[One Punch Man] Warped

Chapter 2: Nuisance

1650 words, 7 minutes

The sounds of birds chirping and the wind blowing was what finally awoke Genos. His robotic hand twitched once, and he opened his eyes, feeling the skin on his face touching grass. He pushed himself up once he felt his systems were working perfectly and knelt on the ground, surveying his surroundings. He appeared to be in a sparse forest some time during noon.

Where am I...?  he wondered. Was he dreaming? No, cyborgs can't dream. But he still has a human brain, so... was it possible? Even if he needed to recharge instead of sleep?

He touched the grass. It felt real. He looked at the deciduous trees to his side, changing his plain gold eyes into the analytic ones he always used when he was unable to assess a situation with basic senses alone. His advanced vision showed him that these trees were not too young but not too old. He frowned.

That was strange. Shouldn't they be much older than that judging by their height? He slowly raised his head as he looked at the full height of the tree. It was probably around 5 m tall. They sure seem to have survived a long time.

More importantly, what was he doing here? Why wasn't he back at Saitama's apartment? His eyes widened when he remembered Saitama. He turned around frantically. "Sensei—!" He immediately stopped the moment he realized he was without company.

"Sensei..." he uttered. With resolve, he finally stood up and glanced around him. What happened before he ended up here? He searched his memory database up until he put his dishes in the sink. He remembered feeling great discomfort at that moment, but after that, there was nothing. There was a gap in his memory. With this knowledge, Genos came to the conclusion that his system must have crashed somehow.

"But how?" he thought out loud since he was completely alone. "Doctor Kuseno made it very unlikely and difficult for my systems to crash." Bringing a finger up to his chin, Genos thought. According to the facts of his current situation, he was alone, had lost track of Saitama and was located somewhere foreign instead of Saitama's apartment.

After a minute of thinking, though, an idea came to him. I'll call Sensei and see if he picks up! he thought excitedly. He fished out his phone from his pocket. Genos always kept it in his pocket in case a member of the Hero Association called him.

When he tried dialing Saitama's number, though, an error message popped up, stating he had no Internet connection.

He gripped his phone so tightly he nearly crushed it. "DAMMIT! The one  time I get Sensei to give me his number, I have no service to call him in the first place!" He shoved his phone back into his pocket and looked into the distance.

He was going to have to get a sense of this place while searching for Saitama as well as a way to get back home.

~

The moment Saitama had opened his eyes, he was in some forest with several trees, though you couldn't call it a dense forest at the same time.

To his left, he noticed a paved pathway of dirt and sand, trees aligned on either side of it. He squinted his eyes. There was something awfully familiar about that road, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it...