Ch.144Refugees Are Coming

“You don’t need to know.”

“Don’t need to know? Didn’t you just use drugs on Sa Gu-gu?”

In that moment, I felt something inexplicable.

Instinctively fluffing up my fur at the strange sensation around me, I quietly looked down at Ui, the source of the discomfort.

“The type of drug, I see. Mental stabilizer, sedative, a custom compound made by the Laboratory? This smell—it’s much more volatile but also more potent.”

“You…”

“You’re using drugs to make her follow your commands. Sa Gu-gu’s sense of self is already diminished, so she must be easy to control. Is that why you made her call you ‘mom’? To increase her dependency?”

The ground trembled subtly beneath us, and I felt a confusion of sensations in my head.

The space around Ui began to distort strangely, as if slowly melting.

“You’re treating her like a complete tool, Gu Seo-ryong… If you truly cared for Sa Gu-gu, you wouldn’t have bought her just one Pipi-kung. How shameless, pretending to care while doing something like that.”

“What do you know? If you don’t know anything, shut up.”

“Unus! Did you know? That Gu Seo-ryong was doing this to Sa Gu-gu!”

I quietly watched Ui, who was reproaching me for knowing and doing nothing.

Ui blinked, looking shocked.

“No way, you really knew?”

“I’m giving her medicine for her own good. I wish you’d stop making these strange assumptions.”

“You’re saying drugging her into submission to control her as you please is for her own good?”

“Sa Gu-gu was an experiment sent to kill Black Cat. She’s only alive because I’m controlling her. She was originally meant to kill CXI too.”

“That’s a lie! Unus doesn’t kill children!”

After listening quietly to their conversation, I spoke clearly to Ui.

[That’s right, I don’t kill children.]

However, even if something looks like a child, a monster is still a monster.

[I kill monsters.]

Hearing this, Ui pressed her lips together and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again.

“…I understand.”

Returning to her usual expression, Ui smiled and said:

“I suppose there’s no choice but to use drugs if it’s to control a monster that would otherwise rampage impulsively.”

“Right, we can’t have her wandering around in monster form and getting eliminated by heroes.”

“Gu Seo-ryong. Didn’t I just say I understand?”

Ui, who rarely interrupted, narrowed her eyes and glared at Gu Seo-ryong while maintaining her smile.

“Save your excuses. I seem to have misunderstood you. That’s the end of it, isn’t it?”

“Excuses? Misunderstanding? You call that…”

“Let’s stop here. We’re in front of Sa Gu-gu and Unus.”

“Ha…!”

In the frigid atmosphere, as the two silently glared at each other, Sa Gu-gu, who had been quietly moving her eyes back and forth between them, suddenly raised her hand.

“Did Ui and Mom fight?”

“We didn’t fight. We just had a small difference of opinion.”

“It wasn’t a fight.”

“Pipi-kung says if you fight, you have to make up!”

“Oh my, this child!”

Sa Gu-gu grabbed Gu Seo-ryong’s wrist, dragged her over, and took Ui’s hand.

“Say sowwy!”

“Urgggh…!”

“Sa Gu-gu, it’s fine. There’s no need for apologies.”

“Say sowwy! Now!”

She forced Gu Seo-ryong and Ui’s hands together.

The two resisted like opposing magnets, bending their wrists in opposite directions, but seeing Sa Gu-gu earnestly trying to join their hands, they both clicked their tongues simultaneously.

“I’m sowwy.”

“It’s not ‘sowwy,’ it’s ‘sorry.'”

“It’s sowwy!”

“…Sowwy.”

After barely touching fingertips in apology, the two yanked their hands away the moment Sa Gu-gu released their wrists, and wiped their hands on their clothes.

#

Late at night, as bedtime approached, Sa Gu-gu received two toothbrushes from Gu Seo-ryong and approached Ui with a wagging tail.

“Does Ui know how to brush teeth?”

“Brush teeth? Yes, I know how.”

“You know how?!”

“Not very well.”

Sa Gu-gu’s ears and tail stood straight up then drooped, causing Ui to hastily change her answer.

Sa Gu-gu’s tail began wagging again.

“Sa Gu-gu hates brushing teeth. But not brushing teeth makes you a bad child. Ui is a good child, so Sa Gu-gu will teach you how to brush teeth.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Brushing teeth is over here! Water comes out!”

Though it was a closed area, the faucet with groundwater installed still produced clean water.

After Sa Gu-gu, unusually excited today, took Ui away, Gu Seo-ryong, who had been quietly leaning against me with her arms crossed, finally spoke.

“…That kid is really annoying, seriously.”

Perhaps because she’d been called out for controlling Sa Gu-gu with drugs, Gu Seo-ryong still seemed to be in a bad mood.

“Still, regardless of whether I like her or not, I think I can trust her.”

[Has your opinion changed?]

“She has too clear a sense of self to have been sent by the Laboratory.”

Gu Seo-ryong watched as Sa Gu-gu put a little toothpaste on her own toothbrush while piling a mountain of it on Ui’s.

“She stayed quiet no matter what Gu-gu did and had been perfectly maintaining her ‘I’m an ally, please trust me’ act until now. But the moment I gave Gu-gu drugs, she got angry, showing hostility toward me and disappointment in you.”

[So you trust her because she’s not perfect.]

“When someone’s trying to deceive others, they tend to be thorough and try to be perfect. Conversely, showing imperfection suggests it’s not an act but their true self.”

With a downcast gaze, Gu Seo-ryong tapped her fingers and muttered.

“She still seems to have some separate agenda… but Ui’s admiration for you and affection for Sa Gu-gu are genuine. So I think it’s fine to leave her be.”

[You don’t seem to like her.]

“Oh my, that doesn’t matter. As long as you like me, that’s enough.”

As Gu Seo-ryong shrugged and twirled my fur around her finger, I swallowed what I was about to say.

That wasn’t what I meant, but it seemed Gu Seo-ryong understood and didn’t care.

“More importantly, did you see it earlier? The rippling around her.”

[Mm.]

When Ui showed hostility toward Gu Seo-ryong while looking at Sa Gu-gu, the space around Ui had seemed to melt.

“Could it be a special ability? I’ve never seen space distort like that before. Is that possible with spatial manipulation?”

[I don’t know.]

I might be able to imitate something similar, but it felt different from spatial manipulation.

Was that Ui’s special ability? I was pondering this question when—

“What is it? What’s wrong, darling?”

I raised my head from my spot and pointed my whiskers forward.

A presence from far away, the resonance of a monster, and the increasingly strong scent of human blood.

“Meow? Something smells delicious.”

“Humans.”

Sa Gu-gu and Ui, who had also smelled the blood, came out rinsing their mouths, and belatedly, Gu Seo-ryong turned her head in the same direction.

“Hmm, these must be refugees.”

Refugees who secretly escaped from various cities and risked their lives to reach the safe zone I created.

The presence of people being chased by monsters was getting closer.

I rose to help the refugees outside my sphere of influence before they were hunted by monsters.

“Wait, darling.”

Just then, Gu Seo-ryong stopped me.

As if realizing why Gu Seo-ryong had stopped me, Ui frowned and spoke.

“You want me to go help the refugees instead of Unus? Your goal is information about my ability, and if I’m really moving for Unus’s sake, you want proof. Is that it?”

“Oh my, I like that you understand without me having to explain at length.”

Since I was also curious about Ui’s ability, I stopped moving, and Ui sighed and stepped forward toward Gu Seo-ryong.

“Fine. I’ll go. But I have a condition.”

“A condition?”

“Let me take Sa Gu-gu with me.”

“Meow?”

Ui grabbed Sa Gu-gu’s wrist.

“I don’t want to be seen using my ability in this form. Young superhumans get dragged to educational facilities. And I don’t want to attract attention as another monster helping humans by showing my monster form. I’ll hunt as discreetly as possible, but if I am spotted, having Sa Gu-gu beside me will make people think it was Black Cat helping.”

Since Sa Gu-gu’s monster form resembles mine.

I pushed the hesitant Gu Seo-ryong with my front paw to urge her.

If we don’t hurry, the refugees will be hunted by monsters.

“…Alright.”

“Good. Sa Gu-gu, let’s go. We’re hunting monsters.”

“Meow? Sa Gu-gu brushed teeth? Have to brush again after hunting? Meow… meow meow… meow!”

Sa Gu-gu clutched her head, torn between hunting and brushing teeth, before making her decision and transforming into her monster form.

It seemed she wanted to hunt even if it meant brushing her teeth again.

[Only kill monsters.]

“Meow!”

“Impressive. Well then.”

Sa Gu-gu, who had transformed into her complete monster form after a long time, ran ahead quickly, and Ui’s body melted into liquid behind her.

With a splash, Ui seeped into the ground in liquid form and shot out like a torpedo toward the direction of the monsters.

“An ability to transform into liquid?”

[No, there was no reaction of a special ability.]

What she just showed was a monster characteristic.

In other words, Ui is a liquid-form monster.

“Darling, let’s follow them too.”

“Meow.”

I brought out a slightly stronger cat than usual to match Gu Seo-ryong, who was monsterizing to see how Ui would fight the monsters.

The slim, leopard-like creature possessed several speed-related abilities.

Whoosh, the cat silently raced ahead of Gu Seo-ryong through the night ruins, following Ui and Sa Gu-gu.

“B-Black Cat! You’re alive!”

“Come on, we’re almost at W City!”

“Just a little more!”

On a six-lane bridge built over what was now essentially a forest in the far outskirts of the closed zone.

Humans soaked in blood were moving toward the end of the bridge, increasingly surrounded by monsters.

Behind them, pack monsters, driven mad by the scent of human blood, were charging forward.

“Meow meow meow meow!”

Dog-like monsters with swollen flesh like bubbles had their dripping saliva cut into pieces by Sa Gu-gu’s ability.

Then, another monster drawn by the special ability wave indicating food was here rushed past Sa Gu-gu toward the humans.

Black-skinned monkeys with hairless bodies and eyes bulging excessively like flies.

Sa Gu-gu blew cold air onto the bridge, freezing it, causing the monkeys’ hands and feet to stick one by one.

“Meow meow meow…!”

“Screech! Screeeeech!”

Sa Gu-gu bit off the head of an immobilized monkey and dug into its chest with her front paws to tear out and eat its core.

And from the forest below and beside the bridge, plant-type monsters crawled up, swinging tentacle-like vines to snatch the refugees.

Swoosh, a thin stream of water penetrated and burst the plant’s vines.

Squeak, squeak, the stems made creaking sounds as they screamed, and water streams continuously shot out from puddles on the bridge, bursting the plants.

“Water?”

“Meooow.”

As Gu Seo-ryong, who had followed behind, watched while catching her breath, the water streams curved elegantly in the air and sprayed.

Insect monsters crawling out from between the plants got wet and writhed in pain as they melted.

That wasn’t just water.

After the citizens crossed the bridge into my territory, and the piling monster corpses prevented other monsters from approaching the bridge—

Splash, with the sound of water colliding, Ui’s form merged into one and rose abruptly onto the bridge.

Hiss, Ui lifted both feet to detach them from the asphalt they had melted.

Leaving Sa Gu-gu excitedly eating cores from monster corpses behind, Ui looked toward Gu Seo-ryong and me, who were standing quietly at the end of the bridge.

“Meow meow meow.”

An acidic slime?

As I muttered this, Ui smirked and nodded.

“I didn’t attack any humans at all. Is this satisfactory?”

“…Yes, not bad.”

The fact that Ui wasn’t drawn by the hunting excitement despite other monsters clamoring about prey suggests she’s maintaining her rationality properly.

Having confirmed what she wanted to check, Gu Seo-ryong looked at Ui with a sour expression and beckoned to Sa Gu-gu.

“Gu-gu, come here.”

“Meow~meow?”

As Sa Gu-gu, who seemed to be in a good mood from hunting, walked toward Gu Seo-ryong with her four paws soaked in monster fluid, Ui blocked her with a hand.

“One moment.”

Ui controlled the surrounding liquid to extract cores from the dead monster bodies.

The cores that emerged, carried by tentacles made of monster fluid, gathered at Ui’s feet and melted, forming a single lump.

“Sa Gu-gu, eat this.”

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“Meow!”

Before Gu Seo-ryong could stop her, Sa Gu-gu, with shining eyes, bit into the core lump and swallowed it after chewing vigorously.

“Gu-gu, wait…”

By the time Gu Seo-ryong tried to stop Sa Gu-gu, she was already licking her lips with satisfaction.

Excited by the delicious cores, Sa Gu-gu bounced over to Gu Seo-ryong and rubbed her head against her.

Despite getting soiled by the blood on Sa Gu-gu’s mouth and paws, Gu Seo-ryong remained still, staring at Ui with a hardened expression.

“What are you thinking?”

“Sa Gu-gu hunted monsters with me, so she has the right to eat the cores.”

“That’s not what I mean, you…!”

“Is it not allowed? To feed cores to Sa Gu-gu?”

Just as they were glaring at each other again with Gu Seo-ryong emanating anxiety—

“Meow meow meow.”

“Meooow?”

“This is…”

I meowed at the sensation of monsters and humans approaching from another direction far away.

Gu Seo-ryong and Ui broke eye contact and looked in opposite directions, while Sa Gu-gu and I also turned our heads in different directions.

“There are many.”

Refugees were coming from all directions.