Ibuki couldn't sleep. He just stared at the ceiling, feeling incredibly nervous. Suddenly, he didn't trust Jiro as much as he used to.
Why would he draw that? Does Jiro want him dead? Was he involved in that light being dropped?
Is he… part of that group? That can't be right. The fox and chimera got along so well. And if he was part of the Coffee Club, he probably could have killed Ibuki a while ago. Or is he biding his time?
The chimera rubbed his face and groaned. Why was his life perpetually getting more complicated?
Suddenly, a chill went down his spine as he started to feel like he was being watched. He slowly turned his head and gulped when he saw Jiro's upside-down silhouette through his curtain.
He began to sweat nervously. The fox pushing his face through the curtains used to be funny, but now it just felt terrifying. Ibuki had to keep himself from trembling as the fox made eye contact with him.
"Are you okay, Ibuki-kun? I heard you groan."
The deer-wolf nodded vigorously. "Y-yup! Fine. Perfectly fine."
"Having trouble sleeping? I can give you one of my gummies again."
He shook his head. "No! I'm good!"
The fox stared at him for a bit, and his lack of facial expression was making the deer-wolf incredibly nervous. He didn't like how he couldn't read this guy's face at all. A fact that originally didn't bother him.
Jiro nodded. "If you're sure. Goodnight." The fox slowly pulled away from Ibuki's curtains and back into his own bed.
Ibuki gulped. "G-goodnight." The chimera got on his side and hid his face under the sheets. He should remember next time to not make any noise.
Lee and his friends were in the Gardening Club shed after school, all of whom were staring at Ibuki with baffled expressions.
Viola looked sad. "He seemed so nice, though."
Sebastian nodded. "Why would he draw something like that?"
Ibuki sighed. "I don't have a single clue."
Olivia adjusted her glasses. "Well, for now, I'm afraid your roommate will have to be considered a suspect."
Esther looked uncertain. "But, it's just a drawing."
Oscar shook his head. "People don't draw their friends being murdered. I think he probably hated Ibuki-kun from the start."
Ibuki grimaced, looking incredibly confused and distressed. Lee felt bad for him. The deer-wolf clearly felt somewhat betrayed and frightened. The wolf-rabbit would probably feel the same way in his shoes.
Lee sighed. "Sorry to ask you this, Ibuki-kun. But do you think you could try to get information out of him? I need to know if he's part of that group or dangerous somehow."
Ibuki bit his lip and looked askance. "...Fine."
Theo began typing on a computer. "I've got some interesting info on him though. Apparently, his mother turned herself in for devouring a homeless rabbit a long time ago."
Ibuki looked stunned. "Th-that was his first drawing I saw. It was a female fox eating a homeless rabbit."
The goat looked somewhat curious before turning his attention back to his computer. "She got a pretty lenient sentence for willingly surrendering to the police. She only spent a couple years in prison before being released for good behavior."
Oscar raised an eyebrow. "She turned herself in?"
Viola crossed her arms. "Carnivores lose control sometimes. It makes sense for some of them to feel guilty."
Esther sighed. "Well, that one's up to Ibuki-kun. Not much we can do."
Olivia nodded. "Anything from that chat?"
Theo adjusted his glasses. "The ambushers only barelyescaped the police. They've been keeping their heads down and waiting for the situation to cool off before they try again."
Sebastian smiled. "Guess we get a bit of a break then."
Lee tapped his foot. "We still need to be on our guard. Even if they're inert for now, that doesn't mean one of 'em won't try something crazy."
Sebastian stood up and reached into his skirt pocket, pulling out a black, rectangular object the length of his palm. The entire room recoiled in shock when the Dall sheep pressed on a switch, causing the object to produce a blade.
Lee jumped. "Why the hell do you have a switchblade?!"
Sebastian put the blade back into the handle. "That guy that attacked Ibuki-kun dropped it when he got his arm ripped off. I just needed to… borrow it."
Lee decided he didn't even want to know.
The Dall sheep handed the weapon over to Ibuki. "In-case things go bad with Jiro-kun."
The deer-wolf looked extremely apprehensive, but took the switchblade and put it in his back pocket.
Theo shut his laptop. "I suppose there's nothing else to do now. I'll keep an eye on the chat."
The group nodded and went their separate ways. As Lee and Ibuki walked through the halls, the wolf-rabbit couldn't help but notice his friend's sad face. "Still thinking about Jiro?"
Ibuki sighed. "I trusted him."
Lee shrugged. "Well, maybe he had another reason for drawing that. Artists will do weird stuff sometimes."
The deer-wolf nodded half-heartedly, clearly not convinced.
At Drama Club, Lee kept eyeing Jiro as the fox painted a backdrop. His non-functional face muscles made reading his expression impossible, so the chimera had no clue what the fox might be thinking.
Lee winced when Jiro turned his head and made eye contact with him. The fox pulled out his notepad, showing Lee an excited smile while he waved with his other hand.
The chimera nervously waved back, his eyes entirely on the fox's neutral face. Lee was starting to notice how enigmatic the Tibetan fox really was. The sketchpad made it easy for him to lie to people about how he's feeling. How often is the fox being honest? What is he usually thinking about? Suddenly, the friendly artist seemed a bit more threatening.
Lee went back to reciting his lines, hopeful that Jiro wouldn't try to talk to him. The wolf-rabbit's eyes were then drawn to Ibuki, who was staying as far away from his roommate as possible. It was sad watching this rift grow between the friends. The chimera was just hopeful that this can be resolved peacefully and Jiro wouldn't turn out to be another Donna.
Ibuki went back to his dorm after Drama Club. He wanted to confront Jiro one-on-one, so he texted his roommates, telling them to wait a bit before returning to the dorm.
The deer-wolf took a deep breath as he opened the door. Jiro was already on his bunk, drawing as usual.
Ibuki somewhat trembled as he slowly approached the fox.
Jiro looked at Ibuki before pulling out his notebook. He showed the chimera a concerned face. "You look shaken up about something, Ibuki-kun. Are you okay?"
The chimera gulped. "Yeah. I'm fine."
The fox set the notepad down and picked up his pencil, going back to drawing.
Ibuki cleared his throat. "So uhh… I saw the drawings on the back pages of your sketchpad and-"
CRACK!
The deer-wolf flinched as Jiro suddenly snapped his pencil in half.
The fox lowered his sketchpad and looked at Ibuki. His face may have been neutral, but his pupils were tiny. He loudly barked at the chimera. "You what?!"
Ibuki was feeling incredibly intimidated. This was going even worse than he thought. "Y-you left the sketchpad behind and I was just curious!"
Jiro tossed the sketchpad aside and jumped off of his bunk, storming up to Ibuki. "You know you should askbefore touching people's things, right?!"
The chimera started to sweat. This was the first time he had ever seen the fox lose his composure like this. He wasn't even using his notepad to express his anger like with Lucas, the rage was evident enough in his voice and body language. Impulsively, Ibuki reached into his back pocket and opened the switchblade, pointing it at Jiro.
The fox stopped moving and stared at the knife. "Wha-?! Why do you have that?!"
Ibuki gulped. "S-Sebastian-kun gave it to me in-case you went all psycho like this!"
"Y-you told S-Sebastian-kun?"
The chimera nodded. "I told the twins, Lee, Olivia, Esther, and two of Lee's roommates! If you do something to me, they'll know it was you!"
Jiro's face went completely pale. "Y-you… told… people?" The fox started to tremble. "W-why would you do that?!"
"Why would you draw me getting killed by a theater light?! Were you involved in that?!"
"No! How can you even ask me that?!"
"Well, why'd you draw that, then?!"
Jiro grabbed his head and loudly snarled as he stared at the floor. He started to mumble. "I can't believe this…" Tears welled up in his eyes. "P-people know… Oh, God…"
The chimera backed up a bit, surprised by the fox's sudden crying. For some reason, he was compelled to put away the switchblade, which he did. He gave Jiro a serious look. "Why did you draw that?"
Jiro sat on the floor in a fetal position. "They're ideas. Thoughts from the back of my mind. Thoughts that I try to hide." He looked up at Ibuki, his eyes portraying sadness despite their unmoving state. "I have nightmares and awful thoughts all the time. The only way I can get them out of my mind is to draw them. Then I stop thinking about them."
Ibuki's eyes widened when the realization hit him. "So that drawing of me…"
The fox sobbed. "The night after that light fell, I had a nightmare. In it, Lee never saved you. And I just stood there, watching you die. I couldn't get the image out of my head. I had to draw it. And it stopped like the rest."
The chimera suddenly felt like absolute scum. He invaded his roommate's privacy and told everyone his darkest secret. What Ibuki thought was a conspiracy to kill him was really just a concerned friend needing an outlet for his fears. Watching the usually composed and chipper Tibetan fox cry like this was a strange and unpleasant experience.
Ibuki slowly approached his distressed roommate. "I'm so sorry, Jiro-kun. I'm so, so, so sorry…"
Jiro did not respond. He just continued to sob into his knees. "I-I'm just a psycho… I'm messed up in the head…"
The deer-wolf shook his head vigorously. "No! You didn't do anything wrong! This is myfault! I had no right to look at your drawings without permission."
The fox seemed practically deaf to the chimera. His sobbing turned into incomprehensible mumbling.
Ibuki looked at him sadly before getting down and pulling him into a hug. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I'll sort it out. The others will understand, I promise."
The fox wriggled out of Ibuki's grasp and stood up. "I… I need to be alone."
The deer-wolf nodded, wanting to respect his friend's wishes. He watched Jiro climb into his bunk and pull the curtains. Ibuki sighed as he sent his roommates a text, telling them they can come in now. For Jiro's privacy, he didn't tell them why he needed to talk to the fox one-on-one.
For the rest of the night, someone would occasionally glance at Jiro's bunk with a concerned look. But nobody dared say anything to him. Everyone eventually went to sleep, leaving the fox alone all night.
Later that night, Ibuki once again had trouble sleeping. He felt like absolute trash for hurting Jiro so badly. The vulpine artist, despite his perpetually displeased expression, had a very sunny disposition. Being at fault for him crying made Ibuki feel like a monster.
It made sense to the deer-wolf that someone so kind would be hiding a darker side. But those drawings, as twisted and disturbing as they are, weren't hurting anyone. Jiro found a perfectly healthy way to deal with his fears and sorrow through his art and Ibuki just exposed that side of him against his will and made the fox look like a dangerous lunatic. All he could do now was wait for an opportunity to apologize again.
The next morning, Ibuki awoke to find Jiro was the first person to wake up.
Jiro spotted Ibuki getting out of bed and stared at him for a bit. He slowly grabbed his notepad off of the ledge where his phone is. He opened it and showed the first page to Ibuki: The big smile. "Morning, Ibuki-kun!"
The deer-wolf was dumbfounded. Why such a friendly good morning after yesterday? "G-good morning. You're in a better mood than I expected."
Jiro flipped to the small smile. "Well, I can't mope about it for the rest of my life, now can I?" The fox put away the notepad and went to put on his uniform.
Ibuki was surprised to see him get over it so quickly. Or did he? The fox could easily be hiding behind his book of facial expressions. And yet, the deer-wolf had this strange feeling that Jiro was actually being honest with his feelings. What a strange person.
In the Gardening Club shed, everyone looked a tad ashamed.
Esther sighed. "So it was a nightmare, huh? Man, I was actually thinking he was nuts."
Sebastian looked a little sad. "I guess we should expect that from an artist."
Viola nodded. "Artistic types are often more troubled than they seem."
Olivia shrugged. "Perhaps that's just the cost of creativity. Or maybe it's some sort of side effect from his inability to emote without the aid of his art."
Theo smiled. "Well at least he's probably not a threat." He tapped his chin. "In fact, I wonder if he's trustworthy enough to join us in these meetings. Who knows how valuable an asset a man with the perfect poker face can be?"
Ibuki nodded. "I think he is. Should we try bringing him tomorrow?"
Lee raised an eyebrow. "Why do you need someone with a poker face? You aren't planning on making him into some kind of spy, are you?"
Theo shrugged. "If he's willing. If he isn't, then at least he can help us come up with new ideas on how to deal with these guys. I'm feeling like we're in a dead end here."
The deer-wolf smirked. "Well, we'll have to see how hefeels about it." His face turned a bit remorseful. "At least he can see that you guys aren't judging him anymore."
Lee chuckled. "We don't judge people for their secrets here." He quickly winked at Theo, who blushed in response.
After dropping Jiro as a subject, the group adjourned as there was not much else they could talk about until the Coffee Club made another move. Lee was just hoping including Jiro wouldn't endanger his life.