An hour later

The manager's office was a welcomed sight for San. It was a far cry from the uproar and chaos of the arena downstairs. Kyuu on the other hand didn't really care, all she wanted was somewhere to lean or sit, so she could get some sense of rest and tend to the wounds she suffered. The raccoon manager was told to wait down the hall as the Inarigumi gangsters commandeered it for this meeting. All five of them; a pure white furred fox, a grey one, the pipsqueak that Kyuu fought, and two others of various heights and patterns entered soon after.

Kyuu was uncomfortable and on edge. She didn't like being in a confined space with them, regardless if they had just saved them. Hurt or not, she'd fight her way out if she had to. She still had her daggers clutched tightly as she reclined in a comfy chair built for a larger animal. Already her survivor mindset had her scanning the room for possible exits, such as windows or vents, and tactics to employ to deal with these types of carnivores, taking in account their height, weight, speed.

San however was more or less the calmer of the two. Despite him not exactly having Kyuu's martial prowess, he would never let situations like this make him a nervous wreck at least not openly. Under the surface he was scared. Who wouldn't, he imagined. Being surrounded by these predators, all it would take is for them to decide that they're just meat and descend upon them. Kyuu already was too hurt to fend them all off. All these things were on the young llama's mind, however he didn't show it. The last thing they needed now was to look like cowering prey. So he kept his trademark smile and gave Kyuu a reassuring look.

The white fox from before had taken a seat behind the desk in the middle of the room, adjusting the seat to fit her larger frame. San could tell she was the one in charge. The other foxes were posted almost strategically around the room, the grey furred fox standing right behind the leader like a bodyguard, the smallest one leaning against the wall close by to Kyuu, silently glaring daggers at her, no doubt some pent up animosity from last time. The other two stood guard by both the door and window. In a way similar to the small fox, from what San could see they were very odd looking as far as foxes went. The one by the door possessed large ears not dissimilar from the small fox, with a dark rustic tone of fur with a black facial pattern over her snout looking like a mask. The other fox, if San could call her that, was an almost 6 foot tall giant of a female. If not for her bushy tail and flat head typical of the vulpes genus, he'd have assumed she was just a cream colored wolf basking under the moonlight.

The leader finally settled into her spot and leaned out on the desk, resting her head upon her fist. Her orange eyes locking on his own, as if singling him out as the only one she wanted to see in this whole office. Her eyes were different from the other carnivores he had seen. Usually predator eyes were beady or fierce looking. Her eyes had a sense of kindness and warmth to them, very inviting and engaging to look at. Something about her told of someone he could trust.

"You can speak." She spoke, her accent very proper. "I am sure you have questions."

San looked to Kyuu briefly, the rabbit not even returning his glance, being preoccupied scowling back at the little fox. He turned his attention back to the snow white vixen in front of him. Obviously she was talking to him, her mouth forming a subtle smile as if she was amused that he even considered she was talking to someone else. She was looking at me, he thought. Not wanting to keep her waiting, he opened up and asked about the biggest ones on his mind, why they had saved them?

"Why'd you help us? And earlier you said that we belong to you? Are we your property now? Are you g-going to... sell us?" He asked. He was referring to the earlier claim the white fox had made by the arena. THESE HERBIVORES BELONG TO US! Is what he remembered her shouting.

He received his answer from the wall to his left, in the form of a shrill voice. It was the little fox who scoffed and threw up her hands, turning her attention away from Kyuu to answer the question.

"Oh … that was all just a show ya know." She said with a certain matter of fact demeanor. "We can't have that sort of chaos on our doorstep. So, we stepped in to protect our assets with a show of force."

The white fox frowned at her short subordinate. Clearly she didn't have permission to speak out of turn like this, silently looking towards the fox by the door.

Kyuu tilted her head in puzzlement. She slowly mouthed out the word, "As-set?" She may or may not have heard that word before. It's meaning, a bit fuzzy.

"San, do you know what an as-set is?" she asked.

San shook his head, not knowing himself. The pygmy fox just snickered at Kyuu's ignorance and vulgarly called her a "Stupid bitch."

Kyuu, having understood that phrase, shot right out of the chair. In seconds she had closed the distance and had her blades poking into the young fox's ribs. "I'll show you stupid." The wounded bunny threatened, her body aching but her anger overriding any protest it made. "You seem to have forgotten you still owe me an eye. Especially the way you've been eyeballing me tonight!"

Lùn grinned madly at the rabbit, as if she had been waiting all along for this to happen, already having her sharp nails wrapped around Kyuu's neck and face ready to squeeze. "And you seemed to forget you still owe me your throat as close as you are!"

The two were seconds from tearing into one another when the snow white fox shouted, "Enough!" The kindness that San had seen, vanished in seconds. She now exhibited a sense of sterness as she addressed Kyuu and her subordinate. Pulling out the same shotgun she had used earlier to save them, she now aimed the weapon at them both, intending to deescalate the situation. "Back away… now."

They complied, but continued to exchange intense scowls with each other. San shook his head, letting out a defeated sigh. How were they going to make it out of the building with these two at each other's throats? He attempted to shift the conversation back towards productivity.

"Uh, Miss, you said asset? We're not... really educated, could you explain?" He asked meekly.

The leader stowed the weapon away safely and returned her attention back to the young camelid. Her serious demeanor vanished as she smiled warmly at him. Her radiant eyes, piercing and mesmerizing, had him transfixed. He had hardly noticed when she stood up and walked around him, snapping it out it when her hand slapped down on his shoulder. His eye was immediately drawn to her savage looking hands which contrasted her beauty. She was after all a carnivore. A being designed to kill and devour.

"Don't take this the wrong way." She said, speaking into one of his ears. "We did not do all that out of the kindness of our hearts."

The gray fox behind the desk snickered, either amused at the white fox's statement or San's reaction to her getting that close.

"You two as of now are in a position that is beneficial or helpful to our group. That is an asset."

"How so?" He asked, narrowly avoiding a stutter.

"Honestly honey, it's a business." She said pacing around him. "The fight arena like most businesses I'm sure requires knowing your customer or...in this case, audience. " She stopped in front of Kyuu who had gone back reclining in the chair. The rabbit was less receptive of the fox being so close than San, glaring up at the much larger animal, a look that said size didn't matter. The fox merely rolled her eyes at the diminutive herbivore.

" Flopsy here is an interesting attraction. As a small breed, she's a natural underdog when it comes to expectations for fighting. So naturally people are going to bet against her. Which is good. Whenever she wins, we, as in the betting parlor, will earn money from the suckers who bet against her. In that way you are an asset, just like the bear she killed last month used to be." She stopped and corrected herself. "Well..not like... him exactly, people used to bet on him.

"In anycase, just as importantly, word will get around that there is a crazy female rabbit that fights off carnivores." She said with some grandeur latent in her voice. "That's a spectacle...or something people will be amazed to see, and other arenas do not have. It gets bodies in the building, which means more money. " A hint of greed in her tone as she smiled devilishly at the grey furred fox at the mention of money, something her compatriot also seemed pleased with.

"But, why did you attack Kyuu before? Weren't you upset she killed whatshisname?" San asked, still confused about their relationship.

"Initially, yes we were very upset about losing our star attraction, but we did some digging and after learning of your history at the other joints, we wanted to put you to the test. The real reason the pygmy here attacked her was to see if she weren't just a fluke. And she passed."

San looked over to Kyuu who was sulking, growing sour by the minute as she listened to the fox try to sugarcoat the attack.

"So, keeping you alive between fights is now within our best interests. Today's fight was kind of a nail biter, but we won when you won. So in other words, your lives are valuable to the Inarigumi... for now."

"Basically, we own you now. Hehehehe" Lùn remarked, having slinked over to the chair, looking Kyuu dead in the eye and even laughing trying to get under her fur. The rabbit took the bait, reaching over over the armrest and grabbing hold of the fox's collar, boldly growling at the pygmy as they collided nose to nose.

"No one owns us!" She growled.

"You so sure?" The fox growled back.

Just like that they were back at it again, this time butting heads as the fox smashed her head against the herbivore's like two deer clashing antlers in some kind of test of strength. Naturally, Lùn was the stronger of the two, but Kyuu still gave it her all.

Both the black masked fox and San audibly groaned and face palmed as the two tiny terrors continued their quarrel.

"Both of you stop, now." The snow fox ordered. Her order went unheeded, both of them were too riled up to listen.

"You do still owe me a "next time!" The little fox said smugly with a toothy grin. "How about it?"

"Well face me in the arena and we'll see what happens, June !"

Something about that stunned the young fox.

J-June? Did she not remember my name?! She thought.

"June? Bad enough you scarred me, now you can't even get my name right?! My name is Lùn! LOOON! WHAT DO YOU EVEN HAVE THOSE BIG FLOPPY EARS FOR?!" She shouted, grabbing hold and yanking at Kyuu's ears.

"Well if your name wasn't so dumb, I'd remember it!" Kyuu shouted back, as she tried to tug them free of the canid's grasp.

"I'll eviscerate you right now," The vixen screeched. "Maybe when you're holding your guts you'll have reason to remember it." She turned around begging for permission to put the rabbit in her place.

"I SAID STOP, DAMN IT!" The white fox screamed at the top of her lungs.

Kyuu was getting ready to deck the fox while her head was turned away towards the leader.

"Priscilla-senpai come on let me kill her." She begged and pleaded. "Hell, how about I just bite off one of her useless ears?! Deaf bitch, you can live with one!"

Kyuu was just about to swing when she felt two metal tubes press against her head. The little fox's emerald eyes had erased all anger and evolved to fear, shivering as they stared at something behind the rabbit.

Priscilla, was right behind Kyuu, the barrel of her sawed-off pressed firm against her round head with Lùn directly in the line of fire.

"Both of you lock this nonsense down immediately , or I'll paint this office red." She growled through clenched teeth. She had Lùn's full attention.

"Lùn, at this rate I'm gonna need a muzzle for you. This behavior is utterly unacceptable. We were talking business here, not fuel some locker room drama. If you want to remain in my crew you best behave yourself or you will receive a worse punishment than a few beauty marks on your face!" She emphasized by roughly pinching a new scar on the small fox's face. Kyuu noticed it was a fresh scar, not the ones she had given her.

"Do you understand?" Priscilla asked.

"Yes..." Lùn replied faintly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that." Priscilla shouted with bass in her voice.

Lùn spoke with a more compliant tone. "Yes, I understand Onēsan."

"Good little kit." She said cutely petting the younger girl on the head. "Now... leave our assets alone and shut the hell up when grownups are talking!" The white fox growled down at her subordinate.

Lùn sighed defeated, narrowed her eyes at the bunny and nodded before turning her back, sneakily smacking Kyuu across the face with her bushy tail as she turned around. Kyuu would have said something, but let it ride, Priscilla was still nearby with the scattergun.

Regardless of the cease fire, the two still continued to silently throw shade at each other like two warring countries on the border, though Lùn remained where she was for the rest of the meeting near the door with the black mask fox.

Priscilla held her arms behind her back as she paced back and forth in front of the two herbivores.

"We're going to get some things clear: First off, no one owns anyone here, we're not interested in slaves or livestock. That's simply not our racket."

"Second we don't care what you do as long as it does not affect our business. All that we care about is that you fight in our arena, exclusively." She looked down at the sulking rabbit. "Means only here ."

Kyuu narrowed her eyes at the fox insulted, but said nothing.

"As long as you do that, you will be considered under our protection." She said, emphasizing with a flourish.

"And finally, and Lùn this is for you mostly, no one is fighting anyone unless it's in the arena and there is money involved. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Onēsan." The dwarf fox said dejected, but loud enough for Priscilla to hear.

Kyuu limped over towards Priscilla. "So, no more attacks if I kill another one of your fighters?"

Priscilla grinned as she looked down to the young rabbit. "You have my word."

"Trust the word of a fox…Hmmph" The lop muttered which earned her a unfavorable glance from the snow fox.

Priscilla looked over to San one more time, looking away when he returned her glance. His curious expression brought a slight friendly smile that she quickly stifled. San had a feeling about her, apparently something about him in particular interested her. He smiled back, which was met with a nervous frown, followed by her quickly pointing towards the door. "You two are free to go for now, just… just stay out of trouble."

San tugged at Kyuu's shoulder, allowing her to support herself on his leg. "Come on troublemaker, we'll get home somehow."

He took the time to bow respectfully to Priscilla and the other foxes, before heading out the door with Kyuu in tow. The little fox made one last effort to get a dig in, snorting hot air at Kyuu as she passed, earning her a death glare from the rabbit.

The fox didn't care, smiling satisfied she had the last blow in their little fight even though it was clear Priscilla would immediately chew her out for the outbursts.

However, as soon as the pair had made it down the hall, Priscilla had called out from the door and began hastily walking towards them with a parcel in hand.

"Wait up, Fluffy." She said reaching down into the bag, a brown paper bag held what looked like a weapon and 2 black small cylinders with even smaller brass metal lodged in a ring shape inside.

"Seeing as there's probably a riot going on outside and I can't spare anyone at the moment, I got you some added protection." She explained holding the weapon, a firearm. "I was going to give it to you in the office, but Bigmouth made it slip my mind."

San studied the gun closely, it was a snub-nosed revolver, double action, she said, whatever that meant. He was surprised she was giving him a weapon.

"Have you ever used one before?" She asked, her vibrant apricot eyes staring into his brown ones. San sheepishly shook his head, both as a no and because he found it hard to stay focused, but he did know about firearms despite the inexperience. Both he and Kyuu had seen weapons like these before at least on some of the handlers in the Livestock tower in their youth. They had even seen a few in action whenever a customer became too unruly or when one of them attempted to escape. They were very loud, like thunder, a deafening weapon.

"I'm a quick learner though." He replied trying to regain some confidence.

Priscilla smirked at him, "Hmph, pay attention then." She said as she got behind him, pressing into his back. They were roughly the same size, with her muzzle nestling on his shoulder as she placed her arms around his. "Hold it." She told him. "Go ahead hold it."

San complied, taking the weapon in his hand. "See how heavy it is?" She said letting go, giving him a good idea of the weight. "It's heavy huh? That's a good thing. Always remember if you run out of ammunition, you can still use this as a weapon. If anyone gets close, just bash em' with it. Right upside the head or on the nose. This can crack skulls if you hit em hard enough. Even someone like you can do some damage with one of these. Got it?" He gave her a side glance and a quick nod of his head, which got him one of her smiles.

"Alright what I want you to do is hold it like this. Don't put your finger on the trigger unless you are ready to fire."

She cupped her hands around his forcing his fingers into the correct positions.

"Greenhorn like you probably needs to use sights, that's what this little metal sheet up here with the tiny gap is for, You want to line that gap up with the little metal piece at the end."

San quickly saw what she meant as the piece settled in between the gap.

"That's called the sight. Whatever is in front of that should be your target." She said.

"Next, you can load the rounds like this." She said taking the weapon back and opened the cylinder by pushing it out with her right finger and pushed down a pipe like thing sticking out of the chamber with her thumb. The weapon was empty obviously. She reached in the bag, pulling a cylinder loaded with bullets and shoved them all into the back of the cylinder attached to the gun. "Once you have them all in, close the cylinder again and you should be good to go. You can do them individually, but time will probably be of the essence."

"You got it, sweetie?" She slyly asked the boy, looking down at his short wagging tail as brushed against her stomach. It tickled almost causing her let a giggle escape, but Pris held off trying to remain focused. San seemed to notice as she looked over his shoulder briefly, before darting back to the weapon, nodding that he understood. She caught it, but didn't say a word, silently amused at his demeanor. Most herbivores would be terrified being this close to someone like her, and he was like a child that had received a Rexmas gift or something.

San held the pistol in front of him, trying to practice lining up the shot like she said, aiming for a worn down poster at the end of the hall, his eyes adjusting fast as the target became clear. His eyesight was pretty spot on and he already could pick up things pretty easy. Detail was important and just something he was taught to take in whenever possible. It made his job and survival easier.

"You seem to on top of things, I'm glad honestly," She said. "Because I'd hate to explain this again."

"Now, the most important rule. Don't point the damn thing at people unless you are ready to shoot and don't be an idiot and shoot your freaking foot off. Just remember; this is a weapon that demands respect, if you or anyone else doesn't respect it, there is going to be consequences." She warned, circling around him trying to drive that point in.

"Now don't get cocky with this, I don't expect you to be a crack shot on the first day, but this weapon should get the message across that you are to be left alone. Don't go looking for a fight and try to stick close to light sources. Stay out of the dark zones and use this only when you have to."

"I understand, Priscilla-san"

"You can just call me Pris, sweetie."

Just as San began pocketing the gun, she pulled the sawed-off from her hip in a quick action and held San's mainhand in place with a strong grip while pointing the shotgun in his face.

"Another thing," Her calm snow-white face evolved into a fierce grimace. Those same orange eyes that had so much warmth now possessed the predator gaze San was too familiar with. "Don't ever think of using it on us. You'll be dead before you can pull the trigger. Got it Hon'?" She said with menace, the ease with which she had shut him down reinforcing the message. He hadn't even had the time to tug the weapon out of his pocket, before her hand wrapped around his wrist.

As San frantically nodded, eyes finally wrought with fear, her face immediately dropped the malicious facade and morphed back to friendly. She smiled and blushed at the sight of his expression, bringing some pinkish color to her white coat just under her eyes.

"You're kinda cute when you're scared, y'know that?" She said with a playful giggle, her fangs poking through as she laughed. "Hmmph...I could just eat you up. Hehehehe."

Was this fox really flirting or was she serious? He wondered. Right after she just threatened his life? San nervously laughed it off as just more dark humor.

"Are you done?" A voice asked.

Kyuu was standing below her with her arms crossed, not impressed by her antics in the slightest.

"Yes, you can go now. Just stay safe, I mean it. I better not see you two on the market in the morning or splattered somewhere as leftovers."

San started off down the staircase a little shaken, while Kyuu stayed briefly to glare at Priscilla. "We... appreciate the help Pissilla-san. Thank you." She said begrudgingly before bowing.

Anger briefly flared in Priscilla's eyes, but she calmed down. She didn't want to sink to Lùn's level and merely let the rabbit have that one. She merely gave a forced smile and plainly pointed down the hall for the rabbit to leave.

"Don't test me you little bitch. Get out of here." She said through clenched teeth.

Kyuu rolled her eyes and followed San down the stairway. As they left, the raccoon Baraki approached Priscilla nervously from the stairwell.

"C-can I have my office back now?" He sheepishly asked.

Priscilla beckoned for the raccoon to enter. "Sure, but first Baraki-san, we are going to have to discuss security around here."