Zootopia: Worlds Apart

38. The Job

Legoshi's POV

I was making my way down the streets of the black market. Strangely, since that night that Luke forced that piece of steak down my throat, everything didn't seem so.. strong. I was able to walk past multiple meat stalls without having to have a battle with my instincts. If I'd known that eating meat dissolves the urge, I would eat it 24/7, although the only downfall to that would be that I would look like Riz if he didn't take his medication all the time.

As I made my way to the end of the street, I eventually came to Gohin's place. I shuffled up to the door and knocked on it a few times, expecting a prompt answer. Oddly, it took Gohin far longer to answer the door, but I eventually shrugged it off. I heard one of the many locks click before the door opened ajar.

"Hey kiddo," Gohin said, putting his crossbow down. "What do you want?"

"Remember when you told me about that job placement?" I asked.

"Yeah.." He replied suspiciously.

"Is it still available?" I asked, coming closer to the door.

"It is," He replied. "But I don't think you'd fit into it well."

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "W-wait what?"

"I don't mean to be mean, but you're far too scrawny and.. well.. young to do this job, kid." He replied.

"I'm not that scrawny," I said, looking down at my body. "I'm also really good at fighting; you've seen it yourself."

"You're still too young, Legoshi," He muttered. "I really want to offer you the job, but knowing what happened to me doing this job, I can't risk it happening to you. You have such a long and prosperous life to live."

I sighed. It really wasn't worth it fighting with Gohin about this.

It's okay I thought. I'll find another place.

"Alright." I muttered, turning to leave.

"Sorry again, kid." Gohin said, closing the door.

At this point, Luke is probably on his way to see Louis so the best thing I can do is wait around here until he comes back. I didn't want to leave him here of course, the poor soul would get lost for sure in these parts of the city.

I made my way out of the black market and decided to go to a restaurant.

I scoured around the area for a while until I came to a place.

'Udon Bebebe' it read. It was a favourite restaurant of mine. I remember when I used to go out of school to do things I'd often wind up here before going back. Most of the time, I would go here with some of the guys from the drama club, but today I was going alone.

I entered the restaurant, the familiar smell of Udon filling my nose as I found a seat and sat down. Right on cue, my stomach started screaming at me, begging me to feed it. I saw one of the waiters, Tom, approach me.

"Hey Legoshi," He said in his typical friendly tone. "Long time no see bud, you doing alright?"

"Yeah, I'm doing fine," I said, smiling at him. "You?"

"I'm doing well thanks," He replied. "Only bad thing is that Mat quit last week."

"Oh no," I said. "Why?"

"Dunno," Tom replied. "Musta been something big, you know how much he loved it here."

"Yeah," I laughed. "I'll have my usual if it's no trouble."

Tom wrote it down before turning and walking off to serve someone else. I sat there for a minute, thinking over a few things. First, I thought about Gohin and him rejecting me, which did disappoint me a little, but he had a fair point. Then, I thought back to this morning with the news report that Riz escaped jail. Admittedly, I was a little scared over what would happen. I mean, I was the one that put him in that prison, so surely he would be angry at me. I ignored those darker thoughts as my food promptly arrived. Then, it clicked. Mat had left. That meant.. there was a job opportunity.

"Hey, uh," I said before Tom left. "Is that job still available?"

"Job?" He asked. "Oh, you mean the one that Mat had?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Is it still available?"

Tom thought for a moment.

"Pretty sure it is," He said. "You want an application form for it?"

This was it. I was getting a job! I simply nodded at Tom, who nodded back before disappearing off into the back room.

I looked down at my food before taking a pair of chopsticks and starting to eat it. After a moment, Tom reappeared with no application form whatsoever. I looked at him.

"I spoke with Sunaga," He said. "He says you've got the job."

I nearly choked on my food.

"Really?" I asked, my face still full of noodles. Tom nodded.

"You start tomorrow," He said. "8:45AM."

"Great!" I cheered as Tom disappeared off again.

This was the greatest day of my life. I had a job, a stable source of income. I could now live a free life with the one I loved without having to constantly be looking back on myself.

I finished my meal before counting some money I managed to find on the street and placing it down on the table. I got up and went to leave. Unluckily for me, I turned to say thanks to Tom for the meal and didn't watch where I was going, so when I turned back around I bumped into someone.

"Sorry!" I yelped, moving out of the way hastily.

"Well," The figure boomed. "Fancy seeing you here all alone."

Christ, give me strength I thought as I looked at who it was. I do not have the power to deal with your lame ass today.

"Leave me alone, Bill." I spat.

"Oh, so now that you've dropped out of school you think you can just cut us all off?" He asked, getting closer to me. I saw behind him that the other guys from the drama club were also there.

"I didn't say that," I growled. "I just want to be left alone right now, alright?"

"You know what you need, L?" He asked, grabbing my shoulder and pulling me towards him. "I think you need some meat. Y'know, to take the edge off of ya."

I hated Bill so much. He always grabbed me in such a violently physical way; he always pretended like he was my friend even though I knew for a fact that he was exactly the opposite.

"Don't touch me," I barked. "Now get out of my way."

"Bill, do as he says." Tao said, appearing next to us and trying to get Bill to let go.

"Shut up, panther!" He snapped, turning to Tao, who quickly backed away. "Now then, tough guy. You think you can just up and leave the school without a goodbye?"

"I can, and I have." I said, grabbing the paw that was on my shoulder and squeezing with all my strength. I wasn't very strong my any means of the word, but whatever I was doing seemed to be hurting Bill. I watched as he face slowly turned from one of enjoyment, to one of discomfort.

"Yow!" He yelped, retracting his paw quickly after a while of my squeezing it. "What the hell's wrong with you man?"

"I told you to let go and you didn't." I said, pushing past him and making my way out of the restaurant.

Man I hated that guy. He really pisses me off every time he talks to me. I wish some day he would get a taste of his own medicine.

I made my way down the street towards the park. Midway, I stopped because I thought I saw something. It was a group of lions. They were looking directly at me. One was looking at me through binoculars, the others were looking at me through either glasses or their bare eyes. When they noticed me looking at them, they started advancing on me.

Shishigumi I thought, turning and walking briskly in the other direction.

I kept going until I reached the park. As I entered, I turned around to see that the Lions were right behind me. I jumped.

"Hello," One said. He took out a needle from his pocket and shoved it in my direction. "Goodbye."

That was the last thing I remembered.