#virus!verse

Explanation is as follows:

Because in Virus!Verse Saitama isn’t a hero, he wouldn’t have made a brief appearance on TV when he did, which in turn leads to Yuna never spotting him again and making the chance-based decision to contact him to take care of Sho. Sho’s grandma would’ve still died when he was five, and Yuna would’ve still gotten a transfer notice, but having to take care of Sho means she would turn it down, even if it meant scoring negative points with her supervisor.

There would be no one to take care of Sho after school now, leading to the boy spending more time alone on the apartment than Yuna would like, with only the help of neighbors checking in on him every so often on the day. Sho bears with it as well as he can, knowing how hard his mother works. Despite Yuna’s best efforts, her child can tell she’s stressed and sad, and it makes him try his best not to be a burden. He’s never been an unruly child, but seeing his mother overwork herself and come home exhausted makes him grow up quicker than he should’ve.

Sho learns to be frugal, and somewhat antisocial due to his priority being the keeping of their house, which involves tackling chores a child his age shouldn’t have to do on their own. Childish tastes such as fanaticism for Watchdog Man are abandoned for self-sufficiency, and when he turns ten he starts taking an interest in electronics. It’s as much a hobby as a means to fix the appliances that keep on breaking at home, as they can’t afford new ones.

Things carry on in this precarious balance until Sho turns thirteen (for reference, that means Saitama is 33 and Virus 27), and the many sleepless nights and work-related stress finally take their final toll on Yuna’s health.Their limited finances don’t help the situation, and Sho’s small business of fixing people’s clocks or microwaves doesn’t provide much to the household, either.

The inevitable draws close, and in her last good moments, Yuna tells Sho everything she remembers about Saitama, and gifts him with a picture of the man, which she’d saved from her college days. She apologizes for not telling him about his father earlier: she really wanted to be enough for him, she’s not even sure the man is well or alive, and her only regret is leaving Sho to fend for himself.

She passes away a few days later, leaving Sho to the care of the foster system. Sho doesn’t care where he ends up, too numb in mourning to feel anything, looking at the tv blankly while his social worker rambles on about this-and-that potential home.

It’s then that shocking news come in: a massive hacking attack has virtually destroyed the systems of the H.A., coupled with a physical strike to Z-City’s Headquarters. The casualties include Teen Emperor, former H.A. hero, as well as Metal Knight, who as everyone knows had become one of the leaders of the Organization two years prior. Various H.A. office workers almost perished in cross-fire, and that’s around the time Sho stops listening. The H.A. has steadily deteriorated over the years, encroaching on smaller Hero agencies that try to aid the population, and as far as Sho is concerned, they’ll be better off without the H.A.

Just as he’s about to dismiss the whole newscast, the camera pans over the debris of Z-City. And that’s when he spots him: he looks harried and not physically whole, but the man limping among the broken buildings with an armful of black metal is definitely Saitama.

Emotion rushes Sho for the first time since his mother’s passing. He escapes his social worker with some difficulty, and then the city using the meager savings he kept on himself for emergencies. Pure luck makes it so one of the people he questions on Saitama’s whereabouts is none other than Mumen himself, which ensures the boy is pointed in the right direction.

The surprise in Saitama’s face when Sho showed up on his doorway to declare himself his son was expected. The barely-alive S-Class Villain laying as a heap of metal in the man’s living room, less so. But if Saitama will at least give Sho a chance to explain himself, he’ll lend his limited knowledge in electronics to help rebuild Virus.

.

And that’s pretty much how they’d end up meeting in Virus!Verse: many years later than in Egg Jr, under very different circumstances (but still thanks to chance glimpses on tv).

Virus would’ve managed to get his revenge on Metal Knight and destroyed the H.A. shortly before Sho shows up, but he would’ve ended up a mess of metal and wires that Saitama likely wouldn’t have been able to keep alive. Sho wouldn’t know how to fix Virus, either, but he’d at least figure out how to keep his core energized by lucky fiddling, which would allow Virus to gain some consciousness and better direct the tense father-son pair into bringing him what he needs for repairs.

Saitama in Virus verse would be very against keeping Sho around – even without the threat of Metal Knight around, he believes he is very unfit to be a parent. He doesn’t want to kick Sho out, as he feels somewhat responsible for him, but he keeps bringing up the option of finding someone more responsible to care for Sho.

Sho is quiet and respectful overall, but very adamant on wanting to live with Saitama. He takes on the tasks of cleaning Saitama’s apartment and cooking for him, much like Genos in canon, and fatter-now-that-she’s-older Michi takes a quick liking to him.

Virus actually gets along very well with Sho, on account of Sho being an efficient and quiet worker who aids in his repairs without getting in his way. With revenge achieved, Virus would be aimless and unsure of what life holds for him, if anything. But he does know that if he decides to leave or end his life to atone for what he’s done (he says none of this to Saitama), Saitama will need someone to stay with him, so he’s constantly pushing for Saitama to just suck it up and accept Sho in his life.