Night had fallen, and everyone had tucked in for the night.

The students were now safe on their dorms, either sleeping or spending their night some other way as they were not allowed to be out of the dorms at this late. This left the school halls mostly deserted, with only the teachers out, patrolling the school to make sure everything was alright and no problems were happening.

Those patrols were happening even more since the murder, as the teachers reinforced them, as well as the curfew, for they knew that the killer could still be at school grounds, and they didn't wanted to risk another predation incident happening. This was all for the safety of the herbivore students of Cherryton.

The herbivores themselves knew that, which was why they didn't protested at all about the stricter curfew. In fact, many of them went along with the idea, as they all knew that it was for their own safety, and many of them preferred to stay on their dorms than being outside during the night and risk becoming the next victim of the mysterious Cherryton killer.

However, not all herbivores were on their dorms, safe, sound and out of harms way.

There was one herbivore out of her dorm in the middle of the night, long after curfew, and who would be in some serious trouble if the teachers caught her at this hour.

However, she didn't really cared.

She found it hard to care at this point.

She'd much rather be caught by the teachers and get into trouble than going back to her dorm like that...

The bunny continued to sit on the toilet in the restroom stall, as she looked at the clothes she had hanging from the door. She touched it with her little hands, checking the tissue.

It felt moisty still, but it had dried enough that she could wear it and no one would notice what happened.

With this in mind, she placed the dress back on herself, as she remembered how she had gotten like that.

Mizuchi was certainly mad at her. She really could not forgive Haru for sleeping with her boyfriend and breaking them both up. Something about "threatening the future of the harlequin rabbits".

Haru, on her end, was as dismissive about her as she could be. It was not the first time that some angry girlfriend came to her to complain about Haru having made a move on their boyfriend.

Haru wouldn't even bother to say that it was her deadbeat of a boyfriend who approached her first. She knew that angry girlfriend would not hear to a word she said. No one ever blamed the guys when they slept with another girl. Everyone always assumed the fault was on the girl. Even other girls.

Haru had long learned to ignore it. It was not worth getting all stressed up over.

However, Mizuchi was much feistier than many of the other girls Haru met before.

She proved it by spreading rumors about Haru to the entire school and making her practically an outcast back when Haru just started in Cherryton and her boyfriend first showed any interest in her.

And now that Haru actually slept with her boyfriend, Mizuchi seemed that she would no longer be satisfied just by spreading rumors.

Still, Haru didn't expected her to push Haru off into the ground and dump an entire bucket of water on her.

She even had a time to tell Haru a piece of her mind as the smaller white bunny tried to get up.

"With all of the boys you sleep with, you will probably catch something and die soon." The harlequin bunny said to the dwarf bunny. "And you will be all alone as you die. After all, what boy would like to have a serious thing with a girl who sleeps around as if all the males were going to get extinct any day? I know that most guys certainly wouldn't."

"You can go and get yourself as many boyfriends you want. They all will leave you as soon as they've seen all of your tricks in bed and they no longer have any interest." Mizuchi said to Haru, as the drenched bunny looked up at her.

"You will always end up alone."

Haru said nothing, as she just looked at the other bunny, who looked at her as if she was a cockroach, before turning around and leaving, those two sycophant friends of her going right behind her as they all giggled to themselves as they saw how drenched the bunny was.

Haru remained in there for a minute or so, before she slowly got up and made her way to the nearest restroom...

As she walked out of the stall, Haru stopped by a sink, looking down at it and then up at the mirror.

She looked at the face reflected on it, which looked back at her. A small, round face, with white fur, smooth features and particularly large and round black eyes, even for a bunny. That was cute face, as the people around Haru had always told her. A face that could get all of the guys to come to her, wanting to be with her, even if just for one night.

And yet, that face was never able to get them to stay.

They all came to her drawn by her cute face. However, as they stayed with her, they realized that she was not what they had been expecting. Be it an innocent and naïve girl who they could care for and protect like a knight protecting a princess, or a depraved woman who had sex on her mind twenty-four seven and was willing to do anything they asked of her no matter how strange or even disgusting, they all had expectations of her once they approached her.

However, Haru turned out not to be anything they wanted or expected. So, they all just enjoyed her for a while and then left after they've had their fill.

All of them were like that. They all left in the end.

And left her alone.

Always.

Her grip tightened on the sink. If she was born stronger, she could actually cause cracks on the porcelain of the sink. However, with the small, frail body she was give, she was most likely to break her own fingers than causing any visible damage to the sink at all, unless she had a hammer.

She would not let Mizuchi get to her. She would not let what she said get to her. She would not let that jealous, stuck-up witch have the satisfaction of getting to her.

She would NOT!

But... she could not help it... she really couldn't help but think she was right, when she thought back on how she always related to boys since she first realized how sex put her on equal footing with everyone.

Haru always ended up alone.

The tension went away from her arms, and they fell to her sides, limp. As if all of the strength had just suddenly left the small bunny. As if she had just admitted defeat.

The bunny then quietly left the bathroom with calm steps, walking out in the hallways and taking the route back to her dorm, seeming without any care if any of the teachers came and caught her out after curfew.

He hoped that no teacher would come and catch him out of his dorm after curfew.

He prayed no teacher would come and catch him.

Legoshi really questioned why he didn't just not showed up. Why didn't he just holed himself on his dorm and thought of maybe giving Louis some excuse on the following day, saying that he had gotten food poisoning and spent the entire evening on the toilet. He could even ask Jack to testify on his favor if Louis doubted. It wouldn't be the first time that Jack would tell a lie to help his hybrid friend.

He should have thought better about it when he was on his way there. He should have just went back to his dorm and left Louis handle himself. I mean, it was not as if the deer could actually punish him for not showing up.

What would he even do if Legoshi didn't showed up like he was told? Tell to a teacher? This would involve telling on himself in the first place.

Still, Legoshi came all the way there and showed up before the deer just as he had been told.

And Louis was condescending with him as soon as he laid eyes on the wolf, giving him orders to stand guard and let them know if a teacher or someone else was coming, seeming like he had absolutely no worry, unlike Zoe, of Legoshi himself being caught by a teacher and getting into trouble as well.

Legoshi was about to protest about the whole plan again. Suggest for them to forget about all of this and go back to their dorms while they still hadn't got into any problem. However, Louis seemed to have caught on that the wolf wanted to speak something, and didn't gave the chance.

"Do you have any protests, mutt?" The deer asked, glaring at the wolf, "If you have, speak now."

One look at those eyes was enough to silence all of Legoshi's protests, as well as to let the wolf know why he had followed Louis' instructions without even thinking about protesting against them.

That deer had the same look on his eyes as Legoshi's own father when he was being serious. His dad could have the same intensity and seriousness on his eyes whenever he was speaking to Legoshi and wanted to make sure that his hybrid son knew he meant business.

That was a look Legoshi had learn to both respect and fear. So, when he saw the same look on Louis' eyes, the hybrid could do nothing more than to look down and let out a "no sir", sounding like a puppy who was apologizing, what was often the case whenever his father gave him that look.

"Good. Now stand guard." Louis said, and he took Zoe inside, leaving Legoshi all alone on the outside to guard the entrance.

Legoshi once more cursed the fact that he could not stand up for himself. Now there he was, moving back and forth, feeling more than a little jumpy at the prospect of a teacher coming at any moment in patrol and finding him, a huge predator on a hoodie lurking around the entrance of the auditorium as if he was impatiently waiting for his train to arrive.

Would he get into trouble for this?

Would they suspend him?

Would they expel him?

How would he be able to go back home and face his parents if he ended up expelled? What would he say to them? What would his father say if he heard that he had been expel? He had promised to him that he would behave and not get into trouble, and being expel from school meant he did the exact opposite of it.

Legoshi was sure that he would not be able to look his old man in the eye if this happened.

The hybrid perked when he heard a sound coming from behind him. For a moment, he thought someone had sneaked up on him and that he was busted. However, as he paid attention, he realized that the sound he heard was not the voice or whistling of an animal, but the chirping of a cricket.

Legoshi soon caught sight of the small chirping creature, singing its song without a worry in the world.

Legoshi, who had always been fond of bugs, was soon approaching the small creature, which didn't shied away when he came near. No bugs ever shied away from him when he came near. They never judged him for being a hybrid.

This was one of the reasons why Legoshi always liked them.

And it all started with the ladybugs on their garden.

"Hey there, little guy..." Legoshi said, walking up to the bug and crouching to look at him closer. The cricket didn't showed any sing of fear or fleeing, and just continued chirping its song, like it didn't had reason to worry about the big creature that was looming over it. "What are you doing out there so late? You guys usually are out during the day when it is bright and you can eat all of your plants in peace."

Legoshi looked at the small bug as if he was expecting it to say something back at him. However, bugs did not spoke the same form of language that other animals did. They didn't had the vocal cords needed to produce their language.

Still, this didn't stopped Legoshi from talking to them as if they were capable of saying something back at him.

"Yeah, I'm probably not one to talk..." Legoshi said to the little creature. He offered his finger to the little green guy, and he hopped into his finger without any fear, allowing the hybrid to take him close to his face. "We are both out when we should not be, ain't that right? Well, here is to hoping it does not causes any problem..."

Legoshi said to the little guy, who remained on his finger, looking straight at the hybrid with its big eyes, before it hopped off and went away hopping, leaving Legoshi to look at the departing bug for a few moments, until he eventually lost it from sight.

"Good night." Legoshi said to the departed bug, and he was about to go back to his spot in front of the door patrolling when his snout twitched. It felt like it was being tickle as his nostrils picked up a scent.

It was an herbivore scent. However, this one was not Louis. It didn't smelled like a red deer. Definitely not. Neither did it smelled like goat, so it was not Zoe.

This was another herbivore.

Was it a teacher? Were they busted? Were they in trouble?

At that moment, panic took hold of Legoshi's mind. The kind of panic that he didn't felt since before he entered Cherryton. All kinds of bad scenarios went through his head, to them just give him a hearing and calling his parents in account of his misbehaving to them expelling him on the spot.

Now, carnivores were able to hold back their instincts and live in society. That was what they were taught in school. That was what the lectures on their childhood were for. However, when they were under a significant amount of stress, then holding back their instincts became increasingly hard.

Like, for example, when they were panicking due to the fear of being caught.

Legoshi's nostrils flared even wider, causing even more of the smell of herbivore to reach into his nose and move directly into his brain. This smell triggered the primitive part of his brain, activated by the panic, and the wolf couldn't help but feel his muscles tensing. His lips curled into a snarl as his body got ready to react, his primitive instincts telling him to get ready. To prepare himself for a hunt and to take down his target and not stop for anything.

His arms were ready to grab whatever he could reach. His legs were tensing as they were getting ready to propel him forward. His jaw tensed, as if it was getting ready to bite on the soft material that he would be going after as soon as he could get his hands on...

"LEGOSHI!"

In some distant corner of his mind, the voice of his father resounded, strong and serious, causing the hybrid to pause.

"You better not have gotten out of position! I raised you to have more restraint than that! Do I need to go in there and put a leash on you?" The voice of the lion was a distant memory, but Legoshi could still hear it as if the older animal was talking to him at that very moment. "Get back in position now, and you better not move from it!"

"Okay, that's enough!" Said another voice, also coming from Legoshi's memory. This one feminine. "I think this has gone for long enough."

"No, it has not, Leano! He will be going to a school full of herbivores in a few months, and he needs to control himself! I'll not allow for him to end up like that fox who devoured a bunny classmate! You saw the news as well! You know what I'm talking about!" His father said back. This was just another part of the discussion that the lion and his wife have had since he first locked their hybrid soon on that room as part of that training.

That was almost two hours ago, and the young hybrid was still locked there... with that thing...

"Darling, I know that you have reasons for this." Legoshi's mother said to the lion, who was by her side on the other side of the door. "But please, he is only twelve. Go easy on him."

This seemed to convince the lion, as the next time he spoke was with a softer voice:

"Get back in position, Legoshi. Focus your mind in keeping position and not losing control. If you lose control of your inner beast, than it will be taking control of you. And believe me when I say you don't want that to happen."

And so, Legoshi went back to the position he was in before, sitting with his legs crossed, breathing slowly and trying to keep himself from moving.

And he succeeded.

His muscles relaxed, and the hybrid opened his eyes and realized that he was not on that locked room, with his father just outside of the door telling him to keep meditating. He was back in Cherryton, and he was looking forward, at the one herbivore whom he had smelled.

It was a bunny. A female bunny. Legoshi knew because of the smell. Now that he breathed it more calmly, he was able to recognize the smell. It was definitely a female bunny. And she was there, just standing by the fountain and looking into the water.

Legoshi knew it because he could see her clearly. An advantage of being a carnivore, you got a near-perfect night vision.

She didn't looked like a teacher, she was wearing a student uniform. This made Legoshi relax a little bit, as he now knew that they were not in danger of being caught by a teacher. However, there was still the fact that she could possibly see them and, later on, tell on them.

This left Legoshi with a problem to deal with. What if she came that way? What if she saw him? Legoshi knew that, as a herbivore, she didn't had a good night vision, but he still felt that she could maybe see him and wonder what a carnivore was doing all alone so late.

What if she thought he was up to no good?

Legoshi needed to do something. Maybe he could scare her away? Just approach her in a threatening way, maybe growl a little? He was taught never to bare his fangs at herbivores, but his dad said that it would be okay if he did it for a justified reason. Scaring a girl would count as justified reason?

I mean, maybe he wouldn't even need to do anything to make himself look threatening. His size alone was enough to intimidate most herbivores. All he needed to do was walk close to her and she would just... just... wait. Was she crying?

Legoshi looked intently at the female bunny, who was leaning over the fountain, her body tense and quacking in a way that Legoshi could recognize. She was sobbing, and she just buried her little head on her hands.

This made the hybrid forget any plans of scaring the bunny away, as he, all of a sudden, felt worry replace all of the apprehension he had.

Why?

Why was she crying?

Why was she crying like that now? Mizuchi was not the first jealous girlfriend to come her way. She was not the first one to call her names or even to threaten her. Then why were her words getting to her so deeply? Why was she crying because of what Mizuchi said to her?

About she always ending alone?

Because they were true.

They were just to true for Haru to ignore them, and that was why they were making those tears come out.

The white bunny looked down on the fountain, seeing her own tear-stained face. She looked like an idiot. A poor, crying idiot who would break into tears upon the first teasing. She looked even more stupid than when Mizuchi threw that water on her.

How the half-black faced bunny would have loved to see Haru crying. How she would have laughed upon seeing she breaking down and sobbing like a poor baby before her. That was why Haru wanted desperately to make the tears stop, but it was just too hard.

Haru just found it very hard to stop the tears, which landed on the water of the fountain, distorting her reflection.

"Uhhhh, hello?"

The voice behind her made Haru's ears perk up, as she turned around to see who was talking to her.

It was a big carnivore. A canine muzzle sticking from under the hood covering his head.

"Are you hurt?" He asked, and gave a step forward to her direction, causing her to give a step back, her ears now down in fear.

Now, Legoshi had been planning to scare her just a minute ago. However, now scaring her was the last thing he wanted. As soon as he saw the fear on her eyes, he remembered Els, and he didn't wanted to repeat what happened.

"No, please, don't be scared!" Legoshi said to her, halting as he tried to tranquilize her. He remembered the lessons he had when he was younger, about how to make sure herbivores would not be uncomfortable around him. He remembered, in particular, on the ones on how to not intimidate herbivores who were smaller than him.

Crouch down to be on their eye-level, it will make you look less threatening.

With this in mind, Legoshi did lowered himself, crouching as low as he could before the small bunny, placing one knee on the ground and lowering his head, to add to the "be less threatening". It seemed that it worked.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." Legoshi said to her, trying to look as non-threatening as he could. "I just... heard you crying, and wondered if you were okay. Are you hurt?"

Haru looked at the wolf (she assumed he was a wolf) for a few moments, before wiping her tears. It was embarrassing enough that she was crying because of what someone did to her. He would not cry in front of someone else. Especially a stranger.

And definitely not before a boy.

"I'm fine." Haru said, her voice quivering, but she took a breath and then said, in a much more composed voice:

"I'm fine." She said to the carnivore talking to her. "I'm not hurt or anything, so don't worry your head with it."

"You sure?" Legoshi said to her. "Because you were sobbing..."

"And what's it to you?" Haru asked, and the tone she used was almost angry as she now glared at the carnivore. Legoshi was caught off guard, and he nearly moved back from the intense gaze the bunny was giving her.

"By the way, Mr. Wolf, what are you doing out so late?" Haru asked the wolf, "A little late for a big canine like you go around the school, don't you think?"

Legoshi panicked again for a moment, but then he recovered himself and said:

"I... I was just... going for a jog. I tend to exercise, and I prefer to do it when there is no one around."

That was not a complete lie. At least not the part of Legoshi liking to exercise when there was no one around. That was why he did it so early in the morning. It seemed like a believable excuse. He thought... he hoped...?

"Jogging?" The bunny asked, looking at him. "That is a strange reason to go out at night. Especially dressed like that." She said, referring to Legoshi's hoodie, which seemed a bit too hot for a spring, even with Legoshi arguing that he felt cold.

"Sounds like an excuse." Haru said as she looked at the wolf. "The kind that a carnivore would use to justify why they were out so late dressed as if they don't want to be recognized. As if they were ready to commit a crime."

She looked intently at the carnivore before her.

"Like eating an herbivore."

Panic took a grip on Legoshi's heart, as she bunny looked at him.

"The guy who ate the alpaca was never caught, after all." Haru argumented. "And the reason why the curfew is in place is because the teachers fear that he could strike again. Maybe wearing a hoodie as he looks for his next prey."

Legoshi was shivering. He was shivering at the accusations being throw at him. He had completely failed to imagine that someone who saw him outside at this hour could assume he was the killer!

"N-no..." Legoshi said, his voice shaking. "I-I'm not. I'm not! I didn't! I WOULDN'T!" Legoshi said, his voice growing louder and more frantic with each short sentence. That was when the bunny realized that she may have just gone a bit too far, and she was quickly trying to make the carnivore calm down.

"Yeah, I guess you could not be the killer." She said to Legoshi, as the carnivore was still reeling from the scare that someone could assume he was the killer and spread it across the school. That would make his everyday life in Cherryton even more unbearable. "If you were, you would have eaten me already."

Legoshi looked down, and he said once more that he would never do it. Seeing the wolf like that made Haru feel bad.

"Hey, no need to be like that." Haru said, "I was just teasing you. Man, now you are making me feel as if I was Mizuchi..."

Legoshi looked up.

"Who?"

Haru looked at him for a few moments. Those eyes were looking at her.

"Mizuchi..." Haru repeated. "A person I know."

"Oh. Is she your friend?" Legoshi asked, but the expression of the bunny said it all.

"She is definitelly not." Haru said, "She would never be friends with me, that much I can assure you."

Legoshi saw her expression, and the way she had her arms crossed before her chest, as she looked away. Legoshi could not be the best when it came to readying a room or other people, but he could tell when someone was upset over something.

"Do you and her... are fighting?" Legoshi asked her, and the bunny said nothing in return, but her expression got heavier. "Is she being mean to you?"

That next question made the bunny even more uncomfortable, and the hybrid noticed. That was when Legoshi concluded that...

"Are you... being bullied?"

This time the bunny looked his way.

"You know, you are asking way too many questions." She said to the wolf. "It is not as if you are my friend or something. We don't even know each other."

Legoshi looked down as she said down and apologized. The bunny said it was okay.

"You don't have to worry about it. It is nothing serious." Haru said to the carnivore. "I guess I should be used to this by now. This morning some girls tossed my mattress out of the window and I needed to carry it back to my dorm all by myself. It is nothing too serious."

"What?" Legoshi asked her, "It is serious! This is wrong!"

Haru looked at the carnivore.

"Are you usually this worried about girls you just met?" Haru asked him, and Legoshi once more looked down. He usually didn't was, but the things she was saying, the things she seemed to be going through... they hit too close to home for the hybrid.

"What about your dorm mate?" Legoshi asked her. "Didn't she helped you carry your mattress back?"

Haru shook her head dismissively.

"Nah, she was too busy doing her crosswords. It was not as if I'm friends with her, anyways."

"Huh?" Legoshi said, genuinely surprised. "You... you are not friends? But you sleep on the same dorm!"

"So what, is that supposed to mean we are besties?" Haru asked, and the carnivore looked at her for a few seconds, before saying:

"Yes?"

It was Haru's turn to look at the carnivore, and then she said:

"Oh, I forget how easily canines make friends." She was looking at him as she spoke those words. "Well, not everyone is as sociable as you guys, I'll just tell you that. Some people can sleep and live together and not stand each other. I'm glad that my roommate doesn't hates me, but I can tell for certain that we are not friends."

Legoshi could only say that he was sorry for her. He was awfully honest when he said that, and it caused the bunny to look at him with a form of curiousness. After all, it was not every day when a carnivore was just nice to her out of nowhere.

And she certainly didn't felt as threatened by him as she supposed she should, for some reason.

"You know, you are pretty nice, Mr. Wolf." She said to him with a smile, and Legoshi felt his face blushing. Why was he blushing like that? Legoshi didn't knew, but he knew that his face was feeling hot all of a sudden.

"Well, I guess I better be going now." The bunny said, "After all, I'm out of my dorm past curfew as well. Don't want to get into trouble, right? Good night for you, Mr. Wolf."

"Good night." Legoshi said as the bunny turned around and walked all the way back to her dorm, leaving the hybrid to look at her small, departing form.

Legoshi just remained where he was for a few moments, as the bunny disappeared out of sight. That was when Legoshi realized he did not asked her for her name...

"LEGOSHI!"

The voice crying his name distracted the hybrid, and made him look back to see Zoe coming his way.

"It's urgent!" The goat said in a panic as he rushed to the hybrid. "Louis got hurt!"

Hearing that made Legoshi forget what just happened, and soon he was rushing back to the auditorium with Zoe, to see what happened and help Louis.

However, even as worry for his senpai filled his head, the memory of the bunny whom he just met would remain on the back of his head.

Legoshi didn't knew it yet, but he just met a person who would be a great part of his life...

So, this concludes this chapter. As you guys can see, I took some liberties on altering a key scene from the anime. Don't worry, I have my own plans to make the story move forward.

The story will remain interesting, I promise. Also, for the pairing part, I did chose to go with Haru and Legoshi, as it is traditional.