The animation, music, atmosphere, and color palette all gave her the same impression.
This man was terrifying.
"Damn it, I really don't want to be a hero."
The man's steady, oddly bubbly voice echoed through the sky, accompanied by the cheers of injured civilians who recognized King.
Faced with that pressure alone, the Lizard Monster completely lost its nerve. It immediately knelt down and begged for mercy.
The entire sequence left Miyu utterly dumbfounded.
"Wait, he's not fighting? King just let the Monster go? It begged for mercy and that's it?"
But the plot that followed widened her eyes even further.
This terrifyingly hyped hero, portrayed heavily in the first season and believed by many One-punch Man fans to potentially rival the Cosmic Overlord Boros, went straight to a game store.
He bought dating simulation games.
Then he happily carried them home.
On the way, he even wore an eager smile, clearly looking forward to playing games the moment he got back.
"Uh... is this a character contrast?" Miyu muttered. "An S-Class hero who's actually a hardcore gaming otaku?"
Then, on his way home, King encountered a Mechanical Monster seeking revenge.
During the confrontation, the story revealed King's inner thoughts, and he was clearly terrified.
Onlookers gathered around, and King even loudly announced his identity to the Monster, which looked incredibly powerful and was animated with meticulous detail.
In response, the Monster calmly drew a massive mechanical greatsword over ten meters long.
"I'm here to kill you!"
The King Engine thundered again.
King's eyes changed.
This entire scene was also witnessed by Saitama and Genos, master and disciple, standing nearby.
Then came the part that made Miyu completely lose it.
King suddenly announced that he needed to use the restroom, claiming he couldn't unleash his full power while holding in the urge to pee.
The Monster, shockingly chivalrous, agreed.
It even declared that if King didn't return within the agreed time, it would kill ten people for every minute he was late.
Inside the restroom, King completely broke down.
His imposing expression collapsed. Tears welled up in his eyes.
From his inner monologue, Miyu finally learned the truth.
King was just an ordinary person.
What King Engine?
What Strongest Man on Earth?
He was nothing more than a normal guy who had repeatedly survived Monster disasters by sheer coincidence.
Because he was the sole survivor at several catastrophic battle sites, the Hero Association mistakenly concluded that he was the one who defeated those monsters.
Without ever seeing him fight, they arbitrarily granted him S-Class status and gave him a nickname.
The Strongest Man on Earth.
And now, using the excuse of going to the bathroom, this so-called strongest man simply ran away.
Back at the scene, Genos confronted the Monster head-on.
Saitama, meanwhile, stood to the side in slippers, holding green onions and cabbage he'd just bought from the supermarket, casually supervising the fight.
After watching for a bit, Saitama simply left, allowing his disciple to continue battling alone.
"Pfft..wow… hahaha...this… this is ridiculous!" Miyu burst out laughing.
Beside her, Misaki could only shrug. Both sisters were far too absorbed in the plot to say anything else.
"How did Rei come up with a character like this?" Miyu gasped between laughs. "This contrast is insane."
Then her laughter suddenly paused.
"Wait, he survived multiple world-ending Monster disasters. If he didn't defeat them, then who did?"
An answer surfaced in her mind.
"No way, is it really that?"
Sure enough, the next scene confirmed it.
Saitama followed King home.
Then he hid behind him and watched him play dating simulation games.
While Genos fought a gigantic Mechanical Monster outside, Saitama and King were inside, intensely competing in video games.
"By the way," Saitama asked casually, "why did you run away earlier? Genos is fighting that thing for you right now. Aren't you supposed to be an incredibly powerful S-Class hero? Why are you playing games here?"
What the hell?
Saitama had genuinely thought King was a powerful, lonely individual like himself.
He'd heard the title "Strongest Man on Earth" and wanted to test King's strength.
Miyu's expression became completely unhinged, tears streaming down her face from laughter.
At that moment, another gigantic monstrous bird, five or six stories tall, attacked.
Its enormous head smashed into the room.
Saitama casually raised one hand and blocked it, protecting King behind him.
The contrast was overwhelming.
Saitama's absolute ease.
King's sheer terror.
So cool.
Miyu's eyes sparkled.
"They're already at your doorstep," Saitama said, glancing back. "Aren't you going to fight? S-Class Rank Seven, King?"
King's mental state completely collapsed.
He was about to be crushed by the fear of death.
He decided to confess everything before he died.
He was an impostor.
Just an ordinary person.
He had survived a few disasters, been given an absurd title, and lost the courage to take it off.
"I..I actually.." King began desperately.
At that exact moment, the monstrous bird launched a ferocious attack.
The bird's screech, King's confession, and Saitama's punch rang out simultaneously.
With a single blow, Saitama punched a massive hole straight through the building.
"Really?" Saitama said calmly, looking at King. "Your entire resume is fake?"
At that moment, King remembered.
Countless times, when he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of Monsters, there was always someone who appeared to save him.
That man was tall, imposing, and handsome.
And he had hair.
It was that man's achievements that King had unknowingly taken upon himself, rising all the way to seventh place among the strongest heroes in the world.
Now, as he looked at Saitama, the two figures overlapped in his mind.
King broke down in tears.
For the first time in his life, he told someone the truth.
He spoke of the pressure that came with the title, the constant fear of death, the endless pursuit by Monsters, the expectations and worship of the masses, and the way children looked at him as a savior.
He didn't dare to shatter those expectations.
Yet he also lacked the strength to live up to them.
Saitama listened quietly, his expression calm and unchanging.
"No matter what you say," Saitama finally spoke, "you're still the strongest hero in everyone's hearts. Or, King… are you planning to stop being a hero?"
"I can't make up my mind," King replied softly.
The final scene of the episode showed Saitama jumping down dozens of floors, green onions and cabbage still in hand.
As he left, he spoke his last words to King.
"Then why don't you just become stronger?"
The ending song began to play.
The smile on Miyu's face slowly faded.
She had thought King was nothing more than a comedic character.
So why did it hurt this much?
Whether born from vanity or circumstance, King had been given the title of the Strongest Man in the World. He had carried it on his shoulders, becoming a symbol of hope for countless civilians.
He couldn't cry in public.
He couldn't reveal the truth.
He had to maintain the image of an invincible hero, a hidden trump card of the Hero Association, simply to give people confidence.
Yet in the end, he was just an ordinary person.
Miyu glanced at the time.
"It only took twenty minutes," she murmured. "Twenty minutes to create a character this moving."
"Indeed," Misaki said quietly.
"Rei is truly unbelievable. After this episode airs, all the doubts about One-Punch Man Season Two will disappear."
And the facts proved her right.
After the episode aired, praise flooded the internet.
Major animation forums were filled with discussion threads about One-Punch Man.
"It's incredible. More episodes, please!"
"Teacher Shirogane is absurdly good."
"So King was pretending the whole time."
"My stomach hurt from laughing in the first half, and I cried in the second half."
"King knows what it feels like to be saved by a hero. That's why, even as an ordinary person, he maintained the King persona. Because he knows he is the light in everyone else's hearts. This character is insanely well written. Best character so far besides Saitama."
"Teacher Shirogane is god-tier. This episode proves it."
"Loved it. Completely satisfying."
"Ten points isn't the limit of my rating. It's the limit of the scoring system."
"Who said Season Two would be boring because Boros was already the strongest Monster? Now you understand what genius looks like. The protagonist of this episode wasn't Saitama or a Monster. It was an ordinary person."
"This anime always makes me laugh until I cry. I don't even realize it happening."
"There's no main storyline. The plot is too loose."
"Does that even matter? What enemy can stop Saitama?"
"Extremely satisfied. Keep going, Teacher Shirogane."
Amid this overwhelming praise, the viewership ratings for the first episode of One-Punch Man Season Two were announced the next day.
The premiere achieved a 5.76 percent rating, peaked at 6.39 percent, and averaged 6.15 percent across the entire episode.
It perfectly inherited the popularity of the previous season, trailing its final episode by only 0.03 percent.
But that 6.18 percent from the end of Season One had been the peak.
For Season Two, 6.15 percent was merely the beginning.
Anyone in the animation industry could understand what that meant.
Even after a two-week hiatus, the show's momentum had not diminished at all.
More perceptive professionals had already begun to sense it.
The storm that One-Punch Man was about to unleash might be far greater than anyone had imagined.
If this trend continued, the series was no longer just a highly popular anime.
It was on the path to becoming a true phenomenon.
It was absurd.
There was no massive capital backing it.
Shirogane had invested nearly everything into production, leaving little for promotion.
And yet;
Had this anime truly reached this level through nothing but quality and word of mouth?