Jiang gasped, his eyes snapping open as he jolted upright. His lungs burned, sucking in air like he'd been holding his breath for hours. He blinked, disoriented, the dim light of the room slowly coming into focus. He wasn't in the void anymore. The endless whiteness, the god-like figure… all of it was gone. He was… home?
He glanced around, recognizing the familiar surroundings of his small apartment—the cramped space, the flickering lightbulb above the kitchen, and the pile of laundry he'd been meaning to deal with. But something felt off. He looked down, and his stomach dropped. He was naked.
Of course I'm naked. He groaned inwardly, running a hand through his hair. His body felt strange—heavy, sore, as if he'd just been run over. His skin tingled, and he realized with a start that he was human again.
Panic shot through him, and he instinctively reached down, feeling his hands, his legs. His heart raced as his fingers brushed over bare skin. No feathers, no flippers. He was back to normal.
A soft gasp made him freeze.
He turned, and there, sitting on the edge of his bed, was Aylin. Her eyes were wide, staring at him as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Jiang's cheeks flushed as he quickly grabbed the nearest blanket, throwing it over himself.
"Uh… hey," he managed, his voice cracking.
Aylin's face turned an odd shade of pink, and she quickly looked away, her hands fidgeting in her lap. "I… I didn't think you'd turn human naked."
"Uh… yeah," Jiang mumbled, adjusting the blanket around his waist. "Why am I… naked?"
Aylin's smirk finally broke through. "System's quirks, I guess. You were out for a while, and when you finally started transforming back, your clothes didn't come with you. Guess it prefers you this way."
Jiang flushed, his cheeks burning as he shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, well, it's not exactly the grand return I was hoping for."
Aylin shrugged, standing up from the bed, her eyes flicking toward him again, lingering just a little too long on his bare chest before she cleared her throat and looked away. "Could be worse. At least you're human again." She walked over to the window, her fingers brushing the curtain aside as she peered out. "You should count yourself lucky. You weren't supposed to come back at all."
Jiang frowned, pulling the blanket tighter as he leaned forward. "Wait, hold on. You found me at the zoo… how did you even find my apartment?"
Aylin stood by the window, her back to him. "I had to find something—anything that would lead me to where you lived. After the attack, I found your wallet. Your ID was in there, so I took a chance and figured this place would be safe for now."
Jiang blinked, the fog in his mind starting to lift. "My wallet... right." He rubbed the back of his neck, the feeling of normalcy creeping back in for the first time since this whole mess started. "And you just... carried me here?"
Aylin smirked slightly, though her eyes held a seriousness that hadn't been there before. "Wasn't easy, believe me. You're heavier than you look. But yeah, I got you here. You needed somewhere to recover, and this was the safest option."
Jiang leaned back slightly, trying to process everything. It still didn't make sense, even though Aylin made it sound simple. His heart raced as flashes of something deeper—darker—hovered at the edge of his memory. The deal. The figure in the void. His mind tugged at the memories, but nothing came through clearly. Every time he tried to focus, it was like a fog clouding his thoughts.
"So..." Jiang started, rubbing the back of his neck. "What exactly happened to me? I remember... everything going black. Like I was gone."
Aylin shifted uncomfortably, the faintest trace of worry crossing her face before she masked it with a shrug. "You collapsed. I tried to revive you. Honestly, I didn't think it would work. You were gone, and I was..." She paused, biting her lip. "I don't know what I was. Desperate, I guess."
Jiang blinked, realizing how close he had come to truly disappearing. He swallowed hard, feeling the weight of her words. "But then I came back. How?"
Aylin hesitated, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her jacket. "I... I don't know. One minute you were cold, and the next, you were breathing again. But I'm not sure it was anything I did. It was almost like something else brought you back."
Jiang's stomach tightened. He wanted to tell her about the figure in the void, the deal, the system glitch... but as soon as he thought of it, the words slipped from his mind, lost like a dream he couldn't quite recall.
Instead, he focused on something more immediate, something real. "And... you're okay with this?" he asked, glancing down at his naked body, still awkwardly wrapped in the blanket.
Aylin's expression softened, and she looked away briefly, a faint smirk playing on her lips. "I've seen worse," she said lightly, though there was something guarded in her tone. "Look, after everything I've been through... seeing you naked is the least of my concerns. My world is... well, let's just say, I'm used to worse situations."