Ugly monsters. That was one category among monsters.
Hardly anyone deliberately classified them this way. It simply referred to people whose appearance was so ugly that they endured strange looks throughout their lives, their minds growing increasingly twisted until they became monsters.
For monsters born this way, the uglier and more pathetic they were, the stronger they became.
Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's true form was likewise an ugly monster, and he too had become a monster because of an inferiority complex over his appearance. But the direction he took was completely different from ugly monsters—practically the opposite.
The reason this category mattered so much was that Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask, who became a monster through his pursuit of perfection, would become completely unable to move when faced with someone excessively ugly.
It was a complete hard counter. This wasn't something as simple as a movie hero whose legs had been shot through but could still run by forcing himself onward through sheer willpower.
"Are you a hero? Whatever. Shithead pretty-boy bastard. Don't you look a lot easier on the eyes with your head smashed flat?"
Because Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask had deliberately changed his face, Fuhrer Ugly failed to recognize him and simply assumed he was a bodyguard Tatsumaki had sent to protect her daughter.
If he knew he had just trampled the glamorous top celebrity from television underfoot, he would probably be so excited that his wrinkled, hideous face would twist into a smile that made people want to put him out of his misery on the spot.
Then again, any handsome man was his enemy.
Fuhrer Ugly tossed Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask aside and headed in the direction the cat had just gone.
"..."
That monster had to be Demon-level... no, Dragon-level, right?
Garou, who had secretly witnessed everything, stepped out and settled into a deep Asian-style squat, staring at Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's head flattened like a sheet.
After getting beaten senseless by three people with almost no reputation, one of whom was even a little girl, Garou had nearly given up and gone looking for a job.
Fortunately, today he saw the news that the ordinary-looking swordsman who had thrashed him a few days ago had received extremely high praise from Atomic Samurai. That restored a little of his confidence.
Whatever level that monster was, there was no way the current him could beat it.
He had no reason to fight it either. At this stage, while calling himself a monster, his main targets were heroes. Still, if he wanted to bring about an indiscriminate evil that treated everyone equally, then monsters would obviously have to get beaten too.
Garou stood back up, only to see Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's hand rise.
"?"
His head had been crushed flat and he was still alive?
Looking over again, Garou discovered that Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's injuries had somehow already healed. The face he reconstructed had unconsciously returned to the famous heroic appearance of Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask.
"Did he leave?" Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask glanced irritably in the direction Fuhrer Ugly had gone, veins spreading from his face across almost his entire body.
A monster had actually managed to abduct the person he had chosen right in front of him.
He was furious, but after experiencing Fuhrer Ugly's strength firsthand, he knew this wasn't something he could solve alone. Cooperation between Dragon-level monsters couldn't be treated like an ordinary kidnapping.
"Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask?"
Hearing the astonished voice beside him, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask glanced over and saw Garou.
An ordinary civilian? Damn it. He had unconsciously changed back to this face and been seen completely.
City Z had very few residents, and no one else was anywhere nearby. Should he silence the witness? If he killed this man, then tomorrow he would still be that perfect celebrity hero—
No.
Why had he even thought that?
He was becoming more and more like a real monster.
It was only one person. Zombieman among the S-class could survive even if his head was smashed to pulp. This proved nothing. Even if this man went around talking, people would only treat it as malicious hype or fabricated rumors.
"There are monsters nearby. Run to a Shelter immediately."
"Hey, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask—hold it. You're A-class Rank 1, right?" Garou put a hand on Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's shoulder.
He wasn't S-class, but this was still A-class Rank 1.
He was supposed to be a hero, so why had he looked like a monster just now? Garou, who planned to call himself a monster, attack heroes, and eventually become a monster for real, couldn't help caring about that.
Besides, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask had just been injured. There was no reason to let this opportunity pass, right?
Perfect. He wanted to see how he currently measured up against a famous ranked hero!
"Get lost! I don't have time for you right now."
...
Naturally, Garou got the hell beaten out of him.
"Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist?" Smoothing the vicious expression from his face, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask looked doubtfully at the unconscious Garou.
He didn't know martial arts himself, but he regularly reviewed S-class heroes and had seen Bang fight before, so he could recognize traces of the technique.
Was even one of Bang's disciples that strong? Garou hadn't seemed especially powerful at first, but the kid had gotten fiercer and fiercer as the fight continued, until Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask finally had to release some of his own power to win.
Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask stared darkly at Garou for quite some time.
Bang's disciple. He had probably recognized Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's monster identity and wanted to eliminate him here, right? Unfortunately, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask couldn't die yet—not before that little girl was rescued and could take his place.
Ignoring Garou, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask turned away and contacted the Hero Association.
* * *
Beneath City Z stretched an enormous area large enough to be called an Underground City. This was the Monster Association's lair.
They would inevitably fight the Hero Association sooner or later, but with Tatsumaki having an obvious weak point, confronting her head-on would be foolish. So Psykos sent Nyan, a cat-type monster whose appearance was at least passable, to lure the child over.
The process went unexpectedly smoothly. Nyan told Yimi there was endless catnip here, and she followed him on her own without the slightest suspicion.
Psykos decided not to worry for the moment about why Nyan had used catnip to abduct a child. Tatsumaki's daughter really had stupidly followed him because of it.
Inside the dungeon, Yimi stared in confusion at the locked door and felt that she had probably, maybe, been tricked.
"So this is the brat? S-class Rank 2's daughter."
"Oh, so Tatsumaki isn't actually a little girl? What a disappointment."
"So what? Her daughter looks really cute. Doesn't she have monster features on her head? Nobody would notice if I took one bite, right?"
"She's going to die in the end anyway. Why don't we cut her open and eat her now?"
The sinister voice belonged to Royal Ripper, a Demon-level monster who was one of the few monsters to appear in weekly magazines, and even then only in their horror sections.
There were monsters everywhere here. Where was the cat grass?
Yimi had The World smash the door open with one punch.
"Hey, she came out!"
"She came out on her own? Then don't blame me. Inside that door was the only safe place you had!"
Royal Ripper raised the blade on his right arm and, completely disregarding Psykos's orders, swung it hard at Yimi's little face.
Then this monster, who was not weak even among Demon-level threats, stared at Yimi in disbelief as his eye bulged beneath the bandages.
The next second, Royal Ripper was ripped vertically into two halves straight down from the center of his forehead.
Yimi's control over psychokinesis was still not very good.
The noisy monsters fell silent for several seconds.
Was the monster's daughter a monster too?
Watching from afar, Psykos frowned slightly, then relaxed again.
A brat born with psychic powers like this had probably never been made to suffer in her life.
Sealing her psychic powers and turning the monsters she currently regarded as trash into a source of terror sounded amusing. Psykos could hardly wait to see Fubuki's face when she found her little niece...
"H-Help!"
"What's happening? This brat... what the hell is wrong with her?!"
Psykos, whose thoughts had been dominated by revenge, was interrupted. She shifted the view through her "eyeball."
Her psychic waves sensed it clearly. A strange humanoid draped in burlap, controlled by Yimi's psychokinesis, punched straight through the shoulder of a monster in front of it, and the formerly plump monster immediately shriveled.
Yimi had flown off as soon as Tatsumaki left home. She hadn't even had time to order delivery.
She no longer liked doing this much after tasting so many delicacies, but there probably wasn't anything good to eat here anyway.
"Harmful Hunger!"
This brat?
Psykos watched remotely in incomprehension as this child, who should have been only a year or two into elementary school, sealed every escape route with psychokinesis and slaughtered every monster present, including Demon-level ones.
No. This should be called "hunting."
"Mm?"
After tasting Lord Boros, these weak monsters barely registered anymore. They were probably about the same as eating a small bun.
Yimi grabbed Psykos's "eyeball" in her hand, glanced toward the location where Psykos's puppet was hiding, then lowered her head under Psykos's horrified gaze.