I had come here without thinking too deeply about it because I was hungry, but this was unexpected. It wasn’t hard to imagine that the me from about a week ago would have collapsed after eating less than half.
But—— don’t underestimate me. I’m different from back then.
I poured a generous amount of sauce from the bottle on the table over the tonkatsu and began eating. The cabbage side? First salad? What was that? A man eats meat — with that spirit, I took a big bite of the freshly fried tonkatsu.
The crunch of the coating, the deliciousness of the meat, and the white rice eaten together with it.
The combination of heavily sauced fried food and white rice was an outrageous bitch that tempted men. But I loved that bitch so much I couldn’t help it. There was apparently a faction that said fried food should be eaten with salt, but pouring on thick sauce and devouring it was what a man did.
I had no obligation to listen to words like "That’s vulgar" or "There’s a better way to eat it." The freshly fried coating maintained its crisp texture even under a lot of sauce, and I stuffed one, two, three, four pieces of tonkatsu into my mouth in a furious pace.
But there was one miscalculation.
At this rate, there wouldn’t be enough rice...!
How tragic! The combination of sauced fried food and white rice was this perfect, so why did they have to be separated!? O Buddha, are you sleeping...!?
As if answering my lament, the owner slammed down a bowl piled high with rice like a mountain.
"...I usually serve this amount so that students who ordered too much can share with others — but at that pace, you look like you’ll be fine alone. Call me if you need more rice."
"O... Old man, thank you...!"
Buddha was right here.
I struggled between the urge to worship and my appetite, but appetite won by a narrow margin. I resumed eating.
I ate tonkatsu, I ate rice.
It was becoming unclear whether I was eating rice with tonkatsu as a side, or tonkatsu with rice as a side.
But it didn’t matter if it was unclear. Tonkatsu was delicious. That was justice and absolute truth. Surely even the Sacred would say the same.
I glanced up.
I had suddenly remembered that the pre-transformation Sacred was sitting across from me, and I looked forward.
Leas had stopped her chopsticks and frozen at the sight of my gluttony. Of course she had. I probably would have made the same face before becoming a Monster Villain.
"...You really do eat a lot..."
Her voice was one-third exasperation, one-third admiration.
The remaining one-third? Please notice it from the way she was glancing at my tonkatsu.
"...If you want some, I’ll trade one of those karaage for a piece."
"Eh? Ah, no, I-I don’t particularly want to eat it, but that amount is clearly too much, so I’ll help—— Trade!? You don’t want me to help because you can’t finish it!?"
She looked at me with eyes that said "Are you serious?", but I was extremely serious.
In the first place, half of a man’s body was made of fried food. If she was going to touch that half, she had to offer fried food in return or the balance wouldn’t hold. This was the principle of equivalent exchange of meat——!
I tried passionately explaining that, but Leas only looked at me with eyes that said "What on earth is this man talking about...?" Strange. I was pretty sure this was a universal law.
"...Well, if that’s what you want, it can’t be helped. Here, karaage."
"Oh, you’re giving me a pretty big one. In recognition of that sincerity, I’ll give you a piece from the middle instead of the fatty edge."
"Being told ’sincerity’ after handing over karaage... I don’t understand the male thought process."
Saying that, she took a bite of the tonkatsu. She didn’t seem used to this kind of food, tasting it carefully while nodding "Hmm, hmm." Completely different from me, who was washing it down like water.
While I was thinking that, the mountain of tonkatsu had been reduced to about one-third, and I received both praise and "This guy is for real?" stares of disbelief from the boys who had been waiting for leftovers. Of course. When I started eating I didn’t have the composure to think about it, but no matter how you looked at it, I stood out. Extremely so.
That was why I immediately noticed when all those gazes suddenly turned toward the television.
What? I followed the others and looked in that direction.
＜Next news is about the recent Monster Villain incident. The Monster Villain who suddenly intervened——＞
There I was.
In the footage provided by a viewer, the Monster Villain version of me was beating the Poison Monster Villain with tentacles.
The scene where I literally beat him into a lump of meat wasn’t shown. Well, that footage was clearly R-18, so it was only natural. And it was more like R-18G, the kind that only benefited a certain type of person.
The students eating around me started chatting freely, apparently interested in the incident that had happened nearby.
"Huh, so that’s the one. Since they called him a justice Monster Villain, I thought he’d look more like a hero."
"’Justice Villain’ is a contradiction, isn’t it?"
"But he protected the Sacred even though he’s a Monster Villain, right?"
"If you think of him as an American comic hero, it’s fine, isn’t it? Famous ones include a spider monster and a big green guy. They’re clearly monsters."
"You bastard! How dare you call my Spidey a ’monster’ or whatever——!"
"That’s not even yours!"
"Honestly—— Please come to this store again next week. I’ll show you what a real hero is."
——Though my topic was immediately cut off by the sudden American comic discussion that started.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Having people talk about the version of me that hid his identity felt awkward, so I was honestly grateful.
I returned my gaze to the plate and stuffed more tonkatsu into my mouth when I noticed that Leas across from me still hadn’t looked away from the television.
"What’s wrong? Ah, maybe you’ve become a fan of that guy?"
"——... Absolutely not. That is a Monster Villain. Listen, Senjumaru — you must not trust something like that."
Her voice, sharp as a blade of ice, cut through my joking words.
Her eyes sharpened as she stared at the tentacle Monster Villain on the television — at me — as if she wanted to cut him down right then and there.
"Senjumaru, you don’t seem to understand, so I’ll tell you. That is no longer human. It is a monster that moves according to its desires. Therefore, thoughts like ’maybe we can talk it out’ or ’what kind of person it originally was’ — you shouldn’t think about them. Think of it as a monster that the Sacred must defeat."
Otherwise it will become painful, she added with words that sounded like advice.
Monster Villains were enemies that must be defeated. They were evil.
That was something that would never waver.
"...But that guy saved Sacred Saber, right? Then isn’t there at least a chance of reconciliation?"
"He is... the same. He may still retain his rationality for now. But fundamentally, no normal human would awaken to a form like that — to tentacles."
——What a Monster Villain was.
It was a being that appeared when a human implanted with a Seed of Desire bloomed the flower of that desire.
Those who sought simple physical strength would bloom as large power-fighter Monster Villains.
Those who wished to further refine a skill they were confident in would bloom while retaining elements from their human days, like the Poison Monster Villain who had just been shown.
——But a tentacle Monster Villain was different.
It was not born from a desire for new power, nor from a wish to improve existing power. It was born purely from the desire to "violate women."
That form was the manifestation of such an ugly desire.
No matter how much one tried to dress it up on the surface, it was nothing but pure evil that took joy in violating women.
Leas quietly shook her head and stood up.
"...I’m sorry for bringing up this kind of talk at the dinner table. As a small apology, I’ll pay for your meal here."
She said it apologetically and left the place with quick steps, as if fleeing.
I—— felt as if my internal organs had become as heavy as lead.
Back then, after saving Sacred Saber and gaining a certain degree of control over my impulses, I had apparently gotten a little carried away.
I was a Monster Villain. Inhuman. A monster. ——A demonic being that the Sacred must destroy.
Being confronted with that reality again made me feel depressed. And yet my stomach was still screaming that the tentacles needed more calories.
That fact spoke more eloquently than anything else that, no matter how I tried to dress it up, I was a monster.