The scene was not unfamiliar.

Toppled buildings framed the site where a tremendous battle had taken place, chunks of the kid known as 'Demon Cyborg' no doubt strewn about its center.

But it felt different. Wrong.

The hero Saitama began to pass buildings and streets with human-sized holes crushed into them, a foreign and terrifying emotion driving his legs to move faster.

"Genos?" he called, voice wavering somewhat.

"-sei.." A broken noise came from underneath a stack of destroyed pavement to his right. The relieved sigh that came from Saitama could have toppled a tree.

"Genos! Hold on, I got ya!" the man promised as he began to dig, irritated that his sense of dread was not diminishing. Each piece of the cyborg he uncovered was carefully set aside until Saitama caught the flash of a yellow iris among the blackness and dunked his hand into the crevice, pulled out what was left of the cyborg's head and spinal cord, and spread it out on the pavement.

"Let's get you to the doctor.." he murmured, beginning to wrap the parts in his cape.

Genos' bright-eyed stare held something that made Saitama's heart stop.

"Sensei..The enemy..ripped out my core...My organics cannot survive long without it...Less than a minute remaining."

The cyborg seemed to be in a daze as he said this. After a moment of stunned silence, Saitama dropped to his knees, eyebrows drawn together in the most desolate look Genos had ever seen on his sensei's face.

"I cannot just accept that!" he screeched, on the verge of hysterics.

Dark, oily tears began to slide quietly down the cyborg's face as he looked upon his teacher's.

Saitama was frozen.

He was watching his disciple cry for the first and last time.

The hero's head dropped down just before tears filled his eyes as well.

"Saitama.."

Genos sounded terrified, as terrified as Saitama felt. The man lifted his head.

Genos blinked at him once, giving a shaken smile.

"I love you."

Saitama felt regret closing around his throat. Genos had wasted his time with him, a selfish man who forced him to hold his tongue for his sake.

Now, he was having trouble grasping just how much would go unsaid.

Saitama finally let the tears flow, his face twisted with grief. Genos was looking weaker by the second.

He took his disciple's trembling remains into his arms and kissed his lips over and over, as if each one might give them another moment together.

"Please don't leave me Genos...please.."

He couldn't bring himself to pull away, even after Genos went still and silent.

"I love you too...so much...so much..." came his heartbroken sobs between kisses.

"Don't leave me alone again.." he pleaded of the emptiness around him.

"Don't take him away from me!"

Saitama shook uncontrollably, clinging to the cyborg like a drowning man for twenty minutes.

When he gazed upon his disciple again, his agonized scream rang down every street.

The permanent smile on Genos' face would haunt his dreams the rest of his life.