It was now just past 7:00 p.m. The group of club-hoppers walked around to the back of the building and climbed in through a gap in the chain-link fence. Judging from the graffiti, it was clear they weren’t the first people to trespass here.
“Youko-chan, this is bad news. We gotta call the cops!”
Hinako and Youko watched from the shadows as the goatee guy led the group up the stairs, leaving one person behind as a lookout.
“I’m gonna call 110!”
“We need proof! I’m gonna take photos.” Youko jumped out from their hiding place and offered a friendly greeting to the lookout, as if she were one of them. Then she walked straight up the stairs.
Reeling from Youko’s reckless bravery, Hinako bowed to the lookout and followed after her. “Youko-chan!”
Inside, the abandoned building smelled of dust and decay. Hinako crept along on her tiptoes.
“Youko-chan! Youko-chan!”
At the center of the cylindrical building was a large open area that stretched up fifteen floors, where the giant Christmas tree sat rotting.
“Wow, it’s huge… Too bad it’s all dried up.”
Looking up from the base of the tree, it seemed to stretch on endlessly.
Crap, this is no time to get distracted!
Naturally, the elevators and escalators were all out of service. Youko immediately headed up the staircase.
“Youko-chan, wait!”
“Shhhh!”
Partway up the building, they encountered the remains of an athletic club.
“Oh, there’s a pool.”
Hinako followed Youko’s gaze to a pool stretcher lying near the entrance. At first glance, it looked like a super-thin surfboard.
As they climbed the stairs higher and higher, they began to make out gleeful voices from the trespassers’ group:
“Whoa!”
“Gorgeous view!”
“Party time, everybody!”
The sun had now fully set, and with no other tall buildings in the way, they had a panoramic view of the city lights below.
“The city’s always prettiest around this time of night.”
“Wow! We’re so high up!”
The group was gathered out on the fifteenth-floor terrace. Once Hinako and Youko had caught up to them, they climbed onto the wall surrounding the colonnade area and concealed themselves once more. Fortunately, the trespassers were having too much fun to notice.
Just then, the goatee guy spread his arms wide and jumped from the edge of the terrace. The women screamed and looked over the edge…to find him standing on some sort of ledge.
“Oh my God, you scared us!”
“Let’s shoot ’em off from here!”
“Okay then, let’s all go down!”
Each of the guys grabbed a yukata girl and jumped down to the ledge.
“All right, now everybody grab some fireworks and let’s get started!”
The goatee guy grabbed a firework shell from inside a large wooden box and held it up for the others to see. Meanwhile, the pyrotechnician ran around, inserting a red-hot metal chain into the mortar tubes to get everything set up.
Youko held up her smartphone and adjusted her position, attempting to record them. “Ugh, I can’t get their faces! It’s too dark!”
“You don’t need to. You already have enough proof!” Hinako pleaded.
“No, I have to wait until they start firing!” Youko insisted stubbornly, crouching down on the spot.
“Ugh, fine…” Hinako couldn’t exactly let Youko do this on her own, so she crouched down as well.
As they waited, a giant firework blossomed in the distant night sky.
“Whoa…”
“Looks like they’re also setting them off over in Katsuura.”
Come to think of it, the city of Katsuura was holding a fireworks show tonight as well. For a moment, the girls lost themselves in the rainbow-hued splendor—that is, until an earsplitting explosion brought them back to their senses.
“Crap!”
The trespassers had started setting off fireworks of their own. Youko hastily held up her phone. Each explosion provoked squeals and cheers from the group.
“Wooooo!”
“Yeah, baby!”
The trespassers loaded the mortar tubes with firework shells and shot them off, one after another. Just then, a firework shot out from the upper terrace too. One of the men was getting cocky, wielding three mortar tubes tied together and shooting shells in quick succession, like a cannon.
“One more—boom! And another—boom!”
“Ack!” The sparks rained down on his buddies below.
“Here you go—boom!”
But the man slipped up, and the shell flew in the wrong direction, ricocheting off the ceiling, floor, and pillars…right toward the colonnade wall where Hinako and Youko were hiding. Both of them screamed and ducked on reflex. The shell grazed Youko’s leg as it flew past and then hit the dead tree in the center of the building. Of course, nothing was more flammable than an old, dead tree. It lit up bright red, as if reliving its youth as a Christmas spectacle.
“Holy crap! Put it out, quick!” shouted one of the men on the terrace, but the man with the cannon was hyped up beyond rational thought, and he continued to shoot off fireworks.
“Aw hell!”
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“What’s going on?”
At last, the group on the ledge noticed the increasingly dire problem. They began to scream and panic.
“Fire! There’s a fire!”
“Let’s get out of here!”
If they stayed any longer, they’d be forced to jump. Instead, they all scrambled to the ladder.
“Don’t you people know better than to shoot fireworks in an empty building?!” Youko raged at them, hands on her hips.
“Can’t hear you, sorry!”
“Don’t know, don’t care!”
And so they all ran off, with no thought given to the fire or even their friends.
“Gah!” Suddenly, Youko’s leg gave out. Evidently it had been badly injured by the shell that grazed it.
“Youko-chan, we need to make our way down!” Hinako cried. The fire licked its way across the floor toward them. “The way we came is blocked now. We have to jump!”
There was no time to hesitate. Carrying Youko in her arms, Hinako leapt down onto the terrace.
“Ggghh…! That really freakin’ hurt!”
Hinako had attempted to reduce the impact on landing, but evidently Youko’s injury was more serious than she’d anticipated. She looked over at the stairs, where thick smoke was pouring out from below.
What do I do now, Minato? I remember you said to try to get to low ground, but…it looks like this is the end of the line!