A Fool's Fall into Flames
I wasn't exactly seeing my life flash before my eyes, but as I thrashed my arms and legs desperately against the heat rushing up from behind, I thought to myself that it had been a mistake for someone as weak as me to get involved in a fight that defied all common sense.
"..."
But apparently I'm not very smart. Even though I kept telling myself that this life of mine... this one life should be saved for the people who love me, for the ones I've given my heart to, I still couldn't hold on to that resolve. The moment I opened my eyes, I threw myself into danger to help someone in trouble, and this time I jumped straight into a sea of fire to save the Field Team Leader.
My thoughts and actions never line up. I only have one life, and I should have learned to be a little more careful with this limited resource, but after the team leader barely saved me from falling to my death once, here I am again, plummeting toward death all over again. There's a limit to stupidity, and at this point I have to admit it's kind of impressive. I'm usually so timid and full of unnecessary worries, so why do I always act first in moments like this... It's not like there aren't people who would grieve if I died, and it's not like there aren't things I still want to do with my life... but I just can't bring myself to ignore someone who's in a desperate situation.
The funniest part is that even if I went back in time from here, I'd probably make the exact same choice again. It's my life to spend, but there's nothing selfless about it at all.
"Haha..."
Feeling the bright flames soaring high flicker past the edges of my vision, I let out a hollow laugh at the thought that the end was near. Nothing really matters anymore, but it's still going to hurt, isn't it? I squeeze my eyes shut. Right now my face is probably twisted with regret and guilt, tears streaming down in a pitiful mess.
"Ugh...!"
It won't do any good, but I curl my body into a ball anyway, my tightly shut eyelids trembling as I clench my fists. Now...
"..."
Now...?
"...Master?"
"...?"
Now... I should have hit the ground by now, so why...?
"Why is Master falling from the sky...?"
"...Nero?"
At first I thought I'd misheard, but I hadn't. Through the roar of violently swirling flames, I heard a familiar voice and opened my tightly shut eyes.
"...Is that really you, Nero...?"
There, with one paw raised toward me and two tails swishing gently, stood a very familiar black cat. My body floated weightlessly in the spot her paw pointed to, as if held by an invisible hand. I was less than a meter from the ground.
Thud... When Nero lowered her paw, I settled gently onto the floor. My limbs were still shaking; I couldn't put any strength into them. My heart was pounding so hard it still hadn't calmed down. ...But it was slowly settling. The thought that I'd survived again helped.
"I heard a loud noise from above and looked up wondering what was falling, and there you were. I couldn't believe it. Why on earth are you falling from the sky?"
Even in this situation, her voice sounded so pleasant. Well, she was basically my guardian angel right now, so of course it did. I pulled the lovely cat straight into my arms and hugged her tightly.
"Ah, ow... That hurts, it hurts...!"
I must have squeezed too hard; she nipped my shoulder, but I didn't care right now.
"Haa... Hoo... But why is Nero here...?"
"That's what I want to ask you... I thought I was going to burn to death for sure, but when I tried to get out of the basement, I suddenly got moved to some pitch-black room I'd never seen before..."
"A pitch-black room?"
Her voice was heavy with piled-up complaints. If it was a dark room... had Nero also been pulled inside the reversed space?
"I don't know either. After that, every time I went through another door I got moved somewhere weird... And then the building started collapsing, so I thought I was going to get crushed to death. And that wasn't even the end of it. I finally made it to the rooftop, and then something huge started pouring down from the sky. If I'd been a second slower jumping off, I would've been dead for sure. Even nine lives wouldn't have been enough."
"Mm..."
"I followed your scent toward the people, and then this happened. I was pushing the flames back little by little while looking for you, and suddenly you came falling out of the sky."
How did she know I was here... No, she should've escaped with those people. Why did she come back into this dangerous fire?
"Why would you do that! What are you doing in a place like this... Ow, ow!"
"How can you even say that... I did it all to save you!"
After getting bitten once more for saying the wrong thing, I finally let go of Nero. She landed gracefully on the floor and licked the top of her paw as if nothing had happened.
"Well, at least... I wasn't too late, right?"
"...Nero!"
I hugged her tightly one more time, rubbing my tear-streaked, pathetic face into her smoke-scented black fur before I could finally stand up.
"...It feels a little early to celebrate still being alive, though."
I didn't know how I'd managed to fall right where Nero was, but the area around us was completely surrounded by tall, flickering walls of flame. There was no visible way out. I'd thought my heart was racing so fast it was hard to breathe, but it was probably because the fire was burning up all the oxygen. If we didn't get out soon, the life I'd barely saved might end up buried here with Nero.
"Nero, can you do anything about these flames...?"
"...Sorry. I used up almost all my strength catching you just now."
"Ugh... You don't have to apologize. If anything, this is all my fault."
I wondered if I should wrap Nero in my clothes and try to break through the flames myself, using her small size to my advantage, but even if I somehow made it out with my body on fire, there was no Undine waiting on the other side. And I'd already given my thick suit jacket to the team leader, so there was nothing to wrap Nero in anyway.
"How about I throw you outside? You can go get help."
"Are you an idiot, Master?"
"..."
If I were as strong as the Field Team Leader, I wouldn't have to hear that. But Nero was right. With the flames possibly spread who knows how far, I couldn't just act recklessly.
"Anyway, if we stay here we'll both be in danger. We need to find some way..."
Whoosh...!
While I was scanning the melted wreckage of the ruins below for anything resembling a fire extinguisher, the flames that had been raging all around us suddenly receded far into the distance. The air felt cooler, like an illusion.
"...!"
The flames had cleared so widely around Nero and me that I thought someone had come to save us... but that had been far too optimistic.
"...What? You were actually alive?"
"You...!"
"You've got a surprisingly tough lifeline, huh? I thought the one next to you had burned to death too, but she's still perfectly fine. How annoying."
The red-haired woman descended lightly from the sky and landed in the center of the circular stage formed by the flames. With one hand she swept back her brilliant crimson hair; with the other she released the hair of the person she'd been holding. Thud. The Field Team Leader, battered and barely conscious, collapsed limply at her feet without so much as a twitch.
"Field Team Leader...?"
"When I was about to kill her, I remembered how you jumped off to save her. So I figured if you were still alive, it'd be better to kill you right in front of her eyes before finishing her off."
"..."
"Hey, you're still alive, right?"
Thud, thud. She nudged the team leader's head with her foot while looking at me, her eyes burning with malice so intense it seemed to gather all the surrounding flames into them.
"Hehe... And that cute little cat over there, you two know each other? It's already weird that you're still alive... Actually, how did you even get down to the basement in the first place? It should've been blocked off."
"...Master, we have to run. That woman is..."
I knew that too, but there was nowhere left to run. Even if there was, I wasn't sure we could escape safely. Besides, Nero already seemed to recognize her, which led me to one conclusion.
The survivor who escaped during the last nest cleanup. The one who blew up the plane the President and I were on. The executioner of the Inquisition. The one the team leader had mentioned...
"Fire Chicken...?"
Fwoosh...!!
"..."
I was grateful that my muttered words had been drowned out by the roaring flames. The woman in front of me was the one who had cleared the fire just now, and the Field Team Leader was still lying there. In this situation... what I could do, what I could do...
"...Ah."
Once before, I had shared my energy with the Field Team Leader. It was right after I'd shot her while under Lav's influence. Back then, we'd definitely held hands. And when she took back what she'd lent me, she'd placed her hand on my body too. Instead of throwing myself into a hopeless fight with my pathetic combat ability... wouldn't it be better to give all my remaining strength to the Field Team Leader?
"...How noisy."
I flinched.
"I can hear your eyeballs rolling around from here. Roll, roll."
"..."
But the opponent who seemed familiar with the Field Team Leader wouldn't have missed that, would she? On top of that, she'd instantly detected and severed the ability I'd barely managed to connect. Even someone like me, who was still taking baby steps when it came to combat, could tell from that alone how skilled she was in battle.
"Warning you now, if you try that trick again, I'll split your stomach open, shove my hand inside, and cook your heart medium-well right in front of you."
"...Whether I do it or not, I'm going to die anyway, aren't I?"
"Well, when you put it that way, I don't really have a comeback."
She smirked, her snake-like eyes narrowing, and pulled a sharp dagger from the waist of her black combat uniform that reminded me of special forces gear. The blade, handle and all, was a single piece of metal. It began glowing red-hot in her palm.
"I don't have any personal grudge against you, but I think you'll suffer more if you die in agony. That beast over there will be in more pain that way."
The dagger, with its blade and hilt forged as one, started heating up from her palm. I could tell at a glance. She was going to torture me with that searing blade, making me scream for as long as possible.
"Actually, thinking about it, that disgusting feeling on the rooftop could count as a grudge. I suddenly felt short of breath and thought I'd turned into some kind of pacifist or something."
Step... step...
As she approached, my survival instincts screamed. How many times had I died and come back to life today? Even my body seemed tired of sending warnings, but it was still hard to go against instinct and fear.
"If you have any last words before you die, say them now. Pfft... Not like they'll ever reach anyone."
"That's... very kind of you."
The woman in front of me was completely relaxed, as if we were already caught mice. But that relaxation wasn't because she was stupid. It was the reasonable confidence of a strong person who had already anticipated every possible desperate struggle a cornered rat might make and prepared countermeasures. So... if there was any way for me to twist the ending she'd already decided in her head...
"..."
The only option was for me to open a possibility she didn't know about.