Mornings came and went. It was natural and expected. One day ended, and another one started.
However, not all mornings were the same in Cherryton. Especially for the canines of Dorm 701.
Legoshi was still absent from their dorm. He had been since the previous day, as he had not come back from the Festival with the rest of Drama Club. Not only that, but a bunch of other students had not come back as well. That peafowl who manages the stagehands even came to their dorm to check if they had any news of Legoshi and, consequently, of the other ones.
This prompted them to look all around the room to see if they could find any clue of Legoshi.
They did find something: Legoshi's pet bug, Gabu, was laying on its back, legs up and unmoving.
It was dead.
And that was a bad omen.
"Maybe we are just being paranoid?" Durham asked as they got ready for school. "I mean, it is just a beetle. Why assume that it being dead means something happened to Legoshi? Maybe his feline superstition is rubbing off on us."
Jack was not sure. I mean, it did seem like a stretch to think something bad happened to Legoshi only because his beetle was dead. But, just in case, Jack decided to give Gosha a call, to see if he knew anything about Legoshi.
He called his home phone, but no one answered. That was when Jack decided to call Gosha's cellphone, and this time he did hear the voice of the Komodo dragon on the other end.
As soon a Jack asked if he knew anything about Legoshi, the Komodo dragon told him something that sent his entire world into shock.
"They are not here?" Sheila asked, looking around.
"Has anyone seen Louis?" Sano asked to the room where all members of Drama Club save for four were gathered, "Or Legoshi? Or Juno and Kiira?"
No one had. They were talking among each other, and they were all agreeing that none of them had seem Legoshi, Louis or the girls since the previous day at the festival. Some of them remembered Legoshi dragging Louis away by the arm, and that later the girls left to try and look for the two, and no one has had news of the four since.
Some of them even spoke to the housemothers of their respective dorms, and even with their roomates (in case of Legoshi, Juno and Kiira), but none of them had any news of the four missing members.
"Maybe we should call someone about it?"
"Are they alright?"
"You think those three did something to Louis-senpai?"
"Hey!"
"Maybe we should call the police and report them missing?"
"Don't we have to wait, like, forty-eight hours to fill a missing person report?"
"Maybe they all went somewhere together and told no one?"
Those questions continue to come and go across Drama Club, and everyone was starting to get worried about all of that.
That was when no other than Gon, their headmaster, walked into the room, and he looked at all of them students in there.
"So, I see you have not heard yet." The tiger said, looking at all of them, before he eventually broke the news to Drama Club:
"Your friends have been attacked by a group of lions. They are in the hospital now."
Leano was not one to wear fancy dresses while out on the street. She had not been since she finished high school. However, right now, she was wearing a fancy dress and high-heels as she made it out of that building in a massive hurry.
She would have gone out on the same hurry either was she wearing casual street clothes, an overcoat or even just a towel around her body. Heck, she would even have rushed out naked.
Either way, she would have rushed out, got into the first cab she found and then ordered to the shocked driver to go to the hospital on the center of the city.
"What are you waiting for!?" Leano demanded of the driver, making him snap back to reality as he had been staring at the scales on her arms with wide eyes. "My son and husband are in the hospital! I have to get to them! Drive!"
As the female hybrid said those frantic words, the poor cab driver had no choice but to do as she said, and he had to constantly explain to her that he needed to follow the road laws, hence he could go over the speed limit, go both ways on a one-way road or climb on the sidewalk to avoid the other cars and go faster.
However, Leano did not cared about any of that. All she cared about was getting to the hospital as fast as possible.
She needed to see Ibuki and Legoshi.
She needed to know if they were okay.
After the call she received, she needed to be there to see the two of them. Especially after hearing that her husband had been shot and that he had to go to surgery.
They took twenty minutes to arrive to the hospital, but they felt like an eternity to Leano. She jumped out of the cab, ignoring the driver's calls for her to pay the ride, just like she ignored the surprised looks of the people around her as they saw a female wolf in a fancy dress with scaly arms making her way to the hospital door.
"My husband and son are in this hospital!" Leano said as she slammed her hands on the front desk. "Where are they!?"
It took a while, and the combined work of a doctor, two nurses and a security officer to keep Leano from going through the hospital yelling for both Ibuki's and Legoshi's names. And, in the end, even they could only hold her for so long.
Luckily, that was when her father came.
"Leano!" The female wolf turned as she heard Gosha's voice and saw the Komodo rushing to her.
"Dad!"
"Leano, I can hear your voice all the way down the hall!" Gosha said to her. "And, that dress you are wearing..."
"I was with the boys! I came here as soon as I heard your voicemail!" Leano said, "Dad, where are them!? Where are Ibuki and Legoshi!?"
Leano was frantic. She was still attracting a lot of attention from everyone around. Many of them had been looking her way because of her scales, which were clearly visible on her arms, as well as on her back, since the dress was open back there. Many of them had disgusted looks, even more as the Komodo came and they started to realize the connection between the two, but Leano didn't care about any of them.
"They are both fine!" Gosha said, tranquilizing his daughter. "Ibuki came out of surgery an hour ago, and he is awake now! He is stable and will recover. Legoshi is fine as well, he had a few bruises, but nothing serious."
Leano heard her father and hearing from him they were okay made her calmer. However, she would never get completely calm until she could see them with her own eyes. That was why she asked her father about where they were.
"Legoshi is with his father on his room. Jack and Legoshi's friends are waiting outside. Come."
With this, Gosha guided Leano down the hallways. He was glad to guide her away from the glares and stares of the people on the main lobby. He never liked people staring at his family as if they were a circus attraction.
He guided all the way to just outside of the one room where Jack and a bunch of other dogs were waiting. The Labrador, noticing her, quickly went to talk to her, and Leano, of course, was happy for seeing her son's best friend. The others too.
"Are they in there?" Leano asked, and Jack confirmed that they were, but that they were being interviewed. Leano didn't heard the "interviewed" part, and neither she asked any more questions, she just walked to the door and opened it.
"Darlings!" She said as she walked inside, causing all males in the room to look at her.
This meant Ibuki, who was laying on the bed while wearing a hospital gown, Legoshi, who was sitting by his side... and the horse standing before her husband back wearing a black jacket.
Said horse slowly turned his head. Not to look at her, because he could see her clearly even with his back turned to her, but because this way she could see his face.
"You!" Leano said as she caught sight of that man. Yahya, on his end, was much less aggressive as he looked at her, but he was aggressive as he looked at her, even as he spoke to her on a cold formal way:
"Leano."
Leano, on her end, could only glare at the horse, fighting back the urge to bare her fangs at him.
"What are you doing here?" There was bile on her voice, but also caution. As if that horse was dangerous enough to kill her and her family if she gave him the chance, what was not far from the truth, considering what she knew about that herbivore.
"Right now, I am questioning a person of interest in a criminal incident." Yahya was still composed as he spoke that, and Leano blinked as she looked at him.
"What? Criminal incident?" Leano asked. "You are not talking about my husband and son, are you?"
"Both, actually." Yahya said to the female hybrid. "I finished interview your son nearly thirty minutes ago, with his father in the room, of course. And then I started questioning him as well."
The fact that Yahya was saying "questioning" instead of "interviewing" was not lost to Leano. He was speaking as if they were not victims, but suspects.
"What exactly are you accusing my family of doing?" Leano's voice was dangerously low as she looked at the horse. Yahya had turned to face her completely at this point.
"An herbivore had his arm devoured while trying to rescue your son." Yahya said drily. "Since they were both present at the time, and the incident involved your husband's former gang, I had to question the two. To rule out the possibility of this having all been a scheme to lure an innocent herbivore to a trap."
Leano blinked, her mind processing what she just heard from that horse's mouth.
"His previous gang...? You mean the Shishigumi!?" Leano then turned to the other two. "Did the Shishigumi kidnapped Legoshi!?"
"That's what is being claimed." Yahya said, "And, right now, we are investigating to be sure that the facts are as they seem."
"And what was that about it being a trap!?" Leano asked, "As in, Ibuki and Legoshi teamed up with the Shishigumi catch and eat herbivores!?"
She looked at the horse, who said nothing in return. That infuriated her.
"That's absurd! It is totally ridiculous, and you know it Rex-darn well, you asshole!"
The horse closed the notebook he was using to write down, and then he looked at the female dead in the eye.
"Careful, girl." He said to her. "You might be Gosha's daughter but will only make me go easy on you until a certain point. I really recommend you start minding your words if you don't want to be taken in for disrespecting an agent of law."
Leano glared at him, and she was about to say something, when...
"Leano." She looked at the person who talked, who had been Ibuki.
"Please."
The look on the lion's face as he looked at the female wolf was what made Leano stop. She looked back at the horse.
"What kinds of questions are you asking them?" She asked of him, "Do they need lawyers with them for this?"
"Oh?" Yahya was looking at her. "Do you think they need lawyers? Well, that's interesting..."
That horse was testing her. Leano knew that right away. He was testing her, and he wanted her to react in some way. He wanted her to give him an excuse.
And Leano nearly felt like giving him one then and there, consequences be damned. The only thing that held her back was the realization that, if she did anything that would give the horse an excuse to throw the book at her, as little as it was, then he would see that as a win for himself, and Leano did not wanted to give the jackass that kind of satisfaction.
That was when the door opened, and in came a moose in hospital gown.
"Yahya-sama?" The doctor said, causing the horse to look his way.
"Yes, Doctor Massum?"
"Sorry to interrupt, but you asked to be told when Haru the Dwarf Bunny and Louis the Red Deer were both conscious." The moose said, and the horse was soon focusing his attention on him. He was asking details on their status.
"Haru is awake and fully alert. We were afraid that there could have been some damage to her cranium considering the blow she was said to have received on the head, but she suffered little more than concussion. She has not stopped asking for both Louis and Legoshi, and she appears to be very worried, and threatening to get out of bed and look for the two of them herself if she doesn't receive some news on them."
"And Louis?" Yahya asked, to what the doctor said:
"As well as one would expect, all things considered. He was in luck that you brought him to the hospital in time, otherwise he could have died from exsanguination. He is awake and alert now, and he said that he was willing to answer some questions if you want to ask."
Yahya nodded, and thanked the doctor, before saying:
"We are done here for now. I have to gather some more testimonies." He then stopped by the door, and then talked to the two carnivore males on the room.
"Remain accessible, both of you. My people might need to contact you to confirm a few facts."
Yahya spoke that in a way that it was as if he was saying "don't either of you even think about trying to run out of the city before I say you can". At least, that was the impression that Legoshi had, considering the type of weight that he was putting on his words, and he was not the only one to notice the veiled semi-threat on the horse's words before leaving to see those two herbivores.
As soon as he left, Leano turned to the bed where her husband was.
She rushed to him and then practically jumped into the bed, pulling him in a hug. It didn't take long before she pulled Legoshi into her arms as well, and she was now hugging the two of them.
"Leano, if you squeeze any harder, you might bust my stitches." Ibuki said to his wife, but she only continued to hug him as tight as he could. Same with Legoshi.
"I'm so glad you two are okay..." She said in a quiet voice.
Please, let them all be okay...
That was the only thing that the members of Drama club as they, as a single mass, made it into the hospital. All of them came in there, still on their school uniforms, as soon as they heard about the event from Headmaster Gon. The adult tiger himself gave them permission to go to the city and visit their friends right after giving them the news, after seeing just how worried they were.
He could not blame them, to be fully honest. After all, the information that he was able to give was limited. Gon himself did not knew much about the event, other than the fact that his students had been taken to the hospital after being attacked by lions, and that one of them had been shot. He refrained from telling this last part, as he was afraid it could make the kids even more frantic, and he just allowed them to go to the hospital to see if their friends were okay.
He hoped they would come back with good news.
"Okay, they must be here somewhere!" Bill said, looking around. "Guys, fan out and try to find out where they are! Everyone got their phones? Everyone on Drama Club's group? Then whoever finds out something messages the others!"
And, just like that, with Bill's command, everyone on the club started looking around to see if they could find some information. It was not easy, as the doctors and nurses were all busy with other matters to give too much attention to a bunch of kids. Besides, it was not as if everyone in a hospital knew all about every single patient.
However, they continued to look for them, and they were trying to find out any clue about their classmates.
Eventually, someone found. It was Dom, who had Sheila with him, and they did find someone to give them some information. It was not a member of the hospital's staff, however. It was, instead, someone who Dom had already seen back in Cherryton. On the very previous night, to be more precise, when he was trying to find out why Legoshi was even missing.
Durham was just picking something to drink from the vending machine, both for himself and his friends, when he heard the familiar voice of the Drama Club's peafowl, turning to see him and a cheetah coming his way.
"So, you've seen Legoshi?" Dom asked, and Durham confirmed.
"He is alright. Was a little drenched last night, apparently the lions of yesterday tried to drown him on the shore, but he is fine." Durham said, "His father got shot twice though."
"His father? You mean Ibuki-san?"
"Yeah, they had to take him to surgery to get the bullets out." The coyote continued to explain. "He is alright now, but Legoshi had been nervous with him all night. And there was also that horse who kept hounding him, as if he thought Legoshi was going to try to run away or something, that guy is a real jerk..."
They got the bottom line of the conversation: Legoshi was okay, and so was Ibuki. This was a relief for the two, for they already knew that one of their classmates was okay. Unfortunately, the coyote didn't have any more information on the others, as they were only worried about Legoshi when they arrived, and Jack was so frantic they spent half of their time in there trying to calm him down.
Just as the two upperclassmen were thinking they would have to go back to looking, they received a sudden notification on their phones. Someone had just posted on the Drama Club group. It was Kibi.
I found Juno.
Soon, the members of Drama Club who saw that message were converging to the one point where Kibi had told them he would be. West side, second floor, near a vending machine between a hallway and a potted plant. That was where they found him sitting by Juno's side, they both having a snack. The female wolf had her foot in a cast as they arrived, and they were soon crowding her and asking her if she was okay.
"They checked it yesterday." Juno said, "It's not broken, just bruised. But they told me I would need crutches to walk for two weeks or so. And... I won't be able to dance at the festival. Sorry, guys."
They told her it was okay, and that they were glad she had not gotten seriously hurt.
"What about Kiira?" Zoe asked, and Juno pointed at a hallway.
"She is there, talking to her mother." Juno said, and that was when some of them went there to check on their lion friend. As they did, Juno suddenly realized she may have made a mistake.
"I am really glad you and Juno are okay, darling." Said the female eagle who had a feathery hand on her daughter's furry cheek. The bruising had fully healed by now, and she did not suffer any damage to her beak from the blow to her face.
The doctor who examined her told her that she was alright, as far as he could tell. From the way he looked at her, it seemed he wanted to make a commentary, but he refrained from doing so. Still, he kept staring at him with a curious look, much like the other nurses of the hospital whenever they saw her beak.
Kiira was really wishing she had not forgotten her mask back on the beach...
"Kiira!"
The familiar voice made the female hybrid widen her eyes. She turned her back to the guys as they came to see her. Bill, Tao and Dom all stopped as they saw Kiira having her back to them.
"Kiira-chan? Something wrong?" Dom was the one who asked that question, looking at the kohai from his stagehands, who waved a hand at them, saying hi, but keeping her back turned to them.
"Kiira, are you alright? We were worried with you."
"I... I am fine." Kiira said, her back turned to them.
"We are glad to know." Bill said, "We were all worried with you all."
"You... you were?" Kiira said.
"Of course!" This time it was Tao who talked. "We heard that our friends got attacked by some crazy lions, of course we got worried. Why wouldn't we be? We care a lot about all of you."
Kiira felt something move on her as she heard those words.
This... was the first time someone other than her mother and best friend said something like that. Even her own roommates never said anything close to that. Apparently, they thought she was a weirdo for never taking out her mask and not wanting them to see her face, and they also complained that she left the room smelling like bird...
The eagle by her side, on the other hand, had a smile as she heard that her daughter had friends who cared for her.
"But what gives?" Bill said, "Juno said you were here with your mother."
"Oh." The eagle said, turning to the boys. "She went to grab some food, you just missed her."
"Oh, right." Dom said, looking at the eagle. "And, sorry for asking, but who are you?"
The eagle was soon answering:
"My name is Nelly. I am a friend of-"
"She is my mother."
Kiira's voice interrupted the adult eagle, who looked at her with surprise.
"Kiira?"
The hybrid looked at her, before turning to face her classmates.
"Nelly is my mother." She said as she looked at them without her mask for the first time. Their expressions of surprise as they saw her beak were about what she expected. However, much to her relief, they were not followed by disgust or by hatred as she had feared.
However, Tao did lean to Bill and whispered:
"That's why she always wanted to be around Legoshi..."
Soon, however, they recovered from the surprise, and they asked Kiira if she knew anything about Louis, since they were yet to find about him. The female hybrid shook her head, saying that she didn't saw when they took Louis-senpai away. She was taken into a different ambulance with Juno, while Louis and the rabbit went into another, and Legoshi and his father got loaded into a third one.
She did, however, mentioned how they were very worried with Louis because he lost a lot of blood. Hearing that made the members of Drama Club worried with Louis as well.
That was when a new notification came into the group. This one came from Fudge, who had not answered to the previous message from Kibi.
Guys, I found Louis. He's... you guys better come here.
Soon, the Drama Club, as a single mass, once more moved across the hospital, now with Kiira and Juno added to their form. This time they went to the fourth floor, on the North side of the building. That was the area of the hospital, as they came to know, reserved for herbivores who suffered severe traumatic injuries.
Having Louis be there only served to make them even more worried about him.
They eventually arrived in front of Louis room. It was room 1022 and, sitting across the hallway in a bench, was Fudge. And sitting by his side, was a chameleon wearing a hospital gown and a pair of beige slacks.
"Yoh, Fudge!" Kibi said as they approached the red panda, who looked back at them. "Is Louis really there?"
"And who is that?" Asked Ellen as she looked at the chameleon. He looked back at them, before saying that his name was Luca.
"Hey, I remember you!" Els said suddenly. "You are that chameleon freshmen who joined the school's newspaper. Ziva told me about you. What are you doing here?"
"Wait, you didn't come here because you wanted to try and get some cheap shots at Louis, did you?" Dom asked, looking at the chameleon with crossed arms. Luca was about to give an answer to that, when another person answered:
"He is a witness."
The eyes all turned to the one who spoke, who was a dark horse who just came out of Louis' room.
"He was there when the event took place." Yahya said, as he closed the door and addressed all the kids. Among them was Kiira, who looked at the horse who, on the previous night, asked both her and Juno questions regarding the entire event, and he was hostile when asking, nearly as if he thought they had some involvement with the Shishigumi themselves.
The female hybrid did notice that the horse was particularly hostile towards her...
"As it turns out, this chameleon was following Louis when he went to rescue your four-armed friend." The horse explained. "He took off his clothes and used is camouflage so he could follow him without being noticed. He was snapping pictures with a small camera that he hid on his mouth and operated with his tongue."
As he said that, the horse showed said camera. A small and light model who looked like it would fit comfortably on a chameleon's mouth. He then walked to the chameleon and tossed the camera to him, and Luca was quick to catch it.
"I am keeping the SIM card with all the photos you took during the incident." The horse spoke to the chameleon with a firm tone, as if to silence any kind of protest before the lizard could even think of making them. "It is all evidence of an ongoing investigation now."
Luca flinched a little at the words coming from the horse's mouth. He looked down as the equine continued to look down at him with a hard glare.
"Uhhh, excuse me?"
Yahya turned to look at the person who asked that question, who turned out to be Sano.
"Sorry, sir, but are you a cop?"
The pelican was asking that. It was obvious he had no idea who he was talking with. None of them had.
Save for one.
"Guys! This is Yahya the Horse!" Aoba said, causing his friends to look at him.
"Who?" Kibi asked, and the eagle was soon saying:
"He is the Sublime Beastar!"
This caused everyone to blink, and then to look back at the horse with shocked, even amazed expressions.
The horse, on his end, focused all his attention on the eagle.
"Oh? You know me?" He asked to the avian, who them answered, in a very polite way:
"Yes, sir. When you saved the children of my neighbors when I was ten. You may not remember. It was seven, maybe eight years ago, and they were twin kudus, a boy and a girl, and they had gone missing that morning after being seen talking to a pair of hyenas in an SUV."
Yahya thought about it, pulling from his memory. Then he recalled it.
"Ah, yes. Marco and Martha." He said, "Adorable children. They were taken by a couple who had this nasty habit of kidnapping herbivore children, keeping them on their home for a couple days while treating them as their own children before eventually devouring them. Something about not being able of having children of their own, so they liked to enjoy the feeling of being parents. Although parents don't usually eat their own young, adopted or otherwise."
He spoke about it with a casualness that was honestly shocking to some of the presents, especially the herbivores. Soon, however, Sano was recovering and asking some important questions:
"Hmm, Yahya-sama? Is Louis on that room? Were you talking to him?"
The horse looked at the pelican, before nodding.
"I was taking his testimony on the matter."
"And, is he okay?"
"Well he is awake and alert. Although, he seemed quite upset." Yahya shrugged. "Well, no wonder, considering he lost his arm."
"L-Louis lost his arm!?"
"One of the lions who kidnapped the hybrid ripped it off." Yahya clarified, and that made a lot of the present herbivores look queasy.
"Well, can't they reattach it?" Bill asked, stepping forward and causing the horse to turn his face to him. "They should have done it already, no? What, they don't a surgeon to do it?"
Yahya's answer was quite blunt:
"Louis the Red Deer was victim of a predation crime. The lion who ripped his arm off ate all flesh out of it. There is nothing left to reattach."
The herbivores now looked positively sick.
Meanwhile, Bill could not help but recoil at the way the horse looked at him as he described what happened to Louis. It was an accusatory look. Nearly as if he was accusing Bill of having been the one who ate the deer's arm.
That was when someone else arrived. And this one had his own little sect with him as he was making his way into the place, accompanied by a doctor.
"Oh, Yahya-sama." The doctor said as he made it there with the deer, and this one looked dead into the horse's eyes as he asked:
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?" Yahya shot back with the same bluntness. There were a few moments of awkward silence, before the doctor cleared his throat.
"Oguma-san, this is Yahya. You might know him as the Sublime Beastar and commander of the police force." Massum said to the deer as he gestured to the horse, and then he turned to the horse. "Yahya-sama. This is Oguma the Red Deer, the chairman of Horns Conglomerate, Louis' father."
"Are you on my son's case?" Oguma asked. "I heard it was a lion who ate his arm, have you caught him?"
Yahya looked at the deer, who talked to him in a blunter way than most people would dare upon hearing he was the Sublime Beastar. This caused the horse to look at him with a raised eyebrow, while Oguma returned the look with indifference.
"The perpetrator of the predation crime against your son was shot down and killed while trying to resist arrest." Yahya said simply after a few seconds of staring contest. "That lion had a few accomplices who ran away after his death, my people are trying to track them down."
"I hope you succeed." Oguma said, looking at the horse with that same indifference. "And, I heard that Louis was trying to rescue a classmate. Is that true?"
"It is, sir." Someone said before Yahya could answer. It was Kiira, and Oguma turned to look at her.
"Louis-senpai went with us to rescue Legoshi senpai from those lions." Kiira said, and Oguma looked at her for a few moments. It seemed that he was taking in her appearance.
And he was not liking what he was seeing.
"I see..." Oguma said, "And this... Legoshi is an herbivore from your club?"
"Actually, he is a carnivore hybrid, like me." Kiira said, seeing no problem in confessing this. This answer, however, seemed to displease Oguma for some reason. The light scowl on his face was not of a person who was pleased, that much was sure.
"Well, I am done with your son." Yahya said, "I already have his testimony on the matter, and now this means there is only one animal whose testimony I must take."
"Yeah, Louis' mistress." Said the chameleon to himself. However, he did not say it quietly enough. Oguma's head snapped at him.
"What was that?"
That question was on a composed voice. However, the way that the deer was looking at him made the chameleon feel like he was being sized up by a much larger carnivore. Especially when the deer started towering over him once he tried to change the subject.
"What was that you said about my son having a... 'mistress'?" Oguma's question was slow and deliberate, and the chameleon shrunk as he was glared by the herbivore. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to rip his clothes off, camouflage and dash out of there. However, he could not, so he did the only thing he thought he could: to answer the deer's question.
"Okay, look, I have been following Louis around for a while. You know, because I am from our school's newspaper and Louis is a big deal for being the beastar candidate? Anyways, I followed him into the festival, and I saw when he and that big hybrid went to see the bunny from Gardening Club everyone says is a slut. Legoshi apologized to them, saying that he had gotten on the way of their relationship and that he wanted them to make up or something. He kept insisting, so the bunny said that she and Louis were not dating, that Louis had that fiancé you want him to marry and that she was only his side piece or something. That's really all I know. I don't really think Louis plans to break his engagement to be with that bunny, so you don't really need to worry about that, sir."
Oguma continued to look at the chameleon as he explained. Then, after he was done, Oguma slowly got up. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath through his nostrils, before letting it all out through his mouth.
"Alright them." Oguma said, before turning to the moose.
"Doctor Massum, I'd like to see my son now. I really need to have a word with him."
The doctor nodded, and he allowed Oguma on that room. As he did, some of the students around could not help but feel a bit worried. From the look on Oguma's face, it seemed that the "word" Oguma wanted to have with Louis was one that the younger deer would much rather avoid.
"Think Louis will be chewed up too badly?" Tao asked to the others. Meanwhile, Yahya, with his business there ended, just turned around and left. He had to talk to that rabbit and see if she could give him more information that the deer. Perhaps she was not as unconscious as they thought at the time.
And, as he did, the Drama Club then saw themselves tackling on another subject that was important:
Juno would not be able to dance with her ankle twisted. There was no way she would be able to perform the dancing routine when she needed a pair of crutches to even be able to walk. She could hardly even stand on that foot without feeling pain.
At this rate, they would not have a central dancer for the Festival.
That was when Juno herself offered a solution:
"Kiira can do it."
She said it with a sureness that caught her hybrid friend off guard. Juno then turned to Kiira.
"You can do it, Kiira." Juno said to her. "You are the best dancer I know. You got the routine way better than me, and you already know it like the back of your hand. If there is anyone who can pull it out, it's you. And you will probably do it even better than me. I know you can do it."
Kiira looked at Juno, and then around, and she saw that everyone from Drama Club was looking at her now with expectation.
In those moments, there was really no way that a girl could say no...
"Thank you for your time." Yahya said to the white bunny who was on the bed, with her head bandaged and looking at him as he made his way out of the room, closing the door behind him.
As he came out, he saw himself facing a familiar figure.
"Hey, Yahya." Gosha said as he looked at the horse, and Yahya looked at him for a few moments, before he nodded back at the Komodo.
"How is she?" Gosha asked to the horse about the rabbit, and Yahya said that she was fine, and that he just finished interviewing her on the matter.
"Are you worried she might have said something that will put your family in a bad situation?" Yahya asked, and Gosha could only look at him.
"You still on about this?"
"I need to cover all bases." The horse's answer was direct. "I have to be sure that this was not just a great scheme that a criminal group has concocted in order to lure innocent herbivores to a trap."
"Are you being serious?" Gosha was exasperated as this point. Annoyed, even. "So, what? You think that Ibuki contacted his old gang, arranged for them to kidnap Legoshi all so they could maybe get his herbivore friends to come to his rescue and devour them all? Come on, Yahya, even you don't believe that!"
The horse looked at him for a few moments, before looking away, seemingly having nothing to say back at the lizard.
"It would help if we had managed to catch that one-eyed lion alive." Yahya said, more to himself than to Gosha, and the lizard said:
"Well, in that case, you should probably admonish that snipper for killing him. I mean, he did shoot him more times than he should, and he was the one who aimed for his head."
"He was with the Dokugumi, so that was only to be expected." Yhaya said.
"Wait, what?"
"That snipper was a Dokugumi member, wasn't he?" Yahya was looking at Gosha once more. "That was why he killed the lion, and why he run away with the others once they realized we were there."
Gosha blinked, confused.
"Yahya, what are you talking about? Savon didn't have any snipper ready. The only members of the Dokugumi in that beach were the ones at the cliff with us. Savon didn't call anyone else. That was one of your men, wasn't it?"
"No, it wasn't." Yahay was vehement as he said those words. "I can assure you that I had no snippers. I would have if I've had more time to prepare, but I gathered as many men as I could and made my way to the beach as soon as you called me telling me the Shishigumi would be there. I was on the other side of town, but I got there as fast as I could for the chance to arrest those criminals."
"Well, that was not one of Savon's people either."
"Are you sure?" Yahya was honestly asking. "You should know better to not trust the words of criminals. Perhaps you forgot it since your daughter married one."
That was all Yahya said before walking away, leaving Gosha to think about what he just heard.
If that snipper who killed the chief lion was not with Yahya... then who were they with?
Savon denied having any snipper. Had he lied? Or was that snipper working for someone else?
Gosha was confused, and he was thinking that maybe he would like some answers. Just as he was thinking that and turned around, he saw another Komodo dragon walking just at the end of the hallway. He could tell it was a Komodo because of the long scaly tail and the gasmask he had on his muzzle, peeking out from the hood of his jacket, pulled all the way over his head.
Was this... a Dokugumi member?
Savon said he could send someone to check on Gosha and his family, just to see if they were okay. Was that what was happening?
But Gosha then remembered that he could not just assume that a random Komodo dragon was a Dokugumi member.
Maybe if I taste his scent... Gosha thought as he looked at the Komodo, who stopped and pulled his sleeve back to look at his watch. Then, Gosha stuck his tongue out, letting his forked appendage capture scent molecules on the air, before pulling it back into his mouth and allowing his Jacobson's organ to identify the scent.
He was trying to see if the scent matched any of the Komodos who were on the beach. However, he didn't identify the scent as of those Komodos. This one scent tasted like... like...
Gosha's eyes widened.
No... no, this can't be...
Gosha's tongue flicked into the air once more, tasting the scent again, and getting the exact same results.
A familiar taste. One that he knew. One that he had not felt in seventeen years.
Then, as he took a better look at the hooded Komodo, he noticed his arm...
"Orga?"
Gosha gave a step forward.
"Orga!"
The Komodo with the hoodie flinched, turning his head to look at Gosha.
"I-it's you, isn't it?"
Then he ran.
"Wait!" Gosha sprint chasing after him.
"Orga! Orga, wait! Please! Orga!"
However, despite Gosha's calls, the hooded lizard did not stop. He continued to run across hallways and down flights of stairs, always with Gosha coming right behind him, calling non-stop, asking him to slow down.
Eventually, he followed the hooded lizard all the way outside, only to look around and see that he was gone, disappeared into the crowd.
"Orga..." Gosha said to himself, still trying to process what happened. Still trying to convince himself that the hooded animal he just saw was really...
"Dad?"
Gosha turned to see Leano coming to him. She looked worried.
"Dad, what's going on? I could hear you screaming in the hospital. Did something happen?"
"Leano!" Gosha said, looking at his daughter. "I just saw... I... I saw..."
Gosha looked at his daughter for a few moments, hesitating as he looked at her. Then, he just said:
"I... thought I saw someone I knew." The lizard said simply. "But... maybe it was my mistake. Sorry for causing a ruckus."
Leano looked at her father, and she nodded at him, saying that it was okay, and soon the two of them were making their way into the hospital again.
Once more, Leano was painfully aware of the attention on them. Of the whispering. Of the hateful glares and scowling expressions. As if hating the two of them simply for existing.
She would continue to remember all of that for the next few days...