Surviving a Shounen Manga

Nero

The black cat was called Nero.

I’d seen this guy in the original, when the story had just passed the early parts, and the middle part was about to begin.

As I recalled, it was probably after Leo and his party had finished their S-class adventure quest in Westland and went south across the sea.

Surprisingly, out here in Eastland, I stumbled upon a character from the Southland arc.

[Southland National Park].

It’s like a symbol of Southland, and although it’s called a park, it covers an area large enough to encompass the entire Northland continent.

Nero was a member of an animal farm in the park that Leo and his party had visited to treat a divine beast suffering from ‘evolutionary disease’.

He was one of the three beasts that were the major characters in that farm, but didn’t really play any role other than that. Together with the other two, he was only in charge of the farm’s accessory functions.

In a way, he was just a passing extra. However, the reason why I still remembered him was simple. His appearance.

The green eye on the left shining like an emerald, and the blue eye on the right deep as a sapphire. And a red ruby ​​hanging from the neck.

Since it looked like he was wearing three jewels, he was even called the Jewel Cat.

That he was here was already quite a shock, and him being a member of such a vicious organization was even worse.

Of course, the animal farm had seemed to be hiding many secrets, but it was still a place where Leo and the others had gotten a lot of help. Leo’s teammate, the divine beast, had been cured there.

And since they’d never appeared since then, like an ‘unrecovered rice cake’, I’d had no idea that they could be such great continental-scale villains.

My look at Nero was as bewildered as his look at me.

And then,

"How do you know my name?"

The guy asked, in a voice filled with doubt.

"Uh, that’s…"

I considered my options. Arbitrarily teasing this idiot might amplify the readers’ doubts, so perhaps I could pretend to be confused?

"So it’s really you, Nero?"

"What?"

"Oh, it’s no big deal, actually. I used to work at a zoo in the Southland National Park. It was there that I first heard the rumours about you. That there’s a pretty cat with emeralds and sapphires in his eyes."

"… There’re rumours about me?"

Nero looked suspicious, but didn’t ask any more questions.

I was here too, but somehow it felt like he was more conscious of the guys behind him.

Presumably, this was due to my mention of the ‘Southland National Park’. If these people were just part of a sleeper cell here in Eastland without any material connection to the main body of the organization, it was natural to be wary of information leaking out.

Anyway, it was fortunate for me that he moved on without investigating further.

That was then –

"W-, we can handle it!"

"You don’t have to go out on your own, sir. Leave it to us!"

"We’ll deal with him in no time!"

The three men behind him rushed over.

Nero glanced at them, then slowly backed away.

Rather than trusting them, it seemed like he needed more time to think.

But,

"Come on together. I’ll finish you off in an instant."

I had no intention of giving him so much leeway.

Soon after –

Growl!

Purr!

Meoow…

Receiving their orders, the three yellow cats jumped forward.

Or rather, two of them jumped forward, and one slowly backed away and watched.

‘A divine beast is a divine beast, after all. They can learn from experience.’

The experience of flying around in a circle a few times certainly seemed to have raised this guy’s level of caution by a few orders of magnitude.

I turned my gaze to the two beasts who’d jumped out in front of me.

Weird bastards.

There was no reason to think of them that way. Because all their actions, including the activations of their unique abilities, were currently under others’ control.

Of course, unless you’re talking about wild divine beasts, it’s not unusual for a divine beast to follow the instructions of another person. But even considering that, how they looked wasn’t natural at all. Like the first one, they felt a bit… mechanical.

‘Is it possible… that they’re artificially created divine beast?’

Hmmm. No way.

I immediately shook my head.

Of course, there was a setting about the ‘Mad Scientist of Northland’ who’d been active for a long time, but the results were completely different from the animal farm side of Southland.

Because the ‘science’, not the beasts themselves, was the main focus of the research, and the ‘artificial divine beast’ was only a testbed for creating an ‘artificial human’. Not something mass produced.

The biggest problem was that if all the continents, including Northland and Southland, were entangled in this plotline, it was implausible that such a rice cake would be quietly buried without ever making an appearance in the original. To be honest, it cast doubt on the author’s storytelling ability.

Rather, it was more plausible that the animal farm side had independently developed a drug for controlling divine beasts.

Then,

"Attack!"

"Throw a fireball!"

"Roast him whole!"

The sound of the controllers came from behind.

As a result, changes took place in the bodies of the two cats.

One began spewing smoke from his mouth, and the other’s body was covered in electric sparks.

‘One is fire, and the other’s a lightning-type?’

The last of the three didn’t activate any ability yet, but I expected it’d be similar to the other two. Spitting fire or water, or emitting electricity, etc.

I wasn’t guessing just based on their similar looks.

Divine beasts rarely ever have as odd or diverse abilities as humans. Most of them are restricted to fireballs, water cannons and the like. At most, they can shapeshift to the extent of adjusting the size of their bodies and changing the material of their claws. No matter how high their rank, this formula holds.

This seemed to be due to the authorial intent of keeping the divine beasts in line, but the readers never complained about this.

Since the divine beasts were overloaded with so many settings already (using unique abilities, speaking, possessing human-like intelligence, and even being cute), they probably thought it was enough.

And additionally, divine beasts also have a separate power-up option, called ‘evolution’.

If they didn’t have any restrictions on unique abilities on top of that, Leo might’ve had a legion of divine beast rivals for the seat of the Adventure King.

Anyway, for the same reason, it wasn’t really that difficult to deal with divine beasts.

It was pretty basic. Since they didn’t have any special unique abilities, meant there was no point in thinking about matchmaking and strategy, and all you had to do was beat them down with greater force.

As I watched a ball of fire the size of a basketball fly towards me, I activated a unique ability.

[Lightning that Destroys Calamity].

As soon as the flames came in contact with the sparks jumping out of my body, they melted and disappeared.

The balls of lightning that followed, met the same fate. The in-built setting of ‘contempt for the weak’ worked like a charm against divine beasts, too.

"W-, w-, what…"

"Nonsense…"

Actually, this was overkill for these guys, but I still did it to provide a little fan service.

Now the readers would be excited once again. They’d quickly realize the sweet OP flavour of ‘contempt for the weak’, and it was Leo’s unique ability, too.

I didn’t pause, and went straight for the yellow cats. Pushing a lot of lightning into my index finger, I jabbed their foreheads one by one.

The two beasts fell down without even the slightest resistance, and the last one raised his head as if beseeching my baptism.

"Yeah, rest in peace."

Crackle–.

I turned my head, and the faces of people who’d been watching the scene, frozen, came into view.

"Hmmm…"

The three stooges stepped back and screamed.

"Monster, he’s a monster…"

"Uh, what do we do?"

"Even if we try to run away…"

I didn’t know what the terrified bastards were reading from my indifferent expression, but I was actually busy thinking of something else.

Yes, the readers’ reactions.

Perhaps by this time the reader community would be filled with questions about my abilities.

Like – hey, come to think of it, Squatjaw’s been using other people’s abilities, right? What’s up with that?

The questions might’ve died down since I’d moved to Eastland, but they would now be reignited once again.

‘What’ll happen now, I wonder…’

Of course, I had to be very cautious about how I handled this. Getting attention is a good thing, but it doesn’t always result in profit.

Unlike the characters in the original, my current abilities were not widely understood. People could only roughly guess that I was mimicking others’ abilities, but they didn’t know the prerequisite conditions.

This meant that if I made one mistake, the readers’ swords might soon point at me too, much like how the ‘power balance adjustment suggestion’ had been raised against Karl Zayed in the original.

Before such an unfortunate incident could occur, I had to disclose the conditions I had to fulfil for mimicking unique abilities. That this wasn’t particularly versatile, and that it was a skill with quite a few prerequisite conditions, etc.

In addition, it was necessary to enclose ‘another plausible reason’ that would establish the reasoning behind my past actions, which couldn’t be explained merely by the conditions behind my power.

And my plan for that involved the ‘goblins’.

In any case, the author, in order to appease the readers, would have no choice but to devote more screentime to me.

It was a bit like a double-edged sword.

But I was confident that I could wield it.

‘By the way…’

I looked around, slowly.

The battlefield had become silent.

The three idiots had gone who knew where, leaving only Nero behind.

He was watching me silently, but I couldn’t read what he was thinking from his face. Because he was a cat.

‘Should I start with suppressing him first?’

Sure, he had to be pretty strong. I’d never seen him fight, but he did look ‘strong’ (?).

But I didn’t expect it to be much of a problem. If there were two or three more of him, maybe…

So, it was time for me to move.

Purr–.

Purr–.

Purr–.

⁝

Growling noises came from all around me. The surroundings were suddenly filled with yellow gleaming orbs of light.

The eyes of beasts.

"… Whoo."

I let out a sigh as I watched them slowly appear.

Brown hair and yellow eyes. shape reminiscent of a lynx, and size about twice that. They looked like real wildcats. And they smelled the same as what I’d smelled so many times during this journey.

I could guess why these guys had suddenly appeared.

Domination.

This was one of the specialties of high-ranking divine beasts, the ability to freely control beasts of lower rank than themselves. More of a ‘hidden characteristic’ than a unique ability, but still, I never know that it could be extended to such a large group.

What’s more, the wildcats looked well-drilled as they surrounded me, each once keeping the proper distance. Such coordination made it hard to consider them as wild beasts. It felt like the attackers, the reserve force, and the exit blockers were moving as separate groups.

That was how detailed the ‘domination’ was.

I looked at Nero with fresh eyes.

This bastard, he was no regular cat. He was a real king of cats or something.

But,

"Still, what do you think you can do with just them?"

They were merely wild animals.

Forget these wildcats, even a flock of this size of those yellow cats earlier, wouldn’t pose a threat to me…

Slash–!

"…"

Suddenly, something brushed past my cheek.

It was Nero.

He immediately hid himself among the wildcats, hard to find because he was so small and black.

I lightly patted my cheek, which had a small scratch on it.

"That speed was a little surprising… but is this the tactic you’re going with?"

Hit and run, hit and fade, huh…

I turned up the power, and spat the lightning out in all directions.

Soon after,

Crrrrrrackle–.

Crrrrrrackle–.

The electrocuted wildcats collapsed all at once.

Psssh–.

Psssh–.

Psssh–.

⁝

They never screamed.

It would’ve taken a lot of effort to kill all these wildcats one by one. I could’ve shown some gaps in the process. Maybe that was what Nero was aiming for.

But as long as it was enough to simply stun them, it wasn’t too difficult.

"I’m sorry, but this lightning isn’t in the same league as those yellow cats."

"…"

Nero was on top of a fallen tree far away.

Startled by the power of the lightning, he’d managed to quickly avoid it.

"Are you going to stay there? Or do you have anything more to show?"

Then,

Step–.

Nero jumped down, and started trotting up to me again.

He still didn’t show any sign of fear.

"Squatjaw… you, are strong."

"Why does that always come as a surprise to people so late in the game? It’s weird… Do I really look so weak?"

"Don’t hit me with your electricity."

Soon after,

"Oh… already?"

Nero’s body suddenly began to glow brightly.

I was a little excited. Was he really going to show it to the readers?

Nero was now trying to transform into his real body. At this point of the plot, there were no divine beasts who’d evolved to stage 3, so he was probably stage 2.

Then,

Psss–.

The light that had shined so bright for an instant gradually dispersed, and Nero’s new form was revealed.

"Wow…"

I let out an unconscious exclamation.

It was great.

A puma? Or a jaguar? I didn’t know the exact species, but an incredibly handsome big black cat appeared.

"You look really cool."

I said it sincerely, but there was no reply.

Instead,

Grrrrrrrrrr–.

There was only a threatening growl.

At this point, I was also a little nervous.

To be honest, it was because that last attack in the small cat form had already been quite fast. The attack after he transformed into his true body was bound to be several times faster and stronger.

But, of course,

"Come on, kitty-cat. I’ll play with you. Choo, choo."

That didn’t mean I wouldn’t provoke him.

"I’m going to tear you apart."

In an instant, his toenails turned black like they were made of metal. It seemed that Nero’s unique ability was ‘steel transformation’.

And then,

Aaaaaaang!

The bastard came at me.

How long did it take?

Playing (?) with Nero was fun.

It was more thrilling than I’d expected… although, yeah, even I would get a little angry if somebody scratched my toenails, even as just a joke.

And around the time I broke his eighth claw, I slowly prepared for the end of the battle.

In fact, I could’ve finished it before then, but I kept the spectacular scene going for a while for the sake of the readers. Although it was a bit worrying that the princess had been left alone, so I decided to finish up.

I slowly raised the power of the lightning. Nero was more resistant that I’d initially expected, so I had to gather some more power than usual. Even if this wasn’t a OHKO, he’d be feeling the effects.

"Whoo…"

Now was the time to finish.

The lightning condensed in my hands flew wildly.

Crrrrrackle–.

Nero was also preparing for the final blow.

Although it must’ve been very exhausting and difficult, he resolutely sharpened his toenails. He was definitely a pretty tough one.

"Let’s finish it, kitty-cat. This was fun."

And just as I just got into position –

"Stop. That’s enough!"

Suddenly, I heard an unexpected sound.

I looked at Nero, puzzled.

It was crazy. The content, and the situation.

Obviously, it came from Nero. But it wasn’t his voice that I heard.

"Here, look here."

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t Nero who was talking.

The new voice was coming from the red ruby ​​he wore on his neck.

"… What?"

"Okay, stop the fighting. Any more, and my cat will die. What do you want?"

"…"

It wasn’t funny.

"No, what do you think you…."

"Yeah, Nero! Where are you now?"

Then,

"… Eastland."

Nero answered quietly.

"Ah, are you there? Wait, Eastland, so it’s about that white bird from earlier? Hmmm… ah, the white hawk. That guy."

The voice from ruby was busy with a solo Q&A session.

"Is it because of that white hawk? I won’t touch him anymore, so leave my cat alone. No need to do anything silly."

The absurdity kept going until it broke through the roof.

Silly? So what about what’d happened so far?

While I was standing speechless at that brazen attitude –

"This guy knows my name."

Nero spoke softly.

He seemed to have a slightly different opinion from the voice in the ruby.

"It’s possible that he also knows where we are…"

"So what? You idiot cat. Do you think you can handle this guy?"

"…"

"Hey, you there. Are you listening? How about it? We move on, ignoring each other. And forget everything that’s happened."

Hmmm.

I had no intention of killing Nero anyway. How could I kill such a cute and handsome cat? Some readers might be frustrated, but the aftereffects of killing him would be much worse. He might’ve already gotten some fans.

I didn’t worry any further.

"It’s not that difficult, but in order to do that, you have to cut off the cause first."

I carefully pulled the pigeon out of my pocket. He was still shaking.

"Hey, hey! Me, why am I…"

"Stay still."

I pointed to Coocoo’s anklet.

"If you just get rid of this, everything can quietly disappear. Like nothing’s ever happened."

Then,

"What is it, look a bit closer."

"Anklet."

"Ankle? Hmmm, if it’s an ankle…"

"The Bridle of Submission."

"Oh, yeah, that."

Ruby and Nero started whispering between themselves.

Soon after,

"Well, it’s not difficult."

The voice in the ruby ​​said.

"Yeah? Then right now…"

"Come to Southland."

"… What?"

"If you come here, I can cut it off. Otherwise, I can’t."

It was an absurd statement.

"What do you mean?"

"I can’t help it. Because that restriction isn’t something that can be solved so easily."

"Eeeh…"

He couldn’t fix it?

"Then I can’t just let this cat go."

"Is that what you think? It won’t be up to you, Squatjaw."

Nero bared his claws once more.

Then, while the atmosphere was getting serious once again –

"Wait, wait. Actually, there is one way…"

A whisper came out of the ruby.

"If you’ve got a point, talk quickly."

"But I think it’ll be a bit difficult."

"What?"

"Making him directly cut it off by himself."

"What do you mean, ‘directly’?"

"That’s one way to get out of submission. The guy who bowed his head, now has to wake himself up again. And break that Bridle of Submission."

"So, what does he have to do?"

"The method itself is simple."

And the words that followed were, to say the least, very shounen-ish.

"You have to fight, by yourself. Against that bridle that makes you bow and cringe. And you have to overcome it."

"What does that even mean…"

"Don’t you know? That guy has to face Nero now. But, on his own."

It was embarrassing.

How could a pigeon the size of a little puppy take on a big cat that even used an unique ability?

And above all,

"I, I! It’s okay, it’s okay… you don’t have to."

"Hey, you…"

"It’s okay to just… stay like this."

It seemed that Coocoo had no intention of doing it.

"I did say, it’d be difficult. He can’t do it. Because he’s completely bound by the bridle. It’s already great that he hasn’t fainted yet."

"…"

It was just as the guy said. Coocoo’s body was still shaking. He couldn’t even look at Nero properly. Or to be precise, at the ruby ​​that hung on his neck.

However,

"… That’s nothing."

I didn’t intend to simply move on, saying, "So that’s just how it is."

It was like a kind of ‘character awakening’.

And just as I’d been confident while talking with Bayar Khan, I was better than anyone else in the world when it came to awakening characters.

Actually, this guy could do it. With just a little help from his friends.

He had to fight the battle on his own, but so what?

Therefore,

Step, step.

I took a couple of steps forward, then thrust out my chest. Then I pointed at my heart with my right hand.

"Hey, cat! Aim here. I won’t resist. Don’t you have that final attack you didn’t get to use? Hit me with it."

When I glanced at Coocoo, he was gaping in surprise, his beak open wide.

"You get it, right? I’m not going to avoid it, so if you don’t stop him… I’ll just die."

It was simple. A shounen manga-type problem should have a shounen manga-type answer.

Editor’s Notes:

None for this chapter.