Gap Demon

Gap Demon - Part 6: Caped Baldy

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( Part 6: Z City - 03:23 AM )

 

* Ding - Ding * - “ Thank you for the purchase! Have a good night“

 

The 7-Eleven cashier woman waves goodbye to a bald man in a wacky yellow hero-like costume as he hums. The man looks inside his plastic bag to make sure he has bought everything he needed.

 

“ Bread, butter, and a bit of ham. Yeah, that should be everything for a good midnight snack.” - His deadpan face was perfectly matched by his autonomous voice, lacking any excitement.

 

Today, he got up after hearing multiple loud explosions echoing everywhere around the City. They just wouldn't stop. Getting enough, he finally got out of his futon to check it out.

 

But after drinking some water, he soon heard a weird hissing sound coming from right outside his house, and so he went out to give it a look while still only using his pajamas.

 

 Just to be met with a dark-blue Ant twice his size right outside his main door munching on a piece of concrete.

 

Staring at the ant for a few seconds, trying to process what he was seeing, the monster finally noticed his presence and shrieked even louder before jumping on the bald man.

 

* BAM!!! * - “ Don't interrupt others' rest time.” - Just to have its whole torso be blown away by a slap so powerful that it painted the outside walls purple with the Ant's blood and remains.

 

 Seeing the mess the man just grunted knowing he would have to clean all this later, but hearing his stomach rumbling at the time he chose to take care of that first.

 

And so that led him to come to the 24/7 7-Eleven not far from his house. Having gotten all he wanted, the man starts to make his way back home through the same old streets he was used to traversing every day.

 

Walking through the empty roads. That was a given in the late hour of the night they were, and so after walking a bit more and humming some random songs he soon arrived at a small alleyway that could fit one or two people, it was a good shortcut he was used to taking. 

 

He went whistling until when he reached about half of the alleyway a shadow blurred above himself crashing into a street not far from the alleyway.

 

Sighing, he bent down slightly, jumping up towards one of the closer rooftops effortlessly to take a look at what was happening this time. Walking to the edge of the roof going towards the street he raised an eyebrow seeing an ant just like the one he saw when waking up.

 

It was in a sorry state, to say the least, various stop signs were struck in its body like they were darts, three in each limb, including two where its eyes would be. It was like the one who did the deed was testing their aim at something.

 

Then, when he finally blinked, a voice that wasn't there at first reached his ears.

 

“ Aww~ I found that road construction company by pure chance, so I took some road signs to play around as Gilgamesh…. Didn't imagine that they would launch out at such speeds. Good to know I can adjust the speed of things going out of my Gaps.“ 

 

 The bald man frowned, now there was a strangely dressed blonde woman in a frilly white dress holding an umbrella with the same design as her clothing standing right by the dead Antman’s legs. She looked bored as if expecting more from the dead bug.

 

Jumping down from the roof, he lands by the street without much trouble. However, the sound of his plastic bags moving around had already long alerted the blonde of his presence.

 

Walking closer to the monster to now be beside the blonde analyzing the ant. - “ Sooo… I guess you're also a hero. You happen to know what has been happening around lately? One of these things also showed up at my house’s front door earlier today.”

 

Standing side by side as equals, seen as their height was seemingly the same, 5’9f / 175cm. Even though Yukari had some added extra inches as a result of using her high heels making her ever so slightly taller.

 

As for all she did hearing the man was let out a short laugh at the word ‘Hero’, holding her foldable fan and stopping waving it around, she closed it before answering the bald hero.

 

“ Hmm…. It would appear to be the work of an organization called House of Evolution. I’m still seeking to track where their hideout currently is located, but my attempts to extract information from these ants have been…. Highly unsuccessful, as you can see.” - Pointing her fan towards the dead monster, she receives a nod back from the man.

 

Obviously, Yukari knew very well the man besides herself should be kept as an ally and never ever be led to step in the territory of enemies. She wasn't stupid enough to just die because of a rookie mistake as provoking a God Class being. - ‘ Screw the God class… He is blessed with the ability to easily overcome those too…’

 

Scratching his head, the one we know as Saitama sighs exasperated, following with his monotone voice. - “ Then I guess more of them are appearing everywhere, huh? What a pain in the ass…” 

 

As an answer, the Youkai only huffed as if meaning he was talking the obvious. 

 

 “ They have been showing up all across Z-City. My theory is they're experimenting with some new type of super serum that was given to these Humanoid Ants.

 

 And at a point they could potentially even have been humans at some point before who knows how many experiments they had undergone? Such drastic biological changes don't appear to be reversible as well.”

 

Crossing her arms, she turns around, already readying herself to leave. She still had more bugs to kill, seeing how these things kept sprouting up all over Z-City. And they might injure some people that she had still yet to play around- meet.

 

“ Since you're in this section of Z-City, I would be very grateful if you could take care of the ones around here, Saitama.” - Stepping into a gap, she leaves just as the hero man himself realizes he never gave his name away.

 

“ I mean sure- Wait… How did you…. Hmm…. She already disappeared…. What a bizarre lady, but I mean… It’s been a while since anything serious happened, might as well. But first, gotta have my launch, obviously.”

 

Returning to his strolling section while whistling, from far away by one of the taller buildings, Yukari stood on a lighting rod observing as he returned home. She made sure to memorize the way he was going and that this overall area was where she had the potential to find him going around.

 

“ Now… He already knows about the House Evolution way before he should've. I wonder what will happen~ But these things indeed resemble something that a crazy man who's after immortality would be able to create. But I can't complain, they're quite the convenient targets.”

 

Grin widening in a twisted way, she couldn't wait to use all the remaining road signs she had absorbed inside her gaps. At first, it started as something like a silly idea, but after storing a small rock and shooting it out at a moderate speed.

 

It brought the idea of maybe shooting something bigger and heavier, and after finding an ant causing havoc around a road construction company and seeing all of those nice-looking road signs…

 

She obviously wouldn't let such an opportunity go to waste. As a testament to her idea becoming real, this last ant she had killed was where she finally understood that the gaps would respond to her wish of how fast to launch things out.

 

However, Yukari felt like this method was still weaker than just closing her gaps on them, but hell did she find it fun playing King of Heroes.

 

Face now shadowed by the night, her eyes sparkled in the darkness of the night, bearing a hungry-for-entertainment gleam. These past few hours she had been hunting these ants brought a euphoria she never expected to achieve.

 

It was simply fun, cutting them to pieces or piercing their heads with metal signs. Scaring some police officers by tapping their shoulder with a small gap and then shortly closing it when they turned around.

 

People would see her sitting on top of an ant’s corpse, and when they blinked she would have already moved to who knows where.

 

She was starting to gain some sort of Fame at this point among the cops and heroes who came across her. Even if it had been just a few hours, she was becoming ‘popular’ in her own way.

 

Yukari simply appeared and the ants that some struggled with would be dead in the next moment. 

 

A name had even been already circulating around the cops - < Gap Demon > -, which was given by a woman from PubSec who had said out loud by accident after the second time she witnessed the gaps Yukari used.

 

However, the full nickname was formed with the hundreds of rumors going on about Yukari and her strange powers.

 

And yeah, Zhu Yuan had by some luck of destiny again run into the one responsible for her survival in one of her engagements with these monstrous ants.

 

 It also surprised her greatly that the one she thought to be a civilian who had disappeared from her sight was the same one that also helped in defeating that monstrous ant.

 

Even if she was by the sidelines when she saw the Youkai for the second time, given an injury on her arm.

 

She still watched as Yukari sat by a lamp post and just waved her umbrella one time before a hulking purple Ant had its movements cut by gaps appearing everywhere around its body for less than a second before disappearing.

 

The scene that followed put fear in those present as the ant's body splashed on the ground as nothing more than bloody chunks of hard meat. 

 

Seeing the gaps that seemed to have come straight from hell given those demonic red eyes, all Zhu Yuan could mutter were two words that came to her mind after those eyes appeared. - “ ....Demon…. “

 

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And now the night was about to continue, Yukari turned around spinning her heels on the lightning rod, this time not bothering to hide her vicious face under the fan.

 

After all, she was indeed enjoying her stay in this place more than she had ever imagined she would have. Not that she would ever allow others to see this side of herself.

 

“ Let's resume our fun-fun night~ Little bugs~ ”

 

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