Chapter Twenty-One

"You have to get out of here!" the janitor shouted from the doorway, eyes wide with panic. "The building's on fire!"

There was a moment where none of them moved, each rooted where they stood. Kurogane broke free of the spell first, as the panicked man fled from their doorway to warn the next tenant. "We have to take the stairs. Where's the manju bun?"

"Here," Mokona announced, popping out of Fai's shirt. The magician glanced down in surprise. When did you crawl into my shirt? he wondered. He didn't have any time to think about it, though, as the words sunk in. Fire. The building's on fire.

"Come on, Sakura-chan," Fai said, keeping his voice remarkably calm. That was one thing he'd learned in his travels: to remain stoic and unaffected even in stressful situations. He took hold of the princess's hand, towing her across the apartment like a mother dragging a toddler down the sidewalk. After a few paces, her legs started to work, and she started running without guidance, limping only slightly on her crippled leg.

Smoke rose in black clouds from the stairwell. "Shit," Kurogane muttered. "We have to find another way out."

"There's a fire escape at the end of the hall," Sakura said suddenly, staring at the wall as if the watercolor patterns fascinated her somehow. The three of them raced down the hallway, alerting other terrified tenants as they passed. A chain of people trailed behind them as they reached the end of the hall. "To the left," Sakura said, turning. Her jaw was set with determination.

They turned and passed through an empty antechamber connecting the fire escape to the rest of the building. Kurogane shoved the door open and held it for them. When he looked back into the hallway, orange flames reflected in his pupils. "Go," he told them. "Head down. I'll find you in a few minutes."

"You're staying?" Sakura asked, her eyes going wide.

"Go!"

Fai took hold of her arm again and tugged her toward the metal stairs. "Let's go, Sakura-chan. Kurogane will be just fine."

Sakura cast one final glance toward the ninja, then turned and started running down the stairs with the rest of the tenants. This time, Fai kept hold of her arm, not wanting to risk having her fall with her leg as it was. They descended rapidly, pushed along by the line of fleeing citizens. Fai glanced up once, a flash of light catching his eye, and saw the tongues of flame peeking out through the door. People continued to pile out, moving rapidly in their panic. Their fast motions made Kurogane's stillness stand out even more.

Is he suicidal? Fai wondered, hesitating on the next step. Sakura continued ahead, only to be jerked back by his grasping hand. "Fai-san?"

"He's trying to save everyone," Fai whispered, watching the firelight play across the ninja's dark skin. A deep dread took hold of him.

Later, he would think of a perfectly good reason why he ran back up the stairs. He would tell the others that he'd rescued Kurogane because, without the ninja's blood, he would starve and die. But he wasn't thinking about that now, as he released Sakura's hand and gave her one last order to run.

Even if I never forgive him for making me a vampire . . . even if he grows to resent me . . . I can't watch him die.

He raced up the steps, against the flow of traffic. People pushed passed him, heedless. Far above him, the monstrous flames rose up, making the ninja shy away from the door. People still staggered out of the building, some injured, some still afire.

What are you doing? Fai thought, shoving past a sobbing woman and almost losing his footing on the steps. It's time to go.

"Let the door go, you're going to burn!"

"I told you to go," the ninja said, his voice perfectly level. "I'll make it down."

"You have to go now."

"There are still people inside."

"Who the fuck cares?" he demanded, hoping the swearword would jar the ninja out of his insane plan. Surprise flitted across the man's face, but he didn't move from the door. A few feet away, two dark-haired children ran out of the building. Kurogane threw a quick glance into the flames, now taking up the antechamber between the fire escape from the rest of the floor, then released the door.

"Now we can go," he said, as calm as if he'd merely been holding the door for a passerby. He came down the stairs, moving swiftly, but not in a panic, like the people before him.

Fai followed, breathing hard. "Was that really the time to be risking your life?"

"What better time than during a disaster?" the ninja asked, wearing the amused grin he usually got right before a fight.

Fai tried to remember the last time he'd been the serious one. He couldn't. "You're insane."

"Oh, shut up."

It was strange how, even though he had no right to care about her, Syaoran's thoughts went straight to Princess Sakura.

Fire in the apartment complex. Fire everywhere, coming out of the windows like hands reaching for the sky. People raced down the street, running away from the inferno as he ran toward it. The heat coming off the building felt like the heat coming off the asphalt on an August afternoon. It ravaged one side of his body as he ran alongside it, almost hot enough to make his skin blister.

It didn't matter. He had to get there, he had to be sure she was safe. "Sakura!" he yelled, not caring in that moment how she would react to his presence. He had to find her. "Sakura!"

If there was any answer, he wouldn't have been able to hear it over the sirens. He found a safe place to cross the street, then moved closer to the building. The whole thing burned like a torch, flames flying free of the wooden windows. Crowds of people rushed down the fire escapes. Syaoran scanned the shifting masses, looking for any sign of her. Near the top of one stairwell, he caught sight of Kurogane and Fai. When he didn't see the princess with them, his heart sank.

Oh, god, what if she's trapped inside? What if she's already . . . Oh, god . . . His vision blurred for a second, then cleared again as he blinked. The glaring lights of the fire left afterimages, obscuring his vision as he looked for her. The seething crowds moved too quickly for him to identify any one face, and with all the chaos, shouting did little good. He yelled anyway. "Sakura! Sakura, where are you?"

The only answer was the wail of sirens, the sinister crackle of fire. Syaoran turned around in a circle, still looking.

She could be burning right now . . . Images of Sakura, trapped under a fallen support beam, her skin falling free of the bone as the heat melted it away, the shrill cry she would undoubtedly let out as her flesh was razed to ash. A wave of nausea hit him, and he doubled over, almost puking right where he stood. Oh, god . . .

He turned again, disoriented now. In all the panic, he almost missed the single, still figure standing across the street from him. When he did, though, it felt like someone had run a sword through his chest.

Seishirou's glass eye caught and reflected the flames. His expression, if anything, was amused.

Syaoran had lost sight of Fai and Kurogane. He ran up to Seishirou, half-mad with fear and anger. Two cars came within inches of hitting him as he sprinted across the street. He managed to avoid them, or they him, he wasn't sure which. As soon as he hit the curb on the opposite side of the street, he leapt toward his old teacher and tackled him to the ground. "What did you do?" he demanded. "What the hell did you do?"

Seishirou smiled lazily. "I set the building on fire."

The blunt confession left him speechless.

"I was careful. I made sure you weren't inside."

"Why would you do that?"

"If you had no one to go back to, it would've been easier to take you with me."

Syaoran punched him. "Where is she?"

The man looked up at the sky, smiling as if the fire was nothing more than a pleasant dream.

Syaoran punched him again. "Where is she?"

"The princess? Hmm . . . I don't recall."

His fist slammed into the man's teeth, hard enough to send sparks of pain up his wrist. Syaoran reeled back, finding his footing. "I don't have time for this," he whispered to himself, running toward the fire escape he'd seen the others coming down before. The crowds hadn't dissipated any since he'd hit Seishirou. I can't believe I actually hit him, some distant part of his mind remarked. The rest rang with a one-word chorus: Sakura, Sakura, Sakura . . .

Faces rushed past him, still moving in the opposite direction. He plowed through dozens of bodies, eliciting cries of pain and angry shouts. All these sounds yielded to the sirens.

His eyes scanned every face, looking for anyone familiar. Ashes rained down on the street, mixed with drops of water from the massive hoses the firefighters were pointing at the blaze. Before he broke free of the crowd, every face was painted gray with soot. This made identifying the strange and the familiar more difficult. He found himself hesitating on certain faces. Is that one of the judges from the arena? he would wonder, seeing a vaguely familiar, sooty face. I think I saw that woman buying a pop out of the pop machine the other day. All irrelevant, all taking time away from the most important task. Hey, that guy lives next door.

The sea of faces thinned out a little bit, but he still couldn't find Sakura. Despair gripped him like a vice.

Please, he thought, to whatever power might be listening. Please, let her be alive. That's all I ask.

He could taste the ash as it settled over the back of his tongue. The smoke and soot filled his nose, overpowering every other smell. "Sakura!" he cried hoarsely, in once last attempt to draw her attention.

"Syaoran-kun?"

His head whipped around at the sound of her voice, and his legs shot forward with renewed strength. Without even considering the consequences, he rushed up to her and wrapped his arms tight around her petite frame, holding her close to his body. "Sakura . . ." he whispered, tears flowing free from his eyes. "Sakura, you're okay."

Her arms slowly wrapped around him as she rested her head on his shoulder.

Ashes continued to fall.