The Mole Rat Speaks

The Mole Rat Speaks is the 8th episode of the BNA: Brand New Animal series.

Overview
Facing an unexpected crisis, Shirou unleashes his true form.

Summary
Major Rose and Alan accept the Silver Wolf Order in the city, due to Nazuna saving him in front of everyone. In the police station, Yaba transforms into a rampaging monster. Michiru and Shirou take him to the wharf. Shirou then proceeds to transform into Ginrou, and defeat Yaba. Since Michiru now knew the secret, Barbara proceeds to tell her everything about Shinrou´s past, and how he ended up becoming Ginrou.

Plot
Shirou is having a flashback of what seems to be, a big group of dead beastmen, with arrows stuck everywhere. Only one beastmen seems to be still alive, and they transform into a rampaging beast

Barbara Rose and Alan Sylvasta are discussing are arguing about whether or not they should leave the cult to stay living in Animacity. He says they have no other option, since the cult saved him the previos day, and rejecting them would cause a massive riot from their followers. Rose mentions that over 5000 beastmen had been confirmed to having attended to the previous concentration. Right after the meeting ends, a scientist enter Alan´s office, mentioning how the beast factor had been stabilized, and how they were one step away from their objective, while Alan was reading Yaba´s beastman registration credential, asking himself if they should verify one more time.

The Silver Wolf Order had settled just in front of the Horner´s house. Both Gem and Melissa are surprised about the amount of people around the building, considering they had only been there for barely 3 days. Meanwhile, Michiru starts fllying over Animacity to relax for a moment, but ends up ends up seeing nazuna in the distance, far from the cult building, and decides to approach her. Michiru mentions how she can´t believe she had moved just right in front of her, but she mentions how it was Boris decision. Nazuna is also surprised that Michiru could fly, thinking she had been hiding it from her. Michiru then proceeds once again to question Nazuna´s role in the cult, and how in reality she was a human, not Ginrou. She mentions that she is no longer Nazuna, and that she is now Déesse Louve. Nazuna proceeds to fly away, leaving Michiru alone.

Michiru went back her home, coming across Shirou. He asks her where had she been, just mentioning she had stumbled upon Nazuna. Shirou then mentions how he had an investigation about the falcon beastmen they had caught, asking Michiru if she wanted to come with him to the police station, since it might interest her. She accepts.

Boris was at the police station, to teach a sinner, Yaba, through Shinrou. The police officer explains Boris what had happened with Yaba, and leaves them two alone. Yaba mentions how he didn´t believe in Ginrou,and Boris replies he replies that he was that kind of person. Boris also mentions that if the truth came to light, Alan would not like it, scaring Yaba.

Shinrou and Michiru had arrived to the police station, at the same time that Boris was leaving the place. At In the cells, Yaba was writhing, expressing gestures of pain, while the beastmen from the other cells tried to dialogue with him, to understand what was happening. Yaba transformed into a raging beast, much bigger than his normal form, destroying his cell and everything around him in the process. This scares everyone at the police station, including Michiru and Shirou, who were still in the place. All the policemen start shooting at Yaba, to stop him from raging more, and to prevent him to get to the city, but all their bullets were useless.

Shirou appears at the fighting scene. He punches Yaba with his fist, but is surprised by the excessive force of the beast, which completely deforms his hand. This scares Michiru, but Shirou mentions that it doesn't matter, since her hand fixes itself. He proceeds to return the attack to Yaba, but his effort seems to be useless, since Yaba does not resent any of his attacks. Michiru notices this, and decides to help Shirou, telling him that he can´t do everythign on his own, and that she would help him on anything she could. She stans on top of Yaba, to carry him with the help of her wings to a place with no people, and face him there. She however does not have enough strength to be able to lift Yaba, and the animal's sudden movements knock her down. Shirou turns Yaba upside down once again, and tells Michiru to prove him what she had just said, so she gets in top of the beast for a second time. Her effort seemed to be meaningless, since she couldn´t lift Yaba. Shirou asks her to put more force on it, and this motivates Michiru, growing larger and wings, that enable her to finally lift the beast properly, while Shirou was holding on to one of his legs.

Yaba moves around a lot, trying to escape, but Shirou keeps him as stable as possible, so Michiru can continue carrying him. They decide to take him to the Wharf, since there shouldn´t be any people there. Yaba doesn't stop moving, so Shirou asks him to drop them both, even if they were at a great height. She questions this, but Shirou tells her to do it, since he would be fine.

Both fall into one of the dock buildings, breaking much of the roof of the structure. When Michiru lands in the place, she sees how Shirou had managed to neutralize Yaba, tying him with chains present in the place. However, Yaba was still conscious, and he transformed again, freeing himself, and piercing his horn through Shirou's chest. This scares Michiru, but he mentions that she is fine, and that she just run. Yaba then grabs Shirou with his hand, and throws him with all his strength to the ground, causing serious injuries. On the floor, and with blood pouring out all over his body, Shirou insists on continuing to fight, even when Michiru asks him to flee.

Yaba transforms again, being much stronger than at the beginning, and now having four arms. Yaba grabs Shirou again, and crushes him to the ground, causing more injuries, and the blood continues to flow continuously from his body. Michiru can't stand this, and transforms her arms into gorilla arms, stopping Yaba's attack with all her might, causing the beast to hammer his fist into the ground, enabling her to fly to the other side of the building. Michiru proceeds to grab two boxes, and smashes them into Yaba´s head, making him to fall.

Michiru then proceeds to tell Shirou to run away, but Yaba but in her deconcentration caught her with his hands, to suffocate her. Shirou finally gets up, and sees this. He mentions that he has no other choice, and proceeds to tear off the necklace that he always wears around his neck. A great blue light begins to shine from Shirou's body, and a bolt of lightning shoots out from his body, hitting Yaba. Shirou had been transformed into Ginrou, and he grabbed Michiru with his mouth, saving her. Yaba returns to attack position. Michiru confused, realizes what had happened, and Ginrou just asks her to stay behind. Yaba makes two horns grow instead of two of his arms, since Ginrou had cut them off with his attack, and runs to attack him. However, Ginrou attacks him before he can do anything, cutting him in four, and finally defeating him. Ginrou turns back into Shirou, and major Rose along his guards arrive to the scene. Barbara asks them to put Shirou in the car, and Shinrou tells her that Michiru had found out he was Ginrou.

Back at the house, Shirou had finally calmed down, and Rose mentions that his wounds should heal soon. Michiru asks Rose about who was really Shirou, and that if he really was Ginrou. Although Rose initially denies it, she ends up accepting it. Michiru mentions how she hardly knows anything about Shinrou, and that she never tried to meet him. She says she wants to know more about him.

Barbara and Michiru go to the rooftop, and Rose mentions that Shirou Oogami had been Ginrou for the last 1000 years, and that he had stopped aging as soon as he became Ginrou. Michiru seems to be confused about the fact that he had became Ginrou, and Rose mentions that he wasn´t Ginrou from the start, and proceeds to tell Michiru Shirou´s history.

About 1000 years ago, in eastern Europe, there was a city called Nirvasyl which was only inhabited by beastmen, like Animacity. Shirou lived there, like a normal beastman. Humans and beastmen interacted normaly there, and even had friendly relationships. But one day, humans suddenly attacked Animacity, killing all the beastmen, including Shirou, in the process. His body was thrown away, just like the rest. However something peculiar happened. Shirou revived, apparently with the help of the blood and souls of all 2000 beastmen who had died in Nirvasyl, transfoming into Ginrou, and giving him an inmortal body. After that, he immediately went in search of the general who had annihilated his people, killing many humans in the process, but never found him. Feeling the emptiness of revenge, he swore to be the protector of beastmen, sometimes protecting them from humans, and sometimes to be the guide to the new world.

Rose and Shirou met during the last years of World War II. Rose had been captured by humans, and taken to a concentration camp, where she would be part of experiments to see if beastmen could be biological weapons. Ginrou released her from that place, and in the process killed all the humans of the place, because she saw the damage they had caused to the beastmen of the place with her experiments. That had been his last transformation, until the fight with Yaba, as he prefers to keep Ginrou's power sealed. Rose asks Michiru not to tell anyone what she had told him. Michiru says that she did not understand anything, and that for her, he is Shirou Oogami, the defender of beastmen.

Rose says that after surviving the war, she decided to become a scientist, as beastmen also had a right to know about beastmen. She mentions that Kuro, who just stood on her shoulder, had been in that concentration camp with her, and had managed to rebuild her body, and that was why she was still living.

Michiru tells Rose that she would keep for herself the fact that Shirou is Ginrou, but she does want to tell someone that Ginrou is real. Rose questions this at first, but Shirou appears on the scene, mentioning that he doesn't care, since she would end up doing it anyway. Michiru flies off, and Rose tells Shirou that he was finally starting to understand Michiru. Rose leaves the rooftop, since she had something to do that interested her. Michiru then arrives Nazuna´s house, to tell her that Ginrou was in fact real.

Rose goes to the medical center, asking scientists for data on the scan of Yaba's body. Alan, who was also there, mentions to the scientists that she had been the first to investigate the beast factor, as she was the first beastmen to obtain a doctorate. Rose is stunned when she sees Yaba's report, being surprised about the change in the beast factor that he had suffered. Alan mentions that they had been investigating this. Rose leaves the medical center, asking Alan that if something happens, he will handle it immediately. He mentions to Rose that this is why he is there, and then he repeats to himself in a low voice, that is is exactly why he was there.

Characters

 * Michiru Kagemori
 * Shirou Oogami
 * Melissa Horner
 * Gem Horner
 * Barbara Rose
 * Alan Sylvasta
 * Boris Cliff
 * Nazuna Hiwatashi
 * Hiromu Yaba
 * Kuro

Trivia

 * Rose design on World War II flashbacks is different from the one seen on BNA - Zero: Beasts That Can't Become Even Better cover art. The main difference is that on the anime she is bald, while on the prequel novel she has hair.
 * Although Shirou is certainly immortal, he appears to have a limited speed of his regenerative ability, especially about the wound on his torso. This may have a relation with his past life, since he was also skewered on his torso before he died.
 * Shirou is seen to have a scar at his neck. The black collar he normally uses seem to cover that said scar on his daily life.