Baicang "Killed in action"

"Are you all right, sir?"

After rescuing the children from the kindergarten, Mizuki and Tanktop Girl immediately returned to Baicang's side.

"I'm fine. Are we the only three here?" Baicang hoped an S-Class Hero would come help, preferably someone who could finish this thing with one punch.

"It's just us three for now. The other heroes haven't arrived yet, but Snakebite Snek, A-Class rank 38, is on his way," Tanktop Girl told him gravely. She knew how difficult this monster would be to handle, too.

Snek? Remembering the ridiculous middle-aged man who had tried to put Saitama in his place, Baicang felt a headache coming on.

"This monster is beyond us," Baicang told Mizuki and Tanktop Girl honestly.

He told them to evacuate the nearby residents first. The monster looked as though it couldn't move easily, so their only option was to retreat and wait for someone capable of dealing with it. He would stay behind in case anything unexpected happened.

Although neither was happy about it, Mizuki and Tanktop Girl knew this was their best option and left again.

Watching the monster wave its tentacles wildly in the air, Baicang called Saitama.

You're dead now!

"Beep... beep... beep. Hello, the number you have dialed is switched off..."

Damn it, did that guy forget to charge his phone?

Just then, something changed.

The Sunflower Monster suddenly began moving. It pulled its tentacles out of the school building and slowly lowered its entire body from the roof, heading toward the nearby apartment buildings. The frightening part was that it wasn't slow at all.

"Oh no!"

Baicang hurried over to stop it. Mizuki and Tanktop Girl couldn't possibly have evacuated everyone in such a short time. He had to buy them some time.

He shouted curses at the Sunflower Monster, picked up rocks from the ground, and hurled them at it one after another.

But against the Sunflower Monster's enormous body, these attacks were no more than an itch. It ignored Baicang completely and kept moving.

Yet if he simply charged in, he would never stand a chance against this monster head-on.

As he agonized over what to do, Baicang remembered Sachiko's pleas before he left, and her reddened, tear-filled eyes.

Who would have thought that, at first, he hadn't even wanted to hear Sachiko's tragic story? Even wiping out the Yamato Group had only been about the money. Helping her had merely been incidental.

Yet he had completely changed her life. There was one less suffering mother in the world, and one more happy family.

If this monster gets into the crowd, how much damage will it cause? How many more families will be torn apart?

It really is hard for ordinary people to live happily in this dangerous world.

Baicang stood silently for a long while...

Fine, I'll do what I can. I'll do less of this in the future. Anyway, if my life's in danger, I'm retreating.

"It's all Mizuki and Tanktop Girl's fault," Baicang muttered bitterly.

He found a chunk of the school building with rebar embedded in it and pulled out a steel bar, pondering how to deal with this huge creature.

The tentacles' skin was tough, and with only a steel bar for a weapon, breaking through would be difficult. That left only one place he could attack... the flower.

Baicang looked up at the enormous flower atop the monster, took a deep breath, and charged with the steel bar in hand.

The Sunflower Monster noticed that the little bug from earlier actually dared to approach it, and lashed its tentacles at Baicang.

Crack! Bang! Baicang nimbly dodged the attacks, steadily closing in on the Sunflower Monster's body.

Unable to hit Baicang, the monster grew increasingly agitated. It stopped moving forward and directed all its tentacles at him.

The pressure on Baicang instantly intensified as he ducked and weaved among dozens of flailing tentacles.

Good thing I'm a Professional Hero, not a magical girl. Otherwise, I might not even dodge a single tentacle before getting strung up...

Before he could even picture the depraved scene, instant karma arrived. A small, hidden tentacle caught his foot.

"Oh no."

Baicang wasn't just worried about the danger. He was even more worried about his nightmare coming true.

He quickly stabbed the tentacle at his feet to pieces with the steel bar, but that brief delay was enough. Two tentacles struck his back and sent him flying.

He crashed straight into the rubble nearby. The burning pain in his back and the cuts across his body made him cry out. Before he could check his injuries, more tentacles came at him.

Baicang quickly rolled over and got to his feet. By now, the tentacles had surrounded him. Their attacks grew fiercer and denser, leaving him less and less room to dodge.

He couldn't keep dodging forever, and anxiety began to creep into his heart.

Noticing that the Sunflower Monster pulled its tentacles back to build up force before each strike, Baicang suddenly thought of a risky approach.

He studied the paths of the attacking tentacles and estimated their general direction. When one lashed toward him, he dodged and thrust out his left hand to grab it. The retracting tentacle hauled him into the air, its immense force wrenching his arm out of its socket.

Enduring the excruciating pain, Baicang let go just as the tentacle drew back beside the Sunflower Monster.

His momentum carried him toward the human face inside the flower. Apparently not expecting such a maneuver, the monster hastily tried to stop the bug before its eyes with its tentacles.

"Too late!"

Baicang roared at the face in the flower. His uninjured hand gripped the steel bar tightly, and the instant he reached it, he drove the bar viciously into its forehead, forcing it deeper and deeper.

The impaled face opened its eyes and mouth in agony, letting out a silent scream. Red fluid sprayed from the wound over Baicang's face and body.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All the tentacles began convulsing and pounding the ground wildly. The Sunflower Monster's enormous body thrashed, trying to throw Baicang off.

Baicang clung desperately to the steel bar with one hand to keep from being flung away, occasionally kicking the face in the eyes and mouth.

As the red fluid continued pouring out, it soaked Baicang from head to toe.

The monster's frenzied movements turned into its death throes. Its tentacles began losing strength, and the human face gradually fell apart.

Finally, its entire body went still and toppled straight into the rubble of the school building, sending up a vast cloud of dust.

"Sir!" "Baicang!"

Having finished evacuating the residents, Mizuki and Tanktop Girl returned just in time to witness this tragic scene.

"Sir! Please be all right!"

Mizuki ran toward Baicang, crying out, while Tanktop Girl stood rooted to the spot, seemingly unable to believe that Baicang had been "killed in action."

"Shut that jinxing mouth of yours."

As the dust cleared, Baicang stood on the ground covered in "blood," snapping at Mizuki as she ran toward him.

"Sir!" Mizuki paid no attention. She rushed up and hugged him, sobbing nonstop and smearing tears and snot all over him.

Baicang had intended to push Mizuki away, but seeing her like this reminded him of Runo back then, so he let her hug him. The "blood" on his body rubbed off on Mizuki, too.

Tanktop Girl ran over as well, looking at Baicang through tear-filled eyes.

"I'm not dead yet. I only got a few minor injuries." Baicang really couldn't stand them looking at him like he was a corpse.

Still, he couldn't really blame them.

Baicang was covered in bright red "blood," his clothes were in tatters, and countless wounds marked his body. His left arm hung at an unnatural angle. He looked gravely injured and ready to drop dead.

Anyone who heard about it would shed tears; anyone who saw him would feel their heart break.