Espers had limits just like ordinary people's stamina during exercise. Overusing their powers placed a burden on the body. In order to deal with Tatsumaki, Psykos had poured out almost everything she had. Even having that small portion of power broken left her briefly vulnerable.
Fubuki had taken advantage of that instant to seal her.
Why had she not asked her sister for help? Because if her sister had done it, there would have been no sealing at all. Psykos's head would probably have been twisted off.
Putting aside this woman's audacity in kidnapping Yimi, the fact that she dared establish the Monster Association alone meant Tatsumaki would never let her live.
Fubuki still cared a little about their old friendship, but more than that, she wanted to interrogate Psykos about what she had seen back then.
"Onee-san..."
"What's going on, Fubuki? And you brought all these deadweights with you."
Tatsumaki floated in the air. Her knee-length pleated skirt fluttered in the wind, but she carefully controlled it with her power so nobody could see what that fragile defensive line concealed.
When had she suddenly learned to dress up?
This was not the time or place, so Fubuki held back that question for now and glanced to the side. The other members of the Fubuki Group who had accompanied her had already been embedded into the wall by her sister's power and forced into poses that combined to form the Japanese characters for 'dragging me down.'
Besides them, the robots Metal Knight had sent, together with the monsters they were escorting, had also been twisted into a spiral tower. Only Psykos, whom Fubuki was desperately protecting, remained unharmed. It was not because Fubuki was strong enough to resist her sister. Tatsumaki simply did not want to accidentally injure Fubuki.
"Onee-san, you've always acted alone, so you wouldn't understand. Do you remember when we were children?"
Tatsumaki smiled. "Yeah. We were always happy back then."
Fubuki shook her head, without the slightest trace of the same nostalgia in her voice. "No. Because neither you nor I had any friends growing up. Honestly, when I saw that you could actually have a child, I was a little hopeful. I thought that suffocating need of yours to control everything might have changed a little. Your man didn't run away because of it, did he?"
"Huh? That brat isn't my biological child!"
As Tatsumaki watched the faint psychokinesis radiating from her sister, her hair floated upward. She pointed at Fubuki expressionlessly. "I've changed my mind, Fubuki. You should quit being a hero too. You're already weak, and dragging a bunch of deadweights around with you will only make things more dangerous."
"That's exactly what I mean when I say you—"
"Are you two fighting?" Yimi floated down a little, her gaze shifting back and forth between them.
Tatsumaki restrained her psychokinesis somewhat. "We're not fighting. This is just an older sister keeping her younger sister in line. Why did you come over here?"
"I came to return... this." Yimi held out the money she had crumpled into a ball. Because she still could not control psychokinesis very well, she simply flew over to Fubuki herself and handed it to her.
It was the money Fubuki had given her to buy Lollipops. Yimi had not found a store, and by the time she came back to her senses, this entire area had become ruins, so she needed to return it.
"You don't need to return it. That's your pocket money. If it isn't enough, Auntie has more." Fubuki started rummaging through her wallet again.
Tatsumaki used her psychic powers to push the wallet back. "Why are you giving her that much money? I've wanted to say this for a while. She was originally just a country kid, but after you took her in, all she does is play games every day. You said before that I had a personality problem, but aren't you the one who's been a bad influence on her?"
"She has never played games at my place!" Fubuki's eyes widened slightly. She thought her sister had become shameless enough to shift blame for her own failed parenting.
"Huh? When I took her back, she was still holding a Game Console. I even left it on the sofa at your place!"
"You even prepared a prop in advance to frame me? When I carried her home, she didn't cry or make a fuss even once. Since you already said she isn't your biological child, give her back to me! Yimi would definitely be willing to come home with me too."
"That was because I'd only just picked her up that day... Wait. Why am I arguing with my own sister over a brat I've only raised for one week? This makes no sense." Tatsumaki finally realized something was wrong.
Then she lowered her eyes to her skirt. "Still, you're not completely useless at taking care of children. She learned to make clothes in only a few days. The moment she came back, she made me three dresses in different styles."
Naturally, Tatsumaki also knew perfectly well that Fubuki could not possibly sew clothes.
Tatsumaki looked up at Fubuki's designer qipao. "Did she make your clothes too? The workmanship's better than mine."
Fubuki tugged at her coat. "No. The clothes she made for me are at home. I didn't wear them out. Of course something like that should be treasured..."
This little thing could make clothes? Fubuki had looked after her for more than ten days and had not known!
The two sisters started arguing again.
Yimi ignored them. She inched over to Psykos, who was looking for a chance to secretly escape. In a soft voice, she put on a serious expression and imitated the greetings she had seen in cartoons.
"We finally meet, Diego's true body."
Psykos blinked. Diego?
Without giving Psykos any chance to ask, Yimi copied the cartoons and drove her little fist into Psykos's face. "This punch is for you not keeping your word!"
"This punch is for making a dinosaur bite me!"
"This punch is for making your clone follow me all the time!"
"..."
Psykos's hands were cuffed behind her back. Once Yimi knocked her down, she had no balance and no way to dodge. Yimi sat astride her and punched her in the face over and over.
When Psykos thought back carefully, all of those things really had been her doing, though the little thing seemed to have mistaken Overgrown Rover for a dinosaur.
* * *
Seeing that Yimi might be developing violent tendencies, Tatsumaki ultimately refrained from killing Psykos in front of her and had Psykos sent to prison for the time being.
While cleaning up the battlefield, Saitama saw Overgrown Rover where Yimi had left it and casually took the dog home as a pet.
The Hero Association's concerns about Metal Knight were not unfounded. His robots could completely clear City Z's urban area in just one week, then rebuild a new city on the same site. During that period, Saitama could only rent a place somewhere else.
Fortunately, the salary of a B-Class Hero was not particularly low.
"The Game Console from before broke. This one's new, though it doesn't have the save file... Can I make it up to you with bananas?" Saitama, who had come to visit King on his own initiative, set down a bunch of bananas.
There was no deeper meaning. They had simply been on sale.
King took them. "If the save file was already complete, it doesn't really matter. Keeping it would only have been sentimental. Want to play a fighting game?"
"Better not. There's no point if I can't beat you."
"Not against me..." King shifted slightly aside, revealing Yimi sitting on a cushion and pressing down hard on a controller.
It was as though she believed pressing harder would make her character hit harder too.
The kitty was properly keeping her promise to play games with King. But she was so terrible that King felt bad bullying a child, while playing PVE would only make him suffer alongside her.
The little kitten, dutifully keeping her promise, was currently taking shameless advantage of King opening the door for Saitama and furiously kicking his character.
"The kid who got captured before?" Saitama bent down and looked at her.
"She's actually pretty strong." King took the controller back. With only a sliver of health remaining, he triggered a burst and chained an infinite combo that instantly defeated Yimi.
"You're cheating! I've never seen... that move." Yimi shoved at him.
"I already taught you how to activate the burst..." King turned to Saitama and said seriously, "Personally, I think this child is about evenly matched with Saitama-shi."
Saitama's art style instantly turned handsome. "Then I must ask for a match."
The strongest.
Yimi turned her head toward Saitama, and her eyes flickered.
If she beat him in a game, would that count as beating him?
The kitten was full of confidence. She could already win about four times out of ten against that powerful opponent called the standard AI.
Five minutes later...
K.O.!
The catgirl character Yimi had chosen lay on the ground.
Saitama wiped the sweat from his forehead. "What a thoroughly satisfying battle."
This little girl was a worthy opponent.
Yimi pouted unhappily. "I'm going back... to eat."
She could not beat him in a game either, but she had already begun to get the hang of it. So she should practice hard!
She turned and flew out through the window.
King stared wordlessly at the bald man she left behind. "Saitama-shi, you're too serious against a little kid. She can only pull off combos by accident."
"I didn't know her skill level... Besides, didn't you just wipe her out with one combo too?"
King picked up the controller Yimi had been using and sat down. "Actually, the catgirl character in this game doesn't have any particular strengths. I told her that, but she insisted on choosing it."
Saitama looked around King's room. "That boy before said you had some kind of full-dive game here. Can I try it?"
"You can, but I've started to wonder whether it's really a game anymore. I saw something on the news before that looked like my game character showing up in reality. It gives me this weird conspiracy-theory feeling... Saitama-shi, do you still want to try it? There's a built-in controller, though for you, keeping your current appearance should be fine."
"Sure. I probably won't break this one."