Side Story Ch 1: The Investigation Begins.

It was the start of summer vacation and many students had gone home. Legosi however, was not one of these students. The wolf had quite a bit of success lately. He had made friends and allies he could trust, he performed wonderfully in the school play, he became a mentor in a field that he loved, and more importantly he was able to give back to all the animals that helped change his life for the better. Despite this, Legosi always had this nagging thought at the back of his mind. Tem, what exactly had happened to him? The only thing anyone really knew was that he had been eaten by a carnivore.

Legosi had always found this strange. A student, killed on campus, yet there wasn't any sort of investigation. Sure the police came and looked around and asked a few questions, but beyond that there was nothing. No one knew if the person who killed and ate Tem was an outsider or if it was another student.

Legosi knew that the only way to find out what had happened to his friend was to start looking into the mystery himself. He paced around in his room trying to figure out what he should do or where to even start.

He could start by investigating the crime scene, but there would be no real point. The crime scene was the theatre and that place had been clean for months because of the performance. He could go and search through Tem's locker for clues, but that was a no go as well because all of his belongings had been sent home to his family.

The wolf was completely stumped. To make matters worse, he was completely alone in this. His roommates had all gone home for vacation while he stayed at school. Even Jack, who would usually stay with the wolf so he wouldn't be lonely, went home. Legosi couldn't blame him however, Jack had gone through a truly horrific ordeal so it made sense that he'd want to be with his family.

Legosi let out a sigh. Since pacing around in his room was getting him nowhere, he decided to go out and get some fresh air. He left the canine dorms and just walked around the campus. He couldn't help but notice how empty it was. Which made sense seeing how just about everyone, including many of the teachers, had gone home until school started up again. Ordinarily this would make the average person nervous or uncomfortable, but Legosi had always lived a pretty solitary life. He welcomed the quiet atmosphere. Sure a part of him wished that Jack or Kai was there with him, but if he was being honest, they would more than likely be a distraction for him. Not because they wouldn't be any help, quite the contrary actually, but because he would spend more time worrying about their safety rather than focusing on what had to be done.

After about a half hour of walking through the campus, Legosi found himself at the drama club building. He realised he had basically just been spinning his wheels, so he decided to go inside.

It was a good chance to visit the little shrine that he and the other club members had made for Tem, so he picked some flowers from the yard and headed straight there. He walked down the hall, went past the club room, past the locker room, and arrived at the shrine just outside the prop room.

Since Tem worked primarily with props it was a good spot for it.

There he saw his friend's picture, surrounded by candles that had long since melted to their bases and flowers that had withered away. Legosi couldn't stand seeing Tem's shine like that so he decided to clean it up before placing the flowers he brought.

As he threw out the candles and flowers, he was surprised to find that there were some flowers that were much newer than others. This showed that someone else was still visiting the shrine. Given the state of the flowers however, it was clear that whoever it was hadn't come in at least two weeks. Either that or they were visiting Tem often, but just didn't bother bringing anymore flowers.

Legosi was happy that there was still someone that felt close to Tem despite how long it's been. He placed the hand-picked bouquet in front of Tem's picture and spoke.

"Hey Tem, sorry it's been awhile. I know it isn't much of an excuse, but with everything that's been happening lately I haven't had much time to come for a visit. I know I should have made the time for it and I'm sorry I didn't."

Legosi looked to the side then back at the picture. "You know, you were one of the first herbivores that ever treated me like a real friend. Looking back at it now, I realize how precious that was… and I'm sorry that I didn't appreciate it until it was already too late. I guess I don't have to tell you how rare that is, an herbivore treating a carnivore so nicely and not treating them as something to be afraid of."

Legosi began to tear up a bit as his ears folded back, but because he was so lost in what he was saying he failed to notice how his demeanor was changing.

"It's funny isn't it? That we don't realize what we have until it's gone. I just… I just wish I could have told you how much our friendship meant to me."

The large canine let out a small chuckle, failing to realize the small tears under his eyes. "You know me though; always keeping how I feel to myself because I don't want to be a bother to anyone."

Legosi sat down with his legs crossed in front of the picture and spoke. "You know, there were times when I wondered if things would have been different if I told you how much it meant to me that we were friends. Would I have gotten closer to you like I did with Kai? Would you have trusted me enough to call me for help? Could there have been anything anyone of us could do?

Legosi shook his head. "I know it isn't healthy to think about those kinds of things but, I guess… it's just something that everyone thinks about from time to time when they lose someone."

Legosi stood up. "Tem… I'm sorry I couldn't help you when you needed it the most, but I promise that I'll find the animal that did this."

The gray carnivore looked up. "I don't know where you are now, but I hope that it's somewhere peaceful and that you know how much everyone loves you even now."

Just as Legosi was about to leave he heard what sounded like someone bumping into something.

"Hey, who's there?" the large canine called out. There was no response, instead he heard the sound of footsteps running away.

"HEY!"

Legosi ran after the footsteps until he made it to the other end of the building. He saw that the entrance door was left open and ran outside. He looked around and saw no signs of anyone being there. This didn't stop him however. He closed his eyes and sniffed the air. After a few sniffs the wolf caught the scent of the animal that was spying on him. He knew it had to be them because the scent started at the door and led out to the field where the festival was.

Legosi ran as fast as he could, tracking the scent. He didn't know what animal was waiting for him at the end because he was so focused on tracing it that he didn't bother to properly identify it.

He finally found the source of the scent behind a tree on the far end of the soccer field. He approached slowly hoping to catch whoever it was off guard. He was finally in close proximity to his target, now all he had to do was wait.

Legosi got down into a pouncing position. After only a few seconds, the animal poked his head out from the tree and peered around. At that exact moment Legosi leaped into the air and tackled the animal to the ground. The wolf used his knee to keep the stalker pinned to the ground and got a strong hold of the animal's hands, placing them behind their back, so they couldn't fight back.

"Alright whoever you are, tell me what the hell you were doing back there and why did you run away!" the wolf demanded with a loud growl.

The animal turned his head and revealed himself to be a certain tiger that Legosi knew all too well.

"BILL!" the wolf barked. "What the hell man, why were you sneaking around like that?"

"I wasn't sneaking around, I was seeing what you were up to," the tiger explained.

He struggled to get Legosi off of him but his efforts proved useless. "Damn man, when did you get so strong?"

"Don't change the subject!" the large canine barked, still growling at the large cat. "Why were you spying on me and why did you run away?"

Bill didn't say anything. Instead he just looked forward with a bored expression on his face.

Not in the mood for the tiger's games, Legosi decided to show off a new wrestling move he learned from Gohin.

Legosi turned Bill's body sideways, put both his knees into the tiger's back then rolled both of them backwards so that Bill was on top of him. He then grabbed the large cat's neck and legs and pulled them towards him while his knees pushed straight into Bill's back, completing the 'Bow and Arrow' submission hold.

"GAAHHH! OW, OW, OW, OH GOD THAT HURTS! OW, OW, AAHHH!" Bill cried in pain.

"Are you gonna talk or not?" Legosi snarled, pushing his knees deeper into the tiger's back.

"GAAAHHHHHH! OK, OK FINE! UNCLE! I GIVE! I TAP! WHATEVER YOU WANT ME TO SAY I'LL TALK!" Bill screamed in agony.

Legosi let go of Bill's neck and legs and pushed the orange carnivore off of him with his hands and knees causing Bill to fall face first to the ground.

The wolf stood up. "Now, tell me what you were doing back there," he demanded.

Bill, who was still recovering from the wolf's assault, started rubbing his back. "Sure, just give me a sec will ya. I think you broke something."

After a few minutes of snapping his spine back into place, the large cat stood up and cracked his back. "Ah… that's better. Man, when did you learn a trick like that?"

"I have a few more that I'll gladly show you if you don't quit wasting my time!" Legosi barked as he crossed his arms.

Bill put his hands up. "Geez man relax. I said I'll tell you."

The tiger put his hands down and stretched out in order to make his back crack again.

Once he was finished he stared at Legosi's arms as he couldn't help but notice how bulky they were. He then examined the rest of the wolf's figure and realized just how much bigger he had gotten when compared to how he looked months ago.

"Dang man, you join a gym or something? You look good," Bill said with a big toothy smile.

"BILL!" Legosi snapped.

"Dude, calm down. I was giving you a compliment," the tiger said as he recomposed himself.

Bill shook his head. "Look, I wasn't spying on you or anything. I was just seeing what you were up to. You and I are the only ones here on campus besides a few teachers and a small handful of students that also decided to stay. So when I saw you heading into the club room I figured I'd see what you were doing."

"I just thought that hey, Legosi is always doing something for the club. Maybe he's got something planned for when everyone comes back from break and that maybe I could give him a hand."

Bill looked to the side. "I… really wasn't expecting you to visit Tem's shrine or you know… say all that stuff."

Legosi started to blush. Even though he knew someone was there he didn't realize that they were there since the beginning of his speech.

"You… you heard all that?" the wolf said nervously as his ears folded back.

"Yea I did," Bill answered.

"Truth is, I was hiding behind the wall from when you started cleaning up all those dead flowers. I thought about helping you but I figured you wanted to be alone since you were visiting him."

Bill looked down and scratched his head. "Then you started saying all that stuff and I…" Bill ears folded back. "I guess… I guess, I don't know, it felt wrong eavesdropping like that."

Bill looked up. "I'm sorry."

Legosi put his hands up. "It's, it's fine. I just…I wasn't expecting anyone to hear all that," he explained, his face now completely red from embarrassment.

Bill looked to the side. "Hey, did you really mean all that stuff back there?" the tiger asked awkwardly. "You know, about how rare it is for herbivores to be nice to guys like us and about how you plan to find out who was the one that killed him?"

Legosi started growling again. "And what if I am? Are you planning to stop me? Because if you are…"

"Whoa man, I'm not," Bill said in a cool and collected tone. "Just the opposite. I want in."

Legosi's tail jumped. "What!?"

"You heard me, I want in," Bill responded.

"W-Why would you wanna help me with this?" the wolf asked.

"There's someone who I've wanted to help out for a while now, but I couldn't figure out how to do that," Bill answered.

The tiger put his arm around the wolf and smiled. "But thanks to you, I now know how to go about it."

Bill looked to the side and blushed a bit. "Plus, what you said in front of the shine, it's noble and junk… but it's obvious you're gonna need all the help you can get," Bill said with a grin.

Legosi looked to the side. He then calmly removed Bill's hand, giving him an unamused look, and spoke. "Let's say I accept your help. How do I know you don't have anything planned? I mean, why should I trust you?"

Bill looked at the wolf with confusion before smiling again.

"Come on bro, isn't this the face of someone you can trust?" the tiger asked while he pointed at his winning grin.

"I'm serious Bill," Legosi answered as he looked down. "No matter how you look at everything that's recently happened, there are a lot of reasons why I shouldn't believe you..."

Legosi looked back up to properly confront the large feline. "During the school play, you tried to kill me. Yes, I did start the fight. But you went berserk after I disarmed you! If Kai hadn't helped me when he did, you would've done something like scratch me up so much that I'd have permanent scarring or you would have just gone and killed me right there on the spot."

Legosi clenched his fists. "And then… at the black market… you kept talking about how it's ok to eat meat like it was no big deal as if you've done it before. Aoba also told me about how you went and actually ate that old man's finger. I know you still go there from time to time too."

Legosi took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Bill, the simple fact is… I don't know if I can trust you after everything you've done."

Bill looked to the side. He then looked back at Legosi with a serious look on his face. "Look man, I know you and I don't have the best history and you're right I do go to the black market, but that doesn't mean I'm not serious about helping you."

"I won't deny that I'm a huge bastard that eats meat, but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad about what happened to Tem." Bill walked closer to the large canine, put his hands on Legosi's shoulders, and got as close as he could to the wolf's face so that their eyes locked, causing Legosi to blush a bit. "If I'm gonna be honest, I always had this weird feeling about the whole thing. What you said at the shrine about the police not investigating enough pretty much confirmed it."

"Um… Bill, you're a little too close," Legosi said nervously, his face becoming redder.

"Listen!" Bill said, looking even more serious than before. "I may not have been close with that alpaca, but he was still a member of our club. The fact that one of us could have been the one who did it makes it even worse."

Legosi's eyes widened. He grabbed Bill's shoulders impulsively, surprising the tiger enough so that he let go of his.

"What do you mean by that?" the grey wolf asked. "How do you know that it was someone in the club, did you find something?"

Bill put his hands up. "Whoa man, calm down. I said that it could have been one of us, not that it was one of us."

Bill removed Legosi's hands. "I just think that considering Tem was a member and that he was killed in the theater, it's more than likely that it was a carnivore from the club who was responsible."

The tiger looked to the side. "Though, to be honest, it's really just a hunch since I don't have any kind of proof."

Legosi crossed his arms. "No, you might be right about that. Even though it's only a hunch it makes a lot of sense," the wolf responded. "Still, like you said we need proof to be sure."

Legosi shook his head. "I wish Louis was here. He'd be a big help right now."

"I won't deny that," Bill responded as he shrugged his shoulders. "But that jackass vanished off the face of the Earth without a trace. Even if we did somehow find him, I doubt he'd have any leads for us."

"Yea, your right," Legosi barked as he looked to the side.

"Come on man, I know you have your doubts, but I really mean it when I say I wanna help you with this," Bill confessed.

He put his fist up. "So what do you say, partners?"

Legosi looked down at the tiger's fist. He was understandably hesitant even now, but figured he could at least work alongside Bill even if he doesn't fully trust him.

"Alright, partners," Legosi answered as he gave the tiger the fist bump he wanted.

The two walked off together, ready to find the truth about what happened all those months ago.