Even if it was just an ordinary gas explosion, it was still an explosion. However, he dodged in the nick of time and didn't suffer too much damage, save for getting covered in a bit of ash.
It was already a blessing that he was unhurt, but the fire showed signs of growing larger. If it kept going like this, the entire shop might burn down.
Are the interior decorations all made of wood? No... How can I see?
Shirou glanced inside the shop. Even though the fire and smoke were thick, he could still easily see the internal condition.
This left him puzzled. His eyesight shouldn't have been that good, right?
Before Shirou could continue wondering, a voice reached his ears.
"Is anyone..."
The voice was extremely faint; if you didn't listen closely, you wouldn't hear it at all.
Shirou stopped in his tracks, looked around, and listened carefully for the source of the sound.
The crackling of the fire, the voices of the onlookers, the sounds of cars on the road...
"Is anyone outside... cough, cough..."
This time, the sound became a bit more distinct. Shirou confirmed it came from inside the burning building, and the other party's voice was already somewhat weak and devoid of strength.
Without hesitation, Shirou dropped the shopping bags in his hands and charged into the burning building.
Before he could even ponder whether he should save them? Or how to save them? His body had already acted first.
"Hey! What are you doing!"
Perro the clerk watched Shirou's retreating figure as he rushed in and tried to stop him, but Shirou zipped right into the fire.
"Trace on."
The first thing Shirou did upon entering the fire was place his hand on the floor and use magic to analyze the structure of the house.
Floor, walls, supporting framework...
The moment he analyzed a person, Shirou didn't cancel the analysis, continuing instead until the entire building was completely analyzed.
It took about a dozen seconds for Shirou to analyze the whole house, confirming that there was currently only one person inside the restroom.
Shirou estimated that this fire would burn its way directly into the restroom in another minute; after all, the restroom door was also made of wood.
However, there should already be smoke inside the restroom, and the other party's originally quiet cries for help were accompanied by a few coughs.
Pulling up his collar to cover his mouth and nose, Shirou walked along the path he had analyzed.
Carefully avoiding the burning areas and the structures weakened by the blaze, Shirou quickly arrived at the restroom.
"Hey! Can you hear me?"
Shirou shouted loudly, hoping the person inside could give him a response.
"Cough, cough... I'm... here!"
As the voice rang out, the person seeking help pushed the restroom door open.
The moment it opened, dense smoke rushed in, filling the space with even more thick smoke. Fortunately, the fire outside wasn't large, so it didn't trigger a secondary explosion—a flashover.
Shirou caught sight of the other party's appearance. It was a very young female Liberi. Her face was smudged with ash at the moment, and her overall state was extremely weak; she had likely inhaled quite a bit of thick smoke while calling for help. The moment she saw Shirou, the anxious look on her face eased quite a bit.
"Don't speak. Wet your clothes."
Seeing that the other party seemed to want to keep talking, Shirou hurriedly interrupted her. In a fire scene like this, it was best not to speak if you lacked equipment, as you would inhale more smoke and heat.
Fire wasn't scary. What was scary was fainting from thick smoke and explosions caused by massive flames.
The Liberi nodded, then turned on the sink and patted water onto her clothes.
Shirou also wetted his own clothes together with her; parts of his jacket had already been burned into holes along the way over.
"Follow me."
Shirou pulled her along, wanting to return the way they came, and she obediently followed him without acting willful.
Or rather, she didn't even know what to do herself. She had originally just dropped by for a meal because the food here was particularly cheap. After ordering, she went to the restroom, and when she came out, she only saw a massive fire burning, scaring her into hurriedly retreating back into the restroom and locking the door tight.
After several cries for help went unanswered, she thought she was going to bite it here, never expecting someone to actually come and save her!
At that moment, she felt as though she had seen a savior descend.
Yet the savior's own appearance didn't seem too great either; lacking professional equipment, his clothes and pants were also burned full of ragged holes.
However, the person showed no panic in the face of the fire, instead calmly having her wet her clothes, cover her mouth and nose, and leading her through the blazing inferno.
For some reason... seeing the person right before her gave her a tremendous sense of security.
The Liberi miss thought silently to herself.
Axia, Snow Pheasant
"Has it collapsed already? We can't get through this way."
Shirou looked at the blocked-off path and considered the layout of the house.
His current location with the Liberi was in the dining area, which was also the most spacious spot in this building, only it was now engulfed by a massive amount of flame.
"Cough, cough..."
The sound of the Liberi choking on thick smoke came from behind him, prompting Shirou to immediately decide to take another route.
Pulling her toward the rear stairs, he knew that on the second floor, there was a glass window facing the outside; they should be able to get straight out from there.
It was just slightly more dangerous, after all, the first-floor storefront was a bit tall, so the actual height of the second floor above was already comparable to a third floor.
The stairs between the first and second floors had no barriers at all, meaning the second floor was actually in a state filled with thick smoke, with visibility much lower than the first floor.
As for the Liberi, she could no longer open her eyes at all, and could only rely on Shirou holding her hand to judge where to walk.
"Hang in there for a moment."
Feeling clearly that the other party's movement speed had dropped, Shirou turned his head back to find she was already weeping from the smoke. After giving her a reminder, he directly scooped her up into his arms.
One arm went across her back, and the other went behind her knees.
Because she couldn't see, the Liberi only felt someone suddenly pick her up. Based on the tactile sensation against her back and legs, she deduced she was being carried bridal-style.
"Ugh... Sorry..."
She didn't feel shy, feeling instead that she was dragging him down; he must have noticed her reduced movement speed and chosen to do this.
"Keep covering your mouth and nose. We're going to jump down from the second floor in a moment."
Shirou didn't give her time for guilt, speeding up his pace. He felt that the female in his arms was already speaking weakly and was in a state of oxygen deprivation.
He leaped over obstacles and kicked open doors.
In no time at all, Shirou arrived in front of the window. There were no iron bars outside, but the window had a safety lock preventing it from opening fully, meaning it could only be opened thirty to forty percent—there was no way to get out.
Shirou slightly adjusted his center of gravity, then kicked squarely at the window latch.
Simply smashing the glass was useless; it was better for him to crash straight through, but that would definitely leave him with plenty of injuries from the glass.
He didn't mind, but there was another person here.
So what he needed to do now was kick the entire window completely open!
With the first kick, the window warped slightly. With the second kick, the entire window frame flew outward and crashed onto the ground, the glass upon it shattering into countless fragments due to the impact.
The people downstairs had already retreated quite far to watch under the firefighters' efforts, so they weren't hit by the window.
"There's someone inside! The person seems to be getting ready to jump down, please prepare an air cushion, oxygen masks, and call a doctor over!"
A petite figure directed the crowd, speaking at an extremely fast pace.
The onlookers didn't catch what she had actually said at all, only hearing that there was someone inside, and then that they needed to find a doctor.
Still, the bystanders didn't need to understand; as long as the firefighters understood, that was enough. Several firefighters immediately hauled an air cushion out from the fire truck.
The staff in one firefighter's hand flashed, and the cushion instantly inflated partially. Although it couldn't be fully inflated, it was enough to cushion an impact from this height. From the shout to dragging the air cushion over took a total of ten seconds.
Yet ten seconds was already enough for Shirou to adjust his posture, take a running start, and jump out.
Thus, what Shirou saw when he jumped out was—the firefighters dragging the air cushion over.
"Catch her!"
Without hesitating and confirming his landing spot wasn't on the cushion, Shirou hurriedly threw the Liberi in his arms onto the air cushion, then landed on his back and rolled a few times on the ground.
The firefighters dragging the cushion steadily caught the Liberi, then arranged for medical treatment.
"So in the end, it still turned out like this?"
Shirou dazed out for a split second after landing over there, but he was quickly interrupted.
"Are you alright do you have any consciousness are you injured do you need to be sent to the hospital for emergency treatment?"
"I'm fine."
Faced with the other party's rapid-fire questioning, Shirou straightened up and stated he was fine.
Aside from his jacket, pants, and backpack being burned full of holes, and the soles of his shoes being burned away by the high heat, he wasn't really injured at all.
Even his back, which took the brunt of the violent impact at the end, felt roughly like he had been struck by Taiga's paper comedy fan.
Yet his wretched appearance didn't seem to convince this rap firefighter, so Shirou was still dragged off to the side for a thorough checkup.
Confirming no one else was inside, the firefighters also swiftly extinguished the blaze.
Under a brief diagnosis by a doctor, Shirou was confirmed to have only ash-stained clothes and to have inhaled a bit of smoke; basically, he was fine.
He took the shopping bag Perro the clerk had picked up for him, verified that nothing inside his backpack had fallen out, and tried to leave, but was stopped by the rap firefighter.
"Thanks to Mr. Shirou Miss Snow Pheasant didn't suffer too severe of an injury but she still inhaled quite a bit of smoke and needs to recuperate although the result is good as a Lungmen firefighter I still have to tell you such behavior is no good please don't ever rush into a burning fire like that again this is extremely dangerous..."
Shirou looked at the petite firefighter before him, who was talking at an astonishingly fast pace.
Well... or should he call it a lecture?
From her words, he could ascertain that the Liberi he had just rescued was named Snow Pheasant, and she hadn't suffered too many injuries.
He listened to her lecture for about five minutes.
The rap firefighter, or rather Axia, gave Shirou a brief self-introduction before leaving, and repeatedly admonished Shirou not to pull similar stunts again before finally letting him go.
Her tongue didn't even get tangled, she's truly amazing. I wonder if she can do tongue twisters at that speaking speed.
This was the takeaway of Shirou, who had been lectured for a full five minutes without any way to interrupt the other party.
Shirou didn't leave immediately, instead going over to the other side to check on Snow Pheasant, who was using an oxygen mask.
Snow Pheasant's complexion had improved vastly. Seeing Shirou approach, she hurriedly removed the oxygen mask, trotted over to his front, and expressed her gratitude.
"Th... thank you so very much for saving me! I just heard the others say you went in specially to rescue me, thank you truly!"
Snow Pheasant had been sent for medical treatment right after coming out, and thanks to Shirou promptly going in to bring her out, she had only inhaled a good deal of smoke without any other major issues.
The nearby medical staff had also chatted with her while letting her use the oxygen mask, which was how she learned that Shirou had made a special trip into the fire to rescue her.
"As long as you're safe, it's fine. If there's nothing else, I'll be tak—"
Before Shirou could finish speaking, Snow Pheasant interrupted him.
"Pl... please wait! I don't even know your name yet! Furthermore, because of me, your clothes have all become tattered and ruined, I'll find a way to compensate you!"
Pan-Fried Dumplings
Under Snow Pheasant's somewhat forceful, yet not overly aggressive demand, Shirou left his name and phone number before finally being allowed to leave.
It's really great that nobody got hurt...
Watching Snow Pheasant's safe and sound appearance, Shirou suddenly felt that his impulse moments earlier hadn't been all that bad.
At least the outcome was good.
Carrying his shopping bag and enduring suspicious glances from others, Shirou returned to the dormitory.
After putting everything away in the fridge first, Shirou went to take a shower and changed into a new set of clothes.
"None of these can be worn anymore... I really liked this jacket too, what a shame you can't buy it around here."
Looking at the tattered jacket, Shirou could only bear the pain and discard it.
Before you continue