With One-Punch Man‘s Monster Association arc coming to an end, the time has come for Garou’s fate to be decided as well. And, as it turns out, it’s not up to heroes or authorities, but a child with a special connection to the hero hunter.
Garou first met the child Tareo by accident in a park, and wound up protecting the kid on several occasions, even going so far as to break into the Monster Association HQ to rescue him when the monsters began taking hostages. As a result, Tareo has functioned as Garou’s “morality pet,” generally keeping him from going too far and even spurring him on to the occasional heroic act. Tareo’s pleading with Saitama not to kill Garou set the stage for the epic battles that were yet to come, and now that Garou has found himself at the mercy of the heroes, he’s speaking up in his defense once more.
Following Saitama’s time-travelling “Zero Causality” punch, Garou was defeated before he could take out the S-class heroes and his divine powers were taken back, leaving him almost powerless before the assembled heroes. Still, the heroes had already witnessed Garou’s defeat of Centisennin, and are well aware of how strong the hero hunter had become. Faced with the question of what to do with him following his defeat, some heroes like Amai Mask are adamant about killing him then and there, while others are hesitant to kill, even when it’s a villain. Tareo, still nearby after his rescue, runs in and declares how Garou had protected him previously, which manages to convince King to take a stance in his defense as well. With Bang advocating for Garou to make up for his misdeeds and Saitama thanking him for saving King and Genos from the monsters, the heroes are distracted enough for Garou to escape and live to fight another day.
Since Garou had received so much focus and development in the manga – to the point that he was essentially a second protagonist – it seemed unlikely that he’d just be killed off. While the alternate future version of Garou was seen vanishing with a goodbye wave to Tareo, this still leaves Garou available for a return in the future, and it’s a version without Genos’ death or the near destruction of Earth on his conscience. With the problem of God and its human-exterminating agenda still left to deal with, Garou’s strength may yet be necessary.
Tareo has been Garou’s main relationship throughout One-Punch Man, making it appropriate that the decision to save him would come down to this child’s intervention. Anyone else pleading on Gaoru’s behalf likely wouldn’t have been able to win over the sympathy of characters like King, so Tareo really was the only one who could do this. What Garou will do with his newfound freedom remains to be seen in future chapters of One-Punch Man, but at the very least, he’ll be taking a break from evil conquest for a while.
One-Punch Man chapter 169 is available to read now via the Viz Media website.
