Ch.52Heroes of W City

# Chapter Translation

“Huff… huff… huff…”

Iron Might, an A-rank hero considered second only to Starlight in W City, gasped for breath while thinking.

It was truly insane.

The idea that a hero would join hands with a monster.

But that had been the right answer.

[Kyaaaaaaaa!]

Starlight, who had caught the constantly fleeing and regenerating creature, shattered Bad Cat’s core.

Crack! The broken core burned to ash under Starlight’s special ability, and the creature that had been spewing black smoke turned to soot with a tearing scream.

No reaction from surrounding monsters. The heroes cheered as they confirmed the elimination of the Despair-rank monster that had been terrorizing W City.

“Uwaaaaaa! We killed it! It’s over!”

“No, not yet! The one Black Cat was chasing…”

“Everyone! Prepare to move immediately! Find Black Cat’s location! We’re going to help!”

“Wait, that’s…!”

Just as the exhausted heroes were preparing to move again at Starlight’s shout, an ability they never wanted to see again unfolded in the sky.

Bad Cat’s spatial manipulation—that vicious ability that could reflect heroes’ special abilities from a distance or instantly slice off the arm of an approaching physically enhanced hero.

A black figure suddenly emerged from it and landed on top of a building.

“A second Bad Cat…! Did Black Cat get taken down?”

“Of all things…!”

It wasn’t the worst-case scenario of three Despair-rank monsters rampaging including Black Cat, but it was the second worst.

With Black Cat defeated, this monster must be a Despair-rank monster stronger than Black Cat.

Just as the exhausted heroes were about to unleash their forcibly summoned abilities, Starlight smiled broadly and charged toward the black monster.

“Black Cat!”

“Kyaak!”

The creature easily avoided the charge by sinking into the building, then suddenly emerged from the side and dropped to where the heroes were.

The tense heroes flinched at the approach of the Despair-rank monster, but relaxed when they saw eyes showing no killing intent whatsoever.

“Is this Black Cat, not Bad Cat?”

“Black Cat came back from hunting!”

“Hey! Were you just showing us that you caught Bad Cat earlier?”

“I believed in you! Damn it!”

Black Cat looked closely at the corpse of Bad Cat that the heroes had defeated, then turned away.

The monster’s movements showed no will to fight.

Believing there was no need to fight anymore, the heroes all burst into cheers.

Amid those cheers, Iron Might couldn’t help feeling a chill despite his sigh of relief.

Black Cat had taken Bad Cat’s spatial manipulation, that tricky ability.

Although Starlight had also grown stronger than before, Black Cat was growing stronger at the same or even faster rate.

This should definitely be concerning for heroes.

However, no one here was being cautious about Black Cat.

Even Iron Might, who was having these thoughts, felt slightly more relief than tension.

“I… I was wrong, okay? Sorry for not trusting you.”

“Grrrr…!”

After all, even at this moment, Black Cat wasn’t attacking Starlight but just growling as if sulking.

Instead of baring its teeth at the hero who had attacked it multiple times, it was just showing annoyance?

Yes, if something had to get stronger, better it be this weird monster than other monsters.

“You, you’re a monster! You’re the weird one!”

“Kyaak!”

“Senior Starlight, would a monster understand if you talk to it like that?”

“If you’re sorry, throw it some meat or something.”

As all the heroes sat down on the ground with tired smiles, Starlight, genuinely hurt by Black Cat’s attitude, looked around at the exhausted heroes and said:

“Does anyone have beef? Anyone with beef!”

“As if anyone would…”

“Ahahahaha!”

Afterward, Black Cat left the heroes behind.

The heroes informed the operator that the situation was over, and a steady rhythm of notification sounds different from sirens rang throughout the city, announcing the lifting of the alert.

[Attention citizens of W City, Despair-rank monster defeated! Repeat! Despair-rank monster defeated! Please exit the shelters!]

As this nightmare finally ended, the tightly closed shelter doors opened and people rushed out into the streets.

The city was in ruins, but people overjoyed with liberation walked together on the broken roads, cheering.

Amid the commotion, the exhausted heroes lay down on the street and briefly fell asleep.

Citizens thanked the heroes and began returning one by one to check on their buildings and the safety of their acquaintances.

Escaping from monsters, back to daily life.

And with that, the joy of ending despair ends here.

Time to face reality.

#

Back in the operations room, the heroes put down the Bad Cats attack report sent by the operator and shared their thoughts.

“Heroes killed: four B-rank, two C-rank. Civilian casualties… 524 total. Situation over.”

“It’s miraculous…”

“Compared to not being able to do anything against two rampaging Despair-rank monsters, it’s an unbelievably small number, but compared to W City’s recent monster damage… it’s terrible.”

“What’s the public opinion?”

“It’s a mess.”

Heroes’ joy never lasts long.

Right after the elimination, all citizens are happy, but when they return to their places and see their ruined homes and streets, irritation at their own losses outweighs relief.

Why did it take so long, did you really fight properly, how will you compensate, and so on…

This time it was even more serious because people thought Black Cat, who had been pretending to be quiet, had gone on a rampage.

[So they finally caught it? That means they could have caught it all this time but didn’t, right?]

[What’s the point? Why didn’t they catch Black Cat until now and let this situation happen?]

[Where was all this when everyone was thanking Black Cat for catching monsters lol. Look at them getting angry about 500 deaths, hasn’t Black Cat prevented more than 500 casualties so far?]

[Is that what matters? They failed to prevent damage they could have prevented, right?]

[It’s ridiculous how people who were saying “don’t kill Black Cat~protect Black Cat~” until just recently have all turned their backs lol]

[That was Black Cat who protected people, would you still say that if Black Cat killed your family?]

If they had failed to hunt the Despair-rank monster until S-rank heroes from other cities came to support, it might not have been this bad.

W City citizens were claiming this incident was due to hero incompetence and were cursing all heroes.

[Does it make sense that 500 people died from one Despair-rank monster?]

[It doesn’t make sense, D City suffered 1,700 casualties in one day from a single Despair-rank monster when they failed to build a ring once]

[That really doesn’t make sense]

[Why are we talking about other cities? How low has W City’s recent monster damage been?]

[Because Black Cat caught them?]

[They had the opportunity to behead Black Cat but didn’t catch it until now and this happened, right? Starlight kept saying we shouldn’t trust monsters, but what has she been doing?]

[Remember when Starlight was going crazy saying Black Cat should be caught as soon as possible in the beginning? Why doesn’t she seem the same these days?]

[She doesn’t seem to want to catch Black Cat these days]

[The certain thing is that over 500 people died this time because of Starlight]

[So they were saying they couldn’t catch something they actually could catch.]

[Aren’t they going to explain?]

Before they could properly feel the sense of achievement from protecting citizens, the operations room filled with heavy sighs.

A C-rank hero examining the negative public opinion spoke with a voice full of discontent.

“Hah… at times like this, I wonder if we should have just let everyone die.”

“A hero shouldn’t say things like that.”

“S-senior.”

Then, Starlight, who had changed from her hero suit into formal attire, emerged from the changing room and said:

“People just need someone to be angry at. They might have gone home to see ruined buildings or heard news about dead family members or acquaintances.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Citizens’ sense of helplessness is much greater than ours. Never forget that.”

In her hand, as she rubbed her tired eyes, was a briefing document about this incident.

Starlight was about to give a post-battle report that would be broadcast throughout W City.

It was called a report, but it was essentially a broadcast demanding an apology from Starlight.

All the heroes’ expressions soured at something that had already been repeated more than once or twice.

“No matter how much heroes need a sense of duty, isn’t this too much? It’s not just once or twice.”

“It’s too exhausting every time this happens. We fought prepared to die, but they say it’s our fault.”

“If they need someone to be angry at, they should be angry at the monsters…”

“Monsters are scary creatures that can’t communicate, but heroes are easy targets…”

“Everyone seems to have a lot built up.”

With a slight smile, Starlight combed her messy hair with her fingers, tied it up, and left the operations room.

“Citizens don’t know yet that the rampaging monster wasn’t Black Cat but Bad Cats, so they might react that way.”

“They’d be the same even if they knew. People just need heroes they can easily criticize.”

“It’s good if citizens find heroes approachable. It means they’ve gained some composure. Isn’t that better than desperately clinging to us begging for their lives?”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

“We should hope for understanding… don’t worry, even if citizens don’t understand, I’ll make sure I’m the only hero who gets criticized.”

True to her word, Starlight intended to take all the responsibility alone—both for lowering her guard against Black Cat and for joining hands with a monster called Black Cat.

W City’s heroes felt indebted to Starlight but couldn’t stand up for her.

The representative nature of being an S-rank hero meant that even if other heroes spoke up, public criticism would still be directed at Starlight…

That’s how the heroes justified it to themselves, but honestly, most of them didn’t have the confidence to endure public criticism.

Instead, all of W City’s heroes had agreed to support whatever choice Starlight made.

Just like when Starlight suggested joining hands with Black Cat to hunt Bad Cats this time.

“Everyone, did you properly destroy the Black Cat footage?”

“Should we destroy it more? So it can never be restored?”

“That would be better, do it quickly.”

The heroes all took their broken cameras and crushed them with their hands.

In this battle, the heroes had decided not to leave any evidence of the moment Black Cat joined hands with them.

This was because of the repercussions that would come from the very fact that a hero tried to join hands with a monster.

And it was also a preventive measure to avoid troublesome situations afterward.

If footage of Black Cat cooperating with heroes leaked and people started thinking cooperation with monsters was naturally possible… it would be terrible.

People approaching monsters that resembled Black Cat thinking they were safe, those who thought they could befriend monsters, government research department officials trying to tame monsters as weapons.

There were even strange religions these days claiming monsters were messengers of God.

How chaotic would it be if all those people gathered in W City?

“Still, it’s fortunate… that Black Cat didn’t betray us.”

“It’s strange to use the word ‘betrayal’ for a monster.”

“Whether it’s a time bomb waiting to explode or something we can really trust… it seems trustworthy at this point, but it’s still a monster.”

“Sigh… how can Black Cat seem better than citizens.”

Amid the heroes’ sighs, Iron Might dropped the debris in his hand and picked up the remote control.

Just then, Starlight was stepping in front of the reporters.