Pero gripped Homelander by the face, carrying him like a chick as he flew at high speed thousands of meters above the ground.
The biting wind sliced like sharp knives across Homelander's mangled face, bringing waves of excruciating pain.
His star-spangled suit, custom-made by Vought International, had long since been torn to shreds in that one-sided beating, losing its former splendor.
He struggled desperately, both hands clamped onto Pero's iron-vise grip, trying to pry it open.
Unfortunately, it accomplished nothing.
Pero's hand remained utterly motionless, as though it had grown directly onto his face.
"What the hell do you want?!" Homelander roared himself hoarse in the gale, his voice carrying a trace of undisguisable fear for the first time.
"Fame? Money? Power? Just let me go, and I can give you anything! I can get you into The Seven!"
The wind swept his tempting pleas past Pero's ears.
At that moment, Homelander's heart was filled with unprecedented fear.
He, John, Homelander, the most powerful being on this planet, Vought International's most perfect creation, the guardian deity of the United States of America...
Every identity he possessed, every honor he held, rested on one absolute premise-he was the strongest.
But now, that premise had been taken by this mysterious man in black before him.
And utterly shattered in a way that defied all reason.
If he was no longer the strongest, then all his dreams, that twisted love he held for his son Ryan.
His hopes of building an empire for his son with his own hands... everything would vanish like a bubble.
"We can talk this out! Let me go first!" He began trying to negotiate in a gentler tone.
Yet inside, he was screaming furiously.
I have to kill him! Once I find an opening, I absolutely will!
Listening to those pleas buzzing like flies beside his ears, Pero finally felt a trace of impatience.
He released his grip on Homelander's hair and grabbed him by the collar instead.
He pulled that face, already swollen like a pig's head, right up before his own.
"Could you stop talking?" Pero said flatly. "You're even noisier than that guy called Deadpool."
At the very instant Pero released his grip.
A venomous gleam suddenly blazed in Homelander's eyes, which had been beaten almost completely shut!
He seized the opportunity!
His fist, having recovered a little strength, slammed into Pero's face at the fastest speed he could manage!
But nothing moved.
Pero's head did not even sway.
Immediately afterward, Homelander's eyes flashed red, and two thin beams of Heat Vision blasted Pero squarely in the face at almost point-blank range!
"You motherfucker."
Pero had never seen anyone so childish, so utterly oblivious to the danger of death.
This guy was even more of a brat than Obito Uchiha.
Holding Homelander by the collar, he casually punched with his other hand, cutting off Homelander's Heat Vision outright.
For the first time, Pero's eyes filled with anger.
He drove a fist viciously into Homelander's stomach.
BANG-!!!
An enormous, muffled boom erupted a thousand meters above the ground!
Homelander's body instantly doubled over, his whole figure becoming a fired cannonball.
He slammed toward the ground below at a speed far beyond the speed of sound!
BOOOOM-!!!
The impact blasted a crater nearly ten meters across into the ground!
Pero hovered in midair, a golden gleam flashing through his eyes.
A golden pillar of light, even more terrifying than Homelander's Heat Vision, blasted from his eyes.
It struck the center of the crater!
He slowly descended while maintaining the stream of Heat Vision.
Finally, he landed at the edge of the crater and extinguished the golden light in his eyes.
Homelander lay in the center of the crater's floor.
The clothes on his upper body had already been completely burned away by the Heat Vision, and his exposed skin was now charred black, even giving off the aroma of roast meat.
He watched in terror as that figure approached him step by step, a despairing wail rising from his throat.
"No... don't..."
Ignoring his cries, Pero walked straight up to him, plopped down astride him, and raised both fists.
Then he began a thoroughly rhythmic lesson.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"That's what you get for acting up!"
One punch landed, and Homelander's nose, which had only just healed a little, caved in again.
"A grown man, and you're still playing childish tricks like sneak attacks!"
Another punch sent Homelander's teeth flying, mixed with bloody foam.
"You gonna try that again?!"
One more punch, and Homelander's left eye socket completely collapsed.
For the first time in ages, Pero experienced the pleasure of every punch striking flesh.
Back in the Hokage world, those ninjas had all been glass cannons with practically no defense. Any casual punch could send flesh and blood flying everywhere, getting him filthy.
But now, although the punching bag before him was pathetically weak, his body really could take a beating.
Under the effects of Compound V, both his recovery and his ability to withstand blows had reached astonishing levels.
As time passed, Pero continued teaching Homelander a lesson beneath him.
Gradually, he sensed something was wrong.
He felt... that the punching bag beneath him was showing a trace of... happiness?
*?*
Pero stopped swinging his fists and studied Homelander closely.
On that face, beaten so badly even his mother would not recognize it, there actually... actually appeared a strange, satisfied.
One might even call it... happy smile?!
What the fuck? What's going on?
For the first time, Pero's brain crashed.
Homelander... could he be a closet masochist?
At that moment, Homelander lay on the ground, enjoying Pero's storm of punches.
During this one-sided beating, he had thought about a great many things.
Why? Why are this man's abilities so much like mine, yet countless times stronger?
Why? He could clearly kill me easily, so why does he only keep beating me, disciplining me?
He remembered his other father, Dr. Vogelbaum.
That man had only ever locked him in a cold laboratory and tested his limits with all kinds of cruel experiments, never giving him the slightest genuine affection.
But this man before him...
His blows hurt, but... isn't this exactly how a father should be when disciplining a son who's done something wrong?
An extremely twisted yet incomparably real sense of fatherly love began growing wildly within Homelander's heart, so desperately starved of love.
So... this is what fatherly love feels like? It hurts a little, but... it's so warm.
A rare expression of helpless bewilderment appeared on Pero's face.
He could actually clearly sense joy and love coming from Homelander!
No, dude, are you kidding me? Isn't this The Boys? How did I end up in Chengdu?
He felt that his worldview had suffered an even greater shock than when he had previously watched those shrews fighting.
The next instant, he scrambled off Homelander, hurried away, and prepared to flee this bizarre place without looking back.
Yet he had only just flown into the air when he heard something cutting through the air behind him.
Homelander, who had just been beaten into a pile of mush, had already shakily taken flight.
With the dependent gaze of someone looking at his own father, he followed close behind Pero.
Pero felt his head instantly swell to three times its size.
I'm screwed.
(This chapter made me laugh while I was writing it.)
Before you continue