When Garou woke, he was in a hospital bed, wrists wrapped in bandages, not restraints. A police officer sat outside the door, but the handcuffs were off. On his nightstand was a bowl of oden and a note.
Strike one: "You are not a monster. You are human. Do not be ashamed of it." Strike two: "Strength without wisdom is just violence. You have confused the two." Strike three: "I am not punishing you for losing. I am punishing you for forgetting why you fight."
Behind Saitama, the remaining heroes—Genos, Bomb, and the battered remnants of the Hero Association's strike force—watched in a silence that was part awe, part existential dread. Bang, the silver-fanged master of the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, approached slowly. His eyes, usually sharp and judging, were soft. He looked at Garou not as a monster, but as the wayward student he had failed. One Punch-Man S2 12 VOSTFR- La fessee du maitre
Saitama turned his bald head. "He wasn't a monster. Just a guy playing dress-up and throwing a tantrum."
Bang did not strike Garou. He did not need to. Instead, he closed his eyes and pressed his thumb against the center of Garou's brow. To the onlookers, it looked like a gentle touch. But inside Garou's unconscious mind, it was an explosion. When Garou woke, he was in a hospital
Saitama stood over him, his expression as placid as a still pond. For him, the fight had been less a battle and more an inconvenience—an itch scratched. He sighed, more from boredom than exertion.
Bang took the cup. His hands trembled—not from age, but from the weight of what he had almost lost. "No. I was hard on him for the first time in years. For so long, I only saw his talent. I forgot to see his pain. Saitama… that boy did not defeat Garou with a punch. He defeated him with indifference. He showed Garou that his tantrum meant nothing to the universe." Strike one: "You are not a monster
Later that night, Bang sat on the porch of his dojo, staring at the broken sign out front. Bomb sat beside him, pouring sake.