Walk Me Home

Chapter 7

Birdman, with Perman still in his hold, reappeared atop of one of the tallest buildings in the city. He let go of him, expecting him to land on the ground but ended up dropping him. He got out of his own vehicle, and helped him up his feet.

"That's quite a graceful landing there, eh, Perman?" Birdman teased.

"...What's going on?" Perman asked, trying to ignore the comment.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten already."

"Umm... " Perman just stared at him, unable to follow what he was implying.

"For goodness sakes, No. 1! I thought looking for the last man trapped in that rubble would've reminded you of—"

"Oh!" he exclaimed, remembering what it was. "I can't believe I... I didn't think you're gonna tell it this soon."

"Neither did I," he chuckled, "I've seen how you did back there. That was probably one of the most serious missions all of you have ever faced. But your leadership helped your friends get through it and each of you lead them to safety. And for that, I think you deserved a reward in the form of an account that you might as well hear, now."

"Wow, thank you!" Perman beamed at him. "Wait... didn't you promise that you'll also tell Pergirl and Booby?"

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten and I plan to tell them when I feel like it. Now, I feel like I should tell you first, considering it was about your life at risk on that day.

"That is, if only you're ready," he said, the last sentence suddenly sounding a bit lower.

Perman wasn't deterred at all by it, it seemed. "I am," he answered boldly. "I wanna know what happened. I was unconscious, right?"

"Out cold, was more like it, but only because I couldn't help thinking how the term was so appropriate." Birdman really couldn't, even bursting out a small but loud 'haha' afterwards. But he was going to get serious now. "Alright, finally got that out of the way, let me just think for a second... You can sit down if you like."

Which Perman did, kneeling, folding his legs underneath his thighs and resting on his heels.

Birdman followed but reluctant to go along with his odd choice of sitting, seeing that the foundation underneath them would be the last place to do so. It was no wooden floor. So he just settled himself with his legs crossed. Perman won't mind, he thought. He just smiled at him, and sniggering awkwardly.

"It's okay. Just tell me now before it gets dark. I still have to see if my homework's done."

"Oh, that's right. Your copy robot's doing it, right? Well, okay…"

By the way of a story, he tried his best to recap everything he saw that day... Alone in his ship, out in the space, he remembered.

Then he spoke again once had finally got the image in his mind. "I was simply minding my own business when I suddenly thought of checking to see how the rescue has been going.

"...You weren't with them. Perman No. 2 and 3 were the only ones I saw when the family started thanking. I wondered where you were. Then she wondered where you were, saying you might still be in the snow. That was when I took action and look for you myself."

"I remember!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I really was in the snow! The kid was still inside when the snow started falling all over her. I tossed her to Booby and then I told them to fly down from the mountain. And the snow fell down on me instead, so I got trapped. But—" Perman stopped when he saw Birdman looking at him intently. "I'm sorry. You're supposed to be the only one doing the talking..."

"No, no. Go ahead," Birdman said. "I think it's important to know first what you remembered the last time in the mountains since I also need to know how you got so lost."

"Oh! Okay then," Perman replied.

Through the best of his memory, he recalled the images of the harsh snow of wind and cold. To where it all began.

"So I got trapped, like I said..."

Perman emerged from the deep snow that piled up from the blizzard. He knew that once he did, his friends have had already lead the family to safety, so they were gone. He was left to find his way back down the mountain, alone. Had he paid more attention to the sight he'd seen as he emerged...

"...I tried to fly away, I couldn't see anything from up there! Everything looked white and I couldn't tell where I was going."

Blinded, he still flew but in one direction: downward. Even if he weren't able to land on the exact spot where the rescue was waiting, it would be close enough to land somewhere out of the snow and he'd meet up with them later, he thought. The plan was becoming more and more difficult to advance as the wind seemed to confuse him more.

"But I flew as fast as I can."

And the wind blew with him. The snow so strong, not even his helmet had shielded his own eyes from the flakes that attacked his face. Though there was no clear ground to land on, he had no choice and opted to land on a little brown spot; a rock that was somehow spared from all the snow.

He had no intention to stay any longer. But to his most unfortunate of stars, the very cape that he's used to travel all the way was blown off his shoulders. It was the worst possible thing to happen.

"When that happened, I panicked. I looked all over for it but the wind wasn't stopping so I got more confused...!" Perman paused, ready to recall a particularly difficult part of his story where he came into the despair event horizon. "I couldn't find it anymore..."

Perman was no match for the cruel nature of the cold mountain. The more he walked, exposed more than ever without his cape, the more his will to continue deteriorate as he fell to his knees. His vision had begun to flicker. He hadn't seen where it blew off to, making the situation all the more hopeless.

There was the badge, he suddenly thought.

"I just remembered I had my badge! At first, I thought I would be doomed... and it turns out, I am!"

Perman grabbed a spot on his shirt where his badge was supposed to be and felt nothing, much to his dread.

"I stood up to try and see if it was somewhere out there... big mistake."

He stood, took one step, and felt something crack... A mantra of no's echoed in his mind, only stopping when he discovered through digging from the thin pile of snow, he saw his badge, a huge crack on its surface. He pressed to see if it would still work but the light wasn't flashing and so was the beeping sound. Perman couldn't help it.

He cried.

"That's when I prepared myself... I just lay there in the snow, saying how sorry I am. T-to my mama, my papa, my little sister, my friends... everyone I knew." Currently, he tried to stay strong. When a tear duct made its way in the corner of his eye, he wiped it away with a swift finger. "Then I closed my eyes, thinking I would never wake up.

"But I did, and saw that I was in bed, inside of a small cabin... and you at the door. That's it."

They remained sitting, but Perman's position had changed from the first time, was in a typical seiza fashion, but was now hugging his knees close.

"It's your turn, Birdman!" he said, his eager tone striking Birdman as...too soon.

Did he even let himself sink in for a moment, he thought. Or he was simply not letting the depressing atmosphere linger. But in any case, he just nodded and said, "...Sure, Perman."

Back to the mountains they were.

"Do you still remember where I left off?"

"You said that when you saw me that I wasn't with Pergirl and Booby, you decided to go and look for me yourself."

"Ah, yes! I'm glad you were listening. Okay, here it goes.

"I took my ship and made my way to the mountain..."

Birdman hoped that by some chance while he was in the air, he would bump into him. He sometimes looked down just in case Perman somehow chose to tread on the snowy ground. He repeated the action constantly and when he looked down again after several times of doing it, he saw a little red spot on a rockier spot of the mountain, visible even within all the snow.

"I looked closer and I knew it was your cape."

By then, he sought to help Perman who may be trapped in the snow. And with temperature such as now, Birdman knew that he had to get him out of there, quick. Landing and going on foot to see him, the situation as he saw much closer was more frightening than he could've known.

"I was just...disappointed when that was all I found. You were nowhere to be seen."

He only found the cloth.

On foot, he trudged on the snowy earth of the mountain, holding on tight to the cape. He prevented to think of the worst, as finding him in an irreversible state of frozen. Then Birdman saw a shade of blue in the snow which he recognized as the color of his helmet.

Yet after his recent encounter with the cape, he began having thoughts of possibly being disappointed again. Still, he quickly brushed all the snow off and saw the helmet... and furthermore, Perman himself.

"It felt like such a long time, but I found you eventually. I saw your helmet in the snow and I hoped that that's not all I will find... You felt so cold."

He checked to see if he was injured but he didn't find any wounds but he may be blue from the cold. It was not the time to make the checkups in such a place and his main concern now was getting him off to safety.

"That's when I took you back to the ship and we flew off the mountain. As soon as we got to the cottage, I laid you down the bed."

On the warmer air was when he felt how cold he actually felt. It was almost like ice. With the snow melting, his clothes were beginning to get soaked.

"I had to take off all your clothes... I-I mean not all! I had to include your helmet. Of course you knew that. But there was something else I had to do, of course. You were still very cold... "

"What was it?"

"I had to do something to warm you up again..."

That he did. Having no such past experiences with tending to anybody hurt—since the best he could do, as a superhero himself, was save them from danger—Birdman could only think of the most rational thing at a time like now.

Unorthodox as it seemed, he laid himself beside Mitsuo. A bit unsure at first though with one touch from his arm when he bumped onto his side was what reminded him why he needed to do it. And even if that meant Mitsuo having to wake up in his arms, then so be it.

He held him tight in a warm embrace, the intimation becoming more protective when he folded his legs up and pulled his entire body closer. The bed was without a blanket, so he used his own cape, tossing it to both of them for cover. They stayed that way for a while, until...

"I only got up when I felt you move. I was relieved to see that you'll be alright."

Quickly, he jumped out of the bed.

"Then I went out to get you something warm to drink. I thought...tea."

He exited the cottage to fetch him the said beverage, with the means to find such involved leaving the currently stirring Mitsuo for now. Though what he did in order to get what he needed—having to take the teapot and a cup from an unguarded picnic—would probably haunt him since "borrowing" was against his conduct, there simply was no time to waste and swept it off the blanket.

Back in the present meanwhile,

"Then when I came back, I found you awake. The rest you know," Birdman said, having finished the story.

Perman got to think over a lot of things as he had listened. Of all the things Birdman had to do and did, he couldn't get over the one fact that—

"Y-you stole tea...?" Perman said.

"Agh! I knew I should've left something out!" he said, bringing a palm to his head. "Never mind. I did what I had to do and if it weren't for that, you literally would've caught your death of cold."

"I know. I wasn't complaining but I suddenly remembered that when I drank that tea, I thought there was no way you could've made that yourself. I was right!"

"What are you saying...?" he asked, confused.

"I mean, I was really impressed!" Perman stared at him. "You were really that worried? You actually came all that way to find me and made sure I was okay?" he asked.

Birdman noticed the glint in his eyes and the wonder in his words when he asked him. "I suppose I did," he answered. "It's nothing, really, because—" Then out of nowhere, Perman wrapped his arms around him. The suddenness made him simply ask what he was doing.

"I'm returning the favor..." The wind grew strong and chilly above the building, so he tightened his hold around Birdman. "Thank you."

Birdman stood still for a moment with his arms raised, but eventually made its way to pat the kid in the back, returning the hug.

Perman was grateful. While still in the same position, he looked up at Birdman. He was met with the sight underneath his mask. The taller of the two failed to notice the undecided reaction he made, as if he had just discovered something.

The gust of the wind had become louder.

-To be continued-