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The sound of metal grinding can be heard over the horizon, where the blood stained sky cast its hollow light on the surface. Dust filled out his throat, it would have made him cough if he still had his old body.
He glanced at his arm, crackling and sparking blue light at the stump where his left hand used to be. 'Damn...' He cursed to himself as he ran away from the enemy.
He hid in a concrete slab, presumably where the walls of the shelter used to be, rebuking himself for once again dropping his guard. How can he not, when it was a familiar face that he was fighting.
A glimpse of yellow warned him of his now enemy.
Jumping up to avoid the blur of red coming straight at him, Genos landed a few meters away, spinning in the air to maintain his balance for landing. He didn't have time to breathe, not that he needs to, but its a small reminder that he's still human. Like his mentor.
Teacher saitama.
His sensors picked up something fast coming right at him. less than a fraction of a second later, a pebble is flying right at him. Kicking his blasters to overdrive, he skillfully dodged the makeshift bullet and a chill ran through his metal body as the pebble continued on until hitting a building, creating a hole twice his size.
A shadow fell over him, covering the red sunset blinding him. He looked up to see Saitama standing at the top of the mountain of rubble, his cape fluttering behind like in those shows where heroes took a stance to fight evil.
It started on small things so mundane that he didn't even notice until it was too late.
He noticed Saitama smiling less and less everyday that passed. Whenever they fought monsters, an expression of alienation pasted itself on his teachers face, as if unsatisfied by the victory he achieved.
Piles of hate mail still come to their apartment in regular intervals via the Hero Association planes. Two boxes, one for him and one for his teacher usually rest on the table on these days. One box sat untouched with the rest of the discarded litters of paper as the sounds of paper being torn, crumpled, burned resonates within the small apartment.
Then Saitama didn't come home for days, coming back only to sleep before watching the news with the same expression he always had. Only this time he never reacts whenever monsters appear in any city nor even acknowledged that people needed his help.
Genos tried to understand why. he wanted to help his teacher, to bring him back out from the shell he's cast himself into. But no matter how he tried, he couldn't even make progress.
"Yo Genos... it's been a while" Saitama greeted him familiarly, smiling like nothing was wrong. It looks out of place, a smile in the bleak landscape where only fear and suffering can be felt. Genos, wary that Saitama might do something, cautiously took a defensive stance and didn't answer back.
Laughter escaped Saitama's lips before jumping down, creating a huge crater upon landing on the blackened streets. Dust flew up and covered everything, leaving the blonde cyborg a blind man at his teacher's mercy.
"Teacher, please stop this madness!" He can only plead as the words surely fell on deaf ears.
His proximity sensors finally going off, Genos dodged the kick heading straight to his head. The wind picked up and blew the dust away, revealing Saitama in the distance. But instead of the usual friendly demeanor he sports when they are alone, all he can feel is bloodlust oozing out of his teacher.
It's as if he wants to kill him.
Buildings cracked and crumbled around as the two combatants exchanged punches, like the times they sparred whenever he requests it. Though it usually ends with a punch ending right in his face and them eating wherever teacher wants.
Teacher was always kind, always granting his request no matter how unreasonable it seems to him.
"Teacher..." Genos wanted to continue to say something, but the other still continued his punches, relentless in his attacks. It came to the point where his sensors are failing to follow his teacher's movements.
A lucky hit, or maybe not since this is Saitama he is fighting, hit his side and Genos found himself in the air. He hit the wall with such tremendous it reminded him of the time Tatsumaki flinging him to a wall. Dropping to the ground, he began to lose hope. Maybe this is how he will die, at the hands of his teacher.
"If the heroes run and hide, who will stay and fight?"
Remembering the words that Saitama said after the meteor, it gave him newfound strength to face his foe. As Saitama went closer, Genos stood up and charged straight through, tackling the bald hero to the ground.
One day, he disappeared.
It was a boring day when it happened, both were hanging out in the cozy apartment they share. Saitama seemed to be okay, smiling and humoring him with jokes and lessons he wrote in his notebook. Genos left at the Association's beck and call, having to deal with a monster that he easily dispatced with his incinerators.
When he returned back to the apartment, no one was there.
Thinking that his teacher went through his daily patrol, genos set out do finish his tasks for the day. never realizing that it will be the last time he saw his teacher.
Three days passed...
One week...
One month passed by quickly and he was still alone in the apartment. Genos has been keeping the apartment clean in case Saitama will go home one day. But he can't help but worry for him, cannot think of anything else but to leave and find him himself.
He tried to call his phone but he doesn't answer, he waits and waits until the call disconnected itself, after which he will redial and repeat the same actions for hours each day.
Calling his aquaintances didn't help. No one knew where he went, even the association cannot track the bald hero.
He's been searching say and night in cities, never resting unless he has to go to Dr. Stench for maintainance and upgrades. He searched everywhere he knows but its all futile. It's as if he disappeared.
Six months later, F-city was destroyed.
No one knew what really happened on that day, it's as if the city suddenly inploded on its own. Miraculously, no one died from the attack but the he news circulated to the public assumed it was a mysterious being. Repairs were done by Hero Association and help came pouring by the dozens, from companies to small change people give.
There was something attacking i n the shelter of F-city where people are taking refuge. Heroes were summoned to protect the people but all were defeated, even the reinforcements.
Genos was watching the news when it happened. He made a mad dash after it, not wanting to believe what he was seeing nor hearing. He headed straight to the shelter but it's too late. Only silence greeted him as he ran through the crimson stained walls. Searching for the culprit was easy for he's basically standing right in the middle of the destruction.
Its Saitama.
"What happened teacher? You used to be a hero!" Screaming out his frustrations, Genos clutched his teacher's collar. He hopes that his words would snap his teacher back, to wake him up from the hole he's put himself in. The vacant glare of his teacher mocked him, making his heart wrench in grief.
He had so many questions in his mind, wanting to ask why, why did he do this? Why would he abandon his ways?
And most importantly, why did he abandon him?
Did the world break his teacher so much? That he chose to let it burn to the ground and step on its ashes, Genos didn't know, didn't want to know as he held on to the person he admired most.
He couldn't stop the pain in his heart, the betrayal he felt when he saw his teacher amidst the destruction. To see the man, the hero he oh so admired in such a state, left him sobbing.
"Why?... why?..." Genos chanted like a broken record, shaking the collar of his teacher's jumpsuit at every syllable. He kept at it until he couldn't take it anymore. All the while Saitama took up the abuse, never moving or speaking a word.
He can feel something on his back, rubbing up and down as if comforting him. Raising his head to see his teacher, a semblance of his old self appearing on his face. A gloved hand raised itself to ruffle his head, disheveling his hair in a comforting motion.
'Teacher...' Closing his eyes and resting his head on his teacher's chest, Genos smiled for what felt like years. He felt ecstatic, happy that teacher came back...
Crack!
In his moment of weakness, Saitama ripped up his disciple's legs, making sure that he wasn't able to follow him.
Disbelief shot up within Genos as he saw his legs being dropped right in front of him. He's unable to accept what happened, how he's left like garbage in the cold streets.
Genos clutched at Saitama's ankles with his one good arm pulling himself closer, inwardly pleading not to leave him alone. Looking up, all he saw from his teacher was apathy, looking at him like an insect.
Saitama turned his back to him and walked away, cape flying in the direction of the wind.
"Please wait! Teacher! Teacher!" Begging, Genos desperately crawls on his one good arm. He vaguely reminded on how he met Saitama, him broken on the ground and his teacher walking away, only this time his teacher ignored his callings. It's like a mockery of their first meeting.
He kept calling anyways.
"Teacher!"