A friend is supposed to help in moments of need.

That was something Juno believed.

She always had a lot of people around her. She was not sure why, but she always felt like other animals, other wolves, especially, liked to come around her and spend time with her. She was, in many ways, the opposite of Kiira, who was a sad lioness who stayed all alone in the corner of the playground playing with a pair of dolls and never talked to any of the other children.

She was always wearing a mask over her muzzle, so no one could really see her face. Not even Juno. But still, Juno could see that the little lioness was very, very sad.

That was why she decided to go there and talk to her.

This decision changed both their lives.

Juno could honestly not imagine what her life would be like had she never met Kiira. That was how important the female hybrid had been on her life as a friend.

Juno had been so happy when Kiira finally decided to join her as a member of Drama Club, and even more when he heard that Kiira had finally been able to find love. She was so happy that her friend was on her way to find happiness.

However, now all she could feel was a clench on her heart as she saw Kiira's expression whenever they came to mention Legoshi.

The same expression whenever she had to see and talk to him in Club. Kiira was good in hiding things and acting professionally. The mask hiding her features certainly helped hide how she was feeling. However, Juno knew her well enough to know that she was in trouble just by seeing her eyes.

She could see the sadness in them. The sadness of a girl who experienced her first heartbreak.

Juno had been on her place a few years ago, and Kiira had been there for her, like a good friend should. Which was why Juno made her best to be there for her now that she was on the same position as Juno.

However, as she came to check on Kiira, who insisted that she was okay, despite the sadness that was so clear on her eyes, especially as she looked at Legoshi.

And there the male hybrid was at the distance, helping Kai with some electrical equipment, as one of the dinosaurs had a damaged internal light due to the blackout of three nights ago. He was still talking to him as if there was nothing wrong, completely ignoring how sad Kiira clearly was.

Nearly as if he didn't care.

He is probably too busy thinking about that rabbit who he likes... Juno thought, feeling anger surge inside of her as she looked at him. I mean, an herbivore? Seriously? Why? How come he can chase after an herbivore when he has Kiira so close to him? What, is she not good enough for him!? How can he? How can he play with the feelings of someone who clearly love him so much!? That jerk!

That was when Juno made up her mind. She marched all the way to Legoshi, while the male hybrid didn't notice.

"Hey, do you think Louis seems a little off today?" Kai asked of the hooded hybrid, but Legoshi didn't really heard what he asked. He was too busy looking at Louis, watching him as he interacted with the others, and Legoshi paid really close attention whenever Louis was approached by a carnivore, as he was weary that any of them could be part of the plan to maul Louis.

And, all the while, he kept remembering what Louis told him earlier.

Are Louis and Haru really not together? The hybrid thought. But, they were together, weren't they? They kept meeting and... and Haru said his name... did they really break up? Was... was it because… because of me?

"Hey!" The sudden voice snapped Legoshi from his reflection, and he turned to see Juno standing there and looking at him.

And she did not look happy with him.

"I need to talk to you, Legoshi." Juno said, making it very clear that she was purposefully dropping the "senpai" honorific. The way she spoke to him made it seem that she was upset, and Kai clearly noticed, and he was looking at Legoshi, wondering what the hybrid had done to piss her off.

Legoshi, on the other hand, was being as unaware as he usually was on situations like that, just said a "Uhhh, okay?" and soon he and Juno were taking a few feet away from Kai.

Juno just tackled the subject at once:

"How can you do something like that!?"

Legoshi was taken aback.

"W-what?"

"How can you do this!?" Juno asked. "How can you be so brash as to cause someone pain like this!? Don't you feel guilty about breaking someone's heart!?"

Legoshi blinked, and for a moment he was wondering what Juno was talking about. Then it hit him:

Louis and Haru.

They broke up because of him.

"I-I didn't mean to!" Legoshi said, as he suddenly knew (or thought he knew) what Juno was referring to.

"I-I mean... I..." Legoshi said, looking at her. "I didn't meant to."

Juno saw his reaction, and then, she said:

"You didn't even realize, did you?"

Legoshi said nothing, and he and the female wolf only looked at each other.

"You are as clueless as Kiira..." Juno said, and Legoshi looked at her with confusion for a moment, and that was when Juno resumed her tirade, as she was still not done with the male standing before her.

"Well, either you meant to or not, you still did it!" Juno said to him. "Honestly, how could you do this!? How can you be so inconsiderate as not to even notice you are messing with someone else's feelings and hurting them!?"

Legoshi had no answer for that.

He really didn't mean to. He didn't mean to get on the way of Haru and Louis' relationship. He didn't want to ruin things between them.

He really didn't. Honest.

However, that didn't change the fact that he did.

And he honestly felt horrible because of it.

"I... I'm sorry." He finally managed to get out, and he sounded like he meant it. However, Juno did not relent.

"I am not the one you should be apologizing to, you know!?" She said to the hybrid. "I am not the one with whom you should be trying to fix things with!"

Legoshi looked up.

"Fix things... with?" he asked, confused.

"Yes!" Juno said to him. "That's what you need to do when you screw things up! You need to fix it! You need to fix what you broke! Make up for the people you hurt! That's basic common sense! Honestly, you are a second-year student, you should know this already!"

Legoshi blinked, looking at her as she talked to him on the same way as Legoshi's own mother whenever she was scolding him.

That was more than enough to make Legoshi stand upright and hear every word that the wolf was telling him.

"Legoshi, you have hurt someone's feelings, and you need to make things right." Juno said to him. "I know that maybe it is not my place to tell you how to live your life, or who you should fall in love with or not, but I know that I cannot let you just go around hurting people's feelings like that! Especially someone close to me!"

Close to her? Legoshi thought, before he reminded that Louis was part of their club. Of course, as a club member, he would be close to Juno. He even heard someone mention that Louis had stayed in club after hours with Juno to help her with her dance.

"So, that is why I am asking... no, I am demanding you to fix what you broke!" Juno said, "I am demanding you to make this wrong right and to make it up for the hurt you caused! That is the least you can do now!"

She said it so incisively that there was no way Legoshi could say no to her.

And, as he lowered his head and thought about it, he realized that she did had a point.

Louis and Haru... they had been together before he came along. Probably for a long time. They were probably happy until he came in and meddled by coming into her club and trying to monopolize her. That should be what caused the two to fight.

Well, it may not have been the main reason, but Legoshi still felt like he somehow had collaborated for their falling apart.

He had hurt the two of them by meddling into their relationship. And he needed to make up for it.

"You are right..." Legoshi said, "I... I have to fix this!"

And, without saying another word, Legoshi turned around and walked in direction to where the other animals of the club were.

Including Kiira.

Did I do it? Juno thought, as he saw the male hybrid walking in direction to her friend. Did I managed to convince him?

However, it was not to Kiira that Legoshi was currently marching with a determined expression on his features.

Louis was talking to Sano, when Legoshi suddenly came.

"Louis-senpai! You need to come with me!" Legoshi said to him.

"What?"

"Please, come with me!" Legoshi said, and he didn't wait for an answer before grabbing Louis hand and pulling him along.

"H-hey!" Louis said, while Legoshi practically dragged him away from a shocked Sano. "What do you think you are doing!? Where are you taking me!?"

"To see Haru!" Legoshi said, "You two need to make up!"

"What!?" Louis said, as Legoshi continued to drag him away, all while a few members of Drama Club watched in surprise and confusion. Among them, Juno.

Wha...

And someone else was watching as the hybrid moved away from the rest of his group with the deer. And he followed them both, keeping a close eye on the hybrid as he adjusted the tie of his suit.

"All ready." Haru said happily as she checked on the last adjustments for her little flower stand. She knew that it was going to be a success, and she was going to earn a good money for the Gardening Club. Maybe enough to renovate the gardening tools. The ones she had in there were quite old...

That was when she heard a familiar voice.

"Legoshi! Stop it!" Louis said as the hybrid continued to drag him forward. "Let me go! I said let me go! I told there's nothing to fix between Haru and me, you moron!"

Louis was trying not to make a scandal, because he didn't want to draw attention to them. He knew that things could only end badly if they saw him struggling and yelling and inevitably assumed that the deer was being kidnapped by the much bigger carnivore. However, he was still insistently trying to get Legoshi to let go of his hand and forget the matter, but the hybrid was adamant.

"Haru." Legoshi said, as he dragged the deer all the way to her, while Louis desperately tried using his free hand to release Legoshi's fingers from his other one. "You and Louis need to talk."

Haru was confused, and she could only look at the hybrid in shock.

Soon, however, Legoshi's insistence made her come with him. He wanted them to talk in there, but they both seemed worried about the people around them.

Right, their relationship is a secret... Legoshi though, as he remembered how Haru seemed keen on keeping Legoshi from finding out about her and Louis. They probably valued their privacy and did not wanted attention drawn to them because of being an interspecies couple, much like Legoshi's own parents.

Yes, the hybrid could certainly understand this. No one deserved to become a spectacle only for loving who they did.

So, he took the two of them into a secluded area where they could talk in peace. Louis was still being dragged by the hand, and Haru was going along because she didn't really saw other choice.

As they went, the person followed them kept an eye on them, and he pulled something out of his suit.

"He is going outside of the Festival." The lion said on his walkie-talkie. "East side. Now is our chance."

"I am terribly sorry for meddling in your affairs! It was never my intention! Please, forgive me!" Was what Legoshi said to the two of them, bowing deeply for the two in a sign of respect. Meanwhile, the two of them could only look at the hybrid in surprise, both still somehow confused as to what has gotten into him all of a sudden.

"I want to make it right." The hybrid said as he straightened himself. "Which is why I brought you two back here. So you two can talk it over between yourselves and patch things up."

"Legoshi, there is nothing to patch up!" Louis said to the hybrid. "Will you quit acting like this!?"

"I'm sorry, senpai, but I could not just act like everything was okay." Legoshi said to Louis. "I knew things were bad back in Cherryton when you told me that I could ask Haru out if I wanted because you two were not together anymore."

"Wait, he said what!?" Haru said now looking at Louis.

Dammit, what's got in that carnivore!? Was all Louis could think of, as he saw himself wanting to be there less and less, and trying to leave, only for Legoshi to stop him.

"You two need to patch things up!" The hybrid said as he blocked his path. "Please, I would not be able to feel good with myself if you two ended things forever because of me! Louis, you are the one who deserves to be with Haru!"

"Excuse me!" The bunny said, "Doesn't Haru gets a saying in this!? I'm not a cookie for you guys to decide who gets to have me!"

This continued for a couple minutes, with Legoshi insisting that the two of them should talk and set things right between the two of them, while not only Louis, but also Haru, tried to convince the hybrid to let go of the matter and let them both go back to the Festival.

Legoshi was being quite stubborn about it, and this was starting to drive both the deer and the bunny crazy, as they felt like they were nearly going in circles with this conversation.

They were all so focused on the talk they were having, that they failed to notice the van coming from a road nearby and stopping just a few meters away from them.

"You two need to talk!" Legoshi said to the two of them, for the fourth time in the last three minutes. "Only if you talk you will be able to fix things up in your relationship! I won't meddle with it in the future, I promise! You don't have to stop dating because of me!"

At that point, the two herbivores were with the hybrid, with Louis being very close to his limit. Haru, however, had already reached it.

"We were never dating!" The bunny snapped. "I am just his sidepiece!"

"What?"

"Haru!"

"Louis has a fiancé!" Haru said, looking at the hybrid. "He is engaged to a female red deer who his father expects him to marry as soon as he finishes school! I am his mistress!"

The two males looked at her in shock. Legoshi looked positively baffled by the confession that Haru just made, as much as Louis looked that Haru blurted that out for someone else to hear.

However, none of them had any time to process what happened, for a group of lions, who had come out of the black van, quickly made their way to them, and they immediately went for the hybrid.

"Gotcha!" Said one of them as he grabbed Legoshi by the collar of his hoodie and punched him hard into the face, causing him to go to the ground.

Louis and Haru were shocked by this, as the other lions closed in.

"Remember me, freak!?" Said Sony to the hybrid, as he punched him into the face again, and the other lions surrounded him.

"Legoshi!" Haru sadi, trying to rush to them, but being stopped by a lion with a scar-marked face. He grabbed her by the ear, causing her to scream in pain and grab his much bigger hand.

"Let her go!" Louis said, and the same lion turned his attention to him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and tossing him like a ragdoll, making Louis' back collide with the trunk of a tree.

The other three lions of the group were all over Legoshi, and the hybrid was about to fight back at them, when something was forced over his mouth and snout. One sniff and a strong chemical smell entered the hybrid's nostrils, and he looked up at the lions over him, all of which were sneering.

"Sleep now, Ibuki's son." Sony said, "Enjoy the last nap of your life."

Legoshi didn't wanted to sleep. But, as that smell filled his nostrils, he found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open. He managed to grasp the wrist of the lion holding it to his face and squeeze, but it was nowhere near strong enough to remove the hand.

Legoshi could only let out a tired groan before his eyes closed.

From there, it was easy for the lions to just flip him around and forcing his hands behind his back, before zip-tying his wrists behind his back. They kept the chloroform-soaked tissue over his nose to make sure he was out, as they carried him back to their van.

"H-hey!" Haru said, seeing the lions carry Legoshi away. "Where are you taking him!? Let him go!"

She even trying squirming, to free herself from the lion who was holding her ear. That lion, with an x-shaped scar on his face, then let go of her ear and grabbed her by the dress instead, before tossing her right into the deer's lap.

Louis was starting to get up, but had the wind knocked out of him as the bunny landed on him, and they were both recovering, when Louis looked over and saw the lion walking to them with a hand inside of his suit, reaching for something...

Just like earlier on that day, Louis reached under his clothes, for the gun he kept under them and pulled it to point it at the lion.

The lion stopped before them, as the deer pointed that gun at him, visibly shaking.

This got Dolph weary. However, this lion was no coward to turn around and run when a gun was pointed his way, especially if the one holding it looked scared, liker hat deer clearly was. He was, after all, a seasoned member of the Shishigumi, part of their Elite Eight, who survived their encounter with the Black Devil himself seventeen years ago, and he had a great deal of dangerous encounters, and had guns pointed at his face more than a few times.

He remained perfectly calm as he gave a single more step in direction to the deer, who pointed the gun straight at him with one hand while using his other arm to pull the bunny closer to his chest and pulled out... a card.

With a calm that was nearly uncanny, Dolph made a gesture to the two of them, placing his finger in front of his lips and saying "shhhh" before casually tossing the card to the deer, and it landed on his lap as well.

With that done, the lion turned around and walked back to the van, where the other younger members had also loaded their target on the back.

"W-wait!" Haru said, "Wait, you can't! Louis, stop them! You have a gun, stop them!"

However, Louis didn't do anything. He didn't pull the trigger. He only continued to look as the last of the lions climbed on the van, and the doors closed.

Haru pulled herself from his grip, running to the van and yelling at them to stop, but of course they didn't. She could only watch as the van drove away with Legoshi inside.

"Help!" Haru started screaming, "Help! Someone help! My friend was kidnapped! Help!"

She was running back into the festival, screaming for help. Meanwhile, Louis would take a while to go after her, as he was still shaking, still holding his gun in the direction the lions went with Legoshi. And then, he slowly reached for the card the scarred lion dropped on his lap.

A black card with a red symbol in it...

Well, that took longer than I expected. Ibuki thought as he made his way out of the barracks where the organizers of the Festival were gathering.

He had expected to take only fifteen, maybe twenty minutes to solve everything, but he ended up taking over an hour!

Mostly because those guys kept insisting in having Ibuki show them his credentials, which Ibuki didn't had. He had to explain to them that he was in there as a favor for one of them, whom he knew personally and was intimate with. However, for some reason, it seemed that none of them really believed him.

Ibuki had to stay in there and wait until one of them was finally able to contact Leano's people and confirm with them that Ibuki had, indeed, been sent by "the queen" to arrange the details on her name, and that he was qualified to do so.

Only after they confirmed, they finally started talking about the technical details with the lion, which were mostly the lighting and the parameters for things on the stage, which needed to be on the way that Leano and her boys wanted.

They were finally done, and Ibuki was glad, because then:

"Guys, do you smell something... delicious?" One of the carnivores in there said, and Ibuki thanked them for their time and then left as quickly as he could before they realized the delicious smell was coming from one of the pockets of his jacket.

I should have just left it in the fridge before coming... Ibuki thought as he walked out of that tent, praying that no one else would smell the packaged slabs of salmon he had on his pocket. He could get in serious trouble if he was caught in public with that.

To be honest, due to the illegal nature of fish meat, Ibuki could very well end up back in jail, especially taking in consideration his record.

Yeah, that was definitely not one of his smarter decisions. He better just get back home as fast as possible.

"You need to help us!" Said a voice coming from a tent that Ibuki was passing by, and this made the lion stop as he was about to give a phone call to Leano to tell her it was everything in order, and then call home to apologize to Sagwan for taking longer than expected and tell him that he would be coming home soon.

Is that the bunny from Legoshi's school? The one from Gardening Club?

"Miss, I ask you to please calm down."

"Calm down!?" The bunny said once more. "I'm tired of people asking me to calm down! The security on the Festival, the cops! Our friend got kidnapped by a bunch of lions!"

What? Ibuki thought, as he stopped to hear more clearly. The next words that the bunny said made him feel as if ice had been injected on his veins.

"Legoshi was kidnapped by those Shishigumi guys!" Haru said to the mayor. "They took him away on their van!"

"Mr. Mayor..." Louis said, "Sir, the kidnapping of a student of Cherryton is a serious matter. It needs to be addressed appropriately. But no one seems to be taking it seriously."

"Oh, they are, Louis." The lion said to the deer. "It is just that, when it comes to a group like the Shishigumi, you cannot just go and do things. You need to stop and think carefully before doing something that will only make things worse."

"But..." Louis said, as he looked at the lion, who seemed eerily calm with all of this. Haru, on her end, seemed about to snap at the lion once more to tell him how dire the situation was. However, someone beat her to it:

"Make things worse!? Are you being serious!?"

The animals all turned their heads to see another lion walking into the tent, looking royally pissed.

"Ibuki-san!" Louis said, as the lion made his way in there, his eyes focused on the mayor.

"My son was frigging kidnapped! How can this be made worse!?" Ibuki nearly roared at the mayor, who only looked back at him while telling him to calm down. However, Ibuki ignored him, and he turned to the two herbivores on the tent.

"When did it happen?" Ibuki demanded. "When was my son taken!?"

"Forty minutes ago." Louis said, and Ibuki took in the information.

Forty minutes. They would have drove back to the Black Market in less than fifteen parting from that square...

"The lions who took Legoshi, are you sure they are the Shishigumi?" Ibuki asked the two. "Did they identify themselves as such?"

The look on the lion's face made the two carnivores, who already dealt with nervous lions a while ago, get nervous.

"T-they left this card..." Haru said, giving the card to Ibuki, who snatched it off her hand. "It has nothing written, only that symbol. We showed it to a few people, and they said it was from the Shishigumi."

Ibuki looked at the card. At the symbol in it in red. It had been seventeen years since he saw it, but there was no way he could forget that symbol. A symbol that was permanently engraved in his memory as if branded with hot iron.

The symbol of the Shishigumi.

"And... those lions..."

Haru hesitated once the eyes of the lion landed on her, but she still said:

"One of them called Legoshi 'Ibuki's son'."

Those words confirmed Ibuki's worst fears.

They knew who Legoshi was. They knew he was his son, and that was, no doubt, why they took him.

"Shit!" Ibuki said, and he turned around, ready to leave the tent, however, that was when the Mayor grabbed his wrist.

"Hold on."

Ibuki was nearly growling as he turned to look at the other lion, who seemed unmoved.

"You better just leave it be." The Mayor said to Ibuki.

For a long moment, the two lions looked at each other.

"Leave it be?" Ibuki said, glaring at the other lion. "Are you telling me to let my son die?"

"I am telling you not to ruin things for all lions of this city, Ibuki." The Mayor said, "I am saying not to ruin the good image of lions that I spent so many years building up by trying to go into war with your old comrades."

Ibuki growled at him. Meanwhile the two herbivores looked at the two of them. Louis in particular.

"Old... comrades?" Louis said, and the Mayor turned to him.

"Oh, yes, you didn't know, did you?" The Mayor said, very casually. "Ibuki here used to be a member of the Shishigumi. The same gang who kidnapped your friend."

The two herbivores looked at the lion in shock.

"Needless to say..." The lion said as he looked back at the other one. "This means that he did took part on all of their criminal activities. From the fabrication and selling of the legendary hyper drugs to the annual kidnapping and devouring of an innocent herbivore from the streets."

"What does explain why he chose to become a househusband after he got out of jail." The mayor said, letting go of his wrist. "Hard to get a job with a criminal, record like that."

Ibuki growled at him, baring all his fangs. The Mayor, on his end, just chuckled.

"When you are in the position I am in, you have contact with all kind of people." The Mayor said, turning around and walking to a table in it. "People who have access to information about others. For example..."

He stopped and started to flip through the pages of the open thick notebook on the table.

"This record of all products bought from the Black Market between seventeen and fourteen years ago." He said, "Complete with additional information on the purchase and fate of the product. And look at this! Among them if speaks of a calf that bred as cattle. Aged four-years-old, purchased by Oguma the Red Deer, not to serve as food, but to be raised by him as his son..."

The Mayor spoke that with very naturally.

"Was named 'Louis'."

Hearing that made the red deer on the tent flinch.

The boy is Black Market cattle? Ibuki thought as he looked at Louis with a side-eye, however, he soon forgot about it, as the Mayor was, once more, speaking.

"I assume you want this information to remain secret, right?" He said, "Both of you."

Ibuki and Louis said nothing to the lion, while Haru only looked in between the three males.

"Yes, you would both have a lot to lose if information like that came to light." The Mayor said to them, and he walked to Ibuki, smiling.

"Ibuki... imagine what your life would be like if your neighbors, the people you know, found out about your criminal past." He said to the lion. "If your own daughters found out what you used to do. The people you hurt and killed. I know that you would not be able to look any of them in the eye."

He approached the other lion.

"As a fellow male lion, you know well how important it is for us to have public approval." The Mayor said, "That is the reason why I spent a small fortune in plastic surgery to reduce my eyes and rearrange my face to make it more acceptable by herbivore standards, and why I replaced my fangs with dentures. I would also have done something about my big hands, was not for my wife loving them so much..."

He looked deeply in Ibuki's eyes, as the other lion looked back at him with an expression of glacial contempt.

"I am sorry about your son. I really am." The Mayor said, "But, you have to think of the bigger picture. Think of how an event like that would affect not only you, but all the lions on this city. How they would be affected if the public had a reason to turn against us. We cannot allow something like that to happen. We need to protect the status quo. For that, this time we will have to accept your son as a casualty of life. All in the name of peace and harmony."

He then offered his hand for Ibuki to shake.

"So, can I count with you on this? As a fellow lion?"

For a long moment, Ibuki looked back at him. His face was devoid of any emotions, and it was nearly impossible to know what he was thinking.

Then, much to the shock of the two herbivores on the room, he reached out for the Mayor's hand and shook it.

"Ah, very good." The Mayor said happily. "I knew that you would be reasonable about-"

"Amalia." Ibuki cut him before he could finish.

"Hm?"

"You used to wait on the corner after school to wait for her to pass." Ibuki said to the Mayor. "You did it for weeks until you finally worked the courage to talk to him, and then you talked to her and told her that her tusks looked beautiful when the light reflected on them."

The Mayor blinked, his smile disappearing completely as he heard that.

"W-wha... What do you..."

"Zilla." Ibuki continued. "You met her in a beach during a vacation. You approached her and asked if she needed help with passing sunscreen on her back. You mentioned to her how beautiful her scales looked when the light reflected on them."

"I-I..." The mayor said, that confident aura that he had until now starting to faulter. "I-I don't know what you are talking about!"

Ibuki, however continued:

"Nelly." The lion said, "She told you how happy she was for getting a job as your assistant while going to college. You told her that you were happy for having a promising young lady like her working on your office... and how beautiful her beak looked when the light reflected on it."

The Mayor could only look at Ibuki in shock.

"An elephant..." Ibuki said, "A crocodile and an eagle. You know, as a fellow male, I suppose I should be impressed that you have such a wide strike range, and that you managed to win three different women using variations of the same cheap pickup line. Did it work with all the others, or only with those three?"

"Y-you..." The mayor said, stammering. "H-how do you...?"

"You are not the only one who knows people who know things." Ibuki said to the mayor, glaring at him as he said those words. "You know, I do think that you would not want this kind of information making it to the public. That their mayor has the habit of chasing after college aged tail. It would certainly reflect on the next election. But, that is not what you are really worried about, is it?"

He leaned forward, approaching his face of the mayor's.

"You and Amalia were both fifteen when it happened. An 'indiscretion of youth', as I heard you like to call it, long before you and your current wife even met. But, that summer on the beach when you were with Zilla the Crocodile, you were already engaged. And, when you hooked up with your secretary, Nelly the Eagle, you had already been married for nearly five years. As a matter of fact, you two hooked up right on the night of your marriage anniversary, ain't that right?"

"As a fellow male lion, you know well how our females can get if their significant other behaves in a way they disapprove." Ibuki said to him. "I wonder if your wife would still love those big hands of yours after finding out you have been laying them on young girls behind her back for years."

There was now not a single shred of that confident attitude on the mayor's face. In fact, his face was now deathly pale, as he looked at Ibuki as if he had just pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot him dead then and there.

That was when Ibuki starts squeezing his hand, causing the mayor to cry out in pain and double over.

"Now listen here, you plastic-faced sell-out." Ibuki growled at him. "You might be desperate enough for public approval that you are willing to turn a blind eye and let an innocent teenager be sacrificed in name of status quo, but I don't give a shit about any of that!"

"I don't care about public approval, of how people will see lions because of anything!" Ibuki said, squeezing so hard that the mayor was brought to his knees before him, while the two herbivores on the tent looked in shock. "All I care about is my family! So, if my son is in danger, you can be sure that I'm not just going to stand and do nothing! Now, the only question that remains is: will you do your job and help the people of the city like a mayor is supposed to, or will you just keep being as useless as you've been ever since your first mandate?"

Ibuki was squeezing his hand so hard that the mayor was worried that he would break his bones.

"I can't do anything!" The Mayor blurted out. "These two already went to the cops before coming to me! They showed them to card! Now the police know it is gumi business and won't interfere! They cannot even touch them since they surely took your son back to the Black Market to do Rex-knows-what with him! You know how this goes, you used to be one of them!"

Ibuki growled at the kneeling lion once more, before letting go of his hand. He barely minded as the lion whimpered as he nursed his wounded hand, as he walked out of the tent with firm and fast steps.

And soon, he was being followed by two herbivores. Haru was the one who followed the lion first, while Louis went right behind her.

On their way out, they came across some familiar faces.

"Louis-senpai!" Juno said, as she saw the deer walking behind a lion and a white bunny.

"Louis-senpai, what is happening?" Kiira, who was coming along with Juno, said, "We heard you were going around the Festival saying that Legoshi-senpai was kidnapped!"

Louis stopped to look at two of them. However, he was soon called by Haru, who reminded him they needed to keep walking, as the lion was not going to wait for them.

Soon, Louis and the two girls were rushing to catch up with the bunny and the lion, and then they were explained that Legoshi was, indeed, kidnapped.

"We need to call the police!" Juno said.

"They won't help." The lion said.

"We need to tell someone! Maybe the other members of the club!"

"We don't have time!" Ibuki said as they continued to walk. On their way, they passed by the stage, where a few workers were finishing a few things. On his way, Ibuki picked one of the things they left scattered as they worked: a hammer.

Not the best weapon, but it was better than nothing.

"Where are we going?" Haru asked as she and the other three continued to follow the lion, who answered without missing a beat:

"The Black Market."