A Disciple?

"Oh my God!" Skye couldn't help exclaiming, her face full of disbelief.

Saitama had knocked down a few thugs in front of her more than once before, but those encounters hadn't been nearly so explosive. At least, he'd only knocked them down or, at most, knocked them unconscious. He'd never killed anyone. But now, he'd not only sent someone flying, he'd made the man crash through a wall. That kind of strength was beyond what an ordinary person could manage. Skye even felt as if she were seeing a comic-book superhero come to life.

"Saitama, how—how are you so strong?" Skye looked astonished, curious, and even a little envious.

"Of course, it was because I trained hard," Saitama said, as if it were only natural.

"Training? How? Was it the legendary Chinese Kung Fu?"

"Hmm, I don't know." Saitama scratched his head. In the world he'd come from, the very concept of countries had long since disappeared, so he'd never heard of America, Japan, or China.

"You don't know? Then how did you train?" Skye looked at Saitama in exasperation.

"My training was incredibly hard and painful. You need tremendous willpower to stick with it," Saitama said solemnly.

"Um, the way you put it, it really does sound difficult. If I wanted to train with you, could I?" Skye hesitated a little, but she still yearned for strength. After all, someone who'd been bullied since childhood wanted to become stronger far more than an ordinary person did.

"If you want to train with me, I won't stop you. But whether you can stick with it is up to you," Saitama said, like a master who could only show a student the door; the rest was up to them.

"I-I want to try." Skye licked her lips. With an opportunity like this right in front of her, she didn't want to let it go.

"Good! Since you want to give it a try, I'll teach you my training method. I hope you can stick with it." Saitama's expression grew even more serious.

"I-I can definitely stick with it." Seeing Saitama's serious face, Skye grew serious too.

Saitama's expression turned even more solemn. "Have you really made up your mind?"

"Mm! I've decided." The more solemn Saitama became, the more Skye felt that what he was about to teach her had to be something amazing. Chinese traditions valued lineages, with rules like passing skills only to men or keeping them within the family. Skye wondered if Saitama might be Chinese.

"My training is incredibly grueling. No, it's incredibly difficult. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready."

"You're not afraid of hardship?"

"No!"

"Not afraid of challenges?"

"No!"

"Can you stick with it?"

"I can!"

"Then all right. I'll tell you the secret of my training." Saitama's expression grew ever more solemn. Even his usually dopey, vacant face now looked imposing.

Skye swallowed. Saitama's earnestness had rubbed off on her, and she was getting more and more nervous. "W-wait."

"Hmm? What is it, Skye?"

"I-I'm going to write this down."

"Okay!" Saitama nodded.

Skye quickly took out a pen and paper and drew a deep breath. "I'm ready. Go ahead, Saitama."

"All right, listen—"

"Wait!"

"Huh?"

"Um, Saitama, if I'm going to learn Kung Fu from you, shouldn't I become your disciple? I've heard that teachers only pass on everything they know after someone becomes their disciple." Skye was thinking of the Chinese martial arts novels she'd read.

"Huh? Become my disciple?" Saitama scratched his head.

"Teacher Saitama, please take me as your disciple."

"Uh."

"Teacher Saitama?"

"Teacher? No."

"Then, Master?"

"No."

"Sensei?"

"No. Why do you want to become my disciple?" Saitama found it strange and couldn't help scratching his bald head again.

"Because teachers only pass on everything they know after you become their disciple."

"Who said that?"

"That's what all the books say."

"Huh?"

The whole business about becoming his disciple gave Saitama a headache. He'd never planned on taking one, but Skye had apparently made up her mind and stubbornly insisted on becoming his student. She'd even started calling him "Teacher Saitama," and she completely ignored him whenever he tried to correct her.

"Teacher Saitama, you can tell me now." Skye held her pen and paper, looking utterly solemn and concentrating hard, as if she were afraid of missing a single word.

Saitama looked more and more serious, solemn, and earnest.

"Skye, listen carefully."

"Yes, Teacher Saitama!"

"First, the most important thing is whether you can keep going through high-intensity training."

"Training?" Skye grew even more serious and quickly wrote the words down in her little notebook.

"You have to keep at it, no matter how hard it is. It took me three years to gain the strength I have now."

"Three years?" Skye's spirits lifted. It only took three years to easily knock down those thugs. That didn't sound bad at all. She had no idea how powerful Saitama really was. After all, she'd only seen him knock down a few thugs. To Skye, three years of training to beat a few thugs armed with knives seemed like a pretty good deal.

"One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and a ten-kilometer run. I did it every day!" Saitama earnestly explained his training routine.

The pen in Skye's hand gradually slowed. What Saitama was saying seemed completely different from what she'd expected.

"Of course, you have to eat three meals a day. A banana for breakfast is fine too. To push myself to the limit and train my spirit, I never used the air conditioner, whether in summer or winter. At first, it was so hard I wanted to die. I kept wanting to take a day off, but I wanted to become a powerful hero. No matter how hard it got, even when I threw up blood, I never missed a day. Even when my legs wouldn't move properly, I kept doing squats. Even when my arms made weird popping sounds, I kept doing push-ups. A year and a half ago, I realized I'd changed. I'd gone bald! Then I got stronger. In other words, crazy training until you go bald—that's the only way to get stronger."

Saitama looked as if he were recalling a past full of hardship.

"Um, a-are you joking?" Skye's mouth twitched.

"No?" Saitama looked at Skye, baffled by her question.

"Teacher Saitama, I've been calling you teacher!"

"Uh, I told you not to call me that." Saitama shook his head.

"You—you jerk! If you don't want to teach me, just say so! But instead you made all that stuff up. I'm mad!" Skye gritted her teeth.

"Uh, but I didn't make anything up." Saitama scratched his head.

"You didn't make anything up? Don't tell me that's actually how you trained! I've never trained before, but I know some basic things. The routine you described is just what ordinary people do to exercise. Rich people even go to gyms and do more advanced workouts than that. Sure, the workload might be a little tough for a beginner, but for someone in good shape, that's nothing!"

Skye was fuming. She could accept it if Saitama didn't want to teach her, or if there were some rule about only passing things on to men. But Saitama was clearly lying to her, and that was what she couldn't stand.

"But—but I'm telling the truth! That's exactly how I trained." Saitama rubbed his completely bald head.

"Hmph!" Skye snorted and turned away, not wanting to talk to Saitama anymore.

Saitama felt completely wronged. Everything he'd said was true. His training really had been painful and difficult. Why didn't Skye believe him? Why did she say he was lying?