“Whoa!”
“Wah!”
Ignoring our surprise, she tearfully expresses her concern. “I was worried sick about you! I thought my heart was going to stop for good this time…!”
“I-It’s okay. Both Yuuri and I are in one piece.”
“But…it’s hard to breathe…Lieutenant Tachibana…”
Tachibana doesn’t let us go anyway. “Isn’t it okay for us to stay this way a little longer? You were in serious danger just now.” She pats us both on the back. Yuuri starts trembling as if the reality of the situation has finally dawned on her. “…You must’ve been so scared.”
“I-I was…!”
“You did such a good job not crying. You’re safe now,” Tachibana soothes as she rubs Yuuri’s back. I can feel warmth from her arm around me, which brings into stark reality what I just went through as well.
That’s right… We survived the impossible…!
I gently return Tachibana’s hug. Yuuri rests her hand on my arm. We stay there sharing a wordless hug for a good few moments.
It’s not long before Moribe’s teasing voice interjects into our moment. “Wowwie, enjoying the benefits of being captain? I mean, it gets you a hug from the iron-faced lieutenant here.”
Brought back to earth, I look over my shoulder to see everyone looking extremely pleased.
“That’s a rescue captain for you. You get to walk away with all the juicy moments,” Ukita teases.
“But Captain Kasasagi is the one who saved Miss Yuuri,” Miss Ena says with a smile.
I shake my head. “Nah, I was powerless alone… It’s everyone’s teamwork that saved Yuuri.”
Bashful expressions appear on each person’s face.
“You’re bleeding from the back of your head, Captain Kasasagi,” Miss Ena mentions with worry as soon as she takes a good look at me. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah. I think some of the debris nicked me, that’s all.”
“Here, turn around. I’ll apply some Chiron for you.” Miss Ena pulls the tube of medicine from her pocket.
“Um, please let me do it,” Yuuri timorously requests. “…I caused his injuries…”
“Take good care of me, Yuuri.”
Yuuri accepts the Chiron from Miss Ena and starts rubbing it into the back of my head. I can feel the gentle movement of her fingers. After a while, she speaks up in surprise. “…Huh? I just noticed that you have a single streak of white hair.”
“Oh, I do? I never knew, since I can’t see my own head.”
“You do. It looks like a kasasagi feather.”
“Kasasagi?”
“It’s the name of a kind of magpie. It’s a very intelligent bird that has a single white feather among its black feathers.”
“Cool… Maybe that’s where my last name, Kasasagi, comes from?”
Miss Ena corrects my light joke. “Of course not. Don’t teach her weird things.”
“Aw, come on, Miss Ena. Can’t you take a joke? I’m just trying to cheer Yuuri up…”
“Is that what you were doing? You’re a tough guy, but you have a questionable taste in humor.”
“Boy, are you as hard on me as ever.”
Yuuri laughs at our banter. I think this is the first time I’ve ever heard her laugh.
Once she finishes rubbing in the Chiron, Yuuri faces the group again. “Um, Captain Kasasagi, everyone…thank you so much for saving me.”
“Your being safe is all that matters,” Tachibana answers gently.
“We’d fail as rescue workers if we lost one of our survivors after coming this far, y’know?” Moribe jests.
I squeeze out a wry smile. “Damn straight. But man, who woulda thought the ceiling would cave in?” Sighing with exasperation, I look up at the collapsed ceiling. Something there catches my eye. “Ah!”
“Is something the matter, Captain?”
“I just got a genius idea about how we can open that gate!” I exclaim and point to the crane hanging from the ceiling. “Can’t we use that? We’ll use the engine cutter to cut a notch into the gate, then hook the crane to it so it can pull the gate open…!”
“It’s worth a shot!” Tachibana runs over to the wall and operates the controls there. The crane lurches forward. “It moved! We can use it!”
“Okay, let’s get to work, people!”
We head straight to the security gate in question.
Moribe picks up the engine cutter. “Alrighty! I’ll start things off by cutting into it with this bad boy! Stand back, guys!” She starts it up and runs its spinning blade into the gate. Sparks bathe her body with the grating sound of metal cutting metal. It doesn’t take long before she makes a four-inch incision into the center of the gate. “…Phew! Captain, how’s this?”
“Perfect! All that’s left is to hook the crane to it. You’re up, Tachibana!”
“Roger!” Tachibana operates the crane controls. The crane swings, dropping the chain from the ceiling.
I grab the hook and latch it on to the notch in the gate. Tachibana presses a switch on the controls, winding the chain up to the ceiling and pulling the hook tight against the gate as it goes.
I watch and pray it succeeds. It’s not long before the gate starts creaking, widening the notch we made until it pulls open a gap big enough for us to walk through.
“Okay! That’s perfect!”
“Whoo-hoo! W-We did it! We did it! Hell yeah, we did it!” Moribe’s jumping with joy.
It’s a narrow opening even I can fit through. I see what looks like a lift inside the darkness beyond.
“We pulled it off, huh?” Ukita seems happy for once.
“Phew… We can finally breathe easy,” Miss Ena says with a sigh.
“You’re all so amazing! Really, really amazing!” Yuuri cheers.
Their praise brings a grin to my face too.
At long last, we’ve secured an escape route. While we haven’t found all the survivors yet, this will get Yuuri, Miss Ena, and Ukita to safety at least. Then we won’t have to worry about finding AD anymore. And we can probably call for help from the rescue squad on the outside.
I stifle my ballooning excitement and address the group: “Ready continue with our escape?”
“Let me go on ahead and confirm it’s safe!” Moribe happily pushes her way through the opening. A fraction of a second after she’s on the other side—“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” we hear her shrill scream from the darkness.
“Moribe?! What’s wrong?!” I call after her.
The group gasps and slips past the opening into a space the size of a small bedroom. Toward the back is a cargo lift large enough for people to board, just like we read in the disaster prevention manual.
Moribe is rooted to the ground in front of it. Someone else is inside—
“What the?!”
We are all at a loss for words.
A dead body is propped up in a corner of the lift. It’s the remains of an unfamiliar girl dressed in what looks like a white nightgown and sandals. She was probably in her late teens. She’s a beautiful girl with white skin and even whiter hair. Blood from a gunshot wound to her stomach has dyed her clothes red.