King

I'm the strongest man on earth. The S-Class Rank 7 Hero, King. Do you know that!?

King (キング, Kingu) is the S-Class Rank 7 professional hero for the Hero Association. In public, King is known as the "The Strongest Man on Earth" (地上最強の男, Chijō saikyō no otoko). King is also one of the few people that recognize Saitama's strength.

Appearance
King is a tall, lean-built man with lightly tanned skin, blue eyes, and shoulder-length blonde hair that he keeps combed back, down to the nape of his neck. His notorious features are three scars straight over his left eye with sunken cheeks and a defined jawline. He wears a long sleeved black turtleneck sweater. Notably, his heartbeat can occasionally be heard.

Personality
King appears extremely calm in threatening situations, as well as put out an extremely threatening aura. He is well respected among the public and other heroes, including ones who are higher in rank like Tatsumaki.

Despite the intimidating personality King projects, he is actually a coward and an Otaku who gets very excited about buying a dating game. He is shown to be actually caring and thoughtful, but his cowardice usually steps in, which prevents him from doing anything. King would later become more brave, deciding to bluff his way in the presence of Dragon level enemies, despite wanting to run away.

History
In his childhood, King had won several video game tournaments. At some point within the past 1.5-3 years, King was attacked by the Octopus Claw Man, receiving his characteristic three scars as a result, but is saved by Saitama, who was training to be a hero at the time.

Saitama would go on to save his life five more times by destroying the monsters in his vicinity, Vaccine Man among them, but King would always, and unintentionally, get the credit. The Hero Association, capitalizing on the reputation of his strength, made him an S-Class hero without having to take the hero exam and King would be known as "the strongest man on earth". This would continue and King would be paid for the deeds that he had not done.

Alien Conquerors Arc
King appears at the S-Class Hero Association meeting. During the attack of the Dark Matter Thieves, King is standing on top of the Hero Association's headquarters along with Genos, Child Emperor, Tatsumaki and Superalloy Darkshine after having crawled up from a hole that Saitama made. While Child Emperor considers how to deal with the Dark Matter Thieves' mother ship, Superalloy Darkshine takes the initiative to ask King for his opinion on the matter. King's engine activates as he simply replies that there's nothing he can do. In response to their questioning looks, he follows up with stating that the target is too far up in the sky for him to attack, and suggests that they should use the opportunity to call Metal Knight instead. Tatsumaki promptly protests by calling King pathetic for not taking initiative against the enemy, who has already laid waste to A-City, but is still heeded as the world's strongest man. Superalloy Darkshine warns Tatsumaki that King might kill her if she angers him.

King Arc
During a walk in his home city M-City, he involuntarily encounters Tongue Stretcher and his perverse assault on pedestrian women. Whilst silently deploring his status as a hero, he stands next to the mysterious being as his cover is blown off by the wind, revealing his fearsome malicious stare along with his King Engine. This merely startles Tongue Stretcher at first, but shortly startles him into despair as he is overwhelmed by the menacing aura. A bystander quickly recognizes King's identity and shouts out his name, reminding Tongue Stretcher of who he is up against. The bystanders cheer King on as the monster cowers down on his knees and begs for forgiveness. The surrounding citizens shout various positive and negative remarks at King and the monster, who is supposedly having a seizure from excessive crying, respectively. King is soon crowded by fans who shower him with questions, admiration, love confessions and the likes. Someone asks if he came from sensing a monster, but King says that he was just shopping. Someone else comments on King's face, claiming that he was pissed, but King mildly objects. He picks up his cap to brush it off and declares that he was in a hurry and needed some space. The crowd gets alarmed and fusses about giving King a path and apologizes for being intrusive. King carries on with his business and stops by a TV-game retail store to buy a dating sim called Doki Doki Sisters. Relieved to have finally bought it, King makes his way home while relishing the excitement of having a newly bought game with him. However, it doesn't take long until he hears the screams of another "monster" showing up. Behind him lands a giant robot who introduces itself as G4; a "machine god" created by The Organization. G4 remarks King's status as the world's strongest human and thus that it has come to kill him. Someone recognizes King and shouts out his name. The fleeing pedestrians stop and form a cheering crowd behind him, convinced that everything will be fine now that King is here. Questioning the robots origin, King warns it of his title as the Rank 7 S-Class hero "King; the strongest man on Earth". G4 pays no heed to his rebuttal and swings down a giant sword at King, knocking his hat off and restates that it has come to kill him. The robot follows up by informing King that this is for a battle AI performance test, to which King has no idea what it is talking about. He goes along by saying that he must go to the bathroom first in order to fight at full strength, reasoning that it couldn't get sufficient data if King was holding it in. This convinces G4 and gives King a ten-minute bathroom break. However, G4 warns that if he does not come back within that time, ten people will die each minute and that if he runs away, the town will be no more. King enters the bathroom and drops his game on the floor. His breathing quickly accelerates to hyperventilation as he realizes that his name and reputation have no effect on the robot who came to fight him. Hearing of the impending destruction, which, unbeknownst to him is actually Genos facing the robot, King attempts to formulate a plan for a moment but fails to come up with one and runs from the bathroom with his game, silently apologizing to the masses he has abandoned. Returning to his apartment, King starts up his game system to relieve himself of the stress and debates about what name to use. Saitama suggests that he use his hero name and only then does King notices him. Saitama reveals that he entered through the open window, though King notes that he lives on the 22nd floor of his complex. King attempts to frighten him off by taking advantage of his reputation as an S-Class hero, but Saitama is unfazed, merely expressing surprise at the fact that King bought a dating sim. A horrified King tries to cover it up by claiming that he was aiming to buy an action game but mistook the title for one of an action game. Saitama then suggests that they play one involving robot battles instead, believing that King ran away from the robot because he was bored. King reluctantly plays the robot game instead, inwardly fuming about Saitama's intrusive presence and his interruption of his peace. Saitama then asks him about fleeing from G4, noting that Genos is fighting in his place instead, causing King to spit out his juice in shock and his heartbeat to quicken in an attempt to find a suitable answer to Saitama's questions, unaware that Saitama believed that he had found a kindred spirit in him. Shortly after, a Demon-level Giant Crow spies Saitama's bald head and lunges right into his apartment, wrecking the area. Saitama, believing that the Giant Crow headed for King instead, suggests that King had no choice but to fight it back. Unwilling to die from Saitama provoking the bird, King shuts his eyes and shouts the truth behind his alleged heroism.

Hearing the ensuing conflict, King initially believes that Saitama was eaten by the Giant Crow, but opens his eyes and realizes that Saitama had defeated it. Saitama then realizes that King's alleged fight history and strength were all lies, noting that King had urinated in his pants from the bird's attempted attack. Saitama asks if he is okay, at which point King realizes that Saitama was the hero who saved him in his previous encounters with mysterious beings.

A tearful King apologizes for unfairly taking the credit that should have been Saitama's, but Saitama brushes it off, instead asking King whether it was fun pretending to be a hero while being scared, to which King replies that it was not, and whether King would continue or give up hero work, to which King replies that he does not have the guts to decide. Saitama replies that King just has to become stronger and tells King that he might come over to play video games with him and leaves.

The Blizzard Group Arc
King visits Saitama's place in order to retrieve his portable video game console. Saitama confessed to erasing the data, which King accepted and didn't mind, but noted that the button was broken. Fubuki was surprised with King's entrance, wondering how S-Class heroes are attracted to Saitama.

Hero Hunt Arc
King is called by the Hero Association to help them protect the Association's sponsors, upon which King replies by saying he's busy defeating a monster, specifically a monster in a video game.

The following section contains Webcomic spoilers. You have been warned, manga-only readers.

Monster Association Arc
He joins the other S-Class heroes in the fight against the Monster Association. After Tatsumaki is defeated by Black Sperm, Child Emperor tells him to beat Black Sperm. He uses his Ultimate Hellfire Wavemotion Technique, and it seems to have a large effect. This was only to be in King's head. He then flees from the scene and it was taken as a bluff technique.

Psychic Sisters Arc
He comes to Saitama's new place to welcome him there but he isn't around. He defends him saying that Metal Knight's robots self-destructed.

Abilities and Powers
Despite not being the highest ranked hero of the Hero Association, he is considered to be the most powerful man on Earth, and it is due to this strength that he receives praise and respect from fellow heroes. His strength is so feared that criminals and mysterious beings will often surrender before having to fight him. However, all these factors don't spare him from being targeted by assassins who are paid with huge sum of money by crime bosses to kill him. Fortunately, all assassins sent after him are just as delusional as normal people in term of perceiving King's false power so they often think they are targeting the formidable foe and willing to give up when King encounters them.

However, this is due to miscommunication and mistaken identity, as King's intimidating appearance and presence near defeated Mysterious Beings gave the Hero Association the false impression that he was strong. King, in reality, has never brawled before in his life meaning he is the weakest person in S-Class if not the entire Hero Association.

It should be noted that his hero title does not fail to describe his video game accomplishments to a certain degree, as he is an expert at video games and has conquered some video game tournaments in his youth. This talent later proves to be useful when King saves Saitama, who irresponsibly signed a contract without reading it and after losing a bet with Fubuki, who forcibly wanted to have Saitama and three S-Class heroes join the Blizzard Group should they win the bet, by defeating thirty gamers by himself. He is also good at writing script about video game content since he often works in creating an independent game in his weekends.

Physical Abilities
Strong Heartbeats: The "King Engine" (キングエンジン, Kingu Enjin) is a rumbling sound that others claim to occur when King readies for battle or when he is generally serious, which has a formidable impact on his opponent's psyche. In reality, it is simply the sound of King's heart beating rapidly loud from fear, anxiety or other uneasiness. Because of King's intimidation and reputation, it is mistaken for bloodlust. It is revealed in the sixth OVA that the sound made by the Engine when King is in a relaxed state is similar to a slow beating Taiko Drum. As he gets more nervous and his heartbeat rate raises, the sound becomes so fast that it reminds of a working engine.

Fighting Style
King Style (キング流, Kingu-ryū): While his intimidating appearance and presence usually scares off potential opponents, King has to rely on this style, if his opponents aren't scared and still ready to fight. It is not a fighting style in the traditional sense. King mostly bluffs himself out of battles or just runs away. King is highly skilled in bluffing, which makes his opponents think he is formidable, sometimes even rendering them unable to perform techniques against him. His "bluffing technique" was enough to make Atomic Samurai, a high level S-Class hero, hesitate in fighting. By speaking gibberish, random words and other nonsense about non-existent atomic reactions, King was able to convice Atomic Samurai not to fight.


 * King Face (キングフェイス, Kingu Feisu): King's intimidating facial expression, which scares off Villains and Mysterious Beings.


 * King Hand (キングハンド, Kingu Hando):


 * Ultimate Hellfire Wavemotion Cannon (煉獄無双爆熱波動砲, Rengoku Musō Bakunetsu Hadō-hō): A bluff technique of King, which he obviously doesn't know. He is simply shouting its name loudly to intimidate his opponents. It appears to be a very powerful energy blast in King's imagination. The "technique" seems to be well known within the Hero Association, as Child Emperor demanded King to use it in order to defeat the dragon level Monster Association members.


 * Ultimate Fleeing Technique: Backwards B Dash (逃亡術奧義振り返りBダッシュ, Tōbō-jutsu Okugi Furikaeri Bīdasshu): King simply runs away from his opponent. Golden Sperm mistakenly took it as a kind of trap, thinking King is chanting a curse and luring him.

Miscellaneous Abilities
Master Gamer: Even though he is actually not the strongest hero, King is possibly the best gamer in the world, having won multiple gaming contests in the past. After Saitama's group was quickly wiped out in a gaming competition against the Blizzard Group, he singlehandedly took the other 30 out and won. He is shown to be an avid member in gaming and told the Hero Association that he was taking out a "monster", which was really his video game.

Hero Rating
King's rating determined by the Hero Association :

Major Battles

 * King vs. Tongue Stretcher
 * King vs. Saitama (Video Game Challenge)
 * King vs. Saitama vs. Fubuki vs. Genos vs. Bang (Hot Pot)
 * King vs. Black Sperm, Psykos, Homeless Emperor, and Evil Natural Water

Extra Battles

 * King vs. Blizzard Group (Video Game Challenge)

Trivia

 * King is ranked 8th in the character popularity poll.


 * According to the databook:
 * What he likes are silence and peace.
 * What he dislikes are crowds and noises.
 * His hobby is "training" in isolated and quiet places.


 * King recommended a book called "How I developed indomitable will", Written by ONE and illustrated by Yusuke Murata as an Easter egg.


 * King is the opposite of Saitama in the sense that while Saitama does not look intimidating, but is incredibly strong; King appears threatening, but bears average human strength and has never brawled in his life before.


 * ONE has said that while the most popular hero in their world is Sweet Mask, King is rather high up as well.


 * When Child Emperor devises a product to measure strength, both Saitama and King are shown to be undefined.


 * Rumor has it that King got his scar in a fight to the death versus a God level monster, but this is proven false in a flashback, when King gets attacked by a monster called Octopus Claw Man.


 * King's signature move is a reference to the  Wave Motion Gun, the most powerful weapon aboard the Yamato Battleship, in the classic series Space Battleship Yamato.

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