Mark of stars

chapter one

"He loved her, she was the only person he really seemed to care about. He was protective over her to him, she was like a daughter. And now, he's dead."
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All of our heads turn as we hear a gun shot coming from the Chief Lions quarters, after exchanging a few glances with each other Free, Ibuki and I rush into our Boses room. I began to worry as I instantly began to think the worse, those two carnivores broke into our headquarters escaping with what we had worked so hard to get for our boss. I remember the way she stared at me either by amazement or fear, her eyes pleaded to compromise with my boss but all I did was simply turn my back on that dwarf rabbit.

My heart started to sink as we grew closer and closer to the scene, I've known the Chief Lion my whole life, he was the strongest person I had ever met and a very important person to me. Nothing could prepare me for the hurt I was about to feel the moment I set foot in his quarters.

His deadly body wasn't the first thing that caught my eye, it was the deer standing over him with a gun in his hand. That's when my mind came to terms with the scene before me. The Chief Lion my mentor, my role model, I could verb say my father forgive if I dared was dead before my laying in a pool of his own blood. The three of us and now the deer stared down on the disturbing scene, and I truly didn't know what to feel. Had this deer really killed him, with fire and defeat in my heart I looked at the deer. In which he had dropped his gun by his feet, I could hear Free and Ibuki saying things almost telling them trying to come with terms with it as well, I tuned them out the best I could.

"I am number four, product ID number four." The deer started talking, as we listened to him. I scanned around the room seeing that the rabbit irl wasn't their either and nor was the two carnivores who broke in, but through all f this commotion I never saw this deer set foot in our headquarters, "I may be small, but my meat is high quality. Leave nothing but my antlers now, eat me and be grateful." He spoke again, the deer said these words as if he had rehearsed them since the day he was born.

I heard Free starting to go on how he would devour the deer but I knew I wanted to be the one to kill him, then I began to ask myself why? Why kill our Boss and then want to die yourself, it was too easy. Free came up beside me as I was preparing to say something, "Will we have to join a new gang? We have no boss and no one to lead us," he said,"Fuck it, we should talk more after we eat this bastard," Free said urging me. Sometimes I think these lions forget I'm human and I don't have the desire to kill prey.

"No," I said looking back at the deer who couldn't seem to care less, he looked like he was ready to die and had been for a long time, "No, that's too easy." I turned on my heel looking over at Ibuki who had looked at the deer and an idea sparked inside him, pulling out his phone he showed us a picture.

"I knew he looked familiar," he said as we exams it. I read those words to myself, 'Louis, the red deer a contestant to be the next Beastar' Then there was a whole article written about this deer. "Imagine what this deer could do for as the face of the Shishigumi."

"What?!" Free and I asked in unison with pure confusion on our faces.

I shook my head slightly, "Ibuki, we can't make him boss, he just killed our formal boss! We couldn't have any trust in him and he doesn't even know how to run a gang, this deer is still ins school, we can't let him off that easily!" I complained, I could see Free subtly agreeing with me as I ranted on.

"Think about it, this deer already has respect and this would add a change to the black market for the better, the Chief Lion couldn't bring any good to this place and maybe this kid can." Ibuki said looking over at him again, he gasped causing Free and I to turn around.

The deer had a gun pointed upward from his jaw, "Keep talking, I'll narrow down your choices." He cocked the gun causing Ibuki to rush over to him, he knocked out the deer before the bullet could even come into contact with him.

~

I was sitting across from Ibuki and Agata to my left, I didn't look at anywhere else except for my hands I didn't want to look up. I needed to think about what was happening and how this whole ordeal was going to go. At the time I know I hadn't full accepted the Chief Lions death, it was a pain no one else in this room could understand even if they tried. I was raised in a facility in the black market, they would experiment on things that they had no idea about. That's how I came to live in this world, after a while word had gotten out to the market about a 'human' no one knew what it was all they knew is that it was different and I could be sold to the highest bidder to be eaten alive.

After some time I was bought with an amount I am not aware of, I was brought here but somehow I lived long enough to see someone I cared about die. The Chief Lion gave me everything, a place to live and education, food, a home. Something no one had ever given to me before, I owe all of my thanks to the Chief Lion and get I didn't even get the chance to tell him that all because of this deer, "Good you're awake!" Ibuki said kindly.

Now I made up my mind to look over at the young deer, I examined him closely. "Why didn't you just eat me in my sleep?" He asked reaching his arm up to rub the back of his head before looking around at the situation.

"Because we have a proposal," Ibuki said taking out a clip board that had tally marks on it, "These are for the ones who want you to be our boss," he pointed to one section that only had five tally marks, "And these are the opposite," Ibuki said pointing at the other that had twenty-three. "But after a few discussions we decided why not get to know you better by having dinner?" A lion came by setting a plate on the table before the deer, from the article I read his name was Louis.

He looked down at the plate brought to him watching as the metal dome on top was removed to reveal meat, I watched as the expression on his face hanged drastically as he quickly tried to surprise it, "(Y/n) what kind of meat is it?" Ibuki asked me from across the table.

I looked over the buck with a look of un-satisfaction written all over my face, "Buffalo, a previous victim who decided to cut off ties with us." Louis looked over at me for a moment nearly in a questionable way, it was a look that I slowly realized I couldn't identify. It wasn't the look that the dwarf rabbit gave me rather a look full of anger directed at me in which I did my best to ignore.

We all studied him as he slowly picked up his utensils seeming to realize what was happening in this situation, at the moment none of us really had a say in this decision. We all knew the pros and cons of it but we needed a boss, I was fully against it but this could give me a perfect opportunity to kill this deer when I needed too. I watched the deer stick the buffalo meat in his mouth seeming as if he would be ready to throw it up in an instant, but he quickly regained control of it from his hunched position as he ate it the deer sat up straighter swallowing.

"It's good, give me more." Louis said almost as if he was a carnivore himself, by his request he was given more meat and we began to eat ours with him. However I couldn't bring myself to eat after a horrible event like this, to be honest I didn't think a deer could endure herbivore meat I instantly picked up that he was doing this to survive. I knew the feeling, every day as a human I am doing everything I can to survive in a world like this.

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