Chapter 1: Of course you can't return!

The man known as Kinyuki had run out of his office and down the hall to the emergency exit door. Images raced through his head, trying to comprehend the situation that he was in. A flock, no a maelstrom of psychotic mutated birds have come out of nowhere, terrorizing the compound, maybe even the city. 'Was it the end of the world?' he thought, 'Maybe its all a...'. Kinyuki's thoughts had trailed off as he opened the door. He immediately shut it and began to run away as fast as he could.

It was too late, several of the birds had taken notice of the opened door and clawed their way through the opening, and soon more started pouring in. Kinyuki rushed towards one of the office rooms and shut the door behind him with moments to spare. To his horror, more of the beasts had already broken into one of the windows, but only a few of them had come in. They appeared to be unaware of his presence, picking at a bag of chips that had fallen out of one of the desks.

He slowly moved towards one of the desks, and quietly grabbed what office supplies he could. He held aloft the half filled paper clip holder and threw it to the other side of the room, hoping it would distract them. Thankfully, the little things weren't as smart as he had thought they were, as they took the bait to investigate the noise. He was also thankful that he was on the first floor, as he made a mad dash to the window and jumped out to a street filled with the screams of bird and man.

He didn't have much time to think about getting to his car, the damn things managed to swarm the parking lot, and the thought of being trapped in his car with a bunch of birds pecking away at his flesh was more than enough to not consider it. Hoping that no one had ended up in a four-wheeled feathery coffin, he made it away from work, and began to traverse the avian infested city.

As he ran, Kinyuki began to notice the lack of people running for cover. He tried not to think about the reasons, or anything that didn't have to do with survival and broke left down an alleyway after seeing some of the birds swoop down in his directions. He stopped short of the other side of the alley, and peeked his head around the wall. Seeing no immediate threat, he sighed heavily, moving back to the middle of the alleyway to rest.

'Damn winged cretins covered the buildings.' He thought. Kinyuki's mind tried to make sense of how the birds were so numerous, clustered at the tops of the buildings that it seemed more like pulsating black tendrils had slithered around them, with the darkened sky being the source that gave them life. The bottom of the buildings were mostly clear, but he assumed that the insides were just as congested with feathered freaks than the outside.

Kinyuki's thoughts broke when he looked on the other side of the alleyway and saw a broken mirror lying in front of him. He instinctively rubbed his hands past his low-cut, dirty blond hair. He scratched at pencil thin mustache, trying to figure out what he could do now without going into a panic attack. The world was ending and everyone had probably evacuated without him even knowing, or anyone even caring to tell him. He felt more helpless than he ever had before, clenching his teeth in frustration as he grasped at any fleeting idea at what to do in this hopeless situation.

Then he saw it, right in front of the mirror. On the broken side of the shattered reflected surface lied a 3 foot, rusty tipped, tough metal answer to his prayers; a pipe. Kinyuki rushed for the potential weapon like it was the last in stock and firmly grasped it in his hands. The metal wasn't bendable, and wasn't heavy in his hand when he tested it with a few swings. The moment of truth; to see if it was strong enough as a weapon, he swung it hard on the wall, and the clanking sound that rang through the alley confirmed his beliefs.

Unfortunately, he had also now alerted the small flock of birds that he had evaded before to his presence. They hovered before him, a flock of four, screeching loud enough to rival nails on a chalk board. Kinyuki noticed to his disgust that they had teeth, and readied his weapon, raring for a swing at the first stupid bird that came his way. One flew at him and he took a swing, causing it to spiral down and hit the ground with a thud that was satisfying enough to relieve Kinyuki from his feeling of helplessness. The others assessed that Kinyuki was a threat and dove at him, but he was able to shoo them off quickly with another hearty swing.

"Gonna need more than a coat hanger to off you little freaks!" Kinyuki growled at his attackers.

His boasting cost him, the last bird lunged and grabbed onto him as his siblings slowly recovered from the attack. As the bird gnashed its tiny teeth at him, talons tearing at clothes to get the pipe away from him, Kinyuki decided to repay in kind.

Biting the bird hard in its neck it shrieked in surprise, shaken enough for Kinyuki to ring his neck with one had and beat him over the head with the pipe in the other. As he dropped the motionless bird, the others tried attacking as well, but Kinyuki took the opportunity to attack the ones still on the ground before they could fly again.

Kinyuki ignored the pain, the scratches of talons on his skin, the taste of feathers and kept swinging, making sure he doesn't wear himself out chasing them around. With one final slug, the last bird was on the ground, writhing in pain with the others. Kinyuki took no chances with these beasts, and swung hard down on each of them again and again until they bled. What came out was puddles of inky stew that smelled like one's urine after eating asparagus, which each of the birds slowly the dissipated into. Kinyuki breath started to steady as he stared at the puddles of black.

It was almost half a minute before the words "Friggin' minions..." escaped his mouth.

That was it for him thinking this was just a horrible event in human history. He had to be in an RPG.

Life as he knew it wasn't ending, he thought, but destroying itself because now reality has to work on video game logic. No, even worse, the universe has to work on softcore harem genre logic, and his universe is breaking down as the all-consuming, cyclical nature of fan-service was clearly incompatible with normal physics and cannot meld together properly. To top it off, it was all probably happening because some idiot wished for the world to be like their dumb, cock-teasing fantasy because they couldn't get a date, and at the expense of what? People suffering? Worlds crumbling? Loved ones gone for the sake of fools errands completed?

The feeling of the metal pipe in his hands snapped him back to reality, or whatever reality he has to live in now. He took a deep breath and walked towards the mirror, grabbing it. He left the alley way, deciding to search for some sort of exit out of this 'half world', because there had to be in things like these, and he had the perfect solution for encounters. 'If this is truly like a story, this should be all I need anyway' He thought, still cautious from his encounter.

:::

Kinyuki: <Dude Im back>

FIGARO: <Awesome man i was worried!! Whahappun?!>

Kinyuki begins to describe as much as he could to Figaro while keeping an eye on the battery power. Encounters had been easy to avoid, just as he had hoped, as the broken mirror had made the birds think that he was just one of them. Even when he had to fight, he had used it again to confuse some of the more careless ones into dropping their guard for an extra hit. Figaro was most impressed how Kinyuki described how he was able to get the drop on another group of birds by leaving the mirror in the open and jumping them at the right time.

Also, just like he'd hoped, Kinyuki was able to find an exit of sorts. It wasn't exactly a portal per say, but it looked like an image made of fog. There were more of the birds there, but they wound't get near it, and almost seemed like they were guarding it. Kinyuki stuck his hand through the portal, which felt like reaching through thick fog, with the other side feeling safe enough.

Kinyuki: <Then I logged onto my profile on my phone, and here we are.>

FIGARO: <Damn Kinny I didnt expect you to be the hero type^0^>

Kinyuki: <Im just trying to keep myself alive. You okay?>

FIGARO: <Yea. I'll be alright. Where you at?>

Kinyuki: <Dunno. There's a little town in the distance. Humble Village? >

FIGARO: <I heard about that town. There should be some forests there right?>

Kinyuki: <Yeah some ways away from it. beginning to lose connection. You think we could meet up there.>

Figaro winced a little at that last part. Meeting his only (male) friend was something he had wanted, but he couldn't leave without finding himself in mortal danger. He even had to be careful in the daytime, not to mention whatever guards the fronts of the gates blocking him from leaving.

'I'll be screwed if I leave now. Night's coming soon, maybe I'll leave next morning, or i could tell him to wait instead.' Figaro shook his head at that thought, remembering the birds outside, how they sqwaked and clawed at the stones of his prison . His friend is in danger, and so is he if those things get into the tower. He knew that he'd have to come out with the truth eventually, or risk his friends life instead.

FIGARO: <yea i'm just in the forests. you just stay near there okay? I'll call out to you.>

Kinyuki: <Awesome :) See ya there in Humble!>

"If Kinyuki's brave enough to beat some level one beast," Figaro huffed, "Then I've gotta knuckle up too so I can help my bro out!"

FIGARO: <See ya.>

<Instachat ended>