Ch.26Thief

“Hoo…”

Thud, the sound of a plastic bucket falling on the tiled floor.

A sealed room filled with humid mist, a place filled with hot water.

I was soaking in a public bathhouse before moving to the waterfall bath next to it.

As I stood under the falling streams of water, I focused my mind, recalling when I used to sneak peeks at comic books that children were reading.

Shimdomalgak… no, Shimdomanggak was it? Heart “shim,” do when doing this and that, and manggak… hmm, this must be right.

While meditating to empty my mind, I recalled what happened recently when facing a hero called Cage.

The feeling of my mind being eroded by the monster core, when human rationality flies away and the monster’s nature strengthens in that moment.

…I’ve heard about this phenomenon in the laboratory.

When activated to its maximum in a near-death state, the core gives explosive power to the monster.

This is called berserk mode, or berserking.

In the laboratory, I never went berserk against any monster.

I didn’t even need to face the laboratory monsters.

Even if I just ignored them and slept, I would wake up feeling as comfortable as if I’d received a massage.

This wasn’t good news for researchers who wanted to draw out the monster’s instincts to their fullest.

The fact that I was driven to berserk mode means that the hero called Cage was that threatening.

Perhaps, if Starlight hadn’t stopped me, I would have killed him.

That’s… not a very pleasant thought.

I don’t want to kill heroes who are working to protect humans.

I looked down at my wrist, now empty, as I sat in the bathhouse.

Those who do what needs to be done for others deserve respect.

…I hope they live long.

“Hoo…”

I, a monster, need to be careful not to kill heroes.

I mustn’t let my mind be taken over by the monster within me.

I’m a monster, but I’m a monster who was once human.

“Shimdomanggak…”

Fortunately, after experiencing berserk mode once, I realized it was a phenomenon I could control.

When Starlight dealt me a heavy blow, the monster’s mind wavered and handed control back to me.

In other words, if my mind is stronger than the monster’s instinct, I can maintain my consciousness even in a state of berserk mode…

This is training for that… waterfall training like the protagonist in children’s comic books did for mental growth.

Since there are no waterfalls in the city, I have no choice but to use the waterfall bath, but a waterfall is still a waterfall, right?

But what’s the use of having water streams hit my head like this?

I heard getting hit hard can cause amnesia, is that the same principle for emptying the mind?

If so, it’s useless for me… this just feels ticklish…

“Umm… Shimdomanggak…”

“Hey you, you’ve been saying Shimdomanggak, Shimdomanggak… perhaps you mean Shimdumeolgak?”

“…Shimdumeolgak.”

I corrected the word after hearing what the old man next to me under the waterfall said.

I thought something wasn’t working right—it wasn’t Shimdomanggak but Shimdumeolgak.

But even thinking of it as Shimdumeolgak didn’t seem to have any effect.

“I guess comic books can’t be trusted after all.”

I got up from the bath and left the bathhouse.

I decided to look for another way to build mental strength and, having washed off all the construction site dust, thought I’d go get something to eat.

Today’s restaurant was a place that supposedly served extra-large pork cutlet rice bowls… “extra-large” is a candidate likely to rank high on my list of favorite words, alongside “mound of rice” and “double portion.”

When I reached the cabinet where I’d stored my clothes, I put on my firefighter pants but felt something was off and checked my pockets.

“Hmm…?”

It wasn’t there.

Neither in the cabinet nor in my pockets…

The metal alloy necklace was nowhere to be found.

After thoroughly searching even under the cabinet, I retraced my memory of when I took off the bracelet.

I definitely arrived at the bathhouse, washed the dusty bracelet, and put it in the cabinet… did I forget it while washing?

I went back to the bathhouse and checked each sink one by one, but the bracelet was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey.”

“W-what?”

“Are there any surveillance cameras here? I’d like to check them.”

“No, why would there be surveillance cameras in a bathhouse… th-there are some at the entrance, though…”

I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous in my life.

I approached a bathhouse employee to find out where I might have dropped my bracelet.

Perhaps I didn’t properly control the core’s resonance due to my anxiety, as the frightened employee led me to the staff room.

Shortly after, I was able to check myself on the surveillance camera footage.

I could clearly see myself entering with the necklace wrapped twice around my arm… I didn’t drop it at the entrance, and it wasn’t the type of necklace that would easily come undone…

While lost in thought, I noticed someone wearing a bracelet identical to mine in the continuously playing surveillance footage.

“A thief.”

“E-excuse me? This bracelet…? Couldn’t it just be someone wearing the same bracelet…?”

“Good observation.”

“Ah, yes…”

After leaving the bathhouse, I jumped to the rooftop to avoid people’s gazes and transformed into a monster.

When I went back into the bathhouse, people were startled and backed away.

“Eek?! W-what? A monster?! Where’s the alarm?”

“Huh? I-isn’t that Black Cat?”

“Eh…? Black Cat takes baths too?”

“Should we evacuate? Oh, maybe not… it’s Black Cat so it’s okay…?”

Ignoring the people, I entered the changing room, sniffed around my cabinet, and heightened my senses.

Direction… the distance isn’t too far.

I dashed out of the changing room and ran after the necklace thief.

“Hey, as promised… let my sister go…”

When I arrived at a nearby alley, I stopped on the rooftop and looked down at the thief.

The person who stole my necklace was handing over what appeared to be stolen wallets and my necklace to another man.

The man opened each wallet one by one, took out the money, and threw the empty wallets on the ground as he spoke.

“You’re joking, you want me to release her for this much?”

“That’s not what you said! You said if I paid back 5 million won…!”

“That was just the principal, and how much is the interest already? You need to bring at least 40 million to even start a conversation.”

“What…? How does 5 million become 40 million in a month?!”

“That’s what it takes to break even, right? How much does that girl bring in per day?”

“You, don’t tell me…! You bastard! You said you’d wait until today!”

“Oh my, look at this guy.”

When the thief lunged at the loan shark, the loan shark made a gesture as if shooting a gun at him.

Then, the thief flailed his hands in empty air and collapsed to the ground.

“Ugh…! Let her go! Let her go now!”

“Hey, if you were me, would you just let someone with your sister’s face go? Of course I have to use her to make money.”

“I won’t forgive you… I’ll kill you!”

“Oh boy, this is why money lending is scary. People who call you ‘sir’ when borrowing money just…”

As I watched the thief repeatedly charging at nothing, I realized what the loan shark had done.

Loss of directional sense, visual blocking ability—Blind.

It’s one of the representative abilities that’s tricky when monsters possess it, but ineffective when superhumans use it.

It has minimal effect on monsters with senses beyond the five basic ones, but it’s effective on humans.

“Kid, I’ll consider this payment for the principal, so just go. Your sister is working hard to pay off your debt, so why are you like this? Just go and say a prayer of thanks to your sister while you live.”

“Where are you, where are you, you bastard! Aaaaargh!”

“Hey, hey, that’s concrete, you’ll hurt your fist if you punch there~”

The loan shark laughed as he watched the thief spinning in circles, banging his head against the wall, and throwing punches.

Just then, the loan shark, who was organizing the money from the wallets, picked up the chain necklace among the wallets.

“Oh? What’s this? It doesn’t seem to be silver, but it doesn’t look like cheap metal either…”

The loan shark felt my necklace with his hand, then waved it at the thief.

“This would look good around your little sister’s neck like a dog collar, wouldn’t it? It would be cute if I put this on her and made her bark like a bitch.”

“Aaaaargh! Shut up!!”

“Hahaha! Well, I’m going now, so keep boxing there. If you want to buy your sister a meal, contact me again. I’ll make it cheap! 1 million won for a bowl of meat soup!”

“Where are you going? Don’t go, you son of a bitch! Don’t go!”

The loan shark left the thief in the alley and walked away leisurely, twirling the bread bag filled with money on his finger.

The thief left in the alley was wailing as he pounded the ground until it bled.

“Uuuuugh…! Uuuuuugh…uhuuuuugh…!”

After quietly watching the beast-like wailing, I dropped down from the rooftop into the alley and reverted from my monster form.

Then, I stopped the loan shark who was about to get into a car parked in front of the alley.

“Hey.”

“Whoa? W-what…? What are you doing?!”

“I have something to ask.”

When I grabbed the car door to stop him, the loan shark, unable to get in, looked up at me with aggressive eyes.

“Have you seen a chain bracelet… no, necklace about this length? It’s mine, and I think I lost it around here.”

I didn’t particularly intend to take the thief’s side or punish the loan shark.

From what I overheard, it seemed like the sister was being held captive, but the thief had borrowed money and failed to repay it on time… and it’s hard to look favorably on a thief who stole my property.

I just wanted my necklace back; I didn’t want to get involved in troublesome matters.

“Huh? Necklace? Fuck, why are you asking me about that?”

…But the loan shark didn’t seem inclined to return my necklace.

“It’s a keepsake from my parents. If you’ve seen it…”

“I haven’t, you bastard!”

“Do you perhaps not have parents? Someone who doesn’t understand the value of precious things…”

“What did you say?!”

At that moment, my vision went black, and I lost my sense of direction.

Regardless, I stood there unaffected, using my monster senses like smell and spatial awareness, when the loan shark threw a punch at me.

“Get lost! Where do you think you’re going, you big oaf!”

As I stared at the loan shark with cold eyes, I took his punch to my face.

It felt similar to being hit by a rubber ball thrown by children, so I just stood there. The loan shark seemed surprised and clenched his fist again.

Seeing this, I calmly let go of the loan shark’s car.

“W-what? You scared me… Can’t move because you’re dizzy? Heheh, you idiot, this is what superpowers are, you bastard.”

The loan shark got into his car and drove away down the road.

As I watched the loan shark’s car driving away in the distance, I recalled words I had heard as a child.

[…Ah, worse than a thief who steals other people’s things is someone who knows it’s stolen but won’t return it. Such a person is…]

An even worse thief.

I slipped into the alley and sank into the shadows.

The loan shark was driving toward Zone 9.

It was known as the slum of W City.