By Zephyria 
Fortunately, Pipi didn’t go far and was fluttering around nearby. He sat on this branch, then that branch, went to the balcony railing, then hovered in mid-air…
At this rate, I felt like he would expose my hiding place. I was going to wait until he calmed down, but I couldn’t, so I reached out my hand.
“Come here. Let’s go to Aska.”
—He speaks! He speaks!
“I could always speak.”
—He answers! He answers!
“I know, so come here first.”
I waved my hand as if telling him to sit here, and only then did Pipi approach. He was so small that I couldn’t even feel his weight when he sat on the back of my hand.
—How can he hear me?
“I don’t know.”
—But you’re human?
“If I’m human, I can’t understand you?”
—That’s right. It’s strange.
His tone was so funny that I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“But where did you learn to speak?”
—Why learn to speak?
“Then how do you speak?”
—You just have to think.
What is he talking about? Do Magical creatures communicate differently from humans? Anyway, it wasn’t that important, so I changed the subject.
“Do you happen to know where Aska is?”
—I do. But he said if I follow him, he’ll pluck my wings.
That was such a violent tone that I couldn’t believe Aska said it. I guess he was a little rough with Pipi even when he was young… Didn’t he say earlier that Aska broke his wings because he ate someone?
I asked with a bewildered face.
“Does Aska hit you often?”
—Yes. But I hit him too, so it’s okay.
“……”
Normally, I wouldn’t stand by if someone hit Aska, but it was hard to say anything about this. Are they just playing around as friends? I’ve never seen them hit each other, so I couldn’t tell.
“Do you break his bones too?”
—I used to eat his liver, but I can’t do that anymore. Now I pluck one strand of his hair at a time. Then he’ll go bald someday. Ugly Aska. When he becomes ugly, he cries a lot.
The content was so unexpected that I was speechless with each word I heard.
“Why did you eat his liver?”
—He kept telling me to be quiet and threatening to tear my beak off. And I was quiet, but he scolded me again for shedding feathers. He hit me again for being noisy while hunting.
Just listening to it, it sounded like Aska was abusing animals. No, not animal abuse, Magical creature abuse…
—Anyway, I’m too weak now, so I’m just taking the hits. I’m originally super strong, so I don’t even feel pain when I get hit with his cotton fists. It tickles.
“Why are you weak now?”
—He’s forcibly making me regress. And shim, bleeep!
Pipi, who was saying something incomprehensible, suddenly screamed and slapped my face with his wings.
—Don’t ask! Don’t ask!
It didn’t hurt, it just tickled, so I let him hit me a few times. Asking someone else about Aska was a bit of a guilty thing to do, but I couldn’t stop asking questions. Aska doesn’t tell me any of these stories.
He doesn’t like to talk about it, so I don’t ask, but once I started listening, I couldn’t stop.
—Don’t tell Aska that I hit him. Got it?
Then Pipi said in a slightly anxious tone. I hesitated for a moment and shrugged.
“I’m going to tell him?”
—Why! Why! Why! Why!
Ugh, so noisy. I understood why Aska got angry and told him to be quiet. I covered my ears with my hands to protect my eardrums and sighed.
“I’ll keep it a secret that I was painfully beaten, so just tell me that. What are you regressing?”
Pipi seemed to be contemplating, then sighed as if he couldn’t help it and chattered.
—Horns and wings, things like that. The horns are almost gone now. It’s not just changing the shape, it’s regressing everything as a whole and making me weaker. Like a plant without water and sunlight. Grass withers without sunlight. And it dries up without water. It’s a big problem if the roots of a plant rot. And rabbits eat plants, but withered ones don’t taste good, have no nutritional value, and are not good at all. Rabbits get skinny when they starve, and then…
I frowned, half-listening to Pipi, who suddenly started lecturing.
“Why are you regressing?”
Come to think of it, his wings seemed a little smaller when I saw him getting treatment… I just thought he reduced the size because the space was cramped. The horns originally only showed the very tips, so I thought that was just how they were, but it was all because of regression.
While I was lost in thought, Pipi, who was already talking about the food chain, looked at me and answered briefly.
—He says I’m not pretty.
“What?”
—Aska cries all the time when he becomes ugly. And he doesn’t eat, he just sleeps and suffers, and he cries until he bleeds from his throat. I suddenly feel sorry, so I’ll stop plucking his hair. He can’t become ugly.
“……”
—I don’t feel pain even if my wings are broken, but Aska hurts when he goes bald. He cries all the time. Crybaby ugly. Poor Aska. He just cries without eating. He shouldn’t not eat…
The more he spoke, the weaker Pipi’s voice became. I also started to feel depressed.
Is he talking about when he was under the lake? He kept making strange noises back then. I couldn’t tell if he was crying or screaming in pain. Maybe it was both?
I stared at Pipi and asked.
“How do you know all that?”
—I just know. I’ve known since I was born. It’s instinct.
I thought he heard it from Aska, but when he suddenly said instinct, I was puzzled.
“What instinct? You mean it’s instinct to know about Aska?”
—That’s right. All the races who participated in the ritual together in the promised land know. They all swore to help unconditionally. That’s why Aska can go anywhere and know everything.
I understood almost nothing, but when he said ritual, the scene I saw in my dream came to mind. Wasn’t that a very long time ago? I tilted my head and asked.
“Have you lived that long? How old are you?”
—Ten years old.
“……”
I was surprised because he was younger than I thought. Well, maybe that’s not that young for an animal? He’s not an animal, he’s a Magical creature, right. Maybe the ritual Pipi is talking about is different from what I know?
“What exactly is the ritual?”
—It’s something that many races gathered and did a long time ago. But I don’t know the details either.
“You said you know it instinctively?”
At my question, Pipi poked my cheekbone with his beak as if he was frustrated.
—That’s just that I instinctively know that I have to help Aska, how would I know about old things? Even my mom doesn’t know that.
“You have a mom too?”
I realized the sentence was strange as soon as I said it. Pipi seemed as flustered as I was, making a small peep sound and muttering with shocked eyes.
—I, I had a mom…
It was in the past tense. I felt like I had become trash, so I quickly changed the subject.
“When we get back later, I’ll give you as much cake as you want. With lots of milk cream.”
—Give it to me without fruit. I don’t really like fruit. I like chocolate more.
“Okay, I’ll pile up a mountain of chocolate and milk cream cake for you.”
—Yay! Yay!
Pipi fluttered his wings and danced, his shocked expression from a moment ago completely gone.
“Let’s go to Aska now.”
—He told me not to come. No way.
“If Aska tries to pluck your wings, I’ll stop him.”
—No way. No way. Absolutely no way.
He was so firm that it seemed like not even a needle could get through. But I couldn’t give up like this. The key to negotiation is to offer what the other party wants most as bait.
“Chichi said Sakira gives him cake every day, right? I can do that too. I have more money than Sakira, and I know a lot of famous masters.”
—What’s a master?
“The person who wins first place in a cake-making competition with chocolate and milk cream.”
—……!
I could see the cracks forming in his ice-cold determination. Pipi hesitated with wavering eyes and said.
—E, every day?
“Yes. By the way, there’s no next time if you refuse. This is the first and last chance.”
With the deadline set, Pipi couldn’t stand it any longer and flapped his wings urgently.
—I’m going! I’m going now!
He was so easy to persuade because he was young.
And so, Pipi and I took our first steps on an adventure to find Aska. We passed through a secret passage in a secluded place that I don’t know how we found, and went down the stairs for a long time. Aska said he felt something underground, and it must have been true.
“Pipi.”
I opened my mouth as I went down the spiral stone staircase in the slightly humid air. The voice echoed loudly because it was such a quiet and narrow space.
“You said earlier that Aska is forcibly making you regress. Like a plant without water and sunlight.”
—That’s right.
Perhaps the fact that Aska no longer eats blood or smells blood is also related to this.
I had been feeling uneasy ever since I first heard Pipi’s words.
“But plants don’t regress when they don’t have water and sunlight, they die.”
I wondered if it was really regression. If so, could he stop at the desired point?