[115 rescued.]
[121 rescued.]
[136 rescued.]
Inside the fire, human beings are like busy ants on the move, moving in and out to rescue people according to the map provided by Ichijō Mirai, and in the midst of this busyness, invisible numbers are beating one after another, rapidly and steadily.
Most people can't see the exact number, but may see one rescued person after another in a state of disarray.
But as the flames intensified, within seconds of the nerve-wracking Morofushi Hiromitsu walking out of the building with a trapped person on his back, he suddenly heard a sound.
Amidst the noise of the fire, the sound of water splashing onto the flames, the urgent footsteps of rescuers coming and going, the discussions of the people outside the fire scene, and other chaotic sounds, a sound that spread out small but firmly, like grass sprouting under a boulder, "Crack."
He handed the trapped man over to the rushing paramedics and subconsciously looked back.
It took a few seconds for the others to react to the growing sound, and they too looked up, at the flaming building.
The building was like a fountain, gushing red and black, and at a certain point, both the red and black stopped for a moment, no longer flowing towards the sky, but frozen, but only for a moment, and soon, with a loud, impossible-to-ignore 'rumble', the red and black jumped up so violently that they almost blocked out the entire sky.
The air was so hot that the crowd below subconsciously shielded their faces with their hands, staring at the building in shock, unable to return to their senses for a long time.
A floor collapsed.
Among the red-and-black-colored windows that were trapped in one pane after another on the upper floors, a row of them pressed down diagonally, tilting half of the building's body.
As the crowd finally found their voice, Morofushi Hiromitsu fixed his eyes on the collapsed corner and counted the floors silently from top to bottom.
After counting once, he counted again.
"That place," Matsuda Jinpei, who had just handed the bomb to the police officer, was also counting. He counted quickly and compared it with the map in his mind. His face became serious, "There are seven trapped people."
There were seven people who were not in critical condition, and Ichijō Mirai had marked on the map that they did not need to be rescued in the first place.
They were splitting up, and Matsuda Jinpei wasn't 100% sure of the others' routes, but since everyone had memorized the map, and had briefly explained their plans in a hurry at the beginning, he was able to guess, "The people trapped there haven't been rescued yet, have they?"
"I don't think the rescuers are around either..."
Not in the neighborhood.
Before he could say anything, he caught a glimpse of a figure rushing out of the room, so he urgently changed his words to, "Morofushi?!"
"Wait, wait, you!"
What's with the sudden rush?
In a flash, he realized that there was a student in the collapsed area.
Judging by the current danger rate in that area, it was probably Ichijō Mirai, who had always been on the verge of danger, spreading his wings like he was looking for death.
Matsuda Jinpei immediately turned to the police and explained to them to get the first-aiders on the scene ready, and then took the equipment handed to him by the man next to him and rushed out after him, barely able to keep up with Morofushi Hiromitsu.
Morofushi Hiromitsu had already started up the stairs.
In the beginning, he was counting the floors, but in the later stages, he simply counted the seconds, and counted three times to get to a floor.
Maybe it's from running through the fire, or maybe it's something else, but his mind is a little blank.
When he finally reached the collapsed floor and stopped in front of the half-blocked stairway, he even forgot to cover his nose and mouth.
Matsuda Jinpei caught up with him, "Hey!"
Holding onto the handle, he panted and looked over at Morofushi Hiromitsu, burying the first in his raised arm for a few seconds to slow down, and threw the respirator over, "Put it on, and move away together."
The obstacles were some of the ceilings above, but not many of them had collapsed, the walls were supporting them, and the stairways and corridors were still in good condition, so it wouldn't be a big problem to move them, as long as they weren't careful not to cause secondary collapses.
While moving carefully, Matsuda Jinpei looked at the corridor through the cracks, his brow furrowed, "The fire on this floor is smaller, but there's more smoke."
After the collapse, the fires on this level were quite weak, some of them were physically extinguished by the heavy pressure, and only half-deadly black smoke drifted out, which filled half of the corridor and only partially revealed the corridor's appearance in the shadows.
Morofushi Hiromitsu said, "He's got a respirator."
But he wasn't sure if the respirator was in Ichijō Mirai's hands or in the hands of the hostages he'd rescued, and he wasn't even sure if Ichijō Mirai was still on the floor where he'd overheard the conversation, if he'd been injured in the collapse, and if it was his turn to put the respirator to good use.
And then there was 'Satan'...
As his hand gripped another concrete block, Morofushi Hiromitsu's vision in the smoke of the corridor suddenly tightened, and his hand, which was in the habit of pushing, stopped as he stared intently into a thick fog.
In the fog, something was moving, causing the fog to move and thicken a bit.
There were also not too far away, very light sounds, was the sound of breathing and footsteps.
It's not too strong, but it's obviously not in a good condition, so it's breathing rapidly, and it's very light footsteps, mixed with the sound of dragging.
Matsuda Jinpei also stopped and shifted his eyes over, and after staring steadily for a few seconds, he saw someone coming out of the fog.
It was Ichijō Mirai.
...It's a couple of stranded people and Ichijō Mirai.
Ichijō Mirai was in a terrible state of disarray, not just from rolling around in the dirt, his clothes were so dusty you could barely tell their original color, and he was carrying the three trapped people out of the fog with the help of two injured people and an unconscious man on his back.
The source of the rapid and unpleasant breathing is one of the injured being supported, and Ichijō Mirai walks very slowly, with blood dripping from the injured on the ground with every step he takes.
The blood was spreading.
It was a terrible situation, and if the backup had been slower, Ichijō Mirai probably wouldn't have made it off the floor before the injured died, but Morofushi Hiromitsu recognized him first by his appearance, and secondly by his bright red eyes when he stepped out of the fog.
Those bloodshot red eyes were lit up by positive emotions and were several degrees brighter than usual, as if reflecting the crystal reflection of glass, the owner of the eyes was smiling.
Spotting Morofushi Hiromitsu and Matsuda Jinpei, Ichijō Mirai happily reached out to greet them, "Wow, what a coincidence."
Immediately reaching out to retrieve the injured man who had slid to the side as he let go of his hand, he refrained from saying anything else that was full of bad words and tried to contain his smile, his eyes still shining but much more serious, "Clear the entrance to the building, the stairs on the other side are blocked, we can't get through."
"These three are injured."
He stood against the wall, and one by one he lowered the injured in turn, placing them smoothly against the wall, mouthing, "They need to be treated as soon as possible, you guys hurry up and send them down later."
'You guys'.
Matsuda Jinpei pushes a piece of obstacle aside while grasping the point, "You guys?!"
"You're not going down?"
"There's someone else in there," Ichijō Mirai patted his shirt, "I'll go back again."
In addition to being dusty, his clothes were wrinkled, most of all around the collar, which looked like it had been clenched with a hard fist, and in addition to that, he had black fabric tied around his left shoulder.
The black fabric appeared to be the fabric of a shirt, bound from the shoulder to the chest, and there was a gray-covered bloodstain on the shirt near the hem of the fabric, which was faintly visible and inconspicuous.
After barely clearing an opening for access, Morofushi Hiromitsu hurriedly stepped inside, first looking down to examine the injured man who appeared to be the most seriously injured, helping him up, and then calling out to Ichijō Mirai, who was turning to leave, "Wait."
As Ichijō Mirai turned back, he looked at the black cloth and the blood underneath it without moving, and mouthed, "How many others are in there?"
Knowing the number in advance would allow the paramedics and receivers to prepare.
"Four more," Ichijō Mirai replied easily, and in a preemptive veto, "No, you're not coming, I'll lose one of you in a secondary collapse and the sky will fall."
He said it in a light and humorous tone, and while it didn't sound very funny to the others, he laughed heartily at the end of it.
Morofushi Hiromitsu: "..."
If they could get into trouble going to the collapse zone, wouldn't Ichijō Mirai?
"Uh," He pushed down the question that was sure to get a lopsided answer, steadied himself on the injured man he had helped up, and observed Ichijō Mirai's expression, "You seem happy?"
"Ah, yes," Ichijō Mirai smiled at Morofushi Hiromitsu as he looked back and turned to walk away, "I've realized that it seems as if I might not need to do it next time, I'll get through it this time..."
"Bye, see you later!"
See you later, but it takes time to get through the fire and debris.
The corridor was still empty when Morofushi Hiromitsu and Matsuda Jinpei dropped them off and came back with their men.
Because they were short-staffed, they brought only two or three men up, and waited a few moments for Ichijō Mirai.
Like last time, Ichijō Mirai was pulling people out, carrying one on his back, holding one in his left hand, and dragging a fat man with a weak lower limb by a cooler-like object in his right hand.
This time, they were in a much better state than the last time, at least there was no bleeding trauma, and they were all conscious and not unconscious.
Ichijō Mirai was also much happier than last time, and even smiled when he turned around from time to time to make sure that the injured man on the ground was there, causing him to give him a quick smile in confusion.
So even if he was in a worse state than before, finally breathing a bit like a normal person, it wasn't too noticeable, every time he took a few steps and dragged someone, he would lower his eyes to the ground, breathing hard and reporting, "151-"
"152-"
"153~"
Spotting the people who were waiting outside the area, he once again revealed a smile that clearly signified a good mood, transferred the group of injured people over, and instructed, "This gentleman's wheelchair can't be taken out, so please have someone come to carry it, and give me oxygen for this gentleman on my back before going down."
"There's someone else in there. I'll go back."
As he spoke, Ichijō Mirai's eyes moved a few times, smiled again, and even spoke in a rare human language, and really complimented like a sunny Savior, "You're so well-behaved, you actually knew to wait outside instead of coming in, was it Matsuda's order or Morofushi's?"
"I guess it's Morofushi, if Matsuda gave the order, maybe he wanted you guys to pull me out and beat me up... Hey Matsuda, why are you clenching your fists, can't wait to push the wheelchair for the poor masses? Wow, how kind!"
Ignoring the welt that popped up on Matsuda Jinpei's forehead, he waved his hand with a grin, "The secondary collapse will start in seven or eight minutes, the building won't collapse, so you guys can stop here and start clearing up as soon as the collapse stops,"
"I'll be back in time to protect the last one..."
"154."
Ichijō Mirai reported the number again, grinning more and more as he looked at Morofushi Hiromitsu and the others, and then at the police officers who were carrying the trapped people, with a very kind and gentle gaze, like a player looking at the NPCs who automatically move bricks in an infrastructure game, "Everyone's so great."
The police officers, who didn't know that Ichijō Mirai was not a human dog, looked flattered or something like that when they heard the compliment from Savior, whose reputation they had heard of.
Before they bowed in response, Ichijō Mirai waved his hand, "I'm going in," and turned around without looking back.
He turned around and without looking back, he said, "Oh yeah, don't follow me, I'm talking about you two."
Morofushi Hiromitsu and Matsuda Jinpei stopped in their tracks to follow him.
The gentleman who had lost his wheelchair looked at them and spoke reassuringly, "There's another high school student inside, and compared to me, that gentleman will have an easy time bringing him out."
There was a mixture of awe and fear in his tone, "That gentleman is very powerful, he doesn't look like a human being...he gets in and out of fires with ease, don't worry, he'll definitely get that middle schooler out."
Morofushi Hiromitsu is more concerned with the key word that Ichijō Mirai specifically warned about twice: the second collapse.
They weren't allowed to go in because Ichijō Mirai thought that the second collapse might cost the lives of those who entered.
But he went in by himself.
Even though we've been together for a long time, we've known that Ichijō Mirai has a 'your lives are important, but me? Don't worry about me', Morofushi Hiromitsu couldn't help but frown at Ichijō Mirai's frantic attempts to test the wings of the roc on the brink of death.
After the others left, the floor fell silent again, and he and Matsuda Jinpei were the only ones staring at the corridor in silence.
After a minute or two of silence, Matsuda Jinpei said, "They said it was dangerous and wouldn't let us go in, but then they went in themselves, what the hell."
His eyes widened, "And we had to listen to him."
Because Ichijō Mirai was right.
Several times the experience told the same story: even if it was unbelievable, unbelievable, you had to listen to Ichijō Mirai, because he was right, he was like a prophet who had opened his eyes to the future in the flow of time, and only by listening to him could you move towards the optimal solution.
The consequences of not listening to him...
The first thing that happens is the retaliation of the great Savior and a sudden spike in blood pressure.
It's the same this time.
And since they don't know what's going on inside, following them in would distract Ichijō Mirai from saving the last of the trapped, wasting precious time.
Morofushi Hiromitsu's eyes twitched, and just as he was about to speak, he noticed a subtle sensation coming from the ground.
Almost at the same time, there was a roar, "Boom!"
The building shook a few times.
To the people outside the building, it was just a big shake, not a collapse, which was acceptable, but to the people inside the building who felt the collapse themselves, it was like the world was shaking with a roar.
In what seemed like an extraordinarily long roar, the smoke was dispersed by the weight of the object, and then with difficulty regrouped, some of the smoke along the corridor of the gap to the outside of the building, the fog in the corridor than before a few points thinner, visibility also improved.
The stairway was re-blocked.
Morofushi Hiromitsu and Matsuda Jinpei rushed to clear the obstruction, looking down the corridor as they did so.
Finally, halfway through the clearing process, a sound came from the depths of the corridor, the sound of footsteps.
But instead of the same slow but steady footsteps as the previous two times, there was the sound of footsteps running and crawling in a panic.
These are not the footsteps of Ichijō Mirai.
Morofushi Hiromitsu's newly relaxed brow furrowed before he could form a smile with his mouth, and he looked in the direction of the sound.
A few seconds later, a figure ran out of the smoke from the rubble, a young child, middle school age by the looks of it, with bruises, a dirty face, a splatter of blood near his jaw, and a panicked look.
He fell and scrambled to his feet, his eyes lighting up and dimming the moment he saw someone, "Officer Mo-Morofushi?"
No further cleanup was needed, the boy had voluntarily made his way through the narrow gap into the corridor, still panicked, unsteady, unable to control his mouth, speaking only by instinct, "We're pinned down, and I, that one, just caved in again, and the officer who came to our rescue and I are pinned down, and he jumped on me, and then he said,"
*
"Don't cry," Ichijō Mirai said, "run, 156, run with the blood on the ground,"
Like a man who has been hiking in the desert for ten days and sees the edge of the desert, like a man who has been adrift at sea for half a month and sees land, he said, with deep emotion, "You'll survive."
Surely.
If you don't run and make it to the last man standing, next time I'll break your legs.