Gaio's words hit like a bomb, detonating wildly different reactions in the cramped apartment.
"Fun?!" Satoru Gojo shot up from his chair, his dazzling blue Six Eyes gleaming with intensity, a manic grin splitting his face.
"Fun? Hahaha, hell yeah! This is gonna be awesome! I was dying of boredom!" He was practically buzzing, like he'd just been handed an invite to the best game ever.
Saitama, mid-bite of a beef slice, tilted his head, his dead-fish eyes brimming with pure confusion. "Huh? Fun? What kinda fun?"
He was totally out of the loop, his brain still stuck on "discount coupons."
"Teacher! Absolutely not!" Genos roared, lunging forward to block Saitama's path.
Gaio ignored the chaos behind him—Gojo's unhinged laughter, Genos's warnings, and the crackling energy in the air.
He strolled over to the tiny balcony of Saitama's apartment, reached out, and with a creaky squeak, slid open the rusty iron door.
Outside was Z City's twilight.
The dying sun bled red across a lifeless jungle of steel.
Abandoned skyscrapers loomed like the bones of giant beasts, forming an endless graveyard of despair.
This was the Hero Association's officially designated "No-Man's Zone," the most dangerous area, a playground for monsters.
Ordinary citizens had long since crammed into the distant city center or fled this cursed place entirely.
Gaio leaned against the doorframe, his silver hair swaying in the breeze. He squinted, scanning the No-Man's Zone that had swallowed countless lives, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
"Saitama," he said, voice low, "aren't you curious?"
He turned slowly, locking eyes with the bald hero still chewing his beef, and dropped a bombshell of a question:
"Why does Z City… have so many monsters?"
"Huh?" Saitama finally swallowed his meat, scratching his shiny scalp with a puzzled look. "Monsters? A lot of 'em?"
Gojo's wild grin froze, his brows knitting together.
His sorcerer instincts and knowledge kicked into overdrive.
An area unnaturally packed with curses (monsters)… this was no natural phenomenon!
There had to be something here! A source of malice so powerful it warped reality, constantly pumping out evil.
Or… a "cursed object" core capable of spawning endless monsters!
Saitama tilted his head, scratching his cheek. "There used to be a ton, especially three years ago…" His gaze drifted, as if peering through time. "Back when I still had hair…" His voice carried a hint of nostalgia.
Saitama sighed. "But now? Way fewer. Makes it tough to even finish hero missions."
Gojo's Six Eyes narrowed sharply. "Hold up! You said fewer?! Since when did you notice it dropping?"
"Uh, maybe…" Saitama rubbed his chin, thinking hard.
"After you got stronger," Gaio cut in, turning to face him.
"Oh! Yeah, yeah!" Saitama slapped his forehead, like it all clicked. "I took out a few tough-looking guys, and after that, the monsters kinda thinned out!"
Gojo's expression froze solid.
"That's because—" Gaio suddenly tapped the floor lightly with his foot, smiling knowingly, "they all went underground."
The air turned heavy.
"Underground… curses?" Gojo's voice grew serious, his Six Eyes locked on the floor beneath Gaio's feet.
Gaio didn't answer.
He leaned against the balcony doorframe, silver hair dancing in the wind, his gaze piercing through layers of concrete to the depths below.
Memories from a past life flooded back—
The "seed" [God] buried beneath Z City…
And that seed fell into the hands of Psykos, who used it to build the Monster Association, endlessly churning out monsters.
The Monster Association's [Orochi] was created by Psykos using the "near-death evolution theory" to break limits, combined with that "seed," birthing the terrifying King of Monsters.
"Hey, hey…" Gojo's laugh returned, but it was ice-cold, devoid of warmth. "Don't tell me there's a 'cursed fetus' down there?" His fingers twitched involuntarily. "The kind that spawns Dragon-level monsters?"
Genos snapped his head up. "Teacher! We need to alert the Hero Association now! This is way beyond what any individual can handle—"
"Huh?" Saitama scratched his head, cutting in with a blank look. "What're you guys talking about? Cursed fetus? Isn't it just sewers and old subway tunnels down there?"
He turned to Gaio. "I've been down there before. Didn't see anything weird."
"Wanna take a look?" Gaio glanced at Saitama, that faint, cryptic smile still on his lips.
"Teacher! No way!" Genos panicked. "Lord Gaio! There are still countless civilians in the city center! If there's really something down there, forcing it out could cause a massive disaster!"
His databanks were screaming with catastrophic casualty projections.
Gaio shot Genos a glance, shrugged nonchalantly, and said nothing more.
Meanwhile, Gojo's fingers danced across his phone screen, Six Eyes glued to the messages flying through.
The living room fell into an eerie silence.
Only the bubbling of the hot pot and Saitama's focused chewing broke the quiet.
He glanced at the silent group, scratched his bald head in confusion, then—decidedly—shoved another huge slice of beef into his mouth.
A little later.
"Hey, Tian-Tian," Gojo looked up, his manic grin back in full force. "You sure your 'fun' intel is solid?" He wiggled his phone.
Gaio turned, his gaze calm and steady. "You think I'd get it wrong?"
Gojo's grin widened. "Hah! No way!" He flipped his phone screen toward the group—
It showed an urgent message from Hero Association executive Zeginger:
[Z City Emergency Evacuation Initiated! Estimated Completion: 2 Hours! S-Class Hero Summons Issued!]
Genos's mechanical pupils contracted sharply. "Mr. Gojo?! You…?!"
"Surprise!" Gojo chuckled, pocketing his phone and glancing at Gaio. "Pretty efficient, huh? Though the Association's old geezers are freaking out—someone even dropped Blast's name."
Gaio nodded slightly. "Two hours. Not bad." His tone was flat, like he was commenting on something trivial.
Then he added, voice low but laced with undeniable steel:
"Tell those S-Class heroes to stay the hell away from here."
He paused, mulling over his words.
"If they get killed, I'm not cleaning up the mess."
Genos's processors nearly fried.
Saitama, still clueless, had no idea what they were on about. He gave up thinking and stuffed another massive wad of beef into his mouth.
"You guys eating or what? 'Cause if not, I'm finishing this."
---
Hero Association Headquarters, Operations Command Center
A piercing alarm echoed through the spacious war room, dozens of holographic screens floating in the air, showing real-time evacuation progress across Z City.
Association staff in black uniforms darted back and forth, voices crackling through communicators with updates from various sectors.
"B Sector evacuation 70% complete!"
"C Sector reporting minor unrest, requesting backup!"
Sic, a senior Hero Association official, leaned heavily on the central console, eyes locked on the main screen's flickering data.
Sweat beaded on his forehead.
"Zeginger," he turned to his colleague, voice low. "Can you confirm Mr. Gojo's intel is legit?"
Zeginger frowned, thinking hard before answering gravely, "He said… it's straight from Mr. Nero."
Sic fell silent, his gaze drifting to the screens marking Z City's No-Man's Zone as a "high-risk area."
Three monstrously powerful beings were there right now—Saitama, Satoru Gojo, and the enigmatic Nero.
"True or not," Sic finally decided, slamming a fist on the console, "civilian safety comes first! Tell all sectors to speed up the evacuation!"
Just then, Zeginger's phone buzzed in his pocket.
He pulled it out, and a new message from Gojo flashed on the screen:
[Don't let S-Class heroes come here to die~ Kill without burial~ Oh, that's a direct quote from Nero-kun~ (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧]