Taste

Taste (味, Aji) is a special chapter of the One-Punch Man manga series included with Volume 9.

Summary
King is showing Saitama a new anime series about a superhero who uses baked potatoes as weapons, telling him to that it is very popular much to Saitama's uncertainty. Genos arrives from the cleaners with his hero uniform, much to Saitama's excitement while King is questioning the matter. Saitama explains he enter a hero costume contest and asks King to join him, since there's a prize money, but King declines. Saitama announces his leave only for King to wonder if he has nothing to do.

At the center, Saitama and Genos notice a crying boy, wearing only his short. The boy inform them he is always bullied, because of the tacky way he dresses and the bullies took his clothes, while his ticket was in his jacket. Saitama gives the boy his hero uniform and tells him to go home. Genos wonders how will Saitama win the contest without his costume only for Saitama to have a backup clothes underneath, much to Genos' shock and appall by it.

The contest begins with the judge being introduced. The first contestant is Darkness Blade giving him a score of 16 out of 30 and some harsh comments. Many contestants have gone through with Saitama being last. While walking down the catwalk, many comments were made with Saitama informing everyone he is a B-Class hero and will show them his special power - he can wiggle his ears.

The head judge Torajirou criticized Saitama for his lack of fashion sense and scorn him as a horrible person, based on his clothes, not allowing Saitama to speak. Just as the judges were about to give him his score Game-Berus appears at the stadium attacking the audience. The heroes that were there were easily defeated, just as the monster was hurling towards the judges, Saitama stepped in and killed it with one punch. This action gained favor in Saitama from the audience, nevertheless he received a total score of 8. As he was heading home, he meets the boy and he return his hero uniform, thanking him. Genos realized the lesson he learned was to never judge a person by its appearance and writes it in his notebook.

After the contest was over, Torajirou is surprised to see his son outside the stadium, asking him about his different outfit. Torao explains he doesn't like the clothes he was given, as Saitama taught him to never let anyone tell him what to like or not. Hearing his son's words Torajirou started to doubt his philosophy and started to look from a different perspective.

Trivia

 * This chapter was published in Volume 10 in Viz Media American Release.