Ibuki, a Maasai lion in his mid-thirties, possesses light golden-yellow fur, a tawny mane, and piercing slanted eyes. Tattoos marking his youth as hyperdrug trafficking material cascade across his left side—a testament to his escape from captivity at twelve and subsequent survival in the Black Market’s shadows. By eighteen, he ascended into the Shishigumi, a notorious lion gang, where he championed unity and kinship among members, countering their former boss’s tyranny with ideals of solidarity.

Renowned for sharp intellect and unwavering loyalty, Ibuki dedicated himself to elevating the gang’s stature. Following their leader’s demise, he masterminded Louis’s rise as successor—a red deer and Beastar candidate—to rebrand the Shishigumi as symbols of carnivore-herbivore cohesion. His calculated alliance with Louis gradually deepened into authentic devotion. Discreetly defying gang norms, he supplied the meat-stricken deer with nourishing salads, delicately balancing compassion with the need to uphold Louis’s commanding presence.

A shared history of trauma forged empathy between Ibuki and Louis. He shielded the deer from the gang’s brutality, intercepting gruesome acts like live castrations, while candidly recounting his own past to bridge their worlds. Despite his role as enforcer, Ibuki grappled with latent insecurities about strength and belonging, vulnerabilities soothed by Louis’s leadership, which encouraged him to embrace emotional openness.

Recognizing the futility of Louis’s peaceful exit from the Shishigumi, Ibuki staged his own demise. He provoked Free, a fellow member bound by a premeditated pact, by simulating an attack on Louis, ensuring his death would liberate the deer to aid Legoshi. This sacrifice granted the remaining lions a path to atonement.

Louis preserved two strands of Ibuki’s mane as a relic of their bond, while the lion’s legacy reshaped the gang’s ethos, intertwining loyalty, sacrifice, and the paradoxes of power within a fractured society.