Ch.58Difficult

“They would have reported it, right? The heroes were exhausted too. There were three Despair-rank monsters in W City. After working so hard to minimize civilian casualties, you want them to fight again?”

[Black Cat would have been just as tired. The odds were sufficient… no, they would have been in your favor. He was alone, while you had all the heroes of W City with you.]

“Ha, after getting beaten like that before, you’re still underestimating Black Cat.”

[Are you saying that’s not enough? Then all the more reason… shouldn’t you eliminate Black Cat with this support? Instead of talking like you’re reluctant to do so.]

If Black Cat had grown so powerful that even all of W City’s heroes together couldn’t defeat him, they should quickly receive S-rank hero support and deal with Black Cat now while he might be tired.

Despite this logic, Yu Anna remained silent, unable to easily agree, which prompted Cage to mock her.

[What, have you really become a monster sympathizer?]

“…I’m just concerned about Black Cat’s peculiarities. If we somehow let him escape while enraged, the subsequent damage would be unmanageable.”

[Indeed… Black Cat is a tricky monster. Once he decides to flee, there’s no way to catch him.]

“Right, we’ll handle W City ourselves, so don’t interfere unnecessarily.”

[That’s why I sent the fastest hero.]

The hero who controls electricity, Electris.

If Cage is A City’s strongest shield, Electris is A City’s strongest spear.

The world’s fastest hero, faster than any other.

“You like the fastest hero, huh? More like the worst hero.”

And she was the S-rank hero Yu Anna despised the most.

Ignoring Yu Anna’s angry voice, Cage flicked cigarette ash onto the hand of the woman who stood with her back bent.

[My combat style wasn’t suitable for him. He’s too tough and versatile.]

Cage was a superhuman with a close-combat style who trapped monsters in isolation chambers created with his ability, then gradually wore them down.

However, being confined in a narrow space gave Black Cat time to quickly test and switch between various abilities.

[When facing someone who pulls out the most lethal ability tailored to each hero, what you need is speed fast enough to dodge abilities and destructive power to deliver decisive blows.]

And those were the identical characteristics of Starlight and Electris.

While Starlight had more destructive power, Electris had overwhelming speed.

[Starlight, if you attack Black Cat and Electris blocks his escape, the two S-rank heroes can create an effect similar to forming a ring.]

With two S-rank heroes who could each face a Despair-rank monster alone, eliminating Black Cat shouldn’t be difficult.

Add to that a hit-and-run strategy using fast flight speed and destructive power—a strategy tailored for Black Cat.

Certainly, the odds of success were sufficient.

However…

“Did you actually read the reports properly? When first sighted, Black Cat used the Thunder Tiger’s ability. Don’t tell me you don’t know what the Thunder Tiger’s characteristics are?”

[Lightning absorption, immunity to electrical abilities. I know.]

“Knowing that, you’re still saying he and I together can catch Black Cat?”

[Electris is an S-rank hero. Even if her original ability is blocked, she certainly has enough countermeasures.]

“Her power will still drop significantly. What if we just provoke him and fail to catch him?”

[Killing him would be best, but it doesn’t matter if we can’t catch him.]

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?!”

If he really starts rampaging in anger, how would they clean up that mess?

Even if they could somehow manage it, even if Black Cat didn’t rampage, it would still be a problem.

She was already worried about Black Cat being upset, and now he’d hate them even more.

[Don’t you find it strange?]

“What?!”

[Black Cat is not the Thunder Tiger, yet why do you assume so naturally that he possesses the Thunder Tiger’s characteristics?]

“Well, because he’s an amorphous type.”

[He is not an amorphous monster.]

With those cryptic words, Cage gestured and data about previously observed amorphous monsters appeared on the screen.

[Amorphous monsters can only mimic the forms of other monsters to hide their weaknesses; they cannot freely use other monsters’ abilities and characteristics.]

The term “amorphous monster” refers to those with fluid-type bodies like slime, mist, or ice centered around a core.

In contrast, Black Cat has a proper body and body temperature.

[Black Cat is definitely… different from other monsters in some way.]

It was a vague answer that couldn’t properly articulate what was different, but Yu Anna found herself nodding unconsciously.

This wasn’t about him not attacking humans—it was a sense of dissonance that heroes who had faced countless monsters could feel.

Black Cat was different from other monsters somehow.

Neither Yu Anna nor Cage knew exactly what it was.

They could only sense the discomfort through their superhuman intuition.

“So if Black Cat can bring not just the Thunder Tiger’s form but also its complete immunity to electricity, we should consider him something other than an amorphous monster?”

[And if he only subdues Electris without trying to kill her… it would clearly prove whether you alone are special to him, or if Black Cat himself is special.]

“Saying it doesn’t matter whether he kills or not… sigh…”

Either way, Black Cat was a monster that would eventually need to be eliminated.

If they killed him, it would be good to remove a threatening Despair-rank monster; if they couldn’t kill him, it would be good to gain new information.

Information about unusual monsters helps when facing other monsters later.

They would hunt Black Cat for humanity’s sake.

Yu Anna had been feeling lately that she kept doing terrible things to Black Cat.

Saving people, saving heroes, hunting monsters—Black Cat hadn’t done anything wrong so far.

Yet it was always Yu Anna who didn’t trust him, always Yu Anna who tried to kill him.

…Of course, that was the right thing to do since he was a monster.

Yu Anna was a hero, a superhuman who killed monsters for humanity’s sake.

But why had things turned out this way?

With mixed feelings, Yu Anna sighed deeply.

“Sigh… so when is Electris arriving?”

[She’ll be here soon.]

“Sooooon?”

[Unlike me, Electris doesn’t need to travel by train. You should know that.]

The trains connecting cities run at speeds too fast for most monsters to chase.

They carry S-rank heroes dedicated to train security along with passengers, to protect them in case of monster attacks.

This means S-rank heroes with fast movement abilities don’t need to travel by train.

“Where is she coming from?”

[She said she’d clear out monsters in the closed zone on her way. Her estimated arrival time is about an hour from now. I told her to head to headquarters when she arrives.]

“Is she really going to clear them out?”

Electris was known for her boasting and lies, so it was hard to trust her.

Yu Anna got up irritably and put on the jacket she had hung on her chair.

Either way, if an S-rank hero was coming to provide support, Yu Anna needed to do something too.

Whether that meant doing something as a hero that would make Black Cat hate her more, or preventing that annoying woman from causing trouble.

“As if I wasn’t irritated enough already…”

Hopefully Electris wouldn’t run off alone and just end up annoying Black Cat.

With that woman’s ego, even bigger than Cage’s, she might really do it.

If she did… Yu Anna would have to… no, it might not be so bad.

Not something a hero should think, but still.

With complicated feelings, Yu Anna sighed as she left the communications room.

“Sigh…”

Surely the S-rank heroes of A City wouldn’t both make the same stupid mistake.

#

“L-let go! How dare you! Do you know who I am?!”

The woman who was about to use her ability on civilians struggled to break free from my grip.

Crack, crack, crack—electricity surged and sparked in all directions, threatening the people around us.

Bang! A broken sign lit up before bursting into flames, spreading an acrid smell.

As random electrical shocks spread in all directions, I tightened my grip on the woman’s wrist.

“What are you… an electricity user? Why aren’t you… affected…?”

It’s not that I’m unaffected.

It’s a bit tingly.

“Nngh… you’re a superhuman yet you side with these inferiors? You have no pride as a superhuman…!”

The woman emitted very sticky emotions as she gradually increased her power output.

An ability strong enough to engulf all the surrounding civilians—clearly, getting hit by this lightning would do more than just knock someone unconscious.

In other words, this woman…

“You need to be taught a lesson.”

“Let go of me right now or—AAACK?!”

“WAAAH?!”

“W-what’s happening?!”

BOOM! I swung the woman hard and slammed her into the cracked pavement.

I pulled her out again and CRASH! Slammed her to the opposite side. Then CRASH! Back to the other side.

A superhuman won’t die from this much.

BZZZZT! Electricity with even higher output ran through my body and dispersed into the ground.

An ability that burrowed into the earth and stirred something up.

Suspecting she was planning something, I absorbed the electricity and lifted her up, glaring as I spoke.

“Are you a villain?”

“W-what, *cough*, what are you…! Just now, that was…!”

Using her ability again when civilians are around.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG! I repeatedly slammed the woman down until she went limp, then grabbed her wrist and lifted her up.

The woman was instantly covered in wounds all over her body.

Seeing her flinch when our eyes met, I growled:

“Withdraw your ability.”

“Hic, haah… haah…”

Seeing her just panting, I slammed her down once more with a CRASH! into the broken ground, then lifted her up again, making her whimper.

I drove my fist into her stomach.

THUD! THUD! With loud impact sounds, the woman lowered her head and coughed up bloody foam.

Only then did emotions of regret, terror, and fear begin to surface.

I grabbed her by the hair, made eye contact again, and said:

“Answer.”

“Hee, heeek, y-yes…!”

“If you came to eat, get in line properly.”

“Y-yes, yesss…”

“Apologize for causing a disturbance.”

“I-I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

“Hmm.”

THUMP. I put the woman down and got in line, recalling my conversation with Yu Hyena.

Those who try to break rules with force instead of waiting patiently are villains.

We shouldn’t punish them carelessly since they might have circumstances.

But if it’s clear they deliberately did wrong for their own greed, they’re closer to monsters than humans.

I can distinguish the smell of humans from monsters.

Humans who smell no different from monsters…

I can do with them as I please.

Still, since we’re in front of a restaurant, I won’t kill her out of consideration for people’s appetites.

I just beat her until she was nearly dead.

Then, the woman got up and ran away, wailing like a child.

“Waaaaaah!”

“Hii, hiiik…”

“Huik…”

Seeing this, the people who were in line also fled from me, disappearing into the distance.

The thick smell of fear and terror, and the delicious smell of pork cutlet.

“…Was I not supposed to do that?”

Human rules are still difficult for me.

#

“What on earth?”

Standing with her arms crossed in front of W City’s hero headquarters, Yu Anna was utterly dumbfounded.

The S-rank hero Electris, who arrived at headquarters a little past the appointed time.

Her entire body was a mess.

Her clothes were torn, revealing skin caked with blood; her eyes were swollen; her usually exposed stomach was badly bruised; and she was limping.

This wasn’t an S-rank hero—this was a patient.

“W-what! I just got a little hurt after taking down a Despair-rank monster alone on my way here!”

“…Are you in your right mind?”

Setting aside whether that was true, for an S-rank hero who came to provide support to arrive in such a battered state was absurd.

Even if she had encountered a Despair-rank monster in the closed zone at the city’s outskirts, the normal procedure would be to leave it alone and just bring back information.

In monster territory like the closed zones, if a hero got attacked by other monsters while fighting, humans would pointlessly lose an S-rank hero as a military asset.

“Ha, don’t tell me you don’t believe me? I went out of my way to clean up the closed zone around W City.”

“What did you catch?”

“…A large gorilla.”

Tsk. Yu Anna clicked her tongue but felt slightly relieved.

Since she came so foolishly injured, the Black Cat elimination mission would likely fizzle out.

“Well, thanks for that. Thanks to you, a giant gorilla that might have come to W City is gone.”

“Yes, it’s thanks to me, so you should be grateful.”

“You’ve been helpful enough, so recover and go back to A City.”

However, things didn’t go as Yu Anna wanted.

“Hmph, go back? This is my chance to catch a monster that Cage couldn’t handle!”

“You’re going to confront Black Cat in that condition?”

“I’m an S-rank hero! Injuries like these heal in three days. I can stay in W City for a week. I’ll eliminate that cat or whatever within that time, so make proper preparations.”

Confidently speaking, Electris held out her hand to the A-rank hero standing next to Yu Anna.

“What are you doing?”

“Um… do you want me to hold your hand?”

“Why would I hold hands with an ugly guy like you? The roster! W City’s hero roster!”

“How is he supposed to know what you want when you didn’t even say it?”

“Hmph! When an S-rank hero comes to provide support, it’s only natural to report on the available forces first!”

“Is she always like this?” Iron Might frowned at Yu Anna, who made a gagging gesture as if to say, “Yes, she’s always this nauseating.”

“That bastard, I won’t let him get away with this… how dare he, does he know who I am…”

Snatching the tablet, Electris squinted as she examined the hero roster.

“What? Why isn’t he in A-rank…? Don’t tell me, B…? Why isn’t he there…! C, C-rank…? No, no, absolutely not C…”

And her expression gradually turned into a pout.

“Why isn’t he on the villain list either…!”