Human Scapegoat

Human Scapegoat is the 9th episode of the BNA: Brand New Animal anime series.

Overview
Michiru discovers the reason behind her beastman disease, and the fact that Nazuna has known about it already.

Summary
Michiru sees Nazuna is taken to a suspicious car and assumes she's abducted just like when Nazuna first transforms into beastman. She follows it to Medical Center and attempts to save her. She's stopped by the guards but Alan interrupts them and lets her go. He then explains the whole thing so that Michiru doesn't feel left out, starting with Nazuna's own will to volunteer with the research, the reason behind their beastman disease, and the truth behind Silver Wolf Order. Michiru feels betrayed because Nazuna already knows all of them this whole time, resulting in a quarrel between them.

Plot
Following the recent events, Michiru heads to Nazuna's place to talk. She persuades her to stop pretending as a Ginrou and doing the "guru" thing, because the real Ginrou exists out there. However, Nazuna doesn't seem to bother with it. She reminds Michiru that she is the Ginrou girl, Deesse Louve, who has a fan club consisting of almost 5000 members. They are those whose lives are full of sorrow but Nazuna's existence as Ginrou makes them feel better, hence Deesse Louve exists as to their ray of hope. Nazuna then returns the question by asking Michiru's intention to tell her about Ginrou's real existence, asking if she accuses her of faking or if she's worried about her and wants to defend her "justice". Nazuna finishes by saying that she has made her mind up, not wanting to stop. The next thing Nazuna does is shrugging Michiru's off, telling her to leave because staying up too late is bad for the skin.

The next day, Michiru still thinks about Nazuna when Shirou enters her room. She asks his condition, but Shirou only responds about her talk yesterday, where Michiru assures him that his secret is safe. Realizing that Michiru is not in good condition, Shirou hands her a cookie to cheer her up, saying that it's easy to feel down whenever she's hungry. He also gives her some advice that she'll have to see and feel things herself in order to find an answer that will convince her. At first, Michiru is slightly confused but she only says that his way of thinking as a thousand-year-old person is much different than her. Shirou then tells her that he wants to investigate Yaba's incident and asks if she wants to come along, but Michiru turns down the invitation saying that she already has a plan. Shirou warns her not to go close to a cult or Medical Center and Michiru only reacts with a scoff and leaves.

Michiru heads to the park where she denounces her friendship with Nazuna. She picks up a stone and throws it in the same direction she did with the Silver Wolf Order's charm, observing how far it'll go and where it should have landed, and it appears that it lands on the slums. She goes there and starts searching for the charm, rummaging through the shallow waterway trying to find the stuff. Michiru keeps looking for it until Jackie passes by and the latter greets her. They ask each other what they're doing; Jackie is starting a business with "mineral-ish water" using the water purifier she has bought previously. By using the dirty water from the waterway, she produces the mineral-ish water, stores them in the plastic bottle, and sells them 10 yen each. She immediately drinks one right after she purifies it in one go, to Michiru's disgust, but apparently Jackie feels refreshed by the "trash-free water" and gets excited about it she transforms into her beast form. Jackie offers Michiru a sip and Michiru quickly turns down the offer. As Jackie takes out the filter from the water purifier, Michiru watches in both disgust and horror but the moment she spots the charm stuck on the filter, she quickly reaches for it and picks it up. Jackie notices the charm and bursts out in excitement, telling Michiru that she loves Ginrou and that Ginrou has changed her life to the point that she doesn't do bad things anymore because she believes Ginrou is watching her, just like everyone in the slums according to her. Michiru then asks if her "mineral-ish water" is okay compared with stuff she has mentioned earlier, but to Jackie's defense, she only runs the business with no lies. Jackie then asks Michiru if she also likes Ginrou, and Michiru nods on that. Suddenly, Jackie screams aloud, surprising Michiru, as she runs and picks up a 10 yen coin. She gets excited again, wanting to show it to her friends as soon as possible so she leaves in a hurry. Michiru can only sweatdrop with Jackie's behavior, as nothing has particularly changed from her. Feeling satisfied because her objective has completed, Michiru wears the charm and leaves the slums as well.

Moving on to the jail, Shirou and Inspector Tachiki is currently investigating the incident. Tachiki confirms that before Yaba goes rampage, there's nothing wrong with him until Boris, the manager of the cult pays him a visit. Shirou inquiries more of Boris' influence in the incident and the only info Tachiki has is that Boris says something about "teaching sinners about God". Because of this incident, the jail is completely destroyed and most of the dangerous criminals who are not killed during the incident also break out. Shirou plans to investigate further by examining Yaba's body but apparently it's transported and being handled by Medical Center. Baffled, Shirou states that autopsy should be the police's job, which Tachiki answers that following orders from above is also a job for the police.

Michiru is heading back to home when she spots Nazuna taken into a suspicious car. She quickly recalls the men are the same ones who abduct her back then when they are still on school. As the car leaves, Michiru follows it as best as she can by utilizing her power to keep up with the car's speed. The car ends up entering Medical Center, to Michiru's surprise, and because she doesn't have access to go inside she shapeshifts into a chameleon and sneaks in the facility. Following Nazuna by scent, Michiru finds her being locked in a weird machine. Worrying that it may be a dangerous experiment, Michiru enters the room, to Nazuna's surprise, and starts breaking the machine. The guards enter the room and threaten her to stop. Michiru starts charging at them even though Nazuna calls her not to. She manages to dodge the guards' electric weapon but as soon as she spots one of the guards touch the control machine, she bites his arm to stop him but as the result of this bold move she takes hit from the electric weapon. This causes her to weaken but even so, she continues to fight them although none of her hits make contact. The guards eventually capture her but then Alan Sylvasta enters the room and orders the guards to release her. Michiru starts barging him with questions, asking what he plans to do to Nazuna. Unknown to her, Nazuna has detached herself from the machine and tiredly sneers at Michiru for her habit of being stubborn and jumping in without knowing anything. Nazuna then apologizes to Alan for the whole mess but Alan understands Michiru's feeling of wanting to recklessly saves her friend and calls Michiru as quite a friend of Nazuna.

Alan proceeds to greet Michiru formally, telling her that he knows her quite much from Nazuna. In turn, Michiru recognizes him as the admirable Sylvasta guy. Alan is quite honored and introduced himself. Michiru is still confused with why Nazuna is there, and Nazuna answers because she volunteers to take an MRI scan, which is a regular check-up to obtain some data on her own volition. Now that Michiru learns that she is not abducted, Nazuna asks her to go home but Alan feels like it'll be better to let Michiru knows the whole thing as well, saying that letting her go without any details of whatever they are doing will likely only cause a lot of problems for them in the future. Nazuna reluctantly agrees and so Alan starts explaining.

Alan begins with an apology because of the reason behind her - their - Beastman disease is the Medical Center. Both of them accidentally is transfused with Beast Factor reagent which is extracted from a beastman. Back then, one of the Beast Factor reagents falls from the container and Yaba and Mimura put it into a different container, thus the reagent is accidentally mixed. During their recovery after the accident, the reagent is accidentally administered to both of them. Yaba notices that the amount of reagent package doesn't match so he tries to track them down. As a result of that, he finds out Nazuna can transform into beastman because that reagent so he quickly abducts and isolates her. However, Yaba only notices that Michiru can also transform into beastman when she enters Anima City. The bomb incident on the Medical Center back then is purposely done to erase all data about the mix-up, because the development of the reagent is top secret. Michiru concludes that these whole things she and Nazuna experience are victims of Medical Center's research, and Alan doesn't defy that fact so he can only apologize and say that they're fully responsible for the incident. But Alan assures Michiru that they can go back to being a human because a vaccine for their beastman diseases is currently under development and will be completed soon.

Nazuna continues Alan's explanation about her volition to help Sylvasta. Initially, she is also shocked that she is made into a beastman. But as Alan has said to Michiru, Sylvasta Pharmaceutical holds the responsibility and promises her to create the cure so that she can return back to human. Until the cure is completed, Alan assigns Nazuna with a task, which is to give hope to all beastmen by utilizing her power to freely transform into different forms. Michiru interrupts his explanation by bringing up the fact that Alan is against the idea of the cult staying in the first place. Alan answers that it's part of the show up they need to do; beastmen won't believe a religion created by a human who oppresses them. So they set up a little conflict, which happens exactly as planned during Silver Wolf Order's movement back then; using Alan's influence to reject the organization's stay, and the display of Ginrou's grace so that everyone will believe that Ginrou is the God for everyone. After all, the existence of the Silver Wolf Order itself is necessary to decrease beastmen's mental entropy by using their faith in Ginrou to preserve their mental stability; Beastmen has considerably unstable emotion and is easily driven by their emotions because frustration that keeps building up. It can be triggered anytime from little things, causing a disturbance in peace. Hence the whole thing is planned and executed.

Finally understanding the circumstance, Michiru asks for Nazuna's confirmation if she is indeed fooling everyone. Nazune replies that it's a show and it results in a more orderly Anima City. Michiru continues with a sneer, saying that it's great to know all these things in the first place, implying that Nazuna has fooled everyone includes herself. Nazuna defends herself, saying that they are top secrets, known by only her and Boris, and cannot be simply shared with anyone, especially outsiders, and to Nazuna's point of view, Michiru is considered as an outsider. Michiru retorts back to remind her that the ones who suffer the disease are both of them, so the one who should be considered an outsider is Boris, whom she refers to as "gross old geezer". Nazuna retorts back, saying that Boris is not gross and the bicker starts heating up until Alan interferes and breaks the quarrel. Alan reminds them that it's unwise for both of them to judge people based on appearance and that the truth lies in that which she cannot see. Alan concludes their conversations with another emphasize that he'll promise them that they can go back to being human. Until that time, he asks Michiru to help Nazuna by not interfering with their plan. Both of them are then sent back to their respective home, which happens to be in the same way. Both Michiru and Nazuna are lost in thought while they are inside the car.

Michiru enters her room and dries herself, as a result of the rain outside, and Shirou reminds her of his warning earlier that day that she shouldn't go to Medical Center. Michiru weakly replies that they promise her that she can go back to being human. Michiru then goes into the details while Shirou listens to her, where Michiru focuses more on the fact that it's a medical error and they are responsible for it. Shirou asks her if she trusts them, saying that Alan is only benefiting himself by using her, and Michiru shoots back for his prejudice against Humans, stating that he distrusts anything a human says. Shirou casually brings up Nazuna's case to her, which both of them know well that she's pretending to be a Ginrou and lies to every beastmen, concluding that every human is just the same. At this, Michiru disagrees completely. Although it's true that Nazuna lies about being a Ginrou, she only does that because she wants to be an idol and wants people to fawns at her. But it isn't only that; she also wishes to spark hope into oppressed and sorrowful beastmen's hearts, and that's why she works hard as Ginrou. For that reason, Michiru asks Shirou to overlook the fact that Nazuna is pretending to be Ginrou. Noticing that Michiru is wearing the silver charm, Shirou questions if she enters the cult. Michiru calmly answers that she does not believe in a counterfeit religion, but she always believes in Nazuna. The rain continues to pour and Shirou suddenly asks if she wants to be a human again, and will she leave Anima City if she returns back to being a human. Michiru contemplates a little before answering that she wants to become human again and she loves Anima City but she does want to go home.

As it grows darker, the rain does not stop. Boris, as Nazuna's manager, wants to close the window in Nazuna's room but Nazuna stops him, asking him to leave it open. Boris responds that the wind is cold that night and she may catch a cold, but Nazuna says it's fine. When Boris mentions Michiru, Nazuna does not say anything about it and instead, she states that she'll leave her management to someone else. Boris is shocked and asks for her reason, but she only provides an answer that because he's gross, especially with the fact that he enters her room in the night without her permission. She then dismisses him and Boris leaves her room, still recovering from the shock.

The next day, Shirou visits Mayor Rose to ask for the results of Yaba's autopsy, mainly the reason for his outburst. Mayor Rose answers that there's a change in his Beast Factor and although she does not know the detail yet, she'll have the report made as soon as possible. Shirou still grumbles about the influence of Medical Center, and Mayor Rose replies with a logical approach that although it's frustrating, Medical Center has the most advanced technology they need. She also mentions that Alan is not a bad human, to which Shirou scoffs and wonders if everyone starts siding with Alan. He brings up the fact that he hasn't met a single good human in his entire life to which Mayor Rose responds with him already meeting one every day and mentions Michiru as a good human.

Outside of Anima City, Alan meets Prime Minister Shiramizu. Minister Shiramizu questions Alan's urgent business to meet him, which Alan answers it's related to his influence on Anima City and that he has some advice for Japanese government, stating that he has something to lend to them.

Characters

 * Michiru Kagemori
 * Shirou Ogami
 * Jackie
 * Nazuna Hiwatashi
 * Alan Sylvasta
 * Boris Cliff
 * Barbara Rose
 * Prime Minister Shiramizu

Trivia

 * In one of the scenes where Michiru keeps her eye on the thrown stone, she shapeshifts her eyes to get a better look. Judging from the eyes, she basically copies the ability from Meteor from the previous episode.
 * Mental entropy and stress are basically the same things.
 * It's implied after their quarrel that Nazuna starts to consider Michiru's input, one of it being to realize that Boris is indeed gross.