Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

My father always says; “Don’t run away. Fight.” It’s almost his mantra.
Don’t run away from studying for exams. Don’t run away from school. Don’t run away from your parents.
I hated that saying. Why shouldn’t you run away?

Sure, in China your life is decided by studying for exams. But even if you run away from exam study, it’s not the end. You can go abroad, you don’t need academic history for farm work in the countryside, and if you start your own business, you’ll be the one judging the academic histories of your employees.
It’s fine to run away from school. There’s distance learning, you can challenge qualification exams instead of school studies, and it’s fine to travel and broaden your horizons.
It’s also fine to run away from your parents. Or rather, parents who do things that make their son want to run away are disqualified as parents.

In that regard, cats are great. They have the wisdom to run away immediately.
Normal living creatures run away at once when things get dangerous. Dangerous means dangerous, so if you don’t run away when things become dangerous, you’ll get hurt or die. If you get hurt, you weaken and carry that injury for a long time after. And if you die, you die.
Only humans are stupid. Only humans get beaten up because they confront things even though they could run.
I want to be more like a cat and less like a human.

Even though I have my own proper reasons to run away, my father decides that I’m running because I’m a cowardly, lazy, delinquent, incompetent son. He never once listens to what I have to say. “Don’t run away. Fight.” That’s all he ever cares about.
I’m not that smart. Even if I don’t run, fight and continue fighting, and desperately study like my own life depends on it, I can’t win against the smart guys in my class. But then he tells me to fight them anyway.
Because losing is so obvious, of course I run. It’s only natural. It’s ridiculous.

…But, even though it’s frustrating, I’ll admit it.
There are times in life when you just have to confront something.

That day. The day I was scolded and hit by my father, spat out parting words, and ran out of the house into the heavy rain.
I found a cardboard box being swept along in the muddy, swollen river. Inside that tiny cardboard box, with a pitifully faint cry barely audible over the sound of the rain, Tai-yi was desperately calling for help.

At first, I tried to abandon Tai-yi.
There were also floating logs and large trash mixed in the yellowish muddy torrent, and the cardboard box looked like it would sink any moment. It was ridiculous to drown myself trying to save her. I wasn’t good at swimming anyway. She looked pitiful, but pretending I hadn’t seen her was the wise choice.
I told myself that and left the spot.

But in the end, I couldn’t withstand the pain in my heart.
That cat would die if I didn’t save it. If I ran away, she would die.
So I threw my umbrella aside, clawed at my head, and screamed. Soaked to the bone, I ran around the shopping district, searching for something I could use. I grabbed a huge styrofoam box at the front of the fish shop and ran.
Crying and laughing as if saying, Heaven, laugh at my reckless courage.

I kept running and running and running until I caught up to the sinking cardboard box.
I hesitated three times, but I took a huge breath and threw myself into the river.
The flow of the river was far more intense than I had imagined, like a raging dragon, and without the float I held in my arms, I surely would have drowned.

When I crawled up onto the riverbank half-dead together with Tai-yi, I swore never to do something like this again.

———Now.
I was once again being forced to make a choice.

When I went with Tai-yi to an important cat meeting to decide the future of Qitaohe City, a pale-faced old man suddenly turned into a monster and began rampaging.
I had no idea what was going on, but I understood at once that it was dangerous. Even an idiot could understand after seeing a crater formed with one punch.
So I ran. If it’s dangerous, running away is natural.

But Tai-yi and the cats began fighting the monster.
For the cats, it was an opponent they must not run from.
I immediately realized. I had heard of it. It must be the “black monster” that had been rumored among the cats to be ravaging the cat world.
The trauma of the gas station flashed back. Its size couldn’t even be compared to that monster.

My legs trembled and tangled.
I couldn’t breathe well. My lungs felt cramped.
My pants became warm. I had wet myself.

I want to just run.
I want to run far, far away.
I don’t want to look back.
I’m scared, I don’t want to die! I don’t want to be hurt.
I want to run and run and run, throw everything away, and shut myself in my room.

But my partner is fighting. She puts her life on the line and fight.
Those beloved cats are fighting. Cats, who are far better at running away than humans, are fighting without running.
I can’t stand being the only one who runs away.
Ah, I’m an idiot. A huge idiot!

I stopped, clawed at my head, and screamed to the night sky.
Crying and laughing as if saying, Heaven, laugh at my reckless courage.

Before returning to the battlefield where my partner was fighting, there was one thing I needed. It was a waste of time to go get it, but I had to go get it.
But my hesitation lasted only a moment. The thing I needed came from the other side.
With miraculous timing, Baba came bursting out of the nearby narrow path, carrying huge luggage.
When Baba looked at my face, she seemed to understand everything.
Pointing with her thumb at the very thing I needed right now, she said:

“I made it in time, huh? Use this, Haoran!”

Yes.
I “run away, and fight.”
If there’s an enemy you can’t beat, then run away. And then return holding certain odds of victory.

Already long past the time limit of his giant form, Huang-hu had begun fighting with his natural build, and I had been fighting with difficulty so as not to inflict serious injuries on the house-cat & crow mixed corps. I felt relieved when I saw Haoran-kun, returning at full speed from across the street.
It seemed Baba, who had been on standby as backup for emergencies, had handled things well.

I shifted my aim from the cats to Haoran-kun. I swung the black giant’s arm like a whip and fired black telekinetic bullets.
Haoran-kun expertly handled the silver motorcycle, accelerating and dodging the telekinetic bullets one after another. He pulled a wheelie jump, landed on a building wall, and ran horizontally along it.
The PSI Drive engine roared. Baba’s custom-modified bike flew from the building wall with the full moon as a backdrop, falling sideways at high speed.

Haoran-kun’s all-or-nothing roar and the engine sound blended into one thunderous blast.
All the cats stared wide-eyed as Haoran-kun and the bike pierced the rampaging monster’s head like a meteor.

“O-GOH!?”

The head of the black monster avatar was blown off in one hit, and in surprise I let out my voice.
I was astonished. It was true I hadn’t made the outer membrane particularly strong, but it was still an incredible impact.
Haoran-kun’s weight multiplier, built up through steady basic training, was currently 10 x. Body weight 60 kg + bike 250 kg = 310 kg, times ten is 3100 kg = 3.1 tons. It was like a truck falling from high in the sky. Of course it would blow apart.

Having blown through the monster’s head and falling sideways, Haoran-kun suddenly remembered normal gravity and fell straight down. Landing at a right angle, he sharply drift-turned and tried to rev the engine again, but the bike rattled with strange noises and stopped. ¹
Haoran-kun panicked and kicked the frame with his foot, but I wanted him to treat it a bit more gently. That thing is only 50 percent complete, a prototype.

In terms of staging, it would be more fun to get beaten up a bit more and be defeated, but since the bike had stopped and the cats were looking close to their limits, I decided to get defeated.
U, uwaaah! My head was blown off, so I’m defeated! Damn, so my head is the weakness!

I collapsed the black giant avatar, returned to homeless-old-man mode, and fell flat on the ground.
Huang-hu rushed over, but once again black sludge seeped out of my body, and as if being puppeted by it, I jerkily stood up and made an unnatural wire-action-like huge jump to escape. I vanished into the valley between buildings.

Huang-hu chased first, and a beat later Tai-yi and Haoran-kun chased as well. But they lost track of me.
While secretly watching the three, each in their own way showing regret or sadness, I thought:

I see. So this is how it feels to be a boss enemy who loses but runs away and postpones the conclusion.
There’s a sort of “got you” feeling and it feels nice. Makes me want to yell, Hahaha, your finishing blow was sloppy, you fool!

Baba who arrived late with her sword still sheathed will probably settle things well after that.
Let’s meet again, cats!
And next time we meet, let’s settle this, Haoran-kun!
Sharpen your fangs all you can!

Fuhahahahahahahahahahaha!!!