Sweet Mask

"In order to ease the worries and fears of the people, we heroes have to be tough, strong, and beautiful at all times... always able to defeat evil swiftly and skillfully. That's what being a hero means."

Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask (イケメン仮面アマイマスク, Ikemen Kamen Amai Masuku; Viz Amai Mask, aka Handsome Kamen) is the A-Class Rank 1 professional hero of the Hero Association. Apart from his hero profession, he is a famous model, actor, and singer and is the most popular star in the world. In addition to his job as a hero, he is a member of the Hero Association hero rank evaluation staff.

In truth, Sweet Mask is secretly not entirely a human. His exact nature is unknown.

Sweet Mask's real name is Beaut (ビュウト, Byūto). Although he initially looked down on Saitama, he is now one of the few people aware of his true strength. He formed an obsession for Saitama's strength after witnessing his battle with Garou, stating that he possesses "the beauty of overwhelming power." He was aiming to create the perfect hero out of Saitama but is now on the run due to his monster self being revealed to the public. He is now dismissed from the Hero Association due to being a monster.

Personality
Sweet Mask has stated that he believes that heroes are to protect the citizens, and if they can't do that, they must become strong enough to be able to do so. He appears to be quite popular and has quite a charismatic way of talking. He also genuinely cares for the well-being of the citizens around him and wishes happiness upon every living thing in the universe. Moreover, Sweet Mask can even stress himself out when thinking about new ways to please his fans.

However, befitting the darker side of Sweet Mask's name, he has a hidden merciless nature. He is shown to have a burning hatred for anything that he sees as evil, including those whom he considers being evil’s accomplices and those who lend a helping hand to said accomplices. Anything that he declares as evil must be swiftly and thoroughly exterminated. This is shown when he mercilessly dispatches a group of captured aliens from the Dark Matter Thieves whom he declared to be evil, claiming to have merely executed justice on the spot, and again when he was ordered to bring an escaped caveman back to the lab. He ignored his superiors' orders and killed the caveman instead. Sweet Mask also has no qualms in attempting to nearly murder brainwashed innocent victims like Narinki's Private Squad or considering the murder of fellow heroes Atomic Samurai's Disciples.

Sweet Mask is shown to adhere to any method that makes heroes popular. He notes that only promotions to S-Class or A-Class are fit for his attention, as they are the heroes who draw the most attention from the public, and hence, any heroes in those ranks who earn themselves negative reputations would drag his reputation down as well. Because of this, Sweet Mask stays in the A-Class Rank 1 position to prevent unworthy heroes from promoting to S-Class. He also places high value in his own popularity and status, demonstrating a very narcissistic and highly opinionated view of himself. Sweet Mask puts such a priority on his status and reputation that he is willing to go so far as to consider murdering all the S-class heroes present at the raid to ensure that the Hero Association doesn't hear of his failure against Fuhrer Ugly and the way he lost his composure, but he regains his self-control at the last second.

Sweet Mask is very narcissistic about "beauty overwhelming the power", as he mentions of his philosophy that "heroes have to be beautiful as well". This is obvious when he showed interest in a worthy S-Class Hero such as Genos, who has both a beautiful appeal and has done numerous heroic deeds as the main priority, fitting Sweet Mask's philosophy. This is also shown when he chews out the S-Class heroes whom he believed were unworthy of their positions, opting to subordinate them while filling in as team leader of the Monster Association raid.

Likewise, Sweet Mask has infinitely less love for people who succumb to the power of evil he so venomously despises. His hatred of monsters, coupled with his sense of beauty and justice, makes him venomously condescending towards others whilst propping up his own self-righteousness. This is shown when he questioned Zombieman's credibility as a human being, much less a hero, going by his odd abilities and asking why he couldn't die during the S-Class hero meeting. He even goes so far as to secretly contemplate murdering the other heroes due to his intolerance towards them potentially judging him and having a descanting view on the jaundiced account of his being glamorous.

However, after witnessing the defeat of Garou by Saitama, his viewpoint changes and becomes more focused on the overwhelming power of the individual than beauty alone.

Sweet Mask wholeheartedly believes in a grand justice that will illuminate the world, and a hero who represents a great hope that everyone can see and latch onto. His plan is to have Saitama be the symbol he envisions.

His hatred for all things ugly stems from the fact that he himself once had an ugly face and chose to wear a mask out of shame. This intense hatred of his own ugliness caused his body to change and for him to transform into a Mysterious Being. Before he became a Mysterious Being, he attempted to be beautiful on the inside and adhere to strict moral principles. Even attempting to perform good deeds for the community, such as picking up litter, though no one paid attention to him for said kindnesses. But when he transformed into a handsome man, his popularity skyrocketed to where it is now due to his extremely good looks. He initially viewed the public as vain for being blinded by outward beauty, but realized that he'd become just like them.

Sweet Mask reveals that his transformation has begun to corrupt and monsterize him, being responsible for the more bloodthirsty and ruthless side of him and making him lose his humanity. Killing monsters has been the only way he's stayed on humanity's side but it has made him more merciless as a consequence. This mercilessness even making him, when faced with a choice where he can only save one side, choose to sacrifice the one with the smallest number without hesitation and acting as if he struggled with the choice. According to Sweet Mask, he will eventually view justice as just another symbol and completely cease to understand what it means to be human, something which he fears greatly. For all his vain and self-serving traits, Sweet Mask possesses a certain degree of selflessness, as he willingly transformed into his monster form to defeat Pesky Clown despite knowing that there were people watching and that doing so would mark the end of his career as both a hero and an idol.

Abilities and Powers
As the top-ranked A-Class hero, Sweet Mask is an extremely skilled and powerful individual. He is also far superior to everyone else in this class, and his skills are strong enough to put him in S-Class. He claims to be stronger than Atomic Samurai and is even confident enough in his abilities to stand up to other S-Class heroes, such as Flashy Flash. He chooses not to advance to S-Class so as not to allow weaklings to rank up. Fubuki describes him as a monster, much like her sister Tatsumaki, who is the second highest-ranked hero within the association. Fubuki, even after witnessing Saitama's display of power in the fight against her, was also convinced it would be impossible for him to surpass Sweet Mask. Along with his previous claims, he describes himself as an "all-rounder" capable of defeating "any opponent" and is confident in proclaiming himself as "the perfect hero". However, he has a very peculiar weakness; extreme ugliness paralyzes him, making him unable to move well and fight back, which renders him particularly vulnerable against Ugmons. Besides his combat abilities, Sweet Mask is a talented actor and singer.

As confirmed by Atomic Samurai, he's definitely S-Class worthy, and can take on multiple Dragon-level opponents at once. Despite this, he states that he has never defeated a Dragon-level Mysterious Being by himself. Once he transforms into his monster state, he's strong enough to overpower Pesky Clown, a Dragon-level threat, with only a few blows, even breaking his arm. Even when Pesky Clown powers up further, although initially overwhelmed, Sweet Mask still manages to put an end to the Dragon-level monster.

Physical Abilities
Immense Speed and Reflexes: Sweet Mask is extremely fast. He was able to kill a group of captured alien invaders before the nearby S-Class heroes could react. He effortlessly evaded Suppon's barrage of attacks and maneuvered behind him, striking him down with only two blows before the caveman could retaliate.

More remarkably, he managed to fight off several clones of Black Sperm, a Dragon-level monster. He was also able to dodge some of Evil Natural Water's attacks, which, according to Child Emperor, move faster than the eye can register, while still fighting against Black Sperm. When attacking Garou, he managed to land 25 hits within seconds.

Immense Strength: Sweet Mask possesses incredible brute strength. During a concert, he forcibly manipulated a monster's movement without interrupting the flow of the performance and with just one hand, he easily sliced other two monsters in half and punched a monster with enough force that its head was obliterated. He is also able to effortlessly lift large pieces of rubble with only one arm, as well as being able to kill Do-S, a Demon-level mysterious being, with only one hand by crushing its head. Furthermore, Sweet Mask is strong enough to destroy the tanks that housed the Monster Cells with a few swipes.

He was able to lift a boulder much larger than he is with ease, as well as throwing it with great force. He also broke the hand of one of Black Sperm's giant clones with a single hit. Once he transforms into his monster state, his strength skyrockets. He's able to stop Pesky Clown, a Dragon-level threat, in his tracks, breaking his arm and defeating him rather quickly. Even after the monster powered up further after receiving attention and news coverage from the entire world, Sweet Mask is still strong enough to kill Pesky Clown with a single blow to the head.

Immense Durability: Sweet Mask possesses rather high durability, as he was able to survive being assaulted by Fuhrer Ugly, a powerful Dragon-level Mysterious Being, without seemingly sustaining serious injuries.

Immense Endurance: Possibly due to his abnormal body, Sweet Mask seemed to feel no pain upon being pierced through the chest by Evil Natural Water, and resumed fighting normally. Abnormal Body: By unknown means, Sweet Mask was able to reattach his severed arm. According to himself, he was able to reattach it as it was a clean cut. He was also somehow able to regenerate his smashed face after Garou punched it. Sweet Mask's body seems to be capable of healing quickly from potentially lethal wounds. However, he doesn't seem to have the ability to regrow a severed limb, as he reattached his arm instead of just regrowing it. Additionally, something peculiar about Sweet Mask is that when angered, his body mutates, and the veins in his face grow in size. This is revealed to be because he is in fact a Mysterious Being who mutated due to his intense hatred for ugliness.
 * Transformation: Sweet Mask can transform into his true monster form to increase his power and strength. This causes veins to pop up all over his face and causes a huge increase in power. In this form he is capable of easily defeating Pesky Clown, a powerful Dragon-level Mysterious Being, who notably injured Sweet Mask more than even Fuhrer Ugly, a cadre in the Monster Association. Webigaza states such metamorphic capabilities also enable him to not only disguise his physical appearance, but also mask his biophysical signature in order to avoid detection even from sophisticated spy sat technologies. Indicating he is not merely limited to switching between human and monster form.

Regeneration: Through unknown means, Sweet Mask possesses the ability to recover from extreme injuries to his body. This was first seen when Do-S pierced his eye with her tongue and cracked his face with the damage having healed almost instantaneously.

Fighting Style
Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Sweet Mask is an extremely skilled fighter. During his fight against Suppon, he first moves in the latter's blind spot, incapacitates him, and then delivers a lethal strike. Sweet Mask's fighting style is brutal and efficient; he obliterates his opponents before they can retaliate.

Despite being unable to fight back, he took no notable damage against Fuhrer Ugly, a Dragon-level threat. He managed to repel the continuous assault of Black Sperm's clones, who easily broke through Atomic Samurai's defense, prompting the latter hero to comment that Sweet Mask and Black Sperm were even, at least temporarily..

Miscellaneous Abilities
High Accuracy: Sweet Mask has shown some impressive feats of accuracy, particularly seen when approached by Fuhrer Ugly: when the monster was jumping all across the ceiling and walls of the hallway, Sweet Mask accurately threw a monster head he had in his hand directly at Fuhrer Ugly while the monster was still approaching him.

Mental Resistance: Sweet Mask was able to completely resist Do-S' mind control whip.

It is possible that the whip's mind control simply does not affect monsters, as Sweet Mask is a monster himself. Alternatively, Sweet Mask's mental strength was improved by his need to keep his human form active at all times.

Hero Rating
Sweet Mask's rating determined by the Hero Association:

Quotes

 * (To a reporter) "Anyone can become a hero if you feel the desire for peace in your heart!"


 * (To Suppon) "The association told me to bring you back alive, but I'm not that sweet."


 * (To Do-S) "You think bargaining with me is going to work? Hideous creature, prepare to die."


 * "I am an all-rounder who can gracefully defeat any opponent. I fear nothing."


 * (Against Fuhrer Ugly) "I can't win against this one! Even the handsome, highly intelligent, capable, brave, mighty warrior worth a thousand men, the perfect hero "Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask" cannot win this!"


 * (To Superalloy Darkshine) "Those muscles are proof that you won your way through life, aren't they? Don't let your weak self take over. I'm the same. No matter how many setbacks, no matter how many times I disappoint myself, I'll stand back up and continue forward. That's what a hero does."


 * "I have always had an inferiority complex stemming from my ugly appearance. To compensate for it, I thought I should at least be beautiful on the inside, so I lived my life adhering to strict moral principles."


 * "In order to preserve the ideals of the people, you can never lose; that condition is absolute."

Trivia

 * According to the databook:
 * What he likes are his fans, justice, missions, skin emollient, and skin toner.
 * What he dislikes are evil, annoying interviews, and irresponsible heroes.
 * He is overworking and has no time to spend on the things he likes.
 * He won the academy award for Best Actor in the film "A Handsome Love Story".
 * Sweet Mask is a member of the Hero rank evaluation. He evaluates points to give each hero so they can rise or fall in the ranking system. He is also a special advisor to the association on public relations.


 * The origin of his hero name was designation by himself after his face was revealed. His hero name was formerly "Secret Mask".
 * He is a member of the "Handsome Castle" agency.
 * Sweet Mask ranked number one in the popularity polls in the world of One-Punch Man for 28 weeks straight.
 * In Murata's stream when describing what ethnicity the characters would be in the real world Murata stated Sweet Mask would be Korean.
 * Sweet Mask has dinner shows at the end of the year.
 * In the 2017 One Punch Man Halloween cover, Sweet Mask was depicted as a classic vampire holding a microphone.


 * Sweet Mask is the only known Mysterious Being the Hero Association had in its employ, albeit unwittingly.
 * Sweet Mask's behavior towards his true form of mysterious being is similar to that of Dorian Gray, from Oscar Wilde's novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
 * Both are afraid of their true, monstrous forms, and tend to hide them from being revealed publicly: one by hiding his ugly picture and the other by suppressing his real form and fighting while disguised as a human.
 * Both grow progressively more vicious, due to the influence of their monstrous side.
 * Both are obsessed with their physical appearance and reputation.

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