Katsuya charges into the basement room, following the smoke and creeping flames to their source as he comes to a stumbling halt. Behind him, Honda, Anzu, and Yugi's grandpa race in as well, someone - possibly Honda - coughing from the smoke, but Katsuya's attention is focused ahead, on Otogi and Bakura and the flames burning through the wall around the door on the other side of the room. The flames are orange, just normal fire and not Burnish fire, and as Katsuya takes in the scene, Bakura charges the door with a desperate cry, his slim frame practically bouncing off it without any impact to the door.
"Bakura, Otogi! Where's Yug?!" Otogi's head whips around at Katsuya's frantic question, his green eyes wide as he backs away from the heat of the flames while Bakura winds up for another attempt at forcing the door open.
"He - my father dragged him in there!" Otogi points at the door as Bakura slams into it again, the door shaking slightly this time but still holding fast. "I can't get close enough to help!"
"Dammit! Hang on, Yug, we're coming!" Katsuya sprints over to Bakura's side, ignoring how the leaping flames lick at his skin as he approaches.
It's not like they can hurt him anyway, not when he's been Burnish since he was a kid.
"Bakura! You ready?!" Bakura nods, his eyes wide as he stands in a patch of fire that tinges pink as it grazes his pant legs, and squares up to slam into the door yet again. Katsuya backs up alongside him, takes a deep breath, and charges, his and Bakura's shoulders slamming into the door as one and forcing it open with a crack of splintering wood as the latch tears loose from the frame.
The heat hits Katsuya at once, and he can hear every non Burnish in the room behind him scrambling back from the burst of heat and smoke (Anzu yelps, Yugi's grandpa calls out for his grandson), but none of that bothers him as much as the sight of Yugi passed out on a table, the Puzzle clenched in his grip as flames encroach on his form. Bakura charges ahead, running through the flames to reach Yugi and check on him. Katsuya averts his attention to the slumped form of Otogi's father beside the door, but before he can heft the man off the ground, Bakura cries out, an edge of panic in his voice as he yanks at the Puzzle.
"Jounouchi, the Puzzle! It's nailed down!" To Katsuya's horror, Bakura is right, the chain of the Puzzle secured to the table by a large nail embedded deep within the surface. He runs over, grabbing the hot metal nail in his hands and yanking with a loud grunt, but the nail doesn't budge from the table.
"...Shit, okay, new plan! Bakura, you lead everyone else out of here while I get Yug out!"
"What?! But-" Katsuya cuts him off, gesturing out into the main room where he can see everyone else continuing to back away from the spreading flames.
"We're the only two Burnish here, I have better control, and they can't stay here any longer! You need to get them out now!" Bakura stares, his fear for Yugi getting the better of him as pink-blue flames light up along the edges of his hair and he clings to something under his shirt (something that better not be the Millennium Ring, Katsuya thinks to himself), but then he nods and turns to take Mr. Otogi's legs in his hands. Katsuya in turn grabs Mr. Otogi under the armpits and together he and Bakura heft him out into the main room.
"Jounouchi, what's going on in there?! Where's Yugi?!" Honda rushes to take Mr. Otogi, Otogi himself joining in supporting his father's weight as Katsuya and Bakura hand him over.
"I'm gonna get him out next. You guys need to get out now, before this gets worse! Bakura's gonna lead you out, right?" Bakura agrees, his hands involuntarily lighting up with distinctive Burnish flames as he starts to herd the group out despite their protests.
"But what about you?! We can't leave you alone-" Katsuya lights his own hands up before Anzu can finish her sentence, the hot pink and teal flames licking up his arms as he backs himself into the orange flames spreading across the checkered floor.
"These flames can't hurt me. Go!" With that, Katsuya charges back into the hidden room, ignoring his friends cries as he rushes to Yugi's side. The flames have spread even in the short moment he was out of the room, and now almost the whole table is aflame, with only the portion where Yugi lays unconscious left untouched. Katsuya breathes, listening to how the fire begs him to burn, to scorch and spread the flames, then pushes the flames wreathing his hands hotter and brighter as he clenches the chain securing the Puzzle to the table and focuses.
"C'mon...melt already..." The bright pink fire expands and contracts wildly, triangular flames leaping out from his hands as he continues to push them as hot as he can. The chain starts to glow orange, then white, the metal deforming in Katsuya's grip as he yanks back and away from the table with a desperate scream, the single hope running through his mind that this untested plan works and he isn't just transferring more heat into the Puzzle that Yugi is clinging to. The chain, heated well past its melting point, stretches and breaks, globs of molten metal striking the table's surface and scorching the tablecloth covering it with little hisses and the stench of burning fabric, but Katsuya doesn't care as he extinguishes his hands and hefts Yugi into his arms, roughly ripping the chain out of the loop on the top of the Puzzle and throwing it aside so the molten ends won't have a chance to touch Yugi.
"Alright Yug, I've got you. We're going now." Fighting to keep calm in case Yugi can hear him, he races out of the hidden rooms and back up through the building, charging through the flames as he searches for a safe way out. However it seems that the entire store is now up in flames, fire spread out everywhere as he staggers through burning aisles and crumbling stacks of games. Not even the fire alarm is sounding anymore, the wiring long burned through by the fire and made useless.
Not that it matters if the fire alarm still works, Katsuya thinks to himself, when he and Yugi are hopefully the only people left in the store.
A loud crack brings Katsuya out of his thoughts, and he looks up in time to see part of the ceiling caving in above him. He doesn't think, instead breaking into a dead run with a string of curses as the ceiling comes down in a shower of crumbling beams and sparking flames, just missing him and Yugi as he bolts out of range.
"Shit, this place won't hold..." Glancing around, he spots the door, blocked off by flames and debris. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for him, since he can just walk through fire like it's nothing, but with the non Burnish Yugi in his arms it's a real threat.
"Alright, gonna try something new here, Yug. Hold on just a bit longer!" Taking a deep breath, he adjusts his grip on Yugi, slinging him over one shoulder to free up his left hand, before letting purple flames creep up his arm. Stretching his arm out, Katsuya runs at the exit, using his blazing left arm to roughly open enough of a gap in the fire to get Yugi out without burning him.
All at once the cooler night air hits Katsuya's skin, and he's greeted by the relieved cries of his friends as they scramble away from the paramedics trying to assess them. Honda leads the charge, ducking under the cordon tape and lifting Yugi out of Katsuya's grip as everyone else guides him over to the paramedics.
"Told you they couldn't hurt me." Katsuya tries to wave them off, but he's surrounded, Anzu, Otogi, and Bakura (the edges of his hair still smoldering a dim purple) all ushering him along as Honda rushes Yugi ahead. "And look, Yug never let go of the Puzzle. Not once."
Indeed, the Puzzle glints gold in Yugi's grip as the paramedics take him, his palms red where the heated metal burnt them but held tight despite everything. A stray firefighter double takes at Katsuya, glancing at his still burning arm and Bakura's still burning hair with a look of worry, but Katsuya just lets the flames go out with a sharp wave of his arm, nudging Bakura and pointing at his hair until he realizes and roughly pats it out.
"Don't worry, it's not us! It's not even Burnish fire!" Katsuya indicates the remains of the Black Clown, orange flame blazing high into the night sky, but the firefighter doesn't seem entirely convinced, watching for a moment longer before returning to his job.
"...That isn't right." Anzu watches the firefighter back, her gaze hard as she sticks close to her friends. "He should know this isn't Burnish caused."
"What can you do?" Katsuya shrugs, putting one arm around a worried Bakura as he walks. "I'm gonna be going up to the hospital to wait for Yug to wake up, what about you guys?"
A general agreement ripples from the little group as they reach the paramedics, letting them resume their checks as Yugi (still unconscious, why is he still out) is loaded into the ambulance alongside Mr. Otogi. Katsuya doesn't even flinch as one paramedic secures anti Burnish bracelets around his wrists, too tired to care about the standard procedure meant to keep the hospital from burning down because someone got too stressed and turned Burnish on the spot.
"I think I got enough control to not need these." Katsuya half jokes, raising one wrist to indicate the bracelet, but the paramedic doesn't respond, instead securing similar bracelets on Otogi. Katsuya sighs, turning to watch the ambulance containing Yugi drive off, sirens blaring.
"We'll be there soon, Yug, don't worry." Katsuya mutters, allowing himself to be guided into another ambulance alongside his friends and Yugi's grandpa without complaint.
So, Burnish AU! Quick notes:
-While the discrimination isn't as bad as in the movie (no one's rounding up Burnish for experimentation and they can live normal lives in society), the discrimination still Exists.
-Some places, like hospitals and airports, require everyone to wear anti Burnish bracelets (not the same as anti Burnish cuffs) to prevent accidental fires because someone abruptly turned Burnish at the wrong time or flared up.
-The Promare are just. chilling in the core. They didn't leave. (I don't like the ending of the movie since having the Promare leave and depower the Burnish kinda undermines the point.)