The two chimeras stared at Lee's bunk with great apprehension. Ibuki scratched his head. "So uhh… How're we doing this?"
Lee pointed at the bunk. "You get in first."
"Why?"
"You'll be up against the wall and if some dude with a knife comes in, he needs to get past me first."
"What if I need to use the restroom?"
"I guess you'll have to wake me up."
The two awkwardly stared at the bed again. With a sigh, Ibuki crawled into the bunk and got under the covers. Lee sighed as well before joining him.
Suddenly, somebody wolf-whistled at them.
Lee turned his head to see Alfred grinning mischievously. The wolf-rabbit gave him the finger as the rest of the dorm giggled at them. Assholes.
Ibuki got as close to the wall as he could. But when Lee got in, it was apparent there was no way for them to share this bed without their bodies touching.
Oscar chuckled from the lower bunk. "Don't get any ideas, boys! I gotta be able to sleep!"
Lee growled. "Piss off!"
Again, the chimeras found the entire dorm laughing at them.
The two shifted around, trying to get comfortable.
Stanley giggled. "You two should cuddle!"
Ibuki snarled. "I hate your roommates right now."
The chimeras both closed their eyes as the lights shut off. Now, all they have to do is fall asleep.
Lee started blushing as he realized he was actually somewhat enjoying the deer-wolf's warmth. He sighed. For a second he considered asking Ibuki's permission for a cuddle. It's not inherently sexual. Hell, according to Viola, her and Sebastian cuddle every night. But he got the feeling his request would get denied pretty hard.
Sleep did not come easily to the wolf-rabbit, though. His eyes were closed, his mind was blank, yet he couldn't sleep. Something was bothering him and he didn't know what. It had to do with Ibuki being in his bed, right?
He opened his eyes and looked at the other chimera, who was asleep on his back. Ibuki looked different when he was sleeping. Lee was used to Ibuki looking either stressed, condescending, or angry. Seeing him so peaceful was certainly a nice change.
The wolf-rabbit felt terrible for Ibuki. How is it even possible to have such a large group of people coming after you just for being born? The two never had to put up with assassination attempts in grade and middle school. Why was there suddenly an organized effort to end Ibuki's life? Who the hell is "King Koffee" anyway? Is he responsible for this?
Lee took a deep breath. Thinking about this won't help him sleep. All he could do was close his eyes and hope to drift off.
The next morning, Lee slowly opened his eyes. He yawned loudly as he woke up. What was strange though, was that the chimera felt something warm on his back. He could also feel something around his chest and waist. It took him a while to realize that the things around his torso were somebody's arms. So that meant the thing on his back was...
Lee started blushing and breaking out into a cold sweat as he could feel Ibuki's breath on the back of his neck. How can he possibly get out of this situation without the deer-wolf waking up? Or his roommates for that matter.
The wolf-rabbit started slowly squirming away from Ibuki.
"...Wha- What the hell?!"
Lee shouted in surprise as he suddenly found himself getting violently shoved out of his own bed, landing face down on the floor. "Oof!"
The chimera's roommates stirred from the sudden noise. Lee got into an upright sitting position.
Ibuki crawled out of the bed with an enraged face. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
Lee growled. "Me?! When I woke up youwere the one with your arms around me!"
There was dead silence in the room. Lee's roommates started staring at them until they all erupted into uproarious laughter.
Both chimeras blushed as they were suddenly being mocked by the entire dorm. Lee's ears covered his face as he began to wish he was dead.
After an embarrassing morning, the chimeras learned that the police didn't encounter any suspicious individuals. Still, due to the threat, campus security around the carnivore dorms was to be ramped up in the evening.
For everyone else, it was back to normal classes. Lee sat in the lecture hall, staring off into space, wondering how he could even possibly live an average student life now.
Lee and his usual group of friends were in the Gardening Club shed together. Theo sat on the bed, reading through the Coffee Club's chat.
Olivia crossed her arms in contemplation. "That chat will only help for so long. Once they figure out we've been using the chat to ruin their plans, they'll find another way to contact each other."
Esther held her head and groaned. "This is such a damn headache. I just want it to end."
Lee turned to Theo. "So are there any leads on King Coffee's identity yet?"
Theo slowly shook his head.
This was infuriating beyond belief. They were stuck in a dead-end. How do they unmask the Coffee Club's leader?
Oscar tilted his head. "Should we show this to the police?"
Viola frowned. "The cops aren't even aware of a conspiracy to kill Ibuki-kun."
Sebastian nodded. "And if we tell the cops, they'll take the phone and we won't be able to spy on their chat anymore."
Esther shrugged. "I mean, if the cops know, then couldn't theywarn Ibuki of ambushes?"
Theo shook his head. "They speak in code. If the cops read the chat they may not be able to figure out what it means until it's too late."
Lee nodded. "You can't trust them to do the right thing anyway. They might even use Ibuki-kun as bait."
Oscar raised an eyebrow. "Really? The government isn't thatcorrupt, right?"
Lee glared at Oscar. "When my mom was kidnapped, the mayor didn't do anything. He left her to die."
Everyone fell silent. Lee shook his head. "You can't trust the authorities around here. They didn't stop the Shishigumi, they didn't stop Riz, and they didn't stop Melon. They're not good for anything."
There was a long and awkward silence as the group looked at each other, expecting someone to say something. But nobody had a retort.
Ibuki sighed. "Let's talk about this another time. Maybe something will turn up in the chat soon."
The group nodded their heads and filed out of the shed. Esther and Olivia were the only ones that stayed behind.
Lee started heading down the hallway.
"Lee-kun, wait."
The chimera turned to see Ibuki looking at him apologetically.
The deer-wolf sighed. "I'm sorry about what happened this morning. I kinda overreacted."
Lee chuckled. "It was pretty surprising, considering you're the one that wanted to date me."
Ibuki blushed before looking sad. "I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was concerned about you judging me." He chuckled nervously. "But I'm guessing getting shoved out of your bed just made things way worse."
The wolf-rabbit shrugged. "I'm not upset about it anymore. You've been under way more stress than I can imagine."
Ibuki looked askance. "I need to thank you again. For everything. Without you, I'd be dead."
Lee chuckled. "Don't worry about it."
Ibuki shook his head. "I doworry about it. When I first came here I was angry that you were in the same school. I never wanted to see you again. But if I didn't…" The deer-wolf rubbed his face in frustration. "I've treated you like trash. Just because I was scared to admit I had a crush."
Lee looked a little sad. "I wasn't great to you either. I should've figured out earlier what you've been going through. But I guess I was just too pissed off to think about what youmight be feeling." He chuckled. "You weren't wrong about me. I pretty much try to punch my way through my problems."
Ibuki snorted. "Well, if the problem is somebody trying to kill me, punch away!"
The two chimeras laughed heartily, finally feeling free from the stress, if only temporarily.
Olivia pointed at a line on a piece of paper. "This one is?"
Esther stared at the paper for a long time in complete silence. She tried to set her mind to work on the problem in front of her face. Yet, it only seemed interested in what Ibuki was going through. Focused only on how to put an end to this group that was threatening him.
Olivia looked at her girlfriend with concern and sadness. She placed her right hand on Esther's left, and the white tiger in return placed her right hand on top of Olivia's.
Esther smiled as she looked at the black lab. At least she wasn't alone. The white tiger pulled her into a tight hug, which the two held on for a while.
The white tiger took a deep breath and pulled away, giving Olivia a kiss on the lips before turning her attention back to the paper. "Four-hundred seventy-three."
Olivia nodded with a smile. "That's right."
After an uneventful day at Drama Club, Lee escorted Ibuki safely back to his dorm before heading back to his own. On the way, he noticed something strange. Oscar, covered in sweat, was peeking around the corner of one of the buildings. Lee, curious, went to investigate.
"Whatcha lookin' at?"
Oscar jumped somewhat, startled by the chimera sneaking up on him. "D-don't do that!"
Lee cleared his throat. "Sorry. What're you looking at?"
Oscar blushed. "Umm. There's this girl… and…"
The chimera smiled. "Oh? You have a crush?"
The harlequin rabbit nodded but looked sad. "I don't think she'd be interested in me since I'm so fat, though."
Lee shrugged. "From what I've seen, you've been pretty diligent about losing weight. If she's not interested now, maybe she'll like you after you slim down."
Oscar sighed. "I'd love to date her. But even if I was thin, it still wouldn't work out."
Lee tilted his head. "Why's that?"
Oscar looked at the ground with a sad expression. "I don't think Mom would let me."
The chimera raised an eyebrow before looking around the corner and was surprised by what he saw. A snow-white, female rabbit was leaning against a wall, texting on her phone. Lee could tell just by looking at her that she was a Netherlands dwarf rabbit, the same species as his own mother.
Lee turned back to Oscar. "She's a rabbit. If you wanted to have children with her, you totally could."
Oscar shook his head. "Mom wants me to find a harlequin rabbit girl so we can preserve our race."
The chimera looked appalled. "That's total bullshit, though! It's yourheart. You can give it to whoever you want."
The harlequin rabbit sighed. "If I don't find a harlequin rabbit girl, Mom will disown me. She told me herself."
Lee's fist tightened somewhat. First the weight loss crap, now this. The chimera's lip twitched. "Your mother is scum."
Oscar shrugged. "I still love her, though. She's my mom."
The chimera growled. "It's bullshit, though! You told me yourself, you got all this weight through stress eating because she mistreated you! Now she's threatening to disown you for that andnot dating a harlequin rabbit?! It's yourfuture, dude! She doesn't get a say in it!"
The harlequin rabbit looked wistful. "It's still my responsibility to preserve my race."
Lee looked dumbfounded. "Says who?! What's even the difference between harlequin rabbits and other lapines?! Fur color?!" He sighed. "This isn't up to her. The only responsibility you have is to find somebody that can make youhappy."
Oscar smiled wryly. "You wouldn't get it, Lee-kun. But I appreciate the thought." The rabbit walked off. "Meet you back at the dorm."
The chimera gritted his teeth in anger. What he wouldn't give to beat Mizuchi within an inch of her life.
Ibuki sighed as he got back to the dorms. Nobody else was there yet, which made him a tad nervous, so he locked the door, just to be safe. He walked over to his bed and flopped down onto it, hard.
He suddenly heard a strange noise. Something above him fell down. He sat up and saw Jiro's sketchpad sitting on the floor. The fox must have left it on the edge of his bed.
Out of curiosity, Ibuki picked it up and opened it. Most of the sketches were of anime-style characters. Some were armored knights, others were wizards, archers, samurai, etc. The deer-wolf chuckled when he spotted drawings of Lee, the twins, and Esther. He was somewhat caught off guard when he saw a drawing of himself as Adler. It made him smile a bit.
He stood up to put the sketchpad back on the fox's bed. However, he got a little glimpse of a drawing on the very back page for less than a second. The curious chimera flipped it around, wondering why it was on the back. As soon as he lifted the back of the pad and saw the first drawing, he recoiled in shock.
Depicted on the page was an incredibly gruesome drawing of a female fox violently devouring a rabbit in shabby looking clothing, his blood splattering on her, his internal organs visible, and his face reflecting absolute terror. Judging by her neutral expression while she committed this act, she was a Tibetan fox, just like Jiro himself.
Out of morbid curiosity, he flipped to the next page and felt a bit ill. There was a drawing of somebody getting ripped in half and eaten by a giant monster.
The next page was a woman being violently stabbed to death while her young child watched, crying. Then, a drawing of somebody getting horribly mutilated in a car wreck, then someone burning to death in a house fire, someone sticking a gun in their mouth and pulling the trigger while their brains splattered on the wall, somebody getting decapitated, and several drawings of herbivores being devoured violently. Every single drawing was of people dying violently or getting maimed.
The chimera couldn't believe what he was looking at. Why would Jiro draw these horrible things? At first, Ibuki considered maybe these drawings were made by someone that owned the sketchpad before Jiro. But it was definitely the fox's art style. The earlier drawings were more crude, so obviously he drew them when he was younger.
Ibuki flipped to the next page and his blood felt ice cold. He dropped the sketchpad in absolute shock and horror. Depicted on the final drawing was the deer-wolf himself, on-stage, in his Adler costume, lying dead with a split open skull, broken antlers, and a bloodstained theater light next to him.
The chimera broke out into a cold sweat. What possible reason could Jiro have for drawing something like this?! The deer-wolf felt somewhat dizzy from the shock of seeing that drawing.
Ibuki heard someone try to open the locked door, so he quickly tossed the sketchpad back on Jiro's bed and sat down on his bunk, pulling out his phone and pretending to be playing with that.
He could hear the door being unlocked before it opened and the worst possible person walked in, Jiro.
The fox pulled out his notepad, showing Ibuki the big smile. "Hey, Ibuki-kun!"
The deer-wolf gulped and put on a fake smile. "H-hey, Jiro-kun." This will not end well.