Cliche Chapter 581-582: Convinced

Tatsumaki looked at Asahi with a sharp gaze. “Who are you? Fubuki’s underling?”

“Nope. I don’t work for her.”

Asahi replied with a calm expression, a subtle smile playing on his lips. Whereas Fubuki couldn’t hold back a look of terror. The possibility of a fight between Asahi and Tatsumaki frightened her to death, more so than the possibility of Tatsumaki scolding her.

Tatsumaki interpreted her terror as something else entirely.

‘She… she brought her boyfriend home?’

“How can you not know the latest addition to the S-Class?” Asahi asked with a sigh before shaking his head in disappointment. “Tatsumaki, you obviously don’t stay up to date on the current events happening around us.”

Tatsumaki only flew out to smash monsters on the orders from the Association or when she wanted to meet Fubuki and take her somewhere. Her job in the Association was all that relieved her from her boredom.

One could call her a workaholic or an introvert by nature.

Tatsumaki glared at Asahi, who accidentally pointed out the harsh truth of her life. “I didn’t ask about your background. Why are you here with Fubuki? What’s your relationship with her? Answer or I’ll crush your skull.”

Her tone was icy, and there was a palpable, murderous energy behind each word. The strongest Esper wasn’t letting Fubuki date anyone, not even an S-Class Hero.

Fubuki’s eyes flew open, her pupils dilating. “Nothing. It’s nothing! I just found him here.”

Tatsumaki’s eyes flickered with suspicion. Somehow or someway she could tell Fubuki was lying. “Why are you getting desperate if you two are strangers?”

“But it’s true, Onee-san. I don’t know this guy.”

Fubuki desperately tried to pacify the tension from exploding. Her frantic efforts only raised Tatsumaki’s doubts.

Asahi seized the chance to fuel the fire. “Come on, Fubuki-chan. Stop acting like a scared little girl. I told you Tatsumaki wouldn’t be against our relationship. She is such a sweetheart.”

Fubuki quivered in her boots until she saw the look of excitement on his face. Here she was, spending all her energy to diffuse the situation, yet he provoked Tatsumaki with a fierce look in his eyes.

She felt her anger boiling up inside her like a volcano.

Tatsumaki ignored Fubuki’s rage as usual and looked at Asahi. “I’ll test you if you are fit to be Fubuki’s partner!”

Her lips curved into a cruel smile, like a cat eyeing its prey. She seemed to view Asahi not as a human but as something to be manipulated and toyed with, as if he was just another doll in her elaborate dollhouse.

Asahi smacked his lips. “Not today. I promised Fubuki that I won’t fight you.”

He was more than ready to teach Tatsumaki a lesson but he didn’t need to break his promise to achieve that.

His calm reasoning soothed Fubuki’s anger to a degree.

“At least you remember it.”

He turned to Fubuki with a smile. “I always keep my promises.”

Tatsumaki, who was feeling left out by the two, pursed her lips in a mocking smile. “Excuses won't save you. There’s no way I will entrust Fubuki to someone spineless like you.”

Gathering her energy, she raised her right hand and flicked the air with a wave of her fingertips. A powerful gust of wind shot across the room and slammed into him, knocking over chairs and shattering the window behind him. It still didn’t bring any change to his expression.

He dusted his shoulder. “Did you try something on this spineless man?”

Instead of showing anger at the provocations, Tatsumaki’s face lit up with a wide, joyful smile. “You weren’t lying about being an S-Class Hero.”

He wasn’t unfamiliar with that look on Tatsumaki’s face. It was the same look Saitama had when he challenged him just recently. The rush of pure excitement after living a mundane life.

(You used to be like that, my love.)

‘Then you changed me.’

(Umu.)

“He endured it without a barrier…” Fubuki muttered. “Can he somehow beat her? No, I don’t want that to happen. I will be the one who gives her the taste of defeat.”

Tatsumaki smirked and raised her hand. “Let’s see if you can survive half of my power.”

Asahi shrugged. “Go ahead. It’s your apartment you’ll be destroying.”

As she channeled her energy, Fubuki jumped at her and grabbed her hand.

“Onee-chan, stop for a second and listen to me.”

Her decisive intrusion seized Tatsumaki by surprise. She had seen some of Fubuki’s courage in their last meeting, but she was even more courageous today for butting in on her business. What’s more, Fubuki wasn’t looking at her with fear as if she was a monster.

‘She has grown stronger.’

However, Fubuki had yet to learn the most important lesson in Tatsumaki’s book — that she couldn’t rely on anyone during a crisis.

The corner of her mouth twitched. She placed an arm over her chest and covered her mouth with the other. “Be quick about it.”

“Asahi is a weirdo who really exaggerates things. He was lying about everything… we’re… we are just friends.”

She lied to cover up their actual relationship — a boss and his employee, and a master and his disciple.

“She is right. We’re just friends.” Asahi added with a smirk. “For now at least. You can’t predict the future.”

(I can. She will end up in your bed as your lover.)

‘Shush, no spoilers.’

“Please, Onee-chan. You don’t have any reason to fight him…”

The young Esper did everything to convince her brutish sister.

With a wave of her hand, Tatsumaki used her psychokinesis to push Fubuki away. “I don’t have time for your shitty drama, anyway. I’m going to eat something.”

Tatsumaki was gone in a flash, leaving only a gust of wind in her wake.

Fubuki just stood there, feeling a wave of indescribable emotions. Her shoulders drooped as she took a sigh of relief. “Her hunger averted the disaster…”

“Nope. Your sister is just a tsundere.”

While Fubuki was ignorant, he saw every change in Tatsumaki’s expression. She went from pissed to being excited to feeling happy within a matter of minutes.

“Tsundere? What does that mean?”

“Did you never read any manga or watch anime in your childhood? You live in Japan for fuck’s sake.”

“I… I didn’t have time for those hobbies.”

She was busy running an occult club with Psykos or finding ways to become a better hero than Tatsumaki.

Asahi looked at her with an icy gaze as if she was the biggest disappointment in the world. “Disgraceful. Tsundere refers to an extremely dishonest person.”

“Onee-san is like that because of Blast.” Fubuki clenched her fists. “He saved her heart but left her with a curse.”

“Well, Blast isn’t the only one to be blamed. You can also blame the organization that kidnapped Tatsumaki. They were the ones who inflicted trauma on Tatsumaki. Blast, well, he just didn’t take that into consideration.”

Fubuki looked at him skeptically. “How exactly did you learn that? It seems like you know things about Onee-chan that even I don’t know.”

It all happened over two decades ago, when Fubuki was just two years old and Tatsumaki was seven. Her memories from that time were a haze, but she still remembered a group of scientists taking her sister. They had offered their parents a generous sum of money to experiment on her sister.

Tatsumaki had survived three years like a guinea pig before a monster outbreak brought Blast to her rescue.

She couldn’t believe Asahi would know anything about the incident, much less knowing Blast’s involvement in it.

‘Is he an alien who came to conquer our world through deceit? He made the strongest Esper sisters his first target…’

Asahi’s sudden appearance, his rise to S-Class, and his obsession with her and her sister — everything began to make sense in her head.

Asahi, unaware of her conspiracy theories, clicked his tongue. “Your shitty parents are also to blame here. Did Tatsumaki let them live after she used her powers?”

“They died in the monster outbreak that saved Onee-chan.”

“Oh, the irony.”

Fubuki smiled mirthlessly and punched his shoulder. “Start teaching me already. You promised to make me an S-Class Hero. When will you do that?”

Asahi looked at his wristwatch. “Maybe another day. I gotta be somewhere else. Oh yeah, you used to be friends with Psykos. Tell me more about her.”

“How do you know about Psykos?” She inquired, while narrowing her eyes. “Where is she?”

“You’d be shocked to see your friend now.”

She could never imagine her nerdy high school friend becoming the secret boss of the Monster Association.

“Where is she?”

“What will you do after knowing that?”

“I don’t know…” Fubuki shook her head. “I destroyed whatever friendship we had. Just tell me if she’s doing well.”

She regretted being selfish, but she’d do that again if she was put in the same circumstances. Psykos was a dangerous individual who was bound to misuse her psychic powers.

‘Sealing her powers was the right decision.’

Asahi smiled, amused. “She is more than fine. Do you want to meet her?”

“Does she live close by?”

“Very close. In fact, she is your neighbor.”

Fubuki heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m glad she recovered from a world-destroying obsession. She’d have become a villain if she continued on her path.”

He responded with a chuckle. “Like I said, you’d be shocked to see your friend now.”

Her phone suddenly rang. “It’s Sonic.”

“That guy.” Asahi snatched the phone from her hand and answered the call.

“Blizzard, I’m returning to my assassination business. Ring me when our stupid boss starts being real about his mission.”

“Stupid boss, you say.” Asahi laughed coldly. “Did the last beating not satisfy you and you are craving for another one?”

“B-Boss.” Speed-o’-Sonic’s voice trembled. “Why are you with Blizzard?”

“None of your business, idiot. Report to me tomorrow evening. Until then, feel free to kill any scumbag.”

“Scumbag… Okay, I’ll find bounties on scumbag targets.”

…

Psykos floated in a vast chamber deep beneath the abandoned district of City-Z. Except she wasn’t exactly the Psykos Fubuki used to know. She was controlling Gyoro Gyoro, a meat puppet designed to act as Monster King Orochi’s advisor and manage the Monster Association. Her real self rested in her base, which was even deeper underground.

Gyoro Gyoro’s single gigantic eye gazed upon the imposing Monster King Orochi just calmly sitting there. Monster King Orochi was a monstrous titan, with skin that was cracked, empty eyes, and a mouth full of jagged teeth. His empty eyes stared off into the distance, but still seemed to pierce through any onlooker with a menacing glare.

Orochi opened his mouth, revealing layers upon layers of sharp teeth nestled within. “How far are we from launching an offensive, Gyoro Gyoro?”

Gyoro Gyoro tilted her head in Orochi’s direction, rubbing its palms together. “Almost there, Lord Orochi. Monsters are thriving in this brutal environment. In no time we’ll amass an army capable of bringing the Hero’s Association down to their knees.”

“Crush them when the time comes.”

Gyoro Gyoro’s eye narrowed with glee. “I absolutely will, Monster King Lord Orochi. I absolutely—”

“There you are, Gyoro Gyoro. I was just looking for you.”

The soothing voice prompted both entities to turn their heads in its direction.

“A human, here?”

They were in the deepest region of the Monster Association’s headquarters. The place was brimming with monsters, monsters strong enough to earn the disaster level of Demon and Dragon.

Yet, a human snuck past all of their superhuman senses.