Ch.6Not a Kitty

“What kind of joke is this… *sigh*… a monster that transforms into a human…? A human into a monster…? If this was on a comedy show, it would get criticized and canceled…”

Seeing him continue to ramble, I figured he must be doing alright. Thinking this, I swung my tail at the Ghost Dog that was slowly approaching from behind like a predator trying to steal my prey.

My tail, spread wide like a whip, tore the Ghost Dog to shreds.

Mothers who witnessed this scene up close shrank back and covered their children’s eyes.

“Eek…”

“Y-your rank is…?”

[Despair]

“C-crazy… hahaha… wait… then… that rumor… are you the one the heroes are looking for…?”

At that moment, the police officer gasped for breath and spoke urgently.

“Right now… heroes… preparing for a Despair-rank monster… if it’s true, they’re coming here.”

[Hero]

The children were in danger because of me.

Heroes were on standby, postponing emergency deployment because no one knew when and where the hidden Despair-rank monster would appear.

The injured officer before me—it was all my fault.

“Run away… they’re coming, the heroes.”

His skin started turning blue, as if his body lacked oxygen from continuing to talk while blood kept flowing out.

If I let him keep talking, he might really die.

[Stop, talking, you’ll, die]

“I can’t believe what I’m saying… damn it… hurry, hurry and run away, you monster…! You’ll die before I do!”

Just as he said, my senses gradually detected the heroes approaching.

They were quite powerful, making it difficult for me to escape easily.

If I were to face all those heroes, I might really die.

But… I can’t leave this place yet.

[Can’t, leave yet, monsters, remain. If I, go, they’ll, attack]

“Damn it… why are you even a monster!”

Just a little longer, until the heroes get close enough.

Come quickly, within range of their abilities to reach my life.

Kill these monsters surrounding me, unaware they’re about to be surrounded by heroes.

“Code 0 sigh—! W-wait! That’s not what we saw before?!”

“A new species?! Another Despair-rank monster?!”

“Survivors! First eliminate all the Ghost Dogs!”

Some lower-ranked monsters appear as minions of higher-ranked ones.

The heroes’ superpowered barrage, prepared for any situation, swept through the park.

The park where I had stayed for some time burned and exploded, becoming a mess in an instant.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Mommyyy!”

“Huh… huh…”

After withstanding all the bombardment of abilities with my ability barrier, I looked up at the most intense impact.

With fiery red hair rising up, I could smell danger from that one.

The most dangerous-looking superhuman made a gesture like a punch toward me with an expression that was hard to read—angry or perhaps smiling.

The fist-shaped light flying through the air heavily tore off a chunk of flesh from my waist.

“Grrrrrr…!”

“Kitty!”

[Not, a cat.]

As I growled from the intense pain I hadn’t felt in a long time, one of the little kids broke free from their mother’s arms and grabbed my leg.

What a disobedient little one. I shook my leg to get the child off and spread my wings wide, creating a massive barrier toward the heroes.

I concentrated my ability on my wings and began drawing up the surrounding wind.

I’ll fly away and escape. Seeing my feet gradually lifting off the ground, the noisiest child looked up at me and shouted.

“Make sure you wash properly! Mom said you get cavities if you don’t brush your teeth! And you’ll catch a cold if you don’t wash your hands!”

With a tearful voice—as if knowing this was a moment of farewell—the children’s mothers also looked up at me with strange eyes.

Fearful, yet sad. I flapped my wings once strongly downward, rising in one breath, and left these words for the children.

[Listen, to mom, candy, only, two pieces, a day.]

I spread a circular wind barrier on the ground and shot a strong gust upward, rising in one swift motion.

Then, heroes who could fly freely unleashed their abilities and rushed toward me.

“Everyone, we must kill this one here! If two Despair-rank monsters run wild, W City is finished!”

Sorry, but I have no intention of fighting.

Though I am a bit interested in seeing who can fly faster.

As I quickly flew up with my back to the superhumans, I heard voices from the receding ground.

“Survivors! We have survivors! Send rescue teams immediately!”

#

“What the hell! Two of them?!”

“Haaaa… damn it all…”

The heroes, exhausted from the long flight, pursuit, and pouring out their abilities, collapsed as soon as they returned to their quarters.

Three hours of aerial pursuit, acrobatic flying that went to extreme altitudes before plunging toward the city as if about to crash.

The heroes, desperately chasing the monster that moved as if it might attack humans at any moment, gradually wore themselves out and lost the monster.

The second Despair-rank monster, temporarily designated Code α, disappeared as if dissolving into thin air, just like Code 0 had done before.

Among them, Yu Anna, who had tracked the monster the longest, was twisting her wrist.

“So now W City has two Despair-rank monsters hiding in it… what’s really going on? Have monsters changed their approach?”

“The two monsters are completely opposite types. One seemed to be a beast type specialized in combat, but this one is a flying chimera type specialized in abilities. If both rampage at once, we’re truly done for.”

“But why run away?! Why would a monster do that? What’s it planning?”

Already tired from dealing with Code 0, the heroes’ mental fatigue reached its peak with the appearance of another Despair-rank monster.

If they could at least understand why these monsters were fleeing, the heroes gathered in one place to consider the worst-case scenario.

“Has there ever been a case of two Despair-rank monsters appearing in one area?”

“From Despair-rank and above, they develop strong territorial instincts. They hunt each other rather than attacking humans, so such cases are rare…”

“Are they trying to fight each other? In W City?”

“If two Despair-rank monsters fight while destroying everything, W City will never recover.”

“No… the fact that both fled might mean they already know of each other’s existence and are waiting for the right moment.”

“Just like we do…”

When monsters fight each other, heroes don’t intervene. They first evacuate people, then target the weakened monster after the fight ends.

When two powerful monsters are present, intervening might cause them to join forces against humans first, so this approach has become standard practice.

And monsters are creatures that continuously learn and evolve like humans.

It wouldn’t be strange if they were learning human tactics.

“Both being unusual specimens aiming to rise to Annihilation-rank is much more logical than thinking otherwise.”

“We should report to other cities that high-ranking monsters might be changing their behavior patterns.”

“Sigh… another new species of monster… everyone, please separately organize the information you gathered while fighting Code α. Have we secured the testimonies of the rescued people?”

“I’ll play it.”

One of the heroes operated a tablet, and voices played through the conference room speakers.

[Did you know? Big kitties have trouble controlling their appetite! Controlling means…!]

[The kitty went like this, and like this! And like this!]

[Well… that… I… I was so startled…]

[Could we… get treatment first…? I don’t remember anything since being bitten on the neck…]

[The kitty protected us!]

[Ah… characteristics, characteristics… it was big, big… black and big… no, no! I mean its size! I wasn’t peeking!]

[It didn’t seem like a bad monster…]

The recording was a mess, but it wasn’t strange considering they were right under a Despair-rank monster and likely panicking.

However, some statements were concerning.

Yu Anna stopped twisting her wrist, frowned, and said:

“Another person who’s been deceived… sigh… how annoying…”

All the heroes sympathized with Yu Anna’s words.

“Intelligent monsters pretend to be harmless to cause even greater damage…”

“We’ve already fallen for that trick too many times in the beginning. We’d be fools to fall for it again.”

Some highly intelligent monsters sometimes act as if they’re protecting humans.

But this isn’t protection—it’s a deception to secure more prey.

Even heroes, exhausted from battle, have hesitated just in case, but the results have always been devastating.

Yet there are still people who claim monsters are on humanity’s side.

“Shut them up. It’s annoying when those monster sympathizers start causing trouble again.”

Such people even try to block heroes from deploying, making foolish demands to resolve things through dialogue rather than fighting.

Already busy hunting monsters, they didn’t want the unpleasantness of being hindered by fellow humans.

Yu Anna looked at the images of Code α and Code 0 captured on camera and thought:

Despair-rank monsters exhibiting unusual behavior, monsters that hunt not only humans but also weaker monsters.

High intelligence that seems to avoid combat with heroes as much as possible, not attacking humans as if they’re keeping each other in check.

If these monsters aren’t caught quickly…

Things might get very complicated.

#

What’s broken gets rebuilt.

In today’s world where everything is made with the assumption it will be destroyed by monsters, old things are hard to find.

This apartment complex’s park was also rebuilt with a new playground after repairing monster damage.

The playground, which previously had no name, was now named by gathering opinions from the residents’ association.

The playground was named Black Cat Playground.

A large cat-shaped slide stood as its symbol, true to its name.

“Rawr~!”

A small child jumped down from that slide.

A police officer who had been watching nearby and already anticipated this threw himself down to catch the child.

“Oof…! My, my back…!”

“Ahahahaha!”

“Oh my! Oh my, what should we do! Are you okay?!”

The child’s mother came running belatedly and, as if realizing words wouldn’t work, smacked the child on the head.

“Ow!”

“I told you not to do that on the slide anymore! I told you to listen to mom!”

The mother grabbed the child’s arm and dragged them away from the playground.

Next to them, another child and mother were talking.

“Mom, I want sausage today!”

“Really? Should we eat a big sausage?”

“Grrrr~ It’s hard to control my appetite~”

“Oh my, oh my, ahahahaha! Mommy has trouble controlling her appetite too~”

And in one apartment, a young child was carefully opening a jar of candy while their mother was asleep, exhausted.

I crouched on the apartment rooftop, tearing into meat while muttering:

“That disobedient little brat…”

That’s the fifth candy they’ve eaten while their mother is sleeping.

Why don’t kids listen… they really need a smack on the head.

Maybe someday I should really go give them one.

I turned my gaze from the apartment to look down at the playground.

Next to the bench where the police officer sat patting his back, where a trash can used to be, stood a cat statue.

The officer picked up a piece of ham placed before it like an offering, unwrapped it, and ate it.

“Ahh~ Skipping patrol duty is the best~”

What a delinquent officer.

But he’s still not drinking alcohol, perhaps because the wound on his neck hasn’t fully healed.

I took out a glass bottle from my pocket in his place, easily opened the cap, and put the bottle to my lips.

“Tastes bad.”

As expected, alcohol tastes terrible.