Beastars: A Symphony of Life

Chapter 113: Only One Chance

"Could you put this in the outgoing mail on your way out?" Masumi asked the officer before they left.

The hyena took the heavy folder and looked at the address. He had just left the door when he stopped and turned back to her, eyes questioning the address written on it.

"Is this the right address?" she asked.

"Yes," the chief said, fiddling with her pen. "What about it?"

"It's just," she shifted uncomfortably. "We haven't used this P.O. box since-"

"Since the Back Market was torn down," Masumi finished. "I know."

The hyena looked back at the envelope and blinked in dumbfoundedness and Masumi sat up straighter, squaring her shoulders and gripping the pen in her hands all the more tightly.

"Is there a problem?" the horse asked.

The hyena looked back and saw the seriousness on her chief's face.

"It's just that," she struggled for the words.

"The national guard has their way of doing things," Masumi stated. "I have mine. Leave it at that."

The hyena had one last moment of hesitation before she left with the envelope. Masumi tapped her heel a few times before turning back to her work. The envelope was addressed to Melon. It enclosed all the fine details of the deal she had ironed out with the D.A. He was fine with it, willing to throw Melon under the bus once this was all over. Masumi wasn't sure if his plan would work, either of them. Melon was on the inside, yes. But from the few months Razor had been terrorizing the city, she had come to gather that the hybrid had back up plans for back up plans, and he was a quick thinker on his feet if he didn't have a plan. As for Shukishi's scheme, Melon wasn't the kind of animal to roll on his back and give up. The leopard-gazelle hybrid would most likely run and hide. The old boundaries of the Back Alley Market were pretty big. And with the extension to the docks, he had a much larger hiding place. He would disappear into his Back Alley Market, and rebuild it until no police would step there, just like the old days. It would be ruled by his gang.

Because that's who they were now: a gang. The subtle calmness of the mafia, the respect that they held for themselves, had been completely thrown out the window. Mafias were organized, calculating and meticulous; like snipers. What Razor had brought to the playing field was a different breed of mafia. They were organized and calculating, but meticulousness was replaced with reckless disregard for what would happen; they were just doing things. It was like playing a chess game, and halfway through, they switched to a game of battleship. Firing random shots and once they hit a vulnerable spot, wailing on it until it was pummeled out of existence. She was running out of pieces on the chess board and boats on the battle radar. Melon would help turn some pieces, but they were fighting a losing battle.

There was a knock on her office door and she looked up from her paperwork. Agent Motofusa was standing there.

"Come in," she said. "What's the word from our beloved bureau?"

The bear tentatively sat in the chair across from her, hands clasped.

"The bureau says if Razor isn't caught and or brought in in the next two weeks they're pulling resources," he said, looking to his feet. "They're starting to see Cherryton as a lost cause."

"What resources?" she asked. "The guard, obviously, but what else?"

"I will be going back to fill out my report before moving on to other cases," he said. "We're also going to take our generators, internet, and computers."

Masumi just looked at the bear and nodded.

He shifted uncomfortably, clearly not the reaction he expected from her.