Chapter 7: Eavesdropping

It was weeks after Koji joined Ladder 49 and he was doing a great job. Everyone became good friends with each other and they were all like brothers. They received a call that on of the stores caught on fire, but it would seem a strange reason in fact….the fire never reached outside, it contained itself inside the store…

So instead of entering the store, they had to open their way into the fire through the roof. Tommy, Yutaka, Koji, Kouichi, and Takuya were on the roof carefully poking the roof with a wood picker. A metal wood picker.

"Are you sure we should be using wood pickers, Takuya?" Tommy stopped for a second.

"Yeah."

"These are made for picking fire wood…not roof tops." Tommy said as Yutaka pushed him.

"Shut up Lil' Brother. Just do your fucking job." Yutaka said.

"Aren't we mad today?" Koji looked at him.

"Shut up, Koji." Yutaka looked at him with a glare.

"He's just mad that he lost his favorite DVD." Tommy smiled at the thought.

"That's why you're mad, Yutaka? Which movie is it?" Kouichi leaned on his stick.

"None of your business!" He yelled poking the roof harder.

"I can't believe this." Kouichi continued his job.

"I can't believe I lost that damn movie again…" Yutaka muttered to himself. He poked the roof harder and harder until he poked a soft spot. When he poked it once…it made a bigger hole then he thought he would make.

"Hey! I got a small opening!" He poked it twice and a small flame came up. But when he walked, the roof top was too unstable; Tommy and the others looked at him as he looked at them. The roof was tearing into pieces and he was right underneath the raging fire….his weight was too much for the roof and he fell inside the building catching on fire and died instantly.

Yutaka Himi. Cause of Death: Burned alive. Age: 24

Takuya went up to his team. "Today was….a loss." He began. "But we shouldn't be sad about it. He lost his life doing his job and the right thing by helping out." Takuya said.

Kouichi looked over to the side of Takuya and saw Tommy, Mrs. And Mr. Himi and a pastor walk up stairs to talk.

"What about Tommy?" Kouichi asked.

"He'll be taking two days off from the job…he suggested that we shouldn't be worried about him."

"Oh okay, so now what do we do?" Koji asked.

"Grocery Store!" Takuya announced rather loudly.

"Grocery Store? Why?" Koji asked.

"We're out of food genius." Kouichi grinned.

"Oh." Koji felt stupid.

At the Grocery Store!

"So why do we need mustard for our fries again?" Koji asked pushing the cart with one hand and using the other to hold the mustard.

"Cuz buddy," Takuya slapped his back making Koji drop the mustard back in the cart and feeling pain on his back. "Mustard and fries are good together! That's why!!" He smiled getting some type of meat.

"Uh-huh…" Koji didn't see how that was good. Kouichi walked behind Koji.

"You okay Koji."

"Yeah, just a little shocked about what happened today and worried about Tommy." Koji said looking at some sort of fish. "Ew."

Takuya then threw fruit into the basket thinking he was a basket ball player. "SCORE!" He shouted childishly.

"One point." Koji stated looking at the cheese.

"One? Why only one?" Takuya whined like a child.

Koji looked at him. "You're standing in front of the basket, Takuya." Yeah, Takuya was one step away from the cart.

"…" Takuya looked at him walking backwards, accidentally walking backwards. "Oh sorry!" He looked and saw he bumped into a two girls.

"Oh it's okay." Takuya knew one of the girls. It was his best friend, Nina from elementary school. "Nina?"

"Takuya?" She smiled. "Hey, what's up?" Koji couldn't believe his own eyes. Takuya flirting with a beautiful girl. He had to see this, so he slowly and lazily walked over with the cart and pretending to be interested in the food he had in his hand.

He was eavesdropping.