Chapter 1
The soft lights from street lamps glinted through the darkness of a small room as a tall figure slowly snuck through the front door. Being sure to stay quiet, he flicked on the light switch and bathed the room in an unnaturally, white light, the harsh, plastic angles of modernistic furniture glinting faintly around him. The human male didn't fit in at all against his backdrop. With the white of the walls and black of the furniture, he with his ashen jeans, brown combat boots, dark blue hoodie, and grey, sweat and blood-covered shirt stood out like a peacock in a room full of zebra.
He pulled off his hoodie, took out his two Beretta 92 pistols from his shoulder holsters, tossed them on the coffee table, and then slunk down on the couch with a tired huff. Tonight had been a normal, albeit exciting night. Well, in retrospect, it was always an exciting night when you were a human special agent in a world filled with animals.
Batsu Masayoshi had been up in this land city for a few months now. His mission: keep these animals from destroying themselves. It was a simple mission when one glanced at it, but read the fine print and things got a great deal more complicated.
He was one of the few humans specifically chosen out of thousands to come to the surface from their deep sea city and deal with the underground goings-on of animal society, predominantly when it came to anything overtly dangerous. His placement at this particular location fell both to his skill, efficiency, and personality, but also to his design. It was literally built into his DNA.
Shikko-sha, or enforcers as they were less formally called, were the epitome of human genetic engineering, specially created for predetermined occupations, such as dealing with land animal problems. And, since most of these problems hadn't arisen since recently, he was part of a younger "batch" as one would call it; he himself had barely turned 18 before being sent to the surface. It never bothered him to be sent so early, nor to be placed in one of the headquarters nearest one of the most dangerous locations possible. "Location 737", also known as "The Sea Flower", a florist shop just ten minutes' walk away from the Black Market.
Batsu was proud to have been the first and only choice out of his enforcer class to be placed here. He had always been a loner and relatively mature for his age, and, though he had always acquainted his DNA for those specific traits, earning top marks in hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship had all been him. Still, it didn't stop him from getting an injury or two…or three…maybe that's why the rest of his class always said he had a death wish.
Speaking of a death wish, as he flipped through the muted television to try and find something to wind down to, the sharp smell of sweat and carnivore blood radiating in his nose felt like it was burning him brain. It wouldn't have been so bad if not for the poor airflow in the tiny room suffocating his advanced nose.
It was always one of the things he both loved and hated about being a shikko-sha. They were designed to be larger and stronger than average humans and even had specific splices of animal DNA within theirs to give them an advantage when going up against the species they would inevitably encounter on land. It was all about having all the animals' strengths but none of their "primitive" instincts and weaknesses. A "perfect design" as his superiors called it. Batsu in particular had Thomson's gazelle for their litheness, speed, and hearing, a hint of a few poisonous reptiles to combat most toxins he might encounter, bottlenose dolphin for increased intelligence and breath-holding capacity, and black panther for their eyesight, strength, independence, and, as expected, sense of smell. He had always hated his sense of smell. There was no instinctual reaction to certain smells as with animals and it was still nowhere near as strong as them, nevertheless anything intense was naturally more unpleasant than your average human.
He wasn't much of a clean freak by any means, but being covered in the smell of drying sweat and blood was more than uncomfortable, and after trying to grin and bear it by surfing through the television, he finally gave in and went to the bathroom to shower. It wasn't long before the sound of running water drew the attention of his superior down the hall. He had just gotten out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist when he heard their heavy footsteps sounding on the wooden floor followed by a quick rap on the door.
"Batsu-san?" a soft, yet deep female voice echoed from the other side, "Is that you?"
He opened the door to see his superior, an old stellar sea lion, still dressed in a suit even at this late an hour. Her black eyes studied his bare torso and still dripping hair professionally, "No new scars I see. Did everything go well?"
"As good as it can be," he crossed his arms and leaned up against the door-frame, "Now um…apologies Master Kaiso-sama, but can I put some pants on?"
She rolled her eyes and waved him off as she walked down the stairs. As with any ocean animal, clothes weren't something that was necessary unless out with land animals. Though humans shared their home underwater, they didn't completely share their aquatic neighbors' nonchalance when it came to clothing, especially with their colleagues.
Batsu met her not too long after, dressed in his red, tartan plaid sleep pants, brushing his towel through his still wet hair.
She was settled onto the black leather of the couch looking through reports on her tablet. Her eyes never left the screen as she simply yawned when she noticed him walk in. If he had been an herbivore of any kind he would've trembled in fear from the display of the nearly two meter tall ocean carnivore opening her massive jaws to their widest, 6cm canines glinting in the light of the single lamp. Luckily, he was more than used to it.
He waited in silence until she finally closed her tablet and glared back at him with those inky eyes of hers. It took mere milliseconds for him to understand she was ready for his report.
"Arctic fox and mountain weasel, dealing red ice out behind the Black Market. They were trying to get juvenile carnivores high enough to get them to eat meat. The fox went down easy, but as you know, weasels are slippery little bastards."
She didn't react to his snide quip, "Why not take them out from a distance?"
"There were factors that…"
"Were you seen?"
"No,"
"Were the targets dealt with cleanly?"
"Yes,"
"Good," she relaxed dramatically, switching into the pleasant, old, sea lion florist she posed as, "Well then, I'll get everything logged and transmitted tomorrow, have a good night."
With a nod and small bow, he left and headed up to his room, finally spreading himself over his futon and closing his eyes for what little remained of the night.
"Batsu-san! Baaaatsu-san!" the mild pats on his face turned into a hard slap, there wasn't much pain involved, but it was enough to knock him out of his sleep.
He pulled his pillow over his head and tried to ignore the violent wake-up call. It didn't matter how much training he had, a teenager with very little sleep was never a joy to wake in the morning.
Annoyed with his stubbornness, whoever tried to wake him finally gave up with slapping his face and just jumped strait on his chest.
Batsu didn't react much passed a mild oof, "Morning, Supo," he groaned as he wiped his large hand across his face and through his hair.
"Morning!" the spotted seal boy chimed as he bounced happily on his rib cage, "Kaiso-sama wants to see you downstairs immediately."
"She tell you why?"
"Nope," the pup wasn't paying too much attention to his question, his eyes fixated on his hand as it shook out the few tangles that managed to stay stuck in the longer locks on top of his head, "Ya know, Batsu-san, I'll never understand you humans' desires to make your hair like your eyes."
Batsu merely smirked, lifted and placed the pup easily on the floor (ignoring the fact the seal was naked, as it was normal for the ocean animals after all), and pat the dense coat on his egg-like head, "Well, Supo-kun, as you know I don't have much say in that. Besides…when you have eyes like mine, it really makes you stand out!"
"But isn't your job not to stand out?"
He rolled his eyes, "I'm a human in a world full of animals, do you really think not having light blue hair is gonna keep me from standing out?"
"Hmm, when you say it like that, no, not really," the pup gave him a wide, innocent smile then turned and ran out the door, "Kaiso-sama is still waiting downstairs by the waaaay!"
"Oh, shit!"
After an almost trip and tumble down the stairs, Batsu finally got down to the living room. Kaiso was sitting just as she had been when he left her the night before; the only change was the steaming tea in front of her.
Before he could finish his bow and apology for not getting downstairs sooner, she motioned to Supo to hand him a tablet. He scanned through the files, noticing the common theme of a murder at a high school between them.
"Is this why you needed me down here so fast?" he said, then handed the tablet back to Supo and stretched his hands all the way to the ceiling with a yawn, "Murders happen all the time, what makes this one so special that it draws the attention of the shikko-sha?"
Kaiso closed her eyes and sighed, "As you know, herbivore/carnivore relations have been tense lately…"
"What else is new?"
"This murder is particularly sensitive because it was a predation. A predation that occurred within the school grounds rather than on the streets or back alleys," she paused as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, still not impressed, "The victim was an alpaca student, and, due to the nature of the murder, another student is likely to be the culprit."
Alright, that detail regained his attention, if only slightly. A murder like this was bound to make headlines along with having a high probability of being covered up by the city authorities, and the fact it was a predation event within an interspecieal school would be sure to stir up unrest between the populations.
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "What do I need to do?"
She motioned to the seal pup again who was laden up with his loaded gun holster, leather jacket, zip-up hoodie, as well as the rest of his clothes. In that odd, back-of-his-mind sense, Batsu always thought it was strange that a child of Supo's age would be in this rather dark business. But, then again, the humans in their deep sea cities and the ocean life that hid them had always had a realistic understanding of the ways of the world, unlike the animals on land. This had been the way for many millennia. It was normal…though it still felt odd to see a kid walking around with two, fully-loaded, silenced pistols.
"We have been informed that you will be sent to the school to find the murderer and remove them from the campus."
"Permanent or locational?" he asked as he slipped on his boots.
"Permanent,"
"But...if it's a student..."
"Do not question orders, please,"
"With all due respect, I can..."
"It has already been decided," she cut him off harshly, "Due to the nature of this case, the age of the target is not a factor, understood?"
He almost responded again before he stopped himself and dropped in eyes in submission to his superior, "Understood."
She continued as if nothing happened, "There are no leads from the police and it doesn't look like there will be much, if any, due to the nature of the attack."
"Figures," he grumbled as he pulled the navy button-down up over his shoulders along with his jacket and hooded sweater, "Predations are always the touchiest…"
"You think you'll be home for dinner?" Supo cut through the seriousness of the situation with a big smile, "Kaiso-sama said she was planning on making spinach and anchovy sandwiches!"
"Heh, we'll see, Supo-kun," Batsu smiled as he crouched and pat the pup on the head goodbye, his voice dropping down to a whisper, "Now don't give this old Otariidae too much trouble. You know how much she hates it when you mess with her computer."
"Stop giving the pup ideas, Batsu-san," she ordered, though he could see the slight glint of humor in the edge of her mouth. The soft spot she held for the orphaned pup was hard to hide, even for her.
He gave Supo a mischievous wink and smirk then pulled up his hood, readjusted his weapons, and left the shikko-sha headquarters/florist shop behind.
Hey GUYS! Been here a good while, but this is my first story here! Totally fell in love with the craziness of Beastars and got inspired! The plan is to mainly follow the canon Manga/Anime story line with obvious deviations when it comes to my OCs, so things should (fingers-crossed) be coming out relatively quickly. Hope y'all enjoy :D
My best description of Batsu is probably a "nicer/younger/less-crazy psychopath" version of Grimmjow from Bleach. Hope that helps with the visuals ;)