I love Haru in this chapter. Please Enjoy!

-MalMetal

CHAPTER 36: I Wish I Could Hate Beasts Like You

"You piece of shit!" Free charged at Louis as he screamed but Dolph held him back. "You know what you're going to cost us with that stunt, huh?!"

"Free- calm down!" Dolph grunted.

"You think you can just do whatever the hell you want because you're the Boss?! You're nothin' ya hear! You're nothin' but fuckin' food you punkass buck!" Free's country accent cut through while he spat further insults at the deer who kept himself composed. Two other members of the gang took Free away to bring the scene under control.

"Ibuki, Free's right. He isn't one of us." Dolph spoke calmly. "He's pinned us into this. We can't have him around anymore."

"I understand but he's our figurehead we need him for the deals to go smoothly-"

"You're right he is a figurehead and should have stayed that way. He isn't like us, we've known that from the start!"

"Dolph, please we need to think about this!"

"We've done enough thinking you've got too much of a soft spot for this herbivore this arrangement is finished. Let's eat him and be done with it." At Dolph's declaration, Ibuki stepped in front of him.

"Please." Ibuki's tone was serious and torn up by indecision.

"We're your brothers. You'd turn on us for a piece of meat?" Ibuki's face broke into a river of regret infecting his entire body. What would possess him to defend a deer he would eat, a deer that's been on the outs with his comrades since his arrival? What right did he have to defend a decision based on the ignorance of a lion's pride?

"Stop it." Everyone looked at Agata who'd stepped closer to the three. His mane was a beautiful brown filled with curls that radiated youth, his dark brown, blackish fur and light yellow spots around his eyes made him stand out amongst the other members.

"I'm around your age, Boss. I'm twenty-two. For a long time, I never knew what a lion's pride was supposed to be. Being the superior species or holding my pride because I was a lion. It was confusing and made no sense at all. That was because it wasn't supposed to. Pride as a lion meant being on top of your territory, fighting with your brothers, and staying true to what carnivores are. We eat herbivores, it's a part of us!" Agata's voice shook a bit.

"An Honorable Feast means something to us. It means the pride that's a part of us will be damaged if we don't keep our word and our ancestors will look down on us in shame. Since you got here you made us into service animals for the Black Market we used to run. Nikushi may not have been a great Boss but he knew, he knew what it meant to be a lion. Now we're feeding off scraps, living at the whims of a female, a reptile, and an inferior feline. Now you have walked us into a slaughter, you couldn't even stomach eating herbivore meat like us. You're not like us. You've never been like us." Agata turned his head towards the lion he saw as the Shishigumi's true boss. "Ibuki, please take Dolph's advice. We all stayed here because we believed in the Shishigumi you saw. We believed in you, not him." At those words, Ibuki could feel eyes bearing their gazes down on him. Anxiousness stung him and he couldn't deny their importance to him. Not anymore. He grunted to himself.

"I'm sorry Louis, from here on out all decisions will be made by us and us alone. You're a figurehead in name and practice, nothing else." Louis' eyes softened significantly. "We'll sort out everything after I take him back to his school."Ibuki motioned for Louis to follow him, everyone stared as he followed behind Ibuki. Soon the two were in a car and on the backroad. The drive was as smooth as it's always been, the moon rose on the horizons drenched in water and surrounded by far-off buildings in the distance. The moon's light scatters hundreds of white stars across the water's ever-shifting surface. Each star wavering remained in the same place no matter how long Louis stared at them. His red blazer shifted to a dark red in the darkness, contrasting the light blue seat he sat upon. Ibuki sat comfortably in his dress shirt underneath. Their pants and shoes remained black, never changing no matter the time of day. The car glided into the shade of a tunnel where soft orangish yellow light illuminated their way. Ibuki taps his finger on the steering wheel forcefully playing a tune in his head, he looks at Louis waiting for some sort of reaction but nothing. He started to hum the tune, but nothing. He hummed louder, nothing still. Even after losing the stars sailing on the sea, he found the lights just as compelling.

"Louis!" Ibuki gripped the wheel as he yelled the deer's name. "Would you please say something? I understand things have changed but this is for the better isn't it? You don't have to worry about us anymore. You can live a normal life again." Louis turned his head to the lion, his eyes were devoid of any semblance of positivity or freedom. His lips folded in a little and his eyebrows frowned.

"What about you? I've condemned you to death because of my decision, to be willing to discard the carnivores who took away someone precious to me. I hated every one of you, I wanted all of you dead. I played my part and nothing else. Yet, I don't want you to die. I said what I said to you from an instinctual feeling for you to live because-" Louis bit his tongue, and a dagger of shame pierced his neck.

"Say it-!" Ibuki nearly shouted, leaving Louis at a complete loss. He didn't want to, he couldn't… and yet he would.

"You knew what it was like. To be nothing more than at the whim of another beast to be toyed with by beasts stronger than you! Knowing you were never worth anything more than a surface-level desire or pleasure, you knew! Despite what you did to that white rabbit, the rabbit I loved! I couldn't bring myself… I couldn't bring myself to hate you." Louis' eyes were shining like white gold jewels in the sun.

"What I did for you was a part of my atonement. You're right I was nothing more than material for beasts but after my freedom, I had a choice to make. I could've left the Black Market, it would've been hard but I could've been adopted by proper carnivores. I decided the day I stared at the city while at the Black Market's border… I turned back and wandered back into that place. Every animal has a choice to be a person or a beast. I chose that day because it was all I knew. I was afraid of what was in the unknown. I made money where I could and ate what I could. The Shishigumi offered me something I never had, brothers, a family. However, that led to me understanding the outside world better than I wanted. I'll never forget the day I departed on my first capture for my Boss, taking that herbivore from their life. That fear in their eyes, I never forgot it. I see it in all of them but for the sake of my belonging, I ignore it. I don't have a right to cry after what I've done so I don't. In you, I hoped to find atonement, normalcy but that was how it started. Now you're valuable to me as a colleague and friend but the truth is you're a liability. Moreover, you can take the road I was afraid to." Ibuki stopped at a red light right before Louis' school. He turned to Louis who couldn't see anything but Ibuki. The lion smiled as the red light stained him like blood on a white shirt. His eyes remained a pristine, unimpeachable white.

"Live a good life, Louis. Forget about the Shishigumi, forget about me. We chose this life and I led my brothers down a path that led to death. I'll inform the three of the leadership changes so don't worry about it." Ibuki pulled in front of the school gate. "Take your freedom and make this life yours." Ibuki reached over Louis to open the door. He smiled before softly pushing his former boss onto the concrete. Ibuki closed the door and drove on. Louis got to his feet and looked at the stars above. They were free but seemingly not him.

"You alright?" Bill asked Haru who was shivering a bit from anxiety behind her glass door shield.

"Don't think I can handle it?" Haru responded playfully, still shivering a bit.

"Whatever you say but calling me out at night is a bit suspicious don't you think?"

"I'm just trying to mimic that night as closely as I can. Now I just need to do the next… thing."

"Don't push yourself too much alright?"

"You sound like Legoshi, stop it! He was here earlier and kept himself beneath my height. I get what he was doing but I can only take so much coddling! I'm your upperclassman!" Haru's ears stiffened up out of her frustration, her cheeks became flushed as her eyes went wide.

"Don't blame me if you get scared and run to close the door. I'm done feeling bad about it." Bill said somewhat seriously but only somewhat. Haru's fingers trembled as she slid the door open to see Bill standing there ever so still. Haru's throat closed a little bit but she didn't avert her eyes.

"T- touch… touch me."

"Huh?"

"Not like that! Just put your hand on my shoulder.

"With what you do-" Haru frowned "I'm joking!" Bill carefully grasped her shoulder. His palm's warmth was so much different when compared to Nikushi's. Bill's fingers were soft and caring, without asking, his nose began to tickle Haru's left shoulder and neck. Her fur stood on end but he wasn't aggressive; it was like he tried to identify her. The cool sensation of his nose eased her anxiety, she grabbed his other hand and placed it on her hip. Haru leaned her head in to sniff Bill more, his fur was a little musty to her nose but the faint scent of his cologne made her breathe a bit heavier. His nose made her body twitch and jump as it moved around her collarbone. She moved his other hand to her hip that fit in his palm, its soft touch reminded her of the night he carried her.

Her heartbeat slows, fear escaping it with every pump. It returned to a healthy rhythm, Bill's mature scent, his careful, firm touch. They felt like no one who'd touched her before, a one-of-a-kind feeling. Carnivores were more than strong, special, or terrifying. They were delicate, kind, caring, instinctual. Bill felt Haru's fragile, slim body. Her arm felt soft, her hip small but wide. Her scent was a mix of a very light perfume and soap he didn't recognize but it reminded him of sweet honey. Underlying it was her body's natural scent.

"Enjoying yourself?" Bill didn't move his head. Only his eyes saw the red eyes in the dark half of the shack in front of him. Its gaze was demeaning, judging, hateful. "Reduced to this? You know what you are, take advantage. You've been avoiding me long enough. Be what you are." The figure approached and pried his jaw open, it forcibly pushed Bill's fangs around Haru's left trapezius. He pierced her flesh, tasting her blood, fresher than any rabbit's blood he'd tasted before. A divine taste to any carnivore. Herbivores were more than weak, scared, or prey. They were firm, emotional, strong, delicious.

"I think it'd be okay if it was you." Haru's soft, certain voice broke Bill from instincts' grip. He pulled back with his eyes wide.

"What?"

You're fangs don't scare me like that lion did. You care for me. Your hands, nose, even your fangs were careful with me. I know it sounds insane to say, I've been thinking that something broke in me that night and more broke when I started having nightmares. I ran for so long, cried so many times. I don't know all of it but I know one thing. You are a good animal."

"I'm not! I've eaten meat, I've drunk rabbit's blood! You know that now I almost devoured you! How can I be good-" Haru wrapped her arms around Bill's head, pushing his face into her breast.

"My heart is calmer than it's ever been before. You've changed me. You're not a beast. You're… a carnivore." Bill felt his hunger completely disappear, his shame floated away, and his heart fluttered. Bill pulled away to look at Haru with misty eyes.

"If that's true then you aren't an herbivore who any carnivore can devour. Live proudly and have actual fun once in a while. Your life ain't all bad." Haru's eyes glowed. Bill wiped the tears forming in his eyes and smiled. Haru took a finger and wiped some blood from his top left fang. She kept her finger outstretched accompanied by a smile.

"Promise?" Haru asked, to which the tiger smirked. He bit his lip and dipped his finger into the blood pouring out.

"I promise." The two pressed their fingers together softly, carnivore and herbivore blood cells intermingled. Afterward, Haru wiped Bill's fangs before the two left together for their dorms, Haru was dropped first. She hugged Bill before they departed and he arrived at his dorm room at 11:30 pm, only one of his roommates was up.

"Yo Bill, you got mail. Think it's nudes. If they are show me!"

"Chase, who the hell sends nudes in an envelope?"

"Maybe they wanted to be fancy?" Bill rolled his eyes.

"Just shut up, please." Bill sat his schoolbag down and opened the envelope to see pictures of Louis and Ibuki together.