Whew, Spring is sprung, Sunday chores are done, let's catch up on some reviews! What have the last two months brought?

Summary: the final(ish) bit of the Neo Leaders' Debut

225 begins precisely where 224 leaves off -- no great wonder as chapters 223 through 225 are part of a single chapter -- and we open with monster parts flying everywhere as Metal Bat splatters the ex-monster with a mighty swing of his bat. That's the last of the monsters and Metal Bat's team has only been able to stand and gawp. Ah well, some of them muse, at least it's made for an easy outing.

One of them has received a phone call and informs Metal Bat that there's another Neo Hero in trouble. Metal Bat runs off to help, leaving his team far behind. He arrives at the reported trouble spot to find it deserted... except for a pair of figures carrying off the limp bodies of the Neo Heroes Zaedats and Infelsinave. This puzzles Metal Bat greatly. What are the security guards doing here. Did they save those guys?

Elsewhere, yet another Neo Leader is not having a great time. Blue's team lies badly injured around him. He's the last one standing as he faces the monster leading its horde of underlings, an over-ambitious crab calling itself Shell King.

He springs into the air, aiming to punch through the monster's enlarged left claw, only to realise that its armour is far tougher than he imagined. Undaunted, Blue quickly changes his fist to a knife hand to cut that claw clean off.

As the monster reels in pain, he charges up a giant fist and with it blows away both the monster and its underlings, leaving only inedible seafood scattered in the streets around.

Blue calls McCoy to tell him that the monster had been eliminated and to send medical help to the team. McCoy acknowledges the information and asks Blue what he makes of real monsters. Blue muses that real monsters are far more varied in strength and ability than simulations would suggest and that victory is not guaranteed, no matter what disaster rating is stuck on the monster. He further thinks that carelessness is very costly... but is interrupted by an explosion in the distance. There's yet another monster attack, and this time, the creature appears to be huge.

Blue runs off, heedless of McCoy's protests about his suit not being fully charged.

Meta: 6/10 Points

Well, if anyone in the OPM world doesn't know about the Neo Heroes now, it'll be be because they're in intensive care or solitary confinement. With permission to bear and use weapons in public granted a few days ago (chapter 217), they have lost no time in introducing themselves to the world in the biggest possible way: saving people from monsters.

It hasn't all gone to plan and this update does brilliantly in apposing two young (Metal Bat is 17, Blue is 16) heroes and showing the effect of their experiences. Metal Bat, for all his flashiness, has kept his team safe first and foremost -- maybe too safe as they've not had enough to do. Blue has just let them run ahead and has been desperately playing catch up once they've been injured.

Well, experience teaches even fools, and Blue is no fool. He's quickly understanding what we've seen other heroes realise the hard way over 200+ chapters: that disaster levels are more a suggestion than a declaration and cannot be relied on to tell you how tough a monster actually will be to beat. He's also realised how horrifically fast things can go wrong if you're even a little careless. I wonder how he'll like regenerating monsters and those that change their forms, ah...

Something to note that is going to become very relevant very soon: McCoy is STILL MOONLIGHTING IN THE HERO ASSOCIATION.

The slimy bastard can't even be bothered to quit. He's that confident that he'll be able to get away with his schemes.

No, I haven't forgotten about the two stricken Neo Leaders carried off on the qt away from TV cameras. Be sure that neither has Metal Bat.

One-Punch Man Webcomic readers might remember this guy. The Neo Leader and Great Prophet Infelsinave, founder of the Church of Otherworldly Reincarnation. He had nearly a million loyal followers, and he joined the Neo Heroes to fight for justice or something.

I don't think he ever said a single fuggin' word, so I guess if one wanted to list his positive traits, you could call him stoic and humble.

His fighting abilities were probably negligeable, other than the well-built suit of armor underneath his regal robes, but he was elected a Neo Leader due to his admittedly vast influence.

He had divine powers, whatever that means.

To be quite honest, I use the phrase "might remember" because he's pretty forgettable.

He was murdered recently.

As you can see, he had a tough go of it during his first battle and wound up dead in the road.

I'm here to give the prophet his due and investigate his murder a little. Let's put on our detective hats and examine the evidence.

He got a hole punched in his Neo Hero armor by a monster.

The monster killed him, then bounced. It's quite possible that's all it was; a monster saw Infelsinave, brutally ran him through, then walked away.

But notice that his homies were there to witness the murder. A horde of allies who were as weak as Infelsinave survived the attack without so much as being looked at by the murderer.

Are monsters usually that selective? No! Monsters are typically connoisseurs of surplus killing, like weasels targeting hordes of hapless mice.

So, why didn't the monster go on to maul the rest of the Neo Heroes present? Why were the other humans on-scene not worth its aggression?

So, that's my first piece of evidence; the monster seemed to have a grudge against Lord Infelsinave specifically.

But we don't know a single person with enmity towards Lord Infelsinave, do we? He had a lot of followers, which means he probably had plenty of detractors. Maybe there was a monster who hated cult leaders? In that case, we'd have no idea who killed him.

But what if, and bear with me on this, the monster didn't have a beef with Infelsinave in particular?

What if the monster was looking for a different person, and mistook Infelsinave for someone we know a little better?

I have a long-shot theory; whatever attacked Infelsinave was actually hunting our friendly neighborhood Saitama.

Both are bald, both wear flowing garments (Saitama's cape, and Infelsinave's dorky cloak), and though their similarities are only passing, Saitama has a bland enough look that Infelsinave's attacker might have made the honest mistake of killing the Neo Leader like a dog without taking a closer gander for Saitama's trademark perfunctory visage.

Now, who has the power to smash through Neo Hero armor like butter, a grudge against Saitama, and the speed to assault Infelsinave and leave before his Neo Hero squad could react?

Well...any Demon-level monster, really. Awakened Cockroach, Bug God, Royal Ripper, or even the Lion Eating Zebra could probably speedblitz Infelsinave and leave, unfraught by any Neo Goon resistance.

But I have a theory.

It was THIS GUY. The Ninja Village Leader!

He has the skills,

he has the motive,

and he's so unfamiliar with Saitama that mistaking Infelsinave for him would be believable.

Call me a gormless gumshoe. Mistake my detective hat for tin-foil. But I'd bet a fat Hamilton ($10) that the Ninja Village Leader is the culprit who eliminated Infelsinave, and he did it under the mistaken belief that he was taking down Saitama, the man who beat him up and stole all his cool ninja stuff.

Mystery solved!

"But BadJohn, Infelsinave is alive!"

No he's not. That's baloney. That guy is a fucking robot husk designed to fool his followers and steal all his money.

Remember how Genos referred to The House of Evolution, way back when?

Okay, but why would his first thought be that it’s a new religion?  Many many years pass in our world and the author reveals the following:

Because weird cults preaching reincarnation and other unlikely transformations are a thing in OPM world.

Neo-Hero Leaders (@otsunaruse)

The neatness with which Infelsinave’s throat has been slit and a substantial hole punched through his centre of mass speaks to something that knows how to kill humans and isn’t wasting time.  And then the ‘monster’ left without accosting any of his followers.   That’s just not very monster. 

Monsters tend to be like angry grizzly bears -- lots of noise, lots of whacking people about, or they’re just hungry and eat a person without fuss or noise.  Very strange.

I call shenanigans.