The Power of One-Punch Man

[SpiralBaka]

My goal:
To write regularly without caring about the bad quality, plot holes, ooc-ness, and the likes. To not quit or fully rewrite the story because of those. If a plot hole is discovered too late, it will be left as is or retconned, or whatever, as long as it doesn't lead me to quit or rewrite the entire thing.
Please don't make fun of me for how bad I am, but constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Any worthwhile criticism and suggestion will be put at the end of the relevant chapter (or maybe in an index somewhere) in a spoiler tag so that I don't forget.

 

[SpiralBaka]

I walk down the unfamiliar street under the night sky.

I should be feeling fear, apprehension, worry, anger, despair. I should be feeling something. Anything.

But I'm not. Maybe my emotions are muted, maybe I'm just an unfeeling bastard, or maybe I'm already feeling despair and have given up on living.

Either way, I don't feel anything as I keep walking.

Just earlier, I was teleported here with only a message:

[Hey, I'm giving you a part of my power and transporting you to another world. The power I'm giving you is super strength and perfect control. Good luck.]

That's it. I received that message and then I was teleported. When I realized it, I was already standing in an unfamiliar place and in an unfamiliar body.

The place I was teleported to was in front of a store, specifically, in front of its glass window pane. With its inside light turned off and outside light turned on, the glass pane turned into a mirror.

If I knew this world and was in a more composed mind, I would have found it strange that this store doesn't have its shutter down. Though even if I tried to investigate, I would have only found that this store's owner is just that careless, leaving his store unattended just because of the protection he is under.

But in my panicked state, I only pay attention to my sudden transfer, and then to my body.

My current body reflected by the mirror is of a bald man with asian features wearing an unbuttoned onsen shirt over a plain t-shirt and cargo shorts.

I look like a tourist just carefreely going out for a walk. Even though I was just kidnapped.

Still, this bald head, carefree outfit, and dead expression, they remind me of Saitama, the One-Punch Man. And the power given to me, super strength and perfect control, is also reminiscent of him. After all, Saitama practically never had trouble controlling his strength (though, that might be because of his training). So I really might have his power.

Even so, this is still kidnapping. After all, I was never asked for consent.

I felt anger for a moment at this kidnapping, even if I was given great power in exchange. But that anger didn't stay long, because a person capable of that, there's no way I can do anything to him.

And that's where we are right now.

Me walking aimlessly under the night sky, until I come across a scene.

A scene of a scaled man on fire duking it out with giant beasts.

'What?'

It is so bizarre that it stuns me for a moment, despite my similarly bizarre kidnapping.

The flaming scaled man is winning at first, his strength and fire overpowering the beasts, but little by little, he gets slower, takes more hits, until he finally goes down.

That's when I finally look at their surroundings. It is empty (probably reasonable considering it's night and there's a guy on fire fighting giant beasts there) save for several people on a rooftop near them.

It should be noted that I am still rather far away from them, yet I can still see them clearly.

Those people are in costumes. Honest to god costumes.

'This is getting more and more bizarre.' I think as I go towards them.

I should have been scared, but strangely, I'm not.

The group eventually separates, with most of them leaving on the beasts, while one stays behind.

I keep going closer and closer, but just before I reach the building the remaining person is on, another costumed guy arrives on what looks like a futuristic motorcycle.

As he stop his motorcycle, he get off, fires a dart on the downed man using his halberd, and then, after making sure the dart hits and checking me out for a moment, he fires a grappling hook from the same halberd toward the rooftop of the building, and flies up there.

'Wow, what kind of world is this?' I think as I move up the emergency staircase toward the rooftop.

A foreboding feeling has been building up inside me ever since I saw that guy fighting those beasts. That feeling got stronger when I saw those group and that blue guy on the bike.

I feel like I know them. But there's no way that can be true, people like them just don't exist in reality.

'But what about fiction?' I think, but I suppress my feelings as I focus on reaching the rooftop.

The moment I start focusing on the rooftop, I hear a conversation. The conversation of a man and a girl, the people on the rooftop.

'So I also have super-hearing,' I think before refocusing on hearing their conversation.

Lung, Wards, Tattletale, Grue, Regent, Hellhound. Those keywords finally make me realize where I am.

I am on Earth Bet.

Again, I don't feel any fear at that realization.

More important than that is what I should do with the people above. I initially approached them for information, so now that I know where I am, I don't need to ask them anymore.

But the blue guy above—Armsmaster—has already realized that I am moving toward them, probably from the sound of my feet. So I can't just leave or I'll look suspicious.

'So I might as well help the world just a little bit tonight.' I think as I make a decision to help the girl, Taylor Hebert, the protagonist.

"Yo." I say as I emerge on the rooftop, Armsmaster and Taylor looking at me.

"Are you with ABB?" Armsmaster asks.

"No, I'm a tourist." I stop. I don't get closer, seeing Armsmaster's wariness.

"You do look like one. But a tourist walking around at night?"

"I just felt like walking around outside tonight." I say. I don't know why I sound so carefree.

"Anyway, I saw what you guys did," I continue, "That girl swarmed Lung with bunches of bugs: spiders, bees, ants, and things like that. I bet most of them are poisonous, so he'd be in pretty bad shape when he wakes up in the morning."

Then I look at Armsmaster and say,

"And then you shot him with some kind of dart. If that dart's specifically for Lung, like stopping his regeneration, he might actually die in the morning from poison." I say. "Of course I actually prefer that, but I don't want you to blame the girl for that."

Armsmaster looks at me in doubt (that's just a guess though, since only the bottom of his face is visible) before turning his head to Taylor.

"Is that true?" He asks.

"Y-yeah." She answers, her voice trembling, presumably from what I just said about Lung dying.

"Tch. We have to be quick then." Armsmaster says, "We need to decide who gets the credit."

"Ah-ah. Don't accept that, girl." I say before Taylor can answer. "He's probably going to say something about ABB retaliating against you, so him getting the credit would protect you, and some such things. I don't see the start of the fight, but there's gotta be bunches of ABB goons around, right? There's no way they'd believe Armsmaster beat Lung when they didn't see him then."

"You," Armsmaster says to me, "Don't interfere, this isn't any of your business."

I don't answer.

"And you," Armsmaster says to Taylor this time, "What you've done tonight is spectacular, but there will be consequences. Lung has two superpowered flunkies. Oni Lee and Bakuda. They'll try to get vengeance on the one responsible for their boss' capture. So keep your head down. Don't take the credit. Fly under the radar."

Being said that, Taylor looks at me. As if asking for my help.

"Like I said, those goons already know about you. Those two will take revenge on you no matter what, so just take the credit, that'll probably help you gain more allies."

Armsmaster frowns at my insistence, but says nothing. While Taylor looks to be thinking about it.

After a short time of no answer from Taylor, Armsmaster gets impatient and says,

"Tch, we have no time for this. You're not taking the credit right?"

Taylor jolted in surprise as her thought process is interrupted, but she quickly answers,

"No, I'll take the credit. Just hoping those two not knowing it seem foolish."

"You're making a mistake, Girl."

Armsmaster says before he step off the edge of the roof. Before long, we hear the sound of his motorcycle speeding off, presumably carrying Lung to jail.

Later during my contemplation, I would have found it strange that I'd suggest Taylor to take the credit at all, as it seems it would make the Protectorate her enemy, or at least make Armsmaster think badly of her, but after some more thinking, I would decide that what I did was a good thing, simply because it's the right thing to do.

A hero shouldn't take credit for someone else's work. No good person should.