Melon

	"Mature Content"
	This character or verse has mature themes and concepts, thus those of young age are ill-advised to look through these.

“	It's strange, isn't it? Carnivores and herbivores should get along, yet their children are treated like freaks	„
	~ Melon venting to Legoshi.

“	You all love meat don't you?! That's why you're even here in the black alley market, isn't it?! What kind of animals would we be without our instinctive love for it?! So awaken it! Awaken that love now, here in the black alley market!!	„
	~ Melon's black alley market speech

Background

Melon is the primary antagonist of the Revenge of the Love Failure arc in Beastars. He is first introduced as a faux elephant therapist, killing them and using their tusks for ivory to make quick money. He was born to a female leopard and male gazelle couple. Melon's hybrid attributes were visible very early in childhood. Melon asked his mother why he was given that name, and he learned that she supposedly ate his father and had thoughts about eating him too. As revenge, he killed her by smashing an iron against her head.

Melon is first seen as a fake herbivore therapist, wearing a cough mask to hide his hybrid identity while squinting his eyes to hide his feline irises. He comforts a confused and troubled elephant who lacks support in his life. After receiving Melon's support, he feels closer to him. Unknown to the patient, a number of skulls are hidden underneath the floorboards. Melon further pushes his fake therapist identity by pretending to care for elephant patients by providing elephant-sized objects, including a teacup and needle in which Melon prepares to use before being hauled by Yahya.

Unfortunately, his patient puts himself first, encouraging Yahya to stop in which Melon takes the opportunity to hug him before stabbing him with the needle. Enraged, Yahya shoots Melon with a tranquilizer dart but fails to neutralize him as the needle was intended for pure herbivores. Before escaping, he removes his mask revealing his hybrid identity, warning Yahya of his presence before leaping out of the window.

Yahya has all official search teams to look for Melon. Unfortunately, the three crews are unable to find him due to his hybrid background such as a unique scent, perfect blending in gazelle crowds, etc. Frustrated, he disconnects from the team before glancing at his wounded leg and later at Legoshi's teeth. Remembering his strong characteristics and bloodline, he heads out and finds Legoshi while working. To convince him to work, he offers to remove his criminal record.

Later that day, Yahya and Legoshi meet outside a VIP club famously known by high-class animals for the Mask Party. The duo uses the dress code to their advantage by blending in the crowd to find Melon. The two blend their blood together to get a response from him, then Yahya peeks into his mask to confirm his identity before cuffing him to his table.

He's left alone with Legoshi and starts sweet-talking to him by using his hybrid identity to make him sympathetic. Legoshi, unfortunately, falls for his manipulation tactics due to his experience with his mother. Burning with curiosity, he releases him and takes a walk with him outside on the sidewalk. Melon talks about hybrids yet again, furthermore adding the notion that he and most other hybrids are freaks of nature. Legoshi wants to know him more and better but Melon insists on having fun or hearing a good joke, after Legoshi looks away he quickly withdraws his gun after taking it back from Legoshi's pocket and shoots him in the abdomen.

Legoshi is hospitalized while Louis finds himself reuniting with the Shishigumi. He is brought over to the hideout before being hidden by Free. Their new boss happens to be Melon. Free later explains his role in the Mafia as a purpose to fight while also bringing the diversity and positivity Louis did. Unfortunately, Melon has no respect for his henchmen. This is shown by enforcing a meat rule. Despite ruling over the Black Market, Melon forces all the lions to eat non-meat products, such as melons and only letting them have a monthly allowance of meat. Melon sits down, Mishi mentions his early return which he simply adds that the job had to end earlier than expected before shooting the "guy". He reveals his package, a delicious plate of medium-rare steak pieces. After a single bite he struggles to ingest it, he dismisses his reaction by adding cream and other flavorings on the streak to make it bearable to eat. While stuffing himself, he mutters about not knowing what he is eating.

The youngest lion, Agata, calls him out for being unethical about the Market's morals. Melon stands before kicking away his dish before mocking him for his morals, to further push it in he stabs the lion's hand, kicking his heel into the fork's end. He orders Free to bring out the stranger, threatening Agata's life for a meal. Miguel sacrifices his dignity by presenting Louis' horns, faking a story about eating a deer while praising Melon. He lets him off the hook to give him one last chance before leaving the hideout.

He orders himself a herbivore and carnivore dish before eating by himself in a food restaurant. While eating, he watches the local herbivores talk happily about the food, mentioning how tasty it is causing Melon to feel internally frustrated to point of momentary bloodlust. His frustration comes from his lack of taste from both herbivore and carnivore dishes, simply put as "everything tastes like sand." After leaving, he glares at random citizens remembering his desire to kill herbivores while also feeling internal terror from carnivores. Melon eventually stops by a tattoo parlor as a way to "contain himself." After entering, he asks one of the tattooists for a particular artist which causes the monkey to yell due to his violent treatment of customers. Melon stays silent until he confronts the artist Holger, a silent sloth.

He first asks about leaving then proceeds to threaten the sloth with a gun, laughing about his status as a serial killer. Melon begins to strip down to his boxers, revealing his melon leaf-covered body. All previously done by Holger to hide his mother's spots. Since Melon is a regular customer, Holger has his equipment ready and prepares his tools. Melon lies down and starts mumbling to himself about his hybrid identity until Holger's pen saws into his thigh causing blood to spill everywhere. Melon finds pleasure through pain as it allows him to feel intense emotions compared to his walking life. After finishing his tattoo, he causes Holger to whisper poetic lines about his fabricated emotions. This was done to trick Legoshi into going to the beach after catching his scent in the area.

He appears next to Legoshi as a figure of imagination, embracing his chest while repeating a much more detailed line from Hogler "Living like me is like living without a dick or stomach." Melon appears as Legoshi watches the beach, shooting his ear. He's accompanied by his fellow lions and has them restrict Legoshi's movement. Now face to face with his enemy, he mocks him for having empathy for him. He simply leaves and lets the Shishigumi have Legoshi for eating. Although they ended up throwing him into the ocean out of hatred, they made a deal that if Legoshi could come back from almost drowning, they promised to tell him about Melon's weakness.

The next day Legoshi returns to the Shishigumi hideout and climbs up to a window where he sees Melon threatening to shoot Agata. Legoshi tells Melon that he'll pay for the bullet scars he gave him. They both fall down to a bed of flowers and Melon runs away and Legoshi chases after him. They stop in front of a surveillance camera in the city, the scene looking like a white wolf was attacking a gazelle. With the arrival of cops, Melon uses the opportunity to get away and Legoshi is now of the run.

On the Day of Depravity, there's a turn war between the four major criminal organizations - The Shishigumu, Madaragumi, Dokugumi and Inarigumi. The Inarigumi leader, Ten, mocks the Shishigumi's weak scent and Melon did not deny that. To increase the lion scent, Melon used a cleaver to slit open Dolph's throat, spilling his blood all over the place. This makes the Shishigumu the winners and the spectators start cheering their name.

To avenge Dolph, the lions agree for Agata to be the one to shoot Melon. While facing each other, Melon begins to make Agata sweaty and nervous. Dolph appears behind the door having survived the ordeal and offers Melon to make up and rebuild the Shishigumi.

In the Black Market, Legoshi tries to put his name on the list of participants for the December turf war, but the pen runs out of ink after the first letter. Legoshi and Melon then take a test based on animal society basic knowledge. Should Legoshi lose, he'd be impaled by giant spike from above and served as wolf skewer. During the test, the rope holding the spike begins to break and Melon pulls Legoshi out of harm's way just in time. Legoshi thanks him, but Melon says he wants Legoshi to die properly; during the turf war on December 25th. The night before the turf war, Melon has dreams of his mother, and wakes up to find he had grown bigger and more muscular with spots all over his body. Disgusted, he tried gouging his spots out with his claws but to no avail. After shaking hands with the leopard Madaragumi leader, he shot off his hand attempting to use its claws to get rid of his spots. He and the others see Legoshi on a nearby rooftop holding a torch soaked in unrecognizable blood that only Melon managed to identify as a mixture of the blood of a wolf and a deer.

After Legoshi's fight with the Inarigumi leader, Ten, Melon tries to sneak behind her but Legoshi hits him in the face, and they both prepare to battle each other. During their fight, Melon received deep scratches over his pecs and shoulders. Melon pulled out his gun and shot himself thought the torso, but did not die and says it takes two bullets to kill a hybrid. When Yahya, Gosha and Louis arrive at the scene, Melon shoots himself again and is lying in a pool of his own blood. Yahya gets Melon on his shoulders to carry him to the hospital. On the way, Melon regains consciousness and fiercely bites Yahya on the neck, and they both fall on the ground. Two months later, Melon is in prison and is reading a big pile of fan mail.

Statistics

Tier: 9-A, Higher by eating meat

Name: Melon (originally Meron before author change)

Origin: Beastars

Sex: Male

Age: 24

Classification: Half-breed, Half-leopard, half-gazelle, Leader of the shishigumi

Status: Alive

Alignment: Neutral Evil as a child (At the age of merely 9 years old, Melon ruthlessly threw off kids that were bullying him off the school roof and later on even killed his own abusive mother by bashing her head in with an iron before calling the police and lying that someone had broke into their house and killed her.) became Chaotic Evil (Melon is a sociopathic, ruthless, deranged and cunning individual who due to his half-breed has a lack of desire for food and sex and thus the only way he can feel alive is by harming others or feeling pain.

Dimensionality: 3-D

Attack Potency: Room level (Melon could fight on part with Legoshi and eventually even made him run away due to his strength, Legoshi embeded a hyena in a wall fairly early on in his training and has since grown stronger), Higher by eating meat (Meat eating allowed Legoshi to match Riz in combat while the latter was stomping him beforehand)

Durability: Room level, Higher by eating meat

Striking Strength: Room Class, Higher by eating meat

Lifting Strength: Class 5 (As an half-breed, Melon is comparable to carnivores who can accidentally rip off arms which would require this kind of strength), higher by eating meat

Travel Speed: Superhuman+ (Scales to Legoshi who moved this fast)

Combat Speed: Superhuman+

Reaction Speed: Superhuman+

Stamina: Superhuman (Melon is a masochist who can endure massive blood lsot for half a day and walk it off just fine)

Range: Standard Melee, Hundreds of meters with a handgun

Intelligence: Gifted (Melon is a manipulative sociopath who easily tricked many elephants into thinking he was a therapist so that he could later on kill them for their tusk. He is also intelligent enough to become a part-time history teacher at university with a student even noting he heard he had a really good academic background. He easily planned a trap for Legoshi by using his sloth tattooist's slow reaction time along with being able fight on part with the Legoshi)

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Powers and Abilities

Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Natural Weaponry and Penetration Damage (With his fangs and horns), Stealth Mastery (Melon could steal his gun back from within Legoshi's pocket without him noticing), Weapon Usage (Melon has used guns and a cleaver), Social Influencing (Melon tricked many elephants into thinking he was a therapist he could manipulate them so well that one refused to listen to Yahya despite the latter telling him Melon would kill him), H2H Combat Experience (Melon could fight on part with Legoshi), Enhanced Senses, Instinctive Reaction (As a half-breed Melon can can operate his fighting abilities on pure instinct), Accelerated Development (Combat; as a half-breed Melon has a combat-oriented body trait so the more he fights the more his body develops), Statistics Amplification (By eating meat Melon grows stronger), Restoration and Limited Hair Manipulation (By eating bugs and likely meat, Melon can regain his fur and vitality), Pain Tolerance and Sheer Will (Melon regulary goes to Holger for new melon leaf tattos which cause sever blood lost that he's able to simply walk it off), Minor Resistance to Fragrance Manipulation (Due to having eaten meat Melon cannot be driven wild by the scent of herbivore blood) and Sleep Manipulation (Less than two sleeping darts are ineffective against carnivores)

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Standard Equipment

S&W 4005 pistol: A S&W 4005 pistol that Melon always seems to be carrying on his person, was used to shoot Legoshi in the stomach once he stole it from him after Yahya took it away from him and gave it to Legoshi to keep it safe and it was later on used on the latter once more to shoot part of his left ear off.

Optional Equipment

Cleaver: A cleaver that was likely stolen from the black market, He cut Dolph's neck using it.

Giant Syringe: A giant syringe filled with what is assumed to be some sort of sleep inducing drug. It's sharp enough to penetrate elephant skin and was even used by Melon to seriously injure one.

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Notable Techniques

Hybrid physiology: Due to his hybrid heritage, Melon has numerous abilities inculding

• Heightened Senses: As a Half-leopard and half-gazelle, Melon has highly developed senses, including night vision, smell and hearing.

• Combat-Oriented Body: As a half large carnivore, Melon's body is naturally combat-oriented allowing it to develop the more he fights.

• Fighting instinct: As a half large carnivore, Melon can operate his fighting abilities on pure instinct, allowing him to instinctively assess his opponent’s vital statistics even if he has no intention to fight

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Other

Standard Tactics: Melon usually prefer getting things done quickly, usually simply shooting down his opponent however for people he is more personal with such as Legoshi he opted for hand to hand combat.

Weaknesses: Melon is a sociopath and a masochist along with hating his leopard heritage so much he'd rather gouge out his own leopard spots

Gallery

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  Melon eating cake

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  Melon's melon lead tattos

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  Melon's face covered by leopard spots

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Discussions (Link For Mobile Users):

Discussion threads involving Melon