Ch.1Abandoned

# Enhanced Translation

“People… help people… Mom is fine now, so that person…”

“…Excuse me.”

I woke from my dream to a voice in my ear.

A dream I’d had countless times—the moment just before I became alone in this world.

The sounds hitting my ears felt unfamiliar.

Wind, vehicle sounds that evoked distant memories, people chattering.

What filled my surroundings wasn’t the mechanical sounds, electric motors running, or devices scanning beneath skin.

When I opened my eyes, bright light filled my vision.

“Excuse me, you can’t sleep here.”

…Did they put another hallucination-inducing experiment in my room this time?

Go ahead and bite me if you want, hit me if you want… I sighed and curled up.

Then, in the gap between sensations that couldn’t be fooled by hallucinations, I felt a presence.

“Hello~? Hey, I said you can’t sleep here…?”

I felt something odd about the sensation of a stick poking my body, so I grabbed it.

The feeling was definite—not a hallucination.

Only then did I examine the person before me, who was wearing clothes like those police wore in my memories.

“What… what? A hero…? Or a villain? Are you a superhuman?”

Superhuman—a word in my memory. I opened my hand, and a crushed three-section staff fell out.

Was a three-section staff always this soft? Finding it strange, I picked up the cement floor with my hand—it felt like wet cardboard.

When I pressed lightly, it gave way with a squish, leaving a handprint.

“W-wait, are you a hero? Or… um, show me your face, searching… no registration found…”

As I slowly rose from my spot, the ragged mat covering my body tore.

The police officer drew his gun, looking extremely wary as I stood up.

“S-stop! Stay right there! This is District 12, requesting any available officers in W City for backup, unregistered superhuman discovered, unclear if villain or not!”

The trembling voice, the conversation into the radio on his shoulder—suddenly, a hazy memory surfaced.

The daily injections, the feeling of my body adapting to the drugs that seemed to drain my strength.

So I killed all the researchers at the laboratory.

Then came the green smoke… no, sedative gas… the phrase “Lab 3, Section A” that I saw when I broke through the lab door.

So… there were other laboratories. Did they decide to abandon me?

“Ugh…”

At that moment, I felt something pierce the back of my neck.

I immediately grabbed and pulled it out—a circular suction-like device came off.

A disgusting sensation raced through my body, making me feel itchy as if about to swell.

It’s similar to the sensation of the cocktail of stimulants they’d inject before battles with other monsters.

But this much… how stupid, I’ve already adapted to sedatives, there’s no way I’d get excited by such weak drugs.

Nevertheless, as the veins on both arms bulged and throbbed, the police officer before me aimed his gun in terror.

“W-what?! D-don’t come closer! Stop! Wait…!”

Bang! A gunshot echoed through the alley, and a bullet fell from my shoulder.

I caught the flattened lead piece in midair and squeezed it between my fingers.

It had the texture of a boiled egg… I dropped the cream-like squashed lead piece, and the officer fell over in terror.

“H-hieek?! The bullet, hik…?”

“Huff…”

Having suppressed the boiling power, I ignored the police officer and looked around.

This place was a garbage dump between buildings… I ignored the fallen officer and walked out of the alley.

Though slightly different, I could see the familiar scenery from my memories beyond the buildings.

The steel tower symbolizing W City, the communication tower rebuilt countless times after collapsing…

“…This is W City.”

I made eye contact with people around who were looking at the alley, probably startled by the gunshot.

Then I looked at my reflection in the glass window of the building next to me.

I don’t know how long it had been since I’d seen something that reflected my appearance like a mirror, but I looked very different from the person in my memories.

My height made everyone else look like children, my muscular body, disheveled hair, and… the identification code on my neck.

CXI, that was my code.

My name… I couldn’t remember.

“Outside…”

Looking in the mirror, I truly felt this was the outside.

Outside, not the laboratory… W City where I used to live.

As that thought reached me, I remembered a place I wanted to go.

But in this state, my current condition, I couldn’t go there.

I turned back toward the police officer who was crawling out of the alley after falling, and extended my hand.

“Hieek?!”

“Can I borrow some money?”

#

The cash the police officer had was woefully insufficient.

With no choice, I rummaged through a nearby used clothing bin and put on whatever I could find.

Getting dressed was quite difficult.

It was like wearing thin tissue paper—pull a little too hard and it tears.

Since I couldn’t find clothes that fit me properly, I ended up looking like someone who had come from some perverted place wearing revealing exercise clothes.

Still, it didn’t matter—better than being naked.

Many people were at my destination, which I reached on foot.

A large tombstone with countless names inscribed on it.

Finding one name among them, I stood at a distance from the tombstone and quietly closed my eyes.

It was raining that day.

A world before monster spores spread, childhood when everyone looked as tall as telephone poles.

Even at that young age, I could tell something was wrong.

I couldn’t see him every night, but whenever I did, Dad would come home exhausted.

Sometimes before bed, a man smelling of alcohol would drink, saying he couldn’t sleep, that it was hard.

When I’d wake up and go to the living room to talk to him, he’d say he wished I’d grow up quickly so we could drink together, rubbing his rough beard against me, smelling of something burnt—I liked him.

That dad’s photo, decorated with black ornaments on both sides, was in Mom’s hands.

‘When is Dad coming?’

At my innocent question, men I’d seen a few times before shed tears.

And Mom stood firm like a telephone pole.

‘Dad… is tired, so he’s sleeping a little.’

Dad was always tired when he came home.

So he’s sleeping again, I thought. When he wakes up, I’ll ask him to play with me.

And I never played with Dad again.

My father was a firefighter.

He lived saving others and died doing so.

And my mother said she was proud of such a life.

That it wasn’t a wrongful death.

Until the moment she died, trapped under a building toppled by a monster.

Mother told me to help people.

Until the very end.

This is the cemetery where my mother was buried along with other victims.

After paying my respects, I suddenly remembered the place where my mother’s belongings were stored.

Carefully avoiding contact with people… thankfully made easier by people avoiding me due to my appearance… I went to the keepsake repository and tried to enter the password I remembered, but broke the lock.

With no choice, I carefully inserted my finger, and the metal storage box was pierced like bread dough.

Gently tearing it open, I found family photos, my mother’s necklace, and my father’s firefighter uniform.

After taking everything out of the now-useless storage box, I put on my father’s firefighter pants.

What had seemed so large when I was young now fit my body perfectly.

The material was very sturdy, feeling much more like actual clothing compared to the tissue-like other clothes.

Finally, as I carefully touched the necklace with all my nerves on edge, I realized it was quite durable.

I believe Dad had it specially made by melting damaged firefighting equipment as a memento.

Perhaps because it was a special alloy, it still felt like metal despite my current strength.

I was glad I could keep this with me, so I wrapped it around my wrist.

Lastly, I put the family photo in my pocket.

After leaving the keepsake repository, I sat down by a nearby tree and fell into thought.

Now… what should I do?

Despite being abandoned—or more accurately, released—by the laboratory, my empty heart felt no motivation.

I didn’t want to do anything.

Take revenge on the laboratory that experimented on my body?

Killing those inhuman bastards was somewhat appealing, but to deal with them, I’d have to face the experimental subjects under them.

Those who, unlike me, obeyed their commands.

That didn’t appeal to me.

Unless an opportunity presented itself, I wasn’t sure if I could even find them to take revenge.

I had no idea where they had kept me, or where the other laboratories were.

I knew well that the only thing that motivated me was impossible.

As a human with nothing left, this world felt utterly empty to me.

Those who experimented on my body also knew I was trapped in terrible emptiness.

So they said destroy, kill humans, break everything, devour.

Why should I? I don’t want to.

The desire raging inside me now, aggression toward humans, none of it appeals to me at all.

That’s why I was called a failure.

I had nothing I wanted to do in the laboratory, let alone now that I was outside, having reached the place I so wanted to go.

Now I just… don’t want to do anything.

Really, nothing at all.

Then, I felt something.

“…Hmm.”

A sharp sensation that wouldn’t subside even amid my emptiness, a murderous intent penetrating the gaps of my hollow mind.

Direction: left, some distance away, I could sense a group of monsters rising from underground.

The surroundings were full of humans who had come to the cemetery.

Humans are food for monsters, and monsters like places with many people.

So it’s logical that monsters would come to a place like this, and preparations had already been made for it.

Loud siren sounds filled the air, and people moved urgently.

“Monsters!”

“R-run! Hurry! To the shelter!”

I watched the people fleeing desperately while sitting by the tree.

As the security equipment detected monster cores, people headed toward capsule shelters that could withstand monster attacks for a while.

Just before the monsters emerged from underground, heroes stationed nearby took to the air, unleashing their superpowers.

The monster that rose from the ground was an Earth Dragon, a monster evolved from an earthworm.

Its rank was… Homicide-rank.

A level capable of easily killing people.

“It’s an Earth Dragon! Be careful of the toxic mucus it spits!”

“Yes!”

“Create a containment line to prevent them from approaching people! Hurry!”

Superhumans who didn’t appear to be official heroes yet, along with formal heroes, rushed toward the Earth Dragons emerging from the ground.

Breathing fire, slashing with swords, electrocuting and paralyzing them.

They would probably be able to handle all the monsters before long.

The fleeing people probably knew this too.

However, in case of an accident… if just a tiny thing went wrong, one, two, or at most about ten casualties could occur during a monster attack.

Until the heroes defeated all the monsters, people fled and hid to protect themselves.

To avoid becoming unfortunate prey.

“Hui-su!”

“Aaaang! Aaaang!”

As I sat quietly watching the heroes subdue the monsters, a crying sound caught my attention.

Beyond the containment line created by the heroes, a child had tripped on a rock formed by the undulating ground.

The ground was rippling—a weak monster that had fallen behind from the group, pursuing slowly.

A predator of humans.

An Earth Dragon emerged from the ground, its circular mouth at the end of its slimy, mucus-covered body lunging toward the child.

The child’s mother screaming and rushing forward, the heroes too far away, outside their field of vision, unfortunate prey, food.

Seeing this scene, my body moved before my thoughts.

The laboratory experiments, the power they created, the massive monster core nestled beside my heart.

Violence activating and consuming my body, monster thoughts overtaking my mind.

What I needed now was… reflexes faster than anything, and firepower strong enough to vaporize even toxic mucus, destructive power… no, the ability to devour in one go.

My entire body was enveloped in fur, my skeleton changing.

Beast form, a wolf-like head with a raptor’s upper body and a tiger’s lower body.

Through the gaps of screaming humans fleeing, I dashed instantly to the front of the child and stomped on the Earth Dragon’s mouth with my foreleg.

“Grrrrrr…”

“Keeee!”

A burning sensation near my heart, lightning energy shot through my foreleg.

The electricity, controlled by my special ability and directed in one direction, burned a circular pattern on the ground, turning only the Earth Dragon to ash.

Having unleashed the Thunder Tiger ability—the power of a tiger that swallowed lightning—I looked down at the mother and child before me.

“H-hieek?!”

“Uwaaaaang!”

The two were trembling in fear before a monster incomparably more terrifying than an Earth Dragon.

And a siren sound much louder than before filled the surroundings.

In the monster’s senses, the delicious smell of fear and wariness emanating from the strong…

Turning my gaze, I looked at the hero aiming at me with a pale face, amid Earth Dragons retreating into the ground.

“Des… Despair-rank! Despair-rank appearance! Immediate! Immediate backup!!”

The hero leading what appeared to be students urgently radioed for help.

I faced the heroes, lowering my upper body, ready to pounce at any moment.

A Despair-rank monster.

That was the assessment of me now, with my monster core and heightened power.

Monster ranks from bottom to top are: Homicide-rank, Destruction-rank, Disaster-rank, Despair-rank, and finally Annihilation-rank.

In superhuman terms, perhaps S-rank? Despair-rank is a level where, without heroes of equal rank, the choice is to abandon the city and flee from the monster.

The higher Annihilation-rank requires abandoning an entire country.

Looking at the heroes tensed up, probably due to the monster core power detected by their sensors, I pushed off on all fours and leaped over them.

“Ah?! Huh?! It’s… it’s running away?!”

From the beginning, I had no intention of fighting.

Nor did I plan to transform into a monster.

With urgent backup requests sounding behind me, I left the cemetery before things got troublesome.