8 years ago, Big Bear Cat Hospital - Gouhin's Study
Gouhin awoke with a startled gasp in his study. His face, a bit numb from resting on his desk, the fur on his cheek saturated from a puddle of spittle. He nearly knocked over his little lamp as he clumsily sat up and yawned. The result of another all-nighter he imagined.
"Aw, fuck…"
He picked up the avian medical journal he had literally buried his nose prior to dozing off and folded a page to bookmark his place, before standing up and stretching.
"What time is it?" He asked himself, his voice slurred from his drowsy stupor. He looked up and tried to focus on the bamboo clock above him, making out that it was currently 3:00 AM. Kinda late, but not too late, he thought.
It was the weekend and not a workday. He could probably tie one on later, break out some of his good booze. Maybe hang out with some of his colleagues working the weekends downstairs. Or better yet, he could attempt to be a decent husband for once. His wife was probably asleep upstairs and some quality time snuggling with the missus could be just what the doctor ordered.
Rex knows he and Chabi hadn't slept in the same bed, at the same time, in weeks. Their jobs just made it almost that impossible. Between their busy hospital shifts, his patrols out into the market, the rehabilitations, the kids, they hardly ever saw each other much anymore and had fun anymore, their schedules just didn't line up.
She worked the evening shift as a resident doctor and he worked the mornings as a psychiatrist and usually, he went out on patrol after hours. She dropped the kids off at school and he usually could make sure they got home and had something to eat. Sure they saw each other occasionally on the weekends and on their respective breaks sometimes, but the last time he'd even held a meaningful conversation with her was about… two weeks ago he thought, one of his berserk patients sliced open his arm one morning and she stitched him back up. That wasn't exactly a pleasant conversation either, he recalled.
He sighed and ran his claws over the soft fuzz of his forehead. This is your fault Gouhin, he thought. He missed the golden years when they were just a pair of young medical students, working under his old man's wing. They had such aspirations to be this dynamic duo, partners in the medical world, helping people who needed help. He let himself have a little chuckle at how foolishly naive they were.
God, they were such dumb kids back then. She'd fix them up and he'd help them recover. That was the dream. Things changed though. He went into the military service like his old man and they had a kid. Then he started helping wayward carnivores in the market, and then he burdened their household with more kids. She still was pretty tender about that.
He sighed again and shook his head. "I think I might have that drink first." He said to himself, standing up and heading towards his mini-fridge.
Suddenly the bear heard a faint noise. He stopped dead in his tracks and his ears perked up to listen.
*Thud*
There it was again. He listened closely and began to notice a series of rhythmic striking noises, their origin seeming to come from down the hall. More accurately he could tell it was coming from his weight room.
*Thud* *Thud*
Someone was touching his stuff, the panda angrily huffed as he armed himself with his bamboo staff. This was his private floor, no one but him should be up here at this hour but him.
Whoever it is, they got some nerve!
He slid along the wall, ironically creeping like an expert thief in the night, staff in hand as he neared the room's entrance. He could see some of the lights were on and the thuds started to become more frequent and he could make out the sounds of high-pitched grunting? Like that of a smaller animal. Or more than likely that of a child. His grip on the staff loosened as he realized one of the kids must be up here he thought. The little brats were home from school and had free reign of the upper floors. It was probably his son, Chuan, if anything, he thought.
The grunts and thuds sounded more frenetic as he neared the entrance like he was hitting the heavy bag that he used to train his punches. The boy had a martial arts competition at school coming up soon if he remembered correctly. Maybe he was trying to moonlight some secret work-outs? Still, even then, that boy knew better than to screw around with his equipment without supervision, especially this late at night. He could hurt himself or worse and no one would be around to help him!
"Boy, you better have a damn good explanation!" He half-seriously threatened as he slid into the room, and flicked on the main switch.
The dimly lit room became fully illuminated as the rest of the lights flickered on. Gouhin had a smug grin on his face, as he entered trying to scare the boy. But soon, his expression twisted to surprise. It wasn't Chuan like he thought, rather it was his other kids. The young lop rabbit girl he had taken under his wing, Kyuu, and the young llama boy, San. They were still in their school uniforms. The girl had been the one making all this racket, striking the giant heavy bag like a tiny mad beast possessed, while the taller boy held it in place.
"Hold it right, San!" Kyuu growled at him, as if somehow oblivious to the bear doctor behind her.
"Kyuu? San?" He asked, confused. "Just what the hell do you think you two are doing in here?"
San, however, as soon as heard and laid eyes on the panda, he ran and hid, concealing himself behind the bear's weight lifting bench. Kyuu on the other hand paused briefly, heaved an indignant sigh at his cowardice, and just resumed her fierce assault on the relatively giant punching bag regardless if it was being held or not. It was almost comical, she could barely even reach the damn thing.
She had no clue what the hell she was doing either, too amateur. As someone who hit the bag a lot himself, he couldn't help but notice everything wrong with her technique. She was putting way too much effort into hitting the damn bag, throwing all her weight into it, and if he let her continue, she'd tire herself out. Not only that she wasn't wearing any proper protection on her knuckles as she hit the dense bag of sand, if she kept this up she'd ruin her hands as well in no time. Her hands had to be inflamed by now, yet she had the drive to hit it over and over, all despite the pain he could clearly hear in her grunts. There was a lot of negative emotion behind her punches, he could tell.
"What the hell are you doing?!" The panda asked her again, more assertively this time, however again she said nothing. Gouhin's brow quickly furrowed at the audacity, she was ignoring him.
This little runt! He thought as he ground his fangs together. She'd always been the more hardheaded of the two.
"What? Am I a ghost to you or something, runt?!", the bear snarled, stomping over and grabbing hold of the leather pillar, jerking it out of her reach. "I asked you a question!" He barked down at her.
"What?!" She snapped back at him, as if annoyed, rage seething in her oddly hoarse but high-pitched voice. Sounded like she had been crying a lot. "Let me hit it some more!"
"Do you two have any idea how much trouble you two are in-" The panda roared, unleashing a typhoon's force on the brats before stopping short and rubbing his eyes briefly just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"What the hell?"
What he saw as he finally got a good look at her from the front made his jaw drop in shock. He hadn't noticed it until now, but she was hurt. Someone had beaten her pretty badly. His first instinct as a doctor was to assess the damage, his second as a parent was to know who or what had done this.
"What happened to you!" He asked, checking her out.
Her left eye had swollen shut, she could only see out of her right. She had various cuts, scrapes, and bruises covering her body with some bandaids poorly placed to cover them up. Her white dress uniform was a mess too, dirty and tattered with dried blood soaked into the neck.
The rabbit hesitated briefly before exhaling a depressed sigh. She recognized that there was no point hiding it.
"We got jumped after school and I beat up. Isn't it obvious?" She answered, looking down as if ashamed.
School? Right! He hadn't picked them up today and they had to walk to the hospital. That damn public school, Inoki Prefectural. It was a decent enough school from when he was a cub, but the area wasn't the same after they set up the Back-Alley Markey. Still, it was what they could afford sending their son to and he even managed to bribe the headmaster to overlook the little urchins' sketchy history and get them enrolled, but he imagined it got pretty rough over there, nonetheless.
"Who did it? Give me their names." He asked after he had gone and got a first aid kit, anger smoldering off of him almost like heat waves as he began treating her wounds.
"I don't need you fighting my battles!" She barked back at him stubbornly, as he applied a cold pack to her eye.
Gouhin wasn't having it. "Names, now." He demanded.
The rabbit scowled at him with her good eye and growled before coming forth with a name. "Alright. Her name is Junko."
"Junko?" He asked, unfamiliar with the brats down that school of theirs.
"She's one of our classmates," San finally said, speaking up and coming out from his hiding spot. His uniform was scuffed as well, but nowhere near the disaster that the rabbit's was. "Junko is one of the herbivore children that picks on us. She's a female Jackrabbit. She's really mean."
"Junko picks on San and me after class." The rabbit hissed. "She makes fun of our names and she always threatens to shear San's wool off and sell it on the market!"
"She also makes fun of Kyuu cuz she's short and her ears don't go up like the other rabbits at school." The boy added.
"Just got us today because you didn't pick us up," Kyuu said bitterly, clenching her fists. "She's a real bitch!"
"Watch your mouth." The panda chastised, as he finished wrapping the cold pack over her eye. "Now tell me, how come a teacher hasn't called to let me know about all these shenanigans?" He asked incredulously. "And how come you didn't go and get Chuan? I told you if you have trouble down there you go and get him! Surely a bear would have made this Junko rabbit think twice."
"Because Chuan was still at school. He has club time on Fridays after school. And because Junko is smart enough to screw with us after school on the way home. She knows the teachers are going to do jack squat if it's off school grounds! We have no proof so they won't believe us!" The rabbit explained. "This was planned. They knew Chuan was staying behind after class for his Martial Arts Club so they decided today to jump us today."
"They?" The panda asked, quickly noticing there was now a 'they' involved in this madness. "Who is 'they ?"
"Junko and her friends." San nervously explained. "A bunch of other herbivores from the area. They teamed up and ambushed us down by Dairoko's Drugstore. They pinned me down and pulled out a pair of clippers trying to shear me. Kyuu managed to slip free and get them off of me."
"Junko needs her little gang to take us on!" Kyuu boasted. "I told San to run while I distracted them. He went and got Chuan, but by the time they got back I had already gotten away."
"Wait! You distracted them?!" The panda rested his head within his palms as he continued to listen. "Should have been the other way around!" He growled at her. "Just what the hell are you doing telling him to go get help?" The bear angrily barked, throwing his hands up. "Where is the damn logic here?!"
He looked at San, "Son, you need to man up. You're the bigger animal here, you should be able to take your own lumps like a man! If anything you should be telling her to go get help, she's smaller and faster!"
"I-I-" The boy stammered. "I can-"
"Save your breath, he's a wuss!" She shouted back as if offended, angrily pointing at the llama. "He may be bigger than me, but I kick way more ass than him anyway!"
"Shut up!" San cried.
"You need to hear the truth, you big baby!" Kyuu responded.
"Ugh! Why do you always have to be so mean about it!" The llama yelled running up and trying to grab her up and pin her to the ground.
"Someone has to be mean!" The small rabbit said as she effortlessly sidestepped and tripped the taller animal, sending him crashing to the floor. "Show them that we aren't afraid of them! You're too nice! They walk all over you!"
"But I don't wanna fight them, they're like us." He said, rubbing his nose.
"They aren't like us, you dummy!" She shouted at him. "They are worse than the carnivores at the Tower! They look down on animals like us!"
"But...but... they're like us..." The boy stammered in a despondent fashion.
"That's why they always pick on us cuz you're such a big gullible pussy!" She spat, jabbing her finger at him. "I deserve your tall body. You deserve to be a rabbit! In fact, you're the one that deserves a pussy, not me!"
The llama turned and got to his feet. "I-I do not!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, becoming red in the face as tears started forming in his eyes.
"That's enough Kyuu!" Gouhin barked again, moving in to stop the argument.
"Then why do I always have to step in for you!" She yelled back at San, ignoring Gouhin. "You never stick up for yourself! You're an easy target for them!"
"Well, I'm sticking up for myself now!" San proclaimed, angrily hurling himself on top of her, pinning her shoulders to the floor. The two glared at each other with flashed teeth.
"Both of you stop this!" Gouhin ordered as he tried to pull the boy off of her.
"Of course you show some backbone now when it doesn't matter!" She shouted back right before brutally kneeing San square in the nuts.
The small boy uttered a pain-filled groan as he instinctively loosened his grip, his hands going straight downstairs to protect his wounded nethers.
She fights dirty, the panda observed. A small part of him was actually impressed at how scrappy she was, the other half was understandably pissed and concerned for the boy's safety and the mayhem unfolding in front of him.
The rabbit immediately took advantage and slipped out from under San before jumping on his back, pulling him loose from the bear's grip, and then slipping her arm around the taller boy's neck, pushing into his back for a hectic headlock.
"Get...off!" He cried, trying to buck her off.
"Maybe if you showed this kinda nerve at school, they'd leave us alone!" She growled in his ears while he struggled to free himself.
"That is enough!"The bear roared at both of them at his loudest decibel. The bear's booming voice struck fear in both of the children who ceased all hostilities. He yanked the girl off of San by the arm, and stood the boy up, and set him on his workout bench, the young camelid began sniffling and sobbing as he massaged his neck and cupped his tender balls.
"C'mon boy, stop crying over there!" The bear said, looking over towards San as the boy's eyes started to water. "Toughen up! This world is gonna hurt a helluva lot more than that, so pick yourself up and harden yourself."
He then looked back at the rabbit dangling in his other hand. "And you, you need to stop being so damn blunt with him! He's your brother damn it, and he's probably one of your closest allies down at that jungle of school. So it's best you treat him with some respect because you need allies!"
"It's the truth though, he needs to hear the truth doesn't he?!" The short stack rabbit fired back at the giant. "Besides, I held my own pretty well today all by myself! I showed those jerks that I'm not a pushover by myself! " She said, raising her fists.
"She's not lying, some of that blood isn't hers." San managed to add, wiping away his tears.
"Is that so?" The panda asked, marginally impressed, crossing his arms.
"Yeah. I made sure Junko lost a few teeth and I kicked one of her flunkies right in the balls before they were done with me! Had him screaming on the ground worse than San was."
The boy just glowered at her silently for that slight.
"Well you still look like I need to take you downstairs to the emergency room, 'you' and 'held your own' do not belong in the same sentence right now Kyuu." He remarked.
"Hmph." She stubbornly scoffed.
"What am I going to do with you kids?" He asked himself, scratching his chin. He'd dealt with bullies before in his youth, and punks from around this part of town were all the same no matter the generation or species. If you were weak, they took advantage. You had to show that you were strong to survive. Something like this incident would only be the beginning he feared. Quite the predicament
He couldn't just let this harassment situation continue either, but he also couldn't neglect his job with his patients. He could just have Chuan quit Martial Arts Club, and just escort them home. But Chabi probably would kill him as the club has been a big thing in the boy's life, he couldn't tread over his dream like that especially when it was one of the things he got into while he was gone.
"Just continue to let me train in here, Gouhin-sama, that's all I ask." Kyuu beckoned as he pondered. "That's why I'm in here now, I'm trying to get stronger so I can fend for myself!" She shouted, stamping her feet and just punching the air around her. "Junko wants to screw with me, I'll get stronger and make her regret lifting a finger at us!"
"Out of the question, now hush." The panda said, dismissively. "I'm thinking."
"But-"
"I want to get stronger too," The young camelid chimed in, trying to sound tough. "I wanna take care of myself … I'm not a pussy. " He said dejectedly under his breath.
"Uuuhhhh." The panda sighed and his face slightly cringed as the kids continued to lay all of their problems at his feet. He listened to people's problems for a living, but this was ridiculous, listening to these brats go on and on about things they barely understood. He had enough hearing the sob stories from his patients. Then it hit him, what if he just treated them like they were his patients? Just try at least.
He collated all the data he'd seen so far and quickly came up with a hypothesis. The boy just wants to escape further emasculation, so some inclusion would be necessary. And the girl, she's the worst off of the two, she just wants to prove herself. So let's see what happens when we take them seriously.
"We're tired of people picking on us and I'm tired of being seen as some pushover!" Kyuu continued to rant. "I hate being this weak- I-"
Suddenly she was eclipsed inside of a large shadow and a heavy burden dropped onto both sides of her shoulder. Her eye was soon drawn to the panda's relatively humongous black hands that almost completely draped over her upper torso. She focused on his sharp nails with awe.
"You wanna get stronger?" The bear asked, shifting the focus.
The rabbit quickly nodded yes, eager for more strength than her body could allow. She wanted to be strong like him.
"How about you start by not breaking your knuckles on my heavy bag, huh?" He said, plainly, confusing her. "How bout you hit something more your speed?"
Gouhin kneeled down and looked her in the eye, a fang-filled smile grinned at her. She stared right back at him, attentively, but slack-jawed.
"Hit me." He plainly requested.
"What?" She asked, confused.
He raised up his large black hand, easily bigger than her own head.
"Punch my hand," He instructed. "Let's see how strong you've become tonight, huh?"
She hesitated, utterly intimidated by the gigantic bear's black paw.
"Stop wasting my time and hit my hand!" Gouhin yelled, trying to egg her on. "C'mon Tough girl! Show me what you got! What are you? A weakling, huh?!"
"Hrrrrrrrrgh!" The rabbit screamed as she hurled her left fist into the panda's palm. Her first made a loud smack as it made an impact, the panda said nothing, no grunt, no groan. It didn't even phase him.
"That's the best you got? Hahaha! No wonder you got beat up. Hahahaha!" He laughed, taunting her with a cocky grin he knew probably pissed her off. "C'mon! Hit me like you mean it!"
The rabbit's brows furrowed as she scowled at him before throwing her right hand with even more force. "Arrrrrrrgh!" She roared as her fist slammed into his hand again.
There was another even louder smack that echoed through the room as she stood there with her arm extended,her chest heaved up and down as she stared at her fist pressed into the wall that was the panda's hand.
She swore she heard a faint grunt. Her eyes tracked upward and saw the panda looking back down on her with a slight wince and a confident smile.
"That's the best you got? I think I ' bearly' felt that one. Hahaha!" He said, laughing at his own bad pun.
The mocking got to her something fierce. Anger filled the herbivore once more as she summoned enough strength to try even harder. Another smack.
"Ow! That's more like it!" He said this time, his fingers actually moved and fidgeted. "Again." He requested and she obliged.
"Again."
"Again."
"Again!"
"Again!"
"Again!"
She picked up speed as she began to lay punch after punch into Gouhin's hand, over and over, each time he requested she hit him again.
"Keep going!" He beckoned. "Don't let up!"
"Again!"
"Again!"
The more he requested, the harder and faster she tried to punch, trying to be better than the last, each time trying to make him react, she thirsted for each grunt she could make him utter. Her body began warming up and eventually, a smile began to form on her face. This was much more fun than the bag earlier.
Eventually, Gouhin pulled his hand away, right as the rabbit swung as hard as she could, almost teetering over from her momentum.
"Alright, that's enough." He said, shaking off the pain from his aching hand. "Feel better?" He asked.
"Huh?" She asked, out of breath, sweat pouring from her body. She looked up at him very confused.
"Hitting me like that. Made you feel good, didn't it?" He inquired.
The panting and winded rabbit looked down at her hands then back to him. "Yeah…" She admitted. It felt like she had punched all her problems away. "Felt good."
"That feeling is called catharsis," Gouhin said. "You forced all that negative stress out of your system into my resistant hand."
"Cat-tar-siss," she slowly mouthed, trying to pronounce the strange word.
"Close enough," He said with a sigh, before placing his hand on her shoulder. "Look…uh...When I have the time," He clarified with a raised finger. "I'm going to train the both of you. I'll teach ya how to handle these punks at school. You and San too." He said, glancing over at the young llama.
"Really?!" They both asked. The rabbit's eyes lit up with excitement while San had a slight smile forming on his face.
"Really." The bear answered, matter-of-factly. "No one screws with my kids. Also no more using my equipment behind my back!"
"Why? We can handle your equipment!" She asked indignantly.
"Do you have any inkling of how dangerous this equipment is for pipsqueaks like you?!" The bear growled at her as quickly hefted the bag off it's supporting hook and let it fall to the ground with a loud resounding thud, the impact that almost knocked the two youngsters off balance.
"You felt that, right?" He asked. "What if you somehow managed to knock that off the hook and it landed on top of you or him? Huh?!"
The two were silent, with nothing to really counter that with. No way they could really lift that bag off the floor, not even a larger kid like San.
"And besides that, you were hitting the damn thing like it's meant for someone your size. You're lucky I woke up when I did before you inevitably broke something! Hell, your hands aren't even wrapped!" He said, continuing to dress them down.
Kyuu looked at her hands and noticed the raw and purple bruising starting to form on her knuckles and her eyes darted to the side. He had made his point, but she didn't want to acknowledge it.
"I don't ever want to see you brats in here without my permission or my supervision. You hear me?!" He sternly growled at them.
"Yes…" They both said.
"Yes, what?!" He snarled, fishing for some goddamn respect from them.
"Yes sir!" They both passionately corrected, giving him the proper respect.
"Now you listen up, and you better listen good." The bear said. "You are under no circumstances supposed to use what I teach you to pick fights with people. I'm only teaching you this so you will be able to defend yourselves from those punks at school. It better not get back to me about you two starting shit at that school. If it does, we're through. Done. You understand?"
"Yes sir!" Both herbivores exclaimed.
"And the second a carnivore gets involved, you two better run far away at the earliest chance and get help. You get me?"
"Yes sir!" They both shouted again.
Gouhin however didn't find Kyuu's tone convincing. He leaned down and stared at her. "Kyuu… do you get me? No carnivores. " The bear said, looking directly at the rabbit.
"Yes sir! I get you!" She shouted obediently, with a frown on her face.
Gouhin stared at her for a brief moment before standing back up and heading towards a closet.
"Alright, now wait right there, I should have something for you two." He said as he started to fish around in the closet. After a few moments of noisily rummaging, he came out carrying a much smaller punching bag, an old worn-looking bag around a third the size of the one she had been using.
"If you're going to work out and hit the bag, you're going to do it right." He said as he sat it down, much to the amazement of the rabbit who looked like she had just got her Rexmas gifts early.
"This was Chuan's old bag from when he was a cub, really it was mine before him but hand me downs...yadda yadda. Anyway, you both ought to be able to hit on this no problem. I got some more of his old weight equipment in there as well."
"Thank you, Gouhin-sama!" The rabbit cried, hugging his leg and running over to the bag, starting to stick it with some heavy punches and kicks. San too had an invested interest, trying to get a turn in at hitting it. Gouhin just sighed and smiled slightly as the kids had their fun.
"Now the both of you stop what you're doing and... Drop down and give me fifty!" He barked at them all of a sudden.
"What?" Both herbivores asked in surprise.
"You heard me." The panda gruffly replied, folding his arms and standing over them like a rigid drill instructor. "Push-ups! Now!
"We're starting tonight?!" San asked with widened surprise.
The bear started to snicker as a wicked grin spread across his scarred-up maw. "Oh? Did you two forget that I caught you in here unsupervised and without my permission?! No way in hell you're getting off that easy you runts! It's the least you can do! Now get to pushing!"
"B-b-but I'm exhausted now!" Kyuu protested.
"Now it's a hundred. Any more back talk and it goes up." Gouhin cruelly added.
Kyuu started to say something else smart but held her tongue. Gouhin just smirked at her. If they were gonna keep him up this late they were going to pay for his time.
"You want to get strong dontcha? Well, you're going to put in the work right here and right now. Get to it!"
"Yes, sir!" they both replied as they obediently dropped to the floor and began pushing up in tandem.
-to be continued