Served Him Right!

As evening drew near, Saitama finished watching anime and said goodbye to Baicang, taking the unfinished bag of chips with him.

Baicang was exhausted from running around all day, too. After a shower, he went straight to bed.

The next day.

Early that morning, Baicang was woken by the familiar ringing of his phone again. Mizuki again. Five o'clock again!

"Captain Mizuki! You're dead today!"

Baicang hung up under the covers and angrily tightened his grip on his phone, only to get even angrier because he didn't dare squeeze too hard!

After such an exhausting day, he had planned to sleep straight through until noon. Instead, Mizuki had woken him again, so he decided to teach that airheaded girl a lesson before coming back to catch up on sleep.

At five in the morning, the sky was still gray, and a thin mist lingered in the air.

Brimming with murderous intent, Baicang arrived outside the park Mizuki had mentioned over the phone.

"Senpai! Over here!" a cheerful voice called out. Hearing how happy Mizuki sounded, he could no longer contain his anger.

Through the mist, he spotted a blurry figure standing a short distance away, apparently warming up.

Hmm... I can't see clearly through the mist, but that's definitely Mizuki's voice.

"Don't you ever call me at five in the morning again!" Baicang shouted. He dashed behind the figure and kicked "Mizuki" in the butt while she was doing high knees.

Oh, crap!

Only as his leg shot out did Baicang see that the person warming up wasn't Mizuki, but someone else.

"Ah! What are you doing?!"

Tanktop Girl was knocked to the ground by his kick. Clutching her injured backside, she glared angrily at Baicang.

"Haha, uh, sorry! I mistook you for Mizuki."

Baicang apologized awkwardly and reached down to help Tanktop Girl up. It wasn't as though he had wanted to hit the wrong person.

"What do you mean, you mistook me for Mizuki? Do you kick her in the butt all the time?"

Baicang's excuse left Tanktop Girl speechless. She brushed off the dirt from her fall, then noticed his huge footprint on the seat of her jeans and shot him a glare of embarrassed fury.

"Hahaha, I was planning to teach her a lesson today." All Baicang could do was rub the back of his head and laugh awkwardly, trying to ease the tension.

"Why would you want to teach me a lesson, senpai? Did I do something wrong?" Only then did Mizuki appear from off to the side, looking puzzled by his words.

"Where were you just now?"

Now that the culprit had appeared, Baicang was no longer in the mood to teach her a lesson.

But that was clearly Mizuki's voice just now. I didn't see anyone else around, either.

"I went to the restroom after I saw you, senpai." Mizuki tilted her head blankly.

Fine! So you called out and then hid, huh?

Between Mizuki's answer and her adorably vacant expression, Baicang found himself at a loss for words.

"Forget it. Don't call me at five anymore. From now on, any training can wait until nine." Baicang yawned, then turned to leave, ready to go back to sleep.

"But Tanktop Girl came here for you, senpai."

"What do you mean, for him?! Don't make things up!" Tanktop Girl flushed red, rushed over without even washing her hands, and clamped a hand over her close friend's mouth.

She had only been curious about why Mizuki kept hanging around Baicang. How did that mean she had come for him?!

"Mmph, mmph~" Mizuki looked confused as she tried to speak through the hand over her mouth. Equally puzzled, Baicang looked back at Tanktop Girl, who seemed ready to smother Mizuki outright.

When Tanktop Girl noticed Baicang looking at her, her face grew even redder. Left with no choice, she explained the "truth."

It had all started when Tank-Top Tiger returned to the Tank-Top Organization's headquarters after Baicang stole his monster kill. He had told the other members what had happened between them, embellishing the story along the way.

He had even dug up the photo Baicang had taken for his hero license and sent a copy to every member, asking them to teach Baicang a lesson if they got the chance. That was how the photo had ended up on Tanktop Girl's phone.

But before anyone ran into Baicang, someone compiled evidence of Tank-Top Tiger bullying newcomers and posted it on various websites a few days later. Now his name was mud, and people threw eggs at him whenever he went out.

Fan groups for many heroes kept condemning him. Only after Tank-Top Black Hole asked the S-Class Hero Tank-Top Master to intervene did the situation stop escalating.

Baicang's female fan club had been the driving force behind it all, so Tank-Top Tiger decided this was Baicang's plot and swore he would make him pay.

Now more than half the Tank-Top Organization was looking for Baicang, hoping to teach him a lesson.

After hearing the whole story, Baicang could only say that Tank-Top Tiger had gotten exactly what he deserved. It was just a waste of eggs.

Judging by Tank-Top Tiger and Tank-Top Black Hole's behavior in the anime, Saitama certainly wasn't their only victim. Baicang would show no mercy to people who bullied the weak like that.

Tank-Top Master couldn't escape responsibility for his poor management, either. As for making Baicang pay, they could come try if they weren't afraid to die.

"So... you're here to avenge Tank-Top Tiger?"

Baicang looked at Tanktop Girl, who stood beside him with her head lowered.

Before Tanktop Girl could answer, Mizuki hurriedly told her, "Senpai Baicang isn't anything like Tank-Top Tiger said! You have to believe him!"

Thump! Baicang flicked Mizuki on the forehead.

"Don't interrupt."

"Okay~" Mizuki held her forehead and gave Tanktop Girl another look, urging her to believe her.

Tanktop Girl found Mizuki a little amusing, then shook her head and explained to Baicang, "No. I really dislike the way Tank-Top Tiger and his crowd do things. I'm only still in the Tank-Top Organization because of some other friends, and because I want to keep following Master Tank-Top Master."

Baicang didn't know much about Tanktop Girl. All he really knew was that she had a great figure.

But if she's Mizuki's close friend, she probably isn't very bright... uh, she's probably pretty innocent. I can trust her.

"All right. It doesn't really matter anyway." Baicang turned to leave, but Mizuki suddenly called him back.

"Senpai, did you forget you haven't had breakfast yet?"

"Breakfast?"

"Yeah! Didn't you pay Miss Sachiko for two months of breakfasts? She specially made rice rolls with her secret recipe for us today!"

Mizuki grinned at Baicang, bouncing around with excitement and anticipation.

Remembering how anxiously Mizuki had spoken up for him earlier, Baicang sighed. "All right. I'm already here, anyway."

"Yay! You're the best, senpai!"

Still, to be fair, jogging with two beautiful girls was pretty enjoyable. Even setting everything else aside, the envious looks from other men alone left Baicang feeling refreshed and invigorated.