53
Ch.53 Explanation and Labels
"First, I would like to apologize to the citizens of W-City for the delay in subjugating the Despair-class monster."
Starlight, Yoo Anna, bowed deeply before the reporters, then raised her head only to lower it again.
"In addition, I would like to express my deepest apologies to the 524 citizens who lost their lives in this monster attack and to their families."
The reporters fell silent for a moment of mourning in response to her formal bow.
But the mourning ended there.
In this era, death was far too common to grieve for long.
"Starlight! How do you plan to take responsibility for this incident?"
"The 524 who died this time—citizens are saying they wouldn’t have had to die if the Black Cat had been dealt with beforehand!"
"Were you not catching the Black Cat all this time because you chose not to?!"
"Did you hand over your duty as a hero to a monster just to get a little rest, since it was hunting monsters in your place?!"
The moment Yoo Anna raised her head, the reporters bared their fangs as if they had been waiting.
Every single one of them echoed the suspicions W-City’s citizens had been voicing about Yoo Anna.
In response, Yoo Anna took a deep breath and, as always, slammed the podium with a loud BANG!
The reporters, startled by the noise meant to silence them, shut their mouths as Yoo Anna spoke in a subdued voice.
"I apologize for the expanded damage caused by my delayed judgment."
"Are you admitting that you could have killed the Black Cat but chose not to for the heroes’ convenience?!"
"Then, I will now begin the report on the new Despair-class monster, the bad cats."
"Huh?"
Yoo Anna displayed materials on the large screen alongside the shocking news.
She honestly recounted everything that had happened so far.
The first alert—how she had rushed out upon hearing that the Black Cat was attacking people, how she had immediately attacked the monster at the scene.
Afterward, how she had been led around by monsters that kept disappearing and reappearing across W-City, increasing the casualties.
And how, in the process, she had realized that the enemy was not the Black Cat but another monster.
"The reason we couldn’t prevent the damage from occurring in multiple locations was because the bad cats are a pair of Despair-class monsters that travel together. They use abilities similar to the Black Cat’s, including the ability to evade monster alerts—a trait known to be the Black Cat’s signature… We repeatedly engaged the bad cats, attacked the Black Cat in the process, and while we were distracted, they fled elsewhere to cause more damage."
"Uh…?"
"Wait, the bad cats? They travel in pairs?"
"Two Despair-class monsters? And of the same species?"
At that moment, the public opinion that had been condemning Yoo Anna began to slowly reverse.
It was now common knowledge that monsters of the exact same species would not fight each other but instead cooperate.
What had happened in W-City was not a chase between the Black Cat and Starlight, but an indiscriminate guerrilla battle involving a pair of Despair-class monsters, the Black Cat, and Starlight.
In such a chaotic situation, the fact that only 500 people had died in W-City was nothing short of a miracle.
"...Had I not attacked the Black Cat from the start, had I realized sooner that the Black Cat and the bad cats were separate entities… The damage might have been zero."
Though Yoo Anna said this, everyone watching the screen knew it wouldn’t have been that simple.
The screen was filled with footage of the Cat monsters using their abilities, but no one could tell which was the Black Cat and which wasn’t.
Their similar appearances, the traits of their abilities, the fact that only one monster alert had gone off during their appearances, and the lack of any surveillance footage capturing them together—
Seeing all this, one might even wonder how Yoo Anna had managed to distinguish them at all.
"Th-then, what happened to the Black Cat?!"
"The Black Cat is alive."
"The Black Cat is alive?"
"Well, if it wasn’t the Black Cat causing the rampage, then of course it’s alive…"
"Don’t tell me… The Black Cat helped hunt the Despair-class monsters?"
Amid the clamoring reporters, Yoo Anna glanced toward the one who had asked the question.
It was a natural question—common sense dictated that two Despair-class monsters couldn’t have been held off with so few casualties by heroes alone.
"Saying it 'helped' is inaccurate. However, it did contribute. We left one of the bad cats to the Black Cat and divided our efforts to take them down separately."
Yoo Anna’s answer was ambiguous—not a lie, but with some information withheld—as she sighed and bowed her head once more.
"Since the bad cats are presumed to be the same species as the Black Cat, leaving one of them to the Black Cat was nothing short of a gamble. But I made that reckless choice because I saw no other way to minimize the damage. The outcome was favorable, but I apologize for risking the lives of the citizens."
The apologies continued, but no one blamed Yoo Anna anymore.
The reporters, having lowered their microphones, began applauding in unison.
It was praise for the hero who had made the best possible judgment for the greater good.
"This is… Wow, I need to change the article title."
"I’m speechless. Sensationalism aside… Even if two more S-rank heroes had come, they wouldn’t have ended it this cleanly."
"Starlight! You’ve worked hard!"
At its core, without an S-rank hero, everyone would have died.
The reporters focused not on the 500 deaths but on the survival of W-City’s citizens beyond that number.
[The Decisive Hero Starlight! W-City’s Pride!]
[Is that all?]
[Two Despair-class monsters went on a rampage—last time, an entire district was wiped out, and this time, people died. How is that something to be proud of?]
[How is that the same? Back then, it was different species fighting, so the heroes could control the battlefield. This time, the two were cooperating!]
[If the Black Cat was also fighting those bad cats, then that means three Despair-class monsters were rampaging.]
[Three Despair-class monsters clashing back and forth, and only 500 casualties? That’s an unbelievable number.]
[It’s tragic that people died, but anyone blaming Starlight for this is an idiot.]
[Even if three Disaster-class monsters ran wild, a mishandled response could easily kill over 500.]
[Wait, so the Black Cat wasn’t the crazy one—it was other monsters?]
[The Black Cat’s alive? The Black Cat’s alive? The Black Cat’s alive?]
The citizens watching the broadcast also praised Yoo Anna.
Now that they knew the full story, they had no choice but to acknowledge that 524 deaths was a miraculous figure.
The shift in public opinion was still hard to believe, but Yoo Anna thought that perhaps they had simply stayed quiet until the truth came out. She felt her heavy heart lighten slightly.
[Black Cat… T_T I knew it wasn’t you!]
[Our kitty would never do that!]
[Blackie! Blackie! Blackie!]
[Wait, does that mean that post circulating in the community was real?]
[That post about how the Black Cat protected people from another Black Cat when the shelter was breached—where is it?]
[I saw that too—where’d it go? Anyone have the link?]
With the revelation that the Black Cat hadn’t been the one rampaging in W-City, the Black Cat enthusiasts who had been lying low finally raised their heads.
The chat, which had been filled with demands to kill the Black Cat immediately, now scrolled at an incomparably faster pace, as if those earlier comments had never existed.
[What the hell is the Black Cat, really? Two Despair-class monsters of the same species came to W-City to rampage, and it fought them for us?]
[And from what Starlight said, she initially thought it was the bad cat and attacked the Black Cat—why the hell did it still help us after getting beaten up?]
[Black Cat: It wasn’t me T_T So unfair T_T Well, y’all were screwed anyway.]
[Black Cat! I believed in you all along! sobs]
[Is this thing really a monster?]
[I’m grateful, but going this far…? Hey, the Black Cat, aren’t they your own kind?]
[The Black Cat is just scared of Starlight.]
People were relieved that the Black Cat had done nothing wrong and was still alive.
Yoo Anna, watching the live reactions through a laptop on the table, coughed awkwardly at the overwhelming response and spoke up.
"A-hem. Let me reiterate—the Black Cat did not 'fight for us.' It would be more accurate to say we left one to it. Citizens, please do not forget that the Black Cat is still a monster. Its current behavior is abnormal, and—"
[Ah, yes, of course ^^7]
[Starlight, your loyalty is acknowledged ^^7]
[Why are you guys saluting like that? <^^ Loyalty!]
[<^^ Loya—lty! The Black Cat has never once fought to protect people from monsters!]
[The pride of W-City—envied by A-City, knelt before by B-City, and shocking C-City—the Black Cat ^^7 Oops! Starlight, your loyalty! <^^]
Now, people fully believed the Black Cat was safe.
And why wouldn’t they? Even when monsters that appeared to be its own kind showed up, the Black Cat chose to fight them and protect humans.
But if another Black Cat-like monster appeared, people might let their guard down around it, leading to more casualties.
Hoping the citizens would remain wary of the Black Cat—no, of monsters in general—Yoo Anna left a warning.
"Additionally, I must warn everyone. The Black Cat is… Somewhat angry right now, so we expect increased damage during pursuit for a while. Please do not approach it recklessly and risk harm…"
[Is it sulking because we misunderstood and attacked it first? So cute, this feisty little cat.]
[LOLOL the Black Cat’s mad so the damage’s gonna increase LOLOLOL Is it gonna stick a few more horizontal bars into building walls or what?]
[Fury-induced cat tower construction LOLOLOL]
[LOLOLOLOLOL I was just feeling depressed, but now I’m suddenly in a good mood.]
[I shouldn’t be laughing at a news segment about people dying, but this is just too funny.]
[I went to the bathroom for a second—why did the funeral turn into a festival?]
The more she spoke, the more it backfired. Even those in the chat who had been calling for the Black Cat’s death were now defending it.
At this point, it might already be too late to control public opinion…
As Yoo Anna bit her lip in frustration, a reporter who had been quietly observing the screen displaying the Black Cat and the bad cats raised their hand to ask a question.
"Starlight? There’s one thing I don’t understand. May I ask?"
"Of course. Go ahead."
"Ultimately, the key to resolving this incident seems to have been distinguishing between the Black Cat and the bad cats… How did you tell them apart?"
"Looking at the screen, we still can’t tell the difference. It almost seems like you took a reckless gamble, hoping it wasn’t the Black Cat that had transformed!"
If Yoo Anna hadn’t been able to distinguish the Black Cat from the other two, the damage would have only worsened as they were led around by the monsters.
"That’s a good question. Then, let me explain why I determined the Black Cat and the bad cats were different monsters."
Addressing the question on everyone’s mind in W-City, Yoo Anna picked up a laser pointer and began explaining as she indicated points on the screen.
"As you can see, the Black Cat’s nose is slightly smaller, and its facial structure is more aesthetically pleasing. Here, bad cat A has wider-set eyes and a different fur texture."
"…Huh?"
"Bad cat B has longer fur under its chin compared to the Black Cat, and it’s curlier than bad cat A’s. The ear shape is also different—the Black Cat’s is closer to an ideal trapezoid, while bad cat A’s are triangular, and the bad cat B’s are conical… Ah, the tail shape is obvious, but the split fur pattern on this part of the tail is…"
But the longer Yoo Anna spoke, the more confused the reporters looked.
The citizens in the chat also flooded the screen with question marks, baffled.
[What?]
[What…? Seriously, what?]
[How the hell did she notice that?]
Then, one person’s comment permanently affixed an irreversible label to Yoo Anna.
[Is Starlight a Black Cat otaku or something?]