After sleeping in a corner of the last remaining mountain in City A, I got up as soon as morning came.
I still had a long way to go.
After a quick stretch, I started walking again.
The place I needed to head to now was Z City.
That was my fixed, immediate destination.
However...
“...That was the fastest route, so.”
At first, I had planned to pass through B City.
It sat right on the line between City A and Z City, so all I had to do was go straight there.
So the shortest route was naturally the one through B City.
But if I had overlooked anything, it was this.
Somewhere without my knowing it, B City seemed to have been swept up by a disaster once.
I didn’t know what had happened, but not long after entering B City, the scene of a catastrophe had already come into view.
B City, which had been completely smashed and was only barely being repaired, looked rather miserable.
“................”
Seeing that, I turned around.
Compared to City A, which had become almost beyond recovery, this was still better... I guess.
At least there were building ruins left.
The battlefield in City A had already been completely flattened by the fight between the green-haired girl and the octopus, turning it into a wasteland.
Compared to that, this was definitely better... or so I thought.
At least the foundations and house sites were still there, so rebuilding would be possible.
And because of that,
passing through this area now would clearly be a bad idea.
I didn’t want to put even more mental strain on people who were already having a hard enough time.
It was because I had become famous enough to feel the rise in my own name value, among both monsters and humans.
Thanks to that, if I appeared anywhere, rumors would spread among monsters and humans alike.
And I definitely wasn’t seen as a friendly presence by humans.
Just me wandering around there would clearly be unlikely to have any positive effect.
With that judgment, I left B City.
“Let’s see... this should be the right way, right?”
Once again, I walked blindly, following my rough intuition.
I discarded the possibility that my intuition might be wrong.
At least so far, I had never once been wrong when it came to finding my way.
The new route I set was one that passed through C City.
It was the next-best shortest route, a city with relatively little damage from monsters... and plenty of places to hide.
It was a little out of the way, but I still didn’t want to drop a bomb called me on people struggling to rebuild their city.
In that sense, moving through C City, the least damaged of the cities on the route to Z City, seemed reasonable.
That was why I chose it.
Thunk.
“..................Ow.”
...Why the hell was there a utility pole standing in a place like this?
While I was walking lost in thought, I ended up banging my head against one.
It didn’t actually hurt.
My head had already become harder than steel, and I’d been hit by punches that could turn utility poles into junk more than once.
Still, I had reflexively let out a stupid “ow.”
My head was, of course, fine, and the utility pole I had collided with...
Crackle, crackle-crackle.
“...Guess I should fix it.”
Looking at the utility pole, snapped and bent in half, I sighed and reached out my hand.
I focused the formless power I had gradually gotten used to using at the tips of my gathered fingers, then projected its shape and position onto the pole.
I applied force remotely to the crushed impact point and slowly straightened it by spreading my fingers.
I reconnected the severed wires inside and restored the bent steel to its original shape.
Once the straightening was done, I bent it back into place.
I twisted the broken-off part a little and reattached it.
It was still slightly tilted, and there were traces left where it had been hit, but for now, the repair was a success.
Psychic power really was convenient.
It could be useful not just in battle, but in situations like this too.
In my fight with Gloribus, I had mainly used Warp, and hadn’t really made proper use of my psychic power.
Warp and psychic power were... similar in type, but strictly speaking, they were different abilities.
Even the way they were activated was different.
Warp felt like simply teleporting to wherever I wanted, so it was automatic.
As soon as I specified the location, it activated right away.
The limit range was... roughly within a 100-meter radius for now.
That meant I could easily move anywhere I wanted within 100 meters, anytime and anywhere.
But psychic power was different from the very way it was controlled.
To use it properly, I needed concentration, and I had to move the power inside my body manually.
At least I had my own technique for concentrating power in one part of my body, so I was able to learn it fairly easily.
That was why, from the very beginning, I could coat my fists or claws with psychic power when striking, or concentrate it there to raise durability or amplify force.
But that was all, so at the time I couldn’t apply it in any more advanced ways.
Now... I had gotten skilled enough to lift heavy objects and manipulate things remotely, more or less.
Oddly enough, I could feel that psychic power improved the more I used it, more so than the others.
It was kind of fun, too.
That is, unless I ended up using it because I’d caused some accident like this.
“...Then let’s keep going—huh?”
Just as I was about to move on,
a poster by my feet caught my eye, apparently stuck to the utility pole.
Yeah, I should probably put this back up too.
When I picked it up to reattach it to the pole, the contents naturally came into view.
And what it said sparked quite a bit of interest in me.
“...The 22nd Super Fight tournament is being held in C City? What’s this?”
It was a pretty grand name.
I didn’t know what kind of tournament it was, but for some reason, I was interested.
My intuition only gave me one thing... that it seemed fun. Which was rather disappointing.
I wanted to know more.
...Hmm, right.
I could just ask that guy.
Buzzzzz...!
“Kyaaaah! Die, monster hunter! This Hot-Pepper Dragonfly Lord is going to tear your head—”
Slash!
“Gehk?!”
Well, this free snack had come to me on its own, after all.
I bent my back to dodge the dragonfly monster’s claws as it flew in, then spun faster than it could pull away.
With a single downward chop, I cut off its wings and slammed it into the ground.
Crash, bang, bang, bang!
“Kuhak! Ughhh...”
“Trying to ambush me with that slow speed? I can see it.”
“...Th-that’s impossible! Not only did you dodge my ambush attack in the air, where I’m almost as fast as sound... you counterattacked instead...?! What the hell... I didn’t hear Gouketsu say you were this strong! I need to run—!”
Flutter, flutterflutterflutter....
“...Wait. What? What is this! My, my titanium wings, harder than steel... got cut clean off! Since when did that happen...?”
“Hey.”
“Hiiiii?!?”
Ah.
Did I get my face too close?
No. It didn’t matter either way.
It was food, after all.
“Do you know what this Super Fight tournament in C City is?”
“Su... Super Fight tournament? It’s famous... a duel tournament that mainly focuses on mixed martial arts...”
“......Oh.”
Mixed martial arts. Duels.
In other words, a martial arts tournament?
...That was tempting.
“And... you said it’s famous?”
“R-right! Since skilled participants from many different schools take part... it’s such a big tournament that the prize money is three million yen!”
“I’m not interested in the prize money.”
“Ah, haha... w-well... compared to the early days, there are fewer participants now, and there haven’t been any deaths either... but people say it’s fun, so...”
“................”
A martial arts tournament, huh.
Right now, the only proper martial arts I could use were basically two.
Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, and Snake Bite Fist.
I had hybrid styles like the pseudo-Snake Bite Killing Fist and various other arrangements, but I had been feeling that I lacked variety.
Then this meant...
I’d be able to see other human martial arts too.
If it was a famous tournament, there would definitely be skilled fighters there.
Maybe I could even imitate their movements.
Nice. Maybe I should stop by before heading to Z City.
“Right... thanks. That was helpful.”
“...T-then... can I go now...?”
“......Huh? What are you talking about? Go where?”
Food couldn’t just go somewhere on its own.
Did a free snack even have legs?
“Hii, hiiiiiiiiiiiik!!! Somebody, somebody! Someone please save me—huh?”
The thing, flailing wildly, froze with a blank expression and touched its own side.
“...Where did my leg go?”
“Oh. That’s what you were looking for? It’s been gone for a while.”
“W-when did you—”
“...But I don’t have the hobby of chatting with food. Die.”
The thing screamed and started crawling across the ground with its remaining two arms, trying to get away somehow.
It was pretty sturdy.
That was all.
“Kyaaaah!!! No, noooo!!! Kyaaaaaa—”
Crunch.
Crack.
Crack.
Gulp.
In an instant, I bit off its head, tore it apart, and swallowed it down.
Since it was an insect monster, the crispy texture was actually pretty decent.
And it didn’t taste bad either.
After about two seconds, its body finally seemed to realize it had lost its head and began convulsing as it went limp.
If this had been before, I would’ve torn into it alive.
But now, noisy food was even more annoying.
I shoved the still-twitching limbs into my mouth and started chewing.
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