Monster Cells

A Monster Cell resembles a throbbing lump of living tissue about as big as a grown person's hand. Eating one sets off a sweeping change in both flesh and mind, letting the consumer break past normal human ceilings and be reborn as a monster, and it lengthens their lifespan in the bargain. Orochi produces the cells by means the story never fully explains, after which they are gathered and grown inside large tanks at the Monster Association Headquarters.

The trade-off is steep: whatever strength a cell grants, it costs the recipient any room for further natural growth. How dramatic the result turns out depends on the raw potential already sitting inside the person, so the tougher the human, the fiercer the resulting creature. Those with more inborn power tend to warp into grotesque shapes, while feebler subjects keep more of their old human look. Benpatsu, for one, only sprouts a third eye, jagged teeth, and stretched fingers, whereas Rosie balloons into a bulging mass of veins and jutting spine, and genuinely powerful fighters such as Choze, Volten, Hamukichi, and Gouketsu twist into far more inhuman forms.

The transformation floods the subject with bloodlust, cruelty, giddy euphoria, and madness while stripping away conscience, reason, and most of what made them human, leaving them fixated on wreckage and slaughter. The experience is likened to a steroid surge, painful for some to endure, yet it hands them power well beyond their earlier peak. Dr. Genus stresses that this is not the removal of a person's inner limiter; the newly born monster still carries that limiter, having simply become a different kind of being. A key vulnerability is the reckless fury the change breeds, which pushes fresh monsters to charge in without gauging an enemy's real strength. Benpatsu rushes Suiryu and is dropped by a single kick, and Bakuzan, convinced he now towers over every S-Class hero and monster, throws himself at Gouketsu only to be swatted aside. The cells also magnify a person's worst traits, sharpening Bakuzan's bullying viciousness into his true nature.

Willpower governs the outcome. Weak-minded eaters may shed their ego and intellect entirely and sink into feral beasts, as happens to Hamukichi and the Three Crows, while disciplined veterans like Haragiri, Gale Wind, and Hellfire Flame learn to flip between human and monster shapes at will. Gulping several cells at once tends to knock the person out or tear them apart, since the body cannot process multiple cells, though an unconscious subject simply has their monsterification paused until it finishes. Gyoro Gyoro later clarifies that taking many is no better than taking one, because the cells only amplify whatever the original individual already possessed. A cell must also be eaten raw and by choice, or it does nothing; Speed-o'-Sound Sonic simmers his in wine before biting in, gets no transformation, and instead suffers a bout of severe diarrhea that costs him roughly four and a half pounds. Despite talk of the change being permanent, Hero Association experiments to pull the cell back out of a host hint that reversal is possible, with Volten and Benpatsu writhing under the procedure and Hamukichi proving the steadiest because he genuinely wants to be human again; Sitch, citing Bang's report, credits the subject's state of mind as decisive.

Gyoro Gyoro and Orochi first hand a cell to Gouketsu in exchange for his loyalty, and he in turn passes cells to the pupils who become the Three Crows. Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame each consume one yet keep enough of their humanity and skill to shift back and forth. During the Super Fight tournament, Gouketsu and the Three Crows force the remaining competitors to eat or die, turning Rosie, Choze, Volten, Benpatsu, Hamukichi, and eventually Bakuzan. Nyan uses cells to convert inmates at Smelly Lid Prison, while Do-S, Haragiri, and the resurrected Phoenix Man are also counted among those tied to the cells. Sweet Mask ultimately storms the Monster Association Headquarters and smashes the cultivation tanks, wiping out the stored supply, having concluded that only killing Orochi could truly end their production.