Author's Note: Hello, lads and ladies

My birthday is in three days. I can't wait to get my hands on my new console, saved 200 bucks to buy that thing and I feel so accomplished that soon i'll get to open that box in the living room.

Much love, Much admiration, I am currently really busy with everything but writing. I hope you guys have a nice time with this chapter but i'll probably have another big period of silence in between this and Chapter 8. December is my families Birthday month, sorry.

Enjoy either way, the next time i'll update i'll be 19 years old. Have a good one till then!

Edited by: SuperAverageFoxyboy, The dude who likes Tanks
-Portal

Juno mirrored Legosi's expression when he first looked at the shining glass tower standing in the middle of Edobutsu. Perhaps it was a bit of nervousness, perhaps a bit of unknowing, but overall, it seemed to be that she didn't know what to expect.

She had applied mostly because she wanted to help as much as possible. Although Louis and Legosi were adamant that she should concentrate on her studies, she had decided she had enough of sitting around while all her friends did all the work. So she sent an application to the State building, a low-level office help. Anything that would put her close to Sublime Beastar Yahya.

Although she told her mate and Louis that it was purely to make more money on the side in order to allow them to pay for their apartment without parental help, she knew perfectly well that she too wanted to play double agent.

She moved inside, feeling a weird kind of power in herself. She was taking control of how things went. She played her part.

"Hello, Madam. How can I help you?" The receptionist Chirped from her seat, a bird far too colorful for this country.

"I applied for the entry-level position in Admin. My name's Juno." She reached her hand out and felt the colorful feathers tickle the inside of her palm.

"Oh, Mr. Yamazaki is waiting for you upstairs. Best of luck."

"Thank you."

The pleasantries were a trained affair now. She knew which words were expected and which ones she had to refrain from.

The elevator opened, and Juno felt a rush of excitement that she hadn't felt in quite some while. The life between her and Legosi had grown into the same sweet day-and-day routine, and although she loved nothing more than to spend time with him, she had to admit to herself that she did thirst for an adventure like that night at the Lion's den.

For all the horrible memories, the fear, and the nightmares, she found that life had tasted her blood and wanted more. The pack as a whole had been marked, and now adventure itself searched them out. In the end, she would rather be happy about being pulled into adventure other than regret the change of pace her life had taken.

She arrived at her destined floor, the admin block being showcased on the graphic printed onto the wall. The entire building felt sterile as if Yahya forced the cleaning crew to go through every floor twice a day. Another factor was the choice of color. There was a deliberate refrain from any vibrant color, the entire surroundings being matte whites, grays, and beiges. Most likely a corporate choice to not have anything pleasing to the carnivore eye, whatever study was saying less excitement lowered predation rates. Juno was wondering how no one got headaches working here.

She entered the office to a small group of people having collected around the reception table, barking orders at the receptionist, and then leaving as soon as they got what they needed. The whole exchange took less than two minutes and still felt like it dragged on like an advertisement right before an online video. Juno felt sympathy for the poor Leopard sitting behind the desk, stress obvious in her features.

As Juno approached the receptionist looked at her, her face trying to muster a smile after her frown.

"And what can I do for you?" She tried her best to stay energetic while obviously sucked dry.

"I'm Juno. The applicant for the office position." She grabbed a blue folder from her bag, a sensible black faux leather purse. In the way that Juno had decided to dress today, a business skirt, white shirt and small heels, and a very conservative choice of perfume, nobody would ever think her to be anything else than the average wolfess. A little stuck up, a sprinkle of arrogance, and completely superficial.

"Oh, I'll lead you to Mr. Yamazaki's office." She left her receptionist table and hushed to her side, leading her through the reception into the main room. It looked like a snapshot of every office in every b-roll footage ever filmed and ever to be filmed. The Tetris blocks of desks, printers, and filing cabinets were placed in hyper-efficient little hubs of brain-melting boredom. No color, No conversation, nothing to stimulate the mind beyond the sound of fingers typing on keyboards, the sound of pens clicking with the following sound of scribbling, and occasionally the coffee machine signifying it has served another cup.

Juno suddenly felt jealous of Legosi, her mate having an infinitely more stimulating job than her.

She reached Mr. Yamazaki's office, the Admin Manager of the state building.

"I wish you good luck!" The leopard said to her and made her way back to her table, surely to get yelled at more by the tired and agitated office drones.

"Thanks." She said quietly and knocked on the door.

"Yes?" A gruff voice came out, and Juno opened the door.

Mr. Yamazaki was a stout golden retriever. Though the normally happy and endlessly smiling breed, the specimen sitting at the desk looked like he was depressed and a chronic insomniac. Rings under his eyes and the frown told her he hadn't properly slept for days.

"I'm Juno, the applicant for the entry-level position."

"Oh, the lady I talked to on the phone." Some of the dog's energy returned as he got off his chair and walked towards her, holding his hand out to shake hers.

"It's very nice that you've come here, Miss Juno. I must apologize for the overall excitement going on around here. Ever since the new hybrid laws, we have a lot of work to do." Mr. Yamazaki looked outside his office's windows, seeing the many office drones sitting at their seats doing their due diligence.

"I'm glad you could even get me an interview spot so soon. I was sure there were many applicants."

Mr. Yamazaki laughed in response, returning to his seat.

"Beastars get preferential treatment. Sublime Beastar Yahya likes it when young Beastars want to do their part, even if it means sorting and categorizing paperwork..." He chuckled again. This time it became a bit more apparent just how stressed he was with the new ruling. Juno held perfect restraint in not letting her true colors show.

"Well, what else are we to do with these hybrids anyway? They don't fit any of our societal norms and don't behave as proper animals do. These tests will help us put them into their proper place. If you ask me, we should test the parents of the hybrids too, how they got into their minds the gall to bear children in something as freakish as an interspecies relationship..." As she spat the vitriol-filled act, her mind couldn't help but picture Legosi's smile over and over again. If she hadn't trained for this in secret, she might have just started crying then and there.

"I have no opinion of hybrids..." he continued. "All I know is that they're more work... more than we can actually take. We handle nearly two thousand cases each and every day, with a team of about sixty office workers..." Mr. Yamazaki's views were the cold and clinical views of someone unknown to hybrids, someone that viewed their plight as about as interesting as the second page of the morning newspaper, or an article on his phone. Juno hoped that someone close to him was a hybrid, someone that he cared for a lot, that way the shock would be greater.

"Well, here are my Curriculum Vitae, my graduation, and Beastar documents."

"Uh-huh." Mr. Yamazaki grabbed a pair of reading glasses and flipped through the papers.

"Stellar documents and a phenomenal background. Very impressive."

"Thank you." She replied in a quiet hum, her inside jumping along the normal progression of such interviews, prepping for the questions to come.

"Have you worked in Administration before?" Mr. Yamazaki laid the folder down.

"I took test courses during my last year at Cherryton Academy."

"I don't get it." Mr. Yamazaki continued to study the documents before him.

"Pardon me?" Juno looked at the Golden Retriever, trying to ascertain what his question was.

"Such a stellar record, high academic honors, a Beastars title, and you apply for an office job. What are you interested in, Admin?" The question was a good one, hadn't she prepared for it.

"I want to help where help is needed. I know the people in the offices doing the bureaucratic leg work are most often overlooked... and I wanted to do my part." A diplomat's answer, as superficial as the character Juno was portraying. She kept remarkably calm despite the fact that she was nervous. Mr. Yamazaki looked at her for a moment longer and then chuckled.

"Well, I suppose it's a canine thing to be an idealist." Juno felt the urge to scream when Yamazaki spoke again in blatant specism, implying that he truly believed the idea that all wolves were superficial followers of symbolism.

Under Carnivores, wolves were the most respected of the lot, however not without severe doubt and jealousy from the inside. Most people thought wolves to be entirely superficial beings that lacked any understanding of subtlety or meaning that went beyond the surface. It sickened Juno to see her future boss follow the same ideologies.

"Anyway, as for the job, it's already a done deal. No one's credentials are going to be as good as yours. Welcome to government work." The stout dog reached out his hand, and in a flow motion, Juno did the same, careful to only softly squeeze as to not squander the role she was trying to play.

"I'm glad to be working alongside you, Mister Yamazaki."

"I'm glad to have you on the team."

Juno glanced outside the little office and saw the office drones continue their work for the government main frame. And while she thought of what her time here would look like, she felt the urge to smash the first computer she saw outside. If she had to destroy the servers to halt their progress, she would do it.

This whole building should be burned to the ground.

Louis and Legosi sat in the back of his limousine, Avon driving the route which, by now, had become a fully fleshed-out part of the routine. Every two to three weeks, Master Louis met with Tokugawa for an annual meeting.

"Just a warehouse in the industrial district?" Louis looked quizzingly at Legosi.

"From the outside, it looks like a storage building. From the inside, it looks like a military base. The multiple basement levels, the headquarters of their base. Clearance levels go higher the deeper it goes." Legosi recounted as best as he could from memory.

"How big do you think it is?"

"Hard to say... I'm not good at guessing the size of a space. But it was big. They got those big tactical police transport vehicles in one of the hangars, four or five the last time I saw."

"Did you ever interact with the vehicles?" Information was the ammunition that Louis needed, anything that he could use to gauge out just what Yahya was doing.

"Entry and exit drills. Get in as quickly as you can, follow the procedure to let the driver know the vehicle is full, and then get out as quickly as you can... Feels like police training to me." Legosi re-adjusted his tie as he told the story, pulling it a bit looser from his neck.

"It most certainly is, let me-" Louis leaned over his friend, pulling his tie tight around his collar again.

"Louis, it itches." The wolf whined.

"Appearances are important," Louis repeated the mantra as he adjusted his friend's tie.

"Don't you think Tokugawa knows us enough already?" He let out a noise of irritation, pushing his fingers behind his collar to scratch.

Louis stopped for a second and looked at the wolf. Why must the fool always teach the wise...

He pulled the tie loose enough to allow Legosi to scratch at his itching neck and leaned back again, annoyed by the irony of life.

"Sometimes I regret being your friend," Louis said through barred teeth. Legosi looked at him with naive surprise. And again, the wise one was surprised by the fool when Legosi smiled.

"You know something funny, Louis." He looked at him while recalling a memory

"What?" The annoyance and irritation had left, being thoroughly replaced by more so curiosity.

"I don't know if we ever talked about how I thought of you back then, but actually, I was jealous of you..."

Louis looked at the wolf, knowing full well the irony between the two. However, he didn't stop him. When Legosi talked, he managed to be so accidentally precise.

"I just didn't want people to be scared of me, and you managed to be so imposing and impressive... you were so powerful for a herbivore. I thought life cheated me of my chance to be accepted by others... Only for you to then teach me that whatever happens on the surface can just be one big act..." Legosi looked at the deer, and Louis found himself smiling back with minimal facial movement. He was too worried to muster a full one.

"I'm just worried... Sorry for the tie." Louis apologized, leaning back in his chair while softly patting the wolf's back.

"It's ok, Louis..." Legosi leaned back too, his arm going around Louis's head to lay on his shoulder.

Louis often had to realize that there was something to the brotherly energy between him and Legosi that made it much easier to open himself up to him. He loved Haru and his son more than anything in the world, but telling his wife how he felt would be subjecting her to his fears and his worries. He couldn't put her through that, not after all they had been through together.

Legosi was an equal in a different way than Haru was. Legosi was a brother that understood how large the pressure on his shoulders was and a brother that could understand the urgency behind his actions.

After a few minutes, the car stopped, both seeing the gate of Tokugawa's estate outside of the window. The mansion which brooded on its estate had become a telltale sign of seriousness ensuing.

They left the car, Louis telling his driver to wait per the usual ruminations of routine, and both approached the estate. Upon seeing the guests, the guards opened the gate, greeting them innocuously. They walked up the driveway towards the main doors where Anno had opened the doors, inviting them inside.

They walked into the luxurious lobby hall, up the stairs, and down the corridors to Tokugawa's office. The dining room was far too big for a few animals to hold a conversation. And Louis preferred his office anyway. It seemed cozier and more lived in than any room of the previous conglomerate manor before it became housing for those in need.

Louis liked the new manor the way it was turning out. He had repainted close to every single part of the house and appointed Yuta the master while he and Haru moved into the suburbs. The house was too big for him and reminded Louis of nothing but his dead father. The whole building now housed a few dozen people in need, being offered a roof over their heads, warm food and drink, a place to shower, and scholarships paid for by Louis's sole inheritance.

If it weren't for his needing money for his political campaigns and needing to keep the board room of investors happy, he would pour every last penny that was above what he needed to survive into that house and various charity work. Perhaps even building another few shelters for the homeless and financially unable.

He felt himself like Scrooge after the final ghost had shown him his grave. However, only this time that shadow was not a vaguely familiar skull but perhaps the image of his grown son. He dreaded to think about the lost election the more he ruminated while on the way, but it was a constant dredge to be reminded every so often that no matter what happened, logically he had failed.

"Guests! Welcome, welcome." Suddenly he felt himself hugged by an animal that his father most likely hated before he came to his senses. He enjoyed the fatherly moment that all three shared for a moment.

"Welcome, Mister Tokugawa." Legosi was still partly nervous for reasons unknown to Louis. Perhaps it was his episode of being drunk before such respected people, or perhaps because he still had trouble properly categorizing the animal that Tokugawa was.

"Come on in." He stood beside the open door, holding his open hand in a welcoming gesture into his room. The two entered following so.

"Anything to drink?"

"I'd surely like a glass of whiskey." Louis chuckled, the Cougar walking around the room grabbing glasses.

"Anything for you, Legosi?" Tokugawa glanced at the wolf in an asking manner.

"Uh... Milk is fine..."

Tokugawa softly chuckled and reached for a phone.

"Chocolate milk and a bottle of option 4 in my office." He hung up and sat down in his chair. He wore a surprisingly casual outfit for today, gray suit pants and a blue dress shirt with a loose collar. The most expensive part of his outfit being the refined silver watch on his wrist and the black and white Faux leather shoes.

Louis sat there in his signature burgundy suit and felt even more like an idiot when he realized Legosi's attire was closer to Tokugawa's than his. It was however a fleeting feeling, something he was unable to latch onto his already filled-to-the-brim mind.

"How are you two, the better half alright?"

"Haru's doing good. She's a wonderful mother." Whenever Louis thought of his wife, he again thought of the metric tons of pressure on his back that Haru knew nothing about. He knew she wasn't stupid, and he knew most of all that she was aware of his intelligence all the same, but there was still this hope. This futile hope that perhaps she could be spared from whatever terrible things Yahya was throwing their way.

"Juno's got a job at the State Building. She's at an intern level in administration, earning money on the side, I think... we thought about moving into the suburbs just outside of town when we both finish university." Legosi's plans were as innocent as he hoped they would be. He seemed more like a husband than Louis did. Again the question popped into his mind of how in the world could Louis be a good father to his son if he was already failing the vows of honesty in holy matrimony?

"Good. Plans are an important thing in growing up, even if they change in a heartbeat. Remember-"

A change of plans isn't a bad thing. Louis finished the lessons in his mind. He had enough meetings with Tokugawa to feel like some of the most important lessons were repeating themselves. He wondered if he, perhaps, was just not following the advice or if Tokugawa was repeating himself.

Maybe the white noise of stress from the outside world was starting to drill away at his composure, leaving behind small cracks through which it all flowed down the drain.

"I would like nothing more than to indulge in more of this lovely small talk, but, unfortunately, the matter at hand that needs discussing is very pressing..."

Louis looked across the table and thought that perhaps it could be avoided, that some version of events existed where none of them would have to fight the state they live in... but if there was, they didn't live in that world.

"Well then, fellas. Let's talk."

Drinks came, and none of them ever lost focus of the conversation, talking intently for half an hour.

"But why use dogs for crowd control?" Legosi asked, forgetting that he was probably the only wolf unburdened by one of its strongest instincts.

"Discipline and that little instinct that made dogs possible in the first place... obedience. You as a person of authority, tell a dog what needs to be done, and he'll go ahead and do it." Tokugawa's head rested on his hand, a finger tapping his cheek.

"He wants the strongest, most obedient species. Animals that trust every word of those in power... Makes me think that was the reason why dogs were bred in the first place."

Tokugawa chuckled, Louis, looking at him quizzingly.

"You aren't that far off. It was a safety precaution because the emperors of the carnivore kingdom were deathly afraid of being trampled to death by the Herbivore army. So they bred their most obedient soldiers. Wolves."

The group remained silent for a moment, all three asking themselves a variation of the same question. What now?

"Well... this is espionage as you might see it in movies and the like... Never thought I'd see the day where the mob fights the town." Tokugawa's fingers tapped his cheek again, a pen dancing along his other hand.

"How much stalling can you do, Louis? If you had the means, how much longer could you go and stunt Yahya in political campaigns." Tokugawa looked intently at the deer. Louis sighed and shrugged.

"The city loves him. All I can do is call in the right to vote every time, giving us perhaps a week longer for every legislature."

"It's going to get worse. No worrying is gonna help any of us." The two young men looked at the mob boss sitting in his chair. They saw no hint of humor in their elders.

"Well then, what do you want me to do?" Legosi asked, looking lost in the dystopian conversation.

"Play the dumb dog for a while. They never suspect the idiot to be the spy."

Tokugawa leaned forward, waving the two to get closer to his desk.

"I admire the two of you. You're courageous little fighters." He playfully jabbed his fists in their direction, a proud smile on his face.

"But you're in over your head on this. Both of you need to cool your heads and rethink the timing of this event. It's gonna take longer to beat this system. Change like this always needs strength. The people out there aren't strong, not yet. But if you show good examples, they will follow.

Louis, stall as you can, and do your best to talk to the people on an equal level. Don't talk down, don't condescend. In your eyes, one should see that you think yourself a commoner just like them. Of course, it won't work as easily knowing from how much money you have. But try and stay humble. If they lose the ability to relate to you, then you'll lose your ability and position very fast. Trust me." He spoke of the example as if he himself had lived through it. Louis wouldn't be surprised. The cougar seemed to have lived infinite lives. The cougar's head turned to the wolf.

"And you, little soldier. You lay low, but you keep your ears open. Play it like you're a kid during summer vacation. Nothing to do but go out and have fun, lounge around and be in bliss. For you, the summer never ended. And you got all your friends real close. You just sit there and listen, bring back info that you deem useful, and don't talk to anyone about this, least of all on the phone. I'll call, name the place, and you'll come around."

Now he addressed the two of them. A father speaking to his children.

"All of us are marked now. We are all persons of interest in Yahya's eyes, and if you didn't know, horses have three hundred and fifty degrees of vision. Let's try to stay in those ten degrees of blind spot. I have your numbers. If need be, I'll send you burner phones. I'll have my ears and eyes open, but we'll have radio silence until I knock. I know the state's tools of observation; I use them myself... Precaution is important."

Tokugawa stood up from his table, looking at his two protegees.

"I suppose this is our last meeting for a while. I am very proud of the two of you for all the things you're doing. I'll stay in touch."

The two finished their drinks, and Tokugawa accompanied them to the door.

"Thank you, Sir."

"Till the next meeting."

The two wandered off the Property, saying their goodbyes to the guards.

They entered the Limousine and sat beside each other. Silence lay between the two for a while, even as the car started up and Avon began driving away. Finally, the two shared a moment of eye contact.

"Now we play the waiting game."

The cool breeze cut over one of the penthouse balconies. Yahya sat in a purely black chair on the balcony of the penthouse he very rarely stayed at. He was more used to sleeping on the go, staying wherever he was needed or where he wanted to be.

In his hands lay the personal folder of one of the wolves of project Cerberus, and his mind asked the same question over and over again. Why did he recognize that face?

"Legosi... Le-go-si... Legosi..."

He took a swig of whatever neat booze he had laying around and looked at the images and the assorted personal information. The wolf was a mystery.

He wanted to pull his family file, look if he maybe knew their parents somehow, but he pulled a blank. Except for the wolf, the family file was empty, all other members having been erased.

This only happened four times in Yahya's time as a Beastars, when he found a file empty and void of all information. Only the first time, he himself had been the one destroying the file.

"Who hated you enough to erase your family from the database...?"

He looked at the lit-up city plaza beneath his feet. The commotion had died down to a quiet hum of cars and honking in the background.

The database was his library, his storage safe of power. He needed info on somebody, he scoured the place and surely found something. Criminal aliases, family relations, partners, anything that made it easier to categorize the person properly.

He had pulled his partner's file. A wolfess named Juno. Her files were complete. Her father worked as a carpenter, her mother was a stay-at-home wife, and her sisters worked and studied someplace else. He found it particularly charming that her grandfather on her mother's side was a border collie, making her family line impure.

However, knowing she was mated to a purebred meant their children would be corrected. From the impurity that her family held for two generations. She was lucky, knowing how first-generation hybrids would soon no longer hold the right to bear offspring.

"Why fail me now..." Yahya lamented his relationship with bureaucracy, the powerful tool of those with power. He walked into the large living area, set down the file on the table, and poured himself another glass of whatever liquid was stocked in the fridge.

He sat on his couch, his hand rubbing his eyes.

"Why destroy the file..."

His hand moved down from his face. He stared through time and space as those terrible words of the past repeated in his head. That bridge all those years ago, that horrible night that set his world aflame, and he was still picking apart the embers.

"I love her."

"What?"

"I love her, Yahya... I love her, and I want to spend my life by her side..."

"What are you talking about? We could be sublime Beastars; we could be so much more!"

"I don't share your dream of ruling the country... you've always been a great friend and an even better companion for battle... but I found love... I'm sorry, Yahya... I'm so sorry."

"..."

"Yahya..."

"No, you're not."

"Yahya?"

"Go... before I do something I might regret."

Yahya returned to the present to find his hands shaking. He grabbed the glass and downed it completely. The blur of drunkenness was mild, much too mild. He walked, shambled more like to his fridge, and grasped the bottle.

Over the next minute, he downed the bottle until the blur was strong enough to phase out that terrible memory. He laid on the ground under his open fridge, the bottle lying by his side.

"Whoever destroyed your information hated you..."

He drifted off in a delirious mix of fever dream and absolute nightmare. In fading consciousness, he only remembered a single name.

Gosha.