Chapter 187: Unascertained

The duel between Saitama and Tatsumaki reaches a fever pitch, drawing the attention of the bedridden Forte and Air. When Saitama happens to land near Forte's room, he notices the young man's bewilderment, checks on his wounds, and tells him to stay put before rushing back to the fight. Watching the scale of the devastation, Forte quietly decides to postpone any rematch with Saitama, while the Blizzard Group turns up outside and is stunned by the ruin surrounding them.

Although Tatsumaki had been savoring the contest, she now wants it wrapped up quickly, having misjudged the limits of her own power. She warps a huge swath of the terrain into a surging wave of earth and tries to bury Saitama beneath it, yet he strolls out untouched. Seeing how spent she is, he tells her to stop pushing herself. She refuses, straining to fling him into space with her mind until her body finally gives out and she collapses into unconsciousness.

In her dreams Tatsumaki relives being rescued by Blast eighteen years earlier and later reuniting with Fubuki to shield her. Hunted by four Tsukuyomi agents, she apparently kills them all, then reaches out for her sister. The horror of witnessing such violence ignites the psychic powers of the five-year-old Fubuki, who instinctively pushes Tatsumaki away. The dream carries her chasing after an image of Blast, revealing how much she pins on him as the one adult who ever set her free; she believes that growing strong enough will earn his respect and his guidance toward a better life. She wakes from the vision doubting the road she has taken.

Saitama praises her talent and pats her head, remarking that she could be a wonderful hero if only she could cut loose without wrecking everything around her. As he readies to leave, Fubuki appears and tells her sister she has broken away from her group, only for the Blizzard Group to arrive begging to stay and vowing to improve. Fubuki disciplines several of them herself, declaring that anyone unable to endure her strength has no business standing beside her elder sister. When the members grit through her assault, Saitama persuades Tatsumaki to let them remain. She relents and departs with Fubuki, warning Saitama she intends to test him again someday, a prospect he flatly rejects to her annoyance.

The chapter is titled Unascertained, or Michisū, and sits within the Psychic Sisters Arc with both Saitama and Tatsumaki on its cover. VIZ Media releases it as Unknown Quantity, and it adapts webcomic chapters 102 and 104. It appears in volume 36, following Scalp Friction and leading into the volume's Trade-Off, and it brings the long confrontation between the two heroes to a close.