//------------------------------// // An Interesting Day // Story: Fightin' Spirit // by Iolaus //------------------------------// In the manga section of a bookstore stood a fourteen, nearly fifteen, year old blonde haired boy reading a volume of One Punch Man. James flipped over a page, taking in the panels as he read them from right to left. He licked his lips as he read the text bubbles next to the epic showdown between Garou and Metal Bat. Garou had just finished defending himself from Metal Bat’s Savage Tornado. Although James had already read this part of the story, he just couldn’t get enough of it. “Big bro!” James jumped in surprise, the voice of his little sister was the last thing he expected at the moment. Closing the manga with a soft thump, James turned around and looked at his sister Maiya. She was short, her hair was as blonde as James’s, and she was still in her early middle school years. James himself was about to enter high school once school started back up again next week. Her white blouse and jeans gave her an adorably innocent look. James was all smiles the instant he saw her, “Ready ta go, Maiya?” She nodded, “Yup!” James put the manga back where he found it and reached his hand out to his sister. She happily grabbed the offered appendage and the two siblings walked out of the store and into the town hand in hand. James readily ignored the occasional “Awws” from some of the passing people. The two children turned into a nearby park, taking a small side path through it. Benches and trees passed them by in a seemingly endless cycle. All of a sudden James stopped. Maiya looked up at him confused, not noticing anything that required them to stop. “What’s wrong big brother?” James looked around them, eyes narrowed. He bit his lip, “Something ain’t right Maiya, we’ve been passin’ this same part of the park for a while. Stay close.” Maiya gripped her brother’s arm tighter, James bit his lip as he continued to scan their surroundings. “How the hell have we been walkin’ forward for so long and not see any change in our surroundings? Magic?” James bit his lip a little harder. “But magic doesn’t exist, right?” James felt some kind of presence in the shadows of the trees and bushes off the path and he stared in its general direction. “Oh my, you are quite the perceptive one,” echoed a voice, seemingly from all around them. “I knew I chose right.” James couldn’t pinpoint the source, but he was sure it came from the forest now. “Yeah, I guess yer right. Now how about you show yerself buddy?” “Very well,” the voice replied. Sure enough, a man in a large black trench coat seemingly melted out of the shadows of the park’s trees, his hands in his coat’s pocket. “You could find the general direction of my presence, not bad young man.” The man’s beady eyes seemed to drill themselves through James. James put a foot forward and placed himself between the man and Maiya, “Yeah, yeah. Now how about you tell me what ya want, then I’ll decide if I’ll kick yer ass or not.” Maiya slapped his chest, fear of the situation briefly dissipating as she chastised her brother, “Language!” The strange man chuckled, putting a hand out to his lips, “Oh dear boy, you are a hundred years too young to challenge me. But I agree, I really should get to my point.” The man cleared his throat, “As you might be aware of young man, you are trapped in an infinite loop of my own design. There is no escape, you lack the means to even try.” The man pulled his other hand out and lifted the other in the air with his finger raised, “But do not fear, I am not here to hold you hostage. I merely want to offer you a deal.” James narrowed his eyes, “And what kind o’ deal would that be, stranger?” The man grinned, “I am here to offer you a parent, a good and kind soul who would love to take you in. And let’s not forget one other gift, but that one is a surprise. A good one mind you, you’ll love it I’m sure.” James’s mouth dropped a small bit as he took in this strange man’s offer. He wouldn’t believe someone would willingly adopt a nearly high school age boy who kept getting into fights. A fact that he constantly regrets, not for him, but for the fact that Maiya wouldn’t be able to have any sort of parents because of him. The town had a strict no sibling separation policy when it came to adoption. “There has to be a catch here. Sounds too good to be true.” James thought. “How do we know you ain't lyin’?” James asked the man. The man simply shrugged, “You don’t, but what would I honestly gain from holding two random orphans up? I’m doing this from the bottom of my heart, I assure you.” “Yeah, I’ll bet,” muttered James. He didn’t trust the man. “Big brother,” Maiya tugged on his arm, making James look down at her. She gave him a watery eyed look, “I want to at least try. Nobody will adopt us, so why not take a chance?” James almost started to cry, but he kept himself in check. He didn’t want that smug looking guy to have any extra ammo on him. James nodded ever so slightly at Maiya and turned to face the man once more, “We aint sellin’ our souls or nothin’ are we?” “Of course not, souls are so last week anyway.” The man waved his hand like he was ridding the air of the thought. James grunted, “Fine then. We accept yer deal. What do we gotta do?” The man grinned, obviously pleased, “Nothing, my dear boy! Just stay there and let me do my thing!” The man quickly started unfastening the buckles on his coat, James immediately covered Maiya’s eyes and pointed at the man. “Oi! You’re actually a pervert aren’t ya?!” The man stopped halfway and looked back at James with a perplexed look, “I beg your pardon?” "The trench coat! A park! Yer a flasher!” James accused. Realization finally dawned on the man. He immediately backpedaled a few steps away from the children, his face tinged slightly green, “N-No! By the Void no! I’m fully dressed under here just so that you’re aware!” James nodded at the man and took his hand off of Maiya’s eyes. James kept a close eye on the man, despite not really wanting to now. The man unclasped the last of the buttons and unzipped his coat revealing the fact that he was actually dressed under it. He reached a hand into the inside, digging around in a pocket until he pulled out a remote, holding up it in the air. “Have fun with your new parent kids, the first woman you see will be the one, she is not hard to miss,” The man said before pushing a big red button on the remote. Shadows shot out from the inside of the man’s coat, forming a black hole in the ground under James and Maiya, sending them tumbling to their destination through a tunnel in the void. James finally came to, blearily opening his eyes to see the sight of grey clouds. Thunder rolled in the distance as he pushed himself into a sitting position. He blinked rapidly and rubbed his eye with a hand. He idly noticed he was still surrounded by trees and was laying on a path, so he was probably still in a park. “Gah, what the hell did that guy do ta us?” James stopped moving when his voice finally registered in his ears, it was not his own voice. He put a hand to his throat, “What the- my voice! What the hell happened?!” “It even sounds familiar,” James thought. James looked down at his hand hoping for an answer, but it too was different. James had a small scar on the bottom half of his palm when he had accidentally cut himself with the orphanage’s kitchen steak knife. The scar was gone, and the rest of his arm looked more muscular. He was no fat weakling before, but he didn’t have all that much muscle either. Now it looked like he had exercised a lot more. A thought crossed his mind and he yelled out, “Maiya!” James turned himself around as fast as possible, his head turning back and forth. “Maiya!” he screamed. “I’m over here big brother,” a new voice he hadn’t heard before rang out behind him. James turned around to see a small girl and a woman carrying an umbrella walk around a corner path in the park. “Maiya?” James tentatively asked as he took in the new sight of his sister before him. She looked like an exact copy of Metal Bat’s sister in the One Punch Man manga, minus the clothes. Her hair was now black instead of blonde and was parted to either side of her face. It was even shorter, just like Metal Bat’s sister. “Does... this mean I look like Metal Bat?” James asked himself in his head. He looked down at himself, seeing that his clothes were not what they were before, they were the clothes of Metal Bat. “Yeah, it’s me big brother. And this is our new mom!” Maiya pointed next to her. James looked at the other person there and finally took in the appearance of the woman for the first time. Her hair was strange, it was multihued and wavy, reaching down to just above her knees. Her skin was fair and she had a golden formal suit jacket on, purple pants, and a pair of golden shoes that matched her jacket. To many, she could be considered beautiful. The woman smiled at James, “Hello James. My name is Celestia, I’m the principal over at Canterlot High. I understand you and your sister are new to the Canterlot district in this city?” “How did ya-” “Your sister told me, she also said that you two don’t have anywhere to go.” James nodded, she seemed friendly enough to him. Plus she didn’t give off a weird vibe like the man they met before coming here. “Yeah, we don’t.” “That guy did say the first woman we see is our new parent,” James thought to himself. Celestia smiled serenely at James, “Then how about you come live with me? I’ve always wanted children, but I never found the time. And don’t worry, I can handle all the paperwork.” “Y-Yeah, that’d be great,” Jame replied. “Thanks.” Celestia unfurled the umbrella and held it over the heads of the siblings, “Then how about we get under a roof? It’s going to rain soon and I wouldn’t want you two sick. We can get supplies tomorrow, school does start next week and you’ll need clothes amongst other things.” She kept her smile up, even as it started raining. A couple of weeks passed by with James and his sister settling into their new routines. It was odd at first, having someone to call as a mother, but the two of them enjoyed it nonetheless. Maiya had gotten used to it much quicker than James did, but he was simply happy for her. The days seemed like they were normal as usual, as school didn’t exactly change despite coming to this place. Although James did find the odd names and many different colored people a tad weird at first, he didn’t know what that was about, but after seeing it for long enough he got mostly used to it. Now it was lunch time on a Friday, just a month past the start of school, and James found himself standing in front of Canterlot High’s horse statue. He stared at it like it was the most interesting thing in the world. James glared at the statue, as if trying to uncover its secrets. He just couldn’t get what happened during last class out of his head. It was English class, James was staring out the window in complete boredom as the teacher delivered a lesson. He wasn’t the only one not giving it their all, a rainbow haired girl in the back was obviously asleep. Shakespeare was not an interesting topic for him, it couldn’t be helped that he didn’t want to pay attention. James noticed that the side of the statue that faced the school glowed and shimmered, perplexed, he gave it his utmost attention. For a few seconds it did nothing, then an orange girl with fiery hair popped out of the statue’s base. James jumped in surprise, not expecting that, which caused him to bump his desk loud enough to draw attention. “Mr. James, is something the matter?” Mr. Cranky Doodle asked, raising an eyebrow. “Nah, I’m fine,” James replied. Nodding, the teacher went back to the lesson. James looked back out the window, hoping to see if the girl was still there. She was gone, and the weird light and shimmering of the statue was gone as well. James bit his lip, “Was I imagining it?” If he wasn’t already not paying attention to the lesson, his thoughts about the weird girl coming out of the statue would’ve kept him from it anyway. The class ended and everyone filed out of the classroom, heading to lunch. James decided to check the statue out first before getting food. The statue itself didn’t look all that interesting. James approached the stone decoration slowly, eyeing it in case it decided to spit out someone else. Nothing happened and he ended up just a foot and a half away from it. James poked the base, seeing that nothing once again happened he pressed his palm against it and gave it an experimental push. Nothing, it was solid rock. “Weird,” James mumbled. “Guess it’s nothin’?” James shrugged and went to get lunch. The rest of the day passed by without anything interesting happening, it was now the last class of the day, physical education. It was by far James’s favorite, he loved sports and he was already fit and strong so he did not get as tired as most of the others. He did suppose being granted the body of an S-class hero was kind of cheating, but he didn’t care. Today was baseball, and James snorted when he picked up one of the bats. “Fitting it is, holdin’ this bat.” James thought to himself. He turned his attention back to the to the game, staring at the pitcher. The pitcher glared at James, knowing what he could do with that bat. James just smirked at him and readied himself, just as the pitcher was reeling in his hand the field house next to the baseball field exploded. James grunted in surprise. Screams immediately echoed around the field as some sort of monstrous giant strode through the rubble, dust obscuring its features as it was ignoring the running and panicking students. James could hear the few faculty outside yelling to call for help. Once the dust settled James got a good look at it. It was massive, a good fourteen feet tall and built like it lifted houses like dumbbells and way too bulky to belong to any normal human. On its head was a football helmet, its face covered in shadows and only two glowing white eyes could be seen, its neck had bulging veins. The rest of its outfit was also football gear, massive in size to fit its massive body, but no visible markings to determine which team it was suppose to represent. It slammed a foot down, spiderweb cracks forming. “I turned into this because of my constant football practice! I always yearned to be the very best, to smash through the opposing team’s line with nothing but my charge and score every winning touchdown!” He slammed his foot down again and screamed to the heavens, “You may call me, Demon Quarterback!” The monster turned its head towards James, “I was told there is a worthy challenge here at this school. You are the only one not running, so you must be it.” James let out a “Tsk!” of annoyance, he didn’t know if he could actually fight like Metal Bat could, even if he had his body. The only reason he wasn’t running away like the others was because of some sort of odd fascination with the situation. He had seen small news reports about various "monster attacks" around the city and other areas, but didn't really believe it until now. And, for some reason, he also could not find it in himself to fear the monster in front of him. He only felt steely determination. James swung the bat to the side and rested it on his shoulder, “Bring it on, ya don’t look so tough ta me.” James made his choice. He figured that if he didn’t even try, the monster would kill everyone here. He just started making friends here, that wouldn’t do. Demon Quarterback tensed, preparing to charge, “We’ll see about that!,” he launched himself forward at James. “Hyaaah!”