Ch.111Towards Tomorrow (Season 1 Complete)

The moment Hoshino’s “Chewable!” comment dropped.

The basement fell into silence.

No one, absolutely no one, could utter a word.

Everyone just stared blankly at Hoshino with their mouths open.

At that moment, a strange cry broke the stillness.

“Grrrrrr… Krarak! Krararak!”

Janghoon, wearing the horned mask, began to growl and laugh with his monstrous mouth.

“?! J-Janghoon… why are you suddenly acting like that? Did I say something too weird…?”

As the confused Hoshino asked, Siljongi stepped in from the side.

“That’s not it! Right now, Sir Janghoon is just too happy!”

“R-really?”

“Yes! He’s deeply moved that the princess would say such a thing!”

The frozen atmosphere thawed somewhat thanks to Siljongi’s interpretation.

Only one person couldn’t laugh.

The human monster, Avanka.

“Ha… to think Hoshino would be such a possibility-chaser…”

She muttered through gritted teeth, wearing a distorted smile.

“In that sense, if only I were eliminated right here and now, this would truly become a happy ending, wouldn’t it?”

“Certainly… if everyone agrees to keep quiet, we might miraculously get away with it.”

However.

“But that’s not going to happen.”

Avanka’s body began to ripple and transform.

Dozens of heads, hundreds of arms and legs.

She was reverting to her original form—a monster among monsters.

“Because I’m the strongest one here.”

“KRAAAAAAAA!!”

KWANG!!

Janghoon’s uppercut shattered the underground concrete and shot upward.

That fist, striking Avanka’s jaw directly, launched her into the sky along with dozens of tons of debris.

Her body traced an arc through the collapsed building structure, cutting through fragments.

“…Your strength is truly absurd.”

But she didn’t crumble.

Rotating her body in mid-air, dozens of hands surrounded Janghoon like shadows.

Monstrous arms extended and wrapped around his entire body, and then…

Crunch, squish.

The sound of crushing grip and breaking bones filled the space.

Janghoon’s body was compressed as if about to shatter.

Avanka curled up the corners of her mouth.

However.

CRACK!

There was no scream to be heard.

Instead, something burst inside her palms.

“…What?”

Dozens of hands were torn apart, burst, and crumbled like shells falling away.

At the center, the black horned mask slowly raised its head.

When that gaze fell upon her, the faces floating in the sky screamed simultaneously.

“Get away!!”

“Monster, that’s a monster!!”

“I’m supposed to be the strongest!”

“This can’t be happening!”

“I alone am at the apex!!”

“……”

Janghoon said nothing.

Only a cry boiling from deep within.

“Grrrrrk.”

That single roar silenced the screams.

The next moment.

BOOM!!

His kick tore through the air.

That single strike, passing through Avanka’s center, ripped through dozens of arms and shattered the sky.

And the two monsters plummeted toward the ground.

KWAKWAKWAKWABOOM!!!

Penetrating dozens of floors, steel beams, concrete walls—everything—the two massive shadows embedded themselves into the ruins.

In that instant, the surrounding terrain shook all at once.

The ground split, and debris shot up like a volcanic crater.

And through the dust, Janghoon rose first.

Before him, Avanka, returned to human form, knelt on one knee.

Wiping blood and staggering to her feet, she muttered.

“…What on earth is happening…?”

Avanka spoke to herself with a bewildered expression.

“I sensed Janghoon’s energy from the beginning. But… he couldn’t sense me.

The hierarchy among monsters is structured so that lower beings cannot detect higher ones…!”

Theoretically, she should have been stronger.

But the result was the opposite. It made no sense.

…No, it was an impossible outcome.

But before she could ponder this further.

THUD!

“Gack!”

Janghoon’s fist pushed Avanka’s entire jaw.

Flesh tore, and fangs flew out.

But.

“Kugh…!”

Spitting blood, Avanka counterattacked.

Striking Janghoon’s temple, making his eyes roll back halfway.

CRACK!

Bone fractures, blood vessels, skull resonating.

One hit.

Then another.

Without time to catch a breath, fists alternately embedded into each other’s faces.

Jaw, cheekbone, nape, abdomen.

Ribs twisted, waists folded.

“You bastard…!”

“Krararak…!”

With reason severed, the two monsters grabbed each other’s collars and unleashed punches until their cheeks were crushed.

CRACK!

BOOM! THUD!

BOOM BOOM!

The ground split, the floor heaved.

With each impact, vibrations spread and Hero City’s alert systems overloaded and burst.

KWANG!!

The shockwave pushed out building walls, and dust exploded like a storm.

Drone cameras circling overhead were caught in the gale, and dozens plummeted.

This wasn’t a battle of technique.

It was a dogfight.

Primal, monster versus monster brawling.

Twisting, scratching, crushing, hitting—the two monsters completely tore up the underground collapse point.

At the edge of a battle that seemed to make the planet itself resonate.

But even in this bloody melee, an end was approaching.

‘At this rate… I’ll lose.’

Avanka sensed this fact instinctively.

At first, they were equal.

Fists extending at the same speed.

But now, her arms were heavy, and her muscles were on the verge of rupture.

Meanwhile, Janghoon…

“Grrrrrr…”

Still without a single disturbed breath, he continued delivering heavy punches.

The advance of an “absolute dominator” filled with madness, not shedding a single drop of blood.

‘…Am I feeling fear right now?’

Her heart was pounding as if about to burst.

The emotion that gives birth to monsters.

Fear.

The fact that it was now rising within herself—a human yet also a monster—was unbelievable.

She was the supreme “human monster” among monsters.

While other beings were born from fear, she was the one who sowed fear like “seeds.”

Yet now she was being swallowed by fear.

“Could it be… a monster of fear…?”

RIIIP!

Janghoon’s fist shattered her nasal bone.

Spewing blood and falling backward, Avanka muttered through her labored breath.

“That’s impossible… monsters are born through fear as a medium…

A monster that governs fear itself… is that even possible?”

Yet now, that impossible possibility was being realized before her eyes.

She knew.

This was a fight she could never win from the start.

“A deeper and more primal… fundamental fear. Unless it’s a monster realm born from such a place, in the human realm… I can’t win.”

But losing and dying are different things.

Avanka wiped away blood and stood up.

In her eyes dwelled a determination like a final flame.

She turned her back on Janghoon.

And sprinted at full speed.

Toward the direction he was protecting, toward his “weakness.”

“Let’s see if you can block this too!”

“Kruk?!”

“Wh-what?!”

“Sh-she’s coming this way!”

Avanka charged toward Hoshino.

Janghoon reacted too late.

‘Damn… too late!’

“KRAAAAAAAAAAA!”

She sharpened her fingertips like blades. Approaching while aiming for Hoshino’s heart.

“If I must succumb to fear, let me offer the final piece so that fear can become a complete being!”

However.

“…?!”

Just one step away, Avanka stopped.

She caught her breath, and her pupils trembled subtly.

Then she looked at Hoshino’s abdomen.

“…!”

A pulse of life so minute that only she could detect.

It was the beginning of life.

Janghoon and Hoshino’s child.

Avanka quietly lowered her hand.

Complex emotions crossed her face.

Janghoon was rushing from behind, but she didn’t turn to face him.

She just looked into empty space and smiled bitterly.

“…Miss Hoshino.”

“Yes?”

“Congratulations on your pregnancy.”

And then.

CRACK!

Janghoon’s fist struck her head.

Avanka’s silhouette, half-shattered as it flew away,

slowly dispersed into the sky like a collapsing structure.

It was the end of one born a monster and dying as a human.

***

“…! Quick, undo the transformation!”

“Kruk?!”

Near the Calveno Building, through the gaps in the collapsed city, the presence of crowds was gradually gathering.

At Hoshino’s urgent cry, I immediately released my monster form.

The black horned mask dissipated, and my sharp hands and feet gently returned to human form.

The battle was over.

The ground was split, buildings were half-collapsed, and among the debris, only two people remained.

Hoshino was still breathless.

Roughly wiping the blood from her arms, she approached me and sat down heavily beside me without saying anything.

“…It’s over.”

“…Yeah.”

We were both of few words.

Too much had happened to make small talk.

Avanka, the horned mask monster, and… pregnancy.

But in that silence, Hoshino quietly took my hand.

Hot and rough—the hand that had just knocked someone down.

But now it was warm.

I looked down at that hand and smiled awkwardly, slightly.

Only then did Hoshino speak.

“…Anyway.”

Debris was scattered, and dust still floated in the air, but her voice was very clear and straightforward.

“I’m counting on you from now on. Baby daddy.”

My pupils trembled slightly.

I lost my words for a moment but soon nodded slightly.

“…Yes!”

The monster of fear.

The human monster.

And now, another life just beginning to beat its heart.

The collapsed city was rising again, some still shouting for justice, others living as if nothing had happened.

But that day, Hero City definitely lost something.

And simultaneously gained something.

What could be protected because one was a monster, what couldn’t be harmed because one was human.

A single love that bloomed at that boundary now quietly begins to take root in a corner of this city’s heart.

That day, an era definitely ended.

And a very small, warm era was beginning.