Peak Omnivore 1 (Patreon)

Peak Omnivore - or ‘Sometimes being Apex doesn’t mean being Alpha in a world where Carnivores are ‘kings’’ (Beastars, Human!SI)

Mankind has been experiencing years and years of evolution before getting to modernity.

It was no novelty, nothing that was worthy of some surprise as it was something many were well-aware of. But what many tend to forget, either for a lack of interest or urgency is… what would happen if humanity was not alone?

And I don’t mean aliens, I am referring to fellow Earth-brethrens. Species that would exist akin to humans, but bearing enough features and differences to stand outside of the ‘human race’ concept.

What would happen if the notion of ‘Apex Predator’ was contested by the presence of other beings that could be seen as candidates for it? The answer to such a question was, by normal means, unattainable.

After all, humanity was the only element that mattered within the normalcy of Earth.

…

I, John Bukharin, could personally say that my current predicament was driven by someone with that question. This was how I could rationalize it as I suddenly got ‘hurled’ into a world where no humans existed- only anthropomorphic animals.

Furry? No. It didn’t feel too sexual, too extreme- it was… different. Tame and yet not, reasonable and yet not. Supportive of a ‘new species’, and yet willing to show disdain at the news due to the implication of my mere existence.

My life got screwed big time.

First, the local police had me arrested, thinking I was some sort of monkey with no extra fur. A quick blood analysis and a full-scale check-up confirmed this was mostly incorrect. I mean, Humans do descend from apes, so it was quick to find some similarities but… even more differences than those.

Medics, researchers and scientists.

In less than a week, I became a celebrity as the ‘only human to ever exist’. The government got involved, journalists tagged along for the ‘wild ride’, but eventually this all boiled down to the notion that- 1) I was an oddity among their many types of denizens, being a ‘perfect omnivore’, a term coined under the idea that I was without a ‘predatorial instinct’ as all meat-lovers would have and 2) I had scientific understanding they did not.

Then again, it was less of a ‘I am a human, so I am more colonized than you all’ and more of a ‘this stuff our scientists noticed because they had a lot of free time and money to do this sort of shit’.

It wasn’t exactly nuclear physics or rocketry science- rather, it was what I had from standard Biology and Chemistry as a proper substitute to meat and how to ‘avoid’ some of the trash that circled the world.

To put it simple: carnivores were in charge, but we're getting their asses roasted harshly for what their diet was about. I mean, there weren’t exactly ‘dumb animals’ to get fresh and juicy steak from and… I realized a bit too late that I lost my chance to enjoy a good ol’ hamburger.

Tragic, but I was keen to prevent public outrage after that ‘Live Show’ accident I briefly caused by mentioning I used to eat meat a lot. I had to actually ‘take’ space to explain within that show what I meant with that and the context behind that sort of lifestyle.

Despite that, even now, some people just consider me a monster-in-disguise.

Which is… ironic right now. But I think I need to provide one last explanation before we get to my current whereabouts and livelihood.

With my knowledge, I managed to get ‘paid’ by the government for being both a ‘source of knowledge’ but also someone that can provide blood for research. There was something that made me immune to what is known in predators as ‘blood frenzy’. It was kind of what happens to vampires when they are skipping on blood-sucking duty for too long.

Vicious, mindless, and extremely adept in using most of their bodies’ strength to terrifying levels. I would dare to say that was a very unpleasant thing to keep an eye on and, best of all, to know how to counteract in case I ended up dealing with a good guy being stuck in that bad mindset.

Still, I got money, I was contracted by the government, but they didn’t want me to be some sort of propaganda tool for either side to use against one another. I offered an idea to solve this without going for anything extreme and… I landed a job.

Now, picking a new job was nothing simple- especially when I had to pick something I could really do much about so… I made my bet and asked to be made a teacher. Turns out that, despite the few bureaucratic troubles to deal with before getting hired, it wasn’t a bad idea. Especially when it allowed them to put me in a school where youths could be ‘normalized’ at the sight of yours truly.

Now, the school picked for the occasion was Cherryton Academy. The name may not sound any bell, but to me it was just… expected. Not this school in particular, but I knew no one would have allowed me to go to a public school, no matter what.

Not when they could make twice the publicity by having a human teacher in school. It sounds contradicting to set an individual you are meant to protect to a school where attacks could happen but… that’s the point- no one would have the balls to attack this school for two very simple reasons: 1) Rich people attended it and 2) security would be upped for any external threats due to my arrival.

So yeah, while that may shock the many, I was safer in getting back to school than being out of it. Who would have known…

Back to my current situation, I was hired as a chemistry teacher as the previous one had occupied both Chemistry and Biology classes. I would now take half of that work-burden while the pay would be kept the same due to the funds pumped by the government in the school due to me being there.

So yeah, no hard feelings about it. The real ‘hard’ feelings were the one I felt drawn from the only issue I had with this school as it was currently giving me a smug look while planting a simple rose in the garden club’s greenhouse.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Said the white-furred bunny that turned back to me with some of the most ‘innocent’ eyes she could muster, and tried her hardest to not show any feeling as I noticed the double-meaning of that question.

After all, the girl was a bit of a shortstack and she decided to go no-panties today. Not the first time, and always for the same stupid reason despite what many would think of this display at first glance.

The bunny girl, a student by the name of Haru, was my only ward in the gardening club which I took over as no teacher wanted to deal with it.

It wasn’t like they disliked her, but they found a ‘one-member club’ to be something that needed no teacher-related guidance. Since I was the only teacher with no club to oversee, I got stuck with the gardening club.

And the end result was a bit of a relatable story. Not enough for me to fully understand her, but I got to see Haru’s honest self a few times to know what rumors about her were right or not.

She was deemed the ‘slut’ of the school due to how ‘provoking’ with her crass language she could get. A sexual deviant, but more of an expressive individual- especially when it came to panties as I had learned to accept as an unchangeable aspect of herself.

“Haru. Again?”

“It’s just too tight, and most of them are still getting cleaned up after getting wet!” She huffed and whined, the tone once again sexually-packed if deprived of a proper context.

Haru has bullies. Three to be precise. I didn’t exactly barge in to ‘save her’ as a knight in shining armor, but I worked on learning their identities and thinking of ways to punish them.

Specifically, the ringleader was the one that really had my rights as a teacher troubled a fair bit: Mizuchi was a harlequin rabbit. An endangered species, enough that ‘combined marriages’ were a thing.

What Haru ended up doing to piss off the fellow bunny-eared lady was to indulge a request from Mizuchi’s boyfriend, also a harlequin rabbit and, hopefully not, a relative to Mizuchi herself. I am not good with this sort of stuff, so I really hoped that was not the case.

Still, the issue lingered. Mizuchi is a bit of a bitch because she had been spoiled by her parents and her status as ‘part of an endangered species’. What she didn’t expect was to be called to the headmaster’s office one day, be shown with her parents a few recordings taken by my phone while she targeted Haru and then be given quite the lecture on ‘putting herself, a member of an endangered species, in danger’ by risking her school career and antagonizing others.

It is not a matter of overwhelming the habit, it was to use it against her. And with some proper chat with the headmaster, I managed to convince him to put some weight on that topic as it would stand out poorly for the school that a known bully was let go despite the striking evidence I provided him with.

Privacy laws were quite loose in this world, which was convenient for this very plot.

End result? Mizuchi was being ‘monitored’ by someone to keep her from causing issues, and Haru was thus spared from most of the bullying. It happened at times, but Mizuchi had gotten smart enough to not test me by trying anything while I was around. After all, I was ‘the only human alive, more relevant than any endangered species’.

Plus, I was her teacher, and I could give her detention for life if she tried to cross me in any unpleasant manner. These occurrences had lessened but, as Haru had just mentioned when I brought it up, the use of buckets of water made it difficult to dry up and have clean uniforms and underwear to put on.

As I shared dinner with her out of the cafeteria, I ended up having to tag along for an extra-long trip as she went to check if her ‘previous uniform had dried up’. It was a bit of a standard process for her to keep a fresh school uniform always available in case she needed to change.

The one she wore earlier that morning had been struck with a ‘mysterious case of flying water’ and she had left it to dry in one of the unused bathrooms outside the main school’s facility.

Normally I would let her be at this point as she didn’t like having someone to play guard with her, but the situation had changed due to recent events: a herbivore had been slaughtered by a carnivore. Someone that was in school, definitely a student and they may be looking up to make this a streak rather than a one time thing.

As much as I saw Haru as a fairly independent individual, she was not prepared to face a big monster with what she had on herself. She was literally an easy prey if not guarded properly by someone like me.

The trip to get the uniform was uneventful, but the real issue came right as we were making it back to her dorm room so I could drop her there. The weather was just plain shit this time of the year, and we could barely see anything as it had gotten so misty all around.

Never a good sign, and definitely a red flag that soon led to quite the event when I heard something rushing towards us from… behind!

Haru yelped in surprise as I yanked her close, fast enough as to put her away from the potential attacker. I thought that we were dealing with a dangerous beast that would have gone out to maul us both quite viciously but… there was no action after this one, only a lot of intense staring.

And while I was looking at the individual that had tried to assault Haru, I couldn’t help but remember him from somewhere else as I heard of him. I recognized the frame, the slim figure, the lupine ears and the expressive eyes-

“...Legoshi?”

The predator froze, as if slapped out of his frenzy and… he stood there, stiff and confused.

This was just plain awkward and… what was he doing here at this late hour and… wait, he is running away! Before I could stop the wolf, the guy had just left our vicinity and gone out into the deep mist… why the hell is it so misty right now?!

I was quite shocked by the entire ordeal, with Haru looking quite shaken by the event itself.

“Y-You know him, Sensei?”

I blinked, then scratched the back of my head.

“I know his sister. And it’s time you get back to your room. Now.”

A nod, and I was given no further whining about getting escorted back to safety. All in all, a relieving end to a rather chilling encounter but… one that really left me unable to sleep properly.

Not because of the fright I had at that sudden approach but because any early idea of this one being the potential killer of the herbivore that had been slain recently was hurled to the trash bin due to a very simple detail I knew about wolves.

The diameter of a wolf’s bite was too small to match the ones found on the victim’s remaining bits. I guess I will have to ask either Legoshi or his sister about it because… something about this didn’t feel just right anyway.

—--------d-d-d-d—----------

AN

Small changes, similar happenings but… Haru got cake! Sadly, it’s not the biggest bunny cake in town.