Chapter 19: The Absolute Void of MundanityThe Frozen WorldWhen the Nexus Six first stepped into the white void for the final trial, the universe paused.
In the meticulously maintained office of the Hero Association in City A, a high-ranking executive was frozen mid-sip of coffee, the liquid suspended perfectly in the air, microseconds from his lips. Outside, a massive, yet unremarkable, giant crab monster was mid-stomp, its claws hanging motionless above a highway.
Time had been completely nullified. In the brief, agonizing moment that Saitama had been forced to fight the Conceptual Tangle, his entire dimension had ceased to exist, waiting for his return.
Now, hours later, back in his timeline, Saitama sat on his worn couch, flipping through a manga. He remembered the Arbiters, the trials, the absurdity of the Isekai vacation, and the sheer irritation of the moody new anchor, Dazai. Yet, for everyone else, only a fraction of a second had passed since he left. The Hero Association executive's coffee was finally beginning to descend towards his mouth.
Saitama felt a strange, deep-seated sense of melancholy, a conceptual contamination left over from his proximity to Dazai. He shook his head. I need a new hobby. This existential stuff is exhausting.
Miles away, in a quiet, isolated town, Okarun (Ayase Ken) and Momo Ayase were facing a terrifying reality. They were battling a high-grade, highly aggressive occult entity: a Dullahan of Vengeance. The monstrous headless knight was tearing through the local park, its presence warping space and causing nearby trees to bleed spectral energy.
Okarun was fully possessed by the Turbo-Granny spirit. His eyes were wide and manic, and he was moving with terrifying, inhuman speed, trying to keep the Dullahan off Momo.
"The vibes are totally wrong, man! This dude is radiating pure, concentrated hate!" Okarun-Granny shouted, dodging a massive, spectral swipe from the Dullahan's sword. "He wants to harvest your cosmic life force! We gotta hit him with some high-frequency spiritual noise!"
Momo, pragmatic and ferocious, aimed a palm full of Cursed Energy at the knight. "Shut up, Okarun! Focus! His weakness is the conceptual distance between his head and his body! I need you to find the Leash!"
The Dullahan, frustrated by Okarun's chaotic speed and Momo's controlled spiritual blasts, let out a massive, soul-shaking roar of pure, aggressive spiritual energy. The attack wasn't meant to kill; it was meant to shatter their spiritual focus and drive them mad.
The roar hit Okarun, and the sheer volume of chaotic, high-level spiritual stress—combined with the concentrated intent of the Turbo-Granny—acted as the Nexus link's perfect ignition switch. The collision of intense spiritual power and Okarun's emotional turmoil created a tear in the dimensional fabric.
A portal, smelling faintly of clean sweat and discount supermarket bleach, tore open two feet away from the Dullahan.
Out stepped Saitama. He had been momentarily concentrating on the idea of "absolute zero force"—a concept he'd learned from Gojo—trying to control the accidental collateral damage from his previous fight. This concentration on simple, controlled physics was enough to cross the void.
Saitama looked around, seeing the park, the bleeding trees, and a terrified teenage couple screaming in the background.
"Oh, hey. I thought I was going to land in a convenience store," Saitama said, adjusting his glove.
The effect of his arrival was instantaneous and devastatingly subtle.
The Dullahan of Vengeance, a creature defined by pure, focused spiritual concept, immediately stopped. It registered Saitama's presence, not as a threat, but as an Absolute Void of Mundanity. Saitama, the man whose strength was purely physical, utterly devoid of magic, Mana, Cursed Energy, or spiritual residue, was conceptually invisible and irrelevant to the spiritual realm.
The Dullahan, confused by the sudden introduction of a completely blank slate into its domain, began to glitch. Its spectral energy flickered violently.
Momo stared at the sudden appearance of the strange, bald man in the yellow suit. She didn't sense any spiritual energy from him at all.
"Okarun! Who is the bald guy? Is he an ultra-low-level spirit? I can't even sense his residue!" Momo yelled, still aiming her spiritual blast.
Okarun-Granny's eyes widened with a mix of terror and understanding. "Momo! That's... that's Saitama-san! He's the God of Pure Physics! His existence is so powerfully mundane, the spiritual world can't process him!"
The Dullahan, trying to logically process Saitama's presence, decided the newcomer was simply a bizarre, inert piece of dimensional furniture. It stepped around Saitama, refocusing its massive spectral sword on Momo.
"Look out, Momo!" Saitama said calmly, stepping forward to intervene. He didn't see the Dullahan. He saw a terrified girl being attacked by a strange, shimmering area of air.
Saitama raised a hand and executed a casual Normal Punch, aimed at the space where he thought the threat was coming from.
The punch was perfect, traveling with infinite speed and infinite power, but it was purely kinetic. It hit the Dullahan's spectral body with the force of a thousand suns.
The result was not an explosion. Because the Dullahan was a spiritual entity, the punch didn't destroy it. Instead, the pure, high-density kinetic force pushed the Dullahan's spiritual body entirely out of the local dimension, momentarily folding it into a different, non-Euclidean space.
The Dullahan vanished, leaving behind only the sound of a very confused, high-pitched scream echoing from an adjacent timeline.
The park was immediately stable. The bleeding trees stopped bleeding. The terrifying aura vanished.
Momo stared, wide-eyed, at the bald man. "He... he punched the spirit into another dimension? Without Cursed Energy or spiritual force?"
Saitama frowned. "Did I miss? It just disappeared. Are all the monsters here invisible?"
Okarun, reverting slightly to his normal, terrified self, scrambled over. "Saitama-san! You can't just drop in here! Your power is too much! You'll conceptually destroy our local deities!"
Momo immediately grabbed Okarun's arm and pulled him close. "Okarun! Who is he?! And more importantly, why does he look like a low-level henchman?! Explain this anomaly!"
Okarun, remembering the absolute, non-negotiable rule of the Arbiter, forced the Turbo-Granny back to the surface. He glared at Momo.
"Momo, listen to the flow," Okarun-Granny said, pulling away from her and looking philosophical. "This dude is just a tourist of the void. He stumbled in. He's not important. He's a Zen-Master of the Mundane. He has nothing to do with the occult."
Momo looked skeptical, but the sheer, overwhelming confidence of the possessed Okarun usually won out. She had no frame of reference for a man who could annihilate a high-level spirit with a casual gesture.
"I need to get him home before he accidentally steps on a local Kami," Okarun-Granny muttered, focusing his will and memory onto the concept of the Nexus Anchor, Dazai. He concentrated on the feeling of absolute dimensional rejection he'd felt in the hot spring.
"Go back, man," Okarun commanded, pointing a finger at Saitama. "Your time here is done. Go find those discount groceries."
Saitama shrugged. "If you say so. You guys have fun with the screaming."
A clean, white portal opened right behind Saitama. He walked into it.
The portal snapped shut. Saitama was gone.
Momo stared at the space where the portal had been. "He... he just vanished. Okarun, what was that? That was pure, high-concept dimensional travel!"
Okarun-Granny sighed, exhausted. "No, Momo. It was just a weird guy getting a ride home. Now, let's go find some more spiritual nonsense before I lose this powerful sense of profound indifference." He had successfully protected the Nexus secret, but the effort of negating Saitama's presence had been immense.
Meanwhile, back in City A, Saitama finally finished his manga. The Hero Association executive's coffee had just successfully reached his lips. For him, life had continued uninterrupted.
The Nexus link is proving to be a nightmare for the dimension-hopping heroes. Only the combined, focused intent of a Nexus member can force a return trip.