Ch.4Adapting

I had just started going to the apartment area every day to eat freshly made hot dogs, and gradually I stopped rummaging through other trash cans.

Actually, recently I felt like I didn’t need to search through trash cans at all.

The reason was quite complicated.

After I started coming every day and residents complained, the police informed the apartment residents that I was a superhuman.

With that, the residents’ attitudes softened slightly, and whispered rumors began to spread.

That I was a quite powerful superhuman who fled due to PTSD, that I lost my intelligence after losing a lover to a monster, that I originally lived in this apartment but lost my child to a monster in some incident and lost my reason to live.

With my frequent visits to the park, my stillness when children approached, and even being called a superhuman, they created their own reasonable stories and developed sympathetic opinions.

According to whispered conversations, some people didn’t mind watching me bathe a little.

Enjoying watching someone bathe—what a strange hobby.

“Um… just use this faucet, okay?”

“Mm.”

“The other faucets are for children to use, so don’t touch them!”

“Got it.”

Some mothers who brought their children even designated a faucet specifically for me.

When I followed their instructions, they seemed to think I understood and viewed me more favorably.

“Since he’s just staying in the park, isn’t he quite clean? He bathes every day.”

“I saw him hand-washing his pants the other day, being so careful…”

“Oh my! He took off his pants? Did you see that alone?”

“No, at night… through the window, oh please! My apartment just happens to have a view, I only saw by chance!”

“What a prime location, maybe I should move there.”

One day, half-used shampoo and body wash appeared in the trash.

Knowing what these were, I was pleased and used them to wash myself.

The top of the bottle broke after one use, but I still used it well.

“Anyone have extra razors? Should we throw out razors?”

“That’s dangerous! If you’re going to throw something out, an electric razor would be better!”

“My husband has one he doesn’t use, but would he know how to use it?”

“He’s not an animal, I’m sure he knows how.”

When they threw out a razor and I awkwardly tried to shave, next time they threw out a cracked mirror.

I set up the mirror in a corner, neatly shaved, and even tried cutting my hair with the razor before giving up.

After just one shave, the blade was completely dull.

“…Seriously… isn’t he handsome?”

“What size clothes would he wear? Would my husband’s unused clothes fit him?”

“Oh my goodness! Next you’ll be buying him a bed!”

For some reason, more and more items started appearing in the apartment park trash cans, including pillows and blankets.

I didn’t mind sleeping on the dirt at all, but seeing pillows and blankets for the first time in a while made me curious, so I tried using them.

After that, shoes appeared, though they didn’t fit my feet so I just threw them away.

Then a decisive change happened one day.

“Hahaha! Whoa!”

“Oh my, child! Are you okay?! Oh my, oh my!”

When a child jumped off a swing and was about to hit the metal railing, I threw the bundled pillow and blanket to protect them.

The child wasn’t hurt at all, and I went back to my spot to take a nap.

That night, the trash cans were filled with food.

“I’m telling you, he really is a superhuman! Suddenly, the blanket just—”

“Really, if it weren’t for him, my child could have been seriously hurt!”

“If you think about it, it’s like having a playground safety guard for cheap!”

“If he’s a superhuman, he might even catch monsters when they appear, like having a large guard dog…”

“Honey, do you really have that kind of taste?”

The park trash cans gradually became cleaner, and instead of trash, they contained items that seemed meant for me.

Recently there was a pair of scissors, so I tried cutting my hair.

Though beard and hair seemed different—the scissors barely cut my beard—I managed to trim my bangs somewhat.

“He’s handsome, isn’t he? Really?”

“How does he have such a good body?”

“Should we give him clothes?”

“Let’s not give him clothes, they’ll just cover his body.”

“Oh my! Did you just see that? When he pulled up his pants, his lower abs…”

“Are you keeping those sights to yourself again?”

Sleeping bags, blankets, parasols, tents, pots, gas stoves, sausages, even an ice box.

Since it was very difficult to set up or use these things without breaking them, I got help from the police officer.

“I really don’t understand… if you’re going to do this, why did you complain about him so much before…”

Around this time, the police officer stopped coming every day.

Seeing that I had completely settled in the apartment park, the people who had complained found it absurd.

These days, there’s even talk about building me a guard booth of sorts.

“What… it’s not like he’s a dog house…”

“I’m not a dog.”

“Looking at you these days, you’re not much different from a dog.”

I took a hot dog from the police officer and ate it.

He didn’t come every day anymore, but he still had to buy me hot dogs.

Now that I had not just food but increasingly more necessities, I no longer felt the need to go to other trash cans.

Having completely settled here, I spent my days playing with the children.

“Beggar, are you stupid? Why don’t you know this?”

“Is this PiPi-kung… is this Yui-kung…?”

“No! This is PiPi-kung Origin! And this is Yuna-kung! Yui-kung’s twin sister!”

“What’s the difference? Aren’t they all the same?”

“They’re all different! This is why beggars are hopeless!”

Even without physical contact, the children found just talking to me entertaining enough, laughing and running around the playground.

Sometimes they would share their food with me, and I would carefully accept it with both hands and eat it deliciously.

Eventually, even mothers who had stopped bringing their children to the playground started coming back.

And gradually, they began leaving their children with me while they went somewhere else.

“I’m going to that other park!”

“No.”

“Mom gave me snacks! They’re mine! Give them to me!”

“It’s not time to eat yet.”

I looked after these children and received food in return.

Before I knew it, I had become the man who watches children at the playground.

With the peculiar characteristic of always being shirtless.

“Oh, thank you for your hard work~ Did the child brush their teeth properly?”

“He didn’t brush his molars properly.”

“I did too!”

“Hey! Didn’t Mom tell you to brush properly!”

“And he ate four candies.”

“Ack! Why did you tattle!”

“I told you only two candies a day! No candy for you tomorrow!”

“Waaah!”

“Oh! I’m sorry, here, payment for watching him today.”

“Ooh…”

“Well then… um, eat quickly.”

I received a large piece of meat from the child’s mother and bit into it right there.

Somehow, giving me large pieces of meat and watching me eat had become trendy lately.

It was a bit strange that they kept watching, but the meat was so delicious that I didn’t mind.

“Haah… really… like a beast…”

“I’m not a beast.”

“Ah, I know… Do you need anything?”

“A few more cushions.”

Now that they would bring me things I needed when asked, I requested cushions to throw to prevent children from getting hurt.

Since they found it fun when I protected them with cushions, some kids were deliberately jumping off things lately, so I needed many.

The cushions would tear after being thrown once, unable to withstand the force.

“I’ll talk to the women’s association, then. Have a good night~”

“Mm. Kid, go home safely.”

“Tattletale! I’m not saying goodbye!”

That’s how I settled in the apartment park.

For someone like me who wanted to eat delicious food but had no way to work, it was a stroke of luck.

Here, delicious things appeared every day.

And there were many things to practice controlling my strength with.

“Hmm…”

Recently, I had been trying to control my strength as much as possible in my non-monsterized state.

It was difficult because the whole world felt like eggshells or pudding from my memories, but it was worth trying.

I couldn’t just destroy everything, and it was a good way to pass time.

“…Success.”

For the first time, I managed to hold a bottle with both hands and twist off the cap successfully. I carefully lifted it and drank the contents.

If I keep practicing like this, someday I might be able to pick up an egg without breaking it.

Maybe even eat food from a bowl… If that happens, I want to try hot soup.

Even now, I could scoop and drink from a boiling pot with my hands, but I spilled too much that way.

Again, this time I was about to try raising the difficulty by picking up a glass cup when…

“What are you doing?”

“Mm.”

I was concentrating so hard that I hadn’t even noticed the police officer’s presence, and the sudden voice made me break the glass.

Watching the glass shards fall without even scratching my skin, I swept them together with both hands.

“What are you, a cat…? Why are you playing with broken glass cups?”

“It broke because of you.”

“What did I do?”

“Clean it up. Children might get hurt playing.”

“Why should I… sigh…”

The police officer grumbled but cleaned up the glass shards neatly.

Then he opened my ice box without permission and took out whiskey.

“Wow… these women have lost their minds, they’re even giving you this now?”

“You can have it.”

“Huh? Is that okay?”

“It doesn’t taste good.”

“Hmm…? It tastes good though! Your taste buds are really like a child’s.”

The police officer took out some ham to eat with the alcohol and sat next to me, gulping down the drink.

“Ahh~ This is it~ Drinking during night patrol, perfect~”

“You’re a bad police officer.”

“It’s the world that’s bad, making one police officer do too many things! Monsters could appear anytime, yet they make a single officer patrol alone!”

“Why patrol alone?”

“So that if someone dies, only one person dies, minimizing human casualties. There aren’t many crazy people willing to be police officers, so before dying, you radio once and that’s your job done.”

Indeed, rational.

The police officer seemed drunk already, continuing to complain about his profession.

“Life is just like tissue paper~ At least heroes have superpowers. I know there are many people risking their lives in this world, but only police and firefighters put their lives on the line to this extent.”

“Hmm…”

“It’s crazy, why did I become a police officer… Haah~ My family worries too, I wonder why I haven’t quit yet.”

Hearing this, I completely sympathized with the police officer’s family.

A dangerous job, people who worry because it’s dangerous—why would anyone do such work?

“If you know that, why be a police officer?”

“Because someone has to do it for people to maintain their daily lives. Ugh~ It’s better that crazy people like me do it. I’d rather suffer myself than see others suffering.”

I was at a loss for words.

Not because it was absurd, but because somehow I understood.

“It’s a difficult job.”

“It is! Extremely! Monsters pop up everywhere in the world, yet there are still many complainers, and no matter how fast we run, people still die.”

“But, it’s the right thing to do.”

I touched the firefighter pants I was wearing, which had become a bit worn from my attempts to wash them by hand.

“For daily life to continue, someone has to do these jobs…”

“…Come to think of it, aren’t those very old firefighter pants?”

“Mm.”

“Those would be hard to find these days… where did you…”

Just then, I sensed an unpleasant presence.

In the air… no, beyond special abilities, in the cracks of reality.

Something had moved to the vicinity of the apartment using special abilities.

“Monsters.”

“…What?”

“Go to the shelter.”

Right after I spoke, sirens filled the apartment complex.

The police officer’s radio also repeated the address of our current location and announced the monster’s rank.

The rank was Destruction-rank, and there were multiple monsters.

Lights that had been off in the apartment began turning on one after another.