Chapter 41: A Sudden Emergency! The Killer Slips Up, And His Name Is...!
It had been almost a full week since Legosi had woken up from his coma. Today was Sunday, and it was his first day back at Cherryton Academy! His tail wagged as he walked around the drama club and worked on adjusting the lighting. To him, nothing beat working on the stage lights, and making sure that everything was in proper order. Though playing the role of Adler on the second night of the performance and getting to 'fight' Alex was a close second, Legosi preferred not being in the spotlight and instead assisting from the shadows.
Today, he was wearing a long sleeved shirt to hide his newly grown scales. He was still getting used to the idea of showing his scales to the entire school, and had decided to only have them exposed when he was with his close friends and family. Everyone at the drama club had been overjoyed to see him, though the gray wolf still wished that Louis was there.
The deer was still leading the Shishigumi, but he had met Agata at the hospital, and the black Congo lion seemed like a pretty nice feline. The gangster had apologized profusely for the actions of the previous boss, admitting that most of the gang had felt pretty conflicted about abducting Haru. In fact, most of the Shishigumi were morally good animals, they just were part of the Shishigumi so they could eat meat. Legosi knew from his appointments with Gouhin that the Black Market's meat supply came from the bodies of already-dead animals, and he had to admit that meat was an important part of most carnivores' lives.
One time, Legosi had asked Alex about Zootopia and if it had a black market like Cherryton. He had expected the white wolf to be rather sensitive about the topic, as the wolf hadn't tasted meat for over a decade and a half due to a traumatic childhood experience involving a rather voracious elephant who tried to eat him (ending in the elephant's demise, Alex describing the scene as something similar to the chest burster scene from Alien ). To his surprise, Alex was extremely open about the topic. It turned out that Zootopia had developed cloning technology, which was used on dead bodies to mass produce harvestable meat and ship it to the different districts. Alex made it explicitly clear that cloning living animals was made impossible.
This made Legosi curious: how did Alex know so much about the cloning and meat producing process for Zootopia? He thought Alex would dodge that question too, but Alex gave an honest response to that inquiry as well. It turns out that his adoptive mom, Dr. Iris Stenchington, had patented the cloning technology and process, making billions of dollars and reducing the predation incident rates of the city by over ninety percent.
The gray wolf shook his head, getting him out of his thoughts and back to the present. He scanned the drama club back room, observing all of the other animals while also making it appear to others that he was looking down at his clipboard. Alex was leaning against a wall, chatting to Bill about training. Kibi the anteater was talking to Pina, the new student, about costumes, while Tao the panther hung off to the side, close to Kibi. Riz the bear was helping Dom the peacock move the light projectors.
Seeing Dom reminded Legosi that he needed to discuss some ideas for the lighting he had. Legosi walked up to dom and held the clipboard in his hands. "Dom-senpai?" Legosi called out.
"Yes, Legosi?" Dom replied, batting his eyelashes at the canine in his typical flirty fashion.
"I think we should use a red light filter for Pina's spotlight. He's the star actor of the show." Legosi told his avian friend.
Dom clapped his feathered hands together enthusiastically. "Excellent idea, Legosi! His body is completely white, so a red filter would be perfect to make him stick out even more." Dom replied, smiling warmly at the lighting expert.
Then, time seemed to slow down for a short period. Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Kibi wincing in pain as Tao was helping him with his stretches. He stepped away from Bill towards the anteater, and that was when it happened. Alex heard the snapping of bones, and the sound of sinew forcibly being pulled apart. He could do nothing but watch in horror as Tao lost control of his carnivorous strength and ripped Kibi's arm off. Everyone stood there, frozen in place for a second that seemed like an eternity as their brains processed what had just happened.
Then the chaos and panic set in. One of the herbivore students squealed in fright as Tao looked down at the arm he was holding in his hand. The panther's eyes widened in horror as he realized what he had just done. "WHA… WHAT?! OH!" Tao yelped as he saw the blood dripping out of the exposed flesh, and dropped it on the ground.
Kibi crumpled, his remaining paw clutching his shoulder stump as it started bleeding. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Tao screamed, terrified at what he had just done to his best friend.
Alex and Bill exchanged a glance, and in that instant they knew exactly what they wanted each other to do. "Herbivores, get back!" Bill yelled out, waving his arms and making the herbivore drama club members run to the other side of the room and huddle together. "N-no… I didn't! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!" Tao sobbed.
"My arm, my arm, my arm!" Kibi moaned as he kept bleeding.
The tiger and white wolf rushed forward. Alex ripped his shirt off and knelt down by Kibi. "Kibi, can you stop clutching your shoulder? I need to apply pressure to your wound." Alex gently said, using a calm and soothing tone of voice.
Kibi gulped before slowly moving his paw away from his shoulder. Something about Alex was reassuring to him. He wouldn't have let any other carnivore aside from Legosi near him in this state, but something about Alex told the anteater that he was safe. Perhaps it was the lack of bloodlust in his eyes, his calm demeanor even in a crisis situation like this.
Alex wadded his shirt up into a ball and pressed it against the bloody stump, applying a moderate amount of pressure. Too little pressure would make the arm continue to bleed, and too much pressure could cause damage to the shoulder. "That's it, buddy. Now fight. Fight to stay conscious. Keep breathing. In and out. In and out." Alex encouraged.
Alex lifted his head up and looked at the carnivores who were just standing there. "I need someone to help carry him to the infirmary." Alex told them.
Aoba the eagle stepped forward to pick Kibi up, but the anteater shook his head and shivered in fear. "Don't touch me, you carnivore! I don't want to lose my other arm too!" Kibi squealed in terror.
Alex sighed. This reminded him all too well of the time that rabbit cub had climbed further and further up the tree and broken her legs. "Obviously we can't have a random volunteer. Kibi, look at the animals before you, and choose the one that you trust the most to help carry you to the infirmary until the ambulance gets here." Alex said.
One of the herbivore drama club members had already called 911. Kibi immediately pointed to Legosi. The gray wolf walked up to Kibi and softly picked him up before taking him to the medical ward of the school. "Don't forget the arm!" Legosi called out as he exited the room.
Alex scanned the room as he saw Riz bending down to pick the arm up. The wolf had been keeping a close eye on the drama club members, observing their reactions to the situation. He lunged forward and slapped Riz's paw away from the severed appendage. "Hey! What was that for?!" Riz snarled.
Alex hissed and growled in response. "You're not going to take this arm to the infirmary!" Alex roared.
Everyone in the drama club was shocked by this. "What are you doing, Alex!? Riz is the kindest, gentlest bear in the school! Why can't he take the arm to the medical ward?" Els gasped.
Alex ignored Els and poked Riz in the chest. "You're disgusting, you know that? Your friend is bleeding out right now, and all you can think of is taking a bite out of his severed limb. You're DROOLING, for God's sake! How can you think of eating at a time like this!? You can't carry his arm to the hospital. The way that your body is reacting, I don't trust that you won't slobber all over the limb and infect it with your ursine bacteria, or take a bite out of it." Alex snapped.
The look of fury that Alex saw in Riz's eyes confirmed his suspicions. A normal animal would have felt ashamed of themselves, but Riz wasn't. He was angry at Alex. It was almost as if he was wanting to nibble on Kibi's arm and see how it tasted. Alex knew in that instant that Riz was the culprit, the man behind the slaughter. Riz was the monster who had killed Tem.
Sheila pushed the two of them apart and picked up the arm. "Alex. Go and talk to Tao. He needs some reassurance that everything will be okay." Sheila advised, before giving Riz a look of contempt. It seems that Alex wasn't the only animal who had noticed Riz salivating. Alex walked away from the brown bear and to Tao, who was crying to himself outside the drama club building and was being comforted by Bill and Aoba.
"What am I going to do?! I-I'm the bastard who ripped his best friend's arm off! I-I'm going to get a life sentence! IT'S ALL OVER FOR ME!" Tao sobbed to himself. Alex approached them silently, crouching so he could be eye to eye with the sitting panther.
"Tao, calm down. Everyone present knows that it was an accident. Kibi's on his way to the hospital as we speak, and limb reattachment surgeries are required by law to be practiced by all hospitals. That anteater WILL get his arm back. And if the surgery fails, then I will see to it that he gets a high tech prosthetic arm. As for the life sentence? A bunch of the animals that saw the event will testify in your favor if this does go to court. But even if you do get arrested, you're getting nowhere near a life sentence. Zootopia and most other cities will give ten years at the maximum for an incident like this." Alex assured Tao.
"How do you know so much about this stuff, Alex?" Aoba asked, impressed by the wolf's knowledge.
"You think Zootopia is immune to this shit? Nope. This happens about once every year or so. As for how I know about the hospital stuff, my adoptive mother owns several. You pick up a bit of knowledge about your parent's profession." Alex explained.
However, Alex's assurance didn't seem to calm Tao at all. "That's not the problem…! I was shocked when I ripped his arm off… but the worst part about it was when they saw me panicking… I'm sure they thought that I was the one who killed Tem! The murderer hasn't been found yet, so it's only natural that they'd suspect me!" Tao moaned.
"DID you do it?" Bill asked. Alex's eyes widened.
"HELL NO! ALL THIS TIME, I'VE KEPT A CALM AND COLLECTED ACT SO THEY WOULDN'T SUSPECT ME! BUT THERE'S NO WAY I COULD HAVE KEPT MY COOL WHEN I TORE MY FRIEND'S ARM OFF!" Tao shrieked.
Alex knew he had to do something before Tao's hysteria escalated. If the panther didn't calm down, he might go into shock. The wolf pulled back an arm and drove his fist into the panther's cheek. "Get a grip on yourself, Tao!" Alex yelled. Tao just froze, comprehending what just happened.
"Now that I have your attention, I know you'll listen to what I have to say. The way you reacted to the situation was a perfectly rational and logical way to react. Many animals in your position would have reacted the same way." Alex told the panther.
Tao started taking deep breaths to recompose himself. "Y-you really think so?" Tao asked. Alex nodded.
"I've seen it a couple of times on the streets myself. They all reacted the same way you did. At least, when it was an accident." Alex answered. Then he decided that adding a little bit more couldn't hurt. "Besides, at least you didn't embarrass yourself like Riz-kun did." The white wolf added.
Bill's ears lifted up in interest. "Huh? How did Riz react?" The tiger asked interestedly.
"He made a complete fool of himself… he was fuckin' DROOLING at the sight of Kibi's severed arm!" Alex growled.
There was a collective gasp from all three of the others. "D-d-drooling!? That's disgusting!" Aoba exclaimed.
Tao sniffled and stood up, with Alex helping him get back on his feet. "T-thanks, Alex… at least I didn't do THAT in front of everyone. That's horrible." Tao sighed in relief.
Alex tightened his grip on the panther's paw. "Now, you're not going to get only praise from me. You still messed up, Tao. Although it was an accident, that doesn't change the fact that you lost control of your strength. And you need to take measures to make sure you don't make that same mistake again." Alex warned, before releasing the panther.
The black feline's phone buzzed, and he checked it. "It's Principal Gon, he wants to see me in his office. Probably going to get expelled… well, it was nice knowing you guys." Tao sighed.
"Wait. Before you go, give me your phone number, Tao." Alex quickly said.
Tao hesitated before pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket and scribbling down his number on it. "Don't know why you need it, but here you go." Tao dejectedly said as he gave his number to the white wolf. Bill, Aoba, and Alex watched as the panther walked off into the distance.
After repeated begging from Legosi and Kibi, Tao goes to see his friend in the hospital. He is afraid of himself, and of hurting Kibi again. Will Legosi be able to help the panther overcome his fears? Find out next time, on BEASTARS: Converging Destinies!
Chapter 42: To The Hospital, Tao! Reconciliation Between Prey And Predator!