Chapter 14: Where There's Smoke...
"There! I've finished all the homework any of the teachers could give me for the whole school year!" Nagia states feeling accomplished to no one in particular. She walks over to her bed and picks up a package.
She lies down as she opens it, revealing several books about starting businesses, schools, etc.
She reads the backs and sets to reading one.
After a half hour or so, she grabs her bag and transforms.
"Ichigo Henshin!" she yells as she exits the window and heads to the city.
She meets Retasu, Minto, and Purin at the recording studio. Today was the first day with their choreographer to prepare for their debut as a musical group a week after Valentine's Day.
After the typical greetings, they walk to the performance hall. Ichigo walks through the door first. Her mouth falls open.
"This is the largest hall in Chicago. Like it?" their French producer seems to pat himself on the back.
The girls turn to him, ecstatically singing his praises.
Soon, they are practicing their moves on stage. Like their singing had improved, so did their dancing. They easily execute everything the choreographer demands causing practice to end early.
As soon as they were dismissed, Ichigo hurries home leaving the other Mews giggling about where she will be meeting Andrew today.
Ichigo gets to the meeting place, a pizza parlor in a place where only the locals would know to look, detransformed and early. She takes a seat at a table and orders a soda. She looks at her clock. 2:30. Half hour early... She'd forgotten practice had ended early. She lay down on the table. To her surprise, Andrew enters. He sees her and waves.
The two spend their usual two hours studying.
At 5:00, Nagia suggests they end for the day. She gets up, hoping Andrew will stop her, but he doesn't, so she continues out the door, disappointed. She lets out a heavy sigh. Lately Andrew has been cold...
Snow falls around her as she trudges through it. I didn't bring my car... She had jumped there as Ichigo. Not feeling like transforming, she walks along the busy streets. From behind her, she hears a fire truck and ambulance. They rush past her. Needing a distraction, she hides and transforms, "Ichigo Henshin!"
It was easy to follow the sirens as several fire trucks, policemen, and ambulances came to put out the fire at the apartment building about a mile from her house. Ichigo lands outside in the bushes. From what she could see, the firemen had already been able to get everyone safely out.
One man helps a woman who looks to be about 30 from the house. She coughs profusely. The fireman leads her to an ambulance and helps her onto a gurney. When she gathers her breath, she searches around frantically. "Susan? Susan!" The woman hops up and starts running toward the building. Two policemen and a policewoman grab her. "Susan was in the bathtub! Did anyone bring out a little girl from a bathroom?"
"Calm down!" They told her as the policewoman orders two firement to search inside.
Before they are able to enter, the entryway collapses.
The woman screams and starts fighting the policemen.
Dark Ichigo runs to the building and hops inside ignoring the yells of those in uniform.
She gasps for air only a second before remembering her power. She finds she is able to clear her path of fire, but not as well as if she had been the one who had created it. She makes her way through the apartments, searching for the girl. "Susan! Susan!" she calls.
She feels the building shake. I don't have much time.
"Susan!" she yells louder.
A little girl's scream.
Ichigo enters apartment 2B and finds the flames have almost destroyed their closed bathroom door. She easily kicks it down. Sitting in the tub holding her frantically-scratching pet cat is a crying girl.
"Susan!" Ichigo calls and motions her to come out of the tub.
Susan gets up and runs to her. Ichigo wraps her in a nearby towel.
"Hold Kitty tight. I won't let you fall, so you can't let her fall either."
Susan nods as Ichigo holds onto her tight. The two exit the bathroom. The building could collapse any minute. Ichigo takes a deep breath and leaps. She lands and leaps a few seconds before that part of the building collapses. Ichigo covers the girl's and cat's heads with part of the wet towel as she leaps again and again, barely missing falling through.
There's the exit!
Ichigo takes another bound. So far so good.
She takes another. Almost there!
Her final bound. The floor collapses beneath her as all three fall through. Susan screams as Ichigo covers her and the cat with her body.
Ichigo feels an arm grab her. She looks up to see the Blue Knight. He yanks them up and they escape.
Susan runs to her Mom, still holding the cat.
The woman runs to Ichigo and hugs her, thanking her again and again. Ichigo can't help but cry with her.
Soon, Ichigo leaves, trying not to stagger. Once she is away, she collapses, breathing hard.
Blue boots approach her.
"You're always so defenseless around me, Ichigo..." were the last words she heard before darkness.