Eating Meat

"Uh, Skye, are you sure this is okay?" Saitama watched the business card back in Skye's hands and frowned slightly, a hint of distaste on his face.

"Of course it's okay. I've washed it clean—and I washed it several times!" Skye held up the card.

She had retrieved the business card Saitama had thrown away. When he'd tossed it, he'd flung it right into a pile of garbage, leaving it absolutely reeking.

Normally, nobody would want something that smelled like that. But when it was worth a lot of money, that was another matter. And a business card belonging to Tony Stark was clearly worth a lot.

"But it looked disgusting before."

"That's because you tossed it away carelessly."

"But you hadn't told me it was valuable. Wait, is it really worth that much?"

"Of course. It's Tony Stark's business card. I'm not exactly fond of Tony Stark, but I have to admit, he's amazing. Even a single business card of his could fetch a lot of dollars." Skye's face broke into a smile again.

She had washed and dried it over and over until it looked as good as new before finally stopping. Looking at the nearly pristine card, she'd almost wanted to kiss it. It represented money, and who didn't like money? But when she remembered how it had looked when she'd picked it out of the trash, Skye wisely abandoned the idea.

"Then how much can we get for it?" Saitama perked up. He was always very interested in anything to do with money. He was simply too poor. As a hero for fun, he had no regular source of income, and he even had to find ways to save on food. So he'd be delighted if he could earn some money legitimately.

He felt the same way about supermarket sales. Saving money on groceries was something Saitama appreciated.

"Hmm, I think someone might pay as much as a hundred thousand dollars for it, if we can find the right buyer," Skye said after thinking it over.

"A hundred thousand? How much meat could I eat with that? Hmm, quite a lot." Saitama rubbed his chin. He was calculating based on the money in his old world, which was actually similar to Japanese yen. A bowl of ramen cost several hundred, or even over a thousand. So he figured Skye's hundred thousand dollars was about the same as a hundred thousand yen.

"How much meat? You really are..." Skye stared at Saitama, speechless. She then started looking for a way to sell Tony Stark's business card.

Skye was a hacker, and a pretty skilled one, too. Though she didn't have many connections in the real world, she could easily find a way to sell it online. Well, it wasn't exactly fencing stolen goods, since the card had been obtained completely legally.

She pulled out her computer and began typing rapidly. The keyboard clattered in a steady rush, like raindrops.

Watching her work, Saitama leaned over from beside her. There was a hint of admiration in his dull eyes. "Skye, you're amazing. You type so fast. You must be great at video games, too."

Skye's lips curled up at his praise. "Of course. I'm a really good hacker, and games are easy for me, too."

"A hacker?" Saitama stared at Skye, wide-eyed with surprise.

"That's right! Impressive, huh?"

"Um, what's a hacker?" Saitama scratched his head.

"..." Skye stared at him. "Are you joking?"

"No. I think I've heard of hackers before, but it was a long time ago." Saitama tipped his head back, his gaze a little vacant. After three years of training, he'd gone bald and gotten strong. But he seemed to have forgotten a lot of unimportant things, too.

"Are you an alien or something? Or did you live in the mountains your whole life? How do you not even know what a hacker is?" Skye turned around and stared at Saitama in disbelief.

"I told you, didn't I? I used to live in Z City."

"..."

Skye decided to stop pressing him about it. Whenever they talked about this, she couldn't understand what Saitama was saying. She even suspected that he might have spent his whole life in a mental hospital. Z City, heroes, monsters—she figured he'd made all of it up.

If Saitama hadn't saved her, she would have sent him to Bellevue Hospital long ago. He was a little absent-minded and seemed to have a few screws loose, but he'd never done anything extreme or gone too far.

Although Skye was a hacker, she still had to negotiate with potential buyers one by one. Tony Stark's business card wasn't like an antique painting or calligraphy scroll, with a fixed value and an established market. So she had plenty of work ahead of her. But she didn't mind being busy. Making money made it worthwhile, especially since she'd only just moved out on her own and really needed it.

Saitama sat beside her, watching as she clacked away at the keyboard, filling the screen with things he didn't recognize. Before long, he lost interest and began to doze off, his head bobbing as he sat there. When Skye stretched to ease the ache in her shoulders, she suddenly noticed that Saitama seemed to have fallen asleep. She immediately felt like she was about to explode with anger.

She was working herself to the bone to make money, while Saitama sat beside her taking a nap. Even if he'd stretched out on the sofa to sleep, that would've been better than dozing off beside her with nothing to do.

"Hey! Wake up! Come on, wake up!" Skye shoved Saitama twice.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean, 'huh'? It's almost noon. Go out and buy lunch."

"Oh!"

"Go on!"

"I don't have any money!"

"...Here! Take this and buy me two hamburgers. As for what you want, there's only this much, so it should be enough for you to get a meal with meat." Skye sounded a little harsh, but she gave Saitama a decent amount of money. Of course, that was also because a huge sum was about to come in soon.

"Meat—" Saitama's eyes lit up.

Seeing Saitama's eyes light up at the mention of meat, Skye suddenly felt sorry for him. How long had it been since this guy had eaten meat?