# Chapter 4: A Certain Black Bird, One Day Earlier
# Chapter 4: A Certain Black Bird, One Day Earlier
Around the time Witch Enaga was sitting alone at the dinner table, Akebi had been busy... doing something to a certain black bird lying in the road.
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The evening before Enaga arrived, Akebi trudged along the road, stomach growling, mind completely occupied by the one question that mattered: *what's for dinner tonight.*
Something caught his eye near his feet — a grimy, jet-black bird, sprawled out limp and lifeless.
**Akebi**
"...Hm? Whoa, is that a... rock? Or did someone drop a burnt rice ball? lol"
**Black Bird** *(internal thoughts)*
*...Who's a rice ball. Can't you tell just by looking? This is what remains of a noble, once-proud bloodline... Oi. Stop poking me.*
Akebi crouched down slowly and stared at the black bird with intense focus.
The bird didn't so much as twitch, but its eyes met Akebi's — wide, pure, and hopelessly naive.
**Akebi**
"...oh, he's alive... but wow, he's a total mess. Did he pass out 'cause he's hungry? Poor little guy..."
**Black Bird** *(internal thoughts)*
*Hmph. I require no pity. I am merely... resting, in order to maintain the balance of the world's natural order—*
Akebi rustled around in his pocket and pulled out his own precious, meager rice ball — pretty much all the food he had left — split it in half, and shoved it right up against the beak of the collapsed black bird.
**Akebi**
"Here, it's my dinner, but let's share! Eat up, it'll give you energy!
...oh, but wait, he's black and tiny, kinda like a sesame seed... if I stuck him inside the rice ball, he'd basically look like a filling, wouldn't he? lol"
**Black Bird** *(internal thoughts)*
*...!? What did you just say?! Pretending to do me a kindness, while secretly plotting to wrap me in rice and turn me into a "filling"!? ...The eyes of a terrifying PREDATOR...!*
In the end, the black bird was scooped up in Akebi's warm hands and hauled home against its will.
With not a shred of magic left to resist, the black bird — thoroughly terrified by the "filling" comment — experienced human warmth for the very first time in its life.
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**Author's Note:** Bit of a chuunibyou, this one, huh lol
o/
