𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐄 - ★彡[ᴋᴀᴍɪꜱᴀᴛᴏ ᴀʏᴀᴛᴏ]彡★

四十一 - 41

 The rest of the next day passed like any other. I was simply burning time to wait until evening, when I would go to my former abode and stop Thoma and Hiruko from dying. That was the plan.

In front of me now was my house, set aflame. Burning. Decaying. It was as if the building itself was exfoliating. I was too late.

Thoma had said that they were burning the house at night.

It was just before dinner time, far before the moon would come out from its rest along the peaks of Inazuma, but here the manse was slowly burning away. A plank fell down from the house, causing me to immediately jump back in shock.

They're probably dead, aren't they?

"No, I refuse to accept that fate," I gritted my teeth and threw off the jacket that slung around my shoulders, racing into the burning building despite every nerve in my brain screaming at me to stop. Any idle thoughts about Ayato were shoved out of my head as I snapped my head around, trying to search for any sign of either of the brothers.

"HIRUKO, NO!" I heard the familiar scream of Thoma.

He's on the second floor.

I wiped my eyes in an attempt to clear the smoke out of my vision and clambered up the stairs, coughing as my lungs became polluted with it. It seemed like the house had only been on fire for a short period of time, as only one half of the house was completely submerged in flame. I heard Thoma's desperate cries and ran through the house as quickly as I could, staying low to the ground to avoid the fumes as best as possible. I found him lurched over a precipice where the wood had burnt away and left a steep drop down to the basement. Thoma was lurched over, tears running down his face as he was crying out over the edge.

"Hiruko, can you hear me?! Answer me, damn it!"

It all happened in a split second. Thoma leaned too far towards the edge and began to fall, slowly, slowly, his body fell off of the platform. The fire was inching closer and closer towards him but I could make out the flames scorching down below. There wasn't any time to think about what I was doing.

I leaped forward and grabbed his hand, not caring if I slipped and fell, not caring if I had to die in order to save him. All I wanted was to do the best I could, in this very moment.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment. A single moment in which I remembered Ayato's face after I had told him I hated him. A sad smile crossed his face, a mix of sorrow and happiness and regret all in the same.

'I know.'

Even if I was the most wretched person on earth for making him feel that way, I couldn't have any regrets now. I don't actually hate you. If I died here, I definitely should have told him that instead. But now, he wasn't there. Thoma was–

"Thoma!" I screamed, reaching my hand out and managing to clasp the sleeve of his shirt. "Try to grab my hand!"

The flames were lapping below him, smoke rising and tickling his feet.