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A bird trapped in a dark room forgets the difference between day and night.
The only thing he could sense was the overwhelming smell of burning. The lukewarm scent left behind as lava cooled. The smell that had trailed faithfully at Parrot's heels across both the Overworld and the Nether. On a platform where not a single ray of light could enter, it was the only thing Parrot could know.
Time rolled onward like a repeat sign. A succession in which each moment felt like everything, and everything felt like a moment. A vague emptiness. Within these brutally limited senses, there was no way to find even the smallest opening for escape. In this place, his own existence was both purpose and entirety. He was trapped inside a cage made solely for himself. Hugging his knees to his chest, Parrot sank into thought. He had to come up with the best possible move to break this deadlock. That was both his nature and his habit.
Think, think, think.
For a long time, he dwelled on the past. And at last, he reached a conclusion. He had been selfish, weak, and foolish. He had lost things from his grasp again and again, yet convinced himself that he had become numb to loss. So he never looked back. He never blamed himself for the countless things that collapsed into ruin wherever his feet landed. If he was destined to lose them someday anyway, he believed it made little difference if that day came a little sooner.
He regretted nothing.
—In the end, he failed. To him, failure had always been the thing lurking around his feet whenever he threw himself into reckless gambles. Ironically, it was a warden that never granted him a "next time." Yet Parrot had always been the one to use failure as a perch and soar higher. But the moment he stood before the absurd paradise built atop everything he had destroyed, he saw failure smiling brightly at him. For the first time, he had been checked. The only thing left for him to do was wait for the flag on his clock to fall while staring down an inevitable checkmate. Helplessness was a cruel form of torture. Like a ortolan bunting drowning in a vat of liquor, Parrot sank deeper and deeper while clutching the truth he had finally unearthed.
Damn it, Parrot. Nufuli died because of you.
Endless loneliness gifted Parrot with hallucinations. Leo. The friend who had left him forever, burdening him with the greatest guilt of all. Every time Parrot thought of Leo, it felt as though heavy weights had been chained to his heart. Leo, Leo, Leo. Like a broken cassette tape endlessly repeating, Parrot thought of his name in answer to Leo's unceasing cries.
Parrot, we're friends.
A pure white shadow fell over the body he had curled up like a nautilus shell. A hand clad in a pitch-black leather glove lightly brushed over the hands Parrot had pressed against his ears. Unlike the voice that mercilessly pounded against him, the hand carried no weight at all.
Parrot remembered Leo. He remembered the way Leo had swung his sword at him while crying out for Nufuli. He remembered him clutching a Netherite helmet, dark circles staining his eyes as grief consumed him. He remembered the two of them falling together in the highest mountain of Paragon, Leo sacrificed for him. Parrot had always been a sinner before Leo. A reddish hue crept into the corners of Parrot's eyes.
As if he could read his thoughts, Leo smiled faintly.
That's right, Parrot. Are you happy in the 'bird cage' you gained in exchange for us?
Ignoring the violent pounding of his heart, Parrot clenched his hands as tightly as he could. Sharp nails dug into his scar-covered palms.
*
The platform door opened.
Tearing apart the silence that had felt so dreadful, the sound of pistons being placed echoed through the room. Parrot turned his body, which had remained motionless for days. His heart, which had beaten alone for days, hours, weeks, surged wildly at the warmth. He winced beneath the flood of white light. He could not make out a face, nor even clothing through the backlight, yet Parrot knew without doubt that it was Wifies. As the red glow of a Redstone block flickered and machinery began to move, the growing noise made his ears ache.
Will you one day drape yourself in white cloth and devour my lungs and bones?
Desperately bending his stiff wings, he wrapped them around himself. The strength he had stubbornly held onto finally crumbled away in an instant. Was it because he had gone so long without eating? The dry loaves of bread he had thrown off the platform came to mind. It didn't matter. He had no intention of obediently being fattened up just to die. Parrot closed his eyes.
Parrot, you can't do anything.
A low voice rang in his ears. A sweet-tasting red liquid flowed into his mouth. Wifies was supporting the back of his neck and forcibly tilting a bottle, making him swallow medicine. He tore apart golden apples and shoved them into Parrot's mouth. As multicolored lights bloomed before his eyes, his dulled senses slowly returned. Parrot idly clenched his hand. The hand that had once been mangled by pointed dripstone and blades was now spotless, not a single scar remaining.
You only have to answer, Parrot. Stay in Paragon with me. Just like I told you before, you've tried everything. And you've failed everything. So let's stop now. It's not that difficult, is it? ...Hm?
Wifies whispered. The broken base of Parrot's wing trembled. Wifies brushed aside the bangs that had grown long enough to cover Parrot's eyes. The hand that had shattered every part of him was unbearably gentle.
Parrot lifted his gaze toward Wifies' face. A smile spread across his friend's features. He looked impossibly satisfied.
The black ceiling reflected in Parrot's eyes.
Round and round, back to the beginning.
He reached out with a trembling hand, and his friend smiled like a man who had obtained everything. The waves engraved into Wifies' Netherite armor glimmered softly. For a fleeting moment, Parrot was seized by the urge to lower his hand and wrap it around Wifies' throat.
But he couldn't.
He didn't.
Parrot could not kill Wifies.
Parrot...
*
The first thing he noticed was a cherry wood ceiling. The second was the smell of burning. The third was a headache so severe it felt as though his skull might split apart. Parrot felt an overwhelming flood of sensations pierce through his body all at once. For a brief moment he curled up and groaned at the pain that seemed to carve through every inch of him, but from a handful of clues he soon realized where he was.
Wifies' base.
Fuck.
Parrot clutched at his head. Several strands of hair came loose beneath his sharp claws and fell away limply. He tried to stand, forcing his weakened legs to cooperate, but his body refused to obey. With a heavy thud, the body that had been laid upon the bed tumbled to the floor. Supporting himself with trembling hands, Parrot slowly pushed himself upright. A few feathers drifted down pitifully.
It took him quite some time to relearn how to carry his own weight. He had to repeatedly correct his balance in order to support a wing whose main bone had snapped. He could not properly walk because he was unable to put weight on his broken leg. Worse still, his uninjured leg was bound by a tracking device. Thorough bastard. At the sight of himself staggering around like a newly hatched chick, Parrot let out a hollow laugh.
Once he finally managed to lean against a wall, familiar furniture came into view. A sofa. A table. Bookshelves. A crafting table. The base was almost unchanged from the last time he had visited it, back when he had needed to earn Wifies' favor in order to escape Paragon. His stomach twisted unpleasantly at the sight of the poppies he had planted there, now blooming in full.
He threw open the cherry wood door.
Night.
And rain.
Parrot stared blankly upward.
The pitch-black sky and the pouring rain pressed down upon his entire body. Slowly, he began to walk. He kept walking until his bare feet were stained with dirt and coated in sand. Past towering sugar cane. Until he reached the edge of a shallow lake and dipped his feet into the water. There was no hesitation. The sound of raindrops striking the surface erased every discordant note Parrot created.
He walked.
He walked deeper into the water.
The darkness submerged his thighs, then his stomach, his chest, and finally his chin. The weight of his soaked wings made him stagger, yet he kept moving forward. The breath stubbornly clinging to him felt unbearably tiresome.
Where did the dream begin, and where did reality end? Why had Wifies released him from the platform? Paragon, me—
Parrot closed his eyes.
He no longer wanted to doubt anything. Nor test anything. Reality alone was already more than enough. He wanted to drink deeply from the bitter cup of failure. There was nothing left to cling to. If someone was going to place a period at the end of his life, he only wished that the hand holding the pen would be his own rather than Wifies'. He had spent his entire life running without rest. Now, he wanted to rest. The water rose above his head.
His body began to sink.
His consciousness drifted.
*
A person's hands reveal who they are.
Parrot was a bird.
Hybrid, half-human, whatever name one wished to give it—at his core, he was a bird. Massive wings capable of flight spread from his back, and sharp talons tipped both his fingers and toes. Though he lived among human civilization and led a life much like theirs, he believed the pride that jutted sharply from within his chest came from those wings and talons.
Parrot could never understand humans.
Parrot was intelligent. The moment he stepped into this unstable world where power equaled authority, he never stopped thinking. Eventually he reached a conclusion.
Instability begins with humanity.
Every civilization that had flourished across the Overworld, the Nether, and the End had begun with humans or human hybrids. They desired endlessly.
They longed.
They hated.
They loved.
They obsessed.
They yearned.
Those who grasped every evil in their hands and scattered it across the world were beings rooted in humanity.
Every hand Parrot had encountered laid bare both the wickedness of humans and the suffering of those forced to oppose it.
Hands hardened by calluses and scars from gripping weapons and cutting one another down. The endless pain they endured became brands etched into their flesh, leaving marks that could never be erased.
It was almost laughable that no one ever cared for their own suffering. They constantly checked the durability of their armor and weapons, yet dragged along their fragile bodies only as much as necessity demanded. It was only natural.
This damned world had no place for those who spent precious time tending flesh and blood destined to perish anyway.
In that sense, Wifies always felt strangely detached from the world.
One winter, while heavy snow drifted endlessly from the sky and Wifies cared for him, Parrot found his gaze lingering on Wifies' hands.
Muscles and veins lay beneath skin so pale and thin it seemed almost transparent. They were immaculate hands, entirely free of scars. To describe them merely as pale felt insufficient. They looked exactly like Wifies himself.
Parrot liked Wifies' hands.
He liked how Wifies made an effort to protect them simply because Parrot had once complimented them. It was only natural. Wifies treated Parrot with the same care one might show a precious hand. He knew how to tend wounds without leaving scars behind. He knew how to painstakingly stitch injuries closed and wrap them in bandages. Parrot loved that gentleness. A kindness offered freely. Someone who always walked ahead and reached back with an outstretched hand. Wifies was better than Parrot in nearly every way, yet he always lowered himself for Parrot's sake. Wifies often said that if Parrot were gone, he would have no reason to remain in this world.
In a place where Parrot woke every morning relieved to find his head still attached to his body, the fact that someone remained faithfully at his side without ever changing their mind—
The fact that such a person seemed so unlike every other human he had ever known—
He thought it was something wonderful.
*
"Parrot, are you crazy?"
—As always, no one becomes full from the first bite.
A rough hand slammed repeatedly against his back and the breath caught in his throat burst free. Parrot doubled over, coughing violently as water surged up from deep inside him. His throat burned.
His soaked wings trembled like drenched cotton, droplets streaming from the feathers.
"Jumper..."
From the empty air occupied only by the particles of an Invisibility Potion and a floating set of Netherite armor came Jumperwho's voice.
Flustered, Jumperwho patted his back, ripped the battery from a ringing communicator, muttered a string of curses under her breath, and drank a bucket of milk. The invisibility gradually faded. Her eyes were red. Her entire body was drenched from diving into the water to save him.
"You should've just ignored me."
"What? No. Parrot. What are you talking about?"
"I said why didn't you leave me alone? You could've pretended not to notice until I drowned."
"How could I do that? You, are my friend!"
"Because of your spies? Because you're afraid Wifies would retaliate against them if I died?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Parrot was startled by how cruel they sounded.
They were words he never should have spoken.
Especially not to a friend who had risked her life to save him.Watching sorrow fill Jumperwho's eyes made his stomach churn.
"Parrot."
"...Sorry."
Instead of answering or blaming him, Jumperwho silently pulled out a shulker box.She examined the leg and wing that had once been broken in a fall, then pulled out fresh bandages and tightened the loosened splints.
She was clearly unaccustomed to treating injuries. Compared to Wifies, her hands were clumsy beyond comparison. Her cloak settled over his body like a poncho. As she tied the knot, Jumperwho repeatedly drew in short breaths and let them out again, as though carefully choosing her words.
"...Please, Parrot. Don't die. You can't die."
Please... don't leave. Okay?
Suddenly, Parrot remembered the moment he had tried to kill the guards. The totem shattering as she fell onto pointed dripstone. The axe raised high above her. The desperate voice of a friend ringing out just before the blow could land.
Parrot's meticulously crafted plan had been utterly destroyed by Wifies, who had somehow managed to see exactly one move ahead of him.
B.A.T. itself was Parrot's Achilles' heel. They were the people who had first reached out a hand to him when he wandered the world after Wifies' death, like a drifter with nowhere to belong. The people who had willingly crossed every line to become his friends. Parrot had received endless trust and affection from them.
And he had never managed to repay it. That fact lingered deep within a corner of his heart, accumulating at twice the weight of every kindness they had given him.
Jumperwho and Derapchu had become trapped in Paragon alongside him forever. Leo and Nufuli had met horrific deaths. None of it would have happened if he had simply never existed. Parrot suffered beneath that thought. Even though everything had happened because of him, Jumperwho still looked at him with nothing but tenderness. Eyes that seemed to whisper: None of this is your fault. That kind of untainted kindness hurt.
"...Okay."
Jumperwho smiled. Parrot turned his head away. In the distance, two figures were flying toward them. Grabbing his thigh for support, Parrot forced himself upright. The loose white sleeve hanging from his wrist clung to him, soaked through.
One of the figures landed gracefully on a single knee. The other crashed into the ground as though falling from the sky. The first was Wifies.
The second was Derapchu. Derapchu's complexion was deathly pale. A communicator was clenched tightly in his hand. He lifted his head and met Jumperwho's eyes. Jumperwho deliberately looked away.
Wifies approached Parrot as though Jumperwho and Derapchu did not exist at all. Parrot had assumed that if Wifies ever stood before him again, he would either smile with enough gentleness to make him want to die or simply remain silent. That was the Wifies of the present.
The Wifies who had endured the Director. Wifies had declared with his own mouth that he had left his former self behind. And Parrot had already surrendered completely to that fact.
"Parrot, are you okay?"
Yeah, damn it. He is scared, aren't him?
Parrot thought of the days when neither of them had suffered through any of this. The days when each other's backs had been their greatest support. When each other's existence mattered as much as their own.Whenever Parrot returned drenched in blood, Wifies had genuinely been terrified. Parrot used to laugh endlessly whenever he saw Wifies trembling as he held him close, trying desperately to keep his body warm while his temperature dropped lower and lower.
Stop laughing, your wounds are opening again.
Hey, bro. You look like you're about to cry enough tears to fill a truck. At Parrot's weak laughter, Wifies would furrow his brow—
"I did it."
"......."
"I did it. Jumper had nothing to do with it."
"Jumper is one of guards, Parrot. If she hadn't found you in time—"
"Wifies. Let me ask you one thing."
A faint smile escaped Parrot's lips. Within the empty palm that held nothing anymore, he felt a single weakness roll into reach. A weakness belonging to Wifies. To the Director. A weakness, Parrot had never discovered until now.
You never once thought I would choose death.
You trusted my desire to keep living more than I did myself.
Slowly, deliberately, Parrot wrapped his fingers around his own throat in front of Wifies. Among everything Wifies possessed, there was only one thing Parrot could truly take away from him.
"If I die. would you be unhappy?"