The Mole Rat Speaks

**The Mole Rat Speaks** is the 8th episode of the *BNA: Brand New Animal* series.

## Overview

*Facing an unexpected crisis, Shirou unleashes his true form.*

## Summary

Major Rose and Alan Sylvasta accept the Silver Wolf Order into the city, due to Nazuna Hiwatashi saving him in front of the crowd. In the police station, Hiromu Yaba transforms into a rampaging monster. Michiru and Shirou take him to the Shipping Port away from people. Shirou then proceeds to transform into Ginrou and defeats Yaba. Since Michiru now knows the secret, Barbara proceeds to tell her everything about Shinrou's past, and how he ended up becoming Ginrou.

## Plot

Shirou is having a flashback of what seems to be, a big group of dead Beastman, with arrows protruding everywhere. Only one beastman seems to be still alive, and they transform into a rampaging beast.

Barbara Rose and Alan Sylvasta are discussing and arguing whether or not they should allow the cult to remain in Animacity. He says they have no other option, since the cult saved him the previous day, and rejecting them would cause a massive riot from their followers. Rose mentions that over 5,000 beastmen had been confirmed to have attended the most recent gathering. Right after the meeting ends, a scientist enters Alan's office, mentioning how the beast factor has been stabilized, and how they are one step away from their objective. While Alan is reading Yaba's beastman registration credential, he asks himself if they should verify one more time.

The Silver Wolf Order has settled across the street from the Beastman Co-op. Both Gem and Melissa are surprised by the number of people around the building, considering they had taken up residence for barely 3 days. Meanwhile, Michiru starts flying over Anima City to relax for a moment, but ends up seeing Nazuna in the distance, far from the cult building, and decides to approach her. Michiru mentions how she can't believe they're now next-door neighbors, but Nazuna mentions it was Boris' decision. Nazuna is also surprised that Michiru can fly, believing Michiru had been hiding it from her. Michiru then proceeds once again to question Nazuna's role in the cult, and how in reality she was a human, not Ginrou. She mentions that she is no longer Nazuna and that she is now Déesse Louve. Nazuna proceeds to fly away, leaving Michiru alone.

Michiru returns her home, running into Shirou. He questions her whereabouts; she responds she ran into Nazuna. Shirou then mentions how he had an investigation about the falcon beastmen they had caught, asking Michiru if she wanted to come with him to the police station, since it might interest her. She accepts.

Boris is at the police station, to teach a sinner, Yaba, through Ginrou. The police officer explains to Boris Yaba's situation and leaves the two alone. Yaba mentions how he didn't believe in Ginrou, and Boris replies that he was also that kind of person. Boris also mentions that if the truth came to light, Alan would not like it, scaring Yaba.

Shirou and Michiru arrive at the police station, just as Boris was leaving. In his cell, Yaba begins writhing, expressing gestures of pain, while the beastmen from the other cells try to daijoubu with him. Yaba transforms into a berserk beastman, much larger than his normal beastman form, destroying his cell and everything around him in the process. This scares everyone in the police station, including Michiru and Shirou. All the policemen begin shooting at Yaba, attempting to stop him from raging more and leaving the vicinity, but all their bullets proved futile.

Shirou appears at the scene. He punches Yaba with his fist, but is shocked by the excessive power of the berserk beastman, who completely deforms his hand. This scares Michiru, but Shirou says not to fret and his hand naturally transforms back to normal. He proceeds to return an attack to Yaba, but his effort seems to be useless, since Yaba is not affected by any of his attacks. Michiru notices this and decides to help Shirou, telling him that he cannot do everything on his own and that she would help him with anything she could. She stands atop Yaba, trying to carry him away with her wings to a place with no people and faces him there. She, however, does not have enough strength to be able to lift Yaba, and the animal's sudden movements knock her down. Shirou turns Yaba upside down once again and tells Michiru to prove to him what she had just said, so she grabs ahold of the beast with her talons for the second time. Her effort seemed to be futile, since she couldn't lift Yaba. Shirou asks her to put more force on it, and this motivates Michiru, expanding her wings tenfold, finally able to lift the beast properly. Shirou grabs ahold to one of the beast's legs.

Yaba writhes around a lot, attempting to break free, but Shirou keeps him as stable as possible so Michiru can continue carrying him. They decide to take him to the vacant shipping port. Yaba doesn't stop moving, so Shirou asks him to drop them both at a high elevation. She questions this, but Shirou tells her to do it, since he would be fine.

Both crash through the tin roof into one of the dock buildings. When Michiru lands in the place, Shirou had already managed to neutralize Yaba, tying him with chains present in the place. However, Yaba was still conscious, and he transforms again into a much larger kaiju form, freeing himself, and piercing his horn through Shirou's chest. This frightens Michiru, but Shirou mentions that he's okay and that she should escape. Yaba then grabs Shirou with his hands, and tosses him with all his strength into the ground, inflicting life-threatening injuries. On the floor, and with blood splattered out all around his body, Shirou insists on continuing to fight, even when Michiru asks him to flee.

Yaba transforms yet again into a more powerful form with four arms. Yaba grabs ahold of Shirou again and pulverizes him to the ground. Michiru can't stand the sight of this, and transforms her arms into gorilla arms, stopping Yaba's attack with all her might, causing the beast to hammer his fist into the ground, sending her flying to the other side of the building. Michiru proceeds to grab two boxes, and smashes them into Yaba's head, making him fall.

Michiru then tells Shirou to run away, but Yaba but during her momentary distraction catches her with his hands and suffocates her. Witnessing this, Shirou mentions that he has no other choice, and proceeds to tear off the collar around his neck. A great blue light begins to shine from Shirou's body, and a bolt of lightning shoots out from his body, hitting Yaba. Shirou transforms into Ginrou and he grabs Michiru with his mouth, saving her. Yaba returns to attack position. Michiru confused, realizes what had happened, and Shirou just asks her to stay back. Yaba grows two horns and charges at Shirou. However, Shirou quarters Yaba instantly, finally defeating him. Shirou turns back into his normal form, and Rose along her guards arrives at the scene. Rose asks them to put Shirou into the car, and Shirou tells her that Michiru had found out he was Ginrou.

Back at the house, Shirou had finally calmed down, and Rose mentions that his wounds should heal soon. Michiru asks Rose who Shirou really is. Although Rose initially denies it, she ends up confirming that Shirou is Ginrou. Michiru mentions that she hardly knows anything about Shirou, and that she has never tried to meet him. She says she wants to know more about him.

Barbara and Michiru head to the rooftop, and Rose mentions that Shirou Ogami has been Ginrou for the last 1000 years and that he had stopped aging as soon as he became Ginrou. Michiru seems to be confused about the fact that he had become Ginrou, and Rose mentions that he wasn't Ginrou from the start, and proceeds to tell Michiru Shirou's history.

About 1000 years ago, in eastern Europe, there was a city called Nirvasyl which was only inhabited by beastmen, like Animacity. Shirou lived there, like a normal beastman. Humans and beastmen interacted normally there and even had friendly relationships. But one day, humans suddenly begin attacking Animacity, killing all the beastmen, including Shirou, in the process. His body was tossed away, just like the rest. However, something peculiar happened. Shirou revived, apparently with the help of the blood and souls of all 2000 beastmen who had died in Nirvasyl, transforming into Ginrou, and giving him an immortal body. After that, he immediately went in search of the general who had annihilated his people, killing many humans in the process, but never finds him. Feeling the emptiness of revenge, he swore to be the protector of beastmen, sometimes protecting them from humans, and sometimes to be the guide to the new world.

Rose and Shirou met during the last years of World War II. Rose had been captured by humans and taken to a concentration camp, where she would be apart of experiments to see if beastmen could be used as biological weapons. Ginrou released her from the camp, and in the process kills all the humans of the place, because he saw the damage they had caused to the beastmen of the place with her experiments. That had been his last transformation, until the fight with Yaba, as he prefers to keep Ginrou's power sealed. Rose asks Michiru not to tell anyone what she had told him. Michiru says that she did not understand anything and that for her, he is Shirou Ogami, the defender of beastmen.

Rose says that after surviving the war, she decided to become a scientist, as beastmen also had a right to know about beastmen. She mentions that Kuro, who just stood on her shoulder, had been in that concentration camp with her and had managed to rebuild its body, and that was why she was still living.

Michiru tells Rose that she would keep the secret, but she does want to tell someone that Ginrou is real. Rose questions this at first, but Shirou appears on the scene, mentioning that he doesn't care, since she would end up doing it anyway. Michiru flies off, and Rose tells Shirou that he was finally starting to understand Michiru. Rose leaves the rooftop, since she had something to do that interested her. Michiru then arrives Nazuna's house, to tell her that Ginrou was in fact real.

Rose goes to the Medical Center, asking scientists for data on the scan of Yaba's body. Alan, who was also there, mentions to the scientists that she had been the first to investigate the beast factor, as she was the first beastmen to obtain a doctorate. Rose is stunned when she sees Yaba's report, surprised by the change in the beast factor that he had suffered. Alan mentions that they had been investigating this. Rose leaves the Medicine, asking Alan that if something happens, he will need to handle it immediately. He mentions to Rose that this is why he is there, and then he repeats to himself in a low voice, that is exactly why he was there.

## Characters

* Michiru Kagemori
* Shirou Ogami
* Melissa Horner
* Gem Horner
* Barbara Rose
* Alan Sylvasta
* Boris Cliff
* Nazuna Hiwatashi
* Hiromu Yaba
* Kuro

## Trivia

* Rose design on World War II flashbacks is different from the one seen on *BNA - Zero: Beasts That Can't Become Even Better* cover art. The main difference is that on the anime she is bald, while on the prequel novel she has hair.
* Despite his transcended state, Shirou appears to have a limited speed of his regenerative ability, especially about the wound on his torso. This may have a relation with his past life, since he was also skewered on his torso before he died.
* Shirou is seen to have a scar at his neck. The black collar he normally uses seems to cover that said scar on his daily life as well as
* The episode revealed Shirou being the first and original Ginrou, thus explaining his suspicion on his imposter/unofficial successor (Nazuna) who worked for Silver Wolf cult.