13

O(I)O(I)

Saitama didn't know where he was now. He seemed to be encompassing a small gapped path with stones on both sides protecting a peaceful little dorp. In a way he was still in the boss room and in a way he also wasn't there. This wasn't someone he was too concerned over, it wasn't like a malicious villain was doing it, just a childish ghost who thought he needed to know her 'life' story.

At last, he saw someone else in this little dream. She was the same age as the ghost in the room, her skin was bruised and covered in dirt, she wore a sleeveless potato sack looking grey shirt that went from her neck to her knees, had teal eyes and her hair was a disheveled purple lilac color with one fringe of green on her right side. What was odd about her was how she carried a stick around in her right hand like she was wielding a sword.

He watched her while his feet never touched the ground. In this illusion he was seeing he could fly and although it was still wasn't very exciting after his already impressive amount of achievements he's accumulated over the years, if Genos was here it might be fun to see if he could fly faster than him. However, his body wouldn't let him move anywhere that wasn't where the violet haired girl was trekking. Ergo, when she turned out to be on the side of a village looking at a forest with black plants giving the small vinery an eerie appearance he had to stay and look at it instead of looking for some other adventure mainly where he could punch something.

She paced herself slowly towards the forest, her right hand fluttering while thrusting her stick through the air. She was either looking for something or someone, and it became clear which one it was when another tiny girl leapt out of the foliage and swung a stick of her own downward. The violet haired girl wasn't much for blocking, she was hit in her left shoulder which was unarmed, and moaned in pain.

This new girl was of a different demeanor then the violet haired girl. She dressed in an orange potato sack instead of dreary grey like her friend, had amber eyes and brown hair, wheat colored skin, her fingernails were all red and her arms were laced with grass.

"That wasn't fair!" The violet haired girl whined letting go of her stick to stroke her left arm.

"Of course it was!" The other girl laughed more than explained. "When we're on an adventure you always have to assume monsters or thugs will jump out at any moment. Now quit squabbling about how you lost your left arm and spar with me, Lauve."

Saitama found this girl to be irksome much like the other girl Lauve who in a frustrated rage picked up her stick and angrily whisked it left and right steadily trying to get as many swings as she could before her friend clashed back with her stick.

Saitama was now watching two young girls ecstatically whack sticks together pretending they were being two actual sword swingers. Seeing them so joyful and happy reminded Saitama of his time when he could go out and enjoy recess and not be in trouble for getting into a fight.

He was so lost in those memories he didn't notice a man completely covered in brown hair over his face with hairy arms sneak in between the young girls and grab their sticks, looking as enraged as Carnage Kabuto before he made his head lop off his bulging body.

"Haven't I told you girls today is not the day to be playing here? We need everyone to help dredge all this icky stuff getting in our drinking water, that means you help, too."

They were dragged back to the village which meant Saitama was now floating back to the village against his own volition. Then he didn't know what happened but there was a glimmer of white light distracting him and then he regained his sight to see the girls in the ocean using fish nets to sift out rubber, and then pass it along to other villagers who were dumping the garbage in a trolley.

Saitama wondered why he had to sit through all this boring everyday life work, not like he ever had to do it even when he started living alone. After hour an hour of walking tedious work with very little fruition in it, he saw the lavender haired girl starring worriedly at her right hand for some reason.

Then he got a closer look and saw a rash spreading all over her thumb while little spots were just as exanthema as the one on her thumb.

'Please just be from sticking my hand in too much sea water.'

She didn't open her mouth when she hoped it but for some reason he could hear her.

And then—it suddenly turned into night time where the little girl with the purple hair was looking at her hands while sitting on her bed that festered into what she knew now was poison ivy, probably from clasping her hand on a stick she found in the woods like a kid would thoughtlessly do.

"Lauve, dinner!" Her mother called from downstairs.

Out of all the things to happen in this lucid flashback, Saitama was sinking through the floorboards like a real ghost and landing gently in a quaint kitchen still better than the kitchen the peasant couple had—at least this one had a four sided table for the three to eat one. The mother looked a lot like the daughter only with blue eyes, her purple hair in a bun, and wearing a brown potato shirt with a yellow apron both punctured with holes.

Lauve put a black glove over her hand from her room before running downstairs. Her parents were ostensibly ignorant of the glove she was wearing; not even narrowing their eyes or glancing at her when they scooped up their pieces of mutton. However, this silence was more just parents who'd rather save their breath for after dinner than speak while having it.

"Lauve, why do you keep picking up sticks and walk to the forest to have a stick fight with Eliho? You do it everyday, and what's worse is you only now know to put on a glove when wielding a forest stick probably covered in poison oak like how it gave that hand of yours poison ivy. As your father I don't hold it against you to go out and try having fun...lord knows the last time I went out to play with any of my friends being old and feeling languid most of the time...but why the sticks?"

Lauve didn't mind her father needling her, his finding out about the glove was a little embarrassing, and if he was curious about what brought her joy it was time for her stand up and announce what made her feel the true her. one breath...two breaths...and a third breath just to keep her voice clear and loud...she said loudly:

"I want to grow up to be an adventurer! I want to help the poor in the slums, face monsters that are gargantuan and too strong for anyone weak to go against, and face other adventurers when I finally reach the rank of Gold. With Eilho's help...we can make that dream come true."

Saitama saw the mother and father act so miserably they didn't even look at her when she stood on her hair and fluttered her hand holding a fork like it was a knights' sword. The mother teared up a little, but the father just spoke in a raspy voice.

"That's great, Sauve. As your father I want you to strive to be whatever you can be, but as a man who can barely bring food into this house...I cannot support you for training, gears or even give you a duffel bag. What I can say is I always dreamed you would follow a noble ambition and you make me proud doing it know." A trickle of a tear dripped from his eye. "My sweet, brave Sauve."

O(I)O(I)

The next day, Sauve sauntered with the glove still on her hand to what Saitama assumed was going to be the exact same forest she was in yesterday, but she wasn't wielding a stick today and she diverted from the road that lead there for a road leading to one of the houses so it seemed likely she was going to visit this Eilho girl at her own home.

There she was, face bright and happy to see her friend, waving a hand also riddled with rashes from the poison ivy she put her hands on. The nonplussed violet haired girl was no match for the energy that exuberated out of her friends body.

"Sauve, isn't this great?" She asked in a high pitch voice while continuing to sway her poison ivy hand. "I know what we are going to call our adventurer team when we form it."

"Poison sisters?" Sauve guessed.

"Poison sisters." Eilho assented.

"Why that name? We aren't even related."

"No, but I consider you to be my best friend which makes you cooler than my two older sisters who are never around. There's no truth in any name these adventure teams call themselves so let's call ourselves what we are; girls who deal with 'poison' everyday and sisterly close."

There was some veracity in how heroes call themselves cool names that weren't actually a reflection of who they were, Saitama agreed, because he was more than just Caped Baldy.

And then—he was blinded by a halo encasing both Sauve and Eilho.

When his eyesight returned he could see he was standing back in what appeared to be the inside of the adventurer's guild, but it looked smaller, didn't have anyone crunching on a typewriter in clear view, and it even had a bar and tables for adventurer's who seemed more joyful and whimsical than the only two adventurer's he's met.

There was even a different girl working as the receptionist. She had a white bandana over her dark purple hair, had a flower pendant around her neck mostly red flowers with yellow buds, a brown uniform with red buttons, and even a catlike tail completely white in fur.

She was just standing there with a fake smile like the one Pefi had when she had to face the vainglorious Clive. Then, what looked like an older Sauve and Eilho approached her desk. Eilho had her hair cropped still fiery red like her personality, was wearing brown overalls with a white shirt, carried in one hand a scabbard for a bayonet, kept what looked like a derringer tucked behind her back, and wore wooden sandals. Sauve's purple hair was now short trimmed with a little green on her right while only purple on her left, wore a yellow gi with long blue pants, had one earring on her left ear of a stick like the ones she used to practice with, and tucked in a red obi sash was a katana tucked in a red scabbard.

To Saitama's horror he saw the mission Eilho was going to sign up for: the one that led to the poison snake's lair.

"We'll take this one."