Chương 3: The Weight of a Fist

The ring of clear blue sky Saitama had punched into the atmosphere remained, a perfect, serene circle amidst the churning black storm clouds of Vale. Sunlight streamed down like a divine spotlight, illuminating the ruined courtyard of Beacon Academy. Silence stretched across the battlefield. A heavy, suffocating silence that not even the crackle of burning buildings could break. Down in the quad, Weiss Schnee let her rapier, Myrtenaster, lower by an inch.

Her eyes were wide, her pristine white hair smudged with ash, her brilliant mind completely failing to calculate what her eyes had just witnessed. Impossible... She thought, her breath catching in her throat. The Wyvern... an ancient, mountain-level threat that our history books said could lay waste to kingdoms... shattered. By a single punch from a man wearing a commoner's raincoat? No, it's not dust magic. It's not a Semblance. What kind of monstrous aura allows someone to displace the atmosphere itself?

"Hey... Blake..." Sun Wukong whispered, his jaw literally hanging slack as his staff clicked down onto the stone.

"Tell me you saw that. Tell me I'm hallucinating from blood loss." Blake Belladonna didn't answer. Her faunus ears were pinned flat against her head, twitching violently. Her instincts, the primal, deeply rooted survival mechanisms of a cat, were screaming at her. But they weren't screaming in fear of a monster. They were screaming in sheer, unadulterated awe of a force of nature.

"He didn't use a weapon," Blake murmured, her voice trembling.

"He didn't even activate an Aura. I couldn't feel a single pulse of soul energy from him." A few yards away, Ruby Rose collapsed into a sitting position on the shattered steps of the CCT tower, her hands gripping Crescent Rose just to keep them from shaking. She stared up at the bald man in the yellow suit. Her silver eyes, usually so bright with tactical analysis and weapon hyper-fixation, were blank. He saved her. Ruby's mind repeated, a small, fragile spark of hope reigniting in her chest. He stopped the arrow.

He killed the Wyvern. Who is he? On the ruined roof of the tower, Pyrrha Nikos lay in her own blood, her gaze locked onto the red rubber boots standing just inches from her face. She had been ready to die. She had accepted her destiny as a sacrifice for a world that was falling apart. Yet, here she was, drawing breath, while the entity that had terrified an entire kingdom had been turned into literal soot.

"Are... are you an ancient god?" Pyrrha croaked out, her voice barely a rasp.

"Huh?" Saitama turned his head slightly, his simple, dot-like eyes looking down at her. He blinked.

"No, I'm just a guy who's a hero for fun."

"A hero..." Pyrrha whispered, before her consciousness finally wavered, her eyes closing as she slipped into a deep, exhausted faint. Cinder Fall stepped backward, her boots scraping against the shattered masonry. For the first time since she had murdered Amber and taken the full power of the Fall Maiden, she felt cold.

The absolute, unshakeable confidence that had carried her through the infiltration of Beacon, the manipulation of the White Fang, and the destruction of Ozpin was evaporating, replaced by a raw, primal panic. Who is this? Cinder's mind raced, her teeth grinding together so hard they threatened to crack. An Atlas secret weapon? No, Ironwood doesn't have the stomach for this kind of power. Ozpin's reincarnation? No, it takes years for the soul to settle. He has no Aura. He has no magical signature. He is nothing!

He looks like an idiot!

"You..." Cinder hissed, her voice dropping an octave as the Maiden fire flared around her eyes, turning into a raging, cyclical tempest of orange and red.

"What are you? How dare you interfere with the grand design? This kingdom was meant to burn!" Saitama looked at her, his expression remaining completely flat. He adjusted his stance, slouching slightly, his hands resting casually inside his yellow pockets.

"Look, lady," Saitama said, his voice entirely conversational.

"I don't know anything about a grand design or kingdoms. I just got blown through some weird white void while I was trying to protect my groceries, and now I'm here. But from what I can see, you're the one leading all these black dog monsters and causing a ruckus." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Cinder's face contorted into a mask of pure, demonic rage.

"I am the Fall Maiden! I am the force that will bring this entire world to its knees! You are nothing but a minor insect in the path of destiny!" With a deafening shriek of magical power, Cinder launched herself into the air. The air around her superheated instantly, turning the stone tiles beneath Saitama into glowing, bubbling magma. She manifested two massive swords of solid, black obsidian glass, their edges burning with a white-hot intensity that could slice through reinforced steel like butter.

She descended upon him like a falling star, swinging both blades in a cross-cut aimed directly at Saitama's neck. CLANG. The sound of the impact was like a church bell ringing in an empty valley. Cinder's eyes widened. Her obsidian blades hadn't cut through his flesh. They hadn't even scratched his skin. Saitama had simply stood there, letting the blades strike the sides of his neck.

The sheer kinetic energy of her descent had shattered the weapons into a million glowing shards, which dissolved into ash before they could hit the ground.

"Is that it?" Saitama asked, looking mildly bored.

"Your swords broke pretty easily. You should try using tungsten or something next time."

"Die! Die! Die!" Cinder screamed, completely losing her composure. She backed away into the air, her hands moving in a blur. She unleashed a torrential barrage of magical attacks. Giant spears of ice materialized out of thin air, launching themselves at supersonic speeds. Pillars of raw, volatile fire erupted from the ground beneath him. Shards of explosive glass rained down like a meteor shower. The entire top of the CCT tower was transformed into a literal inferno of destructive magic.

From below, Ruby Rose watched the rooftop explode in a brilliant display of elements.

"No!" she cried out, trying to push herself up, but her legs collapsed from sheer emotional and physical exhaustion. Inside the smoke, Cinder panted heavily, her magical reserves draining significantly from the sheer output. She hovered in the air, a smug, desperate smile forming on her lips. Nothing could survive that. Not even him. He is ash.

"Man, you're really noisy." The smoke parted instantly, not from a wind, but simply because Saitama had taken a step forward. He was completely untouched. His yellow suit didn't have a single tear. His bald head reflected the sunlight perfectly. He looked up at Cinder, his expression shifting from casual boredom to a slight, disappointed frown.

"You know, you remind me of this one guy I fought back home," Saitama said, walking toward the edge of the roof.

"He had all these flashy energy beams and talked about ruling the universe or whatever. He kept regenerating and throwing everything he had at me." Cinder floated backward, her hands trembling as she tried to manifest another flame.

"Stay back... I command you to stay back!"

"But in the end," Saitama continued, ignoring her as he raised his right hand, closing it into a loose fist, "it's always the same. You guys get this big power, and you think you're special. You think you can just destroy everything and hurt people because you're strong." He took a short, precise stance. The entire atmosphere around the tower seemed to drop in temperature as the air pressure began to warp around his knuckles.

"I was really hoping that I'd find someone who could actually give me a real fight here," Saitama said softly, a deep, profound sadness present in his eyes for a brief second.

"But you're just another one-punch deal, aren't you?" Cinder felt the air leave her lungs. The sheer intent rolling off the bald man was heavy enough to crush her spirit before the fist even moved. In a desperate, final bid for survival, she gathered every ounce of the Fall Maiden's magic, forming a colossal shield of compressed fire and hardened glass in front of her.

"I am Cinder Fall!" she screamed, her voice cracking with terror.

"I cannot be defeated by a nobody!" Saitama thrust his fist forward. He didn't even use a named technique. It was just a punch. The air in front of his fist compressed into a visible cone of supersonic force. The shockwave struck Cinder's magical shield, and the barrier didn't just break. It shattered into microscopic dust instantly. The concussive air pressure hit Cinder squarely in the torso, instantly neutralizing her magical aura, fracturing her ribs, and sending her rocketing through the air at Mach 5.

She became a speck on the horizon, crashing far outside the borders of Vale into the distant, uninhabited mountains, completely incapacitated and stripped of her pride. The silence returned to Beacon Academy, but this time, it was accompanied by the gentle, warm rays of the afternoon sun. The Grimm throughout the courtyard, sensing the complete eradication of their leaders and the sudden absence of negative emotions, began to retreat into the shadows, dissolving into black mist as they fled.

Saitama let his fist drop, sighing heavily as he looked out at the horizon.

"Yep. One punch again," he muttered, scratching his head.

"Man... this sucks. I'm never going to find a good match." He turned around, looking at the unconscious Pyrrha, and then noticed Ruby Rose, who had finally managed to crawl up the final flight of stairs, staring at him with a mixture of terror, reverence, and utter confusion. Saitama walked over to Ruby, stopping a few feet away. He looked down at her red cloak and her giant scythe.

"Hey, kid," Saitama said, his face returning to its completely flat, simple dot-eyed expression.

"You know where the nearest supermarket is around here? And uh... what day of the week is it? I really need to know if I missed that discount sale." Ruby blinked once. Twice. She looked at the horizon where Cinder had disappeared, then back to the bald man in the yellow suit.

"Um..." Ruby squeaked, her voice incredibly small.

"I... I think it's Tuesday?" Saitama's face instantly dropped into an expression of absolute, comical despair, his jaw dropping as his eyes turned into massive white circles.

"NOOOOOO! THE SATURDAY SALE WAS THREE DAYS AGO!" he screamed to the heavens, his voice echoing across the entire kingdom of Vale.