Animal Kingdom, Land of the Cats.
A loud scream echoed throughout a building.
The workers inside jumped in surprise and looked over to the corner room, which had its door tightly closed. Their cat whiskers twitched in curiosity.
At that moment, a person left that room. He was a short, curly-haired young cat boy, and he looked heartbroken as if he had lost something valuable.
"Young Lynx, is something wrong?"
An elderly cat asked.
"N-nothing, I-I must return home…"
Lynx avoided their eyes and left the branch location of Infinite Dojo.
To him, the color of the sun, the bright-colored streets, and the beautiful blue sky looked way grayer than what they used to be.
Small tears dropped from his eyes.
'How could I lose to a human? Such embarrassment. If anyone finds out… no, how could they know? Those matches are private, after all!'
In that moment, he came across a storefront. A crowd of cat people, just like him, was surrounding the window, watching a lion humanoid doing a news report.
Lynx curiously made his way through the crowd, pushed himself through the sea of fur and tails, and finally reached the front to see what all the commotion was about.
"The tension between us and humans has increased once again. Just yesterday, Beast Lords of our Animal Kingdom negotiated with the human leaders, but by the sounds of it, the meeting ended in disaster.
"A battle ensued, and the prior decided meeting place was left in ruins, with both sides blaming each other for the violence.
"The tension between the two worlds has never been higher. It seems like war may be inevitable."
Lynx gulped, and all around him, the cat people talked with disgust.
"These filthy humans have it coming. They've been nothing but disrespectful towards our culture and our religion!"
"Yeah, they want us to be just like them! How disgusting—we're a superior, stronger race—we wouldn't possibly lose to disgusting humans. They should be like us, not the other way around!"
Lynx's face paled when he heard the heated conversation around him.
'If they find out about me losing to a human, especially now during these tense times, I'll be in deep trouble!'
Kiernan let out a yawn, covered his mouth, and felt his eyes water up.
'I've been yawning quite a bit lately. I think I've slept well, but I still feel tired for some odd reason.'
He thought, and then he made his way up the dormitory's stairs and reached the floor where everyone's rooms were located, but he came across a strange scene.
All the doors were open, ripped-apart blankets, pillows, and clothing were strewn across the hallway floor, and it was clear that someone had broken in.
The students were looking around the mess, trying to clean it all up, but it was clear that they were all very annoyed.
"What happened here?"
Kiernan caught one of the students by the arm and asked.
"Ah, it's you, Kiernan! We think it was those Montclair High students! They came here and robbed everyone!"
A red-eyed student said angrily. It was clear he had cried. They had stolen his beloved guitar that he had worked so hard to save up for.
Kiernan went to his room and came across an eye-rolling scene.
The whole room was a mess, and the punching bag was cut open. It looked like someone used a knife to cut it open, and its contents were scattered everywhere.
Luckily he didn't keep his personal belongings in his room. He kept everything in his inventory because it was the safest place he could ask for.
Kiernan muttered under his breath as he surveyed the damage.
Julian walked from his room with Jonathan, Dominic, and a few other male students in tow. They all looked pissed off as if they were about to explode in anger.
A few of them were carrying baseball bats as if they were about to do something drastic.
"What're you guys planning to do?"
Kiernan asked and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"We're going to Montclair High's dormitory and bash their heads in! They can't get away with this. They stole all of our belongings!"
Julian shouted angrily.
The commotion caused other students to look over as well. They were equally pissed and wanted to join them in heading over to Montclair High's dormitory.
"Sigh… that's not a good idea."
Kiernan said, massaging his temples with a headache building up inside his head.
"What else should we do?! Let them get away with this?!"
Jonathan asked angrily.
"That's what they want you to do. If you go there with baseball bats to cause trouble, all of you will be expelled, and there is nothing Azer can do to stop that."
"We'll go only to retrieve our stolen items. We won't fight if they won't!"
A male student shouted from the back.
"Let's just talk to my father first. Let's inform him what they did, and he'll talk with Montclair High's principal to get the items back!"
Julia suggested with a worried look. If this escalated further, it could result in serious consequences for everyone involved.
"No. Only because they're not keeping their stolen items in the dormitory."
"Huh? What're you talking about, Kiernan?"
"They want us to go to their dormitory in anger. If we start the fight, we'll get expelled. Even if we tell Azer about them stealing our personal belongings, they can just feign ignorance.
"They will search the dormitory and find nothing, and then we will look like fools. If I have to guess, I am a hundred percent certain that they're keeping our stuff somewhere else where it won't be found."
Kiernan's words silenced everyone.
To them, it made perfect sense, and when they thought about it, they realized how treacherous their situation truly was.
Montclair High students were clearly wanting for them to get expelled so they couldn't participate in the nationals!
'They know Julian is very emotional and acts on his emotions. They might think I am as well since I went there to help Julian.
'If they get two of us expelled, Karuza High will be doomed in the nationals.'
Kiernan thought to himself.
"Then what should we do?"
Julian asked with a heavy expression.