VS The Black Cellien, Part 3

"It settled down…"

Some time after Mirai's message, light has finally returned to the world outside the bus. The Sandstar Raw storm has passed, and the scenery of the forest appeared as if nothing had happened. Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey let out a sign of relief, meanwhile African Wild Dog started to move, groaning.

"Mhn… This is…?"

"African Wild Dog! Thank goodness… You woke up."

African Wild Dog got up despite her groans, Serval and Kaban briefly introduced themselves to her, and Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey explained what happened since she was knocked out.

"Sorry… Seems like I was a bother…"

"Not at all, I'm glad that you're fine. Who I'm worried about is… Brown Bear-san."

Thinking "Oh right!" Serval turned her head towards Boss.

"Since that black stuff isn't there anymore, we can go out, right Boss?"

"That black storm… Could it be that the Black Cellien has exploded? It was growing with great vigor."

"Brown Bear-san… I hope that after our escape she got away from the Black Cellien herself."

African Wild Dog and Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey were nervous. In order to gauge how dangerous it is outside, Boss came up to a window, and some electronic sounds came out of it. It said:

[Error. Error. Unable to properly measure the concentration of Sandstar Raw. Un, Un, Ab, Le, Le, Le,] while letting out an alarm, after which it froze up.

Then, for an uncertain reason, the shutters and the windows opened and Boss' regular appearance changed.

"All right! It's open! Now we can go look for Brown Bear!"

Having jumped out, Serval smiled towards Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey.

"Yes. I'll be looking for her now."

"Since I can now move, I'll join in. Let's go!"

"In that case, Serval and I will help out as well."

Leaven the inactive Boss behind for now, the party went out to look for Brown Bear. The Black Cellien's strange presence being nowhere to be seen, African Wild Dog's predicted self-destruction has been quickly confirmed.

With the menace gone in an unexpected way, relief has shown itself on everyone's faces.

They had yet to realize that this wasn't the end of the nightmare, but its beginning.

…

"We were fighting right around here…"

The party surveyed the area that Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey led to. There was an uncountable amount of footsteps left by the Black Cellien, but no signs of Brown Bear.

"Maybe Brown Bear-san ran away?" Muttered the slightly worried African Wild Dog.

Serval cupped her hands around her mouth and started yelling.

"Heeey! Brown Beaaar! Where are you―!?"

"Brown Bear-san!"

"Brown Bear-san, where are you―!?"

Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey and African Wild Dog did so as well. While Kaban was taking a deep breath to shout herself, Serval got everyone's attention as her ears perked up.

"Hold on! I can hear something from over there!"

Looking in the direction that Serval pointed, movement in the bushes could be seen.

Slowly coming out of the foliage, it was the person who they were looking for, Brown Bear.

"Brown Bear-san! Thank god… You're safe."

Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey felt relief from the bottom of her heart. Seeing Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey and everyone else, Brown Bear stopped in her tracks.

"...? Brown Bear-san?"

African Wild Dog felt uneasy. Brown Bear's breathing was heavy. Rather than that, she was letting out long breaths through her teeth as if she was excited. Seeing this, Kaban was overcome with the urgent need to run away from there.

"U-Umm…"

"What's wrong, Brown Bear-san?"

Being unaware of Kaban's feeling, Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey, who was worried about Brown Bear's unusual state, stepped closer.

And that's where it began.

"――! GUOOOOOOHHHHHhhhhhh!"

Hello, this is PoGu. I've reached out to the original writer on Twitter about this translation, and they were absolutelu thrilled about it. They were very satisfied about how I've handled Lucky's dialogue.

Anyway, since FF doesn't like any kind of link anywhere, I'll instead leave directions on how to find the original work.

First method is to search for "「けもの」の本能" and find the link that leads you to a Japanese site called "kakuyomu".

Alternatively, you can go to the kakuyomu site and add "/works/1177354054882921926" to the domain.