Chapter 105: I’ll Protect Mamono-kun

It’s a common misconception, but Mamono-kun isn’t some kind of monster supremacist.

After all, he himself is an elemental, and his parents and younger brother are human.

Mamono-kun has many human friends. He gives academic presentations at conferences, exchanges ideas with other scholars, turns pale when there’s a long line at a public restroom even though he’s about to have an accident, and goes to see popular movies.

He shares the same sensibilities as ordinary people—he just happens to love monsters the most.

That’s why people don’t deride him as a “monster freak,” but affectionately call him “Mamono-kun.”

Mamono-kun’s younger brother also loved monsters, but Mamono-kun had always felt guilty for warping his brother’s life.

His brother had always been compared to him, had to live in his shadow. No matter how much effort he put in, people would say he was “doing well for someone living up to his brother,” and treat his life as some feel-good entertainment story.

How deeply must those compliments—based on the premise of the older brother’s accomplishments, like “Wow, both of you are amazing!”—have hurt his younger brother?

People praised him for overcoming adversity, even though they were the ones who caused that adversity in the first place by constantly comparing and pressuring him. It was awful. Most people are unaware of the harm they cause, only choosing to see what makes them feel good.

But that’s just how the world is.

Mamono-kun had no power to change the world.

So, at the very least, he tried to do what he could within reach. He spoke to his parents and relatives, reflected on his own behavior, and worked hard to make sure that their home was a safe and comforting place for his younger brother.

Monsters that live under stress and without a safe den tend to die early.

Mamono-kun was always worried about his brother.

But his brother was incredibly hardworking. Despite all his suffering and hesitation, he made steady progress, and after graduating university, unlike Mamono-kun who was a freelancer, he landed a stable job at a foreign multinational corporation.

His brother was strong. He felt reassured.

Compared to himself, who lived freely and carelessly, his brother, walking a respectable path under pressure, was far more admirable.

When his brother even helped mediate and smooth over the problems caused by his two failed engagements, he honestly felt ashamed as an older brother. He thought he had always been the reliable one, but at some point, his younger brother had become more dependable.

He found that egg during a trip he took to recover from the heartbreak of a broken engagement.

He blamed himself for not being able to immediately answer the question: “What’s more important, me or monsters?” He believed that hesitation had been the final straw leading to the breakup. And yet, what did he do on his heartbreak trip? A field study on monsters in a remote region. Mamono-kun truly, deeply loved monsters.

Thanks to his keen observational skills as a field researcher, he spotted the egg in the rotting carcass of a beached whale.

The white, jelly-like egg was being pecked at by seabirds, about to burst open and spill its contents.

Enduring the stench—so foul you could smell it even with your mouth breathing—Mamono-kun rescued the egg and used membrane material from the whale’s corpse to perform emergency repairs.

Surrounded by seabirds, he barely managed to escape the beach with it.

The egg he brought home was a mystery. It was the size of a soccer ball, gave off a nauseating stench, felt jelly-like, and was clammy and lukewarm to the touch.

Had it been laid on the whale’s body? Or had the whale’s fetus mutated into a monster? Or perhaps it was a mutant parasite that had lived inside the whale?

There’s still so much unknown about monster mutations. The never-before-seen egg ignited Mamono-kun’s curiosity. Was it a new species? Or a previously known species whose egg form had never been discovered?

He handled the egg with great care and caution.

The first thing he did was secure it in a tightly controlled underground facility.

Some monsters, immediately upon hatching, break into the nearest large creature’s skin and parasitize them. If this jelly-like egg turned out to be one of those, Mamono-kun made sure that only he would be at risk.

Then, he worked to create an optimal hatching environment.

He recreated the original conditions using rotting flesh, kept the surface moist with seawater, occasionally rotated the egg, and ensured it got sunlight through the basement’s small window. He paid attention to temperature and timing as well.

Two months later, the egg hatched. A healthy monster was born.

The monster, essentially a giant floating eyeball, appeared to be an unconfirmed subspecies of the Evil Eye type.

Its spherical body had seven tentacles, each ending in a small eyeball.

He named it “Staring-Eye Gazer”, and thus began a heartwarming bond with a new monster species.

Just as a baby bird imprints on the first moving thing it sees, Gazer seemed to recognize Mamono-kun as its parent through imprinting. It floated gently in the air and was extremely affectionate.

Its favorite food was eyeballs. It happily ate fish, insects, and the eyes of mouse-monsters Mamono-kun bred for food, directly from his hand.

When he stayed up late and got bloodshot eyes, Gazer would eagerly wrap its tentacles around him and refuse to leave, sometimes even offering a gift of eyeballs in return. Though it looked like a grotesque flying eyeball, to Mamono-kun, it was a cute and affectionate creature.

He told no one about Gazer and raised it secretly in his basement.

For two reasons:

One, it showed traits of a Class A monster.

And two, it had the potential to kill.

From the moment it hatched, Gazer displayed massive magic power. Without a magic meter, exact numbers were unclear, but Mamono-kun estimated it at over 3000K.

It was born with near-superhuman magic reserves—equivalent to a Class A-3 threat level.

And its power kept increasing. Judging by the growth curve, it would likely exceed 30,000K before long.

On top of that, Gazer could use multiple types of magic.

It was always floating, clearly using some form of gravity or levitation magic. When Mr. Monster cast a cancel spell on it, it fell with a thud and squeaked in protest before rising again.

Its massive eye, also its body and head, could cast petrification magic. Its pupil, Gremlin-shaped, released a powerful petrification beam when it cried out, instantly turning live prey like mice into stone.

Each of its seven tentacle-eyes had different abilities. So far, Mamono-kun had confirmed:

Pressure beam

Fear inducement

X-ray vision

Telescopic vision

The remaining three were still unknown.

Massive magic power.
Multiple innate spells.
The intelligence to play Othello with Mamono-kun.

It didn’t take long for him to realize he was raising a Class A-1 monster.

Nearly 90 years since monsters and magic first appeared on Earth, and humanity has never domesticated a Class A-1 monster.

No Gremlin implant. No magic control devices. A true miracle.

Gazer had the potential to open a new chapter in the study of monsters—but it was undeniably dangerous.

Gazer, on multiple occasions, gouged out and ate Mamono-kun’s eyeball while he dozed in the basement.

After many lectures and tearful gestures, it eventually stopped doing that—but it was still terrifying.

Even though Gazer was clearly affectionate and gentle with Mamono-kun, it still tried to eat his eye. When it held his head down to gouge it out, he thought his skull would crack. If it were someone it didn’t like, it would probably crush their head and then take the eye.

Gazer must never be allowed to go hungry.

It could understand simple words and drawings. It would nod when asked not to attack people—but if it got hungry, Mamono-kun’s words would be forgotten in an instant.

He was not a monster that could be shown to the world.

Keeping a Type-1 Class A monster is strictly prohibited under any circumstances.

Even with Type-2 and Type-3 Class A monsters, one must undergo a complicated process, obtain individual government approval, prepare specially inspected facilities with thorough and repeated inspections, and establish a flawless system with multiple experts. Private ownership of a man-eating Type-1 is utterly unacceptable.

Fortunately, Gazer-kun did not belong to a species that grows gigantic, and he stopped growing at just over two meters in total length.

He didn’t even crave fresh air, so he was quietly raised in a dark basement.

Especially after being given a statue of the Eyeball Witch, he became very devoted to it. He played with it so roughly that he frequently broke it, making spare statues essential.

Gazer-kun’s interest in the Eyeball Witch began when a newspaper brought into the basement by chance featured a portrait of the Eyeball Witch, thirty years after her death.

Upon seeing the newspaper, Gazer-kun reacted intensely and became excited. Using all his main eye and seven sub-eyes to stare at the portrait, Mamono-kun made a life-sized stone statue of the Eyeball Witch as a gift.

Gazer-kun was deeply moved, expressing his affection and gratitude with fervent blinks from all his eyes.

According to Mamono-kun’s theory, Gazer-kun is the same species as the Eyeball Witch.

They share the same dietary habits, have similar abilities, and show unique reactions.

Most likely, they are male and female counterparts.

It’s not unusual among monsters for males and females to differ in appearance. The Phoenix is a famous example, and there’s even a theory that the Centaur-Amari and regular Centaur are sexually dimorphic members of the same species.

If this theory is correct, then one day Gazer-kun must be helped to find a wife.

No mutated witches have yet been discovered to fill the vacancy left by the Eyeball Witch. Though it’s also possible one has been found and is being kept secret.

Still, it must be lonely for Gazer-kun to be the only one of his kind in the world. He couldn’t be confined underground forever. Mamono-kun always wanted to someday reunite him with his kin.

Type-1 Class A monsters are wonderful beings—intelligent, and capable of becoming true friends if a bond is formed.

But even if Mamono-kun sees Gazer-kun as a friend, public opinion would not.

If his existence were revealed, no matter how much Mamono-kun insisted Gazer-kun was harmless and controllable, he would be exterminated. Finding him a mate would be an impossible dream.

While hiding his secret in the basement and continuing to live as his usual self, Mamono-kun’s opportunity finally came.

A strange man he met by the Tama River, Dairi, was almost certainly the legendary magic staff craftsman known as 0933.

The Spider Witch accompanying Dairi had strong ties to the Blue Witch.

That Blue Witch, ever since 0933’s death in the zombie panic, had been traveling in search of resurrection magic.

Now, she had stayed in Tokyo for two whole months—not just a brief return. Dairi, with his craftsman’s intuition, was hanging around the Tama River, which borders the Blue Witch’s territory in Ome City… It would be absurd not to suspect a connection.

With Dairi slipping up in conversation, Mamono-kun was nearly certain that he was indeed 0933.

The Blue Witch, an ancient sorceress alive since the Gremlin disaster, has a legendary and awe-inspiring history too long to list. She also has deep connections with dignitaries in many countries.

Dairi had a likeable personality, and Mamono-kun sensed that a well-fed Gazer-kun could form a friendly relationship with him.

If Mamono-kun could use Dairi to get a meeting with the Blue Witch, they might be able to prevent the immediate execution of the now fully-grown Type-1 Gazer-kun and let him walk freely in the world.

Mamono-kun felt a bit guilty for exploiting Dairi’s affection, but also believed that if he spoke honestly, Dairi would understand.

After all, Dairi didn’t seem to fear the Spider Witch at all. Unlike Mamono-kun, who accepted and admired fear, Dairi appeared to simply not feel fear in the first place. Even for the eccentric Mamono-kun, he was an eccentric.

But Mamono-kun’s plan fell apart just days after he made it.

One morning, Gazer-kun was happily slurping down a bucket of eyeball soup in the basement, making gleeful screeching noises, when he suddenly stopped and stared at one point on the wall.

The two sub-eyes at the ends of his tentacles opened wide—Mamono-kun could tell that both X-ray and telescopic vision had activated.

After gazing somewhere far away for a while, Gazer-kun closed his eyes and shuddered.

Then, using seven tentacles, he gave Mamono-kun a warm, affectionate hug filled with love. Immediately after, he let out a bone-chilling roar, smashed through the basement ceiling, and escaped in an instant.

Blood drained from Mamono-kun’s face, and he nearly fainted.

What had happened? What did Gazer-kun see?

He’s a smart monster—there must have been a reason for his escape.

But whatever the reason, letting a Type-1 monster loose in a city was disastrous.

Mamono-kun panicked and rushed out of the house to chase after him—

Only to bump into his younger brother, who revealed that Gazer-kun hadn’t escaped—he had gone to fight.

The public would likely assume it was a clash between two Type-1 monsters. They’d want to kill them both.

But that wasn’t true.

Gazer-kun was on humanity’s side. At the very least, he was on Mamono-kun’s side.

After explaining the situation, his brother was first struck speechless, then slapped his own cheeks and regained composure.

Reliable as ever, Kuniaki Miyabe, who once saved Mamono-kun from a disastrous broken engagement, said with firm eyes:

“Brother, we’re going to need your connections. Let’s go to 0933’s house right now. Only the Blue Witch can convince them to take down a monster-hunting operation by choosing to kill only one of the two Type-1s.”

It was a dire situation, but now there was hope.

They ran to the backyard of the Kappa House, roused the drooling tiger monster from its dreams, quickly saddled it up, and the two rode double to Okutama, where 0933 was.

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