Meanwhile, inside a certain building downtown.
"Alert! Unusual energy fluctuations detected in Usagiyama Town!"
"Display satellite feed!"
"Yes, sir!"
When the staff of the Hero Association saw what was happening in the sky, the room collectively gasped.
"That's a dragon?!"
"What terrifying energy… it must be at least A-rank!"
"Enough chatter! Activate the visual suppression barrier, no civilians must see this! Then start the investigation, now!"
The Chiba City Hero Association's director's face twitched furiously as he practically roared the order.
He stared at the monitor, looking like he'd just swallowed something awful.
When the hell did a giant dragon sneak in here?!
"Report! Identified! It's a Chaos Dragon from the classified Dragon World—code name: Tohru! Power level… S-rank!"
"S-rank?!"
The director flinched. Was this some kind of sick joke?
"Wait! Who's that fighting it?!"
Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. He pointed at the human figure clashing with the dragon.
"That's the S-Class hero, Caped Baldy!"
"It's Caped Baldy?!"
Relief flooded the director's face. If it was him, then maybe things would be okay.
Still…
"Notify the nearby S-Class heroes. Send immediate reinforcements!"
"Yes, sir!"
After issuing all the orders, the director wiped the sweat from his forehead and shakily picked up his phone.
"Hello? Didn't I tell you not to call me during class?"
"Ah! Minister, something big's going down!"
"What is it?"
At a private high school, a female teacher who had just parked her Aston Martin leaned against the car, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag, frowning as she spoke.
"An S-Class dragon just crossed over from another world!"
"…"
"You're kidding me?!"
Shizuka Hiratsuka's hand jerked, and the cigarette she'd barely lit fell to the ground with a snap.
"Would I lie to you about this, ma'am? Thankfully, Caped Baldy's already holding it off, they're duking it out in the sky right now!"
"You started the suppression field, right?"
"Already done!"
"Good. I'm heading over now. You better send backup too."
"Understood!"
She hung up, wiped her brow, and muttered, "What the hell kind of nonsense is this?"
With that, she spun around and jumped into the driver's seat. The engine of her sports car roared to life as she sped off toward Usagiyama Town.
Aoyama Apartments—Rooftop
Now that the massive dragon had taken off, the rooftop suddenly felt empty and quiet.
The few people left glanced at each other and instinctively fell silent.
Then, Kobayashi suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to Sato in a panic.
"Sato, you've got to stop them! Tohru didn't mean to hurt anyone!"
"Tohru? That dragon?"
"Yes!"
Sato glanced at Gabriel, who was still watching him intently, then turned back to Kobayashi.
"You'll need to explain what's going on."
He looked up at the sky, dragon and hero clashing mid-air, evenly matched.
Kobayashi quickly recounted the previous day's events.
"You got drunk and wandered into the mountains?!"
"And then pulled God's sword out of an injured dragon?!"
"And now she's trying to repay you?!"
"She agreed to become your maid and signed a magic contract?!"
Sato stared, stunned at Kobayashi's sheepish face.
What the hell kind of situation was this…?
Gabriel, not far away, twitched at the absurdity too.
Kobayashi knew it sounded crazy, but...
"Please, just help stop the fight!"
She bowed deeply.
"I got it."
Sato took a breath, and in the next instant, vanished from sight.
In the sky – An intense close-quarters brawl was raging.
Boom!
Every clash between man and dragon caused shockwaves that blasted them both back thousands of meters.
"You're the first human I've met who can take my hits!"
The massive flame dragon hovered, her blood-red eyes glowing with surprise as she stared at the man before her.
"You're tougher than the last ones I fought," Saitama replied casually, floating in the air. He looked at Tohru with a spark of excitement.
It had been ages since he found such a good punching bag.
Woom!
Suddenly, space between them twisted. Sato's figure appeared right in the middle of the battlefield.
"Sato!"
Saitama's voice was filled with surprise and delight.
Tohru, on the other hand, looked wary. This human also seemed strong…
Thanks to his sudden arrival, the fight paused.
Sato glanced around, Saitama was completely unscathed, not even his clothes wrinkled.
Tohru, in contrast, had several deep gashes oozing dragon blood but they were already healing rapidly before his eyes.
Even Sato was impressed. This was the resilience of a dragon. After all, near-limitless vitality and insane durability.
He'd also heard dragons had incredibly high resistance to magic.
Sato sighed and spoke with a weary tone:
"Let's stop. This was all just a misunderstanding…"
"Misunderstanding?"
Tohru and Saitama exchanged puzzled glances.