Chapter 109: Twilight Hour
The sky was dark. Dozens of beasts were circling the ten-meter-high statue, as if they were performing some bizarre ritual, running in endless loops.
At the very top of the statue, the rabbit-headed Director sat on its shoulders, munching on a carrot, watching the scene below with a look of detached curiosity, as if he weren't the one being surrounded at all.
"Aoi-san, has the Director's evil-doing finally caught up to him? Is this his execution?" Kira asked, making a rather cold joke.
He wasn't worried. It was just a group of animals. Even if they were strange, he didn't think for a second that they could defeat the Pro Hero, Mad Rabbit.
"Kira-kun, the Director is a very evil man, but no one has ever dared to 'execute' him..." Aoi Hana didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this intern who could still make jokes in the face of such a supernatural scene. "Just open your eyes and watch what happens next."
After several loops, a lion, growing impatient, stopped and let out a roar. The other animals also stopped, their eyes fixed intently on the Director.
"What are you all making so much noise for!? Are you trying to rebel!?" The Director finished his carrot, stood up on the statue's shoulders, and did two full swings around its arm. He landed on the statue's forearm, reached up, and pulled the stone carrot from its upraised hand. "Or," he said with a smile, "are you just impatient to meet our new member?"
He put the stone carrot to his lips as if it were a horn and blew. As the lion roared in anticipation, a thick, white smoke sprayed from the tip of the carrot, instantly enveloping the entire statue.
Some of the smoke drifted toward Kira. He coughed a few times, covering his mouth with one hand while his other, at his waist, began to glow with a golden ripple of Hamon.
Curious as to how such a small horn could produce so much smoke, Kira had secretly used his Hamon to analyze its composition. The results were... unexpected.
This thick smoke... it's made of some kind of unknown, activated biological components.
In the midst of the smoke, the figures of the animals circling the statue seemed to shrink. A few seconds later, a bipedal figure walked toward the edge of the fog. It paused for a moment, just as the smoke was about to dissipate from its body, and then... it leaned forward and leaped straight at Yoshikage Kira.
A blond-haired boy with a thick mane of hair burst from the smoke, his face alight with unconcealable battle-lust. This lion-man, as if he were a real lion, landed on all fours and pounced at Kira. His hands were also covered in thick, golden fur, and he swiped at Kira with sharp, white, glowing claws.
What is going on? Don't tell me he's the lion from before? Kira's grip on reality was slipping from the sheer bizarreness of the situation, but he was still clear-headed enough to know he was under attack. In an instant, golden Hamon enveloped his entire body, and he raised his arms to block.
"Aoi-san, get back!" Kira shouted, warning her in case she got caught in the crossfire.
But Aoi had no time to react. In a split second, the two had already made contact. The sharp lion claws broke through Kira's Hamon barrier and, without losing any momentum, grabbed his arm.
Just as the razor-sharp claws were about to tear into Kira's skin, the lion-man, like a cat, suddenly retracted them into his fur. He grabbed Kira's arm with his soft, padded paws, spun in a circle, and hurled him.
He had thrown Kira directly at the statue, where the other animals were still gathered and the smoke had not yet cleared.
Throughout this entire sequence of events, Kira felt as if he had no power to resist. Aside from protecting himself with Hamon, he could only watch as his opponent closed the distance with incredible speed. The lion-man's immense strength was so overwhelming that Kira had no chance to fight back; he couldn't even control his own body. He was sent flying like a human cannonball, slamming straight into the statue.
BOOM!
A massive impact sound echoed out. Kira's body slammed hard against the statue, creating a web of cracks in its center.
"Cough, cough..."
The lion-man's attack had brought back the memory of the pain he'd felt when the Nomu had smashed him into the slide. But it was fine. The pain of a full-back impact was much more manageable than a concentrated blow to the waist. By his body's estimation, Kira could feel that the lion-man's strength was on par with the Nomu's. No, wait... the lion-man had definitely been holding back. That meant... he was even stronger than the Nomu.
Kira opened his eyes and looked down. As expected, dozens of creatures, half-human and half-animal, were looking up at him with curious eyes. He was embedded in the center of the Director's statue in a spread-eagle pose, like Wataru fusing with his mech in Mashin Hero Wataru, or perhaps like Jesus on the cross.
The gorilla, who looked just like Winston, reached up and scratched his face. "Is the Director's statue broken again? It wasn't me this time."
A wolf-man, who looked just like a Yaga from the Fate/Grand Order Lostbelts, looked at the lion-man who was walking over. "Shishido, you went too hard," he said, sweating. "I know he's a new partner, but he's still just a human."
"Shut up," the lion-man named Shishido said, walking up to the wolf-man. He shot him a cold look, then looked up at the Director, who was staring at the moon as if he wanted to find the rabbit goddess Chang'e. "Hey, Rabbit. He's not strong at all. Why did you bring this human here? Was it just for your own 'interest' again?"
"Whoa! Kira! Why are you in there!?" The Director, as if just now noticing Kira embedded in the statue, nimbly leaped down from the top. He grabbed the stone scarf with one hand, braced his foot against the stone wall, and made his way to Kira's side.
The smile that had been on the Director's face froze when he saw the cracks in the statue. "That bastard! He broke my statue again! This is going to take a long time to fix!"
Seeing the Director's suddenly dark expression, all the animals below took a few steps back, exposing the culprit, Shishido the lion-man, who was left standing alone.
"Shishido! It was you again! Are you trying to rebel!?" The rabbit no longer paid any attention to Kira. He kicked off the statue and used the recoil to jump down, landing right in front of the lion.
"Tch," Shishido spat, annoyed. "This is your fault, you damn rabbit! The zookeeper was one thing, but why did you have to bring another human here? I hate humans, especially weak ones."
Hearing this, the rabbit exploded in anger. "You've got some nerve to talk! In any other zoo, the lion is at least a main attraction! But you? We barely get any visitors as it is, and you have to go and roar at them and scare them all away! Do you even deserve the meat you eat every day!?"
While the two of them were arguing, a bird-man with large wings flew over, pulled Kira out of the statue with his free arm, and set him down on the ground.
Shishido knew he was in the wrong; the zoo's lack of visitors was his responsibility. He clicked his tongue and fell silent, his gaze shifting to Kira, who had just walked up behind the Director.
"He's a human. How are you going to explain the fact that we can talk? He doesn't look as gullible as the zookeeper."
"Who are you calling gullible!?" Aoi Hana shouted, pushing her way through the crowd of animals—past the rhino and the elephant, past the rabbit and the lion. She walked up to Kira and said with a wry smile, "Now you've seen it. This is the Twilight Zoo."
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