Reclaimed – Chapter 19

“Over here!” Jiro calls.

I hit the top stair of the third floor landing, and Aunt Kimie and Lomo lie in the hallway outside their apartment door, or what used to be their apartment door. Aunt Kimie is unconscious, and Lomo’s arm is limp, cradled in her other arm.

“I got her out. Just barely.” Her cheeks are streaked with tears and soot. “How did you get here so quickly?”

I slip my hands under Aunt Kimie’s shoulders and start to drag her away from the apartment, smoke billowing out of the door. I can’t hold the cloth against my face and pull at the same time so I lay it over Aunt Kimie’s nose and mouth. The smoke clogs my lungs, and I can’t get a deep breath. My oxygen-deprived head swims.

“Let’s go!” I tug on Aunt Kimie and get her around the corner while Jiro helps Lomo down the stairs. They make it down before me, so Jiro bounds back up and helps me drag Aunt Kimie down and out into the street.

With her alive but unconscious in my lap, I survey the area around us, and this is the only apartment building on fire on the block. Coughing doubles me over, and I gasp for air through the smoke and sheer terror. My aunts were targeted. Whoever set fire to this building knew they were in there.

“Auntie!” I lift her from my lap and place her down on the street, my bag under her head. “Can you hear me?” I brush her hair back and lean over her, my ear to her mouth and eyes trained on her chest. She’s breathing regularly but wheezing. She probably passed out from smoke inhalation.

“Help!” A little kid’s tiny voice rings clear over the street. I stand up and whirl around looking for the source of the distress call.

Lomo points up. “Arashi!”

Pawing at the barely cracked bedroom window is a tiny gray cat, one of Momo’s babies. He brings his mouth to the crack and yells, “Help!” again.

Jiro and I stop to look at each other. “It’s too late. We can’t go back in there.” His face is darkened with soot, smeared over his mouth and shoulder from the wet rag.

“Not back in. Up.” I push him to the wall and put my hands on his shoulders. “Boost me.”

“Crazy,” he mumbles, cupping his hands. I step into them and, with his help, fly up and catch the edge of the entrance overhang on the first level. Along the corner of the building, a rain downspout, bolted to the facade, becomes my ladder. I tug on the metal tube with both hands to make sure it’s not going to disconnect from the building and begin to climb.

“One more meter,” Jiro calls up to me.

Don’t look down, Sanaa. The window here is open to the stairwell and smoke rolls out of it. “You’re gonna have to grab the edge and hold your breath.”

I nod. I don’t want to talk for fear of coughing. I grasp the edge of the window, step onto the sill, and inch across the opening while holding my breath. My sight starts to darken and dizziness spins my head in a whirlwind. I let go of my lungs and suck in a deep breath which makes me cough.

“Be careful!” Jiro’s voice is two times higher than it usually is. I look down at him and regret it. The ground swims.

“Help!” Arashi’s little voice brings me back. I’m two windows away. I hold onto the edge of the window I’m on with my left hand and foot and swing my right foot over to the next window, but it’s too far away.

“Above you! The roof’s overhang.” Great. Though the downspout held me with no problems, the rain gutter here looks like it’ll fall off if I breathe on it, but I’m not ready to give up on one of Momo’s babies. She already lost one that I had to bury in the yard. I’m not going to watch another one be cooked to death.

I lean away from the building, squat down and leap for the rain gutter, my fingers catching the ridge and latching on. A crack reverberates off the buildings around me. I squeal, pinch my eyes closed, and pray this is not the last thing I do. Sanaa Street Meat is not how I want to die.

When I don’t plummet to my death, I exhale and ease over to the window.

“Now what?” I yell. “I’m too far above the window!”

“Use your sword!”

“Oh right.” I forgot about Kazenoho.

My sword is so much a part of me, I don’t even feel it on my back most days. I’m lucky I have exceptional hand strength from the sword fighting, horse riding, and archery practice. I hold on with my left hand and draw the katana from my back. I steady myself against the building with one foot, flip Kazenoho around so the tip is pointing downward and aim for the gap between the upper and lower windows. I thrust it down, and the blade sticks! I wiggle the handle so at least a few centimeters is properly wedged in, then step down into the space between the sword and the window, letting go of the roof’s edge.

I step and crouch down on the sill, grabbing the top of the window and pulling Kazenoho out. When I lean against the window frame, my upper left arm erupts in pain, my skin sizzling on the heated metal. “Ow!” I jolt sideways, almost toppling off the ledge. The pain is so intense, throbbing and hot, that I start to cry.

“Are you all right?” Jiro’s voice bounces off the building, tense and high.

“No! I just fucking burned myself.” I sigh and raise the window. “Come on,” I prompt the kitten, as smoke flows out around him. I reach in and swipe him into my arm.

“Go right, Sanaa! The next building over.”

“Thank you. Thank you,” Arashi purrs.

“I’m going to put you in my shirt. Don’t claw or bite me, please.” I slip him down my shirt and he struggles for a moment before becoming still. I stand up and leap to the roof’s rain gutter again. This time it creaks and gives way. I scream as it throws me left and pivots back to where I was on my aunts’ building. My back slams into the entrance overhang, knocking the wind out of me, and I roll right off straight into Jiro’s body. He broke my fall.

“Sanaa!” Lomo cries, bursting into tears. “Don’t ever do that again.”

I open my eyes, and I’m lying on top of Jiro. A smile creeps onto his face and a laugh erupts as he reaches to the back of his head and his fingers come away bloody. “Gods damn you, woman! All of that to save a cat.”

Arashi struggles in my shirt, so I reach in and pull him out, setting him in Lomo’s lap as Aunt Kimie starts to stir. I saved three lives today at least.

“Over here!” Usagi rounds the corner, and Sakai, Sono, Miko, and Yoichi are with them, all covered in soot, Miko limping, and Yoichi burnt along his right arm.

Sakai runs over to me, pulls me and Jiro up and hugs us both.

“Thank the gods you’re both okay. If we had lost you too, it would have been the end.” I throw my tired arms around both Jiro and Sakai, grateful for the hug.

Wait…

“Too?” I release him and his face is dark with sadness.

“Usagi and Oyama came to check on Izakaya Tanaka instead of going to the estate. Miko’s parents were upstairs… Oyama tried…”

“What?” I look from him to Jiro and Usagi. Usagi’s features are locked in place, misery blanketed over his eyes and mouth.

“They’re all dead,” Sakai whispers. “Oyama and Miko’s parents.”

My legs wobble, and my butt hits the pavement as Miko starts to wail, her shrieking sadness bouncing off the blazing walls around us.