Became a Failed Experimental Subject-Chapter 52: Heroes of W City

“Huff... huff... huff...”

Iron Might, the A-rank hero known as second only to Starlight in W-City, gasped for air and thought to himself.

It really had been insane.

For a hero to even consider joining hands with a monster.

But that... was the right answer.

[Kyaaaaaaaaaa!]

Starlight, who had finally pinned down the endlessly regenerating and fleeing thing, shattered Bad Cat’s core.

CRACK—The broken core burned to ash under Starlight’s power, and the creature spewing black smoke was reduced to soot with a piercing scream.

The surrounding area showed no more monster reactions; the heroes, having confirmed the subjugation of the despair-class monster that had been tormenting W-City, erupted in cheers.

“WRAAAAAAAAAH! We got it! It’s overrrrr!”

“No, not yet! The one Black Cat chased after is still—!”

“Everyone! Get ready to move now! Find Black Cat’s location! We’re going to back him up!”

“Wait, that’s...!”

At Starlight’s shout, just as the exhausted heroes began preparing to move again, an ability none of them wanted to see spread out above the sky.

Bad Cat’s spatial manipulation—an ability so vicious it could reflect long-range hero attacks right back at them, or slice off the arm of a close-range power-type hero in a blink.

Out from within it, a black shape suddenly shot out and landed atop a building.

“The second Bad Cat...! Did Black Cat get taken down?!”

“Of all things...!”

It wasn’t the absolute worst-case scenario of three despair-class monsters rampaging, including Black Cat—but this was the next worst.

If Black Cat had been defeated, then this one was a despair-class monster stronger than Black Cat.

Just as the worn-out heroes began to unleash what little power they could still summon, Starlight grinned widely and dashed toward the black monster.

“Black Cat!”

“KRRRRAAAHH!”

The creature evaded the charge by sinking lightly into the building and then burst out from its side, dropping straight toward the heroes.

The tense heroes flinched at the approach of a despair-class monster—but then relaxed when they saw its eyes lacked any sign of killing intent.

“Wait, this isn’t Bad Cat—it’s Black Cat?”

“Black Cat came back from hunting, huh!”

“This guy! Were you showing us you took down that Bad Cat earlier?”

“Knew you’d pull through! Damn, man!”

Black Cat took one glance up close at the corpse of the Bad Cat the heroes had taken down, then turned his body away.

The movements of a monster that showed no will to fight.

The heroes, deciding there was no longer any need to battle, all let out cheers.

Amidst those cheers, Iron Might exhaled in relief—but couldn’t shake the chill running down his spine.

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

And while Starlight had grown stronger than before, Black Cat was growing at the same pace... or even faster.

For a hero, that should be cause for alarm.

Yet no one here was wary of Black Cat.

Even Iron Might, who was having these thoughts, felt just a bit more relief than tension.

“I... I was wrong, okay? Sorry I didn’t trust you.”

“Kyarrurururur...!”

It made sense—Black Cat wasn’t even trying to pounce on Starlight at this moment.

He was just growling like a sulking child, acting like he was upset.

Showing his teeth not to the hero who’d attacked him so many times—but out of annoyance?

Yeah.

If someone’s going to grow stronger, it’s better that it’s a weird monster like this than some other ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) beast.

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

“KRAAHK!”

“Starlight, ma’am, do you think a monster can even understand you when you say stuff like that?”

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

As all the heroes slumped to the ground with tired chuckles, Starlight looked around at the worn-out team and said, visibly hurt by Black Cat’s attitude.

“Does anyone have beef? Anybody got some beef?”

“Like anyone would...”

“Ahahahahaha!”

After that, Black Cat left without bothering the heroes any further.

The heroes notified the operator that the situation was resolved, and a consistent, rhythmic chime—not the sirens—rang throughout the city, signaling that the alert had ended.

[Attention, citizens of W-City: The despair-class monster has been subjugated! Repeating: The despair-class monster has been subjugated! Please exit the shelters!]

Finally, with the nightmare over, the tightly sealed shelter doors opened, and people poured out into the streets.

Though the city lay in ruins, those overjoyed at their liberation walked together down the broken roads, shouting and cheering.

Amid the commotion, the exhausted heroes lay down on the pavement and dozed off for a bit.

Citizens gave their thanks to the heroes, then one by one began returning to check on their buildings and the safety of their loved ones.

Escaped from the monster, and now—back to ordinary life.

So then, the joy of ending despair... ended here.

It was time to face reality.

Back in the operations room, the heroes dropped the report on the Bad Cats’ assault from the operator onto the table and shared their thoughts.

“Deceased heroes: four B-ranks, two C-ranks. Civilian casualties... total of 524. Situation: resolved.”

“That’s... miraculous.”

“Considering we couldn’t even lay a finger on two despair-class monsters rampaging, it’s a ridiculously low number. But compared to W-City’s recent casualty rate from monsters... it’s horrific.”

“What’s public opinion like?”

“Total mess.”

The heroes' joy never lasted long.

Right after a subjugation, all the citizens rejoice—but once they return to their shattered homes and ruined streets, frustration at the damage overtakes relief.

One by one, people poke their heads out to complain—why did it take so long, did you even fight properly, how are you going to compensate us...

Worse yet, this time, people believed the normally quiet Black Cat had gone on a rampage, which made it all the more serious.

[So you finally got it? So you could get it this whole time but just didn’t?]

[What the hell’s that supposed to mean? You didn’t catch Black Cat and let this all happen?]

[Wasn’t everyone just thanking Black Cat for killing monsters the other day, and now they’re mad because 500 people died? Honestly, hasn’t Black Cat saved more people than that by now?]

[Does that matter? You still failed to stop deaths you could’ve prevented.]

[These were the same people saying “Don’t kill Black Cat, protect him~” just a while ago, and now they’ve all flipped. Unreal lol.]

[That was Black Cat protecting people. What if Black Cat killed your family—could you still say that crap?]

Maybe if they’d waited for the S-class heroes from other cities to arrive and hadn’t hunted the despair-class monster yet, things wouldn’t be this bad.

The citizens of W-City were loudly blaming the whole incident on hero incompetence.

[Five hundred people killed by just one despair-class monster—how is that even possible?]

[It’s not, but D-City lost 1,700 people in a day when they failed one ring formation, so...]

[Okay, yeah, it’s definitely bad.]

[Why are we talking about other cities now? W-City’s recent monster casualties were super low.]

[Because Black Cat was handling it?]

[They had the chance to kill Black Cat, and now look what happened. Starlight kept saying “Don’t trust monsters,” so what the hell was she even doing?]

[Remember when Starlight used to scream that Black Cat had to be stopped ASAP? Why isn’t she like that anymore?]

[Lately, it really did feel like she wasn’t planning to catch Black Cat at all.]

[What’s clear is: over 500 people died because of Starlight.]

[Isn’t this exactly what we’ve been saying—that she failed to stop something she could have?]

[No statement yet?]

Even before they could feel proud about saving people, the operations room filled with heavy sighs.

A C-rank hero, watching the toxic public sentiment, grumbled in frustration.

“Haah... Makes me wonder if we should’ve just let everyone die.”

“Heroes don’t say stuff like that.”

“S-Sorry, ma’am.”

Then, Starlight stepped out of the locker room in a suit, having taken off her hero outfit, and said:

“People just need someone to be angry at—that’s all it is. Maybe they got home and saw their place in ruins, or maybe they heard that someone they loved died.”

“I’m sorry....”

“Their sense of helplessness runs deeper than ours. Never forget that.”

In her tired hand, which brushed the corner of her eye, she held briefing materials for the incident.

From this moment on, Starlight would be delivering the post-battle report broadcasted across all of W-City.

They called it a report, but in truth, it was a broadcast demanding an apology from Starlight.

This wasn’t the first or second time it had happened, and the faces of all the heroes twisted in frustration.

“No matter how much being a hero requires a sense of duty, isn’t this just too much? It’s not like it only happened once or twice.”

“Every time it’s like this, it’s so exhausting. We fought like we were ready to die, but it’s still our fault?”

“If they need someone to blame, shouldn’t they blame the monsters...?”

“Monsters are terrifying creatures you can’t talk to, but heroes are easy to pick on...”

“Sounds like we’ve all got a lot bottled up.”

With a soft, dry chuckle, Starlight combed through her disheveled hair with her fingers and tied it back as she headed out of the operations room.

“The people still don’t know it was the Bad Cats and not Black Cat that rampaged, so this reaction makes sense.”

“Even if they knew, it’d probably be the same. People just want a hero they can chew out, someone easy to blame.”

“If heroes are ‘easy’ to them, that’s a good thing—it means they have the luxury to complain. Better than clinging to us, begging us to save their lives.”

“Well... that’s true, but still...”

“We can only hope they understand... but don’t worry. Even if the citizens don’t, I’ll make sure I’m the only hero who gets blamed.”

Just as she said, Starlight was planning to shoulder all the responsibility—both for lowering the alert on Black Cat and for joining hands with a monster like him.

The heroes of W-City felt indebted to Starlight for that, but none of them could step forward to stand beside her.

Because of what it meant to bear the title of an S-Class Hero—no matter who else stood up, the public’s anger would all land on Starlight anyway.

That’s how the other heroes rationalized it to themselves—but truthfully, most of them just didn’t have the strength to withstand the citizens’ fury.

If anything, the heroes of W-City had come to a silent agreement: whatever Starlight chose to do from here, they’d support her.

Just like they had when she said she’d team up with Black Cat to hunt the Bad Cats.

“Everyone destroyed the footage of Black Cat, right?”

“Should we smash it even more? Like, make sure it’s totally unrecoverable?”

“Probably for the best. Do it quick.”

One by one, the heroes picked up their busted cams and crushed them in their hands.

For this battle, the heroes had agreed not to leave behind a single piece of footage showing Black Cat joining forces with them.

Because the fallout from the very idea of a hero trying to work with a monster would be disastrous.

And it was also a preventative measure—to stop any annoying messes from popping up later.

If footage ever leaked of Black Cat helping the heroes, and people started thinking cooperating with monsters was possible... that would be a nightmare.

People might start approaching monsters that looked like Black Cat, thinking they were safe.

Others might start claiming they could befriend monsters.

Government research divisions might try to tame monsters as weapons.

And lately... there was even a weird religion claiming monsters were messengers of God.

If all those lunatics gathered in W-City—how much worse could it get?

“Still, I’m glad... that Black Cat didn’t betray us.”

“Isn’t it kinda weird to use the word ‘betray’ for a monster?”

“Is he a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode—or is he actually someone we can trust? At this point, maybe he’s earned it... but he’s still a monster.”

“Sigh... how did it come to this, where Black Cat seems more human than the actual citizens...”

As the other heroes sighed, Iron Might let the remains in his hand fall and picked up the remote.

Just then, Starlight was stepping forward to face the reporters.