The Woman

The deafening explosion reverberated through the air, the force so intense that it made the ground beneath Hiroshi and Victor tremble violently. For a fleeting moment, they thought it might be an earthquake. But the ominous plume of black smoke rising in the direction of their home told a different story.

"AZUMI!" Victor’s voice cracked, his heart lurching into his throat. Without hesitation, he sprang to his feet, adrenaline coursing through his veins. His hands instinctively reached for the shotgun carefully placed by the door—a precaution they’d agreed upon but never hoped to use.

"Victor, wait! Stop!" Hiroshi shouted, his voice a mix of urgency and desperation. But Victor didn’t so much as glance back. His focus was razor-sharp, his mind consumed with one thought: Azumi.

The burning realization struck him like lightning. The explosion had come from their house—or at least frighteningly close to it. His chest tightened, each frantic heartbeat echoing her name. The fear of what he might find—or worse, what he might not—was unbearable.

Victor took off, feet pounding against the uneven ground. The air seemed thicker, heavy with dread. The path back to the house was one they had walked countless times before, but it had never felt so excruciatingly long.

"Victor, damn it, stop! You’ll get yourself killed!" Hiroshi’s voice grew distant as he struggled to catch up. His legs burned, his lungs protested, but he forced himself forward.

He understood Victor’s urgency, but running headlong into danger without a plan was madness. They might lose the love of their lives, but what if they needed help and they came wrecklessly and only makes everything worse.

The towering structures loomed over them as they retraced their steps through the labyrinth of narrow streets, yet the journey seemed to stretch endlessly. The passage, once familiar, now felt warped, as though the city itself conspired to prolong their desperation.

Victor's legs burned with exertion as he pressed forward, the acrid stench of smoke clawing at his throat and stinging his eyes. It was a cruel herald of calamity. The building where they had left Azumi and Adelina was still obscured, hidden behind a maze of concrete and glass, but the column of black smoke rising into the twilight sky left no doubt of its origin.

Hiroshi, trailing just a few paces behind, muttered curses under his breath, his movements deliberate yet strained. "Damn it, Victor," he hissed, "you can't just charge in like a fool." Yet he quickened his pace. No matter how reckless Victor was, Hiroshi couldn’t let him face whatever awaited alone. The cause of the explosion was still a mystery, and mysteries often held teeth.

When Victor finally broke into the clearing, the scene before him stole his breath. A wave of heat rolled toward him as he froze, shotgun trembling in his grip. The modest rooftop refuge they had cobbled together—a fragile haven in a chaotic world—was now an inferno. Flames clawed greedily at the darkening sky, their roar mingling with the groans of collapsing beams and shattering glass.

"Adelina!" Hiroshi's voice cracked as he reached Victor’s side, understanding all too well the desperation that fueled his companion’s urgency.

For a moment, they stood paralyzed, dread locking their limbs in place. The weight of the scene was suffocating, but Victor was the first to snap, his resolve hardening as he took a step forward.

"I’m going in," he declared, his voice laced with fury and determination. "If they’re still in there—"

"Stop." The word came sharp, like a knife slicing through the chaos.

Victor froze, pivoting to face the source of the interruption. A woman's voice, confident and almost mocking, drifted toward them from behind.

"No one's there anymore," she added, stepping into view with a languid grace that contrasted sharply with the urgency of the moment.

Victor raised his shotgun instinctively, aiming it squarely at the intruder. She stopped, hands raised in exaggerated surrender, her lips curling into an amused smirk.

"Easy there, sweet cheeks," she teased, her tone light, almost playful, as if the devastation around them was nothing more than a trivial backdrop. "I’m not here to start a bloody fight. If I were, trust me, you wouldn’t have seen me coming."

"Who the hell are you?" Hiroshi demanded, his voice low and edged with suspicion.

She ignored his question, tilting her head slightly, as if appraising them. "I came to warn you, actually. Tried earlier, but, well—" She shrugged, gesturing to her wrists as though invisible chains had once bound her. "Let’s just say circumstances weren’t exactly in my favor."

Victor didn’t lower his weapon, but his grip faltered slightly, doubt flickering in his stormy gaze. "Warn us about what?"

Her smirk faded, replaced by something darker, colder. "About what’s coming, of course. But if you’re smart, you’ll stop asking questions and start running. This fire? It’s just the beginning."

"But my girlfriend—" Victor's voice cracked as desperation seeped through his words.

The woman tilted her head, almost pityingly, though her tone was anything but kind. "Honey, I just told you no one's there anymore. This building might not even hold on long and collapse," she muttered. "If you'd only listened to her and left when she told you to, this wouldn't have happened."

Victor's brows furrowed sharply. "That was you?"

"Ahh—yeah," she admitted nonchalantly, shrugging as she gestured toward the inferno. "But don't lose sleep over it. I've seen one of them escaped, I just do not know who. The other one, I'm not sure if she's dead or what."

Victor's grip tightened on the shotgun on the shotgun, his knuckles white with rage. Hiroshi, standing beside him, hissed through clenched teeth. "Don't every day that word!"

The woman didn't flinch, her demeanor was casual as someone discussing the weather. She was nearly as tall as the two men, her rugged cloak and tattered clothing giving her an air of someone who had seen far too much—or far too little

The faint stench of smoke and grime clung to her, as though she'd just climbed out of the wreckage herself.

She smirked, a cruel, mocking curve of her lips. "You must be their boyfriends, yes?" Her gaze flicked between Hiroshi and Victor, amusement gleaming in her eyes. "Funny. You talk like you care, but seems like you didn't know your girlfriends entirely."

"What's there to know?"

"Everything," she shrugged. "Although I doubt they even know about it themselves."

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