The Birdman

I woke up in the middle of the night.

I wasn’t having trouble sleeping, and nothing from outside had woken me.

Sensing it was still dark, I carefully picked up the phone and turned down the brightness so my eyes wouldn’t melt.

2:12 AM. Thursday.

Great, now I’ll wake up late again in the morning.

That’s what I would’ve thought, considering I had work to do.

However, at that moment, I didn’t care, which wasn’t like me at all.

I carefully sat up in bed. Not being nervous or anything, just strangely alert and aware. It was like when you forget something and get a bad, tingling feeling in the back of your head.

Walking quickly with quiet steps, I went to the bathroom and washed my face, then sat down at the computer.

Something told me I had to come, switch it on and see something—right now.

It wasn’t a minute before my desktop appeared. I turned the brightness down a bit there too. Among the many icons I saw the blue compass with the crescent moon.

“Geez, why do I feel the pull even stronger now?” I muttered silently.

Yesterday when I first saw the app, I felt really weird. However, this time it felt much stronger. The urge…

I double-clicked on the icon and Rumel’s room loaded in. It was the same cozy tavern bedroom, currently unlit, with her in bed, snoring peacefully.

Everything looks just fine. But then why—

«Urgent: Rumel is in danger»

I froze at the message, then heard an abrupt groan.

Shaken, I looked cautiously around the room, and the first thing I saw was a cloaked figure moving in the opposite corner.

A thief?

I was still, and it was hard to breathe even. The figure blinked to the side occasionally to see if Rumel was still asleep, and I could make out its shape.

It was a man in a dark green hooded robe. His face was covered by a raven mask, so I could only see his brown eyes.

He was rummaging in a chest of drawers next to the wall, with the window slightly open behind him. He must have come in through it to not attract attention. What I didn't understand was what he was doing in her bedroom?

As you can imagine, I was furious.

How could this girl deserve to have this guy prowling around her room while she slept in the middle of the night?

I wanted to do something. Anything. I wished I weren’t invisible to the majority of NPCs.

I wanted to help, and what I did next overrode everything.

I leaned closer to her.

“Rumel,” I began, trembling but focused. “Rumel, I beg you to wake up! You have to wake up, there’s someone here and they are up to no good.”

Huh?

Maybe it was glare, but I thought I saw my screen invert for half a second.

She rolled over under the blanket, the Birdman glanced over again, then looked away.

“Rumel, if you don’t wake up, I can’t help you! Carefully open your eyes and look!”

At first I thought it wouldn’t work, but then my monitor glitched out.

Exactly like yesterday, the image split and the colors reversed. Even the sound was buffering, replaying itself. But I did get to see one thing—and it made me scream with relief inside.

The sleepy girl opened her eyes and saw the Birdman.

Was that... just a coincidence? Did she hear me, or...

Suddenly the screen went back to normal with a flash of light and I got a notification.

CHIME!

«Interactions: Voice Access Unlocked»

What was that now!?

I had no time to deal with that, I saw she was scared more than anything. She remained still and silent, which turned to our advantage.

Don’t look at us for a few seconds, you...

“If you can hear me, then listen. If you help me, I’ll do my best to keep you safe from him! Wait until he looks at you again, and then scream!”

Then it happened. The Birdman looked at her, but for the last time.

She immediately rose and screamed.

As I thought, the thief was frightened! He didn’t lunge toward her, it was too late for that! While she was getting out of bed, he threw himself straight out of the window without making a sound, landing outside.

Oh, no you don't, you little rat!

I tightened my grip on my keyboard and mouse and followed him through the window straight out into the narrow cobbled alleys behind Ente & Ovia.

The Birdman was much faster than I thought, making his way through the streets, looking for the shortest route everywhere. He must’ve known most of the city to pass through narrow passageways and bridges like that.

It was hard to see where he was going in the dark, but I could always see his cloak somewhere in the faint lights inside the buildings, catching him before he made a turn.

He ran through the most desolate streets, completely avoiding the busier places. Through narrow courtyards and underpasses, dodging anything that might get in his way like crates or barrels.

So he truly was a professional…

He left nothing to chance. Silent, but cautious to slow down.

The question was, what did this guy want?

I had to find out somehow.

Whatever just happened with my abilities back in the bedroom, my chances of catching him were still limited. In fact, there was zero chance that I could physically catch him, and that was the most horrible thing to accept.

I was basically as good as a ghost. How would a ghost possibly catch anybody?

I hardly dared to blink as I chased him. If anything distracted me for just a moment, he would disappear from my sight in an instant.

Then I realized. Catching him wasn’t what I had to do. I had to mark him!

If he stays still for a split second, I might be able to click on him and put him in Favorites.

Once I do, he could be anywhere, I’ll recognize him from anywhere, no matter what mask or clothes he wears.

He won’t steal from anyone after that.

Abruptly, the Birdman reached a dead end. At one of the corners, he turned behind a building and got trapped by brick walls on all three sides.

No ladder, boxes, or windows, nothing he could possibly jump up to.

Got you now.

I stopped short while he was still looking around. I was about to click when he started running again, going straight ahead toward the wall.

The thief suddenly turned into a black mist and ran through the solid brick wall.

Silence fell, and I didn’t even realize that I was already alone.

“Don’t you dare pull some shitty gameplay on me!”

I had no idea how he did it, but it instantly reminded me of my worst gaming experiences. The ones when the necessary characters accidentally go through a wall or fall through the floor and you can’t continue the game.

He couldn't have been gone already! He must be here somewhere!

I braced myself and flew up to the height of birds and looked down. It was a big row of houses he’d gone into. There were about three buildings connected to each other, including a small courtyard.

I checked every side, every door. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the smoke reappearing and then the Birdman emerging from it on the other end, at an intersection of three passages.

He didn’t stay still. This time he jumped instead of running. He leaped from the spot onto the tiled roof of the next row of houses, and from there onwards like a grasshopper, bounding forward with impossible speed.

No way!

It was a waste of time to follow him. He covered such a distance that after a few blocks I simply couldn’t keep up anymore.

The last thing he did was hop up to a balcony, and from there, jump off into a lit, bustling street where I couldn’t see him after landing.

I quickly moved closer, scanning the people, but couldn’t see the Birdman among the passers-by.

Now I’d lost him for good.

I was frustrated. Blaming myself, when I knew very well that I was thinking logically. I was only doing what this damn System allowed me to do.

But why the hell couldn’t I have gotten more abilities much sooner?

Why couldn’t I catch that thief?

Why couldn’t this System give me a body to begin with?

I slammed my fist on my desk. It was painful and loud, but I didn’t care.

Now I won’t be able to go back to sleep. I’ll be thinking about this through the remainder of the night... Why I wasn't fast enough—no, good enough—to help Rumel.

I flew up again, but this time looking for a quiet place to back out and close the app already.

But then I saw a familiar face, sitting on a nearby rooftop, gently smiling at me.

Mineruva?

◆ ◆ ◆

“Hey,” she greeted me as I flew up to the roof.

She was dressed in the same white outfit as yesterday, holding some kind of food in her hand and taking a bite, talking with her mouth full. “You don’t get bored even at night, Michio-sama.”

We sat there for a few minutes, taking in the sight of the night streets, with the city walls and mountains in the distance. It was extraordinary—something you didn’t see every day.

I was glad to stumble into Mineruva again, but it was strange to see her now, after being outrun by the thief.

I wanted to ask about this when I saw what she was eating.

Rice wrapped in seaweed.

I began laughing in surprise.

“Is that an onigiri?”

She nodded mid-chew, producing a little pouch filled with three or four more onigiris.

“Heh. I didn’t know you liked food so much. Otherworldly food especially.”

She swallowed a bite and wiped her mouth.

“Well, I have no complaints,” she said. “After what you told me about your world... there were things I didn’t understand about your technology. I’m still trying to analyze that in my mind. But in the meantime, I thought I’d put a bit of otherworldly knowledge to good use first.”

She pulled out another onigiri and showed it to me before taking a bite. It was somehow a comfortable feeling to see Japanese food in another world.

“This one is tuna. A little too salty, though. It needs some perfecting, but it’ll do for now.”

“Uh-huh. But where did you find rice? And proper seaweed?”

“In the east of the continent, in the Three Kingdoms of Mido. It was a bit difficult to get, but was worth it.”

I sighed then, a little out of sorts, suspecting why she was here.

“You saw me following that green guy.”

“That wasn’t a follow, it was a chase. It was my good luck that I saw you go after him. One of your new friends’ friend, right?”

“Right. I don’t know how, but I had this feeling something bad was going to happen. He broke into the bedroom of a very nice girl, Rumel. I didn’t care why, I wanted to get him.”

It was hard to get the next sentence out.

“It’s my fault. If I could’ve figured out how I was supposed to upgrade this damn System before I had at least some useful powers, maybe—”

“You could’ve had him.”

Yeah...

She looked at me with a reassuring, calm smile.

“You were going to mark him, weren’t you?”

I was silent, but my expression said everything. she opened her menu in response. She opened her Favorites list, which was full of all kinds of NPC profiles.

It struck me then.

Of course, Mineruva is as god-like as I am, being thousands of years old. I was sure there were many people here who she had grown fond of!

The next moment, she scrolled down in the list, her finger stopping on the profile of a familiar cloaked man.

Suddenly I had tears in my eyes.

“You did it...”

“I managed to mark him. Just as he hit the dead end before going through the wall. I barely made it.”

She looked at me, and she probably saw how moved I was. I didn't fail completely. She had my back...

“If he ever shows up again, we’ll know. Hopefully, you’ll be up and about by then, making sure he won’t cause any more trouble.”

I swallowed hard, touched.

“Thank you so much for this!”

“No big deal. You’d have done the same for me.”

I certainly would have. Any time.

Then I remembered something important. Mineruva was present when the Birdman turned into a black mist.

“Uh... so this guy... You saw how he was able to pass through solid walls? Like it was nothing, he just ran through and popped up somewhere else! I don’t know the magic here, but that couldn’t be normal.”

“Definitely not normal. He used dark magic, a rare type of magic that’s untraceable as it leaves no marks.”

Dark magic? Oh god, my memories of Gates of Tartarus are coming back.

“I don’t know much either, mostly because I like to keep myself as far away as possible from those who use it.”

I had a lot to think about. A mysterious figure shows up at a girl working in a tavern, as to why I’ll find out later, but the point is that he's damn fast and otherwise a dark magic user.

Right, great.

“Does his profile mention he’s able to cast dark magic?”

She looked over the Birdman’s profile, puzzled.

“No it doesn’t… This might be the System’s mistake. It only provides short, condensed attributes, not long descriptions.”

“I see…”

But then she asked me.

“But hang on. Did you manage to stop him from stealing after all?”

“Well, he was looking for something in the drawers, but I didn’t see him take anything. I woke Rumel up, and she drove him away, so—”

She raised an eyebrow and waved a stop.

“Uh, you woke her up? How, when she can’t see or hear you?”

“Yeah, but I managed to talk to her somehow! I’ll show you," I produced the message I’d received. “The Interactions tab has been updated. Voice Access Unlocked.”

Mineruva chuckled. “So it worked?”

“Looks like it. When the guy was in the room, I tried to talk to her. I asked her to startle the guy by screaming. And she did. But only she heard what I said. It was as if I was talking in her head.”

I think I just saw proudness in her eyes.

“In her head, huh? Sounds great!”

The girl looked up at the sky for a moment. There were so many stars shining up there, along with a crescent moon.

“You’re getting a feel for this world. Chasing a thief all the way out here to help someone you like, even if you’ve known them for less than a day.”

She was right. It didn’t sound normal to be so fascinated by everything here in one day.

I knew in my heart that I didn’t fully know either Rumel, Lupa or Adiel, and they certainly didn’t know me, they hadn’t even seen me. Yet I was still able to do something for them.

“That’s right. Sometimes one day is all it takes to make a friend.”

I hesitated a little. Suddenly I thought how dangerous this world could be, besides how much I enjoyed being here.

I felt in myself that I could somehow improve this communication with NPCs somehow.

But I also had to think that what I had wasn’t going to be enough if something like tonight happened again.

“If anything happens, something worse than a thief, will you still be around to help?”

She tilted her head slightly. Her look was now a puzzled one, a bit offended even.

"Why wouldn’t I be, silly?! Let me enlighten you if you don’t understand the situation: you’ve introduced me to the delicious beauties of your world. My debt to you is now incalculable!”

Um... okay?

“As your guide, I will provide you with protection and care as needed. But I cannot fight. Would that be acceptable to you?”

“Yep. Perfectly. I might tell you more Japanese recipes later.”

She almost dropped her onigiri, mouth twitching, making me chuckle.

“I said later!”

Yeah, I was really glad to have met her.

Now I knew that if things went wrong in this world, she’d be here to help me face it.

I wasn’t alone.

◆ ◆ ◆

When I got back, Tara-sama and a few other barmaids were already in Rumel’s bedroom.

The lights were on, the windows closed, and the curtains drawn.

Tara-sama was sitting on the bed, trying to gently reassure the girl, though she wasn’t at ease herself. Just hours ago, she’d said Rumel was one of her most trusted staff. She clearly felt she shouldn’t have let this happen.

Meanwhile, the others were searching the drawers for anything that might’ve been stolen. They took small tea bottles and flasks of powdered herbs, laying them out for Rumel to check.

When everything was neatly on the floor, everyone looked at the cat-girl questioningly.

“What did they take, dear? Anything important?”

Rumel glanced at them silently.

“Nothing. Everything I have is here.”

The two maids seemed relieved, but Tara looked out the window with angry eyes.

“Then what the hell were they looking for?”

She didn’t reply. What could she possibly say, after all?

If I hadn’t woken the poor girl up, she would’ve slept through the whole thing!

The question was—did the Birdman really not take anything, or at best, did Rumel’s scream stop him before he could?

I was hoping for the latter.

Either way, I couldn’t lower my guard just yet.