Chapter 11 (Beast Complex)

**The Eagle and the Gerbil** (オオワシとスナネズミ, *Ōwashi to sunanezumi*?) is the eleventh chapter of *Beast Complex*.

## Synopsis

The news report that there have been frequent thunderstorms lately with all the big cats wiping their faces in reaction. At the same time, a Steller's sea eagle Raika and a gerbil Fina are flying over the sky. Fina comments that according to the news the bad weather isn't ending any time soon and Raika responds that he cannot fly during storms as he hates thunder. Raika's job is to carry Fina to and from work and he will make full use of his incredible wings he was born with for Fina to feed him while enjoying the life of the world's smartest Steller's sea eagle. Getting to live this worry-free makes every day seem nice for Raika. At that moment, Fina gives him the shocking news that she is getting married, leaving Raika in shock. He claims that he really hates lightning and it is humiliating to be scared of those long, scrawny lights. The Steller's sea eagle is a proud creature with vast wings.

Later in Beast Apartments, Raika begs Fina not to get married since if she does, he will not have a way to survive. Fina tells him to go get a job like a normal person. Raika insists on dissuading Fina from marrying and declares that he will transport her during the storms for her to continue to feeding him.

The next day, Raika, determined to protect his freeloader lifestyle at all costs, fights off lightning, thunder and any other natural disasters to do so. He begins his training to overcome lightning, but fails miserably, taking flight and falling to the ground as lightning strikes over and over again, while Fina watches him and wonders how far Raika is willing to go to avoid working. After a while, Raika gives up and Fina tells him to go home. Defeated Raika asks Fina if her fiancé will do all the things he does for her, while he practiced flying gently every day so as not to shake her. When she got a promotion at her job, he gave her an acrobatic flight to celebrate and asks if her fiancé can do that. Fina tells him that he has been trying to convince her for days and asks him to stop. While they fly back to Beast Apartments, it starts to rain and Fina comments that maybe a storm will start. Raika takes this as an opportunity to stop the marriage and goes into the storm clouds, ignoring Fina's complaints, determined to save his life as a freeloader. Fina tells him that her life is in danger and Raika claims that he would rather they fell than her getting married.

While begging Fina not to marry, Raika waits for lightning to strike at any moment and is scared of both her marriage and lightning and wonders why he is so scared. Suddenly a lightning bolt falls in front of Raika making him remember the moment when he hatched and how he did not want to go out to the outside world, wanting to stay in the egg always safe and sound. Raika reflects on his life and realizes that he has been lazy since he was born and Fina is relieved that the rain has stopped. Raika sees the glowing sky and claims that it is beautiful, claiming he shouldn't have been so afraid. Fina asks what happens to him and Raika tiredly declares that he does not know, but he feels like he is a chick again. Upon arriving at Beast Apartments, Raika asks Fina to be honest and asks her if she really thinks he has what it takes to make it on his own. Fina cheerfully replies yes, and Raika claims that the views are never going to be the same without her. When it's time to leave the nest.