2 Prologue (2/2)

Ren ran and ran as fast as he could.

His apartment building that was just a few blocks around was the building on the news.

His tiredness and body pain was forgotten as he ran at his top speed.

His heart beat fast as his mind conjured the worst possible outcomes and increased his anxieties.

'No!' He stopped himself from imagining that and focused on reaching the place.

When he had reached there, the place was already surrounded by the firemen and the police.

The people rescued so far were visible to him, but no matter how much he looked around, his family was not there.

He had a sinking feeling.

Immediately he ran to an officer nearby and told him about his family.

"My family, I can't find them. Please, they must be still inside!" His face was contorted in fear for what might have happened to them.

This was his family. Although he was not the best son to them, his father and mother supported him wholeheartedly, as such he loved them dearly. Not to mention his little sister that was only two years old.

He couldn't help but just worry about them.

The officer seeing his anxious face calmed him down and updated him about the situation.

"We are doing the best we can, and the count of the saved people is increased by the second. I understand your anxiousness but please remain calm, let us do our job!" The officer spoke up as he patted his shoulder, he then moved about busily and left Ren standing there with an ashen face.

It turned out, they had not yet reached his family's apartment.

Ren couldn't sit still after hearing that.

'Time is moving… I can't just sit still like this…' He was just a regular person, and it wasn't expected of him to do anything heroic, But he did try to run past them out of impulse.

Sadly, for him the security was high and they restrained him in seconds.

'Dammit'

He stood there along with many others like him waiting for even a bit of hope to come shining on them.

By the second, people were brought forward by the medic crews and they took care of them providing them oxygen and strollers for the ones who couldn't move due to an injury.

'Please,'

His eyes didn't move from the entrance of the building as he kept praying to himself.

His body, due to the heat was sweating and he had already removed some articles from the anxiousness.

15 minutes later, his eyes lit up as he ran towards the newest rescued people.

"Mom!"

He hugged her even as the medical staff was pushing him to help her.

She was crying and similarly hugged him back tightly.

"R-Ren, Ren, your father, h-he stayed up there to find your sister," His mother said in between choked sobs.

Her eyes were red as she explained to him in detail.

His father had told her to escape from the house as everything was falling around and it was dangerous.

Meanwhile, he could hear their daughter's cries, except he couldn't push the fallen debris to reach her but he didn't give up, so he helped his wife first, and then got back into their apartment.

Ren knew his father was like that. And at this moment he had a feeling of being proud to be born as the son of such a man.

"Don't worry mom, dad will be back with little Hikari," Ren tried to console his mother as the medics had resolved to just do their job on Ren's mother while she held her son's hand.

She squeezed his hand and nodded at his words, as she turned to look at the building.

Ren himself started to somewhat calm down after hearing what his mother said. Somehow, his confidence in his father did the job and he was now calmer.

He turned to look at the building himself.

'Please, dad, Hikari, be safe, please' He started praying once again.

But as if to disappoint him, a huge explosion sound rang out as he lost his footing and looked in shock at the huge hole now opened in the building.

It was very close in proximity to where their apartment was. So, it could be inferred just how the situation would be up there.

Not even five minutes later, a man along with some other few people was brought out of the building.

There were also a few kids there.

"Dad!" Ren spotted his father. He was the most injured among those rescued.

"Dear!"

His mother tried standing up but couldn't and fell back down.

"Ma'am calm down, please, everything will be alright" The staff consoled her.

But her eyes didn't leave her husband.

They were carrying him and were providing him oxygen as he had lost consciousness.

Ren paled as he left his mom in the care of the medics and ran forward to his father.

He couldn't spot his sister anywhere, so a lump formed in his throat.

He grabbed his father's hands… it was all bloody as if he was digging barehanded.

A person from those who escaped saw this and remarked.

"We found him inside passed out, so we carried him, do you know why didn't he escape before?" The person, a middle-aged man, asked.

Ren's eyes reddened as he turned to look at the building.

"My sister is still there…" He replied with barely an audible sound, and the person asking shut up.

He couldn't hear any sounds from the room they found his father in, so it must be too late.

Ren's earlier emotions that had calmed down, sprung forth once again.

He was just a regular person… but at this moment his body just could no longer stay still.

Having seen what his father had done for them so far, he had even stayed so late and got injured trying to save his daughter…

Ren felt like he was such a disgusting person for not trying harder to do something…

His eyes looked around. Their position was just right next to the restricted area, which they allowed him to bypass to see his father.

Ren looked at his mother, and then gained a resolute look on his face.

'I have to save her!'

All of a sudden, he bolted straight towards the building. Strength flooding his body. This time due to his position, there was nobody to stop him.

It was his home, as such, he didn't even need to navigate the place, he just straightly ran to the stairs. The elevators were down.

Skip stairs, turn, skip stairs, turn, skip, turn…

'Ninth floor…'

He kept running, and even the amount of turning was calculated due to familiarity.

The more he climbed the more smoke and heat was felt.

And by the time he reached the 9th floor, a fire was engulfing the whole place.

His already tattered clothes became even more tattered, as he tore a piece off and wrapped it around his face.

He searched franticly around for his house and then entered inside.

Their apartment was quite big, but he knew his sisters' room. Moving rapidly inside, he kept dodging the falling debris and saw the state inside.

Everything had caught on fire, but surprisingly it was not in a bad state as the other parts of the house.

He kept searching and searching, but he couldn't find her.

By now his sister must have lost her consciousness, so he couldn't locate her by sound.

'Shit!'

He cursed silently as he started coughing. He then moved on to the next room.

So, on and so forth, until he reached his parents' room.

the door was jammed stuck and just wouldn't move.

He started to kick at it in vain, trying to move it, but it didn't work. His leg hurt but he didn't care right now.

This must be where his father was stuck.

He headed out of the burning house, into the emergency box, and broke it using his elbow.

He grabbed the ax, and then he headed back and started to hit the door with the back of the ax.

Soon the door started to move bit by bit, and he kicked it with his leg until he formed a small opening where he could pass.

Entering inside, the beams had fallen around which was why the door was stuck.

The only place relatively kept fine was the closet. He hurriedly moved about towards it but a big concrete piece fell on him and made him fall to the ground.

It was so painful he almost felt like all of his ribs had broken. His head was injured in the process.

Using his hands, he tried to push it off him, and he managed to do it soon after, but it took all of his strength.

'Pant, pant… shit, shit, I have to save her…' He struggled to pick himself up and then moved to the closet. Blood dripped from his forehead to his eyes and made his vision look red.

Thankfully the door of the closet opened easily, and there inside among the fallen clothes, his sister was unconscious.

But upon looking carefully, she was still breathing. He hurriedly wrapped her up in the clothes and then tied her to his body and fixed one of his hands on her form.

Then he started to trace his steps back, to leave the building.

'Soon…'

His body should have already given up. He was coughing, and blood was leaking from his lips. He wiped it out and moved on.

He didn't know if it was adrenalin, or if it was god helping him, he just knew that he wanted to just die from how much pain he was in, but he kept going for his sister and family.

'Soon…'

Finally, he reached the 6th floor, and a few firemen spotted him and took his sister from his arms, and then started to carry him.

His vision from there started to get cloudy, as his head was dizzy.

He briefly saw how they were running with them through the stairs.

By the time he saw they had moved outside the building, he finally couldn't keep up and lost consciousness.

'I did it…'

*******************

Read advanced chapters ahead of the public release:

https://www.p.atreon.com/ThighsSeeker