Beastars: A Symphony of Life

Chapter 114: History

“What’s this?” he asked, leaning over one of the pieces laid out on the motel’s bed spread.
“That right there is why you're going to pay me five times the normal price of a firearm,” the moose said.
Louis felt the weight in the palm of his hand. The small firearm was a bit smaller than his own personal nine millimeter, but it felt heavier. More robust, and nicer to grip, that was for sure. The small revolver was lacking a hammer and had five chambers instead of six. The metal was a dark, dull gray. The grip was covered in a hard, black polymer. He flipped it over and noticed a strip of the metal that had been filed away. He looked at it closely under the lamp light.
“Serial number’s been filed off,” he observed. And in a much cleaner way than he had removed the number from his own weapon. He held the gun in his hand again and aimed down the barrel, checking the sight lines.
“You know mister I’ve been providing my services for the past thirty odd years,” the moose started. “Think in that time I’d learn better than to ask a man his business Especially not one referred to me by the lawyer. But I still feel the urge to ask you, are we strictly talking defense here?”
“Yes,” Louis said, slipping the gun into a holster and strapping it under his arm. “Why?”
“Cause,” the larger, antlered animal answered. “If it’s strictly for protection, aside from a bucket of money, you’d save yourself a potential felony-two spot for carrying a weapon with a defaced serial number if you just bought it legally.”
“But, if you did have to use it?” Louis asked hypothetically. “Wouldn’t it still be better to use one that couldn’t be traced?”
“This ain’t some retreat jurisdiction boss,” the gun seller said. “If someone steps to you intent on doing bodily harm you have every right to plant your feet and shoot to kill. Some call it a moral right and I do include myself in that group. All this to say, I’m happy to take your money.”
Louis reached to the holster and pulled the gun as quickly as he could, aiming, but not dry firing the mechanism. The mirror reflected straight back down the gun barrel and he could see into the weapon.
“But if you’re not a convicted felon,” the moose continued. “You might best be advised to bear your arms within the compounds of the law.”
“Defense,” he said. “If anyone asks-”
“No one asks,” the moose cut him off. “Just to clear my own conscience, if you get my meaning.”
“It’s for defense,” Louis repeated. He kept the gun in the holster under his arm and slipped his coat over it to conceal. He looked over the other choices one last time, picking up another.
“It’s going to be twice the price if you take another,” the moose told him. “I only take upfront payment at the moment of transaction.”
Louis felt the familiar shape of the metal in his hand. This nine millimeter was different from the one he had left with the Shishigumi, or who was left of them. This one was silver metal with a brown shedua grip on the handle. The slide was a duller silver, but still shiny. The familiarity clashed with the new look, and he liked it. It was the same size as his old one, and fit in his old holster on his back hip as well.
“I planned to walk out of here with two firearms,” he told the salesman. “I should have told you before.”
“Fine by me,” the moose shrugged. “All I ask is that you pay.”
Louis pulled out the pre-counted cash and handed it to the moose who counted it twice. He looked up at Louis and nodded.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” he said.
Louis returned the nod before leaving the room, two new guns hidden on his person as he walked back to his apartment.
~~~~~
“How’s she fairing?” he asked Yuta as he walked in.
The old sheep looked up from reading the newspaper on the couch.
“She hasn’t left the room since we arrived last night,” he answered solemnly. “I haven’t even heard a single peep or stir.”
Louis took out the two guns and laid them on the countertop next to each other, the silver nine millimeter tarnished and smeared by his fingerprints. He pulled off his coat and hung it on the hook back by the door. He slipped the holster harness off from his shoulders and put the small revolver back in it, snapping a strap across the back of the metal-plastic grip, keeping it in place.
“Yuta,” he said, catching his butler's attention again. “We’ll need some ammunition for these. I think we’ll be fine here.”
“Of course sir,” the sheep said, putting the newspaper down and standing to leave. “I’ll add it to my list of errands.”
He picked up his coat from the back of a chair and moved towards his boss. He spoke quietly as he put it on, hiding his words.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
Louis shifted his weight, picking up his prosthetic and setting it down with a small tap.
“Fair point,” the sheep nodded. “You have service now, right?”
The deer nodded.
“If there’s an emergency, give me a ring,” he said before leaving the apartment.
When the door closed, Louis sat for a second in the silence. He breathed calmly before stepping up to the bathroom door and leaning on the outer door frame. He hesitated for a moment before knocking on the door.
“Juno?” he called. “You doing alright?”
He waited respectfully for a minute or two before knocking again.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
“Mhmm,” he heard through the door.
He reached to the handle and carefully twisted the metal. He waited another second before pushing the door in. Juno was on the floor, curled in a ball in the corner and looking up to the vent. Her eyes were fixated on the metal grate as if waiting for it to come loose and someone else to fall through. She flashed a look to Louis before shooting her eyes back up to vent.
“Don’t worry,” she muttered. “Carnivore flesh doesn’t have as much of a kick as herbivore flesh. The hunger dies away much faster.”
Louis stood on his own side of the room, opposite Juno and looked up to the vent.
“It’s one of those fan vents that goes straight outside,” he said. “The largest species who could fit through the tubing is a raccoon.”
Juno didn’t say anything.
Louis knew his words weren’t helpful, but he still felt the need to say them. They might have helped. He knelt down to her level and sat across the floor from her. She had showered, cleaning off the blood and having changed into another set of clothes brought in from her apartment. Her luggage was opened and sitting on the closed toilet seat. She hadn’t left the room since last night, but she hadn’t slept either. Her eyes were weighed down by bags and she was doing her best to keep her eyes fixed on the metal in the ceiling. She needed sleep. More than anything, she needed to rest.
He stood again and grabbed his new weapon from the counter. Yes it didn’t have ammunition, but it was the thought that counted. And she didn’t need to know that it was unloaded. He walked in and sat down next to her this time, removing his tie and loosening his collar with his free hand, gun in the other as he joined to watch the vent. After a few minutes, Juno slowly gave way to her sleeplessness. Her eyes shut and her head rolled to the side, landing on Louis’ shoulder. He didn’t move. Just kept staring at the vent and listening through the apartment and outside in the hallway. It didn’t seem like a professional hitman or assassin to kill during the day, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He gripped the empty pistol in his hand and squeezed until his palm started sweating.
Minutes turned to hours. The day waned on and on and his stomach growled. He hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast, which had been early in the morning in order for him to catch the meetup at the motel. It was just past lunchtime now, so the light was streaming in through his wall of windows in this apartment, casting a golden glow on the dark and black space. He could almost feel the warmth radiate from the room outside, but he didn’t relax. He couldn’t. His brain was running on autopilot and humming with the one code of ‘protect’. Why had Juno received one of Shoon’s infernal invitations? He knew why he had received one, but Juno? He didn’t like it. Razor never invited people he didn’t know unless it was for leverage against someone else, but he also knew Louis would want to keep an eye on her until this all cleared over. He was teasing him. But this also begged the question, who else had received one of the invites? He knew the police chief had, but there was no one else he could think of that had been deeply involved with this case. It was him and the police. That was all he could think of.
Juno stirred from her sleep and opened her eyes groggily, looking up at him.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Around two,” he answered, turning his head to look down on her.
Juno flashed a glance at the vent again, confirming that nothing had changed in the hours she had been asleep. Seeing that, she loosened up a little.
“You said carnivore flesh doesn’t have as much of a kick as herbivore flesh,” he started. “That the hunger dies away much faster. How would you know?”
Juno shifted uncomfortably, leaning away from him and sitting upright again, wrapping her arms across her chest and tucking her knees up and in as well.
“Oh,” Louis said, reading her face. “Sorry. That wasn’t my place.”
Juno sniffed and wiped her nose.
“My last boyfriend,” she started. “What I said-”
“You don’t have to tell me,” he interrupted.
“No,” the wolf corrected. “I have to tell someone. What I told you before about my previous relationships was true. To a degree. The long distance thing was made up. I joined the acting troupe after…I lost control.”
Louis had as little reaction as he could. That still didn’t answer the question of what had happened. Juno must have sensed his unease.
“It was a night of fun that went too far,” she clarified. “Next thing I knew I was…”
She couldn’t get out the words, but Louis got the jist.
“So that’s why you joined the troupe?” he asked. “On the run?”
Juno nodded, keeping together surprisingly well.
“Does the rest of the troupe-?”
She nodded.
“Every one of my coworkers isn’t exactly goody-goody with the law,” she mentioned. “That's all I’ll say on the subject.”
Louis respected her privacy. Everyone was a criminal one way or another. No one was perfect. It was shocking and made his head ring, but then again, he had let another carnivore eat his leg off him.
“So,” she spoke up, changing the topic. “That invitation. What’s his plan?”
“He’s goading me,” the deer answered. “If you go, you’ll be in danger, surrounded by his men and easy to use as leverage against me. If you don’t go, and I do, then you’ll be out here and open for attack. If we both don’t go then I bet he’ll be gone after the wedding.”
“After last night, you really don’t think I can handle myself?” Juno asked.
“I know you can,” he answered. “I’d just feel better if you had some form of self defense that wasn’t just you.”
The deer stood and moved back into the apartment. He picked up the revolver in the harness and turned back to see Juno had stood and was standing in the bathroom doorway.
“Is that for me?” she asked.
~~~~~
She aimed the pistol down the gun range and pulled the trigger. The shot rang through the empty air of the indoor gun range. The bullet hit the paper, but not the target.
“Okay I only used a gun once and it was from close range,” she confessed. “Aiming isn’t my strong suit apparently.”
“Well for starters,” Louis began. “The targets of this gun, being for personal defense, shouldn’t be more than a few feet away. So the target is not going to be as far away as it is now. You’re not really supposed to shoot with one arm, but I disagree. For me anyway, it keeps my other hand free for other purposes.”
“So how do you do it?” she asked.
“Watch me,” he said, picking up his own 9mm. He aimed the barrel down the range, shoulder locking into its socket, elbow snapping straight and his wrist tensed to hold the shiny gun as steady as possible. He then pulled the trigger at the exact same time as he relaxed everything else in his body, allowing the recoil and shock to be absorbed and not cause any damage to the joints in his locked arm. The bullet pierced through the air and struck the silhouette target in the shoulder.
“Good shot,” Juno complimented.
“I was aiming for the heart,” he countered. He was out of touch with his shooting abilities. He hadn’t been out as Adler as much as before, so his skill was off. That and despite the familiarity, it was still a completely new weapon.
“Did you at least see my stance?” he asked.
Juno picked up her own weapon, aimed, and fired a shot that hit the neck of the shadow.
“That was quick,” Louis noted. “How the-?”
“I developed a photographic memory,” she answered. “Helps with line memorization and blocking movements on the stage. So, I did good?”
“Yeah,” Louis nodded. “Well, a few kinks to iron out, but yeah.”
“Show me,” she requested.
Louis stepped up and placed his hand over hers. Their bodies pressed up against each other as the deer corrected the wolf’s stance. There was a brief moment when Juno looked back, up into Louis' eyes, a mutual feeling sweeping between them. Louis was the one who shook it away first. Not yet. He focused again on adjusting Juno’s stance. 
She hit the bullseye this time. A shot through the heart.