Became a Failed Experimental Subject-Chapter 53: Explanation and Label
“First, to the citizens of W-City—I apologize for the delay in subjugating the despair-class monster.”
Starlight, Yu Anna, bowed her head deeply before the press, then raised her head only to bow once again.
“I also offer my sincerest apologies to the 524 citizens who lost their lives in this monster attack, and to their families.”
At her respectful bow, the reporters went silent, joining briefly in a moment of mourning.
But that was the end of the sadness.
In this era, death had become far too common to grieve any longer than that.
“Starlight! How do you plan to take responsibility for this incident?”
“Five hundred twenty-four deaths! The public says they would’ve lived if Black Cat had been eliminated in advance!”
“Wasn’t it not that you couldn’t capture Black Cat, but that ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ you simply chose not to?”
“Was it because Black Cat was hunting monsters on your behalf that you thought you could take a break?! Did you push your hero duties onto a monster?”
The moment Yu Anna raised her head, the reporters pounced as if they’d been waiting.
All of it—accusations echoed by the citizens of W-City.
Yu Anna took a slow breath in and, as always, slammed the table—BANG!
At the loud command for silence, the rowdy reporters quieted down, and Yu Anna spoke in a calm voice.
“I apologize for the damage that spread due to the delay in my decision-making.”
“So you admit it—you didn’t kill Black Cat, not because you couldn’t, but because the heroes didn’t feel like it?”
“Then I’ll begin the report on the new despair-class monsters—the Bad Cats.”
“Wait, what?”
Yu Anna dropped the bombshell as footage appeared on the large screen.
She spoke honestly about everything that had happened so far.
The first alert—when she deployed after hearing that Black Cat was attacking people. How she immediately engaged the monster on the scene.
How they kept getting pushed around by monsters that appeared, vanished, and reappeared all across W-City, the casualties only piling up.
And how, eventually, she realized that the true enemy wasn’t Black Cat but some other monster.
“The reason we couldn’t stop the damage in multiple locations is because the Bad Cats were a pair of despair-class monsters. They used abilities similar to Black Cat’s and even possessed the same evasion from monster alerts that was known to be Black Cat’s signature trait... so every time we deployed to hunt a Bad Cat, we ended up attacking Black Cat, while the real one fled to another location and continued to spread damage.”
“Huh...?”
“Wait, did you say Bad Cats? A pair of them?”
“Two despair-class monsters? Of the same species?”
In that moment, the public’s anger at Yu Anna began to slowly turn.
It was now common knowledge that monsters of the same species working together—rather than fighting each other—was entirely plausible.
What had taken place in W-City wasn’t a chase between Black Cat and Starlight, but an all-out guerilla war between two despair-class monsters, and Black Cat and Starlight.
Given that chaos, the fact that only 500 people died... was nothing short of miraculous.
“...If I hadn’t attacked Black Cat in the beginning, if I had realized sooner that the Bad Cats were separate entities... it’s possible there would’ve been zero casualties.”
Even as Yu Anna said that, everyone watching the screen thought—it wouldn’t have been that simple.
The screen was filled with footage of black cat monsters using abilities, but no one could tell which was Black Cat and which wasn’t.
Identical appearance, similar powers, only one type of monster alert triggered in the area.
They’d never even been caught on camera together.
Seeing all this, most people began to wonder how Yu Anna managed to distinguish them at all.
“Th-then, what happened to Black Cat?”
“Black Cat is alive.”
“Black Cat’s still alive?”
“Well, yeah—if he wasn’t the one rampaging, then he’d still be alive...”
“Wait, are you saying Black Cat helped hunt down despair-class monsters?”
As the reporters stirred with shock, Yu Anna glanced briefly toward the one who asked.
Considering the sheer improbability that heroes alone could’ve contained two despair-class monsters with this little damage, the question was only natural.
“Saying he helped isn’t quite accurate. But yes, he was helpful. We passed off one of the Bad Cats to Black Cat, and handled the other separately.”
Yu Anna gave a vague answer—not a lie, but with some parts withheld—and let out a small sigh as she bowed her head again.
“The Bad Cats are presumed to be of the same species as Black Cat. Entrusting one of them to Black Cat was, frankly, a gamble. But at the time, I believed it was the only way to reduce casualties, so I made a reckless decision. The result turned out well, but I still apologize for putting citizens’ lives at stake.”
More apologies followed, but no one blamed Yu Anna anymore.
The reporters set their mics down and, all at once, began to applaud.
It was praise for a hero who had made the best possible decision for the sake of everyone.
“...Guess I’m gonna have to change the article headline.”
“There’s nothing left to say. Screw clickbait... Even if you had two more S-Class heroes, you wouldn’t have gotten a better result.”
“Starlight! You did good!”
When you looked at it plainly, the truth was simple—without an S-Class hero, everyone would’ve been dead.
The reporters shifted focus from the 500 dead to the rest of W-City’s citizens who survived.
[Starlight, the Hero of Resolve! The Pride of W-City!]
[Is it really that impressive?]
[Two despair-classes rampaging—last time, we lost a whole district. Now we’ve got deaths too—what’s to be proud of?]
[You really comparing this to that? That time, it was two different species fighting, so heroes could control the battlefield. This time, they were working together.]
[If Black Cat was fighting against the Bad Cats, that means three despair-class monsters were rampaging.]
[If you had three despair-class monsters going wild and only lost 500 people? That’s not even statistically possible.]
[The deaths are tragic, but if you’re still blaming Starlight, you’re just an idiot.]
[Even with just three disaster-class threats, if you screw up the response, you lose 500 people easy.]
[Wait, so it wasn’t Black Cat who went berserk?]
[Is Black Cat alive? Is Black Cat alive? IS BLACK CAT ALIVE?!]
The citizens watching the broadcast also began to praise Yu Anna.
Once the truth came out, even the 524 deaths seemed, in context, like a miracle the people were forced to acknowledge.
The sudden whiplash was jarring—but Yu Anna thought, maybe they’d just been holding their tongues, waiting for a clear explanation.
And with that thought, the weight pressing on her heart lifted, if only a little.
[Black Cat ㅠㅠ I knew it wasn’t you!]
[Our kitty would never do that!]
[Blaccky! Blaccky! Blaccky!]
[Wait, so that post going around the forums was true?]
[Where’s that thread that said Black Cat protected someone from another Black Cat during the shelter breach?]
[I saw it too! Anyone got the link?]
Now that it was revealed that the one who rampaged in W-City wasn’t Black Cat, the long-silent Black Cat fans began to speak up again.
And just like that, the chat window that had been full of people saying Black Cat should’ve been killed faster was now scrolling faster than ever before.
[Seriously, what is Black Cat? Two despair-class monsters of the same species come to W-City and he fights them?]
[And from what Starlight said, they thought he was a Bad Cat at first and beat him up—but he still helped them?]
[Black Cat: “It wasn’t me ㅠ I’m innocent ㅠ” ...All of you are dead to me.]
[Black Cat! I always believed in you! Dammit!]
[Wait, is he even really a monster?]
[I mean, I’m grateful, but seriously...? Dude, those were your own kind.]
[Black Cat only does it because he’s scared of Starlight.]
People were relieved—Black Cat wasn’t dead, and he hadn’t done anything wrong.
Watching the live responses on the laptop in front of her, Yu Anna gave a small cough and said:
“Ahem... Once again, to clarify: Black Cat didn’t fight for us—we passed it off to him. I urge the citizens not to forget that Black Cat is still a monster, and his current behavior is... abnormal, at best.”
[Ah, yes, if you say so ^^7]
[Salute, Miss Starlight ^^7]
[Why are you all doing left-handed salutes? <^^ Salute!]
[<^^ SALUTE! Black Cat has never fought to protect humans, not even once!]
[A-City envies us, B-City kneels, C-City gasps—W-City’s national treasure, Black Cat ^^7 Oh! And salute to Miss Starlight! <^^]
Now, people had come to completely believe that Black Cat was safe.
And for good reason—Black Cat had chosen to fight monsters and protect humans, even when monsters of his own species had shown up.
Still, if another monster that resembled Black Cat were to show up again, people might approach thinking Black Cat was harmless... and get hurt.
Yu Anna, hoping that citizens would continue to stay alert—not just toward Black Cat, but toward monsters in general—left a warning.
“Additionally, to all citizens—I must warn you. Black Cat is currently a little upset, so we expect there may be an increase in collateral damage during pursuit. Please be careful not to approach him and get hurt unnecessarily...”
[Wait, is he sulking because we misunderstood and hit him? That’s so freaking cute. Angry little kitty, huh.]
[LMAO so Black Cat’s mad so damage might go up? LMAOOOOO what, is he gonna go around jamming more metal poles into building walls or something?]
[Rage-fueled cat tower building LMAOOOOO]
[I was literally feeling so down just a second ago, and now I’m dying laughing.]
[I know I shouldn’t laugh reading about people dying, but this is just... stupid funny out of nowhere.]
[I went to the bathroom for like two minutes—why did the funeral turn into a festival?!]
The more she tried to explain, the more it backfired—people who’d been saying Black Cat should’ve been killed were now defending him.
At this rate, it was probably too late to steer public opinion back.
Yu Anna parted her lips with a heavy heart—only for a reporter, who had been quietly staring at the footage of Black Cat and the Bad Cats, to raise a hand.
“Ms. Starlight? There’s something I don’t quite understand. May I ask a question?”
“Yes, go ahead.”
“In the end, it seems like the key turning point in this whole case was being able to distinguish Black Cat from the Bad Cats... How exactly did you do that?”
“Looking at the footage, we can’t tell the difference at all. To be honest, it just seems like you made a reckless gamble based on a hope that Black Cat hadn’t changed.”
And they were right—if Yu Anna hadn’t been able to tell Black Cat apart from the other two, they would’ve kept being led around by the monsters, and the casualties would’ve only grown.
“That’s a great question. Then, let me explain the reason I concluded that Black Cat and the Bad Cats were different species.”
To the question everyone in W-City had been wondering except Yu Anna herself, she lifted a laser pointer and aimed it at the screen as she began her explanation.
“If you take a look here, Black Cat has a slightly smaller nose. His face shape is also more refined and symmetrical. Over here, Bad Cat A has more distance between the eyes, and the fur texture is different.”
“...Excuse me?”
“Bad Cat B, right here—has longer fur under the chin compared to Black Cat, and it's curlier than Bad Cat A’s. The ears too—if Black Cat’s ear shape leans toward an ideal trapezoid, then Bad Cat A’s are triangular, and Bad Cat B’s are more conical... Ah, and the tail is easier to tell, of course, but in this section, the pattern of how the tail fur splits—”
But the longer Yu Anna spoke, the more the reporters’ faces turned to confused disbelief.
The citizens watching the stream flooded the chat with question marks, equally baffled.
[What the hell?]
[Seriously... what is this?]
[How would anyone know that?]
And then—one chat message branded Yu Anna with a label she would never be able to shake.
[Wait... is Starlight a Black Cat otaku?]
