Waezi2′s thoughts on “Beast Complex” chapter 11.
Today’s chapter is about fear.
And it is also uncharacteristically un-creepy compared to the 10 before it.
The main characters of today’s chapter is the the eagle Raika and his roommate Fina who is a gerbil. Raika lives in Fina’s apartment for free and she even feed him since he can fly her around. This might sound strange, but being a tiny animal is dangerous as I stated before in chapter 7. Fina can’t exactly take the bus since she is at risk of getting stomped on by accident. But even though she benefits from having Raika as her private flight, she doesn’t approve of his freeloader slacker lifestyle that the eagle very much enjoy.
But the lazy Raika’s world gets turned upside down by his tiny friend because of three words:
Yep, Fina has found herself a nice gerbil that she intend to marry.
Raika is terrified by these news since he realizes that it means he can’t keep living in Fina’s apartment for free and expect her to feed him. He humiliates himself by begging Fina not to get married, but she just gets annoyed by the slacker and tells him to get a job like a normal person.
So... Raika needs to convince his roomie to keep letting him be her roomie. He normally doesn’t fly when there are thunder clouds in the sky since he has astraphobia (he is scared of lighting), but he decides to try and overcome his fear so that he can be more useful to Fina and convince her to cancel the wedding so they can live together for the rest of their lives.
... Yeah, Raika has an odd mix of stubbornness and laziness that doesn’t seem to mix.
Despite being so scared of lighting that he crashes when flying, Raika keeps attempting to overcome his fear so he can stay a freeloader.
As he makes one last attempt to fly without crashing during a thunderstorm, Raika is filled with fear. The fear of losing his comfortable life and the fear of thunder. He starts to wonder why it is that he is not just annoyed but downright terrified of living on his own.
And then he gets a flashback...
On the day he hatched, he didn’t want to leave his egg since it was nice and comfortable. A little like how he doesn’t want to leave Fina’s apartment.
It is at that moment that Raika realizes that he is not just a freeloader. He is basically a baby.
He is not scared of losing free food and shelter. He is terrified that he won’t survive on his own.
... But Fina has encouraged him to get his own life, meaning that his friend has fait in him as an adult.
We have a nice little moment where a clearly worried Raika asks his friend if she thinks he can take care of himself. Fina smiles and says what she has always said: That he can and he should.
After all, it feels illogical for Fina to be bickering about Raika’s laziness when she benefits from him living in her apartment like a flying taxi. But she wants him to leave the nest, so be his own bird.
This chapter feels a bit weak compared to the other ten, mostly because there is not a creepy element. But that doesn’t mean it is a bad story. In fact, its a nice little slice of life tale.