One Punch Man: Heroics Start with Dual Kamui

Tatsumaki floated after them with her psychic power.

"Huh? Shinji, you didn't look after her? If she gets lost in the Hero Association, that wouldn't be good. This place is pretty big," Saitama said when he noticed Tatsumaki following.

Even though he already knew she was the S-Class Rank 2 hero, he still treated Tatsumaki like a little kid.

"It's fine," Shinji replied casually.

"Stop right there!"

Tatsumaki suddenly zipped ahead to block Shinji's path.

"…Whatever it is, let's talk after the meeting," Shinji brushed her off with a half-hearted remark. He knew once he got to her bad side, she would pick a direct fight without a care in the world.

"You said it yourself. Don't even think about running later," Tatsumaki warned.

...

Before long, they arrived at the conference room.

Since the S-Class meeting wasn't starting immediately, only about half of the S-Class heroes had arrived so far, each quietly sitting in their own seat.

Shinji could feel Tatsumaki's gaze locked on him the entire time.

Over the next half hour, more S-Class heroes arrived one after another. Once the set time passed, those who still hadn't shown up were considered absent.

Among the absentees were S-Class Rank 1 [Blast] and S-Class Rank 7 [Metal Knight].

Present were S-Class Rank 2 [Tatsumaki], Rank 3 [Bang], Rank 4 [Atomic Samurai], Rank 6 [Child Emperor], Rank 8 [King], Rank 9 [Zombie Man], Rank 10 [Drive Knight], Rank 11 [Pig God], Rank 12 [Superalloy Darkshine], Rank 13 [Watchdog Man], Rank 14 [Flashy Flash], Rank 16 [Tanktop Master], Rank 17 [Metal Bat], Rank 19 [Puri-Puri Prisoner]... as well as Shinji, Saitama, and Genos.

Because of the ranking changes for the three newcomers, the S-Class leaderboard had naturally shifted overall.

Most people didn't mind, but a few stood out in the crowd.

[Metal Bat] had his legs propped up on the table, [Superalloy Darkshine] was flexing his muscles, [Pig God] kept stuffing food into his mouth, [King]'s King Engine was thundering, [Watchdog Man] was sniffing around trying to figure out who had farted...

And then there was Tatsumaki, still staring at Shinji.

In much the same way, Puri-Puri Prisoner was watching Genos intently. It was clear he had already taken a liking to him and was waiting for a chance to give little Genos a hug.

Sitch, the one in charge of this S-Class meeting, had already arrived but hadn't explained the situation right away.

"Everyone who's supposed to be here should be here by now. So, what's this emergency meeting about?" Bang finally asked.

"No idea! We've been waiting all this time, and no one's told us anything," Tatsumaki complained, still looking at Shinji.

"Excuse me… do you have tea?" Saitama chimed in when someone finally spoke.

A small robot quickly rolled over to serve him a cup.

"I'm Sitch, in charge of today's briefing. Since we don't know the whereabouts of Blast and Metal Knight, and we can't contact them, there's no point in waiting any longer. The emergency meeting will begin now."

Sitch finally started explaining the situation. He placed both hands on the table, his expression grave. "I'll get straight to the point. The reason I called you here today is because I want you to protect Earth.

Even though all of you are S-Class heroes standing at the top of the hero world, there's a chance you could lose your lives in this incident. So we're giving you a choice. If you withdraw now, you can still keep your S-Class title.

But if you choose to listen to what I'm about to say, then you can't leave. Until the matter is over, you'll be placed under house arrest to prevent the news from leaking and causing public panic. Is that clear?"

He began by laying out the ground rules for everyone.

"Hey... so basically, you've got something huge to tell us, right?"

Metal Bat was the first to speak up, though his expression was clearly annoyed. "I skipped my little sister's piano recital for this. If it's not a big deal, I'm smashing this place."

"..." Sitch's tone deepened. "The great prophetess... Madam Shibabawa has passed away."

At those words, several S-Class heroes' expressions shifted.

As for Metal Bat, his reaction was mostly because he had no idea who Madam Shibabawa even was.

"Madam who?" Saitama simply asked about it directly.

After Sitch gave a brief explanation of Madam Shibabawa's death, he moved on to the main topic. From his pocket, he pulled out a small folded note.

"The key point is this: before she died, Madam Shibabawa left behind a note containing a prophecy that is guaranteed to come true."

He displayed the note's contents on the large screen. "Here it is."

"Earth is doomed."

Yet the room remained mostly quiet.

Child Emperor even removed the lollipop from his mouth. "What's that supposed to mean? Sounds boring. I've got cram school later."

"Child Emperor, you're ten years old, right?"

Sitch gave him a slightly disdainful look. "I've heard you're a genius, but if you can't grasp the seriousness of this situation, then you're still just a child."

"What...?"

Child Emperor's face clearly showed his irritation.

"Listen carefully. So far, Madam Shibabawa has predicted multiple major disasters, floods, massive earthquakes, dangerous creatures, and every single one came true. Some of them claimed many lives. But..."

Sitch's voice grew more intense. "She has never used the word 'doomed' before! That means we're looking at something worse than even a Dragon-level disaster, and it's guaranteed to happen within the next six months. Furthermore, if Mr. Kamui's prediction is also correct, then we're facing the worst-case scenario!"

When Sitch suddenly mentioned Kamui, everyone's eyes turned toward him.

"..." Shinji remained silent.

"Up until now, Mr. Kamui's predictions of several Dragon-level disasters have all come true. So I believe his warning is worth considering. According to him, those Dragon-level events were merely the prelude to an approaching God-level disaster."

Sitch's voice rose with urgency. "A God-level disaster! Do you know what that means? It means a calamity that could wipe out the human race!"

"God-level? That kind of thing... that's impossible, right?"

"The most we've seen so far is Dragon-level. God-level is just a theoretical category. We can't even be sure it exists."

"Dragon-level or God-level, I'll knock it out with my bat!"

As the S-Class heroes exchanged heated comments, Saitama was quietly trying to recall what Genos had told him about God-level disasters. He couldn't remember the details, just that it sounded really powerful.

On the other hand, Shinji alone sat in silence. He knew the time was almost here. Boros would be arriving soon.