Chapter 161 (Beastars)

In Awe of Ignorance (「イフ」・ユー・ネバー・ノウ) is Chapter 161 of the manga Beastars written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki, published in the Weekly Shōnen Champion of the Akita Shoten publishing house.

Synopsis
After sneaking into Legoshi's bed, Kyuu points to her breasts and asks Legoshi to touch them, claiming that they are just bulges that cover her muscles, bones, and organs and, and groping, punching, or hitting them won't destroy a female's spirit. But Legoshi, finally understanding what is happening, resists, but Kyuu takes his hand and forces him to touch her breast. She states that she is not surprised that Legoshi let Melon escape, as his arrogance makes him pity herbivores and brand females as weak animals, and that is the reason why she hates the arrogance of large male carnivores more than anything. Legoshi, faced with this awkward situation, finally reacts and replies that Kyuu's breasts are "different", giving a convoluted explanation of the time he touched Haru's breasts and how different Kyuu's breasts are from hers. Kyuu asks him to see breasts as just a normal body part, but Legoshi replies that she asks too much of an 18-year-old boy. He thanks her for being serious about making him stronger, but wants her to respect the fact that she's a female and he's a male while training. In response, Kyuu caresses Legoshi's crotch with her feet and tells him that if that is his stance, he can never become truly strong, and he will be nothing more than a half-baked male wolf, unable to fight anyone seriously because of his overconfidence in his body; if he cannot change his heart, then he will have to change his body and stop being a male. With a kick, Kyuu tries to destroy Legoshi's "factory", but he manages to dodge it. Kyuu states that if she destroys that part of him, many of his other functions will cease along with it. Taking her daggers, she intends to snatch Legoshi's balls, so that (according to her) she can defeat Melon. Legoshi desperately escapes from her, dodging her cuts. She demands Legoshi be fair and merciless, because if he lets himself become a strong wolf, he will be invincible. Legoshi grabs Kyuu by the leg and finally dares to demand that Kyuu call him by his proper name, gently crashing her onto the bed. Legoshi states that in the same way that she feels antagonistic towards carnivores, he feels awe toward females. Since he merely points out that, he just wasted another chance to attack her and that she doesn't know the meaning of the word "awe". Legoshi tries to explain the meaning of the word to her in his own way.

Having an introspection about herself, she remembers her caged childhood, where she was despised by the carnivores who imprisoned her and only saw her as food, the opposite of Legoshi who sees her as someone admirable. Claiming that if a cute female rabbit can be as strong as her, Legoshi assures that a virgin wolf can be strong too. Declaring that he wishes to learn from her and stay the way he is, he asks her if a male-female teacher-student relationship will work out for them. Kyuu feels weirded out by Legoshi's words and replies that she has been called "delicious" many times, but this is the first time she was called "cute", so she asks Legoshi if he is in love with her. Legoshi tries to explain himself, but she says that's not the case, because the imaginary chimera he summoned was mixed with a rabbit. Legoshi explains that he has a special fixation toward rabbits, and asks her what species she mixed her imaginary chimera with, to which she reveals that she used a panda as a base. Legoshi wonder why Kyuu makes him feel so calm even though he just met her, why he feels like he can trust her, feeling that it's very strange. She reveals that her teacher, the one who rescued her from the livestock shop and taught her everything she needed to know to survive in the Black Market. Recognizing the smell of the brand of cigarettes a certain strong doctor uses, Legoshi asks Kyuu if this panda is Gohin. Totally taken aback, she says that she can't accept that Legoshi has been trained by Gohin, claiming that this is something he would never do. But finally resigning herself, seeing that they were both trained by Gohin, she proposes that they change the Black Market at next month's Meat-Loving Day and take Melon down, and they both establish their alliance.

Characters

 * Legoshi
 * Kyuu
 * Gohin (flashback)

Important Events

 * Kyuu reveals that she was rescued and trained by Gohin as a child.
 * Kyuu agrees to train Legoshi and they form an alliance to defeat Melon at next month's Meat-Loving Day.

Trivia

 * This chapter refers to Chapter 44, in which Legoshi touched Haru's breasts.
 * Kyuu reveals that she never had a school education.
 * As of this chapter, Kyuu pronounces Legoshi's name correctly.