A/N Well this is my second instalment, I was going to write more but because it was over 5,000 words I decided to split it for an extra chapter. I have not proof read due to laziness.
Chapter 2
Daichi groaned as he opened his eyes to his new surroundings. His head throbbed painfully, and he felt a warm trail of blood trickle down the back of his neck. He tried to move his hand to see if the wound on his head was still bleeding but quickly realised he couldn't. His arms were firmly tied behind his back; he assumed it was rope judging by the feel of material against his skin.
What had happened? Daichi tried to recall but found it rather hard to concentrate as all he could hear was a loud ringing noise in his ears. He shook his head to try and bite back the nausea that made him feel seconds away from throwing up. Letting his eyes adjust to the dimly lit room, he looked around trying to distinguish anything he could to tell him where he was.
The room was next to empty, if he didn't know any better he would say it was abandoned but noticing the piles of boxes that were scattered across the space he assumed it was more of a rarely used storage room. There were no windows which suggested basement plus the various stone columns that appeared to be holding up the ceiling above also added to that theory. There was a large set of double doors at the far side of the room which were probably locked, judging by the size and density they would be impossible to break through without the right tools. To his side he made out the shape of another male…Fudo!
Kitajima quickly recognised the young man propped up against a column just a few feet away. His head was slanted to the side away from Daichi; he was still unconscious. Daichi instantly felt worried for his friend not knowing the extent of possible injuries which could have kept him unconscious for this long.
"Fudo…" Daichi called out quietly, he didn't want to startle the guy nor did he want to alert anyone that may be watching what they were up tp. After all they were tied down; someone had to have done it. Fudo didn't answer, neither did he stir. Kitajima wondered how far out of it he may have actually been. He always knew Fudo to be the first one up when on call, they guy never needed much sleep and was never groggy when he woke up.
"Fudo…" he tried again, this time a little louder, he needed to know if Fudo was ok which meant he had to try and wake up if he could. Once again there was no sign of movement; Kitajima knew he had to resort to more physical methods even if it meant an aggravated Fudo. He would rather have a pissed of Fudo yelling insults at him (or even just glaring) than an unconscious one that could be seriously injured…that worried him more.
Daichi shuffled over from where he was sitting, he remembered his hurt ankle so he knew it would be futile trying to stand unless extremely necessary. When he got close enough to the other SR member he gently nudged him in the leg with the tip of his shoe. First try…no response. He tried again harder than before, "Fudo wake up, your shift is up," Daichi said, he knew exactly what punctuality in his job meant to his teammate and he knew that sometimes saying weird things like that can actually wake up a person. He tapped him again with his foot.
"Kitajima…why do you have to be so irritating?" Fudo mumbled rather tiredly, the effects of the chloroform were still attacking his system making him extremely drowsy that even he couldn't hide it. He was surprised how much effort it took just to lift up his head; Fudo didn't like this feeling at all. Daichi smirked, he felt relieved that his friend seemed to be ok; he still was just as cocky as usual. It was a weird feeling being the ones that needed to be rescued especially as it was more of a kidnapping than a disaster. That meant there was no chance of the rest of SR coming to find them, this wasn't there kind of job.
"Are you okay?" Daichi asked.
"Why do you have to ask…such a ridiculous question?" Fudo groaned; it was hard to speak when your jaw felt as though it was hanging off your face. His arm was burning so much that it took all his effort not to start screaming, he had tried not to move it as much as he could but the rope still put a lot of pressure on it. How could he be so careless to end up in this situation? It was embarrassing. What are the rest of the team going to think? Hell what would his brother think? He would just complain at how being a doctor would have been safer but what does he know? Ever since he met up with him in the SR Tadashi had been checking up on him more times than Fudo cared to admit. It seems now that he knew exactly where to find him he wanted to know everything he was up to. Fudo had started to get a little frustrated at that, especially as he kept telling him that his father still wanted to see him.
"Gomen, I just wanted to make sure," Kitajima replied feeling a little stupid for asking such a question especially as he knew that Fudo wouldn't appreciate it. Still if Fudo could answer like that then he certainly wasn't as hurt as Daichi originally thought.
"So what do we do now?" Fudo asked stretching out his back trying to rid of the aching sensation he had from being slumped in the same awkward position for so long. He clenched his teeth when the rope brushed against his broken wrist, there wasn't exactly much he could do in this condition. He would have usually thought of his own way out a problem but right now he just couldn't think straight, all he cared about was trying to stop his wrist from burning.
"To be honest, I'm not exactly sure..." Daichi started, he wasn't in any position to suggest the word rescue. He knew if he thought hard enough an idea would eventually pop into his mind. Daichi wondered what they were even doing in here in the first place, who the hell has such a problem with them that they would go to such measures as this to kidnap them.
"You're not going to start panicking are you? Because I won't be the one trying to comfort you," Fudo sighed in an agitated manner. He had heard about Daichi's past experience as a child which at first resulted in him having a break down in one of the simulations, he didn't particularly want to deal with that right now, not that Fudo was ever the consoling type.
"Wow Shogo is right; you're really not lovable are you?" Daichi joked remembering Shogo telling him how Fudo hung up on him at the time when Fudo actually messed up on a mission. That was the first time Fudo showed his more sensitive side, the reason that proved he wasn't a total asshole. Daichi always knew there was more to Fudo than just an arrogant outer shell.
"And no, I'm way over that now, don't worry," Daichi explained, he had to get over that fear if he had any hope in getting into SR.
"Who says I'm worried? I just don't need you distracting me with your screams why I try think of a way out of here," Fudo explained with a heavy drawn out breath. He had always been the one to speak his mind with brutal honesty. Daichi shook his head, typical Fudo, he had learnt not to be offended by most his comments now. Besides he had learnt to see through his facade to know that Fudo did indeed care, he just found it hard to express himself without being rude.
"Ah right genius, how about we try and get these ropes off first?" Kitajima suggested trying to look behind him at his tied up hands. He could still move his fingers, though he wasn't sure for how much longer as the circulation was being cut slowly.
"Maybe I can try untying you first?" Daichi questioned, his hands were at perfect height to reach the others bonds. He looked up at Fudo who simply nodded at the idea; there wasn't much they could with their hands tied behind their backs. Daichi shuffled further over and Fudo turned himself around until they were both back to back. Kitajima reached out his fingers until they came in contact with the coarse material. The SR hooked his index finger into the rope and pulled trying to see if there were loose spots. The rope was bound tight, whoever tied it, knew how to tie. He hooked more of his fingers into the small opening before Fudo hissed jerking his shoulders forwards.
"What?" Daichi asked a little panicky withdrawing his fingers quickly.
"My wrist..." Fudo growled through clenched teeth, of course out of all injuries this had to be the most annoying. He couldn't let his teammate fiddle around with the rope without causing him to flinch unintentionally. Fudo felt ashamed of his broken wrist, it gave him a weakness. Fudo was not prone to weaknesses that he hadn't caused himself.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," Daichi told him remembering the aluminium bat and Fudo shielding himself with his arm. He was clearly in a lot more pain than he was but as usual he was very good at hiding it.
"Stop apologizing and think of something!" Fudo ordered; he had no time for sympathy right now.
"Hai," Kitajima nodded, sweeping his eyes across the room trying desperately to come up with an idea. If only Tetsuka was here...not that he wished he was here that would be cruel, but just to give him an idea. He was always good at analysing situations and finding a good solution.
"Maybe if we find a sharp object to cut it on, there has to be something in this room which can be used," Fudo said wondering why he hadn't thought of it before but then again had been a little out of full focus. The room was full of boxes and junk something had to be sharp enough to cut through rope in here.
"Right, I'll take a look around, Fudo you stay here, even if you do find something there is still a risk you could hurt that wrist even further," Daichi announced getting onto his feet, his ankle still ached but he realised that must have been nothing compared to what Fudo must have been feeling. It felt good to stretch his legs out somewhat; he hated sitting down for so long, he was more into action than sitting. Fudo frowned at Daichi's comment, "I'm not useless you know, especially as I can already see a large nail poking out of that column," Fudo tilted his head towards the area he was looking at for Daichi's eyes to follow. He was right about a metre away was a large protruding nail which looked sharp enough to slice through rope. Kitajima walked over to the space easily hiding the limp in his footsteps before kneeling down and brushing the rope against the nail. He listened as the fibres were snapped meaning it was working.
"You must have good eyesight to see in this dark room," Kitajima spoke pressing the rope further into the nail feeling his bonds loosen somewhat.
"I am the best at everything, remember?" Fudo stated as-matter-of-factly. Fudo had always been a show off, he knew he was good and he liked to flaunt it. He had full trust in his abilities which made him such a good SR.
"How does having good eyesight make you the best at it?" Daichi asked raising an eyebrow.
"Well can name something that I'm not the best at?" The cocky SR inquired, he personally couldn't think of a skill that he couldn't do.
"Hmmm, probably not," Daichi smiled glancing behind himself looking how much damaged had been done to the rope, the first layer was already halfway through meaning it would only take a couple more minutes to get through the lot so then he could go and untie Fudo properly and they could look for a way out of here.
Footsteps sounded outside the double doors, Fudo glanced towards the noise narrowing his eyes. At first Kitajima didn't notice being too focused on trying to get the rope off wondering if there was another way out of here. It wasn't until after the doors were opened and the masked figures stepped in that Daichi's attention was caught.
Daichi hadn't called back last night; Tetsuka could only hope that he was in work to tell him that his phone had run out of battery or something. Yutaka looked up at the SR building; all the big red vehicles were parked as usual in the large garage next to the office. He had only been working there for a couple of months and already he enjoyed it better than when he was in the fire service. He walked up to the front entrance of the building and opened the door to the main office.
"Ohayo," Tetsuka greeted as the members of SR all looked up at him and repeated the greeting. He quickly scanned the room for Daichi or Fudo, neither of them was there. A needle of worry stabbed him in the chest. Fudo and Daichi were always the first ones there apart from Tokunaga. Fudo was always early because like he is, always has to beat everyone at everything and Daichi loved the job so much that he could never bear being away from it.
"Daichi and Fudo haven't turned up yet?" Yutaka asked the rest of the crew who were sitting in their chairs drinking some kind of coffee. In the centre of the back wall was a shrine to Igarashi, every morning all the squad said hello to him, it become kind of like a tradition that even in death he would always be part of the team. It such a terrible tragedy that he had to go like that, on his last day as well. At least he died in the line of duty, doing what he always loved.
"It doesn't appear so, what are those boys up to that is making them so late?" Kanou smirked, thinking of such an impossible idea that they both somehow picked up some girls and well, slept in late this morning. After all they were both young men and not so bad looking, it wouldn't be impossible…well maybe it was.
"If they don't turn up soon we're going to have to go through disciplinary measures, this is an important job after all," Tokunaga stated, he never thought he'd have to say that about those two but it was true. He needed the whole team for rescue missions otherwise there would be a far greater risk to the victims as there wouldn't be enough people to save them. They already lost one member; they didn't need two more not turning up.
"I don't think that's necessary, maybe their sick?" Kanou queried folding his arms across his chest and leaning back on his chair. He knew neither of them would miss work on purpose there would have to be a reason for it, those boys were some of the most dedicated workers he had ever seen in his life.
"Both at the same time? It's unlikely besides they would have called in by now," Katsuragi added taking a sip from his mug, he needed the caffeine boost in the morning. It didn't matter how much he had started to like the newbies he still was strict on punctuality he wanted the best of the best. He already had trust issues he didn't want half assed team members as they were twice as more likely to get injured.
Yutaka rubbed his forehead, they hadn't turned up for work neither…something had to be up.
"What's up Tetsuka-kun? You look kind of stressed," Tsukuda asked placing a hand on the younger members shoulder in a reassuring way. Instantly the other team members perked up, curiousity blazed in their eyes maybe they were missing something.
"It's just that, they both seemed to go missing…" Yutaka said finding it hard to put the pieces together of how they went missing, but missing seemed like the only explanation. The SR members looked at each other in confusion; this wasn't something they expected to hear so early in the morning.
"What do you mean?" Tokunaga questioned getting up to stand in front of the junior member, if something happened to their teammates they wanted to know about it. They were more than just a squad they were more of a family and they never left anyone behind, sadly though, sometimes though that may be impossible.
"After shift yesterday, Daichi, Fudo and I went to the Fire Dragon café to relax we stayed there until 12:30 in the morning, I had agreed to give them both rides back at home so they said they would meet me at my car after they finished their drinks…I waited for twenty minutes and they never showed up so I decided to go get them myself but when I got back to the café they had both gone. I have no idea where they went or anything," Tetsuka explained realising the possibility of something bad happening was probably quite high, he never wanted to think about those kinds of scenarios before, but they hadn't turned up for work, there was no way that would ever happen with those two.
"Did you try and contact one of them?" Kanou asked, he scratched the back of his head feeling worried about the newbie members; he had already grown to like them both. All the senior members saw the three as like kids that needed to be looked after and guided, despite the fact they were all far more than capable at the job it was just that they were so young and inexperienced.
"Hai, I tried calling Daichi and texting him but I've had no reply," Yutaka answered anxiously, how was he supposed to concentrate on the job when he was too worried about his friends.
The alarm sounded in the room along with the intercom telling them about a nearby building collapse.
"Looks like we're going to have to sort this problem out after this," Tokunaga stated as the team members all nodded, they were all rather worried but their duty called for them, which was something they couldn't ignore. Getting to their feet they all headed out the door to their rescue vehicles.
The scene of the disaster was only a small building surprisingly close to the SR station. It was a small block of flats that had somehow collapsed and left people trapped inside. The squad got out of their truck in the orange uniforms awaiting orders. The fire service was already here along with the ambulance team, a member from the fire service jogged towards Tokunaga.
"Their seemed to have been an explosion in the middle flat that cause that and the third floor to collapsed onto the first, we have already rescued four people who were on the first floor but apparently there are some other victims on the higher floors that we cannot get to," he explained calmly pointing towards the scene where the fire-fighters were spraying water at the fires that burst out from the windows.
"An explosion?" Katsuragi enquired, was this some kind of terrorist attack?
"Hai, we're not sure exactly what caused it, it could be anything from a faulty stove to a bomb," the fire-fighter clarified, his main priority right now was putting out the fires, the investigation team afterwards would find out the cause of the fire.
"Right, well our main focus is getting those people out of that building," Tokunaga turned around to face his team, "Kanou, Tetsuka you two take the second floor, Katsuragi and Tsukuda you take the third floor, the priority of this mission is get those survivors out. We all must put our worries about Daichi and Fudo to the back of our minds at this moment, all that matters right now is those people," the leader explicated his order, his team needed all their focus if they wanted to get these people out safely, he couldn't have them being distracted and making a careless mistake.
"Yosh," they all said simultaneously giving the thumbs up and heading off in their order directions.
Kanou and Tetsuka made their way to the second floor, the building was burning making it hard to see, and the heat was still immense even with their suits on. The corridor had half collapsed in on itself; there were two rooms on this floor both which could have survivors in.
"Let's check the apartment on the right first," Kanou stated directing him and Tetsuka to that side trying their best to avoid the falling ceiling and walls which had been damaged by the explosion. Kanou smashed the locked door down with his shoulder before stepping into the blazing apartment, the room was a mess; the furniture was smashed or crushed by rubble, the light from the ceiling had fallen to the floor, pieces of glass were scattered everywhere. The walls from the other rooms were no longer walls as they had collapsed in on themselves making the apartment visible.
"Hello, is there any one in here? Please answer us," Kanou shouted hoping to get the attention of someone, though this method didn't always work if the victim was unconscious. Tetsuka trudged around the broken glass to various areas of the apartment looking desperately for survivors but he couldn't find any.
"I don't think there is anyone in this room!" Tetsuka called out he looked back at Kanou who nodded in agreement, they both knew that had to move onto the other room before the building collapsed. Kanou and Tetsuka found their way back to the entrance into the floor corridor. The corridor shook with the building, Tetsuka stepped forwards to balance when the wood bellow his feet gave way. He gasped as he began to fall forwards handing towards the whole in the floor before he was quickly stopped by a pair of hands. Tetsuka looked back at Kanou who had grabbed hold of him before he fell.
"Careful, the floor is weak from the explosion," Kanou warned pulling Tetsuka back onto his feet.
"Thanks," Yutaka showed his gratitude towards the other man before making his way further down the corridor towards the other flat. This time the door was open, they both stepped inside this room was far more damaged than the other, half of the room had already collapsed to the floor below and a raging fire could been seen within the gap. This looked like the heart of the explosion.
"Is anyone in here, this is SR, we are here to help you, please answer!" Kanou yelled trying to attract any attention from a survivor.
"O-o-over here," a small scared voice called back, both SR members became alert trying to find the direction of the voice. They followed the area of the voice and found a young woman maybe in her mid-twenties cowering in the corner of the room with a deep gash on her leg. She was clutching a brown envelope in her hands.
"A-a-are you SR?" She stuttered looking at the men in orange suits.
"Yes we are, don't worry ma'am we are here to save you," Tetsuka proclaimed getting down to his knees and taking a look at the wound on her leg.
"Then you must take this!" She cried shoving the brown envelope into Yutaka's hands, Tetsuka looked at the envelope seeing a rectangular indent inside, the object was unidentifiable he found. He looked back up at the woman offering it her back, "I don't think this is ours ma'am." The woman raised her hands in protest, "no, you must take it!" She demanded pushing it back towards him. Yutaka frowned.
"We must get you out of here now before this building collapses," Kanou stated sincerely as Tetsuka slipped the envelope into his pocket, he wasn't sure if it was something dangerous or not but even so he wasn't sure that it may have been something important. The woman nodded. Kanou handed her a mask to shield her from the smoke.
"Can you walk?" Tetsuka asked noticing that the wound on her leg was not going to be fatal; it had not hit any major arteries so she should be fine.
"I think so…" she started getting to her feet and finding that walking wasn't so bad, Yutaka lifted her arm over his shoulder to give her some support as they made their way out of the flat and back down the stairs.
It was far brighter outside than in the dark flat as Tetsuka helped carry the woman outside where she was instantly met with the paramedics. Katsuragi and Tsukuda were already outside waiting for the others to return. Kanou and Tetsuka took off their masks and took a breath of the fresh air.
"Did you find any survivors?" Kanou asked the other two taking off his helmet and running a hand through his hair.
"Yeah, there was a middle aged man on the top floor, uninjured, that was all we found," Tsukuda answered leaning back against the truck feeling a surge of fatigue from the task. He was glad that he got to save someone; as usual Igarashi would have been proud of their efforts. It still wasn't the same without him.
"Good job everyone," Tokunaga praised giving everyone the thumbs up before getting back into the truck waiting for everyone to do the same. After taking a couple of deep breaths they all got back into the truck and headed back into the office ready for any other emergencies.
"Well that was a pretty simple one for a change," Kanou breathed a sigh stretching his arms up and slumping back into the office chair. The smaller missions were always the best, they were usually done quickly and were rather simple to carry out compared to mass disasters or when big industries fell apart. Though whichever one happened they always took their job seriously.
"Do you think they'll be any more operations today?" Tsukuda asked everyone, the best days were the ones with very few small disasters, one it was good for the public in the sense that no one was getting injured plus it was far less tiring for the team who somehow had developed the best endurance in existence. Tetsuka sat down and slipped his hands into his pockets quickly remembering the object he had put in there, he slipped the envelope out of his pocket and looked at it. The packet was a simple brown with no markings on it at all just inside was a small object about the size of the palm of your hand.
"What's that?" Katsuragi inquired leaning forwards on the table linking his fingers together and pressing his chin on top. He watched as Yutaka twisted the envelope between his fingers wondering what could be inside.
"Oh, it's something that the woman we rescued handed to us, she seemed rather adamant about us taking it," Kanou enlightened lowering his eyebrows. He someone didn't think it was dangerous, a scared woman would be unlikely to hand something like a bomb to the people that are rescuing her in fear of it going off while they had it. Still it seemed rather important like she had to hand it to them for some reason.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Tsukuda inquired inquisitively looking over Yutaka's shoulder at the object. The younger member nodded utterly intrigued by what could have been so important that someone in a burning building would hand to them. Yutaka slipped his finger under the seal and ripped it along the edge before turning the envelope upside down and tipping out its contents onto his hand.
"A phone?" Katsuragi stated looking at the object in the newbies hand, which seemed more than a little weird. He looked at the other SR members who looked just as puzzled as he did, somehow they had the feeling the day was going to turn into some kind of mystery. First Daichi and Fudo have disappeared and now they are mysteriously given a package with a phone inside. It took a few moments for the object to register in Tetsuka's head for him to recognise the object.
"Shit," Yutaka gasped covering his mouth with his hand. He looked at the phone carefully just to make sure what he was seeing was most definitely what he thought it was; he came to the conclusion that it was noticing the scuff mark on the side from when it was dropped.
"Nani?" The senior members all asked, getting even deeper into the interest of what was going on.
"This is Daichi's phone," Tetsuka swallowed flicking the screen up to see that ever so familiar picture of him and Daichi after their first day at SR. A message popped up on screen.
"Seriously? How did Daichi-kun's phone end up with a woman," Tsukuda said, nothing seemed to make much sense right now. They all shrugged completely oblivious to any possible logical answer.
"There's a message, maybe that'll tell us," Yutaka carried on, noticing the message was from an unknown withheld number, which was not a good sign. He waited for the rest of the team to gather behind him before he pressed view. What they saw was what they were hoping not to. On the screen was a message:
If you want to see your teammates alive, wait for my order and don't go to the police.
Below the message was a photograph clearly taken by the kidnapper showing an unconscious Daichi and Fudo tied up in a dark room. The members of the SR scowled in worry and frustration.
"What kind of sick bastard would do this!" Kanou yelled smashing his fist into the table, the newbies were in deep trouble and there was little they could do about it. They had already lost Igarashi, to lose two newbies would be more than a tragedy they were only in their early twenties and had only been a part of Sūpārenjā for a couple of months.
"Shit, what are we going to do?" Katsuragi snarled, he hated when his teammates were in this kind of danger, he was always haunted by the last newbie who got injured in his charge. He never wanted anything like that to ever happen again. He ran his hands over his face trying to calm himself down, they had a job to but at the same time they had to do something about this matter.
"Well it says wait for an order…it's not like we can do much while we're on duty," Tsukuda heaved, Tetsuka didn't know what to say or do, they both were his best friends, he couldn't bear the thought of something happening to them.
"Well then it's decided, after our shift ends we'll do some investigating for ourselves, as long as we don't contact the police there are no rules against that," Kanou suggested as they all nodded in agreement. They were all more than willing to help out endangered teammates after all it was still like a rescue mission and even off duty they are still SR members.
"I better go tell the boss," Tsukuda said heading towards the leader's office.
