Chapter 168 (Online)

"Awakening of the Gods" (神々の目覚め, Kamigami no Mezame, Tonari: 213) is the 168th chapter of the One-Punch Man manga series.

Summary
The fight between Saitama and Garou continues on Jupiter's Io, with Garou being gradually outmatched by the hero. Garou realizes that Saitama is copying his moves on purpose. Saitama mocks him for believing he could copy him as he is serious, and goads him into trying. A frustrated Garou realizes that even while replicating Saitama's power, his next attack just hits even harder. Knowing that if this keeps up, Saitama will eventually be able to strike him hard enough to kill him, Garou opens a gateway and emerges with a straightforward punch fueled with his anger. Saitama catches his fist but begins to feel something. With his clothes blown away and exposed to Io's extremely cold atmosphere, Saitama launches a Serious Sneeze at Garou, who barely manages to move out of the way. The sneeze devastates Io's surface and travels all the way to Jupiter itself, blowing the giant planet's gaseous surface apart.

The recoil of the sneeze launches the two out of Io and into interplanetary space. Garou sees the Sun as they travel through space. With it in his vision, Garou tries looking around for the Earth and successfully catches sight of it, putting it in range of teleporting. After hitting Saitama with his Nuclear Fission that generates a massive explosion, Garou opens a portal to teleport back to Earth, being outside its atmosphere. Without warning, Saitama suddenly appears behind him and commends Garou's ability to open hyperspace portals, shocking him. Saitama explains to a confused Garou that after developing a stomach ache from the cold, the light from the earlier explosion had caused him to fart, allowing him to reach the hyperspace gate in time.

He punches Garou down to Earth, causing both of them to land exactly where their clash first began. Realizing all his efforts have been futile in the end, Garou asks why Saitama doesn't kill him on the spot. Saitama relays his belief that he can never be cut out as a hero, compared to Garou's "quick-changing costumes" or King's reputation. Nevertheless, he maintains that he is a hero, adding that it was his promise to "that kid" that he would not kill him. Wondering whose final request he meant, Garou turns to see Tareo on the ground, having died from his exposure to his cosmic radiation.

With his guilt building up, Garou runs away, grieving that Tareo's death was due to him getting too close to him, seeing that it is the price of being that Ominous Future. Confused at his behavior, Saitama wonders if someone did something to him, noting that he has been asking strange since he fell from the sky. Garou replies that if something did happen to him, it is because his spirit is too weak. He laments that being "Absolute Evil" is laughable when Saitama can beat him, only for him to act as if he isn't enough to be one; he believes that Saitama could have killed him, allowing his wish to be true evil to come true. In the end, the one he wanted to save first after changing the world is now dead.

Saitama realizes that Garou had always wanted to save Tareo, asking him if he was clinging to him as support. Angered, Garou wonders what he knows about clinging, only to see that he is still holding Genos' depleted core. The hero tells him that someone of his power can never keep a right mind, shocking the monster; after questioning Garou about what he will do now, Saitama is asked for a favor.

Garou asks the hero to copy his moves; knowing that he is able to copy his techniques and surpass them even further, Garou informs Saitama that he will pass onto him his most powerful technique, which he himself has never attempted. Though somewhat annoyed, Saitama complies. Garou begins to use his technique, in the witness of Saitama. Suddenly, a voice erupts from the sky, telling Garou that his powers are to be taken back. He suddenly begins to turn into salt but regains focus to aid Saitama.

Having replicated Garou's ability to time leap, the subatomic particles in Saitama's body begin to move as one, causing him to travel back in time. Before being turned into a pillar of salt by "God", Garou tells Saitama to go and defeat the "ominous future". Saitama travels back in time and arrives at the moment when Garou appeared in front of many heroes on the surface. As Garou looks at the sky, Saitama defeats him with a Zero Punch, the attack having been powered up abnormally on Io, thus defeating the Hero Hunter with a punch that technically was never thrown. As the present heroes watch in amazement, a shocked Garou realizes that his power is escaping. The "future" Saitama is then pulled towards his "past" self and after they make contact, they become one, with the now sole Saitama holding Genos's core from the future.

Confused on what happened, Saitama only recalls being hit by Garou's Gamma Ray Burst. Soon, he is shocked to see himself holding the depleted core. He receives an even greater surprise when he sees a hole in his costume at his crotch. Suddenly, he is rammed by Genos; the disciple apologizes for getting carried away but Saitama is instead surprised to see him still alive.

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