"Get the hell out! What kind of celebrity role model are you supposed to be? Don't tell me you actually think you're handsome!"
He barged in uninvited, rambled on however he pleased, then acted as though he could ignore her the moment he reached the important part. This was exactly why Tatsumaki hated this man.
She simply hurled him out the window with psychokinesis. It didn't matter what floor they were on; a fall wouldn't kill him, and he could adjust his own landing well enough not to hit anyone.
Yimi gripped the balcony railing and looked down. "What's a child star?"
"A kid who starts making money for adults when they're little."
"Oh."
So humans had jobs where they started hunting from childhood too.
Yimi poked Tatsumaki. "Then are you a child star?"
Tatsumaki always seemed able to get lots of money, after all.
"I'm twenty-eight! I'm old enough to be your mom!" Tatsumaki rapped her on the head.
Yimi was shocked. "You're that old!"
"..." Tatsumaki turned to look at the washing machine. For one brief moment, she was estimating whether it could fit a child inside and still start.
Ring-ring-ring~
"Oh, the phone."
It was a call from the Hero Association for the first time in ages, but Tatsumaki first lowered her head and checked outside the window to see whether Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask was still there.
"Stay home by yourself for now. If he comes back, call the police and say there's a creepy stranger outside and you're scared. Call me if you want anything to eat and I'll bring it back. And if you dare stew rats at home by yourself, you're dead."
Tatsumaki left. Before going, she stroked the spot right between Yimi's two ears. That was the best place to pet her; if you did it well enough, she would even narrow her eyes in pleasure.
"Be careful."
After seeing Tatsumaki off, Yimi turned on the television and discovered that the pointy-headed giant tokusatsu show wasn't airing at this hour.
"Recently, a mysterious unnamed swordsman has appeared in City Z, repeatedly defeating monsters by appearing without warning and vanishing again in an instant. S-class Rank 4 Atomic Samurai has stated that the swordsman uses a very distinctive style and that he would like to spar with him if the opportunity arises..."
That "Progenitor Samurai" sounded like the guy who had asked her to cut an apple before. Hadn't Tatsumaki said unregistered heroes would just be treated as suspicious weirdos?
There was nothing she wanted to watch, so Yimi lay down on the sofa and prepared to play games for a while.
No! This wasn't the time to get addicted to this stuff.
She had almost forgotten again. Her Main Quest was to find Blast, and he was very likely to appear in City Z.
Yimi opened the window and flew out too.
Down on the first floor, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask, who had actually been waiting in the hallway, looked up in the direction Yimi had flown.
Unlike with Tatsumaki, it would be easier to talk if he could get around the guardian and speak to the child alone. Following her now, though, would look suspiciously like stalking a little girl...
Still, he changed his appearance first and followed her.
When he first became a monster, he had been terrified of showing his true face in public. That was why, in addition to High-speed Regeneration, one of the special abilities he gained after becoming a monster was the ability to alter his appearance.
* * *
City Z, outside a cheap rental apartment.
"Come out! We know you're home!" Members of the Fubuki Group crowded the hallway and shouted.
But while her underlings were busy, Fubuki, their boss, unconsciously had her attention drawn to something else nearby.
She crouched down and picked up an orange tabby that looked like it had been living quite comfortably.
A cat... Yimi!
Maybe it was just her imagination, but ever since she stopped having a cute little angel greet her when she got home every day, she always felt as though the mental exhaustion from the day never completely disappeared even after resting.
Yesterday, she had even had a nightmare. She dreamed that the child had done something wrong and her sister stuffed her into the washing machine, while the girl cried and called for Auntie...
Fubuki patted her own cheeks.
No matter what, her sister wouldn't be that cruel. Her behavior and words were always forceful, but she treated family very well.
"Fubuki-sama?"
Mountain Ape's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. Fubuki came back to herself, realized this was no time for that, and put down the orange tabby in her arms.
Her little niece had even made her start liking cats.
Fubuki watched the orange tabby scamper away, climb onto a calico, and start thrusting against it.
"..."
"What do you want?"
Saitama, whose rank had been rising at remarkable speed, opened the door and looked at the black-clad people blocking the hallway with eyes that could be drawn as a circle with a dot inside.
"Hey, rookie, you're seriously rude! You've been in B-class this long and you still haven't come to greet Fubuki-sama on your own!"
Saitama scratched his cheek. "Who's Fubuki-sama?"
Embarrassing as it was, because he could always kill monsters with one punch, whether they were Demon-level or Dragon-level, his victories never looked especially impressive. Even when he occasionally went to support other heroes, the credit somehow always ended up going to everyone else while he received only a tiny share.
Meanwhile, his disciple, Demon Cyborg Genos, had been classified as S-class the moment he joined the Hero Association.
"You don't even know Fubuki-sama?!"
"Enough." Fubuki chose that moment to wave her subordinates aside and make her imposing entrance.
First she had Eyelashes and the others give the newcomer a hard time, then she, as the boss, would step out to stop them, appearing magnanimous and unconcerned while giving the newcomer a touch of warmth. The trick worked every time.
"Rookie, you should know..."
"Ah, the little cat girl who was flying in the sky before." Saitama wasn't listening to her at all. His attention was already behind her.
Cat-kid?
Fubuki turned around and saw the little girl she had just been missing crouched nearby, curiously staring at the orange tabby mounted on the calico.
The orange tabby felt a sudden chill.
"Meow!"
Then Fubuki tossed both cats away.
"Cat!" Yimi stared at Fubuki in shock.
Auntie abused cats!
"You're not allowed to look at that. Why did you come here?"
Fubuki took Yimi's little hand and gave it a couple of squeezes, her voice impossibly soft. She completely forgot that she was supposed to maintain her dignity in front of the newcomer Saitama.
"I came to fight Blast."
What kind of ridiculous reason was that? Well, children were bad at expressing themselves anyway.
Fubuki took out a banknote and stuffed it into Yimi's hand. "Go buy yourself a lollipop at the supermarket across the street. Auntie will come play with you in a little while."
What she was about to do was practically strong-arming someone into joining, after all. It wasn't something a child should watch.
After sending Yimi away, Fubuki switched her soft voice back to normal and asked without emotion, "Where was I?"
"You sure change your tune fast," Saitama said.
...
Some distance from Saitama's apartment building, a flying eyeball watched everything, lingering especially long on Fubuki.
A thousand meters underground, a woman sipping wine was grinding her back teeth hard enough to crack them. It was Psykos, who had only just managed to break the Seal on her psychic powers through tremendous effort.
Her psychic powers had somehow been sealed for no apparent reason. Then, over the past few days, the Monster Association she had finally built to a respectable size suffered an unknown attack and lost more than half its monsters outright.
Things became a complete mess after she recovered too. Psykos had founded the Monster Association, but she deliberately used a monster-shaped puppet as its public face. Once her psychic link was severed, the other executives all declared that she had passed away and promptly divided up and ate her puppet...
Today, she had finally managed to gather the executives back together. She wanted to use one of her puppets to scout outside and see what had happened, only to run straight into her old enemy Fubuki.
Back in school, Fubuki had founded the Psychic Research Society. Fubuki was president and Psykos was vice president.
But one day, because their ideals diverged, Fubuki had directly sealed Psykos's psychic powers before they could grow to a dangerous level!
Was this your doing again?
No. Mediocre as you are, you don't have the power to seal the current me. You haven't even noticed that I'm watching you. It must have been that wonderful sister you're always boasting about!
Cracks spread across the wineglass in Psykos's hand.
"Forget it. I heard something interesting. 'Auntie,' was it?"
She would leave Fubuki alone for now, but—
Psykos twisted that beautiful face into what could only be called a vicious grin. "Bring that little brat to me!"
...
"Meow?"
"Meow."
Yimi slowly shuffled backward, the uncanny valley effect making the fur on her tail stand on end.
She was looking at an enormous cat that remained feline in shape, yet was as tall as a human and stood upright on its hind legs just like one.
Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask felt thoroughly drained from having to go nearly all out just to keep up with her. It wasn't that catching Yimi was especially difficult for him as a Dragon-level monster. The problem was that, while running on the ground and without fully unleashing his monster form, the only way to keep pace with someone flying through the sky was to leap from building to building across the city.
Perhaps he should try transforming himself to grow wings, but he had barely practiced anything like that and wasn't proficient with it.
Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask looked toward Yimi.
He saw an upright cat monster say something to her, and the innocent little girl followed it away without the slightest caution.
"..."
They looked nothing alike, but Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask had reason to suspect this huge cat had some connection to the little cat he had fought before.
It was good for a child to stay innocent, but...
Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask pulled open his coat, preparing to beat the monster that dared abduct a little girl to a pulp.
"Hohoho, look what I've found."
But someone blocked his path.
The Monster Association had lost so many members that it barely had any disposable foot soldiers left. On top of that, Psykos was wary of Tatsumaki, who she suspected had sealed her psychic powers. So besides sending a cat monster chosen for a favorable matchup, as was their usual habit, to lure Yimi away, Psykos had dispatched another executive as well.
Dragon-level monster, Fuhrer Ugly.