The Nejitama Anthology 2 - Tamajire Week 2023

Chapter 4: One last smile (Together alone)

"All heroes go on missions with knowledge that maybe they not come back."

That was an idea that every hero had always heard. While it was great to be someone who could kick a lot of villains' asses legally and be someone who could save lives of people in need, everyone kept in mind that such work was very risky. Lives could even be lost, either of innocent people or of oneself in combat.

Tamaki and Nejire knew that thought. But they never thought the time would come so soon. Supposedly, it was just a rescue in a deep cave several meters underground, bringing miners to the surface and making sure that the chemicals and subway materials would not affect anyone. It was a high-risk area because of the inner workings of the place, and it was very high pressure for the heroes. It was to prevent a terrible accident while evacuating the workers.

It wasn't until that day where that phrase finally bounced around in their heads.

"Do you think help will arrive in time?" asked Tamaki.

"I don't know... I have no signal on my radio. Only ghost contacts." Nejire said.

A small dynamite charge caused both heroes to have to seek shelter inside the depths of the cave. The explosion had been so sudden that they had to take the quickest option at that moment, so they decided to get into an area where the rocks would not end up crushing them completely. Nejire managed to push some of the rocks away, while Tamaki was able to block some of them thanks to having some clams in his pockets for his quirk.

Once the tremor passed, they realized that all the lights were cut off. The only source of light was the flashlights they had brought. All the entrances had been blocked. However, both were fine at first glance, they didn't have any physical damage received from the collapse.

Tamaki was looking for a way out without causing another cave-in, while Nejire followed him for a good few minutes. They were walking in circles, chatting about what they were going to do after coming out to the surface, until Nejire asked something out of the ordinary for the moment.

"Tamaki, do you smell that?"

The boy didn't answer anything. Either he hadn't heard her, or he was too focused on trying to get them out of there. He would have liked to have had more of his food supplies, but they had fallen out at the time of the collapse. Nevertheless, he had faith that they could both get out safely. If there was one thing he liked about Nejire, it was how she was positive in almost every situation, giving him some hope and self-confidence.

However, that optimistic mind fizzled out in a few seconds.

"Tamaki..."

Those thoughts were interrupted when he noticed that Nejire's tone of voice started to sound strange. Tamaki pointed the light of his flashlight at her, seeing Nejire fell to her knees. She started coughing and vomiting small traces of blood.

"Nejire!"

He quickly approached her and noticed the state of her health. Her face was a little green, breathing heavily and trying to regain her senses.

"Oh my god. Nejire. No, no, not now. How...."

For a moment, he thought it had been an internal bleeding that they hadn't noticed, he even thought maybe there was a villain hiding in the shadows. However, he remembered Nejire's question. There was a strange and very strong smell near them. He raised his flashlight to where he sensed the smell was coming from.

A few meters away from him, he noticed how one of the cave's exhaust pipes was leaking, releasing a combined gas between all the chemicals they had been handling, and with a totally strong and unpleasant smell for both.