Kyouya put together another 1000-piece puzzle and sighed.

Too easy.

The other five year olds played their stupid games but he didn't join them. They flocked mindlessly together and stayed close to each other. They were annoying, loud, dirty and worst of all, they stuck to you like gum under your shoe.

He wanted to leave. He wanted to go outside, to explore. He didn't like being locked inside this stupid 'day-care'. Alas, his father had explained, his parents were both working and couldn't let him be alone.

Kyouya brightened all of a sudden. What had his father said about it? He was certain there was a way to be free! He thought back to the previous night where Tou-san told him that he would go to the day-care.

A black-haired little kid sat at the table with his parents. They were eating dinner in a cheerful atmosphere and laughing and talking.

The boy was also obviously happy. He had been trying not to laugh too much ever since his father's friend had made a comment about 'real man' but it wasn't really working with the way his mother made jokes one after another. So he ate another meatball to stifle his laughter, only to realize that that was the last one.

Tsukiko, realizing his son's predicament, let out another peal of laughter.

"Do you want some more, my little carnivore?" She asked.

Kyouya nodded pleased. He had learned it yesterday, carnivores were all strong and cool. So that meant that he had to be a carnivore.

That was when, Mr. Hibari, aka Kyoshi, decided to give the news. His wife had finally found a work after months of searching and his son would have no one to look after him during the day, so they went with the last option; day-care.

"Kyouya, tomorrow we will take you to the day-care." Hibari men did not beat around the bush.

"What's 'Day-care'?" The boy asked shortly. Tsukiko sighed, like father like son.

"Your mother now also has a job and can't stay with you. That's why during the day, you will stay at the day-care." His father answered. Unexpectedly, Kyouya nodded happily before stopping to ask something.

"Can I explore the town in the 'day-care'?" This made Kyoshi sigh, his son didn't understand after all.

"Look, Kyouya. We talked about this. You can't go around alone, it's dangerous. Besideー"

"But mom said I'm a carnivore! So I'm strong! I can protect myself!" Kyouya countered illogically. Kyoshi sighed again as he looked towards his lovely wife for help. She was still eating. Right, so no help.

Then suddenly a metaphorical light bulb lighted up on his head.

"You see, Kyouya, since you're a carnivore," he held back a chuckle at the sudden rapt attention he got from his son, "you have to have a territory. Everywhere outside that territory is dangerous. This house is my and your mother's territory, so you have to listen to is here. Luckily, we're your parents so it's fine."

"How do I get a territory?" This time the man did chuckle, the stars in those eyes were too much.

"Remember the crowds you hate so much? They are herds. Since those kids are afraid of small things like spiders and bugs, they are herbivores. But you aren't afraid are you?"

That got him a loud "No!" and rapid head shaking.

"Good. So you're a carnivore. That means that you have to protect the herds in your territory and make sure they obey the rules. Then, your territory will be safe. If you make all of the day-care your territory, you will be free there. And then you can continue growing it. One day, you'll have the whole town! You can explore it as you want that day!"

Kyouya looked amazed. He felt amazed too. He could be the carnivore of the town! His father believed in him! Since his parents had only this house as a territory, when Kyouya became the carnivore of the town, he would protect them too! Not that they were herbivores or anything. After all, only carnivores can have carnivore babies.

The boy nodded vigorously. He wouldn't let his parents down.

As expected, his father was right. The other kids were all flocking together in great herds, trusting the adult in the room to protect them. Even from themselves.

'Disgusting.' He thought. Truly, the first rule he would put when he gained his territory was 'No Crowding'.

'Still,' he decided, teeth bared in a ferocious smile, 'they are herbivores. And they will become my herbivores.'

Better than playing with low-level puzzles at least.

"Kyoya, honey, you're not bullied are you?" Tsukiko asked in concern. Just like more than half the kids in the small day-care centre, her son also wore bruises.

"No, Kaa-chan, I'm not. Carnivores don't get bullied." His son replied. She would press further, but she knew that the bruises from a week ago had been much much worse. So maybe Kyouya was learning how to deal with the bullies.

She would not willingly embarrass her son then. But really, maybe she should still put her son into another day-care. After all, the widespread bullying was making all the parents worried.

At first, they had all thought that the workers were abusing their children. However, the workers had gone out with them for an hour when asked about the bruises. The first thing the parents realized when they returned was that three more children ported wounds. Obviously, it had happened between them.

Honestly, it was all very weird. Not even the whiniest children used to 'begging mama for help on everything' would utter a single word on the perpetuator. And of course, Kyouya wouldn't either.

He was said perpetuator after all. Not that his mother needed to know.

His herd of herbivores knew not to talk about him and he wasn't about to do it himself. He had worked hard for their loyalty and silence. At first he had just put them all to their place and made them obey.

It had been difficult. He might have had exceptional strength from birth but his fighting knowledge had been zero. Bruises were acquired for every rule breaking kid. Still, he was coming along well enough; he got less wounds every time and the whole class listened to him after he took the worker's place of protecting them.

With just violence, the herbivores had tried to go around or, for the braver of the kids, against his rules. Only when, during a park visit, he got a huge spider from a popular kid's head and crushed it, did they start actually listening.

This obedience only intensified when a shy female herbivore, with all the courage of a mouse, asked him for help that the nursery teacher would not provide. Her step-father, no, the man who lived with her mother, was apparently beating her and her mother. The useless teacher had done nothing when told.

He saw red. How dare that man hurt his herd?! Who did he think he was?!

But he stopped himself from rushing to beat him in return when the girl held his sleeve and begged him not let the man do it again. She was crying.

He couldn't win against a grown man. Not yet. Trying it would make it only worse. So until he could beat the man so hard that he would run all the way to another country, he decided to use the herbivores he had the loyalties of.

The moment the worker left, he called the class around him. Luckily, except for a few unsure stragglers, all thirty of the kids fast gathered around him in a circle. The shy herbivore looked down with a flush throughout her tale as the other herbivores got angrier and angrier.

At the end of the explanation, even the few stragglers were looking towards him on what they would do. So Kyouya gave them the plan. The shy herbivore would stay with one them for every two or three nights then change houses. The herbivore's mother had allowed. Maybe there was some hope for her. During that, Kyouya would train like hell and maybe find some weapons too. They would save the shy herbivore.

And they did so. Kyouya trained with his uncle Fon who was visiting them with impeccable timing. A baby though he was, Fon was a carnivore through and through. The boy also trained with his new tonfas, stolen for him by an herbivore with a police officer father.

During his one-month training, the shy herbivore went to the houses of almost every other herbivore. But never once did she step 'home'.

Finally, the day after Fon went home, Kyouya was stalking the shy herbivore and her 'father' with three more herbivores. Not that they would help with the beating part. They were needed for a much bigger plan.

That's right. Hibari Kyouya, five years old extra-ordinaire had planned this perfectly. At least one kid had been behind the man for up to five hours a day with a camera to take the picture of the man's misdeeds. Since he could even beat his baby step-daughter, he would definitely commit crimes.

They had been right. The man was yakuza. He stole, broke, beat people and animals. A bad guy to the roots.

So after Kyouya beat the man, they would send him to a rival yakuza gang, tied and hopefully unconscious before the police got the pictures of his misdeeds. Perfectly planned.

Except... It didn't go as planned. Sure, it was perfect until they stayed to see what the yakuza would do with the man, tied and gagged and unconscious, right in front of their door.

Then, two grunts of the group found the man and the four kids strained to hear the conversation from their hiding place.

"Well, well. What do you know? Someone did our jobs for us."

"How lucky that someone went as far as to deposit our targets corpse to our front door, eh?"

"Sure he's dead?"

"Stupid! The guy's dead through and through! Can't ya see his throat's crushed?"

Kyouya froze. Dead? The man wasn't unconscious? Sure they didn't know how to check and he had been very angry and the man seemed a little cold to the touch but... Dead?

He could feel the three herbivores tense beside him as they tried to understand the weight of what they had done. Murder... Would they, Kyouya wondered, would they all go to prison?

But the yakuza would take the blame. And the man was a horrible, horrible man. He deserved it. Something twisted inside him, he felt sick. He shouldn't have killed, right?

That night he went to sleep for the feared day to arrive. He would tell the shy herbivore that he had killed her father. It was his fault after all, not the other herbivores'. He saw nightmares the whole night.

The next day, the moment the workers were out if earshot, Kyouya gathered his herd around. He noted that the three herbivores were standing a little further away. That something twisted harder.

"Shy herbivore," he began, everyone instantly knowing who he was talking to, "you're safe now. I... killed your father."

There was collective gasping all around as some blanched. Their faces contorted in some hurt, some anger and betrayal and it seemed to Kyoya as if his herd would leave him until...

There was a small sniffle. A soft mutter and two more sniffles later, the boy got a handful of shy herbivore crying in relief and thanking him.

His herd relaxed and some even smiled. Everyone patted either him or the herbivore.

That something twisted relaxed and gave away. It was fine. He no longer felt sick.

After that, the shy herbivore told them that she had explained their plan to her mother while Kyouya was beating her 'father' outside. Apparently, her mother had hoped that the yakuza would kill the man or he would be let out of prison even with all the evidence against him. Such was the way of the yakuza.

After this incident, the 'bullying' stopped as well as any disobedience of Kyouya's rules. The parents were all obliviously happy for the 'tight bonds of the day-care's kids'. Though the shy herbivore's mother threw him a wink now and then.

That night, Kyouya announced that the day-care centre was now his territory to his parents.

That got him the remark of; "Do the teachers listen to you?"

Damn it.

It took him two weeks of showing off his tonfas, extending his rules to adults and not allowing insubordination to make them part of his herd. Adult or not, if they obeyed, they were under his protection. (Every last kid in the day-care being under his unconditional rule also helped convince the teachers)

The day-care was now his territory.

Still, just so he could convince his father, he spent another week persuading the prideful adults to call him 'Hibari-san". Herbivore-with-the-police-father's idea, not his.

It was immensely satisfying to see the un-ruffle-able Kyoshi gape during the morning greeting by the kids and the respectful "Hibari-san."s by the teachers.

He was acknowledged by his carnivore father. It made pride swell up inside Kyoya.

But he wasn't one in the end, when it mattered.

His father wasn't a carnivore at all. Kyouya was wrong, after all, his parents were herbivores.

He had a harsh run in with the truth when some random grunts from a small time Yakuza barged inside their home demanding money.

Inside their home. Inside his parents' territory.

Kyouya had honestly been expecting his father to beat them or his mother to attack or something.

It hadn't happened.

"Where is our money, huh, Kyoshi-san?" Random grunt A asked.

"Yeah, we gave you that loan trusting it to be returned. You're making us lose quite a lot of money waiting, you are going to pay that as well, right?" Random grunt B continued.

"W-well, you see…" Kyoshi mumbled and Kyouya couldn't have heard that. He couldn't.

Hadn't it been his father who said that the Hibaris came from the ancient warlords? That they were strong? That they were never scared?

Yet, Hibari Kyoshi, the Head of the supposedly unbeatable Hibari Clan (consisting of three people), stuttered. Stuttered.

Because of two Herbivores that Kyouya could have beaten eyes closed.

"Tou-san… What are you doing? Aren't you going to tell those Herbivores to beat it off?" He asked, just to be sure. Sure that his father wasn't some Herbivore food; grass.

"'Herbivores'! I like this kid. He yours, Kyoshi-san? I bet he would fetch a nice price." Grunt B laughed.

"N-no! God, Kyouya, just keep quiet." Tou-san hissed. Then, Kyouya felt a soft hand on his shoulder. Kaa-chan.

"Honey, there are times when even carnivores need to back down." She muttered to the boy.

No. No.

He would not back down. What did they know about being a carnivore? His parents weren't carnivores. Uncle Fon and Kyouya were the only carnivores in the family.

That was… okay. Disappointing, but okay. He could make them his herd, protect them.

Then, Kyouya dashed. He would protect his herbivores.