The Curse of Beasts (BEASTARS)

To An Old Land

"I'm surprised you aren't siding with them on this...", Rokume said.

"Well, I'm not exactly in the ideal mindset to agree with them.", Alan said tiredly.

The day after the announcement of the school segregating, the interspecial clubs spoke out. The PR team had created a new issue of the school paper outlining their feelings and contentions with the plan. Other students began to speak out as well, not wanting to be separated from their friends and classmates. Alan watched it all, but still felt conflicted on his own feelings. He'd have faith in Juno and the Drama Club, but that was the extent of his reach. As for himself, however...

He sighed and leaned against the moonlit stairwell, "I was told that I'm not, but I still feel like the villain. They may have faith in me, but..."

"But you don't want to cling to them.", the snake finished, her head level with his own.

"To be honest, I was actually doing pretty well, even with them rooting for me before.", he smiled slightly before frowning. "But sometime later it just...stopped. I lost sight of what I wanted, I guess. I don't even know what I'm doing now."

"Are you really planning to leave soon?"

"It's on the backburner for now.", he crossed his arms. "Other than this whole crapshow, I have to meet this doctor every few days. He's...well, he's not exactly what I would call 'Grade A', but he knows stuff."

"And you're sure you can trust him?", Rokume tilted her head. "The way you say that, it sounds like you're being forced to meet him."

"I—", he paused for a second. "I don't know. His line of work is weird, and he doesn't exactly have a welcoming attitude— but, I think he can understand what I'm going through. Part of it, anyway."

"And you're comfortable talking to him?"

He stayed quiet for a second, "In some parts, but I don't know if I can go all in."

It wasn't that Alan didn't trust Gouhin— at least not to the point of completely opening up. It was more of the circumstances in which he and Legosi first met him. They had run into The Ghetto alone, both of them wanting to refuse the reality of its existence. That was when the panda found them, and their initial interaction didn't give the best impression. The human was fine with forgetting Gouhin and The Ghetto altogether, at least before the kidnapping— and later on, the carnivore gathering.

That was the catalyst to it, or rather, Pina was. If it weren't for the sheep's shaky entrance into the Drama Club, Alan wouldn't have gone to the gathering and revealed his stresses. That led to him finding Legosi sneaking out and following him to The Ghetto only to be caught by Gouhin, who (with some pushback) agreed to train the wolf to get stronger so he could find Tem's killer. If that wasn't infuriating enough, the panda then called him out on his distanced behavior and spacing out. He was so blunt, cold and straight about it.

The human hated it...and yet here he was, going to that very person for therapy— or whatever the hell this was going to be.

~~*~~

"I already know I'm going to hate this."

"We haven't even started yet, and you're already whining?"

Doing this was not going to be easy, Alan knew that. He did find at least a few good things about it, though they were small. Legosi was there with him, which was a definite plus considering the wolf pushed for this anyway. He'd at least be there for support if things go awry— and given the human's track record of emotional outbursts, the chances were high. If push came to shove, he'd be able to keep things from reaching a boiling point.