult, especially since she did it at the peak of her popularity right before she would have hit her physical prime.

"You wanted to distance yourself from heroics."

"I wanted to separate Solaria Nova from Sailor Star," she corrected, then added, "and yeah, distance myself from heroics in general. Too much temptation; I wanted to do something more with my life, you know."

"Yeah."

There was a bout of silence before Tomoro spoke again.

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"It felt appropriate."

"Why?"

"For not being there when you were going through it."

Solaria stared at him for a long moment before ultimately giving an unladylike snort and draining her wine glass.

'That bottle is looking really low,' he noted.

"It's a good thing Agoni came when he did. After last time, I wasn't going to the government for something like this. It had to be a private organization independent from the government."

"I'm sure they didn't like it."

"Nothing they could do about it and in the end I gave Agoni free reign to act as its president while I focused on my other ventures. As co-founder I have unfettered access to all of the Hero Association's resources, including but not limited to its facilities, information network, and most importantly, the heroes themselves."

'Well damn.'

He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that "all the power but none of the responsibility."

She scoffed at his words "I may not be involved in the day-to-day operations but I still keep an eye on things."

"Then you're aware that things aren't looking good internally for the Hero Association right now."

In response, Solaria leaned forward and bridged her fingers together, hitting him with the 'Gendo Pose,' and those eyes stared into his soul.

"Believe me Tomoro I am very much aware of how things are being mishandled by the current leadership and I intend to fix it."

"Good to know, this stuff is funny to read it in a comic but it's genuinely concerning how people that dumb and overall incompetent end up in positions of power in a private global peacekeeping organization. How does that even happen?"

"A combination of nepotism, bribery, and leveraging connections," Solaria supplied "you have to understand that sometimes it's less that they are idiots and more that they deliberately overlook things to satisfy their own greed."

"Yeah but I still think some of them are just that stupid."

"Noted, now what are the effects of this?"

"First the law gets involved, they lose public sentiment, and a few heroes leave. It wouldn't have been too bad where the latter was concerned but while they were dealing with the fallout, a new competitor, Neo Heroes, began a massive marketing push while poaching heroes and staff from the association."

Solaria perked up "Neo Heroes?"

"You've heard of them?"

"I've been dealing with the Hero Association's internal problems so I haven't taken the chance to properly look into them, but yes, I am aware of them. Should I be worried?"

"They aren't an immediate problem," he waved away.

"Are you sure about that because it seems to me like they are poised to be the next major antagonist after the Monster Association or am I wrong?"

"How do you figure?"

"Call it women's intuition."

"Is that how that works?"

"Sure, unless I'm wrong.

"You're not wrong, but..." He trailed off.

"Let me guess," Solaria interrupted "you died right before the arc where they're supposed to be dealing with the Neo Heroes."

Tomoro gave a sardonic grimace "what gave it away?"

"The Neo Heroes organization is supposed to be the next main antagonist of the story following the Monster Association. By the shounen logic of escalation, the antagonist of the next arc is supposed to be more dangerous than the antagonist of the previous arc. Considering the importance you placed on the Monster Association you seem very flippant about Neo Heroes. I can only assume your flippancy comes from ignorance of the true threat they present."

Tomoro's brow furrowed and as he thought about it, Solaria had a point because he hadn't given much thought to the Neo Heroes in favor of dealing with the Monster Association. He knew at least in one version of the story (the web comic) how the Monster Association played out and the manga was looking to seemingly escalate things.

Of course it did cross his mind to check for the Neo Heroes when he was compiling the information on the flash drive and what he saw only validated his presumption of the Neo Heroes not being a threat yet. As an organization the Neo Heroes had been created months ago but was still at the grassroots stage of development, focusing more on shoring up resources for that big marketing push they did in the story. It was only recently that they started operating in a diminished sense with the recruitment of the somewhat famous vigilante Accel and his group named the Hunters.

Apart from that there wasn't any readily available information about them so he put them at the back of his mind for the time being. Kind of foolish since at that point he more or less ascertained the probability of the Monster Association Arc not happening but assumed something might pop up to effectively replace the arc.

In hindsight that way of thinking was problematic.

"I see your point."

"Good, then you'll tell me what the Neo Heroes got up to in the story."

"Just to preface my info comes from the web comic, so it might not be too accurate."

"We're already in an AU Tomoro; it still wouldn't matter even if it was from the manga," Solaria retorted with a roll of her eyes.

"Aside from them poaching Hero Association heroes and staff, some of their leaders are shady as hell. One of them is a cult leader and I'm pretty sure at least one of them is an actual criminal. They also definitely have ties to the organization," he paused, "actually they might be partnering with them now that I think about it."

"How so?"

"They distribute battle suits similar to what Hammerhead and his group had."

"Who?"

"Bald NEET terrorist guy that attacked some millionaire asshole in F-City."

"I vaguely remember something like that happening," she nodded to herself "please continue."

"Right, and it's also heavily implied that they partnered with The Organization to force cyborg augmentation on their members as a form of brainwashing. Child Emperor even found a mind-control chip on one of the monsters they defeated, so add staging fights to the list. There are more details on the flash drive but that's the broad strokes."

Solaria took a moment to think it over before commenting "what about their members? Do they have an S-Class equivalent?"

"They have S-ranked individuals as members of their leadership but it's just as much a position for VIPs like important investors and key personnel. Again, details are on the flash drive."

"Who are the S-ranked individuals?" she pressed on.

"Why are you so stuck on the Neo Heroes?" He asked in exasperation then added, "I mean, I know they're going to be a credible threat in the future but they're really not that strong."

"An organization whose leadership ranges from 'shady' to outright 'criminal' is attempting to pass itself off as a competitor to the Hero Association while having ties to a legitimate criminal organization and may be transforming unsuspecting victims into cyborg puppets," she spoke in a flat tone of voice with an expression that was just as flat.

There was an unspoken "what do you think?" in there.

'If she puts it like that...'

"Not that I expect you to understand since I'm sure you're only evaluating the Neo Heroes threat level in accordance to how strong they are in a fight. I'm going to take a guess and say that their roster is not very impressive compared to the Hero Association."

"Excluding the poached members of the Hero Association, they had four S-ranked members, and I can't see one of them joining now under the same circumstances as he did in the web comic."

"Well, that's all well and good but the Neo Heroes presents a more palpable problem for me since I'm a founder of the Hero Association."

"Right corporate interest and all that" he waved away "but you should know that the Neo Heroes only got as far as they did because everyone was still dealing with the fallout of the Monster Association."

"I thought it was because and the Hero Association's corruption got exposed."

"I'm pretty sure their initial failure with latter contributed to the former. As they are now I don't think exposing their corruption would be as devastating."

"You have a point the Hero Association weather enough disasters to be brought down by something like that alone. It had to be because of the scandal from the public reveal of the organization's internal corruption. Speaking of which was an explanation given about how that information got out to the public in the first place?"

Tomoro wracked his brain for a moment, but he only vaguely recalled reading it in a narration window that was either working to close out the Monster Association arc or introduce the Neo Heroes arc.

As Tomoro shook his head to deny the knowledge, Solaria spoke with a tone of vindication, "then it's safe to say the Neo Heroes have spies in the Hero Association."

Tomoro perked up at that once again, remembering something he once thought of as not so significant.

"There was that one Hero Association staff member who seemed to be working very closely with the Neo Heroes leadership just after the Hero Association started getting in trouble. I thought he made it that far because he was a division manager or something but I can definitely picture him as a traitor who sold information for a better position in Neo Heroes."

"Name?" Solaria demanded calmly yet strongly.

"McCoy."

"He sounds familiar" she idly noted.

That does not bode well for him.

'Godspeed McCoy'

"Any more questions?"

"Not about that, I think I've satiated my curiosity for the evening."

With that she went and called for desert.

As they waited for that Tomoro asked "so what do you plan to do after this?"

"Well obviously I'm going to be nipping this corruption problem in the bud."

"If you do that then it will tip off those Neo Heroes spies. I doubt McCoy's the only one. That information will get leaked."

"That's fine I wasn't planning on keeping things quiet in the first place."

"Are you going scorched earth?"

"That's the plan."

"Huh."

"What were you expecting?"

"Something similar to what you did with the Star Enterprise executives to be honest."

Earlier that day, he read an article online about Star Enterprise undergoing a major shakeup because several of its executives were indicted. It didn't make headlines in mainstream news media because everyone was still covering the aftermath of the alien invasion, but the fact that she managed to act on the information given only a mere few hours ago meant that she was clearly planning to oust them for a long time.

"Those idiots couldn't have gotten away with much under my watch. I've been planning their downfall for a while now."

"Then why hire freelance accountants?"

"Plausible deniability," she shrugged with a smile on her face.

The implication being she needed a means of justifying how she received the information against the executives since her methods must not have been legal.

"When do you plan to go after the corrupt executives?"

"In the coming days," she replied without missing a beat "I want to get this over with while also not giving the snakes time to slip the net."

"Sounds like you've been planning this for a while."

"I don't suffer insults in this manner, Tomoro," she commented.

"You know it's going to be a media shit storm, right?"

"I'm banking on my presence being enough to mitigate some of the damage."

"With you, it just might be."

"What are you going to be doing in the meantime?"

"I'm going to be entering the Super Fight Tournament and recruiting an S-ranked martial arts master."

"You're going to recruit Suiryu?"

"How do you-wait you watch the Super Fight Tournament?"

"I've done business with its founder."

"Man, do you do business with every eccentric multimillionaire?"

She smirked, "they certainly want to do business with me."

"I bet" he snorted

Solaria shook her head before her smile lessened, and she swirled a bit of wine in her glass. "and what about Garou?"

"Any chance I can convince you to let him do his thing?"

As expected Solaria did not take well to his request "you're asking me to let the 'Hero Hunter' go on his rampage?" she asked flatly "is that a joke? The last thing I need during my reformation efforts is some brat showcasing the ineptitude of the Hero Association. Besides even if were to agree how long do you think that boy would even last without my direct intervention?"

"Depends on how much your reformation is going to affect operations," he answered, and at her look, he sighed, "but yeah, he won't last long, especially with Bang hunting for him without distractions."

"So my question stands."

He knew this was coming; he might have overlooked a few tings that, in hindsight, were actually freaking important, but with Garou, he was actually invested, so he knew that between the Monster Association likely being a no show and Solaria's abstinence, he would have to be the one to 'take care' of him.

'Sorry kid, but you're not going on a shounen-style rampage this time around.'

After thinking about it for a while Tomoro came up with a plan of action to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

"I have a plan, and I'm going to need your help."

Solaria leaned forward a bit, looking interested.

"I'm listening."

~To Be Continued~