Louis's body hurt all over. The back of his head throbbed, his neck ached, his wrists and hands were cold and numb, and his arms felt as if they could pop from their sockets at a moment's notice. He opened his eyes yet was still greeted with darkness. The pressure he felt on his skull wasn't pain alone, but also due to something wrapped around it and covering his eyes. He raised his head and felt his antlers hit his arms behind him, which impeded him from holding his head straight. He tried to move his fingers, feeling prickly due to lack of circulation. Now he could tell that they were tied above him, and he sat tied to a chair on top of that. He moved his right leg as much as he could, concluding that his prostheses had been removed. His stump produced a methodical and dull ache which aligned with his pulse. His shirt was drenched in sweat and the air was hot and stuffy.

Louis tried to use his one leg to stand up, but he was fastened firmly to the chair. He then attempted to use his antlers to sever the binding around his wrists, but he couldn't seem to reach up that far. He wobbled from side to side, feeling the chair's legs raising from the ground slightly. Deciding that tipping himself over would only lead to further predicament, he stopped and instead started to use his ears. They flicked and twitched this way and that, attempting to catch any bit of noise he could. There was emptiness in the air, as well as the sound of waves. He cleared his throat to make some noise and observed how the sound filled a large space around him and echoed off distant walls. He could only assume that he was in some warehouse by the ocean, probably by some docks.

A metal door closed, and Louis clammed up. Footsteps. He regained his composure as much as he could.

The heels impacted the metal floor loudly, sounding from behind him but then moving around to in front of him. That unmistakable click was from a pair of Shishigumi leather shoes. A quiet, raspy hum accompanied it.

"Hmm hmm hmmmmmm. Mmmm hm hmmmm you thouuuught. You thought you thought you thought you thought you thought."

Despite only hearing it once, Louis was sure he'd never get Melon's voice out of his head. The blindfold was yanked down to fall around his neck. Revealing the hybrid smiling mere centimeters from his face. "You thought I didn't have every square meter of that place mapped out?" He knocked a knuckle on an antler, causing Louis's head to jerk, yet the stag remained silent, only glaring.

"Well, you thought, which is more than I can say for those meat-headed cats," the hybrid mumbled. "Or, and I'm going to be incredibly humble here, myself!" Melon drew back and cackled softly, as if the deer wasn't even there. "I mean, it took me way too long to figure out you were the mysterious former buck leader! How could I be so dense? I was just so caught up in the reality that most herbivores in the market end up as food! I thought that was your fate!" He crouched down suddenly and took what remained of Louis's right leg and shook it around. "Well! Seems I wasn't entirely incorrect! Those lions sure seem loyal to you, but one of them needed a taste of the boss, it seemed! You must have killed him and escaped!"

Louis closed his eyes and lowered his head, unable to stop laughter from rising to his throat. "You're so...so far off the mark. You intimidate by acting like you know everything but you're just taking shots in the dark."

Melon looked down at him, his stupid smile finally leaving his face. "Hm...it doesn't matter. Your missing leg made it easier to carry you, at least."

Louis grunted. "Where's my prosthetic? That thing was expensive, you know..."

"Oh? I can't determine the value of garbage like that, but maybe I should go back and fetch it from the drainage system when I'm done."

"When you're done?" Louis repeated with a scoff. "Would have been easier to kill me than drag me here. I guess you have something special in mind?"

"Very special," Melon cooed. He stepped out of Louis's line of sight which allowed him to finally see where he was: an empty warehouse, as he expected. Guardrails stood about two meters in front of him, and down below was the empty space that shipping containers would have filled in the past. He looked up, seeing that his hands were tied around a large metal hook suspended from the ceiling. His head ached at the effort, and there was a ringing in his ears.

After realizing he couldn't move his head to track Melon anymore, Louis looked down and tried to glean more information from the situation. Unsurprisingly, his gun was taken from him, as the empty feeling of the holster against his fur was unmistakable. He hoped to survive long enough to get a lecture from the Shishigumi about always losing his guns.

Louis waited a few moments for Melon to reappear, but that didn't happen. Instead, he was made aware of the underlying sounds of the ocean mingling with another, growing noise.

His ears naturally flicked forward as he focused on the new sound. It only became easier as time progressed, and Louis had learned to pick up on the growly undertone of carnivore voices. There were many behind the large door of the warehouse, so numerous that Louis couldn't catch any actual words being said. The energy, however, was unmistakable: excitement.

Louis's head pulsed with pain at the effort, and his head fell limp again. All of the puzzle pieces he picked up were forming a picture he didn't like the look of.

Melon's footsteps sounded once more. "I hear the audience is arriving."

"And who are they?"

Melon reached out and grabbed one of Louis's antlers, running his claws through the grooves in a motion that mimicked something Legosi would do, making the deer feel even more nauseous than he already was. "Residents and patrons of the market. Come to see their former, fallen prince."

Louis looked up and smirked. "And what's to say none of them still prefer me? I made the market safer. I made carnivores feel less guilty. You're just pumping fear and hatred into everyone."

Melon yanked painfully on one of the antlers and let go. "Fear and hatred are the strongest emotions there are. I've been able to undo the fairy tale delusion you blanketed the market in. The outside world has no care for them. They still wish to close their eyes and pretend the market doesn't exist, and that carnivores that eat meat are an outlier. Well, I have a degree in history, so I don't need to tell you that I prefer reality. Everyone needs to take the ugly, putrid truth and shove it down their gullets."

The veins in Melon's hands and arms popped out as he seemed to grasp at the air. He flashed a glare at Louis and showed his fangs. "You're the type of animal I hate the most, and I'm going to enjoy this."

Louis decided it was time to stop talking and time to start planning. However Melon got the word out to the market, the Shishigumi had no doubt caught on. Melon seemed to be aware of their plot to kill him as well as their continued allegiance to Louis, however, so he wasn't sure how Melon was defending against that.

"In the meantime, it's time to make you look pretty." Melon was upon him in an instant, connecting a left and right hook to the buck's face before smashing his nose. Louis took the blows silently, determined not to give the demented hybrid the satisfaction of hearing him cry out. Still, Melon was much stronger than he looked, and those blows did nothing to help his concussion.

Satisfied, Louis's captor pulled the blindfold off his neck and stuffed it in his mouth, tying it around his head to form a gag. Melon then stood up straight and licked his hand, using it to slick back the fur on his head and cheeks and popping up the collar of his obnoxiously colorful floral pattern shirt. "Alrighty, showtime!"

Melon walked over to the wall and pressed a button which raised the warehouse door. The shorter carnivores filed in first, ducking their heads under the still moving door and leading in everyone else. Louis's heart dropped more and more as he saw the sheer size of the crowd. That damned melon cart and its feline operators were even there, pointing at him and shouting amongst themselves. He tried to make out anyone familiar in the crowd, but couldn't focus due to both the high energy and movement of the animals and his head injuries. On top of that, he could feel his eyes swelling shut from the blows Melon delivered, and blood dripped freely from his nose.

"Meat lovers and outcasts of society!" Melon boomed, catching Louis off guard with just how loud that annoying voice could become. "Welcome, and thank you for coming!"

"Thank you, Melon-sama!" shouted a way too large chunk of animals. If Louis hadn't known any better he would assume the hybrid was about to put on a concert.

Melon walked over to Louis, circling around him with his hands folded behind his back. "It's only been one short year, so I'm sure most of you remember this specimen before me."

The animals below murmured to themselves and nodded.

"I know there were many who believed he was doing good work! An herbivore advocating for the market! Deigning to grant permission to carry out your basic biological functions! But still in the shadows of society! Still with crushing judgment on your backs! Still forced to see herbivores as your equals and submit to their demands!"

Louis squeezed his eyes shut and growled. How could he have rectified all of that in six short months? No wonder he was gagged. He was simply the bogeyman Melon set up.

"WHAT ARE YOUR FANGS AND CLAWS FOR?"

"TO KILL AND EAT!" the crowd called back.

"This specimen here sought protection in the Shishigumi, nothing more! And even now those cats do his bidding and conspire against me!"

The carnivores gasped and cried out at this revelation.

"They will not have me, but you will, the people of the market!"

The crowd cheered again. The noise and heat was making Louis dizzy.

"I may be part herbivore, but I am also carnivore! My herbivore genes tell me what society is afraid to say: that herbivores are made to be eaten by carnivores!"

The roars were thunderous. Was there really no way to hear all this ruckus from the main streets? Was anybody coming to save him? Was Legosi at work now, going about his day and expecting to see Louis when he got home?

Louis's eyes closed. I'm so sorry, Legosi, he thought. He screamed the words again in his head, over and over. He was so stupid. How could he have ever gone after Melon himself? How could he have ever guessed how wide his influence had stretched over the market?

Would he really never see Legosi again?

"You all have been so patient with me! Waiting for me to deliver my vision of society! And this animal here, Louis the red deer, he represents all that is wrong with it now! The spilling of his blood will open the floodgates!" Melon stepped behind Louis and placed his hands around his neck, claws dug in slightly.

Louis wanted to try and struggle. Wanted to hit Melon with his antlers, hit him in the ribs with the back of his chair, anything, but instead he hung limply. He already felt dead. He was dead. He thought an animal's life was supposed to flash before their eyes, but all that his mind conjured were tired eyes and messy gray fur illuminated in the soft light of morning, laying next to him in bed. The wolf smiled at him in that lopsided way of his.

Melon's claws dug deeper and he lowered his mouth to Louis's ear, breath sickly hot even in the summer air. "Your blood better taste like something, fawn," he sneered, voice nothing like the charismatic display he gave just moments before.

I'm sorry I couldn't be better for you, Legosi. I love you.

The sound of glass shattering around them caused time to slow. Louis looked to the left and right of them, seeing two small canisters had landed on each side of them. Already knowing what they were, Louis squeezed his eyes shut, mourning that he could not cover his ears as well.

◌ BANG ◌

Louis's eyelids put up quite a fight, but they couldn't completely stop the barrage of light that had illuminated the room. He opened his eyes and blinked several times to try and get a bearing of the sudden change in the situation. The crowd below was a writhing, confused mess while bucks outfitted in black body armor, pants, and boots rushed forward to free Louis. He wasn't sure where Melon had gone, but he was definitely no longer there. None of it felt real.

"Louis!"

A familiar voice. So familiar.

"Le-Leg..." Louis tried to croak out. His head started to produce a stabbing pain, and he brought his newly freed hands to cover his eyes while the ropes behind him were cut.

Large, clawed hands clasped gently on his shoulders. They were so warm. "Louis! Are you okay?"

Louis brought his head up and squinted, making out two, large figures before him. Legosi's face held a multitude of emotions, but relief seemed to be at the forefront, but he knew he deserved the anger he saw there as well.

The deer blinked a few more times, trying to clear up his vision further so he could see the second picture slowly formed itself, but he wasn't sure if he could believe it. Slanted eyes behind rectangular panes of glass. Massive antlers above them. A stern, thin line of a mouth.

Oguma.