Chapter 36: Fire

"Good morning, the first floor is currently full but we have seats available on the second floor. Would that be alright with you two?" The restaurant employee says.

"It's alright." Ranmaru replies.

The restaurant employee guides us to the second floor and to a vacant table. We order our food and it arrives promptly; we're quite impressed.

"So how's the chicken ya ordered?" Ranmaru asks me.

"Can I marry this chicken? It's so delicious!"

"At the rate you're eating it, I don't think it'll survive the 'till death do us part thing."

"Hmph."

"Besides, I won't let ya marry a chicken."

"Why not?"

"First of all, ya can't marry a chicken. Second, it's a secret; ain't tellin' ya."

"You're picking on me again, Ranmaru."

"As if ya ain't used to it yet. Oi, wipe your mouth; you're getting some of the sauce on the side of your mouth."

"Ah. Okay, okay. I didn't notice."

Before I could reach for the napkin on my side, Ranmaru takes it and gently wipes my mouth. "You're like a little kid getting yourself messy like that."

"I'm not a kid!"

"Whatever." He swiftly kisses my forehead. "If ya say so." And then swiftly steals a piece of chicken from my plate.

"…You."

"What?"

"…I hate you."

"I love you too." He places a piece of his steak on my plate with sauce.

"…You're forgiven." I eat the steak as I nod feeling happy.

*beep beep beep*

"Hm? A message from the almighty Madoka?"

"Really? What did the warlord say?"

"She says that our baby is running out of food so we have to buy before returning home."

"Nao's running out of food, huh?"

"We're going home after eating?"

"Yeah."

"I can go buy the cat food right now. The supermarket is on the opposite way from the path we're taking home so I think it's better if I go buy the cat food while you continue eating; it'll be a hassle to walk back and forth."

Ranmaru hesitates to agree with me.

"I'll be back in a few minutes! You don't have to be so anxious."

He lets out a short sigh. "Fine but you have to eat some more before you go."

"Okay. Don't feel so lonely while I'm gone hehe."

He smirks. "Heh, maybe you'll be the one who'll feel lonely and come back so fast because you miss me."

I suddenly chuckle at his remark. "Bleh. Don't flatter yourself so much, idiot."

As promised, I ate more of my food before leaving the restaurant to buy some cat food. I should probably buy the ones in a pack; the medium sized one so that we can stock some at home. Nao can be a glutton sometimes haha. If Nao becomes fat again, I guess we'll have to have him start walking with me and Ranmaru again plus another diet plan. Maybe I should buy a regular sized pack instead and ask Madoka to reduce his food intake now before he becomes fat. Oh well. Whatever goes haha.

After Koemi left the restaurant, minutes later a man carrying a black duffle bag and dressed in all black enters the restaurant.

"Welcome, sir. Table for one?"

"Yes, table for one please."

Currently, we only have tables available on the second floor; the first floor is full. Is that alright with you?"

"Yes, I do not mind."

"Okay. This way, sir."

The restaurant employee guides him to a vacant table on the second floor. The restaurant employee gives him a menu and he shortly makes his order after.

"Man, that guy over there seems sketchy as hell." Ranmaru takes a bite of his steak. "He's wearing completely all black and a face mask that's covering half his face plus a hat like that? He's clearly giving off the sketchy vibes." Plus sitting there by the balcony area on your own makes ya look even weirder and sadder to look at.

Ranmaru couldn't help but stare at the man as he continues to eat.

"Huh?"

He sees the man take out a bottle from his duffle bag and notices that he's taking out a lighter from his pocket.

The man quietly stands up and suddenly laughs angrily and loudly. "This is my revenge! I was the one who made half of the recipes here and you just fire me out of the blue?! I will make you regret the day you fired me! The day you stole my recipes!"

Holy crap!

Ranmaru stands up immediately and shouts, "All of you, get the hell outta here!"

The man quickly lights up the wick sticking out of the bottle he is holding and throws it towards the first floor as he stood by the railing of the balcony area near his table. People started to panic and make their way out of the restaurant. The man puts his bag on his table and takes out more bottles with wicks; he lights up one bottle after the other and throws them everywhere towards the first floor and second floor. The bottles had accelerants in them causing the fire to spread quickly and to grow bigger. Soon, the entrance and windows of the restaurant were all covered in fire, making it more difficult for the people inside the restaurant to get out.

As the man continues to laugh menacingly as he watches the people in panic and some in flames, Ranmaru grabs the man from behind and drags him away from the balcony. Ranmaru tries his best to restrain the man but the man struggles back and ends up breaking free from Ranmaru's grip.

"You can't stop me! No one can until I see this place in ashes!"

The man starts to fight Ranmaru who in turn fights back.

"What the hell are you thinkin'?! Look around you! Look what you've done!"

"I clearly know what I've done and I'm happy about it! You know nothing so keep yourself out of other people's business!"

"If ya have some issues with the owner of this place or somethin' then you should have just kept it between the two of ya! You don't have to drag innocent people into your mess!"

"Shut up!"

The man catches Ranmaru off guard and ends up kicking him with all his might. Ranmaru's head heavily hits the floor and knocks him unconscious. The man proceeds to light up the last few bottles in his bag and throws them recklessly around before fleeing the scene.

"Alright. I got the cat food and a few snacks to eat later back at home hehe. I wonder if Ranmaru finished his food already. I hope he didn't eat the rest of my food; I'm so game on finishing the food I left on my pla—."

I dropped everything that was in my hands and stood there with a wave of fear spreading all throughout my body.

"Th-The restaurant…"

The screams and sounds around me suddenly became inaudible. Not even the sound of the flames could reach my ears. The flames' roars are just as silent as they were back then.

Immediately, I start looking around the area. "Ranmaru! Ranmaru! Raaanmaru! Where are you?! Ranmaru!"

No matter which direction I looked at and shouted at, I couldn't find him; I couldn't find Ranmaru anywhere. My nerves weakened even faster the longer I couldn't see him.

I approach a fire fighter and ask him, "Excuse me, are there still people inside the restaurant?!"

"Unfortunately, yes. There are still some people stuck inside but we are doing our very best to save them."

I take a few steps towards the burning restaurant but the fire fighter grabs me by the arm. "Ma'am please stay back! The situation right now is quite dangerous! Please do not approach the building."

I nod slightly and went away from him. I see some locals passing around buckets of water to help with the fire. I quickly run towards one of them and take the bucket from him. I immediately pour the water over me and wet my handkerchief; I tie the handkerchief around my face to cover its lower half before running into the burning restaurant. Despite my body shaking all over, I went for it with all my fear.

"Ranmaru! Ranmaru! Ranmaru, can you hear me?!"

I head for the second floor but it wasn't an easy task. The freakin' stairs were on fire! I barely could go thru it but somehow I did; this adrenaline rush from worrying sure can be handy at times like this.

"Ranmaru! Are you here?!"

Flames and smoke was everywhere; it was hard to get around and to look around the area. After a while, I see him on the floor; he's not moving.

"Ranma—"

*crrrrracccck*

"Oh sh—"

A part of the ceiling suddenly collapses and blocks the way to Ranmaru. Now a big pile of burning debris stands in my way. The nerves I tried to ignore could no longer be ignored by me; I'm shaking like a scared puppy. A small wry smile appears on my face but I knew deep inside that I've become more scared now.

"Crap!" The burning debris is blocking the way to Ranmaru; what am I gonna do?! There's no way I could jump over that. What now?!

There's a table that isn't on fire; it's a bit burnt but it's still stable and tough. This should be okay. I pull the table a little close to the burning debris and walk away from the table. I stand quite a distance from the table and concentrate on it. I take a good long deep breath.

"…Here I go! Break a leg, Emi! But not literally!"

I dash towards the table and jump on top of it and then use it as a leverage to jump over the burning debris.

"Urgh!" I fall to the floor on the other side of the burning debris. It worked! I immediately go over to Ranmaru to check on him.

"Ranmaru! Ranmaru! Wake up! Oi! Ranmaru!"

He's not responding but he's alive; he's breathing. Thank god this area where he's at hasn't caught on fire much. I guess the fire started from around the middle area of this floor based on the concentration of the fire.

Lucky there are two stable tables on this side. Now the challenge is how to get Ranmaru to the other side of the burning debris. I push the two tables close to the burning debris and stick them together, side by side. I remove the handkerchief covering my face and put it on Ranmaru instead. I then carry him up by having him lean on me with one of his arms over my shoulders.

"Gods you're heavy. I wish you were awake right now so badly."

I bring him over to the lined up tables and get on top.

"H-Here…we go…" I said with a trembling voice. I gather my strength and courage; mustering up what ever I had in me. "Sorry but this is all I could think of at the moment, Ranmaru. I hope this won't hurt ya too much!"

And then I did it—I throw him over the flames of the burning debis and he lands at the other side. Worried that he might have caught on fire or that he's hurt, I immediately jump over the flame. I didn't recover much energy after throwing Ranmaru and I end up loosing my footing a little; I fall to the ground on the other side, hitting my right side badly on the floor. I ignore the pain for now and head over to get Ranmaru. The moment that I stand up, I fall down again. My right foot hurts; I think I landed on it a while ago.

"Urgh…What the?" Ranmaru slowly starts to sit up as he holds his head. He notices that his face has a handkerchief covering half of it and that the restaurant is burning much more than he remembered.

"Ranmaru! You're finally conscious!"

He looks behind him and sees me sitting on the floor.

"Emi! What are you doing here?!"

"Talk later! We've gotta get out first!"

I stand up but end up tripping because of my foot; I brush off the pain and get back up as if nothing is wrong. I grab Ranmaru's arm and we both run thru the burning stairs. Thankfully, we didn't get caught on fire and we were able to get outside. Shit! That felt like an action movie without insurance!

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Ranmaru shouts at me. "You could have gotten seriously injured or killed! You shouldn't have gone inside there to get me! The fire fighters came anyway so they would have gotten me outta there! For god's sake, you gave me a heart attack!"

"…I'm sorry." I say softly as tears started falling from my eyes.

Ranmaru gets taken aback.

"I couldn't help it." I wipe some of my tears away but new tears would flow out and continue to blur my sight. "When I came back to the restaurant, it was burning. When I tried looking for you out here, I couldn't find you and I started panicking. I thought that maybe you were still inside the restaurant and that thought alone made me want to go inside to get you. Even when I was really scared deep inside and knew that it was dangerous, I couldn't stay still knowing that you might be inside or worse—you might be burning in the flames already. It didn't help when I found you unconscious on the second floor; I thought you wouldn't wake up."

I gently put my arms around him and hug him tightly.

"The fire fighters were there too for my parents but they didn't get to save them on time. I couldn't stand the thought that you might die the same way that my parents died. I couldn't stand the thought that I might lose you too."

He didn't say anything and instead hugged me back. I was shaking so much that I'm sure he can feel it; I was in truth shaking this much from the moment I stepped into the burning restaurant.

"Hushhh, settle down. I'm sorry I shouted at you. I'm not going anywhere. I'm still here, aren't I? And it's all thanks to you…Thank you."

"Ran…maru." I hug him even tighter as my tears flow out even more.

"Come on, stop crying or else I'll start crying too. Haha…" He pats my head as I continued to cry in his arms.

I could be wrong but I think I heard a brief crack in his voice.