142: Training Grounds

"Huff… puff… 92 kilometers left! Gotta speed up!"

Under the night sky, on the highway from City C to City B, a figure pedaled furiously on a bicycle.

Upon receiving the announcement from HQ, Mumen Rider—who had once stood against Vaccine Man in City A—immediately signed up for the training camp.

Not just because he had witnessed Kizaru's overwhelming power firsthand…

But because he didn't want to miss a single chance to become stronger.

"Blue Flame… is this guy really as powerful as you say?"

Like Mumen Rider, someone else was also en route to City B—A-Class Rank 7 Hero, Magic Hand. But unlike the struggling cyclist, Magic Hand was cruising in a luxury sedan, looking far more relaxed.

"You've seen the footage HQ shot, haven't you?"

Sitting in the back seat, Blue Flame spoke in a cool, slightly distant tone. He and Magic Hand were friends, but also long-time rivals.

Truth be told, Blue Flame hadn't planned to invite him along at all.

Unfortunately, Magic Hand had picked up on something and insisted on tagging along—and even took the wheel.

"The footage was impressive, sure. But you know me—I don't believe anything until I see it with my own eyes. And just because someone's strong doesn't mean they can train others to be strong too, right?"

Magic Hand, being a top-tier magician, didn't take anything at face value. For him, "seeing is believing" meant seeing in person.

And honestly, the level of power Kizaru had shown against Vaccine Man looked exaggerated. If it wasn't for Blue Flame's glowing endorsement, Magic Hand wouldn't have bought it.

"Then don't come."

Blue Flame rolled his eyes. He would've preferred fewer attendees anyway—ideally, just him getting one-on-one training from Swift Flash.

"C'mon now… This is the first time an S-Class hero has agreed to train people publicly."

Magic Hand gave a dry chuckle.

He'd been stuck in the A-Class for nearly two years, mostly thanks to that No.1 bottleneck—Sweet Mask. He only just clawed his way up to Rank 7.

If he didn't seize every chance to grow stronger, he might never reach the S-Class.

To some S-Class heroes, that rank was just the starting point. But for many others, it was the ultimate goal.

While some heroes were still racing to City B, others had already arrived—even before HQ made the official announcement.

For Sweet Mask, there was hardly anything the Hero Association could hide from him. Even sealed S-Class dossiers were accessible to him one way or another.

He'd originally planned to confront Kizaru directly after locating him through that file.

But then he received the announcement about the training camp.

Rather than storm in guns blazing, Sweet Mask changed his approach—and had his assistant register him for the camp.

Instead of forcing to reject Kizaru's promotion, he'd show—on live broadcast—that this so-called S-Class hero wasn't worthy of the title.

That way, next time HQ tried to parachute someone into the S-Class, they'd think twice. Once they saw what happened to this newcomer, they'd remember: crossing Sweet Mask was a bad idea.

"To prevent more unqualified trash from slipping into the S-Class… even if it means making Swift Flash look bad—it's a necessary evil."

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the penthouse suite of City B's most luxurious hotel, Sweet Mask gazed out toward the training camp in the distance.

Tomorrow, in front of the cameras, he would show the world: if someone didn't have his approval, they had no business calling themselves an S-Class hero.

---

The night passed quietly.

Early the next morning, Kizaru sat at the breakfast table, leisurely sipping coffee and spreading jam on toast.

Then, wearing her pajamas, Fubuki walked out of her room and sat across from him, still looking half-asleep.

This villa, situated right next to the training camp, had been purchased along with the land. Since Kizaru wasn't planning to stay in the One Punch Man world for more than a month or two, he simply transferred the property to Fubuki.

Fubuki hadn't slept well. She looked a little dazed.

She hadn't even noticed that her loose pajama top was slightly askew—giving Kizaru quite the view of her snow-capped peaks.

"Morning. Nice weather today. Great view, too."

Kizaru smiled lazily.

While Fubuki wasn't quite on Hancock's level of goddess-tier beauty, her figure was still exceptional. This trip was turning out to be quite the treat.

"Where's Lily?"

Fubuki hadn't realized anything was amiss. She'd been on a strict diet lately and was a bit hypoglycemic—her brain felt fuzzy when she woke up.

"She brought us breakfast, then headed to the camp early. Apparently some of the equipment still isn't fully set up. She's rushing the staff to finish things up."

Kizaru said casually, still spreading jam like he had all the time in the world.

While everyone was eagerly anticipating his training camp, the man himself looked completely unbothered.

"So… we'll head over after we finish eating?"

Fubuki shook her head, trying to clear the fog in her mind.

She missed the hot coffee Lily used to make for her every morning, but luckily, a cup of warm milk did the trick just as well.

As Fubuki regained her focus, she realized her pajama top had ridden up, exposing quite a bit of skin. She quickly reached to cover herself, glancing up at Kizaru to see if he'd noticed. Upon seeing that he didn't, she let out a sigh of relief—but also felt a tinge of disappointment.

How many women could resist a man like Kizaru? He was strong, handsome, and considerate. Fubuki couldn't help but feel moved. Especially after he bought the villa and casually transferred the property rights to her name. Even though she already knew how wealthy Kizaru was, it still felt like a mountain of gold had just dropped on her.

"No rush. Let them wait a bit longer; there's no shortage of people who signed up," Kizaru said, his tone casual.

He always kept a clear sense of where everyone stood. He wouldn't help someone just because he felt sorry for them.

Opening a training camp to teach the Six Forms of the Navy was already a huge favor from him. If the heroes wanted to learn, great. If they didn't, that was their loss.

If anyone decided to quit just because Kizaru was running late, well, that only meant less work for him, and he'd be happy about that.

"Hm, then I'll hurry up and do my makeup," Fubuki said, unfazed by Kizaru's attitude. Being well aware of what being an S-Class hero represented, she had no problem accepting Kizaru's high-handed demeanor.

The Hero Association worked efficiently. The training camp site, which had only been finalized the day before, had already made significant progress by the next morning, thanks to an overnight construction effort.

Of course, Kizaru's demands weren't too high. Most of the training facilities were just basic steel, concrete, and rebar. They didn't even need a smooth track—just a bunch of workers and machines buzzing around for half a day had done the job.

It was easy to imagine the mixed feelings of the eager heroes who had rushed to the camp.

If the one running the training camp wasn't S-Class Rank 9 Swift Flash, they might have thought they'd been scammed.

"What's going on here?! We drove all night to get here, and now you're telling me the camp isn't ready? Are you kidding me?"

A hero wearing large safety pins as earrings—looking a bit too edgy—stood at the entrance, furious, grabbing an engineer by the collar and yelling.

Although Spiky Star was ranked 60th in B-Class, his strength wasn't much weaker than the higher-ranked heroes. His low rank was mostly due to a lack of monster-slaying accomplishments.

"Hey! Let him go!"

A massive figure, Mountain Ape, charged over. Like a true gorilla, Mountain Ape was big and strong.

As a member of the Fubuki Group, Mountain Ape didn't need to sign up—he had automatic entry into the camp. Already well aware of Kizaru's immense strength, he and the others held him in great admiration.

Hearing the taunts from the outside heroes had already upset him, but now, seeing this guy lay hands on an engineer, Mountain Ape's anger boiled over. No one was going to disrespect the Fubuki Group on their own turf.

"Stinking gorilla! You want to fight?!"

Spiky Star's hand was forcibly swatted away by Mountain Ape, who forced him to release the engineer. But the anger didn't stop there. Spiky Star turned to take his frustration out on Mountain Ape, shoving him with force.

"Mountain Ape, calm down… This is Fubuki Group's turf. You don't get to act like that here!"

Before Mountain Ape could retaliate, Eyelash—who had arrived almost at the same time—stepped in to block him, preventing any escalation of the conflict. She then turned to Spiky Star with a stern warning.

By now, dozens of heroes had gathered outside the training camp. Aside from those A-Class heroes who had firsthand experience of Kizaru's strength, most of the others were in a foul mood.

If a conflict broke out, even though this was Fubuki Group's turf, Mountain Ape would still find it difficult to come out on top.

Spiky Star seemed to heed Eyelash's warning, not pushing things further. The thirty B-Class heroes of Fubuki Group still had some presence, especially their leader, Hell Fubuki, whose strength was quite formidable even if placed among A-Class heroes.

"Where is Swift Flash? According to the announcement, the training camp should be starting soon," Spiky Star asked, just as Eyelash was starting to breathe easier.

But before Eyelash could respond, a voice from behind cut in. It was the Tanktop Vegetarian, an A-Class hero.

Eyelash immediately felt the pressure. This wasn't just any A-Class hero—Tanktop Vegetarian ranked 9th, and he had the backing of his S-Class mentor, Tanktop Master.

As a member of the Tanktop Heroes, Tanktop Vegetarian wasn't here on friendly terms. He had long held a grudge against Fubuki Group, especially the audacity of a B-Class hero organization calling itself the largest faction in the Hero Association. They didn't seem to show much respect for the Tanktop Heroes at all.

What Eyelash didn't know was that Vegetarian was also acting on his own, without informing his Master. Even though Fubuki herself might seem like a minor threat, the true powerhouse behind her was her sister, Tornado of Terror, the S-Class 2nd-ranked hero. No one would underestimate her.

"Swift Flash and Hell Fubuki are on their way," Lily stepped in front of Vest Vegetarian, her voice loud and firm. "If you have any complaints, you can take them up with them when they arrive."

Despite the stark contrast in size and strength between them, Lily stood her ground without an ounce of fear.

The tough-looking TankTop Vegetarian hesitated. In front of Lily, he found himself uncertain. After all, she was the standard bearer for physical strength set by Swift Flash himself. Even though she was simply chosen by him, no one could be sure if Swift Flash would intervene if Lily were harmed. He was an S-Class powerhouse, just a rank below the highest in the Association.

"Hmph. I'll see how long you can keep this up," Tanktop Vegetarian scoffed, but didn't push further.

Even though they were both members of the Hero Association, any personal conflict would be carefully weighed. If they went too far, and the situation escalated, there would be no place to appeal if one ended up on the receiving end of a beating.

Tanktop Vegetarian had come here without his leader's approval. If he were to get beaten, he certainly wouldn't dare tell his superior.

Seeing Tanktop Vegetarian back off, the other heroes seemed to calm down slightly and returned their attention to the training camp.

The ten or so construction workers who had been working for most of the day had still managed to get the training grounds in some shape. While it was still rough around the edges, the basic structure was now in place.

Most of the Navy Academy-style training facilities were completed, with only some finishing touches left.

"Someone's coming again! Is that Swift Flash?"

"It took this long to finally arrive. Wait, that car looks a bit familiar..."

"Is that A-Class Rank 1 Sweet Mask?! Why is this guy here too?"

The heroes exchanged surprised looks as they watched the exceptionally handsome Sweet Mask get out of the luxury car, accompanied by his assistant.

If A-Class Rank 6 Blue Flame and A-Class Rank 7 Magic Hands had valid reasons to attend the training camp, then A-Class Rank 1 had the least reason to be there.

If it weren't for Sweet Mask choosing to stay at A-Class Rank 1 and not wanting to be promoted to S-Class, with his strength and achievements, he would have already been a member of the S-Class heroes.

In fact, Iai Iron ranked 2nd right after him, and by merits alone, Iai Iron was already qualified to become an S-Class hero. Yet, he remained stuck at A-Class Rank 2, blocked by Sweet Mask.

"This is such an ugly place... Where is Swift Flash?" Sweet Mask said with visible disdain as he glanced at the training ground, which still looked like a construction site. He then impatiently shouted at the heroes guarding the entrance.

He intended to prove to everyone that Swift Flash didn't deserve the title of S-Class hero. Ideally, he wanted him to feel embarrassed enough to step down to A-Class Rank 2, so that those annoying swordsmen could be pushed further down the ranks.

That way, they would stop dreaming of becoming S-Class heroes and recognize just how far their strength was from that level!

°°°

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