"Wait! Why is Tatsumaki helping Swift Flash? Isn't Swift Flash a new S-Class?"
"This kind of factionalism can't be allowed! If even S-Class heroes start forming cliques, what's the point of the Association?"
"Recall Tatsumaki immediately and demand an explanation!"
...
The officials erupted in anger, demanding William bring Tatsumaki back at once.
Perhaps because Tatsumaki had always been obedient in the past, the officials were now under a misconception—some even shouted to hold her responsible.
"Calm down, everyone! William, explain what's going on. How does Tatsumaki know Swift Flash? Why is she helping him?"
Seeing the chaos, Madame Perus had to rap on the table to call for order.
She was annoyed that Tatsumaki had sided with Swift Flash, but as an experienced veteran, she quickly realized the Association's control over Tatsumaki was far weaker than they believed.
Once Tatsumaki chose to oppose the Association, aside from revoking her S-Class title and privileges—which were weak threats—they had no way to change her mind.
The thought sent a chill down Madame Perus's spine. She had to admit the officials, including herself, had been far too complacent over the years. Fortunately, there was still time to react and fix things.
"It's still unclear, but I suspect it has something to do with Hell Fubuki… She's ranked 1st among the B-Class and is Tatsumaki's only biological sister," William said uncertainly.
Several officials showed puzzled expressions, so he elaborated.
For most officials, only S-Class heroes were worth attention or influence. Many barely regarded S-Class heroes as anything more than muscle and ignored B-Class heroes entirely—even Fubuki, who led the largest faction of B-Class heroes, was dismissed as a mere "B-Class fan club."
"So Tatsumaki has a sister? How strong is she? Why is she still B-Class?"
An interested official asked.
Few knew of Tatsumaki and Fubuki's relationship—partly because Tatsumaki wanted to protect her sister, and partly because Fubuki didn't want to advertise having an S-Class No. 2 sister.
Mostly, the officials simply didn't know.
Most S-Class heroes' data was public knowledge within the Association; anyone curious could find it.
"Hell Fubuki is also an esper. Her strength places her around the upper-middle of the A-Class. She simply doesn't want to be promoted…"
Seeing the other top brass all turning their attention toward him, William had no choice but to speak up and explain.
To be honest, he had only just finished reviewing Tatsumaki's file. Before this, he only knew of her as the Hero Association's ultimate weapon—he hadn't even realized she had a younger sister.
When they heard that Fubuki's strength only ranked around mid-tier among A-Class heroes, the executive who had asked earlier immediately lost interest.
To the upper echelon, S-Class heroes could still be considered valuable tools. But A-Class heroes? At best, they were expendable. Unless it was someone like Sweet Mask—who had S-Class-level strength and massive public influence—an A-Class hero wouldn't even qualify to speak with them directly.
"Then what's the connection between Tatsumaki's sister and Flashy Flash?"
One of the executives, still not fully grasping the situation, couldn't help but ask. The ones who'd just been shouting about summoning Tatsumaki or demanding an explanation from her were also starting to catch on.
Their ability to control Tatsumaki was… minimal. If she chose to act independently, there wasn't much the higher-ups could do beyond watching helplessly.
"The first time Swift appeared, he was with Fubuki. Based on our investigation, his earliest confirmed sighting was at the Blizzard Group's headquarters. And according to witnesses, he even celebrated her birthday with her. There's a high chance they're in a relationship…"
Just thinking about it gave William a headache. On one side was the Hero Association; on the other, his own brother-in-law. It wasn't hard to guess which side Tatsumaki would choose.
After William's explanation, the top brass looked around at each other, unsure of what to say. Even by their simplistic metric of judging power by hero rankings, there was no question: S-Class Rank 2 and Rank 9, plus Flashy Flash at Rank 14—there was no scenario where Metal Knight, ranked only 6th, could take them all on.
"Is there really no room to turn this around? What if we approached them under the Association's name… and offered a large compensation package?" one of the younger execs suggested. For once, the others—who usually cried poor whenever money came up—stayed quiet.
Compared to an unprecedented internal conflict among S-Class heroes, a hefty compensation payment was still within their acceptable loss range.
This, too, was one of the reasons Kizaru had always looked down on these so-called higher-ups. Even in moments of crisis, they never cared about right or wrong—only trying to buy their way out with money or influence.
But they always forgot: there are people in this world who cannot be bought. How could a soaring hawk ever be tempted by rotting carrion praised by crows?
"Highly unlikely. Swift definitely isn't hurting for money…"
William's mouth twitched slightly. There were plenty of rich heroes registered with the Association, just doing it for fun. But someone like Kizaru, who would casually throw down hundreds of kilograms of gold just to buy a mansion and an entire plot of land? That was on another level entirely.
"Either way, we can't let Swift do whatever he wants. The Hero Association must maintain order!"
"The Association must act—we have to stop him!"
"We can't allow these factions among the heroes to grow! Honestly, I say we shut down Swift's training camp altogether!"
...
Normally the upper brass bickered constantly. But when it came to issues of "great importance," they always managed to unite.
Even S-Class heroes were expected to submit to the authority and regulation of the Association's leadership.
But just as the heated discussion continued and William sat there with a bitter look, having faced Kizaru multiple times before, a top-level emergency alert was suddenly delivered.
Under normal circumstances, even a Demon-level disaster wouldn't interrupt a meeting of the upper brass. But this alert was different—it was handed directly to every executive present.
For a split second, they all thought Swift had already clashed with Metal Knight—or worse, that Metal Knight had been killed.
But when they opened the alert and saw the content, they were all left speechless.
The prophet Shibabawa had made her final prophecy before death…
The Earth was doomed.
There were far too many examples proving Shibabawa's prophecies were frighteningly accurate. The very existence of the Hero Association itself was tied to one of her early predictions.
And to this day, her accuracy rate remained at 100%.
A warning from a prophet of this caliber—especially one like Shibabawa—meant even the highest ranks of the Hero Association had to treat it with the utmost seriousness.
And the fact that she died shortly after delivering the prophecy only made people more inclined to believe in its authenticity.
"T-The Earth is… doomed?!"
The very official who had been the loudest earlier—demanding restrictions on the S-Class heroes—was now stammering, barely able to speak.
"Verify the source immediately!"
Madam Perus, pale-faced, dialed her aides and secretaries on a private line, while also instructing the staff to double-check everything. Some of the more cautious executives even sent people in person to confirm Shibabawa's death.
Only when every channel confirmed both her death and the authenticity of her prophecy did the upper brass truly grasp the severity of the situation.
Shibabawa had prophesied that Earth would face an unprecedented crisis within six months. Not even dragon-level threats had ever pushed her to issue such a dire warning before.
"Could it be a theoretical 'God-level' disaster?"
The atmosphere in the meeting room turned unbearably heavy.
If the Earth really was finished… what would happen to the upper echelons of the Association, the ones who thrived like parasites atop the organization?
Even Madam Perus fell silent. It wasn't until long after that someone finally broke the silence.
"…So, should we still be trying to warn Swift Flash?"
A younger executive hesitantly spoke up. Including Swift, the camp now had three S-Class heroes on its side.
Three versus one—even the most obtuse members of the Association leadership realized that in light of an impending global disaster, it was crucial to win Swift Flash's faction over.
"Metal Knight is still essential to the Association…"
Another executive rubbed his temples with a troubled expression. They were still counting on Metal Knight to help rebuild HQ—at the very least, they couldn't afford a repeat of the Vaccine Man incident, where the building had almost been flattened.
Ensuring the safety of Association leadership was top priority. Without them, who would protect humanity and the planet?
"It's those S-Class heroes' fault—always so selfish, never thinking of the bigger picture!"
"Isn't there some kind of win-win solution?"
"We should try to negotiate first. This isn't the time for infighting…"
…
After the initial shock and panic wore off, the Association higher-ups began to collect themselves. But when they spoke now, the commanding tone from earlier was nowhere to be found.
"William, we're putting you in charge of calming down Swift Flash. Try to win him over—give him whatever terms he wants. And if you really can't reach a deal, at least delay the conflict until after the six months…"
The ever-stern and rigid Madam Perus now seemed unusually kind and maternal—just short of offering to adopt William as her godson.
William's face twisted into a bitter grimace. If he had known he'd end up taking the fall, he would've just stood by and watched City J get flattened by the Deep Sea Tribe. No way would he have reached out to Kizaru.
After all, no matter how much destruction the monsters caused, a hero would eventually show up to clean it up. The worst that would happen was some extra losses to his business ventures—not like now, getting inexplicably tied to Swift's drama.
But with Madam Perus and the other higher-ups backing the decision, there was nothing he could do. All he could do was adjust his mindset after the meeting, even hiring a negotiation expert to help script his lines before finally contacting Kizaru.
"Ahem… Lord Swift Flash…"
William forced his most pleasant smile. Though he always ended their conversations sounding like he was begging, this was the first time he was lowering himself from the very start.
The crisis threatening Earth's destruction was just too dire. Even Madam Perus, who was normally stricter than a military drill sergeant, had started putting on a gentle face. So someone like William—barely a mid-tier exec—didn't stand a chance.
"Spit it out. No need for fluff," Kizaru said from the other end of the video call. He was grilling skewers, and despite speaking to a Hero Association executive, he didn't even bother turning to look at the screen.
William swallowed all the small talk he'd prepared. Kizaru had already hung up on him more than once, and he wasn't about to risk it happening again by beating around the bush.
"A huge sum—a massive amount of money! Enough to buy ten times the land you just acquired! As long as you're willing to drop the issue with Metal Knight, the money will be in your account within the hour!"
Not daring to stall, William laid all his cards on the table. The training facility Kizaru had purchased was technically in the suburbs, but covering over twenty square kilometers, the land wasn't cheap.
A regular S-Class hero wouldn't be able to afford that land even with fifty years of stipend payments. Yet now, with just a single nod, Kizaru could walk away with ten times that value—within the hour.
And that wasn't even the Association's final offer. As long as they could prevent infighting between S-Class heroes during a crisis of this magnitude, the higher-ups were willing to pay far more.
"Tch. Do I look like someone strapped for cash? Lili…"
Kizaru had hoped the Hero Association might offer something creative to sway him. Turned out these execs were even more useless than the Navy brass from back home.
At least those guys knew to figure out what Kizaru actually wanted. These Association fossils? All they thought about was money. They probably figured Kizaru was just another greedy power player like them.
But Kizaru had been one of the richest people in the Pirate World—and in this One Punch universe, where gold was still a hard currency, he might very well be the richest.
Did these old fossils really think they could buy him?
Besides, Kizaru wasn't even native to this world. Money here meant next to nothing to him. The only use it had was to win favor with Tatsumaki and Fubuki—that's it. No other purpose.
"Wait! Don't hang up! There's more—we're willing to negotiate! I have a huge secret to tell you!"
Seeing that Kizaru wasn't even pretending to entertain the idea—and worse, looked like he was about to end the call—William panicked and shouted.
Kizaru had just opened his mouth to tell Lili to end the call, but when he saw how desperate William looked—like he was about to bust through the screen to stop him—he reluctantly lifted a hand to signal Lili to wait.
"Speak. I don't want to hear any crap."
He poked the skewer in his hand with a knife. It felt done, so he casually handed it to Fubuki before finally glancing at the comm screen.
The man was an executive of the Hero Association, after all. If he had a "huge secret," it might just be worth hearing.
°°°
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