"Since when do you eat Melon for dinner?!" Louis had stumbled into the Shishigumi, lost his antlers and been brought back to the hideaway all within an hour of the incident with Legoshi. Not that he had any clue what had transpired. He was more concerned about what the lions were doing without his leadership.

"Not just for dinner. We can only eat meat two times a month. When we don't, we eat melon. It's a new rule for the Shishigumi. The boss has a better frip with his five sense than any other species of animals. If you even tried to steal some meat, he'd sniff you out and kill you." Free explained.

"That's why you all look so thin no... What kind of animal is he? What's his species?"

"That sound!"

"It's the boss!"

"WHAT!? I thought he was supposed to be back in two days! This ain't good!"

"Put on my silvervine smelling jacket to get rid of my scent!" The lion threw the jacket over the deer. "And hide behind the sliding door!"

Louis was shaken. Who was this guy to have all these lion scared out of their wits?

"All right, all right, all right..." Melon's voice rang out. "While your master was gone, were all you kitties behaving well?"

"Y-You came earlier than we expected boss..."

"Yeah, well, I ran into some trouble and had to leave early. The night masquerade business got snooped. Pissed me off like nothing else. But it was all okay after I shot the guy who was supposed to be arresting me. And guess what?! He knew about YN! So now, you worthless fleabags can have some clues to go off of! She owes me something and I want it." He opened up a package to show at least several pounds of fresh meat. "Here's a joke: how does a half-baked screw up do his steak? Medium rare!" He chuckled wildly. "My body doesn't do well with meat, like, at all. But hey, I'll still eat this is all your steads."

Melon began shoving meat down his throat. It was tasteless and disgusting and it made his stomach hurt. He almost threw up at one point. "Bluh, I really can't eat all this, though. This food is for wretched beasts. No wonder you guys drool over this crap. Well, guess I have to use a few tricks to eat this." He pulled out a menagerie of strange toppings and poured them all on top of the meat. "All right, this is at least edible. The flavor's kind of weird thought, like I don't even know what I'm eating. What I do know is that your greedy eyes make the best spice. I didn't prepare this meat, so actually I don't even know what species this animal is."

"Wait, please." Agata, the youngest member, interrupted. The others shushed him, but he ignored it. "Eating meat while knowing the species it belongs to is the minimum etiquette of the black market!"

"Oh, so now there's etiquette to eating meat, eh? I had no idea. Let's try it out!" Melon kicked the young lion in the face and then stabbed his hand with a fork. "Agata, the congo lion! Twenty-six years old, the youngest member of the Shishigumi. A boring young lion who likes to show off his cringe-worthy shallow morals... Hey, expressing your sentiments about someone while stabbing them with a fork doesn't feel too bad." Suddenly, he stopped and sniffed. "Free. There's an outsider here. Bring him in front of me, now. If you don't, I'll make Agata into your twice-a-month meat dish."