Chapter 13 - "Welcome to the Blue Bird!"

Welcome to the Blue Bird! ("Aoi tori ni yōkoso!", 青い鳥にようこそ！) is the thirteenth chapter of the Welcome to the N.H.K manga.

Summary
Tatsuhiro Satou is bothered by the fact that Misaki wants to move in with him. He demands an apology from Misaki for leaving him trapped in his room, but then she rebuttals by reminding him that she paid for his hospital bills and his food, and that he would be dead right now were it not for her. He bows down before her and thanks her in a submissive manner. He snaps back to his usual self though and tells her that he could just ask his parents for another allowance. He calls up Shizue and she informs him that her father has quit his job and that Tatsuhiro will not be getting an allowance for a while. Misaki reminds him that she will be there to take care of him and pick him back up. Once again, he becomes defensive and "proves" to her that he can make his own money. He runs out to an ATM and withdraws the entirety of his remaining money. Misaki asks how he's going to pay it back, and in a moment of satire, Tatsuhiro picks himself up and jumps from his second-floor balcony.

Tatsuhiro escapes from the hospital in which he was being patched up, and runs through thoughts filled with deep repugnance at the tiresome world around him. He is abruptly stopped to take a survey to win "fabulous prizes". The girl becomes frightened when he tries to repel her by informing her that he is a hikikomori. Yet another surveyor attempts to pull him over moments later, and to his astonishment, his former high school class president, Megumi Kobayashi, is the surveyor. They grab a cup of coffee to catch up. Tatsuhiro revs up with his usual blunt honesty which annoys her. She accuses him of always being like that, like when he used to give her a deadpan look as if she were lower than him. He had then accused her of being a slave for constantly emphasizing and practicing hard work. She says that he has since taken his advice and found people who helped her escape from the slavery of conforming to the whims of others. She takes him to a convention in a stadium loaded with people, the title of the presentation, "Wonderful Life: My Way!". The speaker moves the crowd by telling them that so many of his dreams were once crushed, but that will end today for both him and everyone who attended.