July 13, 2019

That morning, the volunteer firefighters gathered on the grounds of the old Uranohoshi Catholic Girl's High School to train. This week, they would be performing the first live burns inside the old school building, setting a small fire with hay on the second floor and having crews work their way to the fire. The building would be used for successive live burns that summer until it was time to burn the entire thing down, which would make room for a new training tower with several dedicated burn rooms.

For this evolution, Chika and Ruby were given temporary sets of bunker gear as opposed to the gear they had used as auxiliary firefighters, since they would be fighting a real fire. They would be the first team of two to enter, and would be backed up by You and Kanan on a backup line. Watching their every move were the officers of the six firehouses in District 15, as well as both of the newly-appointed volunteer assistant District Chiefs: Kanan's parents.

Outside, as Ruby and Chika adjusted the straps of their air packs, Captain Honda explained to both of them, "Alright, you guys are going in with a hand line from one of the side entrances of the school. From there, you will crawl to the fire, and when indicated, you will order your pump operator to charge your line before going any further and attacking the fire on the second floor A fully charged backup line will be right behind you in case something goes wrong. Your air packs are pressurized to 300 bar of air, or about 45 minutes of air, but you will both probably breathe it down faster than that, especially just starting out. Your low air alarm will go off when you get down to 75 bar. You should be starting to already leave by the time your low-air alarm is going off, especially in a larger building like this, so keep track of how much air your partner and you have at all times. Now, obviously, in a smaller building, you'll probably be able to get away with witch until your low air alarm goes off, like your average house, but do not wait for it here."

Ruby then raised her hand as she took her helmet off and prepared to put her mask on. "Which one of us do you want on the nozzle?"

"Since you're the younger one," Yoshihisa replied to her. "I'll have you on the nozzle and Chika-kun backing you up. Anyway, we got the hose all laid out for you here. Get on air and go in."

"On it," Chika replied with excitement as she and Ruby put their masks on and strapped them down tight. Then, they folded their hoods over their heads, put their helmets and gloves on, and then clipped their low-pressure hoses attached to their masks onto their air packs' regulators. "I got the back."

"I got the nozzle," Ruby replied as they both walked into the school from one of the side entrances. There was not much smoke on the first floor, so the two simply walked. As they did, several firefighters, none of whom were on air due to the very light smoke condition, all directed them to a stairwell behind two double doors. Once they got to the doors, Ruby told Chika, "Alright, get the door!"

"Got it," Chika replied as Ruby braced herself with the nozzle and Chika tried the doorknob, opening up one of the doors.

"Good," said a volunteer firefighter standing by. "Now, Chika-kun, put a door chock on to hold the door in place."

"Right," Chika agreed as she grabbed a wooden door chock and placed it at the bottom of the door to hold it open. As they then advanced into the stairwell, the smoke got thicker as Chika advanced more of the dry line in before joining Ruby at the halfway point up the stairs. Ruby had been feeling each stair above her before climbing up it to make sure it was stable, smacking each one with one of her free hands.

At the top of the stairs, a volunteer lieutenant who was on air due to the smoke. He told both of them, "When you get to this door, call for water! The fire's only a few rooms down!"

"On it," Chika replied. When both of them got to the door, before she went to try it, she grabbed her radio and called, "Pumper 151, charge the Red Line!"

"Got it," replied a firefighter outside of the building. "Here it comes!" Soon after, the hose they held filled with water, somewhat startling Ruby.

"Kind of a kick at first, right?" The volunteer lieutenant then gave them further instructions. "The fire is somewhere about two or three rooms down from here! You two are to knock the fire down, but do not put it out! We need to keep the fire alive for the other evolutions! I'll follow you down there, and I'll let you know when you're good! After that, pull the line back out the same way you came!"

"On it," Chika replied as she gave a thumbs-up. The two then crawled down the hallway, the smoke getting thicker and thicker as they did, until they reached the third room down to the right. Due to the smoke seeming to originate from the room, they soon realized they had found where the fire was. Chika radioed out, "Interior to Command, the fire's gonna be in Room 2-05 on the second floor! The third room on the right!"

"Received," a chief outside replied to her.

As Kanan and You quickly got behind them, Chika moved up to open the door. "Ruby-chan, get ready to spray as soon as I open the door! You got the nozzle?!"

"Yeah," she yelled back as she tightened her grip and got ready. Then, Chika pulled the handle and opened the door, causing flames to appear over Ruby's head as they roared out into the hallway. Though a bit startled, she was not delayed in opening up on the nozzle. "I got water!" As she battled back the flames, Chika got back behind her, and they moved into the classroom, continuing to push the fire back into the room. As they did, their visibility dramatically dropped due to the smoke and steam produced by them throwing water onto the fire.

As they went inside, You and Kanan stayed behind at the doorway. You asked Kanan, "How are they doing?! I can't see in front of you!"

"They got it under control," Kanan replied back to her. She then turned to the two probies and yelled, "Alright, that's enough! Back out to let the fire regrow!"

Chika yelled back, "Got it!" The two then backtracked their way out of the classroom. "That was amazing!"

"Glad to hear!" You then pointed down the hall. "Go back out the way you came!"

...

Outside, about half an hour later, Ruby and Chika relaxed in a rehab area set up by a few of the auxiliary volunteers. They had kept their bunker pants on, but had taken all their other gear off. The weather outside was about 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Ruby said as she aired her t-shirt out, "I actually got my swimsuit under my clothes. No way in Hell am I not going swimming somewhere today after this."

"I should have done that," Chika replied after she finished a second bottle of water. "Riko-chan and I were planning on going to the beach after this."

Another probationary firefighter then joined them after stripping down from his gear. He was about the same age as Kanan, bore light blonde hair with yellow eyes, and sat down next to Ruby. "You two were on the first line in, right?"

"Yeah," Chika replied. Ruby initially did not acknowledge him. "We were the initial attack first, and then we backed up Firefighters Watanabe and Matsuura before coming here. We're going to the boot camp class next week."

"Same here," he replied. "I'm from Station 154, and yes, before the jokes come on in, I am indeed the youngest person there. The next youngest is 34." Station 154 had always been sort of the butt of jokes in District 15. As a single-pumper all-volunteer firehouse, it was already small. It had only 10 firefighters, of which only four were currently interior. Often during the daytime, it would roll with only a single interior firefighter and a few auxiliaries to calls. "I'm Kuwahara Rentarou, by the way. With this class, we'll be up to five interiors, so that's good. I've always seen you guys around, but I never really seen you and the others up close."

Chika laughed, amused by him. "You probably already know us then, but I'm Takami Chika, and this is Kurosawa Ruby."

Ruby was a bit startled by her name being mentioned by Chika. "Oh, right, um, hello." Even though she was now two years older, she was still a bit on the shy side, especially to brand new people. As she pulled out two hair bands to redo her hair, she told him, "Sorry I didn't introduce myself, Kuwahara-san. I'm still a bit shy."

"It's okay," he replied to her. "When I got in, I was, too. I knew nobody in the firehouse, but I knew a few people at your station, the main station. The guys at 154 took me in really quickly, though."

Ruby smiled, liking his response. "They took me in fast too at 151. You know, uh, I was thinking of going for a swim or to the beach after this. Chika-chan and her girlfriend are going too. You're free to come."

As Rentarou and Ruby continued their conversation, Chika was amazed to see her take such initiative. "Amazing... If this was two years ago, she'd be cowering behind me or Dia-chan or someone if a boy our age approached us, or really any stranger for that matter. Now, she's talking to them normally. Aaaah, Ruby-chan, you've grown so much."

...

Around 3 in the afternoon, Ruby, Chika, Riko, and Rentarou all went to the beach together. As Chika and Riko relaxed on the sand, Rentarou and Ruby walked along the water, talking about the day at the old school. "I can't lie," Ruby told him. "I told myself I wouldn't cry, but I did anyway."

"I can't blame you," Rentarou replied, sympathizing with her. "We lost a piece of ourselves when Uranohoshi closed. My dad went to the boys' high school in Uchiura before it closed in 2002. He was a graduate from 1993. My mom graduated in 1994 from Uranohoshi."

"No kidding," Ruby remarked to him. "My mom graduated the same year. My dad was a graduate from 1992 from the boys' school."

"Small world, huh?" He then looked out to the water and asked Ruby, "Are you worried at all about the class coming up?"

"A little," Ruby replied. "The drill today certainly helped out, but I still have some worries. This is a big deal, after all. I just gotta remember to keep calm."

"Same here," he agreed. "I thought I was gonna die at one point due to the heat. I've been exercising, but maybe I need to do it more." Changing subject, he asked her, "So, I heard you got a sister, right?"

"Dia," Ruby explained. "She's two years older than me. She was born on New Year's Day in 2000, so she's a Millennium Baby. She was born about ten minutes after midnight, making her the first child born in the 21st century in Japan. Speaking of, now that I think about it, your name seems familiar... Why?"

"Shit," Rentarou muttered as he realized the connection. "Dia... Your sister rejected me when I was a first-year and she was a first-year."

"Ohhhh," Ruby realized. "That's why you seem kinda familiar..." She then let out a small bit of laughter. "Sorry, I had to laugh. I'm sorry she rejected you, Kuwahara-san. She's in Tokyo going to college right now, actually. She's doing good, and if you're wondering, yes, she's in a relationship right now."

"Nah, I'm over her," Rentarou assured her. "She was nice, but it wasn't meant to be."