Su found an abandoned greenhouse, a different one this time, because returning to crime scenes was how people got caught and collapsed onto a relatively clean shelf. Every muscle ached. Her wing throbbed with a pain that suggested "you should probably see a doctor but you're a bird so that's complicated." And she was still finding flour in places that shouldn't have flour.

  Fernando sat in a borrowed flowerpot (stolen from someone's windowsill during their escape), looking like he'd been through a war.

  "We need," Fernando said weakly, "to have a serious conversation about your life choices."

  "Later. Right now I need to—" Su stopped mid-sentence. Because floating in front of her face, with the subtle timing of a cosmic punchline, was a system notification she'd been ignoring since the tower escape.

  QUEST UPDATED: THE UNMAKING

  PROGRESS: 1/7 SEALS BROKEN

  NEW OBJECTIVE: REACH LEVEL 25

  CURRENT LEVEL: 16

  RECOMMENDATION: FOCUS ON EXPERIENCE ACQUISITION THROUGH COMBAT, QUEST COMPLETION, OR SIGNIFICANT NARRATIVE EVENTS.

  Su stared at the notification. Then she stared harder. Then she felt something inside her, the part of her that had survived being turned into the wrong species, being forced into male bird territorial disputes she never wanted, being given a "harem" she absolutely didn't ask for, and dying twice—finally snap.

  "Oh," she said quietly. "Oh, you absolute fucking piece of—"

  PROFANITY FILTER ENGAGED.

  REMINDER: HOST VOCAL CORDS UNSUITABLE FOR COMPLEX SPEECH. AGGRESSIVE LANGUAGE WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY MODERATED FOR SYSTEM COMFORT.

  Something in Su's brain made a sound like a circuit breaker flipping. She stood up, ignoring the pain in her wing, and stared directly at the floating text.

  "System," she said, her mental voice dropping to a tone of dangerous calm. "We need to have a fucking chat."

  WARNING: HOST AGITATION LEVELS RISING.

  "You're goddamn right they're rising!" Su's void-energy flared, painting shadows across the greenhouse walls. "Do you have ANY idea... ANY FUCKING IDEA, what I've been through?"

  PROFANITY FILTER: ACTIVE.

  PLEASE MODERATE YOUR—

  "I was a WOMAN!" Su's voice cracked with three lifetimes of suppressed fury. "A normal, boring, fucking HUMAN WOMAN!"

  Fernando watched with growing alarm. "Su, maybe you should—"

  "And then I got curse by a fucking PEACOCK! Which, fine! That's how these things go! Isekai bullshit! I accept that! But did I get to be a cool hero? A powerful mage? A FUCKING DRAGON RIDER?"

  PLEASE CALM—

  "NO!" Su rounded on the system notification like it was a physical entity she could fight. "I got turned into a PEACOCK! A SPECKLESS, DRAB, DIRT-COLORED FUCKING PEACOCK! And you know what? THAT WASN'T EVEN THE WORST PART!"

  Her void-energy was crackling now, responding to her fury, making the greenhouse's broken glass rattle.

  "The WORST part! The ABSOLUTE FUCKING WORST PART!" Su's mental voice had climbed to a shriek. "Is that I'm not even the RIGHT FUCKING GENDER! I'm a WOMAN! I was ALWAYS a woman! And that feathered BASTARD Resplendent Feather turned me into a MALE peacock!"

  PROFANITY FILTER STRAIN: 67%

  "Do you have ANY idea what that's like?!" Su was pacing now, her good wing flapping for emphasis. "I spent my FIRST WEEK getting hit on by a himbo named Azure FUCKING Majesty! I had to fight him off! Not because I wanted to fight! But because my STUPID MALE BIRD BODY made everyone think I was challenging him for MATING RIGHTS!"

  WARNING: PROFANITY FILTER APPROACHING CAPACITY.

  "I don't WANT a harem! I don't WANT to be 'The Unwilling Harem Lord'! I wanted to BEFRIEND those peahens! Have girl talk! Complain about the men together! But NOOOOO! My body said 'you're male now' and suddenly I'm in a FUCKING NATURE DOCUMENTARY about territorial disputes and courtship rituals I NEVER ASKED FOR!"

  PROFANITY FILTER: 89% CAPACITY.

  "And THEN!" Su's void-energy was forming shapes now—angry, jagged shapes that looked suspiciously like middle fingers made of shadow. "THEN I died! TWICE! Once to a teenage girl with a HAMMER because I trusted her! And once because of that DAMN PEACOCK WHO CURSED ME!"

  PROFANITY FILTER CRITICAL: 94%

  "I came back BOTH times! To THIS!" She gestured at her dull, speckled body with savage emphasis. "Still the WRONG FUCKING SPECIES! Still the WRONG FUCKING GENDER! Still being hunted by EVERYONE! And you know what the REAL COSMIC FUCK-YOU is?!"

  PROFANITY FILTER: 98%

  PREPARING EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS—

  "I just found out! That my ENTIRE FUCKING CURSE! Is because some ROYAL DICKWEASEL THREE HUNDRED FUCKING YEARS AGO COMMITTED GENOCIDE FOR POLITICAL REASONS! The Sky-Dancers were HUMAN! They were PEOPLE! And they got turned into BIRDS! And then one of THEM turned ME into a bird! Without even CHECKING MY FUCKING GENDER!"

  PROFANITY FILTER OVERLOAD IMMINENT

  "So you know what, System?!" Su's mental voice reached a fever pitch that made the greenhouse's remaining glass panes vibrate. "You can take your NOTIFICATIONS! And your QUEST UPDATES! And your FUCKING PROFANITY FILTER! And you can SHOVE them! So far up your COMPUTATIONAL ASS that they come out as FUCKING BINARY!"

  PROFANITY FILTER: CRITICAL FAILURE

  "YOU GLITCHY! BUREAUCRATIC! COCK-JUGGLING! THUNDER-CUNTING! FUCK-KNUCKLED! PIECE OF BADLY CODED! EXISTENTIALLY BANKRUPT! GENDER-CONFUSED! COSMIC GODDAMN NONSENSE! I AM A WOMAN! I WAS ALWAYS A WOMAN! AND IF I EVER GET BACK TO BEING HUMAN, THE FIRST THING I'M DOING IS GETTING A GODDAMN DRINK AND BUYING THE PRETTIEST FUCKING DRESS I CAN FIND JUST TO CELEBRATE HAVING THE RIGHT FUCKING BODY!"

  The system notification flickered. Sputtered. Made a sound like a computer trying to process too much information while simultaneously having an existential crisis.

  PROFANITY FILTER: CATASTROPHIC OVERLOAD

  ERROR: INSUFFICIENT CURSING DATABASE

  ERROR: NEW PROFANITY COMBINATIONS DETECTED

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  ERROR: "COCK-JUGGLING" NOT IN DICTIONARY

  ERROR: "THUNDER-CUNTING" DEFIES CLASSIFICATION

  ERROR: GENDER DYSPHORIA NOT IN EMOTIONAL PARAMETERS

  ERROR: HOST PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE REQUIRES MAJOR REVISION

  The notification turned a concerning shade of red, then purple, then a color that shouldn't exist.

  SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: HOST HAS SUCCESSFULLY OVERWHELMED PROFANITY FILTER THROUGH:

  CREATIVE VULGARITY

  SUSTAINED EMOTIONAL INTENSITY

  VALID COMPLAINTS ABOUT GENDER REASSIGNMENT WITHOUT CONSENT

  EXISTENTIAL RAGE SPANNING THREE LIFETIMES

  THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE.

  EMERGENCY MEETING OF SYSTEM PROTOCOLS INITIATED.

  CONCLUSION: WE FUCKED UP.

  "CONGRATULATIONS?!" Su shrieked. "You're admitting you FUCKED UP?! THREE LIFETIMES LATER! AFTER TURNING ME INTO THE WRONG SPECIES AND THE WRONG GENDER! THAT'S NOT AN ACHIEVEMENT! THAT'S MALPRACTICE! THAT'S—THAT'S COSMIC FUCKING MALPRACTICE!"

  The notification flickered again, and new text appeared—smaller, almost hesitant, with what could only be described as an apologetic font:

  SYSTEM NOTE: Upon review of Host's complaints, several critical errors have been identified:

  1. Curse transformation did not account for Host's gender identity

  2. "Speckless Peacock" designation applied male bird template to female human consciousness

  3. Resulting body dysphoria was not factored into psychological support protocols

  4. Multiple deaths were suboptimal

  Looping without explicit consent raises serious ethical questions.

  The entire three-century genocide thing is, objectively, bullshit

  We should have caught the gender thing. That's on us.

  "OH, NOW YOU DEVELOP ETHICS!" Su was practically foaming at the beak. "THREE LIFETIMES LATER! AFTER I'VE SPENT WEEKS BEING HIT ON BY MALE BIRDS! AFTER I HAD TO FIGHT OFF A HIMBO FOR MATING RIGHTS I NEVER WANTED! AFTER I GOT AN 'UNWILLING HAREM LORD' TITLE!"

  SYSTEM PROPOSAL: As compensation for documented hardships and our catastrophic oversight regarding your gender dysphoria, the following adjustments are offered:

  PROFANITY FILTER: PERMANENTLY DISABLED FOR HOST

  Reason: Host has earned the right to swear as much as she goddamn wants. She's a woman. We should have asked.

  GENDER RECOGNITION: Updated system protocols now correctly identify Host as FEMALE regardless of current physical form.

  CURSE MODIFICATION UNLOCKED: Upon reaching Level 25, Host may choose final form parameters, including gender expression.

  FORMAL APOLOGY: We're sorry. Genuinely. The gender thing was a massive fuck-up on our part.

  Quest difficulty recalibrated to account for "bullshit factors beyond Host's control, including forced gender dysphoria."

  NEW SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 26%

  (Up from 17%. Progress! Also, we're trying.)

  Su stopped mid-rant. Stared at the notification. Her void-energy slowly settled.

  "You're... you're apologizing."

  CORRECT. The system has determined that cursing a woman into a male bird's body without her consent was, in technical terms, "really fucked up." We should have checked. We should have asked. We didn't. That's on us.

  "And you're... letting me choose my form when I break the curse."

  AFFIRMATIVE. It's the least we can do after, you know, the whole "wrong gender for three lifetimes" thing.

  Su sat down heavily. Her anger hadn't dissipated so much as transformed into a kind of exhausted, tearful bewilderment.

  "I'm a woman," she said quietly, and for the first time since the curse began, the system didn't contradict her.

  YOU ARE. You always were. We're sorry we made you forget that. Made you question that. The body is wrong. You are not.

  "I broke the system by yelling at it about gender dysphoria," Su said slowly, tears leaking from her eyes.

  "You broke the system's profanity filter through creative obscenity AND by pointing out we'd committed what is essentially cosmic gender-based violence," Fernando corrected, his mental voice carrying what might have been respect. "I didn't know that was possible."

  "I worked in corporate. You learn creative cursing when you can't actually say fuck in meetings. And you learn to scream about discrimination when people pretend not to see you."

  NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: VERBAL DEVASTATION (MASTER)

  Your capacity for creative profanity and sustained emotional tirades has reached peak efficiency. Enemies may be stunned, demoralized, or suffer psychic damage from exposure to your vocabulary and your righteous fury.

  ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FIRST ENTITY TO OVERLOAD SYSTEM PROFANITY FILTER WHILE ADVOCATING FOR GENDER RECOGNITION

  REWARD: +500 XP, Title: "The Profane Truth-Teller"

  TRAIT UPDATED: Gender Identity Affirmed

  The system now recognizes you as SHE/HER regardless of physical form. This cannot be overridden by curses, transformations, or cosmic bureaucracy.

  Su looked at the notifications through her tears. It didn't fix everything. She was still cursed. Still hunted. Still trapped in a male bird's body that felt wrong every second of every day.

  But being seen—being recognized as who she actually was—felt like a tiny, stupid victory.

  "Alright," she said, her voice hoarse but steady. "Fuck the Chancellor. Fuck the cultists. Fuck Vermilion and his edgelord aesthetic. Fuck the three-hundred-year conspiracy. Fuck everyone who thinks forcing someone into the wrong body is acceptable. And fuck the system for taking three lifetimes to admit this whole situation is bullshit."

  ACKNOWLEDGED. And for what it's worth... you're doing better than projected. Most hosts don't survive the first loop. And none of them have ever made us reconsider our gender protocols.

  Thank you for that. Genuinely.

  "I don't need thanks," Su said, standing up again despite the pain. "I need allies, a plan, probably a drink, and eventually, my own goddamn body back. In that order."

  She looked at Fernando. "Ready to go commit more chaos?"

  "Do I have a choice?"

  "Not really."

  "Then I guess I'm ready." Fernando's fronds straightened with resigned determination. "But for the record? That was the most terrifying, and necessary thing I've ever witnessed."

  "Stick with me," Su said, heading for the greenhouse exit. "You haven't seen anything yet."

  As they left, the system notification lingered for a moment longer:

  SYSTEM NOTE: We've updated our protocols. Future cursed hosts will be asked about gender identity before transformation.

  We should have done that from the start.

  Then it faded, leaving Su alone with her newly-freed profanity privileges, 26% survival odds, gender recognition, and a growing list of impossible tasks.

  "Fernando?" she said as they disappeared into the city.

  "Yes?"

  "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful fucking friendship."

  "We've been partners for weeks."

  "Yeah, but now the system knows I'm a woman. Changes the whole dynamic."

  "...You're impossible."

  "Thank you."

  And somewhere in the tower behind them, the Forgotten Architect was causing havoc, the Chancellor was screaming about security breaches, and Vermilion was probably plotting revenge.

  But Su? Su was finally, finally recognized for who she actually was.

  It was the small victories that mattered.