Hell Hath No Fury

Be Careful Making Wishes

Be careful making wishes in the dark, can't be sure when they've hit their mark
-My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark, Fallout Boy
ヽ(*'∀')ﾉ┌┛

Moments Before....

Her name, shouted again and again, brought her back to her senses. Someone familiar, someone close. He grunted, struggling, and shouted again, "Ran, you have to get up! We need to get out of here!"

She slowly returned to consciousness, a constant, intense heat surrounding her. She blinked her eyes open only to close them again, squinting against the smoke. She tried taking a breath but inhaled the smoke around her. She coughed and cried out in pain— a weight on her chest, her legs, her torso pinned her down. Her whole body, save her head, was trapped under a slab of the ceiling.

Someone grunted. The rock shifted. Ran craned her neck to see her potential rescuer, a flame-licked-ash-smeared-once-white coat next to her head. Tousled hair, indigo eyes streaming from frustration and smoke. She knew it wasn't him, but his face sent her heart into overdrive.

The thief had the nerve to wear Shinichi's face.

With a cry of anger, Ran braced her arms and exploded from beneath the ceiling slab. (She wasn't the captain of the karate team for nothing.) She threw it off of her with a burst of incredible energy, and the one wearing Shinichi's face stared at her in awe.

"Ojo-sama, you're incredible."

Tears in her eyes (only from smoke, she told herself), she glared daggers at him. "Don't 'ojo-sama' me. We need to get out of—" a wave of dizziness attacked, and Ran swayed heavily.

Not-Shinichi lurched forward, caught her. "Ran-san, then. You're correct. We need to get out of here. You're likely concussed with a few bruised bones. Freeing yourself was impressive, but your body didn't seem to like it. I'll carry you out of here."

Dazed, she didn't protest as he brought her into a fireman's carry. She shut her eyes against the smoke, blinding flames, the charred corpses she knew were there (burning flesh is not a smell easily forgotten). He jumped and ducked, dodged falling rubble and weaved through the desolate restaurant. She yelped only once when he misjudged the size of the front door and she hit her head.

After minutes that felt like hours that felt like seconds all at the same time, a cool night air blew past her face. The idiot of a thief set her down on the ground. His jacket a pillow under her head, ever so gently covering her with a shock blanket, he called for Sayaka.

Ran squinted, delirious from a lack of oxygen. Shinichi spoke with a woman with a halo of white hair. She passed him a black cloth before he ran back into the building. Ran sat up, reached for him. "Shinichi! Don't go! Don't leave me!"

A comforting hand on her back, another on her forehead. "Shhh, love. It's alright. Keiji-san has had training. He'll be fine. Trust me, love. He's more than he looks." Sayaka put herself between Ran and the building, blocked Ran's view. "I'm sure he'll be just fine."

She guided Ran's movements, laid her back down. "Don't worry, love. He'll come back. The ones that care do, no matter what."

( ▼ヮ▼)

Hikaru laid Ran down on a patch of ground miraculously clear of debris. "Sayaka!" he shouted. Placing his jacket under Ran's head, covering her with an emergency blanket, he looked up to see the bartender running towards him.

"Keiji-san, that you?" she asked over the roaring of the flames.

He nodded, his disguise melted off long ago. "The man I look like is supposedly dead. I might be targeted if people thought I was him. His job is dangerous," he offered as a brief explanation. "In any case, I think I saw someone moving inside. I'm going back in to help."