Chapter 01 (Beast Complex)

The Lion and the Bat is the first chapter of Beast Complex (2016) and the first notable release of Paru Itagaki. It was released in Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shōnen Champion 2016-14.

Synopsis
A lion named Raul is the student council president of his school. He always gets good grades and is trying to get into the Savanny University. One day he is told by his teacher to convince a fruit bat named Azumo who hasn’t been to the school for the past year to come back. Raul first tries to back away from doing it, but the teacher mentions that to get to the University, he’s also going to need good reports.

Raul agrees to go and try to convince Azumo back and after asking around for Azumo’s whereabouts he comes to a rundown building. After entering he calls out for Azumo and quickly deems that he’s not in there. As he’s about to leave Azumo asks if he’s there to eat him, which scares Raul. Azumo asks why he has come, and Raul explains that the teacher asked him to come and convince him back to school. Azumo then remarks that Raul has a narrow mindset and must’ve never experienced real sadness or pain especially as he’s a lion. Raul grabs Azumo and tells him to stop annoying him and to his surprise Azumo doesn’t care. Azumo then explains that he knows Raul is really like as his parents were killed by a lion.

Back home Raul’s father/mother tells him that he’s expecting a lot of great things from him and Raul answers that he’s working hard. He then asks himself what he’s working hard for and decides to go meet Azumo again the following day.

Azumo’s confused as to why Raul returned, to which he explains that he came to apologize. He then gives Azumo his notes to help him better study.

At school Raul has had a seaspeak test and his friend remark that he’s the perfect animal to which Raul answers that he has started to realize that he’s hopeless. Raul realizes that his friend doesn’t care and later goes back to help Azumo study.

The two of them continue to meet overtime and become good friends. One night there’s a full moon and Raul talks about their first meeting and how he was scared that Azumo saw his violent nature and how his hand was trembling because of it. Azumo then says that it was probably him who was trembling as he was so scared that he almost cried. He says that he hadn’t felt like wanting to live since his parents died until that moment. As Raul tries to apologize Azumo tells him that he’s no longer a sad bat and that he’s leaving the town. He then says to Raul that he believes that he’ll become a great lion and flies away.