July 20, 2019
After seeing a movie in downtown Numazu, Hanamaru and Yousuke took a walk through the town, holding hands and talking about the day. "Ruby-chan is starting that fire class next week," Hanamaru told Yousuke. "She's really excited for it, zura, but I'm just concerned since it's so dangerous."
"I can see why," Yousuke replied as they rounded a corner. "You're just worried about a friend, that's all."
"Not only that," Hanamaru pointed out. "But this is unlike her, zura. When we were little, Ruby-chan would try to defend me from bullies, but usually, Dia-chan would have to bail us out because Ruby-chan would end up crying when the bullies countered her." She then smiled. "I guess she really is all grown up now, zura."
"Hey, Yousuke!" The shout of one of his classmates then caught their attention up ahead. "What's up, man?" The young man approached him as Yousuke waved back.
"How's it going, Ichiro-kun?" The two then fist-bumped as a greeting.
"Hey, you didn't tell me you had a girlfriend," Ichiro replied to him, having never seen Hanamaru before. "Did you two just start going out?"
"Uh," Yousuke replied as the two blushed. "Well, yes, this is Kunikida Hanamaru. We've been together for a bit now."
"Nice to meet you," she greeted him with a bow.
"She looks a bit older," Ichiro replied, looking her over. "Is she a high-schooler?"
"Yeah," Yousuke confirmed. "She is."
"No shit," Ichiro replied, giving him a hi-five. "You're one lucky man. I'd kill to have a girl older than me take interest in me."
"No kidding," Yousuke replied in agreement. "Well, I didn't have to kill to find her."
Hanamaru found their conversation amusing. "I always thought he'd get hate from his classmates for our relationship, but I guess he's gonna get praise instead." She then asked her boyfriend, "Yousuke, do you want to go back to my place next, zura?" She made sure to give him bedroom eyes to indicate her intentions.
"No fucking way," Ichiro replied as it hit him. "Yousuke, you lucky son of a bitch."
"Why sure," Yousuke replied in agreement. He then turned back to his classmate. "I'll see you at school, Ichiro-kun. Me and my girlfriend are heading to her place."
...
July 22, 2019
In the evening, after completing their first day at the firefighter boot camp, Chika and Ruby participated in a mask confidence drill at the fire station. The pumper and aerial were both moved out of the apparatus bay and onto the apron, with all the lights inside also being turned off and black mask covers applied to their SCBA masks. A small maze had been constructed in the apparatus bay by the two career firefighters on duty and a few other volunteers, and for this evolution, the two of them would be going in with no prior knowledge of its layout, following only a dry hose line that snaked around the maze. As Kanan stood at the front entrance to the fire station, she told the two of them, "Alright, clip in and start crawling!"
Ruby replied, "Got it!" She and Chika then clipped their regulators in and began crawling, totally blind and unable to see due to the mask covers as they both grabbed the hose and began following it into the apparatus bay while they both also carried hand tools. What they did not know was that it looped back around to the front entrance, and that the hose was tangled several times to throw them off. As they advanced further in, Ruby bumped into an obstacle. "Hang on, Chika-chan!" She then felt above it with her gloved hand, still touching the hand line, before climbing up it. "I'm checking the ground beyond it!" She then smacked the ground in front of the obstacle with the end of an axe, confirming she had ground in front of her, before climbing down back onto the ground. "Come over, Chika-chan!"
"Right here," she replied as she came down as well. Once both were safe, they continued, following the hose line for another fifteen seconds or so before they ran into yet another obstacle. This time, due to the hose being tangled, Ruby had to figure out which way to go. "Is the hose tangled?!"
"Yeah," Ruby replied. "Go to your left! Your left!" Ruby and Chika then both turned towards what they thought was their left, sweeping the floor with their tools while still keeping their hands on the line. However, they eventually came to the same entanglement, and this time, Ruby said, "Go straight!" Thankfully, they did not loop back around again, and cleared the entanglement. "Chika-chan, you with me?!"
"Yeah," she replied right behind her.
As the two continued on the course, You and one of the career firefighters watched over them in the apparatus bay. She told the career firefighter, "These guys aren't half bad for being brand new."
"You have a point," he replied. He then decided to add an obstacle of his own, and walked up to Chika before he planted a knee firmly on her, startling her. He yelled at her, "Firefighter Takami, you are now caught in a collapse! What are you gonna do?!"
"Call a mayday!" She yelled in equal volume back. "Try to free myself!"
"Correct! Yell to your partner and then call the mayday!"
"Ruby-chan! Ruby-chan! Help me!" She then pretended to reach for a radio. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday!"
The career firefighter replied, "Unit with the mayday, go ahead!"
"This is Firefighter Takami Chika off of Pumper 151," she replied. "Uh, I've been involved in a collapse! I'm trapped under debris, and I don't know where on the ground floor I am! I have just under three-quarters of a bottle left, and I have a sledgehammer with me!"
"Good, now hit your PASS alarm and free yourself!"
Chika first activated her PASS alarm before she struggled to get up as the career firefighter continued to lean on her. Ruby crawled back to her and helped lift the knee off of her. "Come on!" Finally, Chika, with Ruby's help, was able to free herself. "I'm out!"
"Keep going! Keep going! Turn your alarm off!"
Chika then reset her PASS alarm and told Ruby, "Lead the way, Ruby-chan!"
As they continued down the course, You felt her cell phone vibrate with a phone call and quickly went into another room to answer it. "Hello?"
It was Hachirou. "Hey there, You-chan. Can you help me with a problem at my parents' house? I couldn't figure it out myself."
"Well, what kind of issue is it?"
"We have a wasp's nest at the house," Hachirou explained. "We can't get near it, and my dad is considering burning it off of the house."
You was barely able to hold in laughter. "Burn it off the house?!"
"You know my dad," he replied.
"True, true," she replied, greatly amused by her boyfriend's dad's idea. "I'm at the firehouse right now, but I can run over in a few minutes. Don't do anything stupid before I get there, and that goes for your dad, too."
...
You arrived about 10 minutes later at the house of Hachirou's parents. After exchanging a quick kiss with him out front, she asked him, "How close was he to setting his house on fire?"
"Pretty fucking close," he admitted. "He has a can of bug spray and a lighter."
Dumbfounded as to why he even considered the option of setting the nest on fire, much less with such a dangerous method like a can of aerosol, You facepalmed in response. "For fuck's sake... Let's go stop him before he gives my department a house fire or a burn patient... Or both." The two then walked through the house and into the small backyard it possessed. You introduced herself to his father, telling him, "Good evening! What seems to be the issue, Keisuke-san?" She was on a first-name basis with both of his parents by now.
"This God damn wasp's nest," he replied as he pointed it out. "Stay way the Hell away from it. The fuckers stung my wife yesterday."
"Ouch," You replied, feeling bad for her boyfriend's mom. "Even so, I wouldn't recommend setting fire to it. Why don't you call a professional pest control guy to do it or something?"
"I considered that," he replied. "But then I figured I could save the extra yen by just burning the bastards out of their nest."
You nodded, still in disbelief he even considered such a drastic option. "Well, uh, okay then... Look, I can call a guy. If you really want to save the money, I can look into paying for it. One of the guys at my firehouse does pest control, so I can try to get a reduced price."
"Really?" His father was relieved to hear the news. "Well then, give him a call!"
As You pulled her phone out to call him, she thought to herself, "Well, that could have gone a lot worse. Thank God for connections."
...
July 24, 2019
Ruby and Rentarou were studying together at Station 151 following another exhausting day at the boot camp, both reading from a textbook the two shared upstairs in the kitchen and dining area. "So," Rentarou told her. "The diameter of regular attack lines in the department is how much?"
"Forty millimeters," Ruby answered.
"And how much is the diameter of high-flow attack lines and supply lines?"
"Sixty millimeters."
"And of the hydrant hookup line?"
"One-hundred and twenty millimeters, hard suction."
"All correct," Rentarou replied with a smile. "Good job, Ruby-kun."
Ruby giggled, enjoying the study session. "Thank you! You know, when you asked if you could come over to study with me, I thought I was gonna be nervous as Hell, but after sitting through this, it doesn't feel so bad, actually."
"Nervous, huh?"
"Well," Ruby replied with a sigh. "It's just the two of us alone in a room, unlike at the beach where there were other people and we were outside. I was never used to being alone with men aside from my dad for most of my life."
Rentarou, intrigued, asked her, "Was it anxiety?"
"Pretty much," Ruby admitted with a nod. "I never interacted with male classmates in elementary or junior high school too much, I then also went to an all-female high school before it shut down after my first year, and none of my sister's friends were guys. Well, at least, none that she ever showed me. Looking back, I kinda wish I interacted more, because I wouldn't be so nervous now."
"Come to think of it," Rentarou admitted as well. "I was largely the same way until high school. I barely, if ever, talked to girls. High school was different because, by complete coincidence, mind you, I got placed in a class that had a very slight majority of girls. I guess it was the shock therapy I needed to be less nervous."
"Well, being in the fire service was the shock therapy I needed I guess." Ruby then untied her hair from the ponytail she had it in and retied it back into pigtails. "I forgot to retie my hair after class. Hang on a sec."
Rentarou thought to himself as he politely waited for her to finish, "Those green eyes of her's can be so easy to get lost in... Why am I beginning to fall for a Kurosawa again? I bet I'll just get unlucky again like I did with Dia-san."
"He isn't such a bad guy," Ruby thought to herself. "I could get used to this, actually. It wouldn't be bad to just spend time and hang out with him..."
