Chapter 32: The Treasure Chest In The Manor's Basement! The Shishigumi Dad, Ibuki!
The Black Market. It was the place that Louis now called his home. He was enjoying his new life immensely. No longer did he have to deal with the stresses of school and the drama club. Nor did he have to live under the expectations and pressure of rising to become the next Beastar. In the Black Market, Louis had full control of his life.
Now the leader of the Shishigumi, the criminal gang of lions, Louis was garnering the respect of carnivores all throughout the dark side of Cherryton. Carnivores and herbivores alike looked at him with a mixture of emotions- awe, amazement, shock, and even fear. He especially enjoyed being feared. It was rather poetic, with predators being afraid of prey for once in their lives.
At the current moment, he and the Shishigumi were attempting to secure a deal with a turtle who was the owner of a butchery. The turtle was being stubborn and unwilling to listen to the deal, due to some of the lions having caused some chaos in the shop previously. "All right, Boss. I'll leave the negotiations to you," Ibuki announced.
The gang of lions stepped aside, allowing their leader to step forward. "If that's the case, then allow me to make it up to you," Louis spoke. He walked forward, the turtle's eyes widening as he saw the deer's figure approach him.
"The Shishigumi may have caused trouble for you in the past… but you won't have to worry anymore. These ferocious, feisty felines are being trained by me, their new boss," Louis announced.
The turtle's maw gaped, shocked at the sight his eyes were showing him. "I can't believe the rumors about the new herbivore boss are true…!" the turtle exclaimed.
"I wish to make the black market a safer place for all animals. I can tell you have financial problems, and I can help you rectify them. A new contract between your shop and the new Shishigumi will be a small but significant step towards a better, safer black market," Louis began. The turtle took that into consideration, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"You see, right now, carnivores need 'allowance'... if even a single herbivore recommends the black market's services to a carnivore, it'll attract plenty of customers. It's a wise deal that'll contribute to making the whole city of Cherryton a safer place. You'd be a fool not to accept this proposition," Louis continued.
"Don't you know that I sell deer meat here?" the shop owner asked, clearly unsettled by Louis's intimidating presence. "Does it look like I care?" Louis coldly replied. The rest of the business deal went smoothly after that.
That afternoon, Alex came by to visit the lion gang and check up on Louis. To say that the white wolf was unhappy would be an understatement. Alex was extremely upset by Louis's decision to stick with the Shishigumi, and it was clear that some of the Shishigumi lions were also apprehensive about the deer's continued presence.
But the Shishigumi's opinions of Louis didn't matter to Alex. The wolf cop was more concerned about Louis's health. He could tell that the deer had lost a sizable amount of weight in the week since he had been inducted as the criminal organization's boss. That wasn't the only cause of concern for the wolf, though; Louis looked sickly and unwell, and the deer no longer had the same amount of life that he had previously.
The lions and Louis were drinking apple juice from their champagne glasses as well as devouring poultry drumsticks, grilled pork, and steak. The Shishigumi had decided to swear off the drinking of alcohol after Louis had joined.
Though none of them were addicted to the alcoholic substances, the felines had all agreed that they shouldn't be drinking around their boss, to set a good example for him. Besides, wine was expensive, and even though Louis was clearly far more mature in mind than most animals his age, he was still a minor, and drinking could have adverse effects on his body.
While they dined on their carnivorous meal, Alex was eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and talking with Ibuki. "Bringing Louis into the family truly was the right decision, I say. We haven't eaten food this good in ages!" Ibuki merrily declared.
"The family? Ibuki, you're starting to sound like a character from The Godfather," Alex chuckled.
In his time spent around the Shishigumi, Alex had observed that there seemed to be a family dynamic between all of the lions. Most of the lions treated Agata like the little brother, and treated each other as brothers. The one lion that they didn't treat as a brother was Ibuki; instead, they treated Ibuki like he was their father. Some of the lions even called the elderly feline "Dad".
"You know, from the standpoint of a deer… you Shishigumi lions make using your feral instincts a heck of a lot easier than it seems," Louis noted in between bites of steak.
"Heh, that's a bit mean, Boss!" Jinma jokingly said. "Don't sell yourself short, Boss. The line between controlling feral instincts and giving into them is a very fine one," Free replied.
"He's right, you know. Eating this much meat and keeping your instincts in check is a never-ending battle. Consuming too much meat can cause a weaker-minded predator to see the prey animals around him as food and attack them. It's happened before in the black market," Ibuki told the deer. The glasses-wearing lion didn't want to admit it, but he was in conflict with his instincts about Louis.
A part of Ibuki's instincts was telling him to try and eat Louis. His sense of honor and respect helped keep those desires to hunt him in check, but Ibuki was unsure of how much longer he would be able to keep that side of him in check. This is why on the day that Louis had been sworn in as the new leader, Ibuki had pulled Free aside and made him promise to kill him if he ever tried to attack Louis.
Louis stood up from the table and began to head off to his room. "You're done already, Boss?" Agata asked, surprised that the deer was finished eating; his plate still had about a third of his steak left. "Don't compare my stomach's size to yours. I'll be upstairs planning our futures. You felines can fight over my leftovers," Louis told them. Alex noted how Ibuki's eyes had a concerned, worried expression in them, and how Ibuki never took his eyes off of the red deer.
After a few more minutes of conversation, Ibuki stood up. "Alex. Why don't you and I go and check on Louis?" the gang's second-in-command suggested. Alex nodded in agreement.
As they went upstairs to see their friend, Dolph and Free stood up. "Hey, Free, Sabu! Let's go to the basement! Our old leader never let us go down there, he said he had a lot of relics or something down there. Let's go and check it out!" Dolph proposed. Free and Sabu nodded their heads in agreement.
Sabu put his bandana back on before following his gang brothers downstairs. The only time that Sabu ever took his bandana off was to eat meals with the other Shishigumi. The lower half of his face was not a pretty sight, to say the least. There were several claw scars and missing chunks of fur around his muzzle and on his chin.
Ten years ago, at the age of twenty-four, Sabu had been viciously assaulted by the monitor lizard gang the Dorugumi and the fox gang Inarigumi while he was heading back to his house. The lizards used their venom to burn off parts of his face fur, and the Inarigumi foxes had clawed his face up pretty badly.
Ibuki had found him unconscious in the back alleyways and brought him back to the mansion, nursing him back to health. Out of gratitude for Ibuki's actions, Sabu joined the Shishigumi, but always wore his bandana. His self-consciousness forced himself to wear that bandana, he couldn't bear to look at his face afterwards.
Back in the present, Sabu, Dolph, and Free turned the light switch on in the basement. They saw a long hallway that had two suits of knight armor that looked straight out of medieval times. There was a treasure chest at one end of the hallway, as well as two branching paths that led to side rooms.
Free peered into one of the side rooms, seeing a long table with old maps pinned to the wall. Their previous boss had said that the house was used for the predator resistance group during the great carnivore/herbivore war two hundred fifty years ago. "Wicked," Free breathed. He could practically feel the history lingering in the air.
Meanwhile, Dolph jimmied the lock open on the treasure chest. The storage container opened with a loud CREEAAAKKKK! Inside the treasure chest was a cache of primitive weapons. There were swords, daggers, crossbows, and other deadly implements in there. "Woah, guys! I think we just hit the motherload of treasure!" Dolph marveled.
Meanwhile, Ibuki and Alex were heading upstairs, and they could hear moaning and groaning coming from Louis's room. Their paces quickened from a casual walk to a worried sprint, the lion and wolf bursting through the door to find Louis coughing and kneeling on the ground weakly.
"Louis! What the hell happened to you?!" Ibuki demanded. "I knew I couldn't survive off of only meat…" Louis weakly muttered.
"You idiot! You mean you've been eating meat exclusively for the past week!?" Alex cried out in horror. Louis nodded, feebly grinning. "I wanted to evolve past my old, weak, pathetic self. I wanted to become a carnivore like you and the other lions…" Louis lamented.
Ibuki reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a salad. He had been planning on giving it to Louis after dinner, but the deer needed proper nourishment NOW. "Louis, take this! It's a salad, it'll help you get better," Ibuki said, handing the deer the salad package.
The deer slapped it away. "I don't need to eat that leafy crap," Louis growled. "Louis, listen to yourself. You're dying! If you keep going on like this you'll starve to death!" Alex howled in anger and anguish.
Ibuki grabbed the package and tore it open, taking the plastic fork and stabbing part of the salad with it. "Louis, you're my friend. I won't let you carry on like this! I can't bear to see you suffer this way," Ibuki told him.
"Do you take me for a fool!? Those are vegetables, and as the leader of the Shishigumi I won't take any part in-" Louis began to protest. In a single swift motion, Ibuki thrust the bite of salad into Louis's mouth as the deer tried to argue with him.
"Damn it, Louis! Quit neglecting your body already! You're not only important to the Shishigumi, you're the only one in this town that has a chance of truly making this forsaken meat market a better place. Most of all… you're my friend!" Ibuki snarled.
Alex was touched by the concern that Ibuki was showing for Louis. "Okay, dad !" Louis sighed in frustration and annoyance after he chewed and swallowed the bite of salad that Ibuki had force-fed him. "Now, mister, I'm going to stay here and make sure you eat this whole salad," Ibuki sternly said.
Louis was upset, but oddly felt fulfilled and very happy that Ibuki cared for him this way. This was something that Oguma had never done for him. Maybe the Shishigumi really could be a family for him.
Alex got up and started walking away. He tore down the stairs and entered the dining room. "Jinma! Go to the grocery store and buy a ton of salads," Alex ordered.
"Let me guess, is it for the boss?" Jinma replied. The 40-year-old lion didn't really like being ordered around by a wolf, but Louis had told all of the Shishigumi lions that if Alex told them to do something, then Alex had good reason for doing so, and that they should listen to him. Alex nodded in response, before sprinting out of the Shishigumi's mansion. It was time to try and bring Louis back to where he truly belonged- with his friends at Cherryton Academy.
"Where are you?" Alex texted Bill. "Me, Aoba, and Els went to the drama club, forgot that we didn't have practice today. LOL!" The tiger's reply message read.
"Stay where you are. I'm coming to meet with you," Alex texted back. Out of all of the animals in the school, he believed that Bill was the only one who stood a chance of bringing the red deer back to his senses.
Next chapter, Bill has a conversation with Aoba that demonstrates how he's grown since the possession incident. He shows a newfound sense of maturity! And we get to see how he found out that Louis originated from the Black Market! Stay tuned for the next intriguing chapter of CONVERGING DESTINIES!
Chapter 33: Bill All Grown Up!
