{Epilogue: Prologue End}

The sounds of her footsteps rang clear in the air, an echo down the hallway of one of the many abandoned buildings in the city.

She looked over her shoulder once more, despite the fact that she knew she wasn’t being followed.

For a networker, this paranoia was a habit you picked up on the job.

Once content she was alone, Birdy chuckled mockingly at herself, feeling the soreness in her neck.

“Ah, I’ll never be rid of these neck pains.”

Stating this, Birdy took out a key from the bag hanging at her waist and unlocked a door in the hallway; her home, as well as her sister’s.

Once entering and making sure she locked the door properly, Birdy almost allowed all of her tension to leave her body, but she still hadn’t seen her sister yet.

Birdy knew where she would be, if she were here, but she could never really relax until she saw that she was safe.

Walking familiarly around the corner into a small hallway to her left of the apartment, she walked straight to the last room on the right and stopped in the empty doorway, a door missing from the structure.

There, surrounded by numerous books while she knelt on the floor, looking absentmindedly at the ceiling, was her twin sister Ruri.

Her hair was green like hers, but much more messy in comparison to the networker.

She was wearing a comfortable, baggy shirt that suggested she didn’t care about how she looked.

With the fact that she hadn’t adjusted the shirt so it would’ve covered the currently exposed shoulder, it only strengthened this impression.

It also didn’t help that she wasn’t wearing much in the form of pants.

The reason she was dressed like this was probably because she stayed inside all the time.

Birdy felt all of her stress leave her for a while as she instinctively smiled at the sight.

Yup, she’s doing it again.

The face Ruri made was a dead give away that she was talking to the dead, pun intended.

Ruri’s mouth was agape, as though she were surprised at something, and in the next moment, she spoke.

“I see… so that’s what it was.”

Ruri nodded her head intently at the open air, continuing her conversation with the invisible guest.

“...Oh?”

Then, Ruri moved her head to look at Birdy, apparently having been informed by the spirit that they were not alone.

At the sight of her sister watching her, Ruri looked down embarrassed.

“S-sorry, I didn’t notice.”

“No, it’s fine. What were you talking about?”

At the question, Ruri lost all signs of her embarrassment and faced her sister with a serious expression, causing surprise to appear on Birdy’s face.

What’s with that look…? I’ve never seen her look so serious before.

“Is it true?”

Ruri asked the question so vaguely that Birdy looked at her with confused eyes.

“Is what true?”

With a stern expression and asking in the most straightforward way possible, Ruri responded.

“That the reason you’ve changed is because of a man?”

Birdy almost fell where she stood from the sheer unexpectedness of the question, but she managed to stay upright.

“What on earth have you been talking about with the dead?”

“Don’t avoid the question!”

Faced with the fierce determination of her twin sister, Birdy was forced to answer.

“It has nothing to do with the fact they are a guy, but yes, I changed my attitude because of someone that just happened to be male.”

“Who!?”

“Well…”

Birdy thought of Laurence in that moment, as well as, shockingly enough, Bug.

* * * * * *

Last month, when she thought it was her chance to get a hold of Bug’s belongings, who had been in contact with Yamada, she never knew just how much that encounter would change her.

At first, it was business as usual; it didn’t matter who died as long as she got what she wanted.

But after seeing what Laurence did to one of the guards, and his expression afterwards, she started to feel… pain.

It was strange to her; why, after all this time, was she feeling anything when someone was getting killed?

She guessed it was simply because it was unnecessary for someone to beat a dead corpse and ignored it.

But, as that day progressed, she had a sickening feeling bubble up inside of her.

She couldn’t get the image of the man’s unrecognizable body, smashed into chunks of bloodied pulp, out of her head.

It left too much of an impression on her.

But why?

It wasn’t her first time seeing someone killed and it wouldn’t be her last, but for some reason, she was unsettled.

Laurence had the decency to tell her that he was finished at Bug’s place before going off to the shade that day, and when she entered the lavish hideout, the churning in her gut continued.

She tried ignoring it and looked for whatever items she could find, but through the wall, she could hear someone yelling out for help.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she made her way into the hallway and looked for the source of the voice.

She found it was coming from the room next to Bug’s home, and opened the door to find a floor filled with sharp metal spikes poking out of the floor, and Bug hanging on for dear life in a large hole in the roof.

Upon hearing the door open, Bug craned his head with as much caution as possible to see who was there.

“Birdy, is that you!?”

Birdy just stared silently at Bug’s clinging as desperately as possible, ignoring how ridiculous the trap on the ground was.

She could see it in his face; he couldn’t hold on much longer.

“Thank goodness, can you get me down from here?”

“...Laurence let you live?”

“More like he left me to die! I tell him where to find Yamada and he doesn’t even have the decency to pull me up! Anyways, just come up here and help me!”

“...No.”

She said that with determination.

Why should she help him?

If she did, then she wouldn’t nearly get as much as she would if she let him die.

Not only that, but it would also mean that she let Laurence use her information for free.

She turned her back on Bug and made her way back to his home.

“No, no, no! You stupid bitch, get back here!”

Even as she entered the other room, she could still hear him, cursing at herself for not closing the door.

She could’ve went back and done so, but she decided it wasn’t worth the trouble, as she could still hear him through the wall regardless.

“Are you listening to me!? You have no idea who you’re messing with! …Just… no idea...”

Bug’s words trailed off at his empty threat, and Birdy felt the pain in her gut grow.

Once again she found herself asking why she should save him.

“...Is that it? I’m just going to die here… without anyone even caring?”

She didn’t care.

She never cared.

Just take what you need and leave.

She didn’t have the time to care about anyone except her sister and herself.

“How am I different… from everyone else? What did I do to deserve this…?”

Why would she save him?

There was no reason.

Why would she save him?

There was no logic.

Why would she save him?

He was disgusting and putrid.

“...Hic… I don’t want to die…!”

Why wouldn’t she save him…?

He was crying out for help.

Taking off as if her life depended on it, Birdy shot out of the room and ran to the nearest stairs.

“Dammit all!”

Cursing under her breath, Birdy ran down the hallway of the second floor and quickly found the hole where Bug was hanging on from, one hand fingertips away from dropping.

She launched herself over the gap, easily clearing it; compared to the rooftops, it was nothing.

And then, just as she reached out to grab his hand, it finally lost all strength and he started falling.

Bug had closed his eyes, looking even more pitiful than he did when he was alive, prepared for his fate.

* * * * * *

It was as if time had stopped.

Bug was holding his breath, waiting for hig legs to be impaled on the long, deadly spikes.

Then, after he lost the feeling in them, he fully expected his body to flop over onto the rest of the spikes, sliding throughout his body as if it were butter.

But the sensation of taking the drop down was stopped and an immense pressure could be felt on his extended arm, the one that held out the longest.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and peered into Birdy’s eyes, looking down at him.

She had threw her body to the floor and her hand managed to catch hold of Bug’s arm before he hit the trap.

Bug’s face was a mixture of shock, confusion and relief.

On his lips was the word, ‘why’, inquired towards the least likely person to come to his rescue next to Laurence.

“Don’t just hang there! If you’ve got anything left, then help me get you up!”

At Birdy’s words, her free hand grabbed onto the arm and started pulling and Bug found himself getting strength from somewhere he couldn’t identify.

Slowly, they managed to get him on the second floor, and then he layed on his back, taking deep breaths while covering his eyes.

Bug was alive.

Birdy had saved him.

“...Why?”

Bug had finally asked the question Birdy had been asking herself the entire time she took this course of action.

Now, everything she had just done was meaningless.

She gave away information for free, and saved Bug, all for nothing.

And yet, she still felt like she could answer that question.

“Because you’re right… what did you do to deserve this?”

Bug may have been cowardly, selfish, and untrustworthy, but you could apply those labels to everyone else in the city.

Birdy was the same, the only difference being that she had someone she cared about.

“It makes no sense for me to save you… but it also doesn’t make any sense for you to die over me.”

It was then that Birdy came to the conclusion Laurence would soon reach that same day; this world was wrong.

Why was it that people killed each other for valuables?

Who started that standard in the first place?

Why couldn’t people value other lives outside of their narrow-minded world?

There was no answer, and that was why it was wrong.

They simply accepted these things as normal and went along with it for so long, and yet now they began to see that it wasn’t normal at all.

“It’s because we’re all human… huh?”

Bug’s spoke those words, surprising Birdy, who looked at him with wide eyes.

He uncovered his face and looked at her expression, still looking as slimy as ever, but there was a certain calmness to his eyes that wasn’t there before.

“You’d be surprised how many thoughts run through your head when you think you’re going to die.”

Saying that as an answer to Birdy’s surprise, he closed his eyes and sighed.

“Who the fuck made this world? I’d like to punch them in the face.”

Birdy smiled at the blunt statement and responded.

“Really? You would do that?”

“...Let me re-think about that for a second.”

Birdy withheld her laughter in front of Bug and jumped over the gap in the floor with ease, having no more reason to stay there.

“Wait.”

Bug called out to Birdy before she turned around the corner, and she turned to face him.

He was sitting upright now and scratching his usual filthy hair, his eyes looking down at the pit.

“...Thank you.”

Normally, avoiding someone’s eyes and doing such a disrespectful gesture would have people take it as a joke, but coming from Bug, Birdy felt like the apology was very heart-felt.

It was particularly the fact that he couldn’t look in her eyes that made her believe it.

If he was lying, he would have no trouble making eye contact.

Being so honest must have been hard for him to do so seriously.

* * * * * *

“Geez… the rain isn’t letting up.”

Birdy stared up at the murky sky, a large downpour continuing to assault the hard ground, as if it were declaring war on the earth.

She had taken shelter from the rain from an overhead roof for a while, but it didn’t seem like the rain was going to subside in any way for a while.

It didn’t help that it was already dark out and Birdy’s clothes were soaked more than she would’ve liked.

“Ah-choo! ...Alright, that’s enough standing around.”

Wiping the mucus from her nose and face with her sleeve, Birdy decided to run the rest of the way home and launched herself out from her cover.

As she ran down, her legs throwing lines of clear water all around her from the movement, she noticed a figure approaching from a distance.

When she got closer, she slowed down when she realized who it was.

“Laurence!?”

Wobbling down the street, dead-eyed and wet enough for his clothes to seem like they were mere rags, was the man she had helped earlier.

“What happened to you, you look like you’re gonna croak!”

She felt silly for putting it that way, but she only said the first thing that came to mind.

Soon, a response came from Laurence’s mouth, hoarse and broken.

“That’s what I’m going for.”

“...What?”

“Go home to your nest, Birdy.”

The eyes glanced at her for a moment, and Birdy was able to see nothing in his brown eyes, as if he were already dead.

“But-”

“Just go!”

The yell shook her.

Perhaps it was because of what he had done earlier to the guard, but she found herself immobilized by fear, doing nothing as he walked past.

The light, unrythmic splashing of his footsteps faded into the distance, and it was only then that Birdy felt like she could move.

All the while, the rain continued to barrage her.

It’s cold… and Ruri’s probably worrying about me because it’s so late…

Birdy shivered as she turned around in the direction Laurence went.

But… I don’t think I can just leave him alone.

Saying a silent apology to her twin, she made her way towards the direction Laurence went in.

But she never caught up to him, despite how slow he seemed to have been moving earlier.

Maybe the rain’s chill was affecting her ability to follow people or maybe she had been standing still for much longer than she realized, but either way, with no way of finding Laurence at that time, Birdy gave up reluctantly and made her way back home.

* * * * * *

“To be honest, when I saw how he changed, I felt compelled to stop anyone from ever becoming like that… but it seems like he’s doing fine now.”

Birdy spoke the words while she pondered.

After losing track of Laurence (and recovering from a light cold she received from being out in that freezing rain), she dug around for information on what had happened when he met Yamada.

To her frustration, Yamada had disappeared.

The information trail led up to where he went to wait for Laurence then, after that, nothing.

Laurence killing the producer was a possibility, but she would’ve imagined that his corpse would have turned up at the location he had met Laurence.

With nothing left to do, Birdy simply decided to do what she did best, albeit with a different goal in mind than simply ‘surviving’.

She knew it was irrational and could potentially get her killed, but for some reason, seeing Laurence in such a miserable stuck with her.

Hearing Bug’s ‘last words’ before death also reaffirmed this unnatural desire to prevent as much killing as possible.

She paid more attentions to avenues of profit that could be achieved without death, such as abandoned areas with salvageable valuables, and refused jobs that took on tracking down someone.

In that time, she also noticed a change in Bug, as she ran into him once more.

It appeared that he had reached the same conclusion as her, taking on more humane jobs after having his life flash before his eyes.

It was strange, almost too sudden, but she couldn’t argue with how absurd his values changed, as the same had happened to her.

Which led them both to ask the question once again; Who created this world?

It was like they were never selfish killers to begin with, like everything they knew up until then had been a lie.

That’s what made them question the world even more.

Why were things the way they were?

They couldn’t come up with an answer, so they just focused on what they did know; this world was wrong and they had to do something, even if it was small, to make it better.

Birdy, lost in thought, almost missed her sister, Ruri’s question.

“You’ve seen him again?”

“Hm? Ah, yeah, just now...”

It was a surprise to see Laurence again, especially wearing something as fashionable as what he was, but she didn’t question why he was hiding his identity.

If anything, it was a good disguise, as most people wouldn’t recognize him outside of it.

Birdy, however, wouldn’t forget what Laurence looked like, especially after that rainy night one month ago.

That, coupled with her sharp perception, made it easy for her to figure it out.

“He called himself a hero… huh?”

What made Birdy do a double take was the accompaniment of another voice, overlapping with hers; her sister said the same thing as herself, looking serious all of a sudden.

“Ruri, how do you know about that?”

Ruri didn’t answer her sister, instead, she got up and moved past Birdy, making a beeline towards the closet in the living room for clothes.

Birdy could only watch in amazement as her shut-in twin sister pulled out some clothes and removed what she wore, as if she were getting ready to leave.

“R-Ruri, what’s wrong!?”

Ruri put on some of the punk-rock esque clothes that Birdy loved, a warm coat with a hood, and turned to face and answer her.

“We’re going to see Laurence.”

The answer was so blunt that Birdy doubted her ears for a moment; Ruri wasn’t one for leaving the house and going out into public, and that's aside from the fact that she shouldn’t have known a thing about Laurence in the first place.

“But how do you know all of this?”

Asking the question a second time, Ruri finally wavered in her serious expression as she looked down sheepishly.

“Oh… Sorry, I guess that was kind of random if you can’t hear her.”

“Hear who?”

Birdy asked the question almost at the exact same time she realized that her sister was talking about a spirit.

Ruri turned her head towards an empty space near her, as if awaiting an answer, then she faced her sister again.

“She says her name is Yuna… Do you know her?”

* * * * * *

*End of Volume 1; The Needlessly Long Prologue*