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"Situation? Oh, you mean the meteor? Ahh… still didn't get enough sleep…"Ethan looked up lazily at the massive meteor hanging over his head and let out another yawn.
"Y-Yes! Mr. Ethan, there must be something you can do! You have to stop this! If a meteor that big hits the ground, not only Z-City— the whole planet could be in danger! Please, I'm begging you, you have to stop it!"Genos was nearly shouting in desperation.
"Yeah, yeah, I got it. The meteor hasn't even hit yet, right?"
"If it hits, it'll already be too late, Mr. Ethan!"
"It's fine, I'll handle it."
"There's only two minutes left!"
"Mhm, mhm, still two minutes, right? By the way, you wouldn't happen to know any cute girls looking for a maid job, would you?"
"M-Maids? Mr. Ethan, now is not the time to be thinking about maids!" Genos stared at him, half laughing, half crying.
"Hey, maids are important, you know. Especially since I just went to a maid café today! A bunch of cute girls in frilly outfits calling me Master in those soft little voices… ahh, that feeling…"Ethan looked like he was about to ascend from pure bliss.
"Mr. Ethan!!! Please get serious! This isn't about your dream maid right now! The meteor—it's already here! Look!"Genos pointed upward, voice cracking, as the gigantic meteor loomed barely a few dozen meters away.
It blotted out the entire sky. Just by size alone, it could've swallowed Z-City whole. If it hit the Earth, it would be an extinction-level event—no exaggeration.
"It's still a few dozen meters away, right? Relax. We're standing on the tallest building in Z-City, which means we'll be the first ones to meet it. All we have to do is wait."
"Wait? Wait to die?" Genos muttered hopelessly. He'd already given up. Ethan was… not the reliable hero he'd imagined. Not even close.
"Die? Of course not. Standing here just means I can meet it first—so I can push it away before it hurts anyone. Not even a scratch on the planet!" Ethan explained it like it was the simplest thing in the world.
"I can't even…" Genos shook his head.
"Yeah, yeah. Something like that meteor—no one can stop it."Bang, who had just arrived, sighed heavily, clearly thinking the same thing.
"Actually, stopping it's pretty easy. Like this."Ethan reached up casually, placing one hand on the meteor. Instantly, the massive rock—falling at breakneck speed—froze in place. Just like that. The entire meteor was suspended midair, and the skyscraper beneath his feet didn't even tremble.
"What…?" Genos and Bang both gawked, eyes bulging.
"See? Told you, easy. Ahh… still sleepy though."Ethan yawned again, one hand still holding up a meteor the size of a city.
His nonchalant attitude almost made the other two wet themselves.
"M-Mr. Ethan, please, whatever you do, don't move! If that thing slips from your hand—"
"It's fine, it's fine. Got a good grip on it! But thinking about it… nobody's gonna want this big rock, right? I'll just toss it away."
"Toss it… away?" Bang's jaw dropped.
"Yup. Like this."Ethan gave the slightest push with his arm. In the blink of an eye, the meteor shot back into the sky, slicing through the atmosphere like a rocket. Judging from the speed, it'd be out of Earth's orbit in seconds.
He clapped his hands and grinned. "Alright, problem solved! Nobody gets hurt, not even a scratch on Earth. Perfect!"
"Perfect indeed! Mr. Ethan, you're incredible—unbelievably powerful!"Genos gave him a huge thumbs-up. Bang followed suit, nodding in awe.
"Hahaha, perfect—uh…"Ethan's smile froze mid-laugh. Genos and Bang's faces stiffened too.
Because right at that moment, a yellow blur flashed across the sky—and the meteor Ethan had just launched upward was suddenly smashed to pieces by a single punch.
That's right. Shattered. Into millions of fragments.And there was only one bald man on the planet who could do that.
Saitama.
He'd destroyed the meteor that Ethan had perfectly removed from Earth's path. Now, the broken pieces rained down like bombs, flattening everything below.
Buildings collapsed. Streets burned. By the time it was over, nearly eighty percent of Z-City was gone.
"Ha ha ha! Heard there was a meteor, so I rushed all the way here from A-City! Just in time too—one punch and boom! Meteor gone!"Saitama laughed proudly, completely unaware that he'd just turned a near-disaster into an actual catastrophe.
The city lay in ruins. Genos stared blankly at the destruction, overcome with the urge to just bury his face in his hands and cry.
"Actually… Saitama-sensei," Genos said weakly, "the meteor was already taken care of. Mr. Ethan had pushed it away—out into space. It wouldn't have harmed Earth at all."
"Huh? Wait, what?" Saitama's smile froze.
"In other words," Bang said, giving him a strange look, "if you hadn't interfered, everything would've been fine. But thanks to your punch, Z-City's been almost completely destroyed. Huge losses."
"Heh… heh heh… you're kidding, right? Heh…"Saitama laughed nervously, but there was no saving face now.
"..."
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