Beastars: A Steep Fall From Light

Chapter 29: Return From Death and Into the Backroom

It was dark. It smelled of plastic. It was stuffy and hard to breath, making his lungs, which were already filled with poisonous liquid, burn in their begging for air. He reached up with his hands and pushed against the bag that was suffocating him. He pushed and pulled until he was able to tear it open and he inhaled what little oxygen his drowning lungs would allow and coughed up some of the poison. There was some blood mixed in it that was lost in the red carpeting. That was why the color had been chosen.

"Jesus Rexx, he's still alive!" he heard, though murmured as his head was spinning. "Another 'Yahya incident'? Even when you do one thing right you do it wrong."

He was grabbed by the horns and had his head pulled back. This opened up his throat and allowed even more air to flood in. He coughed for what felt like fifteen minutes before being pulled up to his knees. He wanted to collapse from exhaustion, but was held up by two sets of hands. His breathing was ragged and he wheezed. He felt a gloved hand slap him across his face. It helped clear his head, but he wished it hadn't. He stared into two mismatched eyes behind a gas mask.

"Welcome back Nakamochi," Razor said. "I apologize for you coming back from the dead, I know that sensation can be a bitch to live with. But my new underboss is apparently very sloppy."

The masked figure clad in black leather looked over to the hybrid leaning in the corner with his arms crossed. Melon didn't meet his eye.

"So now you can imagine the predicament I'm in. Again," he said, adding the last word as he stood. Razor walked over to the crocodile Nakamochi had seen the previous night.

"What do our eyes and ears inside say?" he asked.

"The Horns Conglomerate is holding a press conference later to address the report," she answered. "The chairman hasn't been seen, though they've reported that his wife has gone as his proxy."

"What about suspicions regarding our revived friend?"

"No one knows anything," she put bluntly. "And all board member meetings for the day have been cancelled."

"How long until launch?" he asked the tiger.

"Two days," they answered.

Nakamochi looked around. He was definitely in Club Blood. There was no denying that. He looked around groggily and saw body bags. The other members of The Blood Drinkers, aside from Razor.

"How's our wolf that runs the restaurant?" Razor asked.

"Normal life," someone said. "Completely unaware of our presence."

"Anything else I should be made aware of?" Razor continued.

"In light of recent events, the city's board of planners are reconsidering having the chairman give a speech at the mayoral candidates' reveal."

"Well then I'll have to write them a sternly worded letter of complaint," Razor said. "What else?"

"The bomb squad has been called to the police department, and the chief of police is currently missing."

"All going swimmingly," Razor said. "We appear to be ready for the launch, aside from this hiccup."

The boss was talking about him, and he knew it. He was supposed to be dead, but for some reason he had survived.

"What to do," Razor asked himself. "What to do."

The masked animal walked over to a chair and sat down on the back, his feet on the seat. He sat with his chin in his hand, tapping his fingers along his mandible.

"Why don't you just kill him?" Melon asked. "Isn't that what you had originally planned?"

"That's a good idea," Razor commented, pointing a finger. "But I already tried that and it failed. I'm not going to do the same thing over again and expect a different result."

"Except mail letters," Melon murmured.

"After the incidents with the Sublime Beastar and last night you're already on thin ice," Razor warned. "Watch yourself."

Nakamochi wheezed trying to plead, but found his voice box wouldn't do anything. He tried again, but all that came out was an odd, gurgled moan.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Razor apologized. "The gas can completely ruin your voice box in high doses. Which it seems to have done. Makes hiding you a lot easier though. Same can't be said for the horse. Oh boy did she have a set of lungs on her. But that is why they have tranquilizers."

Nakamochi felt sick. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't happening.

"Tie him up in the same room I guess," Razor said, passive aggressively. "He can watch his company fall apart."

Nakamochi was pulled to his feet and led towards a room.

"Make sure he's gagged," Razor called back. "He can't speak, but he can still yell and scream. The rest of you make sure the plan is set for the meteor festival in two days. Check, double check, and triple check."

There was a murmur as the mafia members disbanded, heading off to perform their respective checks.

"Oh, Benjiro," Razor called, catching the tiger. He whispered something in his capo's ear and the tiger flashed a look at the CEO. He nodded to his boss and made his way upstairs. Razor pulled out a flip phone and dialed a number, raising it to his head. That was all Nakamochi witnessed before being dragged into a room and strapped to a chair. The oryx would've fought back, but the gas had racked a toll on his body. A piece of cloth was stuck in his mouth and tied around the back of his head. He heard the rhythm of a heart monitor and he looked towards the sound. He saw the chief of police knocked out with the sedative, sleeping in a bed. How had Razor been able to manage that?

"-ck when the Back Alley used to have livestock," Nakamochi heard as the television was turned on to a news station. "They hid the children, by having fake records that made it appear as though they were in an adoption process."

This was going to be torture. His company was going down in flames.

"This is just sickening to me," the news anchor commented. "We're still live? Why haven't we been taken off the air? Uh, we have a phone call coming in, who is it we're speaking to?"

"You know who it is," Razor said. "You're still on air because if you were to be taken off, I'd kill more people. Your censorship officials have weighed the odds that the life of your police chief is worth more than hiding the truth. Keep reading the report."

Nakamochi could barely breathe through his scarred throat, weak lungs and the gag. He wheezed and coughed through the cloth. The world was falling apart.