In a certain sense, public safety in City Q was considerably better even than City A's, because its dedicated guardian deity was S-Class Rank 12 Watchdog Man.
S-Class heroes sometimes felt dissatisfied with their rankings. In reality, a hero's strength could not be judged entirely by rank, and Watchdog Man had yet to suffer a single defeat.
From the outside, he looked like a man wearing a big white dog mascot costume, with only an unremarkable face exposed through the dog's mouth.
He even had dog-like habits. He did not take off the mascot costume when bathing, and he ate without utensils just like a dog.
Whenever a monster appeared in City Q, he rushed over as quickly as possible. But the range he protected was limited strictly to City Q; once a monster successfully escaped beyond that boundary, he stopped chasing it.
"Hey, is that...?"
"That's it, right? The Hero Hunter!"
"It's coming closer. Is Watchdog Man its target?"
Since Yimi simply could not find King, she came looking for this terrifying human-head dog instead. Naturally, if she was going to meet a dog, she had to use cat form. She was no longer the little kitty who could be chased all the way home by a pack of dogs.
The crowd surrounding Watchdog Man and taking pictures scattered, then all turned their phones toward Yimi.
Rude humans. All they knew how to do was point things at people and take pictures.
Unhappy, Yimi stood upright on her hind legs, took out her own phone, and operated it with her paw pads. Using the camera function she had figured out a few days ago, she retaliated by taking pictures of them.
"What's it doing?"
The strange sight of Yimi taking pictures left everyone confused for a few seconds. It was not until the first person covered his face, turned around, and fled that someone finally reacted.
"Is that cat taking pictures so it can hunt us down one by one afterward?"
A chill ran through everyone else when they heard that.
"I'm just passing by!"
Watchdog Man did not move. He merely glanced down at the little cat.
He usually could not be bothered with anything that was not a monster, but the look he turned toward her still made Yimi's fur stand on end as she slowly backed up two steps.
The human head this huge dog was biting moved its eyes!
Watchdog Man seemed different this time too. Even though he had not smelled any monster scent on Yimi, he jumped down from his pedestal and lowered his head to stare at the little cat for a while.
Terrifying or not, humans classified him as a hero on the side of justice. Yimi decided she should at least greet him before attacking.
She raised one front paw and started to lean back so she could stand.
Watchdog Man pressed a hand down on her front paw.
Shake.
"Meow?" Yimi pulled her paw free and placed it on top of his hand.
Watchdog Man pulled his hand out and put it on top of her paw again.
"Meow? Meowmeowmeowmeowmeow!"
Dog paw (?) and cat paw alternated rapidly through the air, leaving afterimages behind.
"No way! It's actually fighting Watchdog Man evenly!"
Even though he was genuinely crouched on all fours like a dog, his speed and movements had a martial-arts-like fluidity as he bounced around the limited area without hurting any bystanders.
"Meow! Meow?"
Yimi switched to the Adaptive Power from the previous world and, through pure numerical speed, slammed Watchdog Man's paw against the ground.
Watchdog Man looked down at the hand that could not move even half an inch, then placed his other hand on top of hers too.
"..."
Yimi wanted to smack him on the head with her Meow-Meow Punch, but with eyesight far beyond a normal human's, she suddenly glimpsed three scars in the crowd that was steadily retreating and trying to flee—scars that looked as though she herself might have clawed them.
That was S-Class Rank 7 King, the first target she had set out to find.
He was wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap, making it hard to recognize him at a glance, but from Yimi's viewpoint below a human's shin, his face was easy to see.
He had only just been passing by and had no idea what was happening. Then the crowd suddenly started backing away and exposed him.
Yimi pulled her paw free, ignored the terrifying human-head dog for now, and turned toward the completely relaxed-looking man.
King looked down too, meeting Yimi's eyes.
A panda-patterned cat. If he remembered correctly, the news had mentioned a monster that hunted high-ranking heroes.
Thump. Thump. Thump—
"What's that sound?"
A nearly deafening noise echoed down the street. It was unsettling, yet to those who recognized it, it brought an endless sense of security.
"It's the King Engine! It's King! We're saved!"
"Yeah! Take it down, King!"
Shut up! Stop egging this on!
King desperately shot Watchdog Man a pleading look, only to see him climb back onto his pedestal as though leaving everything to King.
To the surrounding crowd, however, it clearly looked like King was politely telling Watchdog Man, "Your territory, your decision," and Watchdog Man, as the local guardian, was graciously yielding the battlefield to King.
"This is so exciting! Are we finally going to see King's Ultimate Hellfire Burst Wave-Motion Cannon?"
"That's exactly what I came to see!"
Yimi glanced in their direction, and they immediately fell silent.
Feeling some inexplicable pressure from Conqueror's Haki as well, King's despair deepened—and so did the pounding of his King Engine.
King Engine, my ass. He was completely and utterly an ordinary person!
At most, he looked a little scarier than the average person and was twice as cowardly, to the point that whenever he got frightened, his heart produced this noise-like pounding.
For a long time now, monsters had inexplicably appeared around him, only to be killed in one punch by some guy who suddenly showed up.
Several times, they had happened to die right at his feet. Some were threat level Demon, some threat level Dragon, and the Hero Association had assumed he killed them and given him an S-Class rank.
He had thought he could safely go buy a new gal game in City Q, of all places. It was Watchdog Man's territory, after all. Yet somehow, even in a place he had believed absolutely safe, this happened.
Judging by Watchdog Man's behavior, he had no intention of getting involved anymore. King's luck had finally run out.
"Hero Hunter, was it? I hear you've been challenging high-ranking heroes one after another. It would be disrespectful if I didn't face you at full strength, wouldn't it?" King forced himself to stay calm as he spoke.
"Meow?"
"Could you wait five minutes? I need to use the restroom so I can perform at my absolute best." King decisively turned his back as soon as he finished. The spectators interpreted even that posture as the confidence to expose his back to an enemy.
He had not taken more than a few steps when he saw the little ball of fur following right beside his feet.
"I'll go, with you." What if you run away?
"..."
So even a delaying tactic would not work?
Cold sweat hid beneath King's hoodie as he struggled to think of another excuse.
Should he just run?
No. He was far too cowardly. He did not even have the courage to flee and ruin his reputation outright. Whether he could actually escape was one thing; if he ran, there was no guarantee the people of City Q would be safe either.
All these spectators knew was, "Thank goodness, it's so-and-so, we're saved!" They had no idea there were enormous differences between monsters.
King was an ordinary person too, but his constant bad luck of ending up at these scenes had at least taught him how terrifying monsters could be.
Amai Mask had said on the news that this monster was threat level Dragon. This tiny cat alone could destroy an entire city! Bluffing would not have the slightest effect on it...
When they reached the restroom, King stopped.
He looked down at Yimi. "If someone watches me, I won't be able to use the restroom in peace."
"I'm a cat."
"..."
The voice sounded like a child's, carrying a layer of innocence.
King's thoughts spun furiously before he spoke again. "If you want to fight me, we can do it right now. But my way of fighting is rather unusual. If you're not afraid, just follow me."
* * *
King regretted his terrible idea so much his intestines practically turned green. He had thought the long trip back to his home would surely give someone a chance to save him, yet all he had accomplished was exposing his address to a monster.
Too much time had been wasted. Yimi stood upright and gave King a dissatisfied look. "How are you, going to fight?"
"This. Have you seen one before?" King handed her a controller.
"What's this?"
Good. She had never seen one!
King relaxed by half a breath. As he switched on the game console, he started making things up. "Something humans use to simulate combat. When the surroundings aren't suitable for real fighting but you still want to spar, you can use it for simulated battles that won't cause much destruction..."
"Isn't this a game?" Yimi pointed a cat paw at the screen.
King's hand jerked.
You know what it is?!
Still, Yimi did not know much about games. She had never even seen a controller.
"Mm."
Yimi changed into human form and started feeling out the controller.
A kid?
King froze for a moment.
And cute. Cat ears too. She was tiny, exactly the kind of child who awakened other people's protective instincts.
"Up, down, left, and right move you. This is heavy punch, light punch, light kick... For most characters, down, forward, plus any attack button performs a special move. I can let you figure it out first."
"..."
"I know how. Let's start."
Once they entered the versus screen, even knowing the one sitting beside him was a monster, King could not resist going easy on a child at first.
Yimi kept pressing one button, making the character on-screen throw one huge slap after another at empty air.
Then King deleted her with a single combo.
"Meow?"
"Want another round? I can use only two fingers."
"Again."
She lost completely again. This King really was amazing. The game was fun too, much more fun than ALfheim Online.
But there was not a single move in the game that belonged to a kitty. It did not count as fighting at all!
She stood up with her hands on her hips. "You're the strongest, right?"
"N-no matter how you look at it, I can't possibly count as the strongest, can I?" King looked away as cold sweat soaked his back again.
He had almost forgotten that this cute little thing's true identity was supposedly a threat level Dragon monster.
"I can give you a game console. You can play this fighting game on it too." King handed the newly bought handheld console to Yimi.
"Mm." Yimi accepted it.
For someone as young as her, a game with simple rules really was fun—much more so than something as complicated as ALfheim Online.
This King was a good person too, and he had said himself that he was not the strongest.
Yimi rummaged through her storage space, pulled out all the spending money she had left, and handed it to him. "This is for you, exchange. How do I, use this?"
She did not know how much her spending money could buy. In any case, after buying the directory, this was all she had left.
"Huh? I'll teach you. This thing needs to be charged..."
After learning the basics of turning it on and choosing a game to play, Yimi flew away, leaving King staring down at the coins and bills in his hand—not even enough to buy a game—as he sank into thought.
That was surprisingly easy. She seemed to be a good kid, unexpectedly enough.
Maybe Watchdog Man had climbed back onto his pedestal not because he was leaving everything to King, but because he had recognized that the little girl was not a monster?
* * *
Yimi flew back to Fubuki's home while playing the game.
There was more than just the fighting game on it. It had lots of other fun games too. Yimi was going to take it to school tomorrow and play.
"Auntie."
She called into the apartment but got no answer. It was already completely dark outside, yet Fubuki had not come home. Monster attacks did not care whether working hours were over, after all.
Yimi lay on the sofa and kept playing while hugging the game console. The novelty of the new toy even made her forget to cook.
Then she lost track of time while playing, curled into a ball, and fell asleep.
"Hm?"
Under psychokinesis, the window of Fubuki's home opened, and Tatsumaki flew in with her arms folded, lowering her eyes toward Yimi.
She knew Fubuki had done it. Fubuki had made her search for so long by carrying off such a dangerous little monster without saying a word.
As S-Class Rank 2, using her connections—threats—to find Fubuki's home was naturally effortless. Fubuki had not gone into hiding deep in the wilderness; she was openly active as a hero.
Tatsumaki had only let her keep playing hero outside because she wanted Fubuki to get it out of her system.
Tatsumaki looked around the place. There were signs of Yimi living here: Fubuki had fitted safety guards to the table corners so Yimi would not bump into them, and in one corner lay a dog plush that seemed to have suffered abuse.
There was homework too. How could there be so many misspelled words?
"Idiot."
Wait. Fubuki had even signed this test paper? Looks like she really does care about this little thing... but no.
Tatsumaki grabbed Yimi with psychokinesis and carried her out through the window.
A dangerous little brat like this could not be left beside Fubuki. She was taking her back.