Rescuing a Beauty

"Grrr..."

Saitama's stomach let out a mournful growl. He was lost—completely lost. Not only had he failed to find the way to A City, he couldn't even find his own home. He couldn't spend the money in his pocket, either, because the money here seemed to be different from his, and the locals wouldn't accept it.

So, after wandering around all day, Saitama had the tragic beginnings of a hunger problem.

"I'm so hungry. I want steak. I'm so hungry. I want steak. Damn it, damn it! What kind of place is this? Why did I end up here? And worst of all, my money is useless. If I'd known this would happen, I never would've tried to save. All the money I saved is completely useless now. Damn it, damn it!" Saitama looked at the wallet in his hand. It was stuffed full, and even gave a clinking sound when he shook it a little. It was full of coins, all of them small denominations.

"Grrr..."

His stomach let out another mournful growl, and Teacher Saitama's face fell. "Oh, no. What am I supposed to do now? There's nowhere to eat, and I don't even have anywhere to sleep."

"I was definitely heading toward A City. And even though I don't live there, I've been there plenty of times. I shouldn't be getting lost."

"What's going on? Could a monster be behind this? But somehow, it doesn't feel like one."

"And it's been a whole day, but not a single monster has shown up. That's strange. Have they all gone into hiding?"

Saitama muttered to himself. Even now, he was thinking about monsters. Unfortunately, not only had he failed to encounter any, he hadn't even heard anyone else mention a monster sighting. There was clearly something wrong with that.

"Get lost, you bastards! You scumbags! Leave me alone, or I'll call the police!"

Skye thought she was incredibly unlucky. She'd been an orphan since childhood and had grown up in an orphanage. Although she'd later been adopted, her adoptive parents had only done it for the government benefits. They had no affection for Skye at all. In fact, after she was adopted at such a young age, she'd practically become a maid for the family—an underage maid, at that.

Skye had always been rather unusual in temperament, and she'd run away from her adoptive home more than once. But because she was a minor, she'd been sent back to different families to be adopted, time and time again. The tragic thing was that not one of those families was decent. Or rather, not one of them had ever truly treated her like family.

After going through so much, Skye quietly saved money by every means she could. She hoped that once she came of age, she could leave her adoptive family and live on her own.

Skye believed she could manage perfectly well by herself. After all, in her adoptive home, she'd practically been a full-time maid. Housework, cooking, being the family's punching bag and taking the blame for everything—that was her place in the household. And in the last family that adopted her, the boy who was technically her older brother had even tried to do something unspeakable to her. It had disgusted Skye. That guy ought to take a good look at himself—fat, ugly, and useless, yet he thought he could take her first time?

At last, she was free of that awful family. Skye had rushed out of her foster home with her luggage and all her savings, even though it was already late. But that didn't matter; she'd already rented her new place.

Still, when someone was unlucky, they shouldn't expect their luck to improve. It was like a hopeless gambler expecting to turn into a lucky winner overnight. It simply wasn't going to happen.

And so, Skye was terribly unlucky and got cornered by a gang of thugs.

"Call the police? Ha! You think we'd give you the chance? Sweetheart, hand over the money you've got on you. Hmm, your clothes are pretty dowdy, but that face—wow, you're a beauty! Guys, we're really in luck." The thug with a Peppa Pig tattoo looked Skye up and down. When he got a good look at her face, he let out a whistle.

The guy standing beside the one with the Peppa Pig tattoo had a GG Bond tattoo. When he saw Skye's face, he got all worked up. Honestly, they'd never had a chance to get with a beauty like her before.

Skye looked at the thugs, who clearly meant trouble, and a flicker of fear crossed her eyes. She was stubborn by nature, but she was still just an ordinary girl and had little chance of fighting off men—especially when there was more than one of them. Skye was on the verge of despair.

"Um, sorry to bother you, but what are you doing? Is this a game? Or are you bad guys?" A somewhat dazed, even wooden voice sounded behind the thugs.

Hearing the voice, Skye looked up in surprise and realized there was a man standing behind the thugs—a man in a bizarre outfit.

The little thugs heard the voice and looked annoyed. They'd finally found a beauty and were about to have some fun, only for someone to come along and interrupt them. The angriest one had already pulled out a dagger. If the newcomer didn't know what was good for him, he'd plunge it into his body.

The thugs turned around and saw a bald man. Even in the dark of night, his head was so shiny it almost seemed to glow. Beneath it was a blank, wooden face, and he wore a strange yellow bodysuit with a cape.

"Baldy, get lost!"

"You shave your head and think you're a bad guy? Look at that face!"

"What a ridiculous outfit. This guy's hilarious."

"You trying to be a hero? Like the ones in comic books? Give me a break. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard."

For some reason, the little thugs couldn't help laughing at the sight of Saitama. Of course, they didn't bother holding back; as bad guys, they didn't care how anyone else felt. So they all laughed uproariously. One of them even reached out to touch Saitama's bald head.

"Thud!"

"So you're all bad guys, then?"

Saitama punched the guy who was reaching for his head and sent him flying. He'd only just finished saying those words.

"Bastard!"

"Die!"

Seeing one of their own get hit, the little thugs showed no sense at all. They couldn't tell how outmatched they were. Shouting, they charged at Saitama with their daggers.

"Look out!"

Skye shouted as fast as she could, but by the time the words left her mouth, Saitama had already dealt with the thugs. They were all sent flying into the wall. None of them died, but every one of them was sprawled on the ground, groaning in pain. The only person left in front of Skye was the bald man, still wearing that blank expression.

"Who... who are you?" Skye asked, looking bewildered.

"Me? I'm just a hero for fun." Saitama casually answered as he lightly scratched his face with a finger. Knocking down those thugs in an instant had felt about as casual as swatting a mosquito—uh, well, that wasn't a good comparison for Teacher Saitama at all.

"A hero... for fun?" Skye had never heard anyone put it that way before, but it somehow sounded pretty cool. Well, she'd just been rescued by a hero, so she thought pretty highly of Teacher Saitama. Even his blank face seemed kind of handsome to her.

"Grrr..."

Another uncontrollable growl came from Saitama's stomach.

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