#Empty void

[freebakeryfireroad]

cat owners!

[faceless-dude]

Hi, i hate dig

Process

[badjohnspeakeasy]

Blast: DON'T GO! YOU'LL LEAVE AN EMPTY VOID IN MY HEART!

Fubuki: Good one!

Flashy Flash: So Blast DOES have some skills.

Sonic: That was the worst thing I've ever heard

[theomnicode]

Saitama and otherworldy powers

It's not the first nor will be the last time Saitama has showcased that he seems to work outside the established logic, time and space of the manga. In the last chapter 209: Catch, Saitama catches Empty void's Dimension blade by hand, which is supposed to cut through space itself as Void slices into the world from hyperspace.

Saitama's other feats featuring him using some kind of otherworldy, illogical power has Saitama break into Phoenixman's creation, a spiritual space where Phoenixman attempted to get Child emperor to join his side. (Chapter 100: Light.)

(It's ok, he knocked first before entering. :p)

Lastly but not leastly Saitama showcased his illogical, science defying abilities is when he not only kicks away Garou's portal in chapter 167: I.O but on the same go, he grabs a hyperspace gate and turns it vertical to avoid a blow from Garou and counterattacks.

In the same chapter, right after performing Omnidirectional serious punch and Garou dodges with a hyperspace portal, Saitama is already inside the portal, ready to punch Garou out.

Troughout all the epic battle between Saitama and Garou, Saitama also manages to keep Genos' core completely unscathed despite losing his own clothes, which is already impressive on it's own.

There is really nothing Saitama cannot seemingly do, which makes him quite terrifying to plain exist in the opm verse, as Garou noted after Saitama sneezed away jupiter.

[gofancyninjaworld]

I have a funny feeling

Remember Flashy Flash musing that his long-shot investigation might just turn something up about God that changes everything? Yeah, let's admire his pretty face for a second:

Isn't he pretty? He was right, too.

This arc has plenty to explore about 'God' and his minions and ninjas and more, but I'm getting a funny feeling, a wee tingly bit of a hunch, that we're about to find something paradigm-shifting about cyborgs too.

What's tweaking my nerve endings so? Two lines of occurrences ( I won't yet dignify them with the term evidence).

The first is Void. Back when he first appeared, my first thought was that he was a cyborg.

Those arms look decidedly mechanical

His second design still strongly suggests prosthetic arms rather than armoured ones.

His ability to twist his neck and limbs independently through 180 degrees and still have them working could totally be a bonus of taking 'God's' hand, but they could just as easily be a result of extensive body modification. Not saying it's definitive, but I remember so well Garou learning about how tricky a greater-than-normal range of motion could be.

Blast being wrong-footed (or is it wrong-armed?) by Void's unexpected flexibility.

As Garou found out to his cost, cyborgs aren't limited to the normal human range of motion.

Strange but true, body modification is not unknown to ninjas. Witness Gale Wind telling Sonic that monsterisation delivers more than body mods ever could.

Training, drugs, body modification? Eh, one monster cell and you'll leapfrog all that sweat and pain!

So far, so hmm.

What's the second line? Well, there's ONE's tendency to wake up and choose violence. Whenever a character decides they have something all figured out, he loves to come kick over their bucket of milk and force them to reconsider the way things work. He especially loves doing that to Genos... but that's beside the point.

Anyway, back when Saitama came back from the future and derailed the Ominous Future, Genos, on reviewing what his time-traveled core had to say, decided that it was his duty to let those who needed to know about what happened. We subsequently saw him do so at great length in chapter 173 at a secret meeting, which he left, declaring that whenever Blast returned, Saitama was to be contacted as that was all they would need to deal with God.

This is above my paygrade, but I know the right man for the job.

Genos was initially disgusted that all the Hero Association seemed to take from it was to promote Saitama from B-Class to A-Class rather than make him the guest of honour right away. However, he's much happier now. We know that Saitama and Flashy Flash meeting up with Blast was a lucky accident but as far as he's concerned, the HA was listening after all, and Blast is now consulting and working with Saitama as it should be.

Look at him: he's so proud of how things have turned out.

It's interesting to note that Genos has not offered to accompany Saitama to whatever contretemps the ninjas and their god-bothering ways are getting up to. He came to track down a mysterious mass murderer, and the power he seeks is to ensure that he kills the guy without fail. Along the way, eliminating monsters and bad guys is the right thing to do. He can leave the really gnarly stuff to the likes of the transcendentally-strong Saitama or those with freaky powers, like Blast. He completely accepts the paradigm that his strength as a cyborg derives from his parts. There's no way that parts will enable him to play jump rope with the laws of physics or ignore distance, effort, and other unrealistic things, so this is not a plane of power he can touch, and it's one he does not need to concern himself with, as long as Saitama exists. Off we see Genos go, happy to walk the dog and go buy groceries like a contented little NPC.

Nothing to see here, just a happy little 'borg with his dog and shopping.

With me so far?

How does this all twist together?

Well, 'God' works with whatever He finds when he finds a worthy apostle, so if Void is a cyborg now, he was one then, back when he was Blast's partner -- sufficiently strong to have supported Blast in his God-bothering activities and apparently still so important that both Sicchi and Blast are determined to wrest him from God's hands at any cost.

Yes, he's evil, but more importantly, he's useful. What operation? I guess we'll find out.

If Void has had any amount of body modification, even if it's a low percentage, it blows Genos's suppositions about how the world works out of the water. Maybe it'll just be left as dramatic irony, for us the audience to know and Genos to continue groping around in the dark about, like how Nichirin's grasped that living and non-living parts don't matter -- it's your chi that determines how strong you are. [Yes, we know that that's what Saitama told Genos at the beginning but the latter hasn't truly learned what he meant by that.] But I have a nasty suspicion that some aspect of this will come and kick Genos up the jacksie. Because choosing violence is what ONE loves to do to his characters whenever they start getting comfortable.

Just a hunch, no more. At least for now.

[janeruxox]

real and true

[sonicsgrippers]

[zleepyzlut]

[gottahaveguts]

Gay

[alexandraundone]

How the fuck do you describe how this feels to your psychiatrist? that at the end of the day, no matter what you do, there will be nothing there to fill the void you sometimes fight desperately to fill? By impulsivity that feels good at at the time, but what weight does it hold truly…?

how can someone understand that when they don’t experience it on a daily basis?

I am an empty being at my core and desperate attempts to fill the void that exists inside will NEVER work…. And the scariest part about that is I know it’s true

I have a gaping hole and I exist somehow

it is excruciating when I think about it

how do you explain

how the fuck do you explain

[freebakeryfireroad]

[faceless-dude]

Small remark: this was posted during the second (now canceled) version of ninja arc

[badjohnspeakeasy]

"He was disguised as a log, and I really love logs, so I approached it to inspect it, then he yelled SUPRISE, IT'S ME, HERE TO TAKE REVENGE FOR YOU STEALING MY SHADES! And then he stabbed me."

-Blast

"Yeah, ninjas are like that."

-Saitama

"We are not, and I'd gladly stab you for saying otherwise! Test me and see if I'm wrong!"

-Sonic

"Honestly if he just asked I would have given the sunglasses back."

-Blast

[theomnicode]

Love is blind

Get you a guy who looks at you like Blast looks at Empty Void.

Seriously though, Blast has a ton of patience to wait 15 years for anything resembling demonsterization process to take place and something resembling a working method, then he's kept developing his technique for 15 long years to pin down someone of as slippery as Empty Void's skill level efficiently.

And efficently pin down he did, because Empty void could not even lift a finger, yet nothing on his hands were breaking against the huge gravity they were under. Quite outstanding level of control, but alas, Void vacuumed up the power with his mouth when Blast was distracted and managed to escape with a cackle of laughter yet again.

But how did Blast actually perfect his arm pinning, chokeholding technique? I'd hazard a guess on monsters or sparring against his teammates would give the best results. Wonders how many hands or trachea and lungs he accidentally broke in the process though.

But first the guy really, really wants to demonsterize Void so badly he waited 15 whole years to do this and develop his technique in await that someday, somehow, someone might find the key to demonsterization process.

That's what I call insane amount of dedication.

But this fool is completely blinded by his love for Void as well, because nothing erases the fact that he is the ninja village leader and did all those horrific deeds. He was the big boss who made young, orphaned children go through hell as cogs on a machine and horrific conditioning in terrible conditions to create emotionless ninja minions. Yet somehow Blast looks past all that and wants to "cure" Void and assumes Void would wish to be cured as well.

Blast is going this far to preserve Void so it begs the question; just how far is Blast willing to go to "save" Void? From himself and from others who might kill him like presumably Sonic tried to? Void is not exactly someone normal humans or even heroes are able to pin down indefinitely if he just chucked him in the Hero association HQ incarceration cell (but then again, Psykos wasn't one either) and he doesn't look like wanting to demonsterize either.

With all that in mind, Blast's quest for Void is not very sane option but one borne out of desperation and nostalgia glasses, even if we ignore the rewritten portion of Void having the key to God's dimension.

It is as they say, Love is blind.

[gofancyninjaworld]

And so I punched him [Review of Ninja Arc]

Yo, it's been a minute! Damn. being old and busy sucks. Ah well, let's get on with reviewing the third (and hopefully final) version of the 'Ninja' arc.

SUMMARY

?!???

Yeah, yeah, I said I liked skipping those but with so many versions, a quick recap is worthwhile.

As you know, the Obstreperous Flash[1] barged into Saitama's gaming session, wouldn't take go away for an answer, challenged him to a fight that saw his life flash before his eyes, got saved by the bell (um, I mean reports of a monster attack), tagged along, met Sonic, Saitama saved Manako on his own, and they all went to Sicchi to try to arrange a meeting with Blast only to find him conveniently there.

So, what happened this time? Well, Blast came, not to see if monsterization can be undone (more thoughts on that later), but because of his evil ex-partner, Void. It was handy that Flash was here as that meant he could warn him that That Man was back and out for his blood. Also, to leave it to Blast to deal with the dude -- for reasons he couldn't disclose. Saitama, finding out that Flash too was a ninja understands why Flash is so like Sonic, being a clingy, violent-addicted pervert. This upsets Flash and he's determined to set the record straight.

Said record-straightening comes in the form of a lengthy glob of backstory on the Village culminating in Flash's triumphant slaughter of nearly everyone in said place, for which Flash commandeers Saitama's flat. As appreciation, Genos comes through the wall to thunk a mug of hot tea onto Flashy's head, along with a preroration on letting Sonic live. Anyway... Flash leaves after that, and Blast and Sicchi take their leave too, after a very pleased Genos (at last! he must have thought, they're taking what I said seriously! [2]) tells Blast to consult Saitama if he runs into any issues. Flashy gets a letter of challenge from Sonic and goes off to meet him. In the meantime, Blast and Sicchi discuss where and how to lay hands on Void, as the latter is of vital strategic importance in the fight against God (no ID). Turns out Blast has Sonic's hideout bugged, so he knows about the trap set for Flash.

Unfortunately for Blast's plans, Sonic did challenge Flash and so the two of them are in a random forest somewhere having a scrap for old times' sake and other ninja nonsense. Contemporaneously, Saitama declares that he's off to Sonic's hideout to help the dude and give him and the other ne'er-do-well ninjas a drubbing and theorises that they're acting this way because they have nothing better to do with their lives. He then says that perhaps it's not good to be alone [3] and scurries off quickly before Genos can ask any awkward questions about what he meant.

Anyway, back to the scuffle. Sonic tries some fancy moves only to see Flashy Flash bat away all his techinques before sending him flying with some fancy kicking of his own. The Tenninto show up in their variously-weaponed glory (oh, did I forget to introduce them earlier? Never mind! We know who they are) and try to execute Flashy Flash. Sonic reappears, tells them to get lost, and then it's the two ninja frenemies against the Tenninto. Just as Flash and Sonic are about to turn the other ninjas into very poor quality sashimi, Blast shows up out of nowhere to stop the fight. He's fed up with the fratricidal tendencies of ninjas and there's no longer any point to this fight. The Tenninto try to jump him and all get punched down. Voilent Force then declares that their master, That Man, being a serial killer without equal, will totally take care of Blast, even if they couldn't. To which Blast says he's got something to show them.

That something is the exterior of Sonic's hideout, where there's Saitama sitting on the pavement watching a man-shaped hole in the ground. Saitama might not have fancypants portal technology but he can still beat Blast to the punch. Even loaned him his dog as compensation, so he could go find the other ninjas. The Tenninto naturally don't believe that Saitama really beat their master, but they start to change their minds as the baldie lays them all out.

Proceedings are interrupted by the sky opening up and some chimeric beasts coming through. Overgrown Pochi spits fire at them and they return the favour, after which it's a very good thing that a) no one lives there any longer because it's all been turned to ash and b) that Blast has a handy-dandy shield or the ninjas would be toast. Saitama goes to teach the beasties manners but before he can do so, the hole in the ground starts to smoke and Void explodes out of it to slice and dice said critters, and Blast punches them mightly to send them back whence they came and shuts the dimensional rift after them. Saitama decides it's nothing to do with him after all and makes to head home...

...only he lingers a bit. Looks like Empty Void is indeed back to his senses, Saitama's punch having driven God's influence out of him (Blast wonders what the hell Saitama is). Sonic and Flash try attacking Void, who dodges them easily and Blast stops them. With some very fast talking, Blast insists that Void's actions weren't truly his fault, being rather undermined by Void himself as the latter says he remembers what he did perfectly well -- it was just that being under the influence made the worst of him easier to access. Anyway, he had things to do now, so would his ex-victim ninjas please get along and not make trouble? Bye! And the pair are gone, though not before Blast tells Saitama that he'll be back for him when he really needs his help.

The Tenninto have a bit of a think before deciding that the best thing to do would be to follow Saitama around as their new leader, much to Saitama's dismay. Flashy Flash confesses to Sonic about poisoning him, which Sonic brushes off, saying he was more disappointed than angry. Besides, they have more training to do. The arc closes out a few days later with Saitama beseiged by ninjas. The Tenninto want him to lead them, Flash wants to train him, Sonic wants to challenge him, and Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame want to fight Flash. It's all very chaotic. Genos remarks that well, looks like Saitama's not alone any longer, to which Saitama protests that that wasn't what he meant!

Poor Saitama, he can't win for winning.

Baldie keeps attracting the wrong kind of attention.

Meta below the cut.

META

Where to start? Let's go with the extradiegetic.

Extradiegesis

The biggest difference between this arc and the previous version is that the previous one was meant to be the culmination of an arc, where it would draw together the disjointed pieces of Saitama putting his life back together again in the aftermath of the Monster Association raid, introducing the new challenge the Hero Association is facing in the Neo Heroes, filling in and using details of what happened when Garou turned Cosmic, and topping it all off with a terrifying preview of an Avatar of God. In this version, we're no longer rising to the culmination of an arc: the issue with Void and the ninjas is just one more thing happening and something else is going to be the capstone. Or, in simpler terms, if the previous iteration felt a lot more epic, that's because it was intended to be a closer!

Void was going to go out with a bang.

Many of the facts established earlier are still congruent with this arc but the means of storytelling used have changed a lot. We've got a lot more webcomic-style telling rather than showing, which has made the chapters more compact at the expense of exploring the characters more deeply. Some things, such as Blast and Void's history, will probably come out later. Some things, such as the demonsterization attempts, have probably been sent to another storyline (as u/Nanayon123 suggested, it'd have an incredibly powerful impact in the Amai Mask arc). And some things are gone, such as Sonic's dream place for his new village.

The biggest change in emphasis has to be Void. He's less proactive, being happy to wait for his minions to work rather than start proceedings with an attempt to take out the Hero Association. Since Saitama smacks him into a hole rather than wandering around and accidentally spoiling his plans, we don't get much of him. Well, at least he's alive. So are the Tenninto. They've all been saved for something later. I hope it's cruel and full of pain for them.

Well, at least Blast is happy. And he's left without even trying to visit his son.

Intradiegesis

Once is a coincidence. Twice is stalking

One thing this arc gave us is an appreciation for why Blast is so rarely seen. He has a post to man, with the job of keeping God's pets at bay. With him having left for a while to see about recovering Empty Void, we've started getting those pets coming through. So far, they've been modeled on Chinese heavenly beasts -- look elsewhere if you're curious.

However, the turtle and the tiger weren't the only ones who came through. We find out that Saitama also took out a Qilin. It is interesting that in both cases, the beasts appeared right over where Saitama was, and that they appeared to be looking for something, or someone, particular.

Congrats, you found me! Have a free fist!

When Sicchi speculated that 'God' was being drawn to something in particular and we were shown Saitama's back, I guess that He's started sending his pets through to find the baldie if they can slip through.

Since they don't seem to resurrect, there's only the Vermillion Bird left. It might wait a while before trying its luck.

So it looks like this preview of 'God' and his soldiers is going to be just that, a preview. Until later. Anyway, let's stick with the baldie for a moment.

The mightiest mountain will be worn down to a stone

Apologies to JAM Project, who have in their season 1 theme song that the mightiest mountain started as a stone. The single most moving thing that happened in the story for me was watching Saitama going to Sonic's place and why.

Saitama's been so passive in his life. We've seen him be the sort of person King has to prompt to even consider checking on his disciple. Whereas in the webcomic, Saitama went to Sonic's place to steal a sword from him so Flashy Flash would leave him alone, here, he's decided to go to get Sonic out of whatever trouble the Tenninto are making for him. That's growth. Slowly, like tiny drops of water wearing away a mountain, living and interacting with people has finally started getting through to Saitama.

But he'll beat Sonic too? Yup, spare the rod, spoil the child, or something like that.

So far, so moving. u/PerFerVidCreator said it better than I ever could, but Saitama talking about maybe Sonic being lonely (well, about it not good to be alone), left me shook. The empathy inherent in it. How close he's come here to telling Genos about his own struggles. And then he yells about having to go. Before Genos asks questions that could lead to a conversation he's not ready to have yet. The cracks are showing, heh heh.

drip, drip, drip…slowly, slowly, Saitama is becoming more human. An awkward and embarrassed one.

Lies, damned lies, and Blast

No matter how generously one tries to view things, the maths that Blast maths about Void only doing evil on account of God's influence just doesn't math. If the Village is a consequence of Void being influenced, that cannot explain the existence of 44 classes. Doubly so when Void has been out of it for the last fifteen years. It doesn't tally either with what we know of Blast's history with the dude.

Blast has to be lying -- it's much easier for him to get Void away if he can spin a tale of Void being a good guy gone wrong and leave while the ninjas still pondering things, than it is to admit that yeah, he knew this guy was evil but he wasn't like evil-evil until recently and he has plans for him. It's not the first time he's told lies of convenience: we first saw that with Tatsumaki when he told her to rely only on herself while himself having a team around him.

Not cool for a guy who claimed to be able to see through lies.

He means this literally.

But then, the story has established that Blast has a ruthless the-ends-justify-the-means streak to him, and he was determined to let nothing get between him and recovering Void. So that's that. For now. This has to come back and bite him later. Hard.

Dangit, he was right after all

I really wasn't expecting Genos to be vindicated. When he went on a four-hour rant about Saitama, even though what he was saying was true, I didn't expect it to go anywhere. Whenever a character suggests a story-shortening strategy, the story usually goes out of its way to make it not happen. Not OPM (I know, subversion of tropes, who does that?).

Happiest guy who ever misunderstood a situation.

And yet, here we are. Blast has indeed seen what Saitama can do and realised that Saitama has a very special ability: when he punches, God flees. He doesn't know what that means yet, but he's savvy enough to realise that this guy is worth calling on whenever he finally tracks his ethereal foe down.

Though Blast had no intention of taking Genos up on his suggestion, he did end up consulting Saitama, whereupon the latter loaned him Overgrown Pochi, so he could find the ninjas.

Always willing to lend a fellow hero a helping hand, or paw.

Genos is even completely unharmed this arc. That's one happy boy. Speaking of boys...

Ooos a good boi?

Yes, you are!

Finally

You'll have noticed I've not said anything about the Tenninto. Whichever version you happen to be referencing, they're victims in a much larger story than they. They should be grateful that they're alive this time!

ASIDES

[1]Flash: "That's the worst name yet. You make me sound like a very stubborn pervert." Genos: "It's also the most accurate."

[2] See chapter 173, "Secret Intel". There, Genos tells Sicchi to call on Saitama if/when he hears from Blast as that's who is needed to deal with the 'God' problem. He left annoyed because he thought he wasn't being taken seriously.

[3] That IS what he says, and without that, what Genos says at the end of the arc literally makes no sense. The translators chickened out and mistranslated it as him talking about Sonic. Shame on them.

[mc-makesstuff]

opm stuffs cause im BACK IN MY OPM PHASE WOOOOO

also, tf2 stuffs soon maybe😴😴😴