An Oddity Among Beasts (BEASTARS)

Confronting The Darkness

'Mysterious Writer! The Riser Appears!'

An anonymous story, telling the tale of a tamed wolf.

"Wow, that title's pretty good.", Alan said as he looked at the paper.

"I can't believe it got the front spot!", Todd said. "I guess the head saw this as a best-seller."

The two smiled wide, looking around the cafe to see numerous students with papers in their hands. The first story was simple enough, a lone wolf lost in the woods and meeting his dark self in the full moon's light. They argued with one another, questioning the need for succumbing to their darkest tendencies. The dark wolf would eventually surrender, allowing the other to live as he pleased. He warned him, though, that he must be careful of what he does. The tendencies within wouldn't go away so easily, and would always be present.

Alan could hear the buzz around the story everywhere. Students loved it, finding themselves immersed in the passage. Some said it seemed like they were really looking into the head of a carnivore, while others simply enjoyed the idea of a carnivore meeting their inner self. He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel a bit prideful at the reaction his writing was getting—with Todd's help, of course.

~~*~~

"Hey Legosi, have you read this yet?", Kai asked with a paper in hand. "It's this short about a wolf meeting his wild side."

"Yeah.  Everyone seemed to have a copy of the paper to read it.", the wolf said as he leaned over the light rails. "I actually kind of like it."

"Whoever this Riser guy is, he'll probably make more of these and have the whole school in his hand!"

Alan chuckled a bit, "You really think he'd be able to do that?"

"Probably. He's already gotten so much attention with one story, so making more would just add onto it."

"I'm not too sure about him.", Bill said with his arms crossed.

"Huh? Why?"

"I don't know...", the tiger scratched his head. "I guess I just don't like the idea of someone just sending in random stories about carnivores."

"Maybe it's a hit to your pride?", Alan suggested with a smirk.

"What makes you say that?"

"You do tend to be a little boastful, sometimes."

"'Sometimes'?", Kai chimed in. "I'd go with '99% of the time'!"

"Ugh, is this about the second performance?", Bill groaned.

"Well, you did go a little overboard...", Alan said.

"Overboard?! Tell that to Legosi! Don't forget, he ran up and started punching me!"

"At least your back doesn't hurt.", the wolf muttered bitterly.

"Well, my eye still hurts!"

"Good to know!"

"Ah geez, looks like I got them started...", the human rested his cheek on a hand.

"Those two must have a lot of issues if they're like that with each other.", Kai said. "How're your hands holding up?"

"Well, they're not hurting anymore. They're kind of twitchy, though."

"You sure it's nothing serious?"

"Yeah. I can move them fine, it's just that sometimes they shake a lot. I just need to give them a few weeks and it'll be fine."

"And what about those two?"

"Maybe if they kiss and make up, they'll be the best of buds.", he smirked amusedly.

"What?! Hell no would I ever kiss this loser!", Bill shouted.

"Same here!", Legosi agreed.

"So you say.", Alan chuckled.

"Quit it!", the two yelled.

    Alan couldn't help laughing out loud, finding the entire exchange hilarious. As much as he hated Bill for what he did at the second performance, he still had to be in the same room as him for the club. Legosi, he could give some slack to, as he understood the wolf's feeling of losing it when he found out about Bill's doping. Part of him still felt anger, though, and didn't show any signs of going down.

"So who do you think he is?", Kai suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"The Riser! Who do you think he is?"

"Hm...", he thought for a second, "Maybe someone who has a history class? The story seemed to go into it a little."

"Do you think it could be Louis-senpai?", Legosi asked.

Kai scoffed, "Oh, please. If it were Louis, he'd probably take the publicity full-force!"

"Yeah.", Bill nodded. "Louis-senpai isn't the type to be mysterious, he's so blunt most of the time. I'd suspect my friend Will, but he's not big on reading."

"Well, how about the PR team? They're the ones who got the story sent to them, right? What if they're just doing it for sales?"

"I don't know...", Legosi mused. "Something about it felt like it wasn't from the PR team, like someone else wrote it."

"Well, there aren't many clues as to who..."

    Alan couldn't help smirking again, finding their curiosity amusing as well as exciting. It gave him a mini-rush to hear the wolf deduce Riser wasn't apart of the PR team, but he wasn't on the spotlight just yet. He knew it would only be a matter of time until suspicions ran wild and he'd have to stop. For now, though, he'd play along—and hopefully, when it's done, the school's atmosphere would be a bit brighter.

"Let's see how far this goes...", he muttered, unaware that someone was listening.