Chapter 36 - Rescue Mission (2)

There was someone wearing a katana.

More precisely, a man wearing a katana's scabbard. In his right hand was the katana itself, polished and carefully maintained.

He'd put some care into it, I thought absently, looking at the drawn blade. That was expert maintenance.

I approached the man standing with his back to me. A purple coat, a sword in his right hand. He stood like a statue amid the panicked crowd.

The field guide I'd stuffed into my pocket reacted.

[Creature: Fire Shield]

The creature was panting beside the ruined fountain.

[Level five. Airborne creature. Drifts slowly through the air before spewing powerful pillars of fire. The more skilled it is, the more powerful its flames become. Chemical attacks are more effective than physical attacks. Enlarges itself and devours targets that approach. Weaknesses: water and fire. Frequently sighted in deserts.]

I watched the ember-like thing bobbing beside the melted fountain until the motionless man turned his head to look at me.

There wasn't a shred of interest in his gaze.

"I'll keep civilians out of the pillars of fire."

I looked at the handsome young man with the resolute features.

"I won't get in your way, sir."

"The motorcycle."

Jonathan Kudo spoke, raising his katana to point at the one on display on the first floor. His voice was every bit as devoid of interest.

"Move it out of the way."

Before I could even say yes, he swung his arm, adjusted his grip on the katana, and ran straight at the creature.

I picked up the motorcycle and ran.

Keeping my eyes on Jonathan Kudo, I took stock of the scene as I moved. The spacious, airy lobby typical of a shopping mall. The collapsed fountain in its center. The escalators.

The doors were a short run from the foot of the escalators. The elevators seemed to have stopped working. Everyone on the second floor was crowding onto the escalators.

A vortex formed in the center of the fireball floating beside the fountain.

My senior stopped right in front of it.

WHOOOOSH!

A tremendous wave of heat poured out.

"Aaaah!"

"Run! Hurry!"

The fleeing people screamed.

I set the motorcycle out of the way in a corner and spun around, looking toward the center of the lobby to check the situation.

The man who had taken the creature's powerful pillar of fire lowered his long blade in a fluid motion.

He seemed to have blocked the heat with his sword.

SCREEEECH!

Kudo's heated sword scraped across the marble floor.

The floor didn't split easily. Given its thickness, that was hardly surprising. The flame floating above the marble formed another vortex within itself. It would spew fire any moment.

I quickly turned to find the people I needed to protect.

Almost everyone who'd been in the first-floor lobby had escaped. The problem was the people from the upper floors. They were rushing down the stopped escalators, then running straight for the doors without looking anywhere else.

There was quite a distance between the escalators and the main entrance. I would have to protect that stretch.

Time to become a human firewall.

I ran toward the escalators.

"Aah!"

"Got you."

I caught a man who tripped on his way to the doors. Setting the flustered, stammering man properly on his feet, I gave him a push on the back.

"Keep running."

"Right, uh, thank you."

"Must be a Badger," whispered the students jumping off the escalator.

"Thank you!"

"Make sure you keep us safe."

I barely registered the voices pouring over me.

I spread both arms, placing my body between the creature and the people running toward the main entrance. Forming a wall with my body, I watched them descend the escalators and head for the doors.

Shu seemed to be moving quickly upstairs. I could hear her hoverboard cutting through the air, people murmuring their thanks, and those she'd set down on the second floor running toward the escalator to the lobby.

And the creature spewing fire again...

"Over there!"

"Aah! Look out!"

"Aaah!"

BOOOM!

Searing heat scorched my back.

I rolled across the lobby with a burly man in my arms. Over and over and over. After several tumbles, I sprang up and saw my senior standing between us and the flames.

The hem of his purple coat burned away, crumbling into ash.

Once again, he had cut through the flames with his sword. He was the reason my back hadn't burned while I held the civilian.

Not that there was time to thank him.

"Run!"

"Yes! Thank you!"

"Hey! Wait, you there!"

SCREEEECH!

Jonathan Kudo began scraping the floor with his heated blade again.

The thick marble was splitting. I sprang to my feet and ran to protect the escaping people, watching Kudo and the creature.

So he was trying to cut through it. Cut through the floor and burst the water pipe underneath.

The pipe that had fed the fountain.

BOOOM!

"Aah, fuck, that's hot!"

"Run! Run!"

"Almost everyone's evacuated!"

Shu's voice came from her hoverboard high above.

"These are the last of them!"

"Hey!"

Someone shouted behind me as I protected the people running for the doors.

"You! White hair! Protect me!"

"No!"

A woman helping someone with limited mobility down the last few steps of the escalator shouted.

"Don't go! There are more people over here!"

"I said protect me! Badgers are supposed to protect civilians!"

"Here it comes again!"

WHOOOOSH!

Intense pain engulfed my back.

There had been two attacks. Kudo had sliced smoothly through one pillar of fire, but hadn't blocked the follow-up. Fortunately, the flames poured down right next to me. I was able to reach the civilian in a single bound and shield her.

I hadn't even come in my combat suit, so the pain was intense.

Still grimacing, I pushed the woman I'd wrapped myself around toward the exit.

"Run."

"Ah, ah..."

"Hurry!"

I pushed the dazed woman away, every sense on high alert. Once I'd made sure she was fleeing on trembling legs, I turned my head.

The fireball was quivering in the melted lobby.

I didn't like how it had suddenly spewed two pillars of fire in succession.

SCREEEECH!

Another shrill sound rang out.

As Kudo drew his sword back in a straight line, I saw water burst from the pipe.

PSSSSSH!

"Oh my gaaah!"

"Oh! Water!"

"You with the white hair! I said protect me!"

"Excuse me."

Shu had descended to the first floor and was scooping up the stragglers. I helped the few remaining people escape too, lifting them with ease.

I ignored the voice behind me. That man's voice was the only one coming from that direction.

In a situation like this, you had to make the decision that would save even one more person.

If you had no choice but to choose...

With Shu and me rushing back and forth, the evacuation picked up considerable speed.

While she set three children down at the exit, I turned to rescue the last civilian.

"You can run, can't you?"

"Yes."

I helped the last man to come running down the escalator escape.

Shielding him from the flames, I reached the main entrance. Then the door opened and a woman shouted frantically.

"Have you seen two children?"

"Wait outside, ma'am. We'll look for them."

"I can't find my two children!"

"What the hell!"

I also heard the man who, astonishingly, was still behind me.

"What's wrong with that thing?!"

BOOOOOM!

There was an explosion.

Its crushing force slammed into everything around it. My vision turned painfully bright.

Fortunately, I reached the man who kept calling me White Hair in a single bound and shielded him. I rolled across the floor with the man who'd been so insistent on my protection in my arms.

A groan escaped me as the shock wave struck my back and swept past.

Had everyone else gotten out safely...?

The impact left my body unresponsive.

I could barely get my voice out, either. Angling my body over the man to shield him, I tried to raise my upper body.

I forced my eyes open and surveyed the scene.

The lobby was a wreck after the explosion.

The fountain had melted without a trace, and even the water spraying from the pipe had weakened. Shattered windows. Shards of glass scattered over the melted marble floor.

The creature had turned blue and was undulating in midair.

Fortunately, it seemed all the civilians had evacuated.

There was no one in the lobby. They all seemed to have made it outside by a hair's breadth. Except the man I was shielding. He was in shock too, but physically he seemed unharmed.

I turned away from him to look at Kudo, who would have been closest to the explosion. Across the lobby, he was staggering to his feet with one hand braced against the wall.

"Are you all right?"

There was no answer.

But the clean, steady way he gripped his sword again told me he would be all right.

"I'll get this man out and be right back."

"Don't come back."

My senior roughly flung aside his tattered coat. Without so much as a glance at me as I forced myself upright, he declared,

"You'll only get in the way."

Well, I'd expected something like that.

But someone had to check whether there were any more civilians inside. There had been a woman shouting about her missing children, too.

I didn't answer him. I just smiled and turned to the civilian.

There was no telling when that thing might explode again. I had to get him out quickly.

I reached out and pulled the dazed man to his feet. He looked to be in his late thirties and wore an immaculate suit.

"Let's get you outside."

I lightly gripped his shoulder as he stood there in a daze.

"It's dangerous here."

"Why did that thing suddenly explode...?"

"I'm not sure. Either way, you'd better get outside before it explodes again."

"Sir!"

Shu's voice came from above.

Kudo didn't react. She was clearly calling to him, but the katana-wielding senior ran through the lobby, slicing apart one pillar of fire after another.

BOOM! BOOM! BANG!

The pillars of fire burst as they struck his katana.

Shu's hoverboard disappeared from view.

"I'm going to burst the aquarium tank on the third floor!"

"Hey! Wait! Why would you do that?!"

"Let's go."

Realizing the man wasn't going to leave under his own power, I scooped him up.

"It's dangerous here, so I'll escort you out, just as you wanted."

"Do you know how much I spent on that?! Don't break it! Don't break it!"

"Headquarters."

As I slung the man over my shoulder and ran toward the main entrance, I heard Kudo reporting into the communicator at his ear.

"H Tower civilian evacuation comp—"

KABOOOOM!

The impact struck my body.

It was twice as powerful as the last one. Powerful enough for my consciousness to wink out for an instant before returning.

My vision flipped upside down.

A high-pitched ringing drowned out all other sound. My body was swept up in the powerful explosion. Heavy, crushing pain battered me all over.

Amid the violent jolt of my senses, I tried to protect the man.

I lay sprawled on the floor, wrapped around him, for a long time. Even after the explosion had swept past. Even after ominous cracking sounds began almost on the heels of the shock wave.

The building seemed about to collapse. Unable to withstand the blast, the tower would probably come down within minutes.

But my body wouldn't obey.

'Get up.'

'Get up, pick him up, and run.'

'Right now...'

CRAAAAACK! BOOM!

A tremendous sound rivaling the explosion filled the hall.

I hauled myself upright with every last ounce of strength. I remembered picking up the civilian and running toward what looked like a safe spot. Running was all I remembered. As I ran, the sound of falling stones poured down over my head, and my consciousness cut out.

To the sound of raining stone,

I lost consciousness.

* * *

I heard a chunk of rubble being moved.

"Kudo, sir."

Stone rolled away to one side. Light filtered in.

I smiled faintly at the face that came into view.

"Are you all right? I was worried you'd been crushed to death."

Covered in dried blood, Jonathan Kudo looked coldly down at me.