The Hybrid Dokugumi

Fati ma

The Hybrid Dokugumi

Глава

"Now, what do we have here?" Legosi's eyes widened at those words.

but before he could utter a word, he felt a strong hit land on his head. Black started surrounding his vision, and a mere second before he lost his consciousness, he caught a small glimpse of forest green scales, shining like jewels.

"A...K-Komodo...Dragon?"

These were the last three words he slurred out, before darkness took him in it's caress.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A group of three students stood on the street of Back-Alley Market. A Bengal Tiger, Bill. A Bald Eagle, Aoba. And a Black Panther, Tao. Bill sighed as he chewed on a piece of meat.

"Seriously, Legosi doesn't know what he's missing. This meat's delicious."

"He is just too kind to eat meat, Bill. And he sure is not the only one, who thinks it's wrong."

Bill and Tao looked at Aoba with surprised gazes. Just a few minutes ago, he took their side and said that it's fine.

"Oi, oi, oi! Aoba, are you chickening out!? What's up with that, you were on our page just a few minutes ago! What changed?"

"Bill...I-I, I just can't eat meat, okay? I'm going to go now, sorry guys. I need to find Legosi, and apologise."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

As Legosi woke up, all he saw was pure darkness.

"Looks like he's up, boss."

"Take off the sack, I wanna get a good look on him."

Suddenly, Legosi felt a hand on his head, and he finally could everything. In front of him stood three komodo dragons, all of them wearing masks. But there was one who caught the boy's attention more so, that the other two. He is very muscular, his purplish-black scales shining in the moon light, he has white baggy pants, and a black shirt without a left sleeve on him. An aura of authority surrounds him.

'He's probably their boss.'

Suddenly, Legosi gets grabbed by the said male.

"Now, how about you tell us your name, young wolf? I wish to know who exactly dares trespassing the Dokugumi territory."

'D-Dokugumi? what exactly is that, where am I?' "Legosi, Komodo Dragon-san."

"Very well, Legosi. Now tell me, what were you doing on our territory?" " I got lost, Komodo Dragon-san. It's my first time in the Black Market."

The Komodo Dragon simply raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously? Just how much meat did you ate to lose your coordination that badly?"

"None, sir. Me and my friends stumbled upon the entrance to it, I had a disagreement with them, because i didn't want to eat meat, and left."

"A carnivoire that doesn't want to eat meat? Very surprising, but I won't judge, especially since it doesn't matter."

"What do you- AGK!!!"

Suddenly the man took off his mask, and sank his in Legosi's shoulder, spreading venom through the boy's veins. Legosi gasped from the pain, but a few seconds later, it stopped. The Komodo Dragon, who already stood up and put his mask on had a surprised look on his face.

"You're immune to our venom, but how?"

After Legosi's got his bearings back, he answered.

"I'm a h-hybrid, my grandfather, G-Gosha, is a Komodo Dragon." "You're our former boss's grandson?"

Legosi's looked up so fast that his neck snapped, his eyes were wide as saucers.

"B-Boss!? What do you mean?!" "Men, release the kid."

"Yes, Savon, sir!"

The two Komodo Dragons behind the newly revealed Savon immediately cut the ropes with their claws. Legosi sat up on the floor, still looking shocked. Savon looked the boy in the eyes, confusion, surprise, and perhaps a bit of guilt swirling in his eyes. He sighed.

"Kid, I know we didn't give you any reason to trust us especially me, but please do believe me. We mean you no harm, now that we know who you really are."

Legosi's face adopted a very surprised look.

"But, why? A few seconds ago, you were trying to kill me, what changed?" Savon scoffed.

"Didn't I just tell you? You are the grandson of our former leader, and he was a very respectful man. Also, we simply don't harm our own, when others already are trying to do that...Caesar, show the kid our guest room."

The Komodo dragon to the left bowed, then offered his hand to the boy. "Yes sir!"

Legosi took the hand and got up. Then he once again looked at Savon. "You do know I can't stay here, right? I'm still a student at an academy."

"Of course I know kid, however it's not safe in the black market right now. The worst of the worst scum this place has to offer peak their heads out at this time. That's why you are going to stay in our compound till the morning, everything else will be discussed right then."

Legosi simply nodded, and followed Caesar. Savon brought up valid points, and even if he were to try to run, they would catch him in no time, and even if by some miracle he got away, he wouldn't know where to go. Savon walked off.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Gosha is a very pacifistic man, not prone to conflict. Right now however, the circumstances were different. On his phone, he saw a very familiar name, Savon.

'What does he want? I thought we established that I'm in retirement." Gosha presses the 'accept' button.

"What do you need Savon? Didn't I make it clear that I'm not coming back?" "I'm not calling you to talk about that, Gosha. Just listen, please, Boss." "Don't call me that Savon, I'm not your leader anymore."

"Sorry, force of habit. Okay, weird question, do you have a grandson, perhaps?" "What is it to you Savon?"

"Weeeell, my men caught a grey wolf in our territory, said his name's Legosi-" Gosha immediately spat out the water he was drinking, melting a trash bin.

"WHAT!? SAVON, WHAT IS MY GRANDSON DOING IN THE BLACK MARKET!?"

"Calm down, Gosha-"

"OH, I AM CALM SAVON! I'M VERY CALM!!!"

Savon sighed.

"The kid went on a trip with a group of other student, they stumbled upon the entrance to it. Legosi split away from them, because of some kind of disagreement, and you can figure out the rest."

"..."

"Gosha? You there-"

"How long is Legosi going to be on the compound, Savon?" "Till the morning for sure, why?"

"Good, then wait for me to come by, I need to check on my grandson." "Oh, okay...WAIT WHAT-"

"Bye, Savon."

Gosha hung up and sighed.

"You just had to mess with my kid, Fate, didn't you? Welp, guess it's time to jostle the past a bit."

Глава

As Caesar showed Legosi around, the wolf, couldn't help, but notice the curiosity in the eyes of all the komodo dragons around. Whispers could be heard from every direction.

"Who is he?"

"What is he doing here?"

"What does Savon want with him?"

Caesar slowed down and whispered down his ear.

"Don't worry, they won't harm you, not as long as I am here, or Savon gives the order to do so."

These words soothed Legosi's worries, if only a little. The boy whispered back. "And if I'm alone? What then?"

"By the time you are left alone with them, they'll know you're one of us." Those words left a lot to imagination.

'One of them? As in a member of Dokugumi? No, I'm just overthinking it. He means that i'm part komodo dragon.'

After another few minutes of walking, they reached a small, two-story building.

"This is a building to house the few guest, that sometimes come, be it couriers, business partners etc. Here is your key. It has the number of the room you'll stay in for the time being engraved on the tag. If you need anything, here's my phone number."

Caesar gave Legosi a small key with a tag, that had the 12 engraved on it, and a slip of paper with his phone number.

"Good night Legosi, we'll probably meet tomorrow." "Yeah...good night, Caesar."

Legosi walked inside of the building. Despite looking very worn, it's pretty taken care of. Soon the wolf found the door he needed. As he opened it and walked in, he took in the surroundings. It was a 4-room apartment, consisting of a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a hallway, that connected the first three rooms. All of the rooms were very compact, built not for luxury, but pure necessity.

'Okay, first I need to take a shower, I stink very badly.'

After taking a quick shower, Legosi quickly rinsed the dirty clothes and put them on a dryer right above the bathtub, and put on a spare set of clean clothes he always has in his backpack.

'Now, I need to eat. That is, if there is anything in the kitchen.'

Unfortunately, all Legosi found, was a piece of meat in the fridge, goose, if the scent didn't lie.

'Seriously?! That's all there is!? I can't eat that!'

Suddenly he heard the door open. As he put the meat back in the fridge, Savon walked in the kitchen.

"Hey kid, how are you fairing?"

"I'm okay, thanks for asking...Listen, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but is there anything else to eat besides the meat?"

"Why are you-...right, forgot you prefer not to eat meat. Sorry, but there's nothing else." Legosi stayed silent, though his face showed pure horror. Savon felt sorry for him.

"..."

"Kid, there is nothing shameful in eating meat. It's who you are." "But this is flesh of a sentient being, how can I eat it!?"

"...How long have you denied your instincts, Legosi? How long have you withheld yourself from eating meat?"

"...My entire life."

"And you can say that there weren't times where you almost lost control?" "..."

"As I thought. Legosi, you won't be able to run away from your nature, not in the nearest future. You should learn the taste of meat, and get used to it of your own volition, rather than succumbing to your urges, and devouring a still alive herbivore."

"..."

Savon sighed, noticing Legosi's wavering, but still determined gaze that said 'I can and I will control myself, just watch me'.

"I'm not saying that you should start eating only meat, Legosi. I'll repeat what i said, you can't run from your nature, you're a carnivore, whether you like it or not, if you don't try the flesh of an already dead herbivore, then you most definitely will try the flesh of an alive herbivore. Either do something that you will regret for a small amount of time, or do something that not

only will you regret forever, but also something that will make you a walking corpse of a carnivore...you can choose either the bigger or the smaller evil, that's the sad truth."

"..."

"Think about it, Legosi. Think who you want to be, a murderous devouring monster, or a normal carnivore."

Savon walked out, Legosi staying silent the entire time. Deep down, the wolf knew that Savon was right. He closed his eyes and nursed the bridge of the nose, then sat down on a chair.

'Who I want to be, huh?'

Legosi opened his eyes and looked at the fridge once again. Then he stood up, opened the fridge once again, and took the piece of meat in his arms. It was a bit small, a piece of a wing probably.

'Yeah, no. I'm not eating that raw. At least i know how to fry food, although it's my first time cooking meat.'

Legosi took out a frying pan, turned the stove on, and started frying the meat. 'At least there is some oil in here, wouldn't want to burn it.'

Ten minutes later, the meat was done.

'Good thing this meat doesn't give of that much aroma, or it probably would have brought the entire compound here.'

Legosi quickly put the thing on a plate and sat at the table.

'Whoever you were, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, please forgive me.'

And then, reluctantly, Legosi bit into it. He immediately was assaulted with an amazing flavor, the juices flowing down his throat, the texture on teeth and tongue. But as he finally swallowed the piece, he started trembling.

'Oh my Rex! I'm so, so sorry whoever you were!!! How could ENJOY the taste of someone else's flesh!'

Legosi looked down, and remembered Savon's words.

'If THIS is the taste of flesh of the dead, the just how much stronger is the flavor of a living herbivore!? Savon is right, I would have lost control, and if I were to have a living herbivore as my first meal made of meat? I don't want to even think about it.'

After those thoughts, Legosi bit into the meat once again.

A few minutes later, Legosi finished his meal, washed the plate, and went to sleep. But as he layed he felt an inexplicable urge for more meat.

'Meat withdrawal?! No, that's not it, grandpa explained how it felt, what is happening to me is different...Come to think of it, is this how grandpa knew about meat withdrawals? He ate the meat of a living herbivore and experienced that on his own? At least I can control myself.'

After some tossing and turning, sleep finally claimed the wolf.

Глава

"Legosi? Is that really you?"

As Legosi was starting to wake up, he heard a very familiar voice. 'Grandpa? Am I still dreaming?'

"Wake up kid."

Slowly, Legosi opened his eyes. Everything was really bright, and Legosi was struggling to make anything out. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he was shocked.

"G-Grandpa? Is-Is that you?"

"Of course it's me Legosi, who else it would be?"

Legosi felt tears prick his eyes, and immediately tried to wipe them, but to no avail. The wolf soon gave up, and simply embraced his grandfather.

"Hey, hey kid. I missed ya too y'know? Why didn't even call me?"

"There...There are so many reasons grandpa, b-but they're all so stupid that I actually can't believe I ignored you! I'm-I'm so sorry!"

Legosi finally stopped crying, released Gosha from his embrace and looked at his face, then smiled, his face full of happiness, relief and nostalgia. Gosha gave a hearty laugh.

"C'mon kid, you're what 17 years old already? What's with the waterworks?" Legosi started laughing, and Gosha joined him.

"You can't imagine how happy I am to see you, grandpa." "Right back atcha kid!"

But then, the smile slipped from Gosha's face, making Legosi's one disappear in turn. "What's wrong grandpa?"

"Kid, how did you even end up here?" "Didn't Savon tell you?"

"Why do you think he has to do anything with this?" "One, I can smell SAVON right outside the door." Savon cringed.

"Two, I don't think you would have known that I'm here, unless SAVON told you."

Savon cringed again, raising eyebrows of concern from Caesar, and the other komodo dragon

- Rutou. Gosha snorted.

"Can't hide anything from ya, hmm?" "You know it, grandpa."

"Fine, fine, but I want you to confirm what he had told me. You and a group of your friends stumbled upon the entrance to the Black Market?"

Legosi nodded.

"Then, you had a falling out with them, 'cause of the whole 'eating meat' thing, and split up?" Another nod.

"And finally, you stumbled upon the Dokugumi territory, while trying to find an exit out of the Black Market?"

A third and final nod. Gosha nursed the bridge of nose.

"Seriously Legosi, why do you always find adventures, where you shouldn't?"

"Me? Finding adventures? I think it's quite the contrary, Grandpa. I'm trying to live a peaceful life, and adventures find me."

After a few seconds of silence Gosha burst into laughter, making Legosi chuckle too. Afterwards, Legosi looked at the door.

"You three can come in, you know? We're done discussing anything private, at least right here."

Savon, Caesar and Rutou walked in. "Good morning, kid."

"Morning Savon, morning Caesar and, uhm-" "Name's Rutou, kid."

"Rutou, yeah, good morning."

"So, Legosi, seeing that the meat in the fridge disappeared, am I to assume that you followed my advice, and ate it?"

Gosha's eyes went comically wide, as he looked between Savon and Legosi, who suddenly adopted a sheepish and a 'this is the worst timing ever' face. Suddenly Gosha exploded.

"WHAT!? LEGOSI DID YOU-"

"Yes, Grandpa, please calm down, and don't get mad at Savon, please."

Savon, dismissed Rutou and Caesar, while Gosha took some deep breaths and gave a menacing look at the both of them.

"Alright, I'm calm. But you better explain yourselves you two!"

And so, the two explained their interaction in the apartment. As they explained, Gosha's face jumped between neutrality, anger, contemplation and agreement. At the end of the story, he once again took a deep breath.

"Alright, fine. I'll admit, Savon does have a point. However, I'm still mad." Gosha sighed.

"How are you feeling Legosi? No symptoms?"

"None, grandpa. I did have some craving for meat when I was trying to fall asleep, which took me about an hour, but that's it, at least for now. I guess the meat of an already dead herbivore, doesn't have quite the same effect as that of a living one."

"Good, good. I'll leave it, for now, but don't hesitate to call me, if you feel something's wrong."

"Okay grandpa, I will." Gosha hesitated a bit.

"Now, how about we go to some cafe, and catch, Legosi?" "Sure, sounds good."

Then he looked at Savon.

"What about you Savon? If you have any casual clothes, you can come with us." Savon's had a surprised look on his face. He thought about it a little bit, then answered.

"Sure, why not? I'd like to know what our former boss, and his grandkid are doing nowadays."

"Good, good. Then you better go change-"

A sudden cough from Legosi interrupted them. Both of the komodo dragons looked at the boy with questioning look.

"What is it, kid/Ya need something, Legosi?"

Savon and Gosha looked at each before snorting and tracing their gazes back to Legosi. "Uhm, after we do the whole 'catching up' thing, are we going back to the compound?"

Savon adopted a slightly surprised look on his face, but nodded. "Good, 'cause my clothes are still drying."

As the two reptiles processed his words, Legosi looked at them with worry. Then, he startles when both of them start laughing, as if they heard the funniest joke on Earth.

"Are you...okay? Grandpa? Savon?" The duo in question quickly calm down.

"Mhm, sorry kid, it's just that your question was pretty much, out of blue."

"Yeah, Legosi you just surprised us a little. But it's nice to see, that you're still very responsible."

"Hmm, now that i think about it, you really are in an entirely another set of clothes, aren't you? I didn't notice it last night."

Legosi nodded. Savon took that as his cue to go change, and walked out of the room, leaving the two family members alone.

After a few minutes Savon walked in, the mask devoid from his face, his whole attire looking more or less similar, but still different enough to be considered casual. Gosha nodded.

"Good, now let's go."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

After 30 minutes of walking, Gosha brought them to a small, retro-styled cafe named 'Route 66 Diner'.

"Well, here we are. This is a very cozy place, and i'm a regular. You still love french fries, don'tcha, Legosi?"

Legosi's face turned a bit red. "Yeah."

"What about you Savon? Still prefer that orange soda of yours, right?" Savon looked even worse than Legosi.

"Y-Yeah."

"Good, good. 'Cause they've got both of those!" Both of them perked up at those words. "Really!? Thank you, grandpa!'

"...Thanks, Gosha." Gosha simply laughed.

"No need to thank me, you two! I'm more than happy to oblige."

After they walked in and sat down at a table, a waiter brought the menus, and took their orders. Then, as the waiter left, the trio engaged in a conversation. Gosha spoke first.

"So, Legosi, how are you doing in school? How's Jack, and have you made any friends besides him?"

"I'm pretty good actually, struggling in History a bit though, but only because our teacher makes it so boring, and I can't study it on my own since I can't get the book with the whole thing. My favourite's actually Biology, we learn so much about how our organisms work, and about bugs!"

Savon adopted a curious look on his face. "Bugs? What about them?"

Gosha gave off a slight chuckle.

"Legosi here likes bugs, even got a horned beetle for a pet. how the thing's doing, anyway?"

"Great, actually. Although, he is getting old already. Anyway, back to your questions. Jack's okay, and I'm actually friends with some other dogs, they're all roommates of mine and Jack's, oh also, a few friends in the drama club, I'm a member of it, by the way, though I'm just stage crew.

Gosha smiled at that.

"Really? That's nice. But what's the stage crew mean?"

"I work on lights, decoration, stuff like that, grandpa. I like to work with my hands. Oh, i also haul around things quite a lot, and fix the electricity sometimes. Kinda like you work as a builder, but on a smaller scale."

"Good job, Legosi, but are sure about the 'electricity' part? That's dangerous."

"Don't worry, I am very careful."

"Good, so all in all everything seems great at school."

"Yeah..."

The sudden silence made Savon and Gosha worried.

"What's wrong, Legosi? Has something bad happened at school?" Legosi immediately adopted a panicked look for a few seconds. "No, no, don't worry grandpa, everything's-"

Savon immediately interrupted him.

"Not fine. Kid, I know a lie when I see one. Spill it."

Legosi hesitated, but seeing the sharp gazes of both of the reptiles, he sighed and gave in. "Well, first, there was a devouring."

This startled both Gosha and Savon.

'A devouring at school!? Just what the hell happened there!?'

Legosi took their silence as the permission to continue.

"The problem is, the student was from the drama club, an alpaca named Tem, so the most of suspicion falls on the carnivores from it, me included."

Suddenly, Legosi stopped talking, looking as if he wasn't sure if he could continue. Savon decided to help him a little.

"You can continue kid, we're not going to judge."

Gosha joined in, just as the waiter brought them their orders. "Yeah Legosi, don't worry, everything's fine."

"...Okay. So, the leader of our club, Louis, he's a red deer by the way, asked me to with him and another member of the club at night to practice the play, 'Adler', it's called. Not going to explain what it's about, sorry. Anyway, while I was on guard, I smelt a herbivore, a female dwarf rabbit. You can maybe guess, what almost happened."

Gosha's eyes widened with horror and worry, while Savon simply looked surprised. "Is she okay Legosi?"

"Yeah, she doesn't even know who it was. I'm not sure i want to tell her, and the fact that she tried to get into my pants doesn't help at all."

Legosi said the last part quietly, not quiet enough though, judging by the shocked looks on the two's faces.

'Oh boy, I should not have said that.'

Gosha simply looked at Legosi as if he's grown a second head, before taking a deep breath.