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https://kakuyomu.jp/works/822139838626691253/episodes/822139840155806288
By the time I reached the apartment complex visible from the window, I was completely out of breath.
I’ve never been particularly fit to begin with.
So even a few dozen seconds of all-out sprinting leaves me gasping for air.
This time, I’d kept running for over ten minutes to avoid losing sight of the Grim Reaper, leaving me oxygen-deprived and dazed.
I took several deep breaths and managed to look up.
At first glance, it was an ordinary apartment complex.
From one of the open windows, thick gray smoke billowed upward.
“F-fire…!!”
When it comes to mass casualties in apartment buildings, there’s no other explanation.
The moment I saw that smoke, I called an ambulance without hesitation.
“Fire or medical emergency?” they asked. “Fire,” I replied, giving my location.
“We’ll rush to the scene immediately,” they said before hanging up.
I looked back at the building.
Inside the smoke-filled room, I saw something red.
It must be flames.
There really was a fire.
Left alone, the fire would spread rapidly, likely burning the entire apartment complex to the ground.
“The Grim Reaper…!?”
If my call prevented their deaths, I should see the Grim Reapers sucked into the apartment building now emerging.
“Oh…! Oh…!!”
Several Grim Reapers burst out of the apartment building.
Most came from rooms near the smoke.
After that, residents came outside and saw the thick smoke billowing up.
It seemed they had noticed something was wrong.
Their fates of death had likely been averted.
“Th-that’s not many!?”
The number of Death Gods leaving the apartment building was nowhere near the number that had gone in earlier.
Meaning, at this point, the fates of death for most of the residents in this apartment building had not been averted.
“Damn it, seriously?!”
I rushed inside the building.
I used the elevator visible ahead to go up to the upper floors.
Shouldn’t you avoid using elevators in situations like this?
Nah, no time to worry about that now.
“…!”
I made my way to the fifth floor where flames were already rising. I frantically pressed the doorbells of every apartment on that floor, shouting at the top of my lungs as I went.
“FIREE”
At this point, there was no shame or dignity involved.
I can’t remember the last time I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Like the doorbells of every room I went to when I was forced to play door-pong sprint with some bad kids in elementary school, I just rang the doorbells of every room.
“What’s going on?! It’s so noisy!”
“yees, what is it?”
Residents came out looking completely unfazed from the rooms I’d rung.
I pointed towards the room where smoke was billowing out.
“Fire!! Get out now!!”
“Huh, fire…?”
“Whoa!? Seriously!?”
“Smoke’s coming out of that place!?”
“This is bad, this is bad, seriously!?”
The residents started panicking.
“Hey…!! Don’t just run away, could you also tell the people on other floors that there’s a fire!!!”
I yelled that at the residents rushing to escape.
“O-okay…!!”
“I’m going to the floor above!!”
“I’ll go to the floor below!!”
“Then I’ll handle the third floor…!!”
The residents, who had been slightly panicked, snapped back to their senses at my voice. They each decided which floor to take charge of and went to inform the people there about the fire.
“Good, good, that’s good…!!”
The Grim Reapers steadily began leaving the apartment building.
BOOM!!!
“Whoa!?”
An explosion occurred.
Had the gas ignited?
A massive blast erupted from the room where the fire started, shattering the glass.
Flames spread instantly, the air around me growing scorching hot.
“Guh, guh-guh-guh!”
The acrid smoke made me cough violently.
If I stayed on this floor any longer, I’d be in trouble too.
“…!”
There was no way I could reach the room at the back where the smoke was billowing.
If someone was living in there, I’d have to abandon them. I was sorry about that.
“I’m sorry…”
I’m not Superman.
I couldn’t save everyone.
Just as I thought that and tried to escape downstairs…
BANG!!
The door burst open, and someone came out from the back room.
“Guh… Guh-guh-guh…”
“Aoi-chan!?”
It was Satsuki Aoi who came through the door.
She was coughing and gasping for breath, clearly in agony.
“Ah, Aoi-chan!! Over here…!!”
“S-senpai…!!”
“You’re coming over here…!! If you stay on this floor, you’ll burn to death…!!”
Aoi-chan had brought the Grim Reaper with her.
If she stayed here, Aoi-chan would die.
“S-senpai… the flames…”
“No way!?”
The explosion had intensified the flames, which were now spreading into the hallway.
A pillar of fire formed between Aoi-chan and me, blocking our path.
“It’s okay, Aoi-chan…!! Wrap yourself in your clothes and jump over here!”
“I… I can’t do it!”
“It’s okay!! I’ll catch you!!”
When I said that, Aoi-chan nodded as if resolved, wrapped herself in her clothes, and plunged into the flames.
“Kyaaah!”
“Woooh!?”
I caught Aoi-chan as she plunged in.
“Aaah!”
“Guh… Take it off… now!!”
I beat the flames off Aoi-chan, who was engulfed in fire, with all my strength using my own clothes, and somehow managed to extinguish them.
“Ah…”
Aoi-chan passed out.
The flames were out, but it seemed she’d inhaled too much gas and lost consciousness.
“Ugh…”
I felt dizzy myself, on the verge of passing out.
If we stayed on this floor any longer, we’d die from lack of oxygen.
I hoisted Aoi-chan onto my back and raced down the stairs.
Halfway down, as I readjusted her position, I locked eyes with the Grim Reaper staring down at us regretfully from the top of the stairs.
“See ya.”
I said only that to the Grim Reaper, then hurried down the stairs, carrying Aoi-chan.
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Bro be like : not today my friend