The cold wind bites your skin as your feet hit the ground, the crunch of leaves and the sound of snapping twigs assaulting your ears. Surprisingly more agile than the wolf as you move through the small forest bordering next to the Shishigumi hideout, you quickly jump over stones, fallen trees and the occasional backwood shrubs. Legoshi is running ahead of you due to his advantage in speed, both because of his size and his species, and it is impossible to not lose yourself in the simple sensation of running.

Something you are quite familiar with as a means to survive and avoid confrontation, which has now been replaced with the urge to react violently in the form of fighting. Nostalgia fills you upon noticing this treacherous memory and the single antler in your hand forces you to acknowledge just how much you have changed, the separated biological accessory turning colder by the second due to the lack of blood to support it.

Once more, your actions are a prime example of how people can change when faced with devastating situations and unwise amounts of rage.

After countless time spent running through the thick foliage, the wolf in front of you slows to a stop, his tongue hanging out slightly as he lightly pants. You're not as nice to look at, bending over to lean on your legs in an attempt to catch your breath. The hair on your head is a mess, the strands sticking into every kind of direction thanks to the wind's playful nature and your improvised escape. Granted, you wouldn't recommend using the 'falling down a fucking hill' method as a way to achieve your desired hairstyle. Unless that hairstyle is purposefully supposed to resemble a hobo that hasn't seen society in ten years. Mud coats your clothes in various places, singular strands of grass decorating your jacket and pants.

"Do you know where we are?" You quietly ask the canine, swaying your gaze over your surroundings. Unfortunately, everything appears to look almost identical; nothing but a dark, ominous forest surrounds you with only the melodic sounds of various critters echoing through the woods.

It makes the lack of response from Legoshi even more noticeable and the tension between you two would be obvious to anyone passing by. The grey wolf avoids your eyes, his back turned to you with tense shoulders and bent ears as his tail hypnotically swishes from side to side at a slower pace than you are used to. You're immediately on edge, the shadows moving in the corners of your eyes not helping the situation at all.

"What's wrong?" Slightly stammering, this is the first time this evening that you are truly worried. Despite not being in a relationship with the wolf anymore, his opinion of you and generally his presence in your life are important to you.

A quiet, barely audible growl echoes through the trees, silencing the cicadas in an instant and causing you to take a cautious step back. "Legoshi? Please, talk to me. What's wrong?"

The moment he turns around to face you, his sullen eyes meeting yours as tears rush down his cheeks, you know what happened with Louis and the Shishigumi affected him more than you thought. That knowledge itself brings a painful ache to your heart.

"Would you have actually killed Louis?!" His voice bellows through the woods, his eyes flickering down to the bloody antler in your hand. "Let go of that! Why would you hurt him like that?! You were friends once, why were you so casual about hurting him?! Y/n, I...I don't understand it!"

Sole beams of moonlight flash through the foliage, painting his grey fur a silvery tone in some areas, the pattern resembling that of a diamond's shine. You're speechless for a moment; if you remember correctly, Legoshi's loud voice had never been directed at you, at least not in anger.

"I did what I needed to do to survive, Legoshi. How can you still have any sense of trust in that deer?" You press through gritted teeth, angling the antler in way so he wouldn't have to see it. Who knows, maybe you'll just leave it here for the bugs; it's not like you can just walk through the black market and the city with that thing on you. "He pointed multiple guns at our heads! Not only that, he joined a criminal gang known for kidnappings and devourings and obviously, they haven't changed under his rule! How can you not see that?!"

"I pushed him into that position!" He shouts, taking a step closer to you with his tail raised high behind him, a posture you'd seen in dogs in your old world when they were trying to seem dominating. "Because I went off to rescue you, he ended up there. He's not an evil animal. He's the only one that can help the school right now, the only one that can help me with Riz."

There's only one word that crosses your mind as you listen to the wolf's rambling, his excuses for the herbivore rolling off his longue tongue like second nature.

Unbelievable.

"You're kidding, right?" You scoff. When he shakes his head, his eyes gleaming with a determined flame, you chuckle humourlessly and turn your head away from him. It hurts to look at him. "Louis is a criminal and we can't change that. He's just like Ri-...no, he's worse than Riz! Riz at least knows that he did something bad but Louis is keeping literal children in cages to sell them off as fresh meat, Legoshi!"

Are you overreacting? Possibly, you're not sure. All you know is that you're done pretending for the sake of others, you are done protecting people who aren't worth protecting. Hurting an innocent person, much less a simple child, is unforgivable. Growing up in a world where child abuse and worse acts occurred more than they ever should obviously caused you to grow a certain kind of hate for people like that. Having lived in a world controlled by the ignorant elders of your society, who deliberately ignore the issues the generations after them face, leaves you with the need to protect those that can't protect themselves. You want to be better; you can't repeat the mistakes of your predecessors.

Lifting your head to meet his gaze, Legoshi stares at you in bewilderment. "We don't really know that. H-His answer was vague and that group is corrupting him, I know it."

"Oh you do? Like you knew about Riz and didn't bother telling the police, therefore putting everyone else in the school in danger?" It's a low blow, you're aware of that. But it's a fact that the wolf in front of you has to accept. "Legoshi, you're so fucking naïve sometimes. The world isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Not every animal is good. Not every herbivore is good. When will you stop seeing them as different species and finally start seeing them as actual individuals capable of choosing their own paths?"

Legoshi is silent, his keen eyes focused on you as you back away exactly three steps, counting them in your head to calm yourself. You learnt this from your own species, though race and actual animal species are most likely very different from each other. In a biological sense, they cannot be compared, however, in a social construct like this one, they are one and the same. One group is favoured and constantly praised, the other is seen as violent and primitive.

"An animal isn't defined by their species and an animal isn't good or bad because of what they're born as." You begin, keeping your voice soft as you reminisce in the memories of your former world. A box of memories that has been getting smaller with every passing day as the horror of your death claims the only thing you have left from the place you called home; from the people you called family.

"They have certain biological aspects, sure, but no carnivore is inherently a threat and doomed to be a monster, just like no herbivore is utterly helpless and pure. Your choices and your morals make you a good person, Legoshi. Someone who saves others from a burning house is a hero, regardless of their species." Bitterly smiling, you lift the antler and your heart clenches when Legoshi's disbelieving eyes zero in on it. "And an animal that lets children suffer for their own personal gain is a monster, herbivore or not."

"You need to wake up and realize that your perfect little ideology cannot succeed in a world like this, Wolfie. Louis can't help us bring Riz to justice and mind you, I'm only going along with your stupid plan because you're the only one who has the evidence that could get him arrested!" Against your will, your voice rises in volume, growing harsh and ferocious like the stubborn waves of the sea during a storm. "You're naïve in every sense of the word! Not everyone is good, not everyone can be redeemed! Mind you, knowing you, you're going to change your mind about him soon enough, just to switch back to being a lovely little puppy when you actually need to hold him accountable! Because that's what you do, Legoshi!"

Truthfully, this is the first conflict you and the grey wolf have together. But you're sick of his indecisiveness, of his naïve sense of stupidity. He's an airhead and you love that aspect of him, as you do everything else when it comes to the wolf, but you need to get this off your chest.

"You're so indecisive! First you say you want to be with me, then you end our relationship to pursue a murderer, only to come back again and expect me to crawl back to you!" The words roll of your tongue like razor-sharp blades, burning with a fury you've become all too familiar with nowadays. The wolf stares at you, his brows furrowing in irritation with every sentence that leaves your lips. "Make up your fucking mind! You can't have everything in life, that's not how it works!"

Stomping past the wolf, you reel your arm back and throw the antler into the dark of the night, ignoring the quiet growl behind you at the action.

"Louis made his choice. Now he has to live with it. It's time for you to do the same, Wolfie. Choose which path you want to pursue and fucking live with it."

With determined steps, you make your way through the forest again. Your anger rolls off of you in sudden waves, the leaves crunching beneath your shoes. You will give Legoshi some time to decide for himself how he'll handle this situation; that's all you can do for now.

"Let's head back. I got another fucking appointment tomorrow."

And reluctantly but quietly, the tall wolf follows you at a safe distance. Whether it is out of respect, shame or distaste, you don't know. But frankly, you're just glad he wasn't hurt tonight.

Now more than ever, you miss the simple days of worrying about your panic attacks and whether or not your crush liked you. Since then, your life has become even more complicated and the void holds you in its clutches like a drowning sailor, the ocean's waves consisting of everything you've endured weighing down on you like boulders as you sink farther and farther into the depths.

You just hope you haven't lost yourself once you reach the ocean floor.

***

A couple days later, you're sitting in Juno's dorm, huddled around her small table with some homework laid out in front of you. The female grey wolf had basically dragged you to her dorm this morning, seeing as her roommates were out and about strolling through the school, opting to rather pursue their homework on a later date.

Unexpectedly, the school had called for a three-day holiday.

You had wanted to spend some time with Haru as well, but she is currently studying for finals and you thought it best to not disturb her. Still, you sent her a text to let her know that, should she be in need of a distraction, you would always be available to lift her spirits. Juno and the dwarf rabbit have yet to meet and as much as you enjoy spending time with either of them, Juno being your designated extrovert and Haru acting as a sort of cool witch-aunt type of friend in your life, you're unsure whether or not to introduce them to one another.

Juno still had some things to learn about herbivores after all.

Of course, you welcomed a time of peace and quiet, especially due to your newest injury. You're sure that finally, fate decided to intervene and knock some sense into your reckless behaviour concerning your body and health.

The day after confronting Louis and the Shishigumi, you had another dreaded appointment with Doctor Masago and her team. You hadn't expected anything worse than possibly a few new venoms that'd make you feel nauseous or give you a headache; nothing major. The apathetic maned wolf is apparently determined to test every possible poison on you, simply to see how humans react to it.

You hadn't expected that she'd inject you with the venom of a golden lancehead viper. The name was familiar to you, though it belonged to the pit of memories in your head that were already blurred by the spirit of time. Expecting the usual symptoms, you didn't think much of it.

Until you began to vomit blood and bile while the flesh on your left arm slowly disintegrated before your very eyes. You've never felt this kind of physical pain.

In that moment, your brain had realized just how much danger you were in and in an instant, every natural instinct to survive spurred back to life inside of you. Fear consumed you, forcing you to freeze in your positon rather than to lash out like a wild animal. When panic began to emerge from the medical professionals after injecting you with the antidote, the high possibility that you'd die in that lab, shortly after falling out with Legoshi, dawned on you.

It took three more shots of highly potent vials of the antidote to stop your symptoms and conquer the venom that had entered your blood stream. You were lucky that it was merely a watered down version of the snake's venom.

That's the only reason your arm is still intact. A thick bandage covers the area on your left upper arm, the limb basically useless due to the pain you're in at every possible movement. Beneath the disinfecting material of the bandage, a good portion of your flesh is raw and lacking skin. It will take about a week and a half for the wound to close, which earned you a two week vacation from the lab. In addition, you had left Valentina, who is still away on her business trip, a message and told her that you'd have to stop your training for a bit due to the injury.

The venom had attacked your muscle-tissue way more aggressively than theorized by Doctor Masago, which in of itself felt like a slap in the face. They had willingly put your life in this much danger. But you can't entirely blame them; you agreed to their terms.

Despite Doctor Masago's constant reassuring, it is unsure whether or not the muscles in your upper left arm would be permanently affected. Not majorly but according to one of the School-nurses, who have been told to expect you for a check-up every three days, it is very likely that your left arm will be permanently weaker than your right arm from now on. She had regarded you with pity and sympathy as she told you this, most likely disgusted with herself that she can't seem to help you.

Normally, you'd call the authorities on abusive guardians. However, you're not an ordinary case; you're a special little snowflake. Your "guardians" are a team of high-ranked doctors that provide information for even higher individuals in the government of japan about your species. You don't have the same rights as anyone else in Cherryton. And there's nothing you can really do about that. You are a single person, you don't have the support of your own species behind you. Hell, you don't even have the support of other species, due to the immense impact specism has on this society.

You are entirely on your own.

And now, you've finally realized that you need to do something about it. You don't want to die in that lab. No matter what, you need to at least to set boundaries and fight for yourself. It's sad that it took another near-death experience to make you realize that.

In a way, you'd say humans are characterized by their stubborn nature. Humanity survives almost any circumstances through being cunning, ruthless, clever and always ready to leave behind a trail of destruction. Even amongst their own kind, humans had a natural talent for spreading their ideologies, may it be through colonization, war or a violent revolution.

Maybe you should take some inspiration from that.

"Y/n? Hey! Earth to Y/n! Can you hear me?!" Juno's loud voice forces you out of your thoughts. Slightly taken aback, you flinch at the sudden increase in volume and look at her, only for her to point to your massive stack of homework. "You can't go off into dreamland like that! Or else you're never going to get done with all of this."

Juno, ever the beautiful and cheerful canine, is sitting across from you in a casual but unsurprisingly chique outfit. From the little time you've spent as her friend and not her opponent, you discovered that the wolf had a miraculous sense of fashion, though her colours were a little off sometimes. The red turtle-neck top fit her perfectly, disappearing into a set of flowy light blue pants that rested high against her waist. To be honest, you look like a mess next to her, dressed in your lazy clothing that consisted of a shirt that you stole form Legoshi once and refused to give back and a dark pair of leggings.

"Why do I have so much more homework than you do?" You whine, letting your head fall onto the stacks of papers and books with a groan. The she-wolf giggles lightly, gently petting your head as a means of comfort. "I'm a first year, remember? It makes sense that they'd give us less to do."

"Oh yeah," You murmur, leisurely lifting your head, "Sometimes I forget that you're actually younger than me. You act so mature...most of the time anyways."

Putting on a serious face, you lift your head and vigorously point at her. "Don't go running off with adults though. Stranger danger, June, don't forget it."

"I won't, no worries!" She giggles, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. Sending you an exited glance, fully giving into her canine trait of loving visitors, you watch in confusion as she stands up to answer it.

A friendly bird stands in front her, you're not sure what kind of species they are, but with a friendly smile, they hand the she-wolf a sheet of paper. "This is from the school, addressed to every room in every dorm."

"Oh, thank you!" She beams, quickly closing the door after saying goodbye and rushing to sit down next to you. Handing you the paper, she kneels behind you and leans onto the back of your shoulders like a child. In this instance, she truly reminds you of a puppy. "Read it, Y/n! Please read it!"

"Fine, geez! I'll do it, stop shaking me like I'm some sort of toy!" Finally getting her excited outburst to stop, you peer over your shoulder and mess with the fur on her head. She whines at the action, though Juno can't help but smile and that automatically brings a grin to your own lips. Gingerly glancing back to the paper, you clear your throat and begin to read its written content out loud.

But with every passing word that flows from your mouth, your expression falls as your brows furrowed in utter perturbation at the news. You're unsure whether it's your saddening tone or the letter itself, but you know Juno's excitement is vanishing more and more with every second. Rather, the both of you are filled with dread.

"Juno..." You begin quietly, unconsciously crumbling up the letter and wincing at the pain shooting through your left arm. "What does this mean for the drama club?"

Once again, your entire world has turned upside down.

"To all the students in this school. You must be all surprised at the sudden news."

The next morning, shortly after the official announcement made by the school, you speed-walk through the hallways with purpose and boiling anger.

"This has been decided after many meetings with the school staff and the board of trustees."

You are both appalled and shocked, a mixture of mild disorientation thrown into the bunch of turbulent emotions. Another lovely side effect to your 'small' mishap with the snake-venom; you're regaining the ability to feel more and more emotions again. Slowly but surely, your old self is resurfacing and blending into the new structure of your being.

It is impossible that you're the only one that is this upset about the news.

"Starting next year, Cherryton Academy will be segregated into different classes and campuses. Immediately effective at the start of next year, carnivores will have floors 1 and 2, and herbivores will have floors 3, 4 and 5."

It is barbaric to segregate the school in your opinion. That type of 'problem-solving' never made anything better.

A prime example is your species' own segregation between the races. When separated from one another and only allowed to associate with 'their own kind', individuals will come up with all sorts of terrible things to cause uproar. It would only lead to extremity and most likely even fascism amongst both the carnivores and the herbivores. Speaking of which, no one even mentioned Omnivore students like yourself.

Much like Individuals that are asexual, aromantic, agender or another form of the ace-identification in the lgbtqa+ community, your kind is simply ignored or forgotten about.

"Also..."

However, the biggest tragedy isn't the segregated floors and classes. No, instead, they're attempting to steal something far greater from you.

"All interspecies clubs will be suspended starting next month."

They want to suspend the drama club.

Sure, you might not be the biggest enthusiast about the club but damnit, it means so much to its members. It's one of the few clubs that allow you to bond with animals despite them being a herbivore, omnivore or carnivore. When it comes to acceptance, the drama club was a prime example to uphold and even you have to admit that the club has found a special place in your heart.

It was where you got closer to Legoshi after all. You had many good memories in that club and you cherish them. You cherish your fellow members, except the murderous Winnie Pooh, and you cannot bear to see them suffer because of this. And now, they need your help to save the drama club.

High School Musical has prepared me for this moment!

Vigorously speeding through the halls, you eventually cross paths with Bill and Els, who are just as determined to save the club as you are. Bursting open the doors to the training hall, your eyes fall upon the rest of the drama club, all of which are already sitting down. Your eyes meet Legoshi's and you realize Juno is sitting next to him, frantically waving you over already.

A slight surge of jealousy sparks within you, but you ignore it.

"Guys! Did you hear about the announcement-!" Bill shouts as everyone turns to look at the three of you, as you are fashionably late. Sanu, who stands at the blackboard, turns to you as well. "Oh hey, you're late! Now we've got everyone on board."

"Is-is that..." Bill begins, only to be interrupted by Els. "Put three marks for 'we should continue the club'!"

The pelican does as told and you make your way to the two wolves, plopping down onto your butt next to the she-wolf.

"All right! We've got everyone. Now we need to focus on what to do next."

Wild voices of determination and courage echo through the club, you being one of them to everyone's surprise. The club was important; to the school, to the animals and to you. The clubs of Cherryton are being forced to stand together as a unit and fight for their right to remain as interspecies clubs.

And the very next day, the school paper published a new article.

'News of Club suspension brews a storm of opposition. The ties between carnivore and herbivore will be put to the test!'

The mood in Cherryton Academy is changing, much like the leaves on the Sakura trees decorating its grounds. The students are willing to fight and strangely enough, it fills you with a sense of pride.

We're all in this together. 

*****

Hey ho ho, homies! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

First off, once again I have to thank DoctorPortal455 for the glorious meme! It cracked me up!

Moving on, I cannot believe this book has reached 60 Chapters! It's technically not a milestone but it is for me because it's fucking long! This fanfiction is officially longer than a lot of novels. What even?!

Things are happening in Cherryton and a Rebellion is forming, it will be interesting to see the MC be a part of it all. I had a sudden idea for a nice segment in the story two days ago right when I wanted to sleep and I am hyped to get to put it into the plot as well. It fills a plot hole I had before and now, I got a solution! Yay!

Fun fact, the golden lancehead viper is real. Its venom is super deadly but up until now, there is only one recorded bite because the snake only lives on a secluded island in Brazil and well, almost no one that has been bitten was able to get to the hospital in time 0_0

The venom can literally dissolve your flesh. Nature really said "danger noodle but make it OP". No one is allowed on that island because it is literally filled with snakes! A fisherman stranded there and they later found him in a puddle of his own blood, covered in snake bites (RIP to him, may he rest in peace).

Things like that are really fascinating to me and are the main reason why I enjoy writing. You always learn something new when researching! Research Research Research! Knowledge is power!

On another note, I changed my label😌 I discovered omnisexuality and am now converting from pansexual to omnisexual!

I'm not genderblind like I thought I was and right now, that label fits me best. Of course, there's no guarantee it'll never change again because truly, I'm sti figuring myself out. But this is where I feel happy now.

For those confused, omnisexual is a micro-label to the umbrella-term Bisexual. It's just more specific. While bisexual means loving more than one gender, omnisexuality specifically means being attracted to all genders and not being genderblind like pansexual. But that doesn't mean Bisexuality excludes people that don't conform to female or male!

A bisexual person can still love every gender but it is not specified. Just because someone is by, doesn't mean they are deliberately excluding people of other genders other than male and female!

I am saying this to do at least something against the biphobia that is in our community. Bi people are often told they're bound to cheat by other people, as well as seen as exclusive to genders like agender or nonbinary. That is false. It is an umbrella term that created omnisexual, polysexual and pansexual.

I love everyone in the lgbtqa+ community and just want us all to get along! The community is meant to be a safe place for those that don't have those in their life! Let's not let misinformation divide us!

That is all I wanted to say.

Anyways, I hope y'all are safe and sound and healthy during this shitty Pandemic! Stay safe guys, gals and other countless gender-identifying pals! (I don't want to list them all in case I get them wrong and because gender is an endless spectrum)

See you in Chapter 61!