One Punch Man Chapter 196: Blast and Saitama Team up!

One Punch Man Chapter 196 is here, and it gives a lot of meaningful insight into Blast’s quests behind God!

In the previous chapter, we saw Flash confront Blast about his involvement with the ninja village, and about his goals.

One Punch Man Chapter 196:

The chapter continues the confrontation, and Blast replies that he understands if Flashy Flash holds a grudge against him.

However, Flash replies that he is actually quite relieved because he hates the Ninja Village.

During a flashback of them outside the Ninja village, Sonic talks about how the memories of the time Flash spent on the outside are keeping his current sense of self-support.

On the other hand, Sonic was born with a powerful soul, thus the village couldn’t control him as he had a dream for the future!

It’s also why monster cells had no effect on him in the first place!

This is what makes them outliers in the Ninja Village and why they haven’t joined forces with the leader and become members of the Heavenly Ninja Party.

They have goals. They have dreams. They have a purpose.

Together, the two vowed to destroy the village and build a new one to raise orphans like themselves in a free and open environment as they view the true value of power to be living life as you please.

This backs up Blast’s claim about a monster’s psychological state being the secret to reverting them back to humans. 

For example, this monster is regretful of what they have become. They’re not at the low point in their life they were anymore when they first became a monster.

In spite of this, Flashy Flash has more pressing matters. He asks Blast about God, and more specifically the connection he has with the ninja village.

You see, back when Flash was still a wee whipper snapper, he and Sonic skipped training and entered a restricted area of the village.

And what they saw was none other than… GOD’S CUBE!

This has confirmed a theory as old as time itself in the community, that the Ninja Village was connected with God.

Much like the Tsukiyomi facility which Blast infiltrated and stole a cube from, it looked the same.

There’s also the fact that Blast attacked it and defeated the Ninja Leader. And as we know, anything he does is to do with God.

Flashy Flash revealed that whilst King and Saitama searched for Manako, he revisited the old Ninja Village. However, what he saw was an abandoned mess!

The place had been carved to shreds by Blast’s spatial spheres and the cube they once housed there was missing.

During his attack on the village, Blast also fought against the LEADER and put him in a coma!

1 year ago, when chapter 173 dropped us, and many of you guys noticed something very peculiar about Blast’s best friend.

And now, with chapter 196 our theory is CONFIRMED that this guy truly IS THE NINJA LEADER!

His true alias is Empty Void! And together with Blast, it was their mission to hunt down God’s cubes.

Nonetheless, he was tempted by them. Remember, these cubes MAIN purpose, is to act as a communication device, as well as house part of God’s power.

Upon coming into contact with one, you are able to hear the voice of god. This is how he begins to tempt those weak-spirited enough to accept his malicious deal.

After Blast’s friend monsterized, he forbade anyone from using his name and instead began being referred to simply as “THAT MAN”.

In the Webcomic, we learn that he has apparently been alive for over 300 years conducting assassinations.

He was stated to be overwhelmingly powerful and could easily handle the entire Heavenly Ninja Party by himself if he needed to.

He could deliver Ninjutsu with fantasy-like power 4-5 times every 0.2 seconds.

If he faced Sonic and Flashy with his full power. He’d be able to kill them both in less than a second.

However, it’s clear that the Manga isn’t following the exact same route as the original webcomic here.

For starters, it’s hard to believe Blast’s best friend would be 300 years old somehow.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen weirder things in One Punch Man such as an army of sperm cells bringing doom to the world.

But it’s unlikely he would team up with someone who is a famous assassin. That being said, a lock of human morals is one thing that makes you susceptible to God’s manipulation, so it shouldn’t be ruled out just yet.

The craziest change of them all however is of course… his powers!

You see, what we didn’t know from the webcomic, but do now is that Empty Void is the ONLY person with the ability to open the “GATE OF THE CELESTIAL ROCK CAVE” that connects THIS dimension to the one where God hides.

Now, what on EARTH is a gate to the celestial rock cave I hear you ask?

Well, worry not, as I shall explain.

It originates from Japanese Mythology. It is stated that the bad behavior of the Japanese God of Storms, Susano, drove his sister, Amaterasu into the cave, thus leaving the land deprived of any and all light.

This might sound somewhat familiar, because if you cast your mind back to chapter 139 when Saitama, Manako, and Flashy Flash touched God’s cube, they were teleported to a different dimension.

When they peeked through the hole in the wall, they were met with complete and utter DARKNESS. However, what we know was truly on the other side, was GOD!

Meaning that Saitama himself may well have already visited this Rock cave they speak of.

However, as Blast said, only Empty Void has the power to go there on command, hence why the Hero Association is conducting experiments to revert monsters back to humans.

If they succeed, they will be able to finally take the battle to God directly and END this war.

As we know though, this battle works both ways. As the existence of Saitama alone attracts God to the hero’s dimension.

Plus there’s the prophecy that Shibababwa made using God’s Third Eye ability that foretold the end of the world!

However before Saitama’s final battle with God can begin, Flashy Flash receives a letter from Sonic.

It reads:

“THAT MAN HAS AWAKENED. IT’S TIME TO SETTLE THE SCORE”.

As Sitch points out, the return of THAT MAN is very convenient timing. 

This leads to Blast remembering the past 15 years ago, Void could have easily recovered much sooner and was simply waiting for the perfect time.

And since we know he is linked with God directly, it would make sense for him to have awakened now.

As remember, it’s only been a couple of days since the event with Cosmic Garou and the dimensional seal that held God being damaged.

The Heavenly Ninja Party’s plan, led by Empty Void, is to kill Flashy Flash, and Blast.

What will they do once they have achieved that?

Sonic and Blast’s Plan Explained;

Sonic’s role in all this is to lure Flashy Flash into the open so that they can proceed with step 1, which is exactly what he has done with this letter.

Flash leaves Blast, Saitama, and Manako to go ahead of him, whilst he deals with Sonic once and for all at the place they once dreamt of building their new and improved Village!

In the meantime though, Blast heads off to the base to face off against the Ninja Village Leader, where he invites Saitama with him.

Blast doesn’t remember that Saitama is also one capable of manipulating the reality of the cosmos like he and Garou could (ch 166)

This is because Saitama reset the timeline. In fact, not even Saitama knows he defeated Garou.

The credit was given to Blast instead.

The only person who knows is Genos who then explained it to everyone in hours and hours of monologue. 

However, Blast himself will know that something isn’t right, as he of course will understand that he didn’t really defeat the Hero Hunter.

Nonetheless, things may slowly begin piecing themselves back together once he sees how strong Saitama is vs the Ninja Leader, making him a likely permanent candidate for Blast’s Anti-God Squad!