Ch.15This Is Going to Be Tough

Yu Anna, thinking herself foolish, addressed the monster.

“Why are you hunting orphanage directors?”

Monsters cannot speak human language. Monsters are natural predators of humans who have transformed from beasts.

“Why did you protect others from my attack back then?”

A monster’s instinct is to attack humans.

“Why! Why are you trying to separate me from the children!”

Monsters are enemies of humans.

It makes no sense.

Black Cat’s behavior, a monster that isn’t a normal monster.

Naturally, no answer came.

The ultra-low frequency vibrations that overwhelm humans, the pressure emanating from the monster core, the sound of crushing human skulls still echoing in her mouth.

Black Cat is, after all, a monster.

“Monsters… must die.”

Taking a deep breath, Yu Anna approached Black Cat slowly.

Only then did Black Cat lower its guard slightly, preparing to flee.

Its large wings burst into flames, and its several black tails gradually sank into shadows.

At that moment, the door to the room burst open.

“Don’t kill it! Don’t fight!”

“Stop! Stop it!”

“W-wait, just a moment…!”

Children from the next room, orphans, rushed through the door and grabbed Yu Anna’s legs.

Yu Anna, who had been focusing all her senses on not letting Black Cat escape, was flustered and tried to remove the children.

If she used her superpower now, all the children holding onto her would burn to death.

This is why Yu Anna hated people who protected monsters more than the monsters themselves.

“Do you kids even know what you’re doing…! Let go right now! The monster is…!”

“Don’t bother the cat!”

“The cat is helping us!”

“Heroes never helped us anyway!”

Yu Anna, who had been trying to remove the children, was shocked by their words and froze in place.

Heroes hadn’t helped them.

True to their words, Yu Anna vaguely knew what situation these children were in but couldn’t help them.

Meanwhile, Black Cat had… all the orphanage directors who were doing illegal things.

“W-wait!”

The moment Yu Anna stopped, Black Cat didn’t miss the opportunity and disappeared.

A black shadow sinking into the ground—soon, Black Cat would visit the last remaining orphanage.

With children still clinging to her legs with their eyes tightly shut, Yu Anna frowned and communicated with the heroes.

“…I lost Black Cat.”

[Understood. Then please come here right away…!]

“No, I can’t come now.”

[What? Were you… defeated?]

“Huh? If it grows stronger maybe, but my ability is still stronger. There’s no way I could lose to Black Cat…”

Yu Anna stopped herself from saying “no way.” Looking at it now, this unpleasant and helpless feeling seemed like she had indeed been defeated by Black Cat.

“…Yes. I think I was defeated.”

[Really?! No, is B-Black Cat that strong already? At this rate, it’ll soon be Annihilation-rank…!]

“It’s not that bad, anyway… I can’t come now.”

Yu Anna sighed, thinking how strange it was that she was saying such things.

“…Black Cat will only hunt orphanage directors. Don’t provoke it unnecessarily.”

[What…? What do you mean?]

“If it does anything else, anything unusual, contact me.”

[Senior? Senior Yu Anna?]

After ending the communication, Yu Anna gently stroked the heads of the children clinging to her legs.

One by one, the children who had been holding on with their eyes tightly shut looked up at her.

“I’m sorry… for not coming to help you…”

“Uugh… uuuuu…”

“Huuu… huaaaaa…”

Only then did the children burst into tears.

Like children, as if what they had been holding back finally collapsed.

And shortly after, a communication came from the heroes.

[…Black Cat has escaped.]

“Casualties on your side?”

[One person. The orphanage director…]

As expected, Black Cat had hunted only the orphanage director before disappearing.

After putting the children who had cried themselves to exhaustion to bed and coming out, Yu Anna looked up at the night sky, feeling somehow empty.

“Yes… I lost it.”

[Um… Senior… this orphanage, there’s some serious evidence…]

“…Please control the information. I believe… you know why.”

[…Yes.]

Yu Anna, who had already anticipated what this “evidence” might be, lowered her head after ending the communication.

It would be troublesome if public opinion formed as if the monster had done something good.

If adults, not children, clung to protect monsters, it would be impossible to persuade and remove them like today.

“…Black Cat.”

Yu Anna looked down at her weakly outstretched hand, recalling Black Cat’s appearance.

Despite having lost Black Cat several times before, this was the first time she had felt it.

The first time a hero felt defeat against a monster.

#

[The Despair-rank monster Black Cat has begun its activities. It has attacked a total of 12 people, the orphanage directors of W City…]

[After completing one hunt, Black Cat stopped hunting as if it were a lie. Regarding Black Cat’s unusual behavior, monster behavior specialists in W City have expressed the opinion that it is an individual with stronger beast instincts than monster instincts…]

[Yu Anna, an S-rank hero in W City with the hero name Starlight, who had warned about Black Cat, expressed the opinion that this incident simply revealed Black Cat’s true nature…]

On the rooftop of a building in W City.

Enjoying the pleasant breeze, I took a cucumber from my pocket and munched on it.

Recently, vegetables taste good, probably because I’ve been eating too many greasy things.

I was eavesdropping on news broadcasts that people in the opposite building were watching, focusing my ears on one of the buildings.

Some broadcasts spoke in seriously concerned voices, while others made statements defending Black Cat.

[I know I’ll get beaten up for saying this, but… how many times has Black Cat saved people? It seems like it has saved many times more people than the 12 victims.]

[There are rumors that the children who were protected in the orphanages run by the directors who became victims of Black Cat this time were all abused, and they are all grateful to Black Cat…]

[As a countermeasure against Black Cat, how about installing giant cat toys on buildings and making them in the form of cat towers?]

Where did that last broadcast come from? Are they in their right mind?

“…I’m not a cat, seriously.”

After finishing the cucumber, I looked up at the presence visible in the sky above.

A red trajectory—Yu Anna was flying.

Listening carefully, I could hear the alarm for a Disaster-rank monster ringing in the distance.

“Must be tough, hero.”

I took out another cucumber from my pocket and ate it.

#

After hunting the orphanage directors, humans who weren’t human, I grew significantly stronger again.

Monsters become stronger by eating other monsters and humans.

Especially eating strong humans and strong monsters makes them stronger… but for me, who hadn’t eaten many humans, those chunks of fat were quite nutritious.

Now that my control over my ability has definitely improved, I can completely hide my presence for a short time.

It feels like balancing a needle on the tip of another needle—it breaks with even the slightest loss of concentration, but if I focus, it’s possible for about 10 minutes.

I’ve figured out the trick, so it should get better as I continue to practice.

Separately, my ability output has also improved.

“Bla, ck, Caaaaaat!”

Today, while hunting a monster that suddenly appeared, I started being chased by Yu Anna again. I escaped through the forest of buildings using an ability that had improved so much it could hardly be called Lee Han-young’s superpower anymore.

Having already experienced what Yu Anna does when chasing me underground, I no longer fled underground unless I had a significant lead.

It would be a waste to damage what I had worked so hard to restore.

Now, I was confident I could shake off Yu Anna without necessarily going underground.

Lee Han-young’s superpower, Spectral Movement, was a higher-level ability than the Ghost Dog’s etherealization.

Unlike simple non-materialization where one’s body cannot affect physical reality at all, Spectral Movement allowed for adjusting the boundaries of what the body touches.

While thinking about how to hinder Yu Anna more while escaping, I came to the conclusion of connecting non-materialized objects.

While fleeing, I bit a street tree, then embedded it between buildings that had materialized when touched by my wings, and continued flying.

On lucky days when I caught iron rebar in my mouth, I could create obstacles continuously.

“Take it easy, you bastard!”

“Waoooong~”

Unlike me, who could completely ignore obstacles through materialization, Yu Anna had to melt through them with her superpower.

Every time this caused even a slight deceleration, the distance between Yu Anna and me widened.

Although Yu Anna still had higher instantaneous ability output and attack power than me, I had surpassed her in escape ability.

If Yu Anna were to mindlessly increase her output and chase me by melting entire buildings, I might fall within range of her ability again, but Yu Anna isn’t that kind of hero.

She’s the type who tries to minimize damage if possible—having figured this out after being chased several times, I was even able to stop Yu Anna.

“Grrrr…”

“Hey?! What are you…!”

“Kyaooo.”

“Hey, you, bastard!”

When the distance seemed to be closing due to a lack of obstacles to create with my mouth, I broke a communication tower on top of a building with my front paw, and Yu Anna urgently flew over to catch it.

I already knew this was an extremely expensive item.

Specifically, the antenna on top of the communication tower—the tower itself is made of a very strong alloy that doesn’t break easily, but it’s no match for the strength of a Despair-rank monster.

After barely saving the antenna, Yu Anna welded the communication tower with her superpower.

Meanwhile, I escaped to another location.

“You knew what you were doing! I’ll kill you, seriously!”

Now that the distance had widened sufficiently, escaping to the ground would be my victory.

At that moment, something amazing entered my field of vision.

A large piece of meat skewered on a pole—a kebab food cart.

I could escape anytime, but eating such a large kebab in monster form would be impossible except for now.

Monster damage is covered by insurance anyway, right?

Free food.

“Waongoongoo.”

Delicious! This place is definitely good!

After tearing the kebab from the food cart, I held the iron bar with both feet and started eating. Yu Anna fell to the ground.

Before her two feet could stomp on my back, I gracefully twisted my body to avoid her.

“Come on! Are you really a cat?!”

“Grrrrrr!”

I’m not a cat, seriously.

I just often take the form of a feline monster, but right now I’m something between a black panther and a tiger.

Jumping up with the kebab in my mouth, I continued to flee while filling my stomach, then wedged the kebab pole into another wall.

Now that I’ve enjoyed my snack, it’s time to escape again.

Today’s escape is my victory.

“Argh! Seriously!”