#had to listen to a lot of depressing music for this

On days like these, Sensei lets him cry. He doesn’t complain about the sheets getting dirty, doesn’t tell him to stop, doesn’t even say anything. He just lets him cry.

My theory is that Genos witnessed his own parents go before his eyes; it puts the almost obsessive anger during his battles into perspective, especially when the prospect of the battle isn’t in his favor. It’s like he refuses to accept that he could lose, because it means reliving the trauma of losing his loved ones and not being able to do anything to save them. I could see him imagining, every time he fights an opponent stronger than him, that it’s the Mad Cyborg again and he’s trying to overcome that sense of helplessness. It’s a fear that holds him back.

On another note, Genos and Saitama are perfect for each other because when something like this happens, if it’d been anyone else they’d be dead (Dr. Kuseno having some other mechanical way to stop Genos). But when it’s Saitama BECAUSE he’s Saitama, he can take it. He’s the only one who can take Genos for everything that he is and accept it (“with open arms”? Don’t take my word for it). It seems hardly a coincidence that when they meet for the first time Genos was about to commit suicide and Saitama was the one who saved him. 

I took some liberty with the circumstances of his parents’ death (hence it’s just a dream); I was reexamining ONE’s decision to write that it happened when Genos was 15, which in Japan’s education system (assuming OPM universe is based on Japan) is the age you graduate junior high and enter senior high school. The idea that you could lose everything dear to you on your graduation day when you’re supposed to be happy and leaving good memories is… well it’ll be exactly the kind of sob story ONE would parody, except it’s not just a sob story, because it’s the entire reason these two even met. Genos literally might never have crossed paths with Saitama if not for what’s happened to him.

/this was a herculean effort/drawing comics by yourself is not fun/just a hobby/a serious hobby