Thanya, The Herald of Death

With the sound of a snap, Rikko's consciousness in his sleep faded and returned as quickly as a camera flash. He felt that something strange had just happened to him, and when he opened his eyes…

“Uuuhh… Huh? Where's the tree? Where's the forest?”

His confusion was justifiable. He was no longer in his bed of dry leaves in the hollow of an old but welcoming tree. He felt like he was somewhere else, completely different and almost as dark as his hiding place. He waited for his vision to adjust to make sure of his surroundings and as soon as it did, his astonishment made him scream at the top of his lungs.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?”

In front of him, there were what seemed to be two unpleasantly handsome boys for his taste. Half-naked, wearing only what appeared to be swimming trunks, they remained motionless in a strange pose in which one hugged the other from behind and exchanged glances with each other.

The one hugging from behind was taller and while one of his hands held the other across his chest, and mischievously slipped inside his trunks. The one receiving this strange gesture of affection did not seem to resist at all, resigning himself to a look of mixed shame and pleasure.

Wait a minute... they're not moving. I don't think they're even breathing!

He thought his eyes had betrayed him in a mocking way. He would have rubbed them to see better if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't do so due to his small, fingerless bird wings. It was then that he finally understood what he was seeing.

"What's that under them...? A base? They're statues!"

Statues. Not the kind you put in halls or gardens for everyone to see. They were life-size figures from some anime or manga of very questionable taste. Rikko couldn't say what material they were made of.

“I don't understand anything anymore. I'm in another world, aren't I?”

And then he realized that there wasn't just that statue there. He finally understood that she was in a large, dimly lit room filled with posters depicting images of handsome young men doing all kinds of poses, whether in couples, threesomes, or even entire groups! All in anime style.

“...Holy crap...”

There were also shelves full of manga, games, more small-scale figures and all sorts of merchandise about romance between boys. Rikko felt like he was in a real BL hell.

“I don't even want to know where I am anymore, I just want to get out of this place as soon as I can – UFF! Why can't I get up?”

There was an invisible force holding him to the ground. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move an inch. He felt as heavy as lead.

“Damn, what's up now?”

“You're not going anywhere.”

“Wha – UAAHHH!!! Who are you?”

Rikko hadn't noticed her until she was right next to him. She was an extremely relaxed-looking girl wearing a worn-out gray sweatshirt, socks, and slippers.

Her hair was as black as night and tied tightly in a ponytail on top of her head. Her skin was so white that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it might even be the only source of light in the entire room. Contrasting with the white complexion of her face were dark circles under her jade-green eyes that not even the thick glasses she wore could hide.

"I'm Thanya. Herald of Death," - She said, her voice slurred and unwilling. - "I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but it's a pain to do so."

"… Really?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

Rikko looked her over from head to toe. HeShe noticed that in one of her hands was a portable video game device.

"Well…”

"Oh, okay, okay! Just wait a minute!”

With a snap of her fingers, a beam of lilac light enveloped the girl and now before Rikko stood a young woman wearing the finest Gothic Lolita-style clothing in shades of purple. Her hair was tied in two curly braids and heavy makeup completed the look.

“I've heard of water being changed into wine, but this is ridiculous!”

“Silence! Cough, cough, testing, testing... ok!”

Suddenly the place became illuminated and Rikko could see in every detail that he was really in the wrong place. In addition to everything he had already noticed, there were bags and more bags of garbage piled up in a corner and drink and snack wrappers scattered on the floor waiting their turn to be collected.

But what caught his attention the most was an open box of tissues on a small table with a small pile of them crumpled next to it.

“Allow me to introduce myself! My name is Thanya, Herald of Death and loyal servant of Finité, The Goddess of Death herself. Nice to meet you!” - After her introduction, she makes a polite gesture holding the hem of her skirt decorated with pulple bows with her hands.

“…”

“...What's wrong, are you not happy with it?”

“It's not that you're not, I even think your look is beautiful, but your impeccable interpretation was overshadowed by the surroundings. Sorry.”

A vein bulged on Thanya's forehead.

“Oh, come on? You're too demanding for someone who's causing me so many problems!”

“Problems? For you? And what about me, have you looked? I've turned into a damn chick! I've had to spend the last few days practically only eating chopped corn and I'm incapable of wiping my own ass!

“Oh, really? Let's see, then!”

With a flick of a finger, a large, heavy book with a green cover appeared floating in front of Thanya, who leafed through it after wetting her index finger with saliva.

“Hmm, it's not this one, not this one either, this one... I found it!”

“Huh? Found what?”

“Ricardo Casanova. 19 years old. His first and last job was at a Snack Bar. A confirmed womanizer. He had relationships with several girls at the same time and didn't treat them properly. He was almost killed by one of them and was chased by the angry father of another. Cause of death... PFFF! HAHAHAHA, are you serious? You was crushed to death by a box of frozen chickens, and on top of that you was dressed as a chicken? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Don't get me wrong, but I think the God of your world didn't like you.”

“I have complaints to make, but I think I have to agree. And what book is that?”

Thanya closed the book while giving the last spasms of her laughter at Ricardo's bizarre end. With a clap of her hands, the book disappeared and she spoke again.

“Cough, cough. That was the Book of the Dead from your world. I borrowed it from an acquaintance of mine from there. I needed it to learn more about you and be able to track your soul when you came here due to, well... a little accident.”

“Accident? In fact, I didn't even know how I died, when I realized I was seeing myself on that hospital table. What accident was that, and what else was in the book?”

“Sigh, so many questions! I'm a very busy person, you know? The box of chickens hit you after a knife blade damaged one of the truck's gas cylinders and caused a spark followed by an explosion. Congratulations! You are among the select few people in your world who have died in the most idiotic and bizarre way possible.”

Rikko had no arguments to refute this statement, but something in this story was still very wrong and he wanted to understand the reason for having been reincarnated there.

“But what does all this have to do with the fact that I was reborn like this, and how did I end up here?”

“Well, about that…” - Thanya turned around while scratching the back of her neck, looking disconcerted.

“About that…?”

“…”

“Come on, just spill it!”

“I think… it was my fault… hehe!”

“Don't come at me with “hehe”!”

“Tsk.”

“I heard that tongue click!”

“Oh, okay, I gave up!. You see all these things here in this room, right?”

“The BL paradise? I can't ignore that.”

“I call it Homo Shangri-La, but you're actually right. All these things came from your world. As I said before, I have an acquaintance there who introduced me to this delicious world of boys. It's really good, you know? I ended up getting addicted and I want to consume these things more and more. - Rikko noticed a thread of drool running down the corner of her mouth.”

“Okay. And…?”

“I can't afford to take a vacation and go there to get these things, so I came up with the idea of ​​using a soul gate and passing from one side to the other without anyone knowing I left my room. But with this comes the problem that I have to keep the portal open at all times, because it takes a long time to channel.”

‘And what does that have to do with me?”

“After your death, your soul ended up coming here by mistake through the portal, but when I realized, it was too late. After you passed and reincarnated, I lost your spiritual trail. It took me all this time to find you, but I confess that it was luck.”

“And now that you found me, you're going to reincarnate me back in my world, am I right?”

_It would be great if it were that easy, we wouldn't even be talking now if it were like that. The thing is that once someone reincarnates, their soul is attached to the new body and their memories are erased to adapt to the new life, but that wasn't the case with you. You didn't lose your memories, and since you're not originally from here, I can't simply separate your soul from the bird and send it back.”

“Crap! And does that mean that…?”

“...That you'll have to live like this until the day you die. It doesn't matter how. That's the rule.”

Rikko was thoughtful for a while. Everything he had gone through in this new world was precisely because of this reincarnation, and who knows what else he would find in the future. He had only one answer.

“Okay, what if I ki-”

“YOU DON'T EVEN DARE THINK ABOUT IT!” - Thanya shouted and her finger pointed at Rikko's face sounded like a whip.

“WOW! Calm down. No need to shout, I'm not deaf!”

“It's better if it isn't, because what you thought of doing is as much of a mortal sin here as it is in your original world. People who attempt to take their own lives are hated by Mrs. Finité and receive the worst punishment of all.”

“Is it that bad?”

“You bet it is! The souls of these sinners are personally crushed by her for the next thousand years and when that period ends, she pulverizes them definitively, so you literally cease to exist even as a soul, the definitive end. Some don't even get to that point, they are destroyed in the crushing process.”

“This Goddess of yours is quite radical.”

“More respect! It's Mrs. Finité, for me and for you! What she decides, not even the Creator God of this world can undo”.

“Ok, ok, the one who spoke is no longer here.”

“That's better. But the problems don't end here.”

“Is there anything else?” - Rikko couldn't believe that her situation could get any worse than it is.

“As a soul from another world, when you came here put all the Heralds of Death on alert. It was hard to convince them that it was a false alarm, I had to deliver a handwritten report to Mrs. Finité stating this. And I can't send your soul back for the same reason either. There's only one possibility: Wait for you to die.”

“What will happen after that?”

“Your soul will become an integral part of this world. You will lose your memories naturally and be reincarnated. Dying as an animal will reset your soul and then you will be able to reincarnate following your destiny and you won't even have to go through our Heaven or Hell.”

“So it's not exactly a problem. I just have to go on with my life as I see fit and one day everything will be resolved.”

“It is a problem, yes. For me.”

‘Where is this a problem for you?”

“If they find out that a soul from another world came here because of me… I'm going to get fired.”

“Sorry, I didn't hear you. Can you repeat that?”

"I'm going to get fired.

“Look, I really can't hear you, say it again.”

_”'M GOING TO GET FIRED, DAMMIT!”

“Oh, I get it… screw you.”

Thanya couldn't contain herself after that answer, bursting into tears.

"WAAAHHHH, YOU'RE SUCH A MEAN BOY! WAAAHHH! POOR, POOR ME!"

"SUCK IT UP! For starters, the whole reason I ended up here is entirely your fault!"

"I KNOOOOOW! I'M SORRY!" – A waterfall of tears poured from her eyes, and a huge glob of snot dripped from her nose.

“Okay, okay, stop crying! I forgive you.”

“Really?”

“I swear!”

As if by magic, all that crying stopped and she returned to her normal attitude.

“Cough, cough! Well, where were we?”

‘THEY WERE CROCODILE TEARS, RIGHT?”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Shit... okay, what are we going to do now?”

“One way or another, it was my mistake that you ended up here. So, to make up for it, I'm going to give you some gifts.”

“You mean powers? Like the ones you get from Isekai stories?”

“More or less like that. I'm going to release your mana.”

“I know what mana is. I played RPGs when I was a kid, but I didn't know it really existed.”

“In your original world, there's no magic. But mana is something present in everything in it, just like it is here. Be it people, monsters, animals, plants or rocks, everything has mana. What I'm going to do is unlock your mana reserve that you've accumulated throughout your human life in this body you now have.”

“What can I do with it? Magic?”

“Among other things. By the way, while you were unconscious, I analyzed your bird body and discovered something curious. You weren't supposed to be born.”

“That's new to me.”

“So, I discovered that the bird that your soul possessed had not even developed. The egg was literally rotten inside. But a magical power that I cannot explain where it came from reversed this, forming the bird’s body. In other words, you already had a huge reserve of mana, and now with it released, the amount will become even greater.”

“But where did this power come from?”

“Beats me. I think I'll be able to figure it out any time soon, but I'll keep researching. Accept this as a special gift from this world.”

“Okay, a giant stock of mana for my use. Is that all?”

“Hold on here, speedy. Unfortunately, I don't have time to teach you, so you'll have to learn how to use these powers on your own. And of course, that's not all. You said you played video games in the other world, right?”

“Yes. Mainly as a teenager. I wasn't that good at fighting games, but I did well with RPGs and Puzzles. Why are you asking me this?”

“Great!” - Thanya celebrated by clapping her hands. - “That makes things a lot easier! Now pay close attention and memorize everything I say, okay?”

“Okay, let's see what happens!”

“First, I'm going to unlock your human mana. Fortunately, with it unlocked, whatever exists in the bird part will follow the flow naturally.”

A magic circle appears below Rikko, causing her body to glow with a blue aura.

“In this world, there are people known as adventurers of all classes that are common in RPG games. But two things they all have in common, which are inherent only to them and people with more knowledge: The first is the ability to see their own status, an image projected in the air that shows all their attributes and monitors their evolution. Choose a word so that you can make use of this.

“A word? Let's see... oh, I'll go with the basics. Menu!”

The air in front of Rikko lit up and a series of letters and numbers were written:

Name: Rikko
Class: Domestic Bird (?)
Level: 1
Vitality/ HP: 10
Mana/ SP: 100+100
Strength: 1
Agility: 5
Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 10
Charisma: 1

“What a lousy stat... but what did I expect, right?”

“Be patient. Practice whenever you can and you'll get better results. Now let's move on to the second skill: Item Box. Since it's a bird, it won't be able to carry and use objects by itself, it'll have to rely on this skill for everything. You can store several items inside it and take them out whenever you want, just summon it. As you evolve, it will evolve with you.”

“Item Box!”

A glowing cube projected itself, but because there was nothing inside, its status image was zero.

“It is against divine rules to offer items directly to men, but this only applies to magical or combat items, so at least I can offer something to eat and drink. Take this!”

Thanya picked up objects from a table and threw them towards Rikko's item box. Now something appeared in the status:

Items added:

Dried Meat (pack of 10 strips): x1
Isotonic (500 ml bottle): x1

“What a pittance! And on top of that, they are things from a convenience store!”

“What are you complaining about? These are the most basic survival items for me! And take your eyes off my instant noodles!” - She said, hiding two still uneaten cups in a drawer.

“Stingy…” - Although a trickle of drool was running down the corner of her beak, Rikko knew this battle was lost. Bacon and Cheddar, precisely his favorite flavors.

“Cough, cough. Moving on… What I’m going to give you now is the last, but not the least. A special ability. I have no combat skills to offer, but I can give you this:”

Special Ability:

Harmony of Tongues

Grants the ability to communicate.
Target: Demi-Humans, Irrational Animals, Rational Monsters.

“Wait, there are no humans here, why?”

“Isn't it obvious? You're a domestic bird, have you ever thought what it would be like if food was suddenly able to talk to you? Demi-Humans are part animal, so they're on the list of people you can communicate with, be grateful for that!”

It would have been so much easier if I could do this before… - Rikko remembered her life on the farm at that moment. Talking to humans could have made a difference there.

“Right, I'll figure that out later.”

“Okay, but be warned: Think very carefully about who you get involved with from now on, it could be life or death for you. And, if possible, try not to draw too much attention, if that's even possible.”

“If I draw too much attention, they'll suspect me and you'll lose your job, right?”

“But look! You're actually smart!”

“I'll pretend that's a compliment.”

After that, they went over all the topics once more to make sure Rikko had learned them correctly. It wasn’t much, but according to Thanya, if Rikko followed the rules and was careful, he could have a life expectancy of up to fifteen years, if he didn’t end up in someone’s pot first. Now it was time to go. Thanya prepared a teleportation circle to send Rikko back.

“Hey. Where are you going to send me with this?”

“To the same place where I found you. That forest is close to areas with farms, so the chance of encountering strong monsters is low because of the turnover of adventurers carrying out quests. Take advantage of this to your advantage to gain experience, you'll need it.”

“Well, I need to start somewhere.” - He sighed.

“And now, hmmmm... I need to get some sleep, there's a special gacha event in a game for later, I won't miss it even if I have to throw a thousand souls straight into hell.”

“Yikes! I hope it doesn't have to come to that.”

“Hehehe, I'm kidding. Now go ahead and do it!”

‘Wait! Just tell me one more thing.”

“What is it?”

“Is your job really that good?”

Thanya's expression suddenly changed to something quite bitter. With a ray of lilac light, she was once again wearing the worn-out gray sweatshirt with socks and slippers. He went to an old sofa in the corner of the room and lay down to sleep.

“It's crap, but it pays for my collection. Don’t ever come back.”