"His clothes... could it be?"
His swollen body almost blocked the entire corridor. Naturally, his clothes could not expand a hundredfold and remain intact like Saiyan Battle Armor, but the few scraps still hanging from him were enough to reveal what they had originally looked like.
Other people might not have realized it, but Child Emperor had learned to think from a different angle after seeing the example of the kitten. Naturally, he could guess. "You are... Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask?"
Atomic Samurai spat out the skewer in his mouth and pushed his newly prepared sword a short distance out of its sheath with his thumb. "Child Emperor-kun, that's not a very funny joke. You're saying the Hero Association's public face was actually a monster pretending to be human?"
"Ah... I'm not completely sure. But whenever Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask entered the Association before, didn't he always avoid the front entrance?" Child Emperor tightened his grip on the straps of his backpack. Dozens of mechanical arms capable of instantly killing Demon-level Monsters extended from inside it.
The Hero Association's front entrance was equipped with devices for detecting monsters. Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask had given up promotion to S-Class and enjoyed special privileges, but as the Hero Association's best advertisement, he naturally had the freedom to be willful.
Whenever he arrived, he would make a grand entrance from the roof in his private helicopter. Combined with his already flashy personality, nobody had thought too deeply about it.
Garou, still some distance away, found a comfortable corner and watched. He had followed Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask specifically to see this. What would happen when a monster pretending to be a hero was exposed?
Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask offered no denial. He casually tossed the now 'skinned' Phoenix Man aside.
He had not expected things to end here. It was far more abrupt than he had imagined.
No. He could not let it end here. At the very least, not in front of these people.
He grabbed Yimi with one hand and slowly backed away. "Hahaha, so you found me out. Don't come after me, any of you, or I'll kill her!"
This child possessed psychic powers capable of killing him, but at least he could not die here.
The higher-ranked S-Class Heroes all had the strength to fight a Dragon-level Monster alone. The S-Class who had forcibly stormed the Monster Association probably had not even prepared themselves for the possibility of dying here. Using them as an audience would have a completely different effect.
In Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's ideal scenario, ordinary people—people who genuinely felt their lives were in danger—would serve as the audience. He would use this terrifying appearance and destructive power to fill them with fear, then be magnificently defeated by a new hero and become that hero's stepping stone.
S-Class Heroes could never produce that effect as an audience. They would not think things like, 'Won't some hero come save us?'
"Calm down. She's only a child!"
Superalloy Darkshine tried to awaken his conscience, while Child Emperor and Atomic Samurai beside him silently stared at Yimi, fully aware that this child was absolutely not the kind of person who could be used as a hostage.
Then there was one person completely out of sync with everyone else. "Who's Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask?"
Naturally, it was Saitama, who could not even afford paid television channels.
"Master, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask is A-Class Rank 1 and the Hero Association's public face. As far as I know, his fans—including male fans—already number well over a hundred million."
Genos scanned the corridor, searching for the best rescue route. The answer was that this terrain made rescuing a hostage impossible.
They had split into several groups because they were searching for people, but since the terrain forced them along only a few paths, they had converged again here.
Tatsumaki simply tore apart any route she disliked. With her psychic powers, there was no need to worry about collapse. If she were present, her abilities could resolve this perfectly without harming the hostage at all.
"That many?" Saitama scratched his cheek. "Well, I guess it makes sense. He's really handsome."
"?"
No matter how tense their nerves were, everyone else stared at him in speechless disbelief for at least a second.
"Did you even hear what Child Emperor-kun just said? Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask was actually a monster pretending to be human." Superalloy Darkshine frantically signaled with his eyes.
With the speed you showed just now, wouldn't rescuing one hostage be effortless?
Saitama kept his dead-fish eyes and, without changing that look, pulled his mouth into a simple smile that would be easy to draw. "I don't remember what he looked like before. I'm saying he looks really handsome now."
"Auntie said monsters are things that don't look like people... and are bad." Yimi raised her little face and looked at Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's chin. "But you're not a monster."
"Haha! Think whatever you want, brat! I originally planned to abolish S-Class and weaken the Hero Association's fighting strength. I didn't expect the people at the top to be so stubborn."
For now, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask held back the line, 'From the instant I saw you, I had to fight the urge to eat you.' He could save that one until they reached the city.
Not yet. He could not be killed here.
Yimi looked confused. "Aren't you the No. 1 A-Class hero?"
This girl still had not understood the situation at all. Was that why she was not attacking?
Child Emperor bit straight through the Lollipop in his mouth.
This was why ordinary children his age were so unbelievably troublesome.
"Little Yimi, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask isn't the A-Class Rank 1 hero anymore..."
Yimi pulled her arm out of Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask's hand, folded her arms, and looked at them in confusion. "I never understood before. Why is being a hero... a profession?"
"A profession..."
Why is being a hero a profession?
The innocent question of a child who genuinely wanted an answer made everyone fall silent.
The word hero seemed to have originally described people who saved others, not the name of a profession.
Everyone understood that principle. But monsters were...
Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask released his hand and put Yimi down. Genos, who had been calculating rescue probabilities every moment, tried to seize the opening and charge forward, but Saitama lightly placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You really are a hero."
Crack—
The damage Phoenix Man's flames had inflicted on the long corridor finally reached its limit. At that moment, the structure could no longer hold and collapsed.
By instinct, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask reached out and shoved Yimi away, and the collapsing rubble cut him off from the human heroes.
So they were cut off from each other, huh? Come to think of it, in Phoenix Man's world of consciousness, Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask had still worn the appearance he showed in public.
Through a crack that still let light through, his hideously ugly eyes met theirs one last time. Then Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask turned and walked toward the other end of the corridor.
"He's getting away. Is that really okay?" Superalloy Darkshine unconsciously tightened his muscles.
"Then let him go." Atomic Samurai slid his blade back into its sheath, took out another skewer, and bit down on it. "I'm not tactless enough to chase after him at a time like this."
"...What the hell?" Watching from afar, Garou lost his amused expression. His eyes remained fixed on the rubble blocking the corridor.
Perhaps only when fighting an opponent stronger than himself would he ever look as focused as he did now.
It was over. There was no show left to watch. Boring, boring.
He turned and began looking for a way out of the underground area. In his head, he once again remembered being held down and kicked by a group of 'hero' classmates when he had played the monster as a child.
There really were 'monsters' in this world pretending to be 'heroes.'