Chapter 174: Daybreak

Robbed of his divine strength, Garou is left drained and ringed by heroes. Saitama shows Genos the core he carries, and Genos jacks it into himself to test it, only to be swamped by its data. The recordings expose a doomed sequence: heroes killed by Garou's radiation, Genos slain by Garou, and Saitama's battle on Io.

Genos confirms the core is his own from a separate timeline and theorizes that both it and Saitama crossed over from the future. He sketches out a parallel-world scenario in which a new Saitama split from the original and fused with this era's version, reasoning that the moment of merging marks where the timelines diverged. That Saitama could bend causality itself to rescue everyone, Genos decides, is proof of his selfless heroism, though the long-winded theory sails over Saitama's head. Nearby, Tareo wakes to find low-ranked heroes beating the unresisting Garou, until Metal Bat halts them and Sweet Mask, enraged by the earlier rampage, demands an execution that Metal Bat and Saitama refuse.

Asked who beat Garou, Flashy Flash describes a naked man whose strike and departure echoed Blast, stunning Sweet Mask and Sekingar. Genos maintains that only Saitama may judge Garou, and Saitama lets the others vent on him instead. When Sweet Mask moves to kill the villain, Tareo shields him and begs him to flee, insisting heroes should treat him justly. King's booming King Engine cuts through the argument, and Bang declares Garou must atone by saving lives. Saitama dryly notes that Absolute Evil has a knack for rescuing people and thanks Garou for saving Genos and King from Platinum Sperm and Evil Natural Water. Calling Saitama an irritating man, Garou escapes at blinding speed. Metal Knight then descends in a giant drill, deploys swarms of repair drones, and orders decontamination over reported nuclear fallout, while Saitama trudges off carrying Genos' ruined torso, dreading the hunt for their flattened apartment.

This one hundred seventy-fourth chapter sits in the Monster Association Arc and Volume 34, bearing the Japanese title Yoake and the Viz title Dawn. It partly adapts webcomic chapter 94 and puts Saitama and Genos on its cover.