VS The Park's Crisis, Part 2

"—Good morning~, Professor. Today's sky's covered with dark clouds as always."

Morning came to the Library, and Lion was the first one to wake up. She shook her head and looked around. Everyone was still sleeping like a log. Her fangs slightly showing themselves as she yawned, she greeted Professor, who had been the night watch. Professor was sitting in a chair that was too high for her, silently staring at the two Bosses with her arms crossed.

"—…Hmm, ah, if it isn't Lion? You're up quite early. Wouldn't it be better to rest some more? I'm pretty sure that your Sandstar reserves were completely used up yesterday." After a good few moments Professor realized that she was called out to and turned her head in surprise.

"Probably, yeah~ But I just really wanted to know what was happening back at the Castle~ I was sleeping wondering about when Boss will be transmitting, so I ended up waking up earlier than I thought."

"The transmission should come soon, I believe. …In any case, for your health, you should eat some Japari Buns. Oh, and be mindful to pick the neatly packaged ones, since the others might be contaminated." Saying so, Professor pointed at the desk on which she put the Japari Buns last night.

As expected from the head of the Library, as she calls herself. Thanks to being helpful to Friends from multiple areas whenever they had questions, she had stockpiled a massive amount of Japari Buns. Lion picked out the ones she liked and sat down on the floor while ripping the packages open.

"Anyway, what's the matter? Your face's been all grim. Found out something new?"

Professor turned to Lion as she was stuffing her face full of Japari Buns, munching on them, and narrowed her eyes.

"—That's…"

Then, at that moment, Boss Number 2, who had been silent up to this point, perhaps resting like everyone else, suddenly twitched and its eyes glowed in rainbow.

[Transmitting… Transmitting…]

As if reacting to it, Boss, which was next to it, twitched as well.

[It appears that a transmission is coming from the Plains Area. Could you please wake everyone up so we can begin?]

Professor noticed that as soon as Boss finished speaking, Lion puffed up her mane and went into Wild Release. Then, she took a deep breath.

"ROAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

A thunderous roar reverberated from the Library all the way to the forest, waking everyone up at once.

"Arai-san thought she was dead noda! Arai-san thought she was dead noda!"

"I thought that I was about to leave this world too~"

With everyone having literally jumped up to their feet, Professor and Lion explained what was up, and everybody had surrounded the Bosses. With Common Raccoon still embracing Fennec, the latter meekly agreed with her.

"There had to be some other ways of waking everyone up…"

Moose complained while being uncharacteristically shocked, at which Lion had an apologetic expression.

"My bad. I just really wanted to hear what Boss had to say."

Saying that, Lion turned to Boss Number 2, which had been receiving messages, and uneasiness was visible in the profile of her face. Boss Number 2 made some electronic sounds. Everyone held their breath and watched on.

[—Reporting on the conditions of every Friend in the vicinity of the Castle. The Friends called Giant Armadillo, White Rhinoceros, Crested Porcupine, Panther Chameleon, Shoebill, Arabian Oryx, and Japanese Black Bear…]

Number 2 began recounting information received from the Lucky Beast in the Plains Area. Hearing those names, Moose and Lion leaned in.

[…Have no abnormalities in regards to their health.]

Having heard that passage, Moose and Lion turned their heads towards Professor.

"That means…?"

"No abnormalities means that they have no wounds and aren't suffering from illnesses. It was just as you were hoping, they were able to do incredible things."

Serval, who was puzzled over the difficult words, let out a sigh of relief upon hearing that. However, there was one name that wasn't listed. Aurochs. It didn't take long for her to be mentioned.

[Furthermore, there is a pressing issue. For unknown reasons, Aurochs is in a rampaging state. Every Friend is currently located inside the Castle. In order to commence the investigation and begin problem-solving, an approval from the Park's staff is required.]

"Since we do have a Park staff here, that should not be a problem." Professor sarcastically murmured to herself at the Lucky Beast's by-the-books report.

Kaban, who had been silently listening, asked Boss a question.

"Lucky-san, would it be possible for Number 2-san to send our voices to the Lucky-san in the Plains Are?"

"Huh!? T-There's no way that Boss could do something like that, right?"

Serval was stunned by Kaban's inquiry. Even Kaban herself thought that what she was saying was baffling.

At the same time, however, she had witnessed Boss perform many strange or even miraculous things with its tiny little body. Like operating the bus without touching it, find out what's happening in a faraway Area, accurately predict the weather of the next few days, produce visions of Mirai—

Although it would occasionally freeze up or something would go wrong with it, sometimes its blunders being as bad as Serval's, Boss still held more power than anyone had realized. Even when they had thought that it was no use, it would definitely—

[You must mean real-time transmission. Leave it to me.] Saying it like it was no issue at all, Boss walked up to Number 2 and began doing something.

"H-He really can do that…"

Disregarding the shocked Serval, Boss jumped up, turning towards Kaban.

[It is ready. Try speaking into Number 2. If someone happens to be near the Lucky Beast on the other side, then they might reply.]

Seeing that Boss Number 2's eyes were shining in green, Kaban glanced towards Moose and Lion. They gave her a nod, and Kaban began speaking into Number 2.

…

"…What should we do…?"

Outside of the Plains Area's Castle, on the battlegrounds, Friends from both Lion and Moose's groups gathered together to take a break. After everyone had woken up, Arabian Oryx was the first one to break the long silence. Her voice carried no energy, and her expression was far removed from her usual self, who had beaten the other group countless times. Friends from the Moose's group were unable to find words.

"…From the looks of things, it seems like Aurochs will be spending all of her time inside the Castle, be it because she doesn't feel like coming out or can't leave." Japanese Black Bear muttered to herself while looking up at the Castle, before shifting her sight downwards at Giant Armadillo. "That spot where Aurochs hit you… Is it really alright?"

Giant Armadillo smiled at Black Bear's worried question.

"Absolutely! The defense that Kaban taught me saved me~…"

"…You guys have really gotten more powerful, huh?" Arabian Oryx smiled too while looking at her.

—A little after Moose rushed out of the Castle to chase after Lion. Aurochs, in whom Instinctive Frenzy had set in, began acting violently. Wielding her weapon, she struck Giant Armadillo with a powerful blow. There was so much superhuman strength behind it that it would've easily broken a few bones had it been a direct hit. However, thanks to Giant Armadillo assuming a defensive stance, she managed to take minimal damage. Kaban's battle instructions turned out to be very useful. White Rhinoceros and Black Bear cooperated to overwhelm Aurochs with their combined strength and knock her away. While Aurochs was busy getting back up, everyone retreated from this fruitless battle and slipped out of the Castle.

"After Lion followed Aurochs… Just what had transpired?" Panther Chameleon was at her wits end.

No one knew how to answer. A Lucky Beast walked by her at a steady pace.

"…Even at a time like this, Boss is as silent as always…"

"That guy's been wandering aimlessly around here since a few minutes ago, and even entered the Castle. If he knows something, I wish that he'd tell us desu…"

Looking for some semblance of something to depend on, White Rhinoceros and Crested Porcupine turned their expectand gazes towards the Lucky Beast. However, as always, the Lucky Beast stayed silent. The two of them let out deep sighs, thinking how obvious that was.

But then…

[—Umm, can anyone hear me!? If you can, please reply!]

"UWAAH!?" Porcupine shrieked when the Lucky Beast abruptly stopped and emitted shouting noises.

"Boss just talked!"

"Actually, I feel like I've heard that voice somewhere before—"

[—Those voices, is that White Rhinoceros and Giant Armadillo!? Everyone else's nearby, right!?]

The two that had just ran up to the Lucky Beast were shocked at the voice that came out of it.

"M… Moose-sama!?"

"What!? W-Where is she!?"

"Not like that! This Boss just spoke in Moose's voice!"

"I-I can't believe it…! Could this be an incident too…?"

While everyone was in disarray, a hearty voice came out of the Lucky Beast.

[SETTLE DOOOOOOWN!] Everything immediately fell to silence with the chief's command. […I'll leave the details to Kaban. So please calm down and listen to her.]

…

"—So, what you mean is that we ought not to be injured and be excruciatingly cautious, is that correct?"

During the inexplicable phenomenon of Moose and Kaban's voices coming out of the Lucky Beast, Kaban tried to explain the incident of the Park as briefly as she could.

"I-I'm… so glad I didn't get hurt…" With a pale face, Giant Armadillo clung to her chest.

[In any case, I'll be on the move with Kaban and the others to find the culprit behind this outbreak. You, meanwhile, should be on alert for any Friends in Instinctive Frenzy or Celliens.]

"Got it! Please leave the Castle to us! Desu!"

"…Moose-sama, be careful…"

Porcupine enthusiastically raised her fist. Next to her, the always silent Shoebill muttered her prayers.

[—It should be no trouble for you.] The voice coming out of the Lucky Beast was different.

The exhausted Arabian Oryx reacted loudly.

"Comman… der…? Did you… really… come back…?"

[Yeah… All thanks to Moose and Kaban. I'm really sorry, everyone. The way that Aurochs is now… is also my responsibility. I'll definitely come back. So please hang in there.] Her power tone gave strength to Arabian Oryx and Black Bear's broken hearts.

"…Understood. I wish you luck, Commander."

"I'll stand guard and make sure that Aurochs won't leave the castle and hurt other Friends."

Imagining their leader standing right next to the Lucky Beast, they returned resolute replies.

[…I believe in you.]

Ending on the powerful yet gentle voice, nothing more was coming out of the Lucky Beast, having now returned to being as silent as always.

Hello, this is PoGu. Here's a little fun fact: In the JP script, when Arabian Oryx wishes Lion good luck, the word she uses refers to luck in war.
Also, Okami had actually written a new chapter to the series not too long ago after watching a marathon of the first season.

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.