Akio, who was clinging to everyone with what little strength he had left, heard a small voice pierce through the roar of the earthquakes and the screams. A child's voice… hoarse and soaked with tears.
He turned quickly and saw a small body trapped beneath a piece of wooden roofing, buried in the collapsed rubble. The little girl was screaming and crying, her eyes were wide, her hands were reaching into the air.
In a single moment, the world around him shrank. He could no longer hear anything but her voice. His heart clenched, and he rushed toward her without thinking. He let go of everyone's hands. His mother screamed, and his father reached out to him, unable to grab him.
"Akio! Nooooo!"
But his mother's cry was swallowed by the thunder of another collapse. He didn't hear them… he didn't think of anything. All he could see was a small girl crying beneath the debris, blood covering her face. He ran through the dust and shaking ground, ignoring his father's angry shouts and his sister's terrified stare.
The only thought in his mind was:
'I have to save her… even if I die.'
Akio moved forward with a lightness that defied the chaos around him. His body acted with astonishing instinct, without any conscious thought. He leapt over shattered planks, stretched his arms in a flash, and pushed aside the rubble trapping the girl. The lightning energy in his body burst out unconsciously, scorching the falling wood as it touched him, its edges burning and blackening instantly.
He lifted the debris off her in one motion, then pulled her into his arms and moved her away from danger. The girl clutched his shirt violently as she cried, and despite the blood on his hand, he smiled.
"Run… quickly!"
His voice came out hoarse, but gentle. Inside him, fear burned, yet it wasn't fear for himself, but a chaotic sense of responsibility. Then the ground betrayed him. In a single moment, a massive crack split the earth in two beneath his family's feet. Akio turned in shock and saw them falling, screaming amid the chaos.
His mother fell first… her hand stretched toward him, her face smeared with dirt, her voice faded as she was swallowed by the darkness. His sister stumbled near the edge of the chasm, clinging to the ground with both hands, her body hanging in the void, her legs swinging without balance. Vanco shouted hoarsely as he tried to reach her, but the ground kept shifting out of control.
The moment Akio grasped what he was seeing, he ran towards his family with all the speed he had, his eyes wide with terror.
"Dad! Mom! Murasakiiiiii!"
But his voice was lost among the collapses and never reached them. He couldn't grab any of them. He stopped halfway, his knees trembled, and the tears were spilling from his eyes despite his effort to hold them back. He reached out toward the empty chasm, gasping, as lightning began to flare through his body again from the surge of emotion.
"Come back… please… Mom… please!"
His sister, Murasaki, clung to the edge with bloodied fingers, her breath ragged, her arms shaking from the pain. The ground beneath her crumbled bit by bit, dust choking her as she screamed in a real pain she had never felt before.
"Akiooooo!"
Her voice was filled with terror. When Akio saw her, his heart shrank in an instant. He didn't think. He didn't measure the distance or the danger. He ran with what little balance he had left, blood still dripping from his injured hand. The ground kept splitting open behind him as he ran.
When Murasaki's grip slipped, a scream tore from her throat. But before she vanished into the chasm, Akio leapt toward her, stretched his arm as far as he could, and caught her wrist at the last moment. His body lurched forward, his knee crashing into the cracked ground, but he held onto her with everything he had.
"Hold on! Don't let go of my hand!"
Her tears mixed with dust as she cried:
"Akio… I can't… the ground is collapsing!"
Akio tightened his grip with all his strength, the muscles in his arms straining, his body is shaking from the pressure. Murasaki's nails slipped against the crumbling rock, half her body hanging in the air, the other half clinging desperately to life.
"Akio… let me go! There's no point!"
But Akio didn't answer. He didn't even have time to speak. His teeth chattered, sweat mixing with the blood running down his arm as he pulled in silence. He felt his bones close to breaking, and yet, in a single moment of pure stubbornness, all the pain, anger, and fear turned into a scream that burst from his chest. He yanked her with brutal force, and both of their bodies slammed into the ground.
Akio lay there for a moment, his chest rising and falling violently. The Murasaki's arm had been holding still trembled without stopping, and he slowly closed his eyes.
While the ground shook beneath Akio's feet, in a place far away where the sea was devouring everything in its path, there was no time to think or be afraid.
On a slanted surface of debris, the red-haired boy was only trying to stay alive. His eyes scanned the ground, searching for something to hold onto amid the chaos. He leapt over a broken window frame, then rushed across the tilted roof of a half-submerged house, then onto a floating wooden plank.
He thought to himself:
'The flood is faster than I expected… if I stay at the same height, I'll drown with the first backwash. The western side is less crowded and has natural elevation.'
He jumped again, braced himself against a half-tilted wall, and took a quick breath as he calculated:
'Thirty seconds is enough to reach the next edge.'
But he did not see the slippery debris beneath his foot. His right foot slipped, and he lost his balance completely, falling straight into the heart of the flood.
His body slammed into the water violently, powerful currents wrapping around him and dragging him down before he could take a full breath.
He moved fast, trying to swim upward, but the current was stronger than he expected. He opened his eyes underwater, but his vision was unclear. He kicked his legs, but he was not floating. He swallowed his first mouthful of water. Then a second. He coughed hard while still submerged, his chest growing heavy.
He forced himself harder, drove his body despite the exhaustion, and slowly pushed upward, striking the water with his arm and leg with all the strength he had left. Finally… his head broke the surface, and he burst into the air with a harsh cough, gasping.
He floated for a few seconds, then began searching with his eyes for any piece of wood to cling to. During all this, he wasn't afraid. He was angry at himself for falling and misjudging. And angry because surviving on this day was no longer just a matter of skill… but luck.
As he struggled to float, his eyes caught a scene amid the chaos. A small patch of land not yet swallowed by the flood. In its center lay a small child, motionless. His tiny body was buried in mud, blood flowing from where his right arm and leg had been completely severed.
The child wasn't moving. But what made the boy freeze for a moment… was what hung directly above the child. A massive pile of wooden debris sliding from a half-collapsed building, falling straight down toward the child's body. Time was short. A second… maybe less. But his instincts moved faster than thought.
His eyes widened, his left hand rose above the water before he had even stabilized himself. From his palm, he released a fast, precise fireball that cut through the wet air and struck the debris before it could touch the child. The wood exploded instantly, igniting and turning into flying ash in the rain. Burning fragments fell around the child without harming him.
The boy exhaled in relief, his chest trembled from the effort. But the calm didn't last. The flood rose again. Water crept toward the child, touched his limbs, then passed over them. His small body began to slide slowly, floating on the surface for a moment, then sinking without a sound, without resistance.
The boy's eyes widened further. He pressed his lips together hard, exhaled sharply, then surged forward with all the strength he had left.
'Idiot… once again you're risking everything. Why don't you just save yourself?!'
He swam against the current, but an image took root in his mind, one he couldn't ignore. Another child, the same age as this one, in a city burning under bombardment.
That child's voice had screamed back then:
"Dan!! Please don't leave me!!! Big brother!!!"
That image had never left his memory.
'That child was me…'
Without hesitation, the boy dove down and disappeared into the depths… as if he chose to sink first, just to keep another child from being left alone the way he once was. He grabbed the child tightly, his arm wrapping around the frail body.
The sound of water was muffled in his ears, but another voice from his memories pierced through everything:
"Keeeeeeen!! Run, my son!!"
He froze for a second. That voice… he knew it. A voice he hadn't heard in a very long time, yet it was carved into his memory, replayed thousands of times as he tried to forget it.
He tightened his grip on the child and began kicking the water with his legs and his injured shoulder. When Ken finally broke the surface, he exhaled hard and swam in silence toward the nearest piece of land. Suddenly, he felt a small hand wrap around his shoulder. The child, despite the bleeding and exhaustion, was still alive… and was holding on to him.