May 7, 2019
Ambulance 151B pulled up to a seemingly normal-looking house in the central part of Uchiura. On board was a paid firefighter-paramedic, You, and another volunteer. The first ambulance was out on another call with Station 154 at the time, a single-pumper all-volunteer station located to the north. The call was for a 68-year-old male who had fallen out on the front porch of the house.
You and the other volunteer jumped out of the back, pulling the stretcher out as the paid firefighter got out of the driver's seat. They all immediately saw that the patient was on the ground and was moaning, presumably from pain. The man reached out to the ambulance and said, "I think I hurt my leg real bad."
You asked him, "Sir, what leg was it?" As she did, her and the other volunteer brought the stretcher over as the paid firefighter carried a medical bag with him.
"My right one," the old man said as he pointed to his right leg. He then seemed to recognize You. "Oh hey! You're Watanabe You, right?"
You, surprised, replied to him, "Yes, I am. The one and only." She then laughed.
"It's pretty cool you went from being an idol to a fireman. You and the rest of Aqours were pretty good, by the way." The old man then winced in pain again. "Ow."
"Yeah," You replied, surprised the patient was bringing up Aqours at that time. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," the old man said. As he did, the paid firefighter began to apply a brace to the man's right leg.
"Yep," the paid firefighter said. "It looks broken. Let's package him up and bring him to the hospital."
"Alright," said the other volunteer, a man in his late 30s named Hoshi Sando. "We're gonna slide the backboard under you and then lift you onto the stretcher, okay?" He and You then slid an orange backboard underneath the old man. "Okay, You-kun, are you ready? One, two, three." They both then lifted him onto the stretcher. Once they did, they slid the backboard out from under him.
"Ah, motherfucker," said the old man in severe pain. "My right leg really fucking hurts now. I don't think it's anything you guys did, but... Damn it..."
The paid firefighter then asked the patient, "Okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the leg pain?"
"About 7 or 8," the old man replied. As he did, You began to notice that he smelled awful. She then looked over at the open front door of the house and saw that there appeared to be trash in the hallway.
You then asked the old man, "Say, did you notice the trash in your hallway?"
"That ain't fucking trash," the old man suddenly replied as he tried to swipe at You. "Don't call it fucking trash again! Those are my belongings!"
"Hey, hey, hey," Hoshi replied as he stepped in between the stretcher and You. "Don't try to hit my coworkers, alright? Second, I noticed all of that, too. What's going on in your house?"
"Nothing is going on in my damn house," the old man aggressively replied. "And tell that damn bitch of your's to stop insulting my house!"
The paid firefighter told the old man, "Sir, stop it, or we're calling the police for harassment."
Then, the old man managed to slap the paid firefighter across the face. "Shut the fuck up. Like hell you'll call the fucking police, retard."
"You-kun," the paid firefighter said to her. "Get on the radio and get a cop car down here now. Also, get a health inspector here, too."
The old man then waved his fist at You as he sat up in the stretcher and told her, "You started this, bitch!"
You ignored him as she went into the back of the ambulance, grabbed a radio, tuned it to the dispatch channel, and radioed out, "Ambulance 151B to Fire Alarm."
"Ambulance 151B."
"Get me a 10-48 for a combative patient. There also appears to be unsanitary living conditions inside this location. Can you contact the Health Department and have them send an inspector here?"
"10-4."
You then walked back over and said, "I'll go in and look at the house."
The old man then spit in the direction of You. Though it missed, Hoshi and the paid firefighter still tackled him and began to strap him down to the stretcher, causing him to scream out in pain. "You fucking pieces of shit! Don't fucking restrain me! Don't fucking go into my house, you traitor whore!"
You ignored him as she began to enter his house. As soon as she stepped foot inside, the stench became pungent and strong. She could see that the entire front hallway was littered with trash and debris everywhere. "What the actual hell?" As she walked in further, not even the surgical mask she wore could hide the scent. When she got to the living room, she saw that, aside from a small and narrow hallway within the trash that led to a TV, a couch, and the kitchen, the entire living room was filled with both trash and mold from the floor to the ceiling. You immediately backed out into the front hallway as she gagged. "Jesus fucking Christ, that's disgusting!"
Then, she saw the worst thing of all as she began to go up the stairs. The stairs themselves were somehow free of trash and debris. However, at the top of the stairs was some trash as well as a shelf containing jars. When she looked closer, she saw that the jars were full of a yellow liquid. Immediately, her jaw dropped.
"This guy is storing his damn piss in jars," You said to herself in disbelief. "Just another day in Uchiura, huh?" She then turned and saw a room that had its door open. She walked in and flipped on the light. Immediately, her eyes went wide in horror as she said, "What the fuuuu...?"
The room was lined with posters of both µ's and Aqours. Some were torn, while others were in relatively good shape. What disturbed You the most, however, was one corner of the room that contained nothing but posters of photo shoots of her. On the floor in said corner was a box of tissues and a pile of dirty ones.
You immediately recognized what the old man was doing in that corner. "Oh... Oh my God..." She immediately ran out of the room and back down the stairs. Once she ran out of the house, she collapsed to her knees, ripped her surgical mask off, and began to violently retch. After several seconds, she finally began to throw up. After the first few chunks, she stared up at the sky, took a deep breath in, and continued.
Hoshi immediately ran to her as several police cars arrived on scene. "You-kun, are you okay?"
"I...," You began to say before she threw up again. "Oh my God... That pervert had a shrine to idols in a room upstairs..." She then threw up again. "He had a whole corner for just me where he jacked off in to posters of me." She tried covering her mouth to stop herself from throwing up again, but it was no use. "His house is so fucking disgusting. He has jars of his own piss upstairs, too. That creep is fucking sick in the head."
Hoshi then turned to the paid firefighter and told him, "Call Fire Alarm and tell them to get a second ambulance and re-tone our station for a pumper to the scene. We got a bad hoarder house here."
About 8 minutes later, Pumper 151 pulled up with 5 firefighters, including Kanan. She decided to put her pack on and carry her mask with her just in case. She ran over to You, who hadn't thrown up in 5 minutes and was now cleaning her face. "You-chan, are you okay?!" She was clearly worried for her, having heard that You was violently ill while on the pumper riding to the call.
"Yeah," You replied. "I haven't puked my guts out in about 5 minutes, so I should be better now." She then pointed to the house. "You need to fucking see it to believe it. And by the way, please, mask up when you go in there."
"Sure," Kanan replied as she took her helmet off to put her mask on. Once she did, she went on air and put her helmet back on to join the other two interior firefighters that had rode in on the pumper. Neither of them had even grabbed packs, not expecting the smell to be that bad.
As soon as they walked in, one volunteer yelled out, "The smell's awful in here!"
Kanan said to him, "Yeah. That's why I'm masked up. I'll take You-chan's word for it. I'll go upstairs while you two do the downstairs."
"Sounds like a plan," the other firefighter replied.
As Kanan made her way up the stairs, she saw the jars of urine on the shelf. "Well," she said to herself. "Of course that's a thing in this damn house." She then made her way to the same room where You found the idol shrine. Kanan laughed as soon as she went in, saying, "Good fucking lord!" She then noticed the You corner with the tissues. "Oh... Oh my God... That's just nasty. The worst part about it is is that I took most of those photos in the posters." She then heard both of the other firefighters that were with her run back outside after they were overcome by the bad smell in the hoarder house. "I told them to mask up, but they didn't listen."
Two hours later, back at the firehouse, You, Kanan, Toshiki, and Hoshi all talked to each other. You had thoroughly brushed her teeth and rinsed her mouth as soon as she got back to the firehouse. Now, she was eating some food the paid captain at the firehouse had bought for her out of his own pocket, having felt sorry for her. "This hits the spot," she said after swallowing some food. "Then again, I'm sure anything would after I practically emptied my entire stomach." You also threw her entire set of medical gear into the washer.
"It was really nice of Captain Kozuki to buy that for you," Hoshi said to the gray-haired girl. "We've had some paid guys who are assholes to volunteers, but Captain Kozuki has never been. In fact, he started as a volunteer at Station 152 to the south of here. We're spoiled to have him here."
"You got that right," Toshiki replied. "Also, I'd highly recommend showering as soon as you get home. That goes for all of you."
"No shit," Kanan replied to him. "I'm gonna do just that as soon as I get home. You know, I heard they're gonna take the old man to a mental hospital or something."
"They oughta," You replied. "My dad always told me that hoarder houses were dangerous for firefighters. He once sat me down and told me after a fire I had at one soon after I joined in Station 24's area, "You, if you ever have a fire at a hoarder house, and if there's someone inside, they're as good as dead. I'm sorry it sounds dark, but it's true." He was right."
"Oh yes he was," Hoshi replied. "Say, Kanan-kun, didn't your dad say his first fire as an interior-certified volunteer was at a hoarder house?"
"Yeah," Kanan replied as she nodded. "It was a small one, so they were able to knock it down and pull the guy out before he got killed. He died in a nursing home two years later. His house got torn down."
Later, back at the apartment, Chika and You talked about the hoarder house. "No way," Chika replied after You told her about the idol shrine. "That's disgusting! He was like 70 or something, and we were like 16 or 17 when we took those pictures."
"It wasn't really that that bothered me," You replied. "It was the fact that he left his tissues in the same damn spot he did all that stuff in. That sealed the deal." She then sighed. "Yeah, it was a long day. I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with this, Chika-chan."
"No, you're fine," Chika replied, not wanting to make You feel bad. "You can tell me anything, You-chan." She then changed subjects. "Say, I was talking to Hanamaru-chan, and she says Ruby wants to become a firefighter like you and Kanan."
You paused for a moment. "Wait, what?"
"Yeah," Chika replied, surprised herself. "I couldn't believe it myself at first either. I guess Ruby wants to get in touch with you and Kanan and see about joining as a third-year high school auxiliary firefighter or whatever it's called."
"Does Dia-chan know? Do her parents know?" You knew that Ruby had to get permission from her parents to join.
"They do as of today," Chika replied. "Her parents are perfectly fine with it. Dia was hesitant at first, but she agreed eventually as well." She then giggled. "Ruby-chan downloaded and printed an application from online and is filling it out now."
"I'd love to have her on the team," You replied as she yawned. "We need more people. We're down to I think 32 guys. My old station in Downtown Numazu had 22 when I left. It isn't safe."
"That doesn't sound good," Chika replied. She then changed subjects again. "So, I heard they're finally gonna start using the old Uranohoshi School building for something."
You, interested, asked her, "What are they gonna do?"
"The Shizuoka Prefectural Police want to convert the school into a training center for SWAT teams," Chika told You. "They may invite the fire department in for some training sessions, like attacks or something."
"Cool," You replied. "I'm down for it, I guess."
