The Shishigumi.
A group Ibuki cut ties with a long time ago.
A group he hoped, prayed, to never cross paths with again. Neither him, nor any of his loved ones.
However, there they were.
They had rebuilt their numbers. This was no surprise to Ibuki. They would have disappeared had they not get new blood in to rebuild their strength and remain relevant on the Black Market.
Most of the lions looking back at him were new, young faces he did not recognize. However, among those new faces, Ibuki could see a few familiar faces.
Miegel and Jinma had been members before Ibuki joined, as they were both older than him. They were his seniors, and Ibuki served under them while he was still an underling. Same for Sabu.
And, of course, there was Dolph. He was close to Ibuki in age, as he joined shortly after Ibuki himself, and he was a junior alongside him, and became Ibuki's best friend on the organization. Perhaps one of the best friends Ibuki could ever wished to have, until the day things soured.
And things were still sour, considering the glare that Dolph, who now had an X-shaped scar over his face, was giving him from a distance, obviously having recognized Ibuki despite them both having aged and Ibuki now wearing glasses.
All lions in there were glaring at the one standing there, surrounded by Komodo dragons and with a hammer on his hand, as all of them soon realized just who he was.
The sourest of all glares, however, came from one lion in particular.
The lion whom recruited Ibuki in the first place. The lion who welcomed him on his gang. The lion to whom Ibuki once looked up and admired almost as much as his own real father.
The lion who was, currently, standing right by the side of Legoshi, who was tied to a chair with a muzzle on his face and his feet trapped in a bucked of concrete.
Ibuki's hand clutched the handle of the hammer harder, as he looked at all of them, before taking one step forward.
The lions reacted immediately, all of them reaching out for their guns inside of their suits. This, in turn, caused the Komodos to react as well, as all the Dokugumi's members reached for their own guns, some of which where bigger, heavier duty ones than the ones the lions were packing.
Ibuki, on his end, seemed unmoved, as he gave another step forward.
"Hold it right there!" Free demanded as he pointed a gun to Ibuki, only to have a Komodo point a gun at him as well.
"You hold it there! Shishigumi scum!"
"What are you doing, you stupid lizards!?" Free asked. "We may hate each other, but don't we all hate him a lot more?"
Ibuki ignored him as well. He focused his attention solely on Legoshi. On his son. He was holding himself not to sprint to him right now, as he knew that, if he did, there would be gunfire, and then it would be a mess.
He needed to get Legoshi to safety before that happened.
Then, the lion with only one eye stepped on his way, and he was glaring at Ibuki still.
"Well, looks like the Shishigumi is having a little reunion." The boss was looking like he was not happy about said reunion on the first place. "Ain't it just nifty?"
Ibuki thought it was nifty as much as he did.
"I just want my son." Ibuki said to the Shishigumi. "I don't want problem with any of you."
"Well, too late for that!" Sony said, as he stood by Agatha's side. They were both reaching for their guns, and they had only not pulled them yet before there was one Komodo who had them both on the aim of his two submachine-guns.
"Just give me my son and I will leave." Ibuki said, giving another step forward, not walking forward more than what he dared, but also not only standing still, as he needed to get close enough to Legoshi that he could get to him before anything happened.
"We can all leave without any trouble."
"What if we want trouble?" The boss took a step forward as he had his single eye locked on Ibuki. "What if we want some blood spilled tonight? Preferably yours?"
Ibuki glared at him. Behind him, the Komodos held their guns. Not only them, but Louis also had his gun on his hands, but he was shifting from one target to the other, as he didn't know in which one to keep his eyes.
There were so many lions...
By his side, Haru was gripping the cleaver's handle hard, and she was ready to start swinging if anyone came her way. Meanwhile, Juno and Kiira stood side by side as they watched what was developing, neither of them believing they were witnessing something like that, and Kiira worried to death with Legoshi-senpai.
And Gosha was also worried. He, much like Ibuki, was itching to come close enough to get Legoshi away from those bastards' claws as fast as possible.
"Legoshi!" Ibuki said, looking over the lion on his way, at his son, who was tied to the chair. "Legoshi, pup! Don't worry! I will get you out of here! I promise! I will be taking you back home!"
Legoshi looked at his father, and then the boss slammed his cane down, as if he was blocking Ibuki's possible path to his son.
"Oh, Ibuki..." The said to the lion in a jacket, the only one who was not under his command, although he was once on the distant past. "You really shouldn't lie to your son like that."
"Okay, that's enough!" Savon said, stepping forward. "Let the boy go! Now!"
"Just what are you doing, Savon?" The boss was now looking at the Komodo. "Why do you even care about this boy? You should not care even if he was not the son of the man who nearly destroyed both our gangs!"
To that, Savon had an answer:
"Independent of what his father did, the boy has Komodo blood running on his veins! The Dokugumi looks after their own!"
"Komodo blood..." The boss lion then looked over his shoulder, at the hybrid tied to the chair. The one who had extra arms covered in scales.
"I see..." He then looked back at Ibuki.
"So, it turns out that female wolf had a few secrets of her own, didn't she?"
Ibuki didn't bothered answering that. Instead, he said:
"Let my son go." His hand was gripping the handle of the hammer even harder, his knuckles becoming pale with how firmly he was holding it. "This is your last warning."
The lions started pulling out their guns, with the Dokugumi all pointing their weapons at them back.
Then, the boss said:
"You want your son to go free?" He gave a step towards Ibuki. "Then take his place."
The tension became so thick that one could carve a piece of it out with a knife. Some of the presents looked at the one-eyed lion with surprise, others with clear mistrust. His attention, however, was focused only on Ibuki.
"Seventeen years ago, you told me you would do anything for your new family. I doubted you were serious, until you sold all of us out to the Black Devil." He continued to stare at Ibuki with a hard expression. "How about you show me now if this is still true? Drop that thing, surrender yourself, and take your son's place. Give yourself as sacrifice, and this way your boy will be let free. How about that?"
He gave another step forward.
"Or, is that asking too much for a lion who chose to be a family man over a king of beasts?"
There was silence. Ibuki and his former boss were having a staring contest, while everyone else looked at them, all on edge and waiting to see what was going to happen.
"I love my family..." Ibuki said. "That was true seventeen years ago, and it still is now." He walked forward, closing the distance just a bit more with each step. "I never thought that I had a place on society. I never thought I could live among the animals outside of the Black Market, with their happy lives and peaceful routines. I didn't believe that this was a life for me. I didn't believe I deserved to have this kind of happy life. Every meeting I had with animals from outside of the Black Market served to convince me of that."
Ibuki was looking down as he said that. Everyone looked at him, and then he lifted his head.
"That was why I thought I had found a home at the Shishigumi. A group where I could live proudly as a carnivore and a lion. Where I could put my strength and savagery to use and be admired for it by my peers. I was convinced that this was a life for me. That this was the only life I ever could have... until I met Leano."
"She showed me what life outside of the Black Market was like. She showed me that there could be more for an animal like me than a live of blood and violence. She showed me the happier side of life and of the world. And I liked what she had to show me." He looked up at the sky, at the moon shining above them. "She showed me that there could be beauty in the world, if you just stopped and looked right."
Ibuki lowered his head, once more looking at the one-eyed carnivore.
"On that night, when you called me at your office, and I saw Leano in there, tied up and gagged, I was shocked. All I could think about was to try and work a way to get her out of there." He said. "When you removed her gag and allowed her to speak, and she said she was going to have my child... on that moment, I realized I would do anything to get her out of there. That I would do anything to save both her and out child. I already knew that on the moment you put that gun on my hand and told me to 'do what needed to be done', and that was exactly what I did. I valued my new family more than I valued being a king of beasts."
The boss gripped the handle of his cane even harder. His knuckles getting as white as Ibuki's, as the younger lion, his former subordinate, continued to look at him.
"I learned something about myself that night... and about you as well." Ibuki said, "That is how I know that you have no intention of letting my son go, even if I do as you say and surrender."
"Because you are a spiteful, petty and conniving animal who will not be satisfied until you kill both of us." Ibuki concluded.
The wind blew, whistling on his ears as he stared back at the one-eyed lion, who glared back at him with ferocity.
Then, after nearly twenty seconds, this lion said:
"Well, you are right about that."
On that moment, Ibuki charged.
Gunshots were fired, some of the lions tried to point their guns at Ibuki, only for the Komodo dragons to start firing at them. This caused the lions to fire back at them. Soon, they were both charging at each other, some of them dropping their guns as they went on with their claws and fists and fangs ready for battle.
This included Ibuki, who was charging in direction to the boss. In direction to Legoshi. But his path was cut when a familiar lion with an x-scarred face got onto his way, pointing a gun directly at him.
Ibuki swung his hammer just as he pulled the trigger, causing the gun on Dolph's hand to point at the ground as it fired, meaning the bullet hit the floor without causing damage as it fell out of Dolph's hand. Then, Ibuki delivered a punch to his face, causing him to stumble back, but he knew very well that this was not enough to bring Dolph down.
As Ibuki grappled with his old friend, the Dokugumi and Shishigumi descended into a full-out brawl. Some of them still fired guns, but mostly were resorting to their claws, as well as to knives, brass-knuckles or (in case of the Komodo dragons) venomous bites.
And, among them, was Gosha, who was showing all the skill he had not only as a former member of the Dokugumi, but as an ex-military who once aimed to become a beastar. He certainly was above the level of some mediocre tugs who made a living from bullying those weaker than them, such as the Shishigumi.
However, the sheer number of lions in there, as well as the fact that they all ate meat regularly enough to have developed musculatures, made them a challenge even for Gosha, so much that he could not simply reach out for his grandson, and had to resort to just hold those lions at bay and try to keep as many of them from going after Ibuki as he could.
And, all the while, Legoshi's classmates watched from outside of the carnage occurring.
"Oh, my Rex!" Kiira said as she saw a lion have his entire face melted as a Komodo spat on him. "Oh, my Rex! Juno, we have to do something!"
"Do what!?" Juno said, as horrified as her friend by this display of violence. While the two carnivores were immobilized, it was one of the herbivores who decided that she was done only watching.
"Oh, screw this!" The rabbit then dashed forward, the cleaver held firmly on her hands.
"Haru!" Said Louis, his gun still on his shaking hands as he watched Haru starting to make her way across the field of violence before them, avoiding the legs of the animals who continued to maul and punch and spit on each other. She managed to dribble most of them, but she had to stumble back and ended falling on her butt as a Komodo landed right in front of her with a huge gash on his neck, which poured blood steadily as the lizard choked.
This, of course prompted the others to go after her.
Naturally, those kids were out of place in an environment of such violence, as most of them realized when they witnessed a pair of Komodos working together to literally rip both of a lion's arms off.
Louis tried to get them to stop and stay away by pointing a gun at them, but one of the Komodos landed on him after being tossed back by a lion. This caused Louis to lose his gun, as it skidded away from his grip across the ground, prompting the panicked deer to crawl after it as it was kicked by the legs of the many carnivores around him. Far more and more aggressive than what he was used to have on his immediate vicinity.
And one of them noticed the crawling deer.
"And what are you doing there?" Sony said as he tried to grab Louis, only to have a bamboo arrow come out of nowhere and hit him right on the shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain.
Louis looked at the fallen lion in shock, before looking at the direction the arrow came from.
"Honestly..." Gouhin said, "I must be going soft. Could not bear the idea of leaving these kids alone with this bunch of psychos…" Just as he finished saying those words, a lion came towards him, and now they were struggling for the crossbow.
Gouhin had something akin to diplomatic immunity in the Black Market due to the services he did for everyone, the gumis included. However, now that he was effectively attacking one of the gumis, that was suspended, at least for that specific moment. He was now just another enemy for them to fight and try to kill.
Meanwhile, Ibuki was still brawling with Dolph.
"Why do you still follow that man's orders, Dolph!?" Ibuki asked as he and his former comrade struggle. "Savon told me! He not only makes you bring white animals for him to eat, he goes out to hunt them himself! And he even goes after little children now! This is too much! How come you still do as he says?!"
"Because he is the leader!" Dolph said back. "Because he is the commander of our pride! Because it is my duty to serve him! It is my honor! And those are things a traitor like you don't understand!"
"You are right, I don't!" Ibuki said, as they separated from their struggle, and Dolph reached inside of his suit for a hunting knife.
"I don't understand why anyone would follow the orders of a man whose views on the world are clearly skewered by years of meat addiction!" Ibuki shouted. "He has lost himself completely! Look how he acts! There is any pride in how he behaves? In how he treats you all? He is no longer a leader you can be proud of!"
"If he isn't then it is your fault!" Dolph said back, "Yours and of that bitch for whom you betrayed us all!"
And he lunged at Ibuki, his eyes burning with hatred towards that man who betrayed his entire group. Meanwhile, Ibuki looked back at him with cold, determined eyes of a man who had to protect his loved ones.
With two swings, he knocked the knife off Dolph's hand, hit his should hard, and then sent the other lion to the ground, holding his head in pain and dizzy from the blow resulting from a third swing.
Then he turned to look at the edge of the cliff, where his son and former boss still were.
Legoshi looked at him through the muzzle on his face, while the boss stood by his side. Looking at Ibuki coldly.
The tip of his cane was pressed right on Legoshi's chest.
Ibuki charged forward right as the boss pressed his cane, causing the chair to tip over.
Legoshi fell down the cliff, in direction to the water. Ibuki went right after him.
He passed right by the boss, barely caring about him anymore, and he dove right into the water after his son.
Two splashes were heard as both the hybrid and the lion who sired him disappeared under the surface.
"NOOOO!"
The lion looked back to see a small white bunny coming towards him, swinging a cleaver at him. She was hardly even a threat, he just swung his cane at her, hitting her right into the face and sending her to the ground, unconscious.
"Haru!" Louis was now the one running towards them, and he had his gun on his hand, pointing it at the lion as the carnivore came towards him with a look of pure anger.
Louis fired, but he was not able to aim properly due to how quickly the lion closed the distance, and then he grabbed his wrist, squeezing it hard enough to shatter the bone, causing Louis to gasp as he dropped the gun.
Then, the lion pulled.
Louis went to the ground. He was dizzy due to the sudden movement. So much that he took a while to resister the pain.
As he looked to his right arm, or rather, to the place where it was supposed to be, he realized that his arm was no longer there. The lion was still holding his arm on his hand, blood dripping from the part that had detached from Louis' shoulder.
Louis looked in shock as the lion held his severed arm, handling it carefully, then taking the bloodied end towards his mouth...
And taking a bite.
"Hmmm, not bad..." He said, as he took more bites, and Louis could only look in numb horror as the lion continued to eat his arm.
"Stop it!" Kiira said, seeing what was happening. "Stop this now!" She tried to get to him, but she was stopped by Dolph, who got up and grabbed her as she tried to charge at his boss.
"Man, those lizards are wild!" Free said as he stumbled back, his knife dripping with Komodo dragon blood as he had used it to take out two of them. Then he saw the scene going on there. "What's happening here?"
"We are taking some snacks back home." The boss said as he continued to eat from the deer's arm, blood smearing his muzzle as he bit chunk after chunk. "This deer here is quality meat, but he is too small, so I am having him all for myself. And bring the rabbit too, she will be the dessert."
He gestured at the one-armed, trembling deer and unconscious white rabbit, to what Free said a "right away, boss" and grabbed the two of them, carrying the bunny over his shoulder while forcing Louis to stand and move by holding the one arm he had left.
"And let's bring her as well..." The boss said, looking closely at Kiira as Dolph held her. "I am sure we can find some use for her."
So, while the rest of the Shishigumi continued to fight their enemies, the boss was leaving with Dolph and Free, taking a few prisoners with them, and almost no one noticed.
Juno did, and she was quickly coming to Kiira, demanding those criminals to let her go. The boss, however, was having none of that, and he swung his cane hard on her leg, causing her to drop to the ground, holding her ankle as she cried out.
"Juno!" Kiira said as she saw her friend falling, but was unable to help her, as Dolph told her to "keep moving" as he pushed her away, and Juno could not even chase after them due to the crippling pain on her ankle.
"What about Ibuki and the kid?" Free asked as he carried the two herbivores, one of which was still trying to struggle, despite quickly growing pale due to blood loss.
"Currently drowning together." The boss said, before taking another bite of the arm. Dolph and Free both shared a look, as they took their boss' word for it.
After all, they knew for a fact that Ibuki, like most of them, never learned how to swim.
Ibuki was glad he learned how to swim.
He still hated water, but he did learn how to swim after getting out of jail. Mostly because both Leano and Gosha insisted, saying that it could save his life one day.
It had been grueling, considering his natural aversion for water as a lion. However, he was now glad to have learned.
This meant that he was able to swim as fast as possible to reach for Legoshi as he sank to the sandy bottom of the sea.
His ears felt like they were about to pop, and his lungs were tight, but still, Ibuki ignored all of it. He focused only on swinging his hammer as he held on the concrete where his son's feet were trapped.
He had to break Legoshi's feet free first. If he didn't, then there was no way he could get his son out of there. He would not be able to carry him back to the surface and swim him back to the shore if he did not get his feet out of the concrete first.
However, due to the water resistance, Ibuki could not swing hard enough. Even if he could, that hammer was not made for this. He was more likely to cause the hammerhead to break from the handle before he even made a single crack to the solid concrete encasing Legoshi's feet.
This just wouldn't do. He needed to think of something else. However, there was not much time to think. Ibuki knew it. His lungs were tight, and he knew from a fact that Legoshi's were as well, as he looked at his son, and saw him looking back at him with despair on his eyes.
"Get out of here now. Save yourself." That was what those eyes said to him as they looked at him. But there was no way Ibuki could do it.
He would never be able to live with himself, or face Leano ever again, if he just abandoned his son to die.
Legoshi seemed to have noticed it, because the look on anguish on his eyes intensified as he saw the determination on his father's own.
Before it was replaced by a look of fear.
That was when Ibuki noticed that his son was not looking at him, but behind him.
Slowly, Ibuki turned his head to look, and he felt the same pang of fear as his son as he saw what was right behind him.
Sharks were one of the most fearsome creatures of the sea. Not only because of how the mere smell of a single drop of blood on the water could drive them into a frenzy that made a land carnivore's meat lust seem like nothing, but also because of how big some of them could grow in the wide vastness of the sea.
And that shark was certainly a big one. So big that he could eat Ibuki in two, maybe three bites, before doing the same to Legoshi.
And he was looking straight at the two of them.
"Say... what have we here?" The shark said in Seaspeak. Maybe to himself, maybe to the two of them. Maybe to both. "A pair of night snacks for me in the middle of the night. And land creatures as well! How lucky for me!"
Ibuki felt dread building on his heart, and so did the hybrid. They knew for a fact that the shark was not kidding. The Sea had a much different views from land in what it came for animals eating other animals. They didn't care about this kind of thing. That was due to the fish, who made most of the Sea's population, were born from clutches of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of eggs all at once, meaning their population was massive. And there was also the fact that, on their culture, life and death were both meaningless. They will, of course, be upset if someone who they knew is devoured, but they will not see it as a crime that should be punished, but as a mere casualty of life.
As a result, Sea carnivores had no qualms about eating meat. So much that, twelve years ago, when he first moved to land, Sagwan casually ate roasted tuna on a public beach, not really understanding that doing something like that was against their laws until Ibuki sat him down and explained to the seal he had to be more discrete about that kind of thing.
He was going to eat them both, and they would not be able to escape from a creature who could swim far better and faster than they ever could, especially with one of them being trapped like that.
Ibuki knew there was only one hope of survival: to convince the shark not to eat them.
That was why, as the giant carnivore fish tried to advance, Ibuki immediately got on his way, arms outstretched as he stood in between the shark and his son, and then he spoke:
"Don't do this!"
He was not the best on Seaspeak, despite Sagwan's attempts of teaching him for the past twelve years. However, he learned some phrases over the years, having practiced them under the seal's request. Those would have to make do now.
"Why?" Was what the shark said in return, after pausing and looking at the lion who swam on his path, perhaps in surprise for hearing a land creature speaking his language.
Ibuki answered without missing a beat, moving his lips and tongue, letting out bubbles as he produced those sounds that could be clearly understood under the water as well as well as on dry land:
"My name is Ibuki the Lion! This is my son, Legoshi! We are not food!"
The shark looked at him for a moment, before saying:
"Those are nice names you have... unfortunately, you are wrong about not being food. How unfortunate for you, you crossed paths with me when I have been looking for something to eat. And I was on the look for something quite different from what I usually have, when I come across two land-dwellers. That's bad luck for you, I presume."
He was not convincing. Ibuki could tell from the cold casualness that the shark had as he talked to the two of them. Ibuki looked over his shoulder, and he could see how his son was frowning, his cheeks starting to change color due to airlessness.
He didn't have much time.
"Please, you have to help us!" Ibuki was once more addressing the shark. "We have family and friends waiting for us! We need to return to them! Please!"
Those were all phrases that Sawgan taught him. All of them were the kinds of phrases that he could need if he ever was on the Sea, as unlikely it was for someone who disliked water as much as him. Ibuki was pretty much exhausting his repertory of Seaspeak phrases that he could pronounce correctly, and none of them seemed to be working.
"Well, that is lamentable." The shark was still cold as he said those words. "I am sure your loved ones will miss you both and honor your memories. Just like I will when you two are on my stomach."
With that, the shark started to approach the two of them, opening his mouth as he was getting ready to bite of them.
Panic overcame Ibuki, as he saw that beast that would turn both him and his son into snacks.
He had to do something.
Anything.
He had to get himself and Legoshi out of there.
They could not die like that!
"So... how exactly did those fishes died?" Ibuki asked as he looked at the slabs of tuna Sagwan just gave him.
"Does it matter?" The seal was very casual when he answered his question with another question. This caused Ibuki to look up at him. He was still a bit shocked how an animal as kind as Sagwan could be so cold regarding the animals the food he ate once were.
"Just thinking if they suffered on their end or not." Ibuki said back as he looked back at the seal, both sitting cross-legged in front of each other on the floor of his apartment... naked.
Ibuki had been shocked the first time he came there and saw Sagwan taking off his clothes right in front of him. He almost came to think the wrong thing, when he understood that, as a denizen of the Sea, Sagwan was used to be naked, and that he was uncomfortable wearing clothes when in public, so he chose to be naked on his own house.
And Ibuki had somehow joined to this little tradition. I mean, it was not as if he had not spent the last five years being naked around other guys when it was time to bathe. Communal showers were part of prison life, and they did wonders to kill a man's bashfulness about being naked among other males.
He even took Sagwan to the public baths, introducing the whole concept to him, and the seal had a certain difficulty to grasp it fully, but he was in when he heard it involved a place where he could be naked without breaking any social rules or regulations and where he could also sink himself in water.
The only difficulty was to find a bathhouse that was okay with accepting Ibuki, since most of them did not accepted animals with tattoos.
Especially tattoos like Ibuki's. For example, the one on his arm, the words "RECOVERY FROM FATIGUE" written.
Those were tattoos that he gained back when he was five, back when his own parents, desperate for cash and not giving two shits about him, sold him off to the hyper drug business to be used as an ingredient. They tattooed Ibuki and locked him into a small cage, from which he managed to escape and then run back to his parents' house, only to run from there as well once he realized that his parents were planning on selling him to those same people again to get more money. From there, he lived on the streets of the Black Market.
Those tattoos would be an eternal reminder of where Ibuki came from. Of his past that he'd rather leave behind for good. He was still careful not to allow his son to see them, and he was imagining what he would ever tell him if he did saw them one day.
Sagwan, on his end, didn't minded his tattoos. He didn't mind his past. That was more than it could be said by most people of this society. Herbivores and carnivores alike.
"Something wrong, Ibuki?" Sagwan asked, to what the lion, realizing he had spaced out, said that he was just reminiscing about his past. Sawgan nodded, and he mentioned, once more, how sad Ibuki's past was.
"Most people would not call it sad." Ibuki said to him. "Most would focus on the fact that I used to be on a Black Market's gang and hold it against me."
"You accepted my culture." Sagwan said to the lion. "It is only fair that I accept your past, as dark as it may be. It would not be right for me to do otherwise."
Ibuki nodded and told Sagwan that he was glad that he was so accepting.
"But next time I take you to visit my house, don't try to take off your clothes, okay?" Ibuki said to him. "You are in luck I caught sight of it and made you put them back on before Leano noticed."
Sagwan could only chuckle, as he mentioned how he found it funny that the animals of land were so touchy about nakedness, when in the old days wearing clothes was all but a luxury for all animals. Ibuki did not really have an answer to that. Soon, Sagwan made another commentary:
"You are my best friend, Ibuki."
The lion looked at him curiously.
"When I came to live on land... I was scared." The seal was admitting something personal to the lion. "I was leaving my home behind and coming to a place I didn't knew. A place where I was strange because of the way I acted, where people would yell at me if I didn't wear clothes, and where I thought I didn't belong. I was starting to think I would never get along with anyone in here..."
He then lifted his head, looking at the lion.
"Then I met you."
Ibuki looked at him, and then Sagwan moved on his direction.
"Ibuki, you are my first friend on land, and thanks to you, I was able to make other friends." He reached Ibuki, and he then grasped his hands with his own. "I love you, Ibuki."
Months ago, before meeting Sagwan, Ibuki would be weirded out from hearing something like that from another male who was holding his hands as they were both naked. Now, however, he understood that this was Sagwan's way. He was sincere and didn't hide things. Just like he was not ashamed of baring his body, he was also not afraid of baring his heart.
"Ibuki, I love you, and I don't want anything bad to happen to you." He said to the lion. "Which is why I am going to teach you a secret from the sea. Have you been practicing your Seaspeak? Yes? Good, because there is a phrase that you need to know."
He looked Ibuki dead in the eyes.
"I know you don't even like to be near the shore, but if you are ever in danger in the sea, then use this phrase with any sea creature you find. It is a last resort that will save you no matter the situation, your very last resort."
Ibuki could not help but look at the seal.
"You have to say..."
Ibuki's eyes opened, and then he repeated the words Sagwan taught him all those years ago:
"I am the friend of a spotted seal!"
As soon as those words left Ibuki's mouth, the shark stopped dead on his tracks. Any and all desire of eating the lion and that who he called his son was gone. It was replaced by another desire: that of helping them.
For no creature would ever say those words vainly. Certainly not a creature of land, who did knot knew their native tongue. The only way for them to know them was if a spotted seal themselves had taught them those words, what confirmed the words themselves.
So, the shark knew that he could not eat them. That he had to do whatever he could to help them.
Because those two, or at least the lion, were going to influence the relations between land and sea in the future.
That was why he used his jaws to break the solid rock encasing the hybrid's feet, allowing the lion to finally be able to untie him from the chair. Then, he allowed for the two of them to grasp onto his dorsal fin so he could carry them both to the surface before they could no longer hold their breath.
Gosha had just swung his fist into another lion, and he could feel something give in under his fist, and the next thing he knew as the lion he punched was doubled over, holding his jaw in pain.
After this, Gosha was finally able to get a respite. He could be able to fight a lot better than those lions, but there were still a lot of them, and that made it hard for him to keep up, even with the help of the rest of the Dokugumi.
It was by taking a moment to stop and rest that he caught sight of the female wolf trying to get up, but then going down as she held her ankle in evident pain.
She was one of Legoshi's classmates. Gosha immediately went to her help, being careful and minding his own venom as he gently put his hands on her and asked if she was okay.
"H-he hit me with that cane of his..." Juno said. "I was trying to stop them. He took them... Kiira and the others."
Dammit! Was all that Gosha could think in a moment like that. He knew that letting those kids tag along was a bad idea.
He was soon picking Juno up, carrying her on his arms as he looked around, trying to figure out where her friends were taken. That was when he caught sight of the edge of the cliff.
There was nothing there.
His eyes widened as a feeling of dread crept into his heart.
"Please, tell me he took Legoshi with him!" Gosha asked Juno, but the female wolf shook her head, saying that it was only Kiira, Louis and that rabbit.
This only caused the dread on Gosha's heart to grow.
No... Oh, Rex, please no...
He was rushing to the edge before he even realized what he was doing, Juno still on his arms, and he leaned over the edge, looking down at the water below.
He caught sight of something on the water down there. Something big.
A shark.
And on the shark's back...
Gosha could nearly let out a sigh of relief as he saw Ibuki waving at him as he held onto the fin on the shark's back. Legoshi was holding to it as well right by his side. He didn't even question what was going on, he was so glad to see his grandson and son-in-law were both okay.
That was when he remembered Legoshi's friends were taken.
"Ibuki!" Gosha yelled. "They took the kids! The boss and other two! They took them! They are probably going down the shore!"
Gosha was not sure if Ibuki could hear him from that far down. But, either he could or not, it seemed that they were headed for the shore either way. The shark was swimming that as fast as a fish could go, with both father and son holding tight to his back as they made the trip back to dry land.
As he saw them going there, Gosha decided to join the two of them, only to see himself surrounded by a bunch of other lions.
"Going somewhere, lizard?" one of them asked, as he held onto a piece of chain, with one of them holding a baton while the other one had a gun on his hands, and he was already throwing the first bullet to the chamber as he got ready to fire.
"Oh, great..." Gosha said, still holding Juno on his arms as he knew that he would not be able to go to his family's side right away.
The lion was nearly done with the arm now. That deer boy truly was quality meat. Maybe nearly as good as albino animals. Not as exquisite, though, but still very good.
The last time he tried something that good in flavor was one of the young herbivores bred as cattle on the old tower of the Black Market before the practice was eventually banished over a decade ago.
He would definitely be eating the rest of the deer once they were back on the base. And then he would be eating the bunny as well. It would be a good way to celebrate finally having got his vengeance over that filthy traitor.
"Let me go!" Kiira continued to yell from behind her mask as she was dragged by Dolph. Free came right behind, bringing the two herbivores who were putting a lot less resistance, due to being both unconscious and starting to sway from the loss of blood. "You can't do this to us! Let us go now!"
"Dolph, will you shut her up!?" The boss demanded. "I'll not be able to enjoy my victory if she is yelling like that even with that thing over her muzzle!"
"Let me go!" Kiira continued to yell. "You criminals! You murderers! Let me go! You killed Legoshi!"
"NO, THEY DIDN'T!"
The voice made everyone stop on their tracks and look on the direction it came from. Even the boss, who was currently gnawing on the bones of the arm he was eating, stopped and even dropped it as he saw the two figures coming his way quickly.
"T-this can't be!"
But it was.
Ibuki was coming towards him, with Legoshi right behind.
"Senpai!" Kiira cried out, and Dolph was soon reaching out for his gun, pulling it and pointing at the two. However, before he could fire, Kiira gave him an elbow to the ribs and a stomp to the toe, causing him to cry out in pain at the sudden attack.
Ibuki reached the boss, and he delivered a punch right to his face, sending him flying back a few feet.
He was soon recovering, just as Ibuki reached for him and tried to kick him in the face, only for the other lion to grab his leg and then force him into the ground, climbing on top of him and grabbing Ibuki's wrist as the lion father tried to swing the hammer at his face, causing him to lose said hammer in the following struggle.
"Let them go!" Legoshi said, turning to see that the other lion had Kiira and the others. And he was horrified to see that Louis now had only one arm, and that his white shirt was stained red with the blood leaking from the vacant shoulder. "Let them go now!"
"Shit!" Free said as he dropped the two herbivores, reaching into his suit just as the four-armed hybrid lunged at him, and soon he was struggling as well.
Louis groaned as he clutched his bleeding shoulder. His mind was still registering the fact that his arm was no longer there. It was as if he refused to accept it in a visceral level, and he was trying to find his arm even though he already saw it was gone, causing his hand to become drenched in blood in the process.
As he did, he ventured to look around as he somehow managed to get on his knees. Haru was laying by his side, still unconscious and with a thin line of blood coming from a gash on the side of her head. Around him the carnivores were still fighting, displaying all the violence and strength that Louis knew they had, and that scared the deer, making him shiver and hold his shoulder even harder as the blood continued to leak out.
He felt small and helpless. He felt back on that small cage. Just a little fawn crying out and shivering in fear while waiting for his death to arrive.
He couldn't take it. He... he could not just stay down like that.
That was why he started to shakenly try and get himself up.
Meanwhile, the boss could not believe that he was struggling so much with Ibuki. He could not believe that someone who betrayed the very principles of a lion, of a king of beasts, could have such a strength behind his muscles. It made no sense... unless...
"You..." He growled as he continued to struggle with the other lion. "You have been eating meat, haven't you!? No way you would have such a strength unless you did it consistently! Have you been sneaking into the Black Market all this time!? Or did you pay someone to bring you meat from there!? Or have you been eating herbivores from the city!?"
As he yelled that, he managed to give Ibuki a hard punch to the face, which was enough to daze him. That was when something fell out of his jacket's pocket. A wrapped package that had a distinct smell that the boss' sensitive nose picked up.
"That's it..." He said, as he got up, placing a foot on Ibuki's neck to keep him down as he picked the package and started to rip it open, and he found two slabs of a very pale meat inside.
At first, he thought it was poultry of some kind, since their meat tended to be pale like that. However, he soon realized it did not smell like poultry. It... didn't smelled liked any kind of animal flesh he ever seen before.
"What kind of meat is this?" The boss asked, looking at the strange, but delicious-smelling, slabs.
Ibuki, grunting from the foot on his throat, managed to choke out:
"It's tuna..."
The boss, however, could not register what he just heard from Ibuki, as suddenly a cry made him turn his head, and he saw that deer whose arm he ate stumbling on his direction, and then swinging his fist at him with all the feeble strength he could muster.
The fist connected with his cheek, but it did little damage. Like a toddler trying to punch an adult, Louis' violence caused no damage to that lion, who growled as he looked back at that little herbivore who still had his fist pressed on his cheek.
"You brat..." His hand shot out, closing around Louis' throat and lifting him from the ground as if he had no weight at all. Louis choked, his fist hitting the lion and trying to make him let go, but he could still not punch hard enough to be anything more than a minor nuisance for the lion, who seemed ready to tear him apart.
However, before he could, Ibuki managed to get a grip at the hammer's handle again, and to swing it at the boss' leg, hitting him in the point where his leg met his hip, and causing him to cry out as he stumbled out of him and dropped both the slabs of tuna and the deer. Both dropped into the sand, and Ibuki, following his instincts went towards the one he recognized as food.
And those were the tuna slabs.
They were caked with sand, but Ibuki didn't minded, he just shoved them both into his mouth, chewing on them before swallowing as fast as he could manage.
He then stood there, on his knees, panting, as he allowed the fish to settle on his stomach. Then, that familiar feeling came.
The feeling of high that every carnivore always felt when they had meat of any kind into their bellies. When they were doing what nature originally intended for them and consuming the flesh of other animals to survive. The feeling of consuming life and making it a part of yourself.
It was like a warmth starting on his stomach and spreading outwards towards all his muscles, ending on each one of his extremities, with a tingling on his toes and fingers as the veins on his muscles bulged.
Soon, Ibuki was getting up, just like the boss, who recovered from having a hammer hitting his bad leg, and the two of them looked at each other.
Ibuki's cold resentment met with the boss' burning hatred and contempt. And then, the two lions who had just fed on meat charged at each other and resumed their fight.
"You brat!" Free said as he managed to get himself free from Legoshi's lower arms, which had been holding down his wrists while the hybrid swung his upper fists into his chest and face, pummeling him hard enough to leave actual bruises behind. This allowed Free to finally turn it around on the hybrid, giving him a few well-placed punches and forcing him off his chest, before getting up and kicking Legoshi a few times on the stomach.
"Stop!" Kiira said, as she was still trying to get free from Dolph. "Leave him alone!"
"You stop this!" Dolph said, holding her firmly. She could do nothing but watch as Free got on top of Legoshi, pressing his chest to the sand with a foot to his back, while he grabbed his mane and pulled while pulling a knife from his suit. He looked like he was getting ready to slice Legoshi's throat open.
Kiira could not allow it. She had to do something!
So, she freed one of her hands from Dolph's grasp, and unclasped her mask, letting it fall off her head.
Meanwhile, Ibuki, now strengthened by the fish he just ate, managed to get the advantage over the boss, pushing him back and making him land on the sand. He was just walking to him with his hammer lifted and ready to strike, when the boss pulled out a gun and pointed at Ibuki, ready to fire.
At that same time, Kiira turned her face to look at Dolph, who was shocked to see that the lioness he was grasping had a beak.
Then, she opened this beak and screamed.
As she did, she showed that it was not only the beak that she inherited from her eagle mother, but the vocal cords as well.
The powerful vocal cords of birds that could vibrate harder than those of any other variety of animal. That could produce sounds so loud and piercing that they could rupture the eardrums of any animal unlucky enough to be within a certain distance on the moment they decided to scream at the top of their lungs.
However, since she was only half-eagle, Kiira's vocal cords were not as strong as those of a purebred eagle. However, she could still let out a screeching scream louder than Legoshi's roars. Loud and sharp enough that it caused a sharp pain to every single animal around her.
Loud enough that it made Dolph let go of her as he stumbled back in pain while covering his ears. Loud enough that Free dropped his knife and let go of Legoshi's mane as he did the same. And loud enough that both Ibuki and the boss stopped their fight to cover their ears to try and block that painful sound that suddenly made it feel like their eardrums were going to explode if they allowed it to reach them for long.
Dolph managed to react by swinging his hand and backslapping Kiira, cutting her screaming short and causing her to drop to the sand, holding her face in pain. However, everyone who heard that scream was still shaken by the experience, and they were groaning as they tried to recover while their ears continued ringing.
Ibuki stumbled back, and he ended up tripping on something, causing him to fall flat on his butt.
He tried to see what he stumbled into, and he was shocked to see a naked chameleon in there, who looked back at him with shock.
"Y-you..." The boss said, ears still ringing, as he crawled to Ibuki, pointing a gun at him. Seeing this, the chameleon, who just seemed to appear out of nowhere, widened his eyes and then he opened his mouth, revealing a small camera inside. Suddenly, there was a flash, which blinded the lion's night-vision eyes, causing him to miss the shot, the bullet that was meant to hit Ibuki on the forehead instead passing dangerously close to his ear, but missing him completely.
"Dad!" Legoshi said, as he heard the gunshot and saw his father down with the one-eyed lion pointing a gun at him.
He was charging before he knew what he was going, and Ibuki could only scream "Legoshi, no!", but it was too late. Legoshi reached the one-eyed lion, and this older feline was able to hit the hybrid on the muzzle with the butt of his gun, before grabbing him by the mane and forcing him down.
"No!" Ibuki said, getting up, ignoring the naked chameleon and then rushing towards the other lion swinging his hammer.
Three gunshots were fired after this.
The first one was fired just as Ibuki swung, and it managed to split the hammer's head from the hilt, rendering it useless. The next two were aimed at Ibuki, and they both hit him on the side of his body, on the space between his chest and stomach.
Ibuki gasped in pain, and he dropped to his knees, holding his wounded torso as blood leaked from the newly-open gunshot wounds.
"Now you die!" The boss said, getting up and pointing the gun right at Ibuki's head.
Then another gunshot resounded.
However, this did not come from the boss' gun.
This one came from a gun being held by the hand of a horse, who was pointing it up as he looked at the scene before him, and all of those still in conditions to stand turned to look at him.
"Enough!" Yahya said as he stood there, with eight police officers standing by his sides, all of them big carnivores and all pointing guns at the lion, demanding him to let go of the boy, drop his weapon and surrender.
"The Black Devil..." Dolph said as he was still holding his head in pain.
"Shit!" Free said as he too was holding his head.
Behind them, Gosha was coming, Juno still on his arms as he finally managed to fight his way through the other lions and reach the scene just as Yahya and his officers were pointing their guns at the chief of the Shishigumi.
Who was holding Legoshi by the hair.
"So, looks like we are at this again, no?" Yahya asked to the lion, who looked back at him as his face morphed into insane, deranged rage. He cried out as he kicked Ibuki right on the wounds he just made with bullets, causing him to drop further to the ground. Then he turned to the cops, pointing his own gun at Legoshi's head.
"YOU drop your weapons!" The lion demanded. "Do it now!"
"Seriously?" Yahya asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Drop your guns and let me and my men go! Or I'll kill this hybrid!"
"No!" Gosha cried out as he moved forward.
"Stay away!" The lion demanded, and this caused the Komodo to stop dead on his tracks. "Stay away or this brat dies!"
He then addressed the horse again.
"You are protecting this brat as well, right!? Him and his mother!" He demanded of the horse. "In that case, you will not want to see him die before your eyes, will you!? Tell your men to lower their guns!"
Yahya said nothing, he only continued to look at the lion who was holding the hybrid at gunpoint as he kept the boy on his knees with a firm grip on his mane. He was so focused on Yahya that he didn't noticed the red dot that was currently on his chest.
"Give the order now! Tell them to drop their weapons now! Do it our I'll blow this brat's brains-"
Then the lion stopped. He stopped as he felt something hitting him in the stomach, followed by a dull pain and a sensation of warmness.
He blinked and looked down to see that there was red staining his suit.
"W-what?" he asked, confused. However, that was when two more bullets were firing. Those ones hitting him into the chest, causing blood to spray out as the lion stumbled back and let go of Legoshi, who fell on his hands and knees.
Everyone looked in shock as the lion was bleeding profusely from those wounds, still looking in shock. Then, the red dot returned, now right on the lion's forehead.
"What... is..." The one-eyed feline didn't had time to say anything else, for that was when the snipper aiming at him fired a final bullet.
And, just like that, the Shishigumi's boss no longer had a head.
"Dammit!" Free cried out in shock, as they saw their headless boss drop to the sand, his feet twitching slightly before going still. After this, he and Dolph had no other option than to turn around and run as fast as they could.
"Hey! Hold it right there!" one of the cops, a tiger, yelled at them.
"You two, after those lions." Yahya said with a composed voice to the tiger and to the condor by his side, and they two followed the orders of the horse, while he still had his eyes on the scene before him.
"Dad..." Legoshi said, turning around and seeing his father on the sand, clutching his side in pain. "Dad!"
Soon, the hybrid was right by his father's side, and Gosha was rushing to join them. All the while, Yahya looked at them with a coldness that one could easily mistake by contempt.
"Yahya!" Gosha's voice caused the horse to break a little of that cold assertiveness, as he saw the Komodo's face as he looked back at him.
"Yahya, he needs medical attention! All of them do!"
The horse realized that the Komodo was right. Everyone in there needed medical attention. From the deer who lost an arm to the lion with gunshot wounds on his torso.
So, Yahya was soon commanding his officers to call in the paramedics, calmly telling them to have two... three ambulances in there as quickly as possible.
"And keep tabs on all carnivores." He added. "I want all of them questioned as soon as they are in speaking conditions."
Then Yahya suddenly reached his hand, grasping the chameleon, who had been trying to sneak away while camouflaged, but became visible again as soon as Yahya's hand grasped him by the neck and lifted him.
"And this includes you!" The horse said to the naked lizard, who looked back at him with shock, his mouth slightly open. A flash came out of it right on the horse's face, causing him to growl through gritted teeth:
"And I want that camera."