The Curse of Beasts (BEASTARS)

Smiling Through a Ferocious Gaze

"Alan, are you sure you can clean under there?", Kai asked worriedly as the human pushed a broom under a set of bleachers.

"Yeah...", he grunted, moving his arm around to maneuver the tool. "It's just...a little...tight!"

The task wasn't daunting, but the conditions were less than comfortable. The Drama Club's practice room has to be clean, so everyone was working. The larger animals moved things around for the smaller animals to reach obscure spaces. Considering how much he sized up to the larger club members, Alan decided to help clean. Now he was cleaning the floor with Kai, which led to him reaching a floor under the bleachers. It wasn't so much the light space that baffled him, but having to move the broom within said space. He swept as best he could before gathering what he got and slowly pulling the broom back out.

"Okay...I think I got it.", he panted, mentally cursing himself for suggesting to sweep under the massive structure.

"Just don't get any dust on me."

He let out a small laugh at the mongoose's remark, "C'mon, I'm not stupid enough to do that."

    As he finally got the broom out, along with whatever dirt and dust it attracted, he pondered. His conversation with Pina about sincerity was still bugging him, though not as much as before. He had to give the sheep some credit, as he was right about the human thinking too much. Even if 'thinking less' wasn't as easy as flipping a switch, it did give him some insight into how his mind works. He was always thinking, at least in most situations. There was some awareness on his part, though he never saw it as a hinderance until now. It was a part of his personality that showed itself from time to time, and nothing more.

"Alan?", Kai asked. "You're spacing out again..."

"Huh?", he shook his head and smiled slightly. "Sorry, I guess I got caught up in my head."

"That seems to happen a lot."

The human shrugged as he walked to the side, "I'm a thinking type of guy— it's kinda my thing."

A grunt made him look over, seeing a jaguar struggling with a box, "This is so heavy! What's in this thing?"

"You can keep cleaning, you lightweight jaguar.", Bill said smugly. "Leave the heavy lifting to Bill the great Bengal Tiger."

He only got it a few inches off the ground before it toppled in his hands, "Woah, oof!"

Riz decided to jump in and grab the box himself— and make it look easy, "Don't push yourselves, catboys."

Alan couldn't help chuckling, "Looks like your pride took a hit, EgoKitty. Who knew a bear could one-up you?"

"Wait, hold on!", the tiger shouted. "You probably don't know this, but a carnivore's strength isn't just in their arms!"

I'm sure a buff panda would disagree., the human thought with an amused smirk.

"The strength of an individual carnivore is decided by jaw strength! That's one of the unspoken rules of the carnivore world!"

"Jaw strength?", he mulled. "Okay, that actually makes sense. How do you measure it, though?"

Bill chuckled in an unsettling way, "I'm glad you asked, Alan. It's all done through a friendly game."

"Oh! Wait, Bill!", Aoba cut in. "You can't talk about that with herbivores around! It's for carnivores only!"

The tiger huffed, "You don't get it, do you? Felines always have to be the best carnivores around!"

"Wait, you mean felines have big egos by nature?", Alan asked as he could feel his smirk widen. "If I knew that, I'd be calling you 'EgoKitty' a lot earlier."