Contrary to popular belief Solaria did not in fact live in A-City, rather her home was located at an undisclosed location where the land was bought and sectioned off as private property with the paper trail sufficiently obfuscated. The number of individuals aware of its location could be counted on one hand and that included Solaria herself. Even then getting to this place was no easy feat with the property hidden behind a cloaking device and should anyone uninvited attempt to enter the property was protected by an automated defense system built by Metal Knight himself in a similar vain to the Hero Association Headquarters.
Why?
Because Solaria was filthy rich and the good Dr. Bofoi owed her multiple favors she was more than willing to cash in at her leisure.
In any case past the cloaking device and automated security system lays Solaria's home in the form of a modern mansion. Solaria landed the vehicle on the walkway just before the gate. The security system scanned her face causing the heavy duty gates to slide open on either sides allowing her passage. Solaria drove into the garage turning off the vehicle and exiting to enter the house proper from a side door.
Solaria entered her home in contrast to how she left it with shoulders slouched, feet dragging and an air of exhaustion about her. She was so utterly done with the day she didn't even bother with the façade of normalcy and instead opted to nix walking altogether to instead float to her bedroom. Using psychokinesis she set up a bath adding her chosen bath salts and essential oils while at the same time shedding her clothes and tossing them into the hamper.
Then came Solaria's favorite part of her de-stressing ritual.
"Haaa~" she groaned already feeling the troubles of the day melt away in warm soothing water.
After soaking for a few minutes Solaria gestured and an object floated into her open hand. It was the remote for the wide flat screen TV embedded in the wall in front of her bath. Once she turned it on she was faced with a news report however she did not pay attention to it. The television merely provided background noise for what she actually planned to do. A moment later and several items floated into the room: a bathtub tray, laptop and flash drive.
As the laptop booted up Solaria muttered to herself "alright Tomoro let's see what you've got."
~Thirty Years Ago~
'This is awkward' thought Solaria as she sat across from the man known as Tomoro Sazaki, a recent transfer student who in a single encounter managed to garner her attention in ways that most boys in school could only dream of.
Somehow he was able to deduce her identity as the superhero (vigilante) Sailor Star which was already a point to him. She's hasn't been doing this for that long now so having her identity ousted this early not only served to freak her out but damage her confidence altogether. That wasn't even the most shocking thing about him either since as it turned out he too was a reincarnated person from earth.
She didn't really know how to feel about it at first but nonetheless made sure that this was the case. Not the hardest thing to do since she wasn't exactly subtle about her inspiration for her superhero identity. Literally anyone from her previous world with any sense of pop culture could look at her and see the parallels between her and the Sailor Scouts. She expected him to confront her at some point and to his credit he did seem to have been investigating her. She once caught him attempting to follow her during a school-wide evacuation caused by a nearby monster attack.
After that he kept his distance and was actually very good at hiding his presence from her senses though she still caught him spying on her from afar every once in a while but let it be. He wasn't doing anything else suspicious so she decided to let him make the first move but in the end he did no such thing. After spying on her for weeks he for all intents sort of just gave up and kept avoiding her afterwards.
he kind of avoided her like the plague which was very surprising since it seemed he was building up for a confrontation.
She didn't know what happened to make him give up but Solaria was way too curious about the situation to let it go. Now it was up to her to confront him which was easier said than done. When she said he 'avoided her' it was an understatement because the man literally went out of his way to ensure that they were never in the same general vicinity. She's pretty sure that he had his own brand of extrasensory perception because that's the only explanation as to how he could avoid all her attempts at encountering him.
It would also explain how he was able to hide his presence from her so effectively too now that she thought about it.
His stubborn avoidance forced Solaria to make an unnecessarily convoluted plan just to get in the same room as him. Yeah she could have just just cornered him after school using her powers but didn't want to come off as hostile, pushy or desperate. After spending several days keeping track of him she used her standing popularity in the school to insert herself into a group of girls going out with his friends after school. That's how she ended up tagging along with a group of classmates to a karaoke box.
You'd think things would get easier from there but the man was still hell bent on keeping his distance from her. Even her attempts at conversations either fell flat before they could pick up or she was prevented from trying by the others in attendance that actually seem to care that one of the most popular girls in school was with them.
The experience was a lesson in patience that she ultimately lost because she ended up cornering him out of frustration and revealing her status to him. At least she did it in a way that didn't reveal how frustrated she was with him. To her relief getting to that point turned out to be the hardest part of the whole ordeal as what followed after was rather cordial conversation. Then he dropped the bomb that this world wasn't just some random urban fantasy world but was based off a known anime and manga which was actually popular.
If it was so popular then how come she's never heard of it?
Because the anime which brought the IP into the mainstream came out a few weeks after she died. As for him he kicked the bucket years after she did which had her feeling some type of way. In any case now that they've been formally introduced it was only natural that the two get together to have a discussion about what they should do next. This is why the following weekend saw the two of them meeting at a café and so far things have been going not so good for her.
"So…" began Solaria hesitantly.
"Why'd you want to meet here?" he interrupted while looking around with a frown.
"What? You don't like cozy cafes?"
"People might think we're on a date or something" he looked about "in fact I'm pretty sure people already do."
Solaria followed his gaze seeing a few people steal some furtive glances. She was used to this but glancing at the man he seemed uncomfortable with the attention which she found a little strange. She'd call him shy but the guy wasn't exactly keeping a low profile at school not that he could even if he tried. She had it on good authority that he was amongst the most handsome boy in the school. He really played into that bad boy aesthetics without being an actual bastard or delinquent.
'It's not their attention he's uncomfortable with' she mentally deduced 'it's me.'
For a fleeting moment Solaria almost scowled feeling annoyed but stamped it down with a shrug "well it's not like anyone knows us around these parts. I made sure to pick somewhere none of our classmates are likely to show up."
"Yeah the last thing we need is an unexpected 'coincidental' encounter straight out of slice-of-life romcom."
Solaria chuckled at that "you really don't want people thinking we're dating huh?"
"Do you?"
She gave him a once over before shrugging "eh, I wouldn't really mind."
He blinked in response "is that a confession?"
Solaria almost snorted "you're not that cute."
"Bitch I'm adorable" he snorted.
"Is that a reference? I feel like that's a reference."
"…" he said nothing in response causing her to frown at his silence.
'Why does it feel like I failed a test?'
Shaking those thoughts away she spoke "so you knew I was a reincarnated person since the beginning right?"
"More or less."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Well clearly you've got things figured out if you're doing the whole vigilante bit and I didn't want to intrude on your uh…power fantasy."
"How considerate"
"Tch" he clicked his tongue to which waved a hand.
"No seriously that's actually very nice of you."
She was under no illusion how she would seem to a normal person being a grown woman in the body of a teenage girl acting like a Magical Girl. Even she felt a bit embarrassed about it though the embarrassment was lessened by how serious the context for her actions was.
"I really thought I was going to be the only one reincarnating here" he confessed after a moment of silence.
'You and me both' she thought wryly.
"So much for being the chosen one am I right?"
He made a face at that "God, that is so cringe."
"But not inaccurate" she insisted feeling little shame in her pseudo admittance.
One again he looked at her before sighing "yeah…"
For a brief moment he tapped his fingers on the table.
"I had plans you know" he admitted "but now with you here…" he trailed off with a sigh of frustration.
"Does it involve using your meta-knowledge to save the world?"
"Something like that?"
"Well I don't see how me being here is going to stop you from doing that. It's not like I'm planning to deliberately get in your way" she paused "I mean unless you're an asshole who wants to use this opportunity to do some despicable things then yeah I'm going to get in your way."
The thought did occur to her however she just couldn't see it. As Sailor Star she's learned that monsters come all in shapes and if he were that that kind of guy she would have literally sensed it. He didn't give off that kind of vibe to her extrasensory perception plus she did probe the outer reaches of his mind prior to when he had his mental guard up and found nothing untoward.
'If anything he's a bit too straight laced. Come on dude you're alone on a date with a cute girl, at least act nervous dammit!' she ended with a dramatic cry of annoyance.
Tomoro looked at her as if she said something stupid before shaking his head "right, you don't know about OPM."
"Yeah, you mind filling me in on that."
"I could but it's not gonna matter. By the time we get to the canon timeline events are probably going to be totally different from its depicted in the story…if they even happen in the first place"
"What do you mean? How far are we from the 'canon timeline'?"
"Give or take a couple decades."
*SKRRT*
That was the sound of Solaria's thoughts skidding to a halt.
"I'm sorry what?"
"You heard me."
"Are you sure?"
"One of the characters in the story is a famous scientist. I looked him up and he's a middle aged guy but in the story he's an old man. Based on his current age and his appearance in the story I'm thinking we're about twenty to thirty years away. I know for a fact that a majority of the characters aren't even born yet including the protagonist and at least one of the major antagonists."
Solaria's expression betrayed nothing as she let that information sink in. She knew anime and she was also aware of the Isekai genre, hard not to really, so she knew about its quirks. Usually when a character gets summoned or reincarnated to another world it's because they are needed to combat some threat. If it's a fictional world then it would make sense for them to be summoned either shortly before or during the events of the story. But to be reincarnated decades before shit pops off is not just odd it's kind of concerning because…
"Then things are going to get worse than they already are?"
"More or less."
Solaria clicked her tongue with a frown before her expression turned resolute "that's fine."
"That's fine?"
"Because between the two of us I'm sure we can handle it" she spoke confidently though said confidence faltered when he winced "we can handle this right?"
"About that, I got reincarnated way before the story ended so I have no idea how powerful the main antagonist of the story is."
"But you do who it is?"
He shook his head "not who, what" he clarified.
Solaria's expression turned very stern as she regarded him.
"I think this is the part where you explain the story to me now."
~Present Day~
Solaria Nova pinched the bridge of her nose in mild irritation "Tomoro you absolute moron."
Just now she had just finished perusing the contents of the flash drive and she felt aggravated. One of the things that always rubbed Solaria the wrong way about Tomoro was how he hid the full scope of the One Punch Man story from her. Oh sure he told her pertinent information and the story beats but hid most of the context and finer details. It was always on the pretext that they were so far back in the timeline that they wouldn't even be able to act on said information thus making it irrelevant.
There was also the excuse he used about not letting her go through her second life while thinking about 'unnecessary stuff' that may or may not happen. She gave him the benefit of the doubt because despite his shifty moves he wouldn't keep the vital stuff from her when it mattered. He also made it up to her by otherwise being a reliable person in other areas. In fact without him she could see herself being less successful than she was as Sailor Star.
That still didn't change the fact that his reasoning was all bullshit and he likely just didn't want her to do anything that would jeopardize the validity of his meta-knowledge. He more or less admitted he was willing to just let things go as they would in the story and only intervene in events that would negatively affect the 'canon' as he put it. It's the reason why after highschool he fucked off to become some kind of martial arts hobo like Ryu from Street Fighter.
"Urgh~" she dragged her hands down her face her thought buzzing with the full scope of the information she just learned.
It grated on her but she understood why he did it because unlike him she wasn't going to just sit back and watch things unfold without intervening. She was very active in her duties as Sailor Star and even after giving up the mantle she still continued to work behind the scenes. She would have definitely done something with this information damn his meta-knowledge. Thinking over the things he did tell her over the course of their time together Solaria came to a realization…
"The bastard pegged me from the start."
The bastard knew what kind of person she was.
'Probably realized when he kept tabs on me after our first meeting.'
She should have pushed for more information but at the time she didn't want to strain their newly formed relationship. He was already willing to leave her alone and do his own thing before so there was no reason why he wouldn't just cut her off.
'He ended up doing that anyway' she thought bitterly with a flare of anger.
In hindsight it was foolish but at the time Solaria felt a kinship with the man and didn't want to navigate the situation alone. She could at least take solace that a lot of the information here she wouldn't have been able to even act on and even then as things stand now their presence caused enough of a divergence that things are drastically different from the story. She was especially thankful that she inadvertently prevented the 'birth' of a major villain.
But of course no good deed goes unpunished and now she was faced with an unknown threat which was always worse than a known one.
"Tch, nothing I can do about that accept make sure the Hero Association is ready for it."
'Speaking of which I need to fix the clusterfuck the Hero Association has become before that prophecy happens.'
Solaria knew that corruption was inevitable but even she didn't expect things to have turned out this bad under Agoni's watch. If she didn't know the man she might believe he was that incompetent or just willfully ignorant.
'I blame age.'
Once upon a time Agoni was the most ruthless and cutthroat businessmen in the world. He made a lot of enemies, accumulated a lot of leverage and everyone in the corporate world if not outright feared him then were very weary of him. There's a reason why Agoni was able to accomplish what she failed to do in creating the Hero Association.
Unfortunately age had a way of dulling the edges of even the sharpest swords. Now if there was one flaw of the current Agoni that she had to point out then it would be his overreliance on his reputation to keep people in line. A reputation that he could no longer keep up and people have already seen the cracks in that armor. The man was just too old to be running an organization like the Hero Association.
A good example was the fact that he left the specifics of day to day operations to be handled by executives while he handled the corporate aspects such as securing investors and keeping the government at bay. These executives have full autonomy to run the association how they see fit and little oversight by Agoni who has become more preoccupied as of late.
Fortunately Solaria would never allow something as important as the Hero Association to be left alone without proper oversight. Much like what she did with Star Enterprise she had ensured that there were enough backdoors open and agents planted to receive constant updates on how the company was really doing. She didn't know what she would find exactly but she knew what to expect: cover-ups for higher profile heroes, some shady dealings here and there and of course money laundering since the bulk of the associations profits came from donations.
She wasn't even that mad about the corruption in general. She didn't like it but it's one of those things that you can't really get away from because really only the greedy opportunistic bastards make it big in corporate. She could tolerate them because usually they have to be actuallygood at their jobs to get away with it. They were the type of people who can be an advantage for anyone if their interests align and if not then it's good to have leverage that will keep their interests aligned.
That's what Solaria was doing while keeping her distance, monitoring the situation and collecting 'leverage.' There's a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that she held the metaphorical leash of those greedy opportunistic weasels without them even knowing it. Now she could tug at said leash to make them get in line but that was not an option, not now.
As stated before she could forgive greed but not incompetenceand the greatest sin perpetrated by the executives and what made her the most incensed was the utter incompetence on full display. If you're going to be a greedy, corrupt amoral bastard then the least you could do was be smart about it because at least then she could respect the hustle so to speak. They weren't being smart though and for the most part she wasn't even dealing with clever sophisticated individuals but rather entitled children with more wealth and arrogance than common sense.
Solaria will not be the one to enable that kind of rot in the association any longer. Those tumors need to be excised and she will take great pleasure in being the surgeon that will cut them out.
Oh and let's not forget about the traitors.
At the thought Solaria smiled in a way that would have even S-Class heroes and Dragon level monsters sweating in worry.
"Now how am I going to make my debut~?" the woman purred to herself as she got to scheming.
Once again her gaze went through the scrip of the story which has been organized quite nicely for ease of view before landing on a specific part.
"Oh…that could certainly work."
~O~
The Next Day…
Unfortunately closing the biggest deal in their firm's history and surviving the world's first alien invasion at ground zero only got Tomoro a single day off. Such was the world that even just a single day after would see signs of the alien invasion beginning to lose the interest of the wider public. This was thanks in great part to the media absolutely running it into the ground but really when you have monster attacks literally every day in one form or the other even something like an alien invasion could lose its novelty rather quickly.
Not to say that people still be talking about it a month from now but he's already seen Amai Mask's upcoming concert trending more on social media. At this point Tomoro wouldn't be surprised if the presence of the alien invasion on the internet ended up being propped up by conspiracy theorists and UFO enthusiasts who are currently running wild online.
It was honestly kind of sad when you think about it.
As for Tomoro he was over it. The only thing even remotely interesting about the invasion itself was Boros and all things considered he was kinda underwhelming. In any case because of his talk with Solaria Tomoro has been more sensitive to the presence of monsters recently. Part of him just couldn't let go of the idea that the Monster Association just didn't exist. He's of the mind that it did exist but in a different form because there have been too many events that follow the same beats as the story despite the changes brought on by his and Solaria's presence.
From the House of Evolution to the Sea Folk Invasion and even the stuff from the first episode acting as an introduction to Saitama all happened without fail and almost exactly as they did in the story. Saitama even had the same damn dream about the Subterranean Invasion!
There was no way the Monster Association wouldn't be a thing. It was quite literally the most important arc in the story so far if only by virtue of being the reason for a dramatic paradigm shift in the status quo. Not knowing what was happening with it was infuriating and concerning but at least he could take solace in the fact that should the Monster Association exist without Psykos leading then it wouldn't pose as much of a threat as it did in the story.
Not that it could even with her leadership since between Saitama, himself and Solaria he couldn't think of any antagonist group in the story that could pose a legitimate threat. Well apart from Him but they've still got some time before that prophecy takes effect. But while the Monster Association was a concern it wasn't an immediate one, no that honor went to everyone's favorite shounen anti-villain.
As he promised Solaria Tomoro has taken it upon himself to deal with Garou which meant tracking him down which was easier said than done. He could do it though especially since he knew where Garou would ultimately make his first appearance.
'Except with Solaria getting involved I doubt she would allow Sitch to invite a gaggle of underworld criminals to the Hero Association HQ. Looks like I'm gonna have to wait until he starts his rampage before meeting him' which meant more waiting but in the meantime he can start laying the groundwork for his plan.
This involved visiting an old acquaintance and it would be a lie to say that he wasn't at least a bit nervous about it.
'Man it's been a long time since I've been here.'
He thought as he looked at the stairway literally carved into the side of what appeared to be a mountain. Upon seeing it, for a fleeting moment he felt his perception regress to the first time he beheld it.
~Thirty Years Ago~
When he found himself reincarnated in One Punch Man Tomoro had already decided he was going to get himself involved in the plot. The world may be treacherous but there were ways to become strong. It wouldn't be easy or quick but considering how far he was from the canon time period he figured he had enough time if not motivation to put in the work required.
After discovering he had powers of his own his motivation only increased and he swore to himself that not only was he going to become S-Class but he'll become so strong that only Saitama and God would be the only ones who would pose a threat to him. The existence of Solaria only added one more person to that list but didn't really change his overall plan on how he would be going about it.
In that respect Z-City especially in this current era was perfect for him. With frequent monster attacks, no Hero Association and government resources stretched too thin for proper oversight leading to an abundance of unregulated vigilante heroes that have become more or less accepted by the general public (and government) out of necessity to combat the problem was there A better place for him to farm experience and gather strength?
Of course while fighting monsters was all well and good there was another advantage to being in Z-City. See in the absence of his powers he would have learned martial arts, in fact it was his preferred method of becoming stronger out of all the methods available. Not that there were that many to begin with considering one has to born with the talent for psychic powers and monsterization is a crap shoot that may or may not make you susceptible to the main antagonist.
There was always the Saitama TrainingTM but Tomoro knew himself well enough that he could never pull off that brand of insanity. Even if he was willing to go through with it he couldn't train while living under his parents because at a certain point the training will become synonymous with torture and his parents are actually good people who care. He'd have to wait until he was of age and move or run away from home. Both options are out of the question for the same reason in that the world was way too dangerous even without the threat of monster attacks.
Also Tomoro just wasn't confident that the end result of this training would be what he wanted. There was just no guarantee that he would be able to replicate Saitama. It all depended on whether or not he fully commits to the training anyway which he just wouldn't be able to do without supervision. At best he might become really fit and end up like Darkshine or Tank Top Master which wasn't exactly bad per se but such an outcome didn't exactly appeal to him.
With martial arts not only was its depiction in the manga epic as fuck while also being effective it was also accessible to normal people. Of course there's always the danger of scam martial arts which he would come to learn are everywhere but he knew the legitimate martial artists in the story. And lucky for him a few of them are old enough to be active even in the current era. The presence of a master teaching him would ensure he wouldn't slack off while also acting as a constant beacon of motivation for him.
He already knew who he wanted to learn from but for propensity's sake he narrowed down his viable options to three.
The last option surprisingly being Nichirin the blind swordsman who was obviously based on Zatoichi and acted as the leader of the 'Council of Swordmasters' whom Atomic Samurai was a part of in the story. Nichirin was only the third option because Tomoro would prefer using his body over a tool. Yes he knew a weapon in the hands of a 'true master' wasn't merely a tool but with how almost useless Atomic Samurai got when cutting shit didn't work was just kinda sad really.
Yeah it could just be Atomic Samurai not being a very tactful individual unless really pressed but even when he got clever his depiction in the story just did not endear Tomoro towards swordsmanship. That's not even getting into the fact that he literally had no idea where to start with finding the man himself.
His second choice was Bomb of the Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist for obvious reasons. By virtue of being the older brother of Bang whom the latter called on for help Bomb already proved himself to be one of the strongest martial artists in the story. There was speculation in the community that Bomb might be stronger than Bang which Tomoro personally thought was a stretch but who's to say that wasn't the case now? At the very least the man couldn't be inferior to his brother in terms of skill.
The only thing keeping Bomb as his second choice was both the lack of familiarity with his character in the story as well as the utility of his martial art. Don't get him wrong a martial art that enables someone to cut things with their bare hands sounds cool and looks suitably awesome in how the manga depicted it but when you really start to think about it the martial art itself seemed kind of impractical for anyone who wasn't looking to outright kill their opponent. Now he's sure that as master like Bomb would be able to mitigate damages or not inflict damages at all but the thought lingered in his mind enough for him to have reservations.
Conversely it was also the lack of familiarity with Bomb that was keeping him as the second choice. He only ever saw Whirlwind Iron Cutting Fist being used in situations where it was applicable such as on enemy Monsters and obstacles. He's sure that actually learning the art under the man would paint it in a much better picture but speculation could only take his imagination so far without any real information on it.
Then there's his first choice, Bang, which was a surprise to no one. Not only was Bang one of the major characters in the story so Tomoro has a measure of the man's character and history but he saw through both his and Garou's depiction that the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist was the best martial art in the whole story bar none and at a high enough level was its own brand of overpowered bullshit.
Tomoro could imagine himself easily becoming an OP badass under Bang with the kind of time he had before canon. And who knows, after he learned what he could from Bang who was to say that he couldn't train under Bomb and recreate the combo martial art that Garou managed to do in the story after copying the two masters.
Becoming Bang's student had always been Tomoro's plan from the start irrespective of any circumstance he found himself in powers or not. Moving to Z-City only worked more in his favor but like any plan it wasn't long before he encountered an issue, he had no idea where Bang's dojo was.
Before the start of the story Bang was a martial arts instructor with over a hundred students and while becoming an S-Class hero must have boosted his popularity and thus his student count he must have still been revered before that in some way. So taking a shot he decided to look him up online and the results were shocking to say the least.
His search took him to some old posts on seedy forums and from what he read yeah Bang was very much a prominent martial artist…and a lot more like Garou than Tomoro ever imagined. The similarities however stopped at them just wandering the world and indiscriminately beating up random people. Garou did it because he wanted to become strong to better complete his crusade but Bang seemed to do it purely for the love of the game.
Speaking of Bang there were pictures and while it was jarring to see him as a younger man with black hair it didn't escape him that his appearance bore some resemblance to Garou down to the way he was even dressed. If you told Tomoro that this guy was related to Garou in some way then he'd believe you. His nickname was apparently Wind of Bloodwhich sounds like something an edgy teenager with Chuunibyou would call themselves.
Very OPM appropriate but the reason he was called this was because he wandered seemingly like the wind and wherever he goes causes a bloodbath via his victims. According to what he found Bang was infamous for being a delinquent, thug and overall an absolute menace to society. Along with fighting anyone and everyone who crossed him or even looked strong he also hung out frequently at host clubs and bars indulging in alcohol and women.
He was the type of guy to take out crime lords, rob them and spend the loot on booze and hookers in a single day.
'What the fuck Bang?'
He was so feared that the underworld made a coordinated effort to steer clear of him which meant keeping track of his movements, hence the comprehensive information available on the dark net. The more Tomoro found out about this version of Bang the more he felt his plan being threatened. Forget about learning the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, that wasn't even the name of this Bang's martial art, it was the Exploding Heart Release Fist.
Unfortunately as fascinating as the information of Bang's unruly past was it was all old news at this point as the man disappeared from the public quite some time ago, almost decade to be precise. His last sighting had him allegedly being confronted by his brother at a host club. Rumor has it that the two men fought with some eyewitnesses claiming that Bang lost and badly at that.
Now he had no reason to believe this but considering how the man was described compared to how he would be in the future Tomoro could see a bad loss against his older brother working to literally knock him out of this phase of his. Bang could be experiencing his redemption arc even as Tomoro was looking for him but that's just him.
No one knew where Bang was or what he has been doing for so long which really sucked but wasn't an insurmountable obstacle. In the story the dojo was located on top of a mountain that had a waterfall running off the side. Z-City didn't have that many mountains in the first place and combined with that kind of description it took only a matter of hours for him to get a shortlist to work with.
Actually finding the right one took a matter of weeks. Finding the time to visit between the Solaria investigation, scheduling conflicts with school stuff, fighting monsters for experience and bounty hunting took months. Yes bounty hunting because he's already fighting monsters so he might as well profit from it. Also who's to say Bang won't charge for the privilege of his tutelage?
This younger Bang might as well be a different person altogether and seemed like the type to be susceptible to bribes. While it would be a little disappointing if that was the case as far as he was concerned it would be worth it and if not well he could always ask about Bomb.
So after six months since moving to Z-City Tomoro journeyed to Bang's dojo on a bright Saturday morning after saying farewell to his stay-at-home mother. The journey would have taken a couple of hours and would have put a dent in the pockets of a regular teenager but Tomoro could fly and obviously mapped a path to the location in advance.
He arrived at the base of the mountain and looked up at it with a firm resolve. Unlike in the manga there weren't any stairs carved into the mountain yet. He figured it was something added later on as the man gained popularity. He could have skipped climbing altogether because again, he could fly, but he liked the challenge it presented to him as well as the idea of climbing a mountain to seek a true master to learn from.
That's some old school generic kungfu type shit he could let himself indulge in.
It took a mere half an hour for him to reach the top and he couldn't help but to stare. What greeted him was a paved walkway leading to a building with Japanese style architecture surrounded by a small forest. He must have spent some time standing there basking in the radiance offered by the place.
As someone born and raised in the city in both lives he never really got the reason why people incessantly wax lyrical about nature but right now, in the this moment, after climbing a freaking mountain he could at least see why explorers did what they did.
'This is nice.'
He took a breath of that air noting how thin it was but nothing he wouldn't get used after a few hours. Eventually he took his first steps towards the dojo proper.
~Present Day~
Tomoro blinked finding himself standing before that familiar walkway leading to the dojo. He hadn't even noticed he had climbed the hundreds of stairs up the mountain.
'Did I seriously just climb all the way up here while daydreaming?'
That was a rhetorical question because he already knew the answer and shook his head in mild disbelief.
Before he could make another move the door to the dojo opened revealing an elderly man, his posture hunched slightly and his hands behind his back.
Upon seeing him Bang aka Silver Fang commented "I thought I sensed someone out here."
Despite his current appearance being the one he knew from the story Tomoro couldn't help but see the image of a younger man interspersed over his current visage because that's who he was more familiar with. He blinked as he saw the old man crossing the distance between them until he was standing right before him.
In response Tomoro inclined his head in a respectful bow.
"It has been a long time Sensei."
"Yes it has" Bang replied while reaching out to pat the taller man on the shoulder "you came at the right time. My brother sent over too much lobsters and I need help finishing them."
"He did? How is he?"
"He's doing well you should pay him a visit sometime."
'You know what, I think I will.'
"Later" he answered out loud "there's actually a reason why I came here sensei."
"And here I thought you wanted to check up on your first Master."
Internally he winced though he made sure to hide it "well that too but-"
"Whatever it is you have to say, can it wait until after you help me with this?"
As he said this the two of them had already made it inside and Bang pointed to a pile of wooden boxes one of which was open to reveal a trio of lobsters. From the packaging he recognized them as those premium lobsters that were very expensive. Saitama bought them once and they were definitely worth the price if you had the money to spare.
'Five boxes and three for every box, that's fifteen lobsters' Tomoro calculated the math and found a price that had him mentally recoiled.
Tomoro wet his lips as he asked "you said your brother sent you this?"
"I can only assume he forgot I no longer have many students anymore" Bang responded.
Tomoro chose not to comment on that and instead crouched down to examine the lobsters in one of the open wooden boxes.
"Bomb still has good taste" he commented "these are some high quality stuff."
Bang stared at him for a moment before saying "you can have some if you want."
Tomoro looked to him then the lobster "if you're sure…" he trailed off before his gaze went to the door "someone's coming."
"Ah, that would be my disciple."
A moment later the door opened to reveal a young man with shaggy brown hair wearing a white gi.
The moment his eyes met the young man Tomoro's eyes narrowed.
'Well this is a surprise.'
~O~
"Master, I bought the vegetables!" Charanko exclaimed with a smile only to pause as he saw that his master wasn't alone.
"Ah Charanko, we'll be having a guest joining us."
Said guest happened to be an older man with short purple hair brushed down to frame his face wearing a purple and white tracksuit of all things and glasses.
"Okay, um excuse me Master Bang but who is this person?" the young man asked curiously.
"He was my former disciple, Tomoro."
'F-former disciple?' the young man thought with a stutter.
"Tomoro, this is my current disciple, Charanko."
Tomoro kept his gaze on him before looking to Bang "I thought all your disciples left" the man commented.
"Most of them did, except Charanko here. He is my only disciple."
As he said this Charanko couldn't help but stand a little straighter.
"I see" the man stared at Charanko and while he couldn't see his eyes due to the glare of the glasses obscuring them the young man felt as if a weight was being placed on him.
Not neglecting his manners Charanko bowed a bit "it's nice to meet you senior!"
In response Tomoro chuckled "you don't have to do that. I haven't been a student of Bang's for at least twenty years now."
Charanko swallowed, that was a really long time. This man was learning from master Bang since before he was even born and spent the total of Charanko's life as a former student.
'Now that I'm looking at him he has that same aura Master Bang does.'
The aura of a true Master.
*Gulp*
Just then Tomoro's gaze snapped back to Charanko's and the man smiled "you can see it can't you?"
The younger man's eyes widened unable to confirm but could not deny what the man was asking.
"This one definitely has potential" he commented.
For some reason his words only made Charanko even more nervous.
Turning away from the sufficiently cowed boy Tomoro addressed his old master "so have you decided on what we're doing with the lobsters?"
"For this amount hotpot would be for the best."
"Great" the man rolled up the sleeves of his tracksuit "let's get this started."
The dojo had a kitchen however master Bang decided to use the main hall instead. The three gathered the kitchen appliances including a portable stove,, table, cutting board, pots, bowls and water. Tomoro insisted on prepping the ingredients while Charanko set up the stove as Bang oversaw them. Eventually they got to the lobsters themselves and were now just waiting for them to be ready. The process was calm and everyone was cordial which did a lot to alleviate Charanko's nervousness around the man.
So calm he was that he eventually remembered what he learned while in the market and relayed it to his Master. Rumors were going around about a 'Dojo Hunter' running around with an increasing number of victims. It spoke well of this individual's skill and if they are trying to make a name for themselves then it's very possible that their dojo might be on their list.
As he was saying this Tomoro chimed in "that's actually the reason why I came to visit but it looks like you haven't heard yet."
Charanko looked sufficiently curious and so was Bang as he hummed "what do you mean."
"The identity of this 'Dojo Hunter' might be-" Tomoro cut himself off before suddenly asking "were you expecting more guests?"
"No" Bang replied.
"Eh" Charanko had no idea what they were talking about as he looked between the two.
Then he did and as both older men looked to the doors Charanko followed their gaze just in time to see the closed sliding doors slam open to reveal a group of thuggish looking men all wearing black gi trying to make their way inside.
At that moment Charanko had a lot of questions like:
Who are these guys?
Why are there so many?
What do they want?
However from the moment the one at front took a step inside Charanko's brain switched gears and he instinctively yelled out "HEY, LEAVE YOUR SHOES OUTSIDE!"
The men paused though it was less from Charanko's yelling and more from what they were seeing and the overall atmosphere.
"Hotpot?" the man muttered in surprise.
"Can I help you?"
They were broken from their reverie by Bang's words and seeing the old man the bald leader stepped forward "are you Bang, master of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist?"
"I am, what is it that you want?"
"We are from the Harsh Path Style and we have come to crush your dojo!"
"What the hell is harsh path style?" Tomoro suddenly whispered in Charanko's ear.
Charanko couldn't help but jumped a little in surprise at how close the man managed to get without him knowing but answered nonetheless "I heard they're a newly formed group of rogue martial artists."
"…so a bunch of thugs using martial arts as an excuse to be violent" he surmised.
"Well…" Charanko didn't want to assume but from the looks of the 'rogue martial artists' in question "yeah."
"What a world we live in where a bunch of grown men would go around harassing a senior citizen and his caretaker."
Tomoro said all this out loud causing the thugs in question to bristle with indignation "what was that!? You wanna fight!?"
"Unlike you I don't gain satisfaction from bullying the weak" Tomoro replied dismissively not so much as looking in their direction instead keeping his eyes on the hotpot.
At that point Bang chimed in "he is only a guest, I am the master of this dojo" he reminded them.
Upon seeing him most of the thugs chuckled.
"This is supposed to be the legendary martial artist Bang?"
"He's just a feeble old man"
"This is gonna be easy."
Charanko heard their comments and clenched his fist in aggravation "they're underestimating Master Bang!"
Bang was not at all phased by their jeering. In fact it was all he could do not to roll his eyes at their childishness.
'The folly of youth' he thought as the bald man with the scar who seemed to be their leader stepped forward.
"I will be the one to fight you" the bald man eagerly spoke.
Bang gave a half shrug "very well, Charanko if you will."
"Yes Master!" spoke the young man as he got up and approached the larger man.
"Huh, who's this?" the bald man questioned looking down at Charanko both figuratively and literally.
"He is my disciple. If you're challenging my dojo then it only makes sense for you to first defeat my best disciple before I step in."
The bald thug scoffed "fine then it's the disciples of the Harsh Path Style vs. the disciple of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist! Let's bet your dojo sign on it" the spoke with a sadistic smirk.
"Huh!? How does that make any sense!?" Charanko exclaimed indignantly while pointing at the group "you brought so many guys-"
"We accept your challenge" Bang interrupted.
"Eh? Master!?"
Bang simply kept his eyes on the hotpot "it's nothing you can't handle Charanko but do be mindful not to hurt them too much."
"But I-" he sighed
"Enough talking!" the bald man attacked with a war cry "SERYAAA!"
Charanko merely sighed before straightening up "yes Master Bang!"
~O~
Tomoro knew Charanko from the story as a kid who joined Bang's dojo during its surge in popularity thanks to the man being an S-Class hero. His motivation for learning martial arts was because he wanted to impress women and get a girlfriend. Unfortunately for him the way how the dojo was structured was that the older more experienced students teaching the younger newbies. Charanko was taken in by abusive older students who relegated him to menial tasks like cleaning the dojo and didn't actually teach him anything.
The kid was basically a disciple in name only.
Through a stroke of luck he caught a cold and missed Garou's rampage where he brutalized all the present disciples causing so much trauma that they all left the dojo with most of them quitting martial arts in general. That's how Charanko ended up being the sole disciple of one of the best martial artist in the world.
As a character Charanko did not impress Tomoro but in the context of having lived this life Tomoro was sympathetic. Even with his shallow motivation it wasn't as if Tomoro hadn't seen it before. Even as far back as when he had been a disciple himself you'd get a few dumb teenagers finding their way to the dojo after watching one too many kungfu movies looking to be the next action star. From his experience those kinds of people usually end up quitting after a while because they lacked discipline. There are of course rare cases where these individuals end up discarding their shallow motivations and actually develop a love for the art itself.
By all accounts Garou's rampage should have been the best thing that could have happened to Charanko because now he had the sole attention of the greatest martial artist in the world. He had the opportunity to prove himself and the fact that he stuck by Bang and seemed to respect him greatly spoke well of his character despite everything. Yet by all accounts after almost a year under Bang's tutelage Charanko in the story was so pitiful it was literally comical in its presentation in the manga.
How can someone being exclusively taught by one of the greatest and most revered martial artists in the world for almost an entire year end up being fodder? That went beyond having no talent and spoke of a lack of effort on the boy's part because Bang was actually really good at teaching. In that sense despite to actually meeting him Tomoro was prepared to dislike the young man on principle. For tricking Bang at what was undoubtedly the aging grandmaster's lowest point and effectively wasting his time which he didn't have much of anymore.
Then he actually met Charanko and immediately he could tell that this young man was nothing like the boy from the story. Visually speaking he looked vaguely the same with his white gi and shaggy brown hair but that's about it. The man's attitude, body language and presence did not denote what was basically a civilian with rudimentary skills as he was depicted in the story. No, this Charanko was tempered in all the familiar ways a disciple of a grandmaster would be.
And the final proof…
"Enough talking!" the bald 'martial artist' attacked with a war cry "SERYAAA!"
Despite the suddenness of the attack Charanko wasn't caught off guard as he tilted his head to dodge the punch by the smallest margin and return his own strike directly to the thug's face breaking his nose in the process.
"Ufuu!" went the thug as he was launched away landing on his back unconscious with blood running out of his ruined nose.
Charanko looked down at the man with mild shock which turned to clear disappointment before redirecting his attention at the group. The silence was broken by Charanko's lone question.
"…is that it?"
That seemed to knock the surprise from the rest of the thug and one of them charged forward bypassing the bald man's unconscious body as he made his way to Charanko who moved from the unconscious man to make space.
"Why you!" another thug charged at him though he was more cautious as he threw out some swift jabs which Charanko easily deflects "stop blocking and fight me like a man you coward!"
"If you insist" Charanko muttered under his breath before anticipating an attack to follow up with his own.
"Heh" the bald brute smirked before his attack abruptly dropped and switched to a fast straight "Fake Out Punch!" in an attempt to take Charanko by surprise.
In response Charanko tilted his head at the last possible moment to dodge the attack while lashing out with his own attack hitting his opponent with a gut check using his fingers to hit a precise pressure point.
"Piercing Fang!" the young man intoned as his finger sunk into the larger man's body up to the knuckles.
The thug gurgled from the hit stumbling back while cradling his gut before collapsing to the ground unconscious next to the first one.
"Hey if we're going to continue could you take care of those guys first?"
The thugs grumbled but complied clearing the way for the next challenger who had a bowl cut of all things.
Charanko assumed a stance "let's get this over with, I'm getting hungry."
"If you're hungry then eat this!"
The thug lunged at him with a roundhouse kick to the head which Charanko caught and deflected to the side in one smooth motion. He would have followed up with an attack however when he deflected the kick to the side the thug's forward momentum combined with his brand of shoes on the waxed floorboards made him slip forward. The result was the thug doing a leg split with the full weight of his fall ending up on his crotch.
"OOOOOOHHHHH!" the man screamed out to the heavens in a rather high pitched voice.
There was a collective cry from the conscious thugs whose hands flew to their crotch, Charanko recoiled with a hiss, Tomoro winced in sympathy for the younger man's plight while Bang could only shake his head.
"This is why we don't wear shoes indoors" the elder tsked.
The thug finally fell forward out of his split into a fetal position with tears of pain and his hands still grasping his crotch.
"Sorry about that" Charanko muttered as the man rolled away.
"Y-you bastard!" another shouted kicking off his shoes "you'll pay for that!"
Charanko hastily assumed a stance as the man lunged at him with a shout.
"Killer Grab!"
Surprisingly the man managed to grab him…for about a second before Charanko grabbed the offending wrists and used his superior technique to spin himself into an overhead throw slamming the thug into the floorboards. As the thug wheezed at having the air knocked out of his lungs a fist to the face knocked him out.
Blowing out a breath and stepping away from the downed thug Charanko turned to the group once again assuming his stance "next."
Meanwhile on the sidelines as impressed as Tomoro was with Charanko's performance (mostly due to the comparison with his canon counterpart) he couldn't help but be curious about something.
"So what's his story?"
"Hmm?" Bang hummed to himself as he ate some potatoes "why do you care?"
Honestly?
"I don't know the exact details of what happened with that rogue student but the fact that out of everyone he was the one who stuck with you should mean something. I guess I'm curious about the background of such a person. There must be some profound reason why he joined."
"He actually joined so he could impress his girlfriend" casually revealed.
'Huh?'
At that moment Tomoro was lucky he had impeccable self control from decades of martial arts practice otherwise the expression he would have given would have been priceless.
"He already had a girlfriend?"
'Before joining the dojo?'
Bang chuckled at that before going on to give a brief summation of Charanko's time as his disciple. It started out as more or less like his background from the story however the first major deviation came a month after he was enrolled. Bang only encountered Charanko by coincidence while he was making his daily rounds and struck up a conversation where Charanko revealed what the senior students were doing which didn't end with sticking Charanko with perpetual chore duties.
Turns out there was corruption within the ranks of his dojo perpetrated by a group of senior students abusing their power in some misguided attempt to steer the direction of the dojo where only the 'strong' as decided by them thrived. This discovery resulted in a major upheaval in the structure of the dojo's hierarchy as his students came under Bang's scrutiny. The ones who were caught willingly participating in this were punished with many being outright expelled once the full breath of their crimes was revealed.
Upon hearing that tidbit Tomoro could only shake his head at the direction the story took.
Then a thought occurred 'doesn't that mean there's a rogue group of Bang's former disciples with a survival of the fittest mindset?'
Or so he thought but then Bang continued with the story as that same group of rogue former disciples who would have been pacified by Garou had they stuck around eventually found out about his rampage. They also found out that Charanko, the one whom they wrote off and bullied for a month ended up being the only disciple left after the carnage. Naturally they didn't take too kindly to this fact and one evening they ambushed him while he was on his way home.
After beating him up they threatened him not to show up at the dojo again. Meanwhile they approached Bang to beg him to take them back as disciples. Despite everything Charanko ended up coming back the next day injuries and all. Charanko explained what happened but just as Bang was about to administer harsh punishment Charanko stopped him.
The young man explained that whole reason why all of this started was because he was constantly being underestimated without the chance to prove himself so he made a bet with the rogue students. If Charanko could defeat them after only a couple months of training under Bang they would never show their faces again. If he lost then Bang would accept them back as students and Charanko would quit martial arts. It was an insane bet because the rogue students may have been bastards but they were among Bang's stronger students having spent years under his tutelage before they were expelled.
Of course the rogue disciples took the bet and so did Bang because he saw something in Charanko that no one else seemed to understand. Six months later and he was proven right as Charanko went on to defeat his former students who despite having trained and improved still lost because they failed to grasp the true essence of Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist.
In the end Charanko not only managed to face his fears and beat his former bullies but he also showed his worth and proved that he deserved to be there under Bang. All of that happened two months ago and Tomoro was almost floored at the fact that Charanko of all people became a 'protagonist' and went through his own arc 'off screen' while he wasn't paying attention.
As he sees the young man him take on the last vestiges of the thugs at once (including a vaguely familiar yet ultimately inconsequential face) he could see the 'spark' that Bang was alluding to. A thought then occurred to him because while Charanko wasn't a genius by the typical standards of the word he clearly embodied the trope of the hardworking shounen protagonist. You know the kind of protagonist who usually has a rivalry with their traditionally more prodigious peer and typically wins.
And the way how they were set up with Garou being the genius student who betrayed their master, decimated the other students and practically destroyed their dojo before going rogue and Charanko the untalented hard worker who stuck by their master when everyone else abandoned him after the fall whether physically (as in they quit the dojo) or metaphorically (as in they abandoned his ideals).
There was no question that those two will cross paths again and unlike in the story he doubted it would be a one sided curb stomp happening off screen.
'I swear I'm not making this up' Tomoro thought to himself with rising giddiness as if reconciling with the frankly absurd situation he found himself in.
What does that mean for the future and can he incorporate Charanko in his plans?
'The question isn't whether I could but if I should.'
Later That Day…
After sending the thoroughly beaten thugs away the trio enjoyed the lobster hotpot after which Charanko excused himself leaving Bang and Tomoro alone. The old master and former student stood the foot of the mountain around the back overlooking the city in the distance. The sun was beginning to set casting a picturesque view of the whole thing as the two basked in companionable silence.
Then Tomoro spoke "all things considered I think things worked out the best for you."
Bang glanced at his former student "what do you mean?"
"You may have been betrayed by your best students in more ways than one and the others quit but in the end you retained your actual best student and likely successor" he then met his master's gaze with a wry smile "funny how things work out huh?"
Bang glanced away turning his attention to the skyline and after pondering it for a moment chuckled "so it would seem. By the way didn't you say you had a reason for visiting, one pertaining to the dojo hunter?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the dojo hunter is Garou."
"…I see."
"You don't seem surprised."
"I'm aware he's been traveling the world challenging martial artists and crushing dojos."
"Sound familiar?" Tomoro couldn't hep but poke.
Bang merely snorted "it seemed he wanted revenge for how I punished him."
'Huh, I guess that would make sense from his perspective.'
"You're not going to do anything about it?"
"Why bother? He'll find me when he's ready."
"…what if I went to confront him myself?"
"You don't need to do this for my sake."
Tomoro scoffed playfully "I'm not doing this for you old man."
'Not entirely.'
"I was just curious about him."
"Like you were with Charanko?"
"Something like that?"
"You say he's following in my footsteps but if you really think about it I'd say he's take more after you, don't you agree?"
"What do you mean?"
"A once in a generation genius with untapped potential who knows exactly what he wants, learns all that I have to teach in record time and leaves the dojo to 'learn' more martial arts incidentally gaining fame and notoriety for the defeat of multiple masters and the collapse of several prominent dojos."
Well when he puts it like that…
Tomoro shook his head with a scoff "don't compare me to him, I never went around crushing dojos. I approached other masters to learn from them whether through their teachings or through an honorable duel."
"And yet you end up with the epithet of Destroyer" Bang intoned.
"That's different" and that's all he would say on that subject but added "my nickname has little to do with my deeds as Tomoro the martial artist."
Bang nodded and decided to change the subject "what do you plan to do with Garou?"
"I want to take his measure, find out what the end goal is with his actions. If he's just another power hungry brat with a chip on his shoulder…well I guess you'll sort him out yourself."
Bang did not react to his words but asked simple question "and if he's not?"
"Dunno" Tomoro answered honestly "I'll have to actually meet him first."
Bang hummed in thought but didn't reply and for a minute silence descended upon the two. Eventually Tomoro decided to leave and Bang saw him out.
"It was nice seeing you again Tomoro."
"And you as well sensei. I would promise to visit more often but something tells me we'll be seeing more of each other regardless."
"As you say."
And with that Tomoro descended down the steps until he was far enough away before taking to the skies.
~To Be Continued~