Ch.74Looking for the Cat

# Jericho Amael

“Don’t you think there’s something odd about the beetles today?”

“Did we get rid of them?”

“Want to die? Say something stupid like that one more time and see what happens.”

“Ack!”

W City was suffering from parasitic monsters.

The heroes patrolling all sectors in three shifts thought there seemed to be no insect monsters today.

Just yesterday, they had been multiplying in the morning, afternoon, evening, and dawn, but today there were only a few in the morning and afternoon.

After that, only one or two stragglers from the swarm could be seen.

The exhausted heroes were all filled with hope that this might finally be over, but no one dared say it aloud.

They desperately rested to make the most of their current luck.

They maintained their vigilance, ready to spring into action at any moment.

And Yu Anna was taking this opportunity to submit a proper report to the Hero Archive.

Parasitic monsters that weren’t even Homicide-rank—judging by rank alone, they weren’t worth monitoring.

At first, cities that received reports about this mocked W City’s situation.

But S-rank heroes who knew Starlight judged that if she was struggling, these weren’t opponents to be taken lightly.

Thus, Yu Anna’s report, written while half-asleep, prompted heroes monitoring W City’s situation to check if parasitic monsters might be in their cities too.

The next day, heroes who had killed four insect monsters in a day finally went to sleep with some peace of mind.

Still, they kept their standby alarms set to ring in their ears, just in case.

However, the alarms didn’t ring until they woke up.

Heroes on patrol told them that while they slept, only Homicide-rank monsters in the form of lizards or frogs had appeared.

W City’s heroes thought the insect monster incident might be over.

But if so, why?

“Black Cat! Black Cat! Where are you?”

Yu Anna, who already suspected a connection between D City, the parasites, and Black Cat, flew around anxiously calling for Black Cat.

But despite flying all over W City waving meat, Black Cat didn’t appear.

The heroes, who initially laughed at Yu Anna’s behavior, had increasingly grim expressions as time passed.

Black Cat had disappeared.

“Black Cat! Where did you go!”

“You didn’t get infected by parasites and leave W City, did you?!”

“Black Cat~! Kitty!”

As heroes searched for Black Cat, news of its absence quickly spread to citizens.

Though heroes eventually stopped searching, citizens anxiously looked for Black Cat, worried by the rumors.

“Kitty~! Where’s Kitty!”

“Meow! Come out now and I’ll give you meat! A whole box!”

“Why isn’t it coming out when we’re calling like this?”

“Well… come to think of it, has it ever come when someone called?”

“It… it must be sleeping, right? With no monsters around, it probably went somewhere quiet to sleep?”

“Sleep? What sleep! By now it should be begging for meat—that’s obvious!”

“Then what? Are you saying Black Cat got infected by parasites and committed suicide?!”

“Heartworms are fatal to cats…”

“Waaah! Kitty isn’t dead!”

“Hey! My child can hear you!”

“S-sorry…”

Citizens worried Black Cat might have died from parasites.

Heroes, no longer needing to hide that they were searching for Black Cat, intensified their search by spreading ability waves.

W City’s heroes had adapted to Black Cat’s hiding ability and were developing techniques to detect monsters by spreading their ability waves.

Heroes formed a line and swept through W City, spreading waves.

The fact that nothing resembling Black Cat was found despite thoroughly searching W City suggested it was likely no longer there.

Heroes gathered in the meeting room with serious expressions.

“Why did it disappear? It was catching bugs like crazy until recently.”

“Maybe its brain was eaten by parasites and it died…”

“Hey! Would Black Cat die so pathetically? With its regeneration speed, even if its brain was eaten, it would burst its own brain and regenerate!”

“R-really? If a parasite eats your brain, isn’t that the end? It could just control you to protect the brain.”

“Sigh… where did it go? It’s not really dead, right?”

For heroes who had said Black Cat would eventually need to be hunted even if left alone, the death of such a threatening monster should have been cause for celebration.

But not a single hero in the meeting room looked even slightly happy.

[Where’s Black Cat? Where’s Black Cat? Where’s Black Cat? Where’s Black Cat?]

[Did heroes hide Black Cat to prevent parasite infection? That’s it, right? Tell me that’s what happened! Please tell me!]

[How does it make sense that something that was hunting bugs with heroes in the sky suddenly disappears?]

[My child is anxious about Black Cat disappearing—it’s not gone, right? It’s just sleeping somewhere, right?]

[Seriously, where is Black Cat? I took a day off to see it since the bugs are gone, but why isn’t it anywhere?]

Heroes thoroughly searched W City’s surveillance camera records, looking for where Black Cat was last seen.

They also scoured community forums to borrow citizens’ eyes, waiting for Black Cat to appear.

[Found Black Cat!]

[Where?]

[Where??]

[Where? Coordinates?]

[There’s a black-haired feisty cat at my house~]

[You bastard, where do you live? Give us your coordinates]

[Why didn’t this asshole die from parasites?]

[I’m filing a lawsuit]

After collectively reporting one of the community users, the heroes sighed and began sharing opinions about the current situation.

The target of the parasites rampaging in W City was Black Cat.

More precisely, the Monster Cult’s target.

“Surely it wasn’t really infected and went to D City…?”

“They found the last surveillance camera footage of what’s presumed to be Black Cat!”

“They’re upscaling it now!”

The anxious heroes rushed to W City’s integrated control center after a hero burst through the meeting room door shouting.

The control center, previously filled with only unawakened assistants and navigators, was instantly packed with heroes. Together, they played back previously recorded footage.

“Uh, uh…? Is that…?”

“Where is it going?”

Late at night, Black Cat was last spotted at the edge of the wall leading out of the city.

The large cat shadow against the moonlight was small but unmistakably Black Cat.

Heroes shifted their gaze to the map, predicting Black Cat’s direction.

In its flight path lay D City, which they had dreaded.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…!”

“Our cat was stolen… stolen like an ex-girlfriend taken by an A-rank at Hero Academy…”

“Aaaaargh! My brain is exploding!”

“Monster Cult, you fuckers! You bastards!”

The beetles disappeared from W City because they achieved their goal of brainwashing Black Cat.

Heroes who reached the same conclusion violently drew up their abilities in the navigator room.

Among them, the coldest aura came from Yu Anna, who stood silently.

“…Connect to D City.”

“W-what?”

“Connect, I said. Na. Eun. Young. Navigator.”

“Eek…!”

Seeing Yu Anna’s gaze, clearly different from usual, the navigator hurriedly connected to D City’s control center.

But there was no response from D City.

“These bastards ate our Black Cat and now they won’t even answer?!”

“Assholes! See if W City sends support when a Despair-rank monster appears!”

“They’ll just feed parasite-infested meat to Black Cat!”

“Cult-crazy city!”

“Just die! Disappear from the world!”

“Everyone be quiet!!”

The rowdy heroes quieted down at Yu Anna’s angry voice.

Among the heroes, silently seething like boiling water without sound, Yu Anna took the navigator’s seat and operated the buttons.

After a brief dial tone, communication with A City connected.

[Yes, A City Integrated Control Center.]

“This is S-rank Starlight from W City. Get Cage. Now.”

[…Cage is currently in a meeting—]

Gritting her teeth, Yu Anna spoke in a voice so menacing it carried through the receiver.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

[Excuse me…?]

“Don’t you know when an S-rank hero calls another S-rank, it’s an emergency? Get him now.”

[J-just a moment, please wait.]

Shortly after, a switching tone sounded and Cage’s voice filled W City’s control center.

[What is it, Starlight? We’re busy here because of your report. Unless you’re sending samples of the parasitic monsters…]

“Send support to D City. Right now.”

[Sigh… one moment, I’ll pause the meeting.]

Over the call, Cage sighed at Yu Anna’s firm voice, and the sound of a meeting room door closing was heard.

[I told you before, there’s insufficient grounds for an emergency investigation of D City. Mental assessment of S-rank heroes via call shows normal, and currently there are zero hero casualties from these parasitic monsters. W City’s reports about D City are all speculation and hypotheses. Didn’t we agree to leave handling the Monster Cult to D City’s S-rank hero, Vector?]

“Black Cat has headed to D City.”

[…Could it be infected? A Despair-rank monster?]

Tension filled Cage’s voice as he understood the situation from just that statement.

Black Cat, fully settled in W City, a monster that didn’t hunt humans, suddenly leaving for D City was an anomaly.

If Black Cat had been brainwashed by the Monster Cult, it meant the organization had succeeded in weaponizing monsters.

If D City had already been consumed by parasitic monsters as Yu Anna claimed, the parasitic monsters should be classified as Annihilation-rank with a special form.

City collapse, Annihilation-rank emergence, monster weaponization by non-government forces—every possibility was threatening.

At this rate, they might have to face two difficult monsters: parasitic monsters and an infected Black Cat.

“That’s why I told you! To investigate D City!”

Finally, Yu Anna, who had maintained her composure despite her anxiety, exploded.

“Things that crawled out on their own in W City without being called, but you won’t go to D City that sends suicide-inducing parasites, and you leave the Monster Cult alone? Didn’t you read my report properly?! Ignoring them because they’re below Homicide-rank?! Does it seem trivial because there were no hero casualties?! People who haven’t experienced it think it’s funny? Huh?! What did you say last time we communicated? ‘Struggling so much against monsters that aren’t even Homicide-rank, aren’t you relying too much on Black Cat~?'”

Yu Anna mimicked Cage’s tone and then shouted into the receiver.

“Samples, samples, samples! How am I supposed to extract samples that dissolve when exposed to hero waves?! I’m telling you they’re not just parasites, they’re monsters! A civilian researcher almost got infected trying to extract one and had to cut off his hand, and you want us to do that again?! Extract them, then pull personnel from monster hunting to escort the samples? Wow! Samples that dissolve in hero waves would surely hold up well next to hero escort personnel!”

Yu Anna’s patience, after suffering from parasites daily without rest, had reached its limit.

Support that used to come without being called now refused, saying it was strange to send support for sub-Homicide-rank threats.

When asked to come research directly, non-superhuman researchers were too scared of brain-eating parasites and only asked for samples.

“Is it hard? Hang in there, but send us research data for prevention, take responsibility and send it.”

They had no idea how serious the situation was, feeling safe from afar while just watching the fire.

“Has your head already been dissolved by parasites? Is W City easy?! Is A City the only city! Do you think you’re the only ones being cautious! You love perfect superhumans! Black Cat is dangerous and should be killed before it becomes more dangerous?! Aren’t parasites dangerous?! Want to try chasing virus-like monster bastards that don’t even register on alarm systems? No~? Well, now you might have to deal with Black Cat too, which like the parasites doesn’t trigger alarms! You… dog, aaaaargh!!”

Crash! Yu Anna threw down the receiver and clutched her head, screaming. The navigator blinked blankly and connected the microphone.

“Send support, you bastard! Right now! To D City!”

[W-wait… alright. I’ll consider this an emergency. The status of D City…]

“Status my ass, just send them! Those bastards aren’t answering communications!”

[…Confirmed, they’re not answering here either. I’ll force a connection with my authority.]

In the tense silence, Cage stuttered unusually as he responded.

Forced access to a city control system—only possible for someone like Cage with authority above S-rank hero in A City.

Seeing Cage finally listening, W City’s heroes exchanged glances and whispered quietly.

“Well… thanks for saying everything we wanted to say.”

“Is that allowed…?”

“Why not? We suffered so much and kept saying how serious it was, but what did the others at Hero Archive say? They mocked W City for not being able to handle insect monsters that weren’t even Homicide-rank.”

“Damn, thinking about it makes me angry. They’ve never experienced it themselves.”

After a brief exchange of complaints among W City’s heroes, a voice came through the communicator again.

Unlike before, Cage’s voice was hardened.

[Starlight, I’ve forcibly accessed D City’s server with the master code. I’ll share the screen momentarily.]

Beep. The large screen in the control room displayed D City server’s data code.

Incomprehensible to ordinary people, the navigator who always looked at such screens was the first to frown.

“…What’s wrong with these records?”

“The alarm system’s automatic uploads are blocked? Only dummy files are being uploaded.”

“Why is the hard drive like that? With that setup, surveillance camera content would be deleted within a day.”

“How did they submit regular reports in this state…?”

Something was wrong.

The system had too many holes to simply be poorly maintained.

As if no one had touched it for a very long time.

Or as if someone had deliberately damaged it.